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.

 

Adventure 370 – Pete Ross and Insect Queen to the rescue

Adventure 370 (July 1968) concludes the introduction of Mordru storyline by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan.

Superboy uses his hypnosis machine to erase the Legionnaires memories of their real identities for an hour, correctly assuming that Mordru will search everyone’s minds in his hunt for them.  What he doesn’t realize is that Mordru’s magical hunt will alter the effects of the machine, extending the memory loss.

As Mordru takes control of Smallville, Pete Ross realizes Clark must have lot his memory of being Superboy, and goes to Lana for help.  She dons her Insect Queen guise, and together they restore Superboy’s memory.

But once the Legionnaires are back in action, they fall to the extremely powerful villain, who puts them on trial, along with Lana and Pete, and imprisons them all in a lead and kryptonite cage.

Or so it seems.  Mon-El and Superboy are both puzzled by its lack of effect, and it turns out one of Mordru’s pawns is working against him.

Deception follows deception.  Mordru believes he has destroyed Legion headquarters, but that was an illusion cast by Princess Projectra and White Witch, alterted by a vision by Dream Girl.

Mordru’s attempt to destroy Superboy, Mon-El, Duo Damsel, Shadow Lass, Pete Ross and Insect Queen backfires completely as the fireball he creates causes a cave-in, entombing him.  And being buried is the only thing that renders Mordru helpless.

A great tale all around, and one of the first Legion stories I read, in the oversize reprint from the 70s.

 

Adventure 323 – Legion leadership is left up to Proty II

OK, sure, Saturn Girl rigged the first leadership election the Legion held, so I can see that she would not suggest another one at the end of her term.  But leaving it up to who can figure out a bizarre puzzle by Proty II?  May as well use the Planetary Chance Machine.

Nevertheless, that is what happens in Adventure 323 (Aug 64), in a story by by Jerry Siegel.

First off, we get two more Legion rejects, though.  Spider Girl and Double Header are turned away, despite Spider Girl having a far more useful power than some of the other members of the Legion, even if she needs to hone control of it.  Spider Girl would return later in the Adventure run, while Double Header would not be seen again until the 80s.

Now, to be fair, Saturn Girl does suggest having a computer pick the new leader, and while one cannot fault Brainiac 5 for modestly suggesting that would give him an unfair advantage, allowing Proty II to play his weird game hardly seem like he best possible solution.

After writing his name backwards and impersonating a Bizarro, Proty II sends various Legion members out on a variety of tasks.  Some are extremely dangerous, like having Element Lad stand next to a big block of uranium.

Others are just odd, like having Jimmy Olsen take his Elastic Lad serum and entertain the team.

Honourary member Pete Ross makes one of his rare appearances with the team, but none of these unusual challenges seem to have much of a purpose, or even be clues to a puzzle.

In the end, it’s Saturn Girl who “figures out” that it’s a giant word game.  But seriously, could anyone have figured this out?  Isn’t it far more likely that she simply read Proty II’s mind, and scammed her way into a second term as Legion leader?