Legion of Super-Heroes #275 (1981)
by Gerry Conway & Jim Janes
cover by Dave Cockrum
Ah, Dave Cockrum, how much I’ve missed you! You almost make Captain Fanservice Frake work!
Almost.
Sadly Cockrum isn’t doing the artwork on the rest of the issue, but at least we have Jim Janes.
Something has truly shaken Saturn Girl, but she’s not sharing with the rest of the classroom.
Maybe she’s heard about what name the amnesiac Ultra Boy has chosen for himself… “Seeker”.
Yeah I’ll still keep calling him Not-So-Ultra Boy until I get bored of it.
He really sucks at being a space pirate.
After dealing with a Legionnaire with an identity crisis, we move to the plot about a Legionnaire having an identity crisis.
“You don’t understand, Wolverine won’t have his own series for another year, I still have time to beat him to it!”
Yeah, uhm… I really like Timber Wolf from his future appearances, but… honestly, at this point in his publishing history what has HE done?
Ultra Boy has been considered dead for… what, a week at most? And yet the Legionnaires seem to be expecting Phantom Girl to get over her boyfriend being murdered like it’s a regular breakup.
Eventually the Legionnaires reach the base of the pirates. I don’t get why they need to go through all this trouble… Dawnstar is shown to be on the Legion cruiser, shouldn’t this be exactly her specialty?
Not-So-Ultra Boy seems to be enjoying himself.
I honestly didn’t expect Captain Fanservice Frake to care.
Could it be that the leader of a band of ruthless space pirates is *gasp* a bad person!?
Oh so Conway DOES remember Dawnstar has tracking powers… but didn’t use them the one time the plot requires the Legion to track a spaceship!?
Well actually your name is Shrinking Violet partly because you WERE shy, Violet.
There’s a reason why Ultra Boy is never cited among the most brilliant superheroes.
So remember the mystery about what Saturn Girl was feeling in Not-So-Ultra Boy’s mind last issue? It turns out to be… precisely the only thing it could possibly be.
I know I keep praising Saturn Girl at every possible turn… but this time I can’t defend her: WHAT WAS SHE THINKING!?!? Even if Ultra Boy had turned traitor (way to trust your friend, Saturn Girl!!!), you would think THE TELEPATH would consider the possibility that he was under mind control! The Legion DOES have a super-hypnotist as one of its big villains, after all.
I’m not even a big Universo fan, but I’d take that guy over Captain Fanservice Frake suddenly unleashing her Questionable Doomsday Weapon™.
Yeah I’ll still keep calling her Captain Fanservice Frake until I get bored of it.
Not that I’ll ever get the chance to talk about her, since this is her last appearance.
Well at least we get a cute interaction between Wildfire and Shrinking Violet. I think this shows Conway is a good writer but a bad fit for the Legion… the characters stuff tends to be good (except that Timber Wolf stuff, what’s up with that!?), it’s the plots that are all over the place.
Obviously you don’t introduce a doomsday weapon in a superhero comic without someone firing it, and Not-So-Ultra Boy takes the full force of the blast…
…and he dies. AGAIN.
Once again I have to ask: did anyone REALLY believe Ultra Boy was dead!?
Legion significance: 2/10
Still part of the storyline, but it was utterly unnecessary to have Ultra Boy “die” twice in a row.
Silver Age-ness: 5/10
Those guns with a literal kill setting, the random doomsday weapon, and keeping secrets from the rest of the team for no good reason. Slightly lowered by the fact that there were actual casualties.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
An improvement in the artwork is not accompanied by a better story. And the less said about Saturn Girl keeping secret the fact that Ultra Boy is still alive, the better.
We are legion
21 Legionnaires
6 reserve members
1 on sick leave (Matter-Eater Lad)
1 presumed dead (Ultra Boy)