ADVENTURE COMICS 301 (1962)
by Jerry Siegel and John Forte
This is the origin of Bouncing Boy and quite possibly the reason why he became a beloved member of the team.
We are still in the 21st century according to the caption, and it’s once again audition time for new members of the team!
There’s a lot of emphasis on the Legionnaires being mega-stars, complete with people looking for their autographs.
Lightning Lad demonstrates the advanced technology of the future: our pens will be able to sign multiple autographs at once!
The shield protecting the Legion headquarters is established. I wonder if that’s a Brainiac 5 invention, since forcefields are his thing.
I don’t know if we are supposed to think that the building is bigger on the outside or if it’s mostly underground.
We also continue the tradition of most of the Legionnaires being on other missions, but this time we get a couple of neat panels actually showing us what they are doing.
Note Ultra Boy’s first mention as a member of the team in the regular series. He still has penetra-vision as his only power.
The first applicant shows up: Lester Spiffany.
What’s his power? He’s rich.
A note of interest: he mentions planet Xandu, which is suspiciously similar to Xanthu, Star Boy’s planet. A chance they remember his first and so far only appearance ?
Understandably, Cosmic Boy kicks Lester out.
Well that was underwhelming. Next?
Okay, that’s more like it! Storm Boy has a useful power.
Or rather, a useful hidden gadget.
This is where one of the rules for Legion applicants is established: no powers of mechanical powers are allowed.
The reason given is that a weapon or a device could be stolen, making the hero useless.
It makes a certain amount of sense, but I wonder if they kept using that rule mainly because Legion applicants who use technology tend to suck.
If a Green Lantern showed up, would he/she be rejected?
The Legion takes a brief recess, and Cosmic Boy gets the idea to inspire the applicants with a tale of how one of the current Legionnaires managed to join the team.
But with 17 current Legionnaires, how to choose one?
With the Selector Machine ™ of course.
I see technology will never cease to make up idiotic gadgets.
Also, wouldn’t if be funny if the machine selected Mon-El, who didn’t need to pass ANY test to join ?
But no, we get the gloriously stupid origin of Bouncing Boy, a.k.a. former errand boy Chuck Taine.
He was hired to deliver an extremely important discovery to the Science Council. And instead of doing his job, Chuck did the future equivalent of ditching work to watch a wrestling match.
Clearly we’re dealing with hero material.
The “Robot Gladiator Tournament” is two giant robots fighting each other, with four people controlling each robot.
This is so exciting that Chuck drinks the mysterious science stuff instead of his soda, which turns into a human balloon.
Hero material again. He’s lucky the scientists were not working on a new formula for bleach.
Despite being a complete idiot so far, Chuck has the most realistic reaction to gaining super-powers I’ve ever seen… he immediately goes to the hospital!
It makes perfect sense. Why don’t more superheroes do that?
Something else that makes sense: the Legion doesn’t think “bouncing” is a useful power and reject his application. Can you blame them?
This revelation is quite shocking to the new applicants, but this is where the story stops being stupid and Bouncing Boy gets his chance to shine.
Later in his flashback, he witnesses a supervillain committing crimes: he has a suit that can immobilize people by using the electricity. And that’s enough to stop Saturn Girl.
Bouncing Boy takes care of him with extreme ease…
…because he wasn’t grounded.
And a helpful note reminds us that this is set when the Legionnaires didn’t have antigravity belts yet.
And that’s enough proof to grant him a place in the Legion.
A neat little story, not especially profound but it firmly establishes Bouncing Boy’s never-give-up attitude and highlights that even weird powers aren’t necessarily useless.
Legion significance: 6/10
Bouncing Boy’s origin is little more than a footnote, but several themes of the audition stories are established: the exclusion of technology-based powers, people trying to join with questionable motives, and above all the idea of never giving up if you fail.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Bouncing Boy’s origin is extremely Silver Age, but other than that there isn’t too much zaniness.
Regretfully, the Selector Machine ™ is never used again.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Despite the silliness in Bouncing Boy’s origin, the lesson holds very well.
We are legion
11 active in this story: Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Shrinking Violet, Triplicate Girl, Colossal Boy, Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy, Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy, Chameleon Boy
5 not appearing but officially members: Superboy, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Supergirl, Mon-El
1 unknown: Star Boy as usual
How much Legion is too much?
The Legion currently has 17 members.
A hundred years in the future, you say?
Soda bottles will costs 50 cents and we’ll still use fountain pens.
Legion rejects: 2
New category! Since this starts the trend of the Legion rejected members, let’s start listing them.
Supergirl was the first rejected member in Action Comics 267 and this issue makes Bouncing Boy another one, even if retroactively, but since they joined later I’m not counting them.
Lester Spiffany and Storm Boy are the first ones that will never join.
Since we are not shown new Legionnaires we have to assume that everyone else has been rejected as well, but we don’t get names or powers.