ADVENTURE COMICS 328 (1964)
by Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney
Considering the cover you might think this should’ve been called “the BOY who wrecked the Legion”, but no, it’s not Superboy’s fault.
This time.
We continue the early Legion trend of showing an extremely interesting technology in a throwaway panel. This has nothing to do with the rest of the story.
“ALL of your ancestors”, Cosmic Boy? I’m pretty sure you’re skipping a lot of ancestors.
Also introduced: the “Rogue Room”, where the Legion keeps android copies of their worst enemies.
This has nothing to do with the rest of the story either. See what I mean?
Unfortunately this showcases the fact that this early period has a serious lack of interesting villains, not to mention recurring ones… Molock, Zaryan and Jungle King have only appeared once each.
On a historical note, at least we have the first on-panel mention of the planet of origin of several Legionnaires. Though since there are multiple Legionnaires from Earth, I wonder if these models can show more than one face. We see Superboy here, but not Supergirl, so maybe not.
Speaking of Superboy and of Legionnaires from Earth, we have a visit from Bouncing Boy! It’s nice that the comic doesn’t simply forget him.
The “surprise” is restoring Bouncing Boy’s powers just long enough to crush his soul.
If this was Silver Age Superman, I’d be 100% sure he made the effects temporary on purpose. This being Superboy, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.
The plot finally arrives when the Legion learns about a new superhero.
The art is by Jim Mooney, but that monster has some John Forte vibes. I like it.
The boy is Command Kid from planet Preztor, which I would consider the worst name for a planet in this series if it wasn’t for planet Femnaz.
Amazingly, Command Kid has never heard of the Legion!
This is pretty hard to believe considering how many times we’ve seen how insanely famous the Legion is in the 30th century.
He’s also IMMEDIATELY recruited!
So the Legionnaires that have joined without the need of a proper initiation include Mon-El (who was doing heroic stuff for 1000 years despite being in the Phantom Zone), and some guy they just met.
Command Kid proves himself to be a useful addition to the team, despite being a colossal dick.
You might thing they’re going for “endearingly rude with an heart of gold” thing, but no, Command Kid is just insufferable.
At least he’s making sure that the cover image is a scene happening inside the story, if if it’s just an illusion created to piss everyone off.
You would expect everyone to hate him after this stunt, but apparently Star Boy found this so impressive that he practically begs Command Kid to give him more awesome powers!
That is some Jimmy Olsen level of stupidity, Star Boy.
Phantom Girl has an excellent question for Command Kid: “what is your deal!?”.
And she has a fantastic one-liner for Command Kid:
Snarky Phantom Girl is the best Phantom Girl.
Back to stupid moments:
Nothing suspect about Command Kid there.
But he’s not the only menace to the Legion because HOLY SUDDEN KRYPTONITE!!!
At first I thought it was just an illusion, but no, an entire meteorite of Gold Kryptonite shows up out of nowhere! As you see from Violet’s thought balloon, it’s the kind of Kryptonite that permanently removes Kryptonian superpowers. It’s a very big deal when it shows up, even in miniscule quantities, and all of a sudden there’s an entire meteorite of it!
You’d think this would warrant some kind of investigation, but no, everyone is too bummed by the fact that they have lame powers.
I mean… the ability to create illusions is neat, but aren’t you exaggerating just a little bit? I can get Triplicate Girl since her power is kind of lame, but come on, you mean to tell me that magnetism and lightning are worse powers? Or SUPERBOY, a guy who can move planets with his little finger, would prefer to have illusion powers!? COME ON!!!
I find the next panel pretty funny.
“We’re being invaded by aliens from another dimension!”
“Which one?”
“I dunno”
“Sounds legit, let’s fly in a random direction together!”
Considering how idiotic the Legion acts in this issue, I think Jimmy Olsen’s stupidity is contagious.
At least SOMEONE is not a complete moron, because Saturn Girl and Element Lad save the day!
This might be the first time Element Lad does something useful since his introduction, and he’s not even written by his creator Edmond Hamilton.
And we get some interesting backstory on how they discovered Command Kid’s weakness.
Not that it was all that difficult, considering all his negative reactions to anything gold.
They did some investigation on Command Kid, something that apparently the Legion doesn’t do on all of its aspiring members (!!!!), and they discover who’s behind this…
Yep. EVIL ALIEN DEMONS.
Well that was unexpected, to say the least!
We also get a glimpse of one of those demons, and it’s quite something.
And that’s the end, both of the story and of Command Kid’s membership, but Element Lad is sure this won’t be the last time they have to deal with these demons.
They won’t. This is the last time we see that thing or its kind.
Which is a shame because it was a neat concept, if introduced a bit clumsily.
Legion significance: 0/10
Too bad, because the demons could’ve been a legitimate menace. Command Kid is pretty generic, but we’ll only need to wait another 18 issues before a Legionnaire with illusion powers joins.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
This was kind of promising until Gold Kryptonite showed up with no explanation whatsoever, and until the Legionnaires had brain damage. Still pretty tame for the times.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
The stupidity of the Legionnaires really hurt this story, because there’s some real potential here. If Command Kid used some other way to trick them into being possessed, this could probably be reworked. It’s also interesting that this is a trial run of “someone joins the Legion only because he wants to destroy them from within”, only next time it will be done much, MUCH better than this.
We are legion
13 Legionnaires active in this story
6 not shown but officially members
1 reserve member: Bouncing Boy
2 resigned member: Dream Girl, Command Kid
1 honorary member: Elastic Lad
How much Legion is too much?
I was seriously considering the possibility to leave Command Kid off the list, possibly including him in the “Legion rejects” category… but he WAS sworn in, so he becomes the 23rd member to ever join. I was also considering listing him under an “expelled member” category, but in the very last page he explicitly resigns.
Despite all these shenanigans, we are still with 19 active members. The total number of characters who have been members is now 23.
Kryptonite, baby
It’s pretty telling that everyone takes the idea of a Gold Kryptonite meteorite as a natural phenomenon.
Interesting letters: now that I think about it, Shrinking Violet DOES look sad all the time in this period.
She’s probably waiting for the writers to give her a personality. It’ll be a while.
I always have mixed feelings about this story. It was the first Legion story I ever read, and I have a lot of affection for it. I also think the central idea is universal: the Legionnaires cave into peer pressure and become beguiled by “the cool kid” with the attitude who upstages them at every turn. Sadly, a lot of real kids overlook their own talents because some wiseass convinces them they’re not good enough. The story is hurt by its brevity and by the very low standards DC seemed to have for its target audience. But, considering the other stories of this period (Femnaz, Bizarros), I think the story still holds up on a thematic level. Also, it was cool that Saturn Girl and Element Lad saved the day by d0ing research, and that demon was scary!