The Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes Volume One

 

While I have always been more of a Marvel Comics fan than a DC (Brand Ecch, as Marvel would say) promoter due to Marvel's more realistic plots (as much as super powered stories can be) and social awareness, I do still have a soft spot for DC's more silly and light hearted 60's tales. The Legion of Super-Heroes were (still are?) a band of futuristic super-powered humanoids from across the galaxy who conquered time travel and so travel back to the 1960's to offer Superboy (as the Legion are all teenagers) a membership. Before they had their own series, their first appearances were in Superboy comics and later in Supergirl - funnily, even though they were time travelers, because Supergirl didn't appear until Superman was an adult, the future heroes that confront Supergirl (in almost an identical story to their introduction in Superboy, right down to getting futuristic ice cream) are the sons and daughters of the heroes that met Superboy. I believe that this completely unnecessary - and potentially confusing - idea was quickly dropped - I assume that the writers realized that time travelers were not restricted to our timeline.

As with the stories, the artwork is nowhere near as sophisticated as the Marvel counterparts but still has its own charm and innocence. And, as with the Marvel heroes, the super powers evolved as time went on - Cosmic Boy, for instance, started out with magnetic rays coming out of his eyes, for some reason! After the introduction of the original trio - Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad (who started as Lightning Boy before they discovered the power of alliteration, I assume) and Cosmic Boy - they slowly bring in the rest of the Legion until we get the team that us readers in the 60's mostly know.

As I said, there are plot devices that require extreme suspension of disbelief, as in the story line where Lex Luthor creates a short wave radio that can send his messages through time and contacts a Legion of Super Villains that Lex simply conjectures exist - so, random radio waves sent to a random time in the future contacts the people that Lex imagined, although didn't know existed! Wow! Lots of other instances that are a little less far-fetched (comparatively) but still pretty wacky, in order to promote the plot. I know that Marvel had some imaginative situations, as well (I remember Thor's alter ego, Dr. Don Blake, being able to create a robot in a matter of hours), but DC seemed to go even farther.

Regardless, this compilation is a fun romp through the goofy side of 60's comics.