Legion of Super-Heroes – Page 4

October 14, 2012October 12, 2012

Showcase Presents the Legion of Super-Heroes

By James Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, Curt Swan, J. Winslow Mortimer, George Tuska, Dave Cockrum, Murphy Anderson, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2185-0

Once upon a time, a thousand years from now, a band of super-powered kids from a multitude of worlds took inspiration from the greatest legend of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited their inspiration to join themâ€¦

Thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder & artist Al Plastino when the many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) just as the revived superhero genre was gathering an inexorable head of steam in America. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten over and over again to comply with editorial diktat and popular fashion.

This sturdy, drama-drenched fourth massive monochrome compendium gathers a chronological parade of futuristic delights from June 1968 to September 1970, originally seen in Adventure Comics #369-380 and the reprint issue #403, plus back-up tales from Action Comics #378-392 – a time when the superhero genre again dipped in popularity. Also included in this enchanting tome are the tentative first forays of the team’s slow revival as an alternating back-up feature in Superboy with game-changing exploits from issues #172-173, 176, 183-184, 188 190 and 191, covering March 1971 to October 1972.

During this period the youthful, generally fun-loving and carefree Club of Champions peaked; having only just evolved into a dedicated and driven dramatic action series starring a grittily realistic combat force in constant, galaxy-threatening peril. Although now an overwhelming force of valiant warriors ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for their courage and dedication, science itself, science fiction and costumed crusaders all increasingly struggled against a global resurgence in spiritual questioning and supernatural fictionâ€¦

The main architect of the transformation was teenaged sensation Jim Shooter, whose scripts and layouts (generally finished and pencilled by the astoundingly talented and understated Curt Swan) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up with their heads in the Future but as the fashions shifted, the series was unceremoniously ousted from its ancestral home and full-length adventures to become a truncated back-up feature in Action Comics. Typically, that shift occurred just as the stories were getting really, really good and truly matureâ€¦

The tense suspense begins with Adventure Comics #369’s ‘Mordru the Merciless!’ (Shooter, Swan & Jack Abel) when the Legion was attacked by their most powerful enemy, a nigh-omnipotent sorcerer the entire assemblage had only narrowly defeated once before.

A sneak attack had shattered the team and only four escaped, using a time bubble to flee to the remote and archaic time-period where Superboy lived. With him came Mon-El, Shadow Lass and Duo Damsel, the last remnants of a once-unbeatable force.

Mordru’s magic was stronger though and even the time-barrier could not daunt himâ€¦ Even disguised as mere mortals, the fugitive Legionnaires’ courage shone through. When petty gangsters took over Smallville, the teen heroes quashed the parochial plunderers and then opted to return to the 30^th century and confront Mordru, only to discover that he’d found them firstâ€¦

The saga concluded in #370 and ‘The Devil’s Jury!’ wherein the band again broke free and hid in plain sight by temporarily wiping their own memories to thwart the Dark Lord’s probes. Against appalling odds and with only Clark Kent‘s best friend Pete Ross and Insect Queen Lana Lang to aid them, the heroes’ doomed last stand only succeeded when Mordru’s overbearing arrogance caused his own downfall.

Then when the exhausted fugitives got back the future they joyously discovered that Dream Girl and benign sorceress White Witch had undone the deluded Dark Lord’s worstâ€¦

Extortion and espionage were the order of the day in #371’s ‘The Colossal Failure!’ when a Legionnaire’s parents were abducted and the hero was forced to botch missions. Ordered to retrain at the high security Legion Academy Colossal Boy was subsequently caught selling the team’s training secrets and cashiered from the organisationâ€¦

This issue then offered ‘When Superboy Walked Out on the Legion!’ illustrated by George Papp, wherein hyper-advanced and snobbish aliens threatened Smallville unless Superboy left Earth and joined their band of press-ganged heroes. It took ingenuity, a faux civil war and massive destruction to finally convince the alien autocrats to let the assembled champions return to their own home-worldsâ€¦

Colossal Boy’s tale of woe concluded in Adventure #372 when his still-loyal buddies uncovered the cause of the expelled giant’s dilemma and tracked him to a ‘School for Super-Villains!’ (Shooter, Swan & Abel), where the fallen hero was compelled to teach a horde of metahuman rogues all the LSH’s secrets.

Luckily and thanks to the expedited induction of apprentice – ergo unknown – heroes Timber Wolf and Chemical King, the good guys were able to infiltrate and shut down this first incarnation of the Legion of Super-Villainsâ€¦

Golden Age veteran J. Winslow Mortimer replaced Swan from #373 onwards as ‘The Tornado Twins!’ Don and Dawn Allen ran rings around and generally humiliated the assembled heroes – but all for a very good cause, before ‘Mission: Diabolical!’ in #374 focussed on the future equivalent of organised crime when most of the Legionnaires were ambushed and held hostage by the insidious Scorpius gang.

Hard-pressed by rival outfit Taurus, the mobsters had decided to â€œrecruitâ€ a team of heroes to equal their enemies’ squad of hyper-powered goons, Rogarth, Mystelor, Shagrek, Quanto and Black Mace. Of course, after infiltrating and defeating their foes, the press-ganged kids – Supergirl, Element Lad, Dream Girl, Ultra Boy and Matter-EaterLad – were double-crossed by Scorpius and would have died if not for a fortuitous intervention by the Legion of Substitute Heroesâ€¦

Next followed a powerful and devious 2-part thriller in #375-376 which introduced galactic-roving heroes The Wanderers and saw those temporarily-insane-and-evil alien champions battle the United Planets’ metahuman marvels – who were far more concerned with determining who would be crowned ‘The King of the Legion!’

The matter was only relevant because a trans-dimensional challenger had demanded a duel with the â€œmightiest Legionnaireâ€, but when the dust settled the only hero left standing was chubby comic relief Bouncing Boyâ€¦

When the triumphant winner was spirited away to another cosmos he arrived in a feudal wonderland – complete with comely princess – menaced by a terrifying invader. Unfortunately the hero was soon exposed as shape-shifting Durlan Legionnaire Reep Daggle and not the human Chuck Taine, but he manfully overcame his abductors’ initial prejudice and defeated the usurper threat Kodar. The freakish victor even won the heart of Princess Elwinda before being tragically rescued and whisked back across a permanently sealed dimensional barrier by his legion buddies who mistook a Royal Wedding for ‘The Execution of Chameleon Boy!’

A welcome edge of dark and bitter cynicism was creeping into Shooter’s stories, and ‘Heroes for Hire!’ (pencilled by Mortimer and inked by Jack Abel) saw the team begin charging for their unique services, but it was only a brilliant ploy to derail the criminal career of Modulus, an avatar of sentient living planet Modo who had turned the world into an unassailable haven for the worst villains of the galaxyâ€¦

Issue #378 started another tense and moving 2-parter which began when Superboy, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra and Brainiac 5 were poisoned and found themselves with only ‘Twelve Hours to Live!’

With no cure possible the quintet separated to spend their last day in the most personally satisfying ways they could – from sharing precious moments with soon-to-be bereaved family to K-Kid’s one-man assault on the Fatal Five – only to reunite in their final moments and die togetherâ€¦

The incredible conclusion began when a hyper-advanced being calling itself a Seeron froze time and offered to cure the practically dead victims – but only if new arrivals Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Timber Wolf, Star Boy, Lightning Lad and Chemical King returned to his universe and defeated an invasion by brutes invulnerable to all the mighty mental powers of the intellectual overlordsâ€¦

However even as the shanghaied Legionnaires triumphed and returned, their comrades had been found and afforded the honour of ‘Burial in Space!’â€¦

Happily a brilliant last-minute solution enabled the dead to rise just in time to lose their long-held position in Adventure Comics as changing tastes and shrinking sales prompted an abrupt change of venue.

‘The Legion’s Space Odyssey!’ (# 380 dated May 1969, by Shooter, Mortimer & Abel) saw a select band of Legionnaires teleported to the barren ends of the universe and laboriously battle their way home against impossible odds, which included the â€œdeathâ€ of Superboy and persistent sabotage by the Legion of Super-Pets.

