New Heroclix revealed

Update 5/1: Added Lightning Lad, waiting for Ultra Boy
Update 5/13: Added Ultra Boy

---

WizKids now has five six all of the seven Legionnaire figures up on their site. Click each figure to go to their page with more stats. The set comes out in June.




1. Lightning Lad
2. Saturn Girl
3. Cosmic Boy
4. Timber Wolf
5. Phantom Girl
6. Ultra Boy
7. Young Superman

Here is the whole roster of Legionnaire Heroclix, though they've left a few off that should be. For my version of the whole list, see the Legion Wiki article.

Upcoming Michael Turner JLA covers

From Scans Daily, via IGN, here's a poster-looking view of the three JLA covers that make up Lightning Storm. As expected, the black backgrounds of the next two covers (with Red Arrow and Hawkman, and Black Canary and an over-proportioned Power Girl) each have a Legionnaire - namely, Dawnstar and Dream Girl.

Click the picture to get a bigger view and read the comments. The young'uns don't know who these Legionnaires are! "Who's Flyinglady McCleavage?" asked one.

Brad Meltzer interview podcast

Over at WordBalloon they've got an hour-long podcast interview with Brad Meltzer, author and writer of the JLA part of the Lightning Saga. The first half covers his novel writing, and the second half is JLA stuff.

Meltzer happily admits that his favorite JLA story was the JLA/JSA/Seven Soldiers teamup in the original JLA 100-102. This story (replacing the Seven Soldiers with the Legion) is, as many have noticed already, a tribute to that one.

I am so obsessed with the Seven Soldiers story... [what we did in this JLA arc] is a wink and a nod to the greatness that’s come before.

He's obviously not the first one to want to re-create this story with the Seven Soldiers of Victory - aka the Law's Legionnaires. Read more about the original story arc about the JLA and JSA teaming up and splitting up to find members of a time-lost team here, here, and/or here.

This discussion between Meltzer and the host starts at around the 34:00 mark.

Host: The mystery is there with the Legionnaires, we have Karate Kid and Starman in JSA, now brought together in JLA #8, displaced from time. Supergirl at the beginning of One Year Later is displaced in the 30th century, is that part of the connection to the story as well?

BM: No, Supergirl is not ours, that’s something different. In the JSA issue you get to see Dream Girl, and you get to see Wildfire… we had to pick “what seven do we want”, and make no bones about it, we picked our favorites. The only thing we had to fight over was which one of us got to write who.

Host: We saw the tease of Dawnstar’s wing in JSA #1 in Geoff’s book. First, let’s talk about writing with Geoff, I know you guys are friends, and Judd and you are friends as well, how has it been sharing scripting duties with Geoff?

BM: The truth is we wrote them separately, we plotted it all together, we broke it down and said “OK, I’ll do 1, you do 2, I’ll do 3, here’s where 4 will be, here’s where 5 will be, and what worked well together, and then the truth was we just wrote them separately, and then sent it to each other and let each person make comments. I can tell you on all five issues – and I don’t know if this is good or just sad – but we really didn’t have comments for each other because we do see the world so similarly. When we talk about it, when we say “who should be there when we go get Dream Girl”, it’s almost like we fight to both say “Sandman” at the same time, because of course Sandman has to be there for Dream Girl. Then we both say at the same time “Geo-Force”, because Geo-Force is going to have to talk to Sandman about his powers, because they’re both Earth-based. It’s just so sad but we really just see the world and how it broke down so similarly that it wasn’t like we went through with a fine-tooth comb and said “OK, make all these changes”, we really both understand things and we both have the same approach to these characters, which is a real embracing of their history while trying to always move it to a new ground.

That was pretty much it for the Lightning Saga stuff - no spoilers, of course. He did mention that these scripts were completed about a year ago.

Excuse me, waiter? This isn't what was pictured on the menu.

Here's the dccomics.com listing for issue 29, the same text as the solicitation:

SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #29
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Barry Kitson & Mick Gray
Cover by Kitson
The surviving Legionnaires and Wanderers face off against the entirety of the Dominator Empire to prevent the destruction of the galaxy!
On sale April 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

At least they got the cover, on-sale date, number of page, and price right.

LSH Heroclix update

M. J. Norton's Miraclo Miles has an update on the Legion HeroClix Starter Set. As expected, it's the lineup of the cartoon, with one tweak:

Oh, I've also just seen that an article in Game Trade magazine (#87, May 2007) has listed the roll call for the Legion of Superheroes starter set: Superman, Cosmic Boy, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, and Ultra Boy.

