Deck Log Entry # 226 The Silver-Age Challenge---the Legion of Super-Heroes Edition II

[Commander Benson]

At the conclusion of last year's Silver-Age challenge, I told you guys that I already had the questions for this year's quiz prepared.  Well, I did, as in past tense.  Last week, when I gave them a final scrubbing, I discovered that I had forgotten that I had already asked one of them in my first Legion quiz seven years ago.  Another one was so similar to a question from that 2013 LSH quiz that it would have been too easy to find the answer. 

 

And when I checked a third poser to see how Google-proof it was, one of the hits took me back to a comment I posted three years ago on one of the General Comics Discussions threads, a comment which gave away the answer.

 

So I had to generate three new questions to throw at you.  Fortunately, one of them turned out to be better than any of those I tossed out.  By "better", I mean that it's strong in that "Hey, I didn't know that!" quality which makes the answers fun for folks to learn.  The other two, alas, are clearly from "the Legion of Substitute Questions", but they'll serve in a pinch.

You old vets of my Silver-Age challenges are already flexing your typing fingers.  But, as always, for any test-takers who're here because they landed on this page while looking for something else and decided, "What the hey, I 'll give it a go!", here are the rules---with one special change that even the veterans should note:

 

1.  All of the questions, and answers, are drawn from Silver-Age material.  Ordinarily, that means anything produced by DC from the publication of Showcase # 4 (Sep.-Oct., 1956) to December, 1968, which I demark as the end of the Silver Age.  However, just as with the last Legion quiz, I draw a special demarcation for this one; the parameters are slightly narrowed from the usual beginning-to-end of the Silver Age envelope.  Here, all the questions and all the answers will fall between the time frame marked from the Legion’s first appearance, in Adventure Comics # 247 (Apr., 1958), to the last Silver-Age Legion story penciled by Curt Swan, in Adventure Comics # 372 (Sep., 1968).

 

Note, though, that the questions and answers can come from any publication; it's just that the time frame is bound by those two issues of Adventure Comics. 

 

2.  I’m definitely not infallible.  I might have missed something, somewhere, in twelve years of DC publication.  If you come up with an answer that meets the criteria of the question and can cite the Silver-Age reference, then I will gladly award you credit.  “But I always thought . . . “ explanations won’t cut it, though.

 

3.  I’ve got no problem with anybody using a search engine to look for answers.  I try to make my questions as immune to Googling as possible.  The right answers are difficult to find with a search engine, though I cannot say impossible.  At least once, I tripped myself up when an article I had written for another site contained the answer to a question from that year’s quiz, and one of the players found it.

 

4.  There are no prizes.  You’re playing for bragging rights.

Any time I post a Deck Log entry involving the Legion of Super-Heroes, I get a considerable amount of activity.  And, sometimes, controversy, too---but the sort that is well-mannered and respectful when men of good will disagree, and that sort is always welcome.  So, we'll probably see the same thing this time.  At least, I hope so, if I done my job as quizmaster well enough.

 

O.K., then, here we go!  As usual, I'll start off with a lob . . .

 

1.  Who was the first non-charter member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes?

 

2.  Who is the leader of the Legion Espionage Squad and which Legionnaires are permanently assigned to the squad?

 

3.  On what 20th-century television programme did the Legion make a guest appearance?

 

4.  On what world is Element Lad's super-power viewed as criminal and results in planetary banishment?

 

5.  Besides their super-son, which Legionnaires have Ma and Pa Kent knowingly met?

 

6.  Excluding the Adult Legion stories, name all of the Legionnaires who, at some point after joining the Legion, permanently replaced their super-hero names with new ones.

 

7.  Thanks to the machinations of Dream Girl, Lightning Lass was expelled from the Super-Hero Club for violating what provision of the Legion Constitution?

 

8.  Other than Luthor, what recurring 20th-century super-villain from Earth was mentioned by name in a Legion story appearing in Adventure Comics?

 

9.  According to the Legion Constitution, what is the maximum number of successive space missions a Legionnaire may undertake without a rest period?

 

10.  We all know that Cosmic Boy was the Legion's first leader, right?  But how do we know this?  Where---comic and issue number---was that first definitively established?

 

 

Good luck, gang!

[Philip Portelli]

Well, #2 was COLOSSAL BOY who was the Legion's Treasurer in Adventure Comics #304, a position that we never saw again! 

[Peter Wrexham]

Misery in Spades said:

      1. What's most unusual about the picture used to decorate the old Legion Outpost letter column that Cmdr. Benson also used as the header for this trivia quiz?

I can think of several unusual things about that picture, though I'm not certain what you'd consider the most unusual.

