The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #281
Continuing on with the re-reads of the classic Legion of Super-Heroes stories. This time out: The Legionnaires attempt to figure out the whole Superboy/Ultra Boy thing with one of their greatest foes having trapped them in the past! Enjoy! :)
The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #281
November, 1981
"Madness Is The Molecule Master"
Plotter: Roy Thomas
Scripter: Paul Levitz
Penciller: Steve Ditko
Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Cover: George Perez (pencils) and Bruce Patterson (inks)
Editor: Mike W. Barr
Mission Monitor Board:
Superboy/Ultra Boy, Blok, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Karate Kid, Dawnstar, Phantom Girl; Timber Wolf, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Colossal Boy (flashbacks)
Guest Star:
Lana Lang
Supporting Cast:
Bouncing Boy (flashback)
Opposition:
The Time Trapper; The Molecule Master
Synopsis:
The story continues from the previous issue. Outside 20th Century Smallville, Ultra Boy (trapped in the body of Superboy) flies around the hills and mountains thinking over recent events: how he somehow re-appeared in the 30th Century as Reflecto, then remembered who he was but found himself occupying Superboy's body, how Lightning Lad took Superboy and a team back to 20th Century Smallville, and then the heroes discovered themselves trapped there by their foe, the Time Trapper. He tests his super-powers, using super-strength, flight, super-breath and heat-vision simultaneously, and concludes that he really is Superboy. He attempts to break the time barrier, but finds the path sealed by the Time Trapper. Elsewhen, the Time Trapper laughs at him, telling him that not even his vaunted Kryptonian powers can break a barrier that he has set up.
At the Kent home, the stranded Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Karate Kid, Phantom Girl, Blok and Dawnstar prepare to go into Smallville to buy groceries. The male Legionnaires borrow some of Clark's clothes. Because they can't be disguised to fit in, Blok and Dawnstar will remain behind. Saturn Girl worries that it's been too easy, and the other Legionnaires are also thinking that. The Time Trapper has caught them in an unfamiliar century, and she wonders why he hasn't attacked them. At that moment, a neighbour arrives unannounced, trying to sell them Girl Scout cookies. Karate Kid, who has the most experience living in the 20th Century, tries to convince her they are friends of Clark's, rehearsing a school play, but she doesn't buy that. "Clark" Ultra Boy himself returns to the house and vouches for his friends, so she leaves, but is still clearly suspicious.
With the exception of Blok and Dawnstar, the Legionnaires and Superboy head towards downtown and the Kent General Store. Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl did not borrow any of Ma Kent's clothes, so they are subjected to leers and jeers. As the Legionnaires walk through the town, they notice that the U.S. military has arrived, obviously searching for Superboy and the others. The group encounters Lana Lang, who recognizes the Legionnaires. When she guesses that Clark Kent hanging out with the Legionnaires means he is really Superboy, she is shocked to hear him (Ultra Boy) act surprised at her accusations. Lana asks them to tell her what's going on, as first Superboy's accused of turning traitor by the army and then the Legionnaires show up from 1,000 years in the future. Lightning Lad says they can't tell her what's going on, even if she is an Honourary Legionnaire, but he does say that they're trapped in the current time. Highly annoyed, Lana walks off in a huff.
Back at the Kent home, the snooping neighbour is back, as she found the costumes the Legionnaires were wearing to be strange. Dawnstar is taking a relaxing hot shower when there is the sound of a massive explosion. Emerging from the shower, Dawnstar and Blok talk and the two decide they have to fly into town and investigate. As they do so, Dawnstar marvels at the fact that it takes three flight rings to transport Blok, and he admits to her that he is forever a creature of the ground and does not enjoy flight.
The two arrive in town to find that the Molecule Master has destroyed a building to get the Legion's attention. The Legionnaires establish that he is still an android, but Superboy/Ultra Boy's x-ray vision can't penetrate too deeply as it has now got partial lead shielding. Saturn Girl realizes that since the Molecule Master originally attacked them trying to get the Miracle Machine as the Time Trapper did once, the Molecule Master was created and is the servant of the Time Trapper. The android freely admits this. The Molecule Master doesn't appear to have the same abilities this time out that he had previously, instead seemingly being able to make inanimate objects come to life.
