Member Profice Ultra Boy

ULTRA BOY
Real Name: Jo Nah
Home Planet: Rimbor
Parents: Cray and Mytra Nah
Height: 6'
Weight: 190 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Powers: similar powers of Superboy, and Mon-El (strength, speed, vision, invulnerability, flight) but can only use one at a time.
1st app: Superboy 98
Created by: Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan

As a young teenager Jo Nah was joyriding in a space cruiser when it was swallowed by a radioactive Energy beast. He was saved when a Science Police cruiser saw what happened and blast him out. But not before the radiation he absorb from being inside the beast gave him Ultra energy. Energy that he could channel into one of several amazing powers at a time. His powers were on the same level as Superboy and Mon-El but he could only use one at a time. Joining the Legion he met Phantom Girl and the two has shared a long term relationship. Jo is a former 2 time Legion Leader and is considered one of the Big 3 on the team.

Next time: Adventure comics 369

Superboy # 213 Starring ther Legion of Super-Heroes "Trapped to Live Free to die!"

Trapped to Live Free to Die! Art: Mike Grell & Bill Draut, Story: Jim Shooter

Timber Wolf answering a faint distress signal lands his Legion Cruiser on Nolor IV, a waterless, barren world. Leaving the ship he activates the automatic sentinel system and goes off to look for the source of the signal. He finds the ship and a bald man trapped under a console. He lifts the console and the Man knocks him out with an energy charged mace. The man is the old Legion villain Black Mace, and he is going to leave Timber Wolf stranded on the barren world while he takes the Legion Cruiser. Taking Timber Wolf's flight ring so that the wolf cannot signal his fellow heroes, Black Mace starts to leave when Timber Wolf stops him, by telling him that the Legion craft have auto defenses programmed only to respond to Legionnaires. Mace remembers that he heard about a mug who tried to steal a Legion ship and got hung up by automatic defenses. He takes the Wolf with him but warns him that he turned his mace up to full power and one dose and poof, Timber Wolf would just be ashes. The door to the ship automatically opens when the pair approach. Inside Mace has Timber wolf sit in the pilot chair but the ship reacts just as Timber Wolf hoped. It treats him as an unauthorized pilot and trapped the Legionnaire in an Plastie globe. Every power systems in the ship shut down. Black Mace pissed off that Timber Wolf made a fool out of him, uses his mace and smashes the globe. But it does not shatter the globe but it weakens it enough so that Timber wolf can break free and use his speed strength and agility against Black Mace. But the Mace fights back and the two goes back and forth, Timber Wolf picks up the Mace's weapon and uses it against him but Black Mace's suit was insulated. Just as Black Mace is going for a killing blow Timber Wold activates the flight ring that Mace is wearing so it lifts him up and smacks him into the ceiling. Recovering his ring and turning off the ship defense Timber Wolf retrains the criminal and takes off, thinking that all Black Mace need to steal the ship was the Ring any one trying to fly the ship with out one is considered an intruder, Not even a Legionnaire can fly the ship without a ring.

Roll Call:

• Timber Wolf

Villain:

• Black Mace

Legion Equipment:

• Legion Cruiser
• Flight Ring

Notes:
Page 1:

• Timber Wolf references his time at Legion Academy before he became a Member of the team.

Page 2:

• Black Mace 1st appeared in Adventure Comics 374.
• Jim Shooter reminds us that bald men are evil.

Page 3:

• Timber Wolf cons Black Mace into taking him with him.
• Timber wolf is channeling his inner John Travolta, (a boy in the plastic bubble reference)

Page 5:

• Black Mace and Timber wolf go toe to toe.

Page 6:

• Timber wolf activates the flight ring and sends mace flying.

Another issue where the single hero back up is better than the main story. This is the first story where we have a 2nd artist credited, Bill Draut, I assume that he is Inking the story but the credits do not list who does what. Timber Wolf vs the Black Mace today would be a multiple page fight but here Shooter and Grell show the fight in about a page and a half of action. Not looking forward to Superboy 214 which is why after the next blog posts Member Profile on Ultra Boy I am taking a short break from this title to do a Two part story from Adventure comics, featuring Mordru the merciless.

