Superboy and the LSH #230 (1977)
“The Creature Who Conned the Legion” by Paul Levitz & Jim Sherman
“The Day Bouncing Boy Bounced Back” by Paul Levitz & Michael Netzer
cover by Mike Grell
I think we might have found the ugliest DC villain ever.
We begin with the Legion being honored on planet Remor, when all of a sudden a volcano erupts.
Pretty sure that “Thirtieth century technology has no sure cure for earthquakes” is contradicted plenty of times in other stories.
If it looks like the Legion is saving children, it’s because the Remorians look like that.
And that’s where the tentacle monster shows up.
We MIGHT have jumped the gun.
The creature warns the Legion that unless they recover a mystic crystal there will be more and more catastrophes.
Since the story is titled “The Creature Who Conned the Legion” you probably saw this coming.
The Legion recovers the crystal from a volcano with ridiculous ease. You’d expect Superboy to be the one to find it… heck the Legion expected it… but it’s Element Lad.
All of this was so simple, in fact, that Dream Girl gets more than a little suspicious.
Always refreshing when the heroes are not acting like morons.
Although Superboy does let the creature get the crystal… it’s on purpose.
The Legion deduced that the creature didn’t take the crystal from the volcano because it’s weak to fire. (but it’s also fireproof somehow!? WTF!?)
I always take any opportunity to highlight Levitz’s talent for giving every single Legionnaire a moment to shine, and here are Dream Girl and Brainiac 5’s contributions (plus the obligatory mention of Mordru in a story involving magic).
Despite its VERY interesting design, the creature won’t appear again.
The crystal does, in a Superboy story, but since it has no other connection to the Legion I’m not including it in the retrospective (it’s also quite boring).
Next we have a short Bouncing Boy solo story.
Bouncing Boy is currently a reserve member, having lost his powers in Superboy #200, and he’s guarding the HQ while the Legion is burying Chemical King.
The Science Police officer is Dvron from Superboy #207, who thought Bouncing Boy was actually an intruder… so both end up being trapped inside force fields.
At least I think? I had to re-read the story several times; maybe it’s just me, but I’m not entirely sure what happened.
My understanding is that Dvron got inside and invertedly sabotaged the defenses (how???), but in the scuffle with Bouncing Boy the defenses captured both.
Either way, Dvron kind of sucks…
…while Bouncing Boy decides to punch through the force field!
AND IT WORKS.
Bouncing Boy frees Dvron, on the condition that he doesn’t tell anyone he has his powers back… because otherwise Duo Damsel will be worried he’s running into trouble?
A sweet ending that doesn’t make much sense.
Historical significance
Legion story: 0/10
A pity, since the Legion could use more alien-looking and magic-based villains.
Bouncing Boy story: 5/10
Bouncing Boy gets his powers back, I think permanently.
Silver Age-ness
Legion story: 6/10
The randomness of the magic crystal and the fire-based weakness.
Bouncing Boy story: 4/10
Since no real explanation was given for how he lost his powers, it’s fitting that we barely hear anything on how he gets them back.
Does it stand the test of time?
Legion story: 7/10
A solid story with weak artwork.
Bouncing Boy story: 4/10
A weak story with solid artwork.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
6 reserve members