The main communication device of the Legion of Super-Heroes
Thanks to Brainy for pointing out a whole new trove of photos (all of these are from Shieldwolf52165's Photobucket album). If you're not already a fan on the Omnicom on Facebook, I've got a bunch more pictures there from other Facebook albums so come on over. In addition to the Legionnaires from yesterday's pictures, we also have Insect Queen and Dawnstar.
These appear to be from the group shoot on Sunday afternoon.
I'm not sure what else they do at Dragon*Con in Atlanta besides show off their amazing costumes - as I read on someone's Twitter status, "[San Diego] Comic Con is for amateurs" - but thanks to Brainiac 5 there was a gathering of Legionnaires (and a villain or two) at this year's convention. Pictures are slow to come online but I found a few.
@ThatDJSpider showed off her Sensor Girl costume before the con (original source; more of her shortly):
Stuff.
Michael Deeley's Top 10 Most Wanted Trade Paperbacks include the Abnett/Lanning stories.
LSH v6 #4 reviews from Too Dangerous for a Girl, Major Spoilers, Dave van Domelen, The Miracle Machine, IGN, ComicVine, CBR, and A Comic Book Blog.
Superman/Batman #75 reviews from Stars and Garters, Every Day Is Like Wednesday, and IGN.
CBR's Comics Legends Revealed tells the story behind the creation of Shadow Lass.
The Major Spoilers "TwitterPitch" contest has two weeks remaining.
Comic Book The Blog explains the Subs for those who may have read the the recent Brave & Bold story where they meet the Inferior Five and not known who the Subs were.
Giant-Size Geek displays some of the Alan Davis covers from the 1990s without their logos, and presents the Neal Adams print from the 1976 DC Calendar and where else it appeared.
Eat Feats, the blog for competitive eating, finally noticed Tenzil Kem and Taryn Loy.
As part of its 75th anniversary, DC is putting out a CD with various TV and movie theme songs from the 1940s to today. Unfortunately, the Legion cartoon's theme is not one of them.
A Dispensable List of Comic Book Lists has the "Five Years Later" v4 Legion on a list of "11 Attempts to Reboot, Revamp or Re-Energize a Comic-Book Superhero Franchise That Could Have Gone a Little Bit Better".
Previously, in the Future looks at some teaser pages from the Booster Gold series to see which ones actually happened (like in the JSA book when we saw Dawnstar's arm). Some of them with Booster and Brainiac 5 were promised but never happened.
Weird Worm thinks that Pete Ross wasn't such a great super-hero sidekick (or an honorary Legionnaire).
Did you know that the Legion made an appearance in Tiny Titans #31?
Brave & Bold: The Lost Issues presents a cover for what a Batman/Super-Pets team-up might have looked like.
Action Figure Insider has the August Q&A with the Matty Collector people. Question #2 is about the upcoming Legion 12-pack statue poses.
Totally missed covering the Chicago Comic Con (formerly Wizard World Chicago, two weeks ago) and the Toronto Fan Fest and the Baltimore Comic Con (both last week). Here are some Legiony highlights, with the big news being that the Legion will not appear in Adventure after next summer:
DC Nation at Baltimore, via Newsarama:
[Sterling] Gates: Then there's a Supergirl Annual with Supergirl and the Legion. It's her first teamup with Brianiac 5 from her point of view. (Here's the cover)DC Sunday Conversation at Baltimore, via CBR:
Q: Loving Levitz's Legion, anything you can say?
A: Sattler: It's kicking into high gear in a couple issues and doesn't slow down.
Will either Superboy or Supergirl be recurring “Legion” characters? Lemire’s “Superboy” is starting soon and you never have any idea who’ll turn up there, the panel teased.DC Nation at Toronto, via CBR:
DiDio himself revealed that a new character would be headlining “Adventure Comics” after the superstar team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Andy Kubert completed next summer’s “Flashpoint” event miniseries.Can anyone locate a page on Wizard's website that has news for what happened at their con? CBR and Newsarama didn't cover it and Wizard's page seems to be designed only to sell things.
Call me Procrastination Lad. Here are the answers to Trivia Quiz #50 from last month:
1. The Alex Ross booth in San Diego had a huge floor-to-ceiling banner of his giant Legion litho that he did for the Warner Bros. Stores. When/where else have we seen Alex Ross draw/paint the Legion as a group or individuals, not counting Superman or Supergirl
With a little help from the Alex Ross Collector website, here's what I came up with:
- Kingdom Come miniseries
- Kingdom Come trading cards
- additional sketches in the Absolute Kingdom Come
- Justice miniseries
- Overstreet Price Guide cover
- Starman cover/poster (from the James Robinson series)
- Starman, on various JSA covers
- "Rough Justice" hardcover
- "Mythology" hardcover
- Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover cover/poster
- Alex Ross Millennium Edition Special (Wizard magazine)
From DC Sampler #3, the teams were Ultra Boy and Star Boy vs Jericho and Lilith.
