Dates
- Cover date
- December 1982
- On sale
- August 10, 1982
- Pages
- 100
Editions and covers (3)
Copies of #494 are not all the same book. Here is how to tell each one apart.
- Direct edition$1.25 cover
Direct
No UPC barcode in the corner box: direct editions show artwork, a logo or a blank box there.
Source ↗ - Newsstand edition$1.25 cover
Newsstand
A UPC barcode in the cover's corner box.
Barcode 0709893170912 · shared with another edition
This edition’s page - Canadian price edition1.50 CAD cover
Canadian
Printed cover price 1.50 CAD.
Barcode 0709893170912 · shared with another edition
This edition’s page
Creators
Stories
- Part Two: Contract on a Champ! · 11 pages
Retelling of the origin of the Challengers continues.
- Part I: Superboy's Big Brother! · 9 pages
When a space ship crashes outside Smallville, Superboy finds an amnesiac super-powered youth who might be his older brother. He christens him Mon-El and sets him up with a secret identity, but he soon finds evidence that Mon-El is not in fact Kryptonian.
- Part 2: The Secret of Mon-El! · 10 pages
Trying to prove Mon-El isn't actually Kryptonian, Superboy accidentally exposes him to lead, which both poisons him and returns his memory. He remembers that he is a space explorer from Daxam named Lar Gand, who visited Krypton, meeting Jor-El and Lara, before arriving on Earth. To save his life, Superboy sends Lar Gand into the Phantom Zone until he can cure him of his lead poisoning.
- To Win Is to Lose! · 23 pages
Aqualad continues the search for Mera while Aquaman is temporarily sidelined.
- Captain Marvel Faces Fear! · 9 pages
The living embodiment of Fear causes trouble for Captain Marvel by stirring up a panic with rumors about an atomic bomb in the city.
- The Legion of Super-Villains! · 11 pages
Lex Luthor presumes that the existence of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future requires a legion of super-villains as well and manages to contact them from his prison cell. They travel into the "past" to free him, and join forces to destroy Superman. However, he foils their plans by removing Saturn Queen's criminal tendencies.
- The Sinister Lives of Captain Skull! · 23 pages
The use of an experimental anesthetic on a sniper-shot ambassador causes him to be possessed by his ancestor, an 18th century pirate named Captain Skull who has received strong supernatural powers in the process. Only the Spectre can stand against him.
- The Story Behind the Stories · 1 pages
Paul Levitz gives background information about the Legion-oriented reprints in this issue.