Who Came First?

In Adventure Comics 247 (Index 1001), published in 1958, the Legion of Super Heroes was introduced in a Superboy story. Three youths from the future travel to Smallville to meet their hero, to invite him to visit the future, and to join their little club.

The business model for the comic book industry at this time was,
1. produce a good story,
2. sell it for a dime,
3. if enough people like it, do it again next month.

Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman family of comic books, knew rune number three very well. He knew that kids, his demographic, would tire of his heroes fighting bank robbers, so he introduced elements of fantasy and science fiction into his stories. (Granted, he was certainly not the first to do this, but we like him.) And when the Legion of Super Heroes proved to be a hit, he brought them back, not only in Superboy, but also in Superman, Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane stories.

One such appearance was Action 276 (Index 1006). In this Supergirl story, three youths from the future travel to Stanhope College to meet their heroine, to invite her to visit the future, and to join their little club. When this story was produced, there was a wrench thrown into the works. Brainiac 5 was an applicant for membership along with Supergirl. But, in the inaugural story, Brainy was shown as a background character, presumably already a member.

How did this happen? Something like this . . .

1. The Legion was a hit;
2. It was time to extend the brand;
3. The Legion was introduced to Superman and Luthor;
4. Two ideas formed, bring Supergirl into the fold, and introduce Superman’s other arch-villian, Brainiac, to the mythos through a 30th century descendent.

Did Mort and the boys recognize that someone who looked like their “Brainiac 5” was drawn in the earlier story? Was Brainy drawn in the first story to be revealed later at the inventor of the time bubble? Did they think anyone would notice? Did they care? Who knows?

This was the beginning of comic collecting and the continuity cops. Creators were just getting used to the idea that comic readers were referring to back issues looking for mistakes. Some eagle-eyed fans noticed the inconsistency and an explanation was formed. The Legion visited Supergirl first, as a kind of trial run, then visited Superboy. This caused more problems. If the Legion was formed upon the legend of Superboy, later Superman, why not visit him first? That went unanswered until years later when Brainaic 5 admitted that he built the time bubble to meet his cross-temporal crush, Supergirl.

Finally, after nearly 50 years, Paul Levitz has introduced a new concept to explain away all continuity bumps that trouble our minds – Chronicler’s Error. According to LEvitz, we were wrong back in the old days. Perhaps our time-viewers were defective. His retelling of the early years in his recent run on Adventure Comics is smoothing out those bunps .

So who came first?
1. Brainaic 5
2. Superboy
3. Supergirl

At least for a while. . .