L3W Pre-Annotations part 1

Update #1, Aug. 15: added some more code names, added names of readers who suggested characters from "Bits of Legionnaire Business", added Command Kid

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Here's part 1 of my "Legion of Three Worlds" pre-annotations. Up first, the list of Pre-Zero Hour Legionnaires with their creators and first appearances. Part 2 will be the Post-Zero Hour Legion, and Part 3 will be the current Post-Infinite Crisis Legion. This is so I don't make the L3W annotations bigger than they are already likely to be. Anyone appearing who's not on these lists, I'll cover in the body of the annotations.

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). Exception: Dawnstar was created by Grell and Levitz, though Grell left the book right before he drew the issue. And I'm not counting where the character was suggested in a "Bits of Legionnaire Business" column, unless you think I should.
2. I'm also assuming that a character's creator remains the same regardless of which continuity he/she came from - so for example, all the different Garth Ranzzes from pre-Crisis, post-Zero Hour, and the current version, were all created by Binder and Plastino.
3. I'm not a masochist - I'm going to use resources that are already out there. And for this list, I have to thank Nightcrawler over at Legion World for putting together a list of "every Legionnaire, ever" since that's what George Perez has said he wanted to do. That's where this list starts.
4. However, from that list, I'm excluding those pre-ZH instances where villains joined via some sort of trickery (like Universo, the LSV, Command Kid, and Dynamo Boy) or when people were "allowed" to join for some reason (the Murran spies, Proty and Comet in human form) while keeping in the Honorary Legionnaires and Reservists.
5. I'm also excluding the Imaginary Story/Alternate Universe/Elseworlds/animated versions of the Legion (which means no Adult Legion joiners).

There's going to be a LOT of people in this series. L3W inker Scott Koblish said on LegionWorld that "I'm pretty sure George will get 'em all in there. The first issue has cameos galore, quite a number of them not even listed in the big list at the head of this thread, and the second issue blows the doors off the first. Hang tight Legion fans!"

So here goes... Pre-Annotations part 1a, the Pre-Zero Hour Legion, which includes the Pre-Crisis version (Adventure 247 through the Crisis), the post-Crisis version (Crisis through the Five Year Gap), the Glorithverse version, the SW6 Legionnaires, and the Lightning Saga version. I'm only including their original or most common code name.

In order of joining:

