Adventure Comics 247
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Contents
The Legion of Super-Heroes
One day in Smallville, Superboy encounters three super-youths from the future, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy (who later would be known as Lightning Lad), who invite him to join their super-hero club. Taking him to their own time in the 30th century, each of the three in turn takes him on in a test of super-skill. However, during each test, Superboy is sidetracked by other, more important missions. Consequently, he fails all three tests and is rejected for membership. When he takes his defeat like a good sport, the Legionnaires confess that they had engineered each diversion deliberately and lured the Boy of Steel from victory to see whether or not he could take defeat with a smile. In the end, the heroes from the future cheer him for passing his initiation and admit him into the Legion.
First appearances
This issue marks the first appearance of the following characters and recurring key Legion story elements:
- Cosmic Boy
- Saturn Girl
- Lightning Lad (as Lightning Boy)
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Time bubble
- 30th century earth
- Legion jetpacks - soon replaced with flight belts, and later with flight rings
- Super-hero clubhouse - the classic inverted rocketship design
- Legion tryouts
- Mission monitor board - called here the television trouble-Finder
The Anti-Lad connection
Unbeknownst to Superboy and the early Legionnaires at the time of this story and something that they would never learn in the future was that another character would become a vital part of Superboy's successful induction into the Legion. The story described in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes 204:The Legionnaire Nobody Remembered relates the tale of Anti-Lad, a citizen of the 75th century. In the process of viewing the events of Superboy's first meeting with the Legionnaires via Time-Scanner, he accidentally changes history, and Superboy is rejected from admission to the Legion. Anti-Lad successfully travels back through time to correct this error, interacting with the original 1958 events between pages 10 and 11 of the story as told in Adventure Comics 247. Due to a post-hypnotic suggestion, neither Superboy nor the other Legionnaires have any memory of Anti-Lad's existence.
Quirks and Oddities
Strangely, Cosmic Boy's power is depicted in this story as radiating from what he calls his "magnetic eyes." These are explained as the result of "special serums" that he has taken. While this is a great departure from essentially every later explanation for Rokk's powers, it has been proposed by some readers that such serums were administered during his youth, resulting in further enhancement of his natural Braalian magnetic powers. In most cases, Cos uses his hands to direct magnetic flows, but there is nothing to indicate that he couldn't do so with another part of his body. Perhaps at this early stage in his career, he was more accustomed to focusing his power with his eyes, although there is no indication of this in other stories, including those which chronologically take place at an earlier time.
Lightning "Boy" also utilizes his powers in a different way than readers would come to expect in later stories. Here he must clap his hands together to generate lightning, rather than simply "throwing" or casting them from one or both hands. This might be an early way that he learned to use his abilities, graduating later to what would become his preferred style. But, once again, no stories prior to these events or after support that theory.
Unnamed members and the Legion fan phenomenon
Although Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad (Boy) are the only Legionnaires specifically named and clearly depicted in the story, three scenes show several other unnamed members in attendance. Some of these unknown characters do not resemble any members that would later play a role in Legion history. Perhaps they are merely unsuccessful membership applicants. However, several can not be seen clearly enough to completely rule out the possibility that they are known Legionnaires. One of the most distinquishable of these figures, shown twice, has green skin and blond hair and could quite easily be Brainiac 5.
A flashback in Adventure Comics 323 shows a scene from Superboy's induction at the end of this story that was not included in the original version. Triplicate Girl, Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Colossal Boy and Brainiac 5 are among those present behind the scenes. In particular, if Brainiac 5, who joined the Legion at the same time as Supergirl, is present here, then this story must take place some time after the Legion story in Action Comics 276, during which they were both inducted. For a more detailed examination of all the clues that piece this puzzle together, read the related article on early Legion continuity.
Some Legion fans hold the theory that it was the presence of these mysterious characters in the background that gave the story its appeal. In their essay in the back of DC Silver Age Classics Adventure 247, which reprints this story, Tom Bierbaum and Mary Bierbaum write that
- ...if not for these background characters - if the Legion of Super-Heroes were simply a clearly quantified collection of a few kid heroes from the distant future - this group probably would've ended up just another rather obscure gimmick concept from DC's distant past of fondly recalled, but mostly mothballed gimmick concepts.
- What made the Legion special was that it was a Legion. Character after character, all spectacularly garbed, fantastically powered and colorfully named. Who would walk on the scene next? A shapeshifter? A phantom? A descendant of the villainous Brainiac? "Superboy's older brother?" A hero who could eat matter in all forms? Anything was possible.
Indeed, curiosity about the Legion and its members inspired the readers of the Superman family titles to write in for more. The artists, writers and editors who put this first tale together had no intentions of ever using the Legion characters again. But the fans kept writing and, 20 months later, they received a second tale in Adventure Comics 267. Slowly but surely, the stories became more frequent, and the mystery of those unnamed characters began to unfold.
Other stories in this issue
There are two additional stories that do not feature the Legion. The Green Arrow and Speedy must overcome bad luck in "The Thirteen Superstition Arrows." Then "Aquaman's Super Sea-Squad" must race against time to help disable a nuclear projectile.
Reprints
This landmark Legion story has been reprinted numerous times over the years in a variety of formats, including:
- Superman Annual 6
- Adventure Comics 491
- DC Silver Age Classics Adventure 247
- Millenium Edition: Adventure Comics 247
Front cover homages and parodies
The classic Curt Swan/Stan Kaye cover has become a comic-book icon over the years. It has been imitated and parodied many times in later comic books and in other media. At least three of these homages are part of the Legion canon itself. Below are listed several examples of these imitations, homages and parodies:
- Superman 147
- L.E.G.I.O.N Annual 5:L.E.G.I.O.N Archives page 1
- Legion of Super-Heroes v4 88
- Overstreet Price Guide #29
- Dark Horse Presents 115
- Simpsons Comics 68
