Adventure Comics 332

ADVENTURE COMICS 332 (1965)
by Edmond Hamilton &  John Forte

If you ever need to explain the Silver Age to anyone, “The Super-Moby Dick Of Space was an actual character in the story” would be a good start.
Also yes, the cover pretty much spoils the entire plot.

We begin with The Super-Moby Dick Of Space eating a spaceship.
I love that the passengers are describing being eaten alive. Very thoughtful towards the readers.

Lightning Lad receives the distress call, but he’s skeptical about the idea of a huge monster that eats metal.

I mean, sure, one of your teammates comes from a planet where people can eat anything, and you’ve already faced a monster that eats stars, but a monster that eats metal? Now that would just be silly!

The idea that the Legionnaires don’t kill is central to the story. It’s by no means the first one to introduce it, but it’s here that it starts to be a central part of the Legion lore.

You expected The Super-Moby Dick Of Space to be invulnerable to electricity, but did you also expect it to reflect AND POISON the electricity?

I’m not joking. The Super-Moby Dick Of Space can poison electricity, as we are told by Dr. Lanphier once the Legion rescues Lightning Lad.

Sounds legit.

Fortunately for Lightning Lad, health care in the 30th century is something else.

And of course he goes full Captain Ahab over this.
What, you expected a story about The Super-Moby Dick Of Space to be subtle?

Superboy tries to deal with the monster, but The Super-Moby Dick Of Space shoots Kryptonite.
Because of course it does.

Superboy would love to leave this to Mon-El (since he has the same powers but he’s immune to Kryptonite), but he’s busy elsewhere.
This is a problem for the early Legion: Superboy and Mon-El are so absurdly more powerful than everyone else that they always have to come up with silly reasons for why they don’t solve everything. Things will slightly get better once the rest of the Legion start to be treated as pretty powerful on their own.

The Super-Moby Dick Of Space is such a menace that the government offers 50,000 $ to anyone who can catch it.
No idea how much that is on the 30th century. I bet it’s Space Dollars, not US Dollars.

I thought it was weird that the random doctor examining Lightning Lad was given a name, but there are not-so-subtle hints that he’s important to the plot.

Before the Legion has the time to leave Earth, the team’s third powerhouse Ultra Boy tries to take on the monster directly.
Weird to see him wear a spacesuit. It makes sense: Ultra Boy is invulnerable only when he isn’t using another power, and right now he’s flying.

The perspective is all over the place whenever The Super-Moby Dick Of Space shows up, to the point I really have no idea of how big it is.

Ultra Boy’s gimmick is more defined at this point. It’s been established for a while that he has all of Superboy’s powers and that he can only use one at a time, but this is the first time we’re actually shown how he has to plan his fights carefully.
Also, this is one of the VERY few times where having a character describe everything he’s doing makes at least some sense.

Ultra Boy reminds us that his origin story involved being swallowed by a giant space whale, making Lightning Lad’s sudden skepticism about space monsters even weirder.

While he escapes, Lightning Lad takes command of the Legion mission to track and capture The Super-Moby Dick Of Space.

I’m beginning to think that the Legion Constitution has waaaay too many sub-clauses.
Also: this one makes some sense, but how do you determine “which Legionnaire best understands the danger”?

Lightning Lad sure is determined to capture the monster. Just look at the sheer determination on his face… I think.
This is a comic drawn by John Forte so everyone has only two facial expressions.

Thankfully, in contrast with the last few issues, the Legionnaires are not complete morons and recognize that something isn’t right with Lightning Lad, and they start to plan accordingly.

Specifically, the plan involves Colossal Boy provoking the monster (who now looks WAY bigger than during the fight with Ultra Boy)…

…and then trap him beneath a mountain.

If The Super-Moby Dick Of Space was as big as Colossal Boy in his giant form, why are they still the same size once he shrinks!?!?

The plan fails once the Legion ship shows up, distracting The Super-Moby Dick Of Space.

