Adventure Comics #303 Dec. 1962

Who is the traitor among the Legionnaires (this time)? Could it be Matter-Eater Lad, the newest member of the Legion?

This issue starts with Lightning Lad and Sun Boy recuperating from injuries received during a rocket crash. Dr. Landro conducts 4th dimensional surgery which allows him to implant curative capsules into the Legionnaire’s injured body parts. You win a shiny penny if you guessed the helpful and super-nice scientist might have ulterior motives. Don’t forget kids: nice people are usually actually evil bastards.

We next meet Matter-Eater Lad who just joined the Legion. M-E Lad’s super-power is that he can eat anything he can get his hands on. When the details of a secret mission are leaked to space-thieves it becomes evident that one of the Legionnaires is a traitor. Since he’s the newest member M-E Lad is the most obvious suspect although there’s really no evidence that points to that conclusion.

The Legionnaires then go on a number of missions that are all sabotaged by the traitor leaking key pieces of information to the gang of villains behind the all the capers.  The Science Police must have a lot of faith in the Legion, they screwed up three consecutive missions. If I was in charge of the SP I wouldn’t let them pick up my super-dry cleaning.

Chameleon Boy transforms into a hot woman!

Brainiac 5 uses his Guilt Detector © to find the traitor; to no one’s surprise it turns out to be Matter-Eater Lad! Don’t ask why he didn’t use this earlier, it would only make your head hurt. M-E Lad turns tail and runs away but it’s really just a ruse to capture the real criminals. The mastermind was really Dr. Landro, using 4th dimensional surgery he implanted a shrunken spy into Sun Boy’s ankle who overheard the Legionnaire’s plans and transmitted them to his boss.

Wait, a Legionnaire acting strangely in order to fool the bad guys? That’s rules 1, 2(b) and 3 of my Grand Unifying Theory of LoSH Asshole Behavior™.

On my Legion Jerk © scale this issue gets a:

eh, not bad


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