THE EVERLASTING FIRST: The Legion Of Super-Heroes

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every love story still needs to begin with that first kiss.



This was originally posted as part of a longer piece. It's separated here for convenience.

I've posed the rhetorical question before, but it bears repeating: if you're a kid into superheroes, what could be better than more?

More superheroes! Superman and Batman! The Mighty Avengers! The Justice League of America! The Justice League of America and The Justice Society of America! Super! More super! In the '80s, when an inter-company crossover of  The Teen Titans and The X-Men casually mentioned the possibility of calling in every superhero on Earth to deal with a growing crisis, all I could say in response was, Of course!



When I was a kid in the '60s, The Legion Of Super-Heroes seemed to me to be the ultimate, enormous super-team. More! The Legion was a co-ed group of teen heroes in the far future of the 30th century; the group also included 20th century stalwarts Superboy and Supergirl (and occasionally Jimmy Olsen as Elastic Lad, and even Lana Lang as Insect Queen), who joined in adventures with their pals of tomorrow through the ready convenience of time travel. My first exposure to the Legion was Superboy # 129, an 80-Page Giant which reprinted the first appearance of Mon-El (a then-obscure super character who is now part of the Supergirl TV series). That story's original conclusion left Mon-El poisoned, on death's doorstep, his fragile existence saved only by a voluntary exile into The Phantom Zone. A text page accompanying the story updated Mon-El's saga, detailing how Mon-El spent a thousand years in The Phantom Zone--not aging, not dying, but not living, either--until the 30th century, when the brilliant mind of Brainiac 5 discovered a cure for Mon-El's terminal condition. Mon-El emerged from The Phantom Zone, and joined The Legion Of Super-Heroes.

As a child of six, I may have skipped the text piece.

But somehow, somewhere along the way, I absorbed the knowledge that Mon-El was a member of the Legion. I liked Superboy a lot, but I preferred Mon-El, and I would have sought him out in Legion stories if I'd been aware of the possibility. The LSH had become the stars of Adventure Comics, but I don't remember seeing any of their adventures until I was eight. But, before that, I learned a bit about the Legion in the pages of an issue of World's Finest Comics when I was seven.

World's Finest Comics was the home of team-ups by Superman and Batman, "Your two favorite heroes in one adventure together!" We'll be discussing that title in more depth in a future edition of The Everlasting First. In the summer of 1967, my family went on a Vermont vacation, a vacation I recall with fond memories of fishing with my Dad, and of discovering some (I thought) unique rock in the water, a rock I kept for years thereafter. Like all of my vacations, this trip included some comic books, one of which was World's Finest Comics # 168.



The star villain in this issue was The Composite Superman, a green-faced half-Superman/half-Batman hybrid who possessed the combined power of all of the members of The Legion Of Super-Heroes. If, as I suspect, I didn't pay much/any attention to that text piece in Superboy # 129, this may have been my first, indirect exposure to the Legion.

Exposed!

Whether this was my introduction to the Legion or a subsequent step on my path to 30th century heroics, I recall studying the pictures of those Legion statuettes in World's Finest, trying to figure out the names of all the members. Brainiac 5. Ultra Boy. Element Lad. Light Lass. Triplicate Girl. Elastic Lad. Phantom Girl. MON-EL!! Oh, I was hooked on this concept--a veritable army of superheroes! I loved the story at hand, thrilled with its heroics and touched by the pathos of its conclusion, as [**SPOILER ALERT!!**] a reformed Composite Superman sacrificed his own life to save Batman and Superman. Sniff. Still gets me, right here. But my main takeaway was an abiding fascination with The Legion of Super-Heroes.

Fascination notwithstanding, this seven-year-old kid had a finite supply of the twelve-cent increments necessary to buy new comics in 1967. I have a vague memory of waiting for my turn at the barber shop one day, and reading a coverless comic book (possibly an 80-Page Giant) that included at least one Legion story, a story involving the origin of Starboy. I have no idea when this specific haircut occurred, nor can I identify the precise comic book, but I can tell you I asked the barber if he would let me buy the damned thing, and he laughed me off. Adults just don't understand.



The first actual Legion comic book I could call my own was Adventure Comics # 368 in 1968, an unbelievably sexist story called "The Mutiny Of The Super-Heroines!" I missed the next two issues--a pity, since I would much later discover the "Mordru The Merciless" two-parter contained in Adventure # 369-370 to be one of my favorite Legion stories--but I returned in time for a rip-roarin' two parter about Colossal Boy betraying the Legion in Adventure # 371-372, and the debut of super-speedsters The Tornado Twins in Adventure # 373.




Adventure Comics # 374 was a coverless purchase for me, and I don't remember which (if any) of the subsequent issues I managed to grab at the time. I definitely remember buying and adoring Adventure # 378, with the gripping "Twelve Hours To Live!," featuring the apparent deaths of Superboy, Brainiac 5, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid, and Princess Projectra, and the story's thrilling conclusion in Adventure # 379. Adventure # 380 was anticlimactic, but even worse: it was the Legion's last appearance in Adventure Comics! Their spot was taken over in the next issue by one of their own, that super-hussy Supergirl. The Legion were relegated to a back-up spot, supporting Superman in the rear pages of Action Comics.



But, like TV's Star Trek, the Legion refused to go gently into that dark night. Diehard fans begged and pleaded for more of the Legion. The team's back-up series switched from Action Comics to Superboy, and in those pages in 1972, writer Cary Bates and new artist Dave Cockrum brought a whole new level of pizazz to the proceedings. Cockrum designed eye-catching new costumes for many of the Legionnaires, including some gorgeous, pulchritudinous new styles for the female heroes. This twelve-year-old heartily approved.





A lot of other folks must have also approved of something, as the Legion became the lead feature in Superboy # 197 in 1973. The Legion has generally been one of DC's A-list features since then. Dave Cockrum left DC shortly thereafter, moving on to Marvel (where he and writer Len Wein tried their hands at reviving an old, failed title called The X-Men. They were, uh...pretty successful with that.)



I was also starting to acquire back issues by then, so I finally got to read some of the great Legion stories I missed the first time around. I've resisted the temptation to buy the various reprint collections over the past few years, but I plan to succumb when DC begins a series of trade paperback reprints this summer. Best start buildin' some more bookshelves....






I continued to follow The Legion Of Super-Heroes faithfully throughout the '70s, and into a particularly exciting '80s run by writer Paul Levitz and artist Keith Giffen. But I lost interest after a few too many reboots. I don't know anything about the Legion of today--or, I guess, the Legion of one thousand years from today--but I hope they're well, and plentiful. A legion of super-heroes!  If you were a kid like me in the '60s, and a kid like I still am now in my fifties, then you couldn't ask for any more than that.

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