Reboot: Legionnaires #19

Legionnaires #19 (November 1994)
title: "The Quick and the Dead"

writers: Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Tom Peyer

penciller: Jeffrey Moy
inker: Ron Boyd
lettering: Pat Brosseau
colorist: Tom McCraw

assistant editor: Mike McAvennie
editor: KC Carlson

cover: Jeffrey Moy
reviewers: Siskoid & Shotgun

Mission Monitor Board:  
Apparition, Brainiac 5, Chameleon, Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid, Kid Quantum (corpse), Leviathan, Live Wire, Saturn Girl, Triad, XS

Guests: 
Marla Latham, President Jeanne Chu, R.J. Brande

Opponents: 
Mano, Roderick Doyle, the would-be assassins of R.J. Brande

Memorial Day 2016

 

In the United States, the last Monday of May is set aside as a Federal (National) holiday called Memorial Day. Originally called Decoration Day, it was created to honor those men who had died during the US Civil War. After World War I, the day was changed to honor all those American men and women who died in defense of our country. I can't speak for the entire world, but I know that some other countries have similar days or events.

It may seem presumptuous to compare actual heroic sacrifice to comic book characters. However, unlike most characters in comics who "die" and then "get better," in the pages of The Legion of Super-Heroes most characters who have died stay dead (atleast in their specific continuities.)

We mean no disrespect in calling out these "dead" comic-book characters. In fact, we mean just the opposite. Each of these Legionnaires died in battle, saving the lives of their friends as well as countless others. That is a heroic ideal that we believe all of us can aspire to....and why so many of us actually LIKE these characters and consider them as role models.

If you have lost any member of your family to war, our hearts go out to you. We thank you for his/her sacrifice.

All Gave Some

Some Gave All 

Remembering Those Who Paid For Our Freedom....

Threeboot: Legion of Super-Heroes #18

My copy, signed by Waid and Kitson in Baltimore 2007

Recap: Supergirl, or someone claiming to be Supergirl, has mysteriously arrived in the 31st century and has immediately made an impact on the Legion, joining the team and taking part in missions. Many Legionnaires are thrilled to be joined by a legend and have embraced her. Others, questioning Kara and her belief that reality is all a Tarukor-induced dream have pushed her away. Meanwhile, a robot rebellion is starting to mobilize. And Brainy might be crazy ...

The 'One Year Later' DC event was meant to shake up the company's line of books, bringing bold new directions and hopefully new readers. Creative team Mark Waid and Barry Kitson certainly took that to heart on Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. With the opening year-long arc behind them, Waid and Kitson decided to bring multiple plotlines to the book, keeping the pace moving forward and the reader engaged.

Obviously, adding a more classic Supergirl to the book is a big change. But making her think that the Legion's world is a dream is a nice wrinkle.

We also have Brainiac 5 descending into madness, trying to resurrect Dream Girl. We have a Dominator sponsored robot rebellion. We have Projectra suddenly penniless. Suddenly there is a lot to chew over here. And as a Legion fan, weaned on the subplot heavy glory days of Levitz and Giffen, I loved it.

After being blown away by Kitson's art last issue, I was a bit disappointed in the internal work of Adam DeKraker here. The work is fine. But it isn't Kitson.

On to the book.

B&B (v1) #179 Batman Meets the Legion!

The Brave & The Bold (v1) #179 (October, 1981)
title: "Time Bomb With The Thousand Year Fuse!"

writer: Martin Pasko

penciller: Ernie Colon

inker: Mike DeCarlo
letterer: Ben Oda
colorist: Carl Gafford

editor: Dick Giordano
cover: Ross Andru & Dick Giordano (signed)

reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Mission Monitor Board:  
Batman and Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Duo Damsel, Element Lad, Princess Projectra, Shadow Lass, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy

Opponents: 
Anton Halkor, Universo

Who's Who: Glorith II

Glorith II
by Siskoid

Real Name: Unrevealed

Super-Power(s): Magic spells.
Planet of Origin: Unrevealed; apprenticed on Sorcerer's World

Legion Seniority: Glorith was the sixth Legion recruit after the Retroboot, joining with three other Academy members, but fourth among them alphabetically. She is not to be confused with the first Glorith, a villain who came to especial prominence in the 5YL era.

