The main communication device of the Legion of Super-Heroes
Here are the Legion-related figures from the new "Arkham Asylum" set of Heroclix.
Interestingly, the three villains are in their "Absolute Power" costumes, from the out-of-continuity arc of the same name in "Superman/Batman" #14-18 (and reprinted in the Superman/Batman Vol. 3: Absolute Power
032 LIGHTNING LORD (veteran)
037 ELEMENT LAD (rookie)
039 COSMIC KING (veteran)
057 SATURN QUEEN (veteran)
Coming up in January: the final issue of LSH v5. And JSA (with Starman) - that's it for the month, unless I missed something in the reprints. Legion of Three Worlds #5 will ship in February.
THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #50
Written by Jim Shooter
Art and cover by Francis Manapul & Livesay
It’s the final issue! The climactic conclusion of the Universal Annihilation War is here and every Legionnaire, every reservist and even the United Planets’ Young Heroes battle to save existence. Also featuring the return of Cosmic Boy, the death of a longtime Legionaire and a gorgeous wraparound cover!
FINAL ISSUE On sale January 28 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #23
Written by Geoff Johns & Alex Ross
Art by Dale Eaglesham
& Nathan Massengill
Cover by Alex Ross
“Black Adam and Isis” part 1 and a “Faces of Evil” issue! The new Justice Society regroups just in time to face one of their greatest and most personal enemies — Black Adam! The sorcerer Felix Faust has imprisoned the soul of Isis, Black Adam's deceased wife. But the Black Marvel just figured that out, and nothing will save Faust from his wrath — nothing except maybe the Justice Society of America. And everybody will be in for a surprise when they discover how Isis has changed since her death at the hands of the Four Horsemen. Will she be a friend to the world — or will she be its destruction?
On sale January 28 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Oops, I forgot to post the answers to the last trivia quiz from last week. The theme for the month was villains.
1. Who was Jan Jor?
In the Adult Legion story of Adventure Comics #354, when the Legionnaires are checking through the records of former members who have had criminal records, a person on the screen named Jan Jor, who is 32 years of age in 2983 (or born in 2951) would have been 13 around this time. It is possible, then, that the yellow-costumed youth's name is Jan Jor [aka False Pretenses Lad], according to at least one site's speculation.
My answers were Composite Superman and B.I.O.N. I had forgotten about Amalgamax, who was Composite Superman 2.0, and Composite Man from the post-Zero Hour Legion. Someone offered Mask Man from ADV 310, but he was a Mr. Mxyzptlk descendant who I don't recall having the abilities of all the Legionnaires. I could be wrong.
Anonymous for the win! Impressively, s/he got all of them:
* Mon-El used the name Bob Cobb and masqueraded as Clark Kent's cousin, a traveling salesman.
* Shadow Lass and stayed with the Langs and passed herself off as exchange student Betsy Norcross.
* Triplicate Girl portrayed Marie Elkins, a relative of Chief Parker's wife.
Lightning Lord - Lightning Lad
Saturn Queen or Esper Lass - Saturn Girl
Cosmic King - Element Lad
Sun Emperor or Beauty Blaze - Sun Boy
Micro Lad - Shrinking Violet
Magno Lad - Cosmic Boy
Ol-Vir - Mon-El
Chameleon Chief could change the forms of other things around him, so he wasn't a counterpart of Chameleon Boy. And Phantom Lad wasn't in the LSV.
I deliberately left this vague to see what people would come up with. I was going for "first appearance" as in the first time we actually read a story about him, which would have been ADV 369-370. The White Witch helped defeat Mordru; Pete Ross, guessed by someone else, also fits here, though I should have said "future Legionnaire" since I was only looking for the Witch.
Anon again: Chameleon Boy was serving time on Takron-Galtos, and Shrinking Violet was secretly a captive of the Imsk Liberation Front. Although, if he was in jail, was Cham considered active duty at the time?
Khunds, Dominators, Durlans, Daxamites, Imskians, and the Gil'Dishpan.
