Adventure Comics #317
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAdventure Comics #317 is the debut issue for Dream Girl (Nura Nal), one of the most durable and complex characters in the Legion of Super-Heroes' long history — a precognitive from the planet Naltor whose introduction was cleverly structured as a morality play rather than a straightforward recruitment story. The same issue also marks the first named mention of the Time Trapper and his 'Iron Curtain of Time,' seeding one of the Legion's most enduring villain concepts. Beyond those character milestones, the issue is a quiet landmark in DC's publishing history: it launched the 'Superboy Hall of Fame' back-up reprint feature, a format experiment that became a company-wide editorial standard across dozens of DC magazines for decades to come, fundamentally changing how older material was recycled and presented to new readers.
In "The Menace of Dream Girl! Part I," Dream Girl's arrival at the Legion stirs tension as she demands Lightning Lass be expelled after losing her powers—and insists Triplicate Girl face court-martial for accusing her. The story unfolds with sharp interpersonal conflict, testing loyalty and trust among the team.
In this delightfully absurd 1964 tale from Adventure Comics #317, Super-Turtle faces off against bank robbers who can’t stop laughing at his Superman-inspired turtle costume. Though their shots miss every time, the hero grows frustrated—how will anyone believe he’s invincible if they never land a hit? So when the next robbery rolls around, he takes a very literal approach: he adds a bullseye to his belly.
In this gripping sequel from Adventure Comics #317, Dream Girl’s mysterious actions continue to unravel as more Legionnaires are expelled—leaving Star Boy to confront the truth behind her deception. When she finally reveals her vision was meant to save them all, the weight of her foresight forces a painful choice, and she departs the team to master her gift.
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The issue was written by science-fiction veteran Edmond Hamilton — one of pulp SF's most celebrated practitioners — with interior Legion art by John Forte and cover pencils by Curt Swan inked by George Klein, the signature artistic team of the era's Adventure Comics run. Hamilton's script structured Dream Girl's debut as a two-part story ('The Menace of Dream Girl!' and 'The Doom of the Legion!'), an unusual length for the time, giving her character room for an actual motivation reveal rather than a simple origin page. The back-up Superboy reprint, drawn by John Sikela, was drawn from Superboy #61 (a late-1950s story), and its inclusion — without original-publication credit noted in the issue itself — was the prototype for what DC would formally call its 'Hall of Fame' reprinting initiative, a practice that had previously been confined almost entirely to annual editions.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Dream Girl (Nura Nal), created by writer Edmond Hamilton and artist John Forte; she hails from the planet Naltor, where precognitive ability is a native trait.
- Dream Girl's debut is structured as an antagonist story: she manipulates her way into the Legion and engineers the expulsion of multiple members, later revealing it was all a scheme to prevent deaths she foresaw in a prophetic dream — deaths that turned out to involve robot decoys, not actual Legionnaires.
- As a direct consequence of Dream Girl's plot, Lightning Lass (Ayla Ranzz) has her powers altered by Naltorian science and is rechristened Light Lass — a codename and power-set she would carry for years.
- First mention of the Time Trapper and the concept of his 'Iron Curtain of Time,' the temporal barrier that would become a defining element of Legion mythology; the villain's physical first appearance follows in Adventure Comics #318.
- Cover dated February 1964; cover pencils by Curt Swan, inks by George Klein — the predominant artistic identity of the Legion's Silver Age Adventure Comics run.
- This issue launches the 'Superboy Hall of Fame' back-up feature, reprinting a story from Superboy #61 with art by John Sikela — the first time DC ran a reprint as a regular-issue back-up rather than reserving such material for annuals, a format that spread across the company's line for decades.
- The main story 'The Menace of Dream Girl!' has been reprinted in Adventure Comics #502 (1983), Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 2 (1992), Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 (2007), and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 (2017).
- Dream Girl went on to serve as Legion leader and has been adapted in animation (voiced by Tara Platt in the 2006 Legion of Super Heroes series), with her conceptual DNA influencing the Arrowverse character Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) in Supergirl.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints My Greatest Adventure #18 (1957), Superboy #61 (1957)
Reprinted in Superman Supacomic #63 (1964), Adventure Comics #502 (1983), The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives #2 (1992), Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (2007), Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus #1 (2017)
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