Legionnaires #7 annotations: Under the Sea!

 Annotations for Legionnaires #7

• On sale 8/17/93
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/28735.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 661 (June 14, 2021)
• Timeline: August 7-9, 2995

Notes:

• Cover: Notice that each Luornu has a different suit that goes with her personality. The 3-eyed fish from the Simpsons is on the bottom below Lu-white’s left arm. 
• With this issue, the Legionnaires book moves into more-or-less real time with the main LSH book.
• Page 1: Tom says that Adam Hughes forgot to leave room for a credits box, so the credits will go along the bottom of the next few pages. If you look closely, among the bystanders in the splash page are the anime team “Dirty Pair,” seeming to have an argument in the lower right-hand corner of the scene. 
• Page 2 panel 1: Recall that Atlantis was home to two humanoid species: with legs (from Poseidonis, like Aquaman) or with a mermaid tail (from Tritonis, like Lori Lemaris). Shown to still exist in the 30th century (at least the part populated by mermen) as Ultra Boy is seen helping to repair seaquake damage (ADV 325). 
• Atlantis was built millions of years ago, before humans had evolved, by a humanoid race from the planet Vruun, with help from the Legion. Led by Leta Lal, the Atlanteans warred with a group of Kryptonians who also attempted to colonize the Earth. But xenon in Earth’s atmosphere was slowly killing the Vrunnians, so they used artificial evolution to turn themselves into mermen able to breathe underwater, while Star Boy used his power to sink Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean (ADV 333). Needless to say, this was retconned away later, probably with Peter David’s Atlantis Chronicles.
• Page 2 panel 6: Apparition and Andromeda are being pretty speciesist
• Page 3 panel 1: this is the first I’ve found of the city-dome of Marsala. When I did a Google search, the only things that came up were reviews of the Chicken Marsala at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.
• Page 9 panel 3: Devil-Fish first (and only) appeared in SBOY 202, one of the last Legion creations of Dave Cockrum. 
• From the DC Fandom page: In the early 70s, Dave Cockrum created an "intelligent, amphibious ocean creature" and pitched it to both Marvel and DC at the same time. Marvel bought the concept first and the Marvel character was named Manphibian. Dave learned that DC also wanted to include the same character in an upcoming Superboy story. After Dave alerted DC to the situation, the "Manphibian" character was reworked as Devil-Fish.
• Page 11 panel 1: Atlantic Park is a riff on Jurassic Park
• Page 12 panel 2: presumably Violet considers Devlin to be her boyfriend, since Duplicate Boy is 17 years older than she is

---

Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7)
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7)
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7).

Superman: Time and Time Again part 1

This 7-issue story arc wound between the three Superman books at the time - Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, and Superman (in that order) - for just over two months. To set the stage, Clark Kent has just revealed his secret ID to Lois Lane, and she's not sure what to make of their relationship following this revelation.

The Legion of Substitute Podcasters talk about it in episode 578.

This story arc was later reprinted in trade paperback as "Superman: Time and Time Again".

Adventures of Superman 476: Time & Time Again, part 1 of 7 (on sale 1/29/91)

• A time traveler called the Linear Man appears, and sets off an alarm that brings Booster Gold to Metropolis. The Linear Man is looking for Booster because he has violated the natural laws of time for his own selfish means, and it’s his duty to bring him back. In trying to stop him, Superman accidentally grabs his time controls, which opens up a hole in the time/space continuum. Superman and the Linear Man get sucked into the portal, leaving Booster behind. Superman wakes up surrounded by a fire (where his cape gets burned away). He arrives in the 30th century on page 17, and we see the rest of his meeting with the Legion from his perspective.  
• Page 22: Superman mentions that he’s met Brainiac 5, Blok, Sun Boy, and Invisible Kid, referring to Superman #8 & Action #591, which is his past but the Legion’s future. Saturn Girl says she recognizes some of those names, meaning all but Blok since the other 3 joined very early in the Legion’s time (all before Adventure 300).
• When this was published in 1991, the Legion’s appearance here was supposed to be the Silver Age version of the 5YL Legion, because that’s what was being published at the time. But after the Reboot, in Legionnaires 61 (1998), we see this exact scene from the perspective of the Legion (instead of Superman), and it’s presented as the Reboot Legion instead of the 5YL Legion with some shenanigans caused by the Time Trapper. Roger Stern was a writer on the Superman titles of 1991 and also the Reboot Legion, so he repurposed the scene to keep the rebooted continuity intact.

Action Comics 663: Time & Time Again, part 2 of 7 (on sale 2/5/91)

• Flashback to part 1 for those who don’t read Adventures of Superman. Superman asks the Legionnaires to tell them about his future, to make sure he did return after this. Saturn Girl says their records are spotty, but before she can continue, the fire (from earlier) blows up again and Superman is transported back in time to WWII. He wakes up and is taken by a bystander to the nearby circus, because his costume looks like that’s where he belongs. He’s having trouble seeing, but he finds out that he’s in 1943 and decides to stay with the circus until he gets better. His act is Samson, the strong man, where he breaks chains and lifts elephants. He spends 2 months there. Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, Booster says he knows some people who might be able to help find Superman. Superman leaves the circus and goes to Metropolis where he saves FDR, who tells him that he should join the Justice Battalion. Superman goes off to Washington to find the JSA, but the Spectre stops him, saying it’s too early for him to meet the JSA. Spectre sends him to a train station in Nazi-occupied Warsaw where he says Superman is needed.

