Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Edmond Hamilton Artist: John Forte Roll Call: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Superboy, Ultra Boy Applicants: Ronn Kar, Alaktor (in order to spy) Villains: Alaktor, Emperor Nero (from 64 A.D.), John Dillinger (from 1934), Adolph Hitler (from 1945) Other Characters: A test-robot, three Roman soldiers, two bank employees from 1934, a policeman from 1934, Nazi pilots (in war-planes) from 1945, Allied pilots (in planes) from 1945, two SS guards from 1945 "The Super-Villains of All Ages" (17 pages; Part I: 8 pages) After the Legionnaires perform their normal routine of checking clubhouse security, they examine hopeful applicants Ronn Kar and Alaktor, both of whom are rejected. The latter, however, was only pretending to apply and was in fact secretly x-ray photographing every hidden security device. The Legion goes to the wandering planet known as Lost World, to ensure that its powerful machines are guarded as it passes through Earth's solar system. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Alaktor sneaks back into the clubhouse, eluding all the security systems, save one - the alarm beacon, which brings the team back but only in time to see Alaktor vanish in a stolen time-bubble. The Legionnaires can't follow him as they only had the one, and so begin the task of building a second in order to pursue the villain. Alaktor's plan to recruit history's greatest villainy brings him to his earliest stop-off point, 64 A.D., where he "rescues" Nero from an angry mob during the burning of Rome. Zooming ahead to 1934, Alaktor then picks up John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber. As the Legionnaires complete the second bubble, Saturn Girl telepathically leads them to 1945 and they witness Alaktor taking Hitler from the last days of WWII. Part II: "The Civil War of the Legion" (Part II: 9 pages)
Saturn Girl begins to reassert herself as the Legion's leader in this story. After Lightning Lad's death she had the leadership support of both Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy to help her. Now, after Lightning Lad's return, she is "stepping up to the plate" again in terms of being a strong leader of the team. The Legion's time-machine is called a time-bubble from here on in the chronicles. It was called a time bubble in the very first Legion adventure (Adventure Comics No. 247) but after that it was refered to as either a time-machine, a time-cabinet, a time-sphere, or a time-globe. Alaktor is allowed to apply for membership though he looks well over the 18-year age limit because, with the great diversity of life in the universe, the Legionnaires choose not to guess at any applicant's age based on just their appearance. First they see what the person can do and, if he or she has a worthy power, they retain the applicant for the next phase of the testing procedure, which includes finding out their stats. The Legion ship is colored orange-gold in this story. Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy build a replica of the clubhouse on Lost World. Alaktor's spy cameras failed to pick up the alarm beacon signal hooked into a tv scanner in the weapons room because he wasn't thorough enough in his analysis of the pictures he took and so failed to realize it was not an ordinary tv scanner. Also, he did not have photographs of the alarm beacon because it is located outside of the clubhouse, on the roof. Lightning Lad's electrical bolts are colored red in this story. Usually they are yellow. The Legion had a second time-bubble in Adventure Comics No. 293, but it must not have been available in this story since they were forced to build a second one from scratch in order to pursue Alaktor. The Legionnaires build another, more powerful one in Adventure Comics No. 317 to try to pierce the "Iron Curtain of Time". Later, in Adventure Comics No. 349, Universo steals a bubble and destroys a second. One has to assume in that case that the two other bubbles (remember, are similarly indisposed. Time-bubbles must wear out and breakdown fairly often due to the stresses of time-travel and so one is in maintenance at all times to ensure safety. The fourth bubble was probably given to Superman as a present and has been shown on occasion to reside in his Fortress of Solitude. In the following letter, from Adventure Comics No. 318, a reader asks the following question:
An odd answer since, in truth, Nero did play the lyre and not the violin. The violin was not invented until the early 16th century in Northern Italy. On page 7, panel 5 of Part I in the time-bubble the dialogue balloons seem to be pointing to the wrong speakers. It should be the one pointing towards Lightning Lad that says "Look out..." and not Sun Boy. Also, it is Sun Boy who throws the time-bubble a little into the past to avoid collision with the Allied planes, not Saturn Girl. Part II's title is used again in Adventure Comics No. 333. Although having seen Alaktor with Hitler, Nero and Dillinger in the stolen time-bubble, for some reason Saturn Girl doesn't have a clue as to who the three masked men in the bubble are when they show up on Lost World. There is no good explanation to cover up this error. The real-life answer is that many times the covers were thought of and done first and then a story built around it. Unfortunately, many times during the story's development, the cover scene is forced into the tale. In this issue's case, the scene is illogical and should have been cut. If one had to find an "in-story" explanation, one has to assume that Saturn Girl's mind and memory was being confused by a device on Alaktor's "marvel belt", or perhaps short-term memory problems may occur in time-travelers, particularly those with sensitive minds? Ultra Boy admits to not being able to see through the masks which were "specially treated with lead and various chemical compounds through which not even a telepathic wave can pass through". Either the masks were treated with the forerunner to inertron (secrets which Alaktor could have stolen from a developmental lab) or they were treated with a radioactive compound that weakened Ultra Boy's vision enough to prevent him from seeing through lead. Since Saturn Girl cannot use her telepathy through the masks, one of the chemical compounds must have been lurium, which blocks telepathic signals. Superboy says that he recognizes Nero, Dillinger and Hitler "from history". Dillinger was from Superboy's own time era; the criminal met his just end in 1934, so that event would have been only a few years ago to Superboy and so considered recent "history". Superboy would also know of Hitler, who was Chancellor of Germany in his own time (and recently hosted the summer Olympic games as a platform for Aryan propaganda). When Superboy says "they're all dead", he is referring to the fact that since he is now in the 30th century, all three shouldn't still be alive. It remains an odd thing for the Boy of Steel to say seeing how he saw them step out of a time-bubble, not to mention the fact that he himself is a time-traveller from over a millenium ago.