Superboy 213 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

Cover Date December 1975, Cover Price .25 cents. " The Jaws of Fear" Art: Mike Grell, Story: Jim Shooter.
 In the Legion Council Chamber, Members of the Legion of Super-Heroes are discussing team issues, while out side the room a man is bypass the iron clad security of the Legion Headquarters in a variety of ways. He walks on air with anti grav shoes, he changes into a beam of light and even into a gas form to avoid the security devices. He appears in the Legion council Room, and introduces himself Benn Pares the greatest burglar in the galaxy. This does not sit well with the Legion and hot headed Wildfire tackles him to the ground but he vanishes out of his grasp, and reappears across the room. Brainiac-5 says he has never heard on him and that there is no Benn Pares in their Files Burglar of otherwise. Of course he was never heard of he is the best, and has never been caught or even left a clue. Benn tells them he has gotten bored and needed a new challenge so he has decided to steal the Legion;s Miracle Machine within 48 hours. The thief then walks out of the building with no one trying to stop him. Acting Leader Brainiac-5 sends Chameleon Boy and Superboy to check on the miracle machine to make sure it is still there. Saturn Girl had tried to use her telepathic powers or Pares, but all she learned is that he has a sixth sense which wars him of traps and alarms and some unique powers to over come them. She also caught a vague thought of huge jagged white gates, somewhere in space sector 14. Superboy and Chameleon boy return with the miracle machine still sealed in its cube on inertron, the other Legionnaires report that the security systems check out A-okay. They plan to guard it tonight, and Brainiac reminds them of how dangerous the machine is, if used by an untrained user.
  The Miracle Machine was entrusted to the Legion by the Controllers (think guardians of the universe, except Pink and tall instead of short and blue.) The machine converts thoughts into reality, any think the user thinks of happens, if used incorrectly it could enslave the whole galaxy or worse. Lightning Lad suggest that they just destroy it, the team spends time arguing about it until Brainy puts it to a vote. We do not see the vote but afterwards Superboy and Ultra Boy tear the inertron cube to unpack the Machine. The super strong teens then use there powers to smash the machine but nothing happened they could not even dent it. The energy based members of the team, Wildfire, Lightning Lad, Sunboy, Ultra Boy and Superboy used there powers on the machine to no effect. They talked about other options but they decide to guard the machine in the headquarters. Superboy packs it back up while Shrinking Violet, Phantom girl and Chameleon Boy, use their powers and try to pierce the additional defenses that Brainiac-5 devised and fail.The team spends the night in the vault with the machine, but in the morning they find that they have been robbed, not the Miracle Machine but of the clock that was on the vaults wall. Pares is toying with the Legion proving he can steal anything from under their noses. The team have another meeting and decide to follow up on the lead to Space Sector 14, leaving Superboy behind to guard the machine. Superboy monitors the team using his super vision, as the Legion cruiser flies through sector 14. They find a lot of nothing, until they come across a giant Galactosaur. The galactosaur has huge white jagged teeth, they must be the white gates that Saturn girl saw in Pares's mind. The Legion head for the beasts mouth, meanwhile inside the creatures moth a capsule is firmly anchored to its jawbone, inside Benn Pares plots to steal the miracle machine that very night. A buzzer goes off signaling that the Galactosaur is opening its mouth, but Pares had wired the nerves so that only he can open the jaws, he guesses Saturn girl is using her mental powers to have the creature open it's mouth. And he would be correct, inside the ship Saturn Girl is concentrating on the creature, while Cosmic boy flies the ship closer. At the same time Ultra boy is freaking out. Years ago  while joyriding in a space ship young Jo Nah was swallowed alive by a radioactive space dragon. A science police ship blasted him free but he never forgot the terror of those hungry fatal fangs closing behind him. The radiation form the beast made him ultra human , but now years later his eyes widen in fright at the duplication of that deadly drama. He yells at his team mates to turn around and accidentally knocked Saturn girl out. Pares is regaining control of the monster and is closing the massive jaws around the Legion's space craft. Back on earth Superboy is watching the whole thing and wishes that he had his hands on Pares. Just them Superboy is inside Pares hideout with the thief in his hands, thinking that he is too late to save his friends he punches Pares out. While Superboy thinks his friends crushed Ultra Boy is using his Super Strength to keep the jaws from closing, he had pulled himself together and left the ship at super-speed, to try and stop the creature from killing his teammates. Unfortunately Ultra boy can only use one of his powers at a time and while he is using his strength he can not use his invulnerability and he will die himself in the cold vacuum of space. Praying for a miracle they get one, a red and blue one, Superboy using super-speed grabs Ultra boy and the ship and makes it free of the monsters jaw. Back on earth out side the medical center Brainiac-5 tells Superboy and Shrinking Violet that Ultra boy will be fine in about a weeks time. Violet asks how he managed to pop up at the right time. As they fly back to headquarters Superboy tells her that when they were trying to destroy the machine they must of accidentally turned it on and while he was on guard duty in the vault he desperately wished that he could help and the machine picked up on his super-thoughts and reacted. Violet said that they should of used the machine to capture Pares in the first place, but Brainy reminds the minuscule maid that, that is the ultimate danger, they cannot allow it to make them lazy.

