Legion of Super-Heroes v2 #259

Legion of Super-Heroes v2 #259 (1980)
by Gerry Conway & Joe Staton
cover by Dick Giordano

It’s the beginning of a new era for the Legion of Super-Heroes, getting their own title by kicking Superboy out of his own book AGAIN.
Quite literally, as you can see on the cover!

We continue where we left off last time, with the Legion still feeling the effects of the attack at the hands of Pycho-Warrior.

The doctors helping the wounded Legionnaires explain Psycho-Warrior’s backstory: he comes from a particularly brutal colony…

…and his wife died when a star went supernova.

Watching his wife die made him lose his mind…

…so he ended up in the same mental hospital where Brainiac 5 was being cured from his own insanity. And we discover that he hates the Legion… because of Sun Boy’s costume.

OH COME ON!!! That is one of the lamest excuses for hating a superhero I’ve ever seen! It’s arguably even worse than Lex Luthor hating Superboy for making him bald!!!

Also the Legion is really, REALLY bad at security if they entrusted this random psychiatric ward with their detailed psychological profiles.

Yeah, uhm, the Legion doesn’t come off as particularly competent in this story. There’s nothing wrong with having trouble with a villain who uses psychology, sure, but they’re allowing him to get WAY too much close.

How does a grenade that “paralyzes optic nerves” work on WILDFIRE!?!? The dude has no eyes!!!

Superboy is the only one getting close to Psycho-Warrior, but he has Kryptonite. Because of course he does.

So far everything has been quite meh. But here we are at the only important part of the story: the effect Psycho-Warrior’s hallucinations have on Superboy.

Yep. Superboy has to confront the ghosts of his parents reminding him that it’s his fault they are dead.

They’re not TECHNICALLY dead in his time, but their deaths are a matter of historical record in the 30th century… so Psycho-Warrior uses this as a means of psychological torture.

This doesn’t work, AT ALL, in a great moment that is somewhat diminished by the comparison to Sun Boy being afraid of the dark.

Superboy defeats Psycho-Warrior the same way Superman finishes every good fight: not by punching his enemy, but by being a great human being.

And so Superboy decides to leave the Legion of Super-Heroes, because he doesn’t want to forget about the death of his parents.

Plus it makes perfect sense for Saturn Girl to put this kind of telepathic suggestion into his mind.

Superboy will eventually return to the Legion, but this really is the end of an era because even when he returns he won’t be a stable figure as much as he used to be.

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Legion significance: 8/10
As stated this doesn’t have QUITE the impact the story probably was supposed to be, but it’s still a watershed moment.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Hating an entire team because one dude has a sun on his costume.

 Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
This was a difficult decision. The first half of the story is pretty bad and Psycho-Warrior is kind of laughable… but the last moments with Superboy really help to elevate the story to another level.

We are legion
22 Legionnaires
6 reserve members (now including Superboy)
1 on sick leave (Matter-Eater Lad)