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

Curse you, Ester! I should have realized your comb would be finer-toothed than my own!

Nice catch!

Looking at it again, I think you're absolutely right. If I really wanted to stretch it... it could be an image of Cosmic King creating the metal thing by transmutation while Cos destroys it by the same... but the motion lines seem to refute that.

It's just so darned unsatisfying, though!

I just find it so odd that she showed up with the Adult team, but not with the, er., non-Adult team set in the team's present! Weird!

100% AGREE! What Dev-em did was much worse than a simple prank. Good grief, he seemed like he had such a hate-on for Superboy! Superboy's reaction when he showed up in the future with the Legion was completely justifiable and understandable.

How is it that Jor-el can only save his infant son but his Juvenile Delinquent neighbor can save his whole family from Krypton's destruction?

Dev-em was never more than a air car stealing Juvenile Delinquent looking for kicks, do you think that being one of the few survivors of a planet wide disaster would have changed his attitude. I guess it did somewhere between his 1st & 2nd appearance.

muther trucker! I have fallen behind ... I blame Imra in the Iron Mask.

I love this idea! It makes perfect sense.

Did we ever see Venus again in the Legion stories? Their judges certainly have great headgear, and I find that wall mural (or rug?) on the wall very peculiar.

The LSV were the first to have anti-grav flight belts, although they used jet packs themselves. Maybe that's why flight belts became the gift of rejection after the Legion adopted them later. After all, the LSV gave Luthor the boot. But what happened to jet packs? Outlawed by the U.P.? Unsafe At Any Speed?

Imra shows an early tendency to want to die for other heroes; perhaps she has a death wish.

I'll always wonder why the LSV didn't pursue a policy of selecting members with exact parallel powers to the Legionnaires. Maybe the writers thought it would be too monotonous. There was that later story in which Calorie Queen and other Legion duplicates fought the Legion and a few one-on-one disputes between people with the same power/from the same planet, but no mirror group of villains.

And thanks for those summaries, Cobie!

I don't think I could ever get used to "Munnel". Even with the second syllable stressed, it still sounds odd, like someone mispronouncing "Manila".

When people wonder why we don't pronounce the first "n" in "mountain" or why, in English, we pronounce the "n" and "g" in "finger" as a digraph (a single sound) and then repeat the "g" separately (in German, they're pronounced only as a digraph), I always think, "Because it sounds better that way." I think the same is true for Mawn-El. Even his nickname sounds better as "Mawn" than "Mun."

When I reread Archives #1 last summer something that stuck out was how much I enjoyed the Tom Tanner story, otherwise known by its awesome title "Secret of the Seventh Superhero!".

In addition to the great title, it also has a fantastic cover--the best so far IMO. Sun Boy just has one of the best costumes. It's also great to see non-Founders recurring for the first time.

As Eryk pointed out to me, this issue is another redo that works in the Legion to the story, though from what I understand some more subtle tweaks also make this one better.

This is my favorite story in Archives #1, though its really a Superboy story with an LSH cameo. It's just one of those classic, well done Superman stories that the Golden, Atomic and Silver Ages did so well. What I like most about it is Tom Tanner himself, who I wish we saw again. Though he starts off very cliched, he undergoes a true change in the story: he feels the love of a family and realizes how wonderful it is; he gains the respect of his piers; he shows a true and honest appreciation for learning (a true 1950's ideal) and he ultimately decides to do the right thing.

Random things:

Imra's costume is shown as a skirt on the opening splash and I like it.

Tom Tanner as a teen stowing away on freight trains: a true, regular occurrence in the depression. Kept out of his biographies for years, this was also Robert Mitchum's life at 13-15, until he ended up in a chain gang somewhere in the South.

The coincidence that the robots don't work is just another one of those ongoing Superman tropes that you have to accept is part of the charm.

Since Ex started a tally, this counts as Ma Kent's Pancake scene #2.

Love that within 6 panels, Tom is calling Mrs. Kent "Ma" by accident. In a short story, there is no time to waste!

There still harping on the one new member per year rule. This is probably the last mention?

My archives say the writer of this tale is unknown, but to me this is clearly Jerry Siegel. All of the coincidences playing out make the usage of montage pure Siegel genius. Only he would have Clark allowing Tom Tanner to continue the ruse so he can help Sun Boy.

Good for Tom, punching that jerk. I firmly believe physical violence should be deployed by kids as much as possible in those scenarios. Too bad Lana set that sucker up to take a beating.

Those horrible sea creatures seem awfully close to the beach. Yeah, now I know why I don't go too far out into the water.

My one major complaint is I hate that the robot "turned Tom good", as this was wholly unnecessary. It really adds nothing but detracts a major aspect of the story.

Naturally the Legion has a secret handshake! Why, the LMB does too! When I next meet several of you, I'll know you are who you claim to be by it. This was invented when Stu met Lash.

Adventure 290

"The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero" is certainly an awesome title!

People wonder how Superman pulls off disguising himself with just a pair of glasses, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that there's just so many freaking people running around who resemble him!

I wonder how the budget of Smallville Police Dept. affords to have someone drive Chief Parker around in his police chief car.

Milkmen are groovy.

Sigh. I miss the days of getting up early before school to go to my secret laboratory and work on science projects.

Poor Sun Boy apparently can't turn off his super-radiance in these early stories!

The open door of the time bubble causes an electrical disturbance! I love Supes casually stopping to fix generators and power-stations along the way to meet Sun Boy.

I've said before the parts of the robot in the past doesn't really make a lot of sense, because they'd probably still be buried there in the future.

There's probably an interesting alternate universe in which this is the first "rejected applicant betrays the Legion" story, and this is really Sun Boy who is evil here.

I wonder how Clark explained a way "his" erratic behavior at school that day?

I was kind of fascinated by where the Legionnaires buried their particular boxes. Too bad we only got to see the locations of the first two.

Jeepers! School is fun!

*Gasp!* Ma gives away the secret identity! And, er, how many duplicates of that outfit does Clark have, exactly?

The turns-good-people-evil-and-vice-versa robot is actually kind of a lame super-weapon.

I bet those guys at the electrical plant are really annoyed at Supes for destroying the electrical plant that he just fixed this morning!

Anyway, this Sun Boy impersonator is arguably the first real villain to show up in the (teen) Legion series, so it's kind of a shame that he doesn't get a name or anything. Though... I wonder if this could be the first appearance of Sunburst? He has similar abilities, and re-uses the infiltrate the Legion plot? Hmmm...

I agree the story probably would've been better if Tom had simply reformed naturally, without cycloptic interference, especially since he was partially on the way there anyway. It might've been kind of cool if he (secretly) kept his knowledge of Superboy's secret identity, so that perhaps he use his uncanny resemblance to Clark Kent to help out on future occasions!

It's either Sunburst or Kranyak, "Sun Boy's old enemy"!

Adventure 290

The Cover - Cobie has already sung the praises of Dirk's costume and I agree - just a great design, as evidenced by its longevity with next to no modifications.

It is sort of cool how Superboy casually tosses the phrase "The Legion of Super-Heroes" into his speech balloon and - at this point, even after just a handful of appearances - no further explanation is required on the cover. Clearly the readership is well acquainted with the concept. The Legion is a hit!


Page 1 - Ah... look at that team! Up until now, with the exception of the founders, each time the Legion appeared, a character introduction was a "featured' element of the story. By this point, a large enough roster had been built that a team could be mixed and matched just as a matter of course.

Really nice palette blend of colors in their uniforms (and skin tones) as well - all the rainbow colors plus black and white are represented. Interesting that Tinya is still shown as being somewhat "phantomy" with the hashed lines. At least her face is finally in phase.


Page 2 - Tom Tanner better be careful there. At first I thought he was riding inside the boxcar, but he's actually just balanced on the "rods" underneath the train. That's got to be fairly precarious.


Page 3 - Man, everybody is really up in Clark's business! What does a milkman care if he doesn't walk directly to the door?


Page 4 - Maple Grove? Uh-oh... that's where my mother-in-law teaches. I better call her and tell her she might want to take an alternate route home.


Page 5 - Yay! More pancakes! (Fanfic Lady is missing out on all this pancakey goodness.)


Page 6 - Someone may have already pointed this out, but it seems a while before Dirk is portrayed as having "super-heat" as opposed to merely "super-radiance". For these first few appearances it seems he just gets really bright without any corresponding temperature shift.


Page 7 - Hmmm... let's play "Whose Head Is That?" In that first panel, working from clockwise around the table from Brainy, I'd say - by process of elimination, given who we can see - that would have to be Lyle (straight hair... headband either off or obscured by shadow), then Tinya, then Gim (somewhat more kinky hair), then... probably Luornu (the extent of her early "kitten cut" not showing)... either that or Thom has let the crewcut get a bit shaggy.


Page 8 - I'm liking the Kranyak theory, Cobie. He looks a little younger than Kranyak did, but he's got that same sort of severe brow. Perhaps prison life proved really hard on him.


Page 9 - In the face! Tom Tanner don't let no man cut his hair without him knowin' about it!


Page 10 - Even on the box, Tinya's face is "phantom'ed out". I really wonder what the original intent was with her.


Page 11- Not much to say here. I wonder why Tom blew his cover just then, though. It seems like he could have kept it up for a bit longer if he wanted.


Page 12 - Bleh... good... evil. These don't seem like absolute things that should just be able to go "opposite". I guess "moral relativism" probably isn't the type you want to be teaching little kids about, though.


Page 13 - "OH-H-H-H!" The death-rattle of Cyclops. He seems so sad for a robot.


Page 14 - Look at how self satisfied Dirk looks giving the secret handshake. He is one suave mother f-er.

Hmmm... are you really able to adopt kids out of reform school? Maybe you can, but somehow that just doesn't seem right.



Anyway... more Silver Age goofiness, but definitely moving in the right direction. Revisiting previously introduced characters to reinforce the size of the group, giving a full story spotlight to the relative new kid (as others have noted, soon to be an early star), and tying it all in with a Smallville backdrop. The Legion has arrived!

So strange that I didn't remember the Sun Boy imposter from this story, just the Clark Kent imposter. Must have been the pancakes that held my attention.

Once again, we have a story with contemporary themes: the bullying of timid Clark Kent and something very like an EMP effect.

The Time Trapper could have taken Chief Parker to the 30th century and made him into R.J. Brande. They sort of look alike and show an interest in young people.

Juvenile delinquents never looked so strait-laced! Where's the James Dean look-alike? That Tom Tanner is very quick-thinking, though. He certainly had the makings of a criminal mastermind. Look at how interested that troublemaker was in the French Revolution.

Like others who have commented on this story, I think it's a shame that he only became good because of the robot. You'd think the Comics Code would have wanted him to see how pleasant a simple, virtuous life would be and have him just renounce his delinquent ways, vowing eternal devotion to Ma Kent and her cooking.

Fake Sun Boy gets Superboy to do all the work tracking down the six containers. That's not very heroic. Still, it does seem like something Dirk might do, but not in a malicious way.

Ugliest robot ever. And it talks funny. "Thy bidding"?

Nice to see the multi-coloured time stream has become the norm.

Supes! You told the criminal about the secret handshake! Now he's going to tell all his prison pals about it and there'll be lots of trouble in the future.

Why was the Legion on Xanthu? Was the unnamed imposter from Xanthu? Where's Star Boy? I like how Dirk looks stunned that someone had impersonated him.

Here's another thing that will repeat again and again throughout the Adventure series of Legion stories: the imposter in the face mask. Sometimes it's a criminal, sometimes the Legionnaires themselves will use the full face mask.

Too bad we never saw Tom Tanner again.

Oh, I forgot to bring up the Xanthu thing! Really bizarre!

Speaking of the way things are pronounced . . .

I've always pronounced Xanthu as "zan-thoo"; however, I have two Chinese students this semester whose names begin with "X", pronounced "sh". So, perhaps Xanthu was settled by the Chinese and should be pronounced something like "shan-thoo" or "shawn-thoo".

Perhaps the spelling was originally something like Xiaonthu, but it was simplified or corrupted over the centuries.

I always assumed it came from the Greek. "Xanthos" is Greek for "yellow", and a number of different mythological characters/places derive their name from it, perhaps most notably the river god in the Iliad.

Xanthu being settled by Greeks would certainly change my view of the planet. Most Legion Worlds with Caucasian humanoids seem to have been settled by generic 'white folk,' presumably from America or Europe (Titan, Orando, Naltor and Winath, in particular, are represented by blondes and redheads, even the sample size is very small).

Could there be a population of 31st century Amazons on Xanthu?

"The Legion of Super-Traitors" holds a special place in my heart as its long been the earliest Adventure Comics LSH story we own (we have the LOSV story and Superboy stories). Eventually I'll get those other ones, perhaps falling into one like Pov did, where he bought Adv 247 at a tag sale or something while driving back from Texas with Lash and Quis.

Though there is no denying their goofiness, I found myself loving the Legion of Super-Pets more and more as I get older. Reading their adventures is certainly more appealing than reading about Superman renouncing the United States or fighting rapists. At least little kids can enjoy the Super-Pets. And honestly, what's not to love?

- Krypto is as iconic as Batman.
- Streaky is every girls best friend
- Comet gets to have yet another awesome example of Siegel showing future events the readers haven't see yet--the best part of the first Archive.
- and Beppo is for those batshit crazy LSH fans like myself. I imagine Beppo is the Lard Lad of the Super-Pets circa his alcoholic / whore-monger days. I'd take Beppo over Magog or Grifter or something.

Anyway, the Super-Pets need an equally as insane, er, awesome, antagonists to fight and thus we get the Brain-Globes of Rambat! The first of many brains-in-jars to fight the Legion, they are my favorite of that wonderful sci-fi trope. A species evolving away from needing a body is a pretty groovy idea after all! And considering all the steroids in our food and culture of being fat and lazy, I expect my great-great-great grand kids will be brains-in-jars!

There's a joke somewhere in the first two pages about Lana, Exnihil and peaches.

Look at Krypto's disapproving look on page 4! Wow, I'd feel like crap if I got that.

Of course, the scenes that follow are super-tough! Poor Krypto!

The heart of the Gobi Desert is where Supes usually meets the Legion?!! Why not pick the bottom of an oil well or the nesting place of great white sharks?

The Phantom Zone! As mentioned, 1962-63 was the prime era for PZ appearances. Jax Ur is probably my favorite PZ criminal. Zod is awesome as always. And *choke* Mon-El!

This is a good as time as any to mention Eryk's long held theory that there was a build up to the Legion battling the Legion of Phantom Zone villains! This is a likely Untold Silver Age Tale, probably starring just about everyone (Supes, Kara, Jimmy, etc).

This appears to be the story where Cos begins using his powers with his hands instead of his eyes. The obviously explanation is Curt Swan drew this one and thought it the obvious way to do it; with John Forte about to come on as regular artist, he probably used this story as a reference for showing Cos' next usage of powers. Oh, and notice how Cos takes care of the super-robots pretty fast.

The Brain-Globes themselves are just so awesomely gruesome looking!

Note in Beppo's appearance, it looks like he's mating with that alien! He really is the Super-Pets version of Lardy!

And the battle! Krypto "wanting in on this!" like he's Wolverine! Imra riding Comet like John Wayne in a Ford cavalry movie! The Brain-Globes literally shaking in their, ah, globes! Garth basically laughing his ass off while the SP's make short work of the BG's!

I guess this is the first time Beppo has seen Clark since he was a baby? Cool! Never realized that before!

And a great example on the last page on just how powerful a kryptonian was in the Silver Age!

Honestly, if you don't like this story, you may have no soul.

Adventure #293

Got to love scenes of Clark helping out at the Kent's store!

You'd think he would've come up with some way of differentiating when help is needed by the President, the Pentagon, or Chief Parker.

Man, Smallville is practically the Bermuda Triangle of the Midwest with the number of airplanes (not to mention spaceships!) that (nearly) crash there!

Poor Krypto!

Love Ma and Pa Kent speculating about what might be wrong with their son this time!

You see... the LSH has a special code for the lamp to indicate the message is from them!

Apparently, the LSH "usually" meet Clark in the Gobi Desert when they come to visit! Probably a response to the time bubble causing electrical havoc in the last story!

*Gasp*! The Legion are betraying/attacking Superboy! Like in practically every other appearance thus far!

Okay, so I don't really get why the "Phantom Zone" thing was "Plan A". The "Plan B" kryptonite rings seem a much easier and more reliable method of killing Superboy than releasing the Phantom Zone criminals. Plus, releasing a bunch of PZ baddies seems risky, as their agenda might conflict with the BGoR's.

Sheesh! Supes must spend quite a bit of time repairing those Superboy robots every time they break or get smashed!

How creepy awesome are the Brain-Globes? Definitely one of the coolest LSH villains of all time. Though this is apparently a Siegel story, the Brain-Globe's story/plot is classic Ed Hamilton-style sci fi.

Only four of them left? Should've taken into consideration *that* problem before you got rid of your means of reproducing!

Note that the Legionnaires recruit the Super-Pets from four distinct time-periods:
--Krypto, from Superboy's time
--Beppo, from Superbaby's time
--Streaky, from Superman/Supergirl's time
--Comet, from Supergirl's future

How wild is that? (Of course, it gets completely ignored in future stories!)

Saturn Girl continues to be a complete star among the Legionnaires!

Fun little fight between the super-pets and brain-globes!

How Silver Age is Superboy blowing the Earth back into correct orbit, and doing so in such a precise way that "calendars and clocks won't be incorrect"!

Is this the first time the Legionnaires make sure that Clark doesn't gain knowledge that will affect his future?

Anyway, fun story! I don't think the super-pets were ever again quite as groovy as they were in this initial appearance, though.

Moving the Earth back into orbit with super-breath? In the immortal words of Ed Wynn: "Don't let's be silly!"

Maybe the robot on the cover of Adv. 279 was a John Byrne fan. And another thing, if Mercury never existed, just what was I driving around in the 80s?

So Professor Lang is out of the flashing lamp loop, replaced by the Pentagon. This just confirms my suspicion that Lang was a high-level operative.

EDE's idea that they meet in the Gobi Desert to avoid electrical failures is perfect! Later, Brainy would fix that little time bubble problem.

Mon-el, always the hero. How many more times in the next 1000 years would he try and warn the good guys about evil plans?

The creepy Brain-Globes - are those sensors on their globes, or just a vestige of their race's sparse hair?

Saturn Girl shows great leadership! How did they ever get from that to "this mission is too dangerous for a girl"?

I guess I'll just never get over my aversion to monkeys in comics. However, it's pretty cool how the Legionnaires went to different time periods to assemble the Super-Pets. Lightning Lad looks a bit silly riding on Krypto's back, especially compared to elegant Saturn Girl on Comet.

The Earth was somewhat out of orbit and Superboy only had to worry about clocks? Wouldn't even a minor orbital shift change the temperature? That super-breath must have caused some radical disruption in Venezuela, where it appears to be striking.

I like how it ends with Pa Kent suggesting ways that Superboy could find out how the Brain-Globes were defeated - and Superboy accepting that he shouldn't know. That shows a lot of trust in Saturn Girl. Maybe she planted a command in his head to not question the incident.

I have a copy of Showcase Presents: the Legion of Super-Heroes 1 with me. The Dev-Em story, and the story of Supergirl's first invitation to join the Legion, are both here.

Re Seventh Super-Hero, what are the chances of two impostors showing up simultaneously? Ah, the Silver Age! That sort of thing happen in the present and everyone'd be up in arms.



Perhaps next time Star Boy will be Asian!!

Poor Krypto! I wonder if real dogs think like that? "Choke! My master wants to kill me! I thought he loved me, but if this is how he really feels, I don't want to live...! Choke!"

One thing I noticed about the silver age - almost anything that appears in a story will have some significance later on! As this story will illustrate:

Action 287 - Supergirl's Greatest Challenge

A Superman Fan Club! Lois Lane is the guest speaker, and she even points out how much Supergirl looks like Linda Lee Danvers. Oh, Lois!

Nice to see that Linda has been adopted. In previous appearances she was still in the orphanage, yes? Must have missed the issue of her actual adoption.

Supergirl creates a lightning bolt with her hands, taking a page from Superboy. Diff. method, but same effect.

Interesting how Bouncing Boy, who would later on be ridiculed somewhat, is one of the more prominent Legionnaires in early stories. Here he is with the three founders and Sun Boy wowing the crowd at an arena.

Supergirl encounters the Positive Man, who just wipes out a populated planet casually in one panel. Good grief! In today's comics, that would have taken an entire issue!

And out of nowhere there is a Negative Creature who was created in the same explosion that created the Positive Man. Well, what a coincidence!

And here we have Whizzy, a descendant of Streaky. Whizzy's collar even says so! So whoever owns Whizzy just lets him/her fly around outside and ask random strangers for milk? Although who could stop a supercat? I wonder if Whizzy lives up to his/her name.

Lon Duryal and his androids. A nanny android who resembles a mother, a pilot android shorter than a midget man. Who wants a pilot that short? Ego much?

Supergirl rather creatively covers for "Cosmic Boy" and "Sun Boy", whose powers were lost. Wonder how she'd cover for Bouncing Boy or Phantom Girl? I can think of ways she'd cover for many others though, using super-speed.

And Supergirl saves the day by outsmarting the Chameleon Men! Those androids are really good for something huh?