Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! The all-ADVENTURE COMICS 350 & 351 Thread!

At last! A thread devoted soley to the best LSH tale ever!

So, what makes "The Outcast Super-Heroes" and "The Forgotten Legion" the best LSH tale ever? Read on!


THE ROLL CALL

Just about everyone makes an appearance in this one, even if only for a couple of panels! And by "everyone", I also mean The Legion of Substitute Heroes as well as the Legion of Super-Pets!

ALLITERATIVE EXPRESSIONS

A veritable Legion of them is used! For example:

"Crashing comets!" (Superboy)

"Leaping Luna!" (Invisible Kid)

"Bouncing Bolides!" (Chameleon Boy)

"Sputtering Stars!" (Bouncing Boy)

"Popping planets!" (Ferro Lad)

"Bouncing Bolides!" (Invisible Kid)

Looks like Lyle likes alliteration!

LEGION OF STUPID-HEROES?

One might argue that in this tale, Princess Projectra, Mon-El, Element Lad, Colossal Boy and Saturn Girl are revealed to be the least-swift Legionnaires of all when they forget about the operation that made Superboy & Supergirl forget the Legion, which also placed the Subs in jeopardy! Well, I found their super-forgetfulness of space to be utterly charming!


INSUBORDINATION WILL NOT BE TOLERATED

Invisible Kid was one of the greatest Legion leaders of all time, as his smackdown on the unruly Ultra Boy will attest!


ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

And what could be a better ending than having Star Boy, Dream Girl & Bouncing Boy all back on the team? "There's NOTHING too tough for us to tackle NOW!" -- Invisible Kid


USAGE OF THE WORD "SPACE"

"Invisible Kid and some others are waiting in the SPACE MONITOR CENTER!" -- Brainiac 5

WACKY SPACE-CURRENCY

Glass coins from Alkoz! Needle money from Sirius! Gourd-money from Grath! Huopian energy-money! Gas currency from Mercury! Living Crystal Cash from Rojun!


OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

Superboy's colossal nostrils!

Violet's Fantastic Voyage!

Kara & Querl lip-lock!

The Interplanetary Bank-beast Gaurds!

First appearance of RJ Brande!

First appearance of The White Witch!

First appearance of Evillo & The Devil's Dozen!

Lightning Lad gets his arm back!

Tenz puts Anna Nicole to shame in the weight-loss dept.!

Best. Leadership. Ever.

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ANCIENT PROPHESY

Ferro Lad should have taken that painting a little more seriously. Or did the painting pre-dispose him toward suicidal behavior?

This is one of my favorite stories ever. It featured every then current Legionnaire, plus the Super Pets, Subs and White Witch. Curt Swan was at his finest, as was Invisible Kid at the Legion's helm.

However, there are a few problems. Since when do Superboy and Supergirl threaten and/or attack, strangers asking for help? Not very heroic depiction of the super cousins here, but somebody will surely argue that it was the green k in their brains affecting their behaviors, in which case, Brainy really goofed. Who knows what the long term effect could've been?

The other major problem I had with the story is that the whole reason for the brainwashing was ludicrous. "You might inadvertantly leave clues to our secret weapons. Clues that your enemies might find and use against you." So, what was preventing Kal and Kara from leaving these clues while they were ACTIVE members? The Legion was only worried about them getting sloppy and leaving clues around willy nilly as INactive members?

The ending with Color Kid saving the day by turning Green K into Blue K was pretty silly too. But that was the Silver Age for you. Despite all its silliness, it was an awesome era for this young lad to grow up in.

Oh, yeah. Let's not forget all those great Legion figurines in that story!

I always wondered after reading ADV 351 why Supes didn't just fly Ulu back in time and have him do that with ALL Kryptonite...

Adventure comics 350 & 351? Bah!

I liked fat Tenzil!

Well, you did get fat Chuck back in that story. It was tit for tat.

Or fit for fat?

Love, love, love this story! Definately a nominee for best Legion story ever! I think this was the first Legion story I actually ever sat down and read, panel by panel, sentence by sentence. This and the Sun-Eater story show the Legion at it's Silver Age ass-kickin' best!

Lyle's punching Ultra Boy is my favorite Legion leader moment ever!

Everything mentioned is great, and I've always been fascinated by what Ferro Lad saw in that painting (that was the first topic I ever started on the old DC Boards, IIRC).

Violet's journey may have been her single greatest moment of the Silver Age too.

And don't forget this story had *thee* greatest Color Kid moment in LSH history!

I'm lazy. Someone tell me which archive this appears in? Please?

I believe it's the first story in Archive #6.

OmiGAWD. I never mentioned the unparalleled artwork of Curt Swan!

Check out the secret salute Lyle and Cos are giving each other in panel one!

Obviously, there was some sort of 'past Legion leaders' secret society that they were in with Imra that we never even noticed before! My Lord, I wonder what kind of secrets they held? Maybe these very secrets explain why Cos became the Time Trapper, Lyle let himself get killed and Imra's mind couldn't except that she married Proty!

Simmering Satellites, Cobie! You're a freakin' JEENYUS! Good eye, there!

