Who's Who in the Legion #5 EXTRAS

Continuing the series where we spotlight the features that appeared at the beginning of each issue of the mini-series Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes (1988). This time out the series features a guided tour of the Legion head-quarters by the one and only Phantom Girl. 

Let's look at the cover. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but this cover really doesn't do anything for me. First of all, can someone please tell me what is going on? Dream Girl seems to be touching or poking Polar Boy as he is playing some type of 3D game with Timber Wolf, Star Boy, and Blok. Or perhaps Blok is just watching, as there are only three icons shown on the "board." Anyway... yeah. Why? Star Boy's icon seems to be winning the game, so I don't think Dream Girl is really interrupting anything, but maybe Polar Boy's icon was just about to win before Dream Girl showed up? It seems like a stupid scene and I don't think it's drawn very well. 

Of course, open up the cover to look at the rest of the scene, starring Dream Girl's posterior. And Quislet. And a very elongated Lighting Lad. And a game of "touch" Magno Ball in the background? 

I know I complained a few issues ago about the cover that didn't have any Legionnaires on it. Maybe Greg LaRocque took that type of criticism to heart, so decided to put in EVERY Legionnaire on THIS cover? Although the idea is worthwhile, I would have preferred a better laid out illustration, And extra points for anyone who can find Phantom Girl, who obviously got the worst coverage. I wish she had appeared in the upper right-hand corner behind Brainiac 5 instead. 

I am not familiar with either Chuck Austen or Jim Sanders, but they do a capable job of balancing straight "architectural" drawings with the two main characters in this feature, Phantom Girl and Harmonica Dadaesque. (BTW, you're kidding on that name, right?) though. They do seem a bit "Archie" in style, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the background panels are relatively static. 

As usual, the feature is written by Barbara Randall Kesel, who does a good job "walking" us through the building as if we were really on a tour. There is a lot of good information here, and the ten pages goes by very quickly. It doesn't hurt that the building diagram itself is by Keith Giffen. I'm not going to make the effort to verify but my guess is that the pages 2-3 are lifted directly from Legion (v2) #311. 

Page four is interesting because editors Mark Waid and Karen Berger challenge long-time Legion fans to recognize nine specific items shown in the Trophy Room. I could not do it; I recognize only five. I do, however, recognize all of the statues of the deceased "Legionnaires."  Can you? Two things: I would think they would be listed in semi-chronological order? And also, I miss the inclusion of Supergirl. 

The water in the pool looks more like a stained-glass window. 

The Mission Monitor Board is obviously a cut-and-paste of the icon listing from issue #1. Although it looks cool, I would have loved it if Karen or Mark had made it chronologically correct, i.e. not included Chemical King, Ferro Lad, Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel, Matter-Eater Lad, or any of the Substitute Legionnaires. 

The other thing I really would have preferred was hand-written text boxes. The editors used type-face (as in all of the actual listings) instead of having a letterer actually write out Harmonica's narration. It's a little thing, I guess, but compare most of the story's texts to the two page diagram, which IS lettered. (Probably by John Costanza.) That lettering is just much easier to read and nice on the eyes. 

"Open" the pages to see them at Colossal Boy size!

As for the quizzes about page four.... according to a response in the letters' column in Legion (v3) #55, the answers are (clockwise from upper left): the costume Mon-El wore when he joined the LSH as "Marvel Lad" (ADV #306); 2. the costume Star Boy wore temporarily when the LSH was outlawed (ADV #360); a marble block from the Doom Crater (ADV #323); the giant gauntlet that was sent by another dimensional king (ADV #375); a replica of the Absorbatron Bomb (ADV #353); a chalice from Colu (ADV #378); the anti-matter ray used to destroy Computo (ADV #341); the helmet of the original Starfinger (ADV #335 and others); a mock dinosaur suit worn by Krypto (ADV #380). The contest was won by Andrew MacLaney of Lansing, Michigan. Are you still out there, Andrew? 

And the Hall of Heroes features Reflecto, Chemical King, Ferro Lad, Superboy, Karate Kid, Mentalla, and Invisible Kid. 

You didn't think I would leave you hanging, did you?