Adventure Comics 304

ADVENTURE COMICS 304 (1962)
by Jerry Siegel and John Forte

You would never tell from the first page… or from most of the issue… but this is arguably one of the most influential comic books ever published.

We begin with Saturn Girl reaching the Legion Clubhouse.
This is the first time we are given an exact date for the Legion’s time: 2963, a thousand years after the cover date of January 1963 (the issue was actually published months prior).

She witnesses a weird crystal capsule landing and promptly shoots it with her laser gun.
Good thing she has it, complete with holster; she’s never carried one, either before or in the following 50+ years.

The Legion has gathered to elect their leader, something we’ve never seen them do but which will become a tradition.

Note we are specifically told every Legionnaire is here except Superboy and Supergirl.
No mention of Mon-El, still stuck in the Phantom Zone, but at least he’s referenced later.
As usual, no mention of Star Boy.

Saturn Girl wins the election, unanimously.

Nothing odd about it.

Colossal Boy is acting as the Legion’s treasurer, revealing they have received a reward for defeating some space criminals: a rare metal that is worth 200,000 $.

Saturn Girl decides to toss the metal into the Medallion-Manufacturing Machine ™ which is conveniently kept in the meeting room, just to make medallions with her face.

It seems that her new position has made her a little, uhm…

She devises a series of tests for the Legion, while also somehow stealing their powers with the medallion.
First up is Ultra Boy, who still doesn’t have multiple powers.

Crap, we’re back to calling it penetra-vision? I though we finally changed it to flash-vision!!!
Ugh.
Since he didn’t use his powers exactly as she instructed, she punishes him by forbidding the use of superpowers for 20 days.

Then it’s Triplicate Girl’s turn: she has to defend herself against a monster.
But since she didn’t notice it was a hologram, Saturn Girl calls her an idiot and grounds her.

She also grounds Shrinking Violet for not shrinking enough, Colossal Boy for not growing enough, and Lightning Lad for not being able to split mountains.

As a result of her scheme, she has the powers of ALL the Legionnaires.

And since she grounded everyone else, when the World-Wide Police calls for their help, Saturn Girl is the only one going on a mission.

Considering how she’s been acting nobody follows her, except Lightning Lad.

The emergency is an invading ship by Zaryan, who will retroactively be identified as a member of the Khund race (basically the Legion’s Klingons).
Mercifully, the Khund will not sport that awful helmet.

Lightning Lad reveals that he knows why Saturn Girl has been planning and attacks Zaryan alone, somehow being able to reach his ship faster.
Considering Saturn Girl currently has the power of every active Legionnaire (except the Kryptonians and Mon-El), you would think she would have an advantage, but no.

And so we reach one of the most replicated panels of the history of the Legion: Lightning Lad destroying the invading ship while simultaneously being blasted by a freeze ray.

She takes him to Earth where he reveals that he knows about Saturn Girl’s plan thanks to the one Legionnaire she forgot: Mon-El.

Somewhere, Star Boy feels depressed by being the one they forget even more than the one they explicitly keep forgetting.

But what exactly did Mon-El know? The message in the capsule: aliens from planet Mernl predicted that a Legionnaire would die to fight Zaryan.

So all the Saturn Girl shenanigans were to make sure that SHE would be the one to die.
Mon-El couldn’t tell Lightning Lad until the very end, thanks to very convenient interference by sunspots.
The same convenience that prevents Lightning Lad to be saved by being sent to the Phantom Zone.
Okay… HOW does he know this!? And how long does it take him to die!?

Yeah, because…  LIGHTNING LAD FREAKIN’ DIES.

I cannot overstate how huge this is.
Lightning Lad is the first superhero to die.
We’re even shown his casket!

And people crying at his funeral!

There’s no fix at the end of the issue. There’s no revelation that this was a robot, or that it was a dream, or an imaginary story. He’s just dead.

This must have been DEVASTATING to the readers at the time!!!

Although DC Comics probably wasn’t entirely confident the readers would accept this, since the very last panel leaves open the possibility that 30th century super-science could revive him.

And that’s it! The very first superhero death, in the modern sense.

In future issues Lightning Lad will go through every phase we associate with the death of a superhero: there will be attempts to resurrect him that fail, and then he will actually come back.

This also creates a problem because we’ve seen an adult Lightning Lad before (twice in fact), something that readers will be quick to point out in the letters page.

Interestingly, the first writer to kill a superhero is Jerry Siegel, one of the creators of Superman and therefore the birth of superheroes in general.

He won’t be the one to resurrect Lightning Lad, so he might have intended for him to stay dead.

 

Legion significance: 10/10
It’s hard to top this one when it comes to impact on future Legion stories.
Lightning Lad’s death is a MAJOR even that will have consequences all the way down to the Lightning Saga in 2007! If people are still referencing a story after 45 years, it must be doing something right.
As if that wasn’t enough: we have the first indication of the Legion year, the first official election, and (retroactively) the first Khund.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The ridiculousness of the medallions to absorb and replicate so many superpowers.
Also, despite being played completely straight, the major info dump by the dying Lightning Lad is kind of hilarious.

Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
This is a tough one.
On one hand, Saturn Girl’s actions as leader are ridiculous. On the other hand, Lightning Lad’s sacrifice and refusal to believe she’s gone insane are handled quite well.

We are legion

• 16 active in this story: Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, Bouncing Boy, Cosmic Boy, Shrinking Violet, Triplicate Girl, Sun Boy, Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid, Colossal Boy, Superboy, Supergirl, Mon-El. Phantom Girl is not named but appears in 1 panel. This is the highest number of Legionnaires seen so far, and that’s not even counting Lightning Lad.
• 1 unknown: Star Boy as usual
• 1 deceased: Lightning Lad

How much Legion is too much?
With Lightning Lad’s death, the Legion goes back to 17 members.

 A thousand years in the future, you say?
The dollar is still in use and judging by the reactions 200,000 $ is still a lot of money in 2963.