Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jerry Siegel Artist: John Forte Roll Call: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad, Mon-El (still in the Phantom Zone), Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl (becomes leader this issue), Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Superboy, Supergirl, Triplicate Girl, Ultra Boy Villains: Zaryan the Conqueror and his warrior robots, two unnamed wanted interplanetary villains (on monitors only) Other Characters: Commissioner Loring of the World-Wide Police, Lori Lemaris, three unidentified aliens from another planet, citizens of Metropolis "The Stolen Super-Powers" (11 pages)
This story is stated to take place in the year 2963. This is the first time within a "Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes" story in Adventure Comics that the 30th century time-period is confirmed (in issues 300 to 303 it was referred to as the "21st century"). It is also the first time a specific year is given within a Legion story. In Adventure Comics No. 247 it is stated to be the 30th century, but the "after 1,000 years" reference to when the Legion and Superboy exit the time-stream is, obviously, an approximation, since the Legion can't be set exactly 1,000 years after Superboy's time since that is the 1930s. Since 2963 is stated as the year that the team's annual election is taking place - and Cosmic Boy was the only previous leader with no other stories chronicling or mentioning his re-election - the Legion must have been formed the previous year, in 2962. It seems strange that Saturn Girl is carrying a gun to the meeting. Other than the fact that it came in handy in destroying the space capsule from Mernl, she was probably concerned with security during the Legion's annual meeting to decide a new leader. Triplicate Girl also uses this same ray gun, given to her by Saturn Girl, later in the story, so this marks the first time that the Legionnaires are shown using a weapon from their arsenal (in Adventure Comics No. 367 the team's arsenal of weapons is shown in the new headquarters). This story must mark the time Superboy is sworn in as a fully active member (behind the scenes, between panels 4 and 5 of page two) because:
Saturn Girl says at the meeting that "everyone is present and accounted for except Superboy and Supergirl". Indeed, all the current Legionnaires are seen at some time during this story - except Star Boy, proving that he has taken an indefinite leave of absence due to losing his comet-given powers. He must be spending his time perfecting the mass-inducing power he was born with. Consequently, his full membership status is on hold and he is not required or able to vote in elections. Supergirl is said to be visiting the future in panel 5 of page 2. She is probably re-visiting her friends several thousand years in the future, even farther in the future than the Legion, that she met when she took a Superman-built time-bubble there in hopes of regaining her lost super-powers (as seen in Action Comics No. 282). By the end of the story she must have returned to the 20th century, since it is there that she learned of Lightning Lad's death and brought Lori Lemaris with her to the 30th century for his funeral. This is the first member-decided election. Exactly one year ago, Cosmic Boy was elected by the clubhouse computer based on his responsible character back when there was only the three charter members (Superboy No. 147). On the Vote-O-Matic machine there are five Legion candidates for the election: Sun Boy, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy and Bouncing Boy. This is the first time Invisible Kid is shown wearing what will become his standard costume. In his first appearance he is wearing shorts (Action Comics No. 267) and in between then and now, he was either partially or entirely colored white, as if to indicate his invisibility power. Superboy and Supergirl must have voted for Saturn Girl before they left for the vote to be unanimous, although Saturn Girl should not have been able to influence their super-minds to vote for her telepathically. This means that they must have both chosen to vote for her on their own. Colossal Boy says "it is against Legion tradition" to vote for oneself, as Saturn Girl did, yet this is the first year a leadership election is held. This "tradition" goes back to when Cosmic Boy's leadership was decided upon by the clubhouse computer (Superboy No. 147). Since he did not vote for himself, regardless of the fact that neither Saturn Girl nor Lightning Boy voted then, it still set a precedent. Colossal Boy could also be referring to all subsequent elections for various other posts within the club; for example, Colossal Boy is the current treasurer in this story. No doubt the vote for which member should be treasurer was decided upon in a similar fashion, and Gim is remembering that he followed tradition by not voting for himself for