Showcase Corner - Legion Of Super-Heroes Two!

Let us talk about writers. The earliest stories of the Legion of Super-Heroes in Adventure Comics were written by Jerry Seigel and Edmond Hamilton. Hamilton's stories were ripe with sci-fi concepts as well as lifts from classic literature such as the time Lightning Lad lost his arm to an enormous space whale. Sigel's stories on the other hand were two steps above zany. The scheme seemed to be to dream up some predicament for the Legion members to be in, often one involving the seeming demise of a member or members and then undo all of the ramshackle plot development with last minute information. I admire Siegel immensely for enormous contribution to pop culture with the invention (alongside artist Joe Shuster) of Superman, but I cannot forgive the hair-brained stories in this volume and the one before. Before this second Showcase volume closes out a third writer will take the helm, a writer as far removed from the crusty veterans Seigel and Hamilton as could possibly be. A fourteen- year-old Jim Shooter would impress editor Mort Weisinger enough that he handed the gig to him. Shooter made his bones at this very tender age on a team of heroes who were only a tad older than he was himself. 

The introduction of new Legion members slows down considerably in this second Showcase volume. The creators seem to have enough and the focus seems to be on delivering trouble to some of the Legion members with the higher profiles. To that end, Lightning Lad, who had died previously loses his arm and is overcome with a desire for vengeance. Budding romances between Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl and Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl form the basis for ongoing soap operatic doings in the Legion clubhouse. Superboy is hanging around a lot in the future, to hang with his new friends and adds considerable power to the team. Star Boy is actually kicked out of the Legion because he was forced to kill while defending himself. But there are a few new heroes introduced, such as the heroes from the planet Lallor. These are Beast Boy, Gas Girl, Life Lass, Evolvo Lad, and Duplicate Boy.  Also getting some weird powers in the pages of Superboy in anticipation of a Legion membership bid is Lana Lang who becomes Insect Queen. 

The Legion battles some weighty villains such as Starfinger, Computo the Living Computer, Beast Boy from the aforementioned Lallor heroes gone bad, and the Time Trapper who fends off the team for many issues with a barrier in time. The Legion has a difficult time getting to the Time Trapper as he's created a barrier to his time location. It's many issues before they can confront the villain who would prove a perennial enemy. Starfinger gets the name from the Bond movie Goldfinger, but is nonetheless a difficult opponent for reasons all too obvious when the identity of the villain is revealed. The concept of death does rear its head in the Legion stories and the battle against Beast Boy is no different. Computo was created by Jerry Seigel and in contrast to my criticism above, the mechanical invention of Braniac 5 is featured in a two-part story with singular focus and momentum. Again death is on the table. It doesn't hurt that Curt Swan steps in to handle the art for a few issues. (I was struck in this reading how much Brainiac's creation of Computo reminded me of when Hany Pym made Ultron.) 

Doctor Regulus shows up in the last story in this collection. He's a creation of Jim Shooter who took over the writing reins and brought a fresh new style to the Legion stories. He also supplied layouts for the stories and the pages open up, leaving behind the somewhat stodgy classic DC look from the 50's and 60's and giving a more modern vibe. Shooter also introduces four new Legion characters in Ferro Lad, Nemesis Kid, Princess Projectra and Karate Kid. These issues, thanks to Shooter's work have a somewhat more fanzine feel, but they bristle with energy. It's clear why the Legion in 1966 is about to take off. 

Here are the covers for stories in this collection. 

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Showcase Corner - Legion Of Super-Heroes One!

About a year after I was born, DC gave birth to one of the more fascinating and at times successful concepts of the Silver and Bronze Ages -- the Legion of Super-Heroes. They were youthful heroes who have banded together in the 30th century to bring justice to all of space as their inspiration Superboy had done on Earth a thousand years before. They are a club, a common enough group of young people all blessed with superpowers of some kind deemed useful in the battle against evil. It is the desire of many young people of the future to be a part of the Legion, and many stories begin with aspiring folk getting a chance to audition. Most go poorly, but now and again a new member is added. The number of heroes in the Legion was greater than any other team of the time, at DC or otherwise. Nowadays large numbers of heroes are common, but back in the late 50's and early 60's super teams consisted of a small team of four, five, six or maybe as many as seven. 

We begin with three -- Cosmic Boy, Lightning Boy (later "Lad") and Saturn Girl. These three come back in time to test Superboy and welcome him to the club in the debut issue of Adventures Comics #247. After that there is an intermittent return of the heroes from the future, often bringing new colleagues with them. Not only do they show up in issues of Adventure Comics and Superboy, but they visit Supergirl in her back-up feature in Action Comics. (Weirdly they claim they are the children of the Legionnaires who visited Smallville, but this detail was dropped after one mention.) The teens from the future even drop by to see Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. In this first batch of stories which follow the Legion as it's growing and being defined, we even meet adult versions of the team in the pages of Superman. 

Here are the Legion members we meet in this first Showcase volume in the order in which they were introduced. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Star Boy, Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet, Bouncing Boy, Sun Boy, Brainiac 5, Mon-El, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Element Lad, Light Lass (originally Lightning Lass), and Dream Girl (she refuses membership in her debut). In addition, we meet the Substitute Legion of Super-Heroes made up of heroes who had been denied Legion membership but still wanted to contribute in secret. They are Polar Boy, Night Girl, Fire Lad, Chlorophyll Kid, and Stone Boy. And to top it off we get Jimmy Olsen as Elastic Lad, and of course Superboy and Supergirl. It's an increasingly full comic book, fairly vibrating with characters. 

Much of the charm of the Legion comes from the ability of younger readers to identify with the cast of characters. With so many members, one of almost certainly to catch a reader's attention. (My favorites have always been Brainiac 5 and Matter Eater Lad) Being DC in the early Silver Age, there wasn't that much difference in personalities of characters, they were all good unless the plot required them to be otherwise and then that was explained away and the status quo reset. Lots of the stories did see the heroes battle each other. Sun Boy gets quite a bit of attention early on, as does the original trio of Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl. The latter was leader for quite some time, remarkable in its own way. Lightning Lad died for a while but was revived eventually. 

The Legion had a feeling of being a fraternity and or soroity at times, especially when they were testing possible new members. Often these wannabe heroes were rejected with some exceedingly harsh and downright mean criticisms. Some deserved it such as rich kids who tried to buy their way into the club, but others seemed sincere and deserved a bitter better reception than they got. 

The debut story is by Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino. The main artist for the majority of stories from Adventure Comics here is John Forte. The writers for the series are Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton.  Siegel's stories are among the most bewildering and zany I've come across in a long time, woefully dependent on last minute information to make it stick together. The artwork on the Supergirl stories from Action Comics is by Jim Mooney. Curt Swan draws the one Superman story and also gives the team many elegant covers during these earliest days. The work of inker George Klein is throughout. 

Here are the covers of most of the issues in this volume. (The Legion stories didn't always rate a cover.)

But this is only the beginning. The Legion of Super-Heroes ran for a long time. More next week. 

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