Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Edmond Hamilton Writer: John Forte Roll Call: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Element Lad (joins as Mystery Lad), Invisible Kid, Saturn Girl, Sun Boy Applicants: "Green Kid", "Camera Eye", Jan Arrah (aka Mystery Lad, joins team this issue, becoming Element Lad) Villains: Roxxas and his fleet of raiders (about 3 dozen one-man ships) Other Characters: Various inhabitants of the planets Oranz, inhabitants of the planet Vuruna (heard but not seen), inhabitants of the planet Trom (in flashback only, planet not mentioned by name in this story. The first time Trom is mentioned by name is in the "Origins and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes" feature of Adventure Comics No. 316) "The Secret Power of the Mystery Super-Hero" (13 pages)
The Legion's era is referred to as the "21st century" in this story. Besides excusing it as being merely a typo, it is also possible that, by the Legion's time, a number of different calendar systems may be referred to. On the planet Oranz, Sun Boy uses his power to make a nearby peak white-hot so the people will have light until they make new "cold light" globes. Sun Boy has learned from past experience that he should not transfer his powers into large objects (Superman No. 156) because that will result in his losing his powers (Adventure Comics No. 302). In this story, Sun Boy only promises "I'll do what I can", not wanting to repeat that mistake. Superboy (and Bizarro) are only visible in this story in a projection from "Camera Eye". Camera Eye probably "recorded" the scene of Superboy fighting Bizarro No. 1 off of a fictional 3-D television program, since Superboy has never met the adult Bizarro. The Bizarro Superboy does not wear a sign around his neck reading: "Bizarro No. 1", only the adult version does. Cosmic Boy names Jan Arrah both Mystery Lad and Element Lad in this story. For a peaceful guy, Element Lad proves to be "good with his fists". Roxxas uses illegal Z-bombs, which most likely come from the same source as illegal Z-rays (Adventure Comics No. 304). In this story, we see the Legionnaires wear their new, visible anti-gravity flying-belts for the first time. The belts were introduced in the issue previous to this one but only as consolation prizes for worthy rejected applicants. On page 9, panel 1, Cosmic Boy refers to Roxxas by name, when before they didn't know who the raiders were. Most likely, Saturn Girl picked up the name from "telepathic impressions" while scanning for the raiders (as seen on page 7, panel 5) and told Cosmic Boy this shortly before the two prisoner raiders were brought forth for questioning. Mystery Lad uses the Legion's Secret Code in this story - a series of dots and dashes - to write a message to the team. Jan is obviously a very bright and intelligent lad since he had memorized the code in the short time that he has been a member. The brain of a transmutor from Trom must be a complex one to be able to recognize and manipulate complicated chemical formulae at a glance. Roxxas wants Jan Arrah to make uranium for him so he can manufacture doomsday bombs (like the doomsday bomb mentioned in Adventure Comics No. 303). When Jan Arrah dissolves the raiders' ship to commit suicide rather than have his power fall under their control, Roxxas says: "Our suits and helmets, being made of chemical compounds and not elements weren't affected". True, the inhabitants of Trom are indeed seen (in flashback) transmuting only single elements. And while that may also be the extent of Jan's ability in this story, he is also clearly seen aiming his power at the ship and not at the raiders. Roxxas wrongly assumes that Jan would kill him in vengeance if he could, judging him by his own morals (or lack thereof). In later issues, Element Lad is able to affect elements even if they are in compound form, such as turning water into a steel alloy (Adventure Comics No. 354) or pavement into rubber, an organic compound (Adventure Comics No. 359). Evidentally, Jan trained and perfected his power over his years in the Legion. Even though she thought he was dead at the time, Saturn Girl did not break her promise to Jan Arrah to never tell her team-mates the nature of his powers. The others learned about it from the captured raiders who escaped from the space-ship Mystery Lad had dissolved; Saturn Girl just confirms their story. The "clue" that readers were to pick up on in order to deduce Jan's power was the color change that accom,.panied the objects he affected. This would have been something most readers have been "trained" to overlook as many of the tales feature coloring mistakes. The spacesuits of the Legionnaires in this issue, for instance, start out being brown but change to green (page 9, panel 4) and then back again, yet Element Lad had nothing to do with that strange phenomenon! Cosmic Boy promises Jan that his power will "remain a mystery, to everyone except our Legion," but the name he gives him - Element Lad - is a pretty big clue. Perhaps the Legion simply disclosed that their new member's power was to "control the elements" and most people assumed that it meant weather control and not element transmutation. The fact of the matter is that for four years Element Lad only uses his power in special circumstances and not just against common criminals. It is not until one of Prince Evillo's henchmen finds out first-hand just what the Legionnaire is capable of (Adventure Comics No. 351) that the "secret" gets out amongst rogues in general . A few months after that, the news media prints a feature on the "Five Legion Orphans" and the fact that Jan is the sole survivor of the Trom massacre becomes public knowledge along with his power of transmutation (Adventure Comics No. 356). Element Lad appears next in Jimmy Olsen No. 70 (July 1963), although there he is called "Element Boy". Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 2 |
In light of the great number
of space raids led by Roxxas, the Legionnaires decide
that they need more members to prepare for the struggle.
Jan Arrah is accepted as Mystery Lad, but only on the
recommendation of Saturn Girl, the only member to know
the secret of his power. Improving on the designs of the
criminals' one-man rockets, Brainiac 5 supplies the
Legion with their own super-swift "space-bikes"
and the Legion pursues the raiders. On the water-world of
Vuruna, the Legionnaires do battle with the raiders, but
in rescuing a pontoon city from sinking, the raiders
manage to escape with huge, valuable pearls. Each time
the Legionnaires encounter the raiders, Mystery Lad
demonstrates his power though none of the members can
correctly guess its nature. After a couple of captured
raiders recognize Mystery Lad, Invisible Kid begins to
suspect the new member of being in league with the
plunderers. Mystery Lad deserts the team to confront the
raiders, who had killed all the inhabitants of his world
when they wouldn't use their transmutation powers to
create deadly elements for them. Only Jan Arrah survived
Roxxas' slaughter of his people and he himself is willing
to die so his power won't fall into the raiders' hands.
As Jan uses his power to dissolve the raiders' mother
ship and kill himself, Roxxas flees but is captured by
the Legion's faster crafts. Expecting Mystery Lad to be
dead, they discover that Invisible Kid had secretly
followed Jan and was able to place him in a spacesuit to
save his life. Upon finally learning the secret of his
power, Cosmic Boy officially changes Mystery Lad's name
to Element Lad.