The 12 figures are all from the Pre-Crisis timeline:
• Superboy
• Cosmic Boy
• Lightning Lad
• Saturn Girl
• Brainiac 5
• Chameleon Boy
• Ultra Boy
• Karate Kid
• Wildfire
• Matter-Eater Lad
• Timber Wolf
• Colossal Boy
Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Ultra Boy, Timber Wolf, and Colossal Boy all have had figures from DC Direct (among other places as well). Wildfire had a figure in the Mayfair box set of lead figurines in the mid-1980s. The L3 Karate Kid had a Heroclix figure, but the L1 Karate Kid didn't. So the answer here is Karate Kid and Matter-Eater Lad.
Element Lad, Mon-El, and Ultra Boy had each been elected Legion leader twice.
Among others: In ADV 309 Monster Master once asked to exchange his Barakian Living Money for liquid money of the world Althar. In ADV 350 we saw the living crystal money of Rojun has 6 legs and eats through metal, gas money from Mercury, and Huopian energy money. In ADV 377, they mention dollars, "ergloks of radium", and a giant mirror coin from Dracksler. Plus, of course, we've seen gold and Galactic Credits.
A number of people had different speech balloons, which is meant to indicate something other than "normal".
From L1: Quislet, Blok, Tellus, Invisible Kid II, Comet Queen, White Witch, and RJ Brande. An anonymous poster reminded me that when she went back to the 20th century to hide from Mordru, Shadow Lass passed as a foreign exchange student. ("My name is Tasmia Conehead, and I am from France.")
From L2: Shikari, Chameleon
From L3: Gazelle, Saturn Girl (who's mute)
As Tom put it, "I believe that was in Adventure 378, as the Legion toasted Brainy with that Coluan delicacy on his birthday...on to find that the cups had been poisoned."
On the left, Mon-El by Giffen and Gordon. On the right, Mon-El by Jim Lee and Scott Willaims (the variant cover to this week's LSH v6 #4).
Via James Ricklef, in the comments to a post from last week:
I hate to bring this celebration down, but I figured that most of the people coming here have some connection to the APA, Klordny.KC had a blog at KC Ryan's Word Balloons, last updated in June. Here's his obituary, published in the San Jose paper.
I just want to let people know that KC Ryan, former Klordny CM, passed away recently. He had stage four cancer and died in his sleep at his parents' home, where he was in hospice.
Very sad news. KC was a great guy, and he contributed a lot to Legion fandom. He'll be missed.
For those of you on Facebook, did you know that you can be Facebook Friends with Paul Levitz? He appears to be friending everyone who asks, and he engages the fans with comments, replies, small posts, big notes, hints about what he's writing at the moment, and teases for upcoming issues. Here's a sample, a note (which he gave permission to repost) which discusses this week's Adventure 517:
On adding to history
by Paul Levitz on Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 9:10pmA couple of thoughts following up on the comments on ADVENTURE this month:
Any time you go back to tell an old story, the odds are something will change; it can be a nuance, or a revelation of an incident or fact that was untold but that isn't contradictory, or an outright revision of the tale. I've done all three in the past. Some of each have stuck and become time-honored lore (Universo and Rond Vidar as Green Lanterns, GiGi and Colossal Boy as SP trainees, and on and on). Some don't stick--they get revised by the original writer as he rethinks the tale, or by a subsequent storyteller. It's part of the form.
In any case, my goal with the Saturn Girl-Cosmic Boy moment was what I call an "under-reveal"--something we haven't known before, but that doesn't contradict what we know of the character. The current ADVENTURE arc is very much Saturn Girl's formative tale. We know from tales going back to my childhood that she's not shy about using her powers on her colleagues when she thinks it's for the good of the team, and hasn't always been right about that... We know she fell in love with Lightning Lad, but not when or how, or much about her emotional life before then. Before the arc ends with events that include ADVENTURE #304, hopefully her journey to maturity will be more nuanced and realistic. The Legionnaires are not children--however old their calendar ages (and I'll leave that to indexers to debate)--if they're being allowed to place themselves in harm's way, and to be responsible for the lives of others, they're acting as adults and that extends across the wide spectrum of life. Which doesn't mean they're all entirely ready for that, or will all make wise decisions.
There will be a direct contradiction or two in the story arc before it's done, but I think it's a logical application of the Legion lore that followed #304 back onto that earlier storyline. We'll see how readers react as it rolls out...three more issues to go.
In any case, I appreciate the debate, and the passion Legion fans have for these characters as people. Whether you agree with my treatment of them or not, the goal is to make them more complex and interesting...and a measure of controversy isn't surprising or disappointing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Hey, we're in Klordny Week already! Since 1995, Klordny Week has been celebrated in the week or so that contains my birthday (August 13) and sometimes Elvis Appreciation Day (August 16). It first appeared in Superboy and the LSH 232 (10/77), written by Gerry Conway.
How do you celebrate? By dancing and partying!
