Superboy 173

SUPERBOY 173 (1971)
by Cary Bates & George Tuska

This is a Superboy / Cosmic Boy team-up because the rest of the Legion has the day off thanks to Covid-3019.

That’s when Cosmic Boy runs into Cosmic Boy.
I know the Legion is famous for having multiple incarnations of the same characters, but this is ridiculous!

There seems to be no way to figure out which is the true Cosmic Boy, so they agree to ask Superboy.

Clark Kent figures out that he’s needed in the 30th century because his Legion action figures glow. Considering the models we see behind him, is Superboy also a member of the Autobots?

Once in the future, he tries to check which Cosmic Boy is the real one… with no success.

Then ABSOLUTELY OUT OF NOWHERE Mordru shows up!!!

Yep. Mordru’s first storyline was an epic fight that almost destroyed the Legion and firmly established him as a cosmically powerful foe… and his SECOND storyline is a throwaway 7-page backup story.

This plot makes no freaking sense.

First off, Mordru was put in a coma in his last appearance, which is typically the only way to stop him, so maybe telling us how he woke up would’ve been nice.
Second, and most important, if his plan is using the duplicates to destroy the Legion why would he ever give Superboy the chance to stop the plan by just finding the real Cosmic Boy?
Heck, he could just GUESS and have a 50% chance of defeating Mordru! Who, I remind you, was first introduced as being so mind-bendingly powerful that SUPERBOY mind-wiped himself just for the chance to avoid fighting him!!!

*groan*

Anyway, to prove who is the real Cosmic Boy, one of them recaps the first Legion story.

But something doesn’t quite work in his retelling:
1) Superboy didn’t “pass all the tests”, he actually failed all of them because the REAL test was seeing how he would take the Legion’s rejection
2) the flashback shows several Legionnaires that shouldn’t be there! We SAW Light Lass, Mon-El, Matter-Eater Lad  and Bouncing Boy join, and Colossal Boy wea introduced in a Supergirl story. One of the faces is Phantom Girl, who at least according to the Legion origin story might actually have joined before Superboy.

Okay, so it’s pretty straightforward: this Cosmic Boy made so many errors in his retelling that he HAS to be the fake one.

OH COME ON!!! You had the perfect resolution RIGHT THERE!!!

But no, we jump straight to Cosmic Boy suggesting another solution: double suicide!

Alright, so this is the real Cosmic Boy because he showed self-sacrifice? Is that it?

Nope! LITERALLY NEXT PANEL:

We are already at the last page so Superboy really, REALLY needs to hurry!

Superboy saves the Cosmic Boy who DOESN’T demonstrate magnetic powers, and apparently Mordru was sincere when he said that he’d leave the Legion alone if Superboy managed to guess correctly!

Alright, I can admit that Superboy’s trick was actually kind of clever.

Too bad it’s wasted in a story that COMPLETELY SUCKS.

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Historical significance: -2/10
This is a first: I’ve never needed to give a negative score to the Legion, and it’s an extremely rare occurrence for this category. But this one makes so many mistakes with an extremely easy flashback, plus the fact that this is the second Mordru story really hurts his standing as a major villain.

 Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Why does Mordru warn Superboy? Why does he give him a chance if he hates the Legion so much?

 Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Legion, you are better than this. Go sit in the corner and think hard about what you’ve done.

We are legion
25 Legionnaires
3 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen, Superboy
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.