Bouncing Boy gets no respect. He's a series regular AND the team leader.

Apparently, these are new sculpts of the figures. We've already had Post-Zero Hour versions of Cosmic Boy, Live Wire, and Saturn Girl, plus numerous sculpts of Superman.

They've also got these things called "Powers and Abilities Cards" which probably mean a lot to those who play the game. This page shows the Phantom Girl and Saturn Girl cards.

Legion Alternities

Not to discount the imminent finale of the Waid/Kitson run on Supergirl and the Legion, but there are an awful lot of Legionnaires and Legion-related stuff running around the DCU these days. Over at Legion World, they came up with this list (complete with page scans):

• Starman in the JSA, who appears to be the pre-Crisis Star Boy by way of the Kingdom Come universe
  
• Dawnstar, Dream Girl, and Karate Kid, all in JLA and/or JSA, all apparently pre-Crisis
  
• the pre-Glorithverse Fatal Five, in Brave and Bold #3
  
• Statues of the pre-Glorithverse Legion in Superman's Fortress, from Action Comics Annual #10
  
• Superman's Legion flight ring, as mentioned in JLA #0 and #8
  
• In Action Comics, Superman tells his dad about the last time he faced a Sun-Eater, how he had help. Could he be referring to Final Night, or is this a reference to some as-yet-unknown Legion career?
  

(I'm not prepared yet to fit Mon-El into this scenario. This one from the Action Comics Annual isn't the same guy as pre-Glorithverse, since he interacted with Clark Kent before he became Superman and he was rescued by a different Legion in the 31st century than his pre-Crisis counterpart. I'm also discounting Infectious Lass in Tales of the Unexpected, that doesn't seem like a story in any kind of continuity.)

(And then there's the tangentially related items, like Sun-Eaters in 52; a Durlan agent in Green Lantern Corps #7; Ventura, the Gambler's Planet in Brave and Bold; a blue-skinned woman from Talok IV in Green Lantern #18; the apparent origin of the Emerald Eye, even though we'd seen two of them previously in the L.E.G.I.O.N. series; Sun Girl, in the Teen Titans, who claims to be from the 31st century and could be linked in an as-yet-unknown manner to Sun Boy; Dominators in Green Lantern Corps #8, Green Lantern #16, Outsiders #44; etc. I'd put these on a lower tier of Legion-ness, though Sun Girl still bears watching.)

Based on Dream Girl's Darkseid dream-image and Karate Kid being alive, if we assume that this is somehow the pre-Crisis Legion, that puts lower and upper bounds on what time period they're from (LSH v2 #295 to LSH v3 #5), and then we have to figure out how. Darkseid here could be a vision of her future, which would then back it up a little to just before the Great Darkness Saga.

Matthew from the Legion Abstract wrote something on the Legion World thread a couple weeks ago that didn't strike me as profoundly relevant (or at least possibly so) until today.

Maybe LSH #300 is the key to sorting all this out.

In writing that story, Levitz and Giffen showed how the writers didn't have to be slaves to the Adult Legion stories of the past, by showing us alternate futures. Here's what might have happened if Computo won, or if Blok had followed the Dark Man, or if Mordru had won Earthwar. Brainiac 5 finally found a place for Douglas Nolan in one of those alternate timelines, one in which he took his brother's place as a Legionnaire.



This fits into the time frame I just mentioned very neatly.

A couple months ago, when the Action Comics Annual with Mon-El came out, we noticed a set of life-size Pre-Crisis Legion statues in Superman's Fortress. Leaving aside the obvious question of why Superman had a set of life-size Pre-Crisis Legion statues in his Fortress, the costumes of the Legionnaires gave an exact time point. Here's what I wrote:

The costumes of Cham, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Shadow Lass date the statues to immediately prior to the Great Darkness Saga (I checked the covers to be sure - Saturn Girl's non-bikini appeared on the cover to LSH v2 289, while on 288 Shadow Lass is in her non-cloaked costume; Cos was already in his post-Grell costume and Cham hadn't yet changed to purple and yellow).

That's two things that point to the Legion right when the Levitz/Giffen team took over.

Hypertime vs Alternate Futures vs the Multiverse. Didn't things used to be easier when we all knew what the difference between Earth-1 and Earth-2 was? We've already seen the Pre-Zero Hour and Post-Zero Hour Legions meeting via the magic of Hypertime, in LSH v4 #105 and Legionnaires #61.