I decided extend the deadline one more month for your trivia questions, you guys can take over Quiz #51. Email me your favorite trivia questions and I'll make the next quiz all yours.
So this trivia quiz is based on where I've been lately.
1. The Alex Ross booth in San Diego had a huge floor-to-ceiling banner of his giant Legion litho that he did for the Warner Bros. Stores. When/where else have we seen Alex Ross draw/paint the Legion as a group or individuals, not counting Superman or Supergirl
2. In LA, I went to Venice Beach. When the Legion played the New Teen Titans in volleyball (in a published DC comic!), who was on each team?
3. In San Diego they announced that a set of 12 action figures would be released next year. Of those 12, which ones have never had any kind of 3-dimensional figure commercially released before? Remember that the Legionnaires of one timeline/continuity are not the same as those of another.
4. Paul Levitz announced that we'll see a Legion election soon. Assuming for the moment that his stories more or less remain canon up through the end of the Magic Wars, which Legionnaire had been elected leader the most number of times to that point?
5. Vegas is all about money. Name five types of money from different worlds in the 30th/31st century.
6. In Canada, they talk funny (at least to me, they do!). Which Legionnaire(s) has/have a distinctive accent or speech pattern different from "standard" (meaning everyone else)?
7. In Las Vegas you have to be 21 to drink alcohol. Before the Legionnaires grew up to drink Silverale, they drank kono juice. Where did we first see kono juice?
I still have my San Diego wrap-up to do - you guys learned more about what happened at the con than I did, and I was there - but here are some Bits of Legionnaire Business to hold you over in the meantime.
SMALLVILLE
Via TV Guide:
What can you tell me about the returns of Brainiac and Supergirl on Smallville? — JeffMembers of the Smallville message board on the CWTV site discuss which Legionnaires they want to see this season.
ADAM: James Marsters returns as Brainiac 5, who, despite being a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the comic books, executive producer Kelly Souders describes as "a slippery fish" with a questionable moral compass. As for Supergirl, expect her to have a more dramatic impact this time around: "She's going to shake up the world for our superheroes," Souders says.
So I've been doing these variant covers for Paul Levitz and @ycinar great run on Legion. Need a quintessential 80s Legionnaire for that slotKello explains why he doesn't like the Legion, while Chris Sims explains why the Legion does work. Let's you and him fight!
Had Superboy for 50s cvr, Chameleon Boy for 60s, Saturn Girl for 70s. Just did Mon-el in his "5 years later" Giffen costume for 90s.
Already locked in for 00 choice (a current Legionnaire). 80s still up in the air...any Legion fans out there?
Down to Tellus, Dawnstar, Sensor Girl and Timberwolf...
Just found this via a Google Alert - anyone going to Dragon*Con this year? That's a big con for costumers, and it turns out that there's going to be a big Legion presence. Over 20 people will be participating and dressing up as various Legionnaires on Sunday. See this post for more info.
If you're going, I hope you are able to get photos.
There is going to be a Legion of Super-Heroes photoshoot/meetup Sunday at Dragoncon (currently set for 6pm Sunday at the Hilton Steps).
Any and all Legionnaires, subs, or supporting members (or villains!) are welcome! Multiple versions of characters are canon (*cough*Legion of Three Worlds*cough*) so duplicate character signups are embraced! We've already got some cool new costumes debuting at Dragoncon, and it'd be great if we could make this a huge gathering of Legionnaires in costume!
Answers to July's Trivia Quiz #49. I was going to turn the column over to the readers for Quiz #50 but I haven't gotten enough questions yet, so please send them in. I'll save them for #51, I've already got a bunch for the next quiz.
1. Who were Jilly, Helen, Charlie, Sophie, Donna, and Jane?
Jilly Major, Helen Cage, Charlie Woodcock, Sophie Desjardins, Donna Ferri and Jane Washington-Carver were Inferno's mall-rat friends in her mini-series.2. Name the 5 LSH members who held wands in an attempt to attract lightning and revive the dead Lightning Lad.
Superboy, Lightning Lass, Mon-El, Chameleon Boy, and Sun Boy. If you said Saturn Girl, you were wrong, because it was really Proty in disguise.3. Fortress Lad was from Fwang, in the 30th century. When did we see residents of Fwang in the 20th/21st century?
Gerry Jones, who wrote the story introducing Fortress Lad in the Secret Origins of the LSH Clubhouse story, was also the writer of Green Lantern: Mosaic, starring John Stewart on a mosaic-planet composed of cities from many worlds. One such world was Fwang, as seen here in GL: Mosaic #10 (his first and only appearance).
I guess this was too trivial! Although I should have said that these costumes were either redesigned by Cockrum or first brought into a story by him, I didn't get much luck at an answer. So here's the list:5. What do these five Legionnaires have in common, in this order, that no other Legionnaires have: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5, and Dawnstar.
