Legion of Super-Heroes #297 (1983)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
One of the biggest surprises for me during the Legion retrospective has been that Cosmic Boy hasn’t been all that impressive. In fact, he’s been pretty bad most of the time.
That’s about to change with this run, and obviously having a whole issue dedicated to him is the first step.
We begin on prison planet Takron-Galtos, where Cosmic Boy is attacking the ship holding the terrorists that detonated a nuclear bomb next to his family’s home last issue.
One of the things I’ve always loved about the Legion is that, since several of its members come from planet where everyone has the same power… sometimes we get random civilians (or in this case a random prison guard) with superpowers.
Cosmic Boy isn’t just a guy with magnetic powers, though. He’s Legion.
He’s so mad at the terrorists, in fact, that he’s about to murder them… until he’s knocked out.
By his girlfriend Night Girl!!!
On a lighter note, Brainiac 5 finally managed to cure Matter-Eater Lad from his insanity! Poor M.E.L. has been waiting for that for the past FORTY-SIX issues!!!
And with this, Matter-Eater Lad moves back into the reserves. He’ll be back a couple of times in this run, and he’ll be hilarious (in a good way this time!)
Your regular dose of Dr. Gym’ll. Taken in small doses, he’s the best.
But back to the Cosmic Boy part of the issue, he gets a heartfelt moment with Night Girl…
That’s basically the framing device for recapping Cosmic Boy’s origin story, which consolidates most of what we already learned over the years.
There’s however one bit of new information: Cosmic Boy was actually born on Earth, although he went on to grow up on his home planet. I’m pretty sure this is the first time we hear about it.
We learn that Braal is actually a rather bleak planet (something we’ll see better in the Five Years Later era), and there’s a reference to Cosmic Boy’s career as a Magno-Ball player which will arguably be more important in the Reboot than in the original continuity.
Something that we HAVE heard before and it’s repeated is the fact that Cosmic Boy was just 14 years old when he returned to Earth. Which is kind of strange, since he doesn’t look that young in ANY retelling of the Legion origin, but I guess Braalians mature fast.
The Legion origin story is recapped once more, and this time we also get a reference AND an explanation for why the Legionnaires had names on their costumes in their first story!
No indication for why they’re in English and not in Interlac, but I suppose it’s fitting considering they were going to the 20th century to recruit Superboy.
Once the recap is over, Cosmic Boy goes to visit the hospital where his family is being treated.
We also discover that:
1) Cosmic Boy is far more creative with his powers than we expected
2) he doesn’t give a f### anymore
3) Night Girl is awesome, but we already knew that right?
Unfortunately, rushing into the hospital didn’t do Cosmic Boy much good.
While his father and his brother are going to make it, his mother is dead.
Understandably, Cosmic Boy is feeling guilty for convincing his family to move to Earth and for making them a target for his enemies.
And then Cosmic Boy just snaps.
Yeah Cosmic Boy is freaking terrifying when he gets angry!!!
He’s ready to execute the terrorists, but he hesitates. Nice little touch having her mother’s voice (presumably in his head) as he hears them crying for help.
Of course he comes to his senses and doesn’t kill them, but that was some VERY effective suspense.
This isn’t going to be the same Cosmic Boy anymore.
Sorry he had to lose his mother for that to happen, but it’s about time he got interesting!!!
Legion significance: 8/10
Look, I’m not saying Cosmic Boy has been trash before this issue… but I’m not exactly praising his earlier appearances. He grows A LOT during, and after, this moment. I don’t think he would’ve become such an important part of the Legion without this story, even if he was a founder.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
You don’t see a lot of dead mothers in the Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Levitz at his best. From a modern perspective it might be a little cliché to kill a loved one to create character development, but I don’t think this feels exploitative or cheap.
We are legion
22 active Legionnaires
8 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
41 people have been members
Bonus: instead of a letters page, we get Keith Giffen’s biography!
Yeah that’s about right for Kiffen.
Can you imagine the arguments Cosmic Boy and Night Girl would have as a married couple?
“What about the time you punched me in the head?”
“Oh yeah, what about the time you THREW ME THROUGH A WALL?”
The make-up sex would be… energetic.
Before Magneto, Cosmic Boy can grab people by the iron fibers in their blood.
This is indeed the first time Cosmic Boy makes any major impression. Before in the story, he had just been there.
It’s a cliche that Cos spares the terrorists because he wants to be better than they are, but it works. And, yes, this story absolutely rehabilitates Cos’ image. Before this, he had not only been just sort of there, but he had been shown in a bad light by slapping Ayla and jilting Lydda. But in this story we see that Lydda can hold her own. Their relationship finally starts to make some sort of sense. (Before this, she was the fangirl who tried out for the Legion because she had a crush on Cos. Here she saves him from doing something he’ll regret.)
And the notion that Cos has Magneto-level powers! Why didn’t previous writers see this?
one of my favorites ” Long Live The Legion ”