Favourite comics: Superboy #182 - the first meeting of Superboy and Batman by Bob Brown , Murphy Anderson and Leo Dorfman

Superboy was a comic that I only really interested me when it featured the Legion of Super-Heroes however, there were the odd exceptions where the urge to pick up a copy of the boy of steels comic minus the Legion was overwhelming. One such issue was Superboy #182 featuring an intriguing cover by the great Nick Cardy in a story where Superboy uses a machine, a 'time-scope' that can see into the future, a DC staple in telling "what if" type tales back in the day. The added interest in this tale was that this story tells of the first meeting between Superboy and a young Batman,or rather the Executioner!

In addition to the above main story this issue also featured an "Album of Unsung Heroes" tale and a reprint of a Super-baby tale

Bring on the back-ups: - One-shot hero!

One of the good things about DC comics in the early to mid-1970’s were the backup stories that appeared in many of their books. In many cases these strips were better than the main feature which made it worth picking up a title that on the face of it, I would not normally purchase. One such title was Superboy which in the early 1970s featured the occasional tale of my then favourite team the Legion of Super-Heroes. The LSH had been appearing in Superboy since issue 172 and with issue 197 the popularity of the strip justifiably resulted in the comics title being changed to “Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes".

It was with issue 195 of Superboy that my favourite Legion strip appeared an 8 page tale entitled “ The one-shot hero!” written by Cary Bates with art by the wonderful Dave Cockrum. The story revolves around a new candidate for the Legion called ERG-1 (Energy Release Generator - 1) a teen who was converted into pure energy which he stores in a containment suit. But he also has a secret power which he refuses to show to the rest of the Legion members thereby resulting in him being turned down for membership.

ERG-1’s secret power was that he could deliver a high powered energy blast but he could only use this once before (seemingly ) dooming himself. In the story ERG-1 despite being rejected for membership to the Legion responds to an emergency that the other Legion members are unable to halt and saves Colossal Boy from certain death by using his power blast thereby dooming himself. Of course that wasn’t the end of ERG-1 as the character was so popular that ERG-1 returned from the “dead” under the name of Wildfire to become one of the Legions most popular members.