I, for one, welcome our new former X-Men overlord

You might remember that the internet broke in half when Steve Wacker jumped from DC to Marvel back in September. The big deal was that Wacker was editor of 52, but it didn't get much mention that he was also the editor of the Legion.

What you might not recall is that just before that happened, Mike Marts surprised everyone when he jumped from Marvel to DC. Over at Marvel, he was a Senior Editor and group editor over the entire X-Men line. At DC, he's still a Senior Editor but I don't know what's in his portfolio besides the Legion (the Newsarama link only mentions the All-Star line, so he's not busy). Last month's issue 24 was his first DC credit.

(Also gone with issue 24 is Wacker's assistant/associate editor Harvey Richards, replaced by Jeanine Schaefer. What does an assistant/associate editor do these days, anyway?)

Newsarama interviewed Marts after the announcement and gave him a DC pop quiz:

Newsarama: Can you name Batman's butler?
Mike Marts: Jarvis. Now wait – Alfred!
NRAMA: Who founded the Legion of Super-Heroes?
MM: Paul Levitz
NRAMA: Where does Wonder Woman come from?
MM: Joss Whedon.

Okay – a pass for now (counting extra credit on #2, and a near waffle on #1).

While I think Marts being on the Legion is a coincidence because he's just taking over one of Wacker's former books, I also think it's a nice coup to get a strong, well-respected editor with a good reputation. Now if he can just get sales up to X-levels...

Who did this art?

Update: The reason it looks like Kevin Nowlan art is because it is. For me, he has a distinctive way of drawing eyes, which is why I thought it was his in the first place. I verified it over at the Kevin Nowlan Yahoo Group. I found some posts by a guy at Upper Deck from April 2006 about a "pretty killer packaging illustration" he was doing for them. Too bad it's only on the box and not anywhere else, at least on a card or something.

---

Can anyone ID this artwork? It's from the box top of the new Vs. System card set starring the Legion, and it doesn't appear on any of the cards in the set. It looks a bit like Kevin Nowlan in the faces, I think.

Here's the whole box top:



And a closeup:

"Don't you remember when we teamed up to tackle the Ghost Ship of Space?"

Back in the day, they got "defeated".

Today, adults would say "the Legion of Super-Heroes get their asses handed to them by the Legion of Super-Pets."

The L337 H4x0r kids would say "omfg d00d th3y PWN3D teh |_3g10|\| cuz they r0xx0rzz!!11!"

In any language, here's a moment the Legion probably wishes they could forget, or at least they'd hope we forgot. From Adventure Comics #364, the Legion gets pwn3d by the Super-Pets (as presented by scans_daily).

Not Ultra Boy's finest moment.

Previously: The Incredible Super-Blog's awesome take on the story.

Issue 25 review roundup

As I said when the cover preview first came out, "I didn't see that one coming."

Well played, Mr. Waid. I had bought it hook, line, and sinker. And then you pulled the rug out from under me not once but twice this issue - first when the bad guy team turned out to be the Wanderers, and then when their leader was revealed. Nice. This worked for the old readers who knew many of the individual characters as either the Subs or the LSV (and even some old Legionnaires), and for the new readers with no preconceptions. One of my favorite issues in a long time.

It's good to have you back, you seem to have been preoccupied with some other book lately.

And now a look at the comicsblogosphere's reactions. Be sure to read a couple of potentially interesting thoughts down towards the bottom from photonex68, they're enough to make you go "hmmm" and I hadn't seen them anywhere else yet.

• Matthew at Legion Abstract:
  

  Sweet Maria Sludgebucket! ... The best thing about this issue is that a lot of important action happens fast. I think this is where a bunch of dominoes start to come down. It's what I've been waiting for and I hope it continues.

  
  
• The Original Losing Loser at Seebelow LJ:
  

  In a way, this is typical hit-and-miss Waid, with good moments and absolutely dopey ones. The Verdict: Cosi, cosa.

  
  
• Dave van Domelen's Unspoilt Capsules (as he mentions in the comments):
  

  Well, that's certainly an interesting way to bring some classic stuff back without just copying it. And Brainy is in fine form. Recommended.

  
  
• Zero Hunter at the CBR forum:
  

  All I can say is damn what a difference an issue can make. This was the Mark Waid that I was hoping for when he restarted this book. This issue was so much better than what has been going on that it didn't even feel like the same writer. ... Just a really great issue that actully read like the Legion should read.

  
  
• Ami Angelwings' Heavenly Comic Reviews:
  

  OMG this book is a BLAST!!! Rly rly funny and just FUN in general :O The plot moves well and the characters are all so well written and amusing. The dialogue is rly great!!!! 5/5

  
  
• Piper at the ComicBloc forums appears to be a new reader with little knowledge of the previous incarnations of the Legion:
  

  I really enjoyed this issue. Mark does a great job characterizing characters with just one panel. I thought it was brilliant that when White Witch seperated most of the Legion into groups of two we saw Element Lad with one of Triplicate Girl's dupes while the other two were somewhere else.
  
  I really like the idea of the Wanderers. Maybe I'm a dork but lately I've become a fan of all things Legion, so I wouldn't mind seeing these guys get their own book.
  
  Brainy's conversation with Dream Girl was pretty cool (I also want to specify that I love Dream Boy). I didn't realize until this issue that Light Lass was Lightning Lad's sister; was that revealed before? The revelation that the leader of the Wanderers is their other brother was a really cool reveal.

  
  
• Photonex68 at Monsters -- from the Id!:
  

  Okay, for any faults this series may have, Mark Waid has won some kudos from me for bringing back Mon-El. That's right. Not Valor. Not M'Onel. Mon-El. And even better, he brings back Mon-El from the Phantom Zone using that wonderful red searchlight-looking thing that was the Phantom Zone Projector back in the days of the Silver Age. ... Definitely looking forward to the next issue.