Bits of Legionnaire Business
Roll Call:

• Brainiac-5 (acting Leader)
• Saturn Girl
• Chameleon Boy
• Superboy
• Cosmic Boy
• Lightning Lad
• Wildfire
• Phantom Girl
• Shrinking Violet
• Ultra Boy
• Sunboy

Villain

• Benn Pares

Legion Equipment

• Miracle Machine
• Legion Cruiser
• Flight Ring

Rooms in the Headquarters

• Legion Council Chambers
• Vault

Notes:
Page 2:

• In the Legion Council chambers the team is arguing about something probably about where to order lunch from.
• We see an intruder using a vast array of abilities to sneak pass the Legion's defenses.

Page 3:

• Benn Pares the self proclaimed greatest burglar in the galaxy, boast that he is going to steal the Miracle Machine right under the Legion's noses. This is where he went wrong he should of just took the machine and be done with it, but we would not have an issue if the villain does not make a fool out of himself.

Page 5:

• We see the team using their powers on the miracle machine with Brainiac-5 directing traffic, why? Because he has no useful powers himself.

Page 6:

• We see the three least power full members (after Brainiac-5) try and fail to get by the defenses.

Page 7:

• Again Pares is an idiot, he sneaks back into the vault and does not take the machine but the Legion's fancy wall clock.

Page 8:

• We see the Galactosaur, a giant mineral eating space beast.

Page 9 and 10:

• Ultra Boy freaks out, he must of seen Jaws one to many times as a kid, I know that movie scared the hell out of me, to this day I am afraid to swim int he ocean. I wish Brainy said the line " I think we are going to need a bigger cruiser."

Page 10:

• We get a quick recap of Ultra Boy's origin, and then he knocks out the one member of the team that is needed for this mission.
• Superboy is a peeping Tom or is that Thom in the 30th century?

During this period of the Legion I enjoyed the Shooter stories more than the Bates, but this one not so much. It was one of Jim's weaker efforts, the Villain was poor and all this issue did was to show Ultra Boy's phobia of getting eaten.

Next time: I will get to the back up tale, "Trapped to live free to die!

Superboy # 212 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, "A Death Stroke at Dawn"

