TOS: Adventure Comics #312 Group Review

featuring
The Legion of Super Bloggers Group Review on
Adventure Comics #312 (Sept, 1963)
title: The Super Sacrifice of the Legionnaires!
writer: Edmond Hamilton
penciller: John Forte
letterer: Milton Snapinn
cover: Curt Swan & George Klein
editor: Mort Weisinger

Mission Monitor Board: 
Superboy, Lightning Lass, Sun Boy, Chameleon Boy, Mon-El, Saturn Girl, cameo by Lightning Lad

Guests:
Proty

Opponents:
Death itself

Synopsis:
The Legion finds a way to possibly re-animate Lightning Lad, but the price is costly---the life of one other member! See if you can guess the identity of The Bravest Legionnaire.


Commentary: 
(Round-table discussion between Tim Wallace, Russell Burbage, Glenn Walker, Michael Lane, and Jude LoCasto)

Tim: My laptop isn't cooperating...rebooting now, back shortly....!
Russell: Okay!
Glenn: Hurry, Tim, or you'll be late, just like Mon-El in tonight's story!
Proty will have to pretend to be you 😉
Russell: I like it!
Michael: This is my first round robin...hoping I don't mess it up!
Russell: Newbie! That means we get to prank you.
Glenn: Michael has to wear the Calamity King hat. LOL!
Tim: I'll show up late and without a solution
Michael: I'm the Proty, aren't I?
Tim: Are you pretending to be me Michael? LOL...if so...you're the Proty!
Russell: I'm so confused. Break out the name tags!
Tim: Kord Kid here!
Glenn: Continuity Kid reporting for duty
Jude: SARCASM KID HERE, HERE, I'M HERE, I am here....With coffee.
Michael: Nostalgic Kid!
Russell: And I, Bilingual Boy, hereby call this Round Robin Review to order.
Jude: I have my copy of 312 right next to me
Russell: "The Super Sacrifice of the Legionnaires!" Let's start with the cover.
Jude: It's like russian roulette but for children
Tim: It's like the Harry Potter kids traveled to the future!
Glenn: "and other Super-Heroes"
Michael: A classic. Definitely intriguing.
Russell: Glenn, I noticed that too. Was Mon-El really such a draw? haha
Glenn: Mon-El was a popular guest-star in a Superboy story...and Superboy's equal.
Jude: And then he finally usurped Kal by becoming Superboy thanks to Gloirth.
Tim: Don't forget he once represented team Superman in Justice League too!
Jude: Wasn't that for like five minutes during, UGH, James Robinson's run? Again, UGH.
Tim: Yes Jude...yes it was...but still...he was in the JLA.
Russell: The cover is a classic, but then the splash page....what the what? No drama there at all.
Tim: No Drama? It's like Superboy is witnessing a future version of Dawn of the Dead!
Russell: I *suppose*.....
Michael: Splash page has no connection to the cover but I do think Superboy flying to a bunch of waking up bodies is intriguing.
Russell: I noticed that John Forte actually signed his name. That is the first time he did that.

Several Legionnaires are waiting for Mon-El to return from his super-scientific home planet of Daxam with news if he found a way to revive their dead team-mate, Lightning Lad. He returns and they all visit Saturn Girl on the Lightning World where Lightning Lad is entombed. Although Mon-El says he does not have a way, she telepathically senses that he is lying.

Glenn: I like that they make it seem that the Legion has been searching for a way to revive Lightning Lad in every off-panel moment.
Jude: It's genuinely amazing this was about Saturn Girl mainly trying to find a way to revive Lightning Lad, when it could've easily been the other way around.
Glenn: Dig that crazy clock, man

Russell: One thing that bothered me was that they kept saying that Lightning Lad was dead. If he was really dead, then, news flash, they could NOT revive him. I wish they had standardized the term to something like, death-like coma....
Michael: Because comics?
Jude: I guess they felt it would have more impact if he was DEAD dead.
Michael: I wouldn't dig too much into the logic of this story
Jude: I mean, they never brought characters back to life at the point in comics' history, right?
Russell: Right. Partly because characters never died at this point in comics. Basically.
Michael: Legion was way ahead of its time on members dying.
Glenn: Lightning Lad was the first Legionnaire to die, but also maybe only the third or fourth superhero ever.
Russell: True.
Glenn: Death in comics was not a thing yet.
Jude: Unless it was a one off bad guy.
Michael: I think that Legionnaires dying was a big part of the team building its early fan base.
Anyways...!
Glenn: Agreed, Michael, the large female cast and dying heroes were signs this was not like other comics of the time.
Glenn: And is it just me, or is Proty kinda disturbing with legs?
Tim: And is it just me or was Chameleon Boy bossing Proty around a little weird? "That's an order!" Jeez...all he did was mimic Mon-El.
Glenn: Like most household pets gravitating to one of a couple, I kinda dug that Proty was Cham's pet, but liked Saturn Girl more.
Russell: Tim, the scene with Proty was just to show the readers what it could do: mimic Legionnaries. I agree it is a bit harsh, though.
Anyone else notice that the Legion has moved Lightning Lad's coffin? It had been in a crypt on Earth, and now it's on the Lightning World.
Jude: "Oh okay so we built a crypt for the Legionnaires but you know they can just move it no biggie."
Tim: I don't know why...but I always picture Proty like a Schmoo or  those blobby thing from the Herculoids cartoon.

