Every Saturday, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today we look at the death and "life" of Lightning Lad!

Enjoy!

In Adventure Comics #304, Lightning Lad sacrifices himself to save Saturn Girl's life...

Over the next eight issues, a recurring sub plot was "can they bring him back to life?" A lot of "finding a cure for seventeen stab wounds to the back" type of stuff.

Then, finally, in Adventure Comics #312, by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte, they succeed in bringing him back...

And so it went for over thirty years, until Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3 (in a story by Tom and Mary Bierbaum and art from Brandon Peterson and Scott Hanna). Find out what happened on the next page!

In the issue, an adult Lightning Lad makes a stunning revelation to his "sister" (they are on their home planet of Winath, where clothing is optional, hence her attire)...

So yes, Proty had taken Garth's place. He debates whether to tell her...

I suppose this has been re-retconned in the current Legion of Super-Heroes title, but it has not specifically been addressed.