"A Death stroke at Dawn" Art: Mike Grell, Story Jim Shooter.
Late night in 30th Century Metropolis, Shadow Lass flies powered by her Legion Flight Ring towards the Legion Citadel. When she see light in an abandoned monorail terminal. Shady peers through a high window she sees a fallen Night Girl from the Substitute heroes in a Bright room trapped by Crafty Colson and his gang. Night Girl has super strength only at night or in deep shadow, in bright light she is normal. Shadow lass uses her powers to create darkness to black out the room. Whit her strength returning she avoids the attack by the thug called Hunk. She then knocks all 3 of the criminals to the ground. One of the men named Gunner from the planet Ankar who can see in the dark fires his weapon at Shadow Lass but Night Girl steps in her way and takes the blast. Fearing that Legionnaires might be on the way the three thugs high tail it out of there. The Gang believing that Night Girl is dead think that her boy friend Cosmic boy might come after them deiced to go after him first. Back at the monorail terminal Night girl begins to stir her powerful body only stunned. The two heroines thank each other and Night Girl explains that she was tracking the gang after they looted the satellite warehouse orbiting mars and followed them here, but Colson turned on the lights and trapped her. Shadow Lass chastise Night Girl to mixing it up with vicious thugs where all they have to do is turn on a light switch to weaken her. Night Girl tells Shadow Lass the story of how her Father a Scientist developed a ray  that would give her Super Strength. Being stronger than everyone made her lonely so she went to earth to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, but because she was from a planet of complete darkness she discovered on earth that her powers did not work under bright light and she was Rejected. She then joined the Legion of Substitute heroes and after that fell in love with Cosmic Boy. But today Cosmic Boy broke up with her. He was tired of Night Girl risking her live with her weakness and when she breaks a date on his night off he breaks up with her. After telling the story Night Girl leaves to trace Colson with a miniature mento track that will pick up his trail. Meanwhile Cosmic boy is on a date with a blond air head named Sinde. Thinking of Night Girl he ends the date early and brings the girl home. Later moments before dawn Cosmic boy heads home and is ambushed by Colson and his thugs, Gunner is about to shoot him with a plastic pistol but as the soon rises Night Girl flies into them knocking them down. With the gang distracted Cosmic boy is able to get the upper hand and beats the crap out of the thugs. He then makes up with Night Girl and offers to take her out on a date, in the day time of course, when he knows she cannot resist him.

Bits of Legionnaire Business
Roll Call:

• Shadow Lass
• Cosmic Boy

Subs

• Night Girl

Legion Equipment

• Flight ring

Notes
Page 1:

• Shadow Lass flying around metropolis at night. If she did not walk in when she did I am certain that the "Crafty" Colson gang would of done Night Girl.
• I like Night Girl's costume, Keep this in your head for about 5 issue's another character has a similar one.

Page 2:

• Shadow Lass turns out the lights and the bad guy just happens to have a guy that can see in the dark.

Page 3:

• Night Girl jumps in front of the blast in a very heroic move.

Page 5:

• We get Night Girl's Origin, nothing that long time fans did not already know.

Page 6:

• Cosmic Boy breaks up with Night Girl just because she does not have time for him, and then he mentions her weakness, I think he just was pissed that he was not getting any that night.
• But it does not take long for Cos to hook up with Sinde.

Page 7:

• Am I the only one that thinks Cos got a piece of Sinde when he dropped her off?
• Night Girl saves her butt head boyfriend just as she loses her powers.

Page 8:

• Cos takes care of the thugs and finally he will get his from Night Girl.

Okay, what I get from this is Cos is a Horny bastard. Night Girl does not have time for him so He hooks up with Sinde. He finishes with her, does the Hero bit and then flies off with Night Girl. Way to go Cos. Jokes aside, this is a well done short story, Night girl gets a little fleshed out, no that is not a joke about her costume. I wish that future writers teamed Night Girl and Shadow Lass together, there powers work well together and would help counter the fact that Night Girl can be defeated by a light bulb. The bad guys were generic thugs but not every story needs Universo or Modru, some times you want to slow it down a little and show that the Legion goes after every day crooks as well.

Next time: One of the more forgettable stories from this error Superboy 213 The Jaws of Fear. Or Ultra boy goes nuts against a space lizard.
  PS, I think after I cover both Stories in 213 and the member profile I have in the works, We take a step back for a couple of Post and cover my favorite story from the Adventure Comics Run, The story that introduces Modru the merciless. Leave a comment if you want to see that.

