TOS: Adventure Comics #355

Adventure Comics #355 (April 1967)
title: "The War of the Legions!"
writer and layouts: Jim Shooter
penciller: Curt Swan
inker: George Klein
letterer: Milton Snappin
editor: Mort Weisinger
cover: Curt Swan, George Klein, and Ira Schnapp
reviewer: Mike "Nostalgic Kid" Lane

Mission Monitor Board:
Brainiac 5, Cosmic Man, Element Man, Polar Man, Saturn Woman, Superman

Opponents:
The Legion of Super-Villains - Beauty Blaze, Cosmic King, Echo, Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen,





Following the Super-Heroes' defeat of Ferro Man, the Legion of Super-Villains reveal that they have recruited two new members, Beauty Blaze and Echo. Back at Legion headquarters, Superman decides to return to his own era and is escorted out by Brainiac 5. Immediately after Superman enters the time stream, Brainiac 5 is attacked and abducted.

Lightning Lord informs the Legion that they have taken Brainiac 5 and gives them five envelopes. Each one contains instructions, and they must be followed if they wish to save their friend. Cosmic Man goes to the location indicated in his envelope and he is met by Echo, the self-styled "Master of Sound."

After Cosmic Man defeats Echo, the story moves to Saturn Woman as she arrives at the Universe Fair in Metropolis. She is attacked by a mob under the control of Saturn Queen, but uses her powers to put the mob to sleep and a judo chop to take down Saturn Queen. Elsewhere, Lightning Man easily stops his brother from destroying the Metropolis Electric Company while Polar Man confronts Beauty Blaze on a volcanic plain on the island of Java.

Element Lad has his own easy victory over Cosmic Man, and it seems Super-Villains have suffered a quick defeat. Having learned the location of Brainiac 5 from Cosmic Man, the team goes to his rescue but we learn that the villains had let themselves be beaten to lead the Legion into a trap.

The Super-Villains prove far more capable than we have been lead to believe so far, and it seems that the Legion will be the ones to suffer a quick defeat this time around. Fortunately, two mysterious, armored figures arrive and come to their rescue.

The Legion is grateful but confused, having no idea who their rescuers are. They reveal themselves as Lex Luthor, who used his scientific knowhow to give himselves the powers of Star Boy and Light Lass, and Mr. Mxyzptlk! It turns out that these are not Superman's enemies, but rather their 30th Century descendants.

Commentary:
Well, this was a let down after last issue. As mentioned in my review of #354, the first part of this tale was less action packed than many we have seen recently, but still had its charms as we followed Superman getting caught up on the lives of the adult Legionnaires. Unfortunately, this story sacrificed the charm of the last installment but failed to substitute anything worthwhile in its place.

After last issue, there is no real novelty in watching the six adult Legionnaires featured here and each of their battles were too brief to be very interesting. Also, given how capable the Super-Villains proved to be in the final battle, their entire ruse seemed unnecessary.

I suppose for contemporary young readers then, the reveal of the 30th Century versions of Luthor and Myxzptlk may have been an exciting surprise, but for me it felt so far out of left field that it just elicited an eye roll. It's a shame really...Legion stories have really been on the upswing in recent months and this story represented a step back. But they can't all be winners I guess!

title: "The Six-Legged Legionnaire!"
writer: Otto Binder
penciller: Curt Swan
inker: George Klein
letterer: Milton Snappin
editor: Mort Weisinger
reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Mission Monitor Board:
Superboy, Dream Girl, Invisible Kid, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, Bouncing Boy, Light Lass

Guest-Star:
Lana Lang as Insect Queen

Opponents:
Oggar-Kon, space villain

One day in Smallville, Superboy returns from a mission and realizes that he is running late to attend a charity parade as Clark Kent. He rushes into a public telephone booth to change. Unfortunately for him, town busy-body Lana Lang sees him go in. She could continue to stand there and not announce her presence until Clark comes out, thereby learning his secret identity, but instead she nobly tells Superboy that she is out there and then walks away without looking. Clark is impressed, and when she tells him what she did, he thinks Superboy might even reward her.

Later, Superboy arrives at the Lang household and offers to take Lana into the future to meet the Legion of Super-Heroes. She is thrilled at the chance.

When Superboy goes to an official Legion meeting Lana, now dressed as Insect Queen, flies around as a butterfly girl to see the sights of the future world more easily.

As she continues her tour, she encounters a tour jet on fire, so she changes to a foam buy to put the fire out so that the ship can land safely. On the ground Dream Girl thanks her and tells Lana that she did just a good a job as any Legionnaire. Dream Girl tells her she "owes her a favor" as she rushes off to the Legion meeting.

This gives Lana the idea to apply to the Legion herself. She captures Bouncing Boy in a tent as a tent caterpillar girl and then walks on the ceiling as a human fly. Unfortunately, she is rejected because her powers are from her Bio-Ring; Legionnaires' powers must be natural.

