Adventure 372 – Timber Wolf and Chemical King join the Legion

Adventure 372 (Sept 68) sees Timber Wolf’s long-awaited entry into the Legion, as well as Legion Academy member Chemical King, but Jim Shooter and Curt Swan also provide the earliest chronological appearance of the Legion of Super-Villains in this tale.

After being expelled last issue, Colossal Boy gets recruited by Tarik the Mute for his new Legion of Super-Villains.  He joins expelled member Nemesis Kid, as well as Legion rejects Radiation Roy, Ron Karr and Spider Girl.

Meanwhile, Bouncing Boy gets around to showing Ultra Boy the “life gem” he discovered at Gim’s place.  Shame he didn’t bother to do that when he showed him the missing training manuals.  Realizing the actual situation, Ultra Boy has Superboy, Chameleon Boy, and Academy members Timber Wolf and Chemical King adopt disguises to infiltrate the LSV.

As well as the villains mentioned before, they also discover Lightning Lad’s missing brother Mekt, in his earliest story.

Colossal Boy figures out who the Legionnaires are, and exposes them, rather than risk his parents’ lives.  Neither Timber Wolf nor Chemical King show particular prowess in their first outing.

Chameleon Boy pulls off a really impressive transformation, impersonating Superboy, and then pretending to turn to glass, and then into shards of broken glass.  That last change really should be beyond the range of his powers, being dozens of separate objects, but there would be a couple of stories in which he adopted multiple forms like that.

The Legion raid the LSV, and Colossal Boy is restores to Legion membership, while Timber Wolf and Chemical King, neither of whom did anything particular in this story, become members as well.

This story is also the final Curt Swan Legion tale in Adventure.

Adventure 371 – The Legion Academy and a semi-reprint

For reasons known only to DC, the cover of Adventure 371 (Aug 68) represents the back-up feature, a reprint of “The Valhalla of Super-Companions,” which originally appeared in Superboy 101.  The story is not a Legion tale at all, and they are added to two panels in a feeble attempt to make it one.

Aside from noting that Ultra Boy, Sun Boy, Duo Damsel and Light Lass make their cameos, I will skip over this tale, and write more about it when I get around to the Superboy series in this blog.

Ultra Boy becomes the new leader of the Legion in this Jim Shooter/ Curt Swan story, but Colossal Boy is the star, as his parents, making their debut, get turned into living glass statues by henchmen of Tarik the Mute.  They threaten to kill them unless Colossal Boy gets them information on the Legion training program.

To do so, Gim Allon intentionally messes up on a mission, and Ultra Boy sends him to the Legion Academy for re-training.

Bouncing Boy is serving as a temporary instructor at the Academy, beginning his long association with it.  Colossal Boy meets Condo Arlik there, a trainee soon to become Chemical King, another Legionnaire introduced as dead in the Adult Legion story.

Bouncing Boy is suspicious of Gim`s situation, and hoping to get some insight and help him, he breaks into his parents apartment, where he finds Legino training manuals.  Apparently taking these home is really awful, much worse than breaking in to someone else`s apartment, because Chuck gets no punishment when he reports this, but Colossal Boy gets expelled from the Legion.

The story concludes next issue.

Adventure 354 – The Adult Legion

There have been many stories that show the future of various heroes.  As I write this, “Future’s End” is showing the entire New 52 line five years ahead.  But no story influenced later tales as much as the Adult Legion story in Adventure 354 (March 1967), another classic by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan.

Of the five dead heroes that appear on the cover, only Ferro Lad had even appeared.  Chemical King’s fate would match the cover exactly, while stories of Quantum Queen, Reflecto and Shadow “Woman” (Shadow Lass when she got introduced) would play with the dooms foretold here.

Superman’s visit to the 30th century to see his adult team mates was not just a list of dead members.  Marriages were shown for Cosmic Boy and Night Girl, Duplicate Boy and Shrinking Violet, even Light Lass and Timber Wolf, the former Lone Wolf, who had not appeared in any Legion tale since his introduction.

Aside from those shown as statues, the story let us see Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl with their children, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, and Star Boy and Dream Girl all in wedded bliss.  More surprising was Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel and their “triplicate” son.

