Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archives Vol. 9

After Adventure Comics #380, the Legion was moved to Action Comics and first appeared there in issue #377. However, it was a reprinted story from Adventure Comics #300, so it doesn't appear in the Archives, Vol 9.

I just wanted to mention that in Action #377 the editors printed an official looking letter (on National Periodical Publications, Inc. letterhead) thanking DC fans for "having bought this DC Magazine, even though it cost you three cents more than usual." The new price was 15 cents.

Wasn't Jo tossed through time not space in TMK?

I recall him being stuck on a fringe world between the Khundian and Dominion Empires, as well as back in time. So he had an Odyssey to get back into familiar territory for help.

I don't know where Cobie's disappeared to--probably busy with RL again--but I hope nobody minds if I jump into the next one. I'm kind of anxious to revisit this little discussed era.

Action Comics # 378 "The Forbidden Fruit"

Fans look upon this era of the Legion as a low point, and with good reason--the shorter page count and backup status meant fewer Legionnaires per story and no real ground-breaking stories or major events. Win Mortimer's art continues to be a rather drab replacement for Swan, but it has its charms.

Still, there are some gems in this run, and I think "The Forbidden Fruit" is one of them. Shooter introduced psychedelic themes in earlier Legion stories, but here he does a full-blown anti-drug story. Of course, it got past the Comics Code censors because it's not about a real drug. Rather, it's about the "lotus fruit," a fictitious hallucinogen that recalls the lotus eaters in Homer's "Odyssey". (Shooter couldn't get enough of "Odyssey," apparently.) Perhaps the literary cred made the story acceptable to the CC.

What Shooter and Mortimer depict is a very believable excursion into the realm of drug addiction, with trippy panels, lapse in judgement, and insatiable cravings for more of the drug--all experienced by Timber Wolf. The story meticulously depicts what Brin goes through, including snapping at Ayla and trying to get her hooked on the drug in order to feed his own addiction.

All of this is very well written, including the manner in which Brin becomes addicted to the lotus fruit--a staged bank robbery that results in his wounding and "treatment" by a mysterious doctor, who appears from the crowd, gives Brin a serum, and then disappears. The doctor, of course, turns out to be a villain who attempts to turn Brin into a junkie--and, through him, the rest of the Legion--for an unrevealed purpose.

The story provides an exceptional spotlight for Brin, whose acrobatic ability drives the plot--and for Ayla, who, in a rare preboot appearance, displays resourcefulness and even recklessness--traits that would come to the fore in the reboot.

Yes, her willingness to blow a hole in herself in order to cure Brin of his addiction was a bit extreme and not well thought out. Good thing she and Brin both believed in the power of True Love.

In fact, the story's major failing is that it treats overcoming drug addiction as a simple matter of getting the addict to choose between his loved ones and his addiction. Too many people who have faced similar situations in real life can testify that this isn't so. Drugs alter a person's brain chemistry and lead to horrendous lapses in judgment: stealing from loved ones, wrecking cars, and even murder.

Young people often learn from the stories they read--whether the stories are intended as mere entertainment or not--so it was irresponsible to convey a message that addiction is so easily overcome: Strap a bomb to your midriff and trust the addict to make the right choice.

A more realistic treatment would also have shown Brin coping with withdrawals for days or weeks to come instead of shrugging it all off after slugging his pusher.

Of course, realism went only so far in 1960s comics stories, particularly at DC. Although "The Forbidden Fruit" is not wholly successful as an anti-drug story, it is very successful as a short story which highlights two underused Legionnaires.

Eh, I've seen love for another motivate people to break addictions, smoking, drinking, even drugs of various nature. Not too infrequently either. Just not usually at the end of a gun, lol.

A few, not many I even seen without obvious withdrawal effects, which makes me wonder if what they were doing was more habit than addiction, there being a line somewhere between the two. In Brin's case it was obviously addiction. I suppose I can take the years of overacting that followed as his recovery period heh.

I thought the story heavy handed but otherwise character building. That I recall it probably says something about its effectiveness for me as several of the recent stories reviewed I'm like, "did that really happen?" A couple I went back to the boxes and even after reading don't recall ever having read them in the first place.

This one I recalled with hitting the boxes so I suppose that says something.

Just read The Forbidden Fruit for the first time in ages. Not one of my favorite Legion tales, but the first of several in the Action run with a focus on only one or 2 members, which I think was a nice change of pace from the crowded action fests that dominated the Adventure run (not that I don't love a good crowded action fest). But the Action run focused more on character development and as I said previously, it gave a spotlight to several Legionnaires who didn't get much attention in Adventure.

How do we feel about Ayla being able to move that basket of fruit horizontally with the help of a convenient breeze? Seems like super strong guy should've been able to overpower a mere breeze and keep his grip on it but it was nice to see Ayla using her power in a slightly different way than usual. I suppose she could've just as easily flown overhead and made the basket fly up toward her though.

Here is the letter column which only has a couple of Legion related letters I'm afraid.

Tell us what you REALLY think about the Comics Code Authority!

Wholesome advertising, eh? What about "X-ray specs"? ;-)

Sees through clothes!
Sees through walls!
Sees through clothes!
Sees through doors!
SEES THROUGH CLOTHES, MAN!*


*paraphrased from an Ambush Bug issue.

Since Timber Wolf is one of my favorite Legionnaires, it was fun reading this spotlight issue. Still a couple of things bothered me...

First, that Ayla would strap a bomb to her waist to force Brinn to stop his addiction. While intervention was necessary to help break Brinn's addiction, portraying her as willing to commit suicide, is just as physiologically problematic as Timber Wolf's drug addiction. Secondly, with the way suicide bombers have become the fad of terrorists, having a bomb strapped to a character's waist in such a casual way is very disturbing.

Also, while Alyla's actions may have prevented him from taking the next hit of drugs, I find it unsettling that this ended his addiction. Too often addicts promise to loved ones that they'll stop, but keep on using. The storyline would have been much more believable if Shooter had made Brinn's recovery from addiction a subplot in upcoming issues instead of instantly calling him cured. I know that's not how they wrote comics back then, but this was one story that simply could not possibly be wrapped up in a single issue. A better resolution would have been to have Ayla say that she's stay by him for the long haul until he'd conquered his demons. That way readers would know that recovery takes time.

Of course, the way this issue portrays Ayla's love for Brinn, willing to even die to save him from himself, it makes her dumping him under Levitz's plotting seem all the more bizarre. That was just one break-up that just never made sense.

Leather Wolf,
We're on the same wavelength with regards to Ayla's actions in this story. I agree that it is very unrealistic for her to offer to sacrifice herself and for Brin to overcome his addiction so easily.

I hadn't thought about Ayla's actions foreshadowing suicide bombers. Interesting connection.

Regardless of her willingness to sacrifice herself for Brin in this story, I've always thought their eventual breakup did make sense for several reasons. For one, none of the Legion couples had ever broken up before, so it seemed a tad unrealistic for a group full of young people to be so firmly committed to their first loves. Second, Ayla and Brin were both underdeveloped as characters; the door was open for the writer to do anything with them. Third, the breakup led to positive character growth for both of them in the long run. Brin became a much more interesting character as he struggled to make sense of the turns his life had taken. Ayla started to come into her own as an assertive and powerhouse Legionnaire.

Action Comics 378

Cripes! Ayla has been going out with Ultra the Multi Alien all this time. No wonder there's all those sullen mood swings!

Brin gets some solo action, showing off his agility and strength to foil a robbery. But it's all an over elaborate plan from a doctor to get him to swallow a hot beverage. I would have went with Plan B, the coffee stall just a little further up the street.

An emotionally unstable Brin visits Ayla later on and takes out his sulk on her. As Victim Lass she unfortunately continues to puts up with it.

Repressed Brin spends the night staring at the moon from a window ledge. This isn't actually the drug kicking in. This is a result of the Zuunium radiation he was given by his father. The ledge thing is something he does every month*.

Shooter hasn't finished with the Odyssey just yet. He's held a certain fruit sized amount over to feed Brin's addiction. The addictive Lotus Fruit caused those who eat it to forget about everything else except enjoying the fruit. Ulysses made his crewmen go cold turkey. As a victim, Brin instead tries to addict Ayla to the fruit as well, under instruction from the evil doctor. Nice guy.

Ayla follows Brin's travels to secure more fruit, and intercepts the Fruit Peddler doctor. Who knew that the Legionnaires had blast grenades attached to their belts?

Of all the ways some one with gravity powers could have removed the fruit, becoming a human bomb must have been low on the list. Brin must choose: The drug or Ayla. He chooses the fruit...but pulls back just in time to punch out the Peddler instead.

It's a bit more dramatic than the months of rehabilitation, and I wouldn't recommend it as a therapeutic approach but Brin's shaken the drug off completely in only a few panels. The wonder of comics!

Brin's "thanks doll!" to Ayla is presumably to show a change from being a sullen loner to more of a team player in touch with his feelings! Presumably.

So, the message is that putting up with lots of emotional abuse can help to save your relationship! Umm... Ok, what about making threats to self harm could make the person in your life realise where they've gone wrong! Ah.....

Anyway.. . over in the Superman main strip...



Supes swears his allegiance to Satan and Mordru makes a guest appearance as the Marauder, but he's not fooling anyone in that hat.


* In the Five Year gap Brin sits under a full moon as the Zuunium shifts him through a transformation cycle.

Alas, there is no coffee in the 30th century. Some doctor discovered it was too addictive and harmful. Maybe a relative of the doctor-peddler in this story.



It's standard issue, along with having a self-destruct mechanism for their headquarters. (Why it is that Brin gets all the stories with the spy-suicide devices. Is he a closet James Bond fan?)

I generally haven't read the Superman stories in this Action run, but I did read this one and enjoyed it. "Satan's" true identity turned out to be an interesting twist.

What?! But as Caffeine Kid, I've been sitting here for years waiting for my Legion time bubble! I wonder what the LSV are up to these days... Oh Lex! Lex!...



Back when he thought he was an android he stuffed all sorts of gadgets into various orifices thinking it was all just storage space. It's bit embarrassing now, but does come in handy for last minute rescues.



Mommy: I don't know Timmy. I heard bad things about comics.
Timmy: But Mom, It's Superman....
Mommy: Well OK, let me look at the cover... GAAAAAAHHHHH!

Ah, I see. Mort used Satan to distract the Comics Code from the drug references. Very sneaky.

Action 379 "One of Us is an Impostor"

When I first re-read this story two days ago, I didn't like it. There's just not much here in terms of story, and Shooter does not play fair with the reader in terms of solving the mystery.

On re-reading it about an hour ago, I think it's a rather pleasant diversion if one doesn't expect much from it.

It's based on a simple and time-worn premise. Of the five Legionnaires present--Mon-El, Lighting Lad, Dream Girl, Element Lad, and Shadow Lass--one is revealed by the Legion's computer to be an impostor. Conveniently, the computer is destroyed before the poser's identity is revealed. Before the Legionnaires can pursue the matter, they have to deal with a super-villain called Sunburst.

In the battle which follows, the reader is treated to a series of "clues" that all turn out to be red herrings (Lightning Lad's hair stands up when his power backfires, Dream Girl's prediction does not come true, and so forth). But it turns out the only Legionnaire whose power did function correctly--Shadow Lass--is the impostor because she should have been weakened by Sunburst's solar burst.

Sure, it's kind of a fun twist that the one Legionnaire who is above suspicion proves to be fake--which shows, I guess, that Mon is the only observant Legionnaire present. But it would have been nicer if Shooter had played fair with the reader by setting up the big reveal.

One of the hallmarks of detective/mystery fiction is that the writer provides the reader with enough actual clues to be able to solve the mystery before the detective does. However, if Shadow Lass's weakness to light had been mentioned prior to this story, I must have missed it. It certainly is not part of this story prior to the big reveal.

Of course, it's also convenient that Mon just happened to forget to take his anti-lead serum that morning, which made him susceptible to Sunburst's red-sun blast (or that Sunburst even had a red-sun blast, but then a good super-villain is always prepared).

However, there are some nice moments of the Legionnaires sparring with each other like teenagers. Element Lad's nickname for Lightning Lad--"Bolt Boy"--is cute.

It's also nice to take a break from the heavy-handed relevance of the previous issue and have an adventure where the Legionnaires are just being Legionnaires.

Still, I could have done without Mon's cringeworthy comment to the real Shadow Lass: "That phoney didn't have a shadow of your charm!" Ugh.

Shady's weakness to light is mentioned in her very first appearance, Adv. 365.

This story has always been one of my favorites of the Legion's Action run. Mostly because the artwork is better than most of the others as it was done by Swan and Anderson I believe. Also because it featured several of my favorite Legionnaires. It does seem a bit silly that Mon-El has to resort to deduction to expose the impostor though. As if he couldn't tell his own girlfriend apart from a spy by her body language, voice, mannerisms, etc. Then there's the fact that he could've simply done it by using his x-ray vision to see which of his companions was wearing a mask, wig, and blue makeup! But of course that all has to be put aside in the many impostor stories of the silver age. Mission_Impossible_Masks.com must've been making a fortune back then before holograms came along and upstaged them.

Action 379's letters:

Thanks, Jim.

It would have been nice to have a reminder of it in the "Impostor" for readers who didn't remember or hadn't read the earlier appearance.

The Legion Handbook lists the art credit as Mortimer/Abel. But I agree that it does look better than the art in most of the recent stories.

jimgallagher, the size of your last few attachments is messing with the way this page displays on my monitor, cutting off part of each post. It's not a problem with your earlier attachments.

Okay I made them smaller.

Thanks!

I disagree. I think that would've been too Pedantic Lad. The silver age was so rife with extraneous exposition as it was. Having to explain in every issue that LIGHTNING Lad has super-LIGHTNING powers and Superboy's one weakness is kryptonite, etc. etc. IMHO Lad.