The plan: Every weekday we re-read a Legion issue, starting from the first Legion story in 1958 and going as far as we can to the present day. See this thread for more details.

My kids love the Archives and we read them together all the time, but truth be told, we usually skip #247 most times. For all it's importance and the fact that it introduced a fun new concept that we all love, it's not a "great" story, and it's reprinted and reread so much, it's kind of something that gets the obligatory nod and then we move on.

So, I open my archives and the first thing I see:

"The Origins and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes!"

A later variant of this feature can be found here.

"In the city of Metropolis, in the 21st century, there exists one of the most amazing clubs of all time! Its members are teen-aged youths, each possessing one special super-power! The club members have vowed to use their fantastic powers to battle crime. Years ago, when Superman was Superboy, he joined the club when its members contacted him during a visit into the past... this rocket-shped building is the super-hero clubhouse!"

PHANTOM GIRL: We see her popping up unexpectedly in the middle of a Legion meeting. Sun Boy and Cosmic Boy looks startled, Bouncing Boy looks bemused, and Vi has the same worried look she always does!

TRIPLICATE GIRL: Poor dude should've brought more flowers!

BRAINIAC FIVE: I love him standing there laughing at the villains who are trying to shoot him! It really evokes the original Brainiac story, in which Brainiac does an awful lot of laughing at Punyman who can't break through his force shield!

LIGHTNING LAD: I'm not sure that blasting a falling girder with electricty is really all that useful, but whatevs.

BOUNCING BOY: I like to think that he bounces down and snatches the paper he's carrying from the crooks.

INVISIBLE KID: Spying on crooks, as usual!

SHRINKING VIOLET: Wonder why she's sneaking under that old school wooden door?

COSMIC BOY: Only Cosmic Boy can prevent traffic accidents!

CHAMELEON BOY: The famous rubbish can scene!

SATURN GIRL: She never commands monsters/animals anymore.

COLOSSAL BOY: That water seems kind of shallow for that boat. Maybe that's why he's picking it up, because they need to be rescued?

SUN BOY: Melting rockets like he melts hearts!


Coming later today: My thoughts on Adventure #247!

The first review! Lets do this!

First, for those of you using your Archives (as opposed to those using their duplicate, crappier copy of Adventure #247, like I suspect Pov secretly has been hoarding): in the extra sequence showing all the Legionnaires showing off their powers, note the first appearance of Cobalt Kid in LSH continuity as I hand Luornu a bouquet of flowers. Triplets in short skirts and boots always was my style as a beardless youth. (Reach for the stars and all that...)

Next: I firmly believe the solution to all the Legion's problems would include Superman when he was a boy being part of the team, having his own series called "Superboy" and being light-hearted.

While Cos and Garth are both good looking red-blooded, all-Ameri--er, youths, they aren't overly handsome like Tenzil, Dirk and Jo. Meanwhile, Imra is stunning from his first park bench appearance. She really also is a star from the get-go. I can't wait for when she gets pushy and puts the Legionnaires in their place!

When you're Superboy, you tend to accept explanations like time travelers coming back to recruit you without much suspicion.

"What an honor...*choke*" - gosh, that Superboy is a good kid

I demand to know the story behind the Statue of the Unknown Spaceman and how it sank to the bottom of the ocean!!! Theory #1: its J'onn J'onzz and he lives in it like Jacob from lost!

I hate invisible eagles! I could swear there's a nest of them in my backyard!

Y'know these Legion kids sure are a bunch of jerks! I wonder what century saw hazing become popular again?

I'm sure glad that colorist turned "lame ol' 31st Century Potzie" into Brainiac 5!

I wonder who else has been rewarded the Superhero #1 Award? Surely others must have proven worthy enough!

What can be said about the first appearance? It's already long been a "classic". I actually think the Legionnaires themselves don't come across very great, but the 31st century (or more accurately: the future) and the concept of them is just genius. And of course, its a solid Superboy story.

Just you wait, Cobie... I have long felt that - just below the surface of the Legion's history - is a deep rooted conspiracy to hide what, if known, would represent perhaps the greatest crime ever committed in the DC Universe (but one which, in the final analysis, was absolutely necessary). As we go through these reviews, I will cite the damning evidence and let you draw your own conclusions.


Clue Number 1 is... The Statue of the Unknown Spaceman of Venus.

As is evidenced in this scene, retcons are nothing new to LSH history:

Hm. Cos looks a little hungover in this panel. Perhaps the "tomorrow we go get Superboy to join!" party was a little too rowdy? Is that sexual tension between Cos and Imra? Or awkwardness after a night she'd like to never remember, and Cos--well--cannot!

OK, so, thoughts:

The Cover - Absolutely iconic to any Legion fan - heck, probably any fan of comics in general. A couple quick observations: Number one, every time I see this cover, I always laugh a little at the motion lines around Superboy's head. You generally only see things like that on covers to indicate dramatic motion (like speed or flight). The inclusion here always makes me think that Superboy's head turn was a particularly dramatic fashion, accompanied with a "Moe Sizlack"-like "Whaaaaaaa?"

Secondly, very small thing, but - although all their lights have gone to "No", it looks to me like only Cos and Garth are still depressing their buttons. Saturn Girl's finger looks as though the pressure has already been released - ergo, Imra rejected him first. Right on, Iron-butt!

Cos's helmet. Man... I really wish I knew when the story or the cover was drawn first (If I recall, both were common practice). At no point in the story does Cos actually wear the helmet, and - as I'll talk about later, if the story came first, I'll bet this is actually a mistake on Curt Swan's part.


Page 1 - Yummy Al Plastino art. I sort of dig Imra as slightly strawberry blonde. Thunderclap lightning, magnetic eyes... I wonder if these power uses were inspired by these common phrases?


Page 2 - Yup, Clark...just ignore it and maybe it'll go away.

OK... here's what I'm saying about Cos's "helmet". Look at it in that last panel. Not only is there a non-transparent base, but - to the left - there is also a "glint" that is shaped like a rectangular opening. I don't think it's a helmet at all but rather....


Page 3 - ... the Time Bubble. In panel two, and onward, we keep seeing the door of the bubble looking exactly like the "glint" of Cos's "helmet" on the previous page. I suspect that, as drawn, Al Plastino intended that the Bubble could shrink to "carrying size" then grow to full size. I think Swan must have seen Cos carrying it and accidentally interpreted it as a helmet for the cover. I asked Al Plastino about this once at a convention, but he couldn't remember which came first.


Page 4 - "Nine Planets" - heh, you go, Pluto! So... if the robot hadn't gone dead, molten steel would have been dripping in the classroom? That can't be good. Just a side note: That teacher totally looks like Perry White.


Page 5 - Spoke too soon, yep... dripping steel. Ah... Unknown Spaceman... see my previous post.


Page 6 - A million dollar robot? A nuclear ray? That school has some major grants.


Page 7 - Again... the Unknown Spaceman. How exactly is he "unknown" and yet his works are not? Who is he... where did he come from? I've got some ideas...


Page 8 - "Project Vanguard"... wow, that is a topical freaking reference for when this comic was published. I think it's generally accepted that Adventure 247 hit the stands sometime in February of 1958. The first satellite put into orbit by Project Vanguard wasn't launched until Jan 31st, 1958:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard

Either lead time on stories used to be far shorter, or this was a speculative reference in advance of the launch's success.


Page 9 - Damn, that eagle means business... look at the size of the hole!


Page 10 - "A million miles in space"? No, no... "A million miles... of SPACE!" "A million space-miles" is also acceptable.


Page 11 - Weepy Clark. How about you just... I don't know... don't tell them. It's 1000 years in the future... who's going to find out your shame?

Robots are subject to telepathy? OK... I'll go with it.

Ah-ha! The eagle was innocent. I judged you too soon, Invisible Eagle.


Page 12 - Pa Kent, just rolling with the punches.


Conclusion... I agree with Cobie, fantastic example of a Superboy story, but somewhat surprising to me that it made enough of an impact to be reprised later into a recurrent feature. I'd be curious about the contemporary fan-reaction. Does anyone know what issue the respective letters page about this story ran in... or if they are posted somewhere online?

^^See Mike Gold's introduction to the Archive for some discussion of contemporary fan reaction.

Today's Facebook post:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...7.135411229814243&type=1&theater

Yeeesh, I want to participate heavily with links to other threads (Only Cosmic Boy can prevent forest fires) and more pictures but I keep getting "Internet Explorer Cannot Display the Webpage" errors. I'll check back later or tomorrow.

So... fun things about this issue:

1) Secret identity concerns: nothing says Silver Age Superboy like worries over an outsider learning his secret identity!

2) Robots: nothing says retrofuturism likes lots of robots! In our first glimpse of the Legion's time, there's a robot picking up litter! Then there's the robot factory next to the preserved site of the Kent house (it occurs to me they didn't leave much room for this historical monument as well). And, of course, the malfunctioning Superboy robot is a major plot element.

3) Crazy future wildlife: Both the Neptunian invisible eagle and the strange denizen of the deep that obey's Imra's commands are pretty cool!

4) The Jules Verne: It's kind of groovy that they insert a reference to this sci fi pioneer in the form of an "around the world in 80 minutes" tour ship named after him. I wonder if it's supposed to be the same as the "round-the-world" rocket liner that crashes later on in the issue?

5) Man, Superboy cries so much you'd think he was a Marv Wolfman character!

6) The Nine Planets, Nova Express, Statue of the Unknown Spaceman, South Pole City... all groovy stuff!

You know, I just took it for granted that the Jules Verne that crashes later! And I agree--love the reference.

I wonder if the invisible eagle comes from a Terran eagle mating with an invisible alien bird? I bet Animal Lad knows.

I'd bet that there actually was no invisible eagle, but it was actually Beast Boy on a scout mission for the Lallorians.
Do we ever see (well hear of) an invisible eagle after this issue?
No? Something else else as exotic as an invisible eagle never spoken of again....I smell a conspiracy.

Or that shamless hussy was projecting crazy thoughts into Superboys mind

You should edit some of this, especially the Time Bubble/helmet and Project Vanguard, into the Legion Wiki!
http://www.legionwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Adventure_Comics_247

I thought that at first, but then I noticed the shadowy rocket shown crashing looks nothing like the giant yellow ball that the space tourists are entering.

By the way, I took a brief look at the synopses of the issues surrounding this one for the year previous and the year afterward, and this one certainly seems to stand out from the crowd, so I can see why it was a fan fave. Most of the rest of them are fairly conventional Superboy fare (random thing/person from Krypton shows up on Earth, random person gets Superboy like powers, someone is trying to guess Superboy's secret identity, etc.). Interestingly, the other one that stands out as a bit of an oddball is the Lorac-K7 story, which also features a visit from 1,000 years in the future!

Given that the one future major reference to Neptune in the Legion is as Ron-Karr's homeworld, the "invisible eagle" may not be invisible at all, but just really hard to see from certain angles when it becomes flat!

Can do!


Another observation, after doing a little color comparison between the story as originally printed, and then later reprinted:

People often cite the recoloring of the background Legionnaire as Brainiac 5 in later reprinting... but there's actually another bit of iconic coloring which - as originally seen - was a little bit less than iconic. Check it out:



Orange, eh? I'm really glad someone punched up that color scheme in a later story.

YES!!!

You've done it! This MUST be canon! Graet detective work, Ester! Already we've cracked the long open case of the Invisible Eagle!

OK I must comment on this first:



Phantom Girl looks a bit *Invisible*!

and ... I thought Lightning Lad must've been more powerful in the past ...he blasted the crap out of those girders!

Imra needs to control animals and robots more often! She's gotten lazy ... mindwiping only humans!!!!

Shrinking Violet must be on a mission in the past ... or at a museum for doors. AN UNTOLD STORY!

My first thoughts:

Damn that Legion of Super Heroes is a bunch of b*tches!!!

They made Ordinary Boy CRY!

I loved the Magnetic eyes and thought beams! and clapping to produce lightning while not so practical was fun. Garth should have had a costume with a line down his middle emphasizing his positive and negative charges.

Those wacky back packs have straps on the back but not the front ... must be some crazy future backpack straps that don't need to wrap all the way around ... and they must be puffing out helium or something so our Legionnaires don't get their buns burned off.


No wonder Imra was in such a bad mood all the time ... THE SEXIST PIGS! "even a girl!" "beat by a girl!"

but you don't see her crying, do you Ordinary Boy ... and if they rejected her ... she wouldn't act like it was a ok ...


That helmet is totally the Time Bubble.

I like the original costume colors ! and look, no underpants on top!!! New 52 is not soooo new. I also like how Ordinary Boy's X-Ray vision is the heat vision ... but ... those kids in the auditorium should really get checked for cancer. I mean the amount of X-Rays needed to melt steel ... must be a lot.


How much property damage occurred while the LSH were hazing Ordinary Boy ??

Waid, this is the real problem with a sanitized and utopian future ... these super heroes have an idle rich complex ... they're so bored they just blow shit up and think of ways to humiliate super heroes from the past!

I hope they made a young Wonder Woman cry. Imra probably punched her in the face. hahahahahaha!

I sure hope that the lost Nova Express was looking for those ten seconds Lightning Lad' sign was visible to them out in space. oh well. Back to hazing Ordinary Boy!

Can't wait for tomorrow when they make Ordinary Boy cry again. Nice friends you got there Ordinary Boy.

Seriously. They could've shown up in a white van.

http://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=766948

Now, I am beginning to doubt that Lightning Boy is even Lightning Lad. Lightning Boy's hair is more red.

Imra and Cos switched him with someone off panel who would not fry them at every ceremony where he clapped. With Imra's penchant for mind wiping ... how many Lightning Lad's have there been ?

Lightning Boy is probably sitting in the 9 Planet's Pub where he recounts his glory days with the Legion of Super Heroes.

It's actually Mekt!

YES! It will be to me from now on!


I bet Imra and Cos just produced all of the other members of the Legion of Super Heroes through super science and implanted made up back stories in their heads.

Maybe if they showed up in this?

Hey, I recognize that--it's Pov's car!

I loved the Unknown Spaceman too. Is there an unknown spaceman for Mars or Saturn? Why was the statue stolen and dumped in the ocean? It certainly does smell of a cover-up! Does that figure resemble any 1950s space characters?

Mom and Dad Kent - is this a one-time thing or were they not always Ma and Pa Kent?

Jet packs!

Interesting that time travel is presented as clouds against a starfield background.

Project Vanguard on the satellite was based on a real 1958 satellite !

Even way back then they were establishing that Superboy wasn't going to grow up to be Superman....Mom and Dad Kent are the Pocket Universe versions

Based on this story ... no wonder Superboy prime went apeshit!

It's well-established that this version of the Legion are actually the Super-Sexy Adventurers of the 2940s!

I was looking at the Anti-Lad story awhile ago.

He comes back in time to the 30th century because Superboy was rejected by the Legion-- and basically tricks the Legion into accepting him as a member.

This is entirely consistent with Adventure #247.

"Ha-ha-ha. It was just an 'initiation'." No- they were sparing his feelings.

So Anti-Lad simply cut off his time-peeping too soon. Then his father deduced that the time scanner had malfunctioned, which set up a chain of events that probably really did change history.

This could explain a lot of unanswered questions! If you have an unanswered question about Legion history, blame it on Anti-Lad.

Okay, Adventure #267. Incredible to think 20 months had passed since the Legion's first appearance. Some courageous American youths stepped up to the plate and demanded a return, and Uncle Mort was glad to satisfy!

It seems there's a simple consequential pattern in the Silver Age: have a science exposition, and a robot will awaken and run amok.

Check out that older woman on pace 3, panel 4, insulting Superboy. He should have said "the Victorian Era called; they'd like their clothes back!"

I also forget about "super shouting" being a super-power! I bet lame DCnU Superman can't do that.

Yet another story with the Legionnaires acting like jerks! If I was Superboy, I'd give every single character in the issue a super-beat down and then kick Earth into the sun! He sure is an understanding fellow. Imra turning Krypto against him is nigh unforgivable.

Ps - Ma and Pa Kent shouldn't really be space traveling at that age.

Adv. 267

So, it's no secret that I've always thought this story was a massive step down from the debut, but I decided to try to re-read it with an open mind to see if I can find hidden grooviness!

And, you know what? I didn't.

While the first LSH story is filled with all kinds of wondrous, cool things that make me curious about the Legion and their future time, they really just come off as completely annoying in this tale.

Imra is pretty kickass powerful in this story, however. From her splitting rocks with mental force bolts on the cover, to her making a crook hallucinate a cobra instead of a gun, to her basically mind-controlling the entire town of Smallville, she's rarely been presented as having this much power.

Oh, and if I were in charge of the universe, the little kid in the sailor outfit would show up to make fun of Superboy everytime he makes a mistake.

Adventure 267

- The Cover

Per my observation last issue about the story vs. the cover coming first in these early Adventure issues, I'm now definitely leaning toward the story being first. My rationale is that I really don't think that Curt Swan would have done a costume redesign on the cover willy-nilly. From what I've read, he was very much a "style sheet" artist. So - if that's true - I guess the credit for the evolution of the founders costumes toward that more iconic look would go to George Papp. I'm not sure why, but I find that pretty interesting, I guess just because Papp is not a name I associate with the Legion a lot.

Also... that's a lot of orange there.


Page 1 - "Wow! Look at those three super-youths from the future, with only one super-power each, overpowering that rampaging monster! They're... terrific!" Whew... exposition. I don't envy Silver Age letterers.


Page 2 - Smallville Schadenfreude. Maybe I'm jaded from the TMZ times we live in now, but somehow the idea of regular folks taking joy in a celebrity's misfortune doesn't seem all that unbelievable.


Page 3 - More of the same. Bonus: boxy robot goodness


Page 4 - "Ya-ya! You ain't so hot!" Hey, it's young Exnihil!


Page 5 - What the hell is that thing? First order of business after all this is over... find out what exactly what sort of Jules Vernian nightmares are lurking in this subterranean Smallville.


Page 6 - "I wish I could send you back to the orphange!" The tongue pierces deeper than the spear, Pa Kent. That was super-harsh. Possibly the most hurtful thing I've ever read in a comic.


Page 7 - And now the madness begins. Just a side note... doesn't that second panel remind you a little bit of the Daxam scene in the Great Darkness?


Page 8 - Titanians aren't big into the whole "due process" thing.


Page 9 - Minority Report logic... we'll imprison for a crime you will commit. Are airstrips really made of solid sheets of metal? Methinks George Papp might have taken a reference shortcut here.


Page 10 - Wait... what? The most nonsensical page ever written. So much bothers me here.

The Legion are absolute a-holes - imprisoning Clark for life for something that they think he'll do in the future, which - by the way - according to their logic, he now won't even do, because he's imprisoned.

"Days later, one of the amazing Superboy trophies explodes..." What? Deus Ex Machina much?

"...launching an atomic chain reaction..." Again... why?

"...unleashed the element Silgellian" Of course it did.

The super shout... Oddly, this is the part I have the least problem with. Reality manipulation via sonic vibration? Yeah... sounds familiar, it's basically Tyroc's whole deal. Although... wait... wouldn't that have been a duplication of powers then precluding Tyroc?


Page 11 - Oh, sure, Cos... now that Clark pulled your fat out the fire, it's all good. Jerk.

"a poison gas too horrible to ever be used". You see, that's why everybody liked Ike. I never thought I'd say this, but... Doc Mayavale was right.

Ma and Pa Kent holding hands in space... adorable.



So... yeah... one of my least favorite Legion stories ever. Huge gaps in logic... everyone acting like madmen... deus ex machina plotting... just bad all around.

Nice costumes, though.

Pa Kent's line was incredible harsh. As was Krypto turning against Clark.

Like I said, if it was me, I'd simply kick Earth into the sun, killing all of humanity and ensuring the Legion was never founded in the future! But hey, I guess that's why I haven't been recruited yet.

I usually associate George Papp with Green Arrow, as I think he did his entire run in Adventure without ever missing an issue until Jack Kirby came in (and even then, wasn't Kirby more in World's Finest?).

The Swan cover is one of the best early Legion covers. It's probably the best part of the issue.

Waaaaait a minute. Something else else just occurred to me after I made the "Everybody liked Ike" quip. I always forget the "Superboy stories aren't contemporary" thing. They actually would have taken place about 15 or so years before the year in which they were published, so probably this story takes place just post-WWII.

Which now makes me wonder how Superboy was familiar with "Project Vanguard" satellite technology in the previous story. I guess he was doing some off-panel time hopping of his own.

Bloody Liberty! That means Superboy was working hand in hand with FDR! That is an Untold Tale that must be told!

^^Ooh, good point on the Project Vanguard thing.

Another problem with #267: So, according to the plot the Legion sees events which they believe to take place five years in the future. Er... couldn't they tell from the fact that he doesn't look any older that the events aren't really in the future? In five years, he'd actually be Superman.

With an army of heroes from all across the galaxy, why did they need to turn everyone against Superboy and drive him out? Why not just go get him? Or even better, given Irma's power, why not have her use them on him and force him off-planet where they could nab him?

EDIT: Also, since the Legion knows that:

a) he becomes Superman
b) It's all his good deeds yet to be done that inspired them to offer him membership in the first place.

Wouldn't imprisoning him for life create a huge time paradox?

One of my most popular posts on my blog is about Adventure # 267.

However, perhaps we're being too logical in analyzing the story. Here's what Mort and Jerry might have been attempting to do:

"Yet perhaps Siegel (and editor Mort Weisinger, who co-plotted and had final say over all Superman-related titles in those days) was thinking of his audience after all. The story plays upon several common fears children have, such as being ostracized, abandoned, and punished, and even children's fears for how they might turn out when they grow up.

And like most Silver Age stories, 'Prisoner' turns out all right in the end. Superboy even forgives the Legionnaires for their nasty deeds – a lesson we could all learn."

Also, I recently read Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye, which chronicles the stories of the men (mostly men) and women who created and developed Superman.

"Prisoner of the Super-Heroes" would have been written shortly after Jerry Siegel returned to DC. He and Joe Shuster had been dismissed about a decade earlier following their lawsuit. It must have been galling for Siegel to write as a hired hand for the company he had been in large part responsible for building. Some of that anger and sense of persecution may be coming through in this story.

Issue 267

Okay, now I know I'm a pervert. Superboy's pose (i.e. pouting slightly in his kryptonite cage) reminds me of a porno cover. XD!!

Orphanage?! I thought Superboy's parents found him in a pod or something out in a field? And they're being MEAN! What's going on...I DEMAND EXPLANATIONS.

SUPER-SHOUTING. I mean, is that like Banshee's power from the X-Men? Or Tyroc's? Sorta?

Okaaaaay. So Superboy was really doing the dirty work for the US Government? I had forgotten that back in these days a lot of the superheroes were basically working for The Man. XD!!

All right guys, think I'm going to go get a shovel in the hopes that if I dig down far enough that there will be a dragon inside. BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE AWESOME. I need a dragon in my life.

Yay, Conjure Lass is here!

And yeah, what was up with the Orphanage comment? I guess with Beppo and all those other stowaways, the rocket could be considered as such.

Yaaaay! I ARRIVE IN STYLE.

Seriously though, I was so confused by that! I mean, it seems like a pretty big plot point that they FOUND him in a FIELD.

I'm surprised he didn't turn around and go: WAITADAMNMINUTE. I thought you said you FOUND me. WHAT IS THIS TOMFOOLERY!

Because they said things like tomfoolery back in those days.

I guess Pa Kent's memory was going at that point, which was bound to happen after he'd been put in harm's way by bank robbers, aliens, monsters, time travelers and all around ne'er do-wells about 10,000 times.

Standard Silver Age Superboy/Superman lore has it that the Kents find baby Kal-El in the field, then take him to an orphanage, then decide to go back to adopt him a couple of weeks later.

The orphanage goes back to Action #1! Note the fact that, in this version, there's no suggestion of him being adopted!

~REEEALLLYYY??~

I have learned today. Well, that was damn nice of them. I can imagine them trying not to slip up when they delivered him to the orphanage.

Orphanage worker: So...where did you find him?
Pa Kent: Oh, in a pod from spa--I mean a dumpster! Yeah! That's it! We heard him crying from a dumpster pod...people call them that, right?

Yep. Ordinary Boy has some super low self esteem to put up with this. Poor guy was so excited to have super friends.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Luthor!

I like the Lightning Vision on the cover. Not quite sure what Reverse-Magnetism Rays are and how it would help hold up the airplane since ... he wants to attract it, not repel it.

Ordinary Boy is not so smart ... see my previous post.

Smallville is full of haters this issue. Superboy Prime would have incinerated the first old guys who made fun of him.

Ma and Pa = tough love.

I swear this is the story of Superboy Prime! No wonder Ordinary Boy went bad.

There's a lot of smokers in Smallville.

Where the hell did all those Super-Beings come from? All capable of interstellar travel ...

At this point, I wouldn't call the Legion find Ordinary Boy guilty and throwing him in prison .. "THE GREATEST SHOCK OF ALL!"

... and a bunch of zingers from the LSH after they've already beaten and imprisoned Ordinary Boy.


"Oh sorry, our futurescope was broken, and we humiliated you so bad you fled the earth, where we promptly imprisoned you. Thanks for saving our lives though."

That Super-Shout is fantastic ... He could change the molecular structure of things just by yawning! Mr. Mxyzptlk it's on!


Tune in next time when ... the LSH ruins Supergirl's life!

I love Imra. The bossier she gets the more hot she is. She is so right ... all of the time.

I still think she is secretly controlling everyone.

oh and ... UNDIES OVER PANTS!

When I was a girl I actually DID wear my undies over my tights so that I'd look like a superhero. I wanted to be Superman. My mom just sort of let me do it and shook her head. I think even then she knew something was off about me. XD

I used to wear my underoos as clothes. tshirt and undies. NO PANTS!

and later I would run around in my Grandma's boots ... and everyone would be like "why are you Supergirl" "You should be Superboy"

and I was like ... "FOOLS!!! SUPERBOY DOSN'T HAVE BOOTS LIKE THESE!!!"

I guess when I was a kid I had less of a problem swapping genders than inappropriate costuming.

I also have pictures as a kid with my tshirt tucked into short shorts ... clearly in an attempt to look like an X-Man. Plain blue shirt and yellow shorts. and I had those big red glasses for old people to put over their glasses ... and I have a bunch of pictures of me glaring at the camera like I was intently blasting them with my optic blasts.

TMI, continue with the archives.

Remember, this is the 50's-60's version of Superman, whose invulnerability prevented him from being mind-controlled or hypnotized, unless first weakened by kryptonite. Super-hypnosis by another Kryptonian (say, Supergirl) was another exception. Originally, it was not Saturn Girl who placed the post-hypnotic suggestion for Superboy to forget about meeting Supergirl in the 30th century, but Supergirl herself,

Other notes: The Legion travels back in time and builds an "artificial planet"- Superboy Planet. They have been busy in the last 20 months. So, what was the big deal about Earth being destroyed in 5YL? Just recruit a few "super-heroes of many worlds" and rebuild the place again.

Saturn Girl can pick up radio transmission? Shades of Antennae Boy!

The "horrible monster lurking under the surface world" looks like the template for the old Moebius plastic model:

Superboy, Krypto, and Cave Monster

Oh, I meant to mention the crazy idea of picking up radio transmissions via telepathy and through space! And, er, why exactly was the president broadcasting that over the radio, anyway? That's a bit weird.

I do really like the title "Prisoner of the Super-Heroes", which was also re-used during the postboot team's encounter with their Superboy.

This issue was so AWESOME! I love all the nonsense!

It kind of feels like ol' Uncle Mort just said, "Crap! We keep getting letters by kids wanting a return of this Legion of Super-Heroes group. Let's bring 'em back in the most incoherently bad story about them we can come up with, and if the kids still like them, we know we've got a hit on our hands!"

The title is the best part of this story!

Also, HWW brings up a great point about Uncle Mort's continued usage of the fear of rejection and being taken advantage of. They definitely are anxieties that kids (and adults to a lesser degree) constantly fear.

ooooooo on page 7 ... Cos uses "you're" when he should have used "your".

Further proof that fool is hung the sprock over.