Michael: Ha!!
Glenn: LOL Tim, now I'll see Proty(s) the same way too
Michael: Yes all of us will
Jude: They should've done a Legion crossover with the Herculoids, and those things flock to Saturn Girl!
Russell: haha!
Glenn: Cham and his pet, the Schmoo!
Tim: HAHA! Yes!
Glenn: Legion/Herculoids by the Allreds!

Superboy doesn't let the Legion give way to despair. He suggests they spread out through the galaxy to investigate possible ways of reviving Lightning Lad. Saturn Girl vows to stay close to Mon-El to uncover his secret.

Jude: It's her MISSION
Michael: One of the things I liked on this story was Saturn Girls prominent role.
Russell: Yes! She was definitely the "heart" of this story.
Michael: Her constant suspicioun
Glenn: She's right not to trust Legionnaire Lemon
Tim: Back to the moving coffin...maybe they moved it to Lightning World thinking the lightning might revive him?
Glenn: Good No-Prize thought, Tim
Jude: So then tie a kite to the stupid thing and let nature take its course
Tim: Or the Lightning Beasts?
Russell: Probably. Odd how neither of those options were actually shown to have occurred to the Legionnaires. Also weird how this set-up is similar to an eternal flame.
Glenn: ...the Bangles song? LOL!
Russell: Previously Lightning Lad was laid between two lightning "torch" thingies. Now he's got a whole world of lightning around him. Thanks to his sister, Lighting Lass.
Jude: It's like Christmas. Like when you plug in the tree and get electrocuted. And then the tree catches on fire and falls on top of you
Michael: [trying to get the Bangles out of my head]
Tim: I did have to go back a few stories...I didn't remember Lighting Lad's death looking like it's depicted in this flashback.
Glenn: I love how there's lightning in most panels
Jude: But I have no doubt Imra probably said,  "He *sob* sacrificed himself for me!"
Michael: I have mixed feelings on Forte but he is doing a good job in this issue
Russell: I also like how the writer (credited to Edmond Hamilton) took the spotlight off the "let's cheat death" angle and put it more squarely on "What's Mon-El up to?"
Glenn: You had to be tricky to work around the Comics Code in those days. Was resurrection a no-no maybe?
Jude: You know who they should've hired to figure out Mon-El's secrets? Matlock. He'd probably figure out it was the work of the evil Gavin McCloud.
Russell: One thing that bugs me about blonde and ginger characters (like Sun Boy and Saturn Girl here) is that they are always drawn with dark eyebrows. There's a lot of dark eyebrows on page 4.
Michael: I hadn't noticed that.
Jude: Me neither.
Glenn: Forte's style.
Michael: You're right,  though.
Russell: Aquaman always had them in the Super Friends show and it would bug the hell outta me.
Glenn: They're just not real blondes 😉
Tim: Matlock? I love Andy Griffith as much as the next guy but Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century seems a closer match to me!
Glenn: I do like how he tried to give each character different hairstyles tho
Jude: I was not expecting someone to know that cartoon.
Michael: Forte does always try to give characters different looks.

Superboy flies to the far-away galaxy of AB-213, where a certain planet moves within the orbit of two different suns. When the inhabitants are under the rays of the orange sun, they appear dead; they revive when the planet enters the orbit of the blue sun. Superboy coaxes a small bit of the blue sun energy back to the Lightning World, but the radiation does not revive Lightning Lad.

Jude: Orange sun? Is the same system Luma Lynai lives in?
Tim: I LOVE that Superboy tries to steal part of that blue sun and makes it into a smaller blue sun that he can take with him!
Glenn: I like the top of that one panel with the Legionnaires flying off in different directions, reminded me of Silver Age JLA splitting up to tackle different foes.

