In my effort to be as thorough as possible in my Legion retrospective, I’ll go over the various cameos that are not really worth a true review.
This batch will include everything published before 1970 that wasn’t already part of the actual retrospective.
I’m leaving behind on purpose the Mon-El cameos that are set between his exile in the Phantom Zone but before he joins the Legion (too many and off-topic).
And also Superman #162, which will be part of a different retrospective I intend to do on famous Superman stories.
Other than that, if I’ve missed anything pre-1970 worth mentioning please tell me.
Massive thanks to the Legion Wiki, I could not have done this without them.
Superman Annual #4 (1962)
This isn’t even a cameo, and we’ve already seen these images showcasing the Legion published elsewhere. But this book is where they originate and, most importantly, this is where most of the civilian names of the Legionnaires come from!
Action Comics #290 (1962)
by Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney
This should have been part of the Supergirl retrospective. And it has a Phantom Girl cameo!
Phantom Girl and Supergirl weren’t shown to be particularly close, and knowing PG gets a bit catty later in her career… was this REALLY an accident on her part?
I considered returning to the Supergirl retrospective to add this one. But considering the rest of the story involves a fight between her 20th century love interests, Dick Malverne and Jerro The Merboy, getting powers thanks to Red Kryptonite… sorry Kara, but Jerro is so unbearably boring that even you can’t make me review this one.
Superman #152 (1962)
by Jerry Siegel & Curt Swan
This is a story where Superman has to deal with robot duplicates of his friends created by the mysterious Robot Master.
Leave it to Jimmy Olsen to believe someone would build a whole room filled with portraits, statues and LOCKS OF HAIR of their friend.
Of course this isn’t the real Jimmy but just a robot copy… but then again, Jimmy is weird enough to HAVE a room with statues and locks of hair of a friend.
The selling point of the story, besides watching Superman’s friend make fools out of themselves (but what else is new), is figuring out who the Robot Master who built them actually is.
I’m sure that most guessed it was either Brainiac or Luthor.
But it was actually the Legionnaires!!!
All in an elaborate prank to celebrate the anniversary of Supergirl’s arrival on Earth.
Even for a bunch of teenagers with access to a time machine, these guys have WAY too much time on their hands.
Superman #155 (1962)
by Jerry Siegel & Curt Swan
This is a story where Mr. Mxyzptlk makes a wrestler stronger than Superman, Hercules and Samson.
The wrestler is then conned by some criminals into helping them.
Except Mxyzptlk was impersonated by Krypto (WTF!?)…
…while Lightning Man and Cosmic Man from the Adult Legion impersonated Samson and Hercules.
Even for an all-powerful god who can time travel, Superman has WAY too much time on his hands.
Action Comics #306 (1963)
by Leo Dorfman & Jim Mooney
Another Supergirl story, this one with a direct reference to the return of Mon-El to the world of the living on the pages of the Legion series in the previous month. A rare case of DC Comics cross-promotion!
Superman #187 (1964)
written by Cary Bates & Edmond Hamilton
pencils by Curt Swan
This is a very historically important story, because that’s where Brainiac is retconned into being a robot. First by showing that Colu was first enslaved by robots, something that will become important once again in L.E.G.I.O.N.
After conquering the planet of their creators, the computers create a new spy to conquer new worlds.
It’s also interesting to know that these incredibly advanced computers are able to take over a planet of geniuses and to create a robot even smarter than they are… and they still screw up!!!
We also learn that the origin of Brainiac includes basing his computer mind on the brain patterns of someone else.
Considering this will also be retconned into being the origin of Ultron… maybe basing your artificial intelligence on an existing brain is a bad thing!!!
This entire retcon about Brainiac exists because of trademark issues.
This is also the origin of Brainiac 2, better known as Vril Dox II.
Since Brainiac couldn’t have descendants because he’s a robot, his “adopted son” is introduced to explain away why there’s a Brainiac 5 in the future.
That’s the extent of Vril Dox II’s role as far as the pre-Crisis continuity is concerned, but we’ll see him again with L.E.G.I.O.N.
Man are these tyrannical robots incompetent… they can’t get Brainiac to look like a regular Coluan AND they can’t prevent a normal kid from running away.
The letters page gives a few more details about the trademark thing.
While this is a solid story and there have been many great stories with Brainiac as a robot, I very much prefer him to be just a very smart alien.
Plus this confusion about his nature and his relationship with Brainiac 5 has plagued Brainy for decades.
Superman #172 (1964)
by Edmond Hamilton & Curt Swan
Superman has lost his powers for VERY convoluted reasons, and asks Jimmy Olsen to help.
Who drops the idea that the Legion can give powers to anyone? Uh?
I sure hope Bouncing Boy never learns it’s THIS easy to get powers, considering how long his subplot about losing powers lasted!!!
Little known fact, Superman was basically “The Hero Formerly Known As Superman” for this story.
Lois Lane #56 (1965)
by Otto Binder & Kurt Shaffenberger
I already reviewed this one (it contains the story where Lois Lane is revealed to have opened Pandora’s Box), but not the story with the Legion cameo!!!
In the story Lois believes she has telepathic powers, but she’s proven wrong when she meets basically all the telepaths that existed in this period except Martian Manhunter.
A parade showing the heroines of the present includes Lori Lemaris but not at the very least Wonder Woman.
The fact that Saturn Girl was casually participating in a parade about future heroines tells you everything about how casual the Legion was in talking about the future.
Inferior Five #2 (1967)
by E. Nelson Bridwell & Mike Sekowsky
And finally we have this aggressively unfunny comedy series, where at some point the titular Inferior Five are subjected to a series of theme songs for various teams.
Including two that, to the best of my knowledge, have never received an actual theme song.
One DOES have a theme song thanks to the 2003 cartoon. Man am I glad they didn’t go with THIS version.
This goes on for FOUR PAGES, people!!!
And there you have it. Now I get why the Legion cartoon had a theme without any lyrics.
Sadly this idiot doesn’t try to join the team, so he doesn’t get into the count.
Comedy is subjective of course, but I find the Inferior Five to be absolutely dreadful and this story to be incredibly boring.
The best they have is an uninspired Fantastic Four parody.
I mean, even the Metal Men wouldn’t be caught dead singing this crap!!!
EDIT: I did missone Legion cameo from this era.