Plus, Imra sits in the middle during the Judgement of Ordinary Boy and makes *Cosmic Puppet* do her talking for her!

I caught that, too. It's fairly rare to have that blatant a grammatical mistake in one of these stories.

It seems like each page was written on a different night in the pub ... then cobbled together just in time to make some more drinking money!

*sayyyy* shall we all write for DC?!?!

I am going off memory here, but Superboy's early encounters with the Legion reminds me a lot of Superman's first encounters with the New Gods in Jimmy Olsen. He is at first surprised with the fact that his powers are considered ordinary, but eventually comes to terms with that status in both settings.

I definitely think there are interesting themes going on in this story, and there's probably a pretty good story in the vicinity of this one, but, man they dropped the ball on this.


Note: The Green Arrow and Aquaman stories in this issue are pretty groovy! They're actually a crossover, where AM and GA end up trading places, so the AM has to hunt criminals in Star City (I don't remember if it's called that yet, though) and GA has to hunt criminals underwater!

I've wondered if you could take one of these early stories and rewrite the dialogue for contemporary readers. Even without changing the basic story, #267 has a lot of elements which could make it a modern fable of homeland security and the decline of the rule of law.

Superboy is set up by three self-appointed judges, based on crimes which he has yet to commit, for which there is no proof and for which he is given no fair trial. In fact, he is held in an off-planet prison, initially with no idea of what charges he faces. His parents and neighbours have all been subjected to Saturn Girl's telepathic propaganda depicting Superboy as a worthless failure. He is informed that checking on his activities with the Futurescope is a routine procedure.

Fortunately for Superboy, he is allowed by the President to revoke his "security oath" and reveal the cover-up in which he participated (destroying a poison gas factory and supply chain), which clears him of the alleged future crimes. Well, the Geneva Convention of 1925 only prohibited the first use of poison gas, not its production or storage, so it's not a war crime, but it was all very hush-hush. Was there a localized disaster which compelled the President to order the eradication of evidence?

There is also the theme of the broken machine used as evidence. A common challenge to breathalyzer results is to show that the machine might have been malfunctioning or wasn't properly calibrated. Certainly trying to get one's name off the no-fly list once it's in the computer system is supposed to be virtually impossible. Machines screw up.


On a lighter note, we're reminded that everyone wore hats back in 1959.

Ma Kent, who always appears in a nice dress, is actually wearing pants. Space-pants, but still pants - although her dress was obviously just tucked up inside the space suit.

Is this the one and only mention of the deadly element Sigellian, which turns everything blue? Is Sigellian named after Siegel?

Truly, it was a better time.


That is a brilliant deconstruction, though, FC. When you put it in those terms it almost seems like a "story ripped from the headlines" type thing. Almost.

Have to totally agree on the difference between Adv.247 and Advm267. With the fomrer, the Legionnaires just seemed like they were having a nice little harmless laugh. Issue 267 is ludicrous, with them not even bothering to ASK Superboy about the things they saw him do!

And agree with Dave Hackett re: keeping him imprisoned forever? Hello! What happened to all the "But historical records show Superboy will gorw up to become Superman, the greatest hero of all time?"

Silly Legionnaires. I bet they were just jealous all this time.

I just realized that these early Silver Age stories had so many instances where the public just suddenly turns on the heroes, for whatever reason. It really does pull at a young kid's fear of being ostracized or being rejected, especially by authority figures.

Wow, that is some heavy stuff!

Oh GAWD! Those orphanage people probably thought Clark was--shudder--a prom night dumpster baby?!?!

Or maybe.....Superboy stories take place in the present while Superman stories are...the FYUTCHA!

Yeah, Pa was one of the earliest cases of Alzheimer's before it was ever named. Superman editors covered up his eventual decline by claiming he and Martha died of some "tropical" illness. After he succumbed, Martha went to one of those hipster old-folks homes and fornicated with multiple partners of both sexes until eventually the syphilis took her.

I saw it all on "Behind the Legend", so you know it's damned true!

And in their third appearance, the Legion meets Supergirl! Lets take a moment to recognize the genius of Uncle Mort, who decided that despite different time periods, he'd have the Legion meeting Superboy, Supergirl, etc--and it's usually pretty strait forward and uncomplicated. In this story, there is a throwaway line about the Legionnaires being the kids of the ones who appeared twice prior. Mort smartly threw away that concept, allowing the coolness of Superboy and Supergirl working side by side to play a part in the Legion.

Of course, this issue stands out for introducing such a large array of characters and concepts, as does the second Supergirl / LSH story. Cham, Gim and Lyle all appear--albeit briefly! It's the next story where Linda's super-girlfriends and that handsome young man known as Brainiac 5 steal the show.

Btw, how short is that skirt Supergirl is wearing?! Did the 50's really look like that? Damn me for missing the 50's!

Supergirl is such a sweet kid early on. She was once such a great character for younger readers. Her sharing a "super secret" with Superman is one of those great bits that little kids must have loved.

I notice farm boy Garth put on a bowtie, showing his inability to dress with style transcends eras. Meanwhile, Cos is appropriately looking working class with no tie. Imra, of course, looks smashing and her taming a lion made my heart ache further for her.

It's noteworthy that the difference between this and their first appearance is that the Legionnaires are all stepping in to help Linda protect her secret identity, and thus keep her promise to Superman. Whereas before they were hazing Superboy as part of a cruel joke. Not only could they not duplicate the story exactly, but Supergirl is too sweet to be treated so poorly and readers might not have forgiven the Legionnaires.

There's the old ice cream parlor again! I probably wouldn't have given it any mind if Eryk, Lardy, Lash and Kippers didn't make it famous in LMB lore in Hot Summer Nights!

Cham must have intrigued readers early on, though he looks like many other 1950's aliens. Gim has freckles! And Lyle's first appearance sees him looking very alien with elfish ears.

Gotta love that classic Colossal Boy costume. The cowboy gloves make it complete. It also looks good on little kids, as Legion readers know!

Love the random bird (falcon?) about to land on Supergirl in the third to last panel! Get off that nest, Supergirl!

Jim Mooney forever will be the quintessential Supergirl artist. Dramatic, adventurous, exciting.

The issue ends with obvious foreshadowing for a sequel--how exciting! Starting now, the momentum to Adventure #300 begins!

Action #267

Man, Kara is beautiful!

And she's having a really bad day! Seriously... first the bus to the Superman fair is in danger of being delayed because the drawbridge, then the cyclotron controls jam, then the lion gets lose, then the Kryptonian rocketship ride breaks, then the hollow tree where she keeps her Linda Lee robot is about to be bulldozed... Plus these weird super-powered kids who all seem to know her secret identity!

Incidentally, that Superman fair sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen! And... er... why exactly do they have a lion tamer there?

While in many ways this is a re-write of the Legion's first appearance, it manages to achieve a somewhat different tone, and it's pretty clear at this point that Mort has decided that the Legion was going to be an ongoing feature. I wonder, however, if at this point the plan was to have them as an ongoing feature with Supergirl, and leave it that Superboy had only a limited number of appearances with the team?

I have to admit that I've always been kind of fond of the idea that Supergirl joined the "second generation" of Legionnaires rather than being a member at the same time as Superboy. Though It would've made the continuity even more freakishly complex to try to keep track of two different Legions.

Robots, around-the-world space tours, and alien ice cream... again!

Cham! Gim! Lyle! Remember kids... he doesn't just turn invisible, but super-invisible!

Poor Kara's bad luck continues, as she hits a vein of red kryptonite! Those Legionnaires sure chose someone else in a hurry!

Once a year is a crazy long time to have to wait to choose a new member!

I wonder what those weird scroll thingies are when she's traveling back through time?

Can't wait for the sequel!

Action 267


Page 1 - Yep... completely agree with Cobie and Eryk here. For as much of a jerk as Mort Weisinger was (according to just about anyone who worked with him) the fact of the matter is that his contributions to cementing the mythos of the "Superman Family" were nothing short of amazing. By continually reprising various elements in all the different Superman titles, he established a consistent (not sane, mind you... but consistent) universe where the reader had a real sense of the world building going on. The Legion had met Superboy, why wouldn't they meet Supergirl?

Also agree on the Jim Mooney art. Just the best Supergirl artist ever. He always captured the real innocence (and slight naivety) of Kara. She was basically the DC universe's sweetheart. How could you not adore her? I think no version of the character since Crisis has ever been able to capture that quality, and I think Mooney was a large part of why that was.


Page 2 - Midvale... I've always wondered if that was a play on words. Like Metropolis was big, Smallville was small, and "Mid"-vale was... well... medium


Page 3 - Exactly what I'm talking about... just Linda Lee being all cute and kid-excited with her secret thoughts.


Page 4 - "Super-secret". You're killing me with cuteness, Linda.

Garth is a "handsome youth"? He looks like the president of the Jimmy Olsen fan club.


Page 5 - Heh-heh, doesn't it look like that word balloon is coming from the lion? Like he's talking in third person (third-lion?) about the inevitable way that things must play out. Come on, existential lion, you've already shown free will in not entering the cage... it needn't be this way.

I agree with Cobie... Imra looks great here.


Page 6 - Good Lord! Malfunctioning cyclotron, escaped lion, faulty life-threatening rides... this is like the worst quality-controlled fair in the world. Superman should totally distance himself from this PR nightmare.


Page 7 - That is a really well-drawn bulldozer. Seriously, it didn't have to be that good. Kudos to Mooney's details.


Page 8 - The reprise of Adventure 247. The whole "children of the other Legion" is odd, of course, but a little understandable. I assume they were trying to nip in the bud the whole sackful of letters from little kids who wouldn't understand how someone could time-travel 1000 years... and also be able to travel 1015 years. I think they were just trying to keep it simple... even though - to my mind - it winds up being needlessly complicated. Whatever... it didn't last.


Page 9 - "The 30th Century... it's.beautiful... awesome!" Yeah, Kara... it is pretty bitchin', isn't it?


Page 10 - Further 247 reprises - the Ice Cream Shop, the Clubhouse, but then... world building! New Legionnaires!


Page 11 - I sometimes try to imagine - if superpowers existed - what would be the most mind boggling to see. I tend to think that just amazing "feats" like strength, speed, etc., or even "blast" type things like lightning or fire or whatever, would be far easier for the mind to accept than anything involving some sort of transformation to the body. Think about it... one boy grows before your eyes, another fades to invisibility, another just freaking changes into a tree. Personally, I think seeing these things for real would actually blow my mind at first... and probably scare me!

I've always wondered if Gim's "cowboy" type outfit was supposed to be a play on "things are bigger in Texas".


Page 12 - The trans-earth tunnel. I seem to recall that this actually becomes a permanent part of Legion Lore (used in the 80's Levitz run, I think)


Page 13 - Silly Red-K ending, but setting up a sequel.

"Yippee!" More kid-cute Kara.



All in all, a great return to form after that last bit of nonsense. It reestablishes the concept, recasts it to include another part of the Mort line, and expands the cast of the Legion with three great new characters. A+ story.

Action 267

Okay guys, is this issue 267 or 276? I thought 267 was the one with Superboy in the cage on the cover?

Man, do I need a little army of Supermen to do my housework for me. Look at how they get Clark's hat for him and everything! How sweet of them! They could scrub my shower and vacuum my carpets and do my dishes! Maybe they could market them like seamonkeys! They come in a little container and when you expose them to the special gas they grow into the PERFECT PETS.

Okay, gotta agree with Cobie on the length of the skirt. Holy crap, a stiff breeze and she'd be showing off her superpanties!

Supergirl has a....Linda Robot?! Again, I need this in my life. I would just LOVE to be all "I don't feel like going to work today...go in my place Conjure Robot!"

Is it just me or does the Clubhouse look like it's out in the middle of freakin' nowhere? Trees as far as the eye can see!

AWWWWWWW. Brainy was total boyfriend material back in those days! What a dreamboat! XD!!

Wait...how did they not see that Kryptonite rock...wait...

*makes face* I'm not sure I dig her "having two boyfriends". I'm cool with dating multiple people, but this sort of makes Supergirl look like a two-timer. *makes face again* And neither one of them know they're one of her "two boyfriends". Not cool, Supergirl, not cool.

Oops... skipping ahead, Conjie... the third story is actually Action 267.

*looks at file* Hmph. Must be labeled wrong. No worries then, i'll just change it.

Not as seen in archives, but in the original comic... the first of many iterations of Lyle's bizarre costumes:



For this one he went with the Ronald McDonald color scheme.




Ooh... and another thing about Action 267... it adds another piece to the puzzle of what I believe is the greatest conspiracy in the history of the DCU.

You'll remember that exhibit A was from Adventure #247 regarding a certain statue:



Exhibit B is piece of info that stretches all the way back to Action Comics #1, but since this is the first Legion story which references it, I'll go ahead and throw it in here...




Oh, yeah... trust me... this thing is big!

Lyle looks like a wayward prince. Perhaps he was supposed to be royalty, pre-Projectra.

At first, I thought maybe his color scheme was changed to avoid confusion with Dirk, but Dirk joined later. Maybe someone took him aside and said, "Hey, if you use those colors, people will think you have sun powers. Either that or they'll order a Space Happy Meal."

The robot in the tree kills me!

More malfunctioning machines, but the Supergirl robot is made of sterner stuff.

Linda Lee is such a conservative dresser, even for 1960. I never liked the ruffly skirt for Supergirl's costume. I don't think anyone would have worn a skirt that short unless it was a tennis dress or a bathing suit. I wonder why they didn't put her in Capri pants, which were ascending in popularity at the time thanks to the Dick Van Dyke show, but the little skirt is cuter.

Speaking of cute - those big blue eyes that Jim Mooney draws!

Funny how Metropolis looks just like Smallville in the future - and the Stargazer IV ripped off the Jules Verne... why wasn't Midvale commemorated like Smallville? Why wasn't there a Supergirl Museum?

Now the timestream is a pink blur, with years or blank calendar (?) pages. I'm really looking forward to the rainbow time stream.

This is a much gentler rejection story than the previous two. Perhaps it's because she's a girl, and you have to be gentle and polite to girls.

I was looking for some hidden meaning in all three Legionnaires using the expression "the proper time". Perhaps some philosophical message to children along the lines of "to everything there is a season". In any event, I was happy to see her toss the expression back at the Legionnaires.

I think this mystery deserves a thread of its own!

Imagine the disappointment of the little boy in East Toledo when he realized that holding this issue (actually a reprint) up in the air wouldn't allow you to see UNDER that skirt.

If only I'd had the original.

I haven't read them all, but most of the Silver Age Supergirl back-ups in Action are pretty good. The series worked great as a back-up with the right amount of drama and adventure. And of course, an incredible likely lead that was heroic and vulnerable (despite, you know, being invulnerable).

The orphanage setting in the early Supergirl stories was also a fantastic idea, providing a great framework for her to encounter kids that needed help (in secret, of course!). But, of course, one of the cool things about the feature is that there was actually progress made in her life. She was adopted, her existence was eventually revealed to the world, etc. So it didn't follow the typical pattern of always resetting things to the status quo at the end of the issue.

She was created by the same man who designed Mary Marvel, so that may explain the conservative dress. Mary Marvel often wore a ruffled-skirt as well. Here is a link to a Mary Marvel cover if anyone wants to see the comparison: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Mary_Marvel_Vol_1_27

The Problems Easily Solved With Time Travel issue.

I read this last night, and while Supergirl dosn't get the treatment that Ordinary Boy got ... it is kind of a bummer.

What a terrible day she had! and Those Legionnaires are really into their rules! I wonder who got Kara's spot?

Well ... since everyone can time travel why dosn't Kara just go to the future a little further back in time and do it all over again avoiding the Red K. Or time travel to next year so she dosn't have to wait to try out again.

Besides ... She's not REALLY old ... she just looks old ... on the outside .... ageist pricks!


I thought Imra looked FIERCE the whole issue ... especially next to the cute doe eyed Supergirl. Imra got the harsher eyebrows, higher cheekbones, and a commanding presence that brought the king of beasts to heel!

btw, wtf is up with this Superman fair ... It is a DEATH TRAP!

I actually liked the wacky, we are the children of the original team, and look exactly like them ... despite everyone being able to time travel business. and our time bubble technology looks exactly the same as our parents. retro is in.


Poor Linda ... back at the orphanage. Nothing like a happy ending.


and sex bots for everyone!!!! (Linda Robot) speaking of, I bet that professor and the Superboy robot from last issue get DOWN when class is not in session.

What ... only Supergirl robots get any action?

It really does look like they just repainted Smallville to serve as Metropolis!

I have sometimes thought that Supergirl's appearance was based on Sonja Henie, Olympic figure-skating gold medalist, film star, and alleged Nazi sympathizer. Short skirt, boots, long sleeves-- all that's missing is the cape.

See HERE, HERE, and HERE

I was 15 in 1960, and as I remember the era, Lightning Lad is out of fashion by about twenty years. Green plaid sports jacket? Bow tie? Who does he think he is? Tawky Tawny?

"Machines do all our heavy physical work! Man is free to labor mainly with his mind!" - Absolutely the futurist utopian vision of the 1950's. And thus the need for the "slim-ray" introduced later.

Supergirl's S-shield is peculiar in a way often consistent with the way she is presented throughout her career- the shield is too small for the symbol, so that less of the "S" is visible.

Supergirl's face is much more animated than Saturn Girl's, evident even in the simplistic art of the period. I mean, way more animated.

Note that so far, "space", means, generally, "the nine planets of the solar system". The Legion will not go truly galactic until later.

Umm... that was the whole point of the Anti-Lad story. It was retconning away Adventure 247 on the grounds that the Legionnaires wouldn't really pull such a stupid prank and must have had some reason.

HA! Just read the Supergirl story! WARNING: These comments have the PPSA (Paladin's Pervy seal of Approval)!

--Gotta agree about the skirt--that thang is super-short! I don't see enough ladies wearing those nowadays for my tastes! My eyes lingered on that opening splash a little too long..... Looks like the outline of some granny-panties underneath, though.

--Those drawbridge workers should've been a mite less blase about the ship, eh? My first thought woulda been, "#$%@! It's sinking!!! I'll bet the folks onboard crapped themselves! Irresponsible mischief, I say, Kara!

--Sorry, Kara, cousin Kal's winking because he's waiting for you to come of age so he can HIT that! Yeah, boy!

--Crap! I was wondering why Jimmy Olsen was shooting lightning bolts for a second!

--What? I swear the way Mooney draws Imra makes her look like a dead ringer for the earliest appearances of Gwen Stacy as drawn by Ditko! (Of course Imra was first.)

--Linda's green blouse & purple skirt--ick! Was that how she was always dressed in that era? (like most heroes in their civilian identities were similarly always dressed the same)

--Nice summary of Adv 247, Kara. Way to gloss over the Legionnaires' abject cruelty to your cousin! Hmmm...on second thought, I doubt Kal included the sordid details. He would've likely started bawling! Super-bawling is a frowned upon Kryptonian power!

--Page 9, panel 2: Supergirl's 'O'-face?

--As a kid, it always looked like the Trans-Earth Tunnel had severed a part of the planet as visualized here. Still does, actually!

--Yup, Mooney subtly drew Kara differently to make her look like "Superwoman". Kara definitely grew at least a coupla bra sizes for that hour or so! Good thing her costume (as stated in one of Kara's thought bubbles) can super-stretch, or we'd be seein' what's under that mini-skirt! (Rassum-frassum! )

And, oh yeah, Kara's TOTALLY checking out Gim's 'collosal crotch' on page 11, panel 1!!!

Setting the stage for 3boot Eat it, Grandpa! and the current version's Lose the Ageism!

And here begins a series of stories where the Legion shows up in cameos or as statuettes--some of which are included in the Archives and a few that are not. That's okay, as this is a pretty groovy Superboy story!

George Papp draws a great teen series. His artwork adds an Archie drama element that is appealing.

Pa speculates on all the LL's in Superboy's life, giving voice to something fans had been asking about in letter columns since 1951!

So by now its established they young Lex also lived in Smallville. I believe that was a recent Silver Age revelation?

Luthor explains scientifically how kruptonite formed via atomic fusion-- cool science bit! In fact, Luthor is shown to be generally brilliant--unlike today when they always focus on his personality defaults. Later, Luthor orders both Supes and Krypto's deaths. He ain't screwing around!

Enter Lana Lang BREAKING AND ENTERING, oh and contemplating PULLING A RANDOM LEVER TO A SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT. She's cute though, so I forgive her.

Funny enough, a fuse blowing is what messes Luthor hope. Kind of awesome in its randomness.

Next to show up is Krypto! It's like a cameo tour de force, and maybe that was the point of this story? Luthor, Lana, Krypto and of course the Legion. Anyway, when a dying Superboy and a dying Krypto reach for each to say good bye, that's a pretty powerful moment!

Garth is pretty darn heroic and dashing here! Best appearance for him to date! Odd that Superboy had to go out of his way to explain Garth didn't screw up the timeline. Soon enough Uncle Mort would tell his writers to abandon all that ennui.

And of course the story ends with the best foreshadowing of the entire Silver Age! There MUST be a Legion of Super Villains! Coming soon!
.

That first image of Sonja has the peculiar crinkly-ruffled skirt that could well have been the model for Supergirl's costume. They must have gotten that with a knit, which is in line with Superman's original costume knitted by Ma Kent. Superwool, no doubt.




That's why her eyes were so large.

And also, in continuing to discuss Jerry Siegel (who has written all but the original story so far), its worth noting one of his absolute favorite things to write: sequels. In his Superman, Superboy, Legion, etc stories, he always loved writing follow ups and sequels to earlier stories, therefore being an essential part of Uncle Mort's continuity building experiment that was the Silver Age Superman books.

I always thought it out that a superhero club would want to limit its membership so. One new member a year (in some stories), and in the story Supergirl actually joined it was one male and one female member a year. Yes, it's good not to just let anyone join, but why set a quota? What if there are two equally desrving candidates? I greatly prefer the consider-each-applicant-separately rule of future eras.

I actually thought the same thing! It almost looks like she destroyed Earth!

Reading that story again makes me wish there had been more Supergirl and the LSH stories!

Agreed! There could be if DC wasn't run by a much of morons and sexual deviants.

Superboy #86

Fun fact: I remember being really annoyed that the first Archive completely lacked information on which issue each story came from, so my copy has issue numbers written in pencil by me on the first page of every story!

That crazy Superboy! Not only is he responsible for Lex Luthor going bald, but he actually saved strands on Lex's hair as a trophy! No wonder Lex hates him!

Not sure if this is the first in-story mention of the "L.L." thing, but it's an iconic element! And the first appearance of Legionnaire statuettes! (Given to him "after an adventure on Superboy Planet, which they had built in my honor!"; way to whitewash that crazy story!)

Luthor, meanwhile, discovers how to bring stone to life! Thus confimring my longheld theory that Blok has been a Luthor plant all along!

Everything's quiet in the city, so let's randomly gaze up check out what going on in space! An asteroid with a giant hand growing out it? Seems suspicious.

Living kryptonite men! I love Luthor smashing the statue and cheering on the kryptonite men as they attack Superboy!

I never realized before how randomly pointless the Lana-breaks-into-Luthor's-lab scene is. Four panels to establish the existence of a secret lever that could defeat Luthor's plan, which doesn't even get used in the story! Oh well.

You would think the power outage would have the same effect as pulling the lever, though. Wouldn't Lex's machines stop working, and thus the kryptonite men stop working? Oh well.

Krypto! And more Luthor playing with models to order the rocks around!

Luthor looking at himself in the mirror with glee!

Lightning Lad showing up as a deus ex machina! The first of many such minor Legion appearances. But, of course, Superboy and Krypto would've been saved anyway, so history wasn't changed.

And, the best moment of the entire story: "If a Legion of Super-Heroes will exist centuries from now... then a Legion of Super-Villains probably exists in the future too!" Don't want to miss that story!

Some pretty groovy bits in this story, especially in terms of building themes and establishing mythology!

Another notable feature of this comic is that it also features the first appearance of Pete Ross, which, unfortunately, is not reprinted in the Archive. It was, however, reprinted in Adventure #342. I remember reading it as a kid and thinking it was completely groovy!

Superboy 86


The Cover - I remember reading of all the tricks DC used to use on their covers to try to draw in readers during the Silver Age like gorillas, someone crying, a direct question, and - oddly - the color purple. I say "oddly" but I've got to say that the stark purple background here really does draw me in.

"my super-body" pfft... narcissist.


Page 1 - "Strange, son..." Yeah... keeping strands of Luthor's hair in a glass display case... that is strange, all right.

The LL thing... just an absolute weird convention that I never understood the point of. I wonder when it started being a "thing". There was always "Lois Lane", but Luthor originally just went by his last name. I'll bet that the "Lex" part was added to fit the convention and not the other way around. Just very weird.


Page 2 - The first Legion statues... very cool.

Strange use of the words "alive" and "intelligent" that continue to be used throughout the story. I guess "telekinesis" would have been too complex for the young readers so they just dumbed it down.


Page 3 - Not much to say here... the stone fist is a pretty cool image.


Page 4 - Not quite sure why Lex needs to use those toys... maybe to focus his attention.


Page 5 - OK, confession time... I love Lana Lang. Seriously... when young Ex was just turning into double digits, I vividly remember seeing Mike Grell's drawings of Lana and thinking... hmmm... perhaps these "girl" creatures require further investigation. It's only in my adulthood - looking back at these old stories - where I realize how certifiably bats**t insane she was... way more than Lois ever was. And that makes me love her even more.

I wonder what's going on in here... let me just climb in the window. I wonder what this lever (in the mad boy-scientist's home) does. Hmmm... shall I pull it and find out?

Oh... crazy Lana.

Plus... bobby socks and saddle shoes... swoon.


Page 6 - Does Lex really need that big doll? It's not as though it matches the size of the "Kryptonite Giant" anyway... wouldn't one of the smaller ones done the trick? Whatever.


Page 7 - I hate scenes of dogs in pain. We3... Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow... anytime I see a dog hurt in a comic I get all welled up... this is no exception. The dying tongue... ah, you're killing me here.

Lightning Lad... yeah, the first "Legion Cameo". This would very soon become a regular thing in the Superman family of books, and was a very shrewd way of cross-promotion. Mort knew what he was doing.


Page 8 - Speaking of which... the foreshadowing! "a Legion of Super-Villains probably exists in the future, too." Of all the myriad cameos that the Legion would make in the years going forward, it's interesting that this one is the only one routinely included as part of the "core" Legion stories in collections. I think that single closing line is the reason why.



So... yeah. Fair enough story, basically just a reinforcement of Superboy storytelling paraphernalia - Lex, Lana, Krypto, Kryptonite, the Legion, the "LL" thing. There were a lot of toys to play with in the Silver Age Super-titles, and this story showcases that well.

Never thought of the possible Blok connection to this story. Maybe those asteroids were really chunks of Dryad and did have intelligence which Lex was able to control.

Oh, Lana, you eternal meddler! If you had pulled that lever when Lex was wearing the helmet, it might have fried his brain.

Superboy's creepy souvenir display - Lex Luthor's hair?? And were those prehistoric implements a gift from Kamandi?

I felt bad for poor green Krypto, too, with his little tongue hanging out.

More broken machines: this time, only a fuse.

More Legion voyeurism with the Time Viewer. The writer acknowledges the possibility of messing with the past, but I guess it will be awhile until Superboy and Supergirl are made to forget the details of their visits to the future.

Great foreshadowing of the LSV!

Superboy #86

-I think Lex needs some hobbies. He's literally been trying to kill Superboy/Superman his WHOLE LIFE.

-Um...does anyone else find it vaguely creepy that Superboy kept strands of Lex Luthor's hair? I mean, it's one thing to defeat him repeatedly, it's another to keep his hair like a memento. This must be where the whole Superman/Luthor ship came from.

-*DIES* Lex discovers a way to literally animate objects WITH HIS MIND and his first thought it to kill Superboy. Not make millions of dollars selling the technology, not using it as a force for good, not using it for any purpose that's useful. Lex really REALLY needs some hobbies.

-I bet Superboy takes those Legion dolls out and plays with them every now and again.