Michael: I enjoyed this, it's a very Silver-Age sciency moment
Tim: Too bad the mini blue sun trick didn't work.
Jude: I hope Mon doesn't give Imra space-whiplash.
Glenn: Tarocs look a bit like The Giant Claw a little
Russell: That whole scene on page 6 is Silver Age awesomeness.
Glenn: -could- Mon-El be jealous?  He -did- replace Lightning Lad, didn't he?
Russell: According to Silver Age Superman lore, a blue sun gives EVERYBODY super-powers, and increases Kryptonians' powers. No sign of that here, though.
Jude: "She should've been mine now! I'm a nice guy!"
Glenn: Messy Silver Age continuity, let's just pretend that's a wall Superboy Prime punched
Jude: I'd prefer to think of a wall punching Superboy Prime
Michael: No Superboy Prime please!!!

On a distant world, Mon-El and Saturn Girl investigate the legendary Taroc, which is said to die and then live again. After battling one they find another that is near death. As it dies, another, differnt Taroc is "born" from it. Disappointed, they return to the Lightning World, where Saturn Girl again "hears" that Mon-El could save Lightning Lad but that he doesn't want to.

Jude: I like that panel of her shocked face
Tim: For a group of superhero teens who started out with the best intentions, there sure is a lot of suspicion and dickery in these stories! I just did a write up for Matter-Eater Lad's debut and there was a lot of "Did he betray us? Is he a spy?" And now Mon-El is under suspicion...
Jude: "Her eyebrows grew wide in shock."
Russell: I agree that this does resemble the Silver Age JLA stories. Breaking up into groups and checking in at the end....Cool lightning effects in that panel again...
Michael: I still like Saturn Girls role. For what it's worth...
Jude: This whole thing reminds me a lot of Sailor Uranus and Neptune.
I know you guys don't know Sailor Moon, but it's creepy to me how much Garth's death rang similar in a Sailor Moon arc. Uranus and Neptune were the lesbian couple who had this whole melodramatic thing about their resolve to potentially sacrifice someone to save the world. And Uranus was all prepared to sacrifice herself if need be, thinking she was tainted and acting like an asshole thinking it'd be better that way, like what Imra did with the election. And then Neptune, who also resolved to sacrifice someone, refuses to let Uranus die and takes on a barrage of bullets trying to save Uranus from dying.

Sun Boy, Lighting Lass, Chameleon Boy, and Proty are on their way to the distant world of Skor to investigate a possible life-reviving technique there when they receive a summons for help from the Interplanetary Post Office. They go there and scare off the Space Serpents that were eating the walls of the facility. Two workers died in the vacuum of space when the Space Serpents ate their way in. The Legionnaires bring the corpses to Skor, where scientists use special radium-capsules to revive them.

Michael: I do like how important it is for the team to bring back Lightning Lad. It is very sudden but does have a certain logic. Especially if you consider that they are teenagers
Jude: Do you wonder if any of the Legionnaires resented how Garth came back but so many of the others didn't, like Ferro, Lyle, and Val?
Glenn: And they do feel like teenagers in this story, they don't always.
Russell: This is another one of those scenes where it would have been better to call it "death-like coma" instead of death.
Michael: It is not consistent I admit.
Glenn: Lyle was supposedly happy, they should have tried to bring Ferro Lad back though
Jude: I wonder how Jeckie felt about it. Then again she set Val's body to funeral pyre.
Russell: "The longer he sleeps, the more likely the condition may be ....irreversible!" or something
Tim: I found the Post Office stuff kind of bonkers! The space-serpents, the coincidental "hey it worked on these guys so it should work for us!"
Jude: "They came from another universe!" What exactly are they basing that on?
Glenn: I loved the serpents chilling at the post office, so Silver Age-y.
Jude: "But they told me I had to pick up my space-sea monkeys here!"
Russell: "The Earth-Mars mail bin is empty, sorry."
Jude: "I got my letter to Space-Santa back."
Tim: Oh don't get me wrong, Glenn, I love it too! Silver Age is my jam!
Michael: Space Santa :-)
Russell: It does seem a BIT too coincidental. Still, the story flows pretty well.
And I like how the Legion tries the capsule on Garth and it doesn't work. Notching up the suspense.
Jude: "This isn't working!" *kicks coffin in frustration* Garth: Don't kick my coffin!

