Sunday, August 19, 2007

Trivia #14 answers

This month's quiz theme was the myriad Legions of the Multiverse. Sorry I'm behind on posting them, it should have been a week ago.

1. Name ten different versions of the Legion (as appearing in books published by DC). By "different" I mean where it is not the Legion as regularly seen in the "mainstream" Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, Glorithverse, Post-Zero Hour, or Post-Infinite Crisis series (and you can't use any of those in your count).

I asked this one first instead of last, because you would have gotten half of them while answering the other questions. I consulted Don Sakers' site for the obscure ones and counted more than 30 different versions of the Legion apart from those above. The rest of the readers came up with a LOT more:
  1. the Imaginary Story of Superman Red/Superman Blue (Superman 162)
  2. the Imaginary Story where Lois Lane came to Earth from Krypton and took the name Krypton Girl (Lois Lane 47)
  3. the Imaginary Story in which Superman and Batman join the Adult Legion (World's Finest 172)
  4. the alternate timeline seen in the tabloid wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl
  5. the alternate timeline where Superboy gives up time and space travel (LSH 300)
  6. the alternate timeline where lots of Legionnaires died fighting Computo (LSH 300)
  7. the alternate timeline where Mordru won Earthwar (LSH 300)
  8. the alternate timeline where the Dark Man triumphed (LSH 300)
  9. the alternate timeline where the Earth-1 Douglas Nolan went to and joined as Ferro Lad II (LSH 300)
  10. the alternate timeline of the Adult Legion where the galaxy is at war (LSH 300)
  11. the alternate timelines that the other Legionnaires came from in "End of an Era"
  12. the Mordruverse
  13. the Adult Legion
  14. the Dead Earth Legions of Wildfire's future
  15. the Time Trapper's good Legion
  16. the Time Trapper's evil Legion
  17. Legion 1,000,000
  18. the parallel Earth where the evil Legionnaires visited Superboy in Smallvile (Superboy 117)
  19. the Adventure Comics Bizarro Legion (Adventure 329)
  20. the SW6 Legionnaires
  21. the evil Legion of Mordru and Glorith (Legionnaires 18)
  22. the Brainiac Adventures kid Legion (LSH v4 100)
  23. the alternate universe demon Legion (LSH v4 105)
  24. the Wild World Legion which arose from a defective World Duplicator (Action 388)
  25. the Elseworlds Kingdom Come
  26. the Elseworlds Legion from Generations III
  27. the Elseworlds Superboy's Legion
  28. the Elseworlds 80-Page Giant where they reject Young Darkseid
  29. the Elseworlds Legion of Oz
  30. the Elseworlds Legion of Avalon
  31. the Elseworlds JLA: Another Nail
  32. the Elseworlds Justice (Alex Ross story)
  33. the DC Animated Universe Legion
  34. the LSH Cartoon Legion
  35. the Lightning Saga Legion
  36. the alternate timeline Legion from Superman/Batman
  37. the "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" timeline
  38. the JSA arc with Mordru that showed a flash-forward to the future


2. In any continuity, which Legionnaires were related by blood or marriage to a villain or former villain? (Again, you guys came up with way more than I had originally thought of.)
  • Pre-Crisis: Lightning Lord is the brother of Light Lass and Lightning Lad; Validus is the son of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad (and nephew of Light Lass); Rond Vidar's father is Universo; Brainiac 5 to Brainiac; Shadow Lass by marriage to Mother Memory, via Grev; Colossal Boy married Yera; Princess Projectra's grandmother Hagga and cousin Pharoxx
  • Glorithverse: White Witch married Mordru; Tenzil Kem married the former Saturn Queen; as Jim said, "Various Brianiac 5s to Brainiac and Pulsar Stargrave and Brainiac 4 and presumably Lyrl Dox and Ignea and Max G'odd"; Night Girl was married to Cosmic Boy who became Time Trapper
  • Post-Zero Hour: Mysa is the daughter of Mordru; Saturn Girl's cousin is Universo; XS is the niece of the Thrawne family (her mother's brother's wife); XS to Inertia, the clone of Impulse; Kon-El is a partial clone of Lex Luthor
  • Cartoon: Lightning Lord is brother of Lightning Lad; Timber Wolf's father


  • 3. A couple quizzes back I asked which of the marriages, deaths, and other relationships seen in the original Adult Legion story (ADV 354-355) did occur in mainstream pre-ZH Legion continuity. This time, which ones did NOT occur in mainstream pre-ZH continuity?
    The Shrinking Violet/Duplicate Boy, Light Lass/Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy/Phantom Girl, and Dream Girl/Star Boy marriages/kids; deaths of Quantum Queen and Shadow Lass; Shadow Lass not blue


    4. Across all continuities, which Legionnaire(s) had the most official code names?
    By my count, Ayla Ranzz: Lightning Lad, Lightning Lass, Light Lass, Spark, Gossamer, Pulse, Light Lady, and Live Wire.


    5. Which Legion-related character(s) died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths?
    Kid Psycho and Supergirl. If you want to stretch things, you could also say Flash (Barry Allen) as the grandfather of XS.