Superman 54: Time & Time Again, part 3 of 7 (on sale 2/19/91)

• June 1943, Superman is spotted by the Nazis but leaves. Nazi General Zeiten captures the soul of a Jewish prisoner in a magical crystal. Superman flies to the Warsaw Ghetto, where he overhears the Nazis talking about using the Jews as test subjects for their atomic experiments. Superman recognizes the general as someone he’s met before, “Mister Z” (Superman #51), and wrecks the experiment lab and stops a train carrying the Jews. The Nazis drop their bomb anyway, but Superman catches it and takes it out of the atmosphere. The explosion causes him to disappear.

Adventures of Superman 477: Time & Time Again, part 4 of 7 (on sale 2/26/91)

• Page 7: Wildfire is a new member who hasn’t had a chance to read up on Legion history, which suggests that this takes place circa Superboy 201 when he joined (in the comments to our podcast episode, David Spofforth says "If I had to nail down an exact placing for the sun eater episode, I’d put it precisely between Superboy 202 and 203. Wildfire didn’t get his new name until 202 and the non-reaction to Superman’s mention of Invisible Kid means it should go before one Invisible Kid’s death in 203"). That sounds good enough to me! Per the Sourcebook timeline, this was in June 2981; the Linear Man says that Superman came out of the time stream about 7 years too soon, and the closest thing in Legion history (5YL version) to that would be Glorith’s destruction of Daxam in January 2988 (as seen in LSH v4 Annual #1); in pre-5YL history, that would probably be the revival of the Infinite Man and the battle with the Time Trapper (as seen in LSH v3 #50) in February 2988.
• Page 14: Superman says he just met Garth “a couple of days ago” but recall he spent 2 months in the circus in 1943 right after that.
• Page 20 panel 1: this is clearly the Cockrum-era Legion, since the cruiser has a small bubble up front and not the big bubble over the whole saucer section like it was under Grell; also, notice that Wildfire’s faceplate goes down underneath his chin, which was how Cockrum drew it, as opposed to how Grell drew it ending above the chin.
  

Coming soon: why are we interrupting the LSH v4 Five Years Later with a Superman story arc that only guest-stars the Silver Age and Bronze Age Legion in only some of the chapters? Long story short: events in T&TA have a direct and major impact on the Legion v4 series going forward. You'll have to wait to see how.

Bits of Legionnaire Business

It's too late for in-depth links to Legion of 3 Worlds or Adventure Comics #1, but here are some items I didn't get around to posting on my last Bits column that aren't too outdated already. It's a long one, chock full of good stuff all the way down to the bottom. Now I'm caught up through this weekend.

• Those of you on Facebook might be interested in groups for the Interlac language, LegionWorld.net, and the old Legion apa's (like the Outpost, Interlac, etc.).
  
  
• The Fortress of Baileytude has a series of podcasts covering Superman's history from Crisis (on Infinite Earths) to Crisis (the Final kind). Episode 10 covers August 1987, when the 4-issue storyline on Superman, Superboy, and the Pocket Universe appeared.
  
  
• Again with the Comics looks at Tenzil for the Defense.
  
  
• Remember how at the end of LSH v3 #5, five Legionnaires left through a stargate to make it back home (as seen in the recently reprinted "An Eye for an Eye" TPB)? Well, they had a detour in the 20th century with Superman and Brainiac, first.
  
  
• TroopNY shows off his custom-made reboot Cosmic Boy costume at the League of Heroes site.
  
  
• Newsarama interviews Tony Bedard on what's coming up in R.E.B.E.L.S.
  
  
• Did you know that the M'rissey character that showed up in Jim Shooter's recent run on the Legion was based on long-time fan Rich Morrissey? Rich helped create Legion fandom in the early 1970s and was one of the great comics historians. Here's a little bit of the character on scans_daily and the obituary that Mark Evanier wrote in 2001.
  
  
• Chris Mosby reveals why LSH v3 #312 is the most pivotal Legion issue EVER.
  
  
• The Legion Abstract's Matthew was a guest of the Legion of Substitute Podcasters following the end of Legion of 3 Worlds. Worlds will live, worlds will die in this crossover!
  
  
• Major Spoilers has an in-depth Hero History of the Legion of Super-Pets.
  
  
• It's too late to go into detail about the Adventure Comics #1 reviews, but here are links to them anyway. Legion Abstract, Read/Rant, CBR, Shotgun Reviews, IGN, ComiXtreme, Get-a-Life Boy, Comic Book Legacy, Newsarama's Legion Blogpost, Comix411, Examiner, Keith's Comics Revue, Comics And..., and Comic Nexus.
  
  
• The Origins and Powers of the Legionnaires, as posted by Diversions of the Groovy Kind. These are pages from the All-New Collector's Edition book that had the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, these pages with art by Jim Sherman and Jack Abel.
  
  
• Info on costume designs by Mike Grell and Dave Cockrum, from an issue of Back Issue magazine.
  
  
• If you're into Mighty Muggs, how about this custom Wildfire on ebay?
  
  
  
• Whatever happened to those goats that L3 Brainiac 5 had in the HQ?
  
  
• The Major Spoilers poll and podcast: the Legion vs the X-Men
  
  
• Mattel, on what their next plans are for Legion action figures: "We do have some great plans for the Legion of Superheroes, but when and how they will be released has yet to be announced!"
  
  
• Oh Noes! Clark needs to get to the 30th century right away, but he's cuddling with Lana. How will he get away?
  
  
• Ah, Laurel Kent. Post-Modern Barney calls Superboy sick and wrong for hitting on his multi-great granddaughter, while Armagideon Time lists her in one of his "Nobody's Favorite" histories.
  
  
• Gratuitous Legion references of the day: from the Sacramento Bee, talking about the University of Florida's "inevitable" march to the national championship game. "The Gators fit the bill. They've got the smarty-pants football coach. They've got the pretty-boy quarterback who works on making the world a better place in his spare time. They've got more speed than the Legion of Super-Heroes."
  