-I'm always astounded at the VAST AMOUNT of Kryptonite in these old stories. I was under the impression that the stuff was relatively rare, but in these stories there are bits and pieces of it practically EVERYWHERE.

-KRYPTO COULD THINK? I thought he was just a dog! Well, I want a doggie like THAT.

-Waitaminute. When Superboy yells "Wrong, Luthor!" he seems to be responding to something that Lex was THINKING. DOES SUPERBOY HAVE TELEPATHY?? *GASP*

-Okay, so Superboy would have been saved whether or not Lightning Lad showed up? WTF, why even bother coming to the past then?! What, did they pause the incident on the Time Viewer before they got to that point? See, this is why Brainy needs to keep the time gear away from everybody else. XD

Superboy should always shave his enemies heads upon their defeats and keep their hair as a momento. It worked for the Green River Killer and Piccadilly Axe Murderer!

Fun Fact: I have been thinking I am an alt of EDE's for the past couple weeks.

Agreed. Though in the case of enemies like Brainiac, Superboy may have to take scalps instead.

Superboy Prime is so crush worthy.

I bought my copy a few years back on ebay and the seller was nice enough to include the additional table of contents card that DC had made up and inserted into a later volume (#2 maybe).

If you guys like, I can scan it in and post it full size if you'd want to print it out.

I think I've actually got one of those somewhere, too!

ah hah! It seems I am not an alt!

The L.L. Initials issue to make up a crack head story at the last minute.


I think Lex is still a great scientist even WITH his evil ambitions Ordinary Boy.

It probably takes Ordinary Boy about 45 seconds to patrol SMALLville. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne has just been orphaned in Gotham city.

Oh, Kryptonite Men ... it looks like Super fool is done for.

OK, I now understand Lex Luthor much more now, It is not that he is so evil ... he just can't stand that Ordinary Boy has a frickin horseshoe up his butt! No wonder Lex is so frustrated. Lightning Lad saves him, but the asteroids would have exploded anyway and thrown Ordinary Boy free! Or Lana could have stumbled back and thrown that switch! Or a longer power outage ... (the Smallville grid probably can't handle all of Lex's super inventions.) It's almost as if Lex has been cast as a villain in a Superboy comic book!




Is anything cuter than a dying Krypto with his tongue out on page 53!!!!!! I love you Krypto! As Superboy uses his last energy to comfort his faithful dog.

I don't get why this issue is all about the initials L.L.

Can't wait for the LSV to show up!

awww man ... the cover is not included in my archives.

Luthor is always wrong.

I'm surprised Lightning Lad entered through the door that says "Laboratory keep out". You know how the Legion likes their rules. (re: rejecting poor orphaned Kara ... despite her amazing powers ... and severing the Earth)

btw, I had a peak at the next issue ...



I am traumatized.

^^That's Monday, alt-me! Tomorrow is all about Xynthia!

On this one issue, the Legion was inspired by Batman and Robin!

(Er... that's really funny if you're familiar with that classic panel of Batman telling Robin that "Do not enter" signs don't apply to them!)

These early stories are getting to me. I heard something on the news about the U.S. sending a missile defense shield to Guam, in response to North Korea's threats, and had a vision of Superboy flying with a gigantic clear dome to place over the island.

Adventure #282 - Lana Lang and the Legion of Super-Heroes

Not really the Legion, just Star Boy - and a Star Boy with far more powers than he would eventually have. He's Superboy PLUS electrical vision, which is all it takes for Daddy Lang to allow Lana to run off with Thom to some unknown planet in an unknown future. People just weren't as protective of children as they are today.

This may be the only instance in which a Legionnaire has a secret identity. It's certainly not a very good one - no disguise, no mask, no different personality - just a costume. Still, it apparently has fooled the criminal element on Xanthu.

The story is a charming screwball romantic comedy. Lana concocts a devious plan to make Superboy jealous while he, aware of what she's up to, foils her every move. Poor Star Boy is the innocent chump; even his girlfriend Zynthia is part of the deception.

This was written by Otto Binder, who had this to say about comic book stories:
Many stories were problems because they were too crammed with plotting so that the writer had to squeeze and make rapid transitions, etc., to the detriment of the final story. Some scripts required too much wordage, both captions and dialogue, that all panels were crowded and created a problem for the artist to depict anything. All the writer could do was to cram it in and let the editor cut where he could, which sometimes hacked up a story badly. ... None of the scripts were "easy" to write, as most people seem to think, deceived by the story's "simplicity". - from The Legion Companion

He might have been talking about the second story, Prisoner of the Super-Heroes (written by Siegel). This story with Lana does appear simple, but it flows easily and coherently.

Nevertheless, when I read this (and the other early stories), I wonder if the writers were on acid. Flying people, giant flowers, talking Parakats...

Adventure #283 is one of my favorite early Legion stories, and for a variety of reasons. Foremost among them is the lush landscape that is Xanthu: at times, a sprawling metropolis and at others, a wild, savage alien world. Star Boy himself looks futuristic and heroic to the extreme while still human. Zynthia is one of the most beautiful characters ever to grace the pages of a comic book--Doris Day meets Kim Novak. There are definite bits of Forbidden Planet's Altaira in her look, and then like Thom is shown to be just a regular joe, she's revealed to be the futuristic girl next door.

This is a classic Lana Lang plot. So classic, in fact, that its stolen almost verbatim from an earlier Superboy story in 1951. That story features Marsboy--who coincidently, had two earlier appearances. Marsboy was a rare recurring character in the middle era between ages good and silver. I always thought he should come back.

But back to Lana; classic Lana. This plot is strait sitcom material but the characters are all good intentioned and likable so it works.

Star Boy is clearly meant to be Superboy-esque in powers and demeanor. What's crazy is he doesn't appear for like two full years because Mort & company forgot about him! When he does reappear, he's vastly scaled down as by then Mon-El was already another Superboy level Legionnaire. Yet, that first step towards differentiating him would start a long series of such things: first Legionnaire to kill, first to be suspended where it sticks, he becomes a Sub, first to grow a beard.

I notice Lana always wears green. So does Pepper Potts in Iron Man, and Joan in Mad Men. Is that a redhead thing? How have I not known about this? In the first panels, Lana shedding tears over Superboy wins me to her cause. Okay girl--I've got your back. Cause havoc.

Thom's parents, like the Kent's, are loving and supportive. They're also successful middle class people as astronomers. Quite the 50's ideal. I think comics should spend more time showing different valuable occupations to society.

"Star Boy has an extra super-power even I haven't got!" Calm down, Clark. Yeesh, put the measuring stick away.

Papp's illustrations of Xanthu and the backgrounds of Star Boy's lab are fantastic.

By page 10, the bickering between Lana and Superboy is terrific! Otto Binder at his best!

Space canoes look groovy! Parakats not so much. Still, Superboy maybe didn't need to be so rough...after all, he bothered it.

Lana's hissy fit explodes on page 12 and it doesn't let down. She calls Zynthia a hussy!

All in all, a fun story. It's similar to other Superboy stories and Lana drive stories, but since I'm not rereading those, I don't care.

FC, I someone totally glanced over the Star Boy secret identity bit! Haha, worst secret ID ever!

He must have had yet another super power to cloud sentient's minds.

I always liked Zynthia. not only was she beautiful, she was also clever and very poised. No "gulps", "gasps" or "sobs" from this girl!

Adventure 282

If it wasn't already obvious that the Legion was becoming a thang, the fact that they've started re-writing old Superboy stories to incorporate a Legion connection should be a major clue! I've never read the original "Lana Lang's Romance on Mars!", but this version is pretty much awesome!

It's a variant of fairly standard Superboy tropes... alien hero (this time, from the future!) shows up... Lana Lang tries to use the alien hero to make Superboy jealous. It's the depiction of Xanthu as a future world that makes it really special, however.

We begin with Superboy putting honest, hardworking lawnmowers out of business! Er... I mean, helping the Smallville Hospital save money by mowing their lawn for them!

We see Lana's obsession with Superboy... and she gets an idea by going to a movie!

Where the heck did Star Boy get those giant horseshoes, anyway? And couldn't he have just used the giant skywriting trick to begin with?

Anyway, a brief origin of Star Boy... "...the planet Xanthu, which exists in the future!" is a bit of awkward dialogue.

Anyway... secret identities, and Star Boy learning English when he travels to Earth to join the Legion? Crazy.

X-ray vision that can't penetrate copper? Electrical vision? Subtle changes on the Superboy-type powers are always cool.

Boy, it sure doesn't take much to convince Professor and Mrs. Lang to allow a strange boy to take their daughter to an alien planet in the future!

Cool Xanthu things:

--The entire planet is subject to heavy floods?
--Spiders that produce glowing thread! No doubt to attract insects!
--Er... where exactly does that Rainbow Bridge go?
--Diamonds all over the place!
--Jungle Mountains! I'm sure there's got to be a crazy-kewl pseudo-scientific explanation of why there's be jungles on the top of mountains
--Talking Parakats!

Xynthia really doesn't do that much... but there's still something oddly fascinating about her as a character. Still think they should've used her as the postboot "Insect Queen".

Anyway, a fun issue overall, even though the Legion connection is pretty minor at the time!

My theory: Star Boy had a secret power to change his skin color! Thus he always the first black Legionnaire, only they couldn't show this in 1960s comics!

Either they really needed a deus ex machina bad, or they just really wanted to shoehorn the Legion in. but I heartily approve!

I wonder what Clark/Superboy would have said if someone had ever stumbled upon his collection of Legion statuettes.

"Um, er... they're my uncle's! He's kind of weird that way."

Boy, if Imra had just thought to read Superboy's mind!

"Oh hey Supes, we just want to ask you something... Oh, that explains it then! See you in the future. You'll only have to keep that secret for a bit longer. Bye now!"

Adventure 282


The Cover -

The mad queen Lana seated on a golden throne high above all others. All is as it should be.

Star Boy refers to her as "the fairest damsel on all nine worlds". Sort of an odd turn of phrase given that Xanthu isn't, you know, part of our system. Hmm... perhaps the "Nine Planets Ice Cream Shop" wasn't just named after the Solar System. All we really know is that Mars is one of the nine, perhaps Xanthu is another. Ah... too many conspiracies!



Page 1 - Xanthu... I've heard this speculated on before (I think on the Legion of Substitute Podcasters) but, it's possible that the name of this planet was inspired by the recently- at the time - discovered substance, Xanthan Gum. This issue is dated March 1961, and Xanthan Gum was discovered in the late 50's by chemist, Allene Rosalind Jeanes, and first put into production for commercial uses in the early 60's. I don't think it's much of a stretch to think that writer Otto Binder (a huge science buff) had probably read about this.



Page 2 - Poor, crazy Lana. Five framed photos of Superboy (and possibly five more stuck to her mirror) in this tiny cross section of her room. Clearly love lorn (ah... another LL!)

"What a super-convenient son you are!" Convenient? Pa Kent, continuing to be just a regular fount of love.



Page 3 - The briefly lived "Black and Yellow" movies.

"Hey... where are those huge horseshoes coming from?" That's the question? Not "Why are these horseshoes huge to be begin with?"



Page 4 - "I used my super-strength for the horseshoes". That brings up something I've always wondered about (more specifically regarding Superman). As someone who personally always struggles over details when I make something, I always wonder why the writers in these stories equate super-strength with "super-craftsmanship". Like... just because you can bend metal with your hands, doesn't mean that you can bend it well... making whatever you can envision on the first try. Maybe they actually do have to do these things over and over again until they look right but their "super-speed" makes the process look easier. Whatever... I'm just jealous.



Page 5 - And thus begins the fan speculation about the chronology of the Legion versus the publication order... who are those two with their backs turned to us. It sure looks like Kara and Dirk to me.

Huh! I just looked it up and apparently, x-rays are slowed down by copper, just not as efficiently as by lead. Nice work, Otto Binder.



Page 6 - Heh... Look at Clark's face in that last panel... he is just in awe of Lana's madness.



Page 7 - "Gracious... a trip to a strange world in the future might be dangerous." Yeah... and a freaking mind-boggling concept to any normal person. I suppose in a world where a "Superboy" exists, a lot of things suddenly become a lot more reasonable.

He's not "better" than Superboy, Ma Lang... he's just "different".



Page 8 - That is some Dr. Seussian architecture they've got going on Xanthu. And those do not look like the inside of copper drain pipes... the outside maybe, but - unless they're polishing non-stop - those things would be really green. "Super-green," even.



Page 9 - Lana is adorable in her Xanthuan garb... nuff said.

"equal in value to a thousand earthly diamonds". Would that be the 20th century value... or the 30th century... and... wait... are these thousand of any particular size... and... more to the point... how exactly are you familiar with Terran diamond values?



Page 10 - I agree with Cobie and Eryk here... it's hard to account for Zynthia's popularity, but I like her, too... and it's far from the first time I've heard it mentioned. Odd for such a bit player. Might be the name. "Zynthia". It just sounds retro-future-cool. Like a space-age "Cynthia".



Page 11 - I've always felt bad for the Parakat. He's clearly not just a mimic, as he clearly has some understanding of what he's saying. You're just a species-ist, Clark.



Page 12 - The many moods of Lana! Watch as she goes from indignation... to jealous rage... to feigned weakness... to befuddled surprise... to barely stifled frustration... to weeping acceptance... all in six panels!

I really adore her little balled-up fists in panel 5... so fussbudget-y!



Page 13 - And all is well... Lana lives to fight another day.



So... a fun story, if - as others have mentioned - a remake of the earlier "Mars Boy" story.

A lot of firsts...The first real "spotlight on a Legionnaire" story, the first visit to a Legion planet, first Legionnaire's "real name", first protracted origin story for a Legionnaire apart from just a line or two.

It's a little odd, all things considered, that it would be over two years before Star Boy appeared again, and - when he did - he had a completely different powerset.

I noted it here.

Great minds, and all that.



Oh... another quick thing. The lettercol for this issue is all about a story in Adventure #279 called "Superboy Visits the 50th Century" by Otto Binder.


Wait... Superboy travels twice as far into the future beyond the Legion's time as the Legion traveled back to visit him? And it's written by the same guy that intro-ed the Legion?

I must read that story!

Hmm... definitely looks like a must read!

^

Fun story! The gist is that far in the future, Superboy is considered a myth like Peter Pan. Cool premise from a historians point of view. And it's got all the usual Otto Binder awesomeness.

Peter Pan looks like Calamity King.

Confirming my long held theory that Eryk's true nemesis is Captain Hook! And it also explains his intense fear of crocodiles.

The Star Boy Has The Best Parents Ever issue.

They are so accepting and not at all caught off guard by their son crashing a (must be expensive) space ship, developing crazy (some superstitious parents might call demonic) super powers ... and they suit him up to fight injustice. No hiding his powers from them!

Interesting, Star Boy joining is pre-universal translator. He had to learn the LSH language. Is interlac not required for UP membership? Is this pre UP membership for Xanthu? So many questions!

"By sheer chance, Lana Lang has come this way to pick flowers!"

Yeah right, that creepy stalker does nothing by sheer chance!

btw, I can tell her plan to ensnare Ordinary Boy by pretending not to be interested in him is going to go bust.

You don't want the kind of guys who would be interested in you if you showed no interest in them LANA!

She's got issues. And I hate her new dress.

wait ... what .. she dosn't need her flowers anymore? She just tossed them out!

Why does Star Boy care if his name gets out 1000 years in the past and on a different planet? conspiracies??? Crazy cross time adventures??


I wonder if Ordinary Boy likes bossy extortionists? yeah Lana ... dosn't everyone.

Lana's parents are so checked out. They let her go to another planet with a strange uber powerful boy?

Villains are old tubby and bald. Heroes are young and cute. This is better than Waid's!!!

Meanwhile, Lana wants Superboy to give her a *tumble*. Classy bossy extortionist!


Then she calls supes a super-idiot! hahaha!

On page 64/10 I thought she was lighting up a cigarette! haha.

That poor Parakat looks really sick, almost as cute as a dying Krypto.

OOOOOO On page 12 Lana finally loses it!!!!

"... you hussy"

She is totally mentally unstable. I actually feel bad for Ordinary Boy.


This was a good one, I like Star Boy's electrical vision ... and taste in women ... Zynthia is a total babe! and a good sport for helping Superboy ... not like crazy demanding shouty cookoo for cocoa puffs Lana!

Those super guys can really just travel through time like it is nothing!

True. She was dignified.

I think Peebs has a Zynthia crush.

There is a giant space-horse who is going to be upset when it wakes up!

"neeeighhhh not again!"

I'm glad Superboy got back to Earth so he can get back to all his important things ... like gardening.

Action 267 - I always wondered how Supergirl's tunneling through the Earth didn't cause massive planetary upheaval. I mean, we saw her digging but not reinforcing the tunnel or anything like that!

Or am I just thinking too hard?

Also... nine delicious flavors from nine planets? so each planet is only able to produce one flavor now? Come onnnnnn, future people!

There was an intergalactic ice cream shortage in the 2880s. Many UP worlds had yet to recover.

Off-topic, but Postboot Lyle mentioned once that he made a lot of money by creating new ice cream flavors...

^^That seems to me a clear clue that Lyle is the secret owner of Nine Planets Ice Cream!

Anyway, I always assumed that there were basically nine "featured" flavors at the NPICP, but that you could still get vanilla or something if you really wanted it.

Thanks EDE prime ... that makes feel better about 9 planets ice cream.

(don't go crazy like Superboy Prime though)

Ice cream is as essential to Legion lore as time travel is!

Pluto is CLEARLY a planet.


Haters gonna hate.

Bah! Clearly this proves the existence of Vulcan!

Vulcan could be the ancient name for Tharr, which surely had a long tradition of ice cream consumption.

I love the allusion these early tales make that teenagers spend much of their free time in ice cream shoppes. Clearly I was born in the wrong century.

It's a shame more homages haven't been made in the form of pin-ups or posters of our heroes in brightly colored spandex standing out like sore thumbs in the sea of everyday citizens eating ice cream. It's a great, Rockwell-retro visual.

The popularity of ice cream clearly led to the invention of the cellular trim ray! Even with non-fat, almost zero-calorie ice cream variants, the sheer volume of ice cream consumption still led to massive weight gain among teenagers.

We need Legion characters from Vulcan! STAT!

CODE BLUE.

Is it like Marzal, Just has a sophisticated cloaking device, or is something polite people don't talk about ... like that period where Klingons looked more human?

Mention of the cellular trim ray makes me wonder if Ayla "bulked up" for her role as deceased brother Lightning Lad. Once she had her own heroic identity, it was time for those unwanted pounds (of muscle) to go.

As for the Star Boy story, it's probably one of my least re-read of the Archives. Zynthia is beautiful and I love the extent of Lana's Silver Age exploits.

Being serious for a moment:
1) Pluto's smaller than Eris, so if you demand Pluto gets included, there would be ten planets, which still isn't nine! (This is basically why they made the change. There's a LOT of Plutoids out there, they're now realising. If they didn't stop calling Pluto a planet, they'd end up with a three-figure number of "planets" in the Solar System before too long...)
2) Pluto isn't even the first "planet" to get demoted. Ceres' was demoted to a "minor planet" (asteroid) way back when, along with the likes of Pallas and Vesta, they realised there was a whole asteroid belt there, just as they've now realised there's one in the vicinity of Pluto too. Ceres was actually "promoted" to a dwarf planet at the same time Pluto and Eris were declared dwarf planets, so if you demand "dwarf planet" gets dropped, you're hating on Ceres!

Re Ayla as Lightning Lad, she also had to disguise her voice (I'm sure Garth had a deeper one), probably make some subtle changes to her face, and even had to wear stilts or heels (I think all official sources have Garth taller than Ayla). Or maybe she just used a lot of tech. We know she didn't induce an illusion because Sun Boy noticed the neck-isn't-tanned and no-adam's-apple bits.

Unless we posit that both Garth and Ayla still hadn't quite reached puberty yet... NAH!

The Super-Girlfriends and Brainy! This one is just packed with awesome materials and a contender for best story in the Archive (I'd rank it #3, myself--#1 to be revealed later). Tons of Legionnaires, an upbeat Supergirl tale with her joining, teen romance and lots of cool 31st tidbits.

Tinya and Lu are introduced, and with a bit of Veronica and Betty to them--though how much of that comes from my knowledge of their 50 year history I can't say. Tinya is the great love of my Legion life. From her supporting Jo to her reboot self being the standard I set for all high school girlfriends. She just rocks. Luornu, despite her own super-short skirt, is clearly a girl next door with her hairdo and demeanor. The addition of two girls is nothing short of astounding, and the trend of more girls will continue--when most superhero teams would hold to the "one token female" bit for like 20 more years. There is no doubt that giving Supergirl friends has a lot to do with this at first, but whatever the case, it somehow helped fulfill a lot of the futuristic ideal the Legion represents.

I have to say though that again, Saturn Girl steals the story all the way up until Brainy is intro'd. She's just such a strong presence. She's up there with Lois and Wonder Woman for iconic DC females.

I love the Brainy / Supergirl romance, and the inherent angst and tragedy in it. I actually like the "chip on his shoulder" Brainy that has been consistent since the reboot started; but I have a soft spot in my heart for the original Brainy, with his quiet heroism, determination to make up for his ancestors villainy and his unshakeable love for Kara. The concept of Brainiac 5 in general is one of the single strongest parts of the LSH. There's no doubt it helped the Legion's popularity immediately, by connecting the LSH further to Superman mythology and introducing a great character. There's no doubt he's among the true stars of the LSH--and unlike some other posters I think that should never, ever, not be used to the fullest.

And then another series of introductions! Sun Boy! Shrinking Violet! Bouncing Boy! The hits just keep on coming. We later learn Chuck's story but we don't see Vi or Dirk join. From the first panel, Dirk is the best looking guy in the series so far; only Jo and Tenz ever reach that. He just looking heroic and dashing--like a red-headed Errol Flynn. Meanwhile, Silver Age Vi is so the quintessential shrinking violet that its hilarious. She doesn't even speak until Tenz coaxes it out of her! Mooney and Forte do her facial expressions perfectly. Meanwhile, Chuck is also the classic blubbering yet lovable best friend underdog from the start. The fact that a club of Super-Heroes includes Vi and Chuck later is almost as progressive as having so many girls!

On to the story! Frankie Hudson, eh? Did he ever appear again? Seems like a real hip cat that is really with it.

Poor Linda and her feeling like an outsider. Surely all kids can relate? She beats Spider-Man by 4 years with the angst!

The silly 1950's and their iron masks. Years ago I did a serious inventory of all DC comics in the 50's and realized there are dozens--literally dozens--of "___ in the Iron Mask!" type stories. By now, the trope was as common as an escaped lion.

Look at Kara in the first panel of page 5. Absolutely stunning. Wow. Mr. Mooney, I applaud you.

The original Koko makes me want to punch his face. I think this is his second and last appearance? This is also a critically important Brainiac story regarding his lore, which I forgot. By now Brainiac was crazy popular with readers.

Lets take a moment to enjoy Superman threatening to destroy Brainiac...and then doing it! I really enjoy Supes when he's the baddest mother fucker in all time and space!

Not sure why the entire space / broken force shield belt sequence is included. It's absolutely unnecessary. At least we get to panels of Krypto and Lori & Jerro.

Since "dating" multiple people until you decide to go steady was the norm in the 50's and 60's, I don't think Supergirl is doing anything too wrong. A teen has to keep their options open after all, until they know that person is the one.

I love that Brainiac 5 was originally created specifically to be a boyfriend for Supergirl.

On the other hand, Saturn Girl, whose power was first described as "super-mind", gets demoted to only the second-smartest in the Legion.

At the original Brainiac's next appearance, DC felt obliged to explain how he had escaped from the microverse that Superman had exiled him to... not considering that the event Brainiac 5 described might have occurred far in Superman's future! But that's the way time travel was in the Silver Age-- the 30th century ran parallel to the 20th century, not really "after".

Love this issue so much! It has a lot going for it with the introduction of so many legendary Legionnaires and some wonderful Jim Mooney art. Like it's been said by Cobie before I think, he's probably my favorite Supergirl artist during this era. No contest. So having him draw so many Legionnaires here and have a hand in their design is a great legacy to me.

Despite the silliness one may assume from a title like "The Super-Girlfriends," I'd say this is definitely an important issue for the women of Legion history. Yes, it's got the introduction of the wonderful Tinya and Luornu, but I also feel that this issue really solidifies Imra as a leader and assertive person amongst the team ... even if she was simply played up to fill the Cosmic Boy role in the starting homage to the team's first appearance.

Not to mention it solidifies Supergirl's role with the team, which I'm glad. It's been mentioned before by someone but I want to echo that I enjoy Supergirl's time and stories with the Adventure Legion far more than Superboy's. I'm uncertain if it's a novelty thing as they're infrequent. I really love how realistic and insecure Kara is and how she comes alive as a role model and even finds love with the Legion. I feel a lot of those parallels with Superboy, especially his insecurity, aren't really brought up that much in this run once he's a member or have been more stated after-the-fact by Geoff Johns and company. I also feel like Kara's tenure with the team is more realistic for a time-traveler. She comes, she goes, she gets homesick either way and goes back for a spell...

The Supergirl robot is dressed the same as in the previous story, purple skirt and green top, even though Linda is wearing a nice red and yellow ensemble. I guess nobody notices what poor, friendless Linda wears back at the orphanage.

And why doesn't Kara recognize Saturn Girl's costume from their prior encounter? Had Imra done a little mind-wipe? Kara does recognize Cos & Lightning Lad once she gets to the 30th century. You see how these early stories pave the way for future explanations.

I hadn't thought of Lu and Tinya as Betty and Veronica, but it works. It also makes sense that the three girls would be closer at the beginning of the Legion, then grow apart as more members joined and they grew older. I wonder why Violet didn't go along; maybe she was still something of an outsider.

Brainiac 5 is hauntingly familiar, not because he has green skin like Brainiac, but a resemblance in his facial features. There must not have been too many green-skinned people running around the galaxy back in Kara's time... I'd like to think, however, that she's totally un-racist, and doesn't focus on somebody's skin colour. That would have been quite a message for 1961, as the Civil Rights movement was just gaining momentum, but I don't suppose that was the writer's intention.

There's also the appearance of the dreaded Koko, a creature whose execrable namesake would appear in the reboot.

So sweet how Brainiac 5 is smitten with Kara; admiring and protective. I wonder how much of her history he knew at that point. Was he enamoured of her before they even met? She enjoys the attention and likes him, but is clearly more emotionally detached.

Love the scene with the guys working on the blue car. Are they putting some garbage into Mr. Fusion? Or is that a futuristic El Camino?

This is the first instance (in Legion stories) of the multi-coloured time stream, although it's a bit pale.

Kara's adventure doesn't end when she gets back to the 20th century; there's a mini-backup story with the forcefield belt, Krypto and her friends in Atlantis, then closing with the two girls at the orphanage that opened the story. Jerro seems to be as smitten as Brainy, while Kara is again rather detached. She sure has a lot of secrets to keep!

I read these early Supergirl stories and wonder how the character got to be such a mish-mash in later years. Maybe sweetness just didn't sell after the 1980s. The 3boot Supergirl captured something of the charm of Supergirl's Adventure-era stories, but that was short-lived.

Action #276

There's definitely a lot to love about this issue!

The girls in Orphanage!

The debut of Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl! I love how PG is always drawn as a ghost in these early appearances! I'd be happy with either of these two as one of my "super-girlfriends"!

New applicants Shrinking Violet, Bouncing Boy, and Sun Boy! The former is her normally quiet self, and the latter two both exhibit the optimism which they are both known for!

And Brainiac Five! I actually love the plot of Brainiac Shrinking entire planets. The original Brainaic story is quite possibly the grooviest Superman story of all time. If this were really the end of Brainiac, wouldn't this story violate Superman's rule against taking life? I would think throwing him into the path of the shrinking ray would qualify as killing him.

Anyway, the "I'm sorry I'm descended from such an evil man!" characterization of Brainy is my absolute favorite! Glad they drew heavily upon it for Ani-Braniac.

