Animated LSH news 45: Kari Wahlgren, voice of Saturn Girl

A source close to production on the Legion of Super-Heroes animated show has revealed to me the voice actor for the last of the main characters: Kari Wahlgren (IMDB, official site), as the voice of Saturn Girl.

Kari has done about a zillion voiceovers in video games, anime, and animation, including Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles show, and the Justice League, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith video games. See her Wikipedia entry for a breakdown by role type and pseudonym.

Animated LSH news 44: voice of Timber Wolf

Well, I finally found out Shawn's last name from the San Diego Comic Con's programming page (4 pm on Friday).

Turns out that Shawn, who I found just as he was auditioning for the role of Timber Wolf, is actually Shawn Harrison, who played (among others) Peaches in a number of episodes of "Girlfriends" and Waldo Geraldo Faldo in many episodes of "Family Matters". According to the IMDB, this is his first voiceover role.

Go back and read some of the posts about his blog postings in my animated news parts 3 (audition in early January), 4, 5, 6, and 9 (first recording session in early February)

Animated LSH news 43: San Diego con programming part 1

Well the programming schedule for the first two days (Thursday and Friday) at the Comic Con International: San Diego is out, and the Legion is well-represented.

The main event is on Friday at 4pm. Check this one out:

4:00-5:00 Bruce Timm Retrospective/Legion of Super Heroes— Warner Bros. Animation president Sander Schwartz introduces a retrospective on the creativity of animation legend Bruce Timm (Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series). Bruce will talk about his 20-year career, screen selected scenes from his body of work, and take part in a Q&A. Immediately following the Timm retrospective, Warner Bros. Animation presents a sneak peek at Legion of Super Heroes, a new Superman-themed half-hour adventure series inspired by the DC Comics series and set to air Saturdays this fall at 11:00 AM ET/PT in the Kids’ WB! programming block on the new CW. Producers Linda M. Steiner (Teen Titans) and James Tucker (Justice League Unlimited), story editor Rob Hoegee (Teen Titans), and others from the show’s creative team will join several of the Legion cast members, including Yuri Lowenthal (voice of Superman), Andy Milder (Lightning Lad), Shawn Harrison (Timber Wolf), and Michael Cornaccia (Bouncing Boy) for a Q&A session and debut of scenes from the upcoming show. Room 20

Ironically, Timm isn't involved at all in this show.

Notice that Yuri Lowenthal is listed as playing Superman now, and Timber Wolf's voice actor finally has a last name.

Other Legion panels of interest:
Thursday

• 11:30-12:30 DC Nation
  
• 1:00-2:30 Mattel Action Figures— What’s the latest with Mattel’s action figure lines? Mattel toy makers sit down to give fans the inside scoop on Naruto and Avatar as well as its DC Heroes, The Batman, Justice League Unlimited, and Superman Returns toy lines. [Note: Mattel will reportedly be doing figures based on the Legion's appearance in the "Far From Home" episode of JLU]
  
• 4:30-6:00 Spotlight on George Pérez - [maybe he'll say once again how he wants to draw the Legion!]
  
• 6:00-7:00 Scoring For Superheroes— Join award-winning composers Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, and Lolita Ritmanis (Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited) for a rare behind-the-scenes look at music scoring for animation. [Not sure yet, but I think it's likely that these guys might be doing the Legion's score since they've done the rest of the DC Animated Universe's music.]
  

Friday

• 12:30-1:30 Hey, Kids! Blogs About Comics!
  
• 1:00-2:00 Spotlight on Jim Mooney [Jim drew the Legion for a number of years, plus he's one of the Silver Age greats on Supergirl]
  
• 1:00-2:00 Warner Home Video's Superman Through The Ages— Featuring special guests from the film and television incarnations of Superman, including a special reunion with surprise guests and extended exclusive footage for Superman II—The Richard Donner Cut. Q&A with Marc McClure, Jack O'Halloran, Tom Mankiewicz (creative consultant), Michael Thau (editor in charge of the SII reconstruction), and more. Also in attendance super-secret special guests from the Adventures of Superman, Lois and Clark, Smallville, Superman The Animated Series, and Superman Returns! Room 20 [One of the special guests is likely to be Yuri Lowenthal, the young Superman of the Legion cartoon, since he's speaking later that afternoon]
  
• 4:00-5:00 Bruce Timm Retrospective/Legion of Super Heroes
  
• 6:00-7:00 DC: 52: A Year in the Life of the DCU [Mark Waid will be on this panel.]
  

Scoop

OK, so it it wrong to be miffed when I don't get credit for a scoop?

I reported on July 1st that Heather Hogan will be voicing Phantom Girl, and this afternoon that Michael Cornacchia will be the voice of Bouncing Boy. Several hours after that post, Comics Continuum says it "has learned" of both of them and updates their site (the Thursday issue didn't even get posted until late afternoon).

On every single animated Legion-related post with news, I credit and link back to the originating site, whether it's a news site like CBR, Newsarama, or the Continuum, or someone's blog. Newsarama recently had a link back to my story on the changes in the press release mentioning Superman instead of Superboy, for example, and I'm just saying it would be nice if the Comics Continuum did the same in return when it gets scooped.

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Oh well. As I expected, after letting ComicBookResources know about several writers, producers, voices, and other stuff on Friday July 7 (which Hannibal posted verbatim, with my byline and a link back here), the bit about the writers and a new bit about Timber Wolf I posted on the 7th shows up unattributed on Saturday July 8 at Comics Continuum. Really, Rob, would it kill you to put some attribution in your articles? You don't have to say it's from me, you can point to CBR if you want.

Animated LSH news 42: voice of Bouncing Boy

The IMDB shows this afternoon in the Legion show's entry that Michael Cornacchia (IMDB, official site) will be the voice of Bouncing Boy. Cornacchia has done numerous voice roles in the past, as well as scattered appearances in live-action shows (CSI: NY, Six Feet Under, ER) and commercials. He's also a member of a stand-up comedy ensemble.

That just leaves Saturn Girl and Triplicate Girl as the only unknown voice actors (we know Timber Wolf is Shawn, but he won't give us his last name), unless there are some unknown characters.

Trivially speaking

Just for the hell of it, some trivia questions. I'll try to make this a recurring event.


1. In "real" continuity, twice so far we've seen a Bizarro Legion of Super-Heroes (one pre-Crisis in Adventure 329 and one post-reboot in LSH v4 113-115 - not counting any dreams, hoaxes, or Imaginary Stories, like the recent campfire story). Which three people appeared in both stories as a Bizarro Legionnaire (or as they said in ADV 329, a member of the Legion of Stupor-Bizarros)?

2. When written by a competent writer, what specific thing happened each time Tyroc yelled "OOYYYYUUUUU"?

3. It's commonly known that Dave Cockrum originally invented the X-Man we know as Nightcrawler as a member of a Legion spinoff group, before he left DC. What other major X-Man was inspired by a character Cockrum created for a Legion spinoff?

4. Over the years, Dev-em has had at least three separate, totally different, totally contradictory origins. Briefly describe them.

5. Which Legionnaire once had super-powers greater than Superboy's (pre-Crisis)?

6. Prior to the Five Year Gap, under which Legion leader did the team see the most members join (regardless of how many terms they served as leader)?

7. Who was the only then-active Legionnaire who did not appear during the Great Darkness Saga, and why?

8. Over the years, how many different Legionnaires have had kids? Assume the three major eras (pre-Zero Hour, post-Zero Hour reboot, current) are different characters.

9. Which Legion-related character suffers from Taphephobia?

10. Which members of the Legion of Super-Villains were members of the Legion of Super-Heroes at any point (regardless of how they got into the LSH)?

Answers in a few days, or sooner if nobody gives this a shot.

The Feminist Mistake

John and Belle take a look back at one of the most infamous of Jim Shooter's Adventure Comics stories, issue 368's "Mutiny of the Super-Heroines" (May 1968 cover date).

It isn't remarkable that the story is incredibly dumb, of course. That sort of thing happens. But I'm pretty impressed at how pitch perfect its tin ear is, Betty Friedan-wise. Doesn't miss a note. It even goes the extra mile of NOT having any hint of a lesbian subplot between the ambassador and Supergirl, which would be TOO obvious.

When things are this badly written - by Jim Shooter - what do you think is actually going on with the writer? Is he just sitting there weeping with laughter at what he has wrought? [their link, not mine - ed.]

No, he was 15 years old, 16 at the most, and that's probably what 15-16 year old boys thought back in 1968. When John wrote his post, he didn't realize Shooter was still a teenager. But in these "enlightened" times anyone can cringe when they see what was going through his mind and into his script. The girl Legionnaires are mind-controlled, but Supergirl finally breaks free of the control when Shadow Lass tells her that she'd set Brainiac 5 to doing housework. The Silver Age paragon of sweetness and femininity says, "When Shadow Lass made me think about what would happen to Brainiac 5 in a feminist world, my mind revolted ... my super-will snapped your control!"

When the villain (Ambassador Thora) commits suicide rather than return to her homeworld having failed to get Earth to change to a matriarchy. But while she was here, her homeworld overthrew its matriarchal government, and as Kara says, "...which goes to show that, despite our puny interference, there's a force in the universe that has a way of setting things right!" So even to Supergirl (via Shooter), having the men running things is the way things should be run.

One commenter put it a lot better than I could:

One can see in Shooter's storytelling a sort of throbbing conflict between a recognition of the barefaced wrongness of a "patriarchal background" and an instinctive allegiance to his gender and the status quo. Why would the dude feel the need to write this story, but to explain why something that seems wrong (the oppression of women) isn't actually wrong.

Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly mentions this article, and there are some comments there to read. Gary Farber makes the correction that Shooter was 15-16 when he wrote this story, not 17 as had been assumed on John and Belle's page.

More discussion of this story and article at PZ Meyers' Pharyngula: "Remember, kids, be nice to your girlfriends so that they'll squelch any uppity feminists who threaten your dominance!"

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Incidentally, the letters page 3 issues later (issue 371) has a few comments on the story (go here and scroll down). Bruce Riley of Cleveland realizes you really can have two "girls revolt" stories separated by 4 years, as long as you change stuff:

I have just finished reading "The Mutiny of the Super-Heroines." At first I thought it would be like "The Revolt of the Girl Legionnaires" in ADVENTURE No. 326, but I was wrong. What made it different was giving the heroines extra powers, using more girls, and the major role played by Supergirl in defeating the villain. I did find two mistakes, though. On page 15, Star Boy's insignia is missing, while Ultra Boy's insignia is gone on page 16.

Interestingly, the only female's response to the story, from Shelley Van Geffen of New Orleans, discusses not the story but the clothes. Remember, that's all girls think about. That, and making fools of the boys. Oh, and jewelry.

Your Leigon stories are great! I havbe only one complaint. The uniforms of Cosmic Boy and Element Lad are PINK! Don't you think pink is a bit too feminine for heroes as great as these two?

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For a bit more pre-modern look at what passed for feminist commentary back in the early Silver Age Legion (Adventure 326, Nov. 1964), remember how Queen Azura of the planet Femnaz caused the "Revolt of the Girl Legionnaires" (as recounted by Chris Sims for Prism Comics).

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Let's see if anyone takes me to task for my calling this post "the feminist mistake" (a pun, of course, on Friedan's "Feminist Mystique" - and not my pun, it was John and Belle's).

More issue 19 reviews

Wrapping up the reviews for the Chameleon murder mystery story in issue 19 (the first set of reviews was here):

Matthew's Legion Abstract notes, among other things, that:

This issue is a spotlight on Chameleon. We find out more about him in a way that isn't at all heavy-handed, and we need that: Chameleon is one of the Legionnaires that hasn't really coalesced as a character yet. I'm not criticizing when I say that; we've had less than two years of comics to find about this very large cast, and there's no way we could have a good handle on all of them yet. ... But after this issue, I don't really feel like I understand Chameleon any better than I did before. So did the issue fail? Or do we just need more time to get to know the guy?

Kid Dork at Sean Twist says:

Waid provides a decent 'closed room murder' story, and interweaves it with the much larger robot revolution that's been brewing in the comic of late. Not terribly excited about that one.

The Pull List has a review from the perspective of someone who started reading because of Supergirl's involvement (which was the whole idea of bringing her in the first place):

Truth be told, I bought this since Supergirl was in it and I have been surprised with the writing so far. I don’t feel alienated since I don’t know whom these characters really are and the writing has done an excellent job introducing them. This was a fine mystery issue as Chameleon pieces together a murder mystery. It works really well as a stand alone story but also has some segments to keep other stories (like where Brainiac is) moving. Very good issue.

Earth K's Super-Geek Red liked this issue:

It is no secret that we of Earth K are lovers of the Legion. I feared that Britney Zor-El’s involvement would be disastrous, but her brief time with the Legion so far has actually made me somewhat interested in her. Well done, Mark Waid, for that was a Herculean task.... I’m enjoying the hell out of Waid and Kitson’s re-re-re-re-re-imagining of the Legion. Buy the trades to get caught up and then buy this thing monthly; it’s a good ride.

Jeffrey Bridges' Mild Mannered Reviews notes something odd about the cover...

Not terrible, but not as good as the other fantastic issues Waid's been delivering. But if the worst episode of the series so far is still decent, you know you've got a good book on your hands.

The dead person on the cover has multiple limbs. The dead prisoner did not. There are three Legion members on the cover, but not one of them appears in the book. Chameleon, who is heavily featured in the book, is nowhere to be found.

Piper at the Golden Lasso, however, gave the story only a D+.

This has to be my least favorite issue of Legion since the OYL jump. It's not so much that it's bad in that it's disappointing. I like that the storyline references some of the things that have happened over the last few months, but the book seemed to read like it was WAY more than 21 pages. The dialogue was just right, but the book feels like it goes on forever. ... There was way too much inner monologue which resulted in the book feeling more like a chore than a comic book. Halfway into the story I just wanted it to end.

Vote for Karate Kid!

The Invincible Super-Blog starts Badass Week, looking for the Toughest Man in Comics. One of his top 6 entries is Karate Kid (who's running against Sgt. Rock, Conan, Thor, Orion, and the Punisher). Go to the ISB and vote in the comments.

Animated LSH news 41: sneak preview and Hoegee interview

Apparently I'm the last one to find out and report this, but we'll be seeing a sneak preview of the Legion show on July 15, according to the Comics Continuum.

Kids' WB! will stage "Behind the Shield," looking at Superman, on Saturday, July 15. The event will also include a first look at the Legion of Super Heroes animated series, which will is now calling the character "Superman" instead of "Superboy."

Note that this is the third source that's reporting SuperMAN instead of SuperBOY, by the way.

In other news, Bill Walko at the Titans Tower Monitor reports that he's got an interview over at Titans Tower with animated series co-producer and story editor Rob Hoegee about the show. Interview topics included the development of the series, the characters, and the ties to the Silver Age.

Not only does Legion have some of the coolest heroes, they also have some of the coolest villains. The Fatal Five play a big part in our first season, and we get to meet a few more from the vault as well.

Go read the rest of it!

Animated LSH news 40: Heather Hogan, voice of Phantom Girl

While checking out the Legion's entry in the IMDB tonight, I read that Heather Hogan will be the voice of Phantom Girl. I haven't found that anywhere else on the web, and the IMDB entries have no public histories like Wikipedia so we can't easily see who entered her name or when. But knowing that the IMDB isn't 100% accurate when it comes to stuff in production, take the name with a grain of salt (unless anyone can actually verify it). Hogan has done some animation and video game work (such as the "Land Before Time" sequels) and has had some small roles in TV episodes and movies.

(I started the Legion's entry in the IMDB, and it takes forever to get updates.)

The entry also lists Glenn Wong as a character designer. Unless there's another Glenn Wong who's an artist, this particular one has been an assistant production coordinator for several live-action TV series. Doesn't sound like that's an animation character designer's previous job, but I could be wrong.

Vs. System CCG in November?

As Scott pointed out in my earlier post with the DeKraken interview, when the artist said he was finishing up some artwork for an Upper Deck card set later this year, he was apparently referring to the Vs. System CCG set we discussed here back in February.

Back then, the set was described as

The teen sensations from the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes, are from all over the galaxy. They've banded together to protect the United Planets from a multitude of galactic threats. The Legionnaires, led by their founders Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Live Wire, work together with Superboy and Supergirl to fight against such evil foes as the Fatal Five, the Legion of Supervillains, and the eternal menace of Darkseid.

Online retailer Borderland Relics has the new description (which according to one source was just released on 6/30):

DC Vs. System TCG: Legion of Super-Heroes Boosters

Release Date: November 2006
Welcome to the 31st Century!
At the dawn of the 31st Century, the Legion of Super-Heroes protects the United Planets from the perils of the future. The Legionnaires, joined by the Teen Titans, battle the forces of Darkseid’s Elite, the Fatal Five and other Future Foes to keep the universe safe for everyone!

Help the Legionnaires bring security, stability, and order to the entire galaxy, or destroy them and it. Which ever side you choose, the universe will never be the same with the addition of these young heroes to the Vs. System! Set features fan favorite DC Comics characters, including Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Superboy, Robin, and many more!

24- Pack Booster $66.00/box until 10/20 then $76.00/box

ToyWiz has a link for preorders at $69.99 a box, but they say it comes out in August 2006, not November.

MetaGame has a discussion by one of the game's designers about what's in this particular set, which is actually a "sequel" to their Infinite Crisis set. They worked with DC to get the storyline into card form, but due to lag time the storyline's details kept changing, which meant the cards had to change too.

It’s hard enough to design a set when you know the comics inside and out, but designing one with only sketchy details was a huge challenge. While it was a top priority to include all of the emblematic characters and events in the current Crisis, the worst thing that we could do was include something that wouldn’t end up happening after all.

How did we solve this problem? The same way that comic books do—with a “To Be Continued . . .” The story of the Infinite Crisis is not over. Infinite Crisis covered the opening salvo, but we plan to wrap up this tale in the next DC set, Legion of Super-Heroes. Major characters and plot points not covered in Infinite Crisis, including fan favorite Wally West, the destruction of Blüdhaven, and the ultimate battle between Superboys, are on their way. By using some of the legacy content space in Legion, we were better able to flesh out the teams and themes of Infinite Crisis without worrying about missing key touchstones.

The Vs.Realms message board has some discussion on what the fans would like to see.

"Dear Santa,
I have been very good all year. Please bring me 4 of the Matter Eater Lad 1 drop, the Matter Eater Lad 3 drop, and the Matter Eater Lad 7 drop. If possible, with the Extended Art Keith Giffen versions. If you could also bring me 4 of Legion Try-Outs and 4 of Brainy's Experiment Out of Control Again, that would be swell.
--sincerely,
carbonbased, age 6 and a half"

I have no idea what that means.

Another poster there has some hints about who's in it (but I couldn't find the original source):

Mon-El is apparently in the set.

The Legion of Supervillains and the Fatal Five are both in a 'conglomerate team'(Like Emerald Enemies), although they will be capable of being played seperately(this might be one of the features of the set).

Here's the Wikipedia link for the Vs. System. I have no hope of possibly understanding it well enough to summarize it.

Time Tripping

Vacations are hectic on a blogger's schedule. Fortunately, Scipio (of the Absorbascon fame) took the time out from his busy vacation earlier this month to send some postcards to his friend Blockade Boy (a time-traveling, universe-hopping superhero fashion designer who can turn himself into a moderately-sized steel wall, and who really didn't die at the Super-Stalag of Space), direct from the 31st century. Read his postcards about getting to the future, his meeting with the Legion (and how heeven learned a new cuss phrase), the Comic Book Shoppe of Nine Worlds (must be part of the franchise), the Universal Switch to Lesbianism 800 years ago, his dinner date with Colossal Boy, and his meeting up with some new Legionnaires. But then he had to go home, which is the worst thing about vacations.

It's a good thing that Scipio had taken the two lesson series on LegionSpeak so he could converse with the locals. Scan the reading material for lesson 101 and for lesson 102.

Meanwhile, Dr. Polaris (yes, that one) at Title Undetermined regaled us with his tale about his trip to the 30th Century, where he picked up the Emerald Empress in a bar.

Chris' Invincible Super-Blog looks back at another time traveller, Jimmy "Elastic Lad" Olsen, the Wilt Chamberlain of his day (and he ain't talking about basketball!). "Mister Action's in the house, and he's lookin' for love." I mean, even Triplicate Girl is going to "romance Jimmy like a terrific threesome." But sadly, they're the Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes. They don't use their fantastic technology to bring you to the future without royally screwing with your head. It's in the charter.

Issue 19 reviews

Nice change of pace. I liked the "hard-boiled detective" talk by Chameleon. I half-expected him to say "My name's Chameleon. I'm a cop" or "Book 'em, Danno".

Rokk (of Rokk's Comic Book Revolution) was very eager to read the book, posting this the day before it came out:

What am I least looking forward to? In DC, that is soooo easy. Supergirl and the high jacking of the Legion of Super Heroes #19. I just can’t wait to see what underwhelming issue DC is going to push off on us this week! Hopefully, DC will finally showcase Supergirl a little on this title. She just hasn’t gotten enough attention. Supergirl really is an underutilized character.

But the next day he bought and read the issue, starting with this:

I’m totally over this title. I’m resigned to the fact that DC has butchered this comic since the day that Paul Levitz left it. And there is no reason for me to believe that DC will ever get this title right again.

On to the review...

This issue was just average. Nothing great and nothing terrible. One huge positive about this issue was that we only had to put up with Supergirl for 3 pages! [snip] The pacing is slow. The story feels unfocused. I wish that Waid would focus more on the Dominators and their plan or this new team that is forming whether it is the Legion of Super Villains or the Legion of Substitute Heroes rather than the robot rebellion. [snip] However, I simply cannot recommend this Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes to anyone other than the most die-hard Supergirl and Legion fans.

Hypno-Hustler and the Mercy Killers wrote in seebelow that he (they?) read this issue first of all the comics he bought instead of saving the money for retirement.

As to the issue...well, it was kinda okay. Waid is failing abjectly at interesting me in the greater milieu of the latest interpretation of the 30th century; nothing in his constructed world compels me in the slightest. But the plots are still boffo: the whole deal with Supergirl's belief that it was all her imagination was really well-done, and this issue gave us a pretty fine locked-door mystery and a nice cliffhanger at the end.

More to come when I find them.

Heroes Con '06, day 1

Not much to report from Charlotte so far.

WizardUniverse reports from the DC Nation panel:

There are no plans for Mon-El to join the Legion of Superheroes.

Of course, that could be parsed many ways - Lar Gand could join under another name, for example, or he could join the Teen Titans.

Nothing yet from Newsarama or CBR.

DeKraker interview: card set, more coming soon

ComicBloc has a long interview with Legion fill-in artist Adam DeKraker. There are some phenomenal shots of his pencil art (including pages from issue 18 and the cover and a page from issue 20) as well as the standard "who are your influences" and "what else are you working on now". Some interesting comments (the most interesting one highlighted in red - Note: see update at the bottom):

AD: I’m really enjoying my work on Legion these days. I’m always proud of being a better artist than I was last time I drew anything, but I’m also always completely aware of how far I have to go. I always wish I had another crack at everything I draw! But the nature of the job is that ya gotta let it go, warts and all. Learn from what didn’t work, and try your best to get it right the next time.

AD: Also on sale this month, I’m sitting in for regular artist Barry Kitson on an issue of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (issue #18). And, I’ll be back on that title for a few issues starting with #20, working over Kitson’s ace layouts with the super talented Mick Gray inking. I’ll also just found out that I’ll be sharing regular pencilling duties with Jan Duursema on the new Star Wars title from Dark Horse, STAR WARS: LEGACY! I also have some trading card artwork for the Upperdeck Titans/Legion set. Dunno when those hit stores.

PMH: Filling in on the Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes sounds like it’s right up your alley. So who is your favorite Legionnaire to draw?

AD: You know, I’m only just becoming familiar with these characters. It’s funny, because the more you draw a character the more ya have affection for them. The first time I draw them, it’s kinda like “Who the hell is this? What’s their deal? What kinda belt is that?” It takes working on them a few times before ya figure ‘em out a bit. I’ve kinda caught some crap for being inconsistent with my interpretations on my first couple passes on these characters. It’s a completely legit criticism—it’s taken getting to know them to kinda settle on what my take on them is gonna be. When it starts to come together, that’s when I really start enjoying drawing them.

An upcoming issue focuses on Cosmic Boy quite a bit, and I think I may have developed a bit of a crush on him. He was really fun to draw—and a lot of that comes from what’s happening to his character in this issue—it’s quite funny and sweet. I’ve enjoyed Timber Wolf, Atom Girl, Karate Kid, and Invisible Kid quite a bit, too. There’s really no character I dislike. It’s such a big cast, it’s gonna take me awhile to really get acquainted with all of ‘em, but I’m looking forward to it!

A new card set too, huh? Here's a list of all of the trading cards we've seen so far over the years. It's deserving of a post all its own one of these days, too. Trivia: No Legionnaire has appeared on a card since the Kingdom Come set in 1996.

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Update: As Scott points out in the comments, the card set is the Vs. System I wrote about back in February. D'oh!

Animated LSH news 39: AJ Vargas, producer (and more)

Combining some info from a recent comment, from Titans Tower, and TitansGo...

TitansGo.net reports that US production on season 1 of the Legion show will wrap next month:

Our Legion crew sources tell us the series will be wrapping up its 1st Season production in late July (scripts, audio, designs & storyboards...only thing left is overseas animation)!

Updates and clarifications to things I wrote here based on a recent Titans Tower post:

• David Slack (IMDB) is a freelancer who wrote one episode. He's not on staff.
  
• Amy Wolfram (IMDB) worked on a couple of episodes. I had reported earlier that she was on staff as a story editor (which I got from TitansGo) but someone with first-hand knowledge tells me that's incorrect, she's a freelancer.
  
• And according to my source, Rob Hoegee is more than just a story editor, he developed the show along with James Tucker (who I had thought all along was the single guiding force) and producer AJ Vargas (IMDB). Vargas was recently an associate producer on Teen Titans.
  

So the only confirmed staff writer we know about so far is Matt Wayne, along with Tucker and Hoegee.

A true story (supposedly)

This cracked me up on several levels. And the Legion is even tangentially involved, so it's on topic. I got it from Comic Geek Speak who got it from Pop Culture Addict. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant.

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THE REASON NOT TO TELL COMIC BOOK COLLECTORS SUPERHERO JOKES

"Hey Sam, you like superheroes?" Diana inquired. I should say I do. I buy around forty dollars worth of comics a week.

"Yeah," I said. Diana had me interested. She's not the type to bring up superheroes.

"Wanna hear a joke then?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied.

"Okay. Superman is flying around with nothing to do and he's bored so he decides he wants to go out for a beer so he goes to Batman's house..."

"Do you mean Wayne Manor or the Batcave?" I queried.

"What difference does it make?" Diana said, annoyed that I had interrupted.

"Well, if Superman was seen going into Wayne Manor it would be suspicious and he might give away Batman's secret identity as Bruce Wayne so he would more likely go to the Batcave - but that's a cave, not a house".

"Okay. Superman goes to the Batcave."

"Okay," I agreed.

"So he asks Batman if he wants to go out for a drink, but Batman says he can't because he has to stay home and feed his bats," Diana continued.

"Why does Batman need to feed the bats in the Batcave?" I asked. "That seems like a waste of time. Does he not have better things to do? It's not like they are pets or anything. Why can't they catch their own dinner like normal bats?"

"That's not the point - alright? He just can't go with Superman because he's busy," Diana retorted.

"Fine," I sighed, "Batman needs to feed the bats. Go on..."

"Alright. So Superman leaves and he goes to Spiderman's house to ask him if he wants to go out for a beer."

"Ummmmm... Diana..." I interrupted.

"What now?" Diana sighed.

"What is Spiderman doing in this story?" I inquired.

"What do you mean?" Diana said in an annoyed voice.

"Well, technically it's impossible for Superman to go and ask Spiderman out for a drink because Superman lives in the DC Universe and Spiderman lives in the Marvel Universe. I mean Superman could ask Green Lantern or Aquaman or the Flash out for a drink, and Spiderman could go for a drink with Captain America and Wolverine but unless Superman went through some weird portal, or unless he was in the midst of a giant cross company event, which is rather unlikely considering that they are just going out for a beer, it's pretty much impossible for Spiderman and Superman to go for a beer. You know what I mean?"

Diana clearly didn't. I didn't want to explain again.

"Never mind. Superman goes to Spiderman's house to ask if he wants to go for a beer," I said.

"Okay. Yeah. But Spiderman said he couldn't because he had to stay home and feed his spiders."

"Hold on a second," I exclaimed, "can you explain to me exactly why Spiderman has spiders?"

"That's not important," Diana stated.

"But it doesn't make sense!" I continued anyways, "Spiderman doesn't keep spiders around. Why would he? And besides, Aunt May and MJ wouldn't put up with that kind of crap even if he wanted to."

Diana glared at me.

"Okay, okay - Spiderman had to feed his spiders."

"Can I go on?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied.

"So Superman leaves and he's flying around and he sees Wonder Woman lying naked on the beach."

"Why would Superman be interested in that?" I questioned her.

"Because he's a man," Diana replied, thinking that she had the better of me this time.

"Well," I replied, "I'm sure if Superman really wanted to see Wonder Woman naked he could have done it lots of times at any Justice League meeting by just using his x-ray vision."

Diana sighed. "Okay - well Wonder Woman is having sex on the beach with the Invisible Man."

"Okay this is just getting ridiculous..." I moaned. "The Invisible Man is a fictional character in a book by H.G. Wells. He's not even a comic book character, unless you include the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but I don't think that counts in the current DC Universe. I'll have to look that one up... I mean, I guess she could be having sex with Invisible Kid from the Legion of the Superheroes but he's from the future - which means that's pretty much impossible. I mean, if they are still in that loopy cross company event Wonder Woman might be having sex with Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four. Hey... what kind of joke is this anyways?" I asked.

"Forget it," Diana said finally fed up. She never did tell me the punch line.

Animated LSH news 38: David Slack, writer

The TitansTower Monitor Room has an update on the former Teen Titans writers who are now working on the Legion animated show, and revealed the writers of a couple of episodes.

David Slack revealed, "While I've been on hiatus [from "Law & Order,"], I've just completed an episode of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES for the illustrious Rob Hoegee."

"Yeah, I was lucky enough to have both Amy [Wolfram] and David come in and do an episode or two," Rob noted. "I'm nearing the last legs of the first season of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES. And as reported, it will air this fall on the Kids-WB! on the CW network. It will be on at 11am just before THE BATMAN."

I assume that means that from a writing and voice acting side, the season is almost finished. The first recording session was in February, which would put this at 4-5 months of work writing/acting per season of 13 episodes, with about 7-8 months of drawing per season.

So far, we know that Slack, Wolfram, Matt Wayne, and Stan Berkowitz have written at least one episode each (or collaborated with someone). Add to that Story Editor Rob Hoegee and Producer James Tucker, and that's six names right there (Wolfram is a Story Editor too). Sounds to this untrained ear like enough writers to tackle a 13-episode season (though of course I have no clue whatsoever what goes into writing a series!).

Rob, care to comment, add, or correct anything?

The Emerald Eye of Ekron?

Update: added LegionWorld link and Dan DiDio quote, per the comments.

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Some people, who are apparently way smarter than I am, are wondering what happened to Alan "Green Lantern" Scott's eye when he came back from outer space recently in "52".

They're wondering if somehow this is the origin of the Emerald Eye of Ekron.

Devon at Seven Hells thinks so, as do a bunch of people who commented there. So did this guy at the ComicBloc forum, and this guy at Kalinara's Pretty Fizzy Paradise, John Hays at Silver Bullet Comics, and this guy at the DC message boards, and this guy at Tom Foss' Fortress of Soliloquy, and Douglas Wolk's 52 Pickup, and this thread on the LegionWorld ...

You may recall that the Eye was seen in the 21st century in the pages of L.E.G.I.O.N. '90 a while back (off and on between issues 11 and 22). Garryn and Marij'n Bek bonded with (or were taken over by, depending on your point of view) the Eye.

Of course, that was pre-Zero Hour. We only saw one in the pre-ZH 30th century (with the Emerald Empress), and a couple in the post-ZH 30th century (found by Kinetix, took over Shrinking Violet, later bonded with the Empress; at one point there were two of them). Read this entry (scroll down a bit) on the history of the pre-ZH and post-ZH Eyes.

Dan Didio to Newsarama, Crisis Counseling #7:

Q: Will Alan Scott's missing eye turn out/be related to the Emerald Eye of Ekron of Legion lore?

DD: I do not believe that is the case but I do know the eye is out there looking for him.

Of course, we all knew that Captain Atom was going to be revealed as Monarch in "Armageddon 2001", too.