A Field Guide to Legion Cover Variants, 2006-2007
The Field Guide to Legion Cover Variants, part 2: 2006-2007
For this pre-Rebirth checklist, I'm indebted to "Condo Arlik" who maintained the "Bits of Legionnaire Business" page on Facebook, in particular this gallery of cover variants (adapted to the web in part 1, part 2, and part 3 at the Legion of Super-Bloggers site), which made it a whole lot easier for me to compile a current list.
The gallery, presented in chronological publication order along with cover date:
2006
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #16 - May 2006
The second printing got a sketch cover, which came out about a month later. The typical "One Year Later" logo for line-wide event has been altered to "1001 Years Later" to match the setting of the issue. (See my original post from 2006 for a look at the covers without the logos; the second printing was much lighter blue.)
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Justice League of America vol 2 #1 - October 2006
Relaunch of the JLA. Technically, only the second printing has a Legionnaire! Many of the characters on these covers changed from the original poster version seen below the covers; the Threeboot Karate Kid was originally behind Blue Beetle on Cover B. The combined Cover A+B appeared (without Karate Kid) on the Diamond Retailer Edition RRP promotional giveaway. The second printing cover had the original poster before the characters were changed around, so this is the only one that does have Karate Kid. Note that there exists a separate first printing with a Michael Turner cover that does not have KK, and that one was the basis for the pencil-only third printing and the recolored fourth printing (but because KK is not involved, I'm not showing those here, but see this page for all of the covers).
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Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #23 - December 2006
For some reason, this odd issue of the Legion's regular book got a variant cover by Adam Hughes, featuring Supergirl. It wasn't an "Adam Hughes variant for all books" thing that month, so I don't know the story behind why this issue had this cover (and not, say, the regular Supergirl title).
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Two fan-favorite artists released convention-exclusive covers at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2023, both based around this 2006 issue. The Adam Hughes original variant was re-released with foil versions, one "virgin" (no logo) and one based on a Mexican comic. Not sure what the "Superman #51" signifies, as it's different from the 2017 "La Mole" version which was a Mexican convention exclusive version of Superman #43 (not 51). And randomly, David Nakayama did a brand-new Supergirl cover, a virgin one with stars on a pink foil background, and one with the same image on a non-foil sky-blue background with trade dress. For more info on these, see my separate blog post.
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Justice Society of America vol 3 issues 1-22, 24-26, 41, and 50 all had variant covers (usually Alex Ross doing the main cover and Dale Eaglesham doing the variant, except for the Lightning Saga), but rather than include all of those in this Field Guide, I'll only highlight the covers where Starman is on either of the covers. Here's a gallery of all the JSA covers.
Justice Society of America vol 3 #1 - February 2007
Relaunch of the JSA following Infinite Crisis. Starman is a member, this ends up being the Retroboot Thom Kallor wearing a full-face mask, who is also the Starman who was in Kingdom Come, and who had psychological problems due to being in the 21st century without his 31st century medications. The Alex Ross cover is an homage to All-Star Comics #3, while the Dale Eaglesham cover is an homage to All-Star Squadron #1 (which we'll see in 2020 homaged again, with LSH v8 #3 by Jim Cheung).
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Justice Society of America vol 3 #2 - March 2007
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Justice Society of America vol 3 #4 - May 2007
Dream Girl makes an appearance at the end, leading into the Lightning Saga.
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The first issue of the series based on the animated cartoon was reprinted shortly thereafter with a slightly modified cover for Free Comic Book Day 2007. Sometimes you'll find an FCBD version with the store's stamp in the blank spot at the bottom.
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Justice League of America vol 2 #8 - June 2007
Lightning Saga part 1 of 5, reintroducing the Retroboot Legion (despite the Threeboot version being a continuing series, at least for a while).
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Justice Society of America vol 3 #5 - June 2007
Lightning Saga part 2 of 5.
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Justice League of America vol 2 #9 - July 2007
Lightning Saga part 3 of 5.
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Justice Society of America vol 3 #6 - July 2007
Lightning Saga part 4 of 5.
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Justice League of America vol 2 #10 - August 2007
Lightning Saga part 5 of 5.
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Here's the three JLA covers for #8, 9, and 10 connected:
The Jimenez covers for JLA #9 and JSA #6 sort of connect, in that it looks like Superman's cape and Wonder Woman's hair bleed over from the JSA cover to the JLA cover, but it's not very centered as if some artwork was trimmed, and it also looks like there should be a third part but the JLA #10 Jimenez cover doesn't connect at all. And the Jimenez covers for JLA #8 and JSA #5 also don't connect. Oh well.
Justice Society of America vol 3 #7 - September 2007
Cover says Lightning Saga Epilogue but it's really just about Starman in the 21st century.
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Justice Society of America vol 3 #8 - September 2007
Dream Girl makes an appearance.
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Action Comics v1 #858 - December 2007
Part 1 of the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" arc, featuring the Retroboot Legion. Gary Frank did both the standard and variant covers. The second printing is a slightly cropped version of the main cover with a different colored background (red replacing yellow). In 2010, this issue was reprinted (with the cover to issue #863) as a special edition promoting the collected version of the story.
Note that there was a slight softening in Superman's face between the solicited version and the printed version, making him look less angry.
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Variant cover Art by Gary Frank | Second printing Art by Gary Frank |
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Special Edition reprint (2010) Art by Gary Frank | |
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Last updated July 2023
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