the position. Matter-Eater Lad's costume is incorrectly colored gray in panel 3 of page 3. In panel 6 of the same page, he is colored pink with a white collar as if the colorist mistook him for Cosmic Boy, despite the fact that in that exact panel he identifies himself as Matter-Eater Lad. The Legion has a treasurer although they do not charge the people they help for the work that they do. Although the Legion Constitution states that a member must never expect financial reward for their good deeds, it does not mean that the team should turn down any gifts. In fact, its members are probably encouraged to accept presents from grateful people and governments rather than risk offending the givers. As such, the Legion has both a treasury and a treasurer, elected by the Legionnaires, and any wealth that is accumulated is no doubt put to good use in keeping with the team's function. Saturn Girl's insignia is missing in panel 5 of page 3. The Legionnaires' medallion-manufacturing machine is probably normally used to make gifts for admirers and friends. Saturn Girl seized the opportunity to formulate her plan using the unusual properties of the spectrium. This issue marks the first time Shrinking Violet breaks free of her shyness and actually speaks! The first time is after Lightning Lad objects to Saturn Girl's seeming arrogance: "Me, too!" she agrees. The second time she speaks she gives a veritable speech (in 50 words or less), suspecting Saturn Girl of joining forces with Zaryan. The Legion have a testing ground, used to test new applicants and hone member skills, located some distance from the clubhouse. The hydra-headed monster 3-D image that Saturn Girl casts by a film projector is probably a type of Saturnian tri-hydra (Adventure Comics No. 322). Although Saturn Girl has used her power to plant images in people's minds before (Adventure Comics No. 267), she uses a 3-D projector to cast the illusion for Triplicate Girl's test because she needed her mind free to be able to concentrate hard on the spectrium medallion in order to duplicate Triplicate Girl's power within herself. Triplicate Girl is shown triplicating the ray gun she is holding and all three of the guns fire. This demonstrates that inanimate objects small enough to be carried in one hand can also be triplicated by her. Ulta Boy's name continues to be hyphenated and he only uses his penetra-vision/flash-vision in this story. Because this is the only power he is using while wearing the spectrium medallion, it is the only power that was duplicated within Saturn Girl. In retropect, one might think that she would have been better off having him demonstrate his invulnerability, but as Saturn Girl intended to die and fulfill the prediction, she would have had no need for this power. The splash page to this story is not actually seen in the tale itself but may be presumed to have occured somwhere during panel 1 of page 6, as it does not contradict anything (as many splash panels and covers tend to do). The fact that Cosmic Boy lifts the clubhouse completely off of the ground (as Light Lass will do in Adventure Comics No. 317) indicates that it is made of metal and it also dispels the notion that the Legion's clubhouse is mainly underground. The only logical explanation as to how a building that small can house all those Legionnaires, rooms and equipment is that the clubhouse is a 4th dimensional structure (or tesseract) that is actually bigger on the inside that it appears on the outside. Proof that Saturn Girl likes Lightning Lad is evidenced in this tale when she is grounding the Legionnaires for building incriments of days, topping off with Colossal Boy at 120 days, but when she comes to Lightning Lad she "only" punishes him for a month! Phantom Girl's wears her hair shorter than usual in this story. Her face also continues to be colored white, although her body is not drawn to look semi-transparent nor to be passing through any solid objects (page 7, panel 2). Zaryan is known as a conqueror although he has only a "jigsaw" spaceship and an army consisiting of just four robots. It must have been some ship! Those must have been some robots! ;) Although Lightning Lad in his green colored anti-gravity space suit swiftly overtakes Saturn Girl in her orange colored one, green anti-gravity space suits are not inherantly more powerful and faster than the orange ones. Lightning Lad must have super-charged his anti-gravity power-unit with his electrical power in the clubhouse so he could overtake Saturn Girl's. If he didn't, he wouldn't have had a change in catching up to her given her head-start. The fact that Lightning Lad destroyed Zaryan the Conqueror would come back to haunt the writers in later tales. According to the letter column of Adventure Comics No. 316:
Although Mort Weisinger is saying that it is not against the code to destroy life in self-defense, the truth is that the Legion's code against killing did not yet add the provision for killing for the purpose of saving life or killing in self-defense until after the events of Adventure Comics No. 342, which centered around the expulsion of Star Boy for doing exactly that. The reason that Lightning Lad wasn't expelled is because he was killed. He sacrificed his life to save the Earth from invasion and was given a hero's funeral. The fact that he also broke the Legion's code is rendered moot by the fact that he was dead. When Lightning Lad was revived, he was allowed back into the team because there was no provision in the constitution to cover this. Mon-El is able to communicate with Lightning Lad from inside the Phantom Zone because those in the Zone gain telepathic abilities (Adventure Comics No. 325). It is strange how Saturn Girl "forgot" that Mon-El was recently made a Legionnaire when her serum XY-4 is the reason that he emerged long enough to be made a member! She probably had a lot on her mind given the elaborate plan she had to devise at the last minute. Saturn Girl's statement "we all know that fate can't be changed" shows how the technology of time-travel has advanced during the last year, since this fact was not realized when the Legion first used the time-bubble (Adventure Comics No. 267, Superboy No. 86). The Trylop Council of planet Mernl has a computer-machine that can predict the future. It is possible that the planet Mernl is in the Cybern galaxy, where everyone is mathematical geniuses. The Cybernians once gave Superman a predicting machine, an advanced computer that could foretell the future cryptically (Superman No. 157). When the Trylop Council says that their machine can't reveal which Legionnaire will die, only that one will die, it is remeniscent of the Cybernian machine which only issued the cryptic response: "...L...L..." Saturn Girl tried to trick the outcome of what must be by acting as a substitute for whatever Legionnaire it was supposed to be, in this case Lightning Lad, but she failed, proving her statement that "fate can't be changed". Lightning Lad's death affects Saturn Girl profoundly; on page 10, panel 2, she collapses in Cosmic Boy's arms, unable to stand. This foreshadows her deep feelings for and (already shown) marriage to Garth. All the members you see are shown shedding their tears freely except Shrinking Violet. No doubt Vi is in shock, as well as feeling slightly guilty that she accused Imra of collaborating with Zaryan. This letter from Adventure Comics No. 311 asked how Lightning Lad could be dead when readers already saw him as Lightning Man and married to Saturn Woman:
This is foreshadowed by the fact that Lightning Lad is only struck by a "freeze-ray", which leaves it open for his return and is a clue that he can return one day if he is "thawed". Supergirl, as well as the readers, know that Lightning Lad will come back to life, she just doesn't know how. She gained and retained this knowledge of the Legion's future when she visited the adult Legion ten years further in the future and discovered that Lightning Man and Saturn Woman were married (Action Comics No. 289). This might explain why Supergirl appeared at Lightning Lad's funeral but didn't show up in another Legion story until she thought Lightning Lad had come back to life (Adventure Comics No. 308). When it was found out that he was still dead, she didn't take part in another Legion adventure until the issue right after the story in which he was brought back to life (Adventure Comics No. 313). This indicates that she found it unbearable to be around the other Legionnaires, especially Saturn Girl, feeling their pain and yet knowing that all would be well and that she couldn't reassure them of this. She didn't want to share with the others her knowledge because she didn't dare interfere with fate, something she learned about in Action Comics No. 289 in trying to marry-off Superman before his time. Her thought at the funeral "We'll never, never forget him" is brought on by the emotional impact of his death and the heroism of his sacrifice, despite the fact that she knows, intellectually, that he must come back to life at some point in the next ten years. It seems a bit random that Supergirl brings Lori Lemaris to the funeral, but Lori had met Lightning Lad at the Superman Day parade (Superman No. 157) and so they were friends. Lori, being a fellow telepath, would have been able to give comfort to Saturn Girl during her time of grief. Lori and Saturn Girl become friends themselves and later attend a parade together (Lois Lane No. 56). Lori must also know, from reading Supergirl's thoughts, that Lightning Lad will come back to life and wanted to give Supergirl her support, too. The Legionnaires built Lightning Lad a crypt where everyone could honor the fallen hero. There is also a life-sized statue of Lightning Lad in the Legion clubhouse with a plaque that reads: "In memory of Lightning Lad the first Legionnaire to perish in action."
