Adventure Comics #247
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAdventure Comics #247 is the birthplace of one of DC's most durable franchises: the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team that would eventually outgrow the Superboy feature that spawned it and earn its own long-running title. By planting a 30th-century teen superhero club rooted in Superboy's legacy, writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino introduced the concept of a vast, far-future DC Universe populated by dozens of characters from alien worlds — a sandbox that no prior superhero comic had attempted at such scale. The story's premise, that a young hero's deeds could inspire an entire civilization a millennium in the future, gave the Superman mythos an emotional and cosmological depth it had never before possessed. The cover's simple visual hook — three costumed teenagers rejecting Superboy's membership application — proved so resonant that it has been homaged and parodied repeatedly across six decades of comics publishing.
In this classic 1958 tale from Adventure Comics #247, Superboy is approached by three future teens who invite him to join their elite super-hero club, the Legion of Super-Heroes. Tested through a series of playful but tricky challenges, Superboy’s reactions are put to the test—only to learn, with a grin, that the trials were all part of an initiation meant to see if he’d keep his cool under pressure.
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The issue carries a cover date of April 1958 but went on sale February 27, 1958, as part of the Superboy feature in Adventure Comics, which had headlined the Boy of Steel since 1946. Editor Mort Weisinger — a longtime science fiction enthusiast and the primary architect of the Silver Age Superman mythos — oversaw the story, and sources indicate he played an active role in plotting, as was his standard practice of supplying detailed story concepts to freelance writers. Otto Binder, who confirmed his authorship by including the story on a master scripts list later reprinted in Alter Ego #147 (July 2017), wrote it as a standalone Superboy adventure with no expectation of a sequel; the cover was drawn by Curt Swan and inked by Stan Kaye, while Al Plastino handled all interior pencils and inks, and evidence suggests the character costume designs — notorious for having the heroes' names printed on their chests — originated with Swan's cover work, though Plastino himself, when interviewed decades later, could not recall the assignment.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes, debuting three founding members: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy (later renamed Lightning Lad) — all created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino.
- The issue was published on February 27, 1958, with an April 1958 cover date; it was edited by Mort Weisinger as story editor, with Whitney Ellsworth credited as editor of record.
- The lead story, titled 'The Legion of Super-Heroes,' is 12 pages long and involves Superboy traveling to the 30th century via a time sphere, where he is put through a rigged initiation that tests his character rather than his powers.
- Several unnamed Legionnaires appear in shadow in the clubhouse, establishing from the very first issue that the Legion had been operating before Superboy's arrival — Superboy is eventually established in later stories as the team's 11th member.
- Character details differ from all subsequent appearances: Lightning Boy generates electricity only by clapping his hands together, Cosmic Boy projects his magnetic power from his eyes rather than his hands, and the team uses jet-packs rather than the flight rings that would become their signature technology.
- The story was intended as a one-off Superboy tale; reader response was strong enough that the Legion returned in Adventure Comics #267 (December 1959), at which point Lightning Boy was renamed Lightning Lad and the costumes were redesigned to drop the characters' names from their chests.
- The first reprint appeared in Superman Annual #6 (Winter 1962–63), with the character's name changed from Lightning Boy to Lightning Lad and the final page of the original story cut; subsequent reprints include DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #1 (1980), Adventure Comics #491 (1982), DC Silver Age Classics: Adventure Comics #247 (1992), Millennium Edition: Adventure Comics #247 (2000), Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 (2007), and Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 (2017).
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Detective Comics #173 (1951)
Reprinted in Five-Score Comic Monthly #3 (1958), Superman Annual #6 (1962), DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #1 (1980), Superboy #7/1980 (1980), Adventure Comics #491 (1982), The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives #1 (1992), DC Silver Age Classics Adventure Comics 247 #[nn] (1992), Millennium Edition: Adventure Comics No. 247 #[nn] (2000), World's Best Comics: Silver Age Sampler #[nn] (2004), Superman: Cover to Cover #[nn] (2006), Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (2007), Legion of Super-Heroes: 1,050 Years of the Future #[nn] (2008), Adventure Comics #0 (2009), DC Comics Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (2012), Serieskatter #2 (2015), DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection #76 (2016), Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus #1 (2017), Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age #1 (2018), Superboy: A Celebration of 75 Years #[nn] (2020), Superboy-BI #10
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