Superboy and the LSH #237

Superboy and the LSH #237 (1978)
by Paul Levitz & Walt Simonson
cover by Mike Grell

I always forget that Walt Simonson penciled a Legion story. Possibly because he’s almost unrecognizable, plus he’s not even drawing the cover.

We begin with the Legion holding a ceremony to bid farewell to Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, who are moving to reserve status following their marriage.

But as soon as the newlyweds leave, this dude attacks R.J.Brande. Now THAT is a Walt Simonson hat if I ever saw one!

Also is name is, get ready, “Arma Getten”.
Yes.
“Arma Getten”.

He’s keeping R.J.Brande hostage until the Legion brings him three specific items.
The first part of the quest brings them to the Khund dreadnaught encountered by Mon-El in the previous issue.

Since Dawnstar hasn’t had much to do lately, she provide a good show of her flying skills… including a 90 degree turn “within scant miles” of a star!

The Khund have weapons that run on red sun radiation, so Superboy and Mon-El opt for a new strategy: just throw them into another solar system!!!

The first quest item turns out to be one of the “star core samples” recovered by the alien mining platform that the Legion rescued from the Khund attack.
“We will not insult you by trying to find a way to repay you” sure is an interesting way to try weaseling out of doing anything, isn’t it?

The second thing Arma Getten wants… sorry, I need a moment to recover how stupid that name sounds, where was I? Ah yes, now he wants to see the Legion in chains.
Dude, this is the 70s Legion, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a couple of them weren’t into that sort of thing!

I do find it hilarious that Arma Getten wants revenge on R.J.Brande for bankrupting his father… and R.J. doesn’t even remember that!

Meanwhile the other Legionnaires are busy guarding a very dangerous trophy.
Projectra… I know Wildfire has been quite an ass lately, but there’s no need to twist the knife like that!!!

Since Wildfire doesn’t know about the deal the Legion struck with Arma Getten, Shadow Lass distract him by seducing him.
This is definitely the “let’s make Wildfire suffer” issue, isn’t it?

Phantom Girl steals the Quintile Crystal while Wildfire is distracted, but she’s spotted by Projectra.

DEFINITELY not Wildfire’s day!!!

Honestly I’m surprised Projectra is not going to end up getting some revenge on Shrinking Violet.

The last quest brings the Legion to… wait for it… the “Sargasso Sea of Space”.

I know it sounds lame… but the “Sargasso Sea of Space” was actually already shown in the Superboy story of Adventure Comics #313 (I didn’t review the Superboy story of that issue, only the Legion one).

And it’s CLEARLY the same place, as it’s shown to be a weird phenomenon that traps ships.

It would’ve been cool if the quest item was the giant spray gun left behind by Superboy in the 20th century, but instead it’s a gigantic crown owned by some local aliens.

Time to bring all the items to Arma Getten. But, in a clever moment, it turns out that Star Boy has left a message to Superboy: making R.J.Brande’s estate (where he’s kept hostage) super-heavy.
This leads Superboy to understand that something weird is up.

Just HOW that made him realize that Arma Getten is out to cause massive destruction instead of getting rich is beyond me.

They don’t dare to attack Arma Getten, however, since even just touching his force field would mean killing R.J.Brande. But that only means it’s time for Brande to show WHY he’s the Legion’s supporter!!!

Aaaand it turns out it was all just a trick.
You had ONE thing that made you SLIGHLY interesting, Arma Getten!!! ONE!!!

Just to give you an idea of just how lame Arma Getten is: he even kills himself accidentally!

Well at least I assume he dies since he never comes back.
“His kind never does” probably means “lame uninteresting villains with a stupid name”.

And so we end with Brande using his technology to create a new star, in one of the few well-drawn pages.
There IS a reason given for it, but honestly I could not care less about this story.

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Legion significance: 0/10
Rest assured that Arma Getten is a prime candidate for Worst Villain in this era’s Legion Awards.

 Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The Sargasso Sea of Space!

 Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
This was painful. When I saw Walt Simonson in the credits I was hoping for much more… it’s still early in his career, but was published a couple of years after he drew Metal Men and he was fantastic there! I blame Jack Abel’s inks for making the artwork completely unrecognizable.
I usually tend to defend Levitz even in his bad stories… but this one is inexcusable. The plot is a mess, the villain is a joke, and I don’t know if it’s the script or the artwork but this was very tough to follow for me.

We are legion
21 Legionnaires
8 reserve members