Waaaait a minute… (Superboy #89, continuity, and storytelling)

I’ve been reading through my Legion of Super-Heroes archives with my children lately, which has been a lot of fun, and given me the chance to relive a lot of familiar story moments through their eyes.  It’s also meant I’ve realized the my previous re-readings were a bit glib at times, glossing over some of the details.  Reading them out loud to my kids has meant I’ve caught every word…

For example, when I was re-reading Superboy #89, which is the debut story of Mon-El, I couldn’t help notice an inconsistency I’ve never picked up on before. 

Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 3 • Part 1

Volume 3 of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives contains in its first couple of stories both one of the best and one of the worst stories of this era!

Legion of Super-Heroes Archives • Volume 1 Part 1

Continuing on from my previous post about the Legion of Super-Heroes, this is a closer look at the first half or so of Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume I.

The stories in this volume are a bit of a strange animal. There are 19 tales (plus some extras), the first dozen or so of which come from the various guest appearances the Legion made in stories starring Superboy, Supergirl, and Superman, prior to them getting their own series in Adventure Comics in 1962.  So a big part of this volume are more of a survey of the silver age zaniness of the Superman titles under editor Mort Weisinger than anything else.  In fact, the Legion feel surprisingly ineffective in many of these stories, and it took a while before we actually saw any of them effectively fight crime or save people.  Often, instead they seemed to be playing reckless or goofy pranks.  More and more in the last third of the book, it begins to tell tales of the Legion itself, and we get more of an idea of why the people of the 30th Century really consider these guys to be heroes.  And yet through it all there are lots of key elements of Legion mythology that are introduced.

Stories I Like: The Legion of Super-Heroes

When I was still a young man – 18 or 20 – I remember telling my mother that I assumed I’d someday outgrow comic books.  I recall specifically saying that I figured it was pretty unlikely I’d still be reading them when I was 40.  I guess I didn’t consider myself “grown up” at that point and assumed that someday I would.  Well, here I am at 41, and though I have changed in a lot of ways in terms of maturity and responsibilities, I am still reading comic books.