Right under our noses the whole time!

Who were the next Legion leaders? Brainy, who went crazy and then Superboy, who always had parts of his memory erased anyway! Jo might have been in on it...

Although I'm betting that Cos, Lyle and Imra may have tried *not* to let these secrets be known. What could they have been?!

Or maybe Lyle and Cos actually knew that Garth was Proty, and didn't want Imra to find out, 'cuz they knew she had the potential to go all crazy on the Legion, like the crazy post-boot Imra did (or even a Dark Phoenix type thing)! Thus, it was when Lyle, the master of espionage, found out that it was Proty, he went to Cos (the cornerstone of the Legion), and they decided to keep this a mega-secret!

Or perhaps it was Proty they feared.

Something else else told him that this Garth/Proty amalgamation could threaten the entire universe. So they tried several avenues to prevent it. Imra married him to keep watch over him, but the strain of living the lie was too much for her, and she slipped into denial. Lyle, out of desperation, allowed himself to be killed in order to try to locate Garth's soul in the afterworld. But what's-her-name kept him, uh, "occupied". Can't blame him, myself.

That left it up to Rokk to, over the decades, manuever himself into a position where he could become the Time Trapper and reverse Garth's death. But the universe itself ended before he could accomplish this.

Brillant, OM!

So it might have been Proty all along that was the master manipulator the Legion should have been worried about (and who the early leaders pitted themselves against).

Thus, by the time Lightning Lad had become leader, Imra had already married him and Lyle was dead--there was no way they could stop him from being elected (and their club would have surely not been admitting new members by then). The 'closeness' of the founders from then on, which we saw quite a bit of from Great Darkness to end of TMK, can be viewed in a whole new light!

I hereby declare that the Secret Society of Super Legion Leaders theory be further reviewed and fine-toned.

I cannot help but feel that Proty I caused the post-boot and three-boot, and only the former leaders could do anything about it--and still fail.

you're forgetting Lester Spiffany - or should I say - Leland McCauley IV? While posing as a wanton capitalist, he was actually manuevering the dominoes that would lead to public service - the ULTIMATE Nielsons for the youth market!

If there was a secret Legion leaders salute, Brainy would have been in on it. He was leader just before Invisible Kid.

The thread celebrating the OUTCAST and FORGOTTEN Legion is BACK, all-NEW and all-NOW!

Relive its greatness again!

Hmm... I never noticed until reviewing the last page that Ferro Lad had the hots for the White Witch!

Jeepers! Methinks Geoff Johns must not be a fan of this story, having offed Evillo off-panel and apparently having <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">retconned Star Boy's rejoining to the first meeting of the three Legions!</span></span>

Well, Geoff can kiss my big fat <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Aunt Nancy</span></span> and suck <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">an egg!</span></span>

A little trivia about this story: Every single member of the extensive cast, including Subs, Pets, WW, etc. has a speaking role and is shown using his/her powers at least once, EXCEPT 2 who don't speak and 2 who don't use their powers. Can you name them?

Crap! Now I wanna do this, but I've gotta go back to work...!!

I could be wrong, but I think Karate Kid neither speaks nor uses his powers.

Wow, great trivia question Jim. I could only guess and likely not even come close. Does Phantom Girl ever use her powers? I don't recall.

Non-speaking: Stone Boy and Sun Boy?

This is totally just guessing.

I know I've seen this question before, but have no idea what the answer is!

Karate Kid does not speak, but he does use his powers in a flashback scene (he smashes a runaway speedster before it can run down some kids playing in the street)

Phantom Girl does speak, "DId you have to hit him so hard, Kid?" but does not use her powers, so you're halfway there, Team.

Okay, let me enlighten you (pun intended):

Light Lass, the doublemint twin, appears in a mere 1 panel in this whole 2-parter. If you look at it, it looks like Curt Swan just tucked her into the background, so he could say every member is included [though she does appear as a figurine a couple of times].

Ayla neither enlightens us with her opinion on the subject, nor with her powers, so she is the other answer to both parts of the question.

What a compliment to Nura, Thom and Chuck that their re-admission apparently makes the Legion strong enough to handle anything the universe might toss their way.

And notice how none of these 3 are present during the subsequent Sun-Eater arc which resulted in Ferro Lad's death?

What have we learned?

a) Nura, Thom & Chuck are the toughest Legionnaires?

b) Shooter did not have access to Bridwell's script prior to writing Adventure 352-353?

c) Mort W. smacked both writers around after some letterhack sent him a missive detailing this ginormous inconsistency?

d) Shooter got off the hook after showing Mort the scene in Bridwell's tale where Ferro Lad is reduced to cinders?

e) The prediction of Cosmic Boy's fate that is "too dreadful" for him to know is later revealed as his baldness in the Adult Legion tale?

f) All of the above?

Definitely f)

I thought it was neat, how in the future people get taller when they walk towards you.

Hmm... it's possible that Andy was thinking: "Jeepers! If that hideous old hag can be changed into a gorgeous gal by magic, maybe it could do something with my ol' ugly puss!"

CBR just featured this story in an article!