Superboy 86

SUPERBOY #86 (1961)
by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino

I can’t decide if the look of the “living kryptonite men” is lazy or brilliant.

Once again, the entire premise is spoiled on the first page. I mean, this comic is 9 pages long, you couldn’t wait just a little more before showing us that Luthor is behind it?

At this point, Superboy is already the most famous person on the planet and can travel anywhere in spacetime. So it’s no wonder that he has a secret trophy room, but the objects there are… ehm…

Okay he has a crush on Lana Lang, so I can understand him keeping her valentine as a trophy.
A little creepy, but I’ll buy it.
Keeping locks of Lex Luthor’s hair is CONSIDERABLY creepier!

Continuing the trend of the early Legionnaires being dicks, as a trophy in honor of Superboy they gave him… action figures of themselves.
Yes, Clark, they were in YOUR honor. Sure.

And they still have a weird way of calling their powers. Super-magnetism and Super-lightning, because magnetism and lightning aren’t real super-powers.
For some reason the comics STILL won’t call Saturn Girl’s power “telepathy”: now it’s “super-thought”. Which makes it sound like her power is to think really, really hard.
DC writers could’ve used someone with that power, in the Silver Age.

And not how Lightning Lad is added to the list of people in Clark’s life with the initials L.L.

I never understood DC’s fascination with this LL thing. Has anybody ever really cared about that? Was there ever supposed to be a mystery? Because DC kept bringing it up like it was something important!

Anyway, Luthor ends up giving himself the power to animate rocks.
I’ll let you figure out what the Legion would call that power.
Super-rock-animation?

He then lures Superboy on an asteroid, where Luthor attacks him with Kryptonite found in nearby space. All while watching him on a big screen and playing with the lamest action figures ever.

It looks like Luthor’s plan is about to work, but it’s time for something ridiculous.

Get this: Lana Lang sneaks into Luthor’s secret lab, and finds a lever that Luthor designed SPECIFICALLY to destroy every experiment in his lab.

But, “ironically”, a fuse blows before she can pull the lever!

I’m conflicted. I’m fine with her not pulling the lever: it’s a nice subversion. Having the lights go out right at that moment for no particular reason, though? That’s crap.

After giving himself a pretty useful power, Luthor loses coolness points by having to use a ridiculous giant puppet to command the giant Kryptonite monster.

It’s surprisingly effective: Luthor manages to kill both Superboy AND his dog!

And they say Silver Age DC comics were only for kids. They’re showing a dying dog!

Nah, of course everything is alright, thanks to Lightning Lad!

How? Well, the Legion was looking at Superboy through their giant TV and decided to help him.

Nice job with the exposition about why Luthor never rebuilt the machine. You wouldn’t expect that in a 1961 comic, especially from DC.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story sucks.

 

Historical significance: 1/10
Nothing important happens in the entire story.

Legion significance: 0/10
Not surprising since this is barely a Legion story.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Kryptonite is only used in space and its effects on Superboy are more like you’d see today. The most Silver Age thing is how easily Luthor gives himself powers that won’t be used again, although there’s a reason for it.

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
There’s nothing particularly dated. But keeping a lock of Lex’s hair? Yeesh.

We are legion
3 active Legionnaires (not counting Superboy)

How much Legion is too much?
The Legion of Superheroes currently consists of 7 people.

Time travel doesn’t work like that
If the Legion keeps an eye on Superboy’s adventures, how come they don’t interfere more often?

 

Sooo… we have a Silver Age story with a dog dying of radiation poisoning.

What do you think about that, Sad Superboy?

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.