Legion of Super-Heroes #304

Legion of Super-Heroes #304 (1983)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen

It feels like it’s been ages since we’ve focused on the Legion Academy, which these days gets far more respect than the Subs.

Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy have now settled on the role that suits them the bests: teachers at the Academy.

According to her, we’re down to 21 active members, so I guess Superboy counts as a reserve now.
I’m updating the count accordingly.

The Academy has now expanded: you probably recognize Laurel Kent, Shadow Lad, Power Boy, and Crystal Kid (althought he latter two are incredibly forgettable).
Lamprey and Nightwind get a redesign to look more alien, they are joined by Magnetic Lad (the little brother of Cosmic Boy), and then there’s Urk.

I honestly keep forgetting Urk is supposed to be a student. He doesn’t speak and doesn’t to anything, being treated more like a mascot than a potential hero, but he is specifically called a student. I have no idea what he’s doing at the Academy.

This is an opportunity to fix what I think was a big mistake: the incredibly fast admission of Invisible Kid II and to a lesser extent of White Witch. The fact that immediately went into the Legion with no training made the Academy a little redundant, but at least we acknowledge that some of the “freshmen Legionnaires” are still training.

Plus there’s the fact that the Academy also does what the X-Men are SUPPOSED to be doing: helping people with superpowers to learn how to use them, even if they don’t necessarily want to join a superhero team. Why isn’t this a regular thing in both the DC and the Marvel Universe!?

As always, Wildfire is the one to complain all the time… but he’s a big softie for the Academy.

Speaking of the Science Police, Chief Zendak hasn’t showed up much in my reviews because he’s mostly relegated to infodumps and plays a minor role, but he’s a fun part of the Legion universe.
I like to think of him as a very grumpy Commissioner Gordon type.

The students are going to train with a low-stake mission involving weird superpowered animals.

I’m guessing that if it wasn’t for the Comics Code, Laurel Kent would use her invulnerability as an excuse to get into mission naked.

She’s a fun character, and not just for the fanservice. Compare her with Power Boy: they both have extremely generic powers (invulnerability and super-strenght), but he completely lacks any personality.

I’m more willing to accept White Witch being fast-tracked into the Legion because her powerset is absurdly versatile.

All seems well and good, but it’s shown in class as a lesson about teamwork. Good stuff!

Also: Lamprey, at this point how can you NOT know that the Legion does diplomatic stuff!?

This allows for some downtime. I find Shadow Lad to be immensely boring and it will take a long time for Magnetic Kid to do something interesting, but I did like the parallel here.

But more importantly, we have the introduction of Comet Queen!

Seriously, Comet Queen is freaking hilarious. Good luck understanding her sometimes, and her speech pattern is still relatively normal for now.

Also, both Lamprey and Nightwind continue their not-very-subtle crush on Wildfire.

We saw in the Annual that Dream Girl was considering making Star Boy her deputy. She went along with the idea, and he’s developing his own grumpy persona.

With Karate Kid and Projectra leaving the team permanently, it’s time for the Academy to shine.

If they could stop arguing for five minutes, that is.

It takes Magnetic Kid to break up the fight, showing he really is Cosmic Boy’s brother.

With all the trash talk against Wildfire, Invisible Kid II and especially White Witch decide to show the Academy students what the guy is all about: tragedy.

Specifically, the fact that Dawnstar has to leave to search for her soulmate…

…which can’t be him, because he’s not human enough anymore.

“Damn” indeed.

And so we end on a sour note, with the Academy deciding that no student is ready to join the Legion.

But in the B plot that will explode soon, there’s a sort of counter-conspiracy inside the Legion because Element Lad has figured out that Shrinking Violet has been replaced by an impostor!!!

This is a HUGE revelation, and it’s kind of surprising it’s anticipated to the reader before the vast majority of the characters realize it.

Next time, I will definitely talk extensively how this revelation compares to something similar that will be done years later at Marvel (and which has already showed up in the Doom retrospective).

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Legion significance: 7/10
Comet Queen will be around for a while, but she’ll later get a more through introduction. It’s also significant for the revelation of Shrinking Violet, but that will be the focus of next issue so it’s not as important as it seems.

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Those super-powered animals are literally out of the Silver Age.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
A nice breather between milestones. The only complain I have is that some of the students are not as developed as the others, and this could’ve been a nice opportunity to fix that or to make them more worthy. As things stand by now, they seriously don’t seem ready for active duty.

We are legion
I’m removing Superboy from the active Legionnaires and moving him to the reserves (admittedly I should’ve done it sooner, but I was skeptical to keep him out of the active members).
For the time being I’m still keeping Dawnstar as a regular, because her quest is treated more like a temporary leave. I’m also not adding any new student as a reject since it’s not clear whether they tried to join or not, at least for now.

21 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
41 people have been members