SUPERBOY #178
On sale in August 1971
Cover by Neal Adams
With a cover like that, it’s easy to see why a monster fanatic like young Mike would plunk down his quarter! The Superman Family titles were familiar enough that I could be confident of not feeling too lost, I thought.
“Pawn of the Monster-Maker”
Written by Leo Dorfman
Penciled by Bob Brown
Inked by Murphy Anderson
Lettered by Ben Oda
We open with Superboy flying around the distant “devastated world” of Glorr, looking at the monstrous animal/plant hybrids caused by pollution (a big cause in the early 70’s). He returns home to Smallville only to receive a call to the Cinema City Studios, where a fire has broken out. (Is this in Smallville? I wouldn’t have wondered about that back then, but the Smallville I came to know would not have been home to a movie studio.)
Battling a two-headed dragon (“What kind of sick brain could create a hideous beast like this?!”) in the midst of the fire, Superboy finds his hands turning into dragon claws, which is witnessed by film director Mr. Milo and his aide Klip. The transformation passes quickly, and Superboy concludes that the animatronic dragon set itself—and the set—on fire.
It was all part of a movie scene, and Superboy’s a critic of the monster-making director: “Mr. Milo, monster pictures are out of date. Everyone knows your so-called creatures are just glorified wind-up toys!” Milo thinks his work is still worthwhile, with several hits behind him:
Milo vows a comeback, as Superboy heads home. But the next day, a television tower near Metropolis is hit by a lightning storm, and Superboy, responding to prevent the collapse of the tower, is transformed into a giant Frankenstein:
These crazy transformations must be the result of exposure to the polluted atmosphere of Glorr, Clark figures.
Next up, he responds to an emergency at the zoo, and transforms into a giant ape. Milo and Klip, conveniently, are on the scene filming Superboy’s strange change.
In the following days, the changes continue: a giant werewolf, a giant ant, each time with the film-maker on the spot ready to take some footage.
Turns out that Klip has invented an “ultra-morph ray” powered by Red Kryponite. That’s a new one on me, but the caption explains that Red K has weird temporary effects. They’ve been using Superboy to get scenes for their next monster film. Unfortunately, no one is calling on Superboy now, since in his monster transformations, he’s causing plenty of damage.
So Milo engineers an emergency, with actors pretending to be attacked by bats. Superboy responds, and Klip uses his ray to turn Superboy into a giant bat, as Milo films.
What’s this?! Superboy transforms into a giant bat even without the ray being focused on him!
It’s all a setup—Superboy figured it all out thanks to the director’s too-convenient appearance at every transformation. There
is a real giant bat for one panel at the end: the Red K lens has fallen out and the ray transformed Milo himself into a bat, temporarily! It wears off and Superboy takes them both to the cops.
As I probably expected, it was an easy read, self-contained and not requiring any significant amount of comic book knowledge. In retrospect, it’s odd that the story has Superboy seeming so critical of monster movies when the comic itself is capitalizing on them.
Next up, the reprint content!
Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes:
“The Lone Wolf Legionnaire”
Written by Edmond Hamilton
Drawn by John Forte
The splash promises a story of the Legion wanting “to enlist a youth who refuses to join!”, showing a young man with a wolf’s head icon on his chest turning his back on several colorfully costumed characters.
I would have been very intrigued from the start, since I’d never heard of any of these guys. From the convenient roll call, I could have matched Sun Boy based on the costume, and maybe figure out that the girl was Light Lass, although the hard-to-distinguish icon would have had me uncertain as to whether this was instead Saturn Girl. Still, I trusted all would be made clear, and dived right in…
…to find someone going into jail on a “prison world” for joining the Legion under false pretenses to sabotage their “Emergency Board” (“vital to the law enforcement of the universe!”)
I’m all in at this point. SF superheroes of the future, prison planets, cool stuff!
Next, I meet this Emergency board. Superboy I know, although I wouldn’t understand why he’s hanging out with heroes in the future like it was routine. The monitor board leads Saturn Girl to dispatch Superboy and…Mon-El (what kind of name is that for a superhero?) to the planet Krallak to deal with an exploded moon, and Ultra Boy and Lightning Lad to Zoon to recover stolen space crystals (and a second big theft reported after the pair depart!). Brainiac 5 and Light Lass are sent to Earth to check out an interplanetary circus with too-dangerous beasts.
