1958-1962: Early Legion era

Who would have thought that a one-shot Superboy story would be the seed that spawned a team that would last over half a century (so far) and gain the devotion of thousands of fans? These earliest Legion stories were produced by many different creative teams, without regard to continuity or any awareness of the team's future. Confusion reigned. Did the Legion operate in the current day, the 21st century, or the 30th century? Were they adults or teens? Did Supergirl meet the original Legionnaires, or their children? What powers, exactly, did Star Boy have? How could Supergirl and Superboy both be Legionnaires, even though Superboy didn't know that Supergirl existed or would exist? Later creative teams and fans came up with workable solutions to all these confusions -- sometimes several different solutions, which led to confusions of their own. Some things just had to be ignored as chronicler's error, others were cleverly included into Legion continuity. Most of the stories of this period are fluff, not even significant as historical pieces. But several do stand out, including "The Legion of Super-Heores" (Adventure #247), "Supergirl's Three Super-Girl Friends" (Action #276), "Superboy's Big Brother" (Superboy #89), "The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero" (Adventure #290), and "The Boy With Ultra-Powers" (Superboy #98).