But supposedly Hypertime is no longer a viable concept in the post Infinite Crisis continuum, so we can't use that any more. And the Multiverse is coming back in some form, and I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see 52 Earths out there, one "grown" from each of the so-called "missing seconds".

There's something, though, about the Legion at this point in time. Maybe this is one of the alternate realities that Brainiac 5 didn't record? What could be the divergence point for this timeline - when did Star Boy go missing for a little while around that time frame?

Matthew asked Brad Meltzer directly:

Did you and Geoff Johns just generally draw a set of Legionnaires from a nonspecific point in Levitz-and-Giffen-era continuity, or was there care taken to insert this crossover at juuust the right point in the Legion's history, to make sure that, for instance, the Legion roster had everyone on it that you needed?

Meltzer's answer: "Fair question. Can't answer it. :-)"

Sounds to me like Matthew's on to something.

Coming up in Action Comics #850 next month:

In this extra-sized special issue, writer Kurt Busiek reunites with artist Renato Guedes to visit the 31st Century and the Girl of Steel! Supergirl's looking for a way to back from the future and to realize why Superman doesn't want her to wear the "S" shield, but both Superman and Supergirl in for a big surprise when they see what the past has in store! With time-viewing sneak peaks at the upcoming year's events!

A thought about the new Multiverse

Remember how the Time Trapper created the Pocket Universe? He took a sliver of time from the past and grew a universe with it.

I keep hearing about the "52 missing seconds" but I can't find the original source. What if those 52 seconds represent "seeds" of a new universe? There's your new Multiverse.

Brave and Bold #3: The Fatal Five

Let's just talk about the Fatal Five here in this month's issue of The Brave and the Bold. I'll have more to say about all the pre-Zero Hour stuff in a little while.

So let's see. The Lord of Time, not seen in quite a while (no pun intended), comes back in time to secure the Haruspex (something that will enable the reader to see the future). He brings with him "the scourge of the 31st century". Creative license? A version of the Fatal Five hasn't been seen yet in the 31st century. This Fatal Five resembles the pre-Zero Hour version visually (see examples below, click to enlarge).



With a little artistic license, it appears to be the same one (though the B&B Emerald Empress has a design on her forehead identical to that of the Persuader's Atomic Axe, while the old Empress always wore a headband).

Post-Glorithverse, they all got new costumes and Tharok got un-dead (I forgot how) and started wearing a wife-beater shirt. Also, by this time, Validus had gotten cured, so they had a new character named Mordechai as the second cover in this series, but he's not relevant to this discussion.



After the Zero Hour reboot, they kept the same costumes as their Glorithverse counterparts, except for the Empress (not Emerald any more, and dressing in fetish wear):



Anyway, so these new guys seem somehow to be the old guys, prior to Tharok's death (theoretical question - if your doppleganger kills you, is that a homicide or suicide?). And I guess we can also chalk up to artistic license the fact that Mano looks like Ghost Rider with a fishbowl on his head.

Batman knocks out the Lord of Time with a boot to the head, a left roundhouse, and a right uppercut, but his time travel equipment initiates a fail-safe and returns him to his home era (whenever that is). Tharok notes that being stranded "wasn't part of the deal". Hmmm, I wonder what their end of the bargain was. The issue ends with Batman and Tharok getting merged. (Does that make him The Composite Batman? Or maybe Batman + Tharok = Batroc? Maybe not.)

JLA 8: Lord of the (Flight) Rings

Two covers for this issue: the regular one on the left, and the 1-in-10 cover on the right.

OK, so I'm wondering about the Legion flight rings in JLA 8. The ones shown on Starman and Karate Kid were clearly the post-Zero Hour design, while these are clearly (supposed to be) the pre-Zero Hour Legionnaires. Artistic license?

They mentioned five other Legion flight rings in the present:

• Booster Gold's is/was a pre-ZH model, I don't think it was ever retconned or explained after ZH.
  
• When did Vril Dox get one? If Phase were Tinya, she would have had a pre-ZH flight ring, but Enya wouldn't have had one.
  
• They said Superman had two, one at his home and one back in Smallville. Where would they have come from? This Superman was never Superboy the Legionnaire. Maybe he's got two of the rings discussed below.
  
• Supergirl still has her post-IC ring, apparently.
  

There are a few post-ZH rings that I don't remember their status. What about these?