  Second, from the Wall Street Journal, on Disney's acquisition of Marvel: "Disney agreed Monday to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc., adding a legion of superheroes to a durable family of children's favorites."
  
  
• Wil Wheaton talks a bit about his role as Cosmic Boy on the Legion TV series in an interview about his role on a recent episode of "Leverage".
  
  
• It's time to play "Crazy Celebrity Baby Name or Member of the Legion!"
  
  
• Here's a fabulously retro look at the Legionnaires on the cover of Adventure 247, by ~Quimbus on deviantART.
  
  
• The Legion cartoon airs at 10:30am Sundays in Brisbane. In case you were wondering.
  
  
• Blake's 2-in-1 Podcast looks at Mon-El - who is he, and what's his story?
  
  
• Finally, my Google Alert subscription notifies me of these things from time to time, where somebody uses the phrase "Legion of Super-Heroes" but not actually referring to our team. This one is kind of cute, from the Willard Central Elementary School in Springfield, MO. The super-hero theme this year at the school "will focus on developing HEROES – Honorable, Empowered, Responsible, Organized, Exceptional Students." That's so cool! I hope DC/Warners doesn't bust them for trademark infringement or something.
  

SDCC08: Legion's 50th Anniversary panel

This was the big one, two full pages of notes to write up. Deep breath....

The Legion 50th Anniversary panel featured Paul Levitz, Mike Grell, Keith Giffen, Colleen Doran, Geoff Johns, and Tom & Mary Bierbaum. It was a packed house in a pretty large room. Paul began the panel by accepting an Inkpot award on behalf of Al Plastino, artist on the Adventure 247 story. Plastino still lives in New York but couldn't make it to San Diego.

Levitz asked each of the panelists for their fondest Legion memories:

• Grell's fondest was when Joe Orlando called him to ask if he minded being recommended to draw the Legion. Dave Cockrum had just left and the book needed an artist. He said that doing the art was a nightmare at first but he was grateful to have Cockrum's sketchbook so he knew how to draw the characters. He said that it was just recently that he noticed that Shrinking Violet's costume, as originally designed by Cockrum, had an "S" and "V" on it in the black curly designs. Nobody else admitted to realizing that either.
  
• Giffen's fondest was, he said, killing Karate Kid twice. Someone from the audience reminded him that he killed Karate Kid three times (Keith had forgotten about the SW6 one), and his face lit up.
  
• Doran started out in the Interlac fanzine, doing fan fic and artwork. Giffen asked her if she would audition to be the new artist, but sadly she couldn't due to other commitments that in retrospect she shouldn't have taken. Her first issue was the tabloid wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, and she said she went ape-shit over the Legion. As is commonly known, she had a huge crush on Element Lad to the point where if there was a pinup or solo story featuring him, DC went to her for the art for something like 18 years.
  
• Johns grew up with the Adventure stories, and had a fondness for Polar Boy since he was short and could relate. Levitz's run got him hooked on the Legion and influenced his writing.
  
• Tom Bierbaum's best memory was getting the chance to work on the book, and giving a personality to Matter-Eater Lad. He said that when he came on, Giffen had a story arc for Tenzil, but liked Tom's take on the character better.
  
• Mary Bierbaum met Tom through Interlac and have been married for 26 years. She loved to hear Tom and Keith do dialog over the phone. She talked about Laurel Gand, how the character needed a name and so they looked in the dictionary. She wanted "Flying Buttress" but was overruled.
  
• Levitz remembered falling in love with the coverless Adventure issues he found at the barber shop, and putting together his own collection. After The Comic Reader zine, he started working at DC and started on the Karate Kid title, but Carmine Infantino (DC's publisher at the time) pulled it away from him because he didn't know how to write, as Paul put it. When Jim Shooter left the second time, Levitz took it over and looked forward to working with Mike Grell; his first issue would be the Dawnstar issue, but then Grell left the book, leaving only the designs and the cover. On his second run later, he was determined to do it right, and wanted to do 100 issues straight (he went over: between LSH v2, LSH v3, Tales, and Annuals, he did around 110 issues).

Q&A time from the audience.

Q: Of all the stories you did NOT work on, what did you like the best?
A: Levitz said the whole Ferro Lad story arc. Grell said the same. Giffen chose Earthwar, which he said showed the Legion for the first time really realizing their potential. Doran said any Jimmy Janes issue. Johns and the Bierbaums chose the Great Darkness Saga, with Tom also choosing the two-part story from Adventure 350-351 where Superboy and Supergirl had to leave.

Q: What about the Legion do you love, and why does it have such a passionate fanbase?
A: Grell said the Legion has the most loyal fans in the entire comics industry. He thinks it's a great entry-level book, actually, because it features a whole team of young heroes with exciting stories. Johns argued the depth of the mythology, while Tom Bierbaum offered that back then it was the first of the new super-teams and the first real team book. Levitz said it was the ability to change (not just to die). Mary Bierbaum suggested that with such a large group, it was great for someone who loves a lot of characters and there's always someone that the reader can identify with.

Q: A new Legion fan, who started with the Waid/Kitson reboot, picked up the back issues and was unsatisfied with how the post-Zero Hour Legion finished off with a non-ending.
A: Johns said to read Legion of Three Worlds. XS is a main character, and Perez draws all three Legions.

Q: Will we see more of the Legion Subs?
A: Johns kind of sidestepped that one, but said that (he paused at this point, and said "what the hell, I'll spoil it here") he had big plans for Luornu (who he suggested be called "Una Damsel"): "I don't know how I got anything done with just three of me". She will be called Duplicate Damsel and can multiply into many, not just three.

Q: What or who did you have the most trouble with?
A: Giffen said "you can see where this is going for me." Tom Bierbaum had problems with the Dawnstar/Bounty character. Grell had troubles drawing Colossal Boy's costume with all of the buckles. The hardest to draw was his first issue, the death of Invisible Kid. He told the audience how he talked with the editor, who told him that not only was he going to kill off a popular character, but he was probably going to get hate mail for it. He did. Levitz's hardest one was Matter-Eater Lad (I would have thought he'd say Tyroc).

Q: The questioner said he was so angry with DC after Zero Hour for killing off the Legion that he stopped reading comics. He thanked Geoff for bringing them back.
A: You're welcome.

Q: We've seen a lot of reboots for the Legion. Is constant refresh good?
A: (unfortunately I was either writing or not hearing him, so I didn't get the answer to the question; I'll leave it here in case anyone else remembers the answer from Keith Giffen.)

Q: Has Levitz ever had to overrule someone who was planning to cancel the book?
A: No, there has never been a moment at DC when they were seriously planning to get rid of the book.

Q: Why did the "threeboot" take place?
A: Levitz said that the nature of the Legion is so complex that when they get a new creative team, it's an easy answer to just reboot and wipe the slate clean. Giffen offered his take on the Five Year Gap, saying that he did it that way so that it was far enough down the road from what Levitz did that they wouldn't have to dismantle the future that Levitz had built up for years.

Q: What story would you like to erase?
A: Before answering, Levitz noted to the crowd that two people who should have been there - E. Nelson Bridwell and Dave Cockrum, both deceased - were good to the fans and helped to make the Legion what it is. In answer to the question, Levitz replied with one he's said before, the story in which he tried to have them explain the prolonged life story. Giffen said he probably shouldn't have blown up the Earth. Doran wished she had been a better artist at the time she worked on the books. Johns, who hasn't been a Legion writer for very long, said that he was not intimidated by the depth of Legion history, but he wants to show those who don't know the Legion, just what makes them special. Tom Bierbaum said that they probably overextended themselves in writing the two Annuals, rewriting Ultra Boy's and Valor's histories. He said their reach exceeded their grasp and it kind of got out of hand. Mary wished that the "white event" (which led to the Glorithverse mini-reboot) hadn't had to happen.

Q: How did the lack of minorities in the Legion affect fandom?
A: Levitz and Grell both said that you had to consider what the industry was like at the time, looking at it in broader context as to why there were no minorities. Grell said that there was a nervousness in the industry, they were worried that they wouldn't do it right. He gave as an example, "The Rookie Who Betrayed the Legion" (Superboy 207), in which a Science Police rookie makes some bad choices but does good in the end. Dvron was originally going to be a black man, but editor Murray Boltinoff said that they couldn't do that because the story would show a black man in a negative light. He told Grell that they were planning a black Legionnaire to debut shortly anyway. Boltinoff told Grell to redraw all the faces to be white, but Grell deliberately left some black features. He still got hate mail, stuff like "that's a brother painted pink". He repeated the story he had given at his other panel about Tyroc's origin and costume and why there were no blacks in the 30th century, that he felt it was very racist and that it was like the old "send them back to Africa, keep America white" mentality. He designed Tyroc's outfit purposely like that in protest.

Q: Any plans for a Legion movie?
A: Levitz said there are no plans, but who knows what might happen.

Q: Did anyone see the cartoon?
A: Apparently only Doran did, she thought it was cute.

Q: There are lots of Legionnaires after all the reboots. Why do some go through different iterations while some tend to stay the same?
A: Giffen said it's really the writer and artist's prerogative. Johns added that sometimes a character, such as Timber Wolf (specifically mentioned by the questioner) has powers specific to his personality.

Q: What's the divergence point for the "Lightning Saga" Legion we saw in Action Comics?
A: Johns, writing Legion of Three Worlds, said that it's around the Crisis (which would be v3 #18) or so.

Q: Any plans for more Archives or a reprint of That Damned Tabloid?
A: No Archive plans for now, they're getting to the point where the individual back issues would be the same price as the book.

That wrapped up the hour-long program. Levitz concluded the panel by saying that they all are grateful to have gotten to play in the sandbox with some really cool toys, and the passion of the fans which allows them to play in the sandbox in the first place is unmatched.

(Here's the Comic Mix report)

Stuff to spend your money on

Here's some stuff that you might want to consider purchasing in the near future:

• I got this in the email the other day:
  

  If you haven't heard, comic book artist Gene Colan is ill and his family is getting crushed by the medical bills. To help his family, several writers and artists have donated items to be auctioned off.
  
  They just added a neat Legion item-
  
  #68. ANIMATION MAGAZINE (LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES - Comic Con 2006)
  
  Signed by producer JAMES TUCKER, writer/story editor ROB HOEGEE, voice of Bouncing Boy MICHAEL CORNACCHIA, voice of Timber Wolf SHAWN HARRISON, voice of Superman YURI LOWENTHAL, voice of Lightning Lad ANDY MILDER, voice of Saturn Girl KARI WAHLGREN
  
  Since it goes to a good cause, would you mind spreading the word by putting a blurb about it on your Legion blog?

  
  That's from the 2006 San Diego Comic Con, where all the voice actors were at a special panel (see here for the details of the panel).
  
  You may recall that Gene did a couple of Legion stories, one from LSH v2 #311 (the Wildfire/Dawnstar on Starhaven story) and a section of LSH v3 #27. (Plus, he pencilled the Timber Wolf figure on the cover of LSH v2 #300, too.)
  
  
  
• TV Shows on DVD reported that volume 3 of the Legion cartoon is coming on DVD on September 9th, with the final five episodes of Season 1 ("The Substitutes", "Child's Play", "Chain of Command", "Sundown Part 1", and "Sundown Part 2"). Here is the box artwork:
  
  
  
  
  
• The June 2008 issue of Alter Ego, by TwoMorrows, has a big cover story on Dave Cockrum. Included with the article (written by the Legion Companion's author Glen Cadigan) is some original Legion artwork to go with the story of how Dave got and left the Legion job.
  
  
  
• Coming soon is Tim Callahan's book "Teenagers from the Future", a series of essays on the Legion spanning over 340 pages - hopefully ready in time for San Diego. I was looking around to find more about the official release date (Tim, care to chime in?) when I found this 12-part essay on Keith Giffen's contributions to and influence on the Legion, by Julian Darius at Sequart (columns 77-88). Start with the first part. Julian's essay will also be in the book.
  

TwoMorrows: Only a Day Away

TwoMorrows Publishing is having a half-off sale on magazines for the month of November. You can pick up one of these issues for only $4.50 each:

Back Issue #14

BACK ISSUE #14 goes back to the future—saluting the world of tomorrow—in our star-studded “Future Issue”! For the first time ever, DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL are interviewed together in an exclusive “Pro2Pro” on their groundbreaking stints on Legion of Super-Heroes. ... With an all-new Legion of Super-Heroes cover by MIKE GRELL and BOB McLEOD!

Back Issue #22

In Back Issue 22: “Dynamic Duos”! Two “Pro2Pro” interviews reunite ... Legion of Super-Heroes’ PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN

I covered Back Issue #22 here earlier.



TwoMorrows also published the Best of the Legion Outpost and the Legion Companion, both still available (but not part of the sale).

New York Comic Con '07: leftover stuff

Couple of items from the NYCC last weekend that I didn't cover yet:

Tim Callahan has a great report of his experiences at the con. In particular, he discusses his brand new Legion sketchbook. You have to read his account of getting Rick Veitch to draw a Legionnaire.

WizardUniverse details the Dave Cockrum panel.

Everyone from the panel echoed similar sentiments of the late artist, remembering him as being very personable, warm, and extremely talented and dedicated to his work.

“He would labor for hours to create a new version of a costume for a character,” explained Levitz. “[He] re-costumed most of the Legionnaires, and was the first person to really do that on a broad scale.”

Before it was initiated that original art be given back to creators, Levitz shared a story of how Cockrum went out of his way and pocket to obtain a larger canvas than needed in which to draw the wedding with more detail - illustrating Cockrum’s dedication to his craft.

“Dave wasn’t a penciller, or a writer, he was a comic book creator,” emphasized Rubinstein of Cockrum, whose pencils he frequently inked.

Obviously, the big news (as we see it here) was Barry Kitson's announcement that he's leaving, which was revealed almost as an afterthought. There's only four more issues of their run to go, starting with this week's new issue. We'll know in about 2 weeks who's doing issue 31.

December linkfest

Haven't done one of these in a while but there have been too many things to post about lately.

Characters

Over at the Comic Treadmill, H has been doing a thorough analysis of the Legionnaires. In part 4 he looks at Karate Kid, Light Lass, Chameleon Boy, and the Silver Age Weirdo Legionnaire. In part 5 he takes on Brainiac 5, Dream Girl, and Element Lad. I'm doing him a disservice by only mentioning them and not looking at them in detail, so check them out.

Matthew over at the Legion Abstract also does a bang-up job at analyzing the Legionnaires. Brainiac 6 at the Legion Clubhouse blog has been checking out the Fatal Five/Sun Eater story and recapping some of the Who's Who articles from her own unique perspective.

Meanwhile, Blockade Boy has been busy redesigning the Legion of Substitute Costumes for Fire Lad, Animal Lad, Polar Boy, Stone Boy, and The Mess.

Dave Cockrum

I wrote about Dave Cockrum and collected some remembrances here, here, and here. There were a lot of tributes, and these came out after I finished my set. Sleestak at Lady, That's My Skull has some good images. Querl Dox remembers Dave as "the common element in the two most significant revivals of the 1970s".

Jack C. Harris, who was the editor of the Legion title shortly after Cockrum left DC for Marvel, and tells the tale of how he personally gave Dave the two-page scene of the wedding spread when DC started giving artwork back.

Finally, Mark Evanier touched on some things that I had tried to (only with better results). Cockrum was the first of the new wave of young and rising stars in the 70s who started as the old guard was retiring.

But I always thought that the success of that strip — and of the willingness of Boltinoff to embrace the work of a "new kid" — marked a turning point in the history of seventies' comics.

Animated

Fist Full of Comics has two podcast interviews, one with Michael Cornacchia (Bouncing Boy) and one with Kari Wahlgren (Saturn Girl).

Christopher Bird addresses some misconceptions on where the Legion show came from in relation to the Justice League and Teen Titans shows.

Superman Homepage notes that the final season of Justice League Unlimited will be arriving on DVD in March. The Legion appeared in the "Far From Home" episode.

Vs. System CCG

The Vs-Blog noted that the crowds for the recent preview tournaments were smaller than expected based on previous tournaments. Wizard's Inquest magazine looks at some of the more interesting cards in the set.

Comics

Oh yeah, they still publish the comics, too. Rokk's Comic Book Revolution reviews the first issue of the new JSA series, and he's really excited.


The Stop Button recently read "The Great Darkness Saga" for the first time with essentially no previous knowledge of Legion history. Check out the review for a firsthand account of whether "I can't read the Legion, there's too much history!" is true or not. Similarly, Graphic Content picked up the two most recent Legion trades, "Death of a Dream" (vol. 2) and Supergirl's "Strange Visitor from Another Century" (vol. 3). These guys also had pretty much no knowledge of the Legion, and came away with an overall positive experience.

Of course, you can't discuss Legion history without arguing over the relative merits (or lack thereof) of the Giffen/Bierbaum version. This "Comics Should Be Good" column at CBR starts talking about the Doom Patrol but swerves to the Legion pretty quick. And H opens up the Comic Treadmill vaults to review the original version of Adventure Comics #247.

Funny Stuff

Finally, a couple of funny items. Scott at the Legion Clubhouse got a copy of a 90s song called "The Wedding of Bouncing Boy". You can listen and sing along with lyrics that start off "Matter-Eater Lad was finally glad after shedding that 13 pounds / and Duo Damsel was getting hard to handle making the banquet table rounds". And Ben at Good Book Readin' takes a second look at the "Origins and Powers of the Legion" from Adventure Comics 365 - panel 1, for example, shows Phantom Girl with the power to perform table dances. After looking at the drawing, it's hard to argue against it.

More Cockrum memories

I'm pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of affection shown to Dave Cockrum on his passing, especially from the media (except for those who play up the "he died in his Superman jammies" angle). Here are a few more remembrances:

Mike Grell:

Dave left an indelible four-color mark on the comic industry. I owe much of my own career to the fortuitous timing of Dave's departure from the Legion of Superheroes, which opened the door for me to make my big break. Dave was on to bigger and better things - among them co-creating X-Men characters Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler - and his groundbreaking work has been an inspiration to generations of artists who followed.
...
They say you're never truly dead as long as there's one person who remembers you. Somewhere, someday, a kid is going to crawl into the attic and find his grandfather's stash of comics. When he opens his first Dave Cockrum book, he's going to be astounded.

And that, my friends, is as close as you can get to immortality.

David Miller (David Miller Studios at MSN dot com), in an email posted with permission:

Mike, here is my tribute to Dave Cockrum.

Well, as we all know, Dave Cockrum has passed on. And as we all know, I was a huge fan of his work.

Up until I was 10 years old I wanted to be a scientist when I grew up (like Spock!) But then I picked up Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #197 in a D.C. 3-pack.

And that was it for me. In that instant I simultaneously became a fan of The Legion, Cockrum and consumed with the desire to work in the comics' industry as an artist.

This is the Panel that did it: The Timber Wolf costume. No one other than Cockrum ever did that hairstyle in a way that didn't look ridiculous.


And that same issue introduced the coolest Villian I'd ever seen: Tyr!


Sure, it could be said that Cockrum swiped from the best: Wally Wood's influence was there ...


as well as Gil Kane's and Neal Adam's.


And I always had a suspicion that Murphy Anderson inked those legion tales, not Cockrum. But the end result was still galvanizing for me. And while Cockrum had his influences, he definitely had his own expression.

And at Marvel there was Giant Size Avengers #2. The climax to the Celestial Madonna storyline. A wonderful job with an uncredited inking job by The Crusty Bunkers (Neal Adams and friends).

And then there's the X-men. What can I possibly say about Cockrum's contribution to the Marvel stable of character's that would be even remotely adequate? Is it even possible to think about Marvel without the All New, All Different X-men? The title took a company that was on top and pushed them waaaaaaay over the top. I can't even begin to imagine what the company would look like without the X-men franchise.

And as much as I liked Cockrum's initial run on the book, I really liked when he took over Ms. Marvel and re-designed her costume. I think the reason she keeps coming back is because everyone loves that costume. I think if Cockrum had come on a little earlier to that book, or if it was after Claremont became a superstar writer, Ms. Marvel would have never been cancelled.

Behind it all, I think I always wanted to do something that Cockrum would approve of. I met him several times over the years and the closest thing I came to a compliment from him was "I almost want to like this"

My favorite Cockrum moment was when Bob Downs and I were up at Defiant comics for some reason and he was there. He had done a Warriors of Plasm Graphic novel for Shooter and was doing corrections on a page. I took that moment to really let him know how much I loved his work. He looked really, honestly, happy and flattered to hear my words. He reached out and grabbed my hand and shook it. And then we parted company. It was a great moment for me.

I saw Cockrum a couple of years ago at Heroes Con. Watching him confined to a wheel chair, on Oxygen . . . it just seemed so unfair. I showed him my Legion cartoon I made. But in his condition, I couldn't tell if he could enjoy it or not.

And now he's gone. And I feel the last of a great era is going with him. I hope the end brought him some peace and relief from the "thousand shocks that man is heir to". I guess there's no more else to say.

David Miller

Brad Parnell reminded me of an article he wrote for Fanzing in 2001, which goes into more detail about the Legion's transition from the Silver to Bronze Age with the arrival of Dave Cockrum.

You have to dig into the Daily Bugle to see that Marvel Comics has a nice tribute from Joe Quesada and the X-office. It would have been nice if DC put something on its page, but it's been a week and nothing yet.

Finally, to end this installment, here's the famous 2-page Legion wedding spread (click to enlarge):

More Cockrum obits

Due to his involvement with the X-Men, Dave Cockrum's obituary has now been written up in the New York Times, the LA Times, and the Associated Press, with those three reprinted in scores of papers and entertainment-based websites around the world. The AP story noted that he died in his Superman pajamas and a Batman blanket, and will be cremated in a Green Lantern t-shirt. (that surprised me - I figured it would have been a Nightcrawler one). Most of them mention how he reinvigorated the Legion before moving to the X-Men.

Evan Dorkin adds a Legion memory:

Costume design was a specialty of Cockrum's, who worked on DC's Legion of Superheroes book previously to the X-gig. LOSH is a book which practically demands bold and unique costumes in order to differentiate a seemingly endless load of bland, lookalike fratand sorority kids running around in a rocket ship clubhouse doing lots of silly crap. I read only one issue of LOSH as a kid (being fervently anti-DC at the time, I can't recall how I ended up with a comic from the dreaded "Distinguished Competition"), an issue which happened to feature the debut of Wildfire, a Cockrum-designed character I was instantly taken with. Wildfire died at the end of the story, and so did any further interest I might have had in the book. I didn't see Cockrum's art again until Giant-Size X-Men # 1 came out.

What if?

What if...

What if Carmine Infantino agreed to give the two-page spread from "Superboy" 200 back to Dave Cockrum even thought that was against DC policy at the time?

• Cockrum stays at DC as the artist of the Legion. A character named Nightcrawler appears as a member of the Outsiders. The team appears a number of times in the Legion series. When Jim Shooter takes over from Cary Bates, the book soars to new heights of popularity under the Shooter/Cockrum team. Perhaps Shooter eventually rises through the ranks at DC from writer to editor and into management.
  
• Mike Grell finds other work at DC between his gigs doing Aquaman and Green Arrow backups, and his simultaneous work on "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" and "Warlord".
  
• Over at Marvel, Len Wein co-creates with another artist a different All-New, All-Different X-Men revival, a team which does not include Nightcrawler, Storm, or Colossus. Without his input and those characters, the title probably does not get the critical acclaim it needed to eventually become a fan-favorite and a cornerstone of Marvel Comics itself.
  

What if the rumors of Shooter coming back to work on "a" Legion book are actually him doing "The Last Legion Story" rather than on the animated book? In his own words from an interview with CBR in 2000, here's what happened with that.

MDT: When do you think you'll be forgiven for your transgressions: real, imagined or manufactured?

JS: I don't care. I think there will always be assholes. I don't care. I've never really cared. I can't say it hasn't affected me.

My phone never rings. Nobody ever calls me. Am I such a bad writer? Am I the worst writer in comics that no one can use me? In fact, a while back, I was looking for some work.

I called Paul Levitz and I said, "Paul, I got one Legion story left in me. Call it Jim Shooter's last legion story. Do like Watchmen, do it like a series, 8 books, whatever and bind it in a book." Because I know the only thing they're making money on is the trade paperbacks. I said, "Look, it won't interfere with anybody, it'll be set back in the time when I wrote the Legion. Won't interfere with continuity. It'll be Jim Shooter's last legion story, I think I got some good ideas." He said, "I can't wait to read it."

He was in San Francisco. He said, "Look I'll be in the office Friday, I'll call you. Put together a list of the reference you'll need, I know you don't have any comics at your house. And think about what artists you'd like to have. We'll talk Friday and get going on this."

The last thing I said is, "Y'know, Paul, you have some people working for you that don't like me and this will piss them off. Are you sure that's not going to be a problem?" He said, "They'll go to their corners and sulk for a little while, but it'll be fine. I'll take care of it."

Didn't get a call Friday, didn't get a call Monday. Called him Tuesday. "The scars are deeper than I thought. It would be too much hassle. They would make things difficult. You don't need that and I don't need that." I said, "Ok, that's fine."

There's more at Howling Curmudgeons from 2005:

It is widely believed that [former editor Mike] Carlin was responsible for spiking a proposal by Jim Shooter to do a "Last Legion Story" at DC, pitched to and accepted a few years ago by Paul Levitz, who knows a little something about the Legion. Carlin's opposition is widely believed to result from personal animus arising from Carlin's training as an assistant editor at Marvel during Shooter's last, acrimonious days there.

Of course, the rumors might be totally false, in which case this is just a mental exercise.

Cockrum proposal: LSH/Blackhawks teamup

The Dave Cockrum tributes keep coming in. Alan Kistler at Monitor Duty passes this link along: a proposal Dave had for a team-up of sorts between the Legion and the Blackhawks (who Dave enjoyed drawing). I had never heard of this before.

I'll let you read it without spoiling it, but it involves the Legion finding Blackhawk Island.

A Death in the Family

Update 1 a.m. Monday: added CBA interview, Neil Gaiman links

Unless you've been travelling all day and have just logged in (pretty much like me), you've probably heard the sad news today that Dave Cockrum passed away Sunday morning.

My first Legion issue was #212, a year or so after Dave's last issue. My first Legion artist was Mike Grell, and he remains one of my favorite artists to this day. I didn't discover Cockrum's issues until a couple years later when I started looking for back issues. I didn't really know about his history with the Legion until much later, when I was able to piece things together and look at the run from the end of Adventure through Action Comics and into Superboy that I saw what an impact he had.

He was basically the first Bronze Age artist on the Legion, if you consider their Silver Age to have ended with the Action run, which was the end of Mort Weisinger's tenure as editor. He updated the look and feel of the 30th century, from the clubhouse to the costumes, dragging them all kicking and screaming into the 1970s. His stamp on the book was indelible and inspired the next artist, Mike Grell.

The two of them only did a single, otherwise unremarkable story together, the Devil-Fish story from Superboy 202. Cockrum pencilled it, Grell inked it. The Cockrum era was over, the Grell era began.

It's fairly common knowledge why Cockrum left the book and went over to Marvel (where he co-created the All-New, All-Different X-Men, including some characters adapted from some Legion designs) because DC refused to return the original artwork for the 2-page spread from Superboy #200, the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (in DC's defense, at the time that was their policy). So who knows what might have been had Nightcrawler stayed in the 30th century, among many other things.
See the extended quote below for an interview with Dave where he recounts this.

Lots of tributes today from around the web. Here are some comments and reminiscings from others.

Mark Evanier:

When Murphy [Anderson] was asked to draw a Legion of Super-Heroes back-up story one day, he begged off — "too many characters" — and recommended Dave. Cockrum not only got that job but became the feature's steady artist and creative heart, helping to redesign the Legion and create new characters. Among his many strengths, he was a superb inventor of new costumes. Later, he did the same thing — only with greater success — when he and Len Wein revamped the old, cancelled X-Men strip into the new, highly-successful X-Men franchise at Marvel.

