Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archives #2

Considering that Supergirl ran into Red K virtually every time she visited the future, another setup for Satan Girl's return wouldn't have been hard to create.

You're right that they didn't do recurring villains at the time, but if a writer from a later era had reached back (Shooter? Bates?), they would have found a villain as worthy as Universo or Starfinger.

I wonder about that, too, googoomuck. I wonder how many things got past the CCA, or depended upon who was actually reviewing the comics at the time.

Satan Girl's costume strikes me as unusual for the time - the full body suit, hood/mask and the colours as well. It's good they didn't go with the traditional red for the devil.



That made me think of Silk Satin from The Spirit, and how great it would be to have a Spirit/Legion team-up by Darwyn Cooke.

Also, I'd love to see a League of Extraordinary Gentlewomen, with some of the female Legionnaires, Silk Satin, P'Gell, etc. Satan Girl could join them if an explanation could be cooked up as to why she lived beyond 48 hours.

Cobie could probably answer this better, but my understanding is that control was pretty tight, and not a whole lot slipped by them. If the story was even questionable, I would be surprised that it even got past Weisigner to be submitted to the CCA.

You've also got to consider that Hot Stuff was a major character over at Harvey, and the "Demons Three" appeared pretty early on in Justice League (they had to be changed to the "Three Ghosts" or something when they appeared on Super Friends, as I recall). It seems to me it's just a weird feature of the CCA that they didn't get worked up about such stuff.

This discussion prompted me to do my own research by consulting Wikipedia (natch!). The article reprints the original Code criteria of 1954, which does not mention anything associated with devils or Satan or satanism--an odd omission since werewolves, vampires, and zombies are all prohibited.

Some interesting revelations on how subjective Code enforcement could be:
-- An EC story called "Judgment Day" was rejected because the main character was black! (There's nothing in the Code criteria that mentions race.) EC publisher William Gaines ultimately got the Code to back down by threatening to reveal why the story was rejected.
-- Stan Lee's famous drug story in Amazing Spider-Man was denied the seal of approval even though the Code did not specifically mention drugs. It was later explained that the Code administrator "was ill" at the time, suggesting the comics should have been approved because the United States Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare had asked Lee to write the story.
-- Also, an earlier story (Deadman's first appearance, in 1967) clearly showed the title character fighting an opium addiction.

So, while "Satan Girl" was not specifically prohibited by the Code, it does seem odd that that the name set off no red flags.

What about Wolfman Jimmy?

Wolfman Jimmy might've gotten through because he's not actually supernatural, but instead a "scientific" wolfman.

I seem to recall that Marvel got around the prohibition on zombies by using the basic concept, but calling them something different!

JIMMY OLSEN #72

This is one if many issues I first encountered in the Archives. In fact, I think this may be my first actual experiences with Jiimmy as Elastic Lad. While I knew of his honorary membership thanks to the tabloid book, that who's who panel had Jimmy in his civilian cloths. Jimmy's own title had recently given way to Superman Family by the time I started reading comics, so this story was my first exposure to Jimmy in all his name-on-spandax glory!

This story also was my first exposure to Jimmy's many transformations, having previously only experienced them on covers reprinted in Overstreet and other fan surces. I must say, having come in at Jimmy's Mr. Action and the Newsboy's phase, I've often had a soft spot for the sheer kookiness of his Silver Age stories.

Regarding the story itself, just a few points:

While the time bubble was not originally under the sole purview of the Legion, as seen on the cover or Superman 121, published less than a month after the Legion's debut, it had become even by this early point so inextricably linked to our future super-teens than Jimmy really out to have guess the Collector's identity from that alone.

It does surprise me that "Gion-el" was never explained to the readers as another clue Jimmy deftly interpreted,

Jimmy used his signal-watch 18 times in a month, better than once every other day?! This story could just have easily been one of Superman's patented Silver Age super-douchery pranks to teach Jimmy a lesson about being a super-PIA.

"How'd you catch on about me, Jimmy." asks the mighty Mon-El, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he just screamed like a 12-year-old girl!

The Proty II panel is a tad crowded, although not overly so by the standards of the day. It is possible there was a last-minute pasteover to an already completed story in order to account for the recent death of Proty I. Of course, it could just as easily have been a planned pointer to Adventure Comics 312, which would still have been on the stands in most places when this issue appeared,

The various facets of the Superman mythos had become so well established by this point, it seems, that Uncle Mort seemingly felt no need to explain to readers why Jimmy arrives in the 30th century swaddled in Superman's cape.

As others have noted, it is odd for the still-secret Subs to appear at Jimmy's induction ceremony, in line with Legiosnniares no less, and not as mere standees-by. My guess: Swan, who had not drawn a ton of Legion stories at this point, was probably given a recent Adventure issue as reference and, looking at the images without actually reading the story, simply picked some of teh characters he thought most readily recognizable from the back, without realizing they were not all Legionniares.

It appears that Cosmic Boy administers the oath, but it's Imra who is the actual leader at this point. Maybe Rokk gets to indict all members as founding leader? And if Imra is front-and-center as leader, does that mean Mon was her deputy, even though that was a concept that would not come along until later? And why to Chuck and Lu get to flank the proceedings? Is it their purpose to show the new inductee, "Hey, look, if we can make it, you'll do fine."

I *think* this is the last time we see the Legion oath uttered. I always found it interesting thy as lax as early Legion tales were with continuity, Mort always made sure the oath was word-for-word exact each time it was used.

I suppose Mon-El could have fastened Jimmy's feet to the ground at super-speed somehow, so that he may in fact have tested the plastic tree roots and found himself immobile. Still, I agree with others that was the lamest and, in fact, least necessary part of this tale.

Of course, one of the rules of Red K. is that it never has the same effect twice (not that writers didn't find a way to get around that when necessary for the story!).

Zuvembies! From the company that brought you the Maggia!

[You have no idea how long it took to find the correct damn spelling for that. Especially with google stupidly autocorrecting to "zombie" by default every single time ]

I briefly made an attempt to figure out the word, but gave up, figuring someone else would either know it or do the work to find it!

It surprises me that, to my knowledge, there was never a relative of Kal-El named "Gion-El"!

Regarding the code and the CCA: satanism, and references to the devil in general, fell under the broad category of black magic and the occult, which was certainly banned.

However, like all things there were ways around this. The best way to get approved, was to combine several things: first, an emphasis on science-fiction over magic. Second, a light-hearted tone in the story with a clear moral being told and good triumphs over bad ending. And lastly, and by far the most important, was politics. Namely, by the early 60's there were some pretty clear allies of the CCA that had more leeway--like DC comics--and some clear trustworthy franchises. For instance, you had a better chance of approval if you we're Huey, Duey, and Louie wearing a devil costume, or Archie dealing with Salem-like witchcraft trials, or Superman and Supergirl.

For those curious, I've studied the comics code extensively, with a particular emphasis on EC Comics, and wrote a paper on it in graduate school at Trinity College. There is a prevalent school of thought among scholars that McCarthyism was not an aggressive stance against Communism, but rather an assault on liberalism (and a somewhat successful one at that). Thus, the advent of the code and the Kefauver Hearings, quite clearly targeted the most liberal publisher of comic books, EC comics...and thus, the targeting of "Judgement Day" in Weird Science. Which btw, is a phenomenal, game-changing story, and a high point of the 1950's comic industry.

The thing about the Code is--and this is true of most censorship committees--they're real power isn't so much that they can "say no". Rather, its their ability to delay, to make life harder and to annoy that let's them be so powerful. If they objected to Satan Girl, what they would have done was make Mort's life more frustrating than normal. They might cause it to miss a deadline or simply frustrate him enough to make him kill it. Or worse, if they involved the higher ups like Jack Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld, who were their golf buddies, then Mort would really be annoyed.

Its with this in mind that you can see how Marvel, which went from the lower tier of the industry to an actual rival to DC, didn't have the political connections to the CCA for a long period of time other than a longstanding relationship with publisher Martin Goodman. By '69, when the Harry Osborn drug story appeared, Goodman was barely involved anymore (though he would try one more attempt to seize the reigns of his company). So Stan had no great longstanding relationship, and really had nothing to lose. Plus, he had liberal academia on his side and an audience immersed in the youth culture of the time. He almost had to go that route. Two months later, Denny O'Neil recognized that the Code had proven to be impotent, and so he pushed Neal Adams to show a full on heroin overdose in Green Lantern. The code never recovered, and had been revealed to be a paper tiger. Denny, of course, was a young up and coming "new blood" and shared a lot of Stan's views. He also was formerly of Charlton Comics, whom the Code was more than happy to kick around on occasion. I'm sure he took great delight in helping render it irrelevant.

Anyway, back to Superman and the Legion. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many--if at all--instances where the Code cracked down on the franchise from 1955-1967. It was one of the "ol' reliable" franchises like Archie and Uncle Scrooge that adhered so well to the status quo that it helped keep the facade of the Code's power strong.

Fascinating! I wonder if scenes in which Superman is blindly serving the government (as in The Dark Knight) are allusions to his Code-pleasing stories.

It also brings to mind Rod Serling's comment re:The Twilight Zone that an alien can say something about social issues that an American can't.

Thanks for the info on the Code, Cobie. I'm impressed that you wrote a graduate paper on it!

Jim's comment about "Wolfman Jimmy" reminded me of another CCA issue mentioned by Wikipedia--this one concerning writer Marv Wolfman:



Good thing there wasn't a comic book writer named Vlad M. Paler.

On her next visit to the 30th century, Kara encountered maroon kryptonite, which causes one previous Red K transformation to repeat.

I think Lesla Lar adopting the role of Satan Girl was a good idea, whoever suggested it.

^Yes. In the tried-and-true comic book tradition, there's nothing wrong with someone else adopting the Satan Girl identity.

(I have to confess, I'm totally unfamiliar with Lesla Lar--but she sounds like a good candidate for a recurring Legion villain.)

Plus, wasn't she a double of Supergirl? She could've fooled them into thinking she was the original Satan Girl back for a rematch.

I just double-checked and Cobie actually suggested that a descendant of Lesla's could don the satin Satan robes, but I see no reason it couldn't be the girl herself with a little time travel.

Thanks! I refined the idea in the other thread and actually love it more and more as I think about it.

I love the idea too! Definitely an awesome villain!

Jim, you should check out the recent Satan Girl thread where I also suggested Lesla herself, not only because she's a Supergirl double but because her ultimate end was pretty disappointing!

ADVENTURE COMICS 313

Not much to add that others have not already said about this issue. I will note that, according to the Grand Comics Database, John Forre inked the Supergirl story that appeared in Action Comics the month this Curt Swan fill in was published, unusual in that Jim Mooney usually inked his own work.

Clearly, Forte was given something else to do while Swan stepped in. But why the switch? As others have noted, this story seems more like a Supergirl solo adventure than a tale of the Legion. Also, although it does have certain hallmarks - the mystery to solve, the parade of fantastic worlds, this doesn't quite read like an Edmond Hamilton story to me. But that could be the art influencing my reading of the script.

Still, I strongly suspect this actually was a Supergirl story, perhaps one from inventory, perhaps one that in its original form did cameo the Legion, or at least the Super-Pets, given to Hamilton with orders to redraft it as a Legion story. Supergirl's adventures at the time were 11-13 pages long, so Hamilton could have adapted an existing script primarily by adding 3-5 pages of Crimson Plague material. If this is indeed what happened, it would seemingly explain why Satan Girl wanted to kill the girl Legionnairs, which kind of gets glossed over and doesn't make a ton of sense in the story.

Also, I should admit that I, too, misread Satan Girl as Satin Girl when I was a kid, although in my case it was almost a willful misreading. I guess I was maybe 15 when I first bought a copy of this issue at a used book store. The idea that a prospective Legion candidate would introduce herself as Satan Girl simply made no sense to me. "What's that," I could imagine Sun Boy saying, "You're code name is Homicidal-Maniac Girl? Great! Here's your flight ring,"

So, given the character's velvity costume, my young mind immediately presumed I had read it wrong and it was indeed Satin Girl. I actually convinced myself that satan was a homograph, meaning both the devil and a type of fabric.

And so, for two decades I pronounced Satan girl in my head as Satin Girl. It was not until finally buying a copy of the Archives that I looked the damn word up and rrealized Satin is spelled differently.

Adventure #314

Alaktor is one of those one-off Silver Age Legion villains, like Nardo, that absolutely should have shown up again and again. If he was at Marvel, by the late 80's he'd have had a mega-confusing history with a multitude of good (and bad) appearances. Such was not to be though. I like the idea of a lower level time traveling villain (as compared to the all-powerful Time Trapper) who can bother the Legion and essentially screw things up.

This story is also probably most famous on LW for the long number of threads devoted to Nero, Hitler, and Dillinger--specifically how Dillinger just doesn't quite measure up. I actually love the idea of Nero (or Caligula or another infamous ancient megalomaniac tyrant) living on to plague the Legion. The concept of ancient ideals measuring up to future ones is rife with possibilities. And of course, Hitler is well, Hitler.

This story is also I think a critical step in the transfer of Ultra Boy from just vision powers to his much larger powerset. The key is his placement with Superboy and Mon-El, and how he appears to be seen by the other Legionnaires as being equally as might. They even imply they are the three most powerful Legionnaires when we first see them. Yet, Imra later mentions Supes and Mon could easily build a new time bubble fast if they were there...but no mention of Jo. So Hamilton clearly doesn't see Jo has having the full Kryptonian powerset yet. But following this story, I think the elements are in place for Jo's next starring role, which will solidify his powers, origin, love interest, etc.

As I mentioned before, I've always wondered why the cover layouts of the previous issue and this one are near identical.

As a kid I always loved seeing when superhero headquarters had all kinds of defenses and traps and such.

Ron Karr looks like such a pleasant fellow. Definitely doesn't seem LOSV material to me. T&M were right to have him defect to the Subs 5YL.

Alaktor follows Jungle King as a "rejected applicant gets revenge", though he clearly never intended to actually join. Which is good since he looks about 40 years old!

Lost World is the classic Hamilton / Forte lost civilization concept taken to the next level. Love it.

The usual leads are all here except Brainy: Dirk, Imra, Chuck. As IB mentioned earlier, Garth is also bumped to recurring lead status upon his return but he doesn't say much. Perhaps Hamilton wasn't sure what to do with him yet; perhaps he's still adjusting to his return.

If he hasn't already died in the war, I'd bet that pilot was Johnny Cloud, Navajo Ace!

With part 2 the story goes a bit off the rails. Didn't the LSH just learn who Alaktor recruited? The exchange between them makes no sense. And wasn't the whole point of Jo's first appearance that he can see through lead?

It gets a little better in time for Alaktor to experience the second best double cross of the Silver Age Legion--the first being the LOSV and Dynamo Boy.

Lyle, Vi and Cham show up for the first unofficial Espionage Squad mission! Er...apparently it took a little practice.

The plot calls for a few quick retcons! Mon needs to drink his formula every 48 hours and Jo is vulnerable to...radioactive force? Ok...this story is probably the weakest of the archive.

Imra gets to shine by proving the ages old proverb that evil doers will always turn on each other.

Alaktor tries to butter up Imra but she ain't having it.

It's worth noting the Legion is sending back Hitler to blow his brains out, and even better, sending Nero back to order his slave to kill him (or just as likely--to he murdered).

All in all...one of the weakest in awhile.

ADVENTURE COMICS 314

One of the worst stories of the Lsgion's Adventure run, IMHO, and also one with the greatest ramifications.

Imagine, for a moment, how Legion lore might have been rewritten if the third member of the Legion's mightiest trio spotlighted in this issue had been Star Boy, instead of Ultra Boy? That, of course, is how it should have gone down.

Star Boy, recall, had kryptonian-level powers, PLUS electric vision. His only known weakness was an inability to see through copper. However, since fans reminded Uncle Mort of Star Boy's existence at the start of the Adventure run, he's only appeared as a headshot on a couple of roll calls, with the lettercol explanation that he's away on "detached service." One presumes that service included an office boy dispatched to find a copy of Adventure Comics 282, becasue no one could remember what Star Boys powers were.

Meanwhile, far from being one of the Legion's mightiest heroes, Ultra Boy at this point has the sole power of penetra-vision. He can see through things, including, holy gosh! LEAD!! And that's it.

So, imagine if Star Boy had taken his rightful place alongside Superboy and Mon-El in this issue? Gone would be the gravity powers, although he might well have still been drummed out as The Legionnaire Who Killed. But consider poor Uktra Boy -- with no need to retcon new powers in two issues' time to explain why he was featured here, Jo might have been subject to the same early '70s purge that claimed Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy, Matter-Eater Lad and Invisible Kid!

A few quick notes:

Alaktor should have been rejected not becasue his powers are artificial, but becasue he looks to be about 40!

I don't know why, but the robot used to test the Legion's defenses reminds me of Uthlo. Maybe he got repurposed?

Forte seemingly knows enough no to depict Nero with a fiddle, which was 1,500 years away from being invented in A.D. 64. Of course, Nero did not really fiddle while Rome burned, and, at any rate, the legend that he ordered the fire had to do with the belief that he was clearing land for reconstruction in styles more to his suiting. This Legion story is the ONLY place I've ever seen the explanation that Nero wanted to sing about the burning of Troy.

Note the year is given incorrectly as 64 A.D. instead of A.D. 64.

Dillinger must've hit his head in that car crash. Otherwise, he'd've known that the Bureau of Investigation did not become the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or F.B.I., until the following year, 1935.

How stupid is Saturn Girl? She JUST saw Alaktor make off with Nero, Hitler and Dillinger (the latter an odd replacement for Napoleon, IMHO). She couldn't guess who the three hooded men were in the time bubble, not even given the fact that they're wearing the same clothes?

I could not help but wonder why there are so many statues of Lex Luthor on Lost World.

The Legion takes time to build a bubble, lamenting how much faster Superboy or Mon-El (note Ultra Boy not mentioned) could have done it. Even if they're on Lost World, why couldn't they have built the bubble there, instead of screwing around building a replica of the Legion Clubhouse that we never actually see?

Note that apart from flying (anti-gravity belt) and holding Alaktor in place while Superboy binds him (no super-strength needed) we never actually see Ultra Boy display any powers this issue. As we've noted, it would have been exceedingly odd if he had. Note also that Jo is depicted as unable to see through lead, the ONE thing he is supposed to be able to do.

Even when Ultra Boy got new powers, the weakness to radioactive force would go unmentioned for decades. I *think* is was not until the mid-Baxter run that it was raised again. Anyone got the deets on that?

As a final aside, was Star Boy among the Legionnaires depicted in Superman Annual 4? I don't think he was, which would make the Origins & Powers feature in Adventure 316 his official retcon.