Training there may be deficient to some degree, however, as Chemical King, Karate Kid II and Magnetic Kid have all died in the line of battle, though as two of those were selfless sacrifices made to save others, they clearly teach heroism quite well.
LOL. Initially, it is not clear who was in charge of the training at the Academy. Wildfire does appear to be heavily involved in it after he becomes a member, but that is after Timber Wolf and Chemical King join. We see later that Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy later become instructors, which was actually a pretty good way for Levitz to keep their fans happy. In the Retroboot, however, Levitz demotes Night Girl from full membership to Academy instructor (and presumably reserve status).
The Academy has had many members over many, many years. Here is the list of known members:
Original Contiunity
Timber Wolf - moved to regular team
Chemical King- moved to regular team
Dawnstar - moved to regular team
Shadow Kid
Power Boy
Laurel Kent
Nightwind - moved to regular team during during 5 Year Gap
Lamprey - moved to UP Academy instructor
Crystal Kid -moved to regular team during 5 Year Gap
Blok - moved to regular team
Comet Queen - moved to regular team in Retroboot
Urk
Magnetic Kid - moved to regular team
Tellus - moved to regular team
Visi-Lad
Mentalla (not to be confused with)
Mandalla
Westerner
Flotsam & Jetsam
Karate Kid II - moved to regular team during 5 Year Gap and again prior to Retroboot.
other unnamed students
5 Years Later (known as the UP Academy)
Tiger Girl
Ringtoss
Xera
Rush
Jagged
Dragonfly
R37Z
Reboot (Academy)
Tomb
Cannus
Brawler
Reboot (Cadets)
Nightwind
Comet Queen
Kent Shakespeare
Infectious Lass
Polar Boy
Amp Girl
Retro
Babbage
many other unnamed
Threeboot
none
Retroboot
Power Boy
Crystal Kid
Nightwind
Lamprey
Crystal Kid
Shadow Kid
Mandalla
Urk
Visi-Lad
Comet Queen - moved to regular team
Chemical Kid- moved to regular team
Dragon Wing - moved to regular team
Glorith - moved to regular team
Variable Lad - deceased
Gravity Kid
Otaki
Mwindaji
Presumably, there may be even more who drop out or just never made it. When you look at some of them, you wonder why they never made the team. Others, like Laurel Kent who only had invulnerability, you wonder why there were there in the first place!
We do know this is where they learn to use flight rings and other Legion equipment as Invisible Kid II and White Witch had to attend some Academy sessions to learn. But this raises the bigger point. Both Jacques and Mysa were invited into the Legion and not the Academy. I mention this in the my Legion Annual critique as part of Wildfire's dialog, that Jacques was being voted on while Nightwing and Lamprey were not. He's right though. At the point Jacques was voted in, they had 20 active members. Short handed or not, I wouldn't want to rely on a Legionnaire who just acquired his abilities in a fight. Light Lass leaves right around this time, so the team still is only at 21 members after Mysa. If the Legion is not admitting characters from the Academy, what purpose does it serve to have them at all?
Within a few years, Levitz moves the founders to Reserve status and inducts 2 Academy members, Sensor Girl, Polar Boy and Quislet who was a complete unknown during open tryouts. So why are there open tryouts if there is an Academy? Power Boy tries out but is not voted in. I guess Levitz wanted to keep the old idea of having tryouts but it really seems inappropriate, after just dealing with the Legion of Super Villains pulling one of their biggest schemes ever. The stakes are getting higher and the Legion is putting it fate in the hands of untested strangers. In hindsight, the tryouts were to get Sensor Girl in. We saw a bit more of the Academy here and there but nothing significant.
Also, Magnetic Kid got into the Legion and really had very few stories about him. In fact, Levitz still wrote Cosmic Boy into stories as much as he could. I never understood why he couldn't fully retire some characters. So there really was no point in developing and bringing in MK. Levitz could have brought in Nightwind or anyone else for that matter.
When Levitz comes back to the Retroboot, the Legion Academy stars in Adventure Comics. I think a lot of fans were excited about this, simply for the fact of seeing some of their favorites in action. The Phil Jiminez art didn't hurt, but the focus appears to be primarily on the new Academy members, not the older ones who are actually moved out of the book, having completed Academy studies but not qualifying for membership in the Legion. I think this seemed to annoy a lot of the fans because the new characters weren't really engaging.
As a brief aside, Vol 6 did set up that the Legion was at 27 members, then ME-Lad leaves putting them at 26 prior to elections, not counting Blok and Mysa who were possibly Reserve status? So it appears that the 25 member restriction was lifted as some point.
By the last issue of the Legion Academy story, Gravity Kid drops out, and Variable Lad dies. In volume 7, four get moved into membership. We see Element Lad tutoring Chemical Kid in the use of his abilities and we see Shady undergoing training with them as well. I have to wonder though, what were Chuck and Lu really teaching these kids?
I've always thought that the Academy should be used as a testing ground for new characters in the series. I don't think there should be Academy adventures per se (thinking about Dawnstar's origin story in S&LSH 240), but imagine a diplomatic mission using Legion escorts, but you have two Legionnaires and two Academy members. That should be part of their training anyway and they should be learning to integrate with the main team. The Legion should never be short-handed with the Academy around. Pick an Academy member to supplement a mission on a team of four existing Legionnaires. If the character doesn't work out, you don't have to use them again. Shouldn't they help work the monitor board? To me, this makes sense. It can be difficult enough to get readers to like new characters and with 20+ characters in a book already, it's hard to make a new character work.
Case in point: Otaki and Mwindaji were both volume 7 Academy members. Otaki was half Titanian so she had weak telepathic powers (yawn). Mwindaji was a tracker with no apparent other powers. Boring!
Obviously when the Legion eventually returns, we can expect an eventual Academy return. Will we continue to experience mistakes from the past?
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