July 1962: The Boy With Ultra Powers

Ultra Boy, the Super-Legionnaire introduced in Superboy 98 (July 1962), had the right pedigree, anyway.  He was created by celebrated Superman artist Curt Swan and Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

In those days, the Legion of Super-Heroes was something of a work in progress. Almost certainly never intended to be a series, the Legion of Super-Heroes evolved from appearance to appearance as they popped up in the Superboy titles. Ultimately, the popular team took on a life and a mythos of their own.

“The Boy With the Ultra Powers … was typical of its period of Legion stories, serving mainly to introduce one new Legionnaire,” noted Paul Levitz. “And, like so many early Legion tales, it told only part of the character’s story… Ultra Boy really gained many powers when trapped in the energy-beast — virtually all of Superboy’s abilities, although he could only use one power at a time. In this story, however, only his vision powers are shown by writer Jerry Siegel.”

His name, Jo Nah, was a tad too cute for somebody who acquired his powers from being swallowed by a giant beast. This native of the planet Rimbor would eventually wield powers that included super strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, flash vision and pentra-vision.

“I always liked Ultra-Boy, not for the power set he shared with Superboy, but rather for the sheer creativity and quick thinking managing those powers in a crisis required,” Mark Engblom recalled. “Although some of his stories highlighted the challenge of using only one A-list superpower at a time, I always wished for a story that would delve deeper into his thought process while juggling this huge, ever-shifting array of abilities. Perhaps there is such a story someone could point me to, but until then, I’ll just continue admiring this ‘working man’s Superboy’ from afar!

Siegel clearly had some affinity for the adjective “ultra.” He named one of Superman’s earliest arch-foes the “Ultra-Humanite,” and later penned the “ultra-heroes” at Archie Comics.