Monday, August 06, 2007

Trivia Quiz #14

Taking a break from all that legal stuff with made-up words like "collateral estoppel", it's time for some really important stuff. In honor of the Black Ink Irregular team's victory over the Purple Pros in the San Diego Comic Con's trivia challenge (the contest's theme was The Multiverse), we hereby present this month's trivia challenge with the theme: The Multiverse!

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).

2. In any continuity, which Legionnaires were related by blood or marriage to a villain or former villain?

3. A couple months 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?

4. Across all continuities, which Legionnaire(s) had the most official code names?

5. Which Legion-related character(s) died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths?

6. Name 5 Elseworlds stories in which the Legion or Legionnnaires (not including Superboy or Supergirl) appear.

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?

8. What was the difference between Mxyzptlk V and Mxyzptlk 5?

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?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I know the answer to #9, so I'll be fair and leave that to others. :-)

Wow, this is a hard quiz. I think I'm gonna answer in a scattershot version.

The only answer that leaps to mind is #4--Ayla Ranzz. Lightning Lass, Light Lass, Lightning Woman, Spark and, um, whatever she was in Legion on the Run. (Was she in Legion on the Run? I can't remember.) I think Timber Wolf is a runner-up, though.

For #3, obviously, Brin and Ayla didn't get married and Shadow Lass didn't die.

#6--Kid Psycho died, as did Supergirl. (As did Superboy, kind of.)

8. If I remember correctly, they were Legionnaires who had never traveled back in time to Smallville before.

2. Well, getting the obvious out of the way again, Garth and Ayla are Lightning Lord's siblings and Garth and Imra are Validus' parents. XS was related to the Thrawne family of Flash villains (through her aunt, Impulse's mom). Wasn't Gates related to a bad guy on his planet? And Rond Vidar's dad was Universo. I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them right now.

#1--wow. Um. There's the Lightning Saga Legion, Superboy's Legion, the Legion that showed up in the LSV story in Superman/Batman, the evil Legion counterparts that the Time Trapper called up to battle the post-boot Legion, the good Legion counterparts from the same fight...that's 5....the evil Legionnaires that showed up in "Smallvile" in that Superboy story, the Legion that was glimpsed in Kingdom Come, the Legion(s) that the answer to #9 revealed in Legion v2 #300. Ok, that's at least 8, I think. That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Oh, and the Imperial Guard. (Kidding! Kidding!)

8. As I recall, one was a good guy who wanted to atone for his ancestor's bad deeds (along with Luthor's descendant) and the other was a villain. can't recall which was which, though.

Wow, this month's quiz is tough!

David Akers said...

If I'm right, I know #9 too, and I'm surprised Levitz didn't get it, since he wrote the story. :)

Ian Riddell said...

Well, the only one I know quickly is #8. Their powers paralleled the powers of the Fantastic Four: Blok = The Thing, Invisible Kid (Jacques Foccart) = Invisible Woman, Sun Boy = The Human Torch, Brainiac 5 = Mr. Fantastic. In fact,m the cover of Superman (v2) #8 is a swipe of the cover of FF #249 (both by Byrne) with Superman replacing Gladiator(?) and the LSH replacing the FF.

Michael said...

David: the professional writers have a long history of missing questions at the San Diego pro/fan trivia contest that come from stories they wrote. Len Wein is one of the worst at recalling his own stuff. So it's no surprise that Levitz missed that question.

Anonymous said...

I believe Cary Bates wrote the story for the answer to #9

Anonymous said...

1. Superboy's Legion
2. Evil Legion Suberboy 117
3. Legion from Cham double met in Adventure #326
4. Legionnaires Annual #1 (Elseworlds)
5. LSH Annual #4 (Elseworlds)
6. Adult Legion from Superman/Batman.
7. Multiple Legions from LSH 300
8. Multiple Legions from "End of an Era"
9. Legion from "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow"
10. Legion which accepted Batman from World's Finest #172
11. Legion from "Lightning Saga."sn

Anonymous said...

anonymous: Nope, Paul Levitz wrote the story #9 appears in, long after Cary Bates stopped writing the Legion. (Full disclosure: even if I had known the answer off the top of my head, I saw it in a discussion of the contest on another message board.)

