Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Ultra Boy's ability to fly...

Yeah, wasn't Celeste the recipient of the last of the Green Lantern energy?

The absence of the Guardians, for whatever reason, could also explain why the Controllers are suddenly taking a more active interest in the affairs of the Universe.

Maybe the creation of the Legion is a direct result (from the Trapper's POV) of the GL being "weak".

Celeste got the ring off of a corpse, and referred to it as "Jewelry". She didn't know what the GLs were, and she was never portrayed as a shut in, so it can be surmised that GLs just weren't in circulation in the 30th....but why?

I can think of at least 2 "working with what you have" explanations:

1) The universe is a REALLY big place, even for the Guardians. 3,600 Lanterns spread over the whole universe is spread pretty thin. You could argue that, by the 30th Century, Earth and the U.P. had gotten their act together enough that the Guardians turned their scarce resources elsewhere. Doesn't explain the Great Darkness, unfortunately. Wonder if Levitz ever thought about a scene where Darkseid banished Oa with his Omega Beams, or dispatched a few hundred thousand Daxamites to bottle Oa and the Lanterns up?

2) The story Levitz wrote about Vidar (Universo), the Legion and the GLC involved the Time Institute. Basically, Circadia Senius and Brainy were using the Time Institute to explore the beginning of the universe, saw the old "hand at the beginning of time" schtick with the cosmic lightning bolt. This brought down the wrath of the Oans and the Lanterns. In retaliation, Earth banned the Corps. One might extrapolate that Earth's prominence led all the UP to similarly ban the GLC. So, the Oans were "honor bound" not to interfere with the Great Darkness, Magic Wars, etc.

double chinner, i like that idea. The GL Corps are out among the fringe worlds. They cannot actually go to any UP world.

It gives them a very lawmen in the wild west feel.

Geez, guys lets keep this on topic! Ok back to Ultra Boy and Green Lanterns!

It's Mean Jo Green!

Actually, if the UP has banned the GLC, there could still be a Khund or Dominator GL or something, which could be even *more* interesting...

Oh, and on-topic...

I'm still waiting for someone to come up with an instance of UB flying pre-ZH.

Xenofobe, the Green Lantern of sector 2814 in the 30th century fought the Time Trapper!

And a Durlan GL offered help during the battle with Computo in LSH Annual #1. Not to mention Vidar/Universo's story in #295.

He had no flight ring in S&LSH #239

Hmm... interestingly enough, it was about the same time that flight started being listed as one of his powers.

S&LSH #239

That was before the Reflecto nonsense wasn't it? Cause we could always blame the flying on the Reflecto nonsense.

Heck, v4 Annual #1 was so impressive I'm suprised T&M didn't explain it somewhere in there.

You may be onto something, Eryk. I just checked the "Lore of the Legion" feature in SUPERBOY # 202, which lists Jo's powers as "ultra-strength, ultra-speed, ultra-vision, and invulnerability," but there is no mention of flight.

Of course, this brief description should not be construed as comprehensive. It does not specify, for example, that "ultra-vision" includes penetra-vision, which can see through lead.

Yes, the Reflecto story line ran from # 277-280.

The Origins and Powers of the Legionnaires feature from ALL NEW COLLECTORS' EDITION C-55 (1978) lists "flying" as one of the uses of his powers. As far as I can tell, that's the first time he's blatantly identified as having the ability.

AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS #9 (NOV/DEC, 1975)
lists him as having "powers similar to Superboy".

As far as I can tell, there's no mention of flying prior to that.

These can be found in the Encyclopedia Galactica section of this website, of course.

Cary Bates' text feature for LSH (v. 1) # 1 merely says that Jo has ultra powers. (Incidently, Bates also gives Jo's home planet as "Nimbor.")

During the earliest Legion stories I read, I thought that Ultra Boy's powers were unclear, but they must have been important, since ULTRA was always capitalized.

"Nimbor" is of course an alternate name for "Rimbor", kind of like Amarta/Winath or Colu/Yod.

Only the Northerners call it Nimbor.

"Nimbor" is Cary Bates demonstating lack of careful research. In the same article, he lists a Legionnaire named "Princess Projectora" and implies that Element Lad got his powers as the result of an "atomic attack" on Trom.

I figured it out. In the late seventies there was the "Unknown Crisis". *poof* Ultra Boy can fly and Karate Kid can detect any weakness.

In Adv. 358 Ultra Boy flies without a flight ring. He says he's going to switch to ultra speed and "hope those metal mammoths are too heavy to fly." So I think flight was a function of his ultra speed.

He also tells Superboy in Adv. 361 that his flight ring is damaged and he can't fly and use his other powers at the same time so Superboy tells him to make himself invulnerable and he throws him at a falling boulder.

I'd have to look it up to make sure but in Adv. 316 when he is expelled, I think he's shown flying without a flight belt.

Those are the only early instances I can think of off the top of my head.

Interesting. Well, I'd say that pretty much establishes the ability.

It's still curious that it's never listed among his abilties in the 60s, however.

Okay, I just checked Adv. 316, and I think it supports your "function of super-speed" theory. In one panel, he's shown tossing several Legionnaires around with super-strength, but when they decide to call in Mon-El, he thinks "I'll switch me ultra-energy to super-speed and get away!"

The next panel shows him, however, flying with Mon-El in pursuit.

In #340, when Computo turns off the Legion's powers, we see Ultra Boy falling from the sky and ME-Lad unable to bite steel.