Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Superboy Chronology | Legion Chronology Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Robert Bernstein Artist: George Papp Feature Character: Superboy Supporting Characters: Martha Kent, Lana Lang, Krypto Guest Legionnaires: Brainiac 5 (in flashback), Chameleon Boy (in flashback), Colossal Boy (page 7, panel 1 flashback), Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid (page 7, panel 1 flashback), Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl (in flashback), Saturn Girl, Sun Boy (also seen in flashback to when he joined) Villain: An impostor Sun Boy Other Characters: Tom Tanner (a Clark Kent lookalike), a freight train breakman, a milkman, Chief Parker, Eddie Collins (student at Smallville High; last name revealed in Superboy No. 93), Smallville High students, a history teacher, Cyclops the robot "The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero" (14 pages)
The state reform school (or state reformatory) is located near Smallville (Adventure Comics No. 301). Although Tom - at the beginning of the story - had big plans of putting hundreds of miles between it and him, he didn't get very far and was spotted when the train pulled into Smallville. Superboy has made robots of the following people by this time, as seen in this story: Superboy (x3), Clark Kent (x2), Ma Kent, Pa Kent, and Lana Lang. The impostor went to the trouble of wearing a Sun Boy mask and imitating the Legionnaire even though Sun Boy was a brand new member and Superboy hadn't met him yet. He probably feared that Superboy might check on his story or that the Legionnaires had already given Superboy a Sun Boy statuette. Superboy thinks that the "blinding electrical flash" that short-circuits every electrical object in a 50 mile radius is caused by the Legion time-bubble's door being left open. This is an incorrect assumption on the Boy of Steel's part because other stories show the time-bubble's door open without such similar negative effects and no blinding flash upon its arrival and departure - it just vanishes. The most likely cause of both the flash and resulting disturbance is the impostor's solar energy device, which he uses to simulate Sun Boy's radiance. After Superboy informs him of the short-circuits, the impostor probably adjusted the controls of his device to reduce the level of interference. Although the impostor Sun Boy tells Superboy that the Legion only admits one new member a year, this hasn't been true since Action Comics No. 267. Because he is an impostor, not everything he relates in flashback is 100% accurate, although we can assume most of it is factual. The only panel that is entirely made-up is panel 1 of page 7, which has the Legionnaires giving him his "assignment". Lightning Lad must have told the real Sun Boy about the weapon, as shown in panel 2 of page 7, because the impostor heard the story by spying on the Legion, and stole the list and diagram in addition to stealing the time-bubble. Still, in that panel, we can see the back of the heads of two Legionnaires whose nameplates are obscured. From their hair we can deduce that they are Invisible Kid (left) and Colossal Boy (right), although the one on the left might be Shrinking Violet, whose membership is not confirmed until the membership listing of "The Origin and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes" feature in Superman Annual No. 4, which came out about a month later on November 9th, 1961. It is likely that she joined at the same time as Sun Boy based on the "one boy, one girl" rule established previously. Sun Boy joins the Legion a week before the events of this story; the caption on the splash page says that he is the "newest member" of the club. The last time we saw Sun Boy, he was a rejected applicant (Action Comics No. 276). Obviously, some time between then and this issue, Sun Boy reapplied and was accepted. We later find out that the Legion holds applicant meetings to replace members who are inactive (Adventure Comics No. 305), so it is possible that Sun Boy was admitted to replace Star Boy, who probably lost his comet-induced super-powers around this time and took a temporary leave of absence while he perfected the mass-inducing power he was born with (Adventure Comics No. 317). It is highly probable that Star Boy had already lost his comet-induced powers by this issue because on page 14, panel 1, the caption indicates that the Legion of Super-Heroes clubhouse is on the planet Xanthu, Star Boy's home world. The Legionnaires could have built a temporary H.Q. there to help their teammate fight the increased crime-rate on his world while he adjusts to the loss (Star Boy later perfects his original powers and resumes his active status by Adventure Comics No. 310, with his "new" power explained in Adventure Comics No. 316's "Origins and Powers of the Super-Heroes" and Adventure Comics No. 317). The Legion jets seen in the flashback of this story are of a single jet-tube style, which is different from the twin-tube design we have seen on every previous appearance. It is possible that it is wrong because the impostor is telling the story. This is the last time that the teenage Legionnaires use any kind of jet pack and harness (although in the adult Legion tale of Action Comics No. 289 the single tube design can be seen again briefly). The jet-pack technology is replaced by the new anti-gravity belt, first shown in Adventure Comics No. 300. Cosmic Boy hid his part of the Cyclops