1. The art is by Curt Swan and George Klein, but it was first used to head the lettercol more than a year before they started to illustrate the Legion feature.  The earliest use that I can confirm is in Adventure #321 (June 1964).  It might have appeared in the previous issue, when the lettercol name changed from "Smallville Mailsack" to "The Legion Outpost", but I don't have that comic. Swan and Klein didn't take over the illustration chores until Adventure #340 (Feb 1966).
2. In quite a lot of comics, the picture is printed with incorrect colours  Colossal Boy is often shown with a red top instead of green, and in Adventure #329 at least, Shrinking Violet also has a blue top instead of green.
3. The picture itself is taken from the cover of Adventure #316, but on that cover, the central space between Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy is empty.  In the lettercol illustration, that empty space is occupied by Superboy holding a sheet of paper.  I haven't been able to identify the source for Superboy's picture, though I feel I should be able to do so.

Actually, I suspect that your question refers to item 3.  Here's the cover we're talking about.

There's another interesting thing about the copy of this comic that I own.  The comic includes a bonus feature, "The Origin and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes".  This was updated and reprinted in Adventure #365.  My copy of #316 has pencil annotations to the feature which seem to indicate editorial amendments to be made,  The picture of Triplicate Girl has her name changed to Duo Damsel, and the note "Delete one girl" added.  The picture of Lightning Lass isn't renamed, but it is annotated "Change this so she's shooting rays at tree, which is uprooting, going up".

I've no idea where or when I acquired this issue (though it's in a mylar bag with a price tag of £1.95).  I wonder if it was originally a piece of DC's editorial stock used by whoever supervised the reprint of the feature in #365.

[Runt Hipper...Time Waster]

Yeah, that's it. It bothers me a little that he was the Treasurer and someone (Paul Levitz, according to Wikipedia) decided that Colossal Boy was Jewish (because his real name is Allon, an Israeli name) (I'm half Jewish), but I'm sure he meant nothing by it.

Philip Portelli said:

Well, #2 was COLOSSAL BOY who was the Legion's Treasurer in Adventure Comics #304, a position that we never saw again! 

[Fraser Sherman]

That is some impressive mastery of detail. My compliments. I didn't remember the Legion ever had a treasurer, though obviously if they never referenced the job again, that's understandable.

Philip Portelli said:

Well, #2 was COLOSSAL BOY who was the Legion's Treasurer in Adventure Comics #304, a position that we never saw again! 

[Philip Portelli]

Thank you, Fraser! I had just gone through the early Adventure run but this was something I already knew.

As for Question #1, all I got was that Superboy was usually out of proportion with the other Legionnaires, looking much larger which was fitting as he was the star of the book for the longest time!

Fraser Sherman said:

That is some impressive mastery of detail. My compliments. I didn't remember the Legion ever had a treasurer, though obviously if they never referenced the job again, that's understandable.

Philip Portelli said:

Well, #2 was COLOSSAL BOY who was the Legion's Treasurer in Adventure Comics #304, a position that we never saw again! 

[Runt Hipper...Time Waster]

All of your suggestions are true, but there's something even weirder going on--red kryptonite weird.

[Fraser Sherman]

Well it's not what you're thinking of (I'm quite sure) but it's odd they can just destroy his insignia. It's not like a a symbol of military rank or a Legion flight ring, so I'd think he has every right to wear it.

Misery in Spades said:

All of your suggestions are true, but there's something even weirder going on--red kryptonite weird.

[Runt Hipper...Time Waster]

Fraser, I'm not sure what you're talking about, but it has nothing to do with Ultra Boy.

Fraser Sherman said:

Well it's not what you're thinking of (I'm quite sure) but it's odd they can just destroy his insignia. It's not like a a symbol of military rank or a Legion flight ring, so I'd think he has every right to wear it.

Misery in Spades said:

All of your suggestions are true, but there's something even weirder going on--red kryptonite weird.

[Peter Wrexham]

I think Fraser is discussing the weirdness of the scene on the cover of Adventure #316, whereas Misery wants us to identify what is weird about the "Legion Outpost" logo

As to the latter point, the only other thing I can think of is to wonder what has happened to gravity.  There must be a severe local distortion in space to enable them all to sit behind such a seriously upcurved desk or whatever.  It's not really a problem on the original cover, as perspective makes it clear that they're looking down from above, but on the logo it looks distinctly odd.  They should all be sliding down into Superboy's lap.

By the way, would you mind me asking if it's just coincidence that "Misery in Spades" sounds a lot like "Mystery in Space"?

[Philip Portelli]

Luckily when Star Boy and Colossal Boy got expelled, nothing got burned off!

[Runt Hipper...Time Waster]

Not a coincidence, I was trying to give a small laugh to fellow comic book fans knowledgeable about Silver Age Comics...I guess it's not as funny now, I'll have to think of a new one.
Peter Wrexham said:

By the way, would you mind me asking if it's just coincidence that "Misery in Spades" sounds a lot like "Mystery in Space"?

[Runt Hipper...Time Waster]

SPOILER ALERT  The really weird thing about that picture is that Superboy's image was lifted from the cover of Adventure 318, which in turn was, I believe, taken from Superboy 105, in which red kryptonite gave him 5 fingers and a thumb on each hand, because if you scroll up to the image on the header and magnify it several times, you'll notice that Supes is holding that piece of paper with 5 fingers (and a thumb which, assumedly, is hidden behind the paper).