Member Profile: Matter Eater Lad

Matter Eater Lad
Real Name: Tenzil Kem
Home Planet: Bismoll
Known Relatives: Rall Kem, Nits Kem (parents) Renkil Kem (brother)
Height: 5' 10'
Weight: 150 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair : Black
1st app: Adventure comics 301
Powers: Consume any form of Matter with out harm.
Created by: Jerry Seigel and John Forte

History
Matter-Eater Lad is one of the sillier members of the team,(he ranks up there with Bouncing Boy, but at least Chuck married a hot chick.) with the power to eat anything, thankfully he was not used very often. His most notable time in the team was when a villains weapon blast bounced off Superboy and hit him charging his molecules and mad him Fat. This was later reversed in another story. His parents have been portrayed as poor white trash and his brother once tried to discredit him so he could take his place on the team.

Next time: The 2nd story of Superboy 212, Featuring 2 ladies of the night.

Superboy# 212 starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

SUPERBOY # 212 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Cover date Oct 1975, cover Price .25 cents.
"Last Fight for a Legionnaire" Art by Mike Grell, Story by Jim Shooter.
30th century Metropolis, Nolan Plaza the home of the Legion of Super-heroes, a hopeful young man enters the building. A little later the same man walks out rejected.  Rejected and angry, the man uses his powers to lift the Iron statue of Ferro Lad the deceased Legionnaire and fling int the sky. Just then in his head a voice tells him to put the statue down. He is unable to resist and returns it gently to its pedestal. He is commanded to turn around and he does seeing 5 young people. It turns out the other 5 were also rejected from the Legion. A scantly clad brunette woman tells him it was her esp powers that made him put the statue back. A very healthy Blond flirts with him, while the 3 males toss around compliments, the young man Magno lad agrees to join with them on their plan to get even with six legionnaires. Meanwhile on a distant planet a man called Tribune is giving a mission to an Agent Bek. Bek tells him that their target will not come willingly but Tribune reminds him that no one is above the law not even a Legionnaire. Bek will do every thing necessary to bring the chosen to the selection board, even if the entire Legion stands in his way.
 Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, Matter Eater Lad, Cosmic Boy and Phantom Girl respond to a telepathic summons they thought was from Saturn Girl, but She did not send it, she received one herself. The Message was sent by Meta Ulnoor, Esper Lass. It turns out that the six young people from earlier are from the same Planets as the six Legionnaires, and they were rejected because they had the same power as the Legion Members. The rejects want to challenge the Legion to prove that they deserve a shot, but the Legion will not play along. But the Fight gets started when Magno Lad, Kort Grezz from Cosmic boy's home planet of Braal uses his magnetic powers to fling cosmic boy up against the wall. Quickly the other five rejects go up against their own counter parts. Esper Lass is blasting Saturn Girl with her Psychic powers. Solon Garga who is from Phantom girl's Dimensional world of Bgztl wants to be known as Phantom Lad is using his phantom powers against Phantom Girl. Smaller than what can normally be seen Shrinking Violet is losing to Micro Lad, Lalo Muldron. Chameleon Kid, Toog Lintens smacks Chameleon boy, telling him that he is stronger than him know matter what form they are in.  Calorie Queen, Tary Loy the daughter of Bismoll's most brilliant scientist. All bismollians can consume enormous quantities of any type of matter. Their bodies are like nuclear furnaces anything they eat is changed to energy. Excess energy usually escapes through their pores. Calorie Queen's Father discovered a way to divert some of that excess energy to her muscle to make her as strong as three men. She uses that strength to beat the crap out of Matter Eater Lad. Just as the rejects are wiping the floor with the Legionnaires, Superboy comes into the room and sees that his friends are getting punked,uses his super cape to wrap up the six intruders and deposit them outside. The beaten heroes are snippy at Superboy and go outside to the fallen rejects and tells them if that they are still game they will settle this tomorrow morning  alone. The rejects accept and the Legionnaires tell Superboy to mind his own business and that they will take care of it.
 At the Metropolis space port the President greets agent Bek and asks if they can bypass his mission. Bek tells him that by the laws of his planet there will be one less Legionnaire by this time tomorrow.
  The next Morning in Nolan plaza the 12 teens square off against each other with Superboy and Karate Kid watching. They start to approach each other when Matter Eater Lad runs away into the opposite direction. His teammates thinks he is running away but he runs to the flag pole and bites it down so it hits Calorie Queen and he ties her up with the Legion Flag. She cries for Magno-Boy's help but he is trying to hurl a monument at Cosmic Boy but it turns out that the monument is actually Chameleon Boy who punches him in the jaw. Phantom Lad  stays solid and runs at Phantom lady but a minuscule Shrinking Violet  grows and cold cocks him. Phantom girl phases behind Micro Lad an lets him have it. Cosmic boy has Esper Lass spinning magnetizing the iron in her amazing body. Saturn girl uses her telepathic powers to find Chameleon Kid hiding as a tree and directs Matter Eater Lad to use his powers but the kid gives up. The rejects surrender and the team gloats that they win using team work. The heroes are patting each other on the back when Agent Bek arrives and hands Matter Eater Lad a draft notice from his home planet of Bismoll. Bismoll does not have an Army but they draft thier candidates for polical office and he has been chosen to run for representative. Having no choice Matter Eater Lad leaves but his parting thought is that they should give Calorie Queen another shot.
Bits of Legionnaire Buisness
Roll Call:

• Cosmic Boy
• Saturn Girl
• Phantom Girl
• Chameleon Boy
• Shrinking Violet
• Matter Eater Lad
• Superboy
• Karate Kid

Villains

• Magno Lad
• Calorie Queen
• Esper Lass
• Phantom Lad
• Micro Lad
• Chameleon Kid

Big event

• Matter Eater Lad leaves the team and goes into public office, as predictied in Adventure comics 354.

Notes
Cover:

• Great drawing of the rejects standing over the fallen heroes damanding to take thier place in the Legion. This is repeated on the Splash page but I perfer the cover image.

Page 2:

• How many statures of Ferro Lad are there? There is one inside the headquaters and another outside in Nolan plazza, which is named after him. I think there is also one in place where they have him burried.
• Magno Lad uses his powers but is mind control by his soon to be new partner, a great way to start a relation ship.

Page 3:

• Calorie Queen is hitting on Magno Boy.
• Agent Bek gets his assignment but does not like it.

Page 4:

• The rejects whine about not being accepted on the team because they have the same powers as the Legion members.
• While it is not said it seems that Legion Policy is first come first served.

Page 5 and 6

• The Rejects wipe the floor with the more experinced Legion members.

Page 7:

• Superboy buts in and saves the day and his ungreatful teammates tell him to mind his own business.

Page 8:

• The president makes a cameo greeting Agent Bek. You would thing that the head of a plantary government would have better things to do than to greet a process server.
• Matter Eater Lad runs away.

Page 9:

• We see a bad depiction of Matter Eater Lad's powers and some Bondage fun with Calorie Queen.
• This was suspose to be a one on one battle but the Legion cheats and double teams thier opponents.

Page 11:

• Matter Eater Lad is drafted, and asks that Calorie Queen be given a shot at taking his place, but that never happens.

Notes:
I might of said this before but this is one of my favorite storys from this time, it is just fun. We find out that other people with the same powers try to join and are not given a chance. I do not like spoiling upcoming events but it takes about 8 years to find out that 5 of the 6 rejects become villains, one of who is responsible for for having a Legion Member impersonated and mind probed. I like the costumes on Calorie Queen and Esper Lass, not sure how she fights in that get up. I do not like Phantom Lad's costome at all. The teams reaction to Superboy's interference is a little harsh but it makes the story fun to see that the all powerfull heroes a pissed off at being beaten up.
I own both the original issue and the Archive additon but until I was re reading them for this blog did I notice that there was an extra page in the Archive. Between pages 7 and eight there is a page of Karate kid giving a pep talk to Matter eater Lad. I belive it was cut for length, but glad they included in the archive. This was a good send off to Matter Eater Lad, a hero that was never used that much or well. Writer Jim Shooter dropped a hint on the last Panel that we might see Calorie Queen back as a member or a canadate but it is never pickup again. We do not see Calorie Queen again until the 5 year gap Legion by Keith Giffen. I think some interesting things could of been down with her. Being a former foe of the Legion and then joining the team and maybe having some of the members not trust her or just not get along. The do some of this with a future member down the road.

Next time
Member Profile: Matter Eater Lad.