Adventure Comics #368

ADVENTURE COMICS 368 (1968)
by Jim Shooter & Curt Swan
cover by Neal Adams

Considering that the last time we got a “boys vs girls” plot was Adventure Comics #326 (the one with “planet Femnaz”), I’m really not looking forward to this one.

We begin with Karate Kid practicing his martial arts.

That’s a particularly impressive session, considering that his sparring partner is Superboy.

The Legion then has to answer an emergency call: a ship carrying an ambassador has just crashed in Metropolis, giving Curt Swan the chance to show off his artwork.

The ambassador turns out to be *gasp* a woman!

The ambassador, Thora, is from a matriarchal society.
I was bracing for an answer like “here it’s the opposite”, but Invisible Kid only goes so far as to say that Earth has a patriarchal background. Still a bit cringy, but for 1968 it’s a step forward.

As it’s typical of this era we catch up with the off-duty Legionnaires. Owing to this issue’s theme we focus on the girls, so here’s what the 17 year old Jim Shooter thought girls would talk about.

This is still a superhero book, though, so we also get a discussion on who would beat who in a fight.

As you might have guessed if you’ve ever read a comic book in your life, Thora ends up being the villain of this story, affecting the Legionnaire girls by shooting rays at their action figures.
Because Silver Age.

An the effect is boosting their super-powers. (WTF!?)

Both Shrinking Violet and Triplicate Girl will eventually get the same exact power boost, about forty and fifty years later respectively!

Now, if this was an earlier Legion era, everyone would’ve been fine with this. But this is a slightly more intelligent era, so Brainiac 5 investigates.

I said SLIGHTLY more intelligent.

The Legion is attacked by some random criminals, who manage to take down the boys.
Naturally the girls break quarantine to save their backsides.

Again: SLIGHTLY more intelligent.

This turns into a brawl, because of course it does.

This is apparently according to Thora’s plan, which I assume was:
1) Make the girls kick the boys out of the Legion
2) ?????
3) Take over the Galaxy

I don’t know. If you have the technology to mind control people by shooting lasers at their action figures, maybe do that from the beginning instead of literally anything else?

This makes the girls fantasize about what they would do to their boys slaves, and since this is under the Comics Code they keep it PG-13.

As you can see Supergirl is resisting Thora’s mind control because of her crush on Brainiac 5 and because she’s not an idiot.

Speaking of idiots, somebody thought that building a city inside an active volcano was a good idea!

But it’s okay because Supergirl built a lava pipeline for it.

This “Superboy blunder” (how is it HIS fault!?) is the last straw that proves that men cannot be trusted.

We’re near the end, and the story seems to be eager to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. Not that I’m complaining!

If you’ve ever read a comic book in your life, you probably know where this was going: Supergirl built the charm to disable Thora’s bracelet, as it does when the Legionnaires fight each other again.

Then Thora kills herself. (!!!)

This was completely pointless because Thora’s planet already overthrew its government behind the scenes anyway.

The moral of the story is that even Jim Shooter can’t write a decent story if the plot is “evil matriarch brainwashes the girls to take over the world”.

Legion significance: 0/10
Understandably forgotten. The story itself seems to go out of its way to have as little repercussions as possible, killing off the villain at the first chance.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
General silliness aside, there’s no explanation how Thora’s bracelet was able to significantly increase the powers of the girl Legionnaires. It just does.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This could’ve been worse (again: it’s happened before), but the story still sucks with barely any redeeming quality.

We are legion
24 Legionnaires
2 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen
2 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Rond Vidar
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid
2 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad

 How much Legion is too much?
The total number of characters who have been members is 32.

Interesting letters: the winner of the election for the newest Legion leader is Ultra Boy, with 1262 votes, with Mon-El as deputy.

That’s a pretty close election!

Interesting to see Saturn Girl get so few votes, considering she had a pretty significant and lenghty run as previous leader.
No real surprise for Brainiac 5, it’s understandable that the whole Computo storyline hurt his chances.
It’s weird to see Invisible Kid take the least votes, apparently readers didn’t think he was doing a good job or were eager to see anybody else.

Also: this guy is going to LOVE the 70s costumes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

This is a very interesting idea that unfortunately gets used so rarely that the reboot will make it a point to have most of the Legionnaires come from descendants of Earth colonies.