Pre-Crisis
Cosmic Boy / Polestar	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Saturn Girl	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Lightning Lad	ADV 247	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Triplicate Girl / Duo Damsel / Duplicate Damsel / Una / Triad	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Phantom Girl / Phase / Apparition	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Chameleon Boy / Chameleon	ACT 267	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Colossal Boy / Leviathan	ACT 267	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Invisible Kid	ACT 267	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Star Boy / Starman	ADV 282	Otto Binder	George Papp
Supergirl	ACT 252	Otto Binder	Al Plastino
Brainiac 5	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Shrinking Violet / Virus	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Superboy / Superman	MF 101 / ADV 247	Jerry Siegel	Joe Shuster
Sun Boy / Inferno	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Bouncing Boy	ACT 276	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Ultra Boy / Emerald Dragon	SBOY 98	Jerry Siegel	Curt Swan
Pete Ross	SBOY 86 / SBOY 98	Robert Bernstein	George Papp
Mon-El / Valor	SBOY 89	Robert Bernstein	George Papp
Matter-Eater Lad	ADV 301	Jerry Siegel	John Forte
Element Lad / Alchemist	ADV 307	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Lightning Lass / Light Lass / Pulse / Gossamer	ADV 308	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Elastic Lad	SMAN 13 / SPJO 72	Jerry Siegel	Leo Nowak
Dream Girl	ADV 317	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
"False Pretenses Lad"	ADV 327	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Command Kid	ADV 328	Jerry Siegel	Jim Mooney
Kid Psycho	SBOY 125	Otto Binder	George Papp
Princess Projectra / Queen Projectra / Sensor Girl	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Nemesis Kid	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Ferro Lad / Ferro	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Karate Kid	ADV 346	Jim Shooter	Sheldon Moldoff
Insect Queen	SBOY 10 / ADV 355	Bill Finger	John Sikela
Rond Vidar / Green Lantern	ADV 349	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Shadow Lass	ADV 365	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Chemical King	ADV 371	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Timber Wolf / Furball	ADV 327	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Wildfire / ERG-1 / NRG	SBOY 195	Cary Bates	Dave Cockrum
Tyroc	SBOY 216	Cary Bates	Mike Grell
Dawnstar / Bounty	SBOY 226	Paul Levitz	Mike Grell
Blok	SBOY 253	Gerry Conway	Joe Staton
Invisible Kid II	LSHv2 An1	Paul Levitz	Keith Giffen
White Witch / Jewel	ADV 350	E. Nelson Bridwell	Curt Swan
Post-Crisis
Polar Boy	ADV 306	Edmond Hamilton, Buddy La Vigne	John Forte
Magnetic Kid II	ADV 335	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Tellus	LSHv3 9	Paul Levitz	Steve Lightle
Quislet	LSHv2 304	Paul Levitz	Keith Giffen
Five Year Gap
Nightwind	LSHv2 272	Gerry Conway, Robert Harris	Steve Ditko
Impulse I / Kent Shakespeare	LSHv4 12	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Karate Kid II	LSHv3 13	Paul Levitz	Steve Lightle
Atmos	LSHv3 32	Paul Levitz	Greg LaRocque
Echo	ADV 355	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Crystal Kid	LSHv2 272	Gerry Conway, Robert Cohen	Steve Ditko
Reflecto II	ADV 355	Jim Shooter	Curt Swan
Fire Lad	ADV 306	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Chlorophyll Kid	ADV 306	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Porcupine Pete	SBOY 201	Cary Bates	Dave Cockrum
Infectious Lass	SBOY 201	Cary Bates	Dave Cockrum
Visi-Lad	LSHv3 An3	Paul Levitz	Greg LaRocque
Stone Boy	ADV 306	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte
Color Kid	ADV 342	Edmond Hamilton, Jeff Greenberg, Leslie Leibow	Curt Swan
Storm Boy	ADV 301	Jerry Siegel	John Forte
Calamity King	ADV 342	Edmond Hamilton	Curt Swan
Glorithverse
Laurel Gand / Andromeda	LSHv4 5	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Kono	LSHv4 2	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Celeste Rockfish / Celeste McCauley / Neon	LSHv4 6	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Kid Quantum I	LSHv4 33	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	David A. Williams
Catspaw	LSHv4 33	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	David A. Williams
Computo II	LSHv2 An1	Paul Levitz	Keith Giffen
Dragonmage	LSHv4 41	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	Chris Sprouse
Devlin O'Ryan	LSHv4 6	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Ivy	LSHv4 12	Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon	Keith Giffen
Firefist	LSHv4 44	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	Stuart Immonen
Veilmist	LSHv4 44	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	Stuart Immonen
Blood Claw	LSHv4 44	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	Stuart Immonen
Flederweb	LSHv4 44	Tom & Mary Bierbaum	Stuart Immonen
Spider Girl / Wave	ADV 323	Jerry Siegel, Jim Tilley	John Forte
Lightning Saga
Chameleon Girl	LSHv2 287	Paul Levitz	Keith Giffen
Night Girl	ADV 306	Edmond Hamilton	John Forte

Annotated "Legion of Three Worlds"

Issue #1 of "Legion of Three Worlds" comes out next week, and I intend to provide annotations. But I'm going to need help: my arcane knowledge and trivia retention is focused mostly on the Pre-Crisis Legion, and I remember far less about the Post-Zero Hour Legion or even the current Waid/Kitson/Shooter/Manapul version.

I'm not sure if the Legion World message board or Matthew Elmslie's Legion Abstract will be doing annotations, but I'll be checking out these for stuff I missed:

• Doug Wolk's "Final Crisis Annotations"
  
• Gary Greenwood's "The Annotated Final Crisis"
  
• Malaysian Comics Fan (MCF)'s Final Crisis Annotations
  
• Jim Drew's Frunt
  
• The Legion Wiki (written in large part by Reboot and Craigopher)

So that means I'll be relying on you guys to help me out - I'll have the first draft out on Wednesday night, so check back then and help me fill in the blanks and make corrections. Between now and next Wednesday I'll be doing a "created by/first appeared" feature so that I don't get bogged down with that while I'm doing the writeups. I hope you're ready for the challenge...