- Duo Damsel, Chameleon Boy, Shrinking Violet, Karate Kid (SBOY 193)
- Phantom Girl, Colossal Boy, Princess Projectra (SBOY 195)
- Lightning Lad, Timber Wolf (SBOY 197)
- Element Lad (SBOY 198)
- Star Boy (SBOY 199)
- Light Lass, Shadow Lass (SBOY 200)
They were the Legionnaires who appeared on the "spotlight" covers on the "Legion of 3 Worlds" miniseries issues 1-5 (in that order).
You guys guessed Superman/Superboy, Supergirl, Superboy II, Mon-El/Valor, Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Inferno, Impulse, and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. But although you differentiated between Superboy Kal-El and Superboy Kon-El, no such distinction was made for pre-Crisis Supergirl and the current version of Supergirl.
Although the Wood-inked Superboy stories technically fit this criteria, it wasn't what I was looking for. The one I did have in mind was this one, from the 1966 Comic Book Foldees card set. Wood did the art for the whole series:
And when you folded the halves over, you could make "hilarious" pictures like these:
At the Geoff Johns panel today I asked two Legion questions. First, will we see the Legion in "Smallville" this next (last) season? The answer: "I'm not allowed to say." Second, when Waid & Kitson rebooted the Legion a few years ago, they were not able to use the original Legion. What changed in DC corporate policy that allowed you to use them a few years later? Answer: "I don't know, you'd have to ask the editors at the time, we didn't have anything to do with that."
Haven't had a chance to get to my computer to post some pics from Preview Night, but I saw the Mattel Tyr and Validus, and DC Direct's Mon-El figures. Didn't catch the DC writers panel earlier with Paul Levitz. And because I'm limited to my iPhone I can't check all the news sites. If you read any good Legion news please post it here with links.
This is Trivia Quiz #49. I've been doing this monthly for 4 years now. Most of the questions have been my own, a few here and there I've taken (and tried to credit) from various message boards. For Quiz #50 next month, I want to turn this over to you guys - send me (do NOT post them here) your favorite Legion trivia questions with the answers (what, do you think I know everything?) and I'll post a bunch next month.
No particular theme this week, just questions that have been sitting around minding their own business, waiting for me to post them.
1. Who were Jilly, Helen, Charlie, Sophie, Donna, and Jane?
2. Name the 5 LSH members who held wands in an attempt to attract lightning and revive the dead Lightning Lad.
3. Fortress Lad was from Fwang, in the 30th century. When did we see residents of Fwang in the 20th/21st century?
4. Dave Cockrum redesigned a number of Legionnaires' costumes when he was artist. Here's an alphabetical list of those Legionnaires, put them in chronological order of when Cockrum changed their costumes. (Note: in several stories, multiple Legionnaires got new costumes; these 12 Legionnaires got new costumes in a total of 6 different stories.)
Guess I forgot to post the answers. June's theme was "stuff I thought of while reading LSH v6 #1".
1. What were the names of the members of the original Wanderers, and what were their new names once they got their own series?
Thanks to Val Beasley for the link. Check out this creature recently discovered in Australia:
Lost in my inbox from when I was on vacation last week, here's an ad for an upcoming statue of Cosmic Boy from Eaglemoss Publications (which makes lead statuettes for DC Direct). Here's a list of what they have put out so far. Preorder from Previews (page 350) or from Big Bad Toystore, from where I got this image. Thanks to Travis Ellisor for the tip.
The ultimate collection for comics fans, the DC Superhero Collection Figurine Magazine brings together DC Comics' greatest heroes and villains! Official figurines of the characters, both good and evil, are cast in lead, individually hand-painted and numbered to form an authentic collector's edition. Each comes with a 20-page magazine providing detailed history and background on the featured characters, including exclusive images and interviews. Choose this month from Black Lightning (#66) or Cosmic Boy (#67).
Part 2 of San Diego programming, covering Saturday and Sunday. Some of it's generic DC stuff, one with Levitz as a panelist. (See part 1 for Thursday and Friday here).
Less than two weeks to the start of the San Diego Comic Con... who else is going besides me? Programming for Thursday and Friday are up, let's see what we've got for Legion fans:
You may recall this Legion/X-Men mashup from a few years ago here, where artist Bob Layton re-created the Byrne/Austin cover of X-Men 141 ("Days of Future Past") with Legionnaires in the X-Men roles. Here's an all-new, all-different version by former Legion artist Mike Netzer (formerly Nasser):
This month's theme is "stuff I thought of while reading LSH v6 #1".
1. What were the names of the members of the original Wanderers, and what were their new names once they got their own series?
2. In the Silver Age, just about every member had a name that fit the pattern "Descriptor + Gender/Youth", like Karate Kid, Dream Girl, and Princess Projectra. Which Silver Age Legionnaire(s) did not fit this pattern? (That is, everyone who joined before Wildfire).
3. Which of the Legionnaires or their closely related characters has or had some sort of tie to the Green Lantern Corps?
4. Not counting Adventure 247, who was the first Legionnaire to get a permanent costume change that is outside the "artistic license" boundaries (I consider "how many points were on the sunburst symbol on Sun Boy's costume" to be an example of artistic license; Cosmic Boy changing from his pink costume to the bustier-type is a major change)?
