Cos's Costume Cavalcade, Part IA Cosmic Boy Fashion Retrospective

Motivated by SallyP's giggles at Cosmic Boy's various fashions, TPCM has dug deep into Cos's closet to reveal the exhaustive history of his Legion attire. I will rely on Blockade Boy, the world's foremost authority in super-hero haute couture, to correct any of my missteps in describing these "lovely" garments.

(TPCM trivia: Haute couture is actually a legally protected term!)

Let's begin with Cos's 1^st costume from his premier appearance in Adventure #247, 1958.

Here we see Cosmic Boy wearing a smart ensemble, a pink top accented with black and lavender sans-a-belt pants.

Encyclopedia Galactica...Early in it's history, the Legion required members to be inoculated against the "Stupidity Virus" (first identified, Old Earth sector "District of Columbia", circa January 2001). Instead of protecting Legionnaire's from the Stupidity Virus, the vaccine caused active infection, resulting in the need for Legionnaires to wear costumes bearing their names and have placards describing their super-powers.

On the occasion of his 2^nd appearance, Cosmic Boy had already changed uniforms; however, in fairness, so had Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl. (Thank God!)

Cos's new attire featured a more varied pink and lavender color scheme with the addition of re-dyed shoulder fins stolen from Lightning Lad's old costume.

Cover shot is shown to illustrate the color scheme was intended, not a result of bad reproduction and to provide a gratuitous Cos butt shot.

The third Legion story (Action Comics #267) featured Supergirl and another costume change for Rokk. In addition to the three founding members, we saw Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy and Invisible Kid. The effects of the "Stupidity Virus" infection were still in evidence: The Legionnaires think they are the children of the Legionnaires seen in the two previous stories and still need written cards to remind them what their powers are!

Cos thought either lavender was "too gay" or his last costume was just "too busy".
These togs showed off an all-pink look (which is certainly much "less gay" than lavender).

"Hey, Lightning Lad. You may want to queer it down a notch there!
The whole "hands-on-the-hips" thing works for Superman.
It makes you, however, look like a pretentious queen!"

It can be argued the above panels represent the "final" Cosmic Boy uniform for many years. But, the right panel clearly shows the bottom half of Rokk's costume colored all pink, not with the black go-go shorts associated with his "classic look". To put any questions to rest, let's take a look at the next unequivocal shot of Cos's garb from Adventure #293, 1962. (Besides it gives me an excuse to use a panel showing the Brain-Globes of Rambat.)

It only took 4 years and almost the same number of costumes,
but Cosmic Boy finally had the togs that would last for 14 years.

From The Rimborian Working Girl's Guide to Cooking...For comfort food that's easy to make and will be sure to please both you and those pesky tricks who demand to be fed, try a simple, but delicious, dish of eggs scrambled with Rambatian Brain-Globes and served with a side of hash browns. To begin...

Here ends the Silver Age versions of Cosmic Boy's attire. Next we'll venture boldly into the costumes from the Bronze Age and beyond!

Coming tomorrow from TPCM,
Cos's Costume Cavalcade, Part II.

TPCM Note: Panel placement edited to improve display at 800x600.