  
  This review also brings out two continuity points:
  
  1. Retcon alert: Where does Lar Gand fit in post-Infinite Crisis 20th century history?
  

  What with New Earth after Infinite Crisis having a different history, it seems that Lar Gand was never a member of L.E.G.I.O.N. and so Brainiac 5 has to create the serum from scratch that, in the previous history, Vril Dox created.

  
  2. Are we sure this is the Supergirl we've been thinking she is?
  

  And another interesting tidbit out of all this is a hint that this isn't the Supergirl we think it is. The current version of Kara Zor-El in the 21st century didn't spend any significant amount of time with the Kents before the events of Infinite Crisis, so why does she say, "Okay, like Pa says...sometimes you can reason with a mule...and sometimes you've gotta crack him with a two by four"? Unless mules and two-by-fours existed on Krypton, and unless Kara referred to Zor-El as "Pa," then that's got a definite "Jonathan Kent farm wisdom" feel about it, like maybe this Supergirl is actually from an alternate universe where she did spend time with the Kents, and she merged with, and then split from again, the current version of Supergirl. Her proximity to the rupture in the universe/multiverse during Infinite Crisis makes it possible.
  
  Or maybe Waid just screwed up, of course. Still....

  
  

In the meantime, the Legion book has made some end-of-the-year "Best Of" lists:

• The Legion of Doom discusses DC in 2006 (Infinite Crisis, One Year Later, and 52), and says that "Supergirl & The Legion of Superheroes is the best book DC puts out monthly right now."
  
• Comics And... goes even further, saying "From the Archives to a long run of the series and reading the new series I have come to realize that this is the best super hero group ever."
  

What's in the box?

I got my box of Vs. System cards in the mail today. I won an ebay auction at only $40, which is way below the regular auction rate (around $60) and far below the retail rate (about $80 at my local comic shop). So what did I get for my $40?

Each box contains 24 packs, each with 14 cards, so that's 336 cards altogether. Each pack has one foil card, leaving 312 regular cards. There's 220 cards in the set (plus special "stacker" versions of three cards, and then a foil card of all 223). Of the 220 cards, 110 are "common", 55 are "uncommon", and 55 are "rare".

I counted 124 Legion-related cards in the set (see this post for my newly updated checklist), but that includes a number of cards from the "Foundations" storyline in the post-Zero Hour reboot continuity that starred Darkseid and his minions (but many of these cards don't show Legionnaires). If you don't count those, that's about 15 fewer cards to worry about.

In my box, I got a complete set of Commons (222 of 110, or 2.02 of each) and Uncommons (72 of 55, or 1.31 of each), but only about a third of the set of Rares (18 of 55, or 0.33 of each). This translates to a ratio of roughly 6 Commons to 4 Uncommons to 1 Rare per box. I ended up getting 3 Rares for every 4 packs, lower than I expected, but I didn't expect to get so many Uncommons.

None of my foil cards were duplicates. I fared better there, with 12 Commons, 6 Uncommons, and 6 Rares (equal to the proportion of cards in the deck but out of proportion to the other cards in the box).

But more importantly, I did get a full set of Commons and Uncommons. Of my 18 Rares I got, 9 were Legion related, which leaves just 19 Rares to complete my Legion set.

My extra foils went right to Ebay where they can be appreciated in a loving home, as did my "Mobilize" card which is apparently the most-sought-after card in the set. Those should offset much of the cost of getting those other 19 Rares. The rest of my unwanted cards will probably go there too, and I'll probably hang on to the Legion duplicate cards for a while for trades.

New creator for animated comic, maybe

Updated 12/27, 8pm Per the comments below, Chynna might be a writer or artist for the series, not only a writer.

---

Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters this week has alleged "green-light" news on a writer creator for the upcoming comic series based on the animated series:

CHYANNA OF SUPERHEROES

One of my fave comic creators, Chynna Clugston writes in her blog that she's working on a new upcoming Legion Of Superheroes series based on the cartoon, which she refers to as "Legion Animated."

As Scott at the Legion Clubhouse notes,

But there is no mention of this on her blog. Perhaps she was asked to remove it or maybe Rich imbibed a few too many eggnogs over the holiday.

We already knew that J. Torres and Scott Beatty will also be writing the comic.

New Heroclix coming

As I mentioned the other day, WizKids is coming out with a new line of Heroclix in the Spring. Scipio, the comicsblogosphere's resident expert on Clix weighs in on the figures over at the Absorbascon, including these Legionnaires:

#22-24 Mano
#52-54 Triplicate Girl
#55-57 Supergirl (modern version)
#73-75 Mon-El/Valor/M'Onel

Notice that they've added one Pre-Crisis figure, one post-Zero Hour figure, and one post-Infinite Crisis figure. Sheesh! Here's a list of who's who in the Legion of Super-Heroclix. (Mano pretty much had the same costume both pre-Crisis and post-Zero Hour.)

The news never stops

Just because I'm not posting doesn't mean there's not stuff going on in the Legion-centric world:

• Comics Continuum reported that although official word on a second season of the Legion cartoon show has not appeared yet, "an announcement about the show's future is expected in the next month or so. However, ... scripts are being worked on for a new season."
  
  
• The new Heroclix expansion set, coming in March, is confirmed or strongly rumored to have the following Legion-related figures, according to those in the know:
  - Confirmed: Supergirl (current version)
  - Strongly Rumored: "Legion of Superhero members (Valor/M'On-El?, Timber Wolf?, Tripicate Girl/Duo Damsel?, Bouncing Boy?), LSH villains (Mano? Tharok?)", new JSA Starman
  - Rumored: Proty (as a bystander)
  
  
• In addition to the 120 or so Legion-related cards in the latest Vs. System CCG set (plus the same cards as foil), there is yet another set that appears to be foil only. These are the "stacker" cards, which when laid side by side produce a triptych, as they don't have the regular borders (or aren't supposed to). There's one stacker set here, featuring Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Live Wire.
  