5. Which other Legionnaire(s) were forced to join the Legion against their wishes or will?
6. Earth-Man is the latest Legionnaire to gain admittance to the Legion after his original tryout attempt. Who else failed at their first attempt, for whatever reason, and got in later?
7. Which other Legionnaire homeworlds have blown up?
So I picked a bad time to take a small break, huh? Three new Legion books (LSH v6 #1, Brave and Bold v3 #34, Adventure Comics v3 #12) in three weeks. Hot damn!
For those of you who were wondering, the Legion roster in Adventure Comics #12 places the story chronologically right after Superboy joined and before Ultra Boy. Supergirl (in original continuity) had just been inducted along with Brainiac 5 prior to Superboy's joining. The Outhousers point out some continuity errors (which are now called "chronicler's errors" by Levitz): Saturn Girl shouldn't be described as an orphan, and flight rings weren't used until Adventure 325. Also, Imra's not married to Garth at this point (her caption says "Ardeen-Ranzz"), and RJ Brande shouldn't be said to be from Durla, which was not known at this point in Legion history.
Also out this past week: X-Men Forever Giant Size #1. Huh? It's got Mike Grell, in a rare Marvel book, drawing the Dave Cockrum-era Imperial Guard.
Via Newsarama:Not sure what the "just one Legion book" thing is about, Levitz is writing two (or rather, one and a half, the Legion book and the lead in Adventure).
Is there a chance for a Legion ring promotion? Yes, we may get a Legion flight ring in the near future.
Are there any plans for more back up co-features? Yes, Two-Face will start in Streets of Gotham and The Atom in Adventure Comics.
Also they are trying to just keep it to one Legion book for right now.
Why couldn't we keep anything from World of New Krypton? Sattler replied that Mon-El was always going back. Nightwing and Flamebird on the other hand, we might have not have seen the last of. "Just because they're off camera doesn't mean they're gone."
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1, the debut issue of the new ongoing series from writer Paul Levitz and artist Yildaray Cinar, has sold out at DC comics and will return in a new, second printing. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1 Second Printing (APR108152) features a sketch version of the variant cover by Jim Lee. This issue is scheduled to arrive in stores on June 23 and has a Final Order Cutoff date of June 3.
More info here.
In this volume, the Legion battles Mordru the Merciless and The Fatal Five and meets The Tornado Twins. Collecting ADVENTURE COMICS #369-380, ACTION COMICS #378-387, 389-392 and SUPERBOY #172, 173, 176, 183, 184, 188, 190 and 191.
This week kicks off the beginning of new Legion series by Paul Levitz and Yildiray Cinar, so in that spirit I present this issue of Legion Trivia.
1. Who were the main villains in each of the other #1 issues of the "Legion of Super-Heroes" series?
2. With the Legion appearing in two series next month (Adventure Comics and Legion v6), how many times in the past has the Legion had two simultaneous ongoing series?I was amused at how many other issues you guys tried to fit in, from LSH v2 #259 to Legionnaires to The Legion to issue #0s. I was only interested in the #1 issues of "Legion of Super-Heroes" series.
- Legion v1 #1 reprinted Adventure #328, the Command Kid story.
- There was no issue #1 for v2.
- Legion v3 #1 had the Legion of Super-Villains
- Legion v4 #1 had the Dominators behind the scenes
- Legion v5 #1 had a giant robot.
By my count, four times:3. Between his first story in LSH v2 #284 and the end of LSH v3 (including Annuals but not including miniseries), how many people were given some sort of writing credit along with Paul Levitz? This includes credits for plotter, scripter, dialog, etc.
- Adventure Comics [Digest] & LSH v2 (1982-83)
- Tales of the LSH & LSH v3 (1984-1987)
- LSH v4 & Legionnaires (1993-2000)
- LSH v5 & LSH in 31st Century (2007-2008)
I counted Adventure because the Legion had a regular ongoing reprint series (even thought it only lasted 13 issues). The LSH v1 series, 4 reprint issues, wasn't an ongoing series, and the Legion only had an occasional backup in Superboy at the time. Guest appearances and miniseries don't count.
I had forgotten that Paul helped finish out the Reflecto storyline, starting in issue 281, before taking the book for himself (mostly).
- Roy Thomas: plot LSH v2 281-282
- Keith Giffen: co-plot and/or co-script LSH v2 293-313 plus Annuals 1-3; Tales of the LSH 313-317; LSH v3 1-5, 50-55, 57-58, 60-63
- Mindy Newell: dialogue, script, and/or co-plot Tales 314-317, 320-325
- Steve Lightle: co-plot LSH v3 23
Mike McKean got it right: "Since Adventure #503 was cover dated Sep 1983, if the series had been published monthly, the May 2010 issue (which would have come out in March) should have been numbered #823. I'm assuming Adventure would have published #0 and #1000000 in the same months as other DC titles, which balances out the two "extra" 1988 issues, Winter and Holiday." (I meant to ask which issue would Levitz be starting on, which Duke got: issue 826.)5. Who wrote "An Open Note of Suicide", and why? For that matter, why does that question fit this quiz?
As Anon wrote:
Saturn Girl's new costume design was submitted by K. Haven (Kim) Metzger. This outfit, later colored fuscia, would be adopted by the Bronze Age Saturn Girl. When nearly all the Legionnaires were eventually given new costumes in the Bronze Age, Kim wrote his famous "An Open Note of Suicide" letter/essay in the fanzine Legion Outpost No. 10 (Spring 1981) , saying:
"... since those new uniforms were introduced, it just doesn't seem like the Legion I knew. And I live with the knowledge that I am responsible. Whatever it is about the Legion that seems different now, that something had its birth with my Saturn Girl uniform. I cannot bear to watch anymore ... I ask no forgiveness; I deserve none. Rather, I deserve perhaps pity, perhaps contempt from my fellow Legion fans ... Let those who sneer at a super-hero's costume with dreams of changing it - recall my success and remember the wretchedness it brought me."
This question was inspired by Jim Lee's alternate cover to LSH v6 #1. Nobody answered that part of the question.
This had just been mentioned on my Twitter feed the day before, and it was still on the Twitter sidebar when this was posted. The answer is Shadow Lass.
From the 1976 DC Calendar (which has since been made canon), only Condo Arlik, aka Chemical King, was born in May.
May kicks off the beginning of new Legion series by Paul Levitz and Yildiray Cinar, so in that spirit I present this issue of Legion Trivia.
1. Who were the main villains in each of the other #1 issues of the "Legion of Super-Heroes" series?
2. With the Legion appearing in two series next month (Adventure Comics and Legion v6), how many times in the past has the Legion had two simultaneous ongoing series?
3. Between his first story in LSH v2 #284 and the end of LSH v3 (including Annuals but not including miniseries), how many people were given some sort of writing credit along with Paul Levitz? This includes credits for plotter, scripter, dialog, etc.
4. Assuming that Adventure Comics had continued its numbering as a monthly title and had not been cancelled with issue #503, with the issues coming out (in whatever format) regularly since then as a typical DC comic. What issue number would have been dated May 2010?
5. Who wrote "An Open Note of Suicide", and why? For that matter, why does that question fit this quiz?
6. Which Legionnaire was featured in Yildiray Cinar's Sketchbook, which was first sold recently at the C2E2 convention and also posted online?
7. Who is the only Legionnaire whose birthday is in May?
The DCU Source blog today released the first of Jim Lee's variant covers, to appear on LSH v6 #1:
Today's Earth Day. Earth-Man says take care of your favorite planet!
Look what's shown up on Amazon.com: Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga (Deluxe Edition), available for pre-order now and coming in November.
Via Collected Editions:
A hardcover Great Darkness isn't a great suprise, given that the original book is out of print, that Levitz is about to begin a new run on Legion, and that DC already announced a new Legion of Super-Heroes: Prologue to Darkness paperback that leads in to Great Darkness. What is a surprise is the deluxe format, which makes the hardcover a bit bigger and, in my opinion, adds some extra value for the reader even if they already own an old, dog-eared copy of Darkness.However, the Prologue book (previously announced in February) has been removed from Amazon:
... Maybe the deluxe edition contains the Prologue issues, too (at an announced 416 pages, the deluxe edition is about twice the size of the original Great Darkness trade paperback).The original, out of print trade paperback version of Great Darkness only runs 192 pages.
Some bonus news from the Flash/Green Lantern: Revelations panel at C2E2....
Via CBR:
The "Green Lantern Corps" title itself will be taken over by Tony Bedard, of whose work the panel spoke highly. Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler explained this new work will will affect "R.E.B.E.L.S." as well, a title he felt is "deserving of a wider audience."Via Newsarama:
An audience member asked after the status of the Tornado Twins and John Fox considering the first arc of "The Flash" deals in time travel to the 25th Century, and Johns promised, "Eventually, you will see them" though whether it happens in this first arc remains unknown.
Meanwhile, Tony Bedard is taking over Green Lantern Corps. With his background of R.E.B.E.L.S., he was the "perfect guy to jump in and join our Corps." Ganthet will remain a Green Lantern. Kyle Rayner and John Stewart, Boodikka and Soranik Natu will be dealing with a returned Cyborg Superman.
Q: With the 25th century angle, can you spoil whether we'll see Tornado Twins and John Fox? Johns: No. Eventually you will see them.
Q: More Rainbow Girl? Johns: That's a question more for Paul Levitz.
