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thecasualcomicsreader · 8 months

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Legion of Super-Heroes: Archives Vol 1 - Pt1

So, the Legion of Super-Heroes is one of those things in comics I was always kinda vaguely aware of. I knew they existed and they where an established legacy thing, but that was kind of the gist of it. I also knew they had particular ties to Supergirl specifically, but I wasn’t aware of the exact relationship they had with her in the comics proper. My only real exposure to them was through the DCAU, specifically the episode “Far From Home” from Justice League Unlimited. Notorious in my young brain for being the reason why Supergirl, my favourite character in the DCAU as a kid, was no longer in the show. Devastated would be an understatement. haha

However, they recently poked back into my brain as I was searching for something to read, something I could sink my teeth into for a while. I haven’t read a comic in quite some time at this point. As of writing the last thing I had read through was the original run of the Teen Titans months and months ago. It’s a fun read if you’ve never looked into it, by the way, I recommend it! Some of my favourite things to go back and re-read are, by far, hero team origin stories and the consecutive adventures and how they evolve thereafter through time, reboots, and particularly DC’s penchant to have multiverse warping events every Tuesday.

I stumbled upon a collection of their stories through the years in a collection through the “Archive Editions” print. Which is, essentially, an omnibus before the term was properly used by DC.

I thought “this could be fun, these guys look a little goofy.” Though, I didn’t want to go in completely blind. Because even if I knew, vaguely, who they where I wanted to lay some groundwork in my brain. So, I headed to google and found a wonderful site that has a general archive of the team’s history through a fansite called “CosmicTeams.” It’s genuinely a wonderful fan site archiving a particular chunk of DC history. Please go check it out!

I’ll get more into it later, but essentially these characters are a Silver-Age team of heroes that where created using the most popular trends of the time.

As I read through I realized that these guys are enormous dorky goofballs in the most endearing way possible. At least as far as the original incarnation is concerned. So, my interest was piqued. I love a good team of dorks. So I jumped right in.

So, finally, we’re here. Cracking open the book to what I hope is a fun new adventure!

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES!

The Archive starts out with a nice forward by Mike Gold to properly lay some groundwork for the historical context. At the time of this archive’s publication Mike Gold was Group Editor and the Director of Editorial Development at DC. The forward also makes a footnote that he was also the consulting editor for the Archive Edition series itself.

Gold’s forward starts off by recounting his nostalgia for comics. That at the age of 7, long before the rise of proper comic shops, he knew the exact time when his local news stand would place the fresh comics of the week on shelves. He’d be so excited to go get the fresh comics he’d harass his parents until they relented and let him go.

He goes on to explain the particularly fickle time that the comics industry was currently in 1958. He goes on to explain how there wasn’t a lot of superhero comics on the shelves and that a lot of comics publishers where in hot water or starting to close up shop. It seemed as though costumed heroes where on the oust.

Particular to this was the ending of the “Adventures of Superman” show which had run an impressive 104 episodes. It had been so popular and impactful that it had spun off the Superman comics itself into a number of individual running titles. “Superman” proper, “Action Comics,” “Superboy,” “Jimmy Olson,” and “World’s Finest.” But it wasn’t yet certain what the future was going to be with the Superman show ending.

But, a new way to interact directly with fans was starting to be introduced. The letters column. Though not a new concept for comics, it’s use now was the birthplace of something new and special. Through the various anthology titles DC had at the time people could write in and share their thoughts and opinions. Essentially becoming backseat editors. This also led to what could potentially be considered the birthplace of recognized comics fandom.

One of the first examples of this, curiously, came through Lois Lane. The year before the Superman show ended a Lois Lane comic had been introduced. A single run to see if there was interest in more Superman spin offs. DC was hesitant to make more Lois comics, despite the original print selling well, because they thought the sales came exclusively because of the popularity of the show and not Lois individually. Which, is a funny excuse, because her simply being a woman leading her own comic might’ve been the real culprit as to why they questioned it. but, regardless, because of the writers column and people’s outpouring for more Lois comics she received her own continuous run.

We would see this again with another woman, a “woman of steel.” As 1958 would also be the first proper Superman issue to feature a “Supergirl.” Not Kara proper, but the outpouring for Supergirl to be a continuous part of the comics was so strong that Kara herself would be introduced in full the following year in 1959. We would see this same trend continue with the likes of characters like Brainiac and Bizzaro as well.