At the circus, Brainy and Light Lass deal with an out-of-control menagerie of strange alien animals like the camelephants and the Morvennian fear-beast, when they are aided by a new arrival, swinging on the acrobat’s rope. This turns out to be “Karth Arn”, a self-described “Lone Wolf” who rejects Light Lass’s suggestion to join the Legion, which is “short of members”. No way, says the loner, until he hears about the superhuman robberies on Zoon. This catches his interest, but he still walks away from the Legionnaires, who report back at headquarters, with suspicions that this Lone Wolf with super-acrobatic powers and strength might be the thief of Zoon, come to Earth to hide out. Light Lass follows her heart, convince that Lone Wolf is no criminal.
But Chameleon boy reports that Lone Wolf has arrived on Zoon, and then it’s Brainy, Light Lass, and Sun Boy off to Zoon in pursuit.
On Zoon, the video shows a barehanded man in shadow ripping off a metal door to steal the crystals. Fingerprints? Nope, Ultra Boy’s untra-vision shows the fingerprints to be blank!
The newly-arriving Legionnaires are pursing Lone Wolf in their cruiser when they’re trapped by a ray pulling them into another dimension. Lone Wolf, who’s soft on Light Lass, rams their cruiser to save them. In the wreckage, he reveals to Light Lass his awful secret: he’s not a human being.
In part two, Lone Wolf flees before sharing more, but Light Lass (who kissed his unconscious lips!) explains he can’t be a robot, as Brainy suggests. An android, then?
Yep, that’s exactly what he is, according to Lone Wolf’s own thoughts of his non-existent memories of a childhood.
Doing some research, the Emergency Board identifies Dr. Mar Londo of Zoon as an android experimenter, but he’s been dead since 2963. Still, worth checking out his lab, where they presume Lone Wolf is heading.
There they meet the scientist’s son, Brin Londo, who explains that Karth was created in order to secure the rare element Zuunium, which exists only on Zoon. Dr. Londo created a whole army of androids and sent them to the mines, where strange beasts and volcanic activity wiped out most of the androids. Only one, Karth Arn, returned with the goods.
Dr. Londo promises to treat Karth like a son, but when Londo dies, Karth deserts his creator’s son Brin. Calling himself Lone Wolf, he proceeded to start committing robberies, according to Brin.
The story falls apart when Lone Wolf arrives, though; “Brin Londo” is the android, and “Karth Arn” is the real son, granted super-powers courtesy of the Zuunium. The android stunned the son into amnesia after his dad died, convinced him he was an android, and posed as the natural son.
In a quick wrap-up, Brainy cures Brin’s amnesia, and he joins the Legion, but disavows the name “Lone Wolf”, now that he has companions.
And that would have been my first comic book superhero origin story! I remember thinking that “Lone Wolf” was a really cool name for a superhero, and digging the wolf’s head symbol. I wouldn’t have know quite what to make of the Legion, or guessed how big the roster was, especially since they make a big deal of being short-handed. I got that they were operating in the far future, and picked up on some of the super-powers, but not all of them. “Mon-El” and Lightning Lad disappeared from the story without giving a clue as to what their deal was. Ultra Boy only showed his “ultra-vision” powers. Brainiac 5, well, maybe I figured out from his name that he was supposed to be smart, but he didn’t do any super-braining in this story. Saturn Girl just seemed to be the dispatcher.
So it left me with questions, but I didn’t feel dissatisfied. There was obviously too much going on to give all of these guys a full demonstration, right? Weird beasts, strange planetary illumination, dimension-transfer rays, space crystals, love story, prison planet (I probably expected that guy on page 1 to play some kind of part in the story, but no, he’s just there to establish the importance of the Legion’s “Emergency Board”, which I don’t recall ever seeing mentioned again in the many Legion stories I would read in the ensuing years!), the mystery of what Lone Wolf
would call himself now…lots to chew on in these 17 pages!