Michael said...

Anon @ 1:42 - which story did you think was the answer to #9 where you thought Cary Bates wrote it?

Jon - where did you see other discussion of the trivia contest? I haven't seen the full contest info yet other than what was posted here on the SD Day 4 entry.

Anon @ 2:01 - that's the sort of stuff I was looking for. I don't think there was another Legion in your #3, only a duplicate Cham and Proty, and I'm not really sure how to count the End of an Era stuff. In my answer key, I have over 30 different possible Legions.

Anonymous said...

For #1, I'll add the Golden Age Legion seen in Legionnaires #54.

For #3, I'll mention the following discrepancies between the story and regular continuity.
-Timber Wolf and Light Lass never married.
-Shrinking Violet and Duplicate Boy never married.
-Star Boy and Dream Girl never married.
-Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl never married.
-The above four couples, as well as Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel, all had children. However, in the story, the two other couples shown (Cosmic Boy/Night Girl and Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl) were not shown as parents. In regular continuity, those two couples were the only Legionnaires to become parents.

Also, the memorial statue for Shadow Lass depicted her as a caucasian.

And I'll not start on the costumes...

Jim Drew said...

1. In addition to others people have mentioned, a Legion appears in Justice, in Justice League: Another Nail. The one from LSH Annual #4 was from a bedtime story rather than a genuine continuity, as I recall. Do you want to include the Space Canine Patrol Agency and their animated counterparts, the Dog Stars, and the Legion of Executive Familiars from DC 1,000,000? And the animated version in Adventures of the DC Universe #10, which differs from the various Legion bits seen in Justice League Adventures (3, 11, 12, 20, 28). Since DC owns Wildstorm, the Legion in The Authority #27 counts, as might the Legionnaires seen in Top Ten. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Superman/Batman: Generations III. Titans/Legion: Universe Ablaze. And there's a Legion in Unlimited Access, but I think they are actually Team 20.

2. In addition to others mentioned. Superman and Supergirl are related to the current Zor-El and who knows how many Phantom Zone villains. Tenzil married Saturn Queen. Ferro's brother worked for Dr. 30. Andromeda and presumably M'Onel were related to White Trianglers. Various Brianiac 5s to Brainiac and Pulsar Stargrave and Brainiac 4 and presumably Lyrl Dox and Ignea and Max G'odd. XS to Inertia, the clone of Impulse. Shadow Lass by marriage to Mother Memory, via Grev. Timber Wolf (animated)'s father. That's enough for now...

3. Power Boy and Shadow Lass's deaths, Colossal Boy being crippled, Rokk and Lydda's kids.

6. Pick your favorites from #1. You want ones specifically branded as Elseworlds? (JL: Another Nail, S/B: Generations, Superboy's Legion, and the two Annuals.)

9. I know, I know, and Brainy helped.

Anonymous said...

Jim--Power Boy died when the not-Legion Academy was attacked during v4, didn't he?

Michael--Terrance commented about it on the Howling Curmudgeons site.

So I take it I didn't do so well with my answers? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Gim did end up with something similar to the leg injury that could have led to that outcome.

I'm going to guess on #8 that Mxysptlk V was the one that killed all of the Legion back in the Forte story and 5 was the one that joined the LSH in the second half of the Adult Legion story.

Hal Shipman.

Michael said...

No, Jonathan, you did pretty good.

It's quizzes like these that make me realize how much I hate when Jim gives his answers - he always comes up with dozens of things that I hadn't thought of. :)

No, Jim, the SCPA doesn't count here. I only wanted alternate Legions of Super-Heroes, not analogs. And yes, for #6 I was looking specifically for Elseworlds stories; I put my question #1 where I did so that it wouldn't be as easy to come up with alternates.

And to Peter VanDenEng - you should post your answers here, not just via email!

Anonymous said...

