ADVENTURE COMICS 376 (1969)
by Jim Shooter & Win Mortimer
cover by Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino & Neal Adams
That’s a lot of artists for one cover.
Since the Legion can’t look at the cover, they don’t know who took Bouncing Boy’s place last issue, so they use the magic stones recovered from the Wanderers to look for him.
Since he won the contest, “Bouncing Boy” has been summoned to another dimension at the court of Discount King Arthur.
And why did Discount King Arthur summon the greatest hero of the Galaxy? Because he has to defeat Generic Bad Guy.
Whoever defeats Generic Bad Guy gets to marry Princess Love Interest.
Turns out that Bouncing Boy is actually Chameleon Boy.
F#ing Proty.
Okay, the setup sucks, but at least Chameleon Boy gets to show off his powers by transforming into a fly (!!!) and then a bird.
Chameleon Boy has been to Princess Projectra’s planet, so a medieval planet shouldn’t be THAT surprising to him.
Of course he falls in love with Princess Love Interest.
Princess Love Interest doesn’t exactly appreciate it.
Chameleon Boy’s way to show her that he’s harmless is to transform into a dragon and a devil. (WTF!?)
But apparently she finds it hot, so what do I know?
Unfortunately Discount King Arthur doesn’t want Princess Love Interest to marry a freak, so Chameleon Boy won’t be the one to fight Generic Bad Guy.
But when Generic Bad Guy shows up, Discount King Arthur’s army isn’t enough to stop him.
The only redeemable part of this story is watching Chameleon Boy using his shapeshifting powers in interesting ways.
It helps that Generic Bad Guy is dumb as a bag of rocks.
In addition to turning himself into a copy of Generic Bad Guy, Chameleon Boy also manages to remove a piece of himself and turn it into a copy of his weapon.
That’s not something he’s typically able to do.
Having defeated Generic Bad Guy, Chameleon Boy can now claim his prize.
He can either go back to the Legion or he can marry Princess Love Interest.
In this dimension, the wedding ceremony requires a fake execution. (??????)
The Legion chooses THIS MOMENT to look into this dimension with the magic stones…
…so they use the stones to “rescue” Chameleon Boy…
…who is angry because he didn’t get to marry Princess Love Interest.
Well that was pointless.
Legion significance: 0/10
As you might have guessed, we will never see Princess Love Interest again.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
“Discount King Arthur summons a hero from another dimension to save Princess Love Interest from Generic Bad Guy”? Yeah I WISH Silver Age stories made that much sense!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
What a missed opportunity. Princess Projectra’s planet proved that Shooter can write an interesting fantasy world, but this one if as generic as possible. And as a finale of the previous issue’s mystery it’s a complete waste.
We are legion
26 Legionnaires
2 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen
3 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, Rond Vidar
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid
2 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad
How much Legion is too much?
The total number of characters who have been members is 35.