The Legionnaires discover this the hard way, as the android uses the U.S Army's own vehicles and weapons to attack them and the civilians in the area. Phantom Girl uses her powers to avoid being hit by the bullets while Blok merely stands in their way in front of various Smallville folks and protects them. Dawnstar grapples with a machine gun that seems to have a mind of its own. Lightning Lad's attacks on the Molecule Master are ineffective, as he seems to be protected by some sort of force field. Blok becomes encased in stone, and Phantom Girl phases through a wall, thinking it's very convenient to slip back to her home dimension of Bgztl when she does so. Tinya thinks that if Ultra Boy is really dead, perhaps she'll go back and permanently remain on Bgztl. Superboy/Ultra Boy enters the fight, but the Molecule Master keeps throwing so much inanimate stuff at him that he can't make any headway against the android. He says it's partially due to the fact that his memory controlled reflexes are used to working with multiple powers at one time. The Legionnaires realize they can't use their powers one at a time, and have to rush the android. Karate Kid jumps the gun a bit, and is rendered unconscious by the Molecule Master. With anger in his voice, Lightning Lad tells the others to charge as one. They rush him en masse, and there's a massive implosion that destroys the android and renders the Legionnaires unconscious. Major Crawford orders his men to round up the Legionnaires present, and then fan out to search for Superboy.
In one of the nearby alleys, Phantom Girl revives from the explosion first, near the unconscious forms of Superboy/Ultra Boy and Dawnstar. She reasons she recovered before Superboy/Ultra Boy because she was behind him and he therefore shielded her from the full force of the blast. She tries to phase through the wall, but is shocked to discover that she's lost the use of her powers, her abilities paralyzed by the shock of the implosion blast. Her flight ring is also rendered useless. With the U.S. Army soldiers starting to cart off the unconscious Legionnaires, and also starting to approach the alley down which she and the other two Legionnaires are, Phantom Girl focuses on her belt, an heirloom from her mother, concentrating and eventually shifting herself back to her home dimension, Bgztl, with Superboy/Ultra Boy and Dawnstar.
As the Army carts off the unconscious Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Karate Kid and Blok as prisoners, somewhere and somewhen else, the Time Trapper gloatingly laughs, saying that after an eternity, he has finally won. The story continues in the next issue.
Commentary:
The story of how Superboy came to have the mind of Ultra Boy and took on the Reflecto identity continues this issue, though to be honest there is no real development of that plot. The reader does learn that Superboy/Ultra Boy (as I call him) really is Superboy's body, if nothing else, but like Ultra Boy we are *still* confused as to how this state of affairs arose. This issue marks the return of Paul Levitz to the scripting chores on the Legion after an almost two-year hiatus. This is noticeable because Levitz will write the Legion stories for the next eight years or so, a remarkable feat of endurance on a title such as this. Compared to his predecessor, Roy Thomas (who plotted this story), Levitz's writing is crisp and fun to read, and he shows an excellent understanding of the Legionnaires in this tale.
Superboy/Ultra Boy's doubts about who he is, Saturn Girl's concerns for her teammates in light of them being trapped in a time they're not familiar with, the banter about flight between Dawnstar and Blok, Phantom Girl's reminiscences about home and thoughts that if Ultra Boy really is dead perhaps she'll return to stay in Bgztl... these are all scenes that inject some personality into the story, some of them light, some not so much so, but show Paul Levitz's familiarity with the team. The story itself flows very well, the scenes merging relatively seamlessly, but I don't know how much of that is due to Roy Thomas's plot and how much to Paul Levitz's writing.
If there was one flaw with the story, it's when the Legionnaires go into town, Lightning Lad and Karate Kid disguised in some of Clark's clothes. But Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl are wearing their costumes, making them truly conspicuous. I'm not sure why they couldn't have put on a couple of Martha Kent's summer dresses. I also got the impression that someone behind the scenes of this story doesn't like Lana Lang. Despite Lana's being an Honourary Legionnaire and recognizing the team members present, Lightning Lad makes the decision to exclude her from being involved in what's going on. I'm not surprised she left them in a huff and stayed out of their way, but have to say the story would have been more interesting if Lana's Insect Queen could have been involved.