Didn't see anything out of the DC Nation panel on Friday at C2E2 in Chicago, but Paul Levitz was one of the speakers at the DC Editorial panel on Saturday:
Via CBR:
"I filled my brain with too many Legionnaires and home planets," Levitz joked, about his return to "Legion of Super Heroes." He said he enjoyed the power of god that a writer enjoys over his characters. "When you go to a high school reunion, you don't really get to decide who had a failed marriage."Via Newsarama's live blog:
...Will we see the traveling Legion or the Legion in the past in Levitz's "Legion?" Levitz said that his book will pick up a lot of the material established by Geoff Johns, but the specific points the fan mentioned were addressed by Robinson in "Adventure Comics."
Sattler introduces Paul Levitz, talking about the Legion of Superheroes. "I filled my brain with too many origin planets and issue numbers, which is why I cannot recognize human beings," Levitz cracked.
...Levitz compares it to a high school reunion, in the fact that there are people with bad marriages and poor choices and those you simply wish were dead.
...Q: What's up with the various Legion teams? Levitz: A lot of what I'm doing is picking up on recent arcs on Superboy as well as Legion of Three Worlds -- Earth Man is big in the first arc, Gates transports people around in the second arc, Shrinking Violet will vomit as a result.
Anyone going to the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (aka "C2E2") this weekend? It's run by the same people who do the New York Comic Con and is not related to the old Chicago Comic Con/Wizard World Chicago. Here's their lineup this weekend:
Friday:
4:30-5:30
Mark Waid Takes On The Trivia Fans
Trivia King Mark Waid single-handedly battles a panel of expert fans in a Silver Age trivia match for the ages! Pit your knowledge of Marvel and DC’s 1960's comics when these titans clash! Nothing will ever be the same again! Moderated by Craig Shutt, writer of the Ask Mr. Silver Age column for the Comics Buyer’s Guide.
If you're going to Chicago and not going to the DC Nation panel, go here. Watching Mark Waid in a trivia contest is a sight to behold. It's like a magic trick, you sit there and wonder how he does it.
4:45-5:45
DC Nation
The DC Nation finally returns to Chicago! We’re always looking for new recruits, so be sure to come on by as Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and some of the industry’s top talent lead the way to give you the inside scoop to all current and future Nation members!
Maybe someone can ask about the alleged Legion flight rings we heard rumors of.
Saturday:
3:15-4:15
DC Universe Editorial Presentation
Your guides to comics’ greatest Universe include Co-Publishers Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and the some of the industry’s best and brightest stars!
Special all-Mike Grell issue!
The one everyone knows is the All-New Collector's Edition C-55 (aka "That Damned Tabloid"). The other one is from the Meet "Iron Mike" Grell feature from Superboy 205.
Just one - Grell's first issue (Superboy 202) was Cockrum's last. Cockrum pencilled "Lost - A Million Miles From Home!" and Grell inked it.
Long story short: Cary Bates wrote a story in which a man seemed to turn against the Legion, for Grell to draw. Grell drew the man as black. Editor Murray Boltinoff said that they couldn't show a black man being the bad guy, even if he turns out good in the end. Plus, they were going to introduce a black Legionnaire soon. So they just colored him white. In Glen Cadigan's "The Legion Companion", Grell says: "It was about a young man who’s one of the Space Troopers who comes into a conflicting situation. He has to make a choice. Like a lot of us, he makes a couple of mistakes, but then he turns out all right. He does the right thing in the end. I saw that as a very positive thing." He's talking about Dvron (from Superboy 207), but in that interview he mis-remembers him as Soljer. See this Comic Book Legends Revealed episode for more quotes and pictures.
From the Legion Companion: "I got off the title because Warlord had just been made monthly, and I was also doing Green Lantern/Green Arrow at the time. Given the choice between one or the other, since Green Lantern/Green Arrow, at that particular moment, was my favorite title - Green Arrow was always my favorite comic book character - it was a really simple choice to make."
The alternate variant cover to Action Comics #861, one of the "Superman & The Legion" issues. (I own the original art to the preliminary pencil sketch to this one!)
From the Companion again: "I came up with the visuals for her, and the concept of her having wings and being an American Indian. That was about it. Paul [Levitz] came up with her superpower, and I'm pretty sure he came up with her name." She first appeared in Superboy 226.
Surprisingly (to me), the only costume that Grell redesigned was Cosmic Boy's. All of the other redesigns in this list came before. (Note that while a caption in the original story says that Colossal Boy got a new costume too, but he actually got that one in the original Wildfire story in Superboy 195). He started out blue and orange, then was red and blue (as seen above in the Cockrum/Grell panel), then he lost the blue arms and legs for bare skin.
Special all-Mike Grell issue! One of the most popular artists of the Bronze Age Legion, his Legion art is still highly sought-after. He's one of my favorite artists, and he drew my very first Legion story (Superboy 212). This is for "Iron Mike" Grell.
You may notice that I've stuck the Omnicom Twitter feed over there on the left. If you don't already follow me there, you can read the last few things I've posted. Some of it is the typical inane chatter you see on Twitter, but about half is re-announcing (or "retweeting") stuff other people say that I think you guys would be interested in. Also, I've got a feature that puts a link there for every post I do here.
For example:
Via Dan Veltre, a Legion fan and the owner/operator of Dewey’s Comic City in Madison, NJ (who, back in the day, was a member of INTERLAC and was a co-CM for a time):
It’s a bit early for this announcement but we couldn't wait to let everyone who reads this in on the news that PAUL LEVITZ, the former President and Publisher of DC COMICS, and the writer of the new LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES series will be here at Dewey’s signing copies of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1 on Thursday, May 20th, from 5:30pm until 7:30pm. The relaunched Legion series, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1 arrives the day before Paul’s appearance, on Wednesday, May 19th and we’ll have plenty of copies of that issue (and even a few copies of the variant cover) available for Paul to sign. Besides being the writer of the new LSH series, and running DC COMICS for many years, Paul is also the writer of some of the most classic and best remembered LEGION stories ever, notably the outstanding Great Darkness Saga, starring the LSH & Darkseid from 1982. This will be Paul’s first area creator appearance since returning to the creator side of comics. More information over the next few weeks.
Jim Lee spoke with CBR in conjunction with the DC Nation panel at WonderCon today (their story had to have been pre-written, as it appeared to go live with the conclusion of the panel on which Lee was speaking). Amidst news of his Dark Knight book with Frank Miller, he had this to say:
Just because he's shying away from some cover work doesn't mean Lee will step away from the drawing board as his new duties as Co-Publisher take effect. The artist told CBR, "There's an overt acknowledgement by the rest of the executive team that one of the ways I help DC Comics the most is by doing creative work. The same goes for Geoff Johns, so to that purpose, we are given the latitude to take on projects and fit them into our schedules. So putting this book back on a track is the biggest part of my creative efforts this year. That, and a ten-page story I am doing with Paul Levitz featuring the Legion of Superheroes from the late 1970's that will be a centerpiece of a new art of Jim Lee book called 'Icons,' coming out this July."You might recall this March 2008 post which had information on the Icons book that was due out in October 2008. Titan Books now has it listed as coming out in October 2010. (In a couple of DC Source blog posts last week, we saw the not-cover and the real cover to ICONS, which Robot6 and ComicVine say is supposed to come out in August. We'll see.)
Newsarama live-blogged the Geoff Johns and DC Nation panels at WonderCon today. Nothing Legion-related that I saw in the Johns panel (though the live-blogger may have missed something), but there was this from the DC Nation panel:
"The one big legacy group from the DCU that I can't find any substantial recaps for is the Legion—do I just have crappy retailers?" DiDio: "There are no crappy retailers." He continued, talking about Paul Levitz's return to the Legion of Super Heroes, saying that the writer (and former DC president)'s original run on the characters was one of the best received DC comics of all time.I'm not sure what the "substantial recaps" refers to here, but we should find out later.
If you find yourself in San Francisco this weekend, WonderCon is there too. Here's their programming lineup for upcoming new stuff and spotlights on creators with Legion credits:
Friday 4/2
3:00-4:00 Spotlight on Geoff Johns— One of comics' top writers just became DC Comics' chief creative officer. WonderCon special guest Geoff Johns talks about his new role at the comics company he calls home, plus those Blackest Nights, Brightest Days, rebirths, and secret origins he's become famous for! Room 103
3:30-4:30 Spotlight on Colleen Doran— WonderCon special guest Colleen Doran, the artist of many comics for Marvel and DC, including Sandman, Wonder Woman, Amazing Spider-Man, Legion of Superheroes, Tori Amos: Comic Book Tattoo (published by Image), and creator of A Distant Soil, talks to moderator Derek McCulloch, Eisner Award nominee for Stagger Lee. McCulloch and Doran will discuss their upcoming original Vertigo graphic novel, Gone to Amerikay, as well as other future works by Doran, including Stealth Tribes by Warren Ellis, and an upcoming graphic novel collaboration at Houghton Mifflin with novelist Barry Lyga. The panel will include a slide show with never before seen art. Room 236/238
4:00-5:00 DC Nation!— The DC Nation returns to San Francisco! Co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio are joined by chief creative officer Geoff Johns in their first convention appearance together as DC's new management team! Join Jim, Dan, and Geoff as they begin the next era of greatness for DC Comics! Room 103
Saturday 4/3
12:00-1:30 DCU Editorial Presentation— Senior story editor Ian Sattler and countless DCU talent gather for a panel that's not to be missed. With the Brightest Day fast approaching, what does that mean for your favorite universe? Got a question for your favorite DCU creator? Come on by...this is the place to be! Room 103
Sunday 4/4
12:30-1:30 Spotlight on James Robinson— WonderCon special guest James Robinson is one of the hardest working writers in comics. He currently writes Superman and Justice League of America and is about to tackle the DC event, War of the Supermen. Robinson talks about what’s next for this fan-favorite writer with James Sime, owner of San Francisco’s Isotope Comics. Room 104
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