As usual, you guys got some that I had missed, but there are still ones you didn't get. I was looking for issue #1's of a Legion-related series, not necessarily all #1's that the Legion or a Legionnaire was in (so that drops out things like the Adventure Comics 80-Page Giant #1 and Unlimited Access #1, and all of the various Superman, Superboy, and Supergirl series). The ones on my list that you missed:
* Legion of Substitute Heroes Special
* Legion of Super-Heroes Archives
* Official Legion of Super-Heroes Index
* Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes
Also check out the annotations by Douglas Wolk and Tim Callahan.
For first appearances and creators of all the characters, see these pre-annotations for the Pre-Zero Hour Legion (including Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, Glorithverse, and Lightning Saga), Post-Zero Hour Legion, Post-Infinite Crisis Legion, and villains.
My annotations for issue #1 (main, follow-up).
I'm not quite sure who these guys are Subs for, but there's a site that just went live that features Legion-oriented podcasts (mp3 files for downloading or streaming). They call themselves the Legion of Substitute Podcasters, and they can be found at http://www.legionofsubstitutepodcasters.com/. I've also added them to my blogroll on the left.
We’ve heard that people have a tough time understanding the Legion of Super Heroes. It’s hard to keep track of which Lad, Lass, Boy or Girl is which.
Let us make that a lot easier for you.
Join Paul French, Ric Croxton, Darren Nowell, and our mystery Legionnaire for a fun ride through the history of the future!
Update: this isn't new news, it's been on the Kryptonsite spoilers page for a couple weeks.
Via Tombstone25, here's an alleged summary of the Legion episode of "Smallville". Warning, here be potential spoilers!
- 8x11 Legion:
This episode is written by Geoff Johns and directed by Glen Winter. It's three superheroes - Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad (although they might not use those names) — on a mission from Superman in the future. The threat of Brainiac - who has taken over Chloe's body - brings three super-heroes from the future back to the past. Eventually they work together to try and separate Chloe from her Brainiac side. This episode features a Legion villain that Johns himself is surprised he was able to use. No word on who yet, but it could be Darkseid, Mordru, or the Time Trapper. Erica Durance [Lois Lane], Aaron Ashmore [Jimmy Olsen], Cassidy Freeman [Tess], and Justin Hartley [Oliver Queen/Green Arrow] do not appear in this episode.
Looks like it'll be a late night for me this Wednesday as I put up the annotations for L3W #2.
Inker Scott Koblish has a few teasers for us on his page. From last Monday:
Issue number two of FC: Legion of 3 Worlds comes out in around 8 days, I'm exceptionally proud of how well that book came out - I've seen the color and Brian Miller and co. did an absolutely fantastic job. I don't think i've ever been on a book where there have been as many individual characters, just a cursory count puts it at well over 100, and Brian did mersmerizingly great work. I wish I could share it with everybody right now, but patience is a virtue, and good things come to those who wait.
Lotsa stuff in issue 2: Lotsa villains, lotsa Legionnaires. Hope everyone likes it.
The new Legion of Super-Villains team in "Legion of Three Worlds" is a collection of the worst of the worst bad guys who have plagued the Legion over the years. (Note that issue #2 is scheduled for next week, October 15th; issue #3 for Dec. 3rd; and issue #4 for Dec. 24th.) Here are some villainous questions:
1. Who was Jan Jor?
2. Which villain(s) possessed all (or nearly all) of the Legionnaires' powers?
3. We know who used the names Bob Cobb, Betsy Norcross, and Marie Elkins while in 20th century Smallville fleeing Mordru. But what were their cover stories: who were Bob, Betsy, and Marie?
4. Of the members of the LSV, who were direct (or nearly so) counterparts of Legionnaires in terms of powers?
5. Which non-Legionnaire helped the Legion defeat Mordru in his first appearance?
6. On the other hand, which two then-active Legionnaires did not help fight Darkseid in the Great Darkness Saga, and why?
7. Which Legion-centric alien races, pretty much never before seen in the 20th century, aided in the invasion of Earth in the INVASION! miniseries?
BONUS ROUND
8. In "honor" of the impending cancellation of LSH v5 with #50 and the inevitable subsequent relaunch of LSH v6 #1, name as many of the issue #1's the Legion has ever had as you can. Include series and miniseries starring individual Legionnaires, small groups of Legionnaires, or anyone closely related to the Legion.
A couple of months ago I set up a poll to see what you thought the sales would look like on the first issue of "Legion of Three Worlds". Well, the results are in.
It's a good thing that exactly 100 people voted. That makes the math much easier. The most popular vote was 60,001-70,000 with 27%, followed by 50,001-60,000 at 23%. Actual sales as reported by THE BEAT: 68,306. (I had predicted a start in the 70s, so I wasn't far off.)
20 - FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS
08/2008: Legion of 3 Worlds #1 of 3 — 68,306
22 - DC UNIVERSE: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
08/2008: Last Will and Testament #1 — 67,063
26 - FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND
08/2008: Superman Beyond #1 of 2 — 63,137
29 - FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS
08/2008: Revelations #1 of 5 — 58,434
Following the pattern established by Final Crisis and Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, August’s new set of spin-off titles all come in with underwhelming sales.
They seem to be in the same league as the competition’s Secret Invasion: Thor, Secret Invasion: X-Men and Secret Invasion: The Amazing Spider-Man, granted, but let’s keep in mind that those books provide random and repetitive punch-’em-ups which are cursory at best to Secret Invasion proper. The Final Crisis spin-offs, on the other hand, were promoted as major parts of the storyline and are by the company’s top-flight creative personnel.
That none of them managed to crack 70,000 units certainly supports the notion that the market was tired of Final Crisis long before the first issue shipped. The fact that their debut issues are all cuddling up within 10,000 units of each other also suggests that retailers didn’t quite know what to do with them, mind you, so it’s still possible that we’re going to see some major corrections in the next few months.
Record of gimmicks: All of these comics were supported with 50/50 variant-cover editions. All of them had a $ 3.99 price tag, except for Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1, which was $ 4.50 and came with a set of cardboard 3D goggles.
More stuff:
But I still think DC treated [Shooter] badly. After months of rumors that he was being canned from Legion, and months of speculation that Legion of 3 Worlds meant that Geoff Johns' version of the Legion was taking over, DC made only the most terse and non-committal of public denials. And now the other shoe drops--he's not being replaced, Legion is being canceled. Before Shooter's storyline is fully finished. Just coincidentally immediately after LO3W finishes.
... So. After all the fanfare about hiring him, it's buh-bye. Go peddle your wares elsewhere. DC used Shooter as stunt casting, and then tossed him aside. Whether it's because the sales were too low, or because Geoff Johns cleared his throat, Shooter deserved better.
Secondly, we should note that the while Legion has been on "hiatus" before, the was usually an intervening mini-series, such as Legion Lost or Legion Worlds. DC may already have something planned, and is just playing this pretty close to the vest until they're ready to announce. But if they don't, this "hiatus" will mean that, for the first time in almost half a century, DC won't be publishing any Legion of Super-Heroes. Happy 50th, Legion!!
Hughes explained why he was drawn to comics as opposed to advertising, where his slick artistic style could make him a lot of money. The answer for Hughes? Total creative freedom. “DC asked me for a cover of Supergirl at one point,” Hughes said. “But they didn’t tell me anything else. I was like — any editorial direction, please? Is she in a bikini? A parka? What?” Hughes then said that very cover soon became a poster and a print.
But I did get a chance to thumb through a few of Shooter's Legion of Super-Heroes scripts at the Baltimore Comic-Con, and I found them to be fascinating. Not because of the quality of the writing, necessarily, but because of their density, and their length. I've seen a few scripts by some of today's top writers -- Morrison, Fraction, Aaron -- and all of them have relatively short panel descriptions and just maybe a few quick links to online reference material. Shooter's scripts are not quite Alan Moore thick, but they're close. Each one must have been about 50 or 60 pages, including extensive panel descriptions and lengthy supplemental material with images and descriptions of the look Shooter was going for.
“The Threeboot Legion never really lived up to its potential,” said Elmslie, who contributed to Timothy Callahan’s Teenagers From the Future: Essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes. “Mark Waid, followed ably by [Tony] Bedard and Shooter, built a lot of strengths into it, including a plausible, well-conceived premise for the Legion’s place in the world, and the strongest and most subtle characterization the Legionnaires have ever had. (And Kitson’s art — followed ably by [Dennis] Calero and Manapul — was tremendous.) But the stories were too long and slow, the villains were mostly ciphers, and fans were split on whether Waid’s innovations were any good or not. Still, if we had to pick one of the three Legions to star in a comic book … the Threeboot version has the most story potential going forward.”
In the wake of the “Legion Of Superheroes” cancellation LITG’d back here, I can confirm that Tony Bedard is writing a new “L.E.G.I.O.N” series based on the eighties/nineties series.
More San Diego creator talk tells me that the Jim Shooter’s "Legion Of Super Heroes" title ends with issue #50.
It will be replaced with a new Tony Bedard LSH project, and the Levitz/Giffen Legion project will also see publication.
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.
...Not that DC canceling stuff or a Legion title biting the dust is ever news, but I had to wonder: how many times out in official fashion is that for this series? Six? Seven? Eight?
So here's a bunch of stuff I was going to get to before we heard about the latest cancellation (more on that in another post, this is for non-cancellation stuff), still trying to dig out from under my Hurricane Ike-imposed internet blackout.
The Supergirl/Superman interaction with the Legion of Super-Heroes was asked about, given that Superman now had spent time with the "original" Legion and Supergirl logged some hours alongside Waid and Kitson's “threeboot” Legion. Geoff Johns assured the fans that the overlap would be made clear.
...The current reintroduction of the Science Police was brought up and it was asked if they were tied to the Legion Science Police. Robinson promised an upcoming arc featuring the secret behind the Science Police.
...The Superman team does have plans for Mon-El.
Here are the first issues of v1, v2, v3, v4, and v5. Coming soon: v6 #1.
As has been speculated and predicted, the current Legion series will end with issue #50, according to news out of the Baltimore Comic Con.
Via Newsarama:
DC Comics confirmed for Newsarama at Baltimore Comic Con that Legion of Super-Heroes, the ongoing series that relaunched the fan-favorite, teenage team from the future, will be canceled with issue #50 after a four-year run.
"We're going to bring a close to the Legion of Super-Heroes now," said DC Senior VP and Executive Editor Dan DiDio. "There's a lot going on with the characters. I thought that [writer] Jim [Shooter] and [artist] Francis [Manapul] have done a terrific job with the series, and '50' seemed like a really nice number to bring this series to a conclusion."
However, Legion characters aren't going away, DiDio said. "We've got a lot of plans and a lot of thought for the Legion right now, but coming out of the Legion of 3 Worlds, we're going to let the characters rest for a little bit and see where we go from there," he said.
Shooter, the current writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes ongoing comic, told Newsarama in Baltimore that he found out about a month ago that the series was canceled with Issue #50.
"It's a drag, but I get to finish most of my story. It would have finished in Issue #54, but Issue #50 is going to be a 30-page story, and I'm hoping people will be intrigued enough that they'll want to finish the story. So we'll see," Shooter said. "I understand new comics sales are not doing so well right now. Which is weird. Just look at this crowd. Everyone seems so excited about comics. They're buying something."
Shooter said his story will come to a climax in the next few issues as he finishes up the "One Evil" storyline.
...Because he's been writing the Legion so much lately, Johns has been asked frequently by fans during DC panels at conventions if he would write the team in an ongoing series. His answer has always been that he'd love to do it. So Newsarama asked DiDio: Is it possible there will be a Johns-penned series featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future?
"You know what? I think we'd love Geoff to write everything right now. But realistically, he's got a pretty full slate with everything that's going on," DiDio said. "He's got Flash, Green Lantern, JSA, Action, and specials coming up because this thing called Blackest Night is looming. But I'm sure that the Legion will stay close to Geoff and near and dear to him as well, and you'll probably see some of them appear through some of his runs down the line. I don't want to give too much away. But there's always plans for the Legion. They're an important part of the DC Universe. And more importantly, I think we've done a great job with the story. I think Jim and Francis have done a great job bringing it to an end. And after Legion of 3 Worlds, there will be more opportunities, so we're going to explore those after that series concludes."
At this weekend's Baltimore Comic Con, here's the Legion news from the DC Nation panel.
