Red Tornado: 2 issues from 2010
Writer: Kevin VanHook
(Technically four, but two of them were last year and I don’t think I ever made a note of it.)
The comic… exists, but moreover wow DCUI has managed to make the comic reader interface even more unusable. I suppose I knew it was possible, since Marvel Unlimited exists, but it’s surprising.
2.
And then I suddenly went insane. Long story. I’ve been challenged.
Sporadic early Legion of Superheroes appearances: 7 issues from 1958-1962
Writers: Otto Binder (Superboy story in 2 issues of Adventure Comics, Superman story in 1 issue of Action Comics), Ed Herron (Green Arrow story in 1 issue of Adventure Comics), Jack Miller (Aquaman story in 1 issue of Adventure Comics), Jerry Siegel (2 issues of Superboy, 1 issue of Superman, Superboy story in 2 issues of Adventure Comics, Supergirl story in 4 issues of Action Comics), Robert Bernstein (1 issue of Superboy, Aquaman story in 1 issue of Adventure Comics, Green Arrow story in 1 issue of Adventure Comics, Superboy story in 1 issue of Adventure Comics)
I like that robotic demonstrations of Superboy’s powers are considered an indispensable part of history curriculum in the thirtieth century. Not even Superman; Superboy.
For that matter, I also like that the present of this first Superboy/Legion story is ostensibly taking place in 1958, based on the time travel sequence. Anybody else spot a hole in that logic?
… Also, these three are dicks. I know it’s the Silver Age, but your whole initiation process is just… gaslighting your prospective new member?
In the Green Arrow story with the “bad luck” arrows, it actually mostly makes sense for a Silver Age value of “sense,” but the “13” arrow didn’t… do anything. He uses it to mark some robbers’ license plate and then tell the police to look for it, but, like, he could’ve just told them the number that was already there.
In the second Adventure issue, oh, good. Now the Legion has moved on from gaslighting new members to imprisoning people for crimes they won’t commit for five years.
This incident is followed by a pair of stories where Green Arrow and Aquaman villains you’ve never heard of switch gimmicks, the Aquaman guy committing to becoming a “land pirate” and the Green Arrow guy going underwater. You would think, then, that this means Green Arrow and Aquaman, who are given ample notice of this, would… switch villains. Inexplicably, no, they each chase their own guy.
In the first Supergirl story, man. Supergirl goes to impressive lengths to ensure that she’s not seen helping this school bus make it to its destination in time… to see Superman. Talk about low self-esteem. Anyway, the Legion (or, in this case, their inexplicably identical children later retconned into the same people) shows up and pulls the exact same initial prank on Kara. And then they block her from joining because red kryptonite shenanigans aged her up for like fifteen minutes. These guys are terrible.
Basically, short version, it’s Silver Age Superbooks and everybody solves all their problems and non-problems with needlessly elaborate ruses.
With the Legion of Super-Villains, I have to wonder why only Cosmic King has different powers from his Legionnaire counterpart.
Shoutout to Streaky the Super-Cat’s conveniently labelled, spontaneously-appearing-with-no-explanation, Legion-era descendant…
I’m not even sure how to make a joke of this anymore; it mocks itself too well.
9.
Adventure Comics: 12 issues from 1962-1963
Writers: Jerry Siegel (6 issues), Otto Binder (Superboy story in 1 issue), Edmond Hamilton (3 issues, Legion story in 3 issues), George Kashdan (Superboy story in 1 issue), George Papp (Superboy story in 1 issue)
I like that the Legion’s clubhouse is just… sitting there in the middle of an open field with nothing else nearby.
Anyway, how about that mysterious villain, Urthlo, huh? Very mysterious, but something seems faintly familiar about him. Oh, I bet it’s secretly Bizarro!
These stories have done a handy job of turning the timeline into knots in an impressively short amount of time, particularly as to how the Legion ostensibly only invites one or two members a year (the issue with Brainiac 5 suggested they switched to admitting members in boy/girl pairs sometime before Sun Boy and Bouncing Boy joined, but issues taking place after both of them are on the team show only single members being admitted) and yet no matter how many members they accumulate, the founding trio remains nonspecifically teenaged. In any case, they’ve certainly admitted new members more than six times, meaning that even if they started at age 13, the founders must have exceeded the eighteen-year maximum age limit.
In Superboy news, I like that multiple plot points have hinged critically on the idea that Clark’s glasses are indestructible.
To a point, this is all just standard Silver Age Antics™-centric storytelling, but things change with #304. Siegel just… straight-up killed off a main character and set up a multi-issue arc. A character arc, even, to some extent. In 1963. Which, like, none of this is innovative relative to other media, but I have to admit I’d expect any other comic to be way more simplistic than this until, like, ’68 at the earliest, maybe.
The trouble with the Legion of Substitute Heroes is that most of their powers aren’t even bad, just mildly situational at worst. Like, “makes everything really cold” seems less likely to be a hazard than “makes everything really hot,” but Sun Boy is allowed in. Allowed in: Flubber. Not allowed in: Remember when world hunger was a thing?
They seem to have just stopped referencing Supergirl as a member between issues; weird.
Shortly after getting the idea to kill a major character, this book also very quickly masters the art of the fakeout death, quickly escalating to an issue that kills off (and immediately resurrects) everyone like some kind of G-rated slasher movie. The villain turns out to be Mr. Mxyzptlk’s edgy murderous descendant. I am not kidding; this is a thing. This plot point is somehow not from the 2000s.
21.