Adventure Comics 502

Adventure Comics #502 Preboot » Pre-Crisis Reprint Cover by Ed Hannigan and Klaus Janson Story title Various Previous story Adventure Comics #501 (previous chronological reprints) Next story Adventure Comics #503 (next chronological reprints) Cover date August 1983 Creators Writer(s) n/a Penciller(s) n/a Inker(s) n/a Letterer(s) n/a Colourist(s) n/a Editor(s) Nicola Cuti Cover artist(s) Ed Hannigan and Klaus Janson

Background

Adventure Comics was the birthplace of the Legion and its longtime home. After almost 500 issues of publication, it became primarily a series of reprints. Featured each month was a chronological re-presentation of the Legion's earliest tales, two in each issue, beginning with their first appearance.

Reprinted material

Original publication source is noted for each.

• Plastic Man, untitled story - Adventure Comics #470 (April, 1980)
• The Legion in "The Renegade Super-Hero!" – Adventure Comics #316 (January, 1964)
• Captain Marvel and "The Human Hawks" – Captain Marvel Adventures #143 (April, 1953)
• The Spectre in "The Parchment of Power Perilous" – The Spectre #8 (January/February, 1969)
• Aquaman in "The City on the Edge of Nowhere" – Aquaman #50 (March/April, 1970)
• Zatana, untitled story - Adventure Comics #413 (December, 1971)
• The Legion in "The Menace of Dream Girl!" – Adventure Comics #317 (February, 1964)

The Story Behind the Stories

The two Legion reprints included in each issue of the digest-sized Adventure Comics were the feature attraction. As an added bonus to Legion fans, a running commentary about that issue's reprinted Legion stories was provided each month by Paul Levitz, who was the writer of the Legion's current series while the Adventure digests were being produced. Years later, these commentaries are the primary point of interest (other than the reprinted stories themselves), so the full text is provided below:

We all have our favorite stories, and this issue our chronological reprinting of the Legion comes to two of this writer's favorites. Both are written by Ed Hamilton and illustrated by John Forte, and represent some of their best work on the series.

"The Renegade Super-Hero" (ADVENTURE COMICS #316, January, 1964) is a landmark issue on several counts...most importantly, it's the first time the Legion ever appeared as the sole feature in a comic. The 19-page lead was backed-up by a special feature listing origins and powers for all the members, an expansion of the same feature from an early SUPERMAN ANNUAL. The story was the first major treatment of Ultra Boy since his introduction, and began the relationship between Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl which has turned into one of the Legion's great romances.

Two other developments in this issue are worth noting: the off-hand introduction of Proty Two in the opening scenes of the story, and the scene of the Legionnaires in council at the bottom of page six, which is the most reprinted panel in Legion history. How so, you ask? It was used as the letter column heading when the "Legion Outpost" title was introduced (at this point the letter column was still "Smallville Mailsack").

"The Menace of Dream Girl" (ADVENTURE COMICS #317, February, 1964) continued the trend of making the Legion the dominant feature in ADVENTURE. Superboy returned as the star of the back-up tale, but now they would be "Hall of Fame" reprints. There was no question at last that this was the Legion's book.

The story introduced Dream Girl who returned several years later as a team member, and sparked the romance between her and Star Boy, which still continues. It also served to re-introduce Star Boy, who had been off on detached duty of some sort since his introduction. This was the first story in which his powers were shown as their modern version - the ability to make things super-heavy - rather than their original Suberboy-clone abilities.

The Time Trapper made his debut in this story as well, and went on to become the heavyweight villain of the early stories...though mostly by implication, as his actual appearances were brief.

One last noteworthy bit is the change in Lightning Lass' powers - a clear necessity since Lightning Lad's revival - both to serve the Legion constitution's requirement for unique powers and story points.

Finally, I'd like to mention a letter from Ken Eade of Campbell Rover, British Columbia in Canada. He points out that several stories are mentioned in the Price Guide as being early Legion appearances but have been eliminated from our reprint series. That's true, but we disagree with the Price Guide...the issues in question do include appearances by the Legion or Legionnaires, but in cameo roles where they don't really contribute to the stories. Obviously, that's an opinion, but we had to draw the line somewhere. For die-hard collectors' use, here's Ken's list: SUPERMAN #149 (Legionnaires appear for one panel as mourners at Superman's funeral in Imaginary story); SUPERBOY #93 (Chameleon Boy appears in a couple of panels filling in for Clark Kent to save Superboy's identity); SUPERMAN ANNUAL #4 (two pages of pictures of the Legionnaires with a half-page text on origins); ACTION #284 (Mon-El appears in Phantom Zone); ACTION #285 (LSH appears in four panels so Brainiac can send Supergirl a shrinking ray); SUPERMAN #152 (LSH cameos as givers of robot gifts to Superman - debatably the closest to a true LSH appearance of the batch); LOIS LANE #33 (Lois meets Mon-El in the Phantom Zone); JIMMY OLSEN #62 (Mon-El in Phantom Zone again); SUPERMAN #155 (cameo by Adult Legionnaires as part of hoax). If you'd like to see one or more of these tales, write in and let editor Nick Cuti know!

– Paul Levitz