  
  
  Compare this to the non-stacker cards:
  
  
  
  Carlos at vs-blog.com found a Live Wire stacker card that has a border (which it's not supposed to have). Don't know if that's a misprint or what.
  
  
  
  

Finally, a holiday treat. The Invincible Super-Blog reviewed the Superboy and the Legion story in which the team tries to find the Christmas star, from DC Special Series #21. It's awesome.

Under construction

Forgive the funky looks, colors, and formatting. I'm upgrading from the old Blogger template to the new one and I'm trying to figure out how to make it look better.

Update 3 a.m.
I think it looks decent. I finally figured out how to do the graphic at the top (trying to hand-code within HTML, XML, and CSS isn't easy). I don't know if I'm too keen on how the title looks under the Omnicom graphic, though, but I definitely wanted to get away from being constrained to the middle third of the page like I had on the old template.

Comments, suggestions, pointers to some pages with interesting coding I can borrow?

Legion TV schedule Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007

Via ToonZone and LegionWorld, here are the airdates and episodes for the Legion show for the rest of December and January. All episodes are supposed to air at 10:00 a.m. local time on The CW Network.

Dec. 23 - episode 1 "Man of Tomorrow" (3rd airing)
Dec. 30 - episode 3 "Legacy" (2nd airing)
Jan. 06 - episode 2 "Timber Wolf" (5th airing)
Jan. 13 - episode 5 "Champions" (3rd airing)
Jan. 20 - episode 4 "Fear Factory" (3rd airing)
Jan. 27 - episode 6 "Phantoms (3rd airing)

At the moment, this is just speculation about the Dec. 30th show, as I can't find a schedule that shows this one.

Notice that they've flip-flopped episodes 2 and 3 as well as 4 and 5. New episodes will return in February, including the Legion of Super-Villains show.

Previously:
schedule for Sept./Oct. 2006, Nov. 2006, early Dec. 2006

Trivia answers #6

Apparently this one was too easy, all the questions were answered within a day.


1. What were the properties of these Silver Age elements/compounds?
a. sigellium
b. serum XY-4
c. duralim
d. cancellite
e. zuunium
f. rejuvium

Sigellium was poisonous to humans, Serum XY-4 temporarily cured Mon-el of lead poisoning, Duralim was highly attractive to lightning, Cancellite froze Durlans in their current shape, Zuunium was the source of Timber Wolf's powers, and Rejuvium would rejuvenate anyone who ate it.

2. Who were the Best Man and Maid of Honor at the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel?

Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, respectively. Phantom Girl was holding a gemstone upon which Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel rested their hands during the ceremony. Here's the picture.

3. Which live-action TV show did a Legion super-villain appear in? (Luthor doesn't count, he's a Superman super-villain.)

Mordru, in the "Legends of the Super-Heroes" special in the late 1970s.

4. Name the charter members of the Legion of Super-Pets.

I thought this might trip up someone, but no luck. It was Krypto, Streaky, Comet, and Beppo (though why these 20th century residents never teamed up as the Super-Pets, I have no idea). Proty I was never a member, and Proty II joined later.

5. Supergirl and the Legion recently traveled to Rokyn, the planet where Kandor was enlarged. What was the first appearance (of sorts) of Rokyn in Legion history?

Terence Chua got this tough one - Rokyn was named in Adventure 356, though it never actually appeared until a Superman story in 1979 when Superman actually succeeded in enlarging the bottle-city of Kandor. Rokyn is Kryptonian for "Gift from God".

6. Which 20th century DCU character's face did Lori Morning wear on her shirt?

Blue Devil. Bonus: her shirt had the last name of former Legion artist Chris Sprouse on the back.

WB licenses out Legion, other properties

From the Business Wire, it looks like WB is finally licensing out the animated version of the Legion, apparently for a video game of some sort. (I added the bold font below).

Some relevant passages:

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. will make an investment in SCi Entertainment Group plc, (‘SCi’ Epic code: SEG) the parent company of publishing label Eidos Interactive Ltd, representing 10.3 percent of the company’s enlarged share capital. Additionally, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and SCi have entered into an agreement for licensing and distribution of games based on select Warner Bros. Entertainment properties. The investment, licensing and distribution agreements are all pending SCi shareholder approval.

A part of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) has granted the licenses to SCi for the comic book version of Batman, the Looney Tunes, select titles from the Hanna-Barbera catalog and television properties The OC, Loonatics Unleashed and Legion of Super Heroes.

In addition, Eidos and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group have entered into a primary distribution agreement under which Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group will provide warehousing, logistics, merchandising and media buying services in the United States to Eidos. Eidos will continue to run, through its US publishing office, all other aspects of its US operations including manufacturing, sales, marketing and PR.

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has licensed the rights for selected intellectual properties to SCi. SCi’s publishing label Eidos will develop videogames based on the properties. The licenses are:

* Batman, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera catalog, The O.C. (details deleted)
* Other animated properties. Eidos has also signed license agreements relating to the children’s animated TV programs, Loonatics Unleashed and Legion of Super Heroes.

Eidos recently put out the Justice League Heroes game and owns the Lara Croft/Tomb Raider games. Here's a Variety article from October explaining the purchase.

I'll see if I can dig anything else out of their PR guys.

Foreign Legion III

Previously: here and here

More foreign language reprint covers...

originally from Adventure 302


originally from Adventure 318


originally from Adventure 319


originally from Adventure 351


originally from Legion v3 34


originally from Legion v3 62

December linkfest

Haven't done one of these in a while but there have been too many things to post about lately.

Characters

Over at the Comic Treadmill, H has been doing a thorough analysis of the Legionnaires. In part 4 he looks at Karate Kid, Light Lass, Chameleon Boy, and the Silver Age Weirdo Legionnaire. In part 5 he takes on Brainiac 5, Dream Girl, and Element Lad. I'm doing him a disservice by only mentioning them and not looking at them in detail, so check them out.