robot under the polar ice-cap at the magnetic North Pole. Saturn Girl used her telepathic commands to get sea monsters to take her part of the Cyclops robot down to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, which would be the Mariana Trench (at nearly 6.8 miles below the surface, it is the lowest point on Earth). Where Lightning Lad, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl hid the remaining four parts is not specified, although they would no doubt also be in places equally suited to their respective powers. Artist George Papp was certainly on the ball for this story. On page 11, panel 2, the caption mentions that Smallville High has closed an hour earlier due to a teachers' convention. Smallville High usually gets out at 3:00 PM (Superboy No. 89 and others), so Papp correctly draws the clock on the Kents' kitchen wall to show that the time is 2:26 PM when Superboy shows up and finds the impostor Clark Kent already there. Although in the future it is public knowledge that Clark Kent is Superboy, the impostor states that he only learned this fact by spying on the Legion. True, there is a Superboy museum where the old Kent home stands (Adventure Comics No. 247) but the impostor might have come from another world and did not know about such things, just like Ultra Boy didn't (Superboy No. 98). Note that the impostor originally didn't even land the stolen time-bubble in Smallville. Instead he arrived just outside of the town Maple Grove, fifty miles away. The fact that Superboy brought the impostor to the Legion clubhouse on Xanthu might mean that the impostor was from Xanthu as well. As the impostor found it easy to spy on and steal from the Legion, their second, temporary clubhouse on Xanthu must have had less security systems compared to the main building on Earth. We find out in this story that the Legion has a secret handshake among its members. Only on saying "good-bye" do members clasp their right hands together, raised to shoulder height, with arms bent at the elbow. This is the first and only time we see this secret handshake. The only power Sun Boy displays at this time is his super-radiance. The first time we have any indication of his heat radiance power is in Superman Annual No. 4's "Origins and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes" (cover date Winter 1962; on-sale date Nov. 30th, 1961). The first time we see his heat power in story context is in Action Comics No. 287, which is the next story he appears in. Superboy assumes that Tom Tanner, "regenerated" by the ray, has forgotten about learning his secret identity. There is no evidence to support Superboy's theory. It could be possible that the reformed Tom does remember but has no intention of telling anyone of his discovery. Tom Tanner must have been released fairly quickly from the state reformatory because of good behavior, since Lex Luthor was later a regular inmate and would have wondered about seeing a Clark Kent lookalike in there (Adventure Comics No. 301). Lex has also served time in the Smallville reformatory (Adventure Comics No. 300). This story is, in part, a Silver Age remake of "The Two Clark Kents" from Adventure Comics No. 191. Naturally, that story did not have any mention of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Click Cover to Enlarge Superboy No. 147 (June 1968) Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1 Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 |
Tom Tanner, a
lookalike of Clark Kent, runs away from the state reform
school and is mistaken for Clark by the citizens of
Smallville, including Ma Kent. Superboy, meanwhile,
investigates the appearance of a machine resembling a
Legion time-bubble, which has appeared outside of Maple
Grove, a town 50 miles from Smallville. Upon arriving he
is met by a teen introducing himself as Sun Boy, the
latest member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He explains
to Superboy that he was assigned the mission of
retrieving six lead-covered chests containing the
dismantled parts of a secret weapon the team had
previously hidden around the globe in the 1930s. Shortly,
Superboy discovers that someone is posing as him at
school. He decides to locate the six containers first
then expose the impostor. Tom Tanner, meanwhile, is
beginning to enjoy life as a student in Smallville, even
attracting Lana with his newfound machismo. When Superboy
completes the mission for Sun Boy, who returns in the
bubble to his own time, he returns home to see Ma Kent
unwittingly revealing Clark's secret identity to Tom. At
the same time, outside Smallville, Sun Boy has secretly
returned and begun assembling the six parts of the
Cyclops robot, which can emit a ray that has the power to
change good people into evil ones and vice versa. The ray
also contains a few particles of kryptonite dust, which
makes it effective against even Superboy. When the robot
arrives at the Kent home, it mistakes Tom for
Clark/Superboy and zaps him with the ray. Superboy feigns
a character change then melts the Cyclops robot to slag.
Then Superboy tosses the impostor into the time-bubble
and takes him back to the 30th century. In front of the
Legionnaires and the real Sun Boy, he unmasks the
impostor explaining that he gave himself away when he
didn't use the club's secret handshake upon saying
goodbye. Back in Smallville, the now good Tom decides to
return to the reform school and become a better person.
He also forgets that he learned Clark's secret identity
as Superboy.