Odds 'n' ends

Stuff that I haven't gotten around to posting plus some hot-off-the-press news, and I want to put it out here before it gets too obsolete. I just deleted all my unused links to reviews of various issues of S/LSH, JLA, JSA, LSH31C, Action, the Showcase volume, and Countdown. (It's too bad that I didn't get to write up Waid's last issue.)

• As mentioned earlier, Mattel won the master license from DC. What does that mean? From a July 2 press release:
  

  Warner Bros. Consumer Products has awarded Mattel, Inc., with the master toy license for complete DC Comics Universe of characters and properties. In addition to the rights to existing DC Comics characters/animation/movies, the multi-year pact provides Mattel with the rights to produce toys based on future DC Universe film and animation projects that are developed and produced during the term of the agreement. Mattel will support the DC Universe characters across all of its key brands including Hot Wheels, Radica, Fisher-Price, Tyco and Mattel Games. The financial terms of the deal were not released.

  
  Nothing specifically mentions the Legion here, of course, but Mattel now has the license to make any toys of any DC property. How about Saturn Girl Barbie? Legion Cruiser Hot Wheels? An Omnicom by Radica? See this article on Action Figure Insider for a little more, and this article for an interview with some folks at DC Direct who discuss what the differences are between Mattel's license and DC's in-house line.
  
  
• Canada's YTV recently announced their fall schedule, which includes the Legion. It says that the show "premieres Saturday, September 8 at 11 a.m. ET/PT", so I don't know if that means Season 1 or Season 2. Any Canadians want to chime in?
  
  
• Newsarama today has the first teaser for "Final Crisis". That's what we're counting down to, but we already knew that because the Lightning Saga Legion mentioned that. The image has Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal), Flash, and Hawkman. The tag line - "Heroes Die. Legends live forever."
  
  
• Newsarama also has a hero history of Karate Kid (all of them). They note that Supergirl #22 will somehow apparently have the Lighting Saga Karate Kid (left in the present) and the Waid/Kitson/Bedard Karate Kid (from the future) meeting up. Maybe it's a leftover from when Batman meets the Legion in Brave & Bold? In a recent Newsarama interview, Dan DiDio noted that "Whoever owns that ring [seen in the Countdown preview image] is going to be in a world of danger that they just might not survive." Let's see, a Legionnaire in trouble, Keith Giffen is there... can he kill off Karate Kid a third time?
  
  
• Next week's TV Guide is the Sci-Fi spectacular (or something like that). Of particular importance is an image of the Legion - but they're updated. Thanks to the Legion Clubhouse for the tip, go there to read a transcript. Click the picture to enlarge.
  
  Basically, a more grown-up Superman returns to the 31st century just in time to be recruited with the Legion by a group from the 41st century - led by a clone of Superman - to fight Imperiex. According to producer James Tucker, ""The comic-book purists are probably going to balk at first, but I think we've done a really good job of combining some aspects of DC Comics characters they know into this character." It sounds like this clone is closer to Kon-el.
  
  
  
• Legion Clubhouse also points out that the Legion makes another Vs. System card appearance in the new World's Finest set (which covers the Superman and Batman families of characters). The new cards:
  DWF-008 - Kara Zor-El <> Supergirl, Claire Connors
  DWF-219 - Matter-Eater Lad, Tenzil Kem
  There may be more, but it's tough to tell until the pictures are released. Here's where you'll find them whenever the images are out.
  
  
• Speaking of toys and games, the Legion Heroclix Starter Game set finally came out. It looks pretty cool and even contains a surprise - Shrinking Violet, sort of. They have a Clix disc with her stats on it, but it's just a "puck", there's no figure, since she's shrunken. They've got maps and a couple of movable artifacts (a comm dish and a news-bot). Jon Hex and Poptown review the set. There's a map from a 31st century battle and one from the 21st century. The future map has interlac writing, I'll have to decipher it later (I just got the set this past weekend). Jeff at Kneel Before Blog built a 3-D version of the map.