• Inferno had one, but she hasn't been seen in a while. Didn't she get rid of it somehow so the Legion couldn't find her?
  
• Clone Superboy had one from early in his series and gave it to Roxy, but the Legion took it back later (don't remember the details). Is this the one they gave to Inferno? Or was it Shvaughn Erin?
  
• Superboy (now as Kon-El) had another one when he was a Legionnaire in the future. Is this one of the ones that Superman has, maybe his Smallville ring?
  

There are "Seven Soldiers" from the future who are now in the present, a sort of "Law's Legionnaires" if you will:

• Star Boy/Starman
  
• Dream Girl
  
• Karate Kid
  
• Dawnstar
  
• ?
  
• ?
  
• ?
  

Starman says "--r not hearing me! The angel is close. The white angel's screaming. She's screaming at -- [in Interlac, to Karate Kid] Lightning Lad. The angel screams in C-sharp! Then the wolf howls -- in B-flat!" and later makes the "itsy bitsy spider" hand gestures.

Based on the issue's title, it's not unreasonable to assume that Lightning Lad is one of the missing Legionnaires, along with Timber Wolf ("the wolf howls") and possibly Shrinking Violet, unless Starman is just being nuts.

Continuity-wise -- Gah! This version of Karate Kid died in LSH v3 #5, and Dr. Destiny plucked a Darkseid dream from Dream Girl's mind (meaning it follows the Great Darkness Saga), so if this is original continuity and they're all from the same time, it takes place between January 2984 and November 2985 (according to the generally accepted Legion timeline). On the other hand, there's no room in the original continuity for Star Boy to have left, gotten stranded in Kingdom Come and then the 21st century, then returned to the 30th century, and it certainly never came up in the original series.

Why did we need 5 pages of "capture the flag" when we could have had a bad-ass Karate Kid vs Batman fight?

Here's some discussion in the ComicBloc forums (here, here, here, and here). Reviews at RackRaids, ComicVine, The Roar of Comics, Comic Book Revolution, The Fret, Black Lightning Unlimited, Broken Frontier,
Worst Blog Ever, PopSyndicate, and Living Between Wednesdays.

Regarding Karate Kid -

• Major Spoilers has a nice hero-history writeup.
  
• We already saw him on the original cover to JLA #1 -- we all thought at first "WTF is he doing there?" before it turned out to be a red-herring when the original cover was released, only to have it be a fake red-herring all along where he is involved with the JLA somehow. Only that Karate Kid is the current continuity's version, not the version currently appearing.
  
• Over at Newsarama, Dan DiDio notes that
  

  Oh, and the storyline that spins from the JLA/JSA crossover, which features members of the Legion of Super-Heroes touches on Countdown as well, and what you’ll find out is that Karate Kid was left in the past – in our time, hopefully to unravel what’s going on the DC Universe. He’s left behind for a purpose. It wasn’t his choice. He was left.

Line of the issue:
"So you're like the Teen Titans from the future..."
"No, Not-- We're not the Teen Titans. We're like the Justice League."

Foreign Legion V

originally from Adventure #247


originally from Adventure #331


originally from Adventure #345


originally from Adventure #374


originally from Adventure #375


originally from World's Finest Comics #284


originally from Superboy's Legion #1




Previously:
Foreign Legion I: ADV 312, 316, 322
Foreign Legion II: ADV 352, 363, 372, ANCE C-55, LSH V3 37, 48
Foreign Legion III: ADV 302, 318, 319, 351, LSH V3 34, 62
Foreign Legion IV: ADV 333, 337, 358, Jimmy Olsen 87, LSH V3 17, 32, 35

Coming in July 2007

click each image to enlarge

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #5
Written by Mark Waid
Art by George Pérez & Bob Wiacek
Cover by Pérez
All roads lead back to Earth for the final showdown over the Book of Destiny, whose possessor will have the knowledge of all that has ever been or will be! Every guest star involved will have the opportunity to glance inside the book, including Batman, Green Lantern, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Lobo and more!
On sale July 18 o 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Batman with a Legion flight ring? How cool is that? And notice that's Dream Girl in the upper left corner... Looks like that starry background will be changed by the time the issue comes out.

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31st CENTURY #4
Written by Christine Boylan
Art and cover by Steve Uy
It's just another day in the life of a half-living computer, half-teenaged super-hero: fighting crime, saving the galaxy, acing your final exams. Will brains win out over brawn when the Fatal Five come to Brainy's home planet? Or will failure be the first thing on Brainy's permanent record?
On sale July 18 o 32 pg, FC, $2.25 US



SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #32
Written by Tony Bedard
Art and cover by Dennis Calero
"The Quest for Cosmic Boy" begins! The Legionnaires have lost their longtime leader, Cosmic Boy - but was he captured by enemies or did he flee responsibility for his "war crime"? The Legion's newly elected leader makes a hard decision her first day on the job and sends out teams of Legionaires in search of Cosmic Boy. Will they be prepared for what they find?
On sale July 25 o 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

I'll miss the Kitson covers, but this one looks pretty sharp.



JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOL. 1: THE NEXT AGE HC
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Dale Eaglesham, Art Thibert and Ruy Jose
Cover by Alex Ross
The world's first super-team returns in this volume collecting the first 4 issues of the all-new JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA series, written by Geoff Johns (52, GREEN LANTERN, ACTION COMICS) with stunning art by Dale Eaglesham (VILLAINS UNITED) & Art Thibert (OUTSIDERS) and a cover by Alex Ross (JUSTICE, KINGDOM COME)!
Determined to rebuild the Justice Society, founding members Green Lantern, Flash and Wildcat initiate an unprecedented recruitment program, tracking the bloodlines of heroes across the world and bringing in the new Starman, Damage, Liberty Belle and more! But just as the Society welcomes the rookies into their ranks, an evil force sets out to destroy them. Meet new legacies, solve a mystery stretching into the far future, witness the return of the world's greatest hero and watch another one fall in this fantastic collection!
Advance-solicited; on sale September 19 o 144 pg, FC, $19.99 US

The Eve of War

World War III starts tomorrow. Who are you with?

Oh, wait, wrong company.

We'll know by this time tomorrow what has happened in and to the DC Universe. There are only three issues left until the end of the series, and we haven't seen anything related to the return of the multiverse yet.

Well, at least in the main 52 series, that is. Anachronistic Legion characters are apparently sprouting like weeds - the Pre-Crisis Star Boy, Dream Girl, and Dawnstar over in Justice Society of America, the Pre-Crisis Karate Kid in Justice League of America, Infectious Lass (if it's not some kind of dream) in Tales of the Unexpected, the Pre-Crisis Fatal Five in this week's Brave and Bold.

Somehow, the events of 52 are behind it.

And yet: the post-Infinite Crisis version of the Legion still has an ongoing book, they team up with Batman in Brave and Bold 5, and that version of Karate Kid has been on the teaser cover for the new JLA and for the Countdown poster.

Coming this week:

• 52 #50, it's War!
  
• in World War III Part 2, Supergirl's story with regards to the Legion is apparently revealed
  
• in Brave and Bold #3, it's Batman and Blue Beetle vs the Fatal Five
  
• in Justice League #8, it's part 1 of the JLA/JSA/LSH story "The Lightning Saga" (note: why "Lightning"?)
  

Additionally, this week has the premiere of a new Legion monthly book, "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century" (or as I call it here, "LSH31C"). This follows the continuity of the animated series. The first issue is by J. Torres and Chynna Clugston, with a cover by Steve Uy.

Animated LSH news 62: Brandon Vietti, director

A couple months ago, season 1 director Ben Jones left some hints as to who the season 2 directors would be, and I made some educated guesses. Looks like I got one right so far - Brandon Vietti, one of the directors for The Batman show.

I've decided to take break from the Dark Knight series and try my hand at something new. I am now in production as a director on The Legion of Super Heroes. I'm pretty excited to dive into the futuristic, sci-fi universe of the Legion and even more excited to work with producer James Tucker. I worked with James 10 years ago as a storyboard artist on The New Batman/Superman Adventures, my first job in the industry.

Go visit Brandon's site, which has a pretty nifty Batman drawing.

What you missed while I was being a slacker (part 1)

I've been a slacker the last week just because. I still saved up all the stuff I would have written about, though, so you get it a bit late and all at once.

• Christopher Bird wants to be the new writer of the Legion book after Tony Bedard's (apparent) 6-issue run. You might have read his well-regarded "Civil War" rewrites.
  

  In addition to my regular and thoroughly glorious posting schedule, I will be adding a daily graphic to make sure everybody understands how awesome a Legion comic written by moi would be. I furthermore encourage all of you out there in Internet-land to link back to this post (which I'll be updating with links to the subsequent reasons as I post them) so that Googling "new writer Legion of Super-Heroes" sends people here!

  
  His main page here has links to each of his daily posts. Among the things he says he'd do:
  
  • Karate Kid will fight an entire planet
    
  • Naltor is destroyed, but the Naltorians didn't see it coming.
    
  • Brainiac 5 will still be a snarky, mouthy bastard. Because that's fun.
    
  • There's a new incarnation of the Legion of Super-Villains, from the anti-matter universe
    
  • The return of Matter-Eater Lad
    
  • Gorillas with lasers, or, whatever happened to Gorilla City?
    
  • A more feral Timber Wolf, because his name isn't Trenchcoat Lad.
    
  • A future Batman who's a vampire
    
  • Alexis Luthor, from the cartoon, is a major villain.
  
  Lots of people like what he has to say (or at least how he says it), including Blog@Newsarama, Journalista, BeaucoupKevin, Dr. Elmo, Krinndnz, the 4th Letter, and Major Spoilers (all of whom have comments on their sites about it), along with Blake Reitz, Gina DC, Randy Lander, Rob Donoghue, Rob Staeger, ComicsCrew, and Made of Glass.
  
  Meanwhile, Jarod Russell offers a couple of reasons why he would not be a good candidate.
  
  
• Reading the early Legion stories in the new Showcase book is, apparently, a cross between smoking crack and wondering what kind of crack the creators in the early 60's were on.
  
  IF Magazine gave it their #1 spot for the week. Bitter Andrew, his nerd-senses all a'tingling, says "There’s something irresistible about a group of somewhat callous, somewhat stupid teenage superheroes flitting around an extremely dated-looking 30th Century". Bryan notes that "what amazes me is how whiny and attention-starved Superboy comes off". The New Bride, apparently fairly new to the Silver Age Legion, says "The lack of color is a little harder on this book as a lot of characters have similar looks and speach patterns. I have taken to memorizing collar shapes to identify the boys." Black and White Wonder has never ready any of the Silver Age stories, and says "I hope it's in the same alley as the Superman volumes, which would means more than 500 pages of pure Silver-Age greatness."
  
  
• Speaking of Silver Age stuff, Paul and John review more Legion tryout issues, including the Dynamo Boy story, which introduced us to the likes of Eyeful Ethel, The Mess, Golden Boy, Tusker, Animal Lad, and Polecat. Martha Thomases at ComicMix waxes nostalgic about reading the Legion in those days. (Did you know that they named the Athramites after her?) BeaucoupKevin notes what a sore loser Alaktor was, and says that the Silver Age Legion was the best but maybe not the brightest. (Isn't Photoshop fun?) The Silver Age Matter-Eater Lad was nothing like the TMK-retconned personality implant he got - check out Adam P. Knave's reprint of Tenzil's first appearance. Finally, Legion Clubhouse points us to Evil Inc.'s Top 13 Super-Villain Teams of all time, of which the LSV is #13.
  
  
• The other big thing in the news lately is the upcoming JLA/JSA/LSH crossover. We've been wondering which Legion, and signs are pointing to the pre-Zero Hour version (or more specifically, the pre-Five Year Gap version). Signs like the cover of JLA #8, featuring the Cockrum/Grell costume for Karate Kid, as seen on Brad Meltzer's page. Newsarama has some discussion about that too. Rokk at the Comic Book Revolution is looking forward to reading the story: "I am hoping and praying that all of these hints about the Legion that we have been getting over in the Justice Society of America, Action Comics and now here in the Justice League of America all lead to the return of the Levitz Era Legion." The New Bride has a story idea: "if they bring silver age Brainiac 5 in to this JLA/JSA/Legion crossover maybe he and Will Magnus and Mento from the Doom Patrol can form a sanity challenged scientists' support group."
  

More stuff in a day or so when I get a chance.

Friday the 13th

Calamity King wishes you a happy Friday the 13th. Beware of jinxes, hoodoos, whammies, and other bad luck signs and portents.

Legion TV schedule April/May 2007

Here's look at May's upcoming episodes, with the rest of April as well. Season finale April 28th!

April 14 - episode 10 "The Substitutes" (3rd airing)
April 21 - episode 11 "Chain of Command" (2nd airing)
April 28 - episode 12 new "Sundown, part 1"
May 5 - episode 13 new "Sundown, part 2" (season finale)
May 12 - episode 9 "Brain Drain" (3rd airing)
May 19 - episode 7 "Child's Play" (3rd airing)
May 26 - episode 11 "Chain of Command" (3rd airing)

Incidentally, by the end of May, every episode will have been shown three times, with the exceptions of episodes 12 and 13 (once each, obviously), 3 ("Legacy", with Alexis Luthor, just twice), and 2 ("Timber Wolf", at five times). Hopefully they'll start running them all in order now.

Episode 12: "SUNDOWN, PT. 1"
The Legion is put to the ultimate test when an ancient weapon known as a Sun Eater comes to life. The Legion mounts a heroic defense, but the Sun Eater proves too powerful. Now at full strength, the unstoppable Sun Eater sets its sights on Earth...

Part one of a two-part episode

Episode 13: "SUNDOWN, PT. 2"
With the Sun Eater on a direct course for Earth's sun, the Legion has no choice but to ask bitter enemies for help to stop it. Superman meanwhile has his toughest battle yet when he discovers the stealthy alien controlling the sinister machine. In the end, the Legion triumphs... but at a terrible cost.

Part two of a two-part episode.

---

Previously: schedules for Sept./Oct. 2006, Nov. 2006, early Dec. 2006, late Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007, Jan./Feb. 2007, March 2007, March/April 2007

Legion of Super-Peeps

Scott at Polite Dissent has taken his mad skillz at costume making and combined it with colored sugar marshmallow bunnies to form the Legion of Super-Peeps. Go and revel in its awesomenitudeness.

Trivia #10 answers

Very good, class, although it did take a whole 4 days to get the final answers.

1. Why did the Legion move from its original HQ (that looked like an upside-down rocketship) to the next one (the big one with the "L")? What happened to the original, and what happened to the replacement?

This was the easy question. The upside-down rocketship HQ got trashed in a fight with the Fatal Five (ADV 366). They moved into a new building that was built by the Miracle Machine (ADV 367), and they used it until it got blowed up real good by Wildfire and Omega (S/LSH 251). The old HQ was picked up (literally) by the Subs (SBOY 211), though I don't think we ever saw them using it.

2. Which Legion villains were related to each other?

As usual, you guys picked up one that I hadn't considered. I had remembered Otto Orion and his son Adam Orion (aka Orion the Hunter), Jungle King and his brother Dr. Marden King, and Lars & Molock Hanscom/Starfingers I & III. You remembered Validus and his uncle Lightning Lord.

3. Which members that joined the Legion during the Five Year Gap had never appeared before in regular continuity up to that point?

I picked just Echo and Reflecto. Echo had been seen only once before, as a member of the LSV, but in an Adult Legion story that is not deemed to be in normal continuty. Reflecto first appeared as a statue and then as an identity that was a combination of Superboy and Ultra Boy when they were merged. All the others had appeared before in regular continuity.

Update: in the comments below, Dave reminds me that I forgot Kent "Impulse" Shakespeare. D'oh!

4. Pete Ross and Jimmy Olsen were Honorary Legionnaires, while Lana Lang was a member of of the Legion Reserve. What's the difference between the two, and why were each put in their respective categories?

An Honorary Legionnaire is "the highest achievement a non-powered being could receive from the Legion." The letters page of ADV 363 says "an honorary Legionnaire isn't required to have super-powers." Jimmy Olsen was made an honorary member because of his services to Superman, not because of his Elastic Lad powers. Pete Ross, too, was made an honorary member because of how he kept Superboy's secret ID.

According to the LSH Constitution (ADV 326), "The Legion Reserve, consisting of worthy former members, rejected members, honorary members and the Legion of Substitute Heroes, shall be prepared to go into action in the event of an emergency when the active members are away on missions or otherwise unable to respond." Lana was a Reservist because she had powers, even if those powers came from an external source, but only made a couple of trips to the 30th century.

5. Why did the Legion reject Young Darkseid for membership?

Surprisingly, the toughest one to get. The Elseworlds 80-Page Giant (1999) had a number of parody one-page gags and short stories, one of which (by Ty Templeton) showed a young Darkseid being rejected for membership. Here's the page in question. In a speech they've given many times before, Young Darkseid (with a "YD" on his chest emblem) was rejected because his powers of Omega-Vision might unwittingly harm someone during battle. Hey, at least he got a flight-belt consolation prize. I did say this was not a dream or hoax, didn't say anything about an imaginary story.

