Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Adventure Comics 247: First appearance of the Legion of Superheroes from April 1958



    The Cover of adventure comics 247 has Superboy in shock over Cosmic Boy, Lighting Boy and Saturn Girl not allowing him into the Legion of Superheroes. It also foreshadows events later in the Comics and shows what may happen.



    The Comic It self starts in the future with the three cover starts using their unique powers together to stop a band of thief's and Superboy at the bottom of the frame in shock over how will they are doing.
    The action then cuts back to Smallville in 1958 with Clark Kent walking down the street. A young man on the street says hello Superboy. Kent says it's a joke and waves it off. However, back at home Kent reveals himself to indeed by Superboy. Superboy then goes on patrol and another young men calls him by his civilian identity and he faints ignorance. Superboy comes to a park and a young Women says and asks for him to give her regards to his parents. Superboy is shocked at this.
  However the two other young men join the women and state that they are from the future and are having some fun with him. Writing on their uniforms reveal their names to be cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lighting Boy.
   They then tell Superboy that they wish for him to join their superhero club. Superboy days he just does his job. They tell him don't be modest and he learns they are from the 30th century and have come in a time bubble to the past. They want him to try out for honorary membership. Superboy agrees as Smallville is quite at the movement. They take the time bubble and go forewords 1000 years.
   The future is full of advanced technology and Superboy call the Smallville of the future a super-city. However the three tell him it's still a town and too see the big cities. The scene then cuts to them up in the sky with Superboy shocked to see a space sight seeing trip.
  The group pauses and have refreshments and Superboy marvels at how the ice cream parlors have changed. He is eating a Martian ice-cream that he calls out of this world. The trio then take Superboy to his home and we see 1000 years later it looks the way it did in superboys past.
   They then take him to school and we see a robot of him being used to show superboys powers and abilities. The robot breaks and the teacher is not able to show off the x-ray vision. However Cosmic Boy volunteers Superboy and the teachers asks him to help his history class.
  Superboy helps out and we cut to the Superhero club house. They then tell Superboy he has to follow rules to prove he is a Superhero. At the meeting they tell Superboy he must beat one of them three different times to join. Superboy thinks to himself it will be easy. Cosmc boy turns on the television trouble-finder to find tasks. They find a statue of a unknown Spaceman needs to be found underwater.
  Superboy learns he will first compete against Saturn Girl. We learn her power comes from the scientists if Saturn who are experts in telepathy powers and they have passed on how to do it to her. The race then starts. However, Superboy spots other trouble and goes after it instead of the statute. The Superboy robot at the school is not working right and hoes haywire. Superboy fights it and takes it back thought a tunnel he built to the teacher and stops it.
  However Saturn girl is at the Statue and uses her powers to use a large sea creature to bring up the statue. At this time Superboy arrives and losses. However he chooses not to mention the Robot. Cosmic Boy uses the trouble finder again. He finds a rocket-liner crash that could cause a forest fire. Superboy is then up against Cosmic boy himself. Superboy tells himselg he can't lose.
   However Superboy is again stopped when his powers see that a 20th century satellite needs to be stopped and he tosses it into a Volcanic crater. Superboy then heads off to stop the fire. However Cosmic boy power of magnetic eyes from a serum let him crash meteors into a nearby lake and put the fire out. Superboy again elects not to tell the reason why he was late. Back at the club superboy is down 2-0 in his chances to join.
  Lighting Boy then states that the Nova Express headed for mars has a fuel leak and they need to save it. However Superboy sees that the Invisible Eagle of Neptune has escaped and it needs to be stopped as it could harm spaceships. His plan is to use a iceberg  to cool the air and make the Eagle visible. This works for Superboy and he returns the eagle.
   However because of this Lighting Boy is able to win by sending out a electric message into space with his powers. The Scene that returns to the club house Superboy is told his is rejected from the Legion of Superheroes  However he will still not say why he is late. The Legion then guess that the 20th century must have exaggerated his deeds. Superboy says their is no hard feelings. He begans to leave while sobbing a little bit. But before this he is told to come back.
   Superboy then learns that he truly is a member and that he was deliberately delayed on his three missions. Saturn Girl says she used her powers to make the robot act up. Cosmic boy used his powers to move the satellite out of orbit so Superboy say it but that it would only crash into the sea. Lighting boy used his power to make a hole at the Zoo because he knew Saturn girl could command the eagle to return the eagle if Superboy failed.
   They say Superboy was a Super-good sport for taking it with a smile and they all say HOORAY FOR SUPERBOY OUR NEW MEMBER! Suddenly a event happens. The South Pole city Cosmic Lamp has burned out and the tower is falling. Only Superboy can get their in time. He uses a magnetic meteor to straighten the tower and then uses salt to creat lighting to keep the city warm.
   The Legion see that he used their own tricks to help out and they give him the super hero number one award which he shows to Pa Kent when he gets back to 20th century.

My comments on this issue

This was a Ok Comic for the most part. It shows it age a lot though. The Artwork is pretty boring compared to modern issues. The story while not strong is not weak either. The comics shows it age with a few sexist comments and how the people talk. If one is interested in seeing the start of the Legion way back in 1958 it is worth a read.          

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