"The Superboy Legend"
A one-pager with art by Brown and Anderson explains Green Kryptonite, and how Superboy was first exposed to it. Thanks, guys, very helpful to a new reader. Even though I already knew what it did and where it came from, this was a nice bit of elaboration.
"Superbaby's First Friend"
by Geoff Brown, Bob Brown, and Murphy Anderson
The Kents are vacationing in Redstone Park, where even in isolation, Ma & Pa are concerned about baby Clark (who's about 3) using his powers where strangers might see. They want to keep his identity a secret until he's Superman (they were really planning ahead!).
A similar situation is occurring on the other side of the lake, where a couple are keeping young pointy-eared Gary, who can raise boulders telepathically, away from prying eyes. When Gary sees Clark walking on water, the both of them figure it's OK to show each other their special abilities. Gary's mommy and daddy taught him how to do his tricks--all he has to do is say a poem, and he can grow flowers, or ride through the air on a stick. Evidently, Gary's family are witches.
Nearby, Kimbro and Rowley are fleeing from the cops to Volcano Lake, where they stashed the loot from their recent museum heist. The sight of flying babies is distracting, though:
When they recover after being rescued, they assume it was a delusion, and don their scuba gear. Beneath the waters of the lake, they gather some of the loot, but not the heavy statue, which will require special equipment to retrieve.
Special equipment...or the assistance of two super-powered tykes!
Clark and Gary show up again, and help the guys out by fishing out their "dolly"!The thugs chase off the boys with cruel words, and Clark reacts with the epitome of DC baby-talk:"We only want to play, but bad mans scare us! They be mean!"
But kids are easily distracted, and begin playing with Gary's bubble-blower. Of course, with their powers, they quickly begin to accelerate their play, until the lake is covered in thick foam, blocking the thugs' escape. Gary's parents assume Gary was responsible, and the Kents pin the blame on Clark, and both families flee in opposite directions. None of the parents believe their sons' stories of another little boy who also has super powers.
The rangers investigating the weird lake phenomenon nab Kimbro and Rowley when they make their way out of what proved to be "a harmless glycerine emulsion which won't harm the environment."Back in their respective homes, the boys wonder if they'll ever meet their special playmate again.
OK, “Superbaby”. This was a new one for me, just beginning to be exposed to the wide range of Superman Family characters and concepts that would receive their own backups. The masthead said “Superboy”, but this was not the Teen of Steel, it was the Tot of Steel. But, I must admit, I remember getting a big kick out of this.
A typical American reader of the time was sure to find Gary's (unnamed) family familiar, since TV's popular Bewitched sitcom had made us comfortable with the idea of a friendly family of witches in a modern setting. Around this time, the TV family had introduced a second child, Adam, a baby warlock.
Murphy Anderson gave his usual polish to Bob Brown's often rough-hewn art. Geoff Brown was a pseudonym for writer Leo Dorfman, according to the GCD.
MONSTER APPEAL: This was as pure an example of the comics pandering to the monster-lovers as you could hope to find, with Superboy transforming into Frankenstein’s monster, King Kong, and, at least on the cover, that awesome bat-creature! And the film director’s past creations looked pretty neat, too.
5 out of 5!
COLLECTING INSPIRATION: SUPERBOY would become one of my first must-buy comics, for a while at least. Especially when it had the Legion!
4 out of 5!
LORE: There were some gaps to fill in: Superboy’s role in the Legion, mainly, but I got the gist of everything, a short introduction to Kryptonite (which I knew from the TV show, of course, but this gave lots of important details), Clark Kent’s parents, and the very concept of “Superbaby”. I had to figure out that this was Superman as a teen, since it didn’t say so specifically, but that was probably easy enough, and maybe I knew it already from the cartoons on Saturday morning.
3 out of 5!
ART-SCHOOLING: While John Forte’s work on the Legion reprint wouldn’t have bowled me over, I think I really dug the work of Bob Brown and Murphy Anderson on the new content, mainly (although I wouldn’t have realized it then) due to Anderson’s lush inks polishing the frequently clunky work of Bob Brown. And this would have been my first pure Neal Adams cover, and boy, was it an art lesson! Awesome stuff!
2 out of 5!