- Well, I came to Earth to get a job. This sounds like a good one!
Superboy #147 is an issue of the series Superboy (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1968. It was published on March 14, 1968.
Synopsis for "The Origin of the Legion!"
Appearing in "The Origin of the Legion!"
Featured Characters:
- Legion of Super-Heroes (First appearance chronologically) (Origin)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Ayla Ranzz (Flashback only)
- Mekt Ranzz (Flashback only)
- Lightning Beasts of Korbal (Flashback only)
- Luc Ranzz (Flashback only)
- Perla Ranzz (Flashback only)
Locations:
Items:
- Legion Constitution
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Boy With Ultra-Powers"
This story is reprinted from Superboy #98.
A super-powered young man named Ultra-Boy has arrived in Smallville with his guide Marla Latham, for the purpose of trying to learn the secret identity of Superboy. Mingling in with the youth of Smallville, Ultra-Boy attempts to learn Superboy's secret identity, at first asking Superboy's confidant Pete Ross. This cause Pete to worry about accidentally revealing the fact that he knows Superboy's secret identity.
Meanwhile, both Ultra-Boy and Superboy find out that they are really costumed super-heroes when they both scan each other with their x-ray visions and see their costumes under each other. When Pete is trapped in the Smallville bank's vault, Ultra-Boy and Superboy arrive to save him. However, when Superboy's x-ray vision is unable to peer into the workings of the lead based vault door, Ultra-Boy is able to do so because his vision does not have the same limitation.
With Pete Ross freed, Ultra-Boy reveals to Superboy his purpose for trying to learn Superboy's identity: That he's really an alien from the 30th Century, and that his reward for learning Superboy's identity would be membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes. With his mission a success Ultra-Boy returns to the future with Marla and bids farewell to Superboy and Pete.
Appearing in "The Boy With Ultra-Powers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Ultra Boy (First appearance)
- Marla Latham (First appearance)
- Pete Ross
- Lana Lang
Other Characters:
- Jonathan Kent
- Martha Kent (Cameo)
- Krypto
- Donald Mace
- E.W. Lemley
Locations:
Items:
- None
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Legion of Super-Traitors"
This story is reprinted from Adventure Comics #293.
After a day of work at Pa Kent's store, Clark is called into action as Superboy, however when attempting to save an air craft from crashing, Superboy suddenly leaves it to crash, forcing Krypto to come to the rescue. Afterward, Superboy suddenly snaps again and is about to throw Krypto into space along the path of a Kryptonite meteor, however he snaps out of it again.
Before Superboy can learn the source of his uncharacteristic behavior, he receives a call from the Legion of Super-Heroes. Going to the designated meeting place, Superboy meets with Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad who have come to Earth to get Superboy's aid updating their records of which Kryptonian criminals had been banished to the Phantom Zone before Krypton's destruction.
As Superboy is showing the Legion, Mon-El suddenly appears and warns Superboy that the Legion plans on betraying him and freeing the Phantom Zone criminals. The Legion members then suddenly blast Superboy with special Kryptonite rings that incapacitate the boy of Steel. It's revealed that the Legion are under the control of the Brain-Globes of Rambat, who seek to conquer the Earth, but saw Superboy as their only obstacle.
With Superboy defeated, and not considering the Legion members as a threat, the Brain Globes free the Legion and prepare for their conquest. Realizing that the globes had no effect on Krypto prompt the Legion to travel through time and collect Comet the Super-horse, Streaky the Super-cat, and Beppo the Super-monkey to form the Legion of Super-Pets.
With the aid of the Super-Pets, the Legion of Super-Heroes are able to defeat the Brain Globes and force them to abandon their goals of conquest. With the globes defeated, the Super-Pets return to their respective eras and Saturn Girl revives Superboy and informs him that she cannot tell him how they defeated the Brain Globes. She then sends Superboy to destroy the device the Brain Globes intended to use to move the Earth. Afterward, Superboy returns home to inform his family what came over him that day and his plan to clear things up with the authorities as well.
Appearing in "The Legion of Super-Traitors"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Legion of Super-Pets (First appearance)
- Krypto the Super-Dog
- Streaky the Super-Cat
- Comet the Super-Horse (First appearance)
- Beppo the Super-Monkey
Antagonists:
- Brain-Globes of Rambat (First appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Supergirl's Three Super-Girl Friends"
This story is reprinted from Action Comics #276.
