Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Supergirl Chronology | Legion Chronology Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jerry Siegel Artist: Jim Mooney Feature Character: Supergirl Supporting Characters: Superman Guest Legionnaires: Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Invisible Kid, Saturn Girl, Star Boy (joins behind the scenes) Other Characters: Children of Midvale Orphanage, a school bus driver, two drawbridge control workers, two cyclotron operators at the Superman Fair, a lion tamer, a bulldozer crew, some children playing baseball, a Linda Lee robot, 30th c. robot laborers, passengers aboard the Stargazer IV, various Legion applicants (behind the scenes) "The Three Super-Heroes" (13 pages)
Later, back in Midvale, Supergirl meets those same three teen-agers, but now wearing colorful action costumes. They introduce themselves as Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl, and ask her if she's interested in visiting the future with them and joining the Legion of Super-Heroes, the same team her cousin Superman joined when he was Superboy. Flying alongside their time-bubble, she arrives in 30th century Metropolis. After a quick tour, ending with the customary visit to the ice-cream parlor, she is taken to the Super-Hero Clubhouse and introduced to the other members - Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy and Invisible Kid - who each demonstrate their power to the Girl of Steel. Kara is then told that she must perform a super-feat more spectacular than the competing applicants have already staged to be voted in. Immediately, Supergirl sets off and digs the first trans-Earth tunnel in order to divert some of the air traffic through it. Unfortunately, after encountering a red kryptonite meteor during her feat, she is transformed into a Superwoman. Because she is now over the club's 18-year old age limit, Kara is rejected. After returning to her own time, she is happy to discover that the effects only lasted one hour. In her orphanage room, Linda Lee wonders if she'll ever be invited again to join. Just like her super-cousin Clark Kent before her, the first Legionnaire that Linda Lee meets is Lightning Lad, in plain clothes. Cosmic Boy still uses his "magnetic eyes" in this story, although he does it in combination with extending his two arms outward (page 6, panel 2). When the three charter members reveal their real identities to Supergirl, they introduce themselves as the "children of the three young super-heroes who befriended Superboy". This is obviously an initiation prank the Legionnaires are playing on Supergirl. In fact, the mischievous expression on Saturn Girl's face as she tells Kara confirms this (albeit this is all in hindsight). Just prior to the start of this story, the Legionnaires learned, through their new time-viewer, about Superboy's life as Superman and so, too, discovered the existence of a Supergirl. They had also discovered that super-Kryptonians are capable of travelling through the time-barrier without the aid of a time-machine (note that they invited Superboy into their time-bubble in Adventure Comics No. 247 but give Supergirl a choice of going with them in the time-bubble or not). Although the Legionnaires took Superboy to 30th century Smallville, they take Supergirl to 30th century Metropolis. This may seem like an inconsistancy but only from a 20th century point of view. Both Smallville and Midvale are towns located within 100 miles of Metropolis and in Metropolis State. By the Legion's time, Metropolis has expanded so much that it incorporates both towns into itself. The Legion took both Superboy and Supergirl to their clubhouse in the Smallville sector of Metropolis, only they referred to it specifically as being Smallville to Superboy and generally as "Metropolis" to Supergirl (in fact, the first 30th century scene that both Superboy and Supergirl see is essentially the exact same one). The Legionnaires are still using space-jets to fly. According to Saturn Girl, in the 30th century: "Machines do all our heavy physical work. Man is free to labor mainly with his mind" (page 9, panel 1). When Superboy visited the ice-cream parlor (Adventure Comics No. 247) you see a human working behind the counter, but when Supergirl visits there in this story the place is automated. This doesn't necessarily mean that the man lost his job to the machine. Either the man seen in Adventure Comics No. 247 is the owner and has machines there to help him run his business or he is actually an android made at the Android Factory as shown in Action Comics No. 287 and Adventure Comics No. 340.
