Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jerry Siegel Artist: John Forte Roll Call: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid, Lightning Lad (frozen in coffin), Mon-El, Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Superboy (in flashback only) Applicants: Antennae Boy, Dynamo Kid, Legionnaire Lemon/Marvel Lad (actually Mon-El in disguise) Villains: A Sun-Eater (not the Controller-created one), Jax-Ur and two other unidentified Phantom Zone criminals "The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire" (12 pages)
Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy - Lightning Lad's closest friends, and the ones to be most affected by his death - visit him at his tomb at the start of this story. Three statues from the Legion's Hall of Heroes can be seen in this story: Lightning Lad (with the writing on the base updated to mention his death), Mon-El (a new addition since Adventure Comics No. 300), and Sun Boy. Although Saturn Girl was elected leader last issue, Cosmic Boy is overseeing the screening of new applicants in this story. This may be due to the fact that she is in deep mourning over the loss of Lightning Lad. For the next few months, it seems that Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy are helping Imra by pitching in to help lead the team. Cosmic Boy admits that, according to club rules, the Legion will indeed hold membership drives to replace any members that are lost for any reason. This is probably how Sun Boy joined, as a replacement for Star Boy after he lost his super-powers and had to take an extended leave of absence. Applicant Antennae Boy from Grxyor is not only rejected for picking up broadcasts from other time-periods loudly, but also inaccurately and from alternate realities since one of the signals he picks up from the 20th century says: "Bulletin: Kennedy re-elected President of the U.S..." when in actuality, J.F.K. was assassinated on November 22, 1963 (less than a year after this issue was first published). Dynamo Kid is not to be confused with the Dynamo Boy who is shown in Adventure Comics No. 330/331. Dynamo Kid is a reporter for the Daily Planet Microfilm Newspaper who used a power-device to try and get into the Legion in order to write an expose. He's a pretty tactless guy, given the way he says: "Now that Lightning Lad is dead, isn't there an opening for someone to take his place in the Legion?" Not only that, but he wants to literally replace him, using a device that simulates Lightning Lad's powers. To add to confusion, the story in which Dynamo Boy joins the Legion in Adventure Comics No. 330 is also titled "The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire". Invisible Kid is shown with black hair and wearing a yellow and green costume. The space-creature known as the Sun-Eater is not to be confused with the much larger Controller-made cloud-like device that later appears in Adventure Comics No. 352/353 and threatens the galaxy. Mon-El's heat-vision is shown burning the foot of a creature that lives in the cores of yellow suns (about 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This gives you some idea of just how hot Mon-El's (and Superboy's) heat-vision can be! Although Superboy's heat-vision is that powerful, it still has trouble melting lead, even though that substance only has a melting point of 27.5 °C (or 621.5 °F). His heat-vision can melt lead if it is a thin enough coating (Adventure Comics No. 313), but the molecular structure of lead seems to interfere with the effectiveness of Kryptonian heat-vision regardless of how hot it can be. Cosmic Boy says that Marvel Lad will have to go through three initiation tests to become a member, but he mistakenly calls Marvel Lad's test to go to Brogg his second one, when really it is his third. Plus, afterwards, Cosmic Boy says: "While you've been performing you initiation feats, we've been testing other applicants, too! If you can create a new element which doesn't already exist on Earth, you'll win out over the others!" Wow, that must have been some show those other applicants were putting on if having to create a new element was the task necessary to top them! Still, Mon-El is a good sport and combines gold (79), silver (47) and iron (26) to create Element No. 152 (it's atomic weight being the summation of the three individual constituents). This anti-gravity metal is probably what Brainiac 5 later uses to create the new anti-gravity flying-belts (first seen in the next issue, Adventure Comics No. 306) and, later, the Legion flight-ring (Adventure Comics No. 329). Cosmic Boy is carrying a gun while the Legionnaires wait for Marvel Lad to arrive for his induction ceremony. Marvel Lad's cockiness and reluctance to tell the Legion his origin prompted some of the Legionnaires to wonder if he had a"dark secret in his past" and would turn out to be a villain with plans to destroy them. Obviously, Cosmic Boy's gun was an added precaution against this, and must have been super-powerful as Marvel Lad had proved invulnerable to kryptonite, lead and the heat at the heart of the sun. Mon-El's Marvel Lad mask and costume must be invulnerable in order for him to have worn it while completing his super-initiation tests. He probably got them from Daxam, zipping over there quickly after Brainiac 5 gave him some anti-lead serum. He then goes back for a more leisurely visit after the Legion said they would induct him into the Legion. Mon-El is able to fly to and from Daxam, even though it is a red-sun world and should technically take away his super-powers, because a positive side-effect of his anti-lead serum is that Mon-El is no longer vulnerable to red sun radiation (Adventure Comics No. 329 "Know Your Legionnaires"). Although this is the first hint that he no longer has