    6. Name 5 Elseworlds stories in which the Legion or Legionnnaires (not including Superboy or Supergirl) appear.
    Generations III; Superboy's Legion; Elseworlds 80-Page Giant, where they reject Young Darkseid; the Annual where everyone looked like a King Arthur story (Legion of Avalon); the Annual with the Wizard of Oz homage; Kingdom Come; JLA: Another Nail


    7. When several members of the Legion went back to the 20th century and first met the Byrne-reboot Superman in the "Pocket Universe Saga", what was the inside joke behind choosing those specific Legionnaires?
    Byrne had just come off the Fantastic Four. The four Legionnaires who went to the 20th century were the FF's closest counterparts: Brainiac 5 (Mr. Fantastic), Invisible Kid II (Invisible Woman), Sun Boy (Human Torch), and Blok (Thing). He even did a Superman cover the same as an earlier FF cover, switching out Gladiator for Superman and the FF for the Legion.


    FF 249, 12/82 - - - - - - - - Superman (v2) #8, 8/87


    8. What was the difference between Mxyzptlk V and Mxyzptlk 5?
    Mxy 5 was the good one who joined the Adult Legion. Mxy V was the evil one who, as Mask Man, killed the Legionnaires (but they got better when he left).


    Special bonus question: Matthew E. submitted this one to the San Diego trivia quiz, and it stumped everyone (including Paul Levitz).
    9. Which Earth-1 character travelled to a parallel universe to join that Earth's LSH?
    Douglas Nolan, at the end of the story in LSH v2 #300.

    12 comments:

    Terence Chua said...

    That Douglas Nolan question will haunt me forever. We all - well, the fan team anyway - groaned on hearing the answer because it should have occurred to us, especially since LSH #300 is probably up in my top five LSH stories of all time.

    Verification word: qviigsh, the unintelligible curse word that escaped my lips when that answer was given.

    Michael said...

    I bet Paul Levitz banged his head on the table when that answer was given. He wrote the story, but joins the long list of pros who forgot story points from issues they wrote when answering trivia questions (I think Len Wein is the king of that category).

    Terence Chua said...

    I could be just remembering what I want to remember, but I think Len turned to Paul after the answer (who looked a bit abashed) and said, "Didn't you write that one?" :)

    Matthew E said...

    Finding out that that question stumped the panel is one of my proudest moments. I admit that I tried to word it in such a way that it wouldn't be obvious.

    Can anyone supply more details of that trivia competition? Because I submitted some other questions, too, and I was wondering what happened with them...

    Michael said...

    There's a very brief account over at rec.arts.comics.misc but curiously nothing from Tom Galloway. I'm surprised, he's usually very prompt with the results, typically a day or so after the con is over (if not sooner).

    Turns out Levitz wasn't the only one who forgot his own stories: "Len Wein was totally incapable of remembering any details from his own stories. Kurt dubbed the term Lenweinium as a substitute for Amnesium in his honor."

    Terence Chua said...

    Matthew: if you let me know which questions you submitted, I'll try to remember what happened with them.

    Hal Shipman said...

    I'm around as well, so between Terence and myself, we can probably cover them. I did get the toss-up on Princess Fern.

    Matthew E said...

    These are the questions I submitted; I'll leave the answers out in case anyone else wants to take a stab at them:

    Q: What DC series had a 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' crossover issue
    entitled, 'The Last Parallel World Story'?

    Q: Who is the Atom's counterpart in the Just'A Lotta Animals, on Earth
    C-Minus, and what species is he?

    Q: What was Lady Quark's daughter's name?

    Q: In the first issue of the five-part All-Star Squadron/Freedom
    Fighters crossover, the one where Uncle Sam tries to recruit Earth-2
    superheroes to help out on Earth-X, Midnight spends most of the comic
    book trying to evade Nazis and make it to the first All-Star Squadron
    meeting... what's in the metal box he's carrying?

    Q: Flash #298-299 featured an Earth-2 crossover story in which all the
    colour was sucked out of one world and rained down in the other. What
    two villains were involved?

    Q: In the 'Justice League' animated series episodes in which they
    cross over to a parallel Earth containing Golden Age superheroes,
    which one tells John Stewart that he's a credit to his people?

    Michael said...

    Yikes! I'm glad I'm the one writing the Legion trivia questions, I tend not to ask what I don't know! I remember all of those stories - buying and reading them, but not necessarily remembering the details.

    Wasn't the Atom's counterpart an ant?

    Lady Quark's daughter was Princess Fern.

    The Flash story - Rainbow Raider was the Earth-1 villain, right?

    The JL question - wasn't it the Flash analog?

    Terence Chua said...

    1. "The Last Parallel World Story" was Blue Devil. I don't remember who got that one - it might have been the Pro team.

    2. David Oakes got all the Captain Carrot ones. Don't mess with Dave and Captain Carrot. I believe the hero was the Item, and he was an elephant.

    3. Princess Fern - Hal Shipman got this one.

    4. I figured this out even before the question ended - Doll Man. Don't mess with me and Earth-2. Well, most of the time.

    5. Pro team got this one I think. Nobody really got this from memory, but given the context the Rainbow Raider and the Shade was pretty obvious.

    6. Can't remember if this question was asked.

    Hal Shipman said...

    re: the last one ("credit to his people"), I'm pretty sure it wasn't.

    Skeleton Munroe said...

    Re: the Adult Legion question: Timber Wolf never did get together with that mustache.