Adventure Comics 311

Adventure Comics #311 Preboot » Pre-Crisis Cover by Curt Swan, George Klein and Ira Schnapp Story title The War Between the Substitute Heroes and the Legionnaires Part 2: The Duel of the Legions Previous story Adventure Comics #310:The Doom of the Super-Heroes Next story Adventure Comics #312:The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires Publication date June 27, 1963 Cover date August 1963 Creators Writer(s) Edmond Hamilton and Mort Weisinger Penciller(s) John Forte Inker(s) John Forte Letterer(s) Joe Letterese and Milton Snapinn (Part 2 only) Colourist(s) Unknown Editor(s) Mort Weisinger Cover artist(s) Curt Swan, George Klein and Ira Schnapp

The War Between the Substitute Heroes and the Legionnaires

While the Legionnaires respond to a distress signal from a distant space sector, the secret Legion of Substitute Heroes encounter an alien machine that attempts to drill rare ores from the earth. After stopping the machine, they alert the Legionnaires, but when the super-heroes return to earth, they belittle the Subs and reject their offer of assistance. The Subs again try to prove their worth by building defensive robots to ward off further invaders, but the Legionnaires respond by ordering the Subs to disband. When the Subs refuse to comply, the Legionnaires send one of their own defensive robots to ransack the Subs’ headquarters. As they escape, the Subs declare war on the Legion.

Part 2: The Duel of the Legions

The Subs set up headquarters in an abandoned alien city deep inside the moon. Night Girl sneaks away, however, and returns to earth to confront Cosmic Boy, with whom she is secretly in love. She tries to persuade Cos to make peace with the other Legionnaires on her behalf. Cos pretends to go along, but secretly tracks her as she returns to the moon. The Legionnaires arrive on the moon and send a caterpillar-like defense machine to attack the Subs; when it returns with what appears to be Stone Boy’s remains, the Legionnaires think the rest of the Subs have also been killed and leave. Unknown to them, the Subs have fooled them by configuring one of the alien statues in the city to look like Stone Boy.

After next tricking the Legionnaires into leaving earth for awhile, the Subs return to earth to find that the defensive machines the Legionnaires are building are really mining machines – which confirms Polar Boy’s suspicion that these Legionnaires are really imposters. Sure enough: the Legionnaires return and reveal themselves to be aliens from the planet Zyzan, who lured the real Legionnaires away and trapped them in a space warp while the aliens tried to loot earth’s minerals. Deducing that the aliens can’t stand cold, Polar Boy hits them with his freezing power. The Subs escort the aliens back to their own world and free the Legionnaires, who remain none the wiser.

Roll Call

Legion of Substitute Heroes

Feature roles:

• Chlorophyll Kid
• Fire Lad
• Night Girl
• Polar Boy
• Stone Boy

Legionnaires

Cameos:

• Bouncing Boy
• Brainiac 5
• Chameleon Boy
• Cosmic Boy
• Saturn Girl
• Sun Boy
• Legionnaires shown on the Subs’ slide projection:
  • Colossal Boy
  • Element Lad
  • Invisible Kid
  • Lightning Lass
  • Shrinking Violet
  • Star Boy
  • Superboy
  • Triplicate Girl
  • Ultra Boy

Villains

• Aliens from the planet Zyzan (impersonate Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Sun Boy for most of this story)

Supporting Characters

None

Other Characters

None

Planets and Settings

• Zyzan (no appearance)
• Xalla (no appearance)
• Hrynak (no appearance)
• Space Sector Z-4437-3N
• Unnamed city inside the moon

Technology, Gadgets and Other Neat Stuff

• A time-mirror from the planet Xalla (shows people what they will look like when they are older)
• A plant from the planet Hrynak that will grow into a living animal.
• A force vortex and other mining devices of Zyzan.

Notes

Errors and Oddities

• The cover falsely suggests that Superboy and several other Legionnaires appear in this story; they do not, except for a one-panel projection, as mentioned above.
• Likewise, it makes no sense for the Subs to declare war on the Legionnaires who do not appear in the story. If it was their intent to declare war on the entire Legion, some members are missing from the projection: Supergirl, Mon-El, Matter-Eater Lad, and Phantom Girl.
• Polar Boy accuses the Legionnaires of plotting to conquer earth before there is any indication that they plan to do so.
• Stone Boy is shown sleeping (in stone form) on monitor duty!
• Stone Boy’s “knowledge of minerals” suggests that perhaps mineralogy is his hobby.

First appearances

This issue marks the first appearance of the following characters and recurring key Legion story elements:

Reboot Reference Kit

Post-Crisis	xxx
Glorithverse	xxx
Post-Zero Hour	No equivalent events
Post-Infinite Crisis	xxx
DCAU	xxx
LSH cartoon	xxx

Other stories in this issue

There is an additional story that does not feature the Legion - "Smallville's War Against Superbaby"

Reprints

This Legion story has been reprinted in the following:

• 

  Adventure Comics #500 ( June 1983)

• 

  Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 2 (1992)

• 

  Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 (2007)

See also

• Legion Publication History - Other issues published 1950-1964
• Legion Publication History - Other issues of Adventure Comics
• Pre-Crisis Chronology
• Quick index of links to other Adventure Comics issues