that vulnerability, the fact that it is a side-effect of his anti-lead serum isn't mentioned in the lore specifically until the "Know Your Legionnaires" text feature in Adventure Comics No. 329. When Mon-El passed the experimental time-limit of 24 hours, the serum was thought to be a permanent success. In Adventure Comics No. 314, however, we discover that the serum must be taken every 48 hours (Adventure Comics No. 314). In Adventure Comics No. 329's "Know Your Legionnaires", it is stated that Mon-El takes it every 24 hours. Mon-El probably takes it every day to have a safe overlap time although each dose remains efficacious for twice that long. Brainiac 5's formula built on serum XY-4 that Saturn Girl invented in Adventure Comics No. 300, only it contained the vital missing ingredient: powdered green kryptonite. This is evident by the fact that on page 5, panel 1, a lead box is shown in the lab containing a chunk of green K "used in kryptonite-antidote experiments". Brainiac 5 must have made this discovery while working on an antidote to kryptonite for Supergirl (and Superboy). The fact that green K protects Daxamites from the effects of lead was first hinted at in Superboy No. 89. Readers pointed out that Mon-El didn't show any signs of discomfort when Superboy brought a lead box close to Lar's sleeping form and bathed him in green K rays. Editor Mort Weisinger then explained that just as lead shield the effects of kryptonite for Kryptonians, kryptonite shields the effects of lead for Daxamites! The curative powers of powdered kryptonite are also evident in Adventure Comics No. 313, when Supergirl visits Quarantine World and a scientist says they keep samples of kryptonite dust on hand since "its radiation helps cure certain space-ills in ordinary people." It's ironic that Superman's greatest weakness should be such a boon to the health of other people in the galaxy. On page 11, panel 1, Mon-El is colored as though he is not in the Phantom Zone when Saturn Girl discovers Serum XY-4. This is incorrect as she diagnosed him telepathically while he was in the Zone and he did not leave it until he was released to battle Urthlo, and then given the serum for the first time, in Adventure Comics No. 300. Mon-El should have been colored all white in that panel to indicate that he is still a phantom in the Zone. Mon-El's recollection of the events of Superboy No. 89 contains two inaccuracies. Firstly, he thinks that Superboy knew of his weakness to lead before he hurled the lead balls to that planetoid. In actuality, Superboy just wanted to call Mon-El's bluff by painting the cannonballs green to pretend they are kryptonite. Secondly, Mon-El is shown becoming weak when he is surrounded by the whole, unbroken cannonballs, when he didn't get affected by the lead until they broke open, exposing him to the element, for the paint had created a protective barrier. Perhaps a combination of his initial lead exposure and his thousand year stay in the Phantom Zone contributed to Mon-El's faulty memory of the events. Mon-El correctly predicts that something from his super-advanced homeworld of Daxam will one day restore Lightning Lad to life. Sun Boy's hair is mis-colored blond on the last page of this story.
This issue contains the statement showing the ownership, management, and circulation of Adventure Comics for October 1, 1962. According to it, the average number of copies of each issue of Adventure Comics sold or distributed to paid subscribers during the 12 months preceding October, 1962 was 415,000. Adventure Comics No. 403 (Apr. 1971) Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1 |
One day in the 30th century,
Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy visit the tomb of
their slain friend, Lightning Lad. When they return to
the clubhouse, three applicants are waiting hoping to be
able to take the place of the dead hero. Of the three,
only the cocky Marvel Lad makes it through demonstrations
and goes on to be tested by Cosmic Boy, who plans to give
him three initiation tests. First, Marvel Lad's must fly
to a distant galaxy to locate the rare element fluvium to
be used in Brainiac 5's lead-poisoning antidote for
Mon-El. Marvel Lad returns in mere minutes with the task
complete. For the second test, Cosmic Boy sends him to
save the sun from being eaten by a sun-eater creature.
Marvel Lad flies into the sun's core and uses his heat
vision to the nth degree and gives the creature a
super-hot foot! It then flees to another part of the
solar system. For his third test, Marvel Lad must fly to
the planet Brogg and make it safe for space-pilots. Upon
arriving, Marvel Lad discovers that the monsters there
are just 3-D pictorial illusions arranged by
space-pirates to protect their booty. For one final test,
Marvel Lad is instructed by Cosmic Boy to discover a new
element! Using gold, silver and iron, Marvel Lad fuses
the three elements into a new anti-gravity metal: Element
No. 152. The next day, just before Marvel Lad is to be
sworn in as the team's newest member, he unmasks to
reveal that he is actually Mon-El, and already a
Legionnaire! Mon-El explains that the day before Brainiac
5 had created an anti-lead serum and tested it out on
him. They wanted to wait a full day to test the serum's
success before telling the others so Mon-El decided to
have a little fun by applying for membership incognito.
With the experimental 24 hours up, and Mon-El still
healthy in the presence of lead, he can leave the Phantom
Zone permanently. Mon-El asks that he be sent back to the
Zone for ten minutes so he can have the last laugh on the
outlaws there who tormented him for over ten centuries.
Back at the clubhouse, Mon-El hopes that one-day he can
use the super-science of his home world Daxam to one day
restore Lightning Lad to life.