for one thing, these kids are really MEAN on occasion, starting in their first appearance- they pretend to not want Superboy in their club, and trick him into thinking he's not wanted. when they relent and tell him the truth, he does get a dig back at them. this sort of attitude was very common back then, there are whole sites dedicated to Superman being mean to Lois or any other person. Batman probably was the same way. still, even when I was a kid and would read some of the older stories I would wonder about this attitude.
they were also really mean to some of the applicants, though this was modified quite quickly. the "worthy" ones would get a flight belt, but woe to anyone who tried to fake their way into the club. scorn and derision were heaped upon them.
sometimes their powers would get modified as the stories progressed, and sometimes this would get explained. Ultra Boy's powers did expand, and he told us how. Star Boy, on the other hand, had his powers changed without any explanation. heck, when they inducted Supergirl (sort of) they were introduced as the children of the original Legion. that was never mentioned again. and I don't remember Supergirl meeting Superboy at all, that should have been a big deal. and the post-hypnotic suggestion that stops him from remembering anything to do with his future as Superman.
still, the stories are pretty imaginative, no surprise, and all well drawn. and the continuity was pretty good internally.
You said you had questions? Haha.
ReplyDeleteIf you are wondering about Star Boy, I don't think they explained that until much later. Officially, he was inducted due to his power to make things super heavy, but the powers he displayed in his first appearance were explained as "temporary." Maybe a meteorite was involved; they usually are.
I don't know if it was ever introduced in a story proper, but the "explanation" about the Legion being the children of the originals was that they were lying to Supergirl to make her less nervous. Or something. One version of the chronology has the Legion inducting Kara FIRST, due to the vagaries of time travel. They were too shy to visit Superboy first, so they met Supergirl and spun a big yarn to her.
It makes as much sense as anything else in comics, I guess. I imagine there was some reason for this, but it escapes me at the moment.
That was all I saw that sounded like questions, so I hope I gave you something approaching answers! :)
works for me. I'm not too worried about continuity, especially in stories set in the future, since that is just a "possibility".
ReplyDeleteI also find it funny the whole "Iron Curtain of Time" is mentioned, along with the Time Trapper, but only as a side note. and the Time Trapper didn't even originally appear in a Legion story!