I DON'T KNOW WHY I BOTHER WITH SPOILER WARNINGS SINCE YOU CAN JUST USE A FUTURESCOPE LIKE THE LEGION DOES!
Title: "The Army of Living Kryptonite Men!"
Release Date: January,
1961
Writer: Jerry Siegel
Penciller: George Papp
Inker: What's a
Nubian?
LSH Roll Call: Lightning Lad
Guest Stars: None
Bad Guys: a teenaged
Lex Luthor
Cameos: Pa Kent,
Lana Lang,
Saturn Girl,
Cosmic Boy and
Krypto
So what happens?
(remember, most of these stories take place pre-
Crisis on Infinite Earths)
Clark Kent and his
foster father are reviewing some of the
mementoes of
Superboy's past
exploits when Pa happens to mention that many of the people in Clark's life have the initials "L. L."--Lana Lang, for example, and Lex Luthor, Superboy's teenaged
rival. Superboy takes the
coincidence chain even further, mentioning his pal in the 30th Century
Legion of Super-Heroes by the
moniker of
Lightning Lad. After this
fond reminiscence, Superboy goes out to patrol his hometown of
Smallville.
Luthor, secreted away in his Lair of Teen Doom, secretly monitors Superboy's patrol whilst simultaneously trying out his newest
invention, a
mind-helmet. With it, Lex attains the power of
telekinesis,
animating a bunch of rocks nearby. Using some form of transmitter, Lex decides to get Superboy's attention by animating a bunch of rocks on a nearby
asteroid into a giant
fist.
Our hero rushes off into
outer space to investigate. Landing on the asteroid, he's suddenly
ambushed by a bunch of animated
kryptonite men! Secretly controlled by Luthor, these green k men completely overwhelm and subdue Superboy. Thinking he's won at last, Luthor releases his control over the rocks, which
bury Superboy. Clark's super-pet
doggie Krypto happens by, and tries to save him, but to no
avail, as Krypto is
vulnerable to kryptonite radiation, as well.
Now that the evil teen
mastermind has nothing to do but
gloat, he is surprised when a wall crashes in and Superboy, Krypto, and
Lightning Lad burst in upon him. Essentially saying, "Curses! Foiled again!" Lex discovers that after he'd shut off his monitors that Lightning Lad, who'd been monitoring Superboy on the Legion's
Futurescope with Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy, had hopped in his time bubble and jaunted back to the 20th century to free our hero and his beloved
pet. Superboy takes a moment to gloat himself, pointing out the irony of one hero with the intials "L. L." defeating a villian with the same initials. After destroying Lex's mind-helmet, Lightning Lad goes home, and Superboy and Krypto wag their fingers (or tails, whatever) at Lex and take off, leaving Lex to ponder the future ... literally.
Cool Moments!
"If a Legion of Super-Heroes exists centuries from now...then a
Legion of Super-Villians probably exists in the future, too!"
--Lex Luthor, foreshadowing
I've always had a thing for Kal's affection for the letter L. I'm not certain, but this might be the first time it's ever alluded to in a canonical way.
Also artist
George Papp makes everyone look like
Richie Rich. Well, not quite, but close.
Khronic Kryptonite Kalamaties Kause Kal-El (and his little dog, too!) Konstant Konsternation Department, Section 2:
Kryptonite takes out both Superboy and Krypto in this story!
Lana Lang, You Impertinent Girl! Department
Lana Lang shows up for three panels to break into Lex's Lair (L. L. again!!) just to ponder whether or not she should pull that inviting "
D-Lever" on the wall. However, she's frightened when a
fuse blows and takes off. Of course, if she
had pulled that lever, all of Lex's Evil Machinery of Teen Evil Doom (EMOTED) would have lost power, and Superboy and Krypto would have been just fine ...
Comic Books Were Definitely A Boyzone Back in the Day Department:
"I wonder what amazing experiment Lex Luthor is working on now! DRAT this curiosity of mine! I've just
got to find out."
--Lana Lang, giving in to what killed the cat.
The Future Hasn't Been Written Yet Department:
Just so you don't think Lightning Lad violated the temporal
prime directive and changed history by saving Superboy, we devote a panel to show that another asteroid would have collided with the one on which Superboy and Krypto were buried, thus freeing them. We hope. Otherwise, someone's got some 'splainin' to do.
The Legion appears to this day in monthly comics published by DC Comics.
Legion Issue Guide: Back | Index | Forward