Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Superboy Chronology | Legion Chronology Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jerry Siegel Artist: George Papp Feature Character: Superboy Supporting Characters: Krypto, Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent Guest Legionnaires: Cosmic Boy, Lightning Boy (called Lightning Lad in this story), Saturn Girl Villain: An escaping prisoner Other Characters: Citizens of Smallville, a detective, an underground-world reptilian creature, the Mayor of Smallville, various super-heroes from many worlds, a radio announcer, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (behind the scenes) "Prisoner of the Super-Heroes" (11 pages)
The three charter members of the Legion journey to 1930s Smallville. The President at this time is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for whom Superboy performed his mission to destroy all traces of a posionous gas. All three Legionnaires have costumes closer to the ones that they will use regularly, although Cosmic Boy's is lavender in color and Saturn Girl's is dark pink. The Legionnaires continue to use their space-jets in this story. Cosmic Boy projects his magnetism mentally or through his eyes in this story. Saturn Girl's hair is darker (light brown) in this story. According to editor Mort Weisinger: "Saturn Girl's a natural blonde - but in No. 267, she had her hair dyed brown" (Adventure Comics No. 351 "The Legion Outpost"). Her hair was dyed strawberry blonde in her previous appearance in Adventure Comics No. 247. Lightning Boy is called Lightning Lad by Superboy in this story, something that catches on throughout the citizenry of Smallville, but the Legionnaires themselves never refer to Garth as Lightning Lad. The fact that in his next appearance he goes by the name of Lightning Lad shows that he must have liked the alliterativeness of the name and decided to keep it. Garth continues to clap his hands together to produce his super-lightning bolts. Superboy penetrates into an underground world in this story, accidentally releasing a giant monster. This world is possibly the one located 25 miles beneath Smallville that Boy of Steel will later discover in the Superboy tale of Adventure Comics No. 302. Saturn Girl is able to use her hypnosis to control the wills of animals, even super-Kryptonian animals, like Krypto. The crowd of hundreds of super-beings came from many worlds (and, possibly, eras) to help build the artificial Superboy Planet honoring the "greatest super-hero of them all". They seem to all be able to breath in space (like Lightning Lad does in Superboy No. 86), so an additional function of these kind of space-jets must be to generate a bubble of breathable air around the wearer as well as provide protection from solar radiation. Superboy Planet seems to have the added effect of giving (more) super-powers to its visitors. This is seen in everyone's abilities to lift giant boulders and blocks easily and on page 8, panel 2, Saturn Girl is shown carving boulders into blocks by casting "electricity" from her eyes (also seen on the cover). The Legionnaires believe that Superboy will turn into a criminal because all historical information on him five years beyond his teenage years are missing - "lost in a fire". This, combined with the fact that time-travel was a fairly new technology to 30th century Earth, made knowledge of Superboy's heroic career as the adult Superman (and, therefore, the additional existence of a Supergirl) unknown to them at this time. The Legionnaires used the "routine" procedure of checking on Superboy's near future with their futurescope so as not to risk changing history. The device proved to be flawed and it is the last time they use it. It sounds as if the futurescope can only be used while back in the past to see up to five years in the future. They replace it with a "time viewer" in subsequent stories, which is used in the 30th century to view events in the past. The Legionnaires at this time are under the incorrect assumption that the past, and future, can be changed. The fact that they locked up Superboy for actions he hadn't yet done proves that they are trying to prevent the Boy of Steel from ever doing them. Ironically, if they do that, then he should never be tried because he won't have done the crimes! This seeming paradox might explain why the Legionnaires stay on Superboy Planet for days after jailing him; they and the other super-heroes may have been re-thinking the ethical implications of their actions. Because the Legionnaires had locked up Superboy, and therefore interfering with history, fate (ie. the build-up of the natural force of time) caused the Superboy trophy to explode and trigger an atomic chain reaction that freed Superboy and turned everything, including the kryptonite in his prison, into the element Sigellian. Named after this story's writer, Jerry Siegel, this radioactive element is as deadly to non-Kryptonians as kryptonite is to Kryptonians. The vibrations of Superboy's super-shout rendered the Sigellian harmless but, as he mentions in the story (on page 10, panel 5), he can not work the same stunt with kryptonite because nearness to it makes him too weak to shout. In the second last panel of this story, Superboy mentions Krypto as being there though he is not seen. By way of an explanation, it is possible that the Canine of Steel ducked behind some rubble or is moving so fast that only Superboy can see him. Superboy is drawn to look much shorter than Ma and Pa Kent. According to Superboy No. 86, Superboy is 5' 10", which would make Jonathan Kent, who appears to be an entire head taller than Superboy, about 6' 5". Martha Kent, depicted as about a half-head taller than Clark, would be around 6' 2"! The Kents may indeed come from hardy stock, and Superboy may have been slightly shorter in this issue than in the later ones in which his stats appear, but, as most teenaged boys are taller than their parents, making the Kents appear taller was probably a technique used by artists to convey maturity. Note that in Action Comics No. 267, the grown-up Superwoman appears like a giant compared to Saturn Girl but really there shouldn't have been any significant change in height, since the height a girl reaches by her mid-teens is usually as tall as she gets. Superman Annual No. 8 (Winter 1964) Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1 Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 |
Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and
Saturn Girl revisit Superboy in 20th century Smallville,
only this time they are less than friendly with him.
After the Legionnaires out-compete him on several jobs,
the town of Smallville begins to treat Superboy like a
has-been, preferring the futuristic trio instead. After
Superboy's parents and Krypto snub him, the Teen of Steel
decides to leave Earth permanently. Out in space he
discovers a convoy of flying super-beings; he decides to
follow them and is surprised to discover a Superboy
Planet, where he is jailed upon his arrival. He is
brought before the Council of Superboy Planet - the three
charter members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. They
declare that Superboy is to be imprisoned in a kryptonite
jail on this world due to crimes that, according to their
futurescope, he will commit five years hence. Saturn Girl
tells him that she used her hypnotic powers to make
Smallville turn against him in order to lure him to this
artificial planet, originally built to honor him. Days
later, a freak explosion and chain reaction transforms
the planet into Sigellian, a blue element whose
radiations are fatal to all but Superboy. Using a
super-shout, Superboy transforms the elemental structure
of Sigellian and renders it harmless. All the
super-heroes vote in Superboy's favor despite the future
"evidence", which is soon discovered to be
faulty. The time-scope was actually showing events from
the recent past, which showed Superboy carrying out
top-secret military missions for the President.