The Legion takes a radium capsule to Lighting Lad, but he has been "dead" too long for the capsule to work. Saturn Girl is then determined to find out what Mon-El is hiding, so she tricks him to take her to Daxam, where he is then caught in his lie. He agrees to tell everyone his secret, so they return to the Lightning World.

Glenn: Anyone else want to push Mon-El's hair off his forehead?
Russell: Yes! His hair bothered me thru the entire story....!
Michael: Curiouser and curiouser
Tim: Are there any rules in the Legion Constitution about desecrating graves? Stealing corpses? Performing Frankenstein like experiments on dead bodies? Just asking...for a friend...
Michael: I hope not!
Jude: They added a new subsection, Garth's Law.
Glenn: Looks like it's all good, Tim
Jude: It's why Graverobber Lad was rejected.
Glenn: LOL!
Michael: LOL!
Russell: Who put Saturn Girl in that sexy negligee?
Jude: She wears it under her uniform in case of sexy emergencies...with sexy results.
Glenn: Those sneaky Daxamites!
Tim: I did think Mon-El's forehead comb-over look was a bit odd, but it was the future so who knows what fashion trends we have to look forward to?
Jude: Plus he spent a thousand years in the Phantom Zone
He's not up on the hip new slang words and sick hairstyles of them youths, yo.
Michael: Sorry...still on Saturn Girl's negligee...
Glenn: Mon-El's hair was consistent for years, but here it's a bit awkward.
Tim: He does know how to make some impressive androids though!
Glenn: I liked that Mon-El has slipped so easily into Daxam society after a thousand years in the Zone, and that we get to see his scientific expertise as well.
Russell: It looks like (in the Archive edition I have) that Forte drew Mon with a high forehead of hair, like he did with Sun Boy, but then went back and added a few extra strands!
Glenn: I got the original, they look just as bad, as if drawn in later

Mon-El explains to all of the Legionnaires and Proty that Lighting Lad can be revived if someone's life force is transferred via lightning to the comatose Lighting Lad. He shows them the process using life-like androids. Each Legionnaire volunteers to sacrifice him or herself to revive their friend, so Superboy suggests they all hold up lighting rods and leave the sacrifice to chance. Saturn Girl, blaming herself for Lightning Lad's situation, secretly prepares a lighting rod of a more conducive material than steel, rigging the sacrifice to be her.

Jude: Kind of Ray Bradbury a bit.
Michael: If someone didn't know Legion history this could be scary.
Tim: Can androids really share a life force? Wouldn't it just be conducting electricity from one object to another?
Russell: The whole android scene is stupid beyond belief.
Michael: Comic book science
Glenn: Oooooh, Silver Age comic book science....
Russell: We should have just had talking heads of Mon telling his friends the procedure.
Jude: Yeah you can't compare reviving an android to a dead body.
Garth could've been hit by several lightning bolts it wouldn't mean he's alive.
Just charred. And on fire.
Michael: LOL!
Glenn: Yeah, bad place for the grave.
Russell: I DO like how each Legionnaire is willing to sacrifice him/herself.
Glenn: Of course.
Tim: That is a pretty noble moment!
Jude: That's the power of love.
Glenn: But Proty loved most and best
Tim: And a nice bit of proof that they're not always dicks to each other and nearly every space teen they encounter.
Russell: Sun Boy saying Garth was his best friend....I wonder what Rokk thought of that?
Jude: It's horrible most comics would focus on super teams fighting among themselves instead of proving how much they would sacrifice for their teammates
Michael: I do like the premise of the story. The whole idea of bringing Lightning Lad back. Although subsequent theories of Proty have complicated this.
Tim: Proty...poor, poor Proty...
Jude: We don't talk about Proty/Garth
Glenn: Poor poor Lightning Lad...
Tim: Proty/Garth?

Lightning strikes Saturn Girl's lightning rod, and she keels over as her life force is transferred to Lighting Lad. He revives, not remembering anything since he was struck by Zaryan's freeze ray. As they explain to him what has happened, everyone is shocked to see that it was not actually Saturn Girl who sacrificed her life, but Proty. Proty had read Saturn Girl's mind and knew of her plan to kill herself, so it waylaid her and then took her place. Proty willingly died for her to save the man she loved.