Suddenly, an emergency call comes in from Ice City in the Antarctic. Invisible Kid sends three Legionnaires to handle a threat from an alien criminal. Insect Queen then asks Dream Girl for that favor; she asks her if Dream Girl can see the three Legionnaires getting into any danger.

Dream Girl admits that they will be in danger, but then warns Lana that she, too, will be in terrible jeopardy if she changes into a moth. Lana knows that she has thousands of insects to choose from, so grabs Superboy to head off to Antarctica to follow the others.

Once there and suited up in a heated plastic parkas Lana and the four Legionnaires hear Oggar-Kon tell them who he is and how he came to Earth. He had been a criminal on his native planet, and after he was captured he was made to "slide the plank," i.e. be entombed in ice and fated to float through space for all eternity. Then one day he is hit by an asteroid and eventually lands in the mountains of Antarctica. He uses his mind-over-matter powers to convert rocks into terrible machinery. He wants to rule Ice City, and if they do not cower to him he promises to destroy them.

His first attack is made by a hot wind machine, which he hopes will melt the city. Colossal Boy quickly builds a wall of ice around the city's borders, stopping the wind from getting through.

Superboy goes in search of the wind machine and destroys it. Oggar-Kon is angry at Colossal Boy so blinds him with a huge smoke screen. Afraid that he would fall into an ice crevice, Lana turns into a firefly girl and lights his way free.

While all this is happening Shrinking Violet flies after Oggar-Kon to his hidden lair. As soon as she arrives, however, she is attacked by his Guard Plants. Lana has followed Violet, and arrives in time to turn into a leaf-cutting bee, saving Violet from a venus fly trap.

Oggar-Kon then starts his Ultrasonic Horn to make Ice City crack and crumble. Superboy flies off to destroy the machine, but this time the villain is waiting for him. He "dusts" Superboy with Green Kryptonite, weakening him.

Lana arrives and tries to brush off the dust as a dragonfly girl, but is unsuccessful. She knows that the speed of a sphinx moth's vibrating wings would fast enough to do the job, so ignoring Dream Girl's premonition she changes into a moth. Sure enough the Green Kryptonite dust is shaken off Superboy, but Lana's Bio-Ring also slips off her finger. She is trapped as a Moth Girl.

Meanwhile, Chameleon Boy flies after Oggar-Kon, who sets an "instant" eagle after him. He turns into a winged octopus and smashes Oggar-Kon's ship. Superboy flies up and grabs the bad guy.

Later, all the Legionnaires on duty on Earth arrive at Ice City to help try to find Lana's Bio-Ring. When Light Lass uses her power to make it defy gravity, they find it in Superboy's cape pouch.

For Lana's courage and resourcefulness, she is made a Legion Reservist.

Commentary:
I really enjoyed this story, clearly more than Mike enjoyed the first one. I do have a few questions, though. Most importantly, I wonder who thought that having Lana join the Legion was a good idea?

I'm not a Silver Age Superboy fan, but from what I understand Lana Lang was a thorn in Clark's side just like Lois Lane was a pest to Superman. So for her to actually step away from this telephone booth and NOT learn Superboy's identity is something of a mis-characterization, isn't it? It did show character, however, so it was nice of Superboy to bring her to the future.

This is where the story kinda falls apart, though. She just happens to bring along her Insect Queen uniform? As far as I know it hasn't been seen in more than two years (since Superboy #127). So it's quite a coincidence that she takes it out of , er, moth balls here.

And then what is Dream Girl doing riding a commercial space ship? Isn't that what Legion Cruisers are for? Speaking of Dream Girl, her powers are used to good advantage here. I wish the way she could turn on her precognitive powers here was the way she was always portrayed.

Other than that, I don't mind this story too much. It's kinda obvious that the writer (Otto Binder) isn't familiar with the Legion, though. For example, there's a big deal made about Colossal Boy possibly falling into an ice crevice when we all know he has a Legion Flight Ring so should not have needed Lana's help whatsoever.

And may I just say that a winged octopus is a cool image? Nice graphic work from the Swan-Klein work, because Ice City looks amazing, too.

Science Police Notes:  

• Although Shrinking Violet is active on this mission, she is not actually shown helping look for Lana's Bio-Ring at the end of the story. 
• Lana Lang as Insect Queen is now the second Legion Reservist, after Kid Psycho was initiated in Superboy #125. 

Status: 
This issue (both stories) have been reprinted in The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol 6 and Showcase Presents: The Legion Vol. 3.

Milestone: 
In "actual" continuity, Lana Lang joins the Legion Reserves from the second story.
In the Adult Legion time-line, the descendants of Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk join the Adult Legion in the first story. Whether that actually is fated to happen or not has not been established.