It was a pleasant surprise to see the return of the Molecule Master. I say "return" here, but this Molecule Master is obviously not the same as the original. In his original appearance, back in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #201, he was an android sent to the Legion to steal the Miracle Machine, with the secondary purpose of killing the Legionnaires present in their HQ at the same time. The reader gets some closure on that case here, as it's revealed that he/it is an instrument of the Time Trapper. I say not the same as the original above because in its original apppearance it had similar energy abilities as those of Wildfire, being able to master energy at the sub-atomic level. Here, its abilities are more along the lines of being able to bring inanimate objects to life.
Speaking of the Time Trapper, I can certainly see why he would have the Molecule Master type of android around, as his plans have always tended to be somewhat subtle. Which Molecule Master is anything but in this story. (But that appears to have been to allow the Legionnaires to become resistant, and bring themselves to the attention of the U.S. Army here.) However, other than preventing Superboy/Ultra Boy from travelling into the future and trapping the Legionnaires in 20th Century Smallville, the Time Trapper hasn't really done anything per sé in this story so far. And in this issue, poses once more at the end of the story (the way he did at the end of the previous issue, for those who want to know), gloating about his triumph over the Legionnaires. One has to wonder about how, if the Time Trapper is so all-powerful, why he's just standing around all the time. But perhaps this has to do with what I mentioned earlier about the Time Trapper being subtle in his plans. The Time Trapper, like Darkseid, seems to be one of those villains that is very hard to create stories and plots around.
The artwork this issue is, for me, a mixed bag. The cover by George Perez with inks by Bruce Patterson is a well-designed one, though it has lots of characters on it. It was created so the focus is on the Legionnaires in the centre of the cover, and the Perez pencils and Patterson's clean lines highlight the Legionnaires. A smart move. In a truly surprising move, this issue marks the last guest artist appearance by Steve Ditko on pencils. I say surprising because, coming as it does in the middle of the Reflecto/Ultra Boy/Superboy/Time Trapper epic as it does, it's very jarring. Inker Bruce Patterson is able to keep most of the characters on point and in focus, but the snooping neighbour (whom we learn is called Sarah) is especially cartoonish. She's supposed to be the Gladys Kravitz (a Bewitched tv reference) nosy neighbour stereotype, I guess, but she is literally a cartoon character. That said, Ditko's pencils on the "weird" scenes, like when the street lamps come alive and wrap themselves around the army, is really good but the scene of the Molecule Master facing down the Legion comes across as dull. For my taste, the artwork in the action sequences just lacks energy and action per sé which is a shame.
Overall, this was a decent story in the Superboy/Ultra Boy/Reflecto storyline that is being complicated and made somewhat more full of stakes, but didn't really provide any answers to the readers. I am curious as to how the Legionnaires are going to get out of this mess, and the next issue promises some answers, if there are any, so look forward to that.
Final Notes:
The story continues in the next issue...
Superboy/Ultra Boy first appeared as Reflecto in The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #277...
Reflecto first appeared as the statuette of a dead Legionnaire in the Hall of Heroes in the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #354...
This issue the celebration of Klordny is mentioned for only the second time in Legion tales. It was first mentioned and celebrated in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #232, in the story with The Immune...
The nosy neighbour of the Kents who appears in this story is not given a full name. Her first name is Sarah as noted on page 11...
Ultra Boy in Superboy's body mentions that he has memories of Smallville from his time there. This was during his initiation test to join the Legion way back in Superboy Vol 1 #98...
Lana Lang became an Honourary Legionnaire in her Insect Queen guise by helping out a group of Legionnaires back in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #356...
Lana Lang's most recent appearance as Insect Queen was in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #205...
Lana Lang last appeared in the Legion series in Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes Vol 1 #255 in a story set in Smallville in a supporting role...
The Molecule Master first appeared in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #201, in the story where Wildfire re-earned his spot on the roster...
This story marks the last appearance of guest artist and comics legend Steve Ditko to these pages...
This issue also features the last George Perez cover on an issue of the Legion comics...
The story features the return debut of Paul Levitz as Legion writer after a close to two-year absence. He will go on to write the tales of the Legion for the next eight years.
Next Issue: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #282
The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #281
November, 1981
"Madness Is The Molecule Master"
Plotter: Roy Thomas
Scripter: Paul Levitz
Penciller: Steve Ditko
Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Cover: George Perez (pencils) and Bruce Patterson (inks)
Editor: Mike W. Barr
Mission Monitor Board:
Superboy/Ultra Boy, Blok, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Karate Kid, Dawnstar, Phantom Girl; Timber Wolf, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Colossal Boy (flashbacks)
Guest Star:
Lana Lang
Supporting Cast:
Bouncing Boy (flashback)
Opposition:
The Time Trapper; The Molecule Master
Synopsis:
The story continues from the previous issue. Outside 20th Century Smallville, Ultra Boy (trapped in the body of Superboy) flies around the hills and mountains thinking over recent events: how he somehow re-appeared in the 30th Century as Reflecto, then remembered who he was but found himself occupying Superboy's body, how Lightning Lad took Superboy and a team back to 20th Century Smallville, and then the heroes discovered themselves trapped there by their foe, the Time Trapper. He tests his super-powers, using super-strength, flight, super-breath and heat-vision simultaneously, and concludes that he really is Superboy. He attempts to break the time barrier, but finds the path sealed by the Time Trapper. Elsewhen, the Time Trapper laughs at him, telling him that not even his vaunted Kryptonian powers can break a barrier that he has set up.
At the Kent home, the stranded Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Karate Kid, Phantom Girl, Blok and Dawnstar prepare to go into Smallville to buy groceries. The male Legionnaires borrow some of Clark's clothes. Because they can't be disguised to fit in, Blok and Dawnstar will remain behind. Saturn Girl worries that it's been too easy, and the other Legionnaires are also thinking that. The Time Trapper has caught them in an unfamiliar century, and she wonders why he hasn't attacked them. At that moment, a neighbour arrives unannounced, trying to sell them Girl Scout cookies. Karate Kid, who has the most experience living in the 20th Century, tries to convince her they are friends of Clark's, rehearsing a school play, but she doesn't buy that. "Clark" Ultra Boy himself returns to the house and vouches for his friends, so she leaves, but is still clearly suspicious.
With the exception of Blok and Dawnstar, the Legionnaires and Superboy head towards downtown and the Kent General Store. Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl did not borrow any of Ma Kent's clothes, so they are subjected to leers and jeers. As the Legionnaires walk through the town, they notice that the U.S. military has arrived, obviously searching for Superboy and the others. The group encounters Lana Lang, who recognizes the Legionnaires. When she guesses that Clark Kent hanging out with the Legionnaires means he is really Superboy, she is shocked to hear him (Ultra Boy) act surprised at her accusations. Lana asks them to tell her what's going on, as first Superboy's accused of turning traitor by the army and then the Legionnaires show up from 1,000 years in the future. Lightning Lad says they can't tell her what's going on, even if she is an Honourary Legionnaire, but he does say that they're trapped in the current time. Highly annoyed, Lana walks off in a huff.
Back at the Kent home, the snooping neighbour is back, as she found the costumes the Legionnaires were wearing to be strange. Dawnstar is taking a relaxing hot shower when there is the sound of a massive explosion. Emerging from the shower, Dawnstar and Blok talk and the two decide they have to fly into town and investigate. As they do so, Dawnstar marvels at the fact that it takes three flight rings to transport Blok, and he admits to her that he is forever a creature of the ground and does not enjoy flight.
The two arrive in town to find that the Molecule Master has destroyed a building to get the Legion's attention. The Legionnaires establish that he is still an android, but Superboy/Ultra Boy's x-ray vision can't penetrate too deeply as it has now got partial lead shielding. Saturn Girl realizes that since the Molecule Master originally attacked them trying to get the Miracle Machine as the Time Trapper did once, the Molecule Master was created and is the servant of the Time Trapper. The android freely admits this. The Molecule Master doesn't appear to have the same abilities this time out that he had previously, instead seemingly being able to make inanimate objects come to life.
