Secret Origin Fridays

We all know the story ...



Three young kids from three different planets with three different super-abilities all happen to be on the same interplanetary flight and work together to save a billionaire. The rich benefactor decides these kids are heroes much like Superboy! He funds a super-hero club called The Legion of Super-Heroes!

That's right! Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl saved R.J. Brande and the rest is history.

That save was the first domino in Legion history. And it is that history that Legion fanatics pride themselves on knowing. But how much can you know it when the universe has been written, rewritten, rebooted, and Rebirthed?

While Adventure Comics #247 was the team's first appearance, the rescue wasn't seen there.

Instead, that origin of the Brande rescue was first published in Superboy #147, a Legion-centric 147.

I have to assume that somewhere along the way I have read this story reprinted somewhere.

But the happenstance of the three founders being on that flight is something I feel I have always known about.

Maybe you read that origin first in the Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes mini-series?

Or maybe you read the reimagined origin in the Five Years Later run, a look at the origin in a world where Laurel Gand existed and Glorith was the Time Trapper.

Or maybe you read it in the Legion of Super-Heroes Secret Files and Origins.

I had stopped reading the team at this point. Hopefully the Brande rescue is still present.

I suppose you are all wondering why I am writing this post.

Well, I just finished the Threeboot reviews. You know what wasn't there? The Brande rescue! It was Princess Projectra who funded the team.

With the Threeboot series finished, I had to decide what to review. So I figured why not take a look at the last in-continuity history of the Legion. Legion Secret Origin was a 6 issue mini-series published in the New 52 universe. To be honest, I have absolutely no recollection of this miniseries ... at all! It will be like I am reading it for the first time. Not remembering isn't a ringing endorsement of the book. But maybe I'll be surprised.

And so, bid a fond farewell to Anj's 5YL Fridays. And say a more recent adieu to Anj's Threeboot Fridays.

Say hello to Anj's Secret Origin Fridays. Starting next week!