ALRIGHTY, i'll sacrifice my lurker status…
deep breath

1.
the smallvile legion (earth-3?)
superboy's legion
the kingdom come cameo legion
(are they the same as) the JSA cameo legion (?)
the lightning saga legion
the elseworlds camelot legion
the elsworlds OZ legion
the brainiac five adventures legion
toon legion in the 31st century
adventures in the DCU legion
justice league adventures legion
the adult legion
doug nolan's "what if" legions (3 or 4 of them)
mordruverse legion
wildworld legion
dead earth legions (at least 2)
amalgam legion of glactic guardians 2099 (silver age & reboot (OH! and 5YL!))
1,000,000 legion (ugh)
LSV's puppet legion from super/bat
the trapper's puppet/demon legion w/ satan girl
darkseid's "adventure 247" imposter trio
batman's legion

and the too-goofy to be supportable:
mxyzptlk's legion (w/ mutton-eater lad)
ambush bug's legion (w/ julie lad)
aragones' legion (w/ lox lass and cheryl lad)
hembeck's legion (w/ peanut-eater lad)
bizarro-world collection legions (kochalka's legion, office space legion)
mike allred's legion
young darkseid's legion
fortress lad's legion (i HAVE to pretend this is a dream, a hoax, or an imaginary story. i'm sorry, i HAVE to…)

2.
mekt ranzz (lightning lord) is garth & ayla's brother
validus was garth & imra's son garridan
val's dad was a super-villain
rond vidar's dad (and laurel gand's father-in-law) was universo
brainiac 5 is descended from braniac 4 and/or vril dox and/or the original brainiac
gim married yera
mysa was mordru's daughter
mysa nal was mordru's wife
night girl was married to the time trapper (rokk krinn, for one inglorious story arc)
grev mallor was a villain kindasorta posthumously
does toon brin's dad count?
would you call calorie queen a villain? (she clobbered and eventually married tenzil, regardless)
garth & ayla's parents appear to be in a 'validus cult'

3. brin & ayla never married; tasmia didn't die

4. ayla ranzz: lightning lad, lightning lass, light lass, spark, gossamer, livewire (+ lightning woman in adult legion)

5. kara & kid psycho

6. superboy's legion
generations
whatever happened to the man of tomorrow
camelot legion
OZ legion

7. hmm. pass. i like the FF angle, though…

8. one was a hero who partnered with future luthor the other KILLED EVERYONE!

9. that would be little dougie nolan

Anonymous said...

OOH! i forgot!
4. ayla ranzz: lightning lad, lightning lass, light lass, spark, gossamer, livewire, PULSE (+ lightning woman in adult legion)

Matthew E said...

Haven’t looked at anyone else’s answers yet.

1. The Adult Legion, the SW6 Legion, the animated-series Legion, Superboy’s Legion, the Camelot Legion and Oz Legion from those Elseworlds Annuals, that Legion that DC and Marvel cooperated on in the Amalgam books, Legion 1,000,000, the Legion that appeared in the Lightning Saga, and any of the alternate Legions from LSH2 #300. That’s ten.

2. Lightning Lad and Light Lass, of course. And therefore Saturn Girl, through Lightning Lad. Blok, White Witch and Spider Girl were villains; do they count as being related to themselves? Anyway, Dream Girl is the White Witch’s sister, and the White Witch was married to Mordru. Brainiac 5 is related to Brainiac. Celeste is related to McCauley; does he count as a villain? Matter-Eater Lad married Saturn Queen. Wasn’t one of Chameleon Boy’s relatives a villain? Projectra’s cousin Pharoxx was a villain, and since Val married her that brings him in too. But his dad was a villain anyway. Kono’s relatives were all criminals, but I don’t know if that counts the same. Cosmic Boy was the Time Trapper, so he was a villain too, and Magnetic Kid was related to him. Uh… Shadow Kid married Lady Memory, who was a villain, so Shadow Lass was related to her by marriage. And Mon-El was married to her… Superboy II was related to Luthor.

3. Dunno.

4. Gotta be Ayla, who went by Lightning Lass, Light Lass, Pulse, Gossamer, Spark, and, briefly, Lightning Lad and Live Wire.

5. Supergirl, of course. Kid Psycho.

No idea for the rest.

Jim Drew said...

My plethora of alternate Legions was aided by a stroll through my dormant Legion analysis site, Frunt. I just scrolled down the list of hundreds of Legion appearances related to the postboot and cherry-picked.

http://lsh.freeservers.com/Frunt/index.html