While spending time with the other girls in the orphanage in her civilian guise of Linda Lee, Supergirl becomes upset that she doesn't have any female friends whom she can confide in. Switching to her Supergirl identity when she receives a call, she meets Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes, along with two other newer Legion members, Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl who have come to the 20th Century to cheer Supergirl up.
They take her back to the 30th Century and invite her to join the Legion, and introduce her to the other new members: Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy and Brainiac 5 -- The latter being the descendant of Superman's old foe Brainiac. After partaking in the Legion of Super-Heroes' parade, Supergirl prepares to return to her own time, when Brainiac 5 asks her to stay and be his girlfriend. Supergirl politely declines because she has to return to her own time.
Back in the 20th century, Supergirl is contacted by Lori Lemaris and Jerro to test out a new force field they hope will protect Supergirl from harmful Kryptonite rays. The device works, however when Supergirl tries to throw the Kryptonite into space she scares off Krypto. burying the Kryptonite on a distant planet and returning home, Supergirl's force field device is damaged by a meteor and Lori is unable to repair it. When Supergirl returns to the orphanage as Linda Lee, the girls tease her when she is forced to lie to them and tell them she has no boyfriend, when in reality she has two admirers in both Brainiac 5 and Jerro.
Appearing in "Supergirl's Three Super-Girl Friends"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Saturn Girl
- Cosmic Boy
- Lightning Lad
- Phantom Girl (First appearance)
- Triplicate Girl (First appearance)
- Shrinking Violet (First appearance)
- Bouncing Boy (First appearance)
- Brainiac 5 (First appearance)
- Sun Boy (First appearance)
- Lori Lemaris
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Superman (Flashback only)
- Jerro
- Krypto
- Frankie Hudson (Single appearance)
- Achilles The subject of this article has been mentioned only and never actually shown in a comic book or on-screen. Despite their lack of physical appearances, information about them might still be relevant or interesting or at least worthy of documentation. Anything known about them is to be considered second-hand information.
- King Richard the Lion-hearted The subject of this article has been mentioned only and never actually shown in a comic book or on-screen. Despite their lack of physical appearances, information about them might still be relevant or interesting or at least worthy of documentation. Anything known about them is to be considered second-hand information.
- King Arthur The subject of this article has been mentioned only and never actually shown in a comic book or on-screen. Despite their lack of physical appearances, information about them might still be relevant or interesting or at least worthy of documentation. Anything known about them is to be considered second-hand information.
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero"
This story is reprinted from Adventure Comics #290.
Tom Tanner, a young trouble maker on the run to escape having to go to reform school ends up in Smallville, and upon discovering that he resembles Clark Kent decides to pose as Clark (who is otherwise busy on his daily activities as Superboy.) This ends up working on Superboy's favor as Lana Lang is once again trying to prove that Clark Kent is Superboy by having one of her classmates cut his hair. Lana is shocked when "Clark's" hair is cut, and "Clark" punches out the prankster.
Meanwhile, Superboy is met by a person appearing to be Sun Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 30th Century. Sun Boy tells Superboy that recently the Legion obtained a super-weapon made by a recently deceased criminal scientist and had it disassembled into seven components, those seven components were then put in lead casings and hidden in different locations in the 20th Century so that no criminal in the 30th Century could reassemble it. Sun Boy goes on to tell Superboy that as part of his Legion initiation was to collect the components and bring them back to the 30th Century because the Legion later realized that the weapon could be used by criminal in the 20th Century as well. Superboy agrees to help Sun Boy collect the parts of the weapon, and with every part in his possession Sun Boy leaves Superboy to return to the future.
However, it turns out that the person who Superboy has been helping is nothing but an impostor and tricked Superboy into helping him. While "Sun Boy" assembles the weapon (A robot that has a ray beam that can turn people evil), Superboy returns home to find Tom Tanner in his place. When Martha unknowingly reveals Superboy's identity to Tom to try and get him to put out a grease fire in the kitchen, Tom reveals his true identity to Martha and threatens to reveal Superboy's identity should she try to ruin his cover. Meanwhile, "Sun Boy" sends the cyclops robot to turn Superboy evil with it's ray. However the robot blasts Tom Tanner instead.
