Adventure Comics #322 (DC)
Edmond Hamilton (w) Curt Swan (a)
From the silver age of comics comes not the Legion of Superheroes but the legion of Superpets! Most people know about Superman's dog, Krpyto but Supergirl had Steaky and there was also Comet the Super-Horse (sniggers) and Beppo the Super-Monkey. In this story both the Legion of Superheroes and the Substitute Legionnaires are all needed elsewhere so who do you call?
This is one of those fun stories that only DC could do well. The pets are needed to guard the Legion's Clubhouse. There's also a new addition to the family Proty II, the "pet" of Chameleon Boy. The second of his species as the first had sacrificed himself to bring back Lightening Lad from the dead. (Adventure Comics #312)
In order to prove himself worthy Proty II must undertake four tasks to prove himself. The pets are able to communicate with each other due to Saturn Girl imbuing them with telepathy. It's odd that Proty's race are kept as pets as they seem to be a sentient species but being 7 it's not a question that would have crossed my mind back then!
Super-Horse sends Proty II to find some Varium, a rare metal from a far away world, Streaky's task involves Proty II impersonating a legionnaire to team up with Saturn Girl. Beppo makes the little fellow keep the Legion out of their HQ for an Hour and Krypto makes our diminutive friend track him down in two hours.
As you can imagine Proty II does succeed in completing the tasks allotted by each individual member of the LSP and Superboy laughs as we all did after a jolly good jape.
In the back-up feature there's an old Superboy yarn in which Clark Kent "dumbs down" to catch a gang helping kids cheat in their tests.
The Super-pets first appeared in the comics below:
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