Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #256

In the late 70s, the Legion were due to get a Legion Special, written and drawn by Jim Starlin. While that never came to pass, the story was eventually told over the course of three regular issues of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The first instalment was in #239 (cover dated February 1978), and the remainder was published in #250 and #251, a whole year later. Starlin was the plotter and pencil artist on the first part, with Paul Levitz as scripter, while the second instalment was plotted and pencilled by Steve Apollo, scripted by Paul Levitz. Steve Apollo is a pseudonym that Starlin uses when he asks for his name to be removed from the credits. Hmmm…

Without going into all the details, the end result was Braniac 5 and Matter-Eater Lad were both left bat-shit insane.

Eight months later, it was left to new regular writer Gerry Conway to somehow redeem Braniac 5, and it just doesn’t work.

The three founders, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, plus Superboy, commandeer an amusement park, and with the help of a few oversized props, fool Braniac 5 into believing he is reliving his childhood; and by altering the outcome of some of his memories from negative to positive, Braniac 5 is miraculously cured of his insanity. Cue smiles and general good times all round; never mind that he killed someone while insane, that would have to be addressed at a later date.

Gerry Conway never really hit his stride on this title, and was unfortunately ham-strung by the art team of Joe Staton (an artist I struggle with on main stream super-heroes at the best of times) and Dave Hunt (a heavy handed inker); the two together was not particularly appealing.

Bee-Boy awarded this comic 2 stings out of 5