The Legion of Super Bloggers!

Monday, November 30, 2015

Happy Birthday Keith Giffen!

Happy Birthday Keith Giffen!

Giffen has been a major creative force with the Legion for the last three decades and I have appreciated all he has done for the team throughout the years. One of the things that amazes me is that Giffen has been around long enough and I have been a fan long enough to see first hand his art change over the years.

5YL: Legion of Super-Heroes #61

Recap: DC Comics was in the midst of Zero Hour, another company wide crossover to clean up continuity gaffes. The Legion wasn't exempt from these sweeping changes. Their timeline was as effected as any. Within the book, the Legion and the Legionnaires were teamed up battling Mordru and Glorith as these two villains joined forced to gain control of the entire universe. But with timelines shifting, no one is safe from changing radically or simply disappearing.

Well True Believers ... this is it.

My last issue of the Five Years Later run.

My last review of this series.

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving 2015!

by Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage
This marks the second year for the Legion of Super-Bloggers. We started in September 2014, and now here we are still going strong in November 2015. As we barrel forward, it's always good to have a clear understanding of the past. So here is our 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Day LSB post!

For those of you who may not be from the United States, Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday of November. It is set aside to get together with family and friends to take stock of all of our blessings over the past year. It was originally created by our first immigrants, the Pilgrims, after they survived a horrific first year in their New World.

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. As an adult living abroad (I lived in Japan for 14 years) I always tried to take the Thanksgiving weekend and have "family time." Now that I am back in the United States, it is the one time of year that I take time off and visit my family. Last year I hit upon the idea of making up a Legion of Super-Heroes version of Norman Rockwell's famous "Freedom From Want" painting and posting it on Thanksgiving Day. To me, the Legion is all about Family. They may not all get along all the time, but they would literally die for each other. Doesn't that sound like Family?

"Freedom From Want" by Norman Rockwell

Click HERE to read last year's essay, which was mostly about who I chose to be in the picture, and why. I ended up calling it "Giving Thanks Day 2986."

This year has been a bittersweet one. On the good side we held an open call for new members in June and ended up adding Condo Arlik, Myk-El, and Continuity Kid. On the very bad side, we lost one of our brothers when David Sopko passed away on November 11. I actually got to meet David on one of my trips to Detroit. We met at a famous pizzeria named The Green Lantern (seriously!) He was a great conversationalist. He seemed like a very nice man who loved his children very much and looked forward to continue to pass on his love of comics to them. We will miss him.

So what am I thankful for? First of all, I must thank my fellow Bloggers! Thank you for making this blog so much fun. We are happily a part of The Fire and Water Nation, and I *literally* could not do this without you. I love working with all of you guys.

And almost as importantly, here's a big THANK YOU to our fans. I am humbled to think that there are so many other people looking at our page and enjoying (?) what we do. We would probably still do this without you, but knowing you are there makes it even more fun.

Have a safe and happy (Thanksgiving) weekend...

and Long Live the Legion!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Who's Who: Kono

Kono
by Siskoid

Real Name: Brita An'Nan

Super-Power(s): Shift mass between herself and other people and objects to increase her density or become immaterial.
Planet of Origin: Sklar

Legion Seniority: Kono was the first new recruit following the Legion's reformation after the Five-Year Gap.

Legion of Super-Heroes (v3) #42

The Legion of Super-Heroes (v3) #42 (Jan, 1988)
title: "To Sleep A Thousand Years"

writer: Paul Levitz

penciller: Greg LaRocque
inker: Mike DeCarlo
ink assist: Arne Starr
lettering: John Costanza
colorist: Carl Gafford

editor: Karen Berger

cover: Steve Lightle
reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Mission Monitor Board:
Polar Boy, Tellus, Sun Boy, Shadow Lass, Invisible Kid, Chameleon Boy, Brainiac 5, Element Lad, Shrinking Violet, Timber Wolf, Dream Girl, Colossal Boy

Opponents:
Laurel Kent, who reveals herself to be a member of the Manhunters

TOS: Adventure Comics #300 Group Review

featuring
The Legion of Super Bloggers Round-Table Discussion on
Adventure Comics #300 (September, 1962)
title: The Face Behind the Lead Mask!
writer: Jerry Siegel
penciller: John Forte w/Al Plastino
inker: John Forte w/Al Plastino
letterer: Milton Snapinn
editor: Mort Weisinger
cover: Curt Swan and George Klein

Mission Monitor Board:
Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Sun Boy, Mon-El (and statues of Bouncing Boy, Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid I, and Shrinking Violet)

Guests:
Unnamed Science (actually World-Wide) Police officer

Opponents:
Urthlo, (young) Lex Luthor

Synopsis:
At a regular meeting of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Legionnaires lose control of their powers. Urthlo arrives and announces that he now controls the Legionnaires' powers and there is nothing they can do about it. But Saturn Girl comes up with a serum to temporarily cure Mon-El and immunize him against lead, and Superboy releases him from the Phantom Zone to knock out Urthlo, who turns out to be an automaton created by Lex Luthor sent into the future to destroy the Legion.

Timber Wolf: Hot or Not?

Our group of candid women with no real Legion knowledge have been devouring each and every Legionnaire, telling is which are the most delectable...

Participants
Our honorary Legion members are...
Art-Girl - Swears she's never air-brushed a wolf on the side of a van or on black t-shirt.
DJ Nath - Hungry like the Wolf.
Havana Nights - Don't mind the wolfish grin.
Lip-Bomb - Deep down, knows werewolves aren't real. Deep down. Co-star of Mind Linked, on You-Tube, with her sister DJ Nath.
Science Girl - Has petted a leopard and buckets of eels. Not sure where she's at with the wolf situation.
Shotgun - Her irrational fear of wolves may come into it.
Moderator: Siskoid - Figured out what Bad Wolf meant on Doctor Who before everyone else. (No he didn't.)

5YL: Legion of Super-Heroes #60

Recap: It is the end of an era. Zero Hour is around the corner. The two Legions are trying to thwart the wrinkles in time, battling Glorith and Mordru. But things are unraveling around them. Things are changing ... sometimes noticed. Sometimes unnoticed.

Let's open up this review with an apology.

This arc, End of an Era, rewrote the Legion, rebooting it. As a result, it ran in all three Legion-related books that were out at the time, Legion of Super-Heroes, Legionnaires, and Valor. But my faith in the Legion as a property and in DC in general at this time was wavering a bit. I was only getting the main Legion book. And as a result, I cannot cover all the parts of this arc. You'll only get the 3rd and final 6th chapter of the story. So you'll only see 1/3 of this tale which changed things for years.

Superboy & The Legion #242

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #242 (Aug, 1978)
title: "Startarget: Earth"

writer: Paul Levitz

penciller: Jim Sherman

inker: Bob McLeod
letterer: Bob Oda
colorist: Cory Adams

editor: Al Milgrom
cover: Jim Sherman & Joe Rubinstein (signed)

reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Mission Monitor Board:
Wildfire, Mon-El, Ultra Boy, Dawnstar, Sun Boy, Superboy, Element Lad, Colossal Boy, Brainiac 5

Opponents:
Khund Invasion force, the Dark Circle actually behind it, possibly the Dominators