Adventure Comics 499

Adventure Comics #499 Preboot » Pre-Crisis Reprint Cover by Gil Kane Story title Various Previous story Adventure Comics #498 (previous chronological reprints) Next story Adventure Comics #500 (next chronological reprints) Cover date May 1983 Creators Writer(s) n/a Penciller(s) n/a Inker(s) n/a Letterer(s) n/a Colourist(s) n/a Editor(s) Carl Gafford/Nicola Cuti Cover artist(s) Gil Kane

Background

Adventure Comics was the birthplace of the Legion and its longtime home. After almost 500 issues of publication, it became primarily a series of reprints. Featured each month was a chronological re-presentation of the Legion's earliest tales, two in each issue, beginning with their first appearance. This issue presents the 17th and 18th appearances in that chronology.

Reprinted material

Original publication source is noted for each.

• Plastic Man in "Whirling Dervish" - Adventure Comics #468 (February, 1980)
• The Legion of Super-Heroes in "The Fantastic Spy!" – Adventure Comics #303 (December, 1962)
• Aquaman in "A Kingdom To Re-Build!" – Aquaman #48 (November/December, 1969)
• Captain Marvel in "The Talking Tiger" – Captain Marvel Adventures #50 (December, 1945)
• Sandman in "The Villain From Valhalla" - Adventure Comics #75 (June, 1942)
• The Legion of Super-Heroes in "The Stolen Super-Powers!" – Adventure Comics #304 (January, 1963)
• Captain Marvel in "The Man in the Moon" – Captain Marvel Adventures #143 (April, 1953)
• The Spectre in "Pilgrims of Peril!" – The Spectre #6 (September/October, 1968)

The Story Behind the Stories

The two Legion reprints included in each issue of the digest-sized Adventure Comics were the feature attraction. As an added bonus to Legion fans, a running commentary about that issue's reprinted Legion stories was provided each month by Paul Levitz, who was the writer of the Legion's current series while the Adventure digests were being produced. Years later, these commentaries are the primary point of interest (other than the reprinted stories themselves), so the full text is provided below:

Our chronological reprinting of the early adventures of the Legion heats up this month with two Jerry Siegel-John Forte collaborations that really beging to take the series into its first classic period.

"The Fantastic Spy" from ADVENTURE COMICS #303, December, 1962, is interesting as it heralds so many future storylines for the Legion. For the first time, we cast suspicion upon one of the Legionnaires as a potential traitor - a concept that was returned to for Ultra Boy both in his next prominent appearance (ADVENTURE #316) and years later in a Starlin-plotted epic (SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION #239), and for the Starfinger story (ADVENTURE #335-336) among others.

Matter-Eater Lad becomes the first Legionnaire to join the team since they received their series in this issue, and we learn the origin of his powers and hear for the first time one of the two most unforgiveable groaners in LSH history - the name of his home world. Surely the only pun as bad is the name of the Sorcerers' world...Zerox.

Of course, the version of Brainiac Five's ancestry given in the story is the then-current one, before it was revealed that the original Brainiac was a living computer and that Brainiac Five was in fact descended from his adopted "son", a human who lead the revolt that freed that world from computer domination.

Otherwise, the story is relatively unexceptional...interesting only in that it represents the first "normal" Legion adventure - not a battle against one of Superboy's villains, as in the series premier in #300, or an origin tale starring only one hero as in #301, or the "puzzle" sort of story from #302, this represented the Legion in action. It pales, however, in comparison to our next selection.

"The Stolen Super-Powers" (from #304, January, 1963) is generally the earliest LSH story to reach anyone's list of the best LSH tales on its merits. #300 or the LSH debut from #247 sometimes make the list for nostalgia's sake, but #304 is the first true classic of the team.

First of all, it begins the tradition of elections for the Legion leader by ending Cosmic Boy's charter term of office and placing Saturn Girl in charge - albeit through election fraud (we assume she was reelected after the story's end as an honest reward for her nobility). Most important, the entire story is the tale of competing nobility and self-sacrifice between Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl that results in his death...the first ever of a Legionnaire and one of the very few in super-hero comics history to that date...and ultimately becomes the basis for their relationship. (As all long-time Legion fans know, Lightning Lad was eventually revived from the dead... but how and when you'll only see by following these reprints!)

Perhaps equally important is the fact that Superboy played no role at all in this story, except after the action was over. His equality as just another Legionnaire becomes evident for the first time, as major developments in the series take place without his participation. From here on in, the Legion would be on their own.

– Paul Levitz