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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes The Early Years by Paul Levitz Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes The Early Years TPB (2011 DC) comic books. This item is not in stock. If you use the "Add to want list" tab to add this issue to your want list, we will email you when it becomes available. 1st printing. Collects Adventure Comics (1938-1983 1st Series) #515-520. Written by PAUL LEVITZ. Art by KEVIN SHARPE and MARLO ALQUIZA. Cover by SCOTT CLARK and DAVE BEATY. Witness new retellings of Superboy's first meeting with Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad as they bring him into the future in these tales. How will The Boy of Steel handle it when he learns of his destiny as the World's Greatest Super Hero? Plus, don't miss the funeral of Legion benefactor R.J. Brande, who has a few surprises in his will. Softcover, 144 pages, full color. Cover price $14.99. Customer Testimonials Our customers have some nice things to say about us: Customer Testimonials Mailing List Join our Mailing List for news and sales. We’ve been selling comics since 1961 (our first sale: Fantastic Four #1 at $0.25, see one of our first ads) and on the web since 1996. Copyright © 1996 - 2021 Lone Star Comics Inc. Character images copyright © their respective owners. Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes HC (2021 DC) Tabloid Edition comic books. This item is not in stock. If you use the "Add to want list" tab to add this issue to your want list, we will email you when it becomes available. Written by Paul Levitz. Art and cover by Mike Grell. This tabloid-size masterpiece reprints a classic Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes story at full size for the first time. Superboy arrives in the future for the wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad only to find a world totally different from the one he is used to visiting, but the Legionnaires insist it has always been that way. With Superboy unable to convince his teammates that something is wrong, the wedding proceeds as planned, only for the bride and groom to be kidnapped by the Lunarites. Convinced that the altering of history is the real issue, Superboy leads a team of Legionnaires back in time, while the rest of the group attempts to rescue the kidnapped couple. Can Superboys team correct the flow of time and save the future? Includes a two-page pinup of the entire Legion by Mike Grell and an eight-page feature containing information on each of the Legionnaires by Paul Levitz, illustrated by James Sherman and Jack Abel. Legion of Super-Heroes. E very kid needs friends, and Superboy, the prodigious youth starring in DC Comics’ “Adventures of Superman When He Was a Boy,” was certainly no exception. Enter the Legion of Super-Heroes (LSH): the magnetically-powered Cosmic Boy, the mind-reading Saturn Girl, and the electricity-generating Lightning Boy, who materialized in DC Comics’ Adventure Comics #247 (1958). Hailing from the future—the thirtieth century, to be exact—this teenage trio time-travels to Super-boy’s era to recruit him into their club. Thanks to the Legion’s time “bubble,” the Boy of Steel finds himself in his hometown of Smallville, one thousand years hence, where his new superpals are only part of a larger clique (although the other young heroes’ faces are shadowed) whose headquarters (their clubhouse) is an upside-down spaceship resembling a prop from a late 1950s sci-fi movie. The Legion’s entire depiction of the future smacks of the post-atomic age’s vision of the world of tomorrow: Robot factories, jet packs, and yes, even flying cars abound! After proving himself a “super-good sport” by surviving a rigged initiation (hoaxes were popular story gimmicks during this era in the Superman comics), Superboy is sworn in as a Legionnaire and returns home to proudly show his father, Pa Kent, a prize ribbon decreeing him “Super-Hero Number One.” Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman family of titles, intended Adventure #247’s tale “The Legion of Super-Heroes” as nothing more than a throwaway. Readers had other ideas, however, and mail demanding that the Legion return flooded the DC offices. Twenty issues later, they were back (with Lightning Boy rechristened as the alliterative Lightning Lad), and before long the LSH also encountered Supergirl (on yet another recruitment mission). The Legion’s roster expanded with more superteens whose heroic names easily identified their powers: Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Phantom Girl, and Triplicate Girl. Issues cover-spotlighting LSH members sold so well that “Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes” bumped “Tales of the Bizarro World” out of Adventure and became a regular monthly feature beginning with issue #300 (September 1962), and before long the Legion ultimately seized the entire title from co-star Superboy. Soon the Legion became truly that, with an enormous cast including, but not limited to, Ultra Boy, Superboy’s “brother” Mon-El, Brainiac 5 (the descendent of Superman’s android enemy), Sun Boy, Star Boy, Shrinking Violet, Lightning (later Light) Lass, Bouncing Boy, and, believe it or not, Matter-Eater Lad, as well as standbys the Legion of Substitute Heroes and the Legion of SuperPets. Science remained a major element in the tales, with some upgrades along the way, like the Legion’s original jet packs being replaced by anti-gravity belts. And a rogues’ gallery, including the Time Trapper, the Legion of Super-Villains, and even the twentieth century’s Lex Luthor, began to appear and reappear. While simple in concept, the early Legion of Super-Heroes series was surprisingly complex for its time. Its pretense as a superhero “club” veiled its true message of brotherhood—members of the LSH migrated from a variety of worlds across the galaxy, which had banded together as the United Planets and shared a common language, Interlac. This interplanetary harmony, however, reflected the Anglo-centric thinking of the late 1950s and early 1960s: Despite their otherworldly origins, every Legionnaire was white, except for the orange-skinned, pointy-eared Chameleon Boy and the green-skinned Brainiac 5. Basing itself in thirtieth-century Metropolis (not Smallville, as in the LSH’s initial outing), the Legion was often aided in its protection of Earth by the high-tech Science Police. The LSH operated under a strict constitution, which stipulated, among other things, a maximum age of eighteen, the annual appointment of an acting leader (who was chosen by the vote of the readers), and an expulsion provision (several Legionnaires were debarred in solemn hearings). Weisinger printed stories that revealed the dangerous consequences of superheroics: In an early battle, Lightning Lad lost an arm, and later his life (although he soon returned from the dead), and one of Triplicate Girl’s three bodies was destroyed by the menacing machine called Computo, leaving her Duo Damsel. Throughout the mid-1960s, the Legion’s popularity grew, and the series cultivated a loyal and often vociferous fan base, including a teen named Jim Shooter. Shooter lobbied editor Weisinger for work by pitching crudely illustrated, but boldly imaginative stories, and soon the young scribe was authoring the LSH feature in Adventure. Frequently paired with penciler Curt Swan, best known as “the” Superman artist of the 1960s (who disliked drawing LSH because of its sizeable cast and asked that his Legion stories feature smaller numbers of characters), Shooter’s LSH run in Adventure was noteworthy due to its development of the young heroes’ personalities: Each cast member was individually and consistently characterized, from Lightning Lad’s impulsiveness to newcomer Princess Projectra’s (actual royalty!) snobbishness. The Legionnaires often referred to each other by their otherworldly civilian names—for examples, Cosmic Boy/Rokk Krinn, Chameleon Boy/Reep Daggle, and Shrinking Violet/Salu Digby—and as the series progressed, more was revealed about their parents, siblings, and home planets. Under Shooter’s tenure, Legion mainstays like flight rings, the merciless magician Mordru, and the fearsome Fatal Five entered the lore. By the late 1960s, Shooter and Swan vacated the thirtieth century, bringing the Legion’s first glory days to a close, and the series hobbled along with no true creative direction until being ousted from Adventure Comics by Supergirl beginning in issue #381 (June 1969), and temporarily demoted to the backup spot in Action Comics, before being retired. The Legion didn’t lay dormant for long, returning in 1971 as a backup in Superboy before later taking over the title (again). The LSH enjoyed its second heyday in the 1970s: Hot new artists like Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell became fan favorites on the series, the heroes’ garb was modernized (Phantom Girl wore bell bottoms and Element Lad sported a perm), and new characters like Wildfire and Tyroc (the first black member to break the LSH’s color barrier) joined the team. The Legionnaires aged to their late teens, and romances took root, with several members even getting married. Science fiction influences intensified, and the dated futuristic vision of the 1960s was replaced by technological marvels, including an expansive headquarters with a full training facility, and warring alien races that defied the laws of the United Planets. With its intricate themes and scientific inspirations, Legion of Super-Heroes became the comic book equivalent of Star Trek, and continued to boast a loyal fan following. Writer Paul Levitz began a lengthy run on Legion in 1982, and along with artist Keith Giffen made the series DC’s second best-selling title, trailing the company’s top hit, The New Teen Titans.

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