The Legion doesn’t have many Silver Age out-of-continuity stories that aren’t already part of the main retrospective.
Superman #49 (1961)
by Jerry Siegel & Curt Swan
This is probably one of the most well-known “imaginary tales” that plays the premise completely straight: Lex Luthor really murders Superman in this.
I will most likely do a full review of this one, someday. It goes hard.
But the Legion’s involvement is very minor: the founders just show up to pay their respects.
Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
Well Superman does die, but the Legion is nowhere to be seen during that.
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
I wouldn’t have minded a Legion cameo during the Death of Superman!
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
Not a real review so I’m not giving scores, but this is a highly recommended story.
Action Comics #388 (1970)
by Cary Bates & Curt Swan
This one, on the other hand, is one of the dumbest Superman comics ever.
The gimmick of this “story” is that it’s absolutely full of “mistakes” that the reader is supposed to list and identify.
It’s almost offensive in how profoundly unfunny this is.
But to be fair, there is ONE good joke.
The “explanation” for all this nonsense is that we’re actually seeing an imperfect duplicate of Earth that makes even less sense than Bizarro World.
I mean at least Bizarro World has a certain charm about it. This is just stupid.
The Legion founders show up to reveal to Superman that Lois Lane is a complete idiot.
But they’re thrown back into the future by this version of Lois Lane.
Eventually Superman finds a way send this imperfect duplicate into another dimension, and to bring back the real Earth to its place.
Which means that, sadly, the cover scene does actually happen.
Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
IT BETTER NOT!!!
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
What do you think?
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
I hate this story with the power of a billion exploding stars.
Lois Lane #47 (1964)
by unknown & Kurt Shaffenberger
I never thought I would ever type these words, but… let’s turn to Lois Lane for something that actually makes sense.
We begin with Superman taking Lois to a vacation in the Fortress of Solitude, where he promptly leaves here alone to mess with his computers.
So she asks the computer to come up with an answer to the question: what if Lois Lane was the one to arrive to Earth from Krypton?
And apparently the answer is that she’d have an admittedly great costume AND the very unimaginative name of “Krypton Girl”.
And she would waste her time proving to Clark Kent that she doesn’t have superpowers, because of course she would.
This imaginary version of Lois is a true psycho, because she seems to be enjoying herself a little too much watching Clark Kent panic.
But even the simulation realizes that, at least in her own series, Lois barely ever does any real journalistic work… so she just quits.
These two are just destined to make each other miserable, aren’t they?
Clark can’t prove that she is Krypton Girl, however.
This is where the Legion connection comes in.
Because the “Krypton Girl” that saved that boat was actually Night Girl, of all people!
The writer of the story is uncredited, but this makes me wonder if it’s by Ed Hamilton.
Notice how THIS version of Night Girl can time travel on her own.
Also, this whole situation raises a couple of questions.
Was Krypton Girl a member of the Legion when she was younger?
How does Lois know Lori Lemaris, since Superman isn’t around to be a love interest for both?
And now, ladies and gentlemen, is when the story turns absolutely bonkers.
Yes.
NOW.
Because when Krypton Girl inexplicably brings Clark Kent to her Fortress of Solitude, he decides to expose her to Red Kryptonite.
And he exposes her to the radiation DRESSED AS SANTA.
The Red Kryptonite transforms Lois into an evil giant (WTF!?), including her Phantom Zone Projector™ (double WTF!?).
And so the tale ends with Kryptonite Girl EXILING CLARK KENT INTO THE PHANTOM ZONE.
Told you she’s a psycho!
Okay, to be fair, she does regret it immediately afterwards.
Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
Not that I know of.
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
A Lois Lane from Kypton would be interesting to see.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
This is a microcosm of the Lois Lane series.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
The costume isn’t bad at all! Everything else is the usual insanity. Even the premise is absolutely bonkers: how would the Fortress of Solitude come up with any of this!?!?
Stupid Lois Lane moment
Why exactly does she keep those Red Kryptonite samples just laying around?
Since Krypton Girl’s red kryptonite display includes a sample which once turned her into a mermaid, presumably that transformation led to her meeting and befriending Lori. How she met the Legion is a lot more difficult to explain.
Perhaps the legion was inspired by the exploits of Krypton Girl instead of Superboy and travelled back in time to visit her?
A cute gag in the first page of the Superman story in Action Comics #388: Aquaman is Alfred N. Neumann, mascot and frequent cover character of Mad Magazine. His catchphrase is “What, me worry?” and he’s frequently shown pulling pranks or replacing characters in a parody.
The goofy comic style of that issue fits in with the gag-filled parodies in Mad Magazine of the time and may have been inspired by it.