Trivia Answers #38

This month's trivia quiz was based (loosely) on the LSG trip to Las Vegas.

1. Ventura is the Gamblers' Planet in the 30th/31st centuries. Where have we seen it in the 20th/21st centuries?

The obvious one, which I knew everyone would get, was in the first story arc of the latest Brave & Bold series, with Green Lantern, Batman, Blue Beetle, Supergirl, Lobo, and the Book of Fate. The obscure one, which I wasn't sure anyone would get (but Jeffrey did), was when orange-skinned alien gamblers from Ventura named Sorban and Rokk (no relation) encountered Superman in "Superman" 171 (8/64), then reappeared in "Flash" 175 (the second Superman vs Flash race, 12/67) and "World's Finest" 150 (6/75).

2. The LSG freed some money from the clutches of the evil casinos. Name three people or groups to have freed Mordru from imprisonment.

Shadow Lass (ADV 368), The Dark Circle (Earthwar), Darkseid (Great Darkness), the Sorcerors of Sorceror's World, and (I think) the JLA in the JLA/JSA crossover but I don't recall the details.

3. There's always paperwork when there's money involved. What was the name of United Planets' statute-in-council #2958-07Q? [Either answer is acceptable.]

Pre-Zero Hour, it was The Legion of Super-Heroes Enabling Act; post-Zero Hour, it was The Legion of Super-Heroes Revenue Act.

4. Who stayed behind to watch the HQ during the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (and didn't get to party at Casino Nix Olympica)?

Mon-El and Shadow Lass. As the only two left in the whole HQ, you know they must have tried to do it in the conference room, the tryouts room, the weapons room, the reception area...

5. The volcano at the Mirage Casino erupts every 15 minutes from sunset until midnight, but Krypton only exploded once. Which Legionnaires were present on Krypton shortly before its destruction?

The one I was thinking about was Shrinking Violet, Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass and Wildfire, from Superboy & the LSH 255. Of course, Kal-El and Mon-El were there separately, as were future Super-Pets Krypto and Beppo, but I was looking for Legionnaires as a group.

6. The LSG is always up for new members, and the initiation test is that you have to gamble at the same table with other members at least once. But twice, Saturn Girl asked the Legion to induct a new member based only on her say-so. Who were these Legionnaires?

Element Lad and Sensor Girl. I forget, did she recommend Sir Prize and Miss Terious the same way?

7. Sometimes a LSGer will only appear at one or two gatherings and then mysteriously stops. When was Insect Queen's last appearance with the Legion?

I should have said "last regular contemporaneous pre-Zero Hour appearance", which would have been during the Reflecto story. I forgot that they pulled her out of some random time for a cameo in the recent Legion of 3 Worlds story in issue 5. And was she in the group shot in LSH v2 #300, or am I misremembering?

Super Powers Collection 25th Anniversary - Blog Crossover

Turns out that this week is the 25th anniversary of the Super Powers action figure line, and 14 comic/toy-related blogs have banded together to celebrate as they saw fit. I didn't find out about it until this morning. D'oh! Of course, the lone Legion-related figure in the line was Tyr.

In 1986, as part of the 3rd wave of the then-popular Super Powers action figures, someone decided that a kewl-looking villain should be added to the cast. Why they went all the way to the 30th century to get Tyr is beyond me, but he gets the distinction of being the first honest-to-goodness Legion-related action figure. Toyotter has a great writeup on all the characters, including Tyr.





The Super Powers line featured "action" figures - you moved it in a certain way and they did something. Tyr's gimmick was that his arm blaster fired when you squeezed his feet. The front and back of the card tell of his "Power Action Rocket Launch" and a card you were supposed to cut out that described his powers and weaknesses. I bought mine a decade ago for $65 (original price: somewhere around $1.50), but ebay prices are all over the place today. The third wave of Super Powers figures was made in smaller quantities than the earlier waves, which explains why he's hard to find these days.

The 4th wave of Super Powers figures for 1987 never got off the ground. However, in an interview several years ago, Steve Lightle discussed being asked by the Kenner team to design at least two Legion figures: Dream Girl and Dawnstar. They never made it past the drawing stage, though Steve's suggestion for Dream Girl's insignia can be found on this page that has an excerpt from the interview (the original of which has apparently vanished into cyberspace). I can see Dawnstar's "action" power (squeeze her legs and her wings flap, just like the Hawkman figure), but I have no idea what they were going to do for Dream Girl's.

