Bits of Legionnaire Business

Stuff and more stuff, thirteen items.

• The Life and Death of Ferro Lad came out in hardback a couple weeks back, reprinting Adventure Comics #346, 347, 352, 353 and 357.
  
  
• Last time I told you about the Space Canine Patrol Agents. Now Brian Hughes at Again With the Comics brings the awesome sequel, where the SCPA fights not only the Mutt and Meow Gallery (including Fido Felon and Kid Kitty) but also the Phanty Cats, who were so evil that when their owners got banished to the Phantom Zone from Krypton, their cats got banished too. No, really.
  
  They appeared in SBOY 136 (3/66). For what it's worth, over at Marvel the same month you could have read Fantastic Four #48 which introduced Galactus and Silver Surfer. That's the difference between DC's and Marvel's Silver Age.
  
  
• The BEAT has sales for the end of the Legion title.
  
  

  86 - THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES
  01/2004: Legion #29 — 24,908
  01/2005: LoSH #2 — 42,261 [48,584]
  01/2006: LoSH #13 — 32,730
  01/2007: SLoSH #26 — 32,342
  —————————–
  01/2008: LoSH #38 — 33,045 (-27.9%)
  02/2008: LoSH #39 — 31,123 (- 5.8%)
  03/2008: LoSH #40 — 30,377 (- 2.4%)
  04/2008: LoSH #41 — 28,939 (- 4.7%)
  05/2008: LoSH #42 — 27,940 (- 3.5%)
  06/2008: –
  07/2008: LoSH #43 — 27,531 (- 1.5%)
  07/2008: LoSH #44 — 29,954 (+ 8.8%)
  08/2008: LoSH #45 — 25,783 (-13.9%)
  09/2008: LoSH #46 — 24,959 (- 3.2%)
  10/2008: LoSH #47 — 23,751 (- 4.8%)
  11/2008: LoSH #48 — 22,917 (- 3.5%)
  12/2008: LoSH #49 — 22,180 (- 3.2%)
  01/2009: LoSH #50 — 22,327 (+ 0.7%)
  —————-
  6 months: -22.3%
  1 year : -32.4%
  2 years : -31.0%
  5 years : -10.4%
  
  The final issue of the property’s current incarnation gets a slight boost, presumably on the basis that its number is a multiple of 25.
  
  In one of those baffling management catastrophes that seem to happen all the time at DC, the entire creative team was exchanged on short notice, just one issue before completing a year-long storyline — according to the credits, the writer is one “Justin Thyme” (a commonly used pseudonym for hack jobs), while the title of the story is “Hack the Infinity Net!”
  
  I’m sure this guarantees people are going to be standing in line for the paperback collections for decades to come.

  
  I'll be updating my sales charts shortly.
  
  
• Richard Caldwell at ComicNews.info has a 2-part interview (part 1, part 2) with former Legion artist Mike Grell. He doesn't talk about the Legion, but I know that many Legion fans are also fans of Grell.
  
  
• Did you hear that they made a movie about "Watchmen"? I keep getting these email alerts for various articles about the movie because it uses the words "legion of super-heroes" in close proximity, which in a way points out that the Legion is at the fringes of the mainstream. Some examples:
  

  Siu~V:
  Set in a gritty and alternate 1985 in US, it tells the story of Rorschach, a costumed vigilante who investigates the murder of an ex-superhero. His journey reunites him with his former legion of superheroes, thus unraveling some of the deepest darkest conspiracies and secrets about them.
  
  New York Newsday's Frank Lovece, in an article on Zack Snyder:
  “It may be too early to call him the next Ridley Scott,” he says of Snyder, “but visually he’s freaking extraordinary. Anybody who says he’s not, after they see the first 15 minutes, they’ll be eating their hats.” And unless you’re Matter-Eater Lad of the Legion of Super-Heroes - the very antithesis of “Watchmen” - that just won’t do.
  
  Black Voices:
  It took a legion of superheroes to bring Madea down. Dropping to second place after landing the top spot during the last two weekends was 'Madea Goes to Jail.'

  
  
• Matthew at the Legion Abstract writes about what kind of Legion stories would he like to read.
  
  
• The Legion Flight Ring made an appearance on the 3/12 episode of "Smallville" titled "Infamous" (read recap here).
  
  
• The Bottle City of Kanga reminds us that Mon-El is starting his year-long(ish) run in "Superman", starting in issue 685.
  

  So this issue is the set up for Mon-El to take over as the lead in the Superman books which, supposedly, should have really taken place in the soon-to-be-relaunched Adventure Comics. But they can’t relaunch Adventure until Legion of Three Worlds finishes which will tell the reader which of three versions of the Legion DC are planning to stick with. That won’t conclude until George Perez actually pulls his finger out and finishes drawing the series though which already seems to be around a year behind it’s original conclusion date. Gah!
  
  So poor old James Robinson has to introduce Mon-El without giving away which version he’s supposed to be...

  
  
• L3 Brainiac 5 returns in R.E.B.E.L.S. #2, where he tries to assemble his own version of the Legion.
  
  
• Oklahoma's NewsOK has an interview with Yuri Lowenthal, voice actor of Superman on the animated Legion show. He talks about his audition for the show a few years ago. They also list his favorite episodes. In a third article, Lowenthal talks about his inspirations while voicing Superman.
  
  
• The Idol-Head of Diabolu (a Martian Manhunter blog) looks back at DC Comics Presents #43 from 1982, featuring Superman and the Legion vs Mongul and a Sun-Eater.
  
  
• Tilting at Pinwheels has a few more Legion sketches from what we saw last time.
  
  
• Daily Scans looks back at "Legionnaires" #7 because everyone is drawn by Adam Hughes and is wearing a bathing suit. This is v4-era after the Earth had been destroyed.