A 30th-century refuge from the Cold War

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin looks at DC's relaunched Legion of Super-Heroes from a historical perspective:

Comic book columnist-historian Andrew A. Smith of Scripps Howard News Service said that the Legion's legend began about 46 years ago in Adventure Comics No. 247, starring Superboy. The Teen of Steel meets three super-powered teenagers from 2958 -- Lightning Boy (later "Lad," with super-lightning), Saturn Girl (super-telepathy) and Cosmic Boy (super-magnetism) -- who had traveled back in time to invite him to join their ever-growing club.

Smith wrote that "reader reaction to these three super-powered youths -- with the obvious implication that there was an unseen legion of them awaiting 1,000 years in the future -- had letters flooding the DC Comics offices. There was something about the concept that was really appealing. Not only did it present the possibility of tons of super-characters, but it also suggested a high-tech, utopian future completely unburdened by Cold War worries."