Reboot: Legion of Super-Heroes #62

Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #62 (November 1994)
title: "Forced Friends, Deadly Consequences!"

writers: Mark Waid and Tom McCraw

penciller: Lee Moder
inker: Ron Boyd
lettering: Bob Pinaha
colorist: Tom McCraw

assistant editor: Mike McAvennie
editor: KC Carlson

cover: Lee Moder
reviewers: Siskoid & Shotgun

Mission Monitor Board:  
Apparition, Chameleon, Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid, Kid Quantum, Leviathan, Live Wire, Saturn Girl, Triad, XS

Opponents: 
Tangleweb

Secret Origins Podcast: The Legion of Substitute-Heroes

by Siskoid

The Legion of Substitute-Heroes hold a special place in my heart, co-starring as they did in the very first American comic book I ever bought for myself. I didn't just volunteer to talk about them on my Fire and Water Podcast Network colleague, Ryan Daly's LSubH episode of The Secret Origins Podcast, I DEMANDED it. Check it out, and stick around for the second part, which is about Dr. Light before some fool story made the character toxic. All of this from Secret Origins #37, story and art by Ty Templeton.

LISTEN TO IT ON ITUNES or at the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK!
Ryan has posted some images from the book HERE.

Thanks for listening!

Threeboot: Legion of Super-Heroes #17

Recap: The Legion has been deputized as part of the Science Police, a relationship with the very system they have been culturally attacking. Brainiac 5 has gone missing within his lab trying to resurrect the fallen Dream Girl. And the future has visited by a certain Girl of Steel ... or has it? What is reality?

The Threeboot Legion had just gone through a 15 issue mega-arc, reintroducing the readers to a new Legion, a new 31st century, and a new attitude. But it was unclear whether or not this new Legion of Super-Heroes was embraced by the fans. Needing a little injection of excitement to reinvigorate the book, creators Mark Waid and Barry Kitson brought Supergirl into the mix. Supergirl was quite popular in theory back then, selling well while being cranky and barely dressed in her own title.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17 was the second issue with Supergirl headlining the book. It is well-known that Mark Waid loves the Supergirl character. But his love was born more from the earliest stories. I doubt he liked the sullen, isolated, hyper-sexualized Kara that was appearing in the the Supergirl. And so Waid used this issue to give the readers his version of Supergirl, a much more innocent, optimistic, and powerful hero. And so, for this time, DC Comics had two very very very different Supergirls in continuity. I like this version much more.

Tiny Titans' Little Legion

Tiny Titans was an Eisner Award winning comic-book series (2008-2012) featuring the Teen Titans' characters. It began with the "original" Teen Titans (Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire) but eventually expanded to include most of the DCU "young" characters.  

In Tiny Titans #31, the kids were hanging out with Superboy and Supergirl at the Fortress of Solitude when the Legion of Super-Heroes appeared from the future. 

Who's Who: Dragonwing

Dragonwing
by Siskoid

Real Name: Marya Pai

Super-Power(s): Acid and fire breath.
Planet of Origin: Earth

Legion Seniority: Dragonwing was the fifth Legion recruit after the Retroboot, joining with three other Academy members, but third among them alphabetically.

Reviews Rebooting: The Zero Issues

By Siskoid & Shotgun

Last November, the Legion of Super-Bloggers lost one of its members in David Sopko. He was all set to cover the Reboot era when he fell ill, and now it falls to others to take up the mantle. And to do it in our own way.

As this is the Reboot, a fresh start and jumping-on point that shouldn't require any real Legion knowledge, but at the same time work for dedicated Legion fans who get all the little references, you'll hear/read BOTH voices in these reviews.

Style Counsel

Before the animated Legion of Super Heroes TV series got off the ground in 2006, a style guide was commissioned by the producers so that animators and colorists knew what sort of look to adhere to.

    The guide was put together by Spoon+fork Studio and featured designs by revered comic book illustrator Mike Zeck, most well-known for his work on Shang-Chi, Batman, and the Punisher.
    The product was in the form of a CD and came with a handsome booklet which was essentially 12 images folded up like a concertina into a CD-sized package.

Color Kid: Hot or Not?

Our group of candid women with no real Legion knowledge asked to check out the Substitute-Heroes. Roses are red, violets are blue. Or maybe it's the reverse, meet my friend Ulu.