Bits of Legionnaire Business

• Paul Levitz discusses the San Diego Comic Con at his regular column on Newsarama.
  

  Favorite moments at Comicon, not counting the Clampett: ... Holding Keith Giffen back from announcing we’d do a new LEGION run to a panel room of 700 dedicated Legion fans by reminding him that he’d have to get my wife to agree, and Science Police officers are armed. (Honest, I’d love to do if my travel schedule ever lightens up again.)

  
  Recall that Giffen kept wanting to say that he and Levitz were going after the Legion again, but Giffen always said "Levitz still hasn't said no", so it's not like they were actually announcing anything.
  
  
• Pat at Silver Age Comics has a weekly trivia quiz; last week's was about the Legion. Your humble host here didn't get them all. Here are the questions (with readers answers in the comments), and here are the answers.
  
  
• Darren has the "Top Ten thirty-first century swear words from Jim Shooter's current run on the Legion of Super-Heroes". Complete with speech and thought balloons for context.
  
  
• Writer J. Torres introduces us to what he calls the "Flight Ring Arc" over in the LSH31C comic.
  
  
• CBR finally has its writeup on the Legion panel from San Diego (almost 3 weeks late).
  

Hope everyone's having a good Klordny Week! My birthday (on the 13th) is the reason that we celebrate Klordny when we do.

Legion of Three Worlds Poll (updated)

Woohoo, my first poll! How well (or poorly) do you think "Legion of Three Worlds" is going to do? I've updated this to add a second poll, the first for how well the first issue will do, and the second for how well the last issue will do.

For official results, we'll use the data that's published on THE BEAT (such as this sales chart from June). Here are some relevant statistics with Final Crisis and related spinoffs:

3 - FINAL CRISIS
05/2008: Final Crisis #1 of 7 — 144,826 [151,704]
06/2008: Final Crisis #2 of 7 — 126,082 (-12.9%)

78 - SALVATION RUN
11/2007: Salvation Run #1 of 7 — 40,531
12/2007: Salvation Run #2 of 7 — 28,938 (-28.6%)
01/2008: Salvation Run #3 of 7 — 26,828 (- 7.3%)
02/2008: Salvation Run #4 of 7 — 25,899 (- 3.5%)
03/2008: Salvation Run #5 of 7 — 25,790 (- 0.4%)
04/2008: Salvation Run #6 of 7 — 26,278 (+ 1.9%)
05/2008: –
06/2008: Salvation Run #7 of 7 — 28,207 (+ 7.3%)

82 - RANN/THANAGAR: HOLY WAR
05/2008: Holy War #1 of 8 — 37,179
06/2008: Holy War #2 of 8 — 26,446 (-28.9%)

Legion #43 shipped late, so wasn't included in the June listings, but here are the numbers from the May post (Shooter's first issue was #37), and the issues from the Superman & The Legion story in Action (#858-863, with 2 issues on either side for comparison):

12/2007: Legion of SH #37 — 45,803 (+70.8%)
01/2008: Legion of SH #38 — 33,045 (-27.9%)
02/2008: Legion of SH #39 — 31,123 (- 5.8%)
03/2008: Legion of SH #40 — 30,377 (- 2.4%)
04/2008: Legion of SH #41 — 28,939 (- 4.7%)
05/2008: Legion of SH #42 — 27,940 (- 3.5%)

10/2007: Action Comics #856 — 53,815 (- 3.1%)
10/2007: Action Comics #857 — 51,401 (- 4.5%)
10/2007: Action Comics #858 — 54,596 (+ 6.2%) [59,031]
11/2007: Action Comics #859 — 54,572 (- 0.0%)
12/2007: Action Comics #860 — 56,254 (+ 3.1%)
01/2008: Action Comics #861 — 56,093 (- 0.3%)
02/2008: Action Comics #862 — 55,658 (- 0.8%)
03/2008: –
04/2008: Action Comics #863 — 56,882 (+ 2.2%)
04/2008: Action Comics #864 — 48,438 (-14.9%)
05/2008: Action Comics #865 — 46,764 (- 3.5%)


My vote: due to the names Geoff Johns, George Perez, and Final Crisis, I'm going to say it'll start in the 70's.