Via CBR:
Geoff Johns added that the Legion of Super Heroes appearance in “Smallville” will be airing in February. There will be a villain from the Legion’s time that Johns can’t believe they let him use.
Q: Who’s in the lightning rod the Legion has?
A: Johns: “We will see that in Legion of 3 Worlds #3.”
Q: What story is Johns telling with the Legion on Smallville?
A: “If you know the origin, you know the story that’s coming,” Johns said. “But there is a villain from the Legion’s time that I can’t believe they let me put in there.”
Q: Is there any Legion of Super-Heroes news about the future of the team?
A: Johns: “The future of the Legion of Super-Heroes is in Legion of 3 Worlds - and it will have a lot of stuff in it that will affect the modern day DCU.”
Q: Is Glorith in Legion of 3 Worlds?
A: Johns: “She’s mentioned. You might now be happy about it.”
[Wonder if this is a typo, if it should be "not" instead of "now".]
Q: Will the Legion appear in more than the one episode of Smallville?
A: It’s a one episode thing, Johns said, adding that the appearance will have ramifications throughout the season.
A few posts down, I asked you for what you thought were "the five worst ideas in the 50 year history of the Legion".
Here are mine, in chronological order:
1. "How about if we take our two top-selling books in the entire company, make them direct-sales only, and then replace the regular book with reprints?"
2. "These Bierbaums, they're long-time fans. Even though they have limited industry experience, they must have some good ideas. Let's pair them with a strong co-writer and a hands-off editor."
3. "Don't worry, the Superman reboot won't affect the Legion. We have a fool-proof plan to keep everything in continuity."
4. "Legion continuity is irretrievably broken. We have no choice but to completely reboot the series."
5. "Let's reboot the series again. We can get new readers, obliquely tie into a popular miniseries, and besides, the fans are already used to reboots."
I don't know about the rest of you, but "The Amazing Race" is one of my favorite shows on TV, and it's just about the only "reality" show I really want to be on. In a nutshell, in case you're unfamiliar with it, teams of two people (with a pre-existing relationship, like friends/co-workers/siblings/etc.) travel around the world following clues and performing activities local to that location; the last to check in at a designated pit stop is eliminated. It's way better than I just made it sound, though.
Anyway, one of the teams this year is Mark and Bill. They are racing to fill the "nerd team" slot on the show. They're actually Mark Yturralde and Bill Kahler, longtime friends and comic book fans. Mark is the Treasurer for the San Diego Comic-Con (who I actually met once, years ago, making him the only Racer I've ever met).
Here's an excerpt from an interview they did with Reality Heaven:
Reality Heaven: When did you both begin collecting comic books?
Mark: I have always loved comics as far as I can remember. I remember the 1st comic I bought with my own money was the wedding of Sue and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.
Bill: I remember reading other kids’ comic books when I was really young, but I’m pretty sure my first comic book purchase was Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #201. It was one of those 100-page comic books they used to sell in the 1970s; I think I got it because it was extra-big, but still just “one comic book”. [Note: the 100-Page Giant issues were actually #202, 205, and 208; #201 was a regular sized issue.]
Reality Heaven: Favorite artists?
Mark: David Lapham, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Dean Yeagle, Joe Chido, Joe Linser
Bill: Mike Grell (who drew _Legion_ back when I started reading it), John Cassaday (_Planetary_), Alex Ross, Dave McKean, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Adam Hughes
Reality Heaven: Favorite superheroes, if any?
Mark: Mr. Fantastic, Green Lantern, The Metal Men, Black Canary, Firestorm, Legion of Super Heroes.
Bill: Batman, Firestorm, The Doom Patrol, Spider-Man, and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Update: Never mind. Ben Jones, one of the B&B producers, said the Empress "news" stems from a false report. Disregard what you read below. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along, move along.
The World's Finest has obtained the updated character roster for the upcoming Batman: The Brave and The Bold animated series.
Below is the updated list of characters scheduled to appear on Batman: The Brave and The Bold alongside Batman, in alphabetical order and divided by status.
At last weekend's Diamond Retailer Summit in Las Vegas, one of the RRP (Retailer Roundtable Program) variants given out was a sketch cover of "Legion of 3 Worlds" #1:
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