ADVENTURE COMICS 324 (1964)
by Edmond Hamilton & John Forte
This story introduces one of the few superhero teams of the 30th century, but interestingly the most important member for the Legion isn’t shown on the cover.
We begin with the brother of Jungle King from Adventure Comics #309 seeking revenge against the Legion. His name is Dr. Marden King, so I assume Jungle King was literally the guy’s name.
He introduces us to planet Lallor, where five infants have developed superpowers because they were exposed to radiation.
Yes the X-Men were created the year before this issue, why do you ask?
They will eventually be called the Heroes of Lallor.
There’s Beast Boy (no relation to the Teen Titans one) who can change into any animal, Gas Girl who can change into any gas, Evolvo Lad who can “go backward or forward in evolution”… whatever THAT means…
…Life Lass who can animate objects, and the only member of the team that will have an impact on the Legion: Duplicate Boy.
His power is to lazily replicate demonstrations of superpowers.
They have been exiled into space by the Prime Minister of Lallor.
Dr. King offers them a place on Earth, but he cons them into believing that the Legion are the bad guys. The fall for it ridiculously fast.
Evolvo Lad provides the plan of attack, thanks to his power of evolving a giant brain.
The plan involves Duplicate Boy copy Superboy’s strength to throw him into a Kryptonite cage.
Star Boy is taken out by Gas Girl.
And Invisible Kid is discovered by Beast Boy.
Shrinking Violet knows she doesn’t have a chance against the entire team, so she retreats.
But she’s almost killed by a weasel, and it’s up to Duplicate Boy to copy her size-changing powers and come to her rescue.
Which is enough to make her fall for Duplicate Boy even as he’s taking her hostage.
Dr. King takes the opportunity to infiltrate the Legion headquarters, thanks to Gas Girl. Apparently 30th century doors still have keyholes.
Shrinking Violet keeps defending Duplicate Boy, much to Star Boy’s frustration. I can’t help but side with him this time!
But she doesn’t realize that her words are literally being used against her by Dr. King.
Dr. King summons the rest of the Legion to the headquarters, planning to forcibly put them in stasis.
Shrinking Violet still manages to escape.
Duplicate Boy pursues her to say that he’s fallen for her as well… but Shrinking Violet has already summoned the rest of the Legion.
Unfortunately Duplicate Boy is kind of a powerhouse, managing to fight both Colossal Boy and Mon-El to a standstill.
It looks like Mon-El is about to win, but he surrenders because of Shrinking Violet.
Meanwhile the rest of the Heroes of Lallor have grown suspicious of Dr. King, discovering that he has locked a specific section of the Legion headquarters.
Evolvo Lad uses his highly evolved intellect to deduce Dr. King locked the room… because he didn’t want anyone to get inside.
Are we sure that this is Evolvo Lad and not Captain Obvious?
The secret that Dr. King doesn’t want them to know is that the Legion are the good guys.
Dr. King is ready to activate a device that will take away the team’s powers, but Life Lass does the only useful thing she does this entire issue and straps him to the chair.
The Heroes of Lallor free the Legion, and they feel so guilty about their actions that they volunteer to expose themselves to the machine anyway because they don’t deserve their powers.
But SHOCKINGLY Superboy realizes that this is a dumb idea and that they don’t need to waste their superpowers just because they were tricked once.
Lallor is now free from their dictatorial Prime Minister, and Duplicate Boy wonders if he’ll ever see Shrinking Violet again.
Indeed he will, becoming her on-again off-again boyfriend for quite some time.
Legion significance: 5/10
The Heroes of Lallor have a very low impact on the Legion history, mostly serving as lip service to the idea that there are other heroes. But Duplicate Boy will become a recurring character.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
The origin of the Heroes of Lallor is almost a Marvel origin (but still a firmly Silver Age one), and the amount of silly shenanigans is kept to a minimum.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
There’s some potential here, but it never really materializes. The Heroes of Lallor are complete non-entities and their presence pales in comparison to Duplicate Boy, who is quite dull himself. This is the first time Shrinking Violet takes center stage, and she fails to do anything impressive; I guess she kind of recognized that the Heroes of Lallor were being manipulated, but it was blindingly obvious to begin with. Dr. King is as forgettable and generic as they come… say what you will about his brother Jungle King, but at least he was interesting.
We are legion
9 Legionnaires active in this story: Star Boy, Invisible Kid, Shrinking Violet, Superboy, Chameleon Boy, Saturn Girl, Mon-El, Sun Boy, Element Lad
10 not shown but officially members
1 reserve member: Bouncing Boy
1 resigned member: Dream Girl
1 honorary member: Elastic Lad
How much Legion is too much?
The Legion has 19 active members. The total number of characters who have been members is 22.
Interesting letters: the story where a machine powered by the entire universe to fight a time-traveling science wizard who throws stars was slightly scientifically inaccurate.
