Newsarama's "Legion at 50" #2 - Shooter interview, L3W preview

Newsarama's got part 2 of their "Legion at 50" series, this one talking with Jim Shooter.

JS: I also discovered how really wonderful the idea of the Legion is. It’s set in a non-dystopian future, which is refreshing these days, with limitless possibilities. The heroes are young men and women who are ordinary on their own worlds who become heroes because they want to be. They’re off on a magnificently noble, naïve quest to make a difference in the universe. Throw in the raging hormones that come along with their ages and it’s a writer’s dream.

NRAMA: ...Are you on the Legion long-term?

JS: As long as they'll have me.

NRAMA: ...Do you think the Legion will be around another 50 years from now?

JS: It wouldn’t surprise me. There’s something wonderful about this series. Even if it were to go away for a while, it’ll be back.

He also gives credit to the rest of his creative team, which is nice.

Newsarama also has the first five pages of L3W #1, which is 1.5 pages more than we've seen before (the right half of page 4 and all of page 5 are new).

Coming Distractions: Nov. 2008

Coming in November: some Starman/Kingdom Come/JSA stuff, some new Legion stuff (Night Girl, Gazelle, Sizzle and Turtle), a new trade paperback (reprinting LSH v3 #7-13), a couple of old TPBs (Brave and Bold, Superman: Past & Future), and the final issue of "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century".

Looks like "Legion of Three Worlds" is taking the month off, or maybe it's just slipping a week into December where we'd have two issues. Hopefully.

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JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA KINGDOM COME SPECIAL: SUPERMAN #1
Written by Alex Ross
Art and cover by Alex Ross
Variant cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill
Spinning out of the “One World, Under Gog” storyline, the Kingdom Come Superman’s struggle with his place in the world brings a final conflict between the Supermen of Earths 1 and 22! Feeling the weight of his own world’s loss on his shoulders, the transplanted Superman searches for answers to the mystery of his life’s seemingly cursed existence and encounters “old acquaintances” on the way. This is the first fully written and illustrated adventure by KINGDOM COME co-creator Alex Ross, building to the storyline’s conclusion in JUSTICE OF SOCIETY OF AMERICA #22!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Alex Ross), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 5 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US



JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA KINGDOM COME SPECIAL: MAGOG #1
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Fernando Pasarin
Cover by Alex Ross
Variant cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill
He was Lance Corporal David Reid of the Justice Society of America until he was killed in action and resurrected by Gog as his herald - MAGOG. But who is David Reid? Does he truly believe in Gog? And to what lengths will he go in order to find justice in this world?
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Alex Ross), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 12 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US



THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #20
Written by Jack Briglio
Art by Phil Moy & John Stanisci
Cover by Sanford Greene & Nathan Massengill
Metallo journeys to the future for the ultimate power source: Kryptonite! But if he destroys Superman, will the Legion’s fate unravel, as well? Don’t miss the exciting conclusion to this amazing series!
On sale November 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.25 US • FINAL ISSUE



JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA KINGDOM COME SPECIAL: THE KINGDOM #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Fernando Pasarin
Cover by Alex Ross
Variant cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill
Gog rewards those he deems fit. Starman has regained his sanity, Sandman his sleep, Dr. Mid-Nite his sight, Damage his pride and Citizen Steel...? What "wish" will the indestructible hero be granted? And more importantly, what drawbacks do these wishes come with? Plus, Starman's true mission is revealed!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Alex Ross), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 19 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US



JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #21
Written by Geoff Johns & Alex Ross
Art by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill
Cover by Alex Ross
Variant cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill
The penultimate chapter of the epic "One World, Under Gog" explodes here as the Justice Society of America goes to war with one another. Torn between Gog's desire to help the world and the moral cost it comes with, it's old guard vs. the new as the line that was drawn is crossed. But Gog does not like war...
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Alex Ross), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US



THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #48
Written by Jim Shooter
Art and cover by Francis Manapul & Livesay
Legion membership tryouts! Meet Night Girl, Gazelle, Sizzle and Turtle! They’re four candidates with awesome abilities who attempt to prove their mettle and join the greatest super-team of the 31st century. Meanwhile, alien spies gather intelligence about United Planets defenses and assassinate a United Planets government leader!
On sale November 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US



THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD: LORDS OF LUCK TP
Written by Mark Waid
Art by George Pérez & Bob Wiacek
Cover by George Pérez
Now available in trade paperback, this volume collects the first arc of the new series from writer Mark Waid and artist George Pérez. The Book of Destiny calls out to several heroes across time and space in the DCU for an adventure starring Batman, Hal Jordan, Lobo, Supergirl and many more!
Advance-solicited; on sale December 10 • 160 pg, FC, $17.99 US



THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE TP
Written by Paul Levitz
Art by Steve Lightle, Ernie Colon, Keith Giffen, Larry Mahlstedt and others
Cover by Steve Lightle & Larry Mahlstedt
Bursting out of the 1980s comes this tale starring the far future’s greatest heroes! In this volume, you’ll find LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #7-13 as the team discovers a factory hidden between dimensions creating a Sun-Eater. Plus, it’s team leader election time!
Advance-solicited; on sale December 10 • 176 pg, FC, $17.99 US

The cover to this Trade is from LSH v3 #9.




SUPERMAN: PAST AND FUTURE TP
Written by Jerry Siegel, Elliot S. Maggin, Cary Bates and others
Art by Curt Swan, Al Plastino, Keith Pollard and others
Cover by Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino
Follow Superman’s greatest time travel adventures as he experiences eras he never thought possible! This time warping collection features stories originally published from the ’40s through the ’80s including the classic tale “Superman Under the Red Sun” among many, many others!
Advance-solicited; on sale December 17 • 192 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Per the DC Message Boards, this volume contains (among others) Superman 295, with cameos by the Legion, Time Trapper (behind the scenes), and Xenofobe the Green Lantern. See this post for more info on that issue, which was originally supposed to be in a now-cancelled Great Disaster Showcase volume.



JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA SERIES 1 ACTION FIGURES DESIGNED BY ALEX ROSS

Based on the painted covers of the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA series, award-winning artist Alex Ross’ unique interpretations of DC Comics’ Golden Age characters have been turned into action figures! Amazingly realistic, the Justice Society of America figures are must-haves!

These figures are in scale with other Ross-designed series, including Justice and Kingdom Come. Each figure features multiple points of articulation and a base. 4-color peggable window box packaging.

Figures included:
Starman • 7.25” h
Golden Age The Flash • 7.5” h
Golden Age Green Lantern •7.5” h
Sandman • 7.5” h

Advance-solicited; on sale April 15, 2009 * Action Figures * PI

Newsarama loves the Legion

So who'da thunk that Newsarama would be doing a series of articles on the Legion's 50th? The first one, posted yesterday, is called "Legion of Super-Heroes at 50: What Makes the Legion Cool?"

In a fictional landscape inundated with sci-fi versions of the future and superpowered space heroes, the Legion has somehow stuck around and continued to resonate with readers. In celebration of the team's 50th anniversary – and as Legion of 3 Worlds is set to begin – we start a series of Newsarama features this week by talking to a few of the comic book creators who molded the team to find out why the Legion of Super-Heroes has such lasting appeal.

The article has talks with Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, and Dan Abnett.

Johns:

"My favorite superhero stories are the ones that on the surface appear to be a fun, big superhero story, but underneath are really about us," the writer said. "Our struggles with faith, loss, finding inspiration, overcoming our fears, striving to be the best we can be – that's really what Legion of 3 Worlds is about, among many other things.

"And in Smallville, we've got an element of embracing your destiny, or questioning those that tell you who you're supposed to be. There's many more in the episode I'm working on," Johns said of his upcoming television work with the Legion.

Waid:

"I think the size of the group has everything to do with it. The cast is so huge and so sprawling that there's somebody there for everybody," Waid said. "And you get that great sort of feeling of, I'm a fan of this one character that nobody else likes, but that's OK. That's my special attachment to Shrinking Violet or Timberwolf or whatever. It's like when you find this band that nobody else knows is cool yet. You get that sense that I know something that nobody else gets. And I think that's a big part of the Legion's appeal."

