Adventure 453 – Superboy and Aqualad begin, for the second and first time, respectively
Superboy had been pushed out of his own comic by the Legion of Super-Heroes, much as had happened earlier in Adventure Comics. After a couple of solo stories in Superman Family, he returned to headline Adventure with issue 453 (Oct 77).
The story, by Bob Rozakis, with art by John Calnan and Murphy Anderson, has Clark at a summer camp, along with Pete Ross and Lana Lang. For some reason, he also brings the magical crystal from a recent adventure with the Legion, which has the effect of giving a young girl the super-powers she wishes for.
These first manifest that night, as Lana tells a ghost story to the campers, and Pete and Clark attempt to scare them. The girl transforms into Mighty Girl, and battles Superboy to a standstill, until he figures out the crystal was responsible and throws it into the sun.
There is a nice twist in the final panel, as we discover that the girl is the young Barbara Gordon, later to become Batgirl, which makes her older brother Tony Gordon, currently appearing in her series in Batman Family.
Aqualad begins a three-part solo feature, written by Paul Kupperberg, with art by Carl Potts and Joe Rubenstein. It follows directly on the previous issue, with Aqualad confronting the Idyllists, attempting to find out who his parents were.
Their refusal to tell him simply motivates him to attempt to break into their records and find out for himself, but they fend him off.
After having Aquaman try to kill him last issue, poor Garth is having a rough time of it.
This is Aqualad’s first ongoing series, although he did have a couple of solo adventures in the pages of Teen Titans.