Exalibur, the Helmet of Achilles, and Richard the Lion-Hearted's Shield.

I dig the big ceremony welcoming new members of the Legion.

Bonus appearances by Krypto, Lori, and Jerro once we get back to the 20th century.

Definitely a solid issue, and important for the introduction of six new Legionnaires!

I never paid much attention to it before, but it looks to me like they are collecting/hauling away the Kryptonite chunks.

This is something that actually kind of annoys me about contemporary culture. It seems like at some point we've moved to asking someone out being the same thing as asking someone to be in a relationship with you, with no kind of intermediary phase.

I effectively ignored that new social norm to the detriment of many in my high school and college years!

(And seriously--I totally agree)

^^My complete inability to adjust to that norm was certainly the source of many a wacky EDE hijink over the years!

Anyway, random interesting fact about this story: note that there's no mention at all of Brainiac 5 having any sort of super-power in this issue.

Action 276


Page 1 - Two more Legionnaires right off the bat! It's really amazing, in retrospect, to think how quickly the team was growing in these early days. In this single story, an additional six characters are added to the Legion's setting (if not "officially" yet to the roster). For a line that had, until recently, been characterized by the "one-time-use" type guest stars, the recurrence of the the ever-growing Legion in the Superman line is really quite something. And the fact, as others have mentioned above, that three other characters introduced should be female, for the time, is really progressive. No wonder this series was such a quick hit.


Page 2 - Hmm... I took a quick look through some online references for the 1960-61 TV season, and nothing really leaps out that "Frankie Hudson" could be a homage of. More than likely, it's probably just a general nod to a "Dick Clark" type of TV personality.


Page 3 - Holy Mother of God! That mask is so freaking creepy! Kudos to Supergirl for not just punching Imra out and asking questions later.


Page 4 - The formal intro to Tinya and Lu. Interesting how Tinya's appearance is consistently "phantom-y" throughout this story. I wonder whether, as originally written, she was intended to permanently incorporeal... a sort of "Phantom Zone" type without the limitations.


Page 5 - Nothing much to say here. Nice reprisal and continuity reinforcement.


Page 6 - Looking at the original coloring (non-archive), we've finally got a yellow clubhouse. This time, however, the "fins" are yellow, too. We're getting there, though.

One, two, three punch with Vi, Chuck, and Dirk. Seriously, this is some unprecedented character introductions for an issue of this time.


Page 7 - Great, great, great, great grandson? Yeah... that would be Brainiac 7. Apart from all that, I know that in a few of these early stories there was some occasional narrative confusion about whether the Legion existed 1000 years in the future, or 100. These missteps usually occurred in Jerry Siegel-penned stories, so I'm almost wondering whether the "Brainiac 5" designation came about because of something like that... a momentary slip into the "100 year" mindset, where it would make more sense for only 5 generations to have passed. Whatever... it's a small thing, but I am curious.


Page 8 - Really interesting final fate for Brainac... I don't think this ever actually occurred in-story, but, still sort of cool that they had something planned out.


Page 9 - Excalibur... I can't quite remember where this is later reprised (either the Great Darkness Saga or during the Magic Wars perhaps) but I'm pretty sure this sword winds up in the Museum of Mystic Arts

Heh... that truck. I wonder who the driver is that's carting away all that kryptonite.


Page 10 - Bitchin' center panel... really just a super-cool group shot (the first?)

"Please remain... and be my girl..." Agh... heart breaking... even then Brainy knew her final fate and that each moment could be their last... so sad in 20/20 hindsight.


Page 11 - Bleh... Jerro.


Page 12 - Odd thought... but it just occurred to me that Krypto is, by this point, quite an old dog - at least 29 Earth years, right? I don't know if Kryptonian dogs were naturally more long-lived than their Terran counterparts but - if not - you've got to think that Kal had to occasionally look at Krypto - still frolicking about after nearly three decades - and ponder the ramifications on his own mortality.

The belt shatters... status quo restored.



So... yep. Another strong entry in the Supergirl sub-series of Legion tales, and an improvement on the first. Tons of cool tidbits intro-ed here that both reinforced the concept, while expanding it at the same time. For as hokey as the early Legion stories can be... fact of the matter is... they are also so good compared to a lot of their contemporary counterparts.

Great Darkness Saga. It's found at the Tower of London by the Guardian clone (they mentioned Supergirl uncovered it in her initiation). The Metachem wand was at the Museum of Mystic Arts.

My theory is that Sun Boy's costume is so good, that he was automatically bumped to Legionnaire status by either Mort, Jerry or someone else. His very next appearance, in the Tom Tanner story, he not only is the major player in the story--he actually makes the cover! Thus far, only the Founders & Star Boy had done that (not counting Mon yet as he isn't really a Legionnaire yet).

So major kudos goes to Jim Mooney for designing what to me is one of the best Legion costumes of them all. Whoever decided on red being the main color with yellow highlighting it, also made a smart decision.

When viewing all of the Legion covers in the Silver Age, one notices Sun Boy appears fairly regularly. He also appears almost non-stop in the second TPB as we'll all see soon enough. He was definitely a star early on.

I like the idea that, for some unknown amount of time, the Legion may have consisted of Garth, Rokk, Imra, Lu and Tinya. Two guys and three (or five, depending on how you count your Carggites) girls! 'Too dangerous for a girl,' my butt!

Even better, the only one who was a hand to hand fighter, a traditionally male hero staple, was Luornu!

When the 'classic five man team' seems to be 'four dudes and the chick,' and more modern seven man hero teams seem to be four to six men and one to three women (such as the Justice League, six dudes and Wonder Woman), I love the idea of teams like Gen 13, or some iterations of the Legion or the X-Men going into the other direction.

In our ongoing 21st Century Legion Project, Reboot plays up that very idea, of the first five being a core group for a good amount of time!

She likes to (time) travel around,
She'll love you but she'll put you down.
Now people let me put you wise,
Su(pergirl) goes out with other guys.

Runaround Su(pergirl) - DION and the Belmonts, 1961

Maybe it's a take on Frankie Avalon, who didn't have his own show, but was on a number of others at the time. (I only thought of his name because it was mentioned today with the death of Annette Funicello.)

I liked rereading these Supergirl stories so much, I think I'll get the two Showcase volumes of Supergirl stories.

As for Pluto, there's no reason that astronomers couldn't have defined a size limit and said that anything larger than a certain size is a planet. This would have made Eris a planet and nothing else. It would not lead to having 20 or 100 extra planets--all the other similar objects are smaller than Pluto.

Instead they basically said "we'll pick the characteristic which we want to use to exclude Pluto in the first place, and use that as part of the definition of 'planet'." Obviously, by that definition, Pluto isn't going to be a planet.

I wonder what's going to happen if someone finds an object outside Pluto's orbit which is bigger than Mercury. It's certainly possible, and if they ever find one they'll be stuck with a definition which says that it's bigger than a known planet but doesn't count as a planet.

There are moons bigger than known planets - Jupiter's moon Ganymede is bigger than Mercury. So is Titan, of Saturn [Girl] fame - it's the biggest moon in the solar system at 5550km if you include the atmosphere - and Callisto (Jupiter again) is only slightly smaller. Take a look at this 1999 chart - size, quite literally, isn't everything.

1999 science trumps 1959 science. But, I'm betting 1959 ice cream trumps 1999 ice cream.

I remember reading a book by Trina Robbins that said women were the predominant readers of comic books during World War II. The "boys club" of comic book fans didn't start to develop until the Marvel Age of the Silver Age. She praised New Mutants for having a team in which females outnumbered males, but if the Legion accomplished this twenty years earlier that is truly an accomplishment!

Reboot: I wasn't trying to be 100% literally exact. What I meant was that there's no reason astronomers couldn't have defined a size limit for things that might be considered planets at the time but whose size is questionable.

Obviously I wasn't trying to include things that would never have been called planets regardless of their size, such as moons.

Right. And now they've defined a "planet" as "not part of an asteroid belt" ("has cleared its' stellar neighbourhood" is how they phrased it, IIRC).

Personally, I disagree with the "dwarf planet" kludge - they should just have bit the bullet, given Pluto a number and called it a minor planet (i.e., asteroid), but that's what they decided.

Wow, Pluto really is small compared to the other heavenly bodies.

I'm not bothered by Pluto being "demoted." It's a hunk of rock and ice, for Pol's sake! Its feelings did not get hurt.

As for Action 276:

The annoying thing that stands out to me is that Saturn Girl dons an iron mask but does not change her costume and Kara does not recognize her, as Cramer pointed out. Even for Silver Age silliness, that really stood out as a "Huh?!" moment.

I'm also glad subsequent stories didn't dwell on Brainy's "atone for my evil ancestor" motivation. Atoning for an evil parent or sibling is such a cliche, and probably was so even as early as 1961, but to atone for ancestor who died 1000 (or even 100) years ago seems really far-fetched. It's like Brainy needed a reason to feel bad about himself.

Besides, Brainy is such a rich and complex character he doesn't need that angst.

The EEK No Wonder Imra Is Not Afraid Of Darkseid issue!

or Imra The Iron ButtFace issue.

That is one scary mask. HOLY SHIJEEZUS!!!

And Supergirl is trying out for the name Ordinary Girl since she can't recognize Imra from the neck down in the same damn costume. We get it Kara. I woulda pissed myself seeing that mask.


whew. glad that's over. The BLACK EYES!!!! AHHHHH!


Also, Brainiac 5 is a playa! He threw down for Kara and he wasn't even a full member yet! I've never seen him so suave!


It is nice to have super girl friends!

Jerro smells like fish.

Janice and Lu look really similar ... it's ok they're both cute ... although strange they have the same hairstyle 1000 years apart ... Elaine however seems like she has self esteem issues.

Superboy #89 not only introduces a critical component of the Legion mythos, but a critical component to the Superman family in general, especially the Silver Age. Mon-El arrives in a classic story that is IMO excellent from start to finish. For the past decade, Superboy writers had done stories in which Superboy encounters a similarly powered boy, and with this story they have perfected it.

It also continues the long tradition of Superboy dealing with the innate loneliness of being Super. Here, we see him get one step closer to addressing it, which will culminate in the Pete Ross stories they are about to ensue.

Mon-El is magnificent. A classic costume--simply played with a reverse color scheme to Superboy--and by story's end he has a nice combination of power and pathos. What's amazing is how many times he shows up in Superman, Action, Jimmy Olsen and other places. I'm sure there are a few stories I haven't ever read and don't know about where he's shown up somewhere.

Evidently, Mon-El also has super-intelligence, explaining his quick learning of English and knowing what a riverboat is.

Btw, Papp is a really underrated artist. He does great facial expressions and very intricate backgrounds. His composition is actually reminiscent of Steve Ditko in that sense. You can see Superboy's eagerness to have a brother, which makes it all the more heartbreaking. At the end of part 1, when Krypto doesn't recognize Mon, Superboy's face is full of panic--you see he immediately knows he's been wrong but refuses to admit it to himself. One page later, he clearly is projecting his anger towards Mon after feeling so betrayed.

The Bob Cobb identity, and the Kent's commitment to the ruse, are pretty great. Mon looks exactly as you'd expect a traveling salesman to look in 30's.

Ah, the reason for the "Mon-El" moniker. Er, sounds good Clark.

Superboy's side trip to Ancient Egypt is pretty wild. I wish there were more of these. The history is a little funky--4,000 BC is a loooooong time ago. But hey, it's still awesome!

Btw, Miss Joyce is pretty hot!

Meanwhile, a gang of crooks is raining lead balls with a catapult down on Smallville. Which crooks do, from time to time, I guess.

But don't worry. That is downright plausible in comparison to the Jack in the Box Monster two pages later. Say what? Someone has to post that panel. It's batshit crazy in a way only the Metal Men and Wonder Woman usually achieved.

The final 4-5 pages hit the reader like a bucket of ice water. Superboy has made a tragic mistake and cost himself the chance for the brother he always wanted. Mon's story of meeting Jor-El and Lara is great, and adds yet another layer to the Superman mythos.

I wonder if the original plan was for Superman to cure Mon, and then it occurred to Uncle Mort that he would be a perfect fit in the Legion? Certainly seems that way.

I think this is also the first appearance of the Phantom Zone? It arrived as a throwaway concept yet is so rife with possibility that it immediately would be set to recurring use. It's a great idea too--the Superman writers should use it more often.

Robert Bernstein wrote this one, as he did a lot of Superboy and Adventure stories. He did a great job--while not a "true Legion" story, its the best written story yet (if you choose to ignore the catapulting lead balls and an alien weaponized jack in the box).

PZ first appeared in Adventure #283 ('61):

http://www.comicvine.com/adventure-comics-283/4000-126389/

Superboy #89

Another story that's kind of a re-write of an old story, though while it borrows the origin and color scheme of Mon-El from "Superman's Big Brother" in Superman #80, the plot diverges almost completely from the original otherwise.

I suspect the more direct influence on this story was, however, was Superboy #80, in which Superboy meets Supergirl for the first time. The concept of Superboy having another super-powered youth that he could play with was probably too good to pass up the chance to introduce another possible playmate, and I'm betting that's the motivation for this story.

I also suspect the original plan was to have Mon be able to leave the Phantom Zone on occasion to show up for a story, thus explaining why they gave him the "Bob Cobb, Traveling Salesman" identity.

Anyway, I've written before about some of the bizarreness central to the plot of this story. Kal basically decides on rather flimsy evidence that the newcomer must be his never-before-heard-of older brother, even going so far as invent explanations that involve his rapidly aging on Krypton but being in suspended animation from Krypton's destruction until now in order to get it to work. And then, when the evidence starts coming in that suggest Mon isn't really a Kryptonian, Kal decides he must be an evil imposter for grudgingly going along with this crazy theory!

Anyway, tons of groovy bits in the tale. In case anyone is wondering, the Rhodopis bit it totally for real.

And dare I suggest that this giant jack-in-the-box-monster may mean that this story is actually the first appearance of the Puppet Planetoid?

Certainly better than the half-hearted explanation Superboy gives!

Oh, and they really should've included the Superboy meets Supergirl story in the Archives as well! It's critical to the entire structure of the Superman family, including the LSH.

Don't they skip the Dev-Em intro as well? No direct Legion reference in the story, but it does play into the mythos down the road.

Yeah, the Dev-Em issues are definitely among the should-have-been-included stories.

I'm surprised they didn't try to fill up the first Archive with enough per-series Legion stuff so that they could begin the second Archive with Adventure #300, which would seem like the natural thing to do.

I like the idea too, since men usually outnumber women on teams, but ... did Colossal Boy, Cham, Invisible Kid, and Star Boy appear first in history or are the archives out of order?

Did the ordering of membership appear first in the Who's Who?

I believe the first five members were first established in the origin story in Superboy #147. It may have been mentioned in a lettercol previously, though. I know the fact that Rokk, Imra, and Garth were the founders was first established in the lettercol.

Superboy #89

- Oh god, I giggled like a 13 year old when Mon-El was all "you broke my bat with your ball". I NEED TO GROW UP LIKE NOW.

- Why would Superboy need his x-ray vision to tell that Mon-El is unconscious? That seems...excessive to me. XD

- HOLY CRAP IS THAT METAL BIG! Mon has some serious bling-bling.

- Um...Superboy? Is it really a good idea to tell a man who has no memories and is a big woozy to GO STAND IN A FIRE?

- Tsk, tsk. Cheating on your paper by flying to the past! SHAAAAAMMMMEEE. I expect better.

- The Phantom Zone is a surprisingly terrible punishment for the "civilized" Krypton. I mean, sentencing someone to utter solitude and misery for 30 years (or however long they deemed acceptable) seems very cruel. I guess you might have some company in that there are other criminals there...but it seems really mean.

- POOR MON-EL. He spends so much time in the Phantom Zone throughout comic history. I guess DC views him as a character they can insert into any period in history between the 21st and the 31st centuries. Technically he's alive through it all.

I had the same thought, but then I realized it's actually drawn as enlarged because Supes is using his microscopic vision.

OOOOHHHHHH! I hadn't even thought of that! So Superboy can use more than one type of "vision" at the same time? He'd have to use x-ray and microscopic to see the metal under Mon's clothes, right?

Superboy 89


The Cover - Again with the purple background. I always thought the "Silver Age cover tricks" were a bit dubious in their effectiveness, but after going through this sequential re-read, the purple thing really seems to work on me, totally catching my eye.

So, too does Mon El's costume, but I'll save that until a head-on shot of it.

The Jack in the Box creature... well, that's just... um... hmm. I really like Eryk's theory about its possible Puppet Planetoid origins. Those kids are all about the toys. Speaking of which... doesn't the design of the creature sort of remind you of those freaky old "Obie" stress dolls:



...which, by the way, were first manufactured in the late 50's. I'm not claiming the Jack in the Box creature is directly influenced... but it certainly seems possible, doesn't it?


Page 1 - Just the set-up. At first glance, from behind, Mon's costume seems to be just a color negative reverse of Superboy's but, as we see shortly, there is more going on that makes all the difference.


Page 2 - A "lightning-like" change? Gasp... "L.L"!

Strange design of Mon's craft... it almost looks like a torpedo. I'd get really claustrophobic in a thing that small.


Page 3 - Mon's costume... just the best. One of my all time favorite comic outfits. That Mandarin collar, the belted cutaway shirt, those cape attachment discs. I don't know what it is, but something in the overall combination just cries out "nobility" to me.

I'm not versed enough in the finer minutia of Superboy stories to know how exactly he can specifically recognize Jor-El's handwriting but... whatever... that's far from the maddest thing that happens in this story.


Page 4 - "an atomic chain reaction at the core of the planet" Yeah... I think it's time to take Fat Cramer's advice and start a new thread for my "Unknown Spaceman of Venus" conspiracy theory. This panel is important.


Page 5 - "Gosh... I... I don't know." Trust those instincts, Mon... this is crazy talk!

That is some pronounced chin Mon's got in that last panel. Almost "Bruce Campbell" territory.


Page 6 - Holy cow, shut up already, Clark! This rambling explanation just gets more desperate and convoluted the more Mon pokes reasonable holes into it. I almost feel bad for Clark... he just wants so badly to not be alone in the universe.

Look at the "crazy eyes" Clark's got going on in panel 4, and how Mon incredulous Mon looks.

Is he really, "at least 18"? Did they waive something to let him into the Legion later on?


Page 7 - Really, Clark? An 18-year-old traveling brush salesman is plausible?

"Bob Cobb"... "Mon"-El... The Kents are bad at naming.


Page 8 - "Gasp... there are two super-youths". It wasn't so remarkable when there were four wandering around a few issues back.


Page 9 - "He's keeping up the pretense that he's my older brother" The pretense that you convinced him of, Clark!

"Yes, reader! Who is this cunning stranger...?" Now just stop that, omniscient narrator, you're not helping!


Page 10 - Heh… You think you made enough pancakes there, Ma Kent?


Page 11 - Nice sidebar story with the whole "Rhodopis" thing but… if Clark - as his thoughts indicate - already ran across the real Cinderella in his trips to the past, why does he have to go again now?


Page 12 – This has nothing to do with the story here, of course, but just an interesting little LMB thing… so they are saying that the third pyramid at Giza was built in honor of Rhodopis. That happens to be the "Menkaure" pyramid which – in LMB lore – is the ancient identity of the LMB poster, "dedman"!


Page 13 – Magnificent Lana… drifting gracefully through the air like a bird. All is as it should be,


Page 14 – Seems like there has to be a easier way to label that brush with super-powers, but whatevs.

"The rat! He’s trying to take my girl from me". The girl whose affection you continually spurn, Clark? She is so not "your girl".


Page 15 – They are robbing the bank… with a CATAPULT!!! This has to be, at once, one of the coolest - and least efficient – bank robberies ever.


Page 16 – "SPA-ANNNG," indeed. Words fail them both.


Page 17 – Reproduced for posterity, the most beautiful sentence ever written:

"It’s a jack-in-the-box monster… probably left behind in a space wreck by a weird race of space people who make crazy toys!" - Robert Bernstein, poet


Page 18 - "We learned to care for you deeply". Apparently, Mon slipped a upside down "Lara Lor-Van" monogram onto the back of a space-brush at some point.

So... I guess the "suspended animation" part of Clark's wild speculations must have at least been true, right?


Page 19 - "I'll free you some day when I grow up to be Superman." (As Mon fades out.. "OK... I'll be waitin... wait... why 'when you grow up'? How about you start working on that right noooooooooow?" ...aaaaand gone).




I have mixed feelings on this story. I love Mon-El... love the costume, the tragic nature of his Phantom Zone stay, the whole concept of "Superboy... but more mature." I just wish he had been intro-ed in a slightly less bizarre story.

Clark acts so irrationally here that it's only by justifying his behavior in my mind as "a near-nervous breakdown at the thought of being alone in the universe" that it makes any sort of sense to me. I shouldn't have to go to those mental lengths to enjoy it. I feel like just a little more care could have elevated this story into something special, and not just another "people acting crazy" thing.

In any case, I do love Mon's addition to the Superman family - and what came after - and, because of that, I give this story a begrudging pass.

Something else else nobody mentioned about the Mon-El story: the error where Superboy exposes Mon-El to Kryptonite in a lead box and it doesn't affect him. Since the box is made of lead, it should have.

Paul later had Kryptonite be part of the anti-lead serum, possibly because of this story (obviously it must mean that Kryptonite prevents lead from affecting Mon-El somehow.)

When Geoff Johns reintroduced Mon-El a few years ago before the New 52, he fixed the story so that Mon-El was affected by the box.

I can only think of this issue as the

How Cute Was The Mon-El Superboy Bromance and/or Romance



not forever but for a two parter surely!

Could be called the Superboy watches Mon-El get undressed and dressed issue too!

I never noticed how Ordinary Boy is cute, he has wavy hair and glasses like my Mr. Peebs. Except Ordinary Boy is usually so annoying.

and ... Ordinary Boy looks a bit tubby next to the taller broader chested bang haired Mon-El.

THEY HAD A SLUMBER PARTY!!!

I always figured it was just a matter of quantity.

Like the lead box probably affected him slightly, but it took the massive boulders to do him in. After all, that box couldn't have possibly been the first time he came across lead in his time in Smallville. It was the 60's after all... every painted wall was probably packed with it.

There's a certain amount of illogicality in the whole vulnerability to lead idea, anyway. It can't simply be that, like kryptonite, the mere presence of lead affects Mon-El, since lead, unlike Kryptonite, isn't radioactive. So, presumably, in order for lead to work on him it actually has to get into his system. One could speculate that the real problem with the lead meteorites is that their impact creates dust which he then breathes in, which is what actually poisons him.

I always imagined that Mon-El has a whole bunch of adventures exploring space before landing on Krypton. Add to this potential periods in the intervening 1000 years in which he may have temporarily left the Phantom Zone, and his post-Legion career of making the fringes of known space safe for settlers, and he's definitely one of the Legionnaires with the most potential stories to be told away from the Legion.

Not too much to add to what's been posted on this story. It is a great introduction of Mon-el.

I'd forgotten his name came from Monday. So should it be pronounced "Mun-el"? I always said "Mawn-el", not a big deal but it's a bit odd in my head now.

The White House, Professor Lang and Chief Parker (and loose wiring) are all on the same level when it comes to signalling Superboy with a flashing lamp. Sounds like more conspiracy material to me. Lang and Parker must have secret CIA jobs or be special advisers to the President!

Criminals with catapults and a Jack-in-the-Box monster - words fail me.

This is the first instance of Ma Kent's famous pancakes. They'll appear several more times in Legion history and I have no doubt they were a fixture in the Superboy series (don't have those comics to check).

Superboy is somewhat cavalier about sending Mon-el into the Phantom Zone, populated by criminals. And Mon-el, fortunately, doesn't know how long he's going to be stuck there. It's sad to know the future.

These stories are certainly packed with a lot of material. Lana's ballet class, Pa Kent's refrigerator problems, the Cinderella story - all extraneous to the central plot but giving a greater sense of Superboy's daily life.

I said "Mawn-el" for years, but have recently moved towards "Mun-El".

Actually, there is a radioactive isotope of lead. It decays by beta emission. But why should electrons of a specific energy be the Daxamite's weakness?

Kryptonite radioactivity supposedly "poisons" Superman by driving the sunlight out of his cells. But can a tiny fragment of rock no bigger than your thumb really compete with the energy output of the sun?

The best assumption to make is that these are, as they say in German "zauberstoff"-- magic materials that do what they do, because...

I like Superboys nonchalant tone: "Two-headed, fire-breathing jack-in-the-box monster? Yeah, I run into that crap lying around all the time." (I paraphrase)

Maybe the presence of lead in close proximity to Daxamites absorbs something in their body chemistry that's necessary for survival.

If that comic were written today, Superboy would just have ripped Mon-El's clothes off in a fight.

Sounds hot to me! XD!!!!

Handwaving, pseudo-scientific explanation for why lead affects Daxamites the way it does.
At least under a “yellow” sun, Daxamites operate on solar energy. (Flash Fact: Earth’s sun is actually a lovely teal blue. It only appears yellow from Earth due to atmospheric diffraction.)

The total amount of solar energy falling on an average-sized human being during daytime, depending on cloud cover, etc., is between 100-200 watts of power. Since an ordinary human runs a physiology at around 100 watts, it is easy to see that this is insufficient to explain the power levels displayed by Daxamites.

Rather, the presence of a yellow sun causes a Daxamite to establish a quantum-entanglement / subspace link / wormhole relationship with the star in question, enabling him/her to draw directly on a substantial portion of the star’s total power: possibly as much as one ten-billionth of the total. (This is a huge amount of energy.)

For some reason, Daxamites also have a weird affinity for the element lead. Their physiology mistakes lead for another star, causing them to try to process the energy output of the metal, which is minimal to non-existent. This causes terrible, immediate enervation. In addition, the un-metabolized solar energy still remaining in the body causes permanent, irreversible, and irreparable damage to the cells of the body, analogous to the way that high levels of un-metabolized glucose causes permanent, irreversible, and irreparable damage to the cells of a diabetic human. (Fortunately for both Mon-El and Bouncing Boy, this damage is no longer irreparable for 30th-century medicine.)

Mon-El’s anti-lead serum prevents his body from forming this affinity to lead; it also seems to allow him to maintain his link with other, distant stars when exposed to a red sun.

Kryptonians do not experience such cellular damage when exposed to kryptonite, as the kryptonite radiation forces the stored solar radiation back along the sub-space “conduit” into the sun. In the same way, Daxamites exposed to kryptonite and lead simultaneously do not experience the painful physiological damage of un-metabolized solar radiation, and exhibit resistance to the other harmful effects of lead poisoning.

Klar, that explanation works for me! It's better than John's explanation for the yellow weakness in GL rings!

I checked, and following his first appearance, Mon-El appears 7 months later in Supergirl's feature. From there, Mon appears almost every month from Jan 1962 to Feb 1963 where he leaves the Phantom Zone permanently. This year was *the* year for the Phantom Zone villains and Mon-El.

So, as mentioned, anyone with access to Superman #149 should check it out! It's an Imaginary Story, but its one of the best Superman / Luthor stories ever told IMO. The story is one the saddest Silver Age stories and includes the single worst betrayal Luthor ever pulls off. It also features the Legion.

"If there is a Legion of Super-Heroes, there MUST be a Legion of Super-Villains!". Perhaps the best foreshadowing ever in comics! And the promise made to fans didn't take long to come true--and boy, does it deliver.

Lets take a moment to recognize something incredibly brilliant about what Uncle Mort & Company do with this story. It features Superman, and a grown up Legion. That's quite a decision to go forward with--Superboy, Supergirl, the Legion, Superman, the Adult Legion. It's complex! And in that complexity, there is brilliance! Mort trusted his young readers to not be idiots, and actually be intrigued to think about how that all works. And? SUCCESS. Because kids aren't idiots. Flash forward to today and DC can't trust its grown up readers to figure all this out. Because they treat us like morons. And a lot of us sometimes. Anyway, end rant.

The Superman family used time travel to their advantage to give readers glimpses into the future. Rather than spoil endings, it just made things more intriguing. Later, we learn Imra and Garth are married. In Lois Lane, we learn Pete Ross went to college at Raleigh with Lois. It was an under-states approach but it made it all feel connected and exciting.

The LOSV at first is the paradigm of Cosmic / Saturn / Lightning, continuing the early stories continues use of that. The cover, in a flash of genius, reflects the first appearance. While I much prefer the "young LOSV" version, I can't fault the strait forward mentality here in making those choices. Excellent case of creativity meeting business / marketing sense.

Being a Superman story, we get some great Curt Swan art, with his frequent collaborator, Sheldon Moldoff on inks. To be totally honest, Swan isn't my favorite. I don't dislike his art (how could you? It's so pleasant), but it doesn't get me as excited as Papp, Mooney and especially my favorite of the Silver Age Legion, John Forte. But as I said, there is little to complain about; Swan knew how to draw a good Superman story.

On to the story!
- Luthor fits in so well with the LOSV

- Cosmic King's power is uber powerful! He is really Progenitor level from the get-go. I've always wondered why they choose to give him a different power set than Cos.

- Mekt is introduced as Garth's brother, paving the way for a fantastic dynamic. That is pure Jerry Siegel world-building at his finest.

- Saturn Queen, like her opposite, holds a regal and cold beauty that makes her stand out in every panel she's in. She has femme Fatale written all over her. In fact she looks a little like Joan Crawford circa 1938.

- I love that Siegel drops the off handed comment about an Atomic War costing a great deal of lost history. It's what everyone feared in 1961. And it goes on to be a significant part of Legion lore.

- how about Mekt destroying Orphan City? And then threatening to kill a school bus full of kids? Viscous!

- a random walk-on character saves Superman on page 7! Who was that guy? I demand he be given honorary member status to the adult LSH!

- there's something so incredibly noble about the Founders drawing lots to die in Superman's place. Like A Tale of Two Cities, Spartacus and other similar great stories, the act is amazingly moving. It shows the camaraderie of the Legion and the love all three founders have for Superman, even though they haven't seen him in years. Damn if it doesn't get me all sappy all these years later.

- and of course, its Imra who will die in his place? Was there ever a greater super heroine? Was there ever anyone tougher and more noble? Fans may hate her, but I say they must respect her!

- I love Saturn Queen turning on her colleagues...but I hate the reason why. I like to just think its because she's a good person caught up in a situation spiraling out of control. And later, she falls in love with Tenz!

- any time a story ends with the last panel featuring a jailed villain saying "Bah!", chalk it up as a good ending!

Again, pretty terrific story. This entire week is a good one!

*btw, this issue also contains one of the best Krypto stories, where Krypto battles Titano! There's time travel, alien invasions, Krypto being a jerk but then owning up to it, and of course the lovable Super-Ape himself. You know, why the heck wasn't there ever a "Titano and the Legion of Super-Heroes!" story?

Having Imra also be allowed an equal chance at being the one to sacrifice her life was a good decision. Certainly not too dangerous for a girl!



Given the villain's intentions, it sure would have been a hard sell that Saturn Queen was really a good person. Seems like quite a stretch, but I can forgive that. I do like Saturn Queen being good.

Perhaps her turning good here was the reason why she never appeared as an LSV member until the TMK era, unlike with Lightning Lord and (I think) Cosmic King?

Superman #147

So, here we get the first appearance of not only the Legion of Super-Villains, but the adult version of the Legion of Super-Heroes as well. And the first of many cover homages to Adventure #247.

Man, Luthor has sure been keeping that possibility of a future Legion of Super-Villains in his head for awhile! You'd think the warden would be smart enough not to fall for the old "I'd like to help fix convicts' broken radios!" gag.

Luthor's presents from the future: a ray gun, a force shield helmet, and a flying belt. Everything one needs to escape from prison!

I thought the LSV showing up in a flying saucer seemed strange. At first I thought it was simply just not a standard ship design from the Legion's time, but then I realized it's also just weird that they apparently brought their ship here from the future!

While I was reading this I was kind of thinking that it might have been interesting if the LSV had shown up to recruit Luthor paralleling the LSH coming back to recruit Superboy, bur that story is fine as it is.

I've never understood why Cosmic King's powers were changed to be different than Cosmic Boy's. It just seems so random. Note that both he and Cosmic Boy are depicted as having powers based in their eyes in this story.

And we get the first version of the origin of the Ranzz's. And the first of many designs for the ever-evolving lightning beast. I'm not exactly sure what the point of a monster with the "frightful ability to transfer some of its lightning power to its victims... like an infectious disease!" is. That's got to be the dumbest defensive mechanism for a monster ever! Anyway, I suspect that the implication here is supposed to be that Korbal is their homeworld, though this of course gets changed later.

Saturn Queen comes from Saturn, where there has been no crime for centuries! There's a bit of irony here, considering the number of super-criminals we've seen over the years from Saturn.

Love Superman putting together Orphan City. You've got to love the way Silver Age DC buildings apparently can just be picked up and carried around as well!

Man, Lightning Lord is vicious! I love the weird illusory space-monster SQ projects, though, er, about that Kryptonians can only be hypnotized/mind controlled by other Kryptonians thing...

Lightning Man, Cosmic Man, and Saturn Woman to the rescue! Or not, as the case may be! That's one huge chunk of metal Cosmic Man hurtles at Cosmic King!

Anyway, Saturn Woman draws the short straw, and must sacrifice herself to save Superman! In the light of later characterization, you can't help but wonder if she didn't rig the contest so that she would be the one sacrificed.

And, so, Saturn Queen actually saves the day, after Superman negates her criminal tendencies with the help of fragments from Saturn's rings. This, of course, foreshadows the grooviness to come from a reformed Saturn Queen 5YL!

Anyway, definitely an important story! I've always been fond of the Adult Legion, though their presence does create the exact sort of confusing continuity headaches that they apparently wished to avoid by ignoring the "children of the originals" bit from Supergirl's first encounter with the Legion!

Possibly, except for the bizarre fact that she does continually show up with the Adult LSV, still a villain!

He should've joined the Super-Pets!

Superman 147


The Cover - the first Legion cover homage! As Cobie noted above, Saturn Queen bears a striking resemblance to Joan Crawford. I might be misremembering, but I seem to recall reading (in The Legion Companion, maybe?) that was intentional - that Swan used her as the basis for Saturn Queen's look, as well as basing Lightning Lord on actor, Cesar Romero. Or... I could have just imagined all that... I really can't remember.


Page 1 - A lot of people note that it's sort of odd that Cosmic King's power isn't a direct analog to Cosmic Boy's (or Cosmic Man, whatever). I sort of feel that was actually a mistake.

Take a look at the intro panel... Cosmic Man is clearly transmuting that piece of equipment. I speculate that the creative team accidentally started this story under a faulty assumption that Cosmic Man was a transmuter... followed suit by making Cosmic King the same... then (with nine pages already in the can) realized their mistake and had to correct it (at least for Cosmic Man... it was already too late to correct the Cosmic King pages). I feel like they just made the best of a mistake, and had to live with the mismatched powers from that point on. Just a theory.


Page 2 - BEAUTIFUL Swan artwork. That is some film noir shadowing going on right there.

"Bwannngg"? Is that really the sound a prison wall makes when it crumbles?


Page 3 - Ooh... Cosmic King is from Venus, you say? aaaaand....


Page 4 - Venusians consider transmutation evil, you say? So much so that they would banish a person for performing it. Very interesting. OK, Fat Cramer... "Unknown Spaceman conspiracy thread" to follow shortly!

By the way... that Lightning Monster is so just a guy in a rubber suit.


Page 5 - "You didn't die?!!" "Sigh. Yes, Lex... I died. [smacks Luthor in the head] Of course I didn't die, ya boob! I'm standing right here!"


Page 6 - "People will keep these toy plastic gliders for years, in happy remembrance of today!" It's just a carnival tchotchke, brother... maybe go a little easy on the prose.


Page 7 - Gold? OK, now they might hold on to them for years.


Page 8 - Wait... they actually built this "Life/Death" machine, complete with hidden room and sliding panel, just to add theatricality to killing Superman? Pfft... villains.


Page 9 - No... stop complicating the process, Lex... just kill him!


Page 10 - What? No... don't let him go!!! Just kill them both!


Page 11 - Siiiiigh! Oh, Lex... will you ever learn?

As an aside, the entire twist is predicated on Superman's revelation upon being told Saturn Queen's origin... but... Superman never even heard that story... she only told it to Luthor. Shrug... whatever.




So... silly Silver Age nonsense aside... a good story with great art. There were a lot of solid Superman artists back in the day, but the gold standard was definitely set by Swan.

The Legion's story expands in all directions... the first teaming with Superman, the first glimpse into the Legion's own future, the establishment of their equal but opposite numbers (er... except for Cosmic King, see above), three origin tales (or four, really), all this... and Luthor, too. Sign me up.

Actually, on pg. 8 we read that "After the Super-Beings gloatingly tell all about themselves and the origin of their super-powers..."

So, apparently, they do tell him the exact same set of stories they tell Luthor, only the story fast forwards through that part.

Except Cosmic King seems to be using magnetism in that panel, so it looks like they just got the characters' powers reversed.

So, that Eryk Davis Ester dude is a pretty cool cat, and I like his ideas. Therefore: I preset some brief reviews on quasi-related Legion stories that aren't in the Archive!

Adventure #276 - "Supergirl in Smallville!" It's the first meeting in of Superboy and Supergirl though the Clark never realizes who she is. Using the same casual usage of time travel as the early LSH stories, Kara goes back in time to prove she is good at covering her secret identity. With an incredibly quick explanation, the Kent's are on board, showing they have learned to go with the flow when it comes to this nonsense. What ensues is a classic Jerry Siegel comedy of errors that is chalk full of charm. And then, the ending shows Kara making a blunder that makes her realize Superman was right and she needs to become better at being careful--and until then, she must remain an orphan. Wow, what a rough ending full of pathos! This is a great little story.

This issue is still early enough where you get two back-ups: Congorilla (pushed out if Action Comics by Supergirl) and Aquaman. Green Arrow, since he was also in back-ups in Worlds Finest, has been pushed out by Congorilla. I wish anthologies sold more--I love the format. I may be the last person left alive that prefers Congo Bill to Congorilla; the golden age adventures of Bill were thrilling and pulpy while Congorilla feels is very strait-forward. In Aquaman, we see young Aqua-Lad looking about 8 years old and being so adorable its alarming. He is studying for a test at school (don't ask) when he gets amnesia (don't ask) and gets bailed out by Aquaman, some whales and other some fish (don't ask). What kid hasn't feared this happening?

Adventure #288 - "The Knave of Krypton!". I've never read the first appearance of Dev Em before, probably never realizing we owned it since it has a Bizarro World cover. What stands out about this story--so much so that I almost can't talk about anything--is what a freaking little bastard Dev Em is! Bloody Liberty! He might be the biggest jerk in the entire Silver Age! I desperately wished the LOSV or Kru-El could murder him or something. Not only does he mess up Superboy's life and ruin his reputation, he hurts Ma and Pa, and Lana too to boot! And then he GETS AWAY WITH IT. He literally flies off into space to deal with the ramifications. No comeuppance at all...and he does t reappear for like 3-4 years in the Legion's time.

Also immensely noteworthy: at story's end, after Dev Em has made everyone believe Superboy has committed terrible crimes and should be forced to leave Earth, Chief Parker has one of his biggest moments ever when he outright lies and tricks the public. He tells them Red Kryptonite made Superboy do those terrible things since they won't believe the Dev Em. Think about that. Nowadays, fans would lose their minds with that ending; some would demand Chief Parker be cast as the villain hereafter. Me...I kind of like that patronizing, father knows best approach. The public too easily is reduced to mindless rabble. Something else else had to be done to keep Superboy on Earth! Tough decisions are needed!

I skipped the Bizarro story, as they aren't really for me. I never really got into it the character and it wasn't until Rhino (another LW poster who is pretty damn insightful!) put it in perspective for me about an absurdist comedy that I began to see the value of it.

Adventure #289 - " Clark Kent's Super-Father!" in which it appears Jonathan Kent has gained super-powers and is replacing Superboy...all the while causing an unbridgeable rift between them! Wait, why read this one, Cobie? Well, this is the first appearance of Jax Ur, one of the most classic Phantom Zone villains who appeared like 12 times a year from 1962-65! What I didn't realize was that Jax Ur only is revealed on the second to last page, in which we get his origin quickly squished in for the finale. It's a good one--blowing up Krypton's moon--but it's like they thought of it as the last minute considering how rushed the finale was. I'd say this was one of the weaker Adventure stories I've read. The Legion statuettes appear but no Mon-El.

The back-up features Bizarro meeting Titano! I'm always up for a Titano appearance! I demand an untold story of Titano meeting the Legion by Mike Allred be told!

One random thing about the Bizarros I just realized the other day:

A standard feature of the lettercols in those days was "Bits of Bizarro Business", in which readers sent in suggestions for quirky Bizarro World stuff.

This, of course, in turn inspired a read to suggest a "Bits of Legionnaire Business" column, and another reader to suggest it could consist of candidate Legionnaires, and such important Legion characters as Polar Boy, the Heroes of Lallor, Blockade Boy, and Nasal Hazel were born!

Back to "The Legion of Super-Villains"

Luthor: "Incredibly, my invention can broadcast my voice, through the time barrier, into the far-distant future!"

Yes, Luthor, that's called a 'radio'.

And even at this moment, inhabitants of Chi Ceti A, Kaus Borealis, Zubenelgenubi Aa & B, Omega Sagittarii A, and Aanka A are enjoying "Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy".

... and Cosmic King, in his first appearance, also wears a helmet.

In my personal imaginary timeline, this story occurs after Eve Aries marries Tenzil Kem, when they left Saturn without taking the precaution of having Eve wear her saturn-ring-dust-necklace. Of course, she comes back pregnant with Luthor's baby (who Tenzil willingly adopts and raises as his own) who ends up becoming the "descendant of Luthor" who joins the Legion in the Adult Legion stories.

Curse you, Ester! I should have realized your comb would be finer-toothed than my own!

Nice catch!

Looking at it again, I think you're absolutely right. If I really wanted to stretch it... it could be an image of Cosmic King creating the metal thing by transmutation while Cos destroys it by the same... but the motion lines seem to refute that.

It's just so darned unsatisfying, though!

I just find it so odd that she showed up with the Adult team, but not with the, er., non-Adult team set in the team's present! Weird!

100% AGREE! What Dev-em did was much worse than a simple prank. Good grief, he seemed like he had such a hate-on for Superboy! Superboy's reaction when he showed up in the future with the Legion was completely justifiable and understandable.

How is it that Jor-el can only save his infant son but his Juvenile Delinquent neighbor can save his whole family from Krypton's destruction?

Dev-em was never more than a air car stealing Juvenile Delinquent looking for kicks, do you think that being one of the few survivors of a planet wide disaster would have changed his attitude. I guess it did somewhere between his 1st & 2nd appearance.

muther trucker! I have fallen behind ... I blame Imra in the Iron Mask.

I love this idea! It makes perfect sense.

Did we ever see Venus again in the Legion stories? Their judges certainly have great headgear, and I find that wall mural (or rug?) on the wall very peculiar.

The LSV were the first to have anti-grav flight belts, although they used jet packs themselves. Maybe that's why flight belts became the gift of rejection after the Legion adopted them later. After all, the LSV gave Luthor the boot. But what happened to jet packs? Outlawed by the U.P.? Unsafe At Any Speed?

Imra shows an early tendency to want to die for other heroes; perhaps she has a death wish.

I'll always wonder why the LSV didn't pursue a policy of selecting members with exact parallel powers to the Legionnaires. Maybe the writers thought it would be too monotonous. There was that later story in which Calorie Queen and other Legion duplicates fought the Legion and a few one-on-one disputes between people with the same power/from the same planet, but no mirror group of villains.

And thanks for those summaries, Cobie!

I don't think I could ever get used to "Munnel". Even with the second syllable stressed, it still sounds odd, like someone mispronouncing "Manila".

When people wonder why we don't pronounce the first "n" in "mountain" or why, in English, we pronounce the "n" and "g" in "finger" as a digraph (a single sound) and then repeat the "g" separately (in German, they're pronounced only as a digraph), I always think, "Because it sounds better that way." I think the same is true for Mawn-El. Even his nickname sounds better as "Mawn" than "Mun."

When I reread Archives #1 last summer something that stuck out was how much I enjoyed the Tom Tanner story, otherwise known by its awesome title "Secret of the Seventh Superhero!".

In addition to the great title, it also has a fantastic cover--the best so far IMO. Sun Boy just has one of the best costumes. It's also great to see non-Founders recurring for the first time.

As Eryk pointed out to me, this issue is another redo that works in the Legion to the story, though from what I understand some more subtle tweaks also make this one better.

This is my favorite story in Archives #1, though its really a Superboy story with an LSH cameo. It's just one of those classic, well done Superman stories that the Golden, Atomic and Silver Ages did so well. What I like most about it is Tom Tanner himself, who I wish we saw again. Though he starts off very cliched, he undergoes a true change in the story: he feels the love of a family and realizes how wonderful it is; he gains the respect of his piers; he shows a true and honest appreciation for learning (a true 1950's ideal) and he ultimately decides to do the right thing.

Random things:

Imra's costume is shown as a skirt on the opening splash and I like it.

Tom Tanner as a teen stowing away on freight trains: a true, regular occurrence in the depression. Kept out of his biographies for years, this was also Robert Mitchum's life at 13-15, until he ended up in a chain gang somewhere in the South.

The coincidence that the robots don't work is just another one of those ongoing Superman tropes that you have to accept is part of the charm.

Since Ex started a tally, this counts as Ma Kent's Pancake scene #2.

Love that within 6 panels, Tom is calling Mrs. Kent "Ma" by accident. In a short story, there is no time to waste!

There still harping on the one new member per year rule. This is probably the last mention?

My archives say the writer of this tale is unknown, but to me this is clearly Jerry Siegel. All of the coincidences playing out make the usage of montage pure Siegel genius. Only he would have Clark allowing Tom Tanner to continue the ruse so he can help Sun Boy.

Good for Tom, punching that jerk. I firmly believe physical violence should be deployed by kids as much as possible in those scenarios. Too bad Lana set that sucker up to take a beating.

Those horrible sea creatures seem awfully close to the beach. Yeah, now I know why I don't go too far out into the water.

My one major complaint is I hate that the robot "turned Tom good", as this was wholly unnecessary. It really adds nothing but detracts a major aspect of the story.

Naturally the Legion has a secret handshake! Why, the LMB does too! When I next meet several of you, I'll know you are who you claim to be by it. This was invented when Stu met Lash.

Adventure 290

"The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero" is certainly an awesome title!

People wonder how Superman pulls off disguising himself with just a pair of glasses, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that there's just so many freaking people running around who resemble him!

I wonder how the budget of Smallville Police Dept. affords to have someone drive Chief Parker around in his police chief car.

Milkmen are groovy.

Sigh. I miss the days of getting up early before school to go to my secret laboratory and work on science projects.

Poor Sun Boy apparently can't turn off his super-radiance in these early stories!

The open door of the time bubble causes an electrical disturbance! I love Supes casually stopping to fix generators and power-stations along the way to meet Sun Boy.

I've said before the parts of the robot in the past doesn't really make a lot of sense, because they'd probably still be buried there in the future.

There's probably an interesting alternate universe in which this is the first "rejected applicant betrays the Legion" story, and this is really Sun Boy who is evil here.

I wonder how Clark explained a way "his" erratic behavior at school that day?

I was kind of fascinated by where the Legionnaires buried their particular boxes. Too bad we only got to see the locations of the first two.

Jeepers! School is fun!

*Gasp!* Ma gives away the secret identity! And, er, how many duplicates of that outfit does Clark have, exactly?

The turns-good-people-evil-and-vice-versa robot is actually kind of a lame super-weapon.

I bet those guys at the electrical plant are really annoyed at Supes for destroying the electrical plant that he just fixed this morning!

Anyway, this Sun Boy impersonator is arguably the first real villain to show up in the (teen) Legion series, so it's kind of a shame that he doesn't get a name or anything. Though... I wonder if this could be the first appearance of Sunburst? He has similar abilities, and re-uses the infiltrate the Legion plot? Hmmm...

I agree the story probably would've been better if Tom had simply reformed naturally, without cycloptic interference, especially since he was partially on the way there anyway. It might've been kind of cool if he (secretly) kept his knowledge of Superboy's secret identity, so that perhaps he use his uncanny resemblance to Clark Kent to help out on future occasions!

It's either Sunburst or Kranyak, "Sun Boy's old enemy"!

Adventure 290

The Cover - Cobie has already sung the praises of Dirk's costume and I agree - just a great design, as evidenced by its longevity with next to no modifications.

It is sort of cool how Superboy casually tosses the phrase "The Legion of Super-Heroes" into his speech balloon and - at this point, even after just a handful of appearances - no further explanation is required on the cover. Clearly the readership is well acquainted with the concept. The Legion is a hit!


Page 1 - Ah... look at that team! Up until now, with the exception of the founders, each time the Legion appeared, a character introduction was a "featured' element of the story. By this point, a large enough roster had been built that a team could be mixed and matched just as a matter of course.

Really nice palette blend of colors in their uniforms (and skin tones) as well - all the rainbow colors plus black and white are represented. Interesting that Tinya is still shown as being somewhat "phantomy" with the hashed lines. At least her face is finally in phase.


Page 2 - Tom Tanner better be careful there. At first I thought he was riding inside the boxcar, but he's actually just balanced on the "rods" underneath the train. That's got to be fairly precarious.


Page 3 - Man, everybody is really up in Clark's business! What does a milkman care if he doesn't walk directly to the door?


Page 4 - Maple Grove? Uh-oh... that's where my mother-in-law teaches. I better call her and tell her she might want to take an alternate route home.


Page 5 - Yay! More pancakes! (Fanfic Lady is missing out on all this pancakey goodness.)


Page 6 - Someone may have already pointed this out, but it seems a while before Dirk is portrayed as having "super-heat" as opposed to merely "super-radiance". For these first few appearances it seems he just gets really bright without any corresponding temperature shift.


Page 7 - Hmmm... let's play "Whose Head Is That?" In that first panel, working from clockwise around the table from Brainy, I'd say - by process of elimination, given who we can see - that would have to be Lyle (straight hair... headband either off or obscured by shadow), then Tinya, then Gim (somewhat more kinky hair), then... probably Luornu (the extent of her early "kitten cut" not showing)... either that or Thom has let the crewcut get a bit shaggy.


Page 8 - I'm liking the Kranyak theory, Cobie. He looks a little younger than Kranyak did, but he's got that same sort of severe brow. Perhaps prison life proved really hard on him.


Page 9 - In the face! Tom Tanner don't let no man cut his hair without him knowin' about it!


Page 10 - Even on the box, Tinya's face is "phantom'ed out". I really wonder what the original intent was with her.


Page 11- Not much to say here. I wonder why Tom blew his cover just then, though. It seems like he could have kept it up for a bit longer if he wanted.


Page 12 - Bleh... good... evil. These don't seem like absolute things that should just be able to go "opposite". I guess "moral relativism" probably isn't the type you want to be teaching little kids about, though.


Page 13 - "OH-H-H-H!" The death-rattle of Cyclops. He seems so sad for a robot.


Page 14 - Look at how self satisfied Dirk looks giving the secret handshake. He is one suave mother f-er.

Hmmm... are you really able to adopt kids out of reform school? Maybe you can, but somehow that just doesn't seem right.



Anyway... more Silver Age goofiness, but definitely moving in the right direction. Revisiting previously introduced characters to reinforce the size of the group, giving a full story spotlight to the relative new kid (as others have noted, soon to be an early star), and tying it all in with a Smallville backdrop. The Legion has arrived!

So strange that I didn't remember the Sun Boy imposter from this story, just the Clark Kent imposter. Must have been the pancakes that held my attention.

Once again, we have a story with contemporary themes: the bullying of timid Clark Kent and something very like an EMP effect.

The Time Trapper could have taken Chief Parker to the 30th century and made him into R.J. Brande. They sort of look alike and show an interest in young people.

Juvenile delinquents never looked so strait-laced! Where's the James Dean look-alike? That Tom Tanner is very quick-thinking, though. He certainly had the makings of a criminal mastermind. Look at how interested that troublemaker was in the French Revolution.

Like others who have commented on this story, I think it's a shame that he only became good because of the robot. You'd think the Comics Code would have wanted him to see how pleasant a simple, virtuous life would be and have him just renounce his delinquent ways, vowing eternal devotion to Ma Kent and her cooking.

Fake Sun Boy gets Superboy to do all the work tracking down the six containers. That's not very heroic. Still, it does seem like something Dirk might do, but not in a malicious way.

Ugliest robot ever. And it talks funny. "Thy bidding"?

Nice to see the multi-coloured time stream has become the norm.

Supes! You told the criminal about the secret handshake! Now he's going to tell all his prison pals about it and there'll be lots of trouble in the future.

Why was the Legion on Xanthu? Was the unnamed imposter from Xanthu? Where's Star Boy? I like how Dirk looks stunned that someone had impersonated him.

Here's another thing that will repeat again and again throughout the Adventure series of Legion stories: the imposter in the face mask. Sometimes it's a criminal, sometimes the Legionnaires themselves will use the full face mask.

Too bad we never saw Tom Tanner again.

Oh, I forgot to bring up the Xanthu thing! Really bizarre!

Speaking of the way things are pronounced . . .

I've always pronounced Xanthu as "zan-thoo"; however, I have two Chinese students this semester whose names begin with "X", pronounced "sh". So, perhaps Xanthu was settled by the Chinese and should be pronounced something like "shan-thoo" or "shawn-thoo".

Perhaps the spelling was originally something like Xiaonthu, but it was simplified or corrupted over the centuries.

I always assumed it came from the Greek. "Xanthos" is Greek for "yellow", and a number of different mythological characters/places derive their name from it, perhaps most notably the river god in the Iliad.

Xanthu being settled by Greeks would certainly change my view of the planet. Most Legion Worlds with Caucasian humanoids seem to have been settled by generic 'white folk,' presumably from America or Europe (Titan, Orando, Naltor and Winath, in particular, are represented by blondes and redheads, even the sample size is very small).

Could there be a population of 31st century Amazons on Xanthu?

"The Legion of Super-Traitors" holds a special place in my heart as its long been the earliest Adventure Comics LSH story we own (we have the LOSV story and Superboy stories). Eventually I'll get those other ones, perhaps falling into one like Pov did, where he bought Adv 247 at a tag sale or something while driving back from Texas with Lash and Quis.

Though there is no denying their goofiness, I found myself loving the Legion of Super-Pets more and more as I get older. Reading their adventures is certainly more appealing than reading about Superman renouncing the United States or fighting rapists. At least little kids can enjoy the Super-Pets. And honestly, what's not to love?

- Krypto is as iconic as Batman.
- Streaky is every girls best friend
- Comet gets to have yet another awesome example of Siegel showing future events the readers haven't see yet--the best part of the first Archive.
- and Beppo is for those batshit crazy LSH fans like myself. I imagine Beppo is the Lard Lad of the Super-Pets circa his alcoholic / whore-monger days. I'd take Beppo over Magog or Grifter or something.

Anyway, the Super-Pets need an equally as insane, er, awesome, antagonists to fight and thus we get the Brain-Globes of Rambat! The first of many brains-in-jars to fight the Legion, they are my favorite of that wonderful sci-fi trope. A species evolving away from needing a body is a pretty groovy idea after all! And considering all the steroids in our food and culture of being fat and lazy, I expect my great-great-great grand kids will be brains-in-jars!

There's a joke somewhere in the first two pages about Lana, Exnihil and peaches.

Look at Krypto's disapproving look on page 4! Wow, I'd feel like crap if I got that.

Of course, the scenes that follow are super-tough! Poor Krypto!

The heart of the Gobi Desert is where Supes usually meets the Legion?!! Why not pick the bottom of an oil well or the nesting place of great white sharks?

The Phantom Zone! As mentioned, 1962-63 was the prime era for PZ appearances. Jax Ur is probably my favorite PZ criminal. Zod is awesome as always. And *choke* Mon-El!

This is a good as time as any to mention Eryk's long held theory that there was a build up to the Legion battling the Legion of Phantom Zone villains! This is a likely Untold Silver Age Tale, probably starring just about everyone (Supes, Kara, Jimmy, etc).

This appears to be the story where Cos begins using his powers with his hands instead of his eyes. The obviously explanation is Curt Swan drew this one and thought it the obvious way to do it; with John Forte about to come on as regular artist, he probably used this story as a reference for showing Cos' next usage of powers. Oh, and notice how Cos takes care of the super-robots pretty fast.

The Brain-Globes themselves are just so awesomely gruesome looking!

Note in Beppo's appearance, it looks like he's mating with that alien! He really is the Super-Pets version of Lardy!

And the battle! Krypto "wanting in on this!" like he's Wolverine! Imra riding Comet like John Wayne in a Ford cavalry movie! The Brain-Globes literally shaking in their, ah, globes! Garth basically laughing his ass off while the SP's make short work of the BG's!

I guess this is the first time Beppo has seen Clark since he was a baby? Cool! Never realized that before!

And a great example on the last page on just how powerful a kryptonian was in the Silver Age!

Honestly, if you don't like this story, you may have no soul.

Adventure #293

Got to love scenes of Clark helping out at the Kent's store!

You'd think he would've come up with some way of differentiating when help is needed by the President, the Pentagon, or Chief Parker.

Man, Smallville is practically the Bermuda Triangle of the Midwest with the number of airplanes (not to mention spaceships!) that (nearly) crash there!

Poor Krypto!

Love Ma and Pa Kent speculating about what might be wrong with their son this time!

You see... the LSH has a special code for the lamp to indicate the message is from them!

Apparently, the LSH "usually" meet Clark in the Gobi Desert when they come to visit! Probably a response to the time bubble causing electrical havoc in the last story!

*Gasp*! The Legion are betraying/attacking Superboy! Like in practically every other appearance thus far!

Okay, so I don't really get why the "Phantom Zone" thing was "Plan A". The "Plan B" kryptonite rings seem a much easier and more reliable method of killing Superboy than releasing the Phantom Zone criminals. Plus, releasing a bunch of PZ baddies seems risky, as their agenda might conflict with the BGoR's.

Sheesh! Supes must spend quite a bit of time repairing those Superboy robots every time they break or get smashed!

How creepy awesome are the Brain-Globes? Definitely one of the coolest LSH villains of all time. Though this is apparently a Siegel story, the Brain-Globe's story/plot is classic Ed Hamilton-style sci fi.

Only four of them left? Should've taken into consideration *that* problem before you got rid of your means of reproducing!

Note that the Legionnaires recruit the Super-Pets from four distinct time-periods:
--Krypto, from Superboy's time
--Beppo, from Superbaby's time
--Streaky, from Superman/Supergirl's time
--Comet, from Supergirl's future

How wild is that? (Of course, it gets completely ignored in future stories!)

Saturn Girl continues to be a complete star among the Legionnaires!

Fun little fight between the super-pets and brain-globes!

How Silver Age is Superboy blowing the Earth back into correct orbit, and doing so in such a precise way that "calendars and clocks won't be incorrect"!

Is this the first time the Legionnaires make sure that Clark doesn't gain knowledge that will affect his future?

Anyway, fun story! I don't think the super-pets were ever again quite as groovy as they were in this initial appearance, though.

Moving the Earth back into orbit with super-breath? In the immortal words of Ed Wynn: "Don't let's be silly!"

Maybe the robot on the cover of Adv. 279 was a John Byrne fan. And another thing, if Mercury never existed, just what was I driving around in the 80s?

So Professor Lang is out of the flashing lamp loop, replaced by the Pentagon. This just confirms my suspicion that Lang was a high-level operative.

EDE's idea that they meet in the Gobi Desert to avoid electrical failures is perfect! Later, Brainy would fix that little time bubble problem.

Mon-el, always the hero. How many more times in the next 1000 years would he try and warn the good guys about evil plans?

The creepy Brain-Globes - are those sensors on their globes, or just a vestige of their race's sparse hair?

Saturn Girl shows great leadership! How did they ever get from that to "this mission is too dangerous for a girl"?

I guess I'll just never get over my aversion to monkeys in comics. However, it's pretty cool how the Legionnaires went to different time periods to assemble the Super-Pets. Lightning Lad looks a bit silly riding on Krypto's back, especially compared to elegant Saturn Girl on Comet.

The Earth was somewhat out of orbit and Superboy only had to worry about clocks? Wouldn't even a minor orbital shift change the temperature? That super-breath must have caused some radical disruption in Venezuela, where it appears to be striking.

I like how it ends with Pa Kent suggesting ways that Superboy could find out how the Brain-Globes were defeated - and Superboy accepting that he shouldn't know. That shows a lot of trust in Saturn Girl. Maybe she planted a command in his head to not question the incident.

I have a copy of Showcase Presents: the Legion of Super-Heroes 1 with me. The Dev-Em story, and the story of Supergirl's first invitation to join the Legion, are both here.

Re Seventh Super-Hero, what are the chances of two impostors showing up simultaneously? Ah, the Silver Age! That sort of thing happen in the present and everyone'd be up in arms.



Perhaps next time Star Boy will be Asian!!

Poor Krypto! I wonder if real dogs think like that? "Choke! My master wants to kill me! I thought he loved me, but if this is how he really feels, I don't want to live...! Choke!"

One thing I noticed about the silver age - almost anything that appears in a story will have some significance later on! As this story will illustrate:

Action 287 - Supergirl's Greatest Challenge

A Superman Fan Club! Lois Lane is the guest speaker, and she even points out how much Supergirl looks like Linda Lee Danvers. Oh, Lois!

Nice to see that Linda has been adopted. In previous appearances she was still in the orphanage, yes? Must have missed the issue of her actual adoption.

Supergirl creates a lightning bolt with her hands, taking a page from Superboy. Diff. method, but same effect.

Interesting how Bouncing Boy, who would later on be ridiculed somewhat, is one of the more prominent Legionnaires in early stories. Here he is with the three founders and Sun Boy wowing the crowd at an arena.

Supergirl encounters the Positive Man, who just wipes out a populated planet casually in one panel. Good grief! In today's comics, that would have taken an entire issue!

And out of nowhere there is a Negative Creature who was created in the same explosion that created the Positive Man. Well, what a coincidence!

And here we have Whizzy, a descendant of Streaky. Whizzy's collar even says so! So whoever owns Whizzy just lets him/her fly around outside and ask random strangers for milk? Although who could stop a supercat? I wonder if Whizzy lives up to his/her name.

Lon Duryal and his androids. A nanny android who resembles a mother, a pilot android shorter than a midget man. Who wants a pilot that short? Ego much?

Supergirl rather creatively covers for "Cosmic Boy" and "Sun Boy", whose powers were lost. Wonder how she'd cover for Bouncing Boy or Phantom Girl? I can think of ways she'd cover for many others though, using super-speed.

And Supergirl saves the day by outsmarting the Chameleon Men! Those androids are really good for something huh?

It all comes back to the cardinal rule of genre fiction - One Big Change, and only direct consequentials thereafter. As soon as you start asking the audience to swallow multiple things that strike them as implausible, suspension of disbelief starts to collapse. So super-powers lead to super-tech, including time-travel, and thus the Legion exists and can visit a young Superman. But whereas "two imposters showing up simultaneously" would be an interesting story for a "mundane" universe - i.e., one set in the "real world" - it's yer second "suspension of disbelief" point for a fantastical universe that starts pulling the whole story down...


It isn't as though they weren't willing to pull stuff out of their behinds. Look at Adv #267 (as I now have, repeatedly...). The whole conclusion comes out of nowhere, and means the story requires that:
1) The Legion can't tell the difference between young, skinny Superboy and steroid-freak Superman.
2) There's a recent "security oath" mission Superboy's been on which hasn't been mentioned.
3) People on Earth realise that Smallville rejecting Superboy is entirely down to (2), even though the Legion don't know this due to (1), and get the President to broadcast his "security oath revoked" message.
4) Saturn Girl can pick up radio transmissions across interstellar distances shortly after transmission even though they would take years to reach "Superboy Planet"
5) Saturn Girl can pick up radio transmissions at all.
6) The Legion are unaware of the range of things, starting with Red Kryptonite, that could make Superboy/man go wonky for a day
7) The Legion are willing to destroy their own future on the basis of that single day's viewing, and yet willing to U-turn on such a serious decision with no evidence when they never thought Superboy was bad *yet*, even before the security oath revoked message comes through.

I could go on, but I think seven is enough.

Given the rate of impersonations in the Silver Age, the real question is: why don't two imposters show up simultaneously more often?

Speaking of which:

Special Bonus Review of Superman #152!

So, Clark Kent shows up at work one day to discover that Lois, Jimmy, and Perry are all there when they are supposed to be out of town at a newspaper convention!

Not only that, they are acting strange. And Lois writes a story which reveals Clark's secret identity of Superman! Bizarrely, Clark doesn't deny this, but simply tries to convince Lois, Jimmy, and Perry not to print the story, as he would have to adopt a new secret identity, and it might not be as useful as his "Clark Kent" alias.

A little x-ray vision reveals that these are not really Lois, Perry, and Jimmy, but robots! Then a Clark Kent robot shows up, and the four of them reveal that their creator, The Robot Master, had programmed Supes's secret identity into them!

When the robots suddenly collapse, Supes calls Supergirl and they take them to the Fortress of Solitude, where they examine the robots and wonder about the identity of the Robot Master.

Suddenly the robots come back to life and begin wandering about the Fortress! They explore the rooms of the Fortress dedicated to their namesakes, and then get in a fight about which person in Superman's life he prefers the most! Soon, all but the Clark robot have destroyed one another!

While the super-cousins nap, "Clark" fetches items hidden within the destroyed bodies of his comrades, and then proceeds to open the door to the Fortress to let the Robot Master in!

Superman and Supergirl fly to the door to discover that... surprise! The Robot Master is six people! In fact, it is six members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, who have shown up to surprise Supergirl with busts of themselves (hidden in the robots) on the anniversary of Supergirl's coming to Earth! And so, they live happily ever after, with Superman's secret identity safe once again!

On the one hand, I'm kind of surprised this story isn't included in the Archives, simply because the Legion do play a fairly major role in it. Historically, I believe it's significant as the first real meeting of Superman and the teen Legion (as I recall, they show up at his funeral in the imaginary story in #149). On the other hand, it's a fairly mediocre story. Not Adventure #267-style bad, just very run-of-the-mill. The core of it is a mystery that the reader isn't really given any means of solving. And there's not really anything significant added to the mythos in it (unlike, say, Superboy #86, which has a similar level of Legion content but is really important to the mythos).

So, yeah, worth a read if you can get your hands on it (it's in the third Superman Showcase volume, for example), but not exactly a lost treasure or anything.

Incidentally, whatever "continuity" says, this is another early story in which Saturn Girl clearly seems to be taking the lead among the Legionnaires! And, if anyone is curious, the six Legionnaires: Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Brainiac Five, Chameleon Boy, and Sun Boy!

IB, you're right about Bouncing Boy being so prolific early on! Like Sun Boy and Brainy, he's one of the most prolific non-founders in the first two Archives.

And FC is on to something. Professor Lang was an obvious intelligence operative. I'm thinking high level OSS / CIA dealing with extra terrestrials. The question is, does Lana get recruited off panel prior to her reappearing in Metropolis to fight with Lois over Superman?

It's worth noting that the story Eryk reviewed is the basis for the Alan Moore Supreme story in which the Allied Supermen of America play a similar practical joke on him.

I've never read Superman #152 before!

Ah, for the days when the Legion had nothing better to do than play practical jokes on the Super-cousins. No Time Trapper. No Fatal Five. No Sun-Eater. No Dominators. Just endless and elaborate pranks.

If I were Supes, I'd be pissed that the Legionnaires were so cavalier about my secret identity. And where were the real Lois, Perry, and Jimmy all this time? Did the Legionnaires make sure they didn't pop in to interrupt their scheme? Was kidnapping involved? (Well, if the Legion manipulated all of Superboy's friends into turning against him, why not?)

The Legionnaires in these early stories remind me of elite rich kids who have nothing productive to do with their time and who have all the resources in the world at their disposal.

Of course, the intent of the story is to show their appreciation for Supergirl. She and Supes have the souls of angels, being able to see the intent behind the actions.

I wonder how Insect Queen's origin fits into this?

Action 287 also involves Supergirl killing the Positive Man. (The Legion Index suggested that they were sent to another dimension, since of course we know that Supergirl doesn't kill. But the story shows nothing of the sort.)

Re: Adv. 293

A couple of Super-Pet curiosities: Neither Super-Horse nor Super-Monkey are called by their names; apparently "Comet" and "Beppo" weren't settled on until later.

Super-Horse has no thought balloons anywhere in the story--odd since he would later be revealed to be a half human centaur.

Re: Action 287

Ken A. is right about Supergirl killing the Positive Man (and the Negative Creature). Kara even thinks to herself, "I must destroy it!" in reference to the Positive Man. I suppose the gender-neutral pronoun suggests she and the Legion thought of the PM as no longer living, though that's mighty convenient since he has a human motivation--jealousy--for destroying planets.

It was also in the Supergirl series that, as I noted earlier, Superman just casually tossed Brainiac into a shrinking ray, shrinking him into non-existence!

Anyway, just wanted to note two appearances of the LSV that followed closely on the heels of their first story:

--Action #283 features Jan-Dex and Zo-Gar, two "Chameleon Men" who are members of the Legion of Super-Villains
--Action #286 features Cosmic King, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lord (along with Luthor, Brainiac, and Electro) as members of the "Jury of Super-Enemies", though as I understand it this is really just some sort of dream sequence.

Hm. With Superman and Supergirl killing villains left and right, it seems the Legion adopted a rather selective interpretation of the no-kill policy.

It may be that the code against killing hadn't been explicitly formulated yet, though that seems unlikely to me.

Alternatively, I wonder if it could be a Jerry Siegel thing, harkening back to the more rough-and-tumble Superman of the Golden Age. Though that seems kind of unlikely as well.

Maybe that was one of the ways of getting around the Code. I think that also the reason why we see so many stories with monsters and robots in Silver Age stories.

I think it's likely that the writers simply didn't regard Brainiac, the Positive Man, or the Negative Creature as living . . . which shows, I think, the sort of logical hurdles one must leap to enforce any kind of policy.

The abortion debate, for example, frequently hinges on whether or not the fetus is "alive" (and how that word is defined).

I just read a series of Huffington Post blogs by Steve McSwain, arguing for a more liberal interpretation of what Jesus meant when he said, for example, "I am the Way." The traditional interpretation is that belief in Jesus is the only way to know God. McSwain challenges this interpretation and questions what it means to "believe" in Jesus.

I find it interesting that the Legionnaires, who had a near-religious reverence for Superman, might have had an overly narrow interpretation of his ethics. Poor Star Boy got railroaded but good.

I can see how the Positive Man and Negative Creature could possibly be seen as "not alive", but it's hard to explain the Brainiac story in that way, since this was well before the retcon of him into a machine (if he weren't alive, then wouldn't the same apply to his descendant, Brainiac 5?).

Though there are definitely some weird distinctions made in this area, such as Bizarros not being considered alive.

Brainiac 5 was actually a descendent of Vril Dox, Brainiac's adopted son. As I recall (from the Legion Handbook), Brainiac had forced Vril to masquerade as his son to enforce the illusion of humanity.

I was not aware that Brainiac had not been regarded as a computer/robot from the beginning.

Brainiac wasn't a robot until 1964. You can read all about it here.

Fascinating. Thanks for the link.

This means, of course, that Superman was not averse to killing when the situation warranted it. And, as Superboy, he even defended Star Boy at his trial because the Legionnaires, who were more vulnerable than Superboy, should not be held to the same standard of non-killing. Ironically, Kal didn't hold himself to that standard either. (Though one might suppose his views on killing changed as he matured.)

Here's the thing about the shrink ray - logically, it absolutely should kill someone. Either it deletes atoms, rendering you increasingly simple like an overcompressed JPEG, or it shrinks them, in which case even a relatively tiny change would deny you the ability to take on sustenance/oxygen/etc.

HOWEVER, this is comics, where size-changers are ten-a-penny, and the likes of the Atom can get smaller than actual atoms without an also-shrunk oxygen supply, yet not immediately choke to death. Furthermore, there's a tradition of "if you shrink enough, there's another universe(s) on a tiny scale" stories - Marvel have made more use of it, with Psycho-Man, Micronauts, Jarella's World in Hulk, PAD's Captain Marvel, etc, but DC haven't avoided the idea. There was even a throwaway nod to the concept in the Legion (postboot, LSH v4 #113, the "United Molecules").

Tl;dr - smells like setup for "Brainiac and his subatomic army" more than "Superman actually killed him".


So Supes was convinced Imra was evil, huh?

Well, Brainiac Five claims that Brainiac's ship "popped out of existence... reduced in size to nothingness". Also, note that Superman blatantly sends a message to Brainiac that "If you attack Earth, you'll be destroyed."

Though, as Klar pointed out, later stories bizarrely decided to explain how Brainiac survived this by ending up in a subatomic universe, despite B5's claim that this was story of how Brainiac "died battling Superman", which could very easily have taken place at any time in Superman's future.

I suppose the best thing to do is to chalk it up to "unreliable historical records" if you want to fit it into continuity, but still, from the point of view of this story, it's pretty hard to escape the conclusion that Superman disregards any code against killing he might have had at this point.

The other early LOSV appearance is soon after, the very same month as Adventure #300, which is Jimmy Olsen #63. This one is noteworthy for introducing Sun Emperor and Chameleon Chief.

Their introductions speaks to A) Dirk's early prolific role in the LSH and B) Cham having a great visual, so someone smartly wanting to reproduce that as a villain. I think Brainy is the obvious alien to use at first, but its obvious the Silver Age writers considered Brainiac to be the LOSV equivalent to Brainiac 5.

With the "Emperor" and "Chief" monikers, the writers were really stretching to keep that bit going. It would be funny if they kept that going. Colossal Czar? Triplicate Triumvirate? (Ooh, I like that one!)

Regarding Action#286, the best part of that story is the awesome cover--among the very best Swan covers of the Silver Age. My Dad had this one before I was born so when I was a kid I was fascinated by it--always wondering who the heck is Electro?!! And then learning, with disappointment, that he's just one of a whole race of aliens that hate Superman.

Meanwhile, the two Chameleon Men and the story in Action #283 are a complete surprise to me!! I had no idea about this. It's exactly this kind of thing I was hoping would happen--learning of stories I didn't know about. I'll have to hunt this down to read it.

It also occurs to me that Action #285 should have been included, which is a full length story with the major Silver Age turning point of Supergirl's existence being revealed to the public. Not only do the Legion guest star, but Brainiac 5 plays a pretty critical part in the story. It's one of the more important early Supergirl / Brainy romance stories.

There's a few options!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Royal_titles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Noble_titles

Ah, the mind boggles . . .

Matter-Eater Marquis

Element Earl

Bouncing Baron

Dream Countess

Ferro Sultan

Shrinking Viscount!

^Why didn't I think of that?

But then, there's always Ferro Pharaoh!

^^Brilliant!

If you start going that road, what next - Karate Khedive? Magnetic Marchioness? Shadow Sultana?!

Why not? We can up the ante to Dream Deity, Phantom Goddess, and Ultra Messiah!

Brilliance all around! Ferro Pharoh *must* be Doug Nolan!

Matter-Eater Marquis also cracks me up!

Chief Dawnstar and Wildsquire?

The Founders, Cosmic Count, Saturn Sovereign and Lightning Landgrave?

Funky!

Gates, of course, would have none of this elitist class-based hierarchical nonsense. Citizen Gates, or Comrade Gates, at best.

Whizzy the Warlord?

Action #287 Supergirl's Greatest Challenge

It must be the standard pattern: begin in Midville (or Smallville), move on to the future, then wrap it up in Midville.

Supergirl's adopted now; I must have read that story back in the day, but don't remember it. Did she tell the Danvers before or after the adoption that she was Supergirl? Did she have to get Superman's secret permission to be adopted?

There were lots of cross-time signalling devices back then. Now (with the Johnsboot) Legionnaires go in person or send a robot with a message. Blame it on the Time Trapper or the U.P.'s interfering time travel legislation.

Whizzy must have been a response to popularity of the Super-Pets story, until they just decided to have the Pets themselves time-travel. I love how Mooney draws cats - they look funny and perpetually surprised. It's strange that Whizzy was never used again.

We have a return of the flying purple dinosaur jets seen previously in Supergirl's Three Girlfriends story. If I were drawing a Legion story today, I'd throw these in just to acknowledge their spacey wonderfulness.

More imposters. I wonder if these are Durlans (maybe another clan than Cham's) or from an entirely different race.

In my mind, the Museum of Forbidden Weapons became the arsenal that Levitz used recently to house the Persuader's axe. Lots of untold history between then and now.

Too bad Supergirl didn't encounter Mon-el in the Phantom Zone.

That little panel with Sun Boy by the spaceship gave me pause. When did he acquire the reputation as the best pilot?
She

"Supergirl's Greatest Challenge!" Another nifty Supergirl / LSH story, though to be honest what I usual remember about this one is Whizzy, the 4th most powerful character ever invented in the DCU, somewhere near the Spectre and Darkseid. As with all Supergirl stories, I love that Jim Mooney art!

I note Ethel has a classic early 60's short hair look a la Rizzo from Grease.

Lois knows Supergirl! And Linda's parents! So the world knows her and she's been adopted--a clear indication we've entered phase #2 of the Silver Age Superman family, which goes along with the Legion getting their own adventures.

And here we go! The first LSH adventure in the future that isn't a tryout (not counting Star Boy). Mars City! A beautiful short skirted woman with her son--if only Dean Lee were here to comment on the bystanders too!

I note Cos is still subtly shown as the leader.

Chuck is a confirmed Legionnaire, as the wide use of a lot of Legionnaires Ex mentioned previously continues. That's how the Legion starts to just explode.

The Positive Man is ferocious! He just killed a whole planet! He's like Galactus meets Krona!

Good thing the Legionnaires use their powers so willy nilly to discover they lost them. I wonder how often Imra commands a toad to jump?

And now...Whizzy the Super Cat! Powers of a Silver Age Kryptonian! Telepathy! 9 lives! The innate cunning and insight of a cat! If only the Monitor recruited her for the Crisis, she could have wrapped things up before Pariah even peed his pants!

Hm. Selling android "men". Yeah. I know what those are for. I'll leave it at that. Ps - nice hottie mom and funny little dude.

The tree men of Arbo! I wonder if they're drunk here? Aw, who am I kidding, of course they are.

And what is this a crime wave? Didn't that masked guy used to battle the Red Bee.

Seems as if Dirk can def affect temperature by this story. But with a different creative team, it could easily have been due to another mix-up.

I wonder if the chameleon aliens plot twist is because Siegel couldn't figure out how Supergirl could restore their powers?

All in all a pretty terrific story! Lots of creativity, quite a lot in plot from start to finish and Supergirl strutting her stuff. Well done.

Action 287

Note the splash page: "Can she defeat an immaterial, living diabolical force being?" Looks like that settles the issue of whether the Positive Man is considering living.

Superman... more popular than Elvis?

I wonder if Superman has a bunch of raincoats with his insignia on the back ready to hand out as gifts to deserving teenagers?

Nice of Lois to put in a personal appearance!

Jeepers! Linda isn't any better at picking places to put her secret entrances than she is at picking places to put her hollow tree!

Mars City! 3D TV sets! The Legionnaires return to the Arena from the last Supergirl story! Pictures projected into her pineal gland!

The Positive Man is totally a Sun-Eater level threat! Poor Negative Creature! This whole story should somehow be tied into Wildfire's origin.

You've got to love the fact that Kara isn't at all surprised that "Streaky" is sapient, only that he is now telepathic!

I love the Android Factory scene so much. I wonder if Lon Duryal is the same as the "Android Master" later killed by Computo? I wonder if the mom with twins is Winathian? I absolutely love the short dude looking for a pilot for his space-yacht! I'd be annoyed at those kids and their bubble-tubes as well!

And what could be more awesome than robots stealing androids? (Well, maybe brains-in-jars employing robots to steal androids, but I digress...)

Wait... the beginnings of a new Tree-Men of Arbro theory! Perhaps they aren't drunkards at all, but addicted to whatever crazy space-chemicals this dude is giving them as replacement for chlorophyll!

So... uh... what exactly did those crazy Chameleon Men plan to do after they took over for the Legionnaires? Anyway, you'd think they'd have fit Chameleon Boy into this story somehow. He's briefly seen on pg. 5.

Oh well, Whizzy saves the day! With help from Lon Duryal! And the globe from the Mars City exhibition!

Another fun story! With plenty a groovy retrofuture stuff!

As I recall, she doesn't reveal herself until after the adoption, when she has to save the life of her adopted parents. These stories are definitely putting me in the mood to do a Supergirl re-read, however!



I believe they are later shown as another tribe of Durlans.

Since the Positve Man literally kills a billion sentients in one panel, I'd say anyone who argues against destroying him utterly is a fool. As mentioned (I think by HWW), "hard and fast rules" are a dangerous thing. Laws and rules must be open for interpretation, even though that brings its own problems too.

I wonder what made either Seigel or Mooney spend so much time with Lon Duryal, the mother & twins, and the little guy? I love that scene too because its such a random, extended bit! Maybe Mooney was annoyed that morning by some kids ok the subway or something?

I am struck by the parallels with two Subs stories- in one, they battle plant-men from an unnamed world (Adventure 306), in another, the take on shape-shifting lizards from Zyzan (Adventure 311).

Why were there never any tree-kids of plant-kids in the Legion?

Supergirl and the Legion of Substitute Heroes? No, I don't think that would take off.

And one thing I miss in the Legion is all that "fascinatingly futuristic" random weird crap that was always showing up. Although we saw a little bit of that in 5YL; mostly reruns, though. (Blok on the Puppeteer Planetoid comes to mind.)

If Brainiac had been established as an android at this point, this falls under the Silver Age exception that androids don't count as people so it's okay to kill them.

Also, "villains falling in their own trap" is itself a longstanding Silver Age exception to heroes not being allowed to kill, even if the hero is by any sane standards responsible for the villain falling into his own trap.

Superman's Super-Courtship

I received the two Showcase volumes of Supergirl stories! This next Archive entry should prepare me for the bounty of imposters, boyfriends and secrets that await me in those books.

Supergirl the Meddler: Kara is inspired, after watching a TV movie about a lost love, to find a wife for her cousin Superman. This confirms my suspicion that those Hallmark movies are dangerous; all sorts of trouble will ensue as she travels through time and space to play matchmaker.

First stop: Helen of Troy, who is visiting Troy before the war broke out. Superman responds to her note to meet her there but doesn't give Helen a second look. Supergirl disrupts events, angers Helen and hightails it out of there.

Next try, after cleaning the Fortress of Solitude as Supes watches: the Adult Legion, having a Christmas Party. Target : Saturn Girl. How many years have the Legionnaires had presents for Superman and Supergirl in case they showed up at the party? Or have they been there every year, and don't remember? Then there's the fact that SuperBOY and Supergirl were in the Legion at the same time. It's reading and accepting things like this when we were children that probably explains the mess the world is in today.

It doesn't work out with Imra, since she's married, although she does seem pretty game for a super-affair.

Superman and Supergirl give the Legion an anti-gravity meteor as a gift in return and this is what is used to create their flight belts. Which somehow get retro'd into the Legion's youthful past.

There's space darts and a cool Christmas tree with floating ornaments, and plaques honouring Imra for her "exceptional intelligence and loveliness".

Then, one of the most cringe-worthy moments in comic book history: Superman admits he has the hots for his cousin, but can't marry her because it's unlawful - on KRYPTON.

An adult Supergirl look-alike from the planet Staryl looks promising and it's love at first sight, but Luma Lynai is poisoned by the Earth's yellow sun and has to return home, broken-hearted.

Back in Midvale, Supergirl tells her parents everything. Everything? Are they okayl with this simmering cousin romance?

Not one of my favourite Archive stories.

"Superman's Super-Courtship" is infamous for being the story that suggests the true great love for Superman would actually be his own cousin--that's how I first learned of it when I was 11 and that's how I still think of it. But beyond that amusing aspect, there is some pretty interesting stuff going on in the story.

First and foremost is Supergirl going above and beyond so her cousin first remain alone...including traveling throughout time and space! It's highlights the sheer grandeur and scope of the Silver Age while also focusing on a key aspect of Superman (he remains alone) and Supergirl (she is a good person who does good things for people). Gotta love the idea of finding a true love thousands of years away.

Also awesome is the second appearance of the Adult Legion, and this one establishing before we ever get a glimpse of any romance, that Imra and Garth will be married when they are older. It's the same trick Seigel has been using for months now (like Comet beforehand) and its effective here. Considering DC Comics were not very good at doing real tension building romance during this era, this is an effective way of making every single time Imra interacts with Garth totally heightened for the readers, as they are reading into those scenes with expectations of a romance that will result in happily ever after.

It also makes one wonder if Seigel always intended for Garth to return when he killed him in a few months, or if he simply forgot he established his later marriage? Knowing the way Seigel wrote in the Silver Age, I suspect it was the former and he always had a plan.

By the way, how drop dead gorgeous is adult Imra? My crush on her is hitting all new heights on this reread.

So the movie Linda is watching reminds me of what recently happened to two friends of mine. He waited to long! I'm actually not joking--its very sad. Some guys can't take a clue.

Check out the Danvers house on page 3. Wow, what does Fred do exactly?

Supergirl really is dreaming. Not many wives would appreciate an alien with tentacles coming for dinner.

I'm fascinated by this research Supergirl did about Helen's first visit to Troy? Did she and Supes discover another work by Homer? The story of the research must be told!

Check out the pure lust in Helen's eyes for Supes! No wonder she settled for puny Paris--no man could ever compare thereafter!

Love the random Minotaur and unicorn that are barely more than background for a few panels! Even better is Supergirl is cracking jokes like Sly Stallone in the 80's as she takes them down.

Supergirl not slaying the fallen warrior by blowing Helen's hand with super breath is a perfect example of the non-violent ingenious way of solving problems in the Superman comics in the Silver Age.

Tinya, the great love of my fictional life, looks great here. By body language and panel position alone, doesn't it look like Mooney intends for her and Cos to end up together?

By the way they are acting, this story and the LOSV story have a weird way of working in continuity. For Superman, this is his first trip to the Adult Legion's time. Therefore, this is probably the first time the Adult Legion has seen him since he was Superboy. Yet, he just saw the Adult Legionnaires a few months earlier. So for Supes, the stories take place in the order of publication. But for the Legion, this story probably takes place first, and they next see Clark when they rescue him a few months earlier (for him) from the LOSV.

Adult Dirk and Cham are also present, much like their counterparts in the LOSV over in Jimmy Olsen in a month or two. I think I spy Lu as well. Cham seems to be enjoying a warm beverage. I'm curious as to what it is!

"I never dreamed you'd grow up into such a spectacular beauty!". If I wasn't married, I'd totes use that line at my next high school reunion!

Luma Lynai looks to be pretty groovy! Unless of course she looks just like your cousin! I think she would have made an *awesome* nemesis for Supergirl later on, for orchestrating events that only resulted in heartbreak.

Agreed! Hallmark + earnestness + over eagerness + super powers = one deadly mix!

This is probably the second weakest story in the Archive besides Adv #267.

Superman does the reasonable thing when he discovers that Luma cannot live on Earth. He decides that he will move to Staryl. But it is Luma who insists he return to Earth: "No! Earth needs you! Go! Forget me!"

So what was her problem? There are so many super-heroes on Earth that they darken the skies like locusts. And really, isn't what she is saying the equivalent of "New York needs you. Leave me here, alone, in Jersey." I mean, Superman could have set up shop on Staryl, and returned to Earth any time he was really needed, right?

Why did she change her mind? It must have happened on her (brief) visit to Earth. Maybe she scanned the planet with super-vision, and discovered Earthlings were a bunch of barbarians, poisoning her opinion of Superman. Maybe she found out they were set up by Super-computer. Maybe she was just weirded out by the fact that she was a dead ringer for his cousin.

And I love Cupid's misogynist Silver-age rant on the splash page:

”Ha-ha! World’s mightiest man, eh? You’re invulnerable to everything except my arrows! One this arrow strikes you, Man of Steel… you’ll become a Man of Putty… and some fragile, doe-eyed damsel will twist you around her fingers easily. You’ll fall madly in love!”

Really good point! I can imagine Luma's disgust at humanity at first, and then the totally awakard moment when she sees Supergirl. Time to get the hell out of Dodge!

Action 289

Much like "Lana Lang and the Legion of Super-Heroes", the trouble in this story begins with teenage girls watching romance movies!

I find myself very curious about Superman's alien friend in Kara's dream! Is this a real alien friend that Kara is dreaming about, or is it one she made up?

Love the "Time-Traveling Log Book". I wonder if this was used in other stories?

I didn't remember much about the Helen of Troy sequence, but it's pretty lame. No way Superman would go for a chick who shows so little mercy! And that bastard Rhondous get away with his nefarious schemes! I hope Menelaus eventually chops his head off or something! Anyway, "Trojan War of Time!" averted!

Jeepers! Supes is already looking at Kara with lust when she's cleaning the Fortress!

Rainbow time-stream!

Er... thanks for the anti-grav belts, Supes, but we invented those years ago!

Saturn Woman honored for driving off space-monsters, as well as for her exceptional intelligence and loveliness!

Here we see the beginnings of the Saturn Girl/Lightning Lad romance, after they're already married! And the beginnings of Imra's tendency to kiss other guys!

Possibly the cattiest remark in Legion history: "Why didn't I tr to kindle a spark between Superman and Phantom Woman instead... she's probably single!"

That's one quick romance with Luma Lynai! Ah... heartbreak. Kept a part by sun-color! I love the look of Luma, however. Too bad she didn't make any more real appearances (not counting flashbacks/memories).

Cleopatra would be a horrible choice, Kara! What are you thinking!

Anyway, I like the idea of this story a lot more than the story itself. Trying to fit all three "romances" into a single tale kind of abbreviated each story. It might have been a cool ongoing series of stories where Kara tries to hook up Kal with different women.

I find it quite funny that they can nap at a time like that

Of course, the Legion did vote out Star Boy even though the law exonerated him due to self-defense. I suppose Kara could have argued that destroying the Positive Man was the only way to stop him, but I'm sure Brainiac 5 could have thought of a way to stop him without killing him!

Oh, but Brainy wouldn't do that because he loooooooooooooves Kara!

The rainbow time-stream would make many appearances in the Postboot Legion!

I wonder if the popularity of Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy and Chameleon Boy in earlier stories is a result of the great visuals of their powers. Certainly, they're more dynamic-looking than, say, Invisible Kid or Phantom Girl or Star Boy.

Actually, we'd have a much more creative and intelligent population if everyone was required to read Legion stories and figure out continuity puzzles.



I had a very different take on that scene. To me, Supes was letting Kara down gently by assuring her her efforts were appreciated. It was his way of saying, "Well, I can't marry you, so I won't marry anyone."

Of course, Kal wasn't counting on Kara using a super-computer to find a Kara lookalike on a distant world. Once Supes had committed himself to the idea of marrying someone like Kara, he had to follow through. I suspect that when he met Luma Lynai, he clued her in on what was really happening. Luma agreed to play along and fake a reason why she and Superman couldn't be together.





Ironically, this has been one of my favorite early Legion stories so far (even though it's not really a Legion story). It has several good qualities:
-- The plot is more focused than most early stories, with few scenes that do not advance the story.
-- It's built upon a thoroughly relatable premise of Supergirl wanting to find a wife for her cousin.
-- Because of that, Kara is easy to identify with and root for, even though we know she will ultimately fail.
-- Economy of storytelling: Supergirl searches the past, the future, and space for a mate for her cousin, and this is all accomplished in a single story, not a 12-issue mini-series with crossovers! Furthermore, each scene develops logically from the characters' actions and reactions, so none of it feels forced (e.g., no mind control altering characters' personalities).
-- There's an educational connection to what kids that age might be studying in school (Helen of Troy).
-- Supergirl learns her lesson at the end--or does she? The ending leaves us with a hint that she might have learned a lesson, but not the one Kal perhaps wishes she'd learned.

So, from a pure story-telling perspective, this is one of the best so far!

It's pretty bizarre within the context of the story! From a narrative perspective, the point was to distract the super-cousins long enough for the Clark robot to do his stuff, but it seems like there could've been a more plausible way to do so!



I was wondering if the Phantom Zone projector would've worked on him.

I suppose Kara could use the defense that technically she didn't kill the PM, but only led the Negative Creature into a position where they would destroy one another.



One would think Colossal Boy would've been popular in that case!

That one flew right by me, but it's spot on. Perhaps there will be indications in future stories that Kara didn't think much of Tinya.



Well, when you put it like that, I may have to reconsider. It would have been better with flying purple dinosaur jets, though.

When Post-Crisis Linda Danvers* gets sent to the Silver Age in place of Kara for various complicated reasons, which aren't important right now, Superman realises she's not actually his cousin. That means there's only one thing for him to do.



...whoops, wrong panel . Of course, I meant this one:



[*FTR, I preferred pre-PAD Matrix.]

Attn: Superboy's Lampshade fans!

Note that it almost made a TV debut in 1961!

Good thing he was at his desk to see the flashing light. Ma Kent must keep vigil when Kal's not home.

That scene also mentions a church social. I was thinking, reading these stories, that for small town America in the 50s and 60s, there's a remarkable absence of church attendance. Maybe in the non-Legion stories?

The Boy with Ultra-Powers!

There's something about statues in these comics. It continues to this day with the fallen Legionnaires' statues getting bigger and bigger. I'm reminded of the toppling of Sadam Hussein's statue by this opening page. Will mankind ever lose its love of statuary?

At the time, would readers have figured that Ultra Boy was from the Legion's time, or were spandex-clad youths showing up in Smallville from all corners of the galaxy?

Marla and Jo arrive in Smallville on the train. No doubt they traveled from their time bubble in the Gobi Desert. Oh, later we learn that the time globe is parked outside Metropolis, so the electrical interference problem must have gotten fixed.

If these texts were being spoken aloud, what effect would the ellipsis have? "No one must suspect we are ... (drum roll? ominous sound? confused sigh?) DIFFERENT!" And what a set up line for a story about two gay guys in Smallville in 1962.

Yet another time-spanning communication device, the cosmicscope.

It appears that Rimbor isn't up to speed on Earth history, since Jo has been tasked with discovering Superboy's identity. Jo sure is clean cut, compared to how he'll be portrayed in later years. I guess it will be quite a while before we see Marla again. I still can't get over their almost-matching costumes.

That Pete Ross is one enterprising youngster. Two jobs, one at school and one in Kent's store! Plus he's a noble guy, protecting Superboy's identity, and courageous, refusing to give in to a robber's threats. Yet all he gets is a coin from the future and an invite to a Legion meeting.

Three Superboy robots crammed in a closet! Kal assumes one of them saved Pete from the robber; do they just take off and patrol on their own?

Aww, poor Krypto. Always trying to help and all too often abused. There's Jo having a laugh about it; maybe he does have a bit of street gang in him after all. Nosy too, looking into Pete's safety deposit box.

Another Superboy signalling device, a flag. If you're not the White House, Pentagon or Chief Parker, you use the flag, not the flashing table lamp. Smallville's too small for a bat-signal type of device, which probably wouldn't show up in the daytime anyways.

Considering HWW's point that a focused plot is a better story, this certainly ranks as a better story. Everything that happens is related to discovering or hiding Superboy's secret identity. It's quite toned-down, in terms of space age/future craziness, but very coherent and smooth-flowing.

"The Boy with Ultra Powers" is among my favorite Silver Age stories for a variety of reasons. First, it introduces Ultra Boy, who is in my top five favorite Legionnaires. Second, it is one of the best Pete Ross stories of them all, and Pete Ross is among my favorite supporting characters ever. And lastly, how I got the issue means a lot to me in terms of the LMB itself.

The last bit is a quick story: after discovering how to use the mysterious website known as eBay, I began hunting down old Legion issues back in 2003. I ended up in a bidding war over Superboy #98 that was getting rather epic when my nemesis realized who I was, though I remained ignorant. Showing the classic nobility he is rightfully known for, the gentlemen stepped back and allowed me to win the issue! That great man is, of course, the noble Faraway Lad, who I had just met a few weeks earlier for the first time. So I always think of him when I read it.

But back to Pete: there is something so noble and heroic to me about the non-super good people who protect Superman. The prime examples are Batman and Perry White in the Silver Age, but for Superman when he was a boy, that falls role falls to Pete. Even more, he did it without anyone knowing, simply because it was the right thing to do. Even at the ripe old age of 31, that evokes a preteen appreciation in me for a best friend who has my back out if true altruism. In this story, where the Legion become the first people to ever learn of Pete's small bit of heroism, and the reward him for it with Honorary Membership, it just makes the whole thing all the more powerful. I truly wish Pete had a similar role in today's Superman stories, and that he maintained his honorary Legionnaire status.

Btw, I love the Pete / Jo friendship. It's one of my favorites, as shown here and in two months in Superboy #100, when Jo comes back to help Pete (not included in this Archive). I want that to also exist in this continuity.

And how about my boy, Jo? Like Dirk, one of most handsome characters yet seen. He has a certain rebellious bit about him from the onset. He's dressed like a baseball player which is cool. He shows some cleverness which TMK smartly would play up later (btw, I find "ultra jock" to be a stupid portrayal of him).

Also, cool first appearance by Marla Latham. Am I correct that we never learn his complete role in Legion lore until TMK? Or does Superboy #147, clear that up in the origin?

Lets start the running tally now on Jo's powers? For those of us who believe he was only intended to have vision powers at first, this issue supports that theory. No sign of super-strength or invulnerability here.

Again Seigel shows his ingenuity in his plots, as characters make false assumptions, and the interactions become pleasantly complex. Pete believing Superboy saved him; Jo thinking Pete is Superboy; Superboy assuming a robot saved Pete. It's all just so great to watch unfold.

Also love the parallel of Jonathan Kent helping Clark as Marla helps Jo.

I notice usually when Supes needs to throw a boulder, there is usually a hole in a dam or a volcano that needs to be covered.

"By the three purple moons of Rimbor...!"

Great scene where Ultra Boy and Superboy learn the truth about each other. It's kind of Hitchcockian in how the tension builds and then is fully realized, leaving the characters to address it at last.

We've talked at length about Jo's origin reflecting the biblical Jonah. But most important: how utterly awesome is the space serpent! Phenomenal art by Swan in that panel! His most impressive thing yet!

All in all, I love this story. I think its the all time best "super powered teen visits Smallville" story.

Now: onwards to Adventure #300!!!

Poor Ma Kent...she stands vigil all at the lamp and then has to watch for the flag a night while Clark sleeps!

Actually that line stood out for me because I remember seeing something awhile back that commented on how rare depictions of church attendance were on TV at the time, even in the "wholesome" sitcoms of the era (the major exception being the Andy Griffith Show, where it was often a major part of the plot).

Superboy #98

I'd actually forgotten a lot of the details of this story, so it was kind of a fun re-read!

I always get the vibe that "Ben" and "Gary" are supposed to seem like foreign agents when they first show up.

That's really a comparatively easy "initiation test" for Ultra Boy. No elaborate pranks played on him or anything else!

You can't tell me for a minute that Marla isn't from a previous generation of super-heroes with an outfit like that!

Pete is the total star of this story! Even more so than the new Legionnaire! I love the whole sequence of U-Boy suspecting him as being Superboy!

Kent's Store must be pretty successful, given that they've hired Pete as an extra employee and are being robbed by a crook with a pretty fancy gat!

You've got to love how Supers just casually saves Smallville from a massive flood with the boulder! I get a kick out of Supes constantly worrying that the mysterious stranger has powers greater than his, just because he can melt lead!

Poor Krypto, again!

I love the whole sequence of the two of them discovering each other's secret identities. Just brilliantly written.

Mr. Lemley, having another of his heart attacks! Ultra Boy to the rescue! You've got to wonder if Pete hadn't got locked in the vault if Marla/U-Boy would've left without Supes ever finding out what their story was.

The Ultra-Energy beast is pretty awesome!

I always think the coin that they give Pete is another future-signal device, because that's how it's portrayed in LSH #300.

Anyway, the foreshadowing of Pete attending a Legion meeting, and the "startling circumstances" under which Superboy will see Ultra Boy again, makes me think that there's an untold story being referenced there!

Anyway, this is possibly my favorite of the pre-Adventure #300 Legion stories. I kind of wish we'd seen more of "Gary Crane" in Smallville (as well as other Legionnaires taking on secret identities in the past).

I don't believe Marla shows up again until Secrets of the Legion, though Mort promises a story with him in one of the Adventure-era lettercols!

Was Ultra Boy ever again portrayed as this powerful? He attack characters with Daxamite-class invulnerability and set them on fire just by looking at them!

And the subtext of this story just screams. How often does Superboy check under other kids' clothing for their "costumes"?

I was wondering about the power-level thing, as well. Forget being able to see through lead... actually being able to hurt Kryptonian/Daxamite-class characters with your heat vision is pretty impressive!

Marla appears in Superboy and the Legion # 239 (pre-Secrets), the Jim Starlin story in which Ultra Boy is framed for murder. He had a much more antagonistic role to play than in Superboy # 98.

Agreed. This is a very good story with a clear "threat" to Superboy, antagonists with mysterious motives, and effective use of misdirection and surprise.

On re-reading it, though, I was somewhat underwhelmed. Since I know how the story turns out, there was little to keep me engaged, unlike with "Superman's Super-Courtship," in which I so badly wanted to root for Kara even though I knew she would fail to find a wife for Superman. Ultra Boy, in this story at least, does not engender that kind of sympathy, and it's hard to know who to root for.

Pete Ross, as Eryk points out, is really the "star" of the story. But once UB figures out he isn't Superboy, Pete sort of becomes superfluous to the story. It could really be anyone who gets locked in that safe.

The story also relies too heavily on coincidence, even for Silver Age story. Mr. Lemley just happens to have a heart attack. Pete just happens to get locked in the safe. Superboy can't open the safe without setting off the explosives. (Good thing, UB's penetra-vision can through the lead of the safe.) Things are resolved a little too neatly and conveniently.

But there is a lot of good in this story, as well. The scene in which UB and Superboy figure out each other's identities is, as Eryk said, brilliant. And the writer does an effective job of making UB and Marla seem threatening when nothing they ever say or do is truly evil.

Although not one of my favorite early Legion stories, "The Boy with Ultra-Powers" is certainly a solid tale.

By the way, Jo-Nah's name is spelled with a hyphen here. I don't think it's ever spelled that way again. Later writers (or Mort) probably wanted to keep the name uniform with those of the other Legionnaires, but I love the idea that Rimborian culture (like Kryptonian) used hyphenated names.

Well, from a narrative perspective it sort of has to be Pete in order to resolve the original reason why Ultra Boy thought that Pete was Superboy, namely the fact that he acted suspicious/had an accelerated heart beat when asked if he knew who Superboy was. By allowing Ultra Boy to discover that Pete secretly knew Supes's identity, it clears up what otherwise would've been left as a mystery from Jo's point of view.

Though I have to agree that that is a really convenient heart attack Mr. Lemley has! Without it, Jo and Marla would simply have gone home to the future, and Supes would never have found out who that weird kid with the costume under his clothes was! (At least not until the next Legion meeting...)

Awakened in the middle of the night, so let's go ahead with...

Adventure #300

So, the Legion really begins in earnest with this tale, which begins their regular feature in Adventure Comics, will last for 80 issues, consistently hold a place as one of DC's better selling titles, only to be pushed out when the soon-to-be-retired Mort Weisinger wants to cut his workload.

They're still alternating between the Legion being set in the 21st vs. 30th centuries, but I'm pretty sure this is one of the last set in the 21st. We see the Legionnaires' fondness for statues, and get a nice roll call of many of the members and their powers. Notably absent are Phantom Girl, Brainiac Five, Triplicate Girl, Colossal Boy, Ultra Boy, and Star Boy. Of those, I believe the latter four had only appeared once up to this point. Brainiac Five had only been seen in Supergirl stories up to this point, and has yet to meet Superboy.

It's nice and convenient that the Cosmic Boy statue had its name/power hung around the neck, so it would fit in the picture!

The four members at the Legion meeting: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Sun Boy, thus confirming Sun Boy's early importance as the only non-founder in this story. Note the chemistry set in the background of the meeting!

Nice sequence with the Legionnaires' powers going wild, which also serves to give a brief background and origin for each character.

Cosmic Boy's origins is changed from "special serums giving me magnetic eyes" to the more familiar "evolution gave people the power to magnetically battle [Braal's] metal monsters!"

Sun Boy's "accident in my father's lab" story is repeated from "The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero", as is Lightning Lad's "Lightning Monster on the planet Korbal" origin from the LSV story. And the "everyone on Saturn can perform amazing mental feats" is also repeated from the LSV story, though the reference to "Evil Saturnians" using their powers to hurt others seems a little jarring given that tale's emphasis on the fact that there is no crime on Saturn!

Nice Superboy-summoning lever!

In one page we get an introduction of the two elements from Superboy's time that will play a role in the story: Lex Luthor and his desire for vengeance, and Mon-El in the Phantom Zone. Mon-El already looks so sad and brooding in the Phantom Zone viewer!

Nice quick HQ repair there, Supes!

Leginnaires are firmly established as having anti-gravity belts in this story. Sun Boy uses his to melt the Polar ice caps!

The "World-Wide Police", who travel in really uncomfortable looking crafts, sure seem to be awfully eager to exile the Legionnaires from Earth!

Urthlo, the first of many villains whose schtick is basically to affect the Legionnaires powers in some way!

Even though Cosmic Boy was clearly chairing the meeting earlier, we see Imra once again basically taking over the leadership of the team in the actual emergency!

Wonder if that's the same Phantom Zone projector the Chameleon Men got from the "Museum of Forbidden Weapons" a couple of stories ago?

Mon-El kicking ass!

Jeepers! That's some amazing work diagnosing Mon-El, figuring out his body chemistry and how to solve the lead poisioning problem, via telepathy!

Poor Urthlo! I kind of feel sorry for him after reading his one-page origin story! Too bad he never appeared again!

Wow! The Legionnaires appreciate Mon-El so much, they wave the usual initiation test to let him join! Too bad he has to go back in the Phantom Zone!

And Next Issue: "the most astounding super-heroes adventure of them all", namely "The Secret Origin of Bouncing Boy!"

This is a story I've grown to like more and more over time. Not one of my favorites of the "Tales of the LSH" series, but a solid beginning to the series.

Also of note this issue: in the Superboy story, Clark and Lana are teleported by one of Professor Potter's crazy machine to a planet filled with crazy wildlife. One of the creatures there are these weird chameleon creatures... strange, protoplasmic blobs that imitate the shapes of whatever they see! Seems like an early appearance of the Proteans of Antares to me!

(Will catch up on last several posts later this morning during boring continuing education class, but I've been too amped not to post this...)


Adventure Comics #300 arrives en force, as the Legion gain their own feature at long last. I often see this as the half way point of the Silver Age, with the Legion taking the lead on Adventure, other series now becoming leads (Hawkman, Aquaman, Metal Men, the Atom), "new look Batman" on the horizon and Marvel now starting to show the fires of a new revolutionary style of superhero. Putting all that aside, the road to #300 has been building steam for sometime. The issue arrives in Sept 1962; next month in October 1962, the Legion appears in three separate titles and stories. There's a lot to be said for momentum driving a series rather than a some editor trying to force it through.

"The Face Behind the Lead Mask" (again with the masks!) is a fitting story as it features Urlthro, a direct connection to Lex Luthor, ipso facto a direct connection to a Superman foe. It gives the story a transitionary feel as the Legion joins Superboy as a co-lead, and then subsequently assumes to total lead role. And they certainly do just that--the series becomes almost entirely set in the future, focusing on Legion lore and 30th century bits of business.

The major establishing factor of that is the arrival of artist John Forte. Forte is my favorite of all the Silver Age Legion artists, and we speak at length of him in the Artists Forum (will add link); Ex provides a great link to a website about him. He adds a subtly alarming sci-fi eeriness to his art that oddly fits the far future, while at the same time providing glamorous walk on characters fitting of a Grace Kelly / Cary Grant picture, and lush Art Deco architecture appropriate for 1962. It's a wonderful style that helps firmly begin establishing the look and feel of the Legion (for example: Tinya will soon stop being a constant phantom). This issue includes Al Plastino drawing over Forte's work for Superboy and Lex's faces--a common thing in Supermen comics in the 50's and 60's, even to Jack Kirby--which also gives it that transitionary feel. Soon enough that would not be necessary.

The other major "transition" in this story is the one Mon-El undergoes, as he transitions from a supporting character of the Superman titles to a full on member of the Legion. That begins here, as his early saga is coming close to its conclusion now. They should really make a Mon-El Archive or Showcase.

Some highlights:

- the cover itself is incredible, and one of those commonly redeveloped covers in comics. It's probably second only to Adv #247 in terms of being iconic. The inclusion of Mon-El must have excited fans in a big way.

- the first page Re-establishes many of the Legionnaires not seen as often, such as Violet (confirmed joined), Lyle and Chuck. Vi and Chuck's appearances are still so cliche it's funny. Note Dirk makes the opening splash with the founders--this may be the last "founders all together" splash for awhile. Garth takes a much more noble look via Forte, while Cos appears much more plain. Imra shows her cunning by being the only one not preoccupied with Superboy, instead looking at Urlthro to figure out his secret.

- the 4 lead Legionnaires each re-explain their origins on pages 2-3, again reiterating this is like a clear new start.

- the first incarnation of the Science Police, the Worldwide Police, appear. Siegel purposely shows them as adding a layer of tension here, though they are not bad by any means; they truly hope the Legion can succeed.

- it's always a pleasure to see Superboy battling side by side with the Legion: not the center of attention, just another Legionnaire doing his duty.

- Imra doesn't hesitate to order Superboy around! And then: calm down Clark! Sheesh, no need for name calling. I note Garth sticks right up for her, too.

- in fact, Imra shines in a major way in this story, as always. Clever as hell; pushy and confident; intelligent and scientific; and totally beautiful. She truly is iconic!

- is this the first time Mon can really strut his stuff power wise since his initial story? It definitely has an awesome feel to it.

- er, Superboy seems to momentarily forget how time travel works when he suggests he'll cure Mon as Superman. So does Luthor with his reason for making Ulthro "Adult".

- sometimes I wonder if my car and other devices have hate tapes in them.

All in all...the Legion has arrived. And it's pretty awesome!

The cover in question.

My favorite homage to that cover is the SW6 one, which changes the boxes *just so*.

I might be tripping madly, but I want to say that there's a version of that cover later during the Levitz/Giffen years with Invisible Jacques and the White Witch among the 'box' Legionnaires, that I like.

But my memory is pretty dodgy, and I might be making the whole thing up...

There's an unwritten story of how the various police forces of the 30th century eventually became the Science Police (or merged into an existing SP force). The WWP officers do seem pretty eager to exile the Legionnaires; maybe they don't like the competition.

Despite the clunkiness it gives the story, it was probably a good idea for readers to have the Legionnaires recount their origins.

Saturn Girl sure is the brains of the operation in these early stories. I wonder why she wasn't shown in later years to be hanging out in the lab with Brainy, instead of Dream Girl.

Luthor should have made his adult version better looking. Maybe he's not as egotistical as I thought.

Did Urthlo possess the first remote control? You know how people say that smart phones were inspired by Star Trek, maybe whoever invented the TV remote read this story as a child!

We're lucky that relaxation tapes became popular in the 1980s, not hate tapes!

That's a different version of the phantom zone projector than we saw in earlier stories. I like to think that there were a few made by different people, good and bad, throughout the ages.

That's twice (in this Archive alone) that Superboy vows to find a lead antidote when he becomes Superman. He never did; Mon-el had to wait 1000 years for that. Did Superman suffer regrets over this?

Oh boy, am I going to miss that flashing signal-lamp!

It's LSH #301! Element Lad, White Witch, Violet, Colossal Boy, Shady, Timber Wolf and Cham in the center panel. (Don't have time to scan it right now)

The three mentioned thus far:

I was thinking more along the lines that Ultra Boy would have assisted Superboy in freeing whoever was trapped in the safe and, therefore, had a reason to tell Superboy his origin and motives.

But you're correct that UB wouldn't have known about Pete's connection to Superboy.

"The Face Behind the Lead Mask" has a wonderful idea, but it's a rather clunky story overall that overreaches its aims.

The central premise is that Luthor builds a robot to get revenge on the Legion. All well and good . . . but the "mystery" is undermined by the robot's bald head and obviously scrambled name. I can't imagine readers in 1962 being fooled by Urthlo's connection to Luthor.

Likewise, the story moves too fast to accomplish what it needs to. The Legionnaires (the greatest heroes of their century) lose control of their powers, so they immediately contact Superboy to bail them out. The World-Wide Police gives the Legionnaires one hour to evacuate earth. (What? No calling in scientists to diagnose their power problems? No confining the Legionnaires to some remote spot on earth until the full danger can be assessed?) The stakes are raised but not in wholly believable ways.

It was, of course, necessary to include Luthor and Mon-El early in the story so new readers would understand who they are and what's going on, but I wish Siegel would have found a more creative way to do so. It feels as if Siegel telegraphed too much of how the story would be resolved.

I suppose the only thing I do like about this story is that Saturn Girl has a very prominent role. She is the first Legionnaire to truly develop as an independent personality and maintains a consistent personality through these early stories. She is self-assured, smart, and in control.

This story is significant for a lot of things that happen in it: the Legion gets its own series, Mon-El joins, Luthor becomes a Legion enemy . . . but the execution lacks finesse.

"The Origin of Bouncing Boy" is a classic tale of someone proving everyone wrong through sheer force of courage, ingenuity, and perseverance--meant to show heroism comes from all places. It's a great motif. And while this story has its charm based on that, what I find even more intriguing is the sheer world-building that begins here from Mssrs Forte and Siegel. Legion tryouts! There's just a lot to love here as the Legion now takes center stage.

Bouncing Boy, via his "look" alone thus far, resembles the "fat, silly sidekicks" of the Golden Age, a la Woozy Winks and Tubby Watts more than a traditional hero. Thus, either enough readers asked or Mort felt compelled to explain, how one such as him could join the LSH. However, by story's end, Chuck is shown to be an equal to his fellow Legionnaires. That's a big step for fat kids, even if his power *is* super-bouncing.

- on the opening splash, Imra shows some harsh judging! No worries, Cos will outdo her.

- the "one member a year" schtick is still going. They can't lose that fast enough.

- Forte is a master at odd facial expressions. As the Legion's fans clamor for them, Dirk sizes up the groupies; Cos is cheerful but recognizes duty comes first; meanwhile Vi can't get into the club house soon enough.

- note: the tally on Vi not speaking is still running.

- if only I had a dupli-writing stylus for my fans!

- the girl asking for an autograph is a classic case of a Dean Lee topic of discussion. She's a somewhat glamorous, somewhat beautiful walk on that Forte littered the series with.

- either Forte or Siegel is keen to show some of the other Legionnaires not shown on the splash last issue to remind fans of them: Colossal Boy, Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy. Conspicuous by his absence? Star Boy. Undoubtedly, everyone had forgotten about him, and he would not appear until 1964...a full 3 years after his debut! But we'll let that be tally #2.

- speaking of tallies, Jo is shown with only vision powers still--and using the ol' melting lead bit.

- one tally to end is here, Forte decides to stop drawing Tinya as a permanent phantom...even though she's actually in phantom form! This subtle change in her visual likely would influence the decision for her not to always be in phantom form.

- Colossal Boy is shown fighting a pretty weird looking giant! What is his story? The planet Grykk itself looks like middle age Bahgdad. All of it is too cool to remain in obscurity!

- and there he is: Lester Spiffany! Has there ever been a better example of an obscure character becoming forever tied to a message board or group? Ever since Teeds brought him to my attention waaaay back when, I can't help but love this series of panels! Is it because its so damn hilarious, or because it holds a special place in my heart? All I know is you're stupid, all of you! Stupid! Stupid!!!

- note Cos goes into what Lash coined "Simon Cowell mode" starting now.

- Enter: Storm Boy, the biggest square in Legion history. Thankfully he's a phony because the Legion can only have so many dorks. (Sorry Chuck).

- noteworthy: how short is that skirt, Lu? Thank the Positive Man there are three of you.

- the Trophy Room is pretty groovy! Lyle seems to be the Legionnaire clearing the most cases, explaining why he's always busy off-panel, and later elected leader.

- these final applicants are always interesting. Love the red-headed beehive!

- ironically, sometimes when I have a strange drink, I also bounce off the walls!

- btw, robot gladiators came true like 1,000 years ahead of schedule.

- I'd like to think that skull at the top right of page 9 is actually another alien doctor.

- who this dude? Older man, crazy electricity gizmo, thief, stealing a healing urn. I think this is a scientific genius, grown ill from experimenting on himself, only looking to heal himself! Or perhaps, its to heal his lab partner / person experimented on / love of his life! There is a story here!

- at story's end, good for Cos to admit when he might be wrong!

It's fun to analyze "The Secret Origin of Bouncing Boy" because of all the Legion stories so far, it most closely falls into the traditional pattern of story telling. We have a clearly defined protagonist (Chuck) who wants something (to join the Legion), but there are obstacles in his way (the Legion doesn't think his power is good enough). He strives to overcome these obstacles, fails, tries again, and finally succeeds!

As a story, I think this one works marvelously well because of this pattern and also because Chuck makes such an unconventional hero. As with Saturn Girl being the assertive lead, I think it's clear that Siegel and/or Weisinger knew their young audience and patterned the Legionnaires after kids their readers might encounter in school. So, you've got the "bossy" girl and the "fat" kid, both of whom are more than they appear to be. Of all the Legionnaires so far, Chuck is the one who acts the most heroic. No running to call Superboy when he doesn't get what he wants. He takes matters into his own hands and wins through perseverance.

World-building happens in this story, too, but it fits in nicely around the main story. It was a good call to use tryouts as a framing sequence to introduce Chuck's story. For one thing, we know how the story turns out (Chuck becomes a Legionnaire), so what hooks readers is not "What's going to happen?" but "How did it happen?" Most action/adventure stories are built around a similar conceit: The audience knows the hero is going to win in the end; what keeps us glued to our seats is the question of "how".

We also learn a lot about the Legion in this story--moreso than in probably any previous story. We see the tryouts, the fakers, an indication of how prestigious it is to get into this club, and the responsibility the Legion has to help other worlds. All of this is woven more or less naturally into the main narrative (although it does takes a long time to get to Chuck's tale, and he's not prominent at all in the early part of the story, which makes it somewhat disorienting when he suddenly becomes the focus of the story. However, these flaws are minor).

Overall, this is my favorite of the early Legion Adventure stories.

I never really 'got' Chuck's power until Marvel's Speedball made it look a bit more impressive, and finally Chuck himself started getting some references to an 'invulnerable body' when inflated, and pulling stunts like cushioning a crashing space ship with his body in places like Superboy's Legion.

I started seeing it in superhero games, as well, such as GURPS Supers, and recognized that it was something fairly unique, a single specific super-power that had defensives uses, offensive uses *and* was a 'movement power' that transported the hero around, making it a rare triple threat (like the Invisible Woman's force fields later became, when she started beating people up with them and riding them around).

But I like even more that Chuck's (mildly goofy) power isn't what makes him a hero, when people with much greater powers, like Duplicate Boy, Dev-Em or Atmos, aren't as likely to become Legionnaires, simply because they aren't as innately heroic as Chuck.

Like Brainy, whose power is 'being really smart' or Karate Kid, who managed to earn a place on the team with no powers at all, by just training really hard, Chuck feels like one of the Legionnaires that has the most positive message to readers.

Adventure #301

While the Urthlo story was a decent beginning to the Tales of the Legion series, it really arrives in earnest with this second story. This is prime stuff. Tons of Legion grooviness is seen for the first time here.

The team is still set in the 21st century, and is still admitting only one member per year. Eventually, they'll figure out how crazy the latter sounds, since, given the number of members they have already, and given the Legionnaires being aged approximately fifteen, that would mean the first Legionnaires must have been like five when they founded the team!

Anyway, this story continues the trend set last issue of basically introducing the Legionnaires to the readers, but, unlike the brief recounting of origins we got there, the whole story spotlights Bouncing Boy. Interestingly, the letter column in this issue is all about a previous story about Superboy being fat, with some of the overweight kids complaining about the portrayal. I wonder if that influenced the decision to write this story?

Anyway, the Legion HQ is surrounded by admirers; Sun Boy wants to bask in the admiration, while Cosmic Boy is all business. Funny how the seeds of future characterization are laid! Garth is happy to give autographs with the dupli-writing stylus, a kewl bit of "21st century" tech!

I don't really get how the force shield chases the crowd away, but, oh well...

We take a quick look-see at members on solo missions on other worlds. Note that these are three of the members who I noted as being absent from the previous issue, but now get to make cameos. These scenes are also important, because later writers would pick up on a lot of these planet names and re-use them.

We get the first "Colossal Boy wrestles with something" scene, this time a giant on Grykk. Grykk is a world that is apparently absolutely important in early Legion history, as it is later revealed that one of the Legion's first cases involves preventing the Ambassador from Grykk from stealing the Quintile Crystal. It also play an important role in Ultra Boy's plans to thwart Glorith, as his signing a treaty with Grykk prevents the Legionnaires from attacking Mordru early.

Phantom Girl is helping out "alien law-officers" on Lumbak by entering the impenetrable fortress of some evil-doers, while Ultra Boy is fighting a lead monster on Ferno. Good thing his penetra-vision, unlike Superboy's x-ray vision, will work on lead!

And then... tryouts! Well, we've seen tryouts before, but this is the first set that will produce rejected applicants, a key component of Legion lore!

Lester Spiffany-- a Legion World fan favorite, tries to buy his way on to the team! But no super-powers means no admittance!

Storm Boy-- tries to sneak on the team with weather control device! Not even a very convincing stunt, as it's pretty easy to notice something is up with his putting his hand in his pocket! No genuine super-powers means no admittance!

While we take a break from the tryouts, the applicant tour Legion HQ!

I believe this is the first appearance of the Legion trophy room!

And then we get Bouncing Boy's origin! Complete with futuristic inflation, which brings the price of a soda up to a whopping 50 cents (as will be pointed out in a future lettercolumn!).

"Savage- Exciting- Yet Harmless!"

Chuck definitely falls in the "received his power by a goofy accident" category, but he shows his heroism in the story!

"That plastic fluid you drank accidentally has given you permanent bouncing power...", or not so permanent, as we will learn in future stories!

Note the number "247" on the side of the car of the crooks Lightning Lad is preventing from escaping!

Poor Chuck! Rejected! His first attempt at impressing the Legion... a failure! People making fun of him! But then... he captures a crook that has taken down Saturn Girl! And in a way that allows for a science lesson!

Not a fan of the World-Wide Police outfits, which are continued from last issue!

So, Bouncing Boy becomes a member!

There's tons of interesting-looking applicants here that we're not introduced to! Some hold that the one from the final panel, who is particularly inspired to keep trying by Chuck's story, is really Matter-Eater Lad, who will become a member a couple of issues later.

Anyway, definitely a great story, and one of my favorites in this volume!

Oh, important fact: This is the first Legion story with no involvement from Superboy/Supergirl!

I suspect some of you, like me, pre-write your reviews the night before (or whatever). It's cool how we pick up on similar things, like both Eryk and I honing in on Cos and Dirks' reactions to the fans!

Love the insight on Grykk! I forgot all of that stuff!

Special Bonus Review of Superman #155

So, this story features a special guest appearances by popular wrestler Antonino Rocca! He and Superman stage a charity wrestling match, though of course no ordinary human wrestler would be any match for Superman! Rocca demonstrates some moves, however, on meek and mild-mannered Clark Kent the day before the event and on a less meek and mild-mannered octopus before Superman steps into the ring!

To everyone's surprise, Rocca easily tosses Supes out of the ring! The explanation: Mr. Mxyzptlk shows up and informs everyone that he has made Antonino even stronger than Superman! Then Mxy pulls Samson and Hercules out of time, and Rocca easily beats the two of them as well! Man... Mxy sure is making this charity event something special!

So, some gangsters in the audience get an idea. They've hidden some loot in a cave, but the entrance of the cave is covered by a boulder after an earthquake. So, they kidnap Rocca at gunpoint, since he is strong but not invulnerable, in order to get him to move the boulder for them!

After Rocca moves the boulder, however, they decide to shoot him, since they don't need him anymore! But to their surprise, the bullets bounce right off him! And then Superman, Samson, and Hercules pull up in an automobile! The gangsters decide to flee in the their own car, but Sampson shoots out their tires with electric bolts, and Hercules mysteriously pulls the car back with some strange force!

Then Mxy shows up, and all is revealed! Mxy is really not Mxy at all, but Krypto! And it turns out that Superman and Antonino had switched identities, so the "super-strong" Rocca was really Supes all along! And Sampson and Hercules? None other than Lightning Man and Cosmic Man of the Adult Legion of Super-Heroes!

It turns out Supes had got wind of the crooks' problem of the earthquake blocking access to their loot, and concocted this elaborate scheme in order to discover its location!

Actually a pretty decent example of the sub-genre of Superman/Legion stories that feature them playing elaborate ruses on bad guys (see, for example, "The Weddings the Wrecked the Legion!"), though not particularly important/interesting as a Legion story. It really could've been almost anybody in the Sampson/Hercules masks (or even the real Sampson and Hercules!), though the Legion were apparently used to explain how they were appearing through time, by using the new-fangled but never-seen-again time travel armbands!

That was a pretty elaborate scheme. I'm still confused about Krypto being Mxy, or vice versa.

It made me think of the later Muhammed Ali vs Superman fight, in order to pick a champion to fight an alien invader.

I didn't know the Adult Legion was making repeated appearances back then. They must not have been as popular as the teens since they never became a regular feature.

Oh, and time-travel armbands! Wonderful!

Agreed. As a kid, I never identified with Chuck. I wanted to be Mon-El or Lightning Lad or Sun Boy. But the fact that Chuck was there sent a very positive message to me (and I'm sure to other readers) about his value as a teammate.

When I first started reading the Legion in 1972-73, Chuck had already lost his power (twice!). But in Adv. # 328, he's shown briefly getting his power back, and in Adv. 341, the non-powered Chuck tries to take on Computo. (Ironically, when his power is again briefly restored, he becomes an ineffective combatant and an easy target for Computo's minions.) Such stories did not depict Chuck in the best of light, but they showed he was not forgotten.

In other stories, such as Adv. 309, 351, and 380, Chuck is shown having a lot to contribute, even when his teammates underestimate him. Flash forward to "The Impossible Target" (Superboy # 199), in which Chuck singlehandedly and ingeniously defeats a villain with his power and a sneeze! When he was the focus of a story or a scene, he dominated it by virtue of both his power and his personality. I think Chuck was very deliberately portrayed not as a stereotype but as a confident guy who didn't take himself too seriously.

I liken Chuck to Uhura and Sulu on Star Trek. Neither was the focus of most stories, but the fact that they were on the bridge of the Enterprise, giving orders to crewmen, and being entrusted with command-level responsibilities sent a powerful message to viewers to look beyond race. Chuck, the "fat kid" with the silly power, accomplished much the same in the Legion.

Yes, and it's amazing how they are not missed.

Yet another adult Legion appearance I either forgot existed or never knew about! Must read!

I know the last appearance of the Adult LSH besides Legion #300 and "Whatever Happened...?" is at the very end of the 60's (possibly 1970 or 1971) in a Superman issue that also features Mordru. That's where it's revealed the White Witch joins the Legion.

It's worth noting that one issue we shipped over was Superman Annual #4, which is the source of the "Origins and Powers of the Legionnaires" features which are a the beginning of the Archive, and particularly important historically as the original source of many of the real names of many of the Legionnaires (and some of their homeworlds as well!).

The original text can be read here.

^^A couple of things of note:

--No mention of Winath for Lightning Lad, only Korbal.
--No homeworld mentioned for Brainiac Five. Also, no powers mentioned except force-shield belt.
--The rest of those whose homeworlds aren't mentioned would later be defaulted to Earth.
--Most of the origins are basically in place there, though some would be expanded upon, as in "The Secret Origin of Bouncing Boy!".

So how did Krypto talk as "Mxy"? Was this one of those uses of super-ventriloquism?

It seems like an awful lot of trouble for just dealing with regular gangsters. And surely someone in our time could have helped if he really couldn't do it some other way, why pull people from 1000 years in the future? Or were they just visiting anyway?

Yeah, Supes provided the voice via super-ventriloquism.

I suspect Supes and the boys were already having a few space beers when the idea to crack this case came up.

I suppose the tentacled alien who came to dinner in Supergirl's dream was busy!

Adv. 302: "Sun Boy's Lost Power"

This story has a lot in common with the previous one in that it focuses on a single Legionnaire and his efforts to join or, in this case, stay in the club.

For this story, it's Sun Boy who gets the spotlight. After being proclaimed one of the greatest Legionnaires and having a statue erected in his honor (only for him to have to melt it when it topples and threatens a crowd of onlookers), Sun Boy finds he's somehow lost his power. Efforts to restore his power fail (sometimes to unintentionally hilarious effect, such has Dirk being lowered into a volcano!), so there's only one thing left to do: Sun Boy must be expelled from the Legion. He is stripped of his membership, his friends, and even his porta-monitor. Then things get really ugly when an old enemy, Kranyak, comes calling. However, Dirk realizes what briefly restored his power earlier in the story and puts himself at risk to regain his power. He succeeds, gives Kranyak his comeuppance, and rejoins the Legion.

This story, like the previous one, falls into the tried-and-true pattern of the hero wanting something and having to overcome obstacles to get it. But this is a less successful story, I think. It's mainly a by-the-book number without finesse or anything to make it stand out. Chuck's story succeeded because he was such an unlikely hero that we couldn't help but root for him. But Dirk fails to generate an equal amount of sympathy. When things get bad for him--and they do get bad, relatively speaking--he remains the stalwart hero, the popular guy who never questions himself and doesn't change as a result of this story.

There are plenty of opportunities for Dirk to reflect on his life and how things have turned out, but most of these scenes, unfortunately, leave the other Legionnaires looking bad. Cosmic Dick, er, Boy reminds Dirk of his real name in a condescending manner, and Bouncing Boy (who, in light of the previous story, should sympathize with Dirk more than anyone) is sent to collect the last token of Dirk's membership, his porta-monitor. Dirk takes this all in stride, never flinching or questioning why his friends are no longer treating him like a friend.

If Superboy were the lead in this story, there would be all sorts of thought balloons such as "(Choke!) I can't believe my pals are deserting me!" -- a bit heavy on the pathos perhaps, but at least Kal would care.

And then there's the insane manner in which Dirk regains his power--he exposes himself to a fire-breathing creature based on a flimsy conclusion drawn from an encounter with butterflies?! Garth, at least, was accidentally attacked by lightning beasts, but Dirk has a suicidal all-or-nothing view of being a Legionnaire!

It's fun to read this story in the context of 5YL, however; knowing how badly things later turned out for Dirk gives us a sense of what might really be going through his mind here: how desperately he wants to play the hero, how his self-worth depends on his status as a Legionnaire . . . even a sense of self-denial that may explain his near-suicide in this story.

Alas, those were the extrapolations of a later writing team. This story, as presented, is serviceable and probably thrilled young readers when they originally read it. But it offers nothing else, and I feel it was a cheating to reveal Jo and Kal to be robots (and for a rather flimsy reason, as well). The best Legion stories respect young readers' intelligence and offer some sort of educational value (such as the fact that Bouncing Boy could not be shocked by an electrified enemy because he was not grounded). This one seems to lower readers' expectations.

This story brought 5YL Dirk to my mind as well, although his desperation and motive to remain a superhero seemed more pure in this story. He wanted to help people with his powers and he responded to adulation with what struck me as true humility. Only in later years would ego and arrogance take over.

It also reminded me of the more recent scene in Lo3W, with Dirk, drained of energy and spirit, sitting at home in a chair, brooding - and visited by one of the "weaker" Legionnaires. Polar Boy was a booster, however, not the repo man as Chuck was portrayed. It's interesting, though, that in both cases, the star Legionnaires avoided Dirk.

Sun Boy is smart. Almost as smart as Saturn Girl! He tries all sorts of things, with some logic behind his search, to recharge his power. Funny that we only see Brainy in the final panel; in these early stories, that 12th level intelligence is pretty dormant.

Would Sun Boy need recharging periodically?

That was a nice scene, after he got his power back, with Sun Boy standing in the rain. It also reminded me of that 5YL scene in which he puts his uniform back on (now ill-fitting) and stands in the rain, as people jeer at him. The first scene is full of promise, he'll banish the rain if he wishes; the latter scene reeks of futility and defeat.

I enjoyed this story more as a contrast to where Dirk would be taken as a character in future issues; it was bittersweet in that respect.

The Legion is still in the 21st century. At some point it will become the 30th century, but will any explanation be given? Unfortunately, the Archives don't include the letter columns where this change might have been explained.

There's also a reminder that each Legionnaire has one unique power. That may be why Ultra Boy was written to use one power at a time. Apart from the super-cousins, who will be the first Legionnaire with multiple powers - Mon-el (who remains in the Phantom Zone at this point)?

Bouncing Boy's origin made me a big fan! Not impressed by how he gained his powers (slacking off), but the persistence was nice.

I did like his later evolution to becoming unofficial "Chief of Morale" of the team though.

Sun Boy gets the spotlight again, as the Legion's first real villain debuts, Kranyak. And since he's "Sun Boy's old enemy", it makes sense he's the villain in the Secret of the Seventh Superhero. He's also the first in a long line of one-off villain that really should have a follow-up!

Note the opening splash declares the Legion as being admired in a thousand galaxies! There are no limitations in the Silver Age!

Nice tophat in the mayor! Good to see that comes back in style in either 100 or 1,000 years.

Cos is sure the statue is of Imra. He's both modest and not afraid to give credit where credit is due.

What heroism! Destroying ones own statue to save lives. I'm, er, sure I could do the same. *choke*

The thought of leaving the Legion *is* pretty terrible. Having to pack up your trophies, nameplate and statuette would make it all the worse!

Good to see Ultra Boy interacting with the other Legionnaires!

Love the *awp!* sound effect. This is its third appearance. It's such a Lash-ism.

Gaseous pills are actually a pretty wild idea! So long as you make sure you don't dissipate into the atmosphere.

The first of several super-monster mash ups is shown. Has the Kryptonian Super Beast been shown before?

Sun Boy regains his powers in a pretty strait forward story here. It would be more cliche if it was a mental thing and he really hasn't lost them at all.

A cool cameo of the Adventures of Pete and Jo!

Surely it was the Time Trapper who caused the robots to malfunction in the time stream! Who knows what they would have done if Sun Boy didn't discover them? This is surely what led him to use the Molecule Master!

Oh, and is that Brainy in a cameo in the final panel? Random! Or is it a Re-colorist job again?

All in all, a pretty strait forward tale--not the greatest but not bad. It captures a fear Uncle Mort knew the kids would resold to: the idea of losing your social position and being ostracized. And in that mold, its successful in providing a nice fantasy of overcoming such a thing.

Adventure #302

We continue the trend of "introducing the Legionnaires" stories that we've had in the "Tales of the Legion" series thus far. Like last issue, this story spotlights a single Legionnaire... Sun Boy. It's definitely not as successful as last issue's focus on Bouncing Boy, however.

Sun Boy is established as one of the most popular Legionnaires by a scene in which he is the first to receive a statue from the city of Metropolis (we get a rare appearance from the Mayor of Metropolis!). Unfortunately, Sun Boy has to melt the statue when it topples, saving the spectators who are then rained on by harmless molten metal.

Interestingly, Sun Boy's pose for this statue is almost identical to his pose in the statue in the "Hall of Heroes" a couple of issues back. It's basically the mirror image of that statue.

Sun Boy's power fails, and we're treated to another recounting of his origin of having been locked in an atomic reactor. You'd think they would call scientists or doctors (*cough* Brainy) into help, but instead we get: Plan A... hop back into an atomic reactor! Plan B... lowered into a volcano! But neither of them works.

I'd like to think there's some great untold story of how the Legion helped out the Interplanetary Entomology Society or something.

So, the Legionnaires vote Sun Boy out at the next meeting, after a last ditch effort: Plan C... Superboy and Ultra Boy use their vision powers on him via a special reflective lens!

Everyone seems so sorry to see him go... like they're never going to see him again! You'd think they could still get together at the Nine Planets on a Friday night or something!

I'm not sure why a "sub-oceanic" liner sinking would be a problem. Doesn't the "sub-oceanic" bit imply that it normally travels underwater? Apparently not. Even though Dirk regrets not being an active Legionnaire as he would've been part of that mission, apparently Bouncing Boy wasn't included in the rescue mission!

One little bit I absolutely love is the key on the hat of the guard at the prison... a detail which just screams "Hey, I'm a prison guard!"

Kranyak is a typically diabolical villain. Note that if the the theory that he is the same as the Sun Boy imposter is to hold, then there must be a separate untold encounter with the Legion, since he was clearly caught by Superboy rather than Sun boy in the previous story. You've got to love his attacking Dirk with the fireball weapon to taunt him with his lost powers, and then his trying to destroy the Legion with a weapon that is designed to be perfect for Dirk to counteract if he still had his powers!

Fortunately for the Legion, Sun Boy has in the meantime engaged Plan D.... get himself blasted by a Kryptonian flame beast! Flame Beasts occasionally showed up in Superman stories at this point, so this was a nice bit of continuity in a way. I wonder if Lurna is supposed to be the same as Monster World, which will show up a few issues later?

Anyway, now that Sun Boy has had his power recharged by a living being's heat energy, he defeats Kranyak and rejoins the Legion! Only one mystery left to solve... why didn't Superboy and Ultra Boy's powers work to recharge his? Easy... they're not really Superboy and Ultra Boy, but robots! Here we get a nice reinforcement of the Jo and Pete friendship, as well as a "we were busy in another time" explanation of the sort that will drive many fanboys crazy ("but... but.... it's time travel, they could show up any time they want!"). Whatevs... I'm totally convinced that "Hurricane-like force" in the time stream is early Time Trapper meddling!

There’s quite a bit of implausibility in the basic plot of this story, as it’s not clear at all why his power would be restored by a “living organism’s heat energy” when that bears no relation to how he originally received his abilities. It might’ve have made more sense with Lightning Lad, or at least with a reference to Lightning Lad’s origin, but, as it stands, it’s kind of weird. And, unlike the previous story, in which we get a sense of who Bouncing Boy is before the accident which gave him his powers, we don’t really get any idea of who Sun Boy is away from his heroic identity (apparently, he even continues to wear his costume after losing his “Sun Boy” powers!). All of this will have to wait for the Shooter era, and the first appearance of Dr. Regulus which fills in more details of Sun Boy’s origin.

So, a solid story, but one can't help but read it and think that it could've been a little bit better.

Ah, comic books, where the Human Torch is bulletproof because he's able to melt the bullets as they fly at him, and, as everybody knows, an ounce of molten metal travelling at 2000 MPH is totally harmless!

I kind of suspected that might be re-coloring myself, though I suppose it could be foreshadowing ahead of Brainy's big debut next issue!

Cool that we both picked up on the Time Trapper theory!

I suspect the entomologist scene was supposed to provide the "science education" portion of the story, though it definitely wasn't as successful as in the Bouncing Boy tale.