Superboy and Supergirl's Quick Turnabout on Leaving the Legion Forever

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Aug 8, 2018

In their latest look at abandoned comic book plots, CSBG spotlights a Legion of Super-Heroes story that was abandoned...in the middle of the story!

In every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without actively retconnng away the previous story. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

1966 was a strange time for the Superman line of comic books. Editor Mort Weisinger had been in charge of the Super-titles since the late 1940s, but a number of factors were combining to make his life a little bit more difficult. The most notable one was that he lost both of his main writers in that year, as Edmund Hamilton had to retire in the middle of an issue due to health concerns and Jerry Siegel was fired when DC Comics found out that Siegel and Joe Shuster planned to try to get the rights back to Superman in 1967. However, a couple of other issues were that 1966 was right smack in the middle of the 1965-66 superhero boom, inspired by the success of Marvel Comics and of the Batman TV series in 1966. The success of Marvel Comics caused DC Comics to question their entire approach to selling comics and the success of Batman quickly made Superman a second-class citizen at a comic book company where he had been the undisputed top dog for more than twenty-five years. By the start of the 1970s, Superman was back to being DC's most popular title (and would remain that way until the 1980s), but it definitely dented the reputation of the character and Weisiner, in particular, was feeling as if the comic book industry had left him behind. He retired just a few years later.

Before he retired, however, he tried a number of ideas meant to turn the Superman titles upside down. However, since he had begun to doubt himself tremendously, every major idea he had he quickly decided to backtrack on. Nothing was a better example of this attitude than Adventure Comics #350 (by E. Nelson Bridwell, Curt Swan and George Klein), a comic book story that Weisinger had Bridwell abandon....in the middle of the story itself!!!

Essentially, Weisinger came up with the idea that Superboy and Supergirl were, in effect, drowning out the rest of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This is not the first and nor would it be the last time that this idea has been approached by creators in regards to the Legion (the next time it happens lasted longer but also got dropped. I'll address that one in the future. It's a pretty funny reversal in its own regard). It's basically a variation of the whole "Superman is so strong that it makes the Justice League seem like second-class citizens in their own comic book" argument, just with the Legion instead.

So the issue has a cover showing a weeping Superboy and Supergirl moving on from the Legion...

The story inside then explains why Superboy and Supergirl had to leave the Legion. It turns out that there is some poisoning Kryptonite gas loose in the future and the Legion can't stop it, so Superboy and Supergirl have to leave....FOREVER!!

Then, amusingly enough, Weisinger changed his mind midway through the two-part story, so he had Bridwell adjust the story...AS HE WAS WRITING IT! It seems like the change is that when they leave the Legion forever and have their memories wiped, Superboy and Supergirl insist on naming their replacements in the Legion -- two armored heroes named Sir Prize and Miss Terious.

Boy, I wonder who these armored heroes are? (NOTE: That's not really the change)

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As it turned out, Sir Prize and Miss Terious were part of Bridwell's original plan for the story. The idea was to make people think that Superboy and Supergirl had returned as these new heroes, but they had not.

The Legion actually have to travel to the past to enlist Superboy and Supergirl's temporary help in the next issue, in their fight against the evil, well, Evillo.

In the end, Sir Prize and Miss Terious turn out to be Dream Girl and Star Boy...