Of course there was a perfectly rational and reasonable excuse for the devious scheme and the tale is best remembered by fans for being the mission on which Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy first got togetherâ€¦

From #381 onwards Adventure was filled with the 20^th century exploits of Supergirl whilst the LSH took over her secondary spot in Action Comics, beginning with a reprint in #377 which is not included here.

Original shorter ‘Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes’ began in #378 (July 1969) with ‘The Forbidden Fruit!’ by Shooter, Mortimer & Mike Esposito wherein Timber Wolf was deliberately addicted to a hyper-narcotic lotus in a bold scheme to turn the entire team into pliable junkies. Fortunately the hero’s true love for Light Lass allowed him to overcome his awful burden, whilst in #379’s ‘One of us is an Impostor’, E. Nelson Bridwell, Mortimer & Murphy Anderson offered a clever mystery yarn to baffle Mon-El, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Shadow Lass and Lightning Lad when thermal thug Sunburst and a clever infiltrator threatened to tear the team apart from withinâ€¦

Duo Damsel declared war on herself in #380 when her other body fell under the sway of an alien Superboy and turned to crime, leaving only Bouncing Boy to clean up the psychological mess of ‘Half a Legionnaire?’ (Shooter, Mortimer & Abel) whilst in #381, Matter-Eater Lad revealed his lowly origins and dysfunctional family to lonely Shrinking Violet and ended up ‘The Hapless Hero!’ battling her absurdly jealous absentee boyfriend Duplicate Boy – the mightiest hero in the universeâ€¦

In #382 a covert team comprising Ultra Boy, Karate Kid, Light Lass, Violet and Timber Wolf attempted to quell a potential super-robot arms-race and found that to succeed they might have to ‘Kill a Friend to Save a World!‘, after which the still-heartbroken Durlan found an Earthly double of his lost love Elwinda.

However when he morphed into her ideal man he quickly saw the folly of ‘Chameleon Boy’s Secret Identity!’ – a true tear-jerker with the hint of a happy ending from Bridwell, Mortimer & Abel.

Shooter left his perfect job with #384 but signed off in style with his landmark ‘Lament for a Legionnaire!’ With art misattributed to Mortimer but in fact a welcome fill-in job by the superb Curt Swan & Abel, it told how Dream Girl’s infallible prophecy of Mon-El’s demise came true whilst his shocking resurrection introduced a whole new thrilling strand to the Lore of the Legion.

Bridwell, Mortimer & Abel showed a vengeance-crazed killer’s quest for ultimate retribution fail in ‘The Fallen Starboy!’ and then crafted Action Comics #386’s ‘Zap Goes the Legion!’ wherein cunning female foe Uli Algor believed she had outthought and outfought the juvenile agents of justice but had forgotten one crucial detailâ€¦

Then in #387 the creators delightfully added a touch of wry social commentary when the organisation had to downsize and lay off a Legionnaire for tax purposes after the government declared that the team had ‘One Hero Too Many!’

Action #388 was an all-reprint Supergirl giant, but the now revenue-compliant Club of Heroes returned in #389 with ‘The Mystery Legionnaire!’ by Cary Bates, Mortimer & Abel, which explained how robot dictator Klim was defeated by a hero who didn’t exist, whilst Bridwell’s ‘The Tyrant and the Traitor’ in #390 reflected the political turmoil of the 1970’s with a tale of guerrilla atrocity, destabilising civil war and covert regime change.

The Legion Espionage Squad was tasked with doing the dirty work, but even Chameleon Boy, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl were out of their depth and only ‘The Ordeal of Element Lad!’ in the next issue saved the undercover unit from ignominious failure and certain death.

Action #392 (September 1970) temporarily ended the feature’s unbroken run in a low-key but gripping yarn from Bates, Mortimer & Abel which included alternate dimensions and preposterous testing of ‘The Legionnaires that Never Were!’

The Frantic Futurians weren’t gone too long. In 1971 a concerted push to revive the Teen Tomorrow Warriors began with the March-dated Superboy # 172 and ‘Brotherly Hate!’ by Bridwell & George Tuska. The sharp, smart yarn detailed the convoluted origins of twins Garth and Ayla Ranzz AKA Lightning Lad and Light Lass and their troubled relationship with older brother Mekt – the deadly outlaw Lightning Lordâ€¦

At the same time Adventure Comics #403 (April 1971) was released; an all-Legion reprint special which also included new ‘Fashions from Fans’ reinterpreted by Bridwell, Ross Andru & Esposito as well as a comprehensive ‘Diagram of Legion Headquarters Complex’, included here for your delight and delectationâ€¦

Some of those fan-costumes – generally the skimpier ones designed for the girl heroes – were adopted for the ongoing backups appearing in Superboy, which continued the comeback with ‘Trust Me or Kill Me!’ in #173 by Bates & Tuska. In that tense tale Superboy had to devise a way to determine which Cosmic Boy was his true friend and which a magical duplicate wrought by malefic Mordruâ€¦

The origin of Invisible Kid and the secrets of his powers were examined when a crook duplicated the boy genius’ fadeaway gifts in #176’s ‘Invisible Invader!’, whilst Bates, Tuska & Vince Colletta reported on the ‘War of the Wraith-Mates!’ in #183 when energy entities renewed an eons-old war of the sexes by possessing Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Karate Kid and Princess Projectra.

Superboy #184 hinted at the days of greatness to come with ‘One Legionnaire Must Go!’ Matter-Eater Lad was framed and replaced by his own little brother in a tale by Bates, but the big advance was the inking of LSH fanatic Dave Cockrum over Murphy Anderson’s pencils. The neophyte artist would gradually transform the look, feel and fortunes of the Legion before moving to Marvel and doing the same with an almost forgotten series entitled X-Menâ€¦

With issue #188’s Bates scripted ‘Curse of the Blood-Crystals!’ (July 1972), Anderson began inking Cockrum; the sixth stunning back-up tale of a now unstoppable Legion revival that would eventually lead to the team taking over the entire comicbook. This clever yarn of cross-and-double-cross found a Legionnaire possessed by a magical booby-trap and forced to murder Superboy – but which of the two dozen heroes is actually the prospective killerâ€¦?

Superboy #190 featured ‘Murder the Leader!’ as the Fatal Five attacked during the election of a new Legion Commander and rival candidates Saturn Girl and Mon-El had to work together if either was to take the top job, after which this volume concludes with the stunning thriller ‘Attack of the Sun-Scavenger!’ by Bates & Cockrum from #191.

In a staggering burst of comics brilliance, the manic solar scoundrel Dr. Regulus again attacked Sun Boy and his Legion comrades, using his own death as the key to ultimate victoryâ€¦

The Legion is unquestionably one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in funnybook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became American Comics Fandom. Moreover, these scintillating and seductively addictive stories – as much as Julie Schwartz’s Justice League or Marvel’s Fantastic Four– fired up the interest and imaginations of generations of readers and underpinned the industry we all know today.

If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future days as soon as possible.
Â© 1968-1972, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

June 11, 2012June 10, 2012

Legion of Super Hero Archives volume 7

By Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, George Klein, Pete Costanza, Jim Mooney & Sheldon Moldoff (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-398-3

Once upon a time, in the far future, a band of super-powered kids from a multitude of worlds took inspiration from the greatest hero of all time and formed a club of champions. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited their inspiration to join themâ€¦

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes in early 1958, just as the revived comicbook genre of superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history constantly tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten time and time again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

This stunning and sturdy, action packed seventh full-colour deluxe hardback collection re-presents tales from the disparate Superman Family titles which saw the early zenith of the team in sagas from their own feature spanning Adventure Comics #359-367 from August 1967 to April 1968 cover-dates, with a Legion-starring tale from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #106 (October 1967) thrown in at no extra cost.

This period completed the Tomorrow Team’s transformation from wholesome, humorous and generally safe science fiction strip into a grittily determined army of galactic warriors dedicated to universal peace and, after an effusive and fulsome Foreword from sometime Legion scripter Tom Peyer, the action starts fast, picks up speed and just keeps goingâ€¦

The architect of the transformation was teenaged sensation Jim Shooter, whose scripts and layouts (generally finished and inked by veterans Curt Swan & George Klein) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up in the Futureâ€¦

Adventure #359 found the entire team of once-beloved and trusted champions disbanded and on the run as ‘The Outlawed Legionnaires!’ thanks to the manipulations of a devious old foe, only to rousingly regroup and comprehensively counter-attack in #360’s conclusion ‘The Legion Chain Gang!’