Glenn: Where's Superboy Prime when we need him??
Tim: He's off punching stuff!
Glenn: He needs to punch Proty/Garth...
Michael: Sigh...Superboy Prime references give me a migraine...
Tim: What is this Proty/Garth thing you speak of?
Jude: It was a retcon from the FYL era. Saying Proty's consciousness was in Garth's body the whole time. And he (Garth) never actually came back.
Glenn: It was -suggested- that Garth had really died, and Lighting Lad was Proty all along.
Russell: Ugh, it's awful.
Tim: Wait, what? From this electro-life force transfer thing?
Russell: Yes.
Glenn: Superboy Prime needs to hit Giffen, that was him, right?
Jude: Bierbaums.
Michael: Sorry to bring up the Proty theory but I see it a lot and it...bothers me
Russell: I *hate* it.
Tim: Ummm...ok...
Jude: MOVING ON....
Glenn: How many of us have a copy of the original with the letters page?
Tim: Not I...i just have a scan...no letters page
Michael: Archives
Jude: Trade
Glenn: Well, Weight Wizard and Blockade Boy are suggested by fans here. Later used in the Nardo story, I think, as inmates.
Russell: Yes.
Glenn: There's also a Superboy back-up story with Lana becoming a movie star.
Tim: Wow...ok.
Jude: And then she grew up to become the new Nora Desmond.
"I'm still big! It's the pictures that got small!"
Glenn: LOL!
Jude: Which reminds me of how a friend of mine compared Giffen to Nora Desmond.
"I'm still big! It's the comics that got small!"
Glenn: ....And a Super-Turtle one-pager. And a couple Tootsie Roll ads... now I want a Tootsie Roll
Jude: OH MY GOD they could've had Super-Bugs Bunny race Super-Turtle like he used to do with that smug turtle.
Glenn: That would have been awesome.

Russell: So for all the drama and suspense, I thought the ending felt rushed and anti-climactic.
Glenn: The Super-Turtle strip is actually pretty good, better than the Superboy story if I'm being honest.
Russell: No embrace between Imra and Garth, or Garth and Ayla, or Garth and his pals...
Glenn: Yes, it ended too abruptly.
Jude: No hand holding or anything.
Russell: Just..." Oh. Proty died? Too bad."
Tim: Agreed @Russell but then again, a lot of Silver Age stories tend to do that.
Glenn: It's just a glob, they don't have rights.
Michael: I liked the story. Anything that calls back to Legion members dying. Not to be morbid but it is so unique for the time period.
Glenn: Cham can just get a Proty II in a couple more issues, they're a dime a dozen
Jude: Garth and Imra are suited for each other. "I won't live with Lightning Lad's death on my hands!" "I don't want to live at the expense of Saturn Girl's life!"
You melodramatic morons.
Tim: Just wait till Schmoo, Gleep and Gloop show up seeking revenge...then Proty's sacrifice will be acknowledged!
Glenn: You guys know me, I love the Silver Age Legion, even when they're bad they're good, but this one was really one of the good ones.
Jude: "You did all that for her?! What kind of hero are you?!"
"Ayla, let me explain something to you. A world without Imra isn't a world worth saving."
Michael: So many Silver Age ghost references but no Casper.
Russell: No scene with Cham losing his pet even.  This story could have had a HUGE emotional pay-off, but it feels like the creators fumbled it.
Michael: Anyways...liked it!
Jude: They spent so much time hyping up the resurrection they forgot the part after it.
Russell: Yes!
Glenn: I have faith, I know it happened off panel.
Jude: I liked it, too.
Michael: I thought they addressed Lightning Lad's reaction well.
Especially that he didn't want Saturn Girl to die.
Russell: When the 5YL team retconned this I nearly had a fit. I dropped the book soon after. This is just one of those iconic stories and shouldn't have been messed with.
Tim: Final thought...this had everything I've come to love and expect from the Silver Age Legion; crazy off the wall plot devices, super teens either being dicks or expecting the worst of someone they call a "friend", false stops and/or red herrings, and some drama/emotion (even if it wasn't all the emotion it should have been...RIP Proty)
Glenn: Well said.
Jude: Needed more hugging
Russell: I agree! More hugging! Any other final thoughts?
Glenn: It's always weird for me to see Lightning Lass
I saw her as Light Lass first even though she was Lightning Lass first
Jude: You think they ever did anything on the anniversary of Garth's revival?
Michael: Overall...unique Silver Age story that helped make the Legion unique
Glenn: They have gooey proty pie
Russell: He and Imra probably had a party.
Tim: I'm out team...Long Live the Legion!

*As Kord Kid hits the dimmer, the lights fade, and this MEETING IS ADJOURNED!

Status: 
This story has been reprinted in The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 2 and Showcase Presents: The Legion Vol 1.

Milestones: Lighting Lad is finally revived in this story, but at the ultimate sacrifice of Proty. This cover and situation is legendary within Legion fandom.