Trivia #12 answers

This month's theme: Legion tryouts and rejects. As usual, you guys did pretty good, but I did manage to stump you for once (nobody got #6). Here's a good summary of the Legion rejects from the Adventure era. I previously wrote about Legion rejects here and here.

1. Via the magic of retcons, who was the first Legion applicant to be rejected?

Arm Fall Off Boy, in the Fortress Lad story from Secret Origins Vol. 2 #46. The Legion had just formed and were seeking members. Arm Fall Off Boy was not one of them.

2. Which Legion rejects eventually became full-fledged members? (I had a little help on this one.)

From the Adventure run: Supergirl, Shrinking Violet, Bouncing Boy, Sun Boy, Storm Boy, Polar Boy, Chlorophyll Kid, Fire Lad, Stone Boy, Spider-Girl, Calamity King, and Color Kid. After that: Wildfire, Infectious Lass, Porcupine Pete, Crystal Kid, Nightwind, and Atmos. That's 18. I gave a bad hint before, I thought I had remembered that Lamprey had joined (she was always linked with Crystal Kid and Nightwind, but they joined and she didn't). Sorry.

Matthew did a hell of a job reciting all these from memory! He got every one.

3. Who was the first rejected Legion applicant who would later go on to be a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes?

Antennae Boy, ADV 305. He appeared one issue before the Subs story. He later went on to join the Subs Auxiliary (which in my opinion is close enough).

4. Which Legion tryout rejects turned into villains?

Not counting the ones who were villains when they tried to join (Molecule Master, Dynamo Boy, Alaktor, etc.), here's what we collectively came up with: Jungle King, Ronn Karr, Radiation Roy, Spider-Girl, Esper Lass, Micro Lad, and Magno Lad. Post-ZH reboot gives us Ze Tongue and Cera "Emerald Empress" Kesh. I had forgotten about the Legion of Super-Rejects actually being rejected after tryouts, thanks Alan (and that was my very first Legion book, too!).

5. Back in the Adventure days, who was the very first applicant that we saw at the very first open Legion tryout?

Lester Spiffany, ADV 301. He tried to buy his way onto the team. This was the first "open" tryouts that we saw where the applicant identified himself and his power; previously we had only seen parts of the tryout process.

6. Who was the first applicant known to have been rejected for using a device as the source of his/her/its powers?

Anti-Lad! When Anti-Lad "applied", Brainy found out his powers were in his visor, which was a clear violation of the rules. This was just prior to Superboy's induction. Storm Boy appeared much later, chronologically.

7. Who was Fortress Lad, and what happened to him?

Another classic from Secret Origins #46. From the Comics101 mailbag:

In a nutshell - During Legion auditions for membership, a new character named Fortress Lad is introduced. His power - his alien race has the ability to transform into giant metal buildings for protection from meteor showers. Oddly, he is rejected. But later, Fortress Boy saves the Legion members from an attack of memory-erasing rays. The Legion stops the bad guy, but not before Fortress Lad's mind gets wiped clean, leaving him as a mindless living alien building. Since their memories of Fortress Boy were wiped out, the Legion members assume he's some sort of abandoned clubhouse and make him their new headquarters.

Let me repeat that - the Legion made Fortress Boy into their headquarters. Sure, he's brain-dead, but that doesn't give them the right to use him as their base. But apparently in the future it's OK to use people as building material. The coma wing in the hospital - they make them out of the coma patients.

8. Between his first and second appearances, what major physiological change did Double-Header undergo?

His first appearance (ADV 323) showed him with two heads on a single neck. For his next appearance (Legion Subs Special), each head had its own neck.