SPOILERS AHEAD, CAPTAIN! SHOULD I RAISE THE SHIELDS? CAPTAIN? KEPTIN??
Title: "The Three Super-Heroes!"
Release Date: August,
1960
Writer: Jerry Siegel
Penciller: Jim Mooney
Inker: I feel a
hate crime coming on.
LSH Roll Call: Cosmic Boy,
Lightning Lad,
Saturn Girl, plus first official appearances of
Chameleon Boy,
Colossal Boy, and
Invisible Kid!
Guest Stars: None
Bad Guys: None
Cameos: Superman
So what happens?
(remember, most of these stories take place pre-
Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it should be noted that when this issue was published,
Action Comics was devoted to the exploits of the entire
Superman Family, and at this point, Supergirl was the star of the title. The Legion sort of
bounced around from title to title for quite awhile til they found their own home.)
Supergirl, in her
secret identity of
orphan Linda Lee, is excited to accompany her friends to see an exhibition of Superman's powers at the Superman
Fair. At the
exhibition, after Superman leaves, a
cyclotron goes out of control, threatening nearby fair-goers with millions of volts of
electricity. Linda can't find a place where she can safely switch to Supergirl, and considers just betraying her secret identity, when a young lad uses his
lightning powers to shut the machine down. Whispering to Linda that he'll see Supergirl later, he vanishes.
Twice more is Supergirl's secret
ID protected by other seemingly super-powered teens, and finally Linda confronts the
trio where they reveal that they are Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl ... the
children of the
Legionnaires Superman--when he was
Superboy-- knew. They have traveled to the 20th century to invite Supergirl to join the Legion in the 30th century. A thrilled Supergirl, frustrated because Superman hasn't yet revealed her existence to the world
at large, readily agrees.
In 30th Century
Metropolis, Supergirl learns that each Legionnaire has at least one distinct
super power, and meets
Chameleon Boy,
Colossal Boy, and
Invisible Kid. The Legionnaires task Supergirl to perform an incredible super
feat in order to win entry. Supergirl then digs a tunnel far underground, connecting one hemisphere of the
Earth to the other, and suggests that a
high speed transport be built inside.
The Legionnaires are astounded by Supergirl's mad
skillZ, but have to reject her entry into the Legion because somehow, while digging the tunnel, Supergirl had aged to nineteen years old, and Legion by-laws allow only members eighteen and under!
Crushed by this
technicality Supergirl returns to the tunnel to discover a fragment of
red kryptonite, which has temporary and unpredictable effects on
Kryptonians; it's obviously the Red K that's caused her aging. Saddened, Supergirl returns to the 20th century, after promising the Legion she'll apply again next year. Shortly after returning to her own time period, the Red K wears off, and Supergirl resumes her Linda Lee identity, dreaming of next year.
Cool Moments!
That feeling of deja vu I got when I saw Supergirl and the Legionnaires having
malteds in a 30th century
soda shop. I realized that
Superboy and the Legionnaires visited the same shop during
his first visit to the 30th century. We also get the first glimpse of the beloved original
Legion clubhouse, which looks like an inverted rocket ship, with the
tailfins up at the top and the
nose buried in the earth. It also looks about as big as my bathroom, so how they fit all that
high tech equipment and eventually about two
dozen Legionnaires in there is obviously due to the marvels of
30th century science.
Khronic Kryptonite Kalamaties Kause Kara Zor-El Konstant Konsternation Department, Section 1:
This is the first,
but by no means the last, I'm telling you time
Red Kryptonite is used to mess with Supergirl's mind and body in a story featuring the Legion.
The Future Hasn't Been Written Yet Department:
Obviously, the Legionnaires being described in this story as being the children of the Legionnaires Superboy knew is to explain why the Legionnaires were still in their teens while Superboy had turned into Superman by the time the Legion got around to inviting Supergirl into the club. Fortunately, this was never mentioned again. Trust me ... just wait, you'll see ... the Legion's
continuity is
fscked up enough as it is. You don't need this to worry about too.
The Legion appears to this day in monthly comics published by DC Comics.
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