6. Who was the Green Lantern of sector 2814 following Vidar (later known as Universo)?

Xenofobe, as mentioned here a little while ago. Rond Vidar didn't get the ring until after his father became Universo and outlawed the Legion. His only named appearance was in Superman v1 295, and I'm not sure if he appeared in the couple of stories in which Green Lanterns showed up.

It was never explicitly said that he was the GL between the two, but it fits anecdotally. Argus Oranx III/Vidar was the GL during the Legion's formation and earliest cases in 2973 (according to the more-or-less established chronology). Vidar was booted from the GL Corps as seen in LSH v2 #295. Rond Vidar's entry in Who's Who in the LSH suggests that he did not acquire his father's Green Lantern ring until after Vidar became Universo in 2978. It's not unreasonable to assume Xenofobe was the Sector 2814 GL in the time between the two. See the Cosmic Teams Chronology for more.

7. When the Legion was notified that they'd face "financial ruin" over tax penalties if they had more than 25 members (despite R. J. Brande's immense wealth, apparently), Superboy resigned from the Legion. Why did he resign rather than Supergirl, who rarely showed up for meetings?

The Legion of Super-Pets threatened to resign if Supergirl left, so they accepted Superboy's resignation instead. No, really. (ACT 387)

Thanks for playing!

Lightning Storm: the JLA/JSA/LSH teamup prologue in JLA #7 (updated)

Last time the JLA, JSA, and Legion met it was a two-parter with Mordru and the Demons Three. This time it'll be a 5-part (I think) story winding through both the JLA and JSA books, starting with Dr. Destiny as the villain (though I'm sure there'll be more).

The prologue starts on the last page of this issue's JLA #7. Batman and Black Lightning are checking out the unconscious body of Trident, a D-list villain. They're lacing microphones and transmitters in his costume so that when he goes free, he can lead the JLA to wherever it is that he goes. Batman tries to fingerprint him, but he doesn't match the Batcave, Gotham PD, AFIS, or the Hall of Justice files (they should try CSI, they always get hits). But it matches something from Superman's Fortress - it's Val Armorr, aka Karate Kid. End prologue.

Dun duh DUUUUNNNNNN!

So now we've apparently got four Legionnaires running around the 21st century (or about to): Star Boy (as Starman), Dream Girl, and Dawnstar in the pages of JSA, and now Karate Kid in JLA. I think we're meant to believe that it's the pre-Zero Hour Legion team, more specifically perhaps the pre-Five Year Gap time. We'll leave aside for now the question of how Karate Kid's fingerprints got into the Fortress's computer. (And I guess that means that it wasn't a red herring that Karate Kid's picture was on the original version of the JLA #1 cover and in the group shot for Countdown!)



Batman seems to recognize the name "Legion of Super-Heroes". He would have met up with the post-Zero Hour version during Final Night and/or Genesis, and he met the pre-Crisis version a couple of times in Brave and Bold, once with the Legion itself in #179 and once with Karate Kid in #198, plus the JLA/JSA teamup above (issues 147-148) and of course during the Crisis on Infinte Earths.

With a month to go in 52, it still remains to be seen how the return of the multiverse along with possible alternate Legions will play into this.

Next issue: the Justice League of America, the Justice Society of America, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Sweeeeet!

Scott over at Legion Clubhouse has a writeup from Wizard #187. Brad Meltzer and Geoff Johns will alternate writing duties as the teamup passes from JLA to JSA and back.

"The Legion is as important to the DC Universe as the Justice League and the Justice Society," Johns explains. "That's what we're trying to illustrate. There's stuff that's going to come out of [the crossover] that's going to propel the Legion and show them as having a very important role in the DC Universe, even if they're not here."

Meltzer adds: "The Legion, when they were established, they were inspired by something that happened in our time. So to me, that tie is a thread that [has] sometimes been frayed and lost, and it's one that I think should be vital and we're really trying to show it."

Update 4/5: Brad Meltzer wrote on his blog:

And for all those who have asked, yes, that's Karate Kid. Yes, he's here. And yes, the crossover is SO much JLA/JSA/LSH fun. I think we'll put the real cover to issue 8 up during the middle of next week, so get ready for the geekasms (or at least mine).

DC's solicitation has this cover and this text. I didn't realize it's a fake cover:

Beginning the long awaited, epic crossover between the new Justice League and the new Justice Society, uniting the combined writing talents of best-selling author Brad Meltzer and comics mega-star Geoff Johns for the ultimate team-up! "The Lightning Saga" 5-parter begins with the mystery of who Trident is, and how his identity crisis will change everything!