Johnny Bacardi:

I quickly fell in love with the amazing costume designs of these characters- some of the established Legionnaires even had groovy-looking new togs, and it was like a breath of fresh air to the previously Swan-stodgy Legion. So I set out to get as many Cary Bates/Cockrum SatLSH back issues that I could, through mail order or just being lucky enough to get them off some other magazine stand (no internet in 1974, remember, and no comics shops in those prehistoric days). Anyway, I eagerly picked up #202, and then came #203, featuring the "Wrath of the Devil Fish" story, which in my less-than-authoritative opinion is among the best things he ever did, art-wise. Then...#204, and Mike Grell. No more Cockrum. Whahoppen?

Mike Flynn, one of the founders of Legion fandom:

Of course, this is a sad and tragic loss for all of us as Legion fans, as comic fans, and, of course, as human beings. Dave was a fan just like the rest of us... he drew for FANTASTIC FANZINE, for Warren, worked as Murphy Anderson's assistant, all before telling Murray Boltinoff that "goddamn bet your ass" he was ready to be the regular artist for the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES strip in the back of SUPERBOY. Some of us might like to think that we had something to do with the strip's eventual rebirth, but it took an energy and a talent like Dave's to help others see what we saw.

Neil Gaiman reprints an essay he wrote a couple years ago for the Dave Cockrum Tribute Book:

The important stuff, the way I saw it was that super powers would allow you to survive school more easily. ...

I think that was why I loved the Legion of Super Heroes, back in my own personal golden age. There were lots of them. They lived in the future. And their powers seemed made for surviving school with. (There were school meals put in front of me that only Matter Eater Lad could comfortably have disposed of.) They had a clubhouse. They didn’t fight bank robbers, either. (Mostly they seemed to fight each other, even if they had been brainwashed by intergalactic evildoers. This also made sense to me. I had lived twelve years, and had come to the conclusion that bank robbers turned up more infrequently than they did in the comics.) And, most of all, for just a little while – oddly enough, while I was twelve – they had Dave Cockrum.

I ought to Google and find out what the first Legion story Dave drew was; on the other hand, I still know the first of his stories I read. It was called “Curse of the Blood Crystals”, and it was inked by Murphy Anderson. (I have always been a sucker for Murphy Anderson’s inking.)

And, almost immediately it seemed, Superboy’s comic had become The Legion’s, and Dave Cockrum was the Legion artist (Cary Bates was writing), and suddenly it was cool...

Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter has a good article about Dave. He even made a MetaFilter discussion.

In Dave's own words, here's the "secret origin" of his working on the Legion (from Comic Book Artist #6, from TwoMorrows):

CBA: You went over to DC from Warren?

Dave: Yeah. I started doing background inking, first for Tony DeZuniga (who was doing a lot of House of Mystery and stuff like that). They weren't running a stable yet, at that point. He was okay to work for, but his wife, Mary, was something else. She looked at my stuff and said, "Ehhh! Ten years, maybe, you might make it." I stayed long enough to work on five or six issues, but Murphy Anderson needed a background inker for the work he was doing on Curt Swan's Superman and Bob Brown's Superboy. He also got the "John Carter of Mars" strip, which I desperately wanted to help out with (being a John Carter fan all of my life) but Murphy wouldn't let me touch that. He'd say, "This is mine! Go away!" I worked for Murphy for about a year in a downtown Manhattan studio. It was great and I learned a lot, but the only trouble was that we did more bullsh*tting than working! So it turned out to be not that profitable and he finally closed down the studio.

While I was working for Murphy, the "Legion of Super-Heroes" strip became available. Murray Boltinoff, the editor, got Murphy to agree to ink it. Murray figured that Murphy would be responsible for the quality of the book and fix anything that I did wrong. Because Murphy was an old-time professional and I was the newcomer, Murray listed Murphy's name first on the credits, so everybody thinks that Murphy penciled those first three or four strips, when actually I did. It was the other way around: I penciled and he inked. But Murray thought that Murphy would be offended to be listed second, though he wouldn't have.

By the fourth "Legion" strip I did, Murphy was embroiled in "John Carter" and Superman, and he just couldn't help anymore. So he said, "You're on your own!" There was a lot of snowpaque on that art from correcting mistakes, but I got through it. It looked pretty slick and people said that it wasn't bad, so after that it was my book. Fan reaction was pretty good, because I was young and enthusiastic—and obviously the first one in a long time who much cared what was being done with The Legion—I even badgered Murray into allowing me to introduce new costumes, but he was timid about that. That was my best early work.

CBA: Around the same time were you doing some inking for Marvel? The Avengers come to mind....

Dave: I didn't start working for Marvel full-time until I had my little go-around with Murray and Carmine Infantino. DC wasn't returning artwork at that point, and Marvel was, but I asked for the double-page spread of the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel to be returned. I just wanted it for a souvenir, and Murray had said, "I don't see why not," and he apparently had it set aside to give to me. But Carmine came in the day I came by to pick it up and he said, "What's this?" Murray told him, and Carmine said, "You can't give this back to him. We don't do that." It was the only artwork that I had asked for back and I said, "Gee, guys, can't you bend the rules? It's all I'm asking for." He said, "Nope, can't do it." I said, "All right. See ya." (Just prior to this incident, I had gotten the Captain Marvel Jr. job from Julie Schwartz.) I then went over to Marvel and got some work, and asked Julie and Roy Thomas, "Do you guys mind if I keep doing Captain Marvel Jr.? Because I really tried hard to get that." Both of them said fine, but Carmine said, "No, he can't." So I made a clean cut with DC.