Once again restored to their position as a key component of United Planets Security in ‘The Unkillables!’, a small superhero squad consisting of Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, Shrinking Violet, Superboy, Star Boy, Collossal Boy, Light Lass and Brainiac 5 were then assigned to protect alien ambassadors the Dominators from political agitators, assassins and a hidden traitor in a tense thriller illustrated by Jim Mooney, after which ‘The Lone Wolf Legion Reporter!’ (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #106, by Shooter & Pete Costanza) found the young newsman seconded to the 30th century to help with the club newspaper. Sadly he was far better at making news than publishing itâ€¦

Adventure Comics #362 found the Legion scattered across three worlds as mad scientist Mantis Morlo refused to let environmental safety interfere with his experiments in ‘The Chemoids are Coming!’, resulting in a lethally ‘Black Day for the Legion!’â€¦

Shooter & Costanza then topped their gripping two-parter by uncovering ‘The Revolt of the Super-Pets!’ in #364, when the crafty rulers of planet Thanl attempted to seduce the animal adventurersÂ Krypto, Streaky, Beppo the Super-Monkey, super-horse Comet and amorphous telepathic blob Proty II from their rightful – subordinate – positions with sweet words and palatial new homesâ€¦

When the isolated world of Talok 8 went dark and became an ultra-militaristic threat to the UP, their planetary champion Shadow Lass led Superboy, Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy and Karate Kid on a reconnaissance mission which resulted in the disastrous ‘Escape of the Fatal Five!’ – illustrated by the returning Swan & Klein, whose time was increasingly being taken up with work in Superman and Action Comics).

The despicable quintet then almost conquered the UP itself and were only frustrated by the defiant, last ditch efforts of the battered heroes in the blistering conclusion ‘The Fight for the Championship of the Universe!’

In grateful thanks the Legion were gifted with a vast new HQ but before the paint was even dry a vast paramilitary force attempted to invade the slowly rebuilding planet Earth in #367’s ‘No Escape from the Circle of Death!’ (with additional inking by Sheldon Moldoff) ending this classic collection with a blockbuster battle and revelatory encounter which would reshape DC continuity in the years to comeâ€¦

The Legion is unquestionably one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in comicbook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became American Comics Fandom.

Moreover, these scintillating and seductively addictive stories – as much as Julie Schwartz’s Justice League – enflamed the interest and imaginations of a generation of young readers and underpinned the industry we all know today.

If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future life as soon as possible.
Â© 1967, 1968, 1997 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 16, 2012May 15, 2012

Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes volume 3

By Jim Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Otto Binder, Curt Swan, George Klein, Pete Costanza, Jim Mooney & George Papp (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2185-0

Once upon a time, in the far future, a band of super-powered kids from a multitude of worlds took inspiration from the greatest legend of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited their inspiration to join themâ€¦

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino in early 1958, just as the revived comicbook genre of superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten over and over again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

This sturdy, action packed third monochrome compendium gathers a chronological parade of futuristic delights from October 1966 to May 1968, originally seen in Adventure Comics #349-368, and includes a Legion-featuring story from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #106 (October 1967).

During this period the Club of Champions finally shed the last vestiges of wholesome, imaginative, humorous and generally safe science fiction strips to become a full-on dramatic action feature starring a grittily realistic combat force in constant, galaxy-threatening peril: a compelling force of valiant warriors ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for their courage and dedicationâ€¦

The main architect of the transformation was teenaged sensation Jim Shooter, whose scripts and layouts (usually finished and inked by veterans Curt Swan & George Klein) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up in the Futureâ€¦

The tense suspense begins with Adventure Comics #349’s ‘The Rogue Legionnaire!’ (Shooter, Swan & Klein) wherein Saturn Girl, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy and Brainiac 5 hunted hypnotic villain Universo through five periods of Earth’s history, aided by boy-genius Rond Vidar, a brilliant scientist with a tragic secretâ€¦

This is followed by a stellar two-parter from #350-351 scripted by E. Nelson Bridwell which restored a number of invalided and expelled members to the team. In ‘The Outcast Super-Heroes’, a cloud of Green Kryptonite particles enveloped Earth and forced Superboy and Supergirl to retire from the Legion just as demonic alien Evillo unleashed his squad of deadly metahuman minions on the universe.

The Kryptonian Cousins were mind-wiped and replaced by armoured and masked paladins Sir Prize and Miss Terious in ‘The Forgotten Legion!’ but quickly returned when a solution to the K Cloud was found.

On Evillo’s eventual defeat, the team discovered that the wicked overlord had healed the one-armed Lightning Lad and restored Bouncing Boy‘s power for his own nefarious purposes, and together with the reformed White Witch and rehabilitated Star Boy and Dream Girl the Legion’s ranks and might swelled to bursting.

That was a very good thing as the next issue saw Shooter, Swan & Klein produce one of their most stunning epics. When a colossal cosmic entity known as the Sun Eater menaced the United Planets, the Legion were hopelessly outmatched and forced to recruit the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals to help save civilisation.

However The Persuader, Emerald Empress, Mano, Tharok and Validus were untrustworthy allies at best and formed an alliance as ‘The Fatal Five!’ intending to save the galaxy only so that they could rule itâ€¦

Adventure #353 revealed how the Five seemingly sealed their own fate through arrogance and treachery and the cost of heroism was paid when ‘The Doomed Legionnaire!’ sacrificed his life to destroy the solar parasiteâ€¦

Issue #354 introduced ‘The Adult Legion!’ when Superman travelled into the future to visit his grown-up comrades – discovering tantalising hints of events that would torment and beguile LSH fans for decades – before the yarn concluded with #355’s ‘The War of the Legions!’ as Brainiac 5, Cosmic Man, Element Man, Polar Man, Saturn Woman and Timber Wolf, accompanied by the most unexpected allies of all, battled the Legion of Super-Villains.

This issue also included an extra tale in ‘The Six-Legged Legionnaire!’ (by Otto Binder, Swan & Klein) wherein Superboy brought his High School sweetie Lana Lang to the 30^th century, where she joined in a mission against a science-tyrant as the shape-shifting Insect Queen. Disaster soon struck though when the alien ring which facilitated her changes was lost, trapping her in a hideous bug-bodyâ€¦

In issue #356 Dream Girl, Mon-El, Element Lad, Brainiac 5 and Superboy were transformed into babies and became ‘The Five Legion Orphans!’: a cheeky and cunning Bridwell scripted mystery.

The repercussions and guilt of the Sun-Eater episode were explored when the survivors of that mission were apparently haunted by ‘The Ghost of Ferro Lad!’ (#357 by Shooter, Swan & Klein) whilst ‘The Hunter!’ (Shooter & George Papp) saw the heroes stalked by an insane and murderous sportsman with a unique honour code.

Adventure #359 found the once-beloved champions disbanded and on the run as ‘The Outlawed Legionnaires!’ (Shooter, Swan & Klein) thanks to the manipulations of a devious old foe, only to rousingly regroup and counter-attack in #360’s ‘The Legion Chain Gang!’

Once again a key component of United Planets Security in ‘The Unkillables!’, the superhero squad were then assigned to protect alien ambassadors the Dominators from political agitators, assassins and a hidden traitor in a tense thriller illustrated by Jim Mooney, after which ‘The Lone Wolf Legion Reporter!’ (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #106, October 1967, by Shooter & Pete Costanza) found the young newsman seconded to the 30^th century to help with the club newspaper. Sadly he was far better at making news than publishing itâ€¦

Adventure Comics #362 found the team scattered across three worlds as mad scientist Mantis Morlo refused to let environmental safety interfere with his experiments in ‘The Chemoids are Coming!’, resulting in a lethally ‘Black Day for the Legion!’â€¦

Shooter & Costanza then topped their gripping two-parter by uncovering ‘The Revolt of the Super-Pets!’ in #364, when the crafty rulers of planet Thanl attempted to seduce the animal adventurers from their rightful – subordinate – positions with sweet words and palatial new homesâ€¦

When the isolated world of Talok 8 went dark and became a militaristic threat to the UP, their planetary champion Shadow Lass led Superboy, Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy and Karate Kid on a reconnaissance mission which resulted in the disastrous ‘Escape of the Fatal Five!’ (illustrated by Swan & Klein).

