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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It’s been a couple years since we saw the Kryptonite Kid, that menace from another world who’s evil for apparently no other reason that he enjoys it. In Superboy #99 (July 1962), he returns, and I guess “Kid Mxyzptlk” is not paying attention, because this time Superboy needs to be saved by Pete Ross – […]
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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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Adventure Comics #299 (June 1962) has the imaginary tale “The Unwanted Superbaby!”, in which authorities discover baby Kal-El has super-powers before the Kents can adopt him. The result is that Kal-El grows up resentful of Earth people, who only take advantage of him and mis-trust him. Eventually he leaves Earth, despite thinking wistfully back towards […]
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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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In Adventure Comics #289 (Aug 1961), Superboy is amazed when Pa Kent seemingly acquires super-powers. After several mis-adventures where Super-Pa becomes increasingly evil, he unmasks “Pa Kent” as a Kryptonian criminal, Jax-Ur (making his first appearance). Superboy spares little time in sending Jax-Ur back into the Phantom Zone. The epilogue of the story explains that […]
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We first met the super-brat Dev-Em last month and Adventure #288 (July 1961) is the conclusion to this tale. Having arrived on Earth, Dev-Em lures Superboy into his suspended animation vehicle where he imprisons Superboy in the Phantom Zone. Dev-Em then crafts a mask to resemble Superboy and goes about committing horrific deeds, like destroying […]
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Adventure Comics #287 (June 1961) introduces the story of Dev-Em, a super-bratty teenager who lived on Krypton and used to babysit Kal-El. Dev-Em has a habit of getting into trouble by stealing technology and inventions from the Jor-El’s laboratory. When he discovers Jor-El’s prediction of the end of Krypton, he steals technology to build himself […]
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The second outing of Pete Ross happens in “Pete Ross’ Super-Secret!”, a story in Superboy #90 (May 1961). In it, Pete Ross continues to be a stand-up guy against bullies picking on “that drip” Clark Kent and then happens to discover that Clark is actually Superboy. This is a bit of clever planning on the […]
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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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