Giffen:

"I think this version of the future has lasted so long because the Legion was one of the only ongoing science fiction series that put forward a positive future. That made it stand out," said Keith Giffen, who both drew and wrote Legion of Super-Heroes in the late '80s and early '90s. "There were threats and all that came roaring in, but for the most part, it was flight rings and snazzy headquarters and a fun future. The Legion is the idea that the science we have now did what it was supposed to do and made our lives better. It was a pretty Utopian future. All the different planets were getting along and you never really saw ghettos or any of the Dystopian things that a lot of the futures deal with."

Giffen said it was also fairly unique in that it focused on teens in the future at a time when the audience was made up of mostly kids. "The primary audience back then was young people, and here you had a future through the eyes of young people," he said. "If you're a kid, what's cooler than a club of superhero kids? They had their own clubhouse and everything.

Abnett:

"The Legion has survived because it's a thoroughly appealing future," he said, "and it's deeply tied to the very core of the DC Universe. Let's remember, it's been made over several times, but even the most extreme makeovers have retained the basic essence of the Legion. It's a future that pulses with nostalgia for all of us: this is a feature we've all grown up with, whichever version of it we're nostalgic about."

Coming soon: discussions with Paul Levitz and Jim Shooter.

L3W Pre-Annotations part 3

Here's part 3 of my pre-L3W annotations, getting all of the creators and first appearances up front so the regular issue annotations aren't too long. Part 3 is the Post-Infinite Crisis (current) version.

Some notes:

1. Although we know little of the actual joining order, Mike at Cosmic Teams suggests the order below. He suggests two "waves", those who knew Atom Girl and those who didn't know she was undercover.
   
2. I'm not quite sure what to do about all of the "quasi-Legionnaires" since in theory everyone is deputized. And how many of the Wanderers joined? I'm not going to include them unless it turns out I need to, though I did include Theena.
   
3. For purposes of this list, I'm assuming that the character was created equally by the writer and penciller (which may not be the case every time).
   
4. As before, my rule of thumb is that if a character has the same name, look, and primary backstory as their earlier counterpart, it's the same character and thus the original creator. If it's clearly inspired by a prior character, but not close enough, then I credit both the original and new creators.
   
5. Again, I used Nightcrawler's listing over at Legion World (his "every Legionnaire, ever") and the Legion Wiki as my starting point.
   
6. While doing these lists, I realize there are a number of non-members from all eras that are important - RJ Brande, some of the Subs, Inferno, both sets of Wanderers, Heroes of Lallor, Uncanny Amazers, Dev-Em, Lady Mysa, etc. I'll figure out later if I need another table for them.

So here's the Post-Infinite Crisis version. It looks small, though; did I forget anyone?

Post-Infinite Crisis
Cosmic Boy	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Saturn Girl	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Lightning Lad	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Phantom Girl	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Triplicate Girl	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Star Boy	ADV 282	Otto Binder	George Papp
Micro Lad/Colossal Boy	ACT 267	Otto Binder	Wayne Boring
Atom Girl/Shrinking Violet	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Chameleon	ACT 267	Otto Binder	Wayne Boring
Brainiac 5	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Light Lass	ADV 308	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Element Lad	ADV 307	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Ultra Boy	SBOY 98	Jerry Siegel	Curt Swan
Sun Boy	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Shadow Lass	ADV 365	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Princess Projectra	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Karate Kid	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Dream Girl	ADV 317	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Invisible Kid	ACT 267	Otto Binder	Wayne Boring
Timber Wolf	ADV 327	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Supergirl	ACT 252	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Dream Boy	SG&LSH 18	Mark Waid	Barry Kitson
Mon-El	SBOY 89	Robert Bernstein	George Papp
ERG-1	SBOY 195	Cary Bates	Dave Cockrum
Tenzil Kem	ADV 301	Jerry Siegel	John Forte
Theena	LSHv5 1	Mark Waid	Barry Kitson
Gazelle	LSHv5 38	Jim Shooter	Francis Manapul

Koblish: Annotator Meltdown Imminent

L3W inker Scott Koblish issued this challenge in the Pre-Annotations 1 comments:

I just did a cursory glance at the first 15 pages and you've got your work cut out for you- I hid 2 Nina's in the book, and if you spot them, you will get ... well, I don't know what kind of award there is for something like that, but congrats if you can find them...

Over on his own site, Scott says (emphasis added by me):

A fun project is brewing over at the Legion Omnicom, the host is going to tackle the annotations on the Legion of 3 Worlds book. I've never been on a project where anybody wanted to annotate it, so I wish I had paid LESS attention in high school and spent more time memorizing the Legion of Super-Heroes. I'd love to see the meltdown the annotaors'll have from pages 6 through 15. That's going to be a lot of work, and it's just the beginning as things really get rolling in the issues that follow.

L3W Pre-Annotations part 2

Part 2 of the "Legion of Three Worlds" pre-annotations, listing the Legionnaires, their first appearances, and creators. This one was a lot easier than part 1, which had to combine everything from Pre-Crisis to Mordruverse to Lightning Saga. Here, there's only one Post-Zero Hour timeline.

Some notes:

1. For purposes of this list, I'm assuming that the character was created equally by the writer and penciller (which may not be the case every time).
   
2. My rule of thumb is that if a character has the same name, look, and primary backstory as their Pre-ZH counterpart, it's the same character and thus the original creator. If it's clearly inspired by a Pre-ZH character, but not close enough, then I credit both the original and new creators (e.g., Wildfire and Sensor).
   
3. For this list, I used Nightcrawler's listing over at Legion World (his "every Legionnaire, ever") and the list of Legionnaires from the Legion Wiki.
   
4. I've also excluded the far future Legionnaires from the "Dead Earths" and "DC 1 Million" stories, with the exception of Thunder, who came from the future to join the Legion.
   

So here's the Post-Zero Hour reboot list:

Post-Zero Hour
Cosmic Boy	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Saturn Girl	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Live Wire	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Triad	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Apparition	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Chameleon	ACT 267	Otto Binder	Wayne Boring
Leviathan	ACT 267	Otto Binder	Wayne Boring
Invisible Kid	ACT 267	Otto Binder	Wayne Boring
XS	LGS 0	Mark Waid, Tom McCraw	Jeff Moy
Kid Quantum I	LSHv4 33	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	David A. Williams
Brainiac 5 / Brainiac 5.1	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Spark	ADV 308	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Shrinking Violet / Violet / Leviathan II	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Kinetix	LSHv4 66	Mark Waid, Tom McCraw	Lee Moder
Andromeda / Sister Andromeda	LSHv4 5	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Star Boy	ADV 282	Otto Binder	George Papp
Gates	LSHv4 66	Mark Waid, Tom McCraw	Lee Moder
Superboy (Kon-El)	ADVSU 500	Karl Kesel	Tom Grummett
Element Lad	ADV 307	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Ultra Boy	SBOY 98	Jerry Siegel	Curt Swan
Valor / M'Onel	SBOY 89	Robert Bernstein	George Papp
Magno	LGS 43	Roger Stern, Tom McCraw	Jeff Moy
Umbra	ADV 365	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Sensor	ADV 346 LGS 43	Jim Shooter Roger Stern, Tom McCraw	Sheldon Moldoff Jeff Moy
Inferno II	LSHv4 64	Mark Waid, Tom McCraw	Lee Moder
Ferro	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Impulse	FLSHv2 91	Mark Waid	Mike Wieringo
Monstress	LSHv4 82	Tom McCraw, Tom Peyer	Lee Moder
Karate Kid	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Kid Quantum II	LSHv4 82	Tom McCraw, Tom Peyer	Lee Moder
Thunder	PSHZ An1	Jerry Ordway	Mike Manley
Wildfire	SBOY 195 LGS 74	Cary Bates Roger Stern, Tom McCraw, Carmela Merlo	Dave Cockrum Jeff Moy
Shikari	LLOST 1	Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning	Olivier Coipel
Chuck Taine	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Gear	LSHv4 117	Tom McCraw, Tom Peyer	Scott Kolins
Timber Wolf	ADV 327	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Dreamer	ADV 317	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte