Weird Stuff In Comics - Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes 253 & 254

Weird Stuff In Comics.  I realize this title implies that seeing weird things in comics would be an out of place oddity, when in fact the majority of the things written in comics are implicitly and by definition, weird.  But that aside in the interest of getting to the good stuff, if it helps think of it as, "The REALLY Weird Stuff In Comics"!

Today's focus is on a little known hero by the name of SUPERMAN!

Okay, so in this case Superboy and his favorite after school club that happens to be 1000 years in the future and full of super beings: The Legion of Super Heroes!

Superman has been around for a long time and in that time has had MANY writers scribe his adventures and it's the older Superman comics that are known for having some of the wackiest stories and plot lines in comics history.  Following along those lines Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes issues 253 & 254, does not disappoint.  Published Circa July/August 1979, written by the legendary Gerry Conway and brought to life by Joe Staton & Dave Hunt.

Here is the summary before the weirdness:  A group of super powered beings has come together under the banner of revenge to kill the six legionnaires they believe is responsible for destroying their planet!

THEN they systematically target and "kill" all six of the Legionnaires (enter shocked and surprised gasp here).  BUT WAIT!  What was that steak of light?

Crazy right?  I laughed out loud after reading these last three pages.  I mean come on, Superboy takes a wild guess that some gases they all inhaled would put them in a protective coma if he zapped them with his x-ray vision and it works!?!  Well of course it works, it's a comic book!  But come on Gerry!  At what point do you think he said, "yeah that sounds good lets go with that"?  Even the Legion and Superboy himself can't believe this crap:

So yeah it's quirky, wacky, zany and every other word for crazy but this is something I love about old comics.  Everything was science fiction back then.  Even the things we can now say are conceivable or even plausible because of what we know, was impossible back then, which meant nothing was off the table and it sure made for one hell of a ride through some of those stories.

NEXT: Comics? Movies? Comic Movies?,

~Steve