2025 at a Glance

Previously: 2024 in review

Behold! This year in Legion News:

COMICS

• All-In: Darkseid's Legion, Time Trapper, Flash, JL Unlimited, Summer of Superman Special, Superman Unlimited, JL: The Omega Act
• Last Days of Lex Luthor
• New Matter-Eater Lad story in DC Horror Presents #4
• Teen Titans Go! v3 #7
• New History of the DC Universe
• Dreamer in Secret Six

REPRINT COLLECTIONS

• Brave and the Bold Vol. 2: The Book of Destiny TPB (2025 printing)
• DC Finest Events: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1
• DC Finest: Events: Zero Hour Part Two TPB
• DC Finest: Super Friends: The Fury of the Super Foes
• DC Finest: Supergirl: The Girl of Steel TPB
• DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time TPB
• DC Universe by Steve Ditko Omnibus
• Justice Society of America v4 Vol. 2: Long Live the JSA
• Legion of Super-Heroes v2: (3b) The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition HC (2025)
• Legion of Super-Heroes v2: (4) The Curse Deluxe Edition HC (2025)
• Legion of Super-Heroes v4: (2) Five Years Later Omnibus vol 1 HC (2025)
• Secret Six v5 TPB
• Suicide Squad by John Ostrander vol 1
• Superman by Kurt Busiek book 2
• Superman v6 Vol 5: Love and Mercy TPB
• Superman: Action Comics: Phantoms
• Superman: Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds: The Deluxe Edition
• Superman: Secret Origin TPB (2025)
• Superman: The Box Set
• Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor HC

VIDEO

• Teen Titans Go s09e14 "Diner Meets Breakfast"

TOYS

• Starman action figure

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2026

• January
• Batman & Superman in World's Finest Comics: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 2 HC (2026 Edition)
• Justice League Dark: The New 52 Compendium
• Justice League of America: The Nail the Complete Deluxe Edition HC (2026 Edition)
• New History of the DC Universe HC
• Young Justice Omnibus vol 2
• Flash v6 #29
• Superman v6 #34
• Retroboot Cosmic Boy action figure, with the Reboot costume as a chase figure (McFarlane Toys)
• February
• Superman: New Krypton Saga Omnibus Vol. 1
• Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 3 HC
• Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths
• Flash v6 #30
• Superman v6 #35 - end of the storyline?
• March
• Superman: Time and Time Again TPB (2026 Edition)
• Superman/Spider-Man #1
• April
• Legion of Super-Heroes v4: (2) Five Years Later Omnibus vol 2 HC (2026 Edition)
• Legends Omnibus
• Justice League Unlimited vol 2: The Omega Act HC/TPB
• New series (v9)? - the Dark Legion storyline in Superman/Flash seems to end with their issues on sale in late February
• May
• Absolute Blackest Night HC (2026 edition)
• Elseworlds: Justice League Omnibus Vol. 1
• June
• Supergirl: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 (2026 Edition)
• Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition HC (2026 Edition)

2024 at a Glance

I was going to present this on our podcast for the show in between Christmas and New Years, but it ended up being a rerun so I get to present it here instead.

Behold! This year in Legion News:

COMICS

• Blue Beetle tribute to Keith Giffen
• Dreamer
• Suicide Squad: Dream Team miniseries
• Dreamer: Bad Dream (origin story)
• Absolute Power 
• JSA, including the Subs and the Legion
• Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-9 facsimile editions
• Kneel Before Zod – Emerald Empress appears
• Zero Hour 30th anniversary special
• DC All-In Special – Darkseid’s Omega Legion of the Absolute Universe
• Action Comics #1070-1081 – Superman enlists the help of Mon-El from the Phantom Zone
• Superman – return of the Time Trapper

REPRINT COLLECTIONS

• Justice Society of America v4 Vol. 1: The New Golden Age
• Green Arrow v7 vol 1: Reunion
• Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 2 HC
• Booster Gold: The Complete 2007 Series Book 1
• Justice League Dark: Rebirth Omnibus HC
• Absolute Superman by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank HC
• Superman: The Triangle Era Omnibus vol 1
• Brave and the Bold Vol. 1: Lords of Luck TPB (2024)
• The Great Darkness Saga TPB (2024)
• Elseworlds: Superman vol 2 TPB (2024)
• DC Finest: Events: Zero Hour Part One TPB
• DC Finest: Legion of Super-Heroes: Zap Goes the Legion TPB

VIDEO

• Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Parts 1-3 (digital & DVD/Blu-ray)

TOYS

• Lightning Lad 7" action figure from McFarlane Toys (2 versions)

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2025

• January
• Crisis on Infinite Earths #10 Facsimile Edition
• DC Horror Presents #4 (“a Matter-Eater Lad tale that'll have your stomach churning”)
• February
• Brave and the Bold Vol. 2: The Book of Destiny TPB
• Justice Society of America v4 Vol. 2: Long Live the JSA
• Superman v6 #23 (Time Trapper)
• March
• The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition HC
• DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time TPB
• Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor #2
• April
• Five Years Later Omnibus vol 1 HC
• May
• DC Finest: Events: Zero Hour Part Two TPB
• Superman: Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds: The Deluxe Edition
• Suicide Squad by John Ostrander vol 1
• The Curse Deluxe Edition HC
• June
• DC Universe by Steve Ditko

New reprint collections for 2025

Well color me shocked that DC has decided to put out FOUR new Legion reprint collections in 2025! I had despaired of ever getting more, so maybe this is a harbinger of some NEW collections, as these are all (mostly) new editions of previously-released books. Given that DC is returning to its bullet logo later this year, I'd expect all of these (except maybe the first one) to have the bullet instead of this one.

There's one coming out next month, I'm including that one here because I never mentioned it previously when it was announced. But it's a curious one.

Arriving 9/24/24: Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga. The first edition was published in 1989, with a second edition in 2000 that did not have the fold-out Giffen/Mahlstedt poster. This is the original version, reprinting only the Great Darkness storyline itself from LSHv2 #287, 290-294, and Annual 3. The original included the newly-redrawn version of the story from 287, I suppose to keep the art all Giffen, but I think I heard that they will restore the original version for this volume (or maybe include both). But given the next entry on the list, I'm surprised this one is coming out at all.

Arriving 3/4/25 - Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition (New Edition). This was previously published in 2011. The Deluxe version  reprints LSHv2 #284-296 and Annual 1, meaning it's complete and follows “Before the Darkness vol 2” chronologically. No, I don't know why they are going to have two versions of GDS in print at the same time. 

Arriving 4/15/25 - Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus Vol. 1 (New Edition). This was previously published in 2020. There may be some new content in this one, the original was 1413 pages, new is 1425 pages, but it also implies a new edition of Vol. 2 later this year or next year. This reprints LSHv4 #1-39 and Annuals 1-3, plus Adventures of Superman #478 (part of the "Time & Time Again" storyline), the 5-issue Timber Wolf series, and various Legion-related entries from the 1990-92 Who's Who in the DC Universe series.

Arriving 5/6/25 - Superman – Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds: The Deluxe Edition. This was previously published in 2009, under the title of "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds". This Deluxe version will have lots of extra content, this one is 240 pages vs 160 in the original, but it doesn't say what the new content is that makes this deluxe. I'm hoping it will be lots of Perez stuff (pencils-only version of an issue, sketchbooks, reference material, etc.).

Arriving 5/20/25 - Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse Deluxe Edition (New Edition). This was previously published in 2011 and reprints LSHv2 #297-313 and Annuals 2-3, closing out the v2 series and ending right before the split to Tales and v3 series. This one surprises me in that it's the next volume in the series after GDS Deluxe, and coming only 2-1/2 months later. I hope that this volume implies that there's a follow-up volume that will finally reprint not only LSHv3 #1-13 (which appeared in "An Eye for an Eye" (2007) and "The More Things Change" (2009) but also Tales of the LSH #314-325, which have never been reprinted and occurred at the same time as v3 #1-12. It should also include DC Comics Presents #80, which took place in between a couple of those v3 issues. (This one is not on Amazon or Penguin yet for some reason, so no cover photo or link, but this screengrab from the Near Mint Condition show on YouTube).

RIP George Perez

Coming so soon on the heels of the loss of the great Neal Adams, is the loss of the great George Perez. This was not unexpected, but even though after his December diagnosis he said he had a few months left, just because you know it's coming doesn't make it easier.

So like with Adams, I'm not going to eulogize Perez, you can read the many tributes around the internet, all of which say he was a genuinely nice guy. Instead, I'll present a gallery of his Legion work from 1980-2013.

I just wanted to post this picture up top as one of the great "FUCK YEAH!" moments in Legion history, which was drawn by George.

In general, while doing my research, I'm breaking this down into three categories, though only showing the covers to the first set:

1. Covers of Legion books
2. Covers of books that a Legionnaire or two may be on, but it's not a Legion story
3. Interior art

In 1980-81, shortly after arriving at DC from Marvel, Perez did a great number of covers across all titles, among which were six issues of LSH v2 (268, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281). He also drew Colossal Boy on the jam cover to LSH v2 300.

In 2007, Perez joined with writer Mark Waid for a six-issue story arc called "The Lords of Luck", featuring Batman, Green Lantern, Supergirl, Blue Beetle III, Lobo, and the Threeboot Legion versus the Luck Lords and the Fatal Five. The Legion cover-starred in issue 5 but the Luck Lords and the Fatal Five were throughout the whole arc. There was a new cover for the reprint collection.

In 2008-09, while the rest of the DC Universe was going through a Final Crisis, the Legion was involved in a side-story that involved the Retroboot, Reboot, and Threeboot versions of 3 worlds. The DC Universe #0 issue was a prelude that had a tease of "Legion of 3 Worlds" that didn't otherwise appear in the miniseries. The first printing had the Retroboot Legion in the center, while the second printing had the Threeboot Legion. An unused version of the cover of DC Universe #0 became the cover to the collected edition of the series, which had all three Legions.

Each of the issues of the miniseries had a variant cover (one full cover and one "sliver" cover). Issue #1 had a couple other versions, the first being a pencils-only version of the full cover (as the RRP variant) and one with that image as a sliver, as the second printing. 

After it was all over, Perez was at the Baltimore Con in 2009 and had this to say about working on L3W:

First, when asked about his "wish list" for future projects, Perez discussed the creators with who he wanted to work rather than characters. Basically, L3W fulfilled his last wish from his fandom days. For him, working with creators is what is interesting when considering new projects. He volunteered that having known Paul Levitz since their days in fandom, he would enjoy drawing a Legion project for him.

Perez did an interview in 2019 saying that this miniseries was basically the last thing on his bucket list that he wanted to draw.

Well, the irony is that the Legion, when I was growing up, was one of my favorite comics. I mean even over The Avengers because I loved all of the characters, all of the costumes, all the color.

I thought, one of the first comics I would ever do if I got the chance — other than well, I knew I wanted JLA, I knew I wanted The Avengers — but I really wanted the Legion of Super-Heroes. And then it took so long in my career to finally do a Legion of Super-Heroes story. I did a few covers, I did a few little pinups… but I’d never worked on a Legion story. They appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but then again, who didn’t?

Finally, Perez drew the cover to LSH v7 #20 in 2013 - and although I own the issue, I have no recollection of ever seeing it before today when I discovered it while researching this blog post. One final "new" (to me) cover on Free Comic Book Day and the day it was announced that he had passed away.

He also drew a number of covers that had a Legionnaire on the cover, though it wasn't a Legion book:

• Crisis on Infinite Earths 1-10
• Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe 3-5, 13-18
• DC Universe: Legacies 5, 6

And finally, issues that had interior art featuring (or at least guest-starring) the Legion:

• DC Comics Presents 38
• Best of DC Digest 24
• Superman v1 423
• History of the DC Universe 2

Legion of 3 Worlds: Prime Evil

For this extra-special podcast episode #700, we thought it would be nice to celebrate the work of George Perez, so we went back to re-review the 5-issue Legion of 3 Worlds series he did with Geoff Johns and Scott Koblish. The Subs covered each issue when it originally came out (episodes 4, 18, 30, and 42 in 2008-09) so now we’re going to look at it with the benefit of hindsight. We will revisit the life and career of George Perez in a future episode, hopefully later than sooner.

Perez did an interview back in 2019 in which he discussed pencilling L3W with Johns as writer.

Well, the irony is that the Legion, when I was growing up, was one of my favorite comics. I mean even over The Avengers because I loved all of the characters, all of the costumes, all the color.

I thought, one of the first comics I would ever do if I got the chance — other than well, I knew I wanted JLA, I knew I wanted The Avengers — but I really wanted the Legion of Super-Heroes. And then it took so long in my career to finally do a Legion of Super-Heroes story. I did a few covers, I did a few little pinups… but I’d never worked on a Legion story. They appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but then again, who didn’t?

So I was working on Brave and the Bold, and (writer) Geoff Johns was saying he wanted to do a Legion of Super-Heroes story. I did not know it was going to be a part of Final Crisis. … I really didn’t like it being part of Final Crisis but that’s the company’s decision.

This page from DC Universe #0, which came out the week after Countdown #1

But it's been so long since the story came out, I needed a Wikipedia-based refresher on what happened leading up to L3W. And boy, did THAT lead me down the rabbit hole of DC continuity! So here's what I came up with. Thanks, Wikipedia editors! (Some of the links below are to Wikipedia, others to my original Omnicom blog posts from the time.)

Some important precursor events:

• Back in 1994, Bart Allen was introduced as Impulse right before Zero Hour (July 1994 cover-date, same month as Legionnaires #16 and LSH v4 #59, just a couple months from the issues we're doing right now. So at the time he would have been considered a pre-Zero Hour character, at least until they brought in XS. 
• Also in 1994, at the conclusion of Zero Hour, we see the new Time Trapper. Dan Jurgens said that it was intended to be the new Batgirl who had been introduced there, but that was never followed up on.
• Meanwhile, in 2005-06, Superboy-Prime has killed Superboy (Conner Kent aka Kon-El) during Infinite Crisis. Prime is imprisoned by the Guardians of the Universe, but freed later during the Sinestro Corps War (now calling himself Superman-Prime).

Wikipedia describes the beginning of the Retroboot era as “DC’s three-year reinvention of the Legion”, starting with the Lightning Saga (2007), then Superman & The Legion (2007-08), and finally Legion of 3 Worlds (2008-09). But Countdown (2007-08) is important, too.

In the Lightning Saga (2007), several Legionnaires from more-or-less the original pre-Zero Hour timeline (soon to be known as the Retroboot) are discovered by the JLA and JSA to be in the 21st century (including Karate Kid, who has somehow returned to life – this was never explained, but we can probably chalk it up to continuity punches in Infinite Crisis). In the end, they manage to retrieve Wally West from the Speed Force, where he was left in Infinite Crisis. The Legionnaires return to the future, leaving behind Karate Kid and Una to go Counting Down, and Starman. Brainy says that the return of Wally was just a side effect, they got what they really wanted (someone trapped inside a lightning rod – and we won’t find out who that is until L3W). During this story arc, Superman used the term “Legion of 3 Worlds” to describe "one of the Legion's greatest adventures". He stated that the full story of this event went undocumented because none of the Legionnaires remembered exactly what had occurred.

After that, in the pages of Countdown (2007-08):

• Karate Kid and one of Luornu’s bodies, calling herself Una, meet various heroes and villains and eventually end up on Apokolips with some other heroes. Val is dying of an alien virus.
• Superman-Prime has survived the Sinestro Corps War and is traveling the multiverse in search of the perfect universe for him. He eventually finds his way to a war on Earth-51, and in a fight he destroys Monarch’s (Captain Atom’s) containment suit which sets off a chain reaction that destroys that universe. He becomes lost in time… and lost in space.
• The Monitor Nix Uotan creates a new Earth-51 in its place, and the Earth-8 Monitor Solomon sends Val and Una from Apokolips to this Earth, but Val finally dies and releases the Morticoccus virus, infecting everyone and creating a new version of Kamandi’s Earth. Una dies saving Buddy Blank and his grandson Tommy from a swarm of rats.
• And in a related miniseries, Bart Allen is killed.

While all of this is going on, in the Superman & The Legion story arc (2007-08), Superman goes back to the 31st century for the first time since Crisis on Infinite Earths because the Legion needs his help – Earth-Man (formerly Absorbency Boy) has convinced Earth that Superman was born there and that all aliens are bad. Earth-Man and his Justice League of Earth hunt the Legion down until the good guys win. Hooray!

The epilogue for the S&LSH story is in Action 864, the issue after the S&LSH story concludes, but this issue is NOT collected in the S&LSH collection (though it should be). Lightning Lad brings Superman back to the 21st century and they hang around the Fortress reminiscing until Batman shows up. Batman tells Superman that he remembers meeting three different versions of the Legion (pre-Crisis in JLA 147-148, Reboot in Final Night, and Threeboot in Brave & Bold vol 3 #5), and they've found the bodies of Karate Kid and Luornu (how did they get here from where we know they died on Earth-51?). They find the schizophrenic Starman (who's been hanging out with the JSA) who gives them some cryptic clues, and after Garth gives Superman a new flight ring that contains a one-way shortcut to the 31st century, he leaves with the two bodies. Then we see that the Time Trapper is involved, he’s the one who brought the bodies from Earth-51. On the last page, it says “to be continued in Legion of 3 Worlds”. 

DC Universe #0 also came out that week, and it has a tease for L3W as well as the other Final Crisis tie-ins, as it came the week after Countdown #1 (and was originally going to be Countdown #0). That's where this post's main picture up top came from.

So then Legion of 3 Worlds #1 came out in August 2008 and promptly broke the internet.

(Here's where you pause to go read the miniseries!)

After issue #2: Geoff Johns said this isn't just a Legion story, it contains elements of all the books he's worked on, whether it's just cameos (the Teen Titans in the Superman Museum, the Rip Hunter/Booster Gold images) or major characters (Superman, from Action Comics) or storylines (the Green Lantern legacy and the Sinestro Corps War). At this point, Sodam Yat is over 1000 years old, having been introduced in the Sinestro Corps storyline, where he was destined to be one of the greatest Green Lanterns. He was last known in the 21st century as Ion. He was first mentioned, and shown in a panel or two, as part of a prophecy told to Abin Sur by demons in an Alan Moore written Tale of the Green Lantern Corps back in the '80s.

During L3W, the books were significantly delayed (issues came out at 2-4 month intervals between August 2008 and July 2009 instead of monthly), such that the finale of Final Crisis actually appeared in between issues 2-3 of L3W, with L3W #3-5 still left to go: the finale in L3W #5 was supposed to come out before Final Crisis #6. Of course, what we didn't know at the time was that the delays were caused by problems with Perez's eyesight, which wasn't really something that DC could (or should) tell the public. But to their credit, they did stick with Perez on pencils despite the fact they could have gotten someone else to finish in Perez's stead.

• Dan DiDio in Nov 2008 (between issues 2-3): “...It’s essential for us to have the last issue of Final Crisis come out in the month of January. Therefore, we are moving heaven and earth to make the book come out in the month of January, because so much follows. Legion of 3 Worlds has an impact on our line because of the bits that take place at the conclusion of the series, but that impact does not occur until later in the year. So we are less aggressive to holding that particular book’s schedule than we were the lead book in Final Crisis. So therefore, you’re going to see Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds with months skipping in order to complete the story, but Final Crisis will be pushed to make sure it hits as close to its schedule as possible.”

In Final Crisis #6, we find Superman after coming from the Superman Beyond 3D special, and that this takes place after the conclusion of L3W. Brainiac 5 tells Superman to look at the Miracle Machine (which has somehow returned from being eaten) and to memorize its circuitry. One reviewer wrote that “The point of this highly expository sequence appears to be to (re)introduce the Miracle Machine, exactly the sort of deus-ex-machina device that’s like catnip to Morrison.” Of course, a machine that can rewrite continuity can probably rewrite its own history too.

In Final Crisis #7, we get a couple of panels of Starman and a page or two of the new Miracle Machine (which looks steampunk, and not like any version of the Miracle Machine we had seen before). Grant Morrison, who wrote Final Crisis, put L3W into chronological perspective: 

• GM: The Monitrix Zillo Valla recruits Superman’s help in Final Crisis #3 which leads into Superman Beyond #1 and 2, both of which happen in the space between Lois’ final heartbeats. He returns to save her in Beyond #2, only to be contacted by the Legion of Super-Heroes to deal with an emergency in the 31st Century – as seen in Legion of 3 Worlds #1. Normally, the Legion is able to return him to his own time an instant after he left, so naturally he feels secure quitting Earth after saving Lois. After his encounter with Superboy Prime in L3W, however, he returns late to Final Crisis #6, to find time has crashed, Darkseid rules the world and Batman is dead. Oops. Fortunately, he brings with him the means to save us all.
• Basically, Morrison needed a reason for Superman to be gone for a while so things could fall apart while he was gone, so L3W was that reason. Johns said that Morrison was in charge of the main Final Crisis series, and anything Morrison needed for that, Johns was happy to provide.

After the series:

There are a number of Legionnaires missing in this story. They’re all in the 21st century. Following L3W, we see the aftermath of Superboy (Conner)’s return from the dead in Adventure Comics, leading into the Legion being involved with the Last Stand of New Krypton story. 

Superboy Prime later appears in several story arcs:

• He is recruited by Black Lantern during Blackest Night (Adventure Comics 4-5), but he is apparently redeemed. (2009)
• He is accidentally returned to the DCU in a battle with the Teen Titans and creates his own Legion of Doom, but is defeated and imprisoned in the Source Wall. (2011)
• Somehow during Rebirth he escapes and is found in the Dungeon of Eternity in Shazam 10-14, battling the Shazam Family. (2020)
• Finally, in Dark Knights: Death Metal he defeats the Darkest Knight and is killed, ending up back home where he really wanted to be. (2020)

Just want to end with a really great piece of artwork that eventually became the cover of the collected edition of L3W.

Legion of 3 Worlds (revisited)

With the podcast coming up on episode 700, we thought we'd take this special episode to focus on George Perez's work on the classic "Legion of 3Worlds" (L3W), while saving the rest of his career for another episode. The Subs reviewed and recapped each of the issues only as they came out in 2008-09, so now with the benefit of hindsight we're going to try to cover all five issues in a single episode.

Fortunately for me, I don't have to do much in the way of annotations for this miniseries, given that I already did them back in 2008-09, so I'll just link them here for your reading pleasure. I remember getting the issue and then spending literally hours researching everyone and everything, racing to be the first one to post the annotations (and then reading everyone else's to see what I missed). As an annotator, it was the nerdiest fun hard work I've probably ever done. 

Sadly, no guarantee that any of the links in my blog posts still work, all I can say is that they worked at the time I wrote the posts, 13-15 years ago.

• 5/27/07 - first mention of "Legion of 3 Worlds"
• 7/31/07 - Geoff Johns and Dan DiDio talk about L3W in San Diego
• 10/21/07 - Johns interview with CBR where he talks about the Superman & The Legion story and how it fits into L3W
• 4/2/08 - Johns explains how L3W and Final Crisis fit together
• 4/3/08 - Interviews with Johns and Perez, and the panel that was cut from a JSA issue that would have shown the first 3-way Legion teamup
• 7/24/08 - Johns teases what's coming in L3W
• 7/30/08 - Perez has a giant binder full of costume references
• 8/15/08 - Pre-annotations part 1 (pre-Zero Hour + Glorithverse + Retroboot) and part 2 (post-Zero Hour Reboot) listing the creators of each Legionnaire and their first appearances
• 8/16/08 - inker Scott Koblish looks forward to my brain melting as I try to annotate the series
• 8/17/08 - Pre-annotations part 3 (Threeboot)
• 8/19/08 - Pre-annotations part 4 (all the villains)
• 8/19/08 - L3W #1 annotations (part 1)
• 8/20/08 - L3W #1 reviews part 1, part 2
• 8/28/08 - L3W #1 annotations (part 2)
• 10/15/08 - L3W #2 annotations
• 11/12/08 - DiDio comments on L3W delays
• 1/17/09 - Final Crisis #6 annotations and what it all means for L3W
• 1/29/09 - Final Crisis #7 annotations and what it all means for L3W
• 2/4/09 - L3W #3 annotations
• 4/30/09 - L3W #4 annotations
• 7/22/09 - L3W #5 annotations
• 8/4/09 - I reveal my (extremely minor) role in the writing of L3W
• 1/2/20 - All the variant covers from L3W

Of course, what we didn't realize at the time was that the delays were caused by problems with Perez's eyesight, which wasn't really something that DC could (or should) say. But they did stick with Perez on pencils despite the fact they could have gotten someone else to finish in Perez's stead.

After it was all over, George Perez was at the Baltimore Con in 2009 and had this to say about working on L3W:

First, when asked about his "wish list" for future projects, Perez discussed the creators with who he wanted to work rather than characters. Basically, L3W fulfilled his last wish from his fandom days. For him, working with creators is what is interesting when considering new projects. He volunteered that having known Paul Levitz since their days in fandom, he would enjoy drawing a Legion project for him.

Second, I asked Mr. Perez what his feelings were about L3W. His response reflected a lot of fan criticism of the mini. He was originally disappointed that so much of the story hinged on non-Legion characters. He wanted the Legion to be more directly involved in solving the conflict. He came to understand that Kid Flash, Superboy and Green Lantern characters were needed to help the Legion reach a larger audience. This reach was important to ensure that the Legion would survive in the current environment. He was very complimentary of Geoff Johns and his answers were always positive and upbeat.

In an anecdote, Mr. Perez said that Johns sent him a full script for one of the early issues. In it, Johns listed all the characters to appear in one of those giant group scenes. Perez was not used to working from a full script and was a little taken aback. In COIE, Marv Wolfman's script basically said "draw characters here" without spelling out exactly who to draw. He then realized that Johns had essentially reversed engineered Perez' Crisis work, spelling out in words the type of scene for which Perez is famous. Perez found it amusing.

Second Printings in Legion History

The Field Guide to Legion Cover Variants, Appendix B: Second Printings 1994-2020

1958-2005, 2006-2007, 2008-2009, 2010-2011, 2012-2014, 2015-2018, 2019, 2020, 2021-2022, 2023-2026

Unused covers, Second printings 

Someone asked on one of the Facebook groups, discussing the v8 #6 Gold Lantern sell-through, when else that had happened in Legion history. I found that this appears to be the 11th time that a Legion book has gone back to print. From my Field Guide to Legion Variants:

Legionnaires #18 - September 1994
Legionnaires #18 was part 4 of "End of an Era". The second printing came out about 4 weeks after the original printing, and can be distinguished primarily by the different color Zero Hour logos (red with white letters on the first, yellow with red letters on the second). Additionally, there's a small "II" in the price box in the upper left corner, and the color palette is slightly different between the two - the blacks are darker on the reprint and the reds are more muted.

First printing Art by Stuart Immonen & Wade von Grawbadger	Second printing Art by Stuart Immonen & Wade von Grawbadger

Valor #23 - September 1994
Valor #23 was part 5 of "End of an Era". The second printing came out about 4 weeks after the original printing, and can be distinguished primarily by the different color Zero Hour logos (red with white letters on the first, yellow with red letters on the second). Additionally, there's a small "II" in the price box in the upper left corner, and the color palette is slightly different between the two - the blacks are darker on the reprint and the reds are more muted, just like above.

First printing Art by Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr.	Second printing Art by Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr.

JSA Classified #2 - October 2005
The first four issues of this new series had Power Girl as the lead feature, but the Legion was only on the cover of issue 2. Issue 1 was an unexpected success (with two covers, one by Amanda Conner and one by Adam Hughes) that it soon got a 2nd and 3rd printing. The Threeboot Legion had a cameo at the end of issue 1. They joined Power Girl on the cover of issue 2, but only the first printing and not the 2nd or 3rd. Their part of the story ended in issue 3, which had a second printing. This version of the Legion was just a hoax by the Psycho Pirate though. See the original 2005 post for more.

First printing Art by Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti	Second printing Art by Adam Hughes
Third printing Art by Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti

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.)

First printing cover Art by Barry Kitson & Mick Gray	Second printing cover Art by Barry Kitson

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #1 - October 2008

Spinning out of "Final Crisis", this series had the Reboot, the Threeboot, and the Retroboot Legions all meet up for the second time (the first was in an untold tale). 

Main cover (first printing) Art by George Pérez	Second printing Art by George Pérez

Legion of Super-Heroes v6 #1 - July 2010

This one has a 1/10 variant cover by Lee/Williams, with a second printing that was just the pencils by Jim Lee. Despite being issue #1, this was actually part 3 of the 6-part cover poster, representing the 1970s.

Variant cover (1st printing) Art by Jim Lee & Scott Williams	Second printing Art by Jim Lee

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #1 - October 2011 

This series had a total of seven covers: the "A" and "B" covers, by Phil Jimenez and Keith Giffen, respectively, with the "B" cover at 1/4 of the "A" cover; two Retailer Incentive covers RI-A-1 and RI-A-2, each by Gabriel Rodriguez, and the wraparound cover version combining both, as cover RI-B; the Hastings Retailer Exclusive cover, which was a black and white version of the Jimenez "A" cover; and the second printing, which was a black and white version of the Giffen "B" cover.

"B" cover Art by Keith Giffen	Second printing Art by Keith Giffen

Legion Lost v2 #1 - November 2011
Like many first issues of the New 52 era, this one went to a second printing, differentiated by a red background color.

First printing Art by Pete Woods	Second printing Art by Pete Woods

Legion of Super-Heroes v7 #1 - November 2011
Like many first issues of the New 52 era, this one went to a second printing, differentiated by a red background color.

First printing Art by Karl Kerschl	Second printing Art by Karl Kerschl

Superman v4 #14 - August 28, 2019
This issue and Supergirl #33 were originally to go on sale on 08/14/19, but less than a week prior to that date, DC asked retailers to destroy all copies of these issues and told them that replacement copies would be sent to go on sale later. This issue was delayed to 08/28/19, Supergirl #33 was delayed to 09/04/19. DC's stated reason was that the original issues had covers that featured a "Year of the Villain" logo, but these issues had no ties to that event so they would be re-issued with new covers. This reasoning was questioned, as there was another issue on sale the same week, Catwoman #14, that also had a "Year of the Villain" cover logo and a story that had no ties to the event, and that issue was not recalled. Subsequent speculation centered around the introduction of the new Legion of Super-Heroes in the Superman and Supergirl issues, and the depiction of Lightning Lad's ethnicity. In the published issue, Lightning Lad is portrayed as dark-skinned, in leaked images of the original printing, Lightning Lad was light-skinned. The second printing featured the standard cover by Reis and Prado with an orange background instead of blue, and went on sale 10/2/19.

Superman #14 Replacement standard cover Art by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado	Superman #14 Second Printing Art by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado

Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 8) #6 - August 2020
Issue 6 had two variants on 6/9/20. This was the first issue back after the industry shut down in March due to the coronavirus. Interestingly, speculators decided that this issue has the potential to be the next hot book due to the character of Gold Lantern, who is spotlighted on the cover (pay no attention to the fact that he actually debuted in LSH: Millennium #2). Interest in this book was so high that it sold out within 3 days of going on sale, prompting DC to go back to print on this one (released July 7) as well as add a new variant cover to issue 7.

LSH volume 8 #6 Standard cover Art by Ryan Sook and Travis Moore	LSH volume 8 #6 Second printing Art by Ryan Sook and Travis Moore

Superman (vol 6) #28 - September 2025
Issue 28 was the first part of the 6-part "Legion of Darkseid" storyline, part of "All-In". The issue had a second printing, which was the same as the first "A" cover but with "Prelude to DC KO" as the top banner rather than "Summer of Superman".

Standard A coverArt by Dan Mora	Standard G cover (2nd printing)Art by Dan Mora

Superman (vol 6) #29 - October 2025
Issue 29 was part 2 of "Legion of Darkseid". The issue also had a second printing, with the same trade dress change as issue #28 above.

Standard A coverArt by Dan Mora	Standard H cover (2nd printing)Art by Dan Mora