Lightning Lad continues to obsess over his vengeance, and once again Saturn Girl’s telepathy is completely useless.
Honestly at this point why even make her a telepath if she NEVER gets to read anyone’s mind!?

The eventually track the monster to “the world of a hundred moons”, aptly described as one of the strangest worlds in the universe.

Dr. Lanphier has modified Lightning Lad’s artifical arm to be powerful enough to kill The Super-Moby Dick Of Space.

But not Superboy.

The other Legionnaires manage to save Superboy. So while they’re still not at his level yet, at least they get to prove their worth.

Saturn Girl finally recognizes that something is seriously wrong with Lightning Lad, and she kicks him off  the mission.

But of course he won’t drop the mission (not a subtle story, remember?) and he pursues The Super-Moby Dick Of Space to one of the most awesome thruway planets in the Hamilton&Forte tradition: the World Of The Dead Robots.

It’s time for a rematch, only this time The Super-Moby Dick Of Space can’t poison Lightning Lad’s metallic arm.

Despite the Legionnaires worrying about killing the monster, Lightning Lad’s attack actually just shrinks The Super-Moby Dick Of Space to its “normal size”.
Whatever THAT is, considering the art inconsistency.

We’re at the last page, so in typical Silver Age fashion it’s time to wrap everything up with an extremely fast explanation.

Turns out that Dr. Lanphier is the one who turned The Super-Moby Dick Of Space into a giant.

Also it turns out that Lightning Lad’s revenge obsession was only temporary, and he was actually helping the doctor.

So, uhm, a couple of questions there.

Why shouldn’t Lightning Lad tell this to anyone until the monster is defeated? I mean it makes sense from the doctor’s perspective: if the “cure” doesn’t work and the monster remains unstoppable, he doesn’t want to be blamed. But why would Lightning Lad agree to this?
And why, oh why wouldn’t he tell this to the Legion!?

Lightning Lad is surprisingly chill about the whole losing an arm thing.
(Dr. Lanphier is in the hospital because he was injured in a previous scene).

I suppose the reason we never saw Dr. Lanphier again was that he had to pay for all the damages caused by The Super-Moby Dick Of Space.
Luckily Moby Dick is in the public domain in the 30th century so that doesn’t include copyright infringement.

 

Legion significance: 4/10
Lightning Lad loses an arm. It won’t stick for long, as he will grow back his organic arm in Adventure Comics #351. But it’s a somewhat iconic status for him, losing his arm in multiple continuities (and often growing a new one later on).

Silver Age-ness: 5/10
The story itself has some modern tropes here and there, with Lightning Lad’s obsession being a notable example, and it’s very surprising that the comic doesn’t simply go back to the status quo at the end of the story. Still… a space monster that poisons electricity, oozes Kryptonite and is called The Super-Moby Dick Of Space is weird enough Silver Age-ness points to even this out.

 Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
There’s a reason why, despite several continuities involve Lightning Lad losing an arm, this is the only time it’s because of The Super-Moby Dick Of Space (most of the time it’s because of a fight with his evil brother Lightning Lord).
Despite this, slightly better than the abysmal average of this period thanks to the Legion not being complete morons for once.

 We are legion
7 Legionnaires active in this story: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Superboy, Ultra Boy, Brainiac 5, Sun Boy, Colossal Boy
12 not shown but officially members
1 reserve member: Bouncing Boy
2 resigned member: Dream Girl, Command Kid
1 honorary member: Elastic Lad
1 deceased member: Dynamo Boy

How much Legion is too much?
The Legion still has 19 active members. The total number of characters who have been members is still 24.

Interesting letters: Lone Wolf is not officially a member (his origin story wasn’t entirely clear on that), but unfortunately Command Kid really was considered a real member.

And the explanation that the Legion Clubhouse is NOT larger on the inside, but apparently all we ever see is just the entrance to a vast underground complex.

We also have a letter from future Legion writer Cary Bates (mostly famous for his Superman and Flash stories).
He was 17 at the time and he was already selling story ideas to DC.