This story marks the first time that Superboy and Supergirl are shown together in the future. For this reason, Supergirl had to give her teenaged cousin a super-hypnotic subliminal command that would cause him to forget any knowledge of his own future once he returned to his own era (Adventure Comics No. 333 "The Legion Outpost"). Although many people assume it was Saturn Girl who hypnotized him, Superboy can not be effectively hypnotized by non-Kryptonian means. If caught off-guard, Superboy can be hypnotized by strong telepaths for short periods of time (Superman No. 147), but for a post-hypnotic command as enduring as this one is, a Kryptonian solution was the only one possible. Lightning Lad is mourned by all of Earth and by "many civilizations throughout a dozen galaxies and far-flung island-universes". The Legion's reputation has obviously increased in leaps and bounds since the early days of the team. An "Island-universe", by the way, is an old-fashioned term from an early theory about objects beyond the Milky Way galaxy. It has since fallen into disuse and replaced with the word "galaxy". In the above quote, the term is used to sound very poetic but it means that the Legion's loss was shared by people throughout a dozen galaxies. Adventure Comics No. 403 (Apr. 1971) - with numerous changes to the text. Instead of Supergirl being in the far future, it is altered to read "in her own time-era". There is also an added footnote caption in that panel explaining that Triplicate Girl is now Duo Damsel. Ultra Boy's penetra-vision is changed to ultra-vision for some reason. Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1 |
At the beginning of a new term
year the Legionnaires gather at the Super-Hero Clubhouse.
Saturn Girl is the first member to arrive and intercepts
a space capsule carrying a message about Zaryan the
Conqueror. After reading the message, Imra destroys the
capsule. Later, at the meeting, Cosmic Boy invites all
the members to vote for a new leader on the Vote-O-Matic
machine. After the last ballot has been cast, it turns
out that Saturn Girl is the unanimous winner, even though
some members admit they had intended to vote for Cosmic
Boy. As her first decision as new leader, Imra uses the
team's $200,000 spectrium "rainbow" bar to
create medallions with her image on them for all members
to wear. Although the members protest such an egotistical
waste of their treasury, Saturn Girl asserts her
constitutional rights as leader. Next, she takes the
members to the Legion's testing grounds and gives them
various tasks to complete. Never satisfied with their
actions, Saturn Girl ends up suspending all the members
for incompetent use of powers. Alone, Saturn Girl admits
that the whole test was a ruse, and using her power
through the medallions, she has successfully duplicated
all the powers of the wearers. When Commander Loring
alerts the team that Zaryan the Conqueror is preparing to
attack Earth, Saturn Girl alone flies off to intercept
him and threatens any Legionnaire daring to follow with
expulsion. Lightning Lad decides to go after Imra, having
discovered something important. As Saturn Girl nears the
enemy vessel, Lightning Lad catches up and tells her that
he knows her plan. Overtaking her, Lightning Lad destroys
the attacking vessel, but not before he himself is hit by
a freeze-ray. Saturn Girl carries his dying form back to
Earth. He tells her that it was Mon-El who informed him
about how she had read a message from the Trylop Council
of Mernl warning that their computer-machine predicted
that a Legionnaire would die while using his or her power
repelling an invasion by Zaryan. Mon-El had tried to warn
the others of Imra's brave and impulsive plan earlier,
but sunspot disturbances made communication from the Zone
impossible until the last minute. Lightning Lad's last
words to Saturn Girl are: "Don't cry, Saturn
Girl!... Better me... >gasp!<... th-than you...
Goodbye... " Emotionally wrought, Saturn Girl and
the other members, as well as Lori Lemaris, attend the
great hero's funeral. Not only does all of Earth mourn
Lightning Lad, but many civilizations throughout the
universe also lower their respective flags to half-mast
in a final tribute to Lightning Lad. As Saturn Girl
leaves the crypt with her extra powers worn off, she
wishes she could have been the one to die instead of
Garth as she had planned.