ADVENTURE COMICS 354 (1967)
by Jim Shooter & Curt Swan
This is quite unusual: another Superman story with the Adult Legion, this time with a lot more impact… kind of.
The cover is technically speaking the debut of Chemical King, who won’t actually join the Legion for another 18 issues.
“Shadow Woman” predates Shadow Lass by 11 issues… and she will have blue skin. Future stories will back over backwards to justify the discrepancy, and let’s not talk about the absolutely ludicrous way to fit Reflecto into the Legion continuity.
At this point I’m disappointed that Quantum Queen, also seen on the cover, won’t be referenced again.
We begin with Superman (not Superboy!) visiting the 30th century in a very nice splash page.
Note the the Legion HQ is far better looking than the original!
Superman visits the hall that honors the fallen Legionnaires. That’s where the characters seen on the cover are referenced again, with Ferro Lad naturally getting the spotlight.
The first Legionnaire to meet Superman is Brainiac 5. Superman notes that he’s changed “quite a bit”, which is funny since he’s arguably the one who has changed the least!
That’s where we begin the part of the story that I like the least: Brainiac 5 updating Superman on the Legionnaires… and every couple we’ve known so far have married, leaving no surprises.
Notice that their kids have inherited their powers. Which makes sense for Phantom Girl (now Phantom Woman), since everyone from her planet can turn intangible, but Ultra Boy (now Ultra Man) is a weird case… we’ll talk about it later.
Mon-El is now a full-time explorer. Which fits perfectly with his future characterization.
Other changes: Night Lass has married Cosmic Boy…
…and Lone Wolf not only has changed his codename to Timber Wolf, but he has a horrible moustache and he’s married to Light Lass.
That doesn’t align perfectly with the idea that Ultra Boy’s kids inherited his powers, since he ALSO received his powers artificially.
And finally, Shrinking Violet has married Duplicate Boy.
So, to recap: EVERY potential couple is now official and everyone is married. See why I don’t like this part of this story? This leaves no place for any kind of surprises and it’s sooooo dull!!!
Well, at least Brainiac 5 is still coming up with crazy inventions.
And Matter-Eater Lad is the President of his planet (!!!), which will actually become canon in the Legion present. (!!!)
AND WE ARE STILL NOT DONE: Colossal Boy has retired, while Star Boy and Dream Girl are married because at this point what else did you expect?
In bad news Bouncing Boy has lost his powers AGAIN, but it’s here that we learn that he marries Duo Damsel. And hey, Polar Boy finally made it into the Legion!
But finally, FINALLY, the actual story can begin (at page 10!): the Legion has called Superman because someone has thrashed their HQ.
And they waste TWO ENTIRE WEEKS between panels , doing basically nothing to catch the invader. (WTF!?)
Oh and Element Lad is still here. Still wearing one of the most awful costumes ever.
Meanwhile someone takes out the power of the Legion HQ. Nice composition with the intruder punching the chapter’s title to hit Timber Wolf.
Note the comment about taking advantage of the dark… was the intruder meant to have night vision? Because spoiler alert, he doesn’t have that power.
Curt Swan should draw scenes set in the dark more often. Love that Superman panel!
The intruder manages to escape, but Brainiac 5 deduces that he must be a former member of the Legion. Note the reference to Dynamo Boy, cementing the fact that he was a full member (unfortunately).
The intruder later returns, taking care of the Legionnaires with a gas that immobilizes them and SURPRISE KRYPTONITE!
This guy also has a radioactive serum that steals powers (what?) and he attracts electricity.
He tears through every Legionnaire with ease, except…
It turns out that the Legion isn’t so easy to defeat after all. Thanks to Batman.
And the intruder turns out to be… Ferro Lad’s twin brother under mind control!?
Well that was random! At least we get the origin of Ferro Lad, which is neat.
Come on, couldn’t you tell us that Ferro Lad had a twin brother with a psychic link BEFORE this story? It would’ve made for a nice twist, instead of coming out of nowhere!
We learn that the Legion of Super-Villains was behind everything, and that’s the end!
Except it’s not, because this continues next issue.
Legion significance: 7/10
I kind of hate this, but this story is the origin of a significant part of the Legion lore.
This is technically where the Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel relationship is established, it’s the first time we learn Timber Wolf joins the team (heck it’s the first time he uses the codename!), it’s the first kind-of-appearance of Chemical King it’s even when Matter-Eater Lad’s political career is introduced! Out of everything else, Ferro Lad having a twin brother is mentioned maybe three times here and there.
And of course, as I mentioned future comics will bend over backwards to reconcile this story as the “official” future of the Legion, even when it makes no sense.
So why is this just a 7 instead of a 10? Because you can skip this issue and see all these changes be introduced gradually and organically. In fact it’s better to read it like that!!!
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
All thing considered, nothing particularly out of the ordinary for the time.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
As you might have deduced, I’m not a fan of this story. AT ALL. It would’ve been fine to keep this as another “imaginary story”, but I would argue that keeping this as the official Legion future for so long has hurt the potential of other possible futures.
In addition to that… it’s not a very good story. The glimpses of the Legion’s future are pretty unimaginative (with the exception of Matter-Eater Lad, who could’ve seen THAT coming?).
And the mystery itself? Having the bad guy turning out to be the mind-controlled twin brother we’ve never seen… yeesh.
We are legion
I am not updating the list of Legionnaires based on this story. Timber Wolf and Chemical King will join soon and Polar Boy waaaay later, but the headache of Shadow Woman and ESPECIALLY the clusterf##k of Reflecto would be impossible.
Bonus: a featurette with the extended origin of Lightning Lad and Light Lass!
The print is too small for the scan to give it justice, but except for calling their planet “Amarta” (where did THAT come from!?), it does a good job to integrate all we know AND make reference once again to the Legion’s origin story involving R.J. Brande.