Matthew over at the Legion Abstract also does a bang-up job at analyzing the Legionnaires. Brainiac 6 at the Legion Clubhouse blog has been checking out the Fatal Five/Sun Eater story and recapping some of the Who's Who articles from her own unique perspective.

Meanwhile, Blockade Boy has been busy redesigning the Legion of Substitute Costumes for Fire Lad, Animal Lad, Polar Boy, Stone Boy, and The Mess.

Dave Cockrum

I wrote about Dave Cockrum and collected some remembrances here, here, and here. There were a lot of tributes, and these came out after I finished my set. Sleestak at Lady, That's My Skull has some good images. Querl Dox remembers Dave as "the common element in the two most significant revivals of the 1970s".

Jack C. Harris, who was the editor of the Legion title shortly after Cockrum left DC for Marvel, and tells the tale of how he personally gave Dave the two-page scene of the wedding spread when DC started giving artwork back.

Finally, Mark Evanier touched on some things that I had tried to (only with better results). Cockrum was the first of the new wave of young and rising stars in the 70s who started as the old guard was retiring.

But I always thought that the success of that strip — and of the willingness of Boltinoff to embrace the work of a "new kid" — marked a turning point in the history of seventies' comics.

Animated

Fist Full of Comics has two podcast interviews, one with Michael Cornacchia (Bouncing Boy) and one with Kari Wahlgren (Saturn Girl).

Christopher Bird addresses some misconceptions on where the Legion show came from in relation to the Justice League and Teen Titans shows.

Superman Homepage notes that the final season of Justice League Unlimited will be arriving on DVD in March. The Legion appeared in the "Far From Home" episode.

Vs. System CCG

The Vs-Blog noted that the crowds for the recent preview tournaments were smaller than expected based on previous tournaments. Wizard's Inquest magazine looks at some of the more interesting cards in the set.

Comics

Oh yeah, they still publish the comics, too. Rokk's Comic Book Revolution reviews the first issue of the new JSA series, and he's really excited.


The Stop Button recently read "The Great Darkness Saga" for the first time with essentially no previous knowledge of Legion history. Check out the review for a firsthand account of whether "I can't read the Legion, there's too much history!" is true or not. Similarly, Graphic Content picked up the two most recent Legion trades, "Death of a Dream" (vol. 2) and Supergirl's "Strange Visitor from Another Century" (vol. 3). These guys also had pretty much no knowledge of the Legion, and came away with an overall positive experience.

Of course, you can't discuss Legion history without arguing over the relative merits (or lack thereof) of the Giffen/Bierbaum version. This "Comics Should Be Good" column at CBR starts talking about the Doom Patrol but swerves to the Legion pretty quick. And H opens up the Comic Treadmill vaults to review the original version of Adventure Comics #247.

Funny Stuff

Finally, a couple of funny items. Scott at the Legion Clubhouse got a copy of a 90s song called "The Wedding of Bouncing Boy". You can listen and sing along with lyrics that start off "Matter-Eater Lad was finally glad after shedding that 13 pounds / and Duo Damsel was getting hard to handle making the banquet table rounds". And Ben at Good Book Readin' takes a second look at the "Origins and Powers of the Legion" from Adventure Comics 365 - panel 1, for example, shows Phantom Girl with the power to perform table dances. After looking at the drawing, it's hard to argue against it.

What does a lemming sound like?

I have no idea what I'll do with it, but I've got a comicspace page now because all of the cool kids are doing it. I don't even have a myspace page so I'm kind of fuzzy how all this social networking stuff goes. But I do know that whoever has the most friends wins, so I'll accept anyone who wants me to add them (unless you're a spammer) and I'll be asking to be added to those whose web sites I read regularly. Kind of like a live blogroll, I guess.

Look for me at http://www.comicspace.com/omnicom/ (but until I figure out what it'll be used for, you'll have to keep coming back here for your usual content).

Tyr-riffic!

Comics Continuum reported Sunday that Khary Payton (the voice of Cyborg in the Teen Titans cartoon) will be doing the voice for Tyr in the upcoming animated episode that has the battle with the Legion of Super-Villains. The site also has more images of Tyr vs. Lightning Lad.

Update: the've confirmed over at Legion World that the six members of the Legion of Super-Villains will be (in alphabetical order) Esper Lass, Hunter, Lightning Lord, Ron-Karr, Tyr, and Wave. The original site, STX Superhero Report, has updated pictures.

• Esper Lass was originally a telepath from Titan who tried to take Saturn Girl's spot in the Legion.
  
• Hunter was the son of a guy who tried to hunt down the Legionnaires, but it eventually resulted in his death. The son tried to take revenge.
  
• Lightning Lord was last seen as Garth's brother Mekt in "Champions" (1.05).
  
• Ron-Karr's ability was to be flat, but it looks like now he's a true shape-changer.
  
• Tyr is a badass who has a gun on his hand.
  
• Wave was the "Legion on the Run" identity of Spider-Girl (think Medusa of the Inhumans, same powers), she's now an acrobatic menace with whip-like hair.
  

It would be poetic justice if Timber Wolf fights Tyr. That would hearken back to Superboy #197, the issue where the Legion took over Superboy's book. Dave Cockrum created Tyr and redesigned Timber Wolf (whose look was later adopted for some guy named Wolverine). I think the show's creative staff has shown themselves to be Legion geeks of a high enough order to pull this battle off.

Coming in March 2007

Some surprises in this month's solicitations. One new issue, two new trade reprints, a poster reprint, one obscure reference, and one that might feature a timeline-lost Legionnaire. Click the picture to enlarge.

Very interesting....

SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #28
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Barry Kitson & Mick Gray
Cover by Kitson
The Legion and the Wanderers have joined forces to take the Dominator War away from Earth and to an unfamiliar realm where life is cheap and victory is dear. And at long last, the Dominators' link to the events of 52 is revealed!
On sale March 28 o 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US



The next volume in the trade paperback. Too bad we don't get a new cover, though.

SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VOL. 4: ADULT EDUCATION TP
Written by Mark Waid and Tony Bedard
Art by Barry Kitson, Mick Gray and various Cover by Kitson
A new volume collecting SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #20-25! In this volume, Brainiac wants to bring the deceased Dream Girl back from the dead, and only the mind of a deadly enemy can help.
Advance-solicited; on sale April 25 o 192 pg, FC, $14.99 US



Yay! The first Showcase volume!

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VOL. 1 TP
Written by Jerry Siegel, Otto Binder, Edmond Hamilton and various
Art by Curt Swan, George Papp, John Forte and various
Cover by Swan & Stan Kaye
A massive black-and-white volume collecting classic tales of the Legionnaires, from ADVENTURE COMICS #247, 267, 282, 290, 293, and 300-328, ACTION COMICS #267, 276, 287 and 289, SUPERBOY #86, 89, 98 and 117, SUPERMAN 147, SUPERMAN ANNUAL #4, and SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN#72 and 76!
Advance-solicited; on sale April 4 o 552 pg, B&W, $16.99 US



I thought that Adam Hughes cover would look great as a poster!

DC DIRECT POSTERS
Don't miss four stunning new posters featuring the lovely ladies of the DCU illustrated by the incomparable Adam Hughes!

SUPERGIRL
From the cover of Supergirl and Legion of Super-Heroes #23
Art by Adam Hughes
Advance-solicited; on sale August 22, 2007 o Poster o $7.99 US



Back to the gambler's planet of Ventura, with an unbelievable cover by Perez:

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #2
Written by Mark Waid
Art by George Pérez & Bob Wiacek
Covers by Pérez
Green Lantern and Supergirl are off to Ventura on the trail of the bizarre case that began in issue #1! Ventura is a planetwide casino, which would be wild enough, but it has also become a backdrop for the Rann-Thanagar War! Guest-starring Batman and Blue Beetle!
On sale March 21 o 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US



Starman probably appears here. Is he really the Legion's Thom Kallor?

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #4
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Dale Eaglesham & Ruy Jose
Cover by Alex Ross
Variant cover by Eaglesham
The saga of the world's first and greatest super-hero team continues in Part 4 of "The Next Age," by Geoff Johns, Dale Eaglesham & Art Thibert! The families of legacy heroes have been targeted by an evil force set out to end their bloodlines. Now our members find out how close to home tragedy is as their leader stands revealed. And the new mystery member set to join the Justice Society will surprise everyone - especially the members of the team!
Retailers: This issue will feature two covers that may be ordered separately. The Standard Edition cover is by Alex Ross; one copy of the Variant Edition, with a cover by Dale Eaglesham, may be ordered for every 10 copies of the Standard Edition ordered. Please see the Previews Order Form for further details.
On sale March 7 o 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Trivia quiz #6

More trivia... Answers in a few days.

1. What were the properties of these Silver Age elements/compounds?
a. sigellium
b. serum XY-4
c. duralim
d. cancellite
e. zuunium
f. rejuvium

2. Who were the Best Man and Maid of Honor at the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel?

3. Which live-action TV show did a Legion super-villain appear in? (Luthor doesn't count, he's a Superman super-villain.)

4. Name the charter members of the Legion of Super-Pets.

5. Supergirl and the Legion recently traveled to Rokyn, the planet where Kandor was enlarged. What was the first appearance (of sorts) of Rokyn in Legion history?

6. Which 20th century DCU character's face did Lori Morning wear on her shirt?

Animated Legion of Super-Villains

Oops, I meant that the next new episode will be 1.08, not the episode next week. Updated the text below. And as it turns out, new episodes won't show up until February. Sorry for the confusion.

Looks like KidsWB! is permanently on a 3 new/3 repeat schedule, with next week being the third repeat in the sequence (a rerun of "Fear Factory"). Their preview of the next new show includes the Legion of Super-Villains, which suggests that this is going to be episode 1.08 (skipping 1.07 for the moment). More pictures on the STX Superhero Report site.

Episode 8: "LIGHTNING STORM"
Much to the Legion's disappointment, Lighting Lad accepts an invitation to join an older, "cooler" team. Once there, however, Lightning Lad realizes these new heroes aren't exactly what they seem. Now, caught between the Legion and his new friends, Lighting Lad must decide once and for all where his loyalties lie.



From left to right, that's Ron-Karr (lower left, hard to see, but is visible in other pictures), Esper Lass (upper left), Lightning Lord (Mekt Ranzz again), Tyr, Wave (Spider-Girl in her "Legion on the Run" identity), and Hunter.

I missed the "Sing Along with Timber Wolf" clips yesterday, did anyone catch them?

Legion CCG pictures now online

While my "official" Legion Vs. System CCG checklist as been updated here, a number of sites have images of all the cards now, including (but not limited to) Doc X's card search and the Vs. Musings blog.

After seeing the pictures and reading the text, it appears that it's not ALL the post-Zero Hour version of the Legion, as surmised by the few previews we saw. A few elements of the post-Infinite Crisis (current) version are in there too, and even some pre-Zero Hour and Glorithverse items.

Several of the cards are scenes from the "Foundations" storyline with Darkseid, in which no Legionnaires appear (likewise with the Dark Servants). I've included them here anyway because they were introduced in a Legion storyline.

JSA's new Starman

WARNING: this page discusses plot developments in Justice Society of Amerca #1, so this is your only SPOILER WARNING.

The new Starman in the new JSA series - the 9th, I believe, or maybe still the 8th - looks to be an interesting character, and possibly someone we'll need to keep an eye on here. From Legion fan Jef Peckham:

As a new team is formed one of the new member is a new Starman. He wears the Kingdom Come Starman costume. Fellow old fogies will recall he was identified in Kingdom Come as the original Thom Kallor Star Boy from before the first reboot. When not doing super-heroics, this Starman apparently spends his time in a Sanitarium. because he hears voices in his head and has been diagnosed as borderline schizophrenic. In one of his lines he refers to "Color Kids and Polar Boys." Also, on the last page which is listed as a preview for the coming year Someone is looking for Starman: someone who wears a Legion Flight Ring and a yellow costume with fringe on the sleeve. Can you say DAWNSTAR? I knew you could.

From Don McPherson's Eye on Comics:

I think the character that intrigued me the most was the new Starman. This incarnation of the character has been hinted at in Kingdom Come and James Robinson’s Starman series, and there are small but not subtle indications here that would seem to confirm that this is Star Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes after having travelled back in time from the 31st century. He’s damaged goods, a hero who’s gone a bit crazy and regressed to something of a childlike state of mind. It’s really an off-the-wall character to be included in a rather straight-laced super-hero book. The connection to the Legion will no doubt prove to be lots of fun for longtime DC readers such as myself. However, knowledge of the link to the Legion isn’t necessary to appreciate Johns’s characterization.

There's something going on here, that's for sure.

This new Starman is featured on the cover of issue 2.

Writer Geoff Johns had this to say (or not say) in a Newsarama interview in August:

NRAMA: Let's talk about some of these new characters on that cover. Who's the starry guy in the front? Starman?

GJ: That's Starman.

NRAMA: Can you tell us anything about him?

GJ: No, I'd rather not. But I can say he's very different than the other members.

But now that the issue has been published, check out WizardUniverse's discussion of that last page with Geoff Johns - a preview for the next year's worth of stories. (Thanks to "Captain Great" for the tip.)

WIZARD: ...Does that arm belong to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion of Super-Heroes member we think it does?

JOHNS: That’s Dawnstar. You’ll see this [followed up on] very, very soon. All of these [scenes] take place in the first year, but this one is coming very soon. Obviously she mentions having to find Starman so he plays a major role in what’s coming up. We want to hit a couple of really high notes within the first 12 issues.

Toywatch: Animated-based figures coming soon

From the Legion-List mailing list comes word of a sneak peek at the action figure line based on the animated series. The Action Figure Insider forum has some discussion as well.

The December 2006 issue of Previews has an ad for ToyFare Magazine #116 (page 194), in which they'll have an article on the upcoming Legion action figure line.

From the ad:

We take you inside the hot new cartoon series and show you why it's the perfect successor to Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited! Plus, a sneak-peek at the new toy line from Mattel!

Of course, AFI has been all over this for a long time. The latest news was a month ago, when one of the board posters (who is apparently in the know) said "I heard they will be out in 07. my meeting with one of the Mattel guys got pushed off till after Thanksgiving. I'm still working on getting info." None of the guys there has admitted to seeing any prototypes or hearing about which figures are in the first wave, though.

One other poster notes that

bear in mind that this issue of ToyFare comes out the same week as the American International Toy Fair takes place in New York. So, if we don't see the Legion figs in ToyFare the magazine, we'll see'em for sure at Toy Fair the event

The Toy Fair 2007 is in February in NYC.

LSH Vs. System card checklist

Originally posted 12/2/06
Updated 12/27/06: Added boxes, playmat, t-shirt, wrappers
Updated 3/18/07: Added DLS-188 Need for Speed in EA format
Updated 1/21/10: Added World's Finest (DWF), Infinite Crisis (DCR), DC Exclusives (DCX) cards 

Updated 12/20/20: Updated list of EA cards

---

Update Dec 2020: full list of Extended Art (EA) cards available at this Google Doc link, via this Tapatalk discussion forum. Note that Doc X's search page is no longer in existence. and the search function doesn't run in the Internet Archive.

Thanks to Doc X's Vs. search engine, I don't have to do this from scratch. Here's a checklist of all 220 cards from the Legion set. There's a link on that page that show each card's picture along with the stats.

This is what the Legionnaire subset looks like, I counted 124 of the 220 cards that are in some way Legion related (characters, locations, or scenes from the comics), plus two Extended Art (EA) cards and three Stacker (ST) cards that make a triptych. The "C" is for a common card, "U" is uncommon, and "R" is rare. And don't forget that foil cards exist for each of these, so that's a total of 258 new cards.

If you buy a box, you get a rules card too, which is about the size of four cards arranged in a block (then folded in half). This is not part of the numbered card set but it gets listed here anyway.

Finally, I've added all the ancilliary items at the bottom that are associated with the set but aren't technically part of it (like the tournament playmat and t-shirt) and the empty box and wrappers, for completeness.