Both Supergirl and Superboy share a preference for Martian ice-cream (and Saturn Girl seems to like her ice-cream in bowls or sodas as opposed to in a cone). This issue features the first comic book appearances of any 30th century Legionnaires besides the three charter members: Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, and Invisible Kid. In Superboy No. 147 we will learn that Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl were actually members before them. Chameleon Boy and Colossal Boy are known to have applied at the same time (Adventure Comics No. 350 "Meet the Legionnaires"). Since Supergirl does not recognize Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl in Action Comics No. 276, it must be assumed that both girls were on missions during this story. This is the first published story in which the charter members wear their official costumes. Chameleon Boy and Colossal Boy sport the costume designs they will continue to wear throughout their Legion careers. Invisible Kid's costume, however, is colored yellow with green trim, and he has black hair, for the first year-and-a-half of his membership. He isn't shown in the more famous tan and brown with green trim, and with brown hair, until Adventure Comics No. 304, and even then he doesn't wear those colors consistantly, until Adventure Comics No. 316. Also, in this issue he is actually wearing shorts (page 11, panel 1)! Cosmic Boy refers to the "other club members" as having inherited their super-powers "from their parents from other worlds". This statement is refers to himself, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy (and in retrospect, Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl). While Lightning Lad is from another world, he didn't inherit his power from his parents, and Colossal Boy and Invisible Kid are from Earth and acquired their powers by other means. The Legionnaires tell Supergirl in this story that "only one applicant a year is approved", although this is hard to believe with so many members joining all the time. It is possible that they are continuing to pull initiation pranks on Supergirl with this bit of false information, however, there is some truth to it. If you accept that this story takes place on the last day of the calendar year in 2962, so December 31st, then only one more new member will be accepted that year. This statment is backed up when Saturn Girl adds: "But you must hurry! The time during which we will select this year's new member is almost up!" When the Legion close their doors to applicants at, say, 6 pm, it will be the end of the year as far as new members are concerned. The fact is that the Legionnaires decide what their membership needs are at each meeting. If there are applicants waiting to be seen, they may make a selection of however many new members they need to fulfill their mission requirements at the time. Sometimes they select the best single applicant out of a group (Action Comics No. 267, Adventure Comics No. 301), and sometimes two (Action Comics No. 276) or more (Adventure Comics No. 346) applicants are chosen. The 18-year old age limit is a real regulation, however, and is written into the Legion's constitution. It is first mentioned in this story and it only applies to new members. It does not mean that members are expelled after exceeding this age limit (Adventure Comics No. 334 "The Legion Outpost"). Supergirl says she is 15 years old in this story (page 12, panel 5); since the age clause is based on an applicant's physical age, when Supergirl turns into a Superwoman, she is no longer elligible for membership. The Trans-Earth tunnel Supergirl digs is the first of four Earth Tube tunnels shown later in the 30th century (Adventure Comics No. 303, 336, & 367). This story marks the second time Supergirl encounters red kryptonite. The first time was in Action Comics No. 265 but she does not recall that event. The grown-up Superwoman appears like a giant compared to Saturn Girl although 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. This is a technique used by artists to convey maturity and is also used when depicting the greater height of the Kents compared to Superboy (who is 5' 10"). Supergirl confirms that she has definitely become a full-grown woman when she thinks (with much relief): "It's a good thing my super-costume can stretch to any size!" The Legionnaires could have made Supergirl an honorary member after she was transformed into an adult, as honorary members can be over the 18-year age limit, like Jimmy Olsen, but the Legionnaires went back in time to make Supergirl an active member of their team, not just reward her for helping Superman. They also wanted her to be able to operate out in the open and not just be limited to being Superman's "helper". The Legionnaires tell Supergirl that she will be elligible to join "next year", although they could have easily accepted her at the next regular meeting. They keep her waiting so long because when the Legionnaire's observed what happened to her, they wondered if perhaps it was fate that was interfering, preventing her from joining at this point in time for some unknown reason. Remember that Lightning Lad had first-hand experience with the laws of temporal determinism in his adventure just previous to this one, when he saved Superboy from a kryptonite trap only to discover moments later that the Boy of Steel would have been freed anyway (Superboy No. 86); not to mention the adventure on the Superboy Planet before that (Adventure Comics No. 267). So, when Supergirl broke the laws of probability by stumbling across a small chunk of red K buried deep in the Earth, the effect of which was to make her too old for membership, the Legionnaires probably used their time-viewer to check on any important events that Supergirl had to do first in her own time before she could join their team on a regular basis. What they discovered was that in approximately nine month's time (from Supergirl's point of view), Kara would play a crucial role in both saving the life of Superman and preserving his secret identity (Action Comics No. 276 Superman story)! Notice that immediately after Supergirl has fulfilled this role in this pivotal time of crisis, the Legionnaires return to invite her back to try out again. The Legionnaires tell Supergirl that someone else was chosen to be a member in Superwoman's place, although the story does not specify who. But in the very next Legion appearance (Adventure Comics No. 282), Star Boy tells Superboy of how he was made a member of the team. Nicely enough, in the foreground of that flashback panel (Adventure Comics No. 282, Page 5, panel 3) you can see the back of a blonde female's head that looks a lot like the adult Superwoman! Action Comics No. 334 (G-20) (Mar. 1966) Supergirl Archives Vol. 1 Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1 Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 Showcase Presents: Supergirl Vol. 1 |
While at the Superman
Fair in Metropolis with the other Midvale orphans, Linda
Lee meets three teen-agers, each with a super-power and
each seeming to know her secret identity as Supergirl.