The Kenner's Super Powers page has some closeups of the loose figure and the disassembled pieces of the prototype.

The third wave of Super Powers figures had its own non-canonical tie-in comic miniseries.

Here are the other blogs participating in the Super Powers anniversary:

• The Aquaman Shrine: Scans of every mini-comic appearance by the Sea King, plus a line overview, creator credits, and various other merchandise.
  
• Batblog: All the Batman-related characters
  
• Being Carter Hall: Hawkman mini-comic appearances reviewed.
  
• Crimson Lightning: Extensive commentary on the Flash mini-comic.
  
• Dispatches from the Arrow Cave: Complete scans and commentary on the Green Arrow mini-comic.
  
• Doom Patrol: Red Tornado mini-comic scans and commentary.
  
• Firestorm Fan: The Nuclear Man in comics and figures.
  
• Fortress of Baileytude: the Superman family of characters
  
• The Idol-Head of Diabolu: The Martian Manhunte
  
• Justice League Detroit: Colección Super Amigos: Liga de la Justicia de Detroit Bootleg Action Figures
  
• Love Dat Joker: Extensive commentary on the Clown Prince of Crime's role in the set, including figure photos and complete scans of his appearances from the Batman, Green Lantern, and his eponymous mini-comics.
  
• ...nurgh...: Critical reviews of every mini-comic, starting with #1-8, then #9-16.
  
• Once Upon a Geek: Dr. Fate and Blue Devil mini-comics and toys.
  
• Speed Force: A look at the Flash figure itself
  

Upcoming Blackest Night/REBELS crossover

If you don't want to read any spoilers about the upcoming Blackest Night/R.E.B.E.L.S. crossover stop reading now.

Via Newsarama's article on Orlando's Mini-Megacon this weekend:

Finishing out the floor buzz today was Tony Bedard, who is still hard at work with R.E.B.E.L.S. for DC. Issue 7 just hit the stores, and right now, he is working on the Blackest Night crossover issues, 10 and 11, which should be out in November and December. He’s really excited about the crossover, as not only will a bunch of new people be exposed to the book, but it has been a lot of fun. Bedard said they are throwing everything into it – two Black Lanterns, the Sinestro Corps, Starro and his Good-Time Gang, Vril Dox and his crew. This obviously raised the question – who will the Black Lanterns be? Bedard revealed that one will be Harbinger (from Crisis on Infinite Earths fame) and the other will be Stealth, who was a member of L.E.G.I.O.N. In addition to that crossover, he said he was thrilled to have worked with his old Route 666 partner, Karl Moline, who drew one off the chapters in the upcoming R.E.B.E.L.S. Annual, which has other chapters by Kalman Andrasofszky, Derec Donovan, and Joe Prado. Beyond that, Bedard hinted that early next year, R.E.B.E.L.S. will be crossing over with one of DC’s flagship books, but he couldn’t specify which, since the details are still being hammered out. Then, after that, he said he is really excited about next year’s big event, which should have fans excited with Geoff Johns and James Robinson at the helm of it. Bedard said he feels very confident about the direction they will give it. He added that both Johns and Robinson have told him how much they are enjoying R.E.B.E.L.S., “which is the nicest thing to hear,” he said with a smile.

Trivia Quiz #38

Yay, I'm back! The Legion of Super-Gamblers made out OK in Las Vegas (some of us did) - at least we all had enough for a cab ride to the airport. So, this month's trivia, a couple weeks late, based (loosely) on the LSG trip:

1. Ventura is the Gamblers' Planet in the 30th/31st centuries. Where have we seen it in the 20th/21st centuries?

2. The LSG freed some money from the clutches of the evil casinos. Name three people or groups to have freed Mordru from imprisonment.

3. There's always paperwork when there's money involved. What was the name of United Planets' statute-in-council #2958-07Q? [Either answer is acceptable.]

4. Who stayed behind to watch the HQ during the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (and didn't get to party at Casino Nix Olympica)?

5. The volcano at the Mirage Casino erupts every 15 minutes from sunset until midnight, but Krypton only exploded once. Which Legionnaires were present on Krypton shortly before its destruction?

6. The LSG is always up for new members, and the initiation test is that you have to gamble at the same table with other members at least once. But twice, Saturn Girl asked the Legion to induct a new member based only on her say-so. Who were these Legionnaires?

7. Sometimes a LSGer will only appear at one or two gatherings and then mysteriously stops. When was Insect Queen's last appearance with the Legion?

Happy Klordny Week 2009!

Hey, we're in Klordny Week already! Since 1995, Klordny Week has been celebrated in the week or so that contains both my birthday (August 13, today) and Elvis Appreciation Day (August 16). It first appeared in Superboy and the LSH 232 (10/77).

How do you celebrate? By dancing and partying!

Do me a favor, Lightning Lad, shut up and dance!

Why do you celebrate? I'm not telling you!


What's the Ritual Klordny Toast?


You can never have too much Frunt. Others celebrating (whether they know it or not) include Cold Frunt Productions, Frunt's flickr photos, Frunt's blog on Vox, frunt.net, Hilde Frunt, Frunt's Myspace page, and a map of the town of Frunt, in Graubunden, Ostschweiz, Switzerland, and none other than Erwin Frunt!.

Chicago 09: DC Nation

Some hopeful news for a new series out of Chicago's DC Nation panel.

Via Newsarama:

Going on to Adventure Comics, Manupal talked about his modified style. He told Johns that maybe they should go for an “Americana” style of presentation; Sattler commented that it was “stunning to look at” with “the best Krypto ever.”

... The next question was about the split of Adventure, which will be the Superboy lead with the Legion co-feature. There will also be Legion bits in the main Superboy story. Sattler said that there will be more Legion story before getting to a dedicated Legion book.

The same panel, via CBR:

Manapul confessed that he wasn't sure "Adventure Comics" would be a good fit for him, but said that he suggested to writer Geoff Johns that they approach the series with an Americana feel.

...Manapul confirmed that "Adventure Comics" will feature the Legion in Superboy's main story, in addition to their backup stories. Regarding the various Legions, Manapul said that "all three" would appear, and Sattler added that DC needed to establish who the Legion are before they get a dedicated book.

Coverage from Wizard? I give up. You'd think that the magazine that owns the convention would bother to put coverage up on its web site Wizard Universe (where the only discussion of the DC Nation panel is a press release from weeks ago announcing that there will be a DC Nation panel), or even, I don't know, the site which represents all of its conventions, Wizard World.

Chicago 09: It's Here!

Ah, con season. Everyone's still recovering from the behemoth that is San Diego, and now it's Chicago Comic Con weekend (formerly known as Wizard World Chicago, formerly known as the Chicago Comic Con before that). Here's what's on tap this weekend:

Saturday
4-5 p.m.
DC Nation Panel
Michael Turner Room: A
Join DC Comics’ Ian Sattler for a peak at what the powerhouse publisher has coming up in the biggest titles from Geoff Johns’ Blackest Night event to Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin.

Sunday
1-2 p.m.
Silver Age Trivia Experts Take On The Fans!
Mike Werringo Room: E
Come pit your knowledge of Silver Age super-heroes against a panel of trivia geeks! Fans will get a chance to compete against the experts to be crowned the champion! Moderated by Craig Shutt, writer of the “Ask Mr. Silver Age” column for the Comics Buyer’s Guide.

Additionally, George Perez will be doing several appearances at the Hero Initiative booth, where maybe you can talk to him about L3W. See the Wizard page with more info.

I stumped Waid, Busiek, and Levitz

Kurt Busiek posted a San Diego story the other day.

There was no Pro/Fan Trivia Challenge at the San Diego Comicon this year. There was, however, one question from last year's challenge, which neither Mark Waid nor I attended, that was offered up this year, and once asked, seemed to travel around by osmosis. There's nothing quite like walking into the DC booth and having DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz say to you, without preamble, "I only got four, but I agree that [those other three] don't count." And knowing what he was talking about.

So: How many Legionnaires can you name who had letters on their costume?

Naturally, the 'L' on the flight ring doesn't count.

I got five—or eight, depending on how technical you want to get.

Mark Waid got the same five, but agreed that those other three shouldn't count.

Paul Levitz got four, with the same caveat.

James Robinson got five.

Tom Galloway came up with a sixth, but then, as I understand it, he was at the Challenge last year, so he's had much more time to think about it. And I spurn his sixth name as a technicality anyway, while Mark grumbled that yeah, it's a technicality but he should have gotten it anyway.

How many can you name?

If this sounds familiar, you might recall it from one of my trivia quizzes a couple years ago. I'm not sure yet who of the above got which answers. Some people took a shot on Kurt's Facebook page.

Let's not include the flight rings, the SW6 belt buckles, or the v4 jackets, all of which had the "L" on it; or any other jewelry, rings, belts, bracelets, or stuff like that, just the costume itself.

My regular trivia quiz coming in a day or two (and yes, I know it was supposed to be this past Monday).

Bits of Legionnaire Business

I've let this go so long I'm going to have to spread this over 2 posts:

• CBR's Comic Book Legends Revealed reveals this:
  

  COMIC LEGEND: Mike Grell tried to introduce a black character into the pages of Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes, but saw his efforts literally whitewashed away. STATUS: True

  
  It's really the story of Dvron, which you might not have heard before. The next week we heard about
  

  COMIC LEGEND: Keith Giffen and Tom and Mary Bierbaum had a character switch genders in the Legion of Super-Heroes to have a character they felt was gay be with a man. STATUS: True

  
  Of course, it's the story of Element Lad and Shvaughn/Sean Erin (with over 180 comments afterwards).
  
  
• Action Figure Blues and Superhero Times review the four Legion figures that recently came out in the Justice League Unlimited series.
  
  
• Caperaway lists their top 10 Legion stories. This is a good topic for another day here.
  
  
• Scans Daily: LSH v3 #38 (Death of Superboy), Computo and the death of Triplicate Girl ("So much wrong, so little I can post. But I'll do my best. So, today my thesis is the Legion are fucking idiots. Here is evidence. Finally looking at the famous first Computo story, I have to say: I never realized just how stupid the Legion were. And how heartless. And how flip they were with the issue of death and mutilation."), and the 80s look at how Luornu has dealt with that trauma from the Legion Annual.
  
  
• Don noticed something interesting in a recent issue of JLA about the Sun-Eater.
  
  
• It didn't cross my mind at the time, but this tribute at the time of Ed McMahon's death concentrates on the infamous "Challenge of the Super-Heroes" and "Roast of the Super-Heroes" shows from the late 1970s. Ed was host of the Roast. Mordru was in both shows.
  
  
• Comic Book Noise continues its look at Robinson's Starman series. In this podcast episode, they discuss the 30th century's Starman.
  
  
• Photon Torpedos looks back at some Alan Davis covers from the mid 1990s.
  
  
• Speaking of podcasts, the Legion of Substitute Podcasters #39 discusses the last part of the "An Eye for an Eye" TPB.
  
  
• The Howling Curmudgeous determine who the worst pre-Crisis Legionnaire was.
  
  
• The Tearoom of Despair has a long essay on the ups and downs of being a Legion reader.
  
  
• Major Spoilers shows us a number of drawings by Gene Gonzales of Legionnaires.
  
  
• They're remaking the movie "The Karate Kid", but because of naming rights that DC holds, the new title will be "The Kung Fu Kid".
  

Now it can be told!

Back in April, I mentioned that as a result of my posting here, I was consulted for a non-spoilery plot point by Geoff Johns for "Legion of 3 Worlds". I had promised to tell you what that was once the series was over. It's not really anything major, though.

In January 2008 I got an email from Johns asking for a list of the members of the United Planets up to the original Crisis. In retrospect, he was apparently doing research on the UP scenes in L3W. Here's what I wrote back to him:

Of course you'd have to start with a question I'm not fully prepared to answer, but I'll have to be Clintonian in my explanation.

To the best of my (limited) knowledge, such a list has never been made public and put on the internet. If such a list had been compiled, someone from the fanzines Interlac, Klordny, or the Legion Outpost probably did it sometime in the last 30 years, but since those issues are all on paper, there's no telling unless someone has a complete collection.

