Ultra Boy first appeared in Superboy #98 (1962), in which he was sent back in time to Superboy's home town of Smallville to prove himself worthy of joining the Legion by learning Superboy's secret identity. In his first adventure he only demonstrated his vision powers, known as "Penetra-Vision." It was implied he had malicious intentions in learning Superboy's secret identity. Later, in Adventure Comics #316, he explained that he could channel his ultra-energy to provide him other powers, though only one at a time. Later he was romantically linked for many years with fellow Legionnaire Phantom Girl. He was considered one of the Legion's 'big 3' (along with Superboy and Mon-El) and served two terms as leader. Between volumes 3 and 4 of the Legion, a five-year gap in the chronology occurred, during which the team disbanded. He rejoined the Legion after assassins destroyed an entire apartment building trying to kill him. A later storyline in the V4 Legion Annual #1 showed his acting skills. When the time sorceress Glorith began manipulating Legion history, she figured only the smarter legionnaires might notice her manipulations, and thus acted to neutralize ones like Brainiac 5. She never suspected Ultra Boy would figure out her plan, which involved provoking a battle between the Legion and Mordru at the zenith of his power, which would destroy or weaken both, allowing her to pick up the pieces. Realizing what this would mean, Ultra Boy first (in a fake diplomatic blunder) prevented the Legion from attacking Mordru, then, in disguise, visited Mordru and instead provoked him into attacking Glorith. Years later Glorith finally figured out who was responsible and in revenge sent Phantom Girl into the past.
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For more information on Ultra Boy DC DATABASE
MAJOR SPOILERS - pages from the issues
THE BRONZE ERA - the issues