Johns: More on L3W

Believe it or not, Geoff Johns hasn't said everything he's going to say about "Legion of Three Worlds" yet. Here's a new interview with CBR, in which we read a lot that we've heard before but also this new stuff:

..."The key characters are Cosmic Boy, Lighting Lad and Saturn Girl and then from there Brainiac 5, Polar Boy, Sun Boy, Dawnstar and Wildfire. Those are really the main guys," said Johns. "A lot of them are in there, but those are the main guys."

Perhaps adding fuel to the flash fire, he then added one more name.

"Again, XS is also a pretty major character."

... "I think, at this point, some people are more familiar with Superboy-Prime then they are with the Legion," Johns continued. "But everything you need to know you will find out in the book. It's pretty accessible going in. It's really the story of Superboy-Prime entering this world in the future and seeing what the DC Universe is like a thousand years from now. And then he meets up with the Legion of Super-Heroes."

... Johns teased that plot threads coming out of "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds" will affect almost every book he's working on.

"I hope that anybody who has enjoyed something that I have worked on before, or who wants to follow Superboy-Prime or wants to see what happens to the Green Lanterns a thousand years from now, will give the book a shot because we've put in 185 percent on this from top on down.

"When the book comes out, it will take you a half and hour to read it."

... Johns closed by saying "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds" won't tie in directly with Jim Shooter's "The Legion of Super-Heroes" but added "it's not directly tied in, but the characters and where Jim has them are. Jim Shooter's work on the Legion is a huge influence. He's one of the greatest comic writers in any generation, from his work at Valiant, Marvel and now [again] at DC."

Asked if he'd like to write a "Legion" ongoing one day, the always candid Johns said, "If the opportunity presented itself and it was the right time, we'll see. I love the Legion."

Also, Newsarama has a YouTube video interview with Johns, taken at San Diego. From the video page:

Alex and Justin talk with Superman, Action Comics, Green Lantern, and Final Crisis writer Geoff Johns about his plans for Superman over the next two years. Then the guys talk about John's episode of Smallville featuring the Legion of Superheros. Next up, John's talks about writing Final Crisis Legion of Three Worlds. Then the guys talk about the return of Barry Allen in Flash: Rebirth, and finish up with a tease of Hal Jordan's future this fall in Green Lantern. Don't miss this exclusive interview!

Happy Klordny Week 2008!

Today starts Klordny Week! Since 1995, Klordny Week has been celebrated in the week or so that contains both my birthday (August 13, today) and Elvis Appreciation Day (August 16). It first appeared in Superboy and the LSH 232 (10/77).

How do you celebrate? By dancing and partying!

Do me a favor, Lightning Lad, shut up and dance!

Why do you celebrate? I'm not telling you!


What's the Ritual Klordny Toast?


You can never have too much Frunt. Others celebrating (whether they know it or not) include Cold Frunt Productions, Erwin Frunt, Frunt's flickr photos, Frunt's blog on Vox, frunt.net, Hilde Frunt, Frunt's Myspace page, and a map of the town of Frunt, in Graubunden, Ostschweiz, Switzerland.

Trivia Answers #26

This month's theme was "The Time Trapper". Question: if you manage to make a device to hold the Time Trapper, is that a Trapper Keeper?

1. Why did Cosmic Boy become the Time Trapper at the end of v4?

From LSH v4 #61 page 9, the last issue of "End of an Era":

"In my absence, I learned all the secrets of time! I was destined to become the Trapper - to try time and again in vain to prevent this catastrophe (Zero Hour)! Instead, I broke the pattern and chose another route - a drastic path to triumph that only the Legion can make work! ... Years ago I tried to save the Legion by dividing it chronally. The young Legionnaires - as yet untouched by the specter of death - were meant to survive this crisis. By diverging the Legion into two separate time tracks, however, I caused a devastating paradox that further weakened time."

Page 10:

"Long have I known of the 30th century's impending end. Perhaps it was the horror of that knowledge which, in time, drove me insane with desperation... transformed me from savior to sinner.