REGULAR CARDS

(DLS plus DWF, DCR, and DCX at the bottom)
DLS-001 - C - Andromeda, Laurel Gand
DLS-002 - C - Apparition, Tinya Wazzo
DLS-003 - C - Bouncing Boy, Chuck Taine
DLS-004 - R - Brainiac 5.1, Querl Dox
DLS-005 - U - Chameleon, Reep Daggle
DLS-006 - C - Colossal Boy <> Leviathan, Gim Allon
DLS-007 - R - Cosmic Boy, Rokk Krinn
DLS-008 - R - Dream Girl, Nura Nal
DLS-009 - C - Element Lad, Jan Arrah
DLS-010 - C - Ferro Lad, Andrew Nolan
DLS-011 - C - Jazmin Cullen <> Kid Quantum, Hero of Xanthu
DLS-012 - U - Kara Zor-El <> Supergirl, Lost in Time
DLS-013 - C - Karate Kid, Val Armorr
DLS-014 - C - Kinetix, Zoë Saugin
DLS-015 - C - Live Wire, Garth Ranzz
DLS-016 - R - Mon-el <> Valor, Lar Gand
DLS-017 - U - R.J. Brande, Philanthropist
DLS-018 - R - Saturn Girl, Imra Ardeen
DLS-019 - U - Sensor, Jeka Wynzorr
DLS-020 - U - Shrinking Violet <> Leviathan, Salu Digby
DLS-021 - C - Spark, Ayla Ranzz
DLS-022 - C - Star Boy, Thom Kallor
DLS-023 - C - Sun Boy, Dirk Morgna
DLS-024 - C - Timber Wolf, Brin Londo
DLS-025 - U - Triad, Luornu Durgo
DLS-026 - U - Ultra Boy, Jo Nah
DLS-027 - C - Umbra, Tasmia Mallor
DLS-028 - C - Wildfire, Drake Burroughs
DLS-029 - C - XS, Jenni Ognats
DLS-030 - R - Celebrity Status
DLS-031 - C - Flight Ring
DLS-032 - U - Foiled Assassination
DLS-033 - C - Legion Headquarters
DLS-034 - C - Legion of Super-Pets
DLS-035 - C - Legion World
DLS-036 - C - Let's Go, Legionnaires!
DLS-037 - U - Long Live the Legion
DLS-038 - C - Many Worlds
DLS-039 - R - New Recruits
DLS-040 - C - Past, Present, and Future, Team-Up
DLS-041 - R - Science Police Central
DLS-042 - R - Terror Incognita
DLS-043 - U - We Are Legion
DLS-044 - C - Youth of Tomorrow, Team-Up
DLS-045 - U - Atrophos, Chief Blight Scientist
DLS-046 - C - Brainiac 4, Dark Circle Leader
DLS-047 - R - Composite Man, Living Weapon
DLS-048 - C - Computo, Rogue Program
DLS-049 - C - Computo <> Mr. Venge, Hidden File
DLS-050 - C - Cosmic King, Legion of Super Villains
DLS-051 - C - Daxamites, Army
DLS-052 - C - Dominators, Alien Invaders
DLS-053 - U - Emerald Empress, Fatal Five
DLS-054 - C - Emerald Eye, Sentient Artifact
DLS-055 - C - Glorith, Seductive Sorceress
DLS-056 - C - Lightning Lord, Legion of Super Villains
DLS-057 - C - Mano, Fatal Five
DLS-058 - C - Mordru, The Merciless
DLS-059 - C - Ol-Vir, Legion of Super Villains
DLS-060 - C - Ra's al Ghul, Engine of Change
DLS-061 - C - Ra's al Ghul <> Leland McCauley, U.P. President
DLS-062 - C - Saturn Queen, Legion of Super Villains
DLS-063 - C - Shrinking Violet <> Emerald Empress, Emerald Vi
DLS-064 - R - Starfinger, Char Burrane
DLS-065 - C - Tarik the Mute, Legion of Super Villains
DLS-066 - C - Tharok, Fatal Five
DLS-067 - U - The Blight, Army
DLS-068 - R - The Persuader, Fatal Five
DLS-069 - R - Time Trapper, Temporal Manipulator
DLS-070 - R - Universo, Vidar
DLS-071 - C - Validus, Fatal Five
DLS-072 - C - Altered History
DLS-073 - U - Asteroid JS-1967
DLS-074 - C - Chain Lightning
DLS-075 - U - Dark Circle Rising
DLS-076 - R - Dominated
DLS-077 - U - Earth Enslaved
DLS-078 - C - Fatal Five Hundred
DLS-079 - C - Five Against One
DLS-080 - C - For Khundia!
DLS-081 - U - Khundian Warship
DLS-082 - C - Legion of the Damned
DLS-083 - U - Mutual Enemies
DLS-084 - R - Return of the Demon's Head
DLS-085 - C - Sorcerous Suppression
DLS-086 - U - Tempus Fugit
DLS-087 - R - The Sun-Eater
DLS-090 - C - Dark Champion, Mockery
DLS-091 - C - Dark Firestorm, Mockery
DLS-092 - R - Dark Kryptonian <> Dark Superboy, Mockery
DLS-093 - C - Dark Lantern, Mockery
DLS-094 - C - Dark Martian, Mockery
DLS-095 - R - Dark Superboy, Mockery
DLS-096 - C - Dark Thanagarian, Mockery
DLS-097 - C - Dark Warrior, Mockery
DLS-099 - R - Darkseid, Apokolips Now
DLS-102 - R - Darkseid, Nemesis
DLS-112 - R - 31st Century Apokolips
DLS-113 - U - All Hail Darkseid!
DLS-114 - C - Ancient Evils, Team-Up
DLS-115 - U - Ancient Throne
DLS-116 - R - Created from Hate
DLS-117 - R - Curse of Darkness
DLS-118 - C - Dark Fury
DLS-119 - R - Dark Matter Drain
DLS-120 - C - Joining the Darkseid, Team-Up
DLS-121 - R - No Match for Darkseid
DLS-122 - C - Omega Effect
DLS-123 - C - Price of Treason
DLS-124 - C - Prophetic Battle
DLS-125 - C - Servants of Darkness
DLS-126 - U - Shock and Awe
DLS-127 - U - Unravel Reality
DLS-136 - C - Connor Kent <> Superboy, Inspiration to the Legion
DLS-172 - C - 31st Century Metropolis, Team-Up
DLS-173 - C - Awestruck
DLS-178 - C - Death of a Legionnaire
DLS-184 - C - Legion Lost
DLS-185 - R - Level 12 Intelligence
DLS-186 - U - Lost in Translation
DLS-188 - R - Need for Speed
DLS-191 - C - Substitute Heroes
DLS-192 - C - The Future Is Changing
DLS-194 - C - United Planets HQ, Team-Up

DWF-008 - R - Kara Zor-El <> Supergirl, Claire Connors [Team Superman, Legionnaires]
DWF-033 - C - Future Friends 
DWF-210 - U - Engine of Change 
DWF-219 - U - Matter-Eater Lad, Tenzil Kem [Legionnaires]
DCR-181 - C - Mordru, Dark Lord
DCX-020 - C - Atomic Axe
DCX-021 - R - Too Ordinary

STACKER CARDS
DLS-007 - ST - Cosmic Boy, Rokk Krinn
DLS-015 - ST - Live Wire, Garth Ranzz
DLS-018 - ST - Saturn Girl, Imra Ardeen

