Mistakes & Continuity Errors in the Original Legion

Mistakes, continuity errors and just plain boners in the early “Silver Age Legion”
by Emsley Wyatt

I started reading the Legion as a kid, starting probably with Adventure Comics #290, way back in 1961.  Earlier stories were read later in Annuals, reprints, and even in the later Digests.  

When you read these stories in the original format each is pretty self-contained.  But when you read them several at a time in quick succession you notice things that don't quite add up.  And I'm not even talking about costume changes and the fact that Saturn Girl went from having light brown hair to blonde.  Some of this is attributable to the fact that continuity wasn't emphasized in those days, some to the fact that multiple writers created these stories (too many cooks and all that).  But it's fun to look at them, and that's what I'll do in today's post. 

Justice League vs The Legion of Super-Heroes 5

 Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #5 (October, 2022)

title: The Gold Lantern Saga Part Five

writer: Brian Michael Bendis
artist: Scott Godlewski
colorist: Ryan Cody
letterer: Dave Sharpe
editor: Michael McCalister
senior editor: Paul Kaminski

covers: Scott Godlewski & Ryan Cody (main); Travis Moore & Ryan Cody (variant)

reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Overall Summary: 
The Justice League and the Legion argue about what a jerk Gold Lantern is while the Great Darkness Anomaly continues to spread. Ho-hum. 

Justice League vs The Legion of Super-Heroes 4

Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #3 (July, 2022)

title: The Gold Lantern Saga Part Four

writer: Brian Michael Bendis
artist: Scott Godlewski
colorist: Ryan Cody
letterer: Dave Sharpe
editor: Michael McCalister
senior editor: Paul Kaminski

covers: Scott Godlewski & Ryan Cody (main); Travis Moore & Ryan Cody (variant)

reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Overall Summary: 
Computo retrieves the missing Legionnaires and JLAers (and Kamandi) but the sky is still falling all over every era and twice on Sunday.  

Who's Who in the Legion #7 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). In this, the last issue, the series featured a short featurette about history, the Legion Academy, fashions, and the Legionnaires' parents. 

Justice League vs The Legion of Super-Heroes #3

Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #3 (July, 2022)
title: The Gold Lantern Saga Part Three
writer: Brian Michael Bendis
artist: Scott Godlewski
colorist: Ryan Cody

letterer: Dave Sharpe
editor: Michael McCalister
group editor: Paul Kaminski

covers: Scott Godlewski & Ryan Cody (main); Travis Moore & Ryan Cody (variant)

reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Overall Summary: 
Gold Lantern is stuck in the past, while the Justice League and the Legion are thrown into various time periods in their past. Or, to put it more cynically, nothing happens to move the story along.  

Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #2

Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (May, 2022)
title: The Gold Lantern Saga Part Two

writer: Brian Michael Bendis
artist: Scott Godlewski
colorist: Ryan Cody
letterer: Dave Sharpe
editor: Michael McCalister
senior editor: Paul Kaminski

covers: Scott Godlewski & Ryan Cody (main); Travis Moore & Ryan Cody (variant)

reviewer: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage

Overall Summary: 
Gold Lantern is stuck in the past, the Justice League is stuck in the future, and I'm stuck in the middle with you. 

The Legion of Daab Heroes!

I recently commissioned a poster of the Legion of Super-Heroes from my good buddy, artist extraordinaire Luke Daab. 

I told him I wanted it to call back to the Neal Adams 1976 calendar illustration, but maybe with them flying straight at the audience.

I also suggested he reference the Mike Grell Limited Collector's Edition cover, which also has the Legionnaires flying out at the reader. 

So I gave him a list of twelve of my favorite Legionnaires, and the era I wanted him to portray, and a list of others he could fit in if he had the space or if the design worked for them. 

And what he came up with blew my Legion-loving mind!!! 

Just take a look and you'll see the characters I love the most. It's always hard to narrow down Legionnaires, but I think I included a great collection of the Baxter-era members. Don't you agree? 

I HAD to start with the founders, and then front and center are my three favorites: Chameleon Boy, Shadow Lass, and Mon-El. And Tellus is a sentimental favorite, not only because he was the first non-humanoid member, but also because he was created by the late, great Steve Lightle. 

I also LOVE the pairing of Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy, flying side-by-side with Sensor Girl. Phantom Girl has her eyes on the mission, but Ultra Boy has his eyes on Phantom Girl, haha! 

I love this SO much. I hope you like it, too! This print is available at Luke's site: 

Daab Creative LSH #355 

Please head over there and get one of these for yourself! Believe me, it looks even better at a larger size. I just didn't want people to save this picture at a high-quality resolution. Go get yourself a real copy of this masterpiece! 

And you can still get this print, too.....! 
 https://www.daabcreative.com/prints/legion-of-superheroes-collage-print

Or the set of post-cards based on these portraits...!
https://www.daabcreative.com/prints/legion-card-set

Long Live Luke Daab 

and....

Long Live the Legion!! 

The End of the LSB!

It's with a strong sense of bittersweet satisfaction that I announce the semi-retirement of the Legion of Super-Bloggers. 

The Super-Bloggers was started back in July 2014 to celebrate all things Legion. Seven plus years later, we've read and critiqued all eight versions of the group, plus various supporting titles and groups. Check out the links on the right side of this page if you don't believe me! Believe it or not, we have run out of things to say about the Legion of Super-Heroes! 

Don't worry, though, we're not going to close the blog down. We promise we will be back whenever there is a Legion related comic, such as JLA vs LSH #2 in late February. Of course, if (when?) an ongoing Legion series comes back, we'll be back to cover that, too. And if one of our bloggers has an essay or something similar that they want to share, we'll post it. We know that are still some Legion comics we didn't get around to covering, and we may get to them now that we won't have a self-established publishing deadline to meet. (We know that we never got around to reviewing The Wanderers. It's on our list.) 

We simply don't have enough material to cover on a daily or thrice weekly or even weekly basis. Believe it or not, we started with the Silver Age and have gone all the way to the current versions! And while that is somewhat sad, it's also quite an accomplishment. 

So keep your eyes open and we'll be back with a new post before you know it! 

Huge shout-out to Shagg, Siskoid, Kyle, Tim, Dr. Anj, Glenn, David, Condo, Mike, Derek, and Emsley, and to all other bloggers who have helped out in the past seven years. 

LONG LIVE THE LEGION! 

 

Imposters & Infiltrators

Imposters, Infiltrators, and Other Impersonations
by Emsley Wyatt

I've recently written posts about who joined the Legion and when, and I also looked at the “flip side” of the coin; namely, which characters were rejected.  

But every so often when you flip a coin, it lands on its edge.  And those circumstances are what this article is all about. In other words, today we're looking at infiltrators, imposters, and other impersonations in or by the Legion. Once again, if I left anybody out, please let me know.

JLA vs LSH #1

Justice League vs The Legion of Super-Heroes #1
The Gold Lantern Saga: Part One

writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Art: Scott Godlewski

Colors: Ryan Cody

Letters: David Sharpe

Associate Editor: Chris Rosa

Editors: Micke Cotton and Paul Kaminski

It's here! The mini-series no one here at Legion of Super-Bloggers has been waiting for, but the story we couldn't stop: Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes! 

We bought and read it so you wouldn't have to.