Participants
Our honorary Legion members are...
Art-Girl - Pink.
DJ Nath - Purple.
Havana Nights - Green.
Lip-Bomb - Orange. With her sister Nath, she co-hosts the YouTube channel Mind Linked.
Science Girl - Red.
Shotgun - Blue.
Moderator: Siskoid - Yella'.
And note that now the girls are now doing a podcast with the same premise, only over in the Marvel Universe in oHOTmu or NOT? every few weeks.

Threeboot: Legion of Super-Heroes #16

My copy, signed by Waid and Kitson in 2007

Recap: The war with Praetor Lemnos may be over but things are hardly stable for the Legion. They are enjoying unprecedented popularity with the youth of the galaxy who are aligning themselves behind the Legion creed of progress. They have recently agreed to become an adjunct to the United Planets, as politics and economics sometimes lead to strange bedfellows. And they are still reeling a bit from the death of Dream Girl.

Infinite Crisis and 52 had ended in the present day DCU. The universe was again threatened and rescued. But the reverberations were felt through all the DC books. Every title jumped forward a year in their plot lines. This led to some mysteries. What had happened over that year that stripped Superman of his powers? What shook up the roster of the Birds of Prey?

Mark Waid and Barry Kitson over at the Legion didn't jump forward a year in Legion of Super-Heroes #16. Regardless of the '1001 Years Later' logo on the cover, this story takes place immediately after Legion #15. The news of the Legion joining the UP and the Science Police isn't well known. And the team is still picking up the pieces of their ruined headquarters.

That doesn't mean the creative team didn't shake up the book. The very name changed to Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. And, in a sort of throwback to the glory days of Superboy and the Legion, a Kryptonian youth was going to join the team.

A little background story. This Supergirl was still early in her DC history. Her own book was only on issue #6. As a huge Supergirl fan I was conflicted. While it was great to get any Supergirl back into the comics, the bratty, saucy, pessimistic, angry, smoking, drinking, anti-hero that was being written in her main title wasn't exactly evocative of what I think Supergirl is. I certainly didn't want that Kara in the Legion. Still, at least at this point, the Supergirl book was selling like gangbusters. Putting her in this book might have been a kick in the pants in sales for the Legion.

Knowing how much Waid loved the classic Supergirl, I was optimistic that he was going to treat her right and I was rewarded. Whoever this Supergirl was, she acted more like the Girl of Steel I liked to read. At some point, DC explained it by saying in WWIII Supergirl was split into two beings ... but that explanation was never explored, further explained, or remembered.

Still, even if the cover said 1001 years later, this felt like a return to something classic ... Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

B & B (v3) #35: The Subs & The Inferior Five

The Brave & The Bold (v3) #35 (Aug, 2010)
title: "Out Of Time!" Part Two

writer: J. Michael Straczynski

artis: Jesus Saiz
lettering: Rob Leigh
colorist: Tom Chu
asst editor: Chris Conroy 

editor: Joey Cavalieri  

cover: Jesus Saiz
reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Mission Monitor Board:  
Polar Boy, Night Girl, Fire Lad, Stone Boy, and Chlorophyll Kid of The Legion of Substitute Heroes; Merry Man, The Blimp, Awkward Man, White Feather, and Dumb Bunny of The Inferior Five

Guests: 
Cameo appearances by Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lighting Lad of The Legion of Super-Heroes; Robot Man, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and The Chief from The Doom Patrol 

Opponents: 
A black hole heading towards Earth, incompetency

Who's Who: Comet Queen

Comet Queen
by Siskoid

Real Name: Grava

Super-Power(s): Flight; emit noxious cloud of comet gases.
Planet of Origin: Colony Extal (Quaal III)

Legion Seniority: Comet Queen was the fourth Legion recruit after the Retroboot, joining with three other Academy members, but second among them alphabetically.

Reboot: Legionnaires #0

Last November, our good friend and fellow Legionnaire David Sopko sadly passed away, struck by illness even as he was preparing to cover the Reboot era of the Legion for the blog. Though Siskoid is now getting ready to cover the era, we did not want to jettison the work already done by David, and so we present his coverage of Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires #0 in his chosen format, before other bloggers take the reviews over. If, like us, you miss David, remember him with us through his last works.