The quintet then almost conquered the UP itself and were only frustrated by the defiant, last ditch efforts of the battered heroes in the blistering conclusion ‘The Fight for the Championship of the Universe!’

In grateful thanks the Legion were gifted with a vast new HQ but before the paint was even dry a vast paramilitary force attempted to invade the slowly reconstructing planet Earth in #367’s ‘No Escape from the Circle of Death!’ (Shooter, Swan, Klein & Sheldon Moldoff), after which this volume ends on a note of political and social tension when a glamorous alien envoy attempted to suborn the downtrodden female Legionnaires in #368’s ‘The Mutiny of the Super-Heroines!’

Moreover, these scintillating and seductively addictive stories – as much as Julie Schwartz’s Justice League – fired up the interest and imaginations of a generation of young readers and underpinned the industry we all know today.

If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future life as soon as possible.
Â© 1966, 1967, 1968, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

March 8, 2012March 6, 2012

Legion of Super-Heroes: Archive Edition Volume 4

By Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Otto Binder, Jim Mooney, John Forte, George Papp & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-123-9

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino in early 1958, just as the revived comicbook genre of superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten over and again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

This sturdy, charm-soaked, action packed fourth full-colour deluxe hardback collection continues to re-present those early tales from the disparate Superman Family titles in chronological order: the sagas from their own feature spanning Adventure Comics #329-339, plus Legion-starring tales from Superboy #124 and 125, covering February to December 1965 cover-dates.

This period began the Tomorrow Team’s slow transformation from wholesome, imaginative, humorous and generally safe science fiction strip to a more dramatic and even grittily realistic combat force in constant peril and, after an informative Foreword from sometime Legion Editor KC Carlson, one of the last truly whimsical cases opens this collection.

The madcap merriment occurred when the heroes had to confront and outwit the topsy-turvy threat of their own imperfect doppelgangers in Adventure Comics #329’s ‘The Bizarro Legion!’ (by Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney) after which a nefarious juvenile criminal infiltrated the LSH intending to destroy them all from within in ‘Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire!’ by the same creative team.

The dastardly plans proceeded without a hitch until the victorious Dynamo-Boy recruited the malevolent adult meta-criminals Lightning Lord, Cosmic King and Saturn Queen, consequently falling victim to ‘The Triumph of the Legion of Super-Villains!’ in #331.

Rescued and restored, the valiant young heroes were back in Adventure #332 to face ‘The Super-Moby Dick of Space!’ (Edmond Hamilton & John Forte) wherein the recently resurrected Lightning Lad suffered crippling injuries and an imminent nervous breakdownâ€¦

‘The War Between Krypton and Earth!’ in #333, (Hamilton, Forte & George Klein), had the time-travelling team flung far back into the our world’s antediluvian past and split into internecine factions on opposite sides of a conflict forgotten by history, after which ‘The Unknown Legionnaire!’ (Hamilton, Forte & Sheldon Moldoff) posed a perilous puzzle with an inadvertently oppressed and overlooked race’s entire future at stakeâ€¦

The same creative team then introduced deadly super-villain ‘Starfinger!’ in #335 who framed a luckless Legionnaire for his incredible crimes before ‘The True Identity of Starfinger!’ (inked by Klein) was revealed, allowing the entire squad to focus on the real menace.

Superboy #124 (October 1965, by Otto Binder & George Papp) featured Lana Lang as ‘The Insect Queen of Smallville!’ who was rewarded with a shape-changing ring after rescuing a trapped alien. Naturally she used her new abilities to ferret out Clark Kent’s secretsâ€¦

Adventure #337 highlighted ‘The Weddings that Wrecked the Legion!’ by Hamilton, Forte & Moldoff as two couples resigned to marry. However, there was serious method in the seeming marital madnessâ€¦

Long absent BÃªte Noir the Time Trapper at last returned in #338 when Siegel & Forte revealed ‘The Menace of the Sinister Super-Babies!’ with sultry Glorith of Baaldur using the Chronal Conqueror’s devices to turn everybody but Superboy and Brainiac 5 into mewling infants. When they turned the tables on the villains a new era dawned for the valiant Tomorrow Teensâ€¦

Superboy #125 (November 1965) signalled darker days ahead by introducing a legion reservist with a tragic secret in ‘The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho!’ (Binder & Papp), after which Hamilton, Forte & Moldoff told the bittersweet tale of disaffected and tormented Lallorian hero Beast Boy who turned against humanity in Adventure Comics #339’s ‘Hunters of the Super-Beasts!’ to bring this sterling collection to a solidly entertaining end.

The slow death of whimsy and move from light-hearted escapades to daily life and death struggles would culminate in tragedy and triumph in the next editionâ€¦

The Legion is undoubtedly one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in comicbook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became American Comics Fandom.

Moreover, these sparkling, simplistic and devastatingly addictive stories – with full creator biographies and a glorious gallery of covers from the sublime art-team of Curt Swan & George Klein – as much as Julie Schwartz’s Justice League fired up the interest and imaginations of a generation of young readers and underpinned the industry we all know today.

These naive, silly, joyous, stirring and utterly compelling yarns are precious and fun beyond any ability to explain. If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future life as soon as possible.
Â© 1964, 1965, 1992, 1993, 1994 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

January 29, 2012January 28, 2012

Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes volume 2

By Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, John Forte & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1- 4012-1724-2

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino in early 1958, just as the revived comicbook genre of superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten over and again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

This splendid, charm-soaked, action packed second monochrome collection continues to re-present those early tales from the disparate Superman Family titles in chronological order: the sagas from their own feature spanning Adventure Comics #322-348, plus guest-shots from Superboy #117, 124-125 98 and pertinent portions of Superman Annual #4, covering July 1964 to September 1966.

From Adventure #322 the fun-filled futurism opens with ‘The Super-Tests of the Super-Pets’ by Edmond Hamilton, John Forte & Sheldon Moldoff, wherein the Legion’s mighty animal companions – Krypto, Streaky the Super Cat, Beppo, the monkey from Krypton and Comet the magical Super-horse – were left to guard Earth as the major players continued to pursue the elusive Time Trapper.

When Chameleon Boy’s pet Proty II applied to join the bestial bunch they gave him a series of extremely difficult qualification tasksâ€¦

‘The Eight Impossible Missions!‘ (#323 by Jerry Siegel, Forte & George Klein) found the incomprehensibly smart Proty setting the human Legionnaires a set of challenges to determine their next leader, after which the tone switched to deadly danger in ‘The Legion of Super-Outlaws!’ by Hamilton & Forte, as a mad scientist bearing a grudge manipulated a super-team from far distant Lallor into attacking the United Planets heroesâ€¦

Issue #325 revealed how ‘Lex Luthor Meets the Legion of Super-Heroes!’ (Siegel & Forte) in a cunning tale of deadly deception whilst a ‘Revolt of the Girl Legionnaires!’ (Siegel, Forte & Klein) found the female members attempting to eradicate their male comrades. Of course they didn’t mean it and a sinister mastermind was behind it allâ€¦

Superboy #117 (December 1964) featured a classy thriller wherein Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Ultra Boy, Element Lad and Brainiac 5 seemingly travelled back 1000 years to attack the Boy of Steel in ‘Superboy and the Five Legion Traitors!’ (Siegel, Curt Swan & Klein) whilst over in Adventure #327 ‘The Lone Wolf Legionnaire!’ introduced Brin Londo; a troubled teen framed for appalling crimes who would one day become a valued member of the team in a clever thriller from Hamilton, Forte, Klein & Moldoff.

Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney began an engaging run of tales in #328 beginning with ‘The Lad who Wrecked the Legion!’ as the insidious Command Kid joined the superhero squad in order to dismantle it from within.