2. At the very end of Zero Hour, we saw the Time Trapper. There was a lot of speculation that it was a certain character under those robes, but we never found out for certain. Who was it that was speculated to be the Time Trapper?

The "prime" suspect was Batgirl (the non-crippled one who appeared in "Zero Hour"), but that was due to a single panel image of the Time Trapper with long hair. Among the other suspects were Supergirl (the Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El), Lori Morning (as Glorith), Harbinger, and Liri Lee of the Linear Men.

3. Who ate Time Trapper's rocket ship?

He would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids! From Adventure 338, we see that Element Toddler changed it into candy, where it was eaten by Matter-Eater Toddler, Saturn Toddler, Ultra Toddler, Star Toddler, Chameleon Toddler, Light Toddler, and Invisible Kiddy.

See also the lolification for this picture here.

4. In the v3 "Conspiracy" storyline, what reason did each of the conspirators have for going after the Time Trapper?

Saturn Girl because he kidnapped Graym in the "Legionnaires 3" miniseries; Brainiac because all of his time research was falsified by the creation of the Pocket Universe; Duo Damsel because she'd loved Superboy; and Mon-El because of his "brotherly" relationship with Superboy.

5. How "far" could the Legionnaires travel before being blocked by the Iron Curtain of Time?

Thirty days (but only 28 in February). How convenient that they couldn't go further in the future than the next issue!

6. What happened when Darkseid met the Time Trapper?

The Time Trapper was "revealed" to be a renegade Controller in "All-New Collector's Edition" C-55, the wedding issue. That Time Trapper was drained of his power by Darkseid at the beginning of the Great Darkness Saga in LSH v2 #291. The fake Trapper was killed by the real Trapper in the first issue of "Legionnaires 3". Jim said that Darkseid and the Trapper played chess in "Legionnaires 3" but my notes don't show Darkseid there.

7. Prior to "Legion of 3 Worlds", what happened the last time the Time Trapper met the Legion (or individual Legionnaires)?

He met the Post-ZH Legion - and told XS that "your ultimate role is yet to be unveiled" - in LSH 105 (in which we saw TT give Lori the H-Dial in flashback). His final words:

"Time flows. I tested the Legion's multiculturalism. They passed. I stripped them of their technology. They survived. I tore them from reality. The prevailed. End of experiment. Next time, they must rise to all of those challenges, and more - for the sake of existence itself!

Maybe "Legion of Three Worlds" is XS's "ultimate role" for which he trained her?

For pretty much every appearance of the Time Trapper, go visit this thread. It was very useful for this quiz (although I wish I had found it before I wrote up the quiz, rather than when I was looking for the answers!).

Thanks to "Manchester Black" for all of the scans.

Superboy/Superman "law crack" and more

First, Paul Levitz participates in a "How I Got Here" series in the Wall Street Journal, interviewed in San Diego. Totally not relevant to the rest of this entry, just thought I'd put it here rather than a whole post by itself.

Second, an update on the Superboy and Superman lawsuit, which you'll remember are being tried sort-of together by the same judge. Jeff Trexler at Uncivil Society has the latest set of briefs (which came out while I was at San Diego) which he calls "law crack".

The latest briefs from both sides are available, with the Siegels and DC taking their best shot at legal questions arising from the Siegels' copyright interest in the Superman material in Action Comics 1.

Five new documents are now available in pdf format, which contain insight and information on both the Superman and Superboy lawsuits:

• The Plaintiffs' Memorandum of Points and Authorities on Pre-Trial Issues, 80 pages saying how they have recaptured copyright of some part of Superman, why Warner Bros. is wrong, and how they should pay the Siegels
  
• The Defendants' Brief on Additional Issues, 80 pages saying why Warner Bros. has not lost copyright of Superman and should not have to pay the Siegels anything
  
• The Declaration in Support of Defendants' Brief on Additional Issues, multiple exhibits including the 1939 agreements beween Siegel, Shuster, and DC in which S&S confirm that "Detective Comics Inc. are the sole and exclusive owners of the comic strip entitled SUPERMAN"; a letter from DC saying that the artwork is slipping in quality despite having 43 pages a month to churn out; and copies of JLA #2, Justice #11, and JLA Classified #27.
  
• The Declaration in Support of Plaintiffs' Pre-Trial Briefing, multiple exhibits including expert witness statements by Jim Steranko and Mark Evanier; Evanier's rebuttal to the defendants' expert witness; excerpts from Evanier's deposition; the 1947 agreement between DC and Siegel/Shuster; and excerpts from Jerry Siegel's unpublished autobiography (as provided by Mark Waid).
  
• The Declaration in Support of Defendants' Brief on Additional Issues, a brief by Paul Levitz explaining how WB/DC licenses and merchandises Superman, including DVD releases. Levitz's testimony, by the way, was given on July 21, just a couple days before San Diego.
  

The Legion shows up a few times here and there, in particular in Evanier's statements.

Of the documents as presented, I have only read the declarations so far, and not the two 80-page giant briefs. I've made it this far reading all of the documents Jeff has found, so I'll get to those sooner or later. But while Mark Evanier writes some excellent briefs, making me think about some points that I hadn't thought of before regarding what was original (and thus copyrightable), I still have this gut feeling - which is why it's good I'm not a lawyer - that while the Siegels will win at least a portion of the Superman case, I can't help but think that for all Siegel and Shuster did that's original with Superboy, it's still "Superman as a boy" and thus derivative, meaning Superboy was never the Siegels' to reclaim.

There's another court date set for August 11, next Monday. We'll see what happens then.

Kurt Busiek, Chris Kent, and the Legion

From a CBR interview with Kurt Busiek, regarding his Trinity series, which touched on his "Last Son" arc:

CBR: Let’s talk about your run on “Superman,” specifically a continuity question that has been nagging some fans. In “Superman,” Clark had many adventures with his adopted son Chris, who was introduced in the “Action Comics” story “Last Son.” There were a lot of delays in completing that storyline, almost a full year. At the conclusion of “Last Son,” Chris left Earth, seemingly after only a couple of days. Yet he took part in numerous adventures in your title, “Superman.” Was this just plans gone wonky, or is there another explanation?

Busiek: The continuity is definitely a little awkward. If you just read the “Last Son” arc it seems to take place all at once. However, in between Chris Kent’s arrival on earth and his disappearance at the end of the [storyline], he mentions that he got to meet Robin. That’s something that happened in one of my arcs. Clearly, there must have been room for more stuff to happen in between the major events of “Last Son” than it appeared.

The delay on “Last Son” really messed up a lot of stuff. I wasn’t originally going to use Chris Kent as much, but [“Action Comics” writer] Geoff [Johns] couldn’t use him because his story was in limbo at the time. So I was asked to use him just so it didn’t seem like he'd vanished completely.

Originally, I think he was going to stick around at the end of “Last Son” and leave at a later point. I think that later point involved the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story, but as it turned out that story came out before “Last Son” concluded. Whatever Geoff had planned for Chris in that other story wasn't able to be done because he needed to get “Last Son” finished before he moved forward with Chris, and so events that should have already been shown, and should have been able to bleed over into other arcs, couldn’t, because of the schedule snafus.

So bottom line: Chris Kent came to Earth, became a foster child of the Kents, did all the things he did in my stories, and then got lost in the Phantom Zone at the end of the “Last Son” arc. And, as far as I know, that's where he is now. But I might not be the right guy to ask. I simply worked with the information I was handed at the time, and when the information had to change because of the delays, I was already done, and Geoff was the one with the headache of figuring out how to solve it.

Wonder if Mon-El (any of them) met Chris Kent in the Phantom Zone? And I wonder if he'll show up in L3W?

More of Rich's Rumblings

As Jonathan Miller pointed out the comments to my previous post, Rich Johnston trots out his "Shooter's leaving the Legion" rumors again. Let me say up front that while Rich does have a track record of being right, he's also got a track record for being just as wrong. And it's curious that of all the 120,000+ people who went to San Diego - him not being one of them - I haven't heard a single person who has has commented or blogged about the "Shooter situation". Until yesterday, that is, when Rich comes up with this:

CONTAINING MULTITUDES

[Green Light]
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.

I'm also told that the junior book "The Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century," is also coming to an end with issue 20.

The future seems an uncertain place.