Aside from the marriages and deaths, we discover that Matter-Eater Lad has become the president of his home planet, Bismoll, and Colossal Boy in retirement after an injury.  Polar Boy disbanded the Substitute Legion and became a member of the Legion.  All of these elements would come into play in later stories.

After all the revelations, the story gets into some action, as a masked figure starts destroying the Legion headquarters.

Unmasked, he is revealed to be Douglas Nolan, the brother of Ferro Lad, who had been mind controlled by Saturn Queen.  The story closes with her, Lightning Lord and Cosmic King preparing for the final battle between the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Legion of Super-Villains.

Douglas Nolan would not appear again until Legion of Super-Heroes 300, which would cast this whole two-parter in a completely different light.

The story concludes next issue.

Adventure 348 – The Legion vs Dr Regulus

A new leader, a new villain, and a story inspired by Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” in Adventure 348 (Sept 66), written by Jim Shooter.

Invisible Kid is elected leader of the Legion, although it’s frankly a bit of a puzzle why.  He had not been in a lot of stories, or had very many major roles.  One must assume that the Saturn Girl/Brainiac 5 rivalry had worn down the group, and he was seen as a mediator, or peacemaker.  Anyway, that’s how I interpret the results.  Duo Damsel’s crush on Superboy is also introduced in this sequence.

Once the results are in, the story kicks into action as Sun Boy is knocked unconscious by an earthquake, and wakes with amnesia, running off and hiding.  We meet the gold-suited Dr, Regulus, who hates Sun Boy, and attacks the Legion to get at them, stealing their clubhouse and then attacking the members one by one.

He does fairly well with his scheme, taking out Colossal Boy, Duo Damsel, Phantom Girl, Cosmic Boy and Superboy.  Invisible Kid fares the best, almost being able to confront him, but even he falls to this new baddie.

Sun Boy regains his memory and has an extended flashback to his origin, just in time to scare off Regulus.  Young Dirk Morgna interrupted Regulus, who was a scientist at his father’s laboratory, and Regulus was fired after the resulting explosion.  In vengeance, he locked Dirk in an atomic reactor, which endowed him with his powers.

Regulus flees, vowing revenge, and would return many times to face Sun Boy and the Legion.

Adventure 333 – The Legion goes to war – against itself

The Legion goes to war with itself in Adventure 333 (June 1965), written by Jerry Siegel, an event so abrupt that it must reveal some long-simmering tension within the team.

It all begins innocently enough, with Phantom Girl helping out at an archaeological dig, where a plaque is discovered that refers to a war between Krypton and Earth.  Saturn Girl and Superboy travel back in time to ancient Krypton, along with Lightning Lad, Colossal Boy and Element Lad, while Brainiac 5 takes Phantom Girl, Light Lass, Star Boy and Chameleon Boy back in time on Earth.

Superboy discovers a group of his fellow Kryptonians are leaving the planet to set up a colony on Earth, and his group of Legionnaires accompany them.  Meanwhile, Brainiac 5’s group discovers some alien settlers who are building the city of Atlantis.

When the two colonizing parties meet, Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 immediately start a furious argument, which quickly escalates into war.  Just to be clear on this, the war is NOT started by the Kryptonians or Atlanteans, but by the Legionnaires themselves!  Superboy, who ought to be on the Kryptonian side completely, is instead trying to make time with Atlantean Leta Lal, fatally attracted by her initials.

The war is, at least, a sort of peaceful one.  Neither side actually wants to kill the other, although the Atlantean weapons do accidentally cause some Kryptonian deaths.

In the end, the environment determines the winner, as the Atlanteans cannot exist with the xenon in Earth’s air.  Brainiac 5 artificially “evolves” them into mer-people, and Star Boy sinks their city below the water.  The Kryptonians fare no better in the long run, being killed off by the giant lizards they brought from their home planet.

Although all seems well with the Legionnaires, and Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5, at the end of the story, his resentment over this may be the cause of his behaviour during the Computo story a few months down the road.

Adventure 330 – Dynamo Boy joins the Legion

Adventure 330 (March 1965) begins a 2-part story by Jerry Siegel that sees Dynamo Boy join the Legion, and tear it apart.

Dynamo Boy is really Vorm, part of a space pirate brigade, who comes to Earth specifically to join and destroy the Legion.  He impresses Star Boy with his powers, and gets a try-out where his radiation powers far outshine the other applicants.

Eye-ful Ethel, a reject, does return in the 80s, but is only used really well by Geoff Johns in his Legion story in Action Comics in the 2000s.

Once he becomes a member he sets out to have the rest of the Legionnaires expelled. He frames Colossal Boy and then Mon-El, prevents other Legionnaires from getting messages from the Science Police, appoints himself temporary leader and tosses them out.

By the end of the story he is the sole remaining member of the Legion, and sets out to build a new team, this time of villains.

The story concludes next issue.

 

Adventure 315 – The Legion invite a Sub to join them, and Superboy ends

After nearly 20 years, Superboy’s series in Adventure comes to an end with issue 315 (Dec 63).  Reprints of earlier stories would run as a backup feature in most issues of Adventure through 1964, and of course he would appear in many of the Legion of Super-Heroes stories.  His own book was still running as well.  Superboy would return as the cover feature in Adventure Comics in the late 70s.

The Legion is very excited about their new Universe Monitor, but it quickly proves itself not up to the task as alien invaders manipulate its feed, while they invade Earth.

The Substitute Legion, not having any such equipment in their cave, see the invasion and fight off the alien raiders, and the Legion finally come to learn of their existence.

Impressed, Saturn Girl decides to hold a contest, and reward the highest scoring Sub with membership in the Legion.  Each are given tasks that their powers seem useless for, but each also figures out a way to succeed, except for Stone Boy.  He gives up on his task, asking Saturn Girl to complete it, in order to protect some villagers who have come too close to the beast he was supposed to apprehend.

His selflessness scores the highest points, and Stone Boy is awarded Legion membership, but declines so that he can stay with his friends.  A nice little tale by Edmond Hamilton, that scares us with the possibility that a person whose power is standing motionless might have become a Legionnaire.

 

Red kryptonite is the menace in Superboy’s final outing in Adventure.  He uses a piece he was previously exposed to in order to stop a cyclotron exploding, but that causes it to be able to affect him again.  Though where the reed k originally shrunk him, this time it makes him gigantic.

Primarily, this is a goofy little story, played for laughs with the giant Superboy.  Lana Lang tries to use the situation to prove the missing Clark Kent is really the giant Superboy, but Colossal Boy helps him cover his identity.  After the red k wears off, Clark appears before Lana while a disguised Colossal Boy holds up a collapsing bridge.

Adventure 301 – The origin of Bouncing Boy

As new applicants to the Legion fret over whether they are good enough to join the team, Bouncing Boy relates his origin, and how he became a member, with the apparent message that, if someone as silly as him can become a Legionnarire, anyone can!

Adventure 301 (Oct 62) was written by Jerry Siegel, so perhaps that’s why there is something almost Bizarro about this story.

Thanks to Storm Boy’s embarrassing attempt to join the team, we learn that one must have actual powers to become a member, that high tech devices are just not good enough.  Storm Boy is so bitter about this that he spends years and a fortune having devices implanted into his body, returning 40 years later in vengeance.  Triplicate Girl gets to show off her ability to single-handedly gang up on someone.

Then we get the intense origin of Bouncing Boy.  Check Taine was a lazy delivery boy, who stopped to watch a robot gladiator tournament while carrying an experimental formula to the Science Council.  He then mistook it for a bottle of pop and drank it.

This borders on Jimmy Olsen level stupidity, so it’s appropriate that it endows him with Jimmy Olsen level goofy powers, in this case becoming a big bouncing ball.

He applies for Legion membership, but is promptly rejected.  The Legion even seem to follow him around, laughing at his feeble attempts to stop crime.  But ultimately Bouncing Boy proves himself against a villain with electrical powers, who he can defeat because he is not grounded during his attack.

Other Legionnaries appear in the story, but few really get much opportunity to do their thing.  Cosmic Boy runs the whole application process, as Legion leader. One of the two men shown in the final panel is credited as being Matter-Eater Lad, who becomes a member by the next issue.

The earliest version of the Mission Monitor Board appears in this story.  It neatly demonstrates the far ranging scope of Legion activities, while at the same time allowing some Legion members to be shown in action, without detracting from the story.  In this case, Colossal Boy, Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy.