Flashback: how old were the Reboot Legionnaires supposed to be?

As the podcast is just now starting to get into the Reboot timeline, I thought this post might be relevant to resurrect (here's the original).

This came out over on the Compuserve Comics and Animation Forum. Back in the olden days, many of the comics creators were active on the moderated message boards (and to some extent on the unmoderated Usenet newsgroups). Among those on Compuserve were many Legion creators, including Mark Waid, Tom McCraw, Kurt Busiek, and Jeff Moy. This came out around the time of the zero issues, in response to questions about the various members ages.

Tom McCraw, writing to Mark Waid for confirmation, suggested these. Waid read it and never commented on it. Since we're doing a re-read, I will post the relevant panels as we see their ages (as of May 2994).

Forum:  Comics/Animation+ Section:  Comic Books

Subj :  Legionaires #0

To   :  Mark Waid Saturday, September 03, 1994  2:06:23 AM

From :  TOM McCRAW #679086

MARK,

In response to Juliana Kristi's question on the age of the Legion members I've  listed below.  Mark, You may correct me if I goof on someone.

Cosmic Boy -     Rokk Krinn  age 15

Saturn Girl-     Imra Ardeen age 15

Live Wire -    Garth Ranzz   age 14

Apparition -     Tiny Wazzo  age 15

Triad -        Luornu Durgo  age 16

Leviathan -       Gim Allon  age 17

Kid Quantum -   James Cullen age 16

XS -           Jenni Ognats  age 14

Invisible Kid -   Lyle Norg  age 16

On Chameleon and Brainac 5 I'm still trying to figure out the math on Coluan and Durlan timelines. (and it's making my head hurt.)

Hopes this helps anyone who wants to know.

Tom

From Legionnaires #0, page 2, panel 2, we get confirmation of the ages of the founders.

From the new Omnicom pages in "LSH: The Beginning of Tomorrow" TPB, here's Luornu's age. Either she just turned 16 after this page (published May 7) came out, or they revised her age down from 16 to 15.

I later (in 1995) asked Tom about the other Legionnaires who had joined since the above was written. 

Forum:  Comics/Animation Section:  Comic Books

Subj :  LSH CMMTS - LSH #76

To   :  Michael Grabois Wednesday, November 29, 1995  1:51:22 PM

From :  TOM McCRAW #1062756

Michael,

Here are some additions, even if they aren't Legion members yet or not.

VALOR-              Lar Gand age 18

GATES-        Ti'Julk Mr'Asz age 18

SPARK-            Alya Ranzz age 14

KINETIX -         Zoe Saugin age 15

ANDROMEDA-       Laurel Gand age 16

SHRINKING VIOLET- Salu Digby age 14 (almost 15)

Chuck Taine                  age 16

STAR BOY         Thom Kallor age 16

Lori Morning                 age 10 (even if she doesn't look her age)

No word on Cham yet, noone can really understand him except Lyle and Brainy is very vauge about his information.  Quote:  "Why does it matter?"

Hope this helps and let me know next time you want another up-date.

Tom

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.

LSH season 1 episode 1: Happy 15th anniversary!

Who said the annotations have to be just about the comics? To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the first episode of the Legion cartoon series (original airdate: 9/23/06), we revisited the episode with an audio commentary track, and then talked about it. As usual, I have notes! But this time I was able to go back and revisit this blog from 2006 (sorry that the hotlinked pictures don't work anymore!) and find some good stuff.

Back then, the blogosphere was in high gear, and it was pre-Facebook so people went to blogs for their news. I was updating this frequently with all sorts of links, the stuff you'd now see people posting to one of several Facebook groups. This cartoon was like crack to me. I mean come on, it's a LEGION CARTOON! Here is a quick look at some contemporary articles I rounded up for the first episode's premiere, more feedback and reviews from the next day, and some final thoughts and wrapup on the episode.

The series is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray (here's the original 2020 press release, from when they were only available from WB Animation, but now also available from Amazon) as well as streaming. 

There's a persistent myth that the Supergirl/Legion episode of Justice League Unlimited was supposed to be a back-door pilot for a new Legion series, but both JLU producer Bruce Timm and LSH producer James Tucker both have shot that down.

• In a 2009 interview with Bruce Timm by ToonZone magazine:
• TIMM (ToonZone, 2009): We just wanted to do a Legion of Superheroes story, and again, going from the comics where Supergirl and Brainiac had a romance, we thought, "Oh, that would be an interesting thing to do with Supergirl that we hadn't done before." We hadn't really shown her as getting into more adult issues of romance and stuff, so it just seemed kind of like a fun thing to do. But it wasn't ever intended to be a backdoor pilot, no.
• But as to where the series came from then, we have to go to series creator and showrunner James Tucker: 
• Tucker (Voices of Krypton, 2007): There have been Legion developments over the years, and they never... they've always gotten stalled, and I think the only reason the Legion got the green light this time was because Superman was going to be in it and there was a tie-in to the then-upcoming movie "Superman Returns". So the Legion itself as a concept is kind of a hard sell to an audience because you don't have Superman, and there aren't any characters in it who have any broad-based appeal to the average non-fanboy audience. And so in this day and age it's hard to sell an original cast of characters, you know, it's just a hard sell, especially when the market has to rely on toy sales, you know it's just harder. If I had my druthers, it'd be nice to do a Legion... and actually we do have a Legion story this season which won't have Superman in it. But you need him in it, you need the name recognition or you won't have a show.
• Tucker (The World’s Finest, 2008): Let’s get the myths out of the way. The Legion series was never tied to the Justice League Unlimited episode. Supergirl was never, ever going to be in the Legion. The true origin of the series came out of Cartoon Networks desire to have a Superman-centric series to premiere when the movie Superman Returns premiered. Superman as part of the Legion worked for them. So the series was originally developed for Cartoon Network, then they passed and Kids WB! stepped in. They, too, wanted a Superman-centric series with Superman fresh out of Smallville, learning to be Superman. That’s the reality.

But what’s the deal with SuperMAN vs SuperBOY? 

• We can thank the copyright lawsuit for that one. In a nutshell (as small a nutshell as complicated legal cases can fit into), following the copyright laws of the 1940s as amended in 1976, Siegel or his heirs could file to reclaim the copyright to Superman in 2004 in a one-time exception, which they did. DC, obviously, did not want to lose (or even have to share) copyright to any of Superman, so they fought back in court. This happened coincidentally at the time when Superboy Kon-El died in Infinite Crisis, which really had nothing to do with the case – it wasn’t that DC couldn’t use the name Superboy, it was that they couldn’t use young Clark Kent in Smallville as Superboy. And it was also around this time that the new Legion show was getting set up with a young Clark Kent from Smallville who was called Superboy, and so the easy way around that was just to call him a young Superman. But WB had to go back and re-dub the dialog in the episodes that had been recorded to call him Superman instead. After years of litigation, in 2013 the judge found that back in 2001, WB made an offer of a payment of $3 million, an annual stipend of $500,000, a 6% royalty of Superman and a 1% royalty of his publications, and full medical benefits, and agreed to insert the line "By Special Arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family" in all future Superman productions. The Siegel heirs accepted this offer at the time, and the judge ruled that this had terminated the Siegels’ copyright rights. (The Shuster heirs had already effectively signed their rights away in a similar 1994 agreement.) Read the Wikipedia article on the lawsuit.
• And that’s why we’re here to talk about the first episode of a new series called “Legion of Super Heroes” (with no hyphen), in a new continuity from what had been seen before, starring Superman.

Press release:

• LEGION OF SUPER HEROES, 11:00-11:30 am: In the year of "Superman Returns" at Warner Bros., Kids' WB! is proud to present a new series developed especially for the "Too Big For Your TV" block by Warner Bros. Animation, inspired by the DC Comics legend. One thousand years from now, a group of teenage super heroes travel back in time to recruit the greatest hero of all, Superman, and enlist him their fight against evil in the 31st Century. While their intentions were good, their time travel skills were not, and Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy and Timber Wolf end up going too far back into the past, accidentally retrieving the young Superboy instead (June update: the young Superman, before he moved to Metropolis). Together, this unlikely Legion of Super Heroes bands together to defend the rights of all free worlds and uphold the laws of the newly formed United Planets. That is, if they don't kill each other first. LEGION OF SUPER HEROES combines humor with high-stakes, grand-scale super heroics to create the ultimate sci-fi, super hero fantasy for kids of all ages. Each episode of this fast-paced, character-driven action comedy will pit Superboy and the Legion against otherworldly threats and adversaries who challenge the team on both super heroic and emotional levels. The series is executive produced by Sander Schwartz, and produced by Linda Steiner and James Tucker for Warner Bros. Animation.

Ratings:

• In the first weekend, this was the highest rated non-cable show in its slot. In the 10:00 a.m. slot, 61% of the TV sets were tuned to cartoons, and of that 61%, 8% of all TV sets on at 10:00 a.m. were watching the Legion, which was about 2.2 million people watching. Think about THAT one – The most recent issue (Supergirl & the LSH #19, during the Threeboot) sold about 43,000 copies, while 2.2 million people watched the Legion its first weekend. That's as many copies of the various Legion comics that have been sold, cumulatively, since from September 2000 to September 2006. As many people watched that one episode on one day as bought the last six years worth of comics combined.

So who's in the show, anyway?

• Lots of Legionnaires whose Mission Monitor Board symbols are in the opening credits:
• Chameleon Boy, Chemical King, Ultra Boy, Shadow Lass, Lightning Lad, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Matter-Eater Lad, Dawnstar, Star Boy, Polar Boy, Element Lad, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Blok, Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet, Superman, Brainiac 5, Dream Girl, Bouncing Boy, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Ferro Lad, Quislet.
• Then, in the flying sequence near the end of the opening credits, we see these guys:
• group 1 - Lightning Lad, Bouncing Boy, Phantom Girl, Brainiac 5, Timber Wolf, Saturn Girl
• group 2 - Superman, Star Boy (in his current Kitson costume, as a black man), Element Lad (pink and black, with long blond hair), Matter-Eater Lad (yellow and green, reboot costume), Shrinking Violet (pink and black reboot costume), Cosmic Boy (purple and black reboot costume). Then the point-of-view rotates and we see Colossal Boy (blue and red pre-Crisis costume), Triplicate Girl (split into 3), then they fly off into the Legion symbol.

Dynamic Music Partners got Emmy nominations for music for both seasons.

LSH v4 #52 annotations: Wolf Tales

Annotations for LSH v4 #52:

• On sale 11/02/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 676 (Sept 27, 2021)
• Timeline: Sept 16, 2995

Notes:

• Page 2: Timber Wolf is in his feral-looking state, so this probably takes place either between SBOY 197 (when TW got his new look) and 216 (after which KK went back in time) or SLSH 246 (KK’s return from the 20th century at the tail end of Earthwar) and 283 (issue before TW had surgery to restore his face). Light Lass has red hair here, I know she was a blonde for a time so that would help narrow it down.
• Page 3 panel 3: Do artists really notice that they’re drawing Karate Kid’s collar too high or him to have any peripheral vision at all?
• Pages 5-6: this is an adaptation of Lone Wolf’s intro story in ADV 327 (Hamilton/Forte, Dec 1964)
• Pages 9-10: adaptation of LSH v2 289
• Page 11 panel 4: is that Amethyst speaking to Mysa?
• Page 15 panel 3: Dr Regulus has gotten the pouches, armor, and shoulderpads upgrade too
• Pages 15-18: this is the post-Bierbaum version of Black Dawn - FINALLY!!!
• Page 19: adaptation of LSH v2 #295
• Page 20: back to ADV 327 again
• Page 22 panel 3: 
• Elia – Dominator homeworld – so now we FINALLY learn who attacked the Dominators at the end of the war, forcing them to retreat from Earth. We saw this in #32 but we never learned who invaded Elia.
• Grykk – World on which Colossal Boy battled a giant who terrorized a city of normal-sized beings (ADV 301).
• Zerox – aka Sorceror’s World, currently destroyed
• Page 24: “special thanks to Jerry Steinhelper” – I ran across Jerry’s name in one of the Legion FB groups and asked him about this. He replied:
• For the Charlotte Con, I brought my entire Legion collection with me (only missing Adv #307 and the 1975 calendar).  Waid, Carlson, etc. went through them  in the hotel room while we graded the trivia quiz.
  
  Months go by and then Tom, knowing I had very easy access to every book, called me up and told me what he was planning for the issue and asked me to write a quick summary of Timber Wolf from Adv #327 to the then present. 
  
  I reread every panel there was of T-Wolf and instead of giving him the expected paragraph or two, I sent him a fully detailed biography on the life and times of Brinn Londo.  If memory serves it might have been 10 pages long. 
  
  Tom never once even hinted at my name going in the credit box.  That was a complete surprise to me that Wednesday when it came out.
  
  Thanks again Tom McCraw .

OK, now we have to discuss Black Dawn a bit. 

In IOKIAS, Tom Bierbaum says “Black Dawn:  In a nutshell, Dr. Regulus went insane and was going to cause the sun to go off in a nova-like explosion.  Wildfire saves the day and sacrifices himself.  We don't want to give many more details because it was a heck of a story that maybe someday, somehow will get told.  See the 2995 Mayfair Sourcebook for a few more details.” What we knew coming into this issue from #12 and #28 was that during Black Dawn, Timber Wolf is seriously injured, Wildfire is lost, and Starfinger II (Char Burrane) and the Khunds are somehow involved, although in this issue's retelling, the Khunds are nowhere in sight (and Regulus has been 90s-ified with armor, shoulderpads, and pouches).

So let's go to the Sourcebook (and don't pay attention to the fact that the details of this tremendously important event weren't told in the comics themselves, only in an ancillary book that was developed for a game - but I digress). 

EXCERPT: Legion Incident Report: Black Dawn. 

Filed By: Unofficial Deputy Leader Brek Bannin, Aug. 13, 2991

LEGIONNAIRE ENGAGED: Timber Wolf.

INCIDENT: Failing to quickly obey Sun Boy's warnings to get back to shelter, Timber Wolf was caught partly exposed when the radiation swept past, apparently giving him severe radiation exposure. Decontamination procedures were started right away aboard the cruiser. and we took him as quickly as we could to Medicus One. We got there about 11:40 a.m., about 20 minutes after Timber Wolf was hurt. It looked like he suffered very bad radiation burns and maybe some mutation. We don't know his chances of making it yet. We also don't know of any next of kin. We've told all the ex-Legionnaires about Brin's condition and Marella Tao. Earthgov won't let us get the get-well messages people are sending, though we think there are hundreds of thousands of them.

EXCERPT: "Black Dawn Overview," Interstellar Press, page 1, Aug. 12, 2991.

… The exact fate of Legionnaire Drake Burroughs, Wildfire, remains clouded in the wake of the Black Dawn tragedy. In a prepared statement, Legion spokesman Brek Bannin referred to Burroughs as having paid "the ultimate price" to save the system but added that his death has not been confirmed nor has been his exact status …

---

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). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding, Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50). 
• Thu 9/14/95: Cocheta Drisden fails to escape from Takron Galtos, and is moved to Quarantine; Grimbor attacks the team and Ivy’s Li’l Legion on Quarantine trying to grab her (LSH v4 #51).
• Sat 9/16/95: Kent and Celeste arrive on Talus from Quarantine, as Ayla and Brin reminisce and Vi monitors the Khund situation; Mysa tells the crew that since they just defeated Mordru, they have to take on Glorith to keep the balance (LSH v4 #52).
• Mon 9/19/95: 
• ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). 
• Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). 
• Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). 
• Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9).

Happy anniversary! (Plus: The long and winding road of page 8A of Superboy #212)

On Wednesday, July 15, 1975, "Superboy" #212 was just appearing on the newsstands across America. Sometime around then, I picked it up from my regular shop (a 7-11 near the local mall). It was just a month shy of my 9th birthday. I think it was a little while before I became a regular reader, eventually getting the back issues that I had missed, but I consider this to be my anniversary of being a Legion fan.

So in honor of that, here's a story in 3 parts behind the story in that issue; in particular, about a single page of art in that book that never even appeared in the first place. Surprisingly, I don't think I've told this story to a wide audience before.

Part 1: How a Comic is (Un)Created

If you have read ""Last Fight for a Legionnaire!", the story from "Superboy" #212 about the Legion of Super-Rejects and Matter-Eater Lad getting drafted, in Legion Archive #11 and compare it to the printed issue, you'll notice that there's an extra page in the reprint, the page where Karate Kid gives Tenzil a pep talk. That page was cut from the original issue. Why? Well, here's Jack C. Harris (aka Production Assistant Lad), to tell us why, from the pages of "Amazing World of DC Comics #9" (cover dated December 1975), the special all-Legion issue, in an article entitled "How a Comic is (un)Created".

In prior installments of this feature, various writers revealed how comics spring from the scripter's or editor's mind, are translated into penciled pages, inked and finally become finished artwork.

Boy, did they ever make it sound easy! To hear them tell this wonderful story, you'd think there were never any problems! Oh, if it were only so!

Every snag or delay that could possibly happen -- has! Even those problems that couldn't ever occur -- do! Thankfully, most of those difficulties are little ones that can be corrected in the early stages. But some require more drastic action.

For instance, here's a problem that confronted us in March of this year. Murray Boltinoff and I had just turned SUPERBOY starring THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #212 in to the production department for final corrections before it headed to the printer. Originally, these stories were scheduled for the lead pages of a 50¢ Giant. Since we'd recently discontinued that format, we kept the 12-page cover feature ("Last Fight For A Legionnaire"), the 8-page back-up ("A Death Stroke At Dawn") and my Super-Talk letters page (my first one for that book!) as our regular 25¢ Issue.

The day after we turned it in, production manager Jack Adler rushed in (Adler constantly rushes nowhere) to tell us the page count of the 25¢ books had been reduced. We had to cut two pages....

The first thing we sliced was my letters page! It was a good one, so I could easily add some new comments and have it ready for #213. But how about that second page? Somewhere, somehow, we had to cut some story! After careful re-reading, Murray and I found that the 8th page of the first story could be omitted without losing the even flow of action, even though we had to sacrifice a good bit of Jim Shooter's dramatics concerning the resignation of Matter-Eater Lad. It was an editorial decision -- lose some characterization or some action -- and characterization lost out! The page was removed, the remainder was re-numbered and the book left for the printers.

Now the question arose as to what to do with this un-used, paid for, Mike Grell page of Legion art. Murray suggested that we use it for a "springboard" and write a new story around it -- which we still might do someday. In the meantime, instead of letting it collect dust on our shelves, we've decided to present it here within our special Legion issue of AWODCC!

If the purists among you wish, you can color the opposite page, clip it out and insert it between pages 7 and 8 of SUPERBOY #212's lead story, thus maintaining the tale in its original form.

However, since those two pages are back to back, this might prove a bit difficult. Because we've just told you how we solved one of our problems, we figured, to be fair, we'd offer suggestions as to how to overcome this page manipulation problem:

1. Buy an extra copy of SUPERBOY #212.
2. Find yourself an incredibly sharp razor blade to split pages 7 and 8 apart.
3. Make your own Editor's Note at the bottom of page 7 referring to this page of AWODCC.

If you can think of any others, please keep them to yourself -- we've got problems of our own!

Click on each image to embiggen.

 

Part 2: How an Archive is Created

I'm sure this will come as a shock to some readers, but I've been tracking Legion reprints for over 20 years. In the 1990s, I was Archives Lad, and once a year I'd post to Usenet's rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh newsgroup my best guess for what would be coming in the Legion Archives, which were at the time being published annually. Here was my guess for Archives 11 as posted in July 2000. As you can see by scrolling down a bit, Paul Levitz lurked in the newsgroup (as "DCOLevitz", the DCO standing for "DC Online" which was part of DC's AOL presence at the time) and posted from time to time.

I predicted the volume would cover issues 203-214 (it ended up being 203-212), and then said this (emphasis added in bold):

That's 233 pages (not including covers). None of these have already been reprinted. The stories are by either Bates or Shooter, and the art is all Grell (except for Cockrum pencils in 205 and inks by Bill Draut in the backup of 214). I'm hoping for a new cover by Grell, too.

This volume will cover the death of Invisible Kid, Brainiac building a Supergirl robot, the intro of the clone bank, Dvron, Flynt Brojj, Roxxass, Matter-Eater Lad resigning, and the appearance after 26 years of the page that was cut out of issue 212 when they had to cut out a page of story for budget constraints.

And for what it's worth, this volume catches up to the first LSH issue I bought off the newsstand (the aforementioned issue 212).

At some point years later, Paul Levitz was interviewed by Comic Shop News for their site csnsider.com (unfortunately, the content has long since been removed and I don't have the original URL to check the Internet Archive), came this quote that I copied into a post on the LSH-L email list:

An Internet board that I poke my head into occasionally was having a discussion of the Legion Archives; they remembered a page that had been cut out of a Grell Legion issue and published in an Amazing World of DC issue later, and they wanted to know if we were going to put the page back in the Archives. I was one of the editors of the book it was reprinted in, and I didn't remember it; I was thrilled to find that page there, and I ran down to Dale Crain and said, "Look what I found!" That will make the Archives a vastly better book.

So that's how that deleted page ended up being put into LSH Archive #11. It's page 8A in the book, as seen colored below. (It has since been reprinted again, in 2008's "LSH: 1050 Years of the Future" TPB.)

Part 3: How an Art Collection is Created

OK, not "created" so much as "added to", but that would have wrecked the flow of the three headings.

In 2008 I attended the San Diego Comic Con. Among the many pieces of Legion art I would have loved to have bought but didn't have the budget for, was this page for sale for $1500. Taking and owning this photo is as close as I would be able to get to owning the page itself:

I did not buy it, but not too long afterwards Tom Fleming did. He bought it and posted it to his ComicArtFans page in 2009, where it presumably sits in his collection today (and is likely worth a lot more than $1500). Notice the little stamp in the upper left corner, it says "N.P.P. INVT'Y", meaning that National Periodical Publications wrote that off as inventory.

So there you have it. The long and winding road of page 8A of Superboy #212.

Justice League Europe Annual #2 annotations: Armageddon Out of Here!

Annotations for Justice League Europe Annual #2

• On sale 8/27/91, this was published in between LSH v4 #23 (8/20/91) and 24 (9/17/91)
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 597 (March 23, 2020)

During the Quiet Darkness storyline which we have just covered, DC had another event going on, but unlike Millennium which impacted the Legion by making Laurel Kent a Manhunter, this one didn't include the contemporary 5YL Legion at all (fortunately). Armageddon: 2001 was a 2-issue series which bookended 12 of that year's Annuals. To make a long story short, Waverider came back from the future because one of the heroes from 1991 would become, ten years later, a tyrant named Monarch, and Waverider wanted to prevent that from happening. By touching each person, Waverider could see into that person's future, or possible future, and determine if that one was going to be Monarch. So that's what each annual was about, a look at the title hero's possible future. (You can read about the whole story on Wikipedia, including the revelation of who Monarch really was.)

JLE Annual #2 was the last Annual before Armageddon #2. In this issue, rather than seeing what will have been going to have taken place ten years from now, the hero visited a time decades or centuries earlier or later than the present. Thus, the cast of characters from other times on the cover. Hey, isn't that a young-looking Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad in the back row?

I'm not going to go through each of the various Leaguers' adventures in this story, just Blue Jay. You remember him, right? No? OK, he was one of the Champions of Angor (later revealed to have also been called the Assemblers) back in JLA #87 in 1971, created as a pastiche of the Avengers. Blue Jay was the analog of Ant Man and Wasp, able to shrink down to tiny size and grow wings, but that was pretty much it. After being defeated by the Extremists (a pastiche of the Masters of Evil), only Wandjina (Thor), Silver Sorceress (Scarlet Witch), and Blue Jay were left alive, and they came to Earth and hung out with and later joined the JLE.

And now we get to Waverider, who touches Blue Jay to find out if Jay will become Monarch. But instead of going 10 years into the future, we go about 1000 years. This issue was written by Keith Giffen and Gerard Jones, and each chapter was pencilled by a different artist and inked by Randy Elliott.

• Page 37: pencils by Steve Carr. In panel 1, he's wondering why all of the other heroes he touched had their potential futures in the past. Don't worry about that, or those people in panels 4 and 5, they're not relevant to the Legion part of the story. Waverider touches Blue Jay to see if he'll be Monarch.
• Page 38: Art by Curt Swan! Holy moly! He only did 3 more Legion stories after this: LSH v4 #31 coming up soon in 1992, and LSH Annual 5 (the Legion plays Wizard of Oz) and L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual 5 (the L.E.G.I.O.N. in a parody of the Silver Age LSH), both Elseworlds.
• Failed Legion applicants: Beetle Boy, Insulation Lad, and Faucet Girl (who all, actually, sound like they would have been suggested in the old "Bits of Legionnaire Business" column in the Adventure days)
• Page 39 panel 2: Garth has his robot arm, so this takes place sometime after ADV 332.
• Page 39 panel 4: More Silver Agey names - Tele-Kid, Transport Teen, Popping Pete. 
• Page 40 panel 3: "Shrinking Violet with wings". Blue Jay was often seen in the JLE as the weakest member. Not lame, just weak. 
• Page 40 panel 6: At least he gets his consolation flight belt!
• Page 41: Blue Jay gets to join the Subs, who are portrayed here as plucky and spunky but not very useful. 
• Page 41 panel 6: Blue Jay's story ends here. He didn't actually join the Subs, it was a potential future for him.
• Page 42: Waverider has taken his hand off of Blue Jay, ending his tale, though he's surprised that Blue Jay's future was in the 30th century and not the 21st.

From Beyond the Unknown Giant!

As mentioned here and elsewhere, there's a new Legion story out today in "From Beyond the Unknown Giant" #1, available at your finer Walmarts everywhere (that's what the indicia says on the inside back cover). The issue will also be sold at your local comic shop on March 25, with a new cover. In any case, the Walmart version has "Mass Market Edition" in the indicia, we'll see what the LCS version has next month.

“From Beyond the Unknown” 100 Page Giant, complete with a sneaky new Legion story from ⁦@DCComics⁩. pic.twitter.com/HbRCN3NuCD

— Dan Jurgens (@thedanjurgens) January 29, 2020

The original From Beyond the Unknown, by the way, was a 1969-73 science fiction series from DC that reprinted stories from Silver Age titles like Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures, they're just reusing the title. And it's a 100-Page Giant, thus the name - it's the Giant version of "Beyond the Unknown", it has nothing to do with being beyond an Unknown Giant (I suppose if the Unknown Soldier gets Colossal Boy's powers, though....). The issue has a new Green Lantern story and a new Kamandi story, and reprints of Superman/Adam Strange from DC Comics Presents #3 and Batman/Metal Men from Brave and Bold #113, plus Alan Moore's F-Sharp Bell story from Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #3.

Here's what the two covers will look like. The Direct Sales cover was revealed on Feb 20, 2020.

From Beyond the Unknown Giant #1 Walmart cover Art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (reprinted from DC Comics Presents #2)	From Beyond the Unknown Giant #1 Direct Sales cover Art by Kenneth Rocafort (new art)

I didn't know why Dan Jurgens got to write a story about the Legion from the 1980s, so I asked him about it:

DC asked me if I had time to fit a short LSH story into my schedule and I wasn’t about to say no. We talked about different eras/costumes and settled on this. Your placement in issue numbers is generally on point.

— Dan Jurgens (@thedanjurgens) February 15, 2020

I wanted to try and figure out where it fits in continuity, because as I told Dan, I am a huge nerd at stuff like that. I thought I had narrowed it down to sometime between LSH v2 #295 (January, the Green Lantern story following the Great Darkness Saga) and LSH v2 #301 (July, new costumes for the Legionnaires), because:

• Jacques first appears in LSH Annual #1 and joins at the end of the issue, which takes place in between issue #289 and #290. He doesn't get the white stripe in his hair until the end of issue #291 in the Great Darkness Saga, right after he saw Darkseid, and this story does not take place during the GDS.
• Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, and Colossal Boy all appear in their traditional Bronze Age costumes in this story (Violet in green, Cham in red and purple, and Colossal Boy with ornaments on his costume), and all had new costumes in issue 301 (Violet in purple, Cham in purple and yellow, and Colossal Boy without the eagle medallion). Each had their old costume at the end of #300 in the group shot.

However, while recording the podcast, Darren reminded me that Cham was either in custody or without his powers during that whole time frame. D'oh! I'll demote myself in rank from Captain Continuity to Corporal. So now where does it fit? Well, short answer, it doesn't fit between 295-300 after all:

• Cham gets arrested early in issue 291, he arrives on Takron-Galtos in issue #292, and it's revealed in #296 that when he's pardoned, his powers have gone. He leaves with Brande to go to Durla in 300, and gets them back in 301.

So we're left with one of the following:

1. Jacques is incorrectly shown with the white stripe in his hair, meaning this story takes place between LSH Annual 1 and LSH 290 (though he's more confident in this story than he was on his first mission in 290).
2. Cham, Violet, and Colossal Boy are incorrectly shown with the wrong costumes in this story, which takes place after LSH 301.

The easiest answer is that there is one thing wrong rather than three, so let's go with Jacques's hair drawn incorrectly and say it's in between the Computo Annual and the start of the Great Darkness Saga. 

That said, there are some other anachronisms which I'll just chalk up to artistic license:

• The Legion Cruiser in this new story is clearly the Cockrum version, which is distinguished by the teardrop shaped bubble on top of the saucer section, offset to the front (below, top). The Grell version has a round bubble that covers almost the entire saucer (below, left). Collectively, they were known as the Mark 10 Cruiser. But by 1983, they were using the Mark 494 version of the Cruiser anyway (below, right, from LSH 291).
  
• Wildfire's costume is also the Cockrum version. Cockrum was the only one who drew Wildfire with the black visor wrapping under his chin, while Grell and everyone else who followed had the faceplate stopping around the lower lip area, allowing Wildfire to have a chin. His chest symbol in this story is also closer to the Cockrum version, with a winged star beneath the helmet on the center of his chest; by 1983, the winged star had grown and stretched down to his waist, merging with the red piece at his stomach that was separate from the star in his earlier appearances. Below, a Cockrum model sheet on the left, and Giffen/Mahlstedt from the cover of issue 298.
   

Not to get all fanfic-y about it, but to make up an in-universe explanation, they had to grab an old Cruiser because there were no Mark 494s available, and Wildfire's costume was malfunctioning so he grabbed an old one just like he did in LSH v3 #15 (below), after his regular one had been destroyed in the previous issue.

Phantom Girl is displayed with an interesting use of her power - she is shown phasing out of Dawnstar's body, having been inhabiting it. We've only seen that a handful of times. Val Beasley reminded me that Tinya hides inside Lightning Lad to survive a tornado in Superboy #201 (1974), I recalled one when Tinya's brother Gmya phased into Sun Boy's body (accidentally "eclipsing" him) while an assassin phased into another Legionnaire's body in Superboy #215 (1976), and Val also remembered at least once during the Reboot when Tinya hid out in Ultra Boy's body after everyone thought she was dead (LSH v4 #82 maybe?).

Given that this issue is marketed to the general Walmart shopper and not the hardcore DC fans, it's safe to say that this story was not written to the level of fandom as the 5YL version. We meet some never-before-seen aliens on a never-before-seen planet. It's relatively low stakes, nobody gets hurt, lessons are learned, and everyone lives happily ever after.

For what it is, it's an effective story. In 8 pages, we learn who the Legionnaires are, their names and powers, and wrap up an adventure. It's not trying to be the Bendis-written ongoing series. This could have worked as a fill-in backup story anywhere in the 80s, and I bet that was the intention.

But given the finale of Doomsday Clock #12, the pre-Crisis Earth-1 is now known as Earth-1985, and the presence of a living Supergirl and Flash in panel 6 suggest that the cutoff point is prior to Crisis #1 where characters start dying. So this seems to be the first appearance of Earth-1985.

Legion creators speak out (in 1996)

This hasn't seen the light of day since it was compiled in 1996. Back in the olden days of the mid to late 90s, I was one of the FAQ-keepers for the rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh Usenet newsgroup. In addition to the FAQ, we thought it would be both interesting and humorous (see question #4 for our attempt) to present a set of standard questions to various Legion creators and then compile their answers. At various conventions and via email between April to August 1996, we got 15 people to answer our questionnaire, from Curt Swan and Jim Shooter to Mark Waid and Jeff Moy (I don't recall who never replied). I don't believe that we ever actually published this in the newsgroup, but I've been copying it from from one computer to the next over the last 23 years. Responses are listed by creator in alphabetical order of last name.

Our standard questionnaire:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
4. What's your shoe size?
5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?

---

The Legion Creators Speak Out

We asked a number people who've worked on any of the Legion titles, past and present, a few questions about the Legion and themselves. Here's what they had to say. (Note: all answers are presented as they were given to us, typos and all.)

                             Years worked on LSH books
                        5 6         7         8         9
                        890123456789012345678901234567890123456
Ron Boyd                --.----.----.----.----.----.----.-23456
Pat Brosseau            --.----.----.----.----.----.----.-23456
Cory Carani             --.----.----.----.----.----.----.---456
Reuben Diaz             --.----.----.----.----.----.----.----.6
Colleen Doran           --.----.----.----.----.----.----.--34.-
Barbara (Randall) Kesel --.----.----.----.----.----.--8-.----.-
Karl Kesel              --.----.----.----.----.---456---.----.-
Paul Levitz             --.----.----.----567890123456789.----.-
Steve Lightle           --.----.----.----.----.--3456789.----.-
Tom McCraw              --.----.----.----.----.----.---90123456
Jeff Moy                --.----.----.----.----.----.----.---456 
Tom Peyer               --.----.----.----.----.----.----.---456 
Jim Shooter             --.----.67890----56---.----.----.----.- 
Curt Swan               89012345678-.----.----.----.----.----.- 
Mark Waid               --.----.----.----.----.----.-789.--345- 

[2019 note: you were supposed to be able to click on the name above which would jump you to the anchor next to the name below, but Blogger doesn't let you do that. So no hyperlinking or jumping around, sorry!]

---

Ron Boyd
Date: 4/24/96

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
I am the inker on the Legion of Superheroes. Though it is a much maligned role, I feel that my contribution to the book has been quite large, through cohesion of creators to keeping the book on deadline.

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
I am currently working on issue 84, which is my 47th issue of the Legion. I started on issue 39, inking the cover, and have had a hand in every book since, including annuals, Legionairres #'s 0 and 19, and an upcoming story that I have written, and I will ink, in Showcase #9.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
I really liked the story-line just prior to Zero hour. I enjoyed the idea of these galactic do-gooders being outside the law, and fighting to get back in. Aside from that, I think my fave spot has to be issue 48, cause my wife appeared in a cameo role as the purple doctor on the second-last page. (She's really a doctor. She's not really purple)

4. What's your shoe size?
10.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy. I can't choose. I also like Ultra-boy...heck...I just love 'em all!!!

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Uh....Personality....I would have to guess Cos, with a bit of Ultra tossed in. I tend to be a little altruistic, but I have some healthy cynicism to balance me out. As far as a physical resemblance --- I don't think any of them apply. I am 31 years old, not in great shape, and am losing hair, and currently sport a goatee...not exactly the taught clean good looks of the youthful legionairres!

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Not really anything concise, but I would like to say that I have a lot of love for comics, and a growing fondness for the Legion. This book has been very good to me, and I am happy to contribute a small part to the legend. I just hope that all the fans can enjoy what we do, and forgive us for the liberties we take with these characters. Our main goal is to tell stories that somehow entertain you, and hopefully, along the way, we can use these stories to tell you all something about ourselves.

---

Pat Brosseau
Date: 5/30/96

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
The Lettering

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
On Legionnaires since #1, on LSH since #70.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
Legionnaires # 7. Nice artwork. A lotta fun to letter. Fun story.

4. What's your shoe size?
Size 8.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Gates, cause he's such a smart-ass.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Ultra Boy.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Hope you all keep buying the book and my Lettering is as important to you as the writing and artwork.

---

Cory Carani
Date: 5/24/96

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
I am the inker on The Legionnaires!

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
I have been working on The Legionnaires since issue #21!

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
I think my all time favorite Legion story has nothing to do so much with the story! I really like issue #7 of The Legionnaires "Devil in the Deep". Its a fill in issue by Adam Hughes with Mark Farmer on inks. It looks great and is just plain fun! (I respond more to visual than to written - flakey artists - Go figure!) I am partial, also, to the first appearance of Supergirl with the Legion. Martian ice-cream? Nine flavors - From nine different planets no less! C'mon, that'd be like living in space or something! Too much fun!

4. What's your shoe size?
My shoe size is eleven and a half.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
My favorite Legionnaire is Ayla...or maybe Jenni Ognats...Or maybe Luornu...Hmmm... Violet?...Zoe?No, purple Triad...Nah...Andromeda...Or...

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
I probably most resemble Matter-Eater Lad or Leviathan.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I'd like to personally thank all of the Legion fans for their support! You all make it one of the best books to be a part of...And one of the most fun! I'm proud to be there every month working on something I really like. Ecstatic when you all like it too. Your feedback is the best. Keep us on our toes!

---

Reuben Diaz
Date: 4/17/96

I'm still pretty new to this, so I'll try to answer as best I can.

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
As the associate editor, well, besides associating with the editor, I arrange for burly men in rolled up tee-shirts to break non-essential body parts of freelancers who are late turning in assignments. Except for Lee Moder, who I dress in a bonnet and diapers and make him do the hokey-poker in front of the local High School <g>. That and making sure Brainiac is the right shade of green. (Ask Tom if you really want to know what it is.)

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
Work is a completely subjective term.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
"Light and Darkness War" -- 'natch. Although the one where Timberwolf has to go claim Karate Kid's inheritance was pretty swift.

4. What's your shoe size?
Depends if we're talking sneakers, shoes, or bunny slippers.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
I have 3 -- Timberwolf, Karate Kid, and Wildfire.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Polar boy, for reasons to personal and embarrassing to discuss in public.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Well, it's nice to be working with a fine group of creators, most of whom I've worked with before on various projects in the last four years. "Lee, do the 'Mr. Plow' song one more time -- for old times sake." Hopefully I can bring a fresh perspective on the 30th century and help foster the continued, long-standing success of one of comicdom's most popular super-teams.

---

Colleen Doran
Date: 6/27/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
Valor, Legion of S, Legionnaires, fillins, pinups in who's who

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
Valor - 1 year Legion - ?

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
Murder Most Foul [ed. note: Superboy and the Legion #239]

4. What's your shoe size?
6 1/2 W

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Element Lad

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Shvaugn Erin [ed. note: she crossed out the word "Legionnaire" in the question.]

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I love you, madly!

---

Barbara (Randall) Kesel
Date: 7/22/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
I wrote all but the final issue of "Who's Who in the Legion" and shared an office with Mark Waid while he was editor of the book. I've recently written a solo Ultra Boy story (inventory) that Matt Haley is drawing. It'll show up sometime in the future.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
The Who's Who took six months to nine months, also the U.B. story. (It was my back-burner project.)
3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
The Fatal Five story where Dream Girl fills in when Ultra Boy's knocked out.

4. What's your shoe size?
7D

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Phantom Girl

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Physically -- probably Shrinking Violet (change hair to red-brown) for purposes of height. Personality -- probably Saturn Girl

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I always liked the Legion because they were so often written as KIDS instead of 19-year-old 40-year-olds, and because the mood stressed hope (well, in those pre-Giffen days) rather than misery. Down with gloom and doom comics! PLUS -- and most important: the girls had powers and did something with them other than hang on the heroes' arms or needing to be rescued all the time! SHOCK -- There was always MORE than ONE girl and they had DIFFERENT personalities -- almost as though they were human beings! Hey -- I'm reading Karl's answers -- he stole my "hope" line. That's always been MY observation. Sigh! MEN!

---

Karl Kesel
Date: 7/22/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
Inked the "Tales of the Legion" run back in '84. Plus an issue, story, or couple of pages here & there. Also inked "Legionnaires 3" mini-series & "Legion of Subs" one-shot.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
A little over a year

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
"Great Darkness Saga"

4. What's your shoe size?
10-1/2 triple "E"

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Probably Bouncing Boy... Altho' I'm very fond of the current take on Brainiac 5. Also really liked Elasti-Lad and Insect Queen.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Maybe Cosmic Boy, if he was REALLY out of shape and had brown hair. He's the closest personality-wise, I think. [Altho' Bouncing Boy is closer all around...]

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I think the Legion is one of those basic, instinctively appealing concepts -- tons of super-powered kids! It's also a HOPEFUL series at it's core -- something I find is lacking in all too many comics.

---

Paul Levitz
Date: 8/9/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?

• 1975
• Karate Kid #1-2 (#2 in collaboration)
• 1976-1978 (regular writer on strip)
• Superboy & The Legion #225, 226, 228-231, 233, 235-247, 250-251 (some stories in collaboration)
• All-New Collectors' Edition/Legion
• DC Special #28
• Justice League #147-148 (in collaboration)
• 1979
• DC Comics Presents #13-14
• Super-Star Holiday
• 1981-1989 (regular writer on strip)
• Legion of Super-Heroes #281-282 (in collaboration), 284-313, Annual #1-3
• Legion #1-63, Annual #1-4
• Tales of the Legion #314-325 (some stories in collaboration)
• Legion of Substitute Heroes Special (in collaboration)
• DC Comics Presents #43, 59 (in collaboration)
• Cosmic Boy #1-4
• Text pages, misc.:
• Legion: Great Darkness introduction
• History of the DC Universe Legion piece
• Karate Kid #1-7
• Legion of Substitute Heroes Special
• Legion #281-282, 284-293, 295-325, Annual #1-3
• Legion #1-63, Annual #1-4
• All-New Collectors Edition/Legion
• Superboy/Legion #225-245, 247-250, 252-255
• Texts for digests chronologically reprinting Legion stories
• Various desk jobs: 1974-on

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
As above, 1974 to now.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
"Ghost of Ferro Lad"

4. What's your shoe size?
6 1/2 E

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Varied over the years; as a kid, Timber Wolf and Element Lad

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Beats me.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Thanks for paying my mortgage for years. It was a hoot to get to write a strip I loved as a kid. And thanks for the fan mail--it was always one of the best parts of the deal.

---

Steve Lightle
Date: 5/19/96

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
Stuff and lots of it.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
Off and on between '83 and '89.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
I remember a great storyline that had the Legion hunted by the Science Police. My strongest memory of this story is of seeing Legionnaires gathered in the sewers of Metropolis, avoiding detection and planning their triumphant return. This was a story from the late '60's, although a '90's analogy does exist.

4. What's your shoe size?
I hear that there is a direct corrolation between a man's shoe size and his creative powers.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Karate Kid (60's) Mon-El (70's) Timber Wolf ('80's) Allegra ('90's)

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
[no answer given]

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brush stroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Curt Swan: I want to thank you for always being an inspiration.
Dave Cockrum: Your creative energy was contagious.
Paul Levitz: I'll never forget your generosity. Our collaboration is one the highpoints in my career.
Karen Berger: God bless you.
Mark Waid: You owe me.

---

Tom McCraw
Date: 4/24/96

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
Co-plot and color both LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and LEGIONNAIRES.

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
Since June 1989. I started coloring LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES vol. 4 #1.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
That's a tough one, there are so many that come to surface in my mind when I think of the Legion. To make it easier on me I'll answer by making up categories: Multiple part saga: "Great Darkness" from LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES vol. 2 #290-294. Origin Story: The Unique Properties of Condo Arlik in SECRET ORIGINS #47 and for favorite single issue LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES vol. 3 #38 "The Greatest Hero of Them All!" Favorite cover is still the one on LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES vol. 2 #289 "A Cold and Lonely Corner of Hell."

4. What's your shoe size?
This is a trick question right? It's 9-1/2 anyway.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Male: Invisible Kid. Female: Triad, but I really like all the members. They each have their own bit of charm that draws me to them.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Mark Waid says that I look like Cosmic Boy, but I think my personality is more like Lyle's.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brush stroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Just that the Legion means a lot to me. I always try to treat the characters with the respect that I would want from anyone else if they were working on the book.

---

Jeff Moy
Date: 4/27/96

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
I pencil the Legionnaires.

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
I've been working on Legionnaires and for DC for about 2 years.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
Either the Computo story or the one with the introduction of Shadow Lass. Whatta babe.

4. What's your shoe size?
Depending on the day.... 9 to 9 1/2.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Most of you guys already know this.... Its Spark! She's too cute for her own good.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Physically, I would say Dragonmage, for the simple reason, because hes Asian. But personality-wise I really don't know. I don't thinks the code allows for that type of persona. :)

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I'd like to thank everyone for this award...whoops wrong speech. Well, I would like to thank the many faithful readers who stuck with us thru the reboot and are finding out that they like it. It's you guys that really keep us on our toes! Tounges! Tounges for everybody! Thanks for making my mark in Legion history. :)

---

Tom Peyer
Date: 4/18/96

The Questions:

1. What do you do on the Legion books?
I write LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES.

2. How long have you been working on the Legion books?
Since the spring of '94, my time. Since LEGIONNAIRES #19, your time.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
Computo the Conqueror!

4. What's your shoe size?
36-24-36.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Brainy, because I can relate to his view that the universe exists mainly to keep him from getting his work done.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
The Weirdo Legionnaire, both physically and personality-wise.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Thanks for welcoming me into the Legion fold!

---

Jim Shooter
Date: 4/28/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
I wrote & drew layouts interiors & provided cover designs in color for Legion stories from '66 to '70 -- Also wrote full scripts for Legion storeis from '73 or '74 to '76.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
See above

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
The Fatal Five stories

4. What's your shoe size?
14C

5. Who's your favorite Legionnnaire?
Karate Kid

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
I don't look like any, but at least when I was writing the Legion, a lot of myself & my friends became invested in those characters.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brushstroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
No.

---

Curt Swan
Date: 5/3/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
Pencilled the characters and created some of the visual appearances, the costumes.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
Between 3 and 10 years. [note: He was the regular cover artist beginning with Adventure 247-364 (1958-1968), and the regular interior artist from Adventure 340-372 (1/1966-9/1968).]

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
If there was one, I can't recall. Every job on the Legion was a labor of love.

4. What's your shoe size?
9D

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Basically, I have 3. Sun Boy, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
None.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brush stroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I think the answer to number 3 says it all.

---

Mark Waid
Date: 4/21/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
Editor on the 1989 series from issues #1-7, though the incoming editor took my name off some of the work. Also edited WHO'S WHO IN THE LEGION and compiled ICG's THE LEGION INDEX. Later, dialogued LEGION #59, wrote or co-wrote #60-61, 0, 62-71, LEGIONNAIRES ANNUALS #1 and #2, LEGIONNAIRES #16-19, VALOR #9, 11-19.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
1987-89, and then again 1993-95.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
"Mordru the Merciless"/"The Devil's Jury"

4. What's your shoe size?
10.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
pre-Byrne favorite Legionnaire: Mon-El. Even though I liked Superboy better, I liked him for non-Legion reasons. modern: Brainy.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Physically, I most resemble the Adult Legion Garth, prolly. Personality-wise? No clue.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brush stroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Yeah. Byrne killed the Legion. We just pulled the plug on the dwindling life-support in the face of further and unending rectonning by editors.

---

And it wouldn't be fair if your FAQkeepers didn't answer the same questions too....
Michael Grabois
Troy McNemar
Sidne Ward
Andrew Woodard

---

Michael Grabois
Date: 5/3/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
I co-wrote the FAQ for the rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh newsgroup on the internet, I had a letter published in LSH v2 #265, and I compiled the Anal Retentive checklists. That's me with the dark curly hair and moustache in the magnoball crowd in Legionnaires #38, page 13.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
I've been a fan since Superboy 212 (1975), and I've bought every issue since then (plus most of the back issues).

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
The Great Darkness Saga. Wow!

4. What's your shoe size?
8

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Sun Boy. I hated what happened to him in v4 under Giffen and the Bierbaums.

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
I have Element Lad's curly hair (but black), Chuck Taine's moustache, and probably Matter-Eater Lad's physique. Personality-wise, probably Bouncing Boy.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brush stroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
I'd like to thank the Academy for... No, wait, wrong speech. I'd like to thank all the fans who've made this newsgroup a fun place to hang out.

---

Sidne Gail Ward
Date: 5/11/96

The Questions:

1. What did you do on the Legion books?
I co-wrote the FAQ for the usenet newsgroup rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh. I've also been tuckerized twice in one issue. In Legionnaires #38, Imra's mother's name, Sydne, is based on mine. And on page 13, panel 3, I've been drawn into a crowd shot (alongside other LSH fans). I'm the blonde at the bottom of the panel.

2. How long did you work on the Legion books?
My first Legion book I ever read was Adventure #341 (the second half of the first Computo story) which I bought in late 1965. The LSH quickly became my favorite characters. I read the Adventure and Action issues until about 1970 when I quit collecting. I started reading again in 1975 with the Superboy issues. This time I continued until around 1980, shortly after the title became The Legion of Super-Heroes (v. 2). And I began reading once again with the first issue of LSH (v. 4) during the Fall of 1989. Since then I've acquired an almost complete collection of LSH comic appearances and merchandise.

3. What's your all-time favorite Legion story?
I have a real fondness for that first Computo story. I've certainly read that more times than any other LSH story!

4. What's your shoe size?
An 8 in Nikes, 7 1/2 in pumps.

5. Who's your favorite Legionnaire?
Saturn Girl. Blonde, intelligent, and even back in the 60s she used to boss the boys around!

6. Which Legionnaire do you resemble most, either physically or personality-wise? Or both?
Physically, it would have to be Saturn Girl. Except my eyes are brown. Personality-wise? I don't know.

7. Anything else you want to say to the assembled masses who are hanging on your every word, pencil mark, brush stroke, color, word balloon, blue pencil mark, or whatever?
Hmm. I doubt anyone out there is hanging on my every word.....

---

     ______
    /  __  \  The rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh FAQ Committee
   |  / / * |     Michael R. Grabois (WizardImps@hotmail.com)
   | / /___ |     T. Troy McNemar (troyesq@indirect.com)  
   |(_____/ |     Sidne Gail Ward (sward@primenet.com)
    \______/      Andrew Woodard (woodarda@acf2.NYU.EDU)
 "The ritual Klordny toast: To Freedom, Friendship, and Frunt!"