Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archives #1

Yep. Ordinary Boy has some super low self esteem to put up with this. Poor guy was so excited to have super friends.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Luthor!

I like the Lightning Vision on the cover. Not quite sure what Reverse-Magnetism Rays are and how it would help hold up the airplane since ... he wants to attract it, not repel it.

Ordinary Boy is not so smart ... see my previous post.

Smallville is full of haters this issue. Superboy Prime would have incinerated the first old guys who made fun of him.

Ma and Pa = tough love.

I swear this is the story of Superboy Prime! No wonder Ordinary Boy went bad.

There's a lot of smokers in Smallville.

Where the hell did all those Super-Beings come from? All capable of interstellar travel ...

At this point, I wouldn't call the Legion find Ordinary Boy guilty and throwing him in prison .. "THE GREATEST SHOCK OF ALL!"

... and a bunch of zingers from the LSH after they've already beaten and imprisoned Ordinary Boy.


"Oh sorry, our futurescope was broken, and we humiliated you so bad you fled the earth, where we promptly imprisoned you. Thanks for saving our lives though."

That Super-Shout is fantastic ... He could change the molecular structure of things just by yawning! Mr. Mxyzptlk it's on!


Tune in next time when ... the LSH ruins Supergirl's life!

I love Imra. The bossier she gets the more hot she is. She is so right ... all of the time.

I still think she is secretly controlling everyone.

oh and ... UNDIES OVER PANTS!

When I was a girl I actually DID wear my undies over my tights so that I'd look like a superhero. I wanted to be Superman. My mom just sort of let me do it and shook her head. I think even then she knew something was off about me. XD

I used to wear my underoos as clothes. tshirt and undies. NO PANTS!

and later I would run around in my Grandma's boots ... and everyone would be like "why are you Supergirl" "You should be Superboy"

and I was like ... "FOOLS!!! SUPERBOY DOSN'T HAVE BOOTS LIKE THESE!!!"

I guess when I was a kid I had less of a problem swapping genders than inappropriate costuming.

I also have pictures as a kid with my tshirt tucked into short shorts ... clearly in an attempt to look like an X-Man. Plain blue shirt and yellow shorts. and I had those big red glasses for old people to put over their glasses ... and I have a bunch of pictures of me glaring at the camera like I was intently blasting them with my optic blasts.

TMI, continue with the archives.

Remember, this is the 50's-60's version of Superman, whose invulnerability prevented him from being mind-controlled or hypnotized, unless first weakened by kryptonite. Super-hypnosis by another Kryptonian (say, Supergirl) was another exception. Originally, it was not Saturn Girl who placed the post-hypnotic suggestion for Superboy to forget about meeting Supergirl in the 30th century, but Supergirl herself,

Other notes: The Legion travels back in time and builds an "artificial planet"- Superboy Planet. They have been busy in the last 20 months. So, what was the big deal about Earth being destroyed in 5YL? Just recruit a few "super-heroes of many worlds" and rebuild the place again.

Saturn Girl can pick up radio transmission? Shades of Antennae Boy!

The "horrible monster lurking under the surface world" looks like the template for the old Moebius plastic model:

Superboy, Krypto, and Cave Monster

Oh, I meant to mention the crazy idea of picking up radio transmissions via telepathy and through space! And, er, why exactly was the president broadcasting that over the radio, anyway? That's a bit weird.

I do really like the title "Prisoner of the Super-Heroes", which was also re-used during the postboot team's encounter with their Superboy.

This issue was so AWESOME! I love all the nonsense!

It kind of feels like ol' Uncle Mort just said, "Crap! We keep getting letters by kids wanting a return of this Legion of Super-Heroes group. Let's bring 'em back in the most incoherently bad story about them we can come up with, and if the kids still like them, we know we've got a hit on our hands!"

The title is the best part of this story!

Also, HWW brings up a great point about Uncle Mort's continued usage of the fear of rejection and being taken advantage of. They definitely are anxieties that kids (and adults to a lesser degree) constantly fear.

ooooooo on page 7 ... Cos uses "you're" when he should have used "your".

Further proof that fool is hung the sprock over.


Plus, Imra sits in the middle during the Judgement of Ordinary Boy and makes *Cosmic Puppet* do her talking for her!

I caught that, too. It's fairly rare to have that blatant a grammatical mistake in one of these stories.

It seems like each page was written on a different night in the pub ... then cobbled together just in time to make some more drinking money!

*sayyyy* shall we all write for DC?!?!

I am going off memory here, but Superboy's early encounters with the Legion reminds me a lot of Superman's first encounters with the New Gods in Jimmy Olsen. He is at first surprised with the fact that his powers are considered ordinary, but eventually comes to terms with that status in both settings.

I definitely think there are interesting themes going on in this story, and there's probably a pretty good story in the vicinity of this one, but, man they dropped the ball on this.


Note: The Green Arrow and Aquaman stories in this issue are pretty groovy! They're actually a crossover, where AM and GA end up trading places, so the AM has to hunt criminals in Star City (I don't remember if it's called that yet, though) and GA has to hunt criminals underwater!

I've wondered if you could take one of these early stories and rewrite the dialogue for contemporary readers. Even without changing the basic story, #267 has a lot of elements which could make it a modern fable of homeland security and the decline of the rule of law.

Superboy is set up by three self-appointed judges, based on crimes which he has yet to commit, for which there is no proof and for which he is given no fair trial. In fact, he is held in an off-planet prison, initially with no idea of what charges he faces. His parents and neighbours have all been subjected to Saturn Girl's telepathic propaganda depicting Superboy as a worthless failure. He is informed that checking on his activities with the Futurescope is a routine procedure.

Fortunately for Superboy, he is allowed by the President to revoke his "security oath" and reveal the cover-up in which he participated (destroying a poison gas factory and supply chain), which clears him of the alleged future crimes. Well, the Geneva Convention of 1925 only prohibited the first use of poison gas, not its production or storage, so it's not a war crime, but it was all very hush-hush. Was there a localized disaster which compelled the President to order the eradication of evidence?

There is also the theme of the broken machine used as evidence. A common challenge to breathalyzer results is to show that the machine might have been malfunctioning or wasn't properly calibrated. Certainly trying to get one's name off the no-fly list once it's in the computer system is supposed to be virtually impossible. Machines screw up.


On a lighter note, we're reminded that everyone wore hats back in 1959.

Ma Kent, who always appears in a nice dress, is actually wearing pants. Space-pants, but still pants - although her dress was obviously just tucked up inside the space suit.

Is this the one and only mention of the deadly element Sigellian, which turns everything blue? Is Sigellian named after Siegel?

Truly, it was a better time.


That is a brilliant deconstruction, though, FC. When you put it in those terms it almost seems like a "story ripped from the headlines" type thing. Almost.

Have to totally agree on the difference between Adv.247 and Advm267. With the fomrer, the Legionnaires just seemed like they were having a nice little harmless laugh. Issue 267 is ludicrous, with them not even bothering to ASK Superboy about the things they saw him do!

And agree with Dave Hackett re: keeping him imprisoned forever? Hello! What happened to all the "But historical records show Superboy will gorw up to become Superman, the greatest hero of all time?"

Silly Legionnaires. I bet they were just jealous all this time.

I just realized that these early Silver Age stories had so many instances where the public just suddenly turns on the heroes, for whatever reason. It really does pull at a young kid's fear of being ostracized or being rejected, especially by authority figures.

Wow, that is some heavy stuff!

Oh GAWD! Those orphanage people probably thought Clark was--shudder--a prom night dumpster baby?!?!

Or maybe.....Superboy stories take place in the present while Superman stories are...the FYUTCHA!

Yeah, Pa was one of the earliest cases of Alzheimer's before it was ever named. Superman editors covered up his eventual decline by claiming he and Martha died of some "tropical" illness. After he succumbed, Martha went to one of those hipster old-folks homes and fornicated with multiple partners of both sexes until eventually the syphilis took her.

I saw it all on "Behind the Legend", so you know it's damned true!