Legionnaires #0; October 1994

“Close Encounters”

A Review by David Sopko

Story: Mark Waid and Tom McCraw

Pencils: Jeffrey Moy

Inks: Ron Boyd

Letters: Pat Brosseau

Words/Colors: Tom McCraw

Assistant Editor: Mike McAvennie

Putting it all together: KC Carlson

The origin of the Legion of Super-Heroes continues.  Adding more members quickly.  Two new members joining this issue, with several more being recruited at the end of the book.

Legionnaire Roll Call: Live Wire (Garth Ranzz); Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn); Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen); Triad (Luornu Durgo) and Apparition (Tinya Wazzo)

Villains: Roderick Doyle

80 pg GIANT Legion of Super-Heroes

by The Metropolis Kid
This week we take a little time out to shed a little light on DC's publishing history with regards to the rise of their 80 Page reprint books in the early 1960s, and to look at what Legion material was contained within those books. If this post interests you, you may also enjoy the Digest Sized Legion of Super-Heroes post.

Focus on Dream Girl

 Now have a great weekend!

Threeboot: One Year Later

It has been ten years since DC's One Year Later promotion which ran throughout their titles. Ten years! It is amazing how time flies. This promotion impacted the Threeboot Legion greatly. Heck, it impacted every title.

But I have a couple of questions.

One, what did you think of the One Year Later idea?
Two, did you consider it a 'jumping on' point? Or a 'jumping off' point for your DC pull list?

B & B (v3) #34: The Legion & The Doom Patrol!

The Brave & The Bold (v3) #34 (July, 2010)
title: "Out Of Time!" Part One

writer: J. Michael Straczynski

artis: Jesus Saiz
lettering: Rob Leigh
colorist: Tom Chu
asst editor: Chris Conroy 

editor: Joey Cavalieri  

cover: Jesus Saiz
reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Mission Monitor Board:  
Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad of The Legion of Super-Heroes; Robot Man, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and The Chief of The Doom Patrol

Opponents: 
A black hole heading towards Earth

Who's Who: Chemical Kid

Chemical Kid
by Siskoid

Real Name: Hadru Jamik

Super-Power(s): Ability to control (speed-up or slow-down) all chemical reactions.
Planet of Origin: Phlon

Legion Seniority: Chemical Kid was the third Legion recruit after the Retroboot, joining with three other Academy members, but first among them alphabetically.

Reboot: Legion of Super-Heroes (v4) #0

Last November, our good friend and fellow Legionnaire David Sopko sadly passed away, struck by illness even as he was preparing to cover the Reboot era of the Legion for the blog. Though Siskoid is now getting ready to cover the era, we did not want to jettison the work already done by David, and so we present his coverage of Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires #0 in his chosen format, before other bloggers take the reviews over. If, like us, you miss David, remember him with us through his last works.


Legion of Super-Heroes (V4) #0; October 1994
“Time and Chance”

A Review by David Sopko

Story: Mark Waid and Tom McCraw

Art: Stuart Immonen and Ron Boyd

Letters: Bob Pinaha

Colors: Tom McCraw

Assists Mike McAvennie

Edits: KC Carlson

Zero Hour has happened.  The Legion of Super-Heroes is no more; Long Live the Legion.  DC rebooted their future team with an entirely new beginning, starting with this issue.  The two Zero issues (The Legion of Super Heroes and Legionnaires) were the beginning of a new Legion, with a huge nod to the past, while not beholden to it. This would become evident in the first issues and more so as time went on.

After the two Zero issues, the numbering continued from the previous incarnation. This is a move that seems odd today, in a world where comics are restarted every year or so for a variety of reasons. But back in 1994, they continued numbering. The two comics would carry on with Legion of Super-Heroes #62 and Legionnaires #19.

Legion of Super Heroes S01 E07: Brain Drain

"Brain Drain" was written by Rob Hummel and directed by Tim Maltby, original airdate: February 3, 2007.

Mission Monitor Board: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Timber Wolf, and young Superman.

Opponents: mutated Zoonian miners, guide-bot, Brainiac 5's body, Zoonian mine-bots

We talked a little last time about my trust issues with Brainiac 5. Much of it comes from the comics, but the problem here is that the showrunners of the "Legion of Super Heroes" animated series have nixed the source material and created a whole new Brainiac 5, as well as a new Colu. It's Alignment time, strap yourselves in...