Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly The NON-LEGION comics trivia thread!!! Round two

It took me a few minutes for it to dawn on me. IIRC, Alfred became quite popular after the serial and that's when he became an ongoing back-up feature in Batman.

My question (in keeping with the theme):

The Superman Radio serial "The Adventures of Superman", in which Batman had several guest-starring appearances, established an important element in Golden Age continuity that eventually became part of canon thanks to later stories.

Kryptonite?

Jor-el?

The Daily Planet?

All good guesses but not quite. One clue I can provide is to direct you to the specific way I asked the question, making note of who was on the show...

Hmmm...did "World's Finest" originate there? Or knowing each other's secret identities?

I'll take the double-response as one and tell you that you are indeed correct!

World's Finest was already a comic book by then but Batman and Superman had separate features and had only ever teamed up on the covers and briefly in one JSA story (with the rest of the JSA). So "kinda".

But it is indeed how Superman and Batman learn each other's identities. It's noteworthy that Superman first learns Batman's; later on, Batman learns Superman's (in another storyline). Though World's Finest would later present origins of the Superman/Batman team, the serial would become canon via even later World's Finest stories, and therefore, this both in spirit and in continuity introduced the concept that the two icons knew each other's identities.

You're up, Lardy!

Yay! I suck at trivia, so it figures I would get one that was a pure guess! Anyhoo, I'm sure this one will be gotten pretty quickly as there are so many knowledgeable fans out there. This one's been on my mind a lot lately, so I'll turn it into a trivia question:

In the Silver Age of DC there was a character named <strike>Ardala</strike> Ardora who represented a surprising duality for one of DC's more nefarious characters. Who was she? And in her final appearance, what other significant milestone occurred for the character she was associated with (as advertised on the cover)?

Ardala totally looks like an anagram but I can't quite see who it might be of.

I'll randomly guess - Adam Strange and say the milestone was that he proposed to Alanna.

That's not it, Blacula, though the actual answer has a certain similarity to yours. Nope, it's not an anagram. And <strike>Ardala</strike> Ardora was definitely a female character and not a pseudonym for another character. So when I said "duality", that wasn't my intent. I'll give another clue tonight if no one gets it.

Crikey! I got her name wrong--it's Ardora! I'm so sorry--must've been that Buck Rogers kick I was on with Dev the other night!

Ardora was the kind-of love interest for Lex Luthor in the Silver Age--and because of her, he helps save her home planet. This is a very important story begins it completes the full progression of totally evil Lex of the Golden Age to increasingly more complex Lex of the Silver Age to tragic and almost heroic Lex of the late Silver Age.

Am I right? Forget the planet's name...

She was more than his love interest, Cobester--he married Ardora and she bore him a son, Lex Luthor, Jr! The planet was called Lexor, ironically. So Lex had a home-away-from-home where he was viewed as a hero!

However, the latter part of this question is still unanswered:

Obviously, the milestone refers to Luthor. The thing I refer to is unrelated to the deaths of Ardora and Lex, Jr. that occur inside the book's pages.

He finally ditches that prison outfit he'd been wearing for years? In favor of his 70s action suit?

<so close>

He goes from flabby to muscular?

Ugh! Would it help if I mentioned there's another villain on the cover, too?

He meets robot-Brainiac for the first time?

Aw, close enough! The death of Ardora (and Lex, Jr. and all of Lexor) occurred in Action Comics #544. Here's the cover:



As you can see, this 45th Anniversary issue featured makeovers for Luthor and Brainiac. For Luthor it was the first appearance of his (in?)famous warsuit. For Brainiac, it was the first appearance of his robotic permutation.

Both characters starred in separate stories with Superman featuring their new designs. The Luthor story revisited Lexor for the first time since it appeared nearly 20 years prior in two 2-parters in Action 318-319 and Superman 167-168.

In Action 544, Lex is defeated by Superman one too many times and decides to return to Lexor where he's discovered that Ardora has bore him a child. He decides to retire from Earth once and for all, but a series of tragic events ends all of that. For a complete summary of what I feel is a remarkable comic and storyline for Luthor, look here . There are links to an Ardora article and summaries of the earlier stories to click on.

This was one of my favorite side-stories from the Silver Age and one I'd like to see revisited in some way. It certainly gave some depth in my mind to the S.A. Luthor. Interesting that Lexor was forgotten for nearly two decades prior to 544 in an era and comic book family that was known for building up that kind of mythology.

It had been a detail that had been bothering me for awhile. I read 544 long ago (but no longer have) and probably a reprint of one of the Silver Age stories, but I finally researched it when I saw my question was up. I coulda sworn Ardora was another "LL" though. Oh, well!

I'm giving the next one to Cobie because his answer was the most correct. Take it away, Cobester!

A relatively easy one: DC has had a plethora of detective series throughout its long history. Which detective exclusively solved mysteries involving the ocean?

Captain Compass?

Yessir! You got it!

Why were Joker, Penguin, and Riddler once given access to the Flying Batcave?

There was a Flying Batcave?

Because they had tricked Batman into thinking they had reformed?

Hint:It involved the fearsome Bat-Hulk!