Superboy and Krypto then follow the robot back to the fake Sun Boy and destroy it, before Superboy takes the faux Sun Boy into custody and returns him to the 30th Century. There he reveals him as a fake to all present. Revealing that he determined "Sun Boy" to be a fake when he didn't initiate the Legion hand shake when he first met Superboy. Returning to his own time, Superboy resumes his Clark Kent identity, and learns that Tom -- after recovering from the blast from the robot he received -- has now become good and as a side effect his memories of Clark's true identity were erased. Tom thanks Martha and Clark for steering him back on the straight and narrow and leaves to return to the reform school which he was fleeing from.
Appearing in "The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sunboy Imposter (Single appearance)
- Tom Tanner (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Krypto
- Eddie (Single appearance)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Legion of Super-Villains!"
This story is reprinted from Superman #147.
Having earned the right to do repair work in prison, Lex Luthor secretly steals components to build a device that allows him to send messages into the future. Having heard of Superman's previous exploits with the Legion of Super-Heroes in his youth, Luthor deduces that if there is a Legion of Super-Heroes, there must be a Legion of Super-Villains which he could contact to help him break out of prison. Lex's plan works and devices from the future to help break him out of jail are sent from the future, Luthor breaks out and is soon met with the 31st Century's Legion of Super-Villains:
Cosmic King, who can transmute matter with his eye beams; Lightning Lord, brother of the Legion's Lightning Lad who also was bombarded with the lightning powers of an alien beast; and finally Saturn Queen hailing from Saturn just like the Legion's Saturn Girl and has the powers of telepathy, who one day turned evil after years of being an non-criminal on Saturn.
The group team up with Luthor to get revenge on Superman, who at that time was helping build Orphan City, for a bunch of orphans to live in. After the Legion of Super-Villains terrorized the celebrations, they lure Superman into a trap on a planet in the future where he is captured and sentenced to death.
However, before Luthor and the Legion of Super-Villains can pull the lever, the now adult Legion of Super-Heroes arrive and battle their evil counterparts. When the fight comes to a draw, the Legion offers one of their own to die in Superman's place, Saturn Woman volunteering to take his place. As a last wish she asks that Superman create a ring around the planet they are on just like her home world of Saturn. With a ring around the planet, Saturn Queen suddenly becomes good and uses her mental powers to subdue her fellow evil Legionaries and Luthor. Superman reveals to the others that when Saturn Queen revealed why she became evil, Superman deduced that it was possibly due to the fact that she was away from Saturn's rings which has a special property that made Saturians incapable of criminal or evil activity. With the criminals defeated, the good Legion takes their evil counterparts into custody while Superman returns to the present to bring Lex back to the authorities to finish his prison term and he's sure that future court laws will be lenient of Saturn Woman. Luthor attempts to contact the future villains once more, but they are unable to help as they are jailed too.
Appearing in "The Legion of Super-Villains!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Legion of Super-Villains (First appearance)
- Cosmic King (First appearance)
- Lightning Lord (First appearance)
- Saturn Queen (First appearance)
- Lex Luthor
Other Characters:
- Lightning Beasts (First appearance) (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Venus (Flashback only)
- Korbal (Flashback only)
- Winath (Flashback only)
- Saturn
Items:
Notes
- The Origin of the Legion is reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 8.
Trivia
- This is the first DC reprint collection to include a new story, "The Origin of the Legion!" Previous reprint volumes featured new essays, posters, or even short, comic-style inserts demonstrating characters' super-powers, but this is the first full story created for these purposes.
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Superboy Recommended Reading
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1)
- Superboy (Volume 1)
- Superboy (Volume 2)
- Superboy (Volume 4)
- Superboy (Volume 5)
- Superboy (Volume 6)
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 1)
- Superboy and the Ravers (Volume 1)
- Young Justice (Volume 1)
- Young Justice (Volume 3)
- Teen Titans (Volume 3)
- Teen Titans (Volume 4)
- Legion of Super-Heroes Recommended Reading
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1)
- Adventure Comics (Volume 2)
- The Legion (Volume 1)
- Legion Lost (Volume 2)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 2)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 3)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 4)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 5)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 6)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 7)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 8)
- Legionnaires (Volume 1)
- Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 1)
- Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 1)
Links and References
Look at how sad this is making Batman. You did this.