Legion of Super-Heroes – Page 4

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€¦

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 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€¦

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) 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€¦

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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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