The Legionnaires discover this the hard way, as the android uses the U.S Army's own vehicles and weapons to attack them and the civilians in the area. Phantom Girl uses her powers to avoid being hit by the bullets while Blok merely stands in their way in front of various Smallville folks and protects them. Dawnstar grapples with a machine gun that seems to have a mind of its own. Lightning Lad's attacks on the Molecule Master are ineffective, as he seems to be protected by some sort of force field. Blok becomes encased in stone, and Phantom Girl phases through a wall, thinking it's very convenient to slip back to her home dimension of Bgztl when she does so. Tinya thinks that if Ultra Boy is really dead, perhaps she'll go back and permanently remain on Bgztl. Superboy/Ultra Boy enters the fight, but the Molecule Master keeps throwing so much inanimate stuff at him that he can't make any headway against the android. He says it's partially due to the fact that his memory controlled reflexes are used to working with multiple powers at one time. The Legionnaires realize they can't use their powers one at a time, and have to rush the android. Karate Kid jumps the gun a bit, and is rendered unconscious by the Molecule Master. With anger in his voice, Lightning Lad tells the others to charge as one. They rush him en masse, and there's a massive implosion that destroys the android and renders the Legionnaires unconscious. Major Crawford orders his men to round up the Legionnaires present, and then fan out to search for Superboy.
In one of the nearby alleys, Phantom Girl revives from the explosion first, near the unconscious forms of Superboy/Ultra Boy and Dawnstar. She reasons she recovered before Superboy/Ultra Boy because she was behind him and he therefore shielded her from the full force of the blast. She tries to phase through the wall, but is shocked to discover that she's lost the use of her powers, her abilities paralyzed by the shock of the implosion blast. Her flight ring is also rendered useless. With the U.S. Army soldiers starting to cart off the unconscious Legionnaires, and also starting to approach the alley down which she and the other two Legionnaires are, Phantom Girl focuses on her belt, an heirloom from her mother, concentrating and eventually shifting herself back to her home dimension, Bgztl, with Superboy/Ultra Boy and Dawnstar.
As the Army carts off the unconscious Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Karate Kid and Blok as prisoners, somewhere and somewhen else, the Time Trapper gloatingly laughs, saying that after an eternity, he has finally won. The story continues in the next issue.
Commentary:
The story of how Superboy came to have the mind of Ultra Boy and took on the Reflecto identity continues this issue, though to be honest there is no real development of that plot. The reader does learn that Superboy/Ultra Boy (as I call him) really is Superboy's body, if nothing else, but like Ultra Boy we are *still* confused as to how this state of affairs arose. This issue marks the return of Paul Levitz to the scripting chores on the Legion after an almost two-year hiatus. This is noticeable because Levitz will write the Legion stories for the next eight years or so, a remarkable feat of endurance on a title such as this. Compared to his predecessor, Roy Thomas (who plotted this story), Levitz's writing is crisp and fun to read, and he shows an excellent understanding of the Legionnaires in this tale.
Superboy/Ultra Boy's doubts about who he is, Saturn Girl's concerns for her teammates in light of them being trapped in a time they're not familiar with, the banter about flight between Dawnstar and Blok, Phantom Girl's reminiscences about home and thoughts that if Ultra Boy really is dead perhaps she'll return to stay in Bgztl... these are all scenes that inject some personality into the story, some of them light, some not so much so, but show Paul Levitz's familiarity with the team. The story itself flows very well, the scenes merging relatively seamlessly, but I don't know how much of that is due to Roy Thomas's plot and how much to Paul Levitz's writing.
If there was one flaw with the story, it's when the Legionnaires go into town, Lightning Lad and Karate Kid disguised in some of Clark's clothes. But Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl are wearing their costumes, making them truly conspicuous. I'm not sure why they couldn't have put on a couple of Martha Kent's summer dresses. I also got the impression that someone behind the scenes of this story doesn't like Lana Lang. Despite Lana's being an Honourary Legionnaire and recognizing the team members present, Lightning Lad makes the decision to exclude her from being involved in what's going on. I'm not surprised she left them in a huff and stayed out of their way, but have to say the story would have been more interesting if Lana's Insect Queen could have been involved.
