Superboy and the LSH #257 (1979)
“Who Stole The Legion?” by Gerry Conway & Joe Staton
“Once A Legionnaire…!” by Gerry Conway & Steve Ditko
cover by Dick Giordano
It’s quite rare for this era to have a DC comic boast the penciler of the backup story…
…but it’s Steve Ditko after all.
After breaking the law last issue to help Brainiac 5, the Legion begins this story breaking the law to help R.J.Brande. Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen!
We’re not off to a great start when the first (and only!!!) villain of the issue is a vacuum cleaner.
Curious to see Shrinking Violet thank “the gods” of her planet Imsk. We barely get any information about the societies of most Legionnaire planets, let alone about their religion.
Sneaking past the Science Police would be a great accomplishment if these guys didn’t consistently act like idiots. Not that I want them to remember the powers of all 23 active Legionnaires, but could they at least find the cloud suspicious!?
Also Chameleon Boy changing into mist is reeeally pushing it.
There’s some good news: the old HQ wasn’t completely destroyed by Omega after all. While I’m glad, it means Omega sucked as a villain even more than I thought.
Meanwhile the Legionnaires get out of getting arrested for sequestering the amusement park by saving it from an avalanche and lie through their teeth about this being the sole reason for the crime.
And we ALREADY end the story (!!!) with the Legion discovering that the person behind R.J.Brande going bankrupt is the President of Earth.
If I were the President of Earth I’d be more worried about someone stealing my mouth because WTF happened to his face in that panel!?!?
Well, THAT was the most empty 10 pages I’ve reviewed in a while.
Let’s hope Conway&Ditko can be more entertaining with a Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel solo story, which begins with them helping in the colonization effort of an ice planet.
Of course superheroes can’t go ANYWHERE without finding trouble, so the couple… well the trio, considering her powers… have to avoid disaster.
Which is too bad because they were trying to keep a low profile.
Still, those two are always a great couple.
Then SUDDEN ICE DRAGON!
While I sympathize with Bouncing Boy… you took a vacation on a frozen colony in uncharted space, what did you expect?
Still, the civilians end up being able to stand up for themselves…
…which is exactly what Bouncing Boy wanted. How can you NOT love this dude?
Legion significance: 0/10
The very last panel of the first story is technically significant for the next one, but still…
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
The Legion getting away THAT easily. I’m not giving points for the ice dragon because that’s just what you’d expect in this kind of sci-fi universe.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: zzzz/10
The very definition of “meh”, this is not much of a story… it feels more like the teaser. It’s not bad by itself, but it’s so forgettable I’m not even giving it a real score.
Second story: 10/10
Remember this is not a quality score, even though the story is still very enjoyable. But it means you can basically place this in any decade and it would work fine. Ditko is not at his best, but he’s still Ditko. Considering he’ll be the regular artist for a bit, I wonder if this was considered something of a trial?
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
5 reserve members
1 on sick leave (Matter-Eater Lad)