Superman Through the Ages! Forum

The more I think about it, the cooler Ultra Boy becomes.

Some characters have great powers, a great origin, a great costume, and a great personality, but Ultra Boy is one of the few that has all of the above.

Ultra Boy has a pretty funky origin: he was devoured by a space monster (Jo Nah, get it?) Which is not only visual, but also an incredible biological oddity as well.

Ultra Boy has great powers: his one-at-a-time ability is very clever, and his Penetra-Vision has not only a neat 1950s science fiction name, it also has a greater deal of versatility. Mon-El always felt like an inferior Superboy (though he was interesting), but Ultra Boy was much more unique.

Ultra Boy has a great costume. There's the color, and that deeply individual, memorable personal symbol on his chest. To say nothing of that belt and boot costume.

And Ultra Boy has a great personality as a character. He has a black, pessimistic sense of humor, and he grins and laughs at inappropriate times. I can picture him laughing at dead baby jokes. He seems to find bleak situations immensely funny. My favorite Ultra Boy issue was that Levitz story where Element Lad led the Legionnaires to a Controller base where a baby Sun-Eater was being manufactured. When the Legionnaires found themselves outnumbered by the Controllers' automated kill-machines and facing what appeared to be certain death, Ultra Boy had a grin on his face as he gave negative prognostications to Element Lad.

Of all the great Legion romances, Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl seemed to be the deepest kind of love there was. It was by far the most developed. There was the year that Ultra Boy spent "dead" and left Phantom Girl hoping, around 1980-1981. Then there was the story by I believe Jim Shooter, where Ultra Boy was found guilty as a traitor to the Legion, and everyone denounced him except Phantom Girl...the one person that STILL believed in him. (sniff) Wow. That's LOVE, baby.

The biggest problem with Superboy, Supergirl and Mon-El was that there were too powerful.  Mon-El especially, since he wasn't vulnerable to anything so long as he had his anti-lead serum. 

But Ultra Boy had one of the best methods to avoid this "too powerful" roadblock--that he could only use one of his super powers at a time.

And later on there was the fact that radioactivity could negate his powers anyway.

That's why despite the fact that is powers were exactly the same as Superboy, Supergirl and Mon-El he remained an active Legionnaire during the teams run.

Even today he remains a member of the revamped book.

One power at a time?  I don't buy it. 

How many times have we seen him use his Ultra Breath?  He stands in one spot, his cheeks puff out and his lips pucker up, we see that "WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!" which indicates a powerful gale force wind is coming out of his mouth, and people and/or objects being knocked down and away by the force of his blowing.  Well, one problem with that is the whole "equal and opposite reaction" law we learned in High school.  So, if Ultra Boy's breath has the power to knock over the bad guys, it would also knock him backward and propel him away like a rocket unless he used Ultra Strength to brace himself when he used this power!