Narrowly escaping that fate, the heroes had to confront the topsy-turvy threat of their own imperfect doppelgangers in #329’s ‘The Bizarro Legion!’ after which another nefarious juvenile infiltrated the LSH intending to destroy them all in ‘Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire!’. The dastardly plan proceeded without a hitch until the victorious Dynamo-Boy recruited the malevolent Lightning Lord, Cosmic King and Saturn Queen and fell victim to ‘The Triumph of the Legion of Super-Villains!’ in #331.

Rescued and restored, the good kids were back in Adventure #332 to face ‘The Super-Moby Dick of Space!’ (by Hamilton & Forte) wherein the recently resurrected Lightning Lad suffered crippling injuries and an imminent nervous breakdownâ€¦

‘The War Between Krypton and Earth!’ in #333, by Hamilton, Forte & Klein, had the time travelling heroes flung back into the World’s antediluvian past and split into internecine factions on opposite sides of a conflict forgotten by history, after which ‘The Unknown Legionnaire!’ (Hamilton, Forte & Moldoff) posed a perilous puzzle with an oppressed race’s future at stakeâ€¦

The same creative team introduced deadly super-villain ‘Starfinger!’ in #335 who framed a luckless Legionnaire for his incredible crimes before ‘The True Identity of Starfinger!’ (inked by Klein) was revealed and the entire team focused on the real menace.

Superboy #125 (November 1965) signalled darker days ahead by introducing a legion reservist with a tragic secret in ‘The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho!’ by Binder & Papp, after which Hamilton, Forte & Moldoff told the bittersweet tale of disaffected and tormented Lallorian hero Beast Boy who turned against humanity in Adventure Comics #339’s ‘Hunters of the Super-Beasts!’

The slow death of whimsy and light-hearted escapades culminated in #340 when Brainiac 5’s latest invention went berserk, becoming ‘Computo the Conqueror!’ (Siegel, Swan & Klein): attacking humanity and even killing one of the superheroes before ‘The Weirdo Legionnaire!’ (inked by Moldoff) began the team’s fight-back and eventual glorious triumph.

‘The Legionnaire who Killed!’ (#342 by Hamilton, Swan, Moldoff & Klein) saw Star Boy forced to take a life and confronted with the harshest of consequences, whilst ‘The Evil Hand of the Luck Lords!’ by Hamilton, Swan & Klein saw the bold band of heroes invade the stronghold of a sinister cult which claimed to control chance and destiny.

The same creative team ramped up the tension in Adventure #344 with ‘The Super-Stalag of Space!’ wherein the Legion – as well as many other planetary champions â€“ were incarcerated by malicious alien overlord Nardo; an epic thriller completed in #345 with ‘The Execution of Matter-Eater Lad!’

With Adventure #346 (July 1966) the dramatic revolution culminated in ‘One of us is a Traitor!’ as Jim Shooter, barely a teenager, sold script and layouts (finished and inked by veteran Sheldon Moldoff) for a spectacular Earth invasion yarn as the sinister Khunds attacked and the depleted Legion inducted four new members to bolster their strength. However, although Princess Projectra, Nemesis Kid, Ferro Lad and Karate Kid were all capable fighters it was soon apparent that one was an enemy agentâ€¦

With Earth all but conquered ‘The Traitor’s Triumph!’ (Shooter, Swan & Klein) seemed assured, but there was one last surprise to come in this spectacular debut yarn from one of the industry’s most innovative creatorsâ€¦

This splendid second compendium concludes with a tense thriller by Shooter & Papp from Adventure #348 as the secret origin of Sun Boy was revealed when radioactive rogue Dr. Regulus attempted to gain misplaced vengeance in ‘Target-21 Legionnaires!’

But wait! There’s more!

Before the end there’s an expanded illustrated pictorial check-list and informational guide to the entire team by Swan, Klein & Al Plastino, culled from Superman Annual #4, 1961, Adventure Comics #316 and #365 (January 1964 & February 1968, respectively).

The Legion is undoubtedly one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in comicbook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became American Comics Fandom. Moreover, these sparkling, simplistic and devastatingly addictive stories as much as the legendary Julie Schwartz Justice League fired up the interest and imaginations of a generation of young readers and built the industry we all know today.

These naive, silly, joyous, stirring and utterly compelling yarns are precious and fun beyond any ability to explain – even if we old lags gently mock them to ourselves and one another. If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future life as soon as possible.
Â© 1961, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 26, 2011December 22, 2011

Legion of Super-Heroes: Archive Edition Volume 1

By Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan, John Forte, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-020-8

Once upon a time, in the far future, a band of super-powered kids from dozens of alien civilisations took inspiration from the legend of the greatest champion of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited that legend to join themâ€¦

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino in early 1958, just as the revived comicbook genre of superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam. Since that time the popularity of the Legion has perpetually waxed and waned, with their complex continuity continually tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten again and again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

We Silver Age Legion fans are indubitably the most persistent, passionate, finicky and snitty of all – and editors crossed us at their peril – so when DC announced that it would be gathering all the titanic team’s appearances in a chronological series of deluxe hardcover Archive Editions we were overjoyed (actually most of us thought it was about time and long overdueâ€¦) and eager.

This glorious, far-and-wide ranging full-colour premier compendium assembles the many preliminary appearances of these valiant Tomorrow People and their inevitable progress towards and attainment of their own feature; including all pertinent material from Adventure Comics #247, 267, 282, 290, 293, and 300-305, Action Comics #267, 276, 287 and 289, Superboy #86, 89, 98, Superman #147 – a period spanning 1958-1963. Also included are an introduction by editor, publisher and devotee Mike Gold, creator biographies and a Curt Swan cover gallery (all inked by either Stan Kaye or George Klein) featuring all the burgeoning band of brothers’ pole positions from Adventure Comics #247, 267, 282, 290, 293, 300, 302, Superboy #89 and 98 and Superman #147.

The multi-hued mob of universe-savers first manifested in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) in a Superboy tale wherein three mysterious kids invited the Boy of Steel to the 30th century to join a team of metahuman champions all inspired by his historic career. Created by Otto Binder & Al Plastino, the throwaway concept inflamed public imagination and after a slew of further appearances throughout Superman Family titles, the LSH eventually took over Superboy’s lead spot in Adventure for their own far-flung, quirky escapades, with the Caped Kid Kryptonian reduced to â€œone of the in-crowdâ€â€¦

However here the excitement was still gradually building when the kids returned more than 18 months later in Adventure #267 (December 1959) for Jerry Siegel & George Papp to play with.

In ‘Prisoner of the Super-Heroes!‘ the teen wonders reappeared to attack and incarcerate the Boy of Steel because of a misunderstood ancient recordâ€¦

The following summer Supergirl met the Legion in Action Comics #267 (August 1960, by Siegel & Jim Mooney) as Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy secretly travelled to â€œmodern dayâ€ America to invite the Maid of Might to join the team, in a repetition of their offer to Superboy 15 years previously (in nit-picking fact they claimed to be the children of the original team – a fact glossed over and forgotten these days: don’t time-travel stories make your head hurtâ€¦?).

Due to a dubious technicality, young and eager Kara Zor-El failed her initiation at the hands of ‘The Three Super-Heroes’ and was asked to reapply later – but at least we got to meet a few more Legionnaires, including Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid and Colossal Boyâ€¦

With the editors still cautiously testing the waters, it was Superboy #86 (January 1961) before the ‘The Army of Living Kryptonite Men!’ by Siegel & Papp turned the LSH into a last-minute Deus ex Machina to save the Smallville Sentinel from juvenile delinquent Lex Luthor’s most insidious assault. Two months later in Adventure #282, Binder & Papp introduced Star Boy as a romantic rival for the Krypton Kid in ‘Lana Lang and the Legion of Super-Heroes!’