It was a pleasant surprise to see the return of the Molecule Master. I say "return" here, but this Molecule Master is obviously not the same as the original. In his original appearance, back in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #201, he was an android sent to the Legion to steal the Miracle Machine, with the secondary purpose of killing the Legionnaires present in their HQ at the same time. The reader gets some closure on that case here, as it's revealed that he/it is an instrument of the Time Trapper. I say not the same as the original above because in its original apppearance it had similar energy abilities as those of Wildfire, being able to master energy at the sub-atomic level. Here, its abilities are more along the lines of being able to bring inanimate objects to life.
Speaking of the Time Trapper, I can certainly see why he would have the Molecule Master type of android around, as his plans have always tended to be somewhat subtle. Which Molecule Master is anything but in this story. (But that appears to have been to allow the Legionnaires to become resistant, and bring themselves to the attention of the U.S. Army here.) However, other than preventing Superboy/Ultra Boy from travelling into the future and trapping the Legionnaires in 20th Century Smallville, the Time Trapper hasn't really done anything per sé in this story so far. And in this issue, poses once more at the end of the story (the way he did at the end of the previous issue, for those who want to know), gloating about his triumph over the Legionnaires. One has to wonder about how, if the Time Trapper is so all-powerful, why he's just standing around all the time. But perhaps this has to do with what I mentioned earlier about the Time Trapper being subtle in his plans. The Time Trapper, like Darkseid, seems to be one of those villains that is very hard to create stories and plots around.
The artwork this issue is, for me, a mixed bag. The cover by George Perez with inks by Bruce Patterson is a well-designed one, though it has lots of characters on it. It was created so the focus is on the Legionnaires in the centre of the cover, and the Perez pencils and Patterson's clean lines highlight the Legionnaires. A smart move. In a truly surprising move, this issue marks the last guest artist appearance by Steve Ditko on pencils. I say surprising because, coming as it does in the middle of the Reflecto/Ultra Boy/Superboy/Time Trapper epic as it does, it's very jarring. Inker Bruce Patterson is able to keep most of the characters on point and in focus, but the snooping neighbour (whom we learn is called Sarah) is especially cartoonish. She's supposed to be the Gladys Kravitz (a Bewitched tv reference) nosy neighbour stereotype, I guess, but she is literally a cartoon character. That said, Ditko's pencils on the "weird" scenes, like when the street lamps come alive and wrap themselves around the army, is really good but the scene of the Molecule Master facing down the Legion comes across as dull. For my taste, the artwork in the action sequences just lacks energy and action per sé which is a shame.
Overall, this was a decent story in the Superboy/Ultra Boy/Reflecto storyline that is being complicated and made somewhat more full of stakes, but didn't really provide any answers to the readers. I am curious as to how the Legionnaires are going to get out of this mess, and the next issue promises some answers, if there are any, so look forward to that.
Final Notes:
The story continues in the next issue...
Superboy/Ultra Boy first appeared as Reflecto in The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #277...
Reflecto first appeared as the statuette of a dead Legionnaire in the Hall of Heroes in the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #354...
This issue the celebration of Klordny is mentioned for only the second time in Legion tales. It was first mentioned and celebrated in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #232, in the story with The Immune...
The nosy neighbour of the Kents who appears in this story is not given a full name. Her first name is Sarah as noted on page 11...
Ultra Boy in Superboy's body mentions that he has memories of Smallville from his time there. This was during his initiation test to join the Legion way back in Superboy Vol 1 #98...
Lana Lang became an Honourary Legionnaire in her Insect Queen guise by helping out a group of Legionnaires back in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #356...
Lana Lang's most recent appearance as Insect Queen was in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #205...
Lana Lang last appeared in the Legion series in Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes Vol 1 #255 in a story set in Smallville in a supporting role...
The Molecule Master first appeared in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #201, in the story where Wildfire re-earned his spot on the roster...
This story marks the last appearance of guest artist and comics legend Steve Ditko to these pages...
This issue also features the last George Perez cover on an issue of the Legion comics...
The story features the return debut of Paul Levitz as Legion writer after a close to two-year absence. He will go on to write the tales of the Legion for the next eight years.
Next Issue: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #282