Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jerry Siegel Artist: John Forte Roll Call: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad (joins), Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Triplicate Girl Honorary Member: Superboy Villains: Dr. Landro, Meglaro, a tiny spy, Landro's gang Other Characters: A nurse, Chief of the Science Police Commission, several honeymooning couples, an unnamed surgeon, a World-Wide Police officer "The Fantastic Spy" (12 pages)
The Legion's era is referred to as the "21st century" in this story. Besides excusing it as being merely a typo, one can assume that by the Legion's time, another calendar system can be referred to. Lightning Lad's left knee and Sun Boy's right ankle are injured from a rocket crash-landing and the Legionnaires require a few days' bedrest with curative capsules placed in the injured bones. It is a week before they return to duty. When Lightning Lad is enjoying watching movies of himself, he isn't being narcissistic but rather is genuinely thrilled and amused to see that someone is marketing movie goggles featuring scenes of himself in action. Brainiac 5 continues to believe that he is descended from the original Brainiac. (It will be another year yet before time-scanning technology proves otherwise, as seen in Superman No. 167). How upset he is over his "ancestry" is evidenced by the continued way in which it clouds his otherwise precise thinking processes. Brainiac 5 never gets the mathematics of his lineage correct, for at the beginning of the story, the number of "greats" he puts in his connection to Brainiac would make him "Brainiac 6", not 5. When he mentions it again at the end of the story, the number of "greats" he puts in would make him "Brainiac 7"! Perhaps this is the result of a subconscious desire to further remove himself from the original Brainiac. Obviously upset over his ancestor's villainy, it nonetheless consumes his thoughts as evidenced by his giving Sun Boy a ring with a hollow gem containing microscopic animals descended from ones that the original Brainiac had shrunk. Although it is not apparent from the scene seen through the magnifying lens, the ring must actually enclose a large area of land to support the creatures living there. Also, an apparatus for purifying breathable air for the animals in the gem must be housed in the ring itself. The 4th-dimensional forceps used in this story work similar to Phantom Girl's power in that they can move in directions at right-angles to the third-dimension and therefore "get around" solid objects by seemingly passing through them. For more information, read our essay on The Fourth Dimension. Technically, Phantom Girl could have placed the curative capsules inside her teammates' bodies. Logically, however, although she can move small objects 4th-dimensionally (Adventure Comics No. 360) Phantom Girl is a busy Legionnaire, and at this time went on a lot of missions off-world (Adventure Comics No. 300) and in the past (Action Comics No. 290). No doubt that, after the events of this story, she spent a lot of time hooked up to the knowledge-condensotron studying human anatomy in the Hall of Infinite Knowledge (Adventure Comics No. 326) so she could help in this regard. In a later tale, she cures a man with personality problems using her 4-D sight and knowledge of reflexology massage (Lois Lane No. 50). Matter-Eater Lad is officially inducted into the Legion in this story after having successfully passed his super-initiation test after the events in Adventure Comics No. 301. Although Matter-Eater Lad is seen demonstrating his power in front of the Legionnaires and telling his origin, he is not actively applying for membership, since he has already been selected and is unofficially considered the team's "newest member". All that remains is for the official swearing in ceremony to take place. Lightning Lad and Sun Boy don't remember seeing Matter-Eater Lad from Adventure Comics No. 301, even though they are in that story. There are two possible explanations for this: 1) They had left the meeting (in Adventure Comics No. 301) before Matter-Eater Lad made his demonstration. In fact, they are not seen once the Legionnaires reconvene inside the clubhouse; perhaps an urgent mission called them away. Or, 2) Both these heroes had just suffered traumatic injuries and were still in the process of recovering, so they can be forgiven for not being able to recognize one of the many applicants they have seen, especially since he is wearing a brand new costume. Bismoll could not have been colonized by Earth humans because, according to Matter-Eater Lad: "Gradually, over a period of eons... evolution transformed my race." According to Lightning Lad and the astro-calculator he consults, Bismoll's sun lies just beyond the rim of our own Milky Way galaxy (page 4, panel 3). Bouncing Boy refers to a satellite in this story as a "sputnik"; he is speaking colloquially, since the satellite in question is not an actual Sputnik. The word itself is Russian for "satellite". This issue marks the first appearance of the Science Police. The Chief of the Science Police Commission seen in this story is probably not the later Commissioner Wilson who will come to asscociate with the Legion (Adventure Comics No. 321), since this person is more mature looking and wears a green-colored uniform instead of blue. Editor Mort Weisinger explains why the law-enforcement agency is referred to as the Science Police in this letter from Adventure Comics No. 354:
The Science Police does not replace the World-Wide Police (aka Earth Police), which appears previously in Adventure Comics No. 300 and subsequently in Adventure Comics No. 304. The Science Police is the official law-enforcement division of the entire United Planets, and therefore has interplanetary jurisdiction. The World-Wide Police (referred to as the Earth Police by off-worlders) only has jurisdiction on the planet Earth. The difference between the two can be likened to Federal police versus City Police. Although he suspects there is a spy among them, the Science Police Chief continues to give missions to the Legionnaires. Obviously, the Legion is the top crime-fighting organization on Earth, even with a possible spy among them. He trusted that they would figure out who the spy was eventually. The United Nations organization still exists in the 30th century. In this story, it is stated that a United Nations Weapons Arsenal exists "on the other side of the world". The route that the Earth-Tube car takes proves that this particular tunnel through the Earth is not the same one dug by Supergirl in Action Comics No. 267. In that story, Supergirl says that she was "careful not to dig too deep" so that she "didn't encounter any molten, super-hot areas." The route of the tube-car Cosmic Boy and Chameleon Boy take requires passengers to take freeze-pills, which freeze them solid so they are protected from the great heat as their car passes through the "fiery danger zone". Also, Supergirl's route cut from the Arctic Ocean to the South Pacific Ocean in a North-South direction and only through the Earth's solid lower mantle. Judging from the route map in Cosmic Boy's house, this second Earth-Tube, made by 30th century machines, runs East-West, from South America to somewhere in the Eurasian continent. You can see from the map (page 5, panel 5) that this route curves, dipping near the Earth's outer molten core. The fact that there is more than one tube-car route is proven in Adventure Comics No. 367, which has Karate Kid taking Tube No. 4, which is an express route that runs two ways, connecting Metropolis to Tokyo, Japan. The "Doomsday Bomb" mentioned in this story, which is to be transported via Earth-Tube to the United Nations Weapons Arsenal, may have been developed for, or captured in, the Earth-Dominion War, which will enter its second decade by Adventure Comics No. 361. Note also that Roxxas, a space-pirate, wanted Jan Arrah to create uranium for him in order to make his own doomsday bombs (Adventure Comics No. 307). Cosmic Boy's home is shown in this story; most likely he is living with his parents and brother, who have emmigrated to Earth by this time. The first time Cosmic Boy's parents and brother are seen living in a Metropolis suburb with him is in Adventure Comics No. 335.
Since Sun Boy (with the spy inside him) was not present at Cosmic Boy's home when he and Chameleon Boy discussed the plan to disguise themselves as a honeymooning couple, the thief (or thieves) must have searched the belongings of everybody on the car while the passengers' bodies were frozen. The freeze-pill also appears to affect what they are carrying; fortunate, since Chameleon Boy's purse contained the bomb, which might otherwise have detonated from the heat of the core. Although the people in the car had to be frozen in order to survive the heat, the thief (or thieves) obviously could not have been frozen while moving around the car stealing the bomb. They must have been equipped with special armor or force-field devices to protect them from the heat. They must also have had a means of cutting through the ice around Chameleon Boy's purse in order to steal the bomb. When Cosmic Boy says that the lurium mind-helmets protect their minds from being "read or controlled", he is indicating that he hasn't ruled out that perhaps one of the Legionnaires is actually being controlled by a villain into betraying the Legion's secrets without even knowing it. Although later, Brainiac 5 accidentally refers to the "time machine" the heroes were going to send Meglaro into the future with as a "time-globe", it is not, looking nothing like a Legion time-bubble and being clearly labelled "time machine". Also, the machine most likely projects its contents into the future without having to travel there itself. This is indicated by the statement that Lightning Lad makes when Meglaro starts to wake: "Faster! He's beginning to stir inside the globe! -- Meglaro's awakening!!" If Meglaro was starting to wake, they certainly wouldn't have had a chance of putting him in a vehicle, then navigating the time-barrier, then taking him out of the vehicle and then leaving themselves. Plus, once in the future with a working time machine, Meglaro would have a means of returning. Although it may not be clear in panel 6 of page 7, Meglaro only escapes after the ship's z-ray melts the Legionnaires' lurium helmets, allowing the villain to successfully use his super mind-power to force the heroes to obey his mental commands to release him. Brainiac 5 says that all the Legionnaires knew the "guilt detector" was a phony. Also, Matter-Eater Lad states that he and his teammates saw the note Brainiac 5 wrote under the pretense of writing down a formula. However, although Sun Boy is clearly seen watching as Brainiac 5 writes the note (page 8, panel 4), he appears genuinely angry at Matter-Eater Lad's treachery (page 9, panel 5) and then genuinely surprised by his innocence (page 9, panel 6). Either Sun Boy is an excellent actor or he was "zoned out" while the other Legionnaires read Brainy's note! Lightning Lad says that "only the Legionnaires know that the planet Umrax contains a gaseous atmosphere that renders anyone who lands on the world unconscious". Yet, at the same time, the criminals know where to go in the universe to get to Umrax. This indicates that, although the planet was "on the map", no one had actually explored it surface except the Legionnaires by this time. According to Lightning Lad, their visit was "recently". It is possible that Lightning Lad and Sun Boy were returning from that very planet before the start of the story, and that their ship crash-landed because some of the atmosphere of Umrax had gotten onboard and rendered them unconscious and therefore unable to safely land their ship on Earth. Superboy transports Meglaro to the year 100,000,000 A.D. although, according to Action Comics No. 300, Earth's yellow sun has expanded into a red giant by that time. Superboy must have been warned by Brainiac 5 that Earth orbits a red sun in the future and so he made sure to arrive on the night side so the sun's red rays wouldn't drive out his super-powers. Superboy does this in a later tale when he goes to Vannar, also a red sun world, in Adventure Comics No. 315. Supergirl must pull this same stunt when she flies back in time to pre-exploded Krypton in Superman No. 156. However, Superman must later forget that the Earth has a red sun in the far future, because he blunders into the daylight side and loses his powers in Action Comics No. 300. Although at this point in the lore Superboy hasn't yet met Supergirl (Adventure Comics No. 304), and since it is she who places the post-hypnotic command in his mind to forget all he learns about his own future when he returns to his own time (Adventure Comics No. 341), it is possible that once she does do this next month, all that he has already learned about his own future is forgotten, too. Either that or Superman didn't suspect that Earth's sun began turning red as early as 824,057 A.D. and mistakenly thought he had some margin of safety. The tiny spy somehow manages to survive for many days inside the "curative capsule" indicating that he may have been an android, and on a one-way mission as well, since it is doubtful that Landro had an enlarging ray if the Legion of Super-Heroes only had an experimental one. Since the experimental enlarging ray used on the spy only had enough charge to work once, it seems like it might have been put to better use if Brainiac 5 gave it to Supergirl so she could use it to enlarge Kandor. However, the ray was probably limited to affecting only obejcts of small mass. Ostensibly, it would take a lot more power to enlarge an entire city than a single person. But perhaps this experimental ray was invented by Brainiac 5 after he wrote Supergirl that apology letter regarding the matter (Action Comics No. 285), indicating that he is working towards a solution. Brainiac 5 knows that Kandor was enlarged and its people settled on the planet Rokyn by the 30th century (Adventure Comics No. 356), but whether he has something to do with this is never specified in the lore. Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1 |
Cosmic Boy and
Brainiac 5 visit fellow Legionnaires Sun Boy and
Lightning Lad in the hospital after a rocket
crash-landing injured their ankle and knee, respectively.
After they give them gifts to cheer them up, a Martian
specialist in 4th-dimensional surgery, Dr. Landro,
operates on the two heroes, placing a curative capsule
into each teen's injured bone. A week later, they are
greeted back at the clubhouse and meet their newest
member, Matter-Eater Lad, who is being sworn in that day.
After Matter-Eater Lad gives a brief rundown on his
origin and powers for the benefit of those that missed
his demonstration during his original application, he is
inducted into the team. Afterwards, when the Legion's
plans are known ahead of time by criminals on a number of
different occasions and allowing the super-villain
Meglaro to escape, Brainiac 5 accuses Matter-Eater Lad of
being a spy. Matter-Eater Lad runs away but is soon
brought back by Brainiac 5 who explains to the others
that they only staged it to fool the real spy, a
miniaturized man who was placed into Sun Boy's ankle via
the curative capsule. Brainiac 5 suspected so when Sun
Boy had complained earlier of a pain in his ankle when a
real curative capsule should have healed his broken bone
by then, as it did Lightning Lad's injured knee. Superboy
rounds up Meglaro and the other villains who were tricked
into going to the planet Umrax, which contains an
atmosphere that renders anyone who is not invulnerable
unconscious. Meglaro is flown by Superboy to the year
100,000,000 A.D. to serve his prison sentence, Sun Boy's
injury is finally healed and the tiny spy is enlarged and
arrested.
When Chameleon
Boy disguises himself as a woman, he must look like
someone he met, passed on the street or saw on a monitor
in order for his antennae to scan and memorize her form
for him to duplicate. It is also possible that he could
have"mixed-and-matched" physical
characteristics from several people.