Action #276 (May 1961) introduced ‘Supergirl’s Three Super Girl-Friends’ by Siegel & Mooney, which finally saw the her crack the plasti-glass ceiling and join the team, sponsored by Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl. We also met for the first time Bouncing Boy, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy and potential bad-boy love-interest Brainiac 5 (well at least his distant ancestor Brainiac was a very bad boyâ€¦)

Next comes a pivotal two-part tale ‘Superboy’s Big Brother’ (by Robert Bernstein & Papp from Superboy #89, June 1961) in which an amnesiac, super-powered space traveller crashes in Smallville, speaking Kryptonese and carrying star-maps written by the Boy of Steel’s long-dead fatherâ€¦

Jubilant, baffled and suspicious in equal amounts Superboy eventually, tragically discovered ‘The Secret of Mon-El’ by accidentally exposing the stranger to a lingering, inexorable death, before desperately providing critical life-support by depositing the dying alien in the Phantom Zone until a cure could be foundâ€¦

With an August 1961 cover-date Superman #147 unleashed ‘The Legion of Super-Villains’ (Siegel, Curt Swan & Sheldon Moldoff): a stand-out thriller featuring Lex Luthor and the adult Legion coming far too close to destroying the Action Ace until the temporal cavalry arrivedâ€¦

Adventure #290 (November 1961, by Bernstein & Papp) seemingly gave Sun Boy a starring role in ‘The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero!’ – a clever tale of redemption and second chances, followed in #293 (February 1962) by a gripping thriller from Siegel, Swan & George Klein: ‘The Legion of Super-Traitors’ wherein the future heroes were turned evil, prompting Saturn Girl to recruit a Legion of Super-Pets including Krypto, Streaky the Super Cat, Beppo, the monkey from Krypton and Comet the magical Super-horse to save the world – and yes, I typed all that with a reasonably straight faceâ€¦

‘Supergirl’s Greatest Challenge!’ by Siegel & Mooney (Action #287 April 1962) saw her visit the Legion (quibblers be warned: it was mistakenly described as the 21st century in this story) to save future Earth from invasion. She also met a telepathic descendent of her cat Streaky. His perhaps ill-considered name was Whizzyâ€¦

Action #289 featured ‘Superman’s Super-Courtship!’ wherein the Girl of Steel scoured the universe for an ideal mate for her cousin. One highly possible candidate was the adult Saturn Woman, but her husband Lightning Man objectedâ€¦ Perhaps charming at the time, but modern sensibilities might quail at the conclusion that his perfect match was a doppelganger of Supergirl herself, but thankfully a bit olderâ€¦

By the release of Superboy #98 (July 1962), the decision had been made. The buying public wanted more Legion stories and once ‘The Boy With Ultra-Powers’ by Siegel, Swan & Klein had introduced a mysterious lad with greater powers than the Boy of Steel, the focus shifted to Adventure Comics #300 (cover dated September 1962) wherein the futuristic super-squad finally landed their own gig; even occasionally stealing the odd cover-spot from the still top-featured Superboy.

Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes opened its stellar run with ‘The Face Behind the Lead Mask!’ by Siegel, John Forte & Plastino; a fast-paced premier which pitted Superboy and the 30th century champions against an impossibly unbeatable foe until Mon-El, long-trapped in the Phantom Zone, briefly escaped a millennium of confinement and saved the dayâ€¦

In those halcyon days humour was as important as action, imagination and drama, so many early escapades were light-hearted and moralistic. Issue #301 offered hope to fat kids everywhere with ‘The Secret Origin of Bouncing Boy!’ by regular creative team Siegel & Forte, wherein the process of open auditions was instigated (providing devoted fans with loads of truly bizarre and memorable applicants over the years) whilst allowing the rebounding human rotunda to give a salutary pep talk and inspirational recount of heroism persevering over adversity.

Adventure #302 featured ‘Sun Boy’s Lost Power!’ as the golden boy was forced to resign until fortune and boldness restored his abilities whilst ‘The Fantastic Spy!’ in #303 provided a tense tale of espionage and possible betrayal by new member Matter-Eater Lad.

The happy readership was stunned by the events of #304 when Saturn Girl engineered ‘The Stolen Super-Powers!’ to make herself a one-woman Legion. Of course it was for the best possible reasons, but still didn’t prevent the shocking murder of Lightning Ladâ€¦

With comfortable complacency utterly destroyed, #305 further shook everything up with ‘The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire!’ who turned out to be the long-suffering Mon-El finally cured and freed from his Phantom Zone prison.

The Legion is undoubtedly one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in American comicbook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became Comics Fandom. Moreover, these sparkling, simplistic and astoundingly addictive stories as much as the innovations of Julie Schwartz’s Justice League fired up the interest and imaginations of a generation of young readers and built the industry we all know today.

Naive, silly, joyous, stirring and utterly compelling yarns are precious and fun beyond any ability to explain but if you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future life as soon as possible.
Â© 1958-1964, 1991 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 18, 2011November 20, 2011

Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes volume 1

By Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan, John Forte & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1- 4012-1382-4

Once upon a time, in the far future, a band of super-powered kids from dozens of alien civilisations took inspiration from the greatest legend of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited that legend to join themâ€¦

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino in early 1958, just as the revived comicbook genre of superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten again and again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

This glorious, far-and-wide ranging monochrome collection assembles the many preliminary appearances of these valiant Tomorrow People and their inevitable progress towards and attainment of their own feature; including all pertinent material from Adventure Comics #247, 267, 282, 290, 293, and 300-321, Action Comics #267, 276, 287 and 289, Superboy #86, 89, 98, Superman #147, Superman Annual #4 and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #72 and 76.

The many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) in a Superboy tale wherein three mysterious kids invited the Boy of Steel to the 30^th century to join a team of metahuman champions all inspired by his historic career. Created by Otto Binder & Al Plastino, the throwaway concept inflamed public imagination and after a slew of further appearances throughout Superman Family titles, the LSH eventually took over Superboy’s lead spot in Adventure for their own far-flung, quirky escapades, with the Caped Kid Kryptonian reduced to â€œone of the in-crowdâ€â€¦

However here the excitement was still gradually building as the kids returned more than a 18 months later in Adventure #267 (December 1959) for Jerry Siegel & George Papp to play with. In ‘Prisoner of the Super-Heroes!‘ the teen wonders turned up to attack and incarcerate the Boy of Steel because of a misunderstood ancient recordâ€¦

Jubilant, baffled and suspicious in equal amounts the Superboy eventually, tragically discovered ‘The Secret of Mon-El’ by accidentally exposing the stranger to a lingering, inexorable death, before desperately providing critical life-support by depositing the dying alien in the Phantom Zone until a cure could be foundâ€¦

Adventure #290 (November) by Bernstein & Papp seemingly gave Sun Boy a starring role in ‘The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero!’ – a clever tale of redemption and second chances, followed in #293 (February 1962) by a gripping thriller from Siegel, Swan & George Klein: ‘The Legion of Super-Traitors’ wherein the future heroes were turned evil, prompting Saturn Girl to recruit a Legion of Super-Pets including Krypto, Streaky the Super Cat, Beppo, the monkey from Krypton and Comet the magical Super-horse to save the world – and yes, I typed all that with a reasonably straight faceâ€¦

‘Supergirl’s Greatest Challenge!’ by Siegel & Mooney (Action #287 April 1962) saw her visit the Legion (quibblers be warned: for some reason it was mis-determined as the 21^st century in this story) and saved future Earth from invasion. She also met a telepathic descendent of her cat Streaky. His name was Whizzy (I could have omitted that fact but chose not to – once more for smug, comedic effect and in sympathy with cat owners everywhere)â€¦

By the release of Superboy #98 (July 1962), the decision had been made. The buying public wanted more Legion stories and after ‘The Boy With Ultra-Powers’ by Siegel, Swan & Klein introduced a mysterious lad with greater powers than the Boy of Steel, focus shifted to Adventure Comics #300 (cover dated September 1962) where the futuristic super-squad finally landed their own gig; even occasionally taking an alternating cover-spot from the still top-featured Superboy.

Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes opened its stellar run with ‘The Face Behind the Lead Mask!’ by Siegel, John Forte & Plastino; a fast-paced premier which pitted Superboy and the 30^th century champions against an impossibly unbeatable foe until Mon-El, long-trapped in the Phantom Zone, briefly escaped a millennium of confinement and saved the dayâ€¦

In those halcyon days humour was as important as action, imagination and drama, so many of the early exploits were light-hearted and moralistic. Issue #301 offered hope to fat kids everywhere with ‘The Secret Origin of Bouncing Boy!’ by regular creative team Siegel & Forte, wherein the process of open auditions was instigated (providing devoted fans with loads of truly bizarre and memorable applicants over the years) whilst allowing the rebounding human rotunda to give a salutary pep talk and inspirational recount of heroism persevering over adversity.

With comfortable complacency utterly destroyed #305 further shook everything up with ‘The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire!’ who turned out to be the long-suffering Mon-El finally cured and freed from his Phantom Zone prison.

Normally I’d try to be more obscure about story details – after all my intention is to get new people reading old comics – but these â€œspoilerâ€ revelations are crucial to further understanding here and besides you all know these characters are still around, don’t you?

Pulp science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton took over the major scripting role with Adventure #306 and introduced ‘The Legion of Substitute Heroes!’ (still quirkily, perfectly illustrated by John Forte): a group of rejected applicants who selflessly banded together to clandestinely assist the champions who had spurned them, after which transmuting orphan Element Lad joined the team, seeking vengeance of the space pirates who had wiped out his entire species in ‘The Secret Power of the Mystery Super-Hero!’ and #308 seemingly saw ‘The Return of Lightning Lad!’

Spoiler Warning: skip to the next paragraph NOW!!! if you don’t want to know it was actually his similarly empowered sister who once unmasked â€“ and unmanned â€“ took her brother’s place as Lightning Lassâ€¦

‘The Legion of Super-Monsters!’ was a straightforward clash with embittered applicant Jungle King who took his rejection far too personally and gathered a deadly clutch of space beasts to wreak havoc and vengeance whilst ‘The Doom of the Super-Heroes!’ in #310 was a frantic battle for survival against an impossible foe and Adventure #311 saw ‘The War Between the Substitute Heroes and the Legionnaires!’ begin with a cease-and-desist order from the A-Team which turned into secret salvation as the plucky, stubborn outcasts carried on anyway under the very noses of the blithely oblivious LSHâ€¦

Issue #312 (September 1963) saw the ‘The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires!’ and the inevitable resurrection of Lightning Lad – but only after the harrowing sacrifice of one devoted team-member – whilst in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #72 (October) ‘The World of Doomed Olsens!’ (Siegel, Swan & Klein) depicted an intriguing enigma wherein the cub-reporter was confronted by materialisations of his most memorable metamorphoses (see the Superman: the Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen for further details), only to deduce it was all a prank by those naughty Legion scampsâ€¦ but one with a serious purpose behind the jolly japeryâ€¦

In #313’s ‘The Condemned Legionnaires!’ (Hamilton, Swan, Klein & Forte) Supergirl played a starring role when the mysterious Satan Girl infected the team with a deadly plague and forced them all into perpetual quarantine whilst ‘The Super-Villains of All Ages!’ (illustrated by Forte) had a manic mastermind steal a Legion Time-Bubble to recruit the greatest monsters and malcontents of history – Nero, Hitler and John Dillinger – as his irresistible army of crime.

Why he was surprised when they double-crossed him and took over the bodies of Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy is beyond meâ€¦ Happily, the lesser legionnaires still proved more a match for the brain-switched rogues.

‘The Legionnaires Super-Contest!’ in #315 finally saw the Substitute heroes go public, for which the primary team offered to allow one of them to join the big boys. Which one? That’s the contest partâ€¦

Issue #316’s ‘The Renegade Super-Hero!’ saw one trusted team-mate revealed as a career criminal and go on the run, but of course there was more to the tale than first appeared, after which the heroes were introduced to ‘The Menace of Dream Girl!’ a ravishing clairvoyant who beguiled her way into the Legion for her own obscure, arcane reasons. In her well-meaning way she presaged the coming of deadly threat The Time Trapper and also found a moment to convert the electrically redundant sister of the revived Lightning Lad into the gravity-defying Light Lass.

Adventure #318 featured ‘The Mutiny of the Legionnaires!’ wherein Sun Boy succumbed to battle fatigue and became a draconian Captain Bligh during an extended rescue mission, whilst in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #76 (April 1964) Siegel & Forte described ‘Elastic Lad Jimmy and his Legion Romances!’ wherein the plucky journalist was inveigled into the future and found himself inexplicably irresistible to the comely costumed champions of Tomorrow. It wasn’t his primitive charm, thoughâ€¦

Hamilton & Forte began a strong run of grittier tales from #319 on, beginning with ‘The Legion’s Suicide Squad!’ as the Science Police asked the team to destroy, at all costs, a monolithic space fortress, whilst #320 debuted a daring new character in Dev-Em, a forgotten survivor of Superman’s dead homeworld who was little more than a petty thug when Superboy first defeated him.

Now in ‘The Revenge of the Knave From Krypton!’ by Siegel, Forte, Papp, Moldoff & Plastino, the rapscallion returned as either a reformed undercover cop or the greatest traitor in historyâ€¦

The story portion of this wonderful tome concludes with Adventure #321 and ‘The Code of the Legion!’ by Hamilton, Forte & Plastino which revealed the team’s underlying Articles of Procedure during a dire espionage flap, whilst testing one Legionnaire to the limits of his honour and ingenuity and actually ending another’s service forever.

Perhaps.

This is followed by an appropriate extra from Superman Annual #4 which featured a two-page informational guide illustrated and pictorial check-list of the team by Swan & Klein which was amended and supplemented in Adventure #316 with an additional two pages of stunning micro-pin-ups, all faithfully included here. This fabulously innocent and imaginative chronicle also includes every cover the team starred on: mostly the work of honorary Legionnaire Curt Swan and inkers George Klein, Stan Kaye, and Sheldon Moldoff.

The Legion is undoubtedly one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in American comicbook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became Comics Fandom. Moreover, these sparkling, simplistic and devastatingly addictive stories as much as the legendary Julie Schwartz Justice League fired up the interest and imaginations of a generation of young readers and built the industry we all know today.

October 25, 2011October 23, 2011

Superman: Tales From the Phantom Zone

By Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Otto Binder, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2258-1

Superman is comics’ champion crusader: the hero who effectively started a whole genre and in the decades since his spectacular launch in June1938 one who has survived every kind of menace imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole tranches of his prodigious back-catalogue and re-present them in specifically-themed collections, such as this sinister set of sorties into the stark and silent realm of nullity designated the Phantom Zone: a time-proof timeless prison for the worst villains of lost planet Krypton.

This captivating collection (gathering material from Adventure Comics #283, 300, Action Comics #336, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #33, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #62, Superman #157, 205, Superboy #89, 104 and Who’s Who volume 18) represents appearances both landmark and rare, crafted by the many brilliant writers and artists who have contributed to the Kryptonian canon over the years.

Naturally this terrific tome begins with the first appearance of the dolorous dimension in ‘The Phantom Superboy’ by Robert Bernstein & George Papp (from Adventure Comics #283 April, 1961) wherein a mysterious alien vault smashes to Earth and the Smallville Sensation finds sealed within three incredible super-weapons built by his long-dead dad Jor-El. There’s a disintegrator gun, a monster-making de-evolutioniser and a strange projector that opens a window into an eerie, timeless dimension of stultifying intangibility.