EXTENDED ART CARDS
DLS-004 - EA - Brainiac 5.1, Querl Dox
DLS-009 - EA - Element Lad, Jan Arrah
DLS-029 - EA - XS, Jenni Ognats
DLS-032 - EA - Foiled Assassination
DLS-039 - EA - New Recruits
DLS-069 - EA - Time Trapper, Temporal Manipulator
DLS-074 - EA - Chain Lightning
DLS-078 - EA - Fatal Five Hundred
DLS-086 - EA - Tempus Fugit
DLS-113 - EA - All Hail Darkseid!
DLS-119 - EA - Dark Matter Drain
DLS-121 - EA - No Match for Darkseid
DLS-188 - EA - Need for Speed

MISCELLANEOUS DLS ITEMS
New Rules card (comes with a box)
Preview tournament Playmat
Preview tournament Deck box
Preview tournament T-shirt
Vs. System Legion of Super-Heroes box
Vs. System Legion of Super-Heroes card wrappers (Live Wire, Cosmic Boy versions)

Legion CCG sneak peak

The Vs. System sneak peek is this weekend for the new Legion set (supposed to come out around the end of the year). Here are some of the new stuff:

Metagame has images of the Extended Art foil versions of the XS and Brainiac 5.1 cards. The XS card is for participating, the Brainy card is for a prize (according to VSRealms).





Here are larger images of the playmat and T-shirt awarded to top finishers. There's also a deck box that goes along with them, but I haven't found any images yet.





Metagame also says that "the deck boxes given out this time around are plastic instead of tin. With a velcro flap, they won’t open as easily in your backpack, and they even come with an index board that features Legion of Super Heroes art."

More new cards:

Level 12 Intelligence (via Metagame)


Darkseid: Nemesis (via the Marvel_DC_TCG Yahoo group)


Terror Incognita (via VSRealms)


There are also some more Darkseid cards, but no new ones featuring the Legion.

More Cockrum memories

I'm pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of affection shown to Dave Cockrum on his passing, especially from the media (except for those who play up the "he died in his Superman jammies" angle). Here are a few more remembrances:

Mike Grell:

Dave left an indelible four-color mark on the comic industry. I owe much of my own career to the fortuitous timing of Dave's departure from the Legion of Superheroes, which opened the door for me to make my big break. Dave was on to bigger and better things - among them co-creating X-Men characters Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler - and his groundbreaking work has been an inspiration to generations of artists who followed.
...
They say you're never truly dead as long as there's one person who remembers you. Somewhere, someday, a kid is going to crawl into the attic and find his grandfather's stash of comics. When he opens his first Dave Cockrum book, he's going to be astounded.

And that, my friends, is as close as you can get to immortality.

David Miller (David Miller Studios at MSN dot com), in an email posted with permission:

Mike, here is my tribute to Dave Cockrum.

Well, as we all know, Dave Cockrum has passed on. And as we all know, I was a huge fan of his work.

Up until I was 10 years old I wanted to be a scientist when I grew up (like Spock!) But then I picked up Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #197 in a D.C. 3-pack.

And that was it for me. In that instant I simultaneously became a fan of The Legion, Cockrum and consumed with the desire to work in the comics' industry as an artist.

This is the Panel that did it: The Timber Wolf costume. No one other than Cockrum ever did that hairstyle in a way that didn't look ridiculous.


And that same issue introduced the coolest Villian I'd ever seen: Tyr!


Sure, it could be said that Cockrum swiped from the best: Wally Wood's influence was there ...


as well as Gil Kane's and Neal Adam's.


And I always had a suspicion that Murphy Anderson inked those legion tales, not Cockrum. But the end result was still galvanizing for me. And while Cockrum had his influences, he definitely had his own expression.

And at Marvel there was Giant Size Avengers #2. The climax to the Celestial Madonna storyline. A wonderful job with an uncredited inking job by The Crusty Bunkers (Neal Adams and friends).

And then there's the X-men. What can I possibly say about Cockrum's contribution to the Marvel stable of character's that would be even remotely adequate? Is it even possible to think about Marvel without the All New, All Different X-men? The title took a company that was on top and pushed them waaaaaaay over the top. I can't even begin to imagine what the company would look like without the X-men franchise.

And as much as I liked Cockrum's initial run on the book, I really liked when he took over Ms. Marvel and re-designed her costume. I think the reason she keeps coming back is because everyone loves that costume. I think if Cockrum had come on a little earlier to that book, or if it was after Claremont became a superstar writer, Ms. Marvel would have never been cancelled.

Behind it all, I think I always wanted to do something that Cockrum would approve of. I met him several times over the years and the closest thing I came to a compliment from him was "I almost want to like this"

My favorite Cockrum moment was when Bob Downs and I were up at Defiant comics for some reason and he was there. He had done a Warriors of Plasm Graphic novel for Shooter and was doing corrections on a page. I took that moment to really let him know how much I loved his work. He looked really, honestly, happy and flattered to hear my words. He reached out and grabbed my hand and shook it. And then we parted company. It was a great moment for me.

I saw Cockrum a couple of years ago at Heroes Con. Watching him confined to a wheel chair, on Oxygen . . . it just seemed so unfair. I showed him my Legion cartoon I made. But in his condition, I couldn't tell if he could enjoy it or not.

And now he's gone. And I feel the last of a great era is going with him. I hope the end brought him some peace and relief from the "thousand shocks that man is heir to". I guess there's no more else to say.

David Miller

Brad Parnell reminded me of an article he wrote for Fanzing in 2001, which goes into more detail about the Legion's transition from the Silver to Bronze Age with the arrival of Dave Cockrum.

You have to dig into the Daily Bugle to see that Marvel Comics has a nice tribute from Joe Quesada and the X-office. It would have been nice if DC put something on its page, but it's been a week and nothing yet.

Finally, to end this installment, here's the famous 2-page Legion wedding spread (click to enlarge):