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Super Sacrifice of the Legionnaires: what the hell?

Is it just me or was this the most messed up story ever published in the silver age of comic books?

I like Garth and all but I'm pretty sure, if I was a legionnaire, I wouldn't get me and my friends together for some mass cult suicide to bring him back.

The writer was probably trying to make some sort of message about how, even though such characters as M'onel are much more powerful than Garth, his nobility in sacrificing himself for others made him the most essenital legionnaire. What the hell kinda message is that to send to little children: some people's lives are worth more than others?

No wonder Lightning Lad made such a lousy leader. I imagine his whole term went something like this:

Garth: Gee Sun Boy. That was a pretty lousy job you did on that mission. Way to go accidently wiping out the people of Corvan IV. You're expelled from the team.

Dirk: Gee Garth. Remember that time I was prepared to get electrocuted to death so that your lifeless corpse could be re-animated?

Garth: Uh...come to think of it, I never like the Corvan IV's anyway with those weird dots on their face and all. As you were Star Boy.

Yeah, it was pretty weird at that.

And kinda a slap in the face to later dead Legionnaires.

I mean, you didn't see everyone falling all over themselves trying to revive Chemical King or Invisible Kid.

It is kind of weird that, once you have a method for reviving the dead, it only gets used on some. Apparently Mon-El was important enough to be revived.

And kinda a slap in the face to poor Proty I whose tiny little statue looks pretty ordinary compared with those 50 foot Ferro statues that they had everywhere towards the end of the Adventure era run.

Hmm...come to think of it, Garth and Mon-El were the only characters that had "clean" deaths. All the others were fried (Ferro, Luornu, Karate Kid) crushed (Lyle) etc. so maybe it wouldn't have worked on them.

Still...the writer's really should have known better. That scene where they are all silently hoping that it was they who were struck down by the lightning was beyond insane.

Actually, I don't think it's the "most" messed-up story ever published. The Legion's second appearance, "Prisoner of the Super-Heroes" (ADVENTURE # 267) was even worse.

But you're right, Shadow Kid. If you examine this story (or even most of the Silver Age Legion stories) too logically, it doesn't hold up. I don't remember the specifics, but it always bugged me that Saturn Girl was lured away and impersonated. She's a telepath. It should be next to impossible to surprise her.

(Yes, I know she does not use her powers to pry into the affairs of others, but considering the setting -- a lightning-bombarded jungle world where anything can happen -- and the circumstances -- one of the Legionnaires was going to die -- I'd think she'd have a little extra caution to make sure the scheme went as planned.)

Well, to be fair she was surprised by another telepath.

And I don't think the basic idea of the story, that the only way the dead Legionnaire could be brought back was through the sacrifice of another member, and that they would all volunteer to use a random process to choose which one it would be, was all that bad. The actual image of them standing around holding lightning rods is pretty absurd, however.

I find it interesting that in both stories involving Garth's death, Imra tries to sacrifice herself and as a result gets someone else killed.

Poor Proty. If only Imra had learnt her lesson the first time around.

I would imagine in WnK's coming utopic 31st c., cloning would be an easy way to extend life (if the body hasn't suffered irreparable brain damage). Perhaps the Legionnaires are rebelling against this by letting their members die as heroes, in battle! Perhaps not.