Just on a side note PLEASE check out Supergirl’s first appearance in Superman #123. Jimmy Olson makes a super woman from a magic totem that looks like a Ninja Turtle to be Superman’s partner that they would color to look like Jimmy later on. It’s crazy. Check out Casually Comic’s videos on it. It’s so stupid, it’s so much fun.

This leads into the topic at hand, more or less. The creation of the Legion of Super-heroes!

The letters column allowed for DC to funnel in information on what exactly fans liked to see. Which turned out to be time travel plots, team ups, origin stories, and the ground roots of an ongoing series. For the first time in comics history, or so it seemed, the fans where in direct control and DC was willing to play ball with them.

Mort Weisinger, a DC editor at the time, and his team of writers set off to give the fans exactly what they wanted. In Action Comics #247 the world was introduced to the Legion of Super-Heroes. Where three super powered teens from the future come to the past to meet Superboy and make him a member of their superhero club.

It was an instant hit and the Legion would go on to feature in a number of Superman titles around the time before officially launching into their own ongoing series. They would also be the direct inspiration for numerous superhero teams to follow.

Now, without further ado. The first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes!

Adventure Comics #247

So, one day teenaged Clark Kent is just walking around Smallville when some random teen calls him Superboy. Which totally freaks him out, but he elects to ignore it. Then again, as he’s flying around some other teenager calls him Clark Kent. Which, again, freaks him out, but he elects to ignore it again. Then, a third time, a teenaged girl tells him to send “her regards to Mr and Mrs. Kent” which freaks him out to the point he wonders if his secret identity was revealed. But, in actuality, the three teens are from the future and where just playing a prank on Clark. Information he accepts without question.

They reveal into their costumes and their superhero names. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy! They tell Superboy they’re apart of a superhero club… and I just…

I CACKLED when I saw this. A good open mouth, head back, cackle. Their costumes are pretty typical, for the time, but the fact their names are written, in full, on their chests in basic text and the literal “super hero club” badge is just *chefs kiss* it’s just so good. It’s just SO funny.

Outside of that the actual costumes are never actually seen again, as far as I’m aware, starting the very next issue that they are featured in they’re in their more recognized, typical, attire. Which is kind of a shame for Saturn Girl specifically because I actually much prefer this costume for her. Aside from the goofy full name in comic sans on the chest, it actually looks really good and surprisingly modern. Of the three her color scheme is also the best in my opinion.

The three go on to tell Clark that they want him in their superhero club and if he’d come to the future with them for initiation. To which Clark agrees since things are pretty peaceful in Smallville at the moment and they get into a bubble ship and speed off 1000 years into the future.

They show Clark around the future for a bit. Taking him to a “martian ice-cream parlour” and showing him that his parent’s house has become a historical monument.

They also… take him to their high school history class where the teacher has a fully functioning Superman robot? The robot malfunctions before it can show off Superman’s heat vision but Cosmic Boy is like “No worries we have the real Superboy right here” and the teacher, not acknowledging that Saturn Boy just admitted to time displacing Superboy, tells Clark to get a move on and do the heat vision so his students don’t fall behind. To which he does.

The trio then take Superboy to their “superhero clubhouse,” which is a half buried rocket building with “Super Hero Club” written on a white board above the door. lol

Once inside the clubhouse they explain to Clark that to join their club he has to best each one of the three in an individual challenge to prove he deserves membership. To which Clark is like “easy!”

They REALLY nail home the point that each member only has “one super power” too. Like it’s mentioned all the time how they only have one power. During each challenge it’s like “I can beat them, they only have ONE power!”

The first challenge is against Saturn Girl. She and Superman are tasked with saving a “priceless museum piece” statue that has sunken to the bottom of the ocean.

The two race off to go face the challenge. While Clark gloats to himself that he’ll do this “before she even gets there” he picks up that the Superboy robot from earlier had malfunctioned and was causing havoc at the school. Clark seeing this as a more important thing to do than saving a statue races off to save the day. While confronting it he realizes he can’t just smash it, it has an atomic motor and it’d explode and hurt people. So he has it chase him into the science centre where the science teacher deactivates it with a “nuclear ray.” Which just kinda looks like him holding up a mirror.

By the time Clark returns Saturn Girl has already completed the challenge of saving the statue. By using a “thought-beam” to get a sea monster to bring the statue to the surface. Thus winning.

Cosmic Boy rags on Superboy for losing to a girl and Clark refuses to explain that he, instead, rescued an entire school from a runaway robot because it’d sound like a “weak alibi” for losing. The next challenge is against Cosmic Boy. He and Superboy must go put out a forest fire caused by a rocket that exploded but, uh-oh, as they’re racing there Clark picks up on another crisis! A satellite is falling from space! So he diverts to go stop it. He catches it and literally tosses it like a basketball into a volcano crater on some unexplained planet.

When Clark rushes back to the challenge Cosmic Boy had already finished it. He had used his power of magnetism to collect meteors to overflow a lake and flood the forest to put out the fire. Thus Clark loses again.

I do feel like flooding an entire forest would’ve caused MORE harm relative to the damage done by the fire. But, hey, I’m not in the League of Super-Heroes am I?

Once again Cosmic Boy rags on Clark for losing the challenge and once again Clark doesn’t just simply tell him what actually happened, because reasons. He, again, claims it’d look like he was using an excuse as to why he lost.

As pointed out by Saturn Girl when they return to the clubhouse, he’s lost two challenges against them and their ONE POWER. So Superboy is determined to win his final challenge against Lighting Boy.

A rocket that set off for Mars has a leaking fuel tank and any attempts to contact it to inform it have failed. So the two have to race off and inform them to turn around before they get trapped in space.

Now here’s the situation that really confused me and I just couldn’t see Clark’s reasoning for ditching the challenge. Because he picks up on an INVISIBLE EAGLE that escapes from the hole of a roof of a building that can only be described as looking like a giant orange. His fear being because it’s invisible rocket pilots would unintentionally fly into it without seeing it. But, like, I would assume the eagle is like any other eagle despite being invisible? It wouldn’t go near the rockets if it can help it. Likewise, despite being a big bird, I would assume the rockets of this age would be sturdy enough to hit a bird and be fine? But here I am questioning the logic of the Silver Age to begin with. So who’s the real illogical one here?

But, I digress, because Clark’s solution to this problem is even more confusing! He doesn’t know how he’ll locate the bird, it being invisible and all, so he decided that he’ll go and get an iceberg? Which he holds above the the city, so that it can form frost of the eagle so he can see it. Which, I guess, credit where it’s due because it works and Clark returns it to the city. But there’s no way this was the bigger issue compared to a rocket full of people about to be lost in space. Right?

Either way, Lighting Boy saves the rocket by creating what is basically a giant neon sign made of electricity, so big that the rocket will have no choice but to see it and turn back. Although, no one really seems to bother to check and see if it actually worked or not though.

Once they get back Cosmic Boy just outright refuses Clark membership because he lost all three challenges and then all thee basically go on to berate him and make fun of how there’s no way he’s a “real hero” and that the 20th century must’ve exaggerated his abilities. To which Clark takes with a smile as to not let them see him crack. To which he eventually turns around to walk out and just completely cracks. Sobbing about losing and them making fun of him. To which Saturn Girl stops him and explains that he’s actually in the club after all! Which, I don’t know if I’d want to be in their club after that. But, she goes on to explain that they intentionally set up all those crises to divert his attention from the main challenges so that they could truly test if he's a hero. But it’s presented as if it was some light hearted prank, but they basically tricked Clark into thinking he lost horribly and berated him until he cried. So, like, it just feels very mean spirited.

But before he can receive his badge of membership the Legion gets a distress call! A giant heat lamp in South Pole City has broken and is toppling over! Clark says he’ll go and save the day global warming be damned! He proceeds to use a magnetic meteorite to straighten out the lamp before it topples and uses salt he got from the city in the atmosphere to cause heat lighting to keep the city warm until the lamp is fixed. Then he gets back and immediately asks Saturn Girl why she was wondering why he didn’t use his Super strength to straighten the lamp to which she responds “you read my mind!” Thus Superboy, successfully uses all three of their powers to save the day. Pranking them back in his own way. They all have a good laugh and the League gives him his award. Which he shows to his very unimpressed looking father upon returning to his time.

I will say, I can fully understand why these kids got popular back in the day. They truly exemplified what was popular for readers at that time in the Silver Age. So it’s kind of a no-brainier as to why they kicked off like they did.

But, I can’t wait to see how the Legion of Super-Heroes evolves from here! Please join me when I cover their next appearance!

#dc comics #comics #silver age comics #silver age dc #legion of super heroes

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