Both Saturn Girl and Alaktor appear to know how to operate the machines on Lost World. The Legionnaires must have been studying the planet since it drifted through Earth's solar system. Saturn Girl, being a telepath, is a quick study. Alaktor, being an inventor and scientist picked up on the operations of some of the machines quickly. Obviously he used one of his inventions to sneak past the Legion's security of the wandering planet to learn about the weapons there. Invisible Kid's costume and hair are not colored in this story, being white, during times when he should be visible. His face is colored correctly, however. This is the first time it is stated that Mon-El must take his lead antidote every 48 hours (in the caption of Part II, page 8, panel 4). Originally, in Adventure Comics No. 305, the antidote was meant to be permanent, with Mon-El passing the experimental time-limit of 24 hours. This issue's story necessitated having a weakness for each of the three super-heroes in order to stop the villainous personalities controlling them. Thus, the explanation is that shortly after the events of Adventure Comics No. 305, the Legionnaires discovered that the serum's positive effects only lasted another 24 hours for a total of 48 hours, after which time another dose of the serum was required. Mon-El takes his serum every day (Adventure Comics No. 329's "Know Your Legionnaires" text feature) to be on the safe side and so it becomes a habit he won't forget but in this story Nero doesn't know about the weakness and so has neglected to take it. This is the first (published) time that Ultra Boy is said to possess a super-power other than penetra-vision. He is said to have used his super-strength to help Superboy and Mon-El push Lost World into a cosmic cloud. As a consequence of Ultra Boy's greater powers, he is given a weakness to "radioactive force" in this story as well. Ultra Boy is weakened by radioactive force even though radioactivity is what gave him his ultra-powers. This is not as paradoxical as one might think since Jo Nah gained his powers from a specific kind of radioactivity. Therefore, other wavelengths of radioactivity could indeed interfere with the utilization of his ultra-energy. This issue went on sale Thursday September 26th, 1963. Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 2 |
Alaktor and his evil crew
arrive on Lost World and using his greatest invention -
the psycho-changer - he projects the personalities of
Hitler, Nero and Dillinger into Superboy, Mon-El and
Ultra Boy, respectively. Believing themselves to be the
three villains of history, they turn on Alaktor. Saturn
Girl tricks them by activating a weather control tower
and buys the Legionnaires time to escape and plan. They
return later and Saturn Girl telepathically implants
knowledge of each of the super-"villains"
weaknesses into the other so that they plot against each
other simultaneously and defeat themselves. Alaktor is
forced to reverse the process and the Legionnaires return
the three villains to their historical retribution.
Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy use their super-strength
to push Lost World into a cosmic cloud to be hidden
forever.
Alaktor says
that the psycho-changer works on Superboy because it is
not affecting his invulnerable body but rather his mind
and personality. Superboy can indeed be hypnotized if
caught off-guard or if kryptonite dust is used in
conjunction with an hypnotic device. Alaktor's machine
may have indeed used kryptonite. As for how
the device works, it seems to have super-imposed the
personality and memories of Hitler onto Superboy's mind,
pushing his own personality and memories into the
subconscious areas of his brain. The fact that Hitler
knows how to fly when Superboy had to learn that skill
shows that the knowledge of how to use his powers still
remains, albeit on an instinctive level. Superboy's mind
was not transferred into Hitler's body as proven by the
fact that the dictator's body remains in a coma-like
trance, with no personality to keep it conscious. The
same goes for Nero and Dillinger.