That being said, there are some sources. In case you didn't know, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mayfair put out a bunch of DC role playing games, complete with various sourcebooks. The first two Legion books, 1986's "The Legion Sourcebook" and 1987's "The Legion Sourcebook vol. II: The World Book" contain RPG stats for pretty much anything Legion-related up to that time, which appears to be the time frame you're looking for. The World Book is most likely what you need, but of course it's one of the things that I don't have in my collection yet.

In 1990, Mayfair published the "Atlas of the DC Universe", which infamously places Metropolis in Delaware and Gotham City in southern NJ. The Atlas has a chapter that reprints some of the info from the World Book and says that most of the info predates the Great Collapse of 2989 (which was when Levitz left). The Atlas has info on 57 worlds, but that includes both UP worlds and others (the Dominion, Khundia, etc.). I can cull out the UP worlds from this list if you like.

For all their faults *cough*fanfic*cough*, the Bierbaums were great with detail. A planet mentioned in passing in an issue of Adventure Comics would become something important in their storyline, and their data was compiled in Mayfair's "2995: The Legion Sourcebook" from 1992. Helpfully, they even provided a map showing where the various planets were in relation to the Khundish Empire, the UP, the Dominion, the Dark Circle, and "hostile & unexplored". They list a total of 72 worlds, and elsewhere give the status of 76 worlds (some overlapping) and where they stood about a year into the v4 storyline. In giving the history of the UP, the book mentions that there were about 1000 worlds prior to the Collapse.

Now, if you don't already have these books, I can sift through them to get the UP worlds out. I also have an ebay bid on the World Book and the four game modules which is over tomorrow evening, so if I win that I can go through that book too.

Let me know what you'd like and I'll do what I can.

So it took me a little while to dig through those books. Here was my next note to him in Feb. 2008:

Finally got my Mayfair "World Book" in the mail today. Between that, the Atlas of the DC Universe, "Who's Who in the LSH", and Mark Waid's "Legion Index", I've come up with 182 named worlds.

I made some assumptions: basically unless we were told that it was not a UP world, that the UP couldn't interfere, or it was something like a planet inhabited only by criminals, I took it as a UP world. When Chameleon Boy turns into a Nitwonian Nibbybug, I assume that Nitwon is a UP world.

This list roughly coincides with the original Crisis or very shortly thereafter. The Index and the World Book came out in 1987, "Who's Who" in 1988, and the Atlas in 1990 (though it says that the data is pre-Collapse, which means it's good up through the end of the Levitz run).

The list does not include non-UP worlds, non-worlds (such as asteroids or space stations), or those worlds that lie within the UP space but are either destroyed or uninhabited.

Maybe for my next trivia quiz I should post the list of all 182 worlds I found and have you identify each one by issue and context.

Crowd scene

A couple weeks ago, I wrote this:

At the 1995 San Diego and Chicago cons, "Legionnaires" artists Jeff Moy and Cory Carani were taking pictures of some of the fans. We didn't know until Legionnaires #43 came out (cover-dated 11/96) that a number of fans from the conventions were drawn into a crowd scene during the Legion tryouts.

Turns out I have misremembered for years, it was actually issue 38, page 13, panel 3. I knew it was a crowd scene, but I forgot which crowd.:



The faces are (clockwise from Top) Mike Chary, Johanna Draper [now Carlson], Erik Hancock, Sidne Ward (who was the namesake inspiration for Imra's mom Sydne), Bob Dobiesz (namesake for Imra's dad Bertor), and me. I should make that my new blog avatar.

Here's what I wrote on the old LSH-L mailing list on May 19, 1996:

On the last day of the San Diego con last year, we ran into Jeff Moy and Cory Carani at the DC booth near the end of the day. Cory had his camera out and was taking pictures, so I told him that he had to take a picture of me and Vernon Harmon (who was with me at the time, dressed as Wildfire) so he could put us in a crowd scene somewhere. I guess Vernon's being saved for a later time. Just like Wildfire...

I think we all ought to photocopy the page, cut out our faces, and wear them on our badges at the various conventions we go to this summer, with a caption that says "I [heart] Titanian Magnoball".

At the 1996 San Diego and Chicago cons, a couple of people had each of us autograph the page. To the best of my recollection, that's the only time someone has ever asked me to sign a comic.