In Adventure Comics #301 (Aug 1962), it’s the first non-Superboy/Supergirl story of the Legion after their debut as the Adventure Comics backup feature last month. In this issue, we catch a glimpse into the Legion of Super-Heroes recruiting, which shows how Legionnaires like Cosmic Boy treat con artists and fakers. That is: pretty harshly. Then […]
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The Legion of Super-Heroes started as a one-off Superboy story back in 1958, but they slowly grew in popularity and were featured many times in Superboy, Supergirl, and even Superman stories through the early 1960s. Starting in Adventure Comics #300 (July 1962), they replace “Tales of the Bizarro World” as the back-up feature to Superboy […]
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The blog post title contains the spoiler, but Ultra-Boy is a pretty well-known character in Legion lore these days that it’s hardly that much of a spoiler. A mysterious super-powered teen shows up in Smallville to uncover Superboy’s secret identity, accompanied by a stern, elderly man dressed in similar clothes. We get some cat-and-mouse where […]
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The Legion of Super-Pets make their official debut in Adventure Comics #293 (Dec 1961). The Legion of Super-Heroes recruit a variety of super-powered pets: Krypto, Streaky, Beppo and Comet the Super-Horse, who makes his “sneak peak” premier here. The pets are called upon to save Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes who are being threatened […]
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No less than 7 months earlier, DC foreshadowed the Legion of Super-Villains and now we get their first appearance of the LSV in Superman #147 (June 1961). In prison, Luthor offers to repair other inmate’s radios, cobbling together a super-scientific device that can project his voice into the future for this hypothesized evil Legion to […]
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Superboy #89 (April 1961), expands the Superboy/Superman/Legion mythos yet again by introducing another important character: Mon-El, also known as Lar Gand. After crash-landing on Earth, Superboy rescues the amnesiac young man who seems to have all the powers of a Kryptonian, carries a letter written in Kryptonese from Jor-El, and a locket expressing their love […]
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More Legionnaires are introduced in the Supergirl story in Action Comics #276 (March 1961). This time around, Saturn Girl and two new-to-us members Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl play pranks on poor ol’ Kara Zor-El and then invite her into the future where they want her to try out again for Legion membership. That didn’t […]
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After all that deeper thinking about character motivation, it’s time for something light-hearted and fun: a new Legionnaire is introduced in Adventure Comics #282 (Jan 1961): Star Boy! Lana wants to make Superboy jealous, so she eavesdrops as a new teen superhero arrives from the future to meet Superboy. She learns the teen’s identity is […]
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Superboy #68 (Nov 1960) features the next appearance of a young Lex Luthor in a Superboy story. Superboy eventually defeats the “Army of Living Kryptonite Men” by getting help another L.L: Lightning Lad from the Legion of Super-Heroes. Lex learns of the existence of the Legion and theorizes that a Legion of Super-Villains must also […]
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In Action Comics #267 (June 1960), the Legion of Super-Heroes makes a re-appearance in a Supergirl adventure. Confusingly Cosmic Lad, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad introduce themselves as children of the original Legion members. I guess maybe DC hadn’t figured out the timey-wimey-ness of it all. Interestingly, this is retconned a few years when the […]
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