Superboy and the LSH #222 (1976)
“This Legionnaire is Condemned!” by Cary Bates & Mike Grell
“Death of a Legend!” by Jim Shooter & Michael Netzer
Cover by Mike Grell
The Legion proved popular enough to push the title to a monthly schedule; they have been sharing the cover with Superboy for some time now, but this issue marks the moment it is officially renamed “Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes”.
We begin with Metropolis falling victim of some weird reality-warping sound.
Also it’s making something sticky rain from the sky.
So of course the prime suspect is Tyroc because his powers don’t make any sense.
Also apparently he was really upset that the Legion didn’t agree to move their HQ from Metropolis (which I remind you is basically the capital of Earth at this point) to his home country.
Once again I’m going to break my rule about never showing the entire page because I just have to highlight Mike Grell’s fantastic use of panels.
Also: adding to the list Tyroc’s ability to make people lose balance. It can’t be simply because it’s a supersonic scream if it affects Superboy.
His random powers are not enough to avoid being captured by the Legion, though.
Except he’s innocent: this random guy is behind everything.
By using a tape recorder (which apparently still exists in the 30th century!?).
And the random powers keep on coming!
If you’re worried that a tape recorder being able to duplicate Tyroc’s powers makes no sense whatsoever… you’re right, this was actually a phone story to break him out of jail.
The “real criminal” was actually Chameleon Boy in disguise, and the effects were made up by Princess Projectra. But I’m STILL counting those as legitimate Tyroc powers since everybody seems to accept that it’s all his doing.
The Legion still doesn’t know who is REALLY behind everything, so Tyroc investigates while demonstrating YET ANOTHER POWER.
And the real culprit turns out to be… just a Science Police reject out for revenge. Who Tyroc stops by finding the bomb with YET ANOTHER POWER.
And the Legion couldn’t just search for it because it would set off a bomb, so Tyroc had to do the whole “pretend you’re a supervillain” thing.
At least I think that’s how it goes? Honestly I’ve re-read this story four times before this review and I still have no idea of what the heck I just read.
Well… that was a Cary Bates story if I ever saw one.
Perhaps Jim Shooter can help us with the second story?
We begin with Superboy being introduced to an extremely popular 30th century TV hero: Questar.
Turns out that he’s actually a real hero from a pretty isolated planet, so the Legion goes there in a diplomatic mission.
Questar is apparently so great that both Light Lass and Timber Wolf think he’s hot.
However the Every-Ten-Years-Monster appears (????). Turns out that Questar has always been mysteriously busy whenever the monster was scheduled to attack.
Does that remind you of anyone?
Questar practically begs the Legion to help him defeat the monster…
…because he’s a fraud.
The Legion fights the monster for a while, but then Questar show up to defeat him!
But wait! It was actually Superboy, pretending that Questar really has powers!
But wait! Actually Questar DOES have powers, but… he’s a coward for no reason? WHAT!?
When the aliens said that Questar was always too busy with “important missions” to help, my first thought was that Superboy must’ve considered him as the inspiration to become The Worst.
AND I WAS RIGHT.
And the moral of the story is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A bit of housecleaning: as we are long past the period where the membership was always in flux, I have created a page dedicated to the current Legion membership.
From this point forward the reviews will only keep track of the number of active and reserve Legionnaires, and I will highlight any other changes.
Historical significance
First story: 0/10
I already forgot what it was all about.
Second story: 0/10
As you might have guessed, this is Questar’s only appearance.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 7/10
I swear Tyroc’s powers are some of the most random stuff I’ve ever covered, AND THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING.
Second story: 10/10
So Questar is such a coward that he’s afraid of a monster he can teleport away without any sort of effort whatsoever!?
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 0/10
It makes my head hurt worse than Tyroc’s screams.
Second story: 0/10
Even if this was written by 13 year old Jim Shooter it would’ve been crap. He was almost twice that age when writing this so it’s INEXCUSABLE.
Tyroc power count: 11
His voice already had 5 powers in his first appearance, where it could:
1) make things explode , 2) create forcefields , 3) teleport , 4) make him fly and 5) send supersonic signals. Now I have to add that it also can:
6) warp reality , 7) create sticky rain , 8) impair balance , 9) turn plants into monsters , 10) summon winds , and 11) be used as a sonar
Admittedly some of this stuff falls beneath “generic sound powers”, but still! That number of super-powers is in Martian Manhunter territory!!!
We are legion
23 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members