However as Superboy reads the history of the projector – used to incarcerate Krypton’s criminals – a terrible accident traps him inside the Phantom Zone and only by the greatest exercise of his mighty intellect does he narrowly escapeâ€¦

Next is the pivotal two-part tale ‘Superboy’s Big Brother’ (by Robert Bernstein & Papp from Superboy #89, June 1961) in which an amnesiac, super-powered space traveller crashes in Smallville, speaking Kryptonese and carrying star-maps written by the long-dead Jor-Elâ€¦

Jubilant, baffled and suspicious in equal amounts the Boy of Steel eventually, tragically discovers ‘The Secret of Mon-El’ by accidentally exposing the stranger to a fatal, inexorable death and desperately provides critical life-support by depositing the dying alien in the Phantom Zone until a cure can be foundâ€¦

Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #33 (May 1962) by a sadly unknown writer, but illustrated by the always exceptional art team of Curt Swan and George Klein, further explored the dramatic potential of the Zone in ‘The Phantom Lois Lane!’ when a temporarily deranged Lana Lang dispatched all her romantic rivals for the Man of Tomorrow’s affections to the extra-dimensional dungeon, whilst one month later in ‘Superman’s Phantom Pal!’ (Leo Dorfman, Swan & Klein from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #62) Jimmy Olsen in his Elastic Lad role was drawn through a miniscule rip in the fabric of reality and joined Mon-El in the Zone where the plucky cub reporter faced down the worst of Krypton’s villains and resisted their ultimate temptationâ€¦

Adventure Comics #300 (September 1962) saw the debut of the Legion of Super-Heroes in their own series by Jerry Siegel, John Forte & Al Plastino. That premier yarn ‘The Face Behind the Lead Mask!’ pitted Superboy and the 30^th century champions against an unbeatable foe until Mon-El intervened, briefly freed from a millennium of confinementâ€¦

‘The Super-Revenge of the Phantom Zone Prisoner!’ by Edmond Hamilton, Swan & Klein (from Superman #157 November 1962) saw the introduction of power-stealing Gold Kryptonite and Superman’s Zone-o-phone – which allowed him to communicate with the incarcerated inhabitants – in a stirring tale of injustice and redemption. Convicted felon Quex-Ul uses the device to petition Superman for release since his sentence has been served, and despite reservations the fair-minded hero can only agree.

However further investigation reveals Quex-Ul had been framed and was wholly innocent of any crime, but before Superman can explain or apologise he has to avoid the deadly trap the embittered and partially mind-controlled parolee has laid for the son of the Zone’s discovererâ€¦

Superboy #104 (April 1963) contained an epic two-part saga ‘The Untold Story of the Phantom Zone’ with ‘The Crimes of Krypton’s Master Villains’, by Hamilton & Papp describing Jor-El’s discovery of the Zone, his defeat of ambitious political criminal Gra-Mo and the reasons the vault of super-weapons was dispatched into space whilst ‘The Kid who Knocked Out Superboy!’ (illustrated by Swan & Klein) saw Gra-Mo return to take vengeance on the son of his nemesis.

‘The Man From the Phantom Zone!’ (Action Comics #336, April 1966, by Hamilton, Swan & Klein) had Superman release another convict whose time was served, leading to a captivating crime mystery in the Bottle City of Kandor as 50 year old juvenile delinquent Ak-Var found life in a solid and very judgemental world a very mixed blessingâ€¦

By April 1968, times and tone were changing as seen in ‘The Man Who Destroyed Krypton!’ (Superman #205, Otto Binder & Plastino) as alien terrorist Black Zero comes to Earth determined to blow it up just as he had the planet Krypton decades ago! Overmatched and stunned by the truth of his world’s doom, the Man of Steel is convinced that releasing Jax-Ur, the Zone’s wickedest inhabitant, is the only way to save his adopted homeworldâ€¦ an absorbing, enthralling, surprisingly gritty tale of vengeance and a perfect way to end this eclectic collection.

With a comprehensive informational extract from the 1986 Who’s Who in the DC Universe entry from the Zone and its most notorious inmates, illustrated by Rick Veitch, this compelling collection is an intriguing introduction to the aliens hidden amongst us and a superb treat for fans of every vintage.

August 7, 2011August 5, 2011

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes

By various (Tempo Books/Grosset & Dunlap)
ISBN: 0-448-14535-9

Here’s another early attempt to catapult comics off the spinner racks and onto proper bookshelves; this time from 1977, coinciding with and celebrating one of the periodic surges in popularity of the venerable Legion of Super-Heroes.

The many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) in a Superboy tale wherein three mysterious kids invited the Boy of Steel to the future to join a team of metahuman champions inspired by his historic feats. Created by Otto Binder & Al Plastino, the throwaway concept inflamed public imagination and after a slew of further appearances throughout Superman Family titles, the LSH eventually took over Superboy’s lead spot in Adventure for their own far-flung, quirky escapades, with the Caped Kryptonian reduced to â€œone of the in-crowdâ€â€¦

This terrific little black and white tome, part of National Periodical Publications’ on-going efforts to reach wider reading audiences – which began during the â€œCampâ€ craze of the 1960s with reformatted Superman and Batman pocket paperbacks and intermittently continued for the next twenty years – is particularly appealing as it leads off with a straight Superboy solo story.

The exploits of the Kid Kryptonian were always problematic. Since his inception (More Fun Comics #101 January/February 1945) the character had been perennially set in the past, â€œthe adventures of Superman when he was a boyâ€. He was always popular and a solid seller, but as the world and the readership grew increasingly more complex in the late 1960s, the vague, timeless â€œabout twenty years agoâ€ settings grew ever-harder to reconcile with the uniform continuity being formed within the cohesively congealing DC universe.

For long term readers, the tales were seen to have occurred anytime between 1929-1957 and eventually DC (as NPP became) simply gave up the ghost and simply told fans to subtract 12-20 years from whatever the date was in Superman. More succinctly: â€œdeal with it, it’s only a comicbook…â€

When the Legion were revived after a nearly two years in limbo, they moved briefly into the back of Superboy before taking over the title (DÃ©jÃ vu, much?). Thereafter all the Boy of Steel’s adventures took place in the future, not the pastâ€¦

Tragically, however, that relegated a huge amount of superb comics stories to oblivion: not acknowledged and never included in those reprint collections increasingly targeting the mainstream fan-base. Mercifully, one of those lost tales – from a brilliant run by scripter Frank Robbins and artists Bob Brown & Wally Wood – found its way into this collection for a wider and less picky audienceâ€¦

‘Superboy’s Darkest Secret!’ (from Superboy #158, July 1969) is a powerful and moving epic which fits nowhere in accepted continuity. In this beautifully rendered tragedy the Boy of Steel discovers his birth parents had actually – and unwillingly – escaped Krypton and now lay interred in a life-pod deep inside a debris field of Kryptonite and space mines. Moreover, the only person who could reunite him with them was the kindly Kryptonian savant who had murdered them and was now determined to resurrect themâ€¦!

The Heroes of Tomorrow finally show up in ‘The Six-Legged Legionnaire!’ (Adventure Comics #355, April 1967 by Otto Binder, Curt Swan & George Klein) as Superboy brings his High School sweetie Lana Lang to the 30^th century, where she joins in a mission against a science-tyrant as the shape changing Insect Queen. Disaster strikes when she loses the alien ring that enables her to resume her human formâ€¦

‘Curse of the Blood-Crystals!’ by Cary Bates, Dave Cockrum & Murphy Anderson comes from Superboy #188 (July 1972); the sixth stunning back-up tale of the unstoppable Legion revival that would eventually lead to the team taking over the title. This clever yarn of cross-and-double-cross finds a Legionnaire possessed by a magical booby-trap and forced to murder Superboy – but which hero is actually the prospective killerâ€¦?

This nifty nostalgic nugget ends with a rather strange but genuinely intriguing choice.

By 1970 the team’s popularity was on the wane. They had lost their Adventure Comics spot to Supergirl and become a back-up feature in Action Comics. Moreover, the masterful penciller Curt Swan had left to devote himself fully to Supermanâ€¦

The shorter stories were bolder and more entertaining than ever, but too many casual readers had moved on. ‘The Legionnaires Who Never Were!’ (Action #392, September 1970, by Bates, Winslow Mortimer & Jack Abel) was their last adventure until popping up in Superboy and presents a brilliant psychological thriller/mystery romp as Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra return to Earth and discover that they no longer existâ€¦. Of course, there’s a sound reason why all their old comrades are trying to kill themâ€¦

The Legion of Super-Heroes has long been graced with the most faithful and determined hard-core fans in comics history. Once the graphic novel market was established all of their old adventures became readily available in many different formats, so for most readers and collectors the true value of this scarce back-pocket item probably lies in that solo Superboy treat.

I’ve always harboured a secret delight in these paperback pioneers of the comics biz; however, and if you’re in any way of similar mien, I can thoroughly recommend the sheer tactile and olfactory buzz that only comes from holding such an item in your own two handsâ€¦

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