I had heard the LSH31C cancellation rumor already, so that wasn't news. Or unexpected, either, given that the TV show was cancelled. I guess the Justice League and Teen Titans just have bigger audiences to sustain their comics after their shows were cancelled. Such is life, it was fun while it lasted.
Update: the colorist on the book hadn't heard the news yet.

The Levitz/Giffen project? In his own panel that I attended, Giffen said that he'd like to do something but he's waiting for Levitz to give the OK.

Q: Rumors about a Giffen/Levitz reunion on the Legion in some way?
A: All Paul has to do is say "yes". The fact that he's not saying "no" means he's being coy about it.

In another panel he asked if the audience would like to see another Levitz/Giffen project and got an enthusiastic response, to which Giffen replied that he was just checking to see who's interested. Why tease like that when you've got the target audience literally in front of you - a room full of Giffen fans, a room full of Legion fans, a room full of DC fans - ready to blog about it and start the buzz? What are they going to do, wait for Mid-Ohio Con at Thanksgiving? (No disrespect intended to MOC.)

Another Tony Bedard project....hmmm. Given that his last Legion project was the transition between Waid/Kitson and Shooter/Manapul, and that his DC work lately has been fill-ins or story arcs, that suggests to me that he could be another transition writer. The obvious guess as to the new writer after that would be Geoff Johns, who has stated publicly that he'd love to write a Legion book, but given his commitments to Green Lantern, Action Comics, JSA, and Flash already, that could be pushing it for someone who says it takes him a week to write a book. Still, what higher-profile writer does DC have? When I asked Johns at San Diego if we'd see a Legion: Rebirth along the lines of Green Lantern: Rebirth and Flash: Rebirth, this transpired:

Following Johns' Green Lantern:Rebirth and Flash:Rebirth, I asked if there was going to be a Legion Rebirth. Johns replied carefully that L3W was pretty much just that, with lots of surprises, but don't worry about a new series.

Assuming for the moment that Rich is right on this, v5 would end with #50, then we'd have a 6-8 issue transition miniseries while L3W and Final Crisis wind up (a story long enough to fill a trade paperback), then we'd see v6 #1. I'm going to tentatively say that Johns would make it fit in his schedule if he were offered the Legion book.

On top of all that, Rich's article then has this on Bart Allen:

FLASH TALKING

[Yellow Light]
One San Diegoer tells me, "I was waiting at the Aspen booth at Comic-Con getting a sketch done by current Legion Artist Francis Manapul, when Geoff Johns came over and interrupted to talk to him for a second. Johns had a copy of the first trade from his first Teen Titans trade, and handed it to Manapul, which Manapul said, ‘I eventually did get my hands on a copy and read it last night.’ The two of them talked about Bart Allen for a couple of minutes, with Manapul being very complimentary of how he was written. Johns looked around, saw people were watching, and turned his back and the two of them continued to talk inaudibly for about 10 minutes about something before Johns left.

"Combine that with the vague question that Johns asked at one panel: ‘Does anyone miss Bart Allen?’ and there has to be something there."

I dunno. You can't spend ten minutes having a friendly chat without people reading something into it.

I thought it was obvious. Wally's back, Barry's back, and Brainiac 5 still has a lightning rod with some Flashy-looking energy in the future.

If we take Rich at his word, that suggests that Manapul will be staying on after Shooter, into Bedard's run, where we'll see the return of Bart Allen. Johns already mentioned that the lightning rod would play a part in the L3W series.

(Note that Bart would be mighty confused by the 31st century he's in, since he appeared prior to Zero Hour (thus originating in the Pre-ZH future of LSH v4) while his cousin Jenni originated in the Post-ZH future. While it's easy enough to retcon him to being from the Post-ZH reboot future, he'd be awakened in a whole 'nother timeline.)

Super Future Friends

Found a new-ish Legion blog via a referrer link tonight: Super Future Friends, which (to me) sounds like what the Legion might be called in Japanese comics. Adriana and Kristen, the hosts, have prepared a periodic podcast that aims to discuss the Legion starting back in the day. So far they've got 6 episodes.

Hi! We are your Super Future Friends, your guides to the amazingly complicated and convoluted world of The Legion of Super-Heroes! We will be summarizing issues of the Legion and together we'll learn about this team of superheroes from the future!

I've added them to my blogroll at the right.

Trivia Quiz #26

Theme: In honor of the Time Trapper's appearance in "Legion of Three Worlds" starting this month, here's your Trapper Keeper trivia.

1. Why did Cosmic Boy become the Time Trapper at the end of v4?

2. At the very end of Zero Hour, we saw the Time Trapper. There was a lot of speculation that it was a certain character under those robes, but we never found out for certain. Who was it that was speculated to be the Time Trapper?

3. Who ate Time Trapper's rocket ship?

4. In the v3 "Conspiracy" storyline, what reason did each of the conspirators have for going after the Time Trapper?

5. How "far" could the Legionnaires travel before being blocked by the Iron Curtain of Time?

6. What happened when Darkseid met the Time Trapper?

7. Prior to "Legion of 3 Worlds", what happened the last time the Time Trapper met the Legion (or individual Legionnaires)?

SDCC08: final thoughts

Final thoughts on this year's Comic Con.

• This guy wore a pedometer to count the number of steps he walked at the convention. He recorded over 36 miles of walking from Preview Night on Wednesday to the close of the con on Sunday. I can totally believe it. (via Comics Reporter)
  
  
• Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog made an appearance (at the NBC panel, maybe?). Here's the clip from the Conan O'Brien show. (via Mark Evanier)
  
  
• I whipped up a business card for the site on Powerpoint, had a sheet of them printed out on cardstock at my local Kinko's, then cut the sheets by hand into card-size chunks. Between what I handed out and what people took from the Legion World table, I probably gave out over 100 cards. Welcome, new readers, and if you're new, please leave a comment!
  
  
  
• I was pleasantly surprised by people who recognized me from my name, picture (the Simpson-ized one at the upper left), or the Omnicom logo I created for my badge holder. Many people said they read this site regularly, so thanks to all of you who said hi.
  
  
  
• I talked to Paul Levitz at the DC booth early in the con. I told him that when I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up (I almost made it). When astronauts go into space, they get what's called a "personal preference kit" in which they can bring up souvenirs and stuff. I told Paul that if I ever made it into space, I'd bring my Legion flight ring, and have one of my fellow astronauts take a picture of me wearing it. That would disprove the label on the original box that said "warning, ring does not enable wearer to fly".
  
  
• When I gave him my card, Paul said he recognized the name and that he pops in here from time to time. Score!
  
  
• One of the nice things about conventions is the opportunity to get free sketches from artists, something quick as opposed to a detailed commission. Keith Giffen was drawing Ambush Bug but said he'd draw anyone they wanted. I asked him to draw Karate Kid, and he looked at me seriously and said "no", but then asked if he could do it however he wanted, even if that meant Karate Kid's hand reaching from the grave. I said however he wanted to do it. So he gave me Ambush Bug in Karate Kid's outfit. Robert Loren Fleming did the dialog.
  
  
  
• At his panel, Geoff Johns said that if DC ever put out a new "Who's Who in the Legion" that he wanted to draw Sun Boy. So when he was at a signing at the DC booth, I asked him to draw Sun Boy. I think he should keep his day job.
  
  
  
• I've been to 8 cons since my first one in 1995. What makes it fun is hanging out with all of my online buddies (first Compuserve, then Usenet's rec.arts.comics.*, now message boards and blogs) and meeting them for the first time.
  
  
• I even got to meet Bully, who gave me a couple pins for recognizing him (how could you not recognize a stuffed bull in a Batman costume?).
  
  
• Hat's off to the Legion World guys and gals for their showing this year, they bought a booth in the fan area. Hope everyone got to see them.
  
  
• I signed up for a Twitter account shortly before the con, thinking I might be able to tweet from the panels, seeing as how we had free wi-fi. But I took notes and text-messaged posts here, so I'm not sure how much use you at home found it. Still, I picked up 18 followers. I'll probably keep it going, if only to use it to announce new posts here.
  
  
• As you probably know, the cover to this year's con program was a reprint of Alex Ross's Legion litho from a few years ago. I took the opportunity to have as many of the Legion creators who were there as I could find to sign the book. I got Keith Giffen, Jeff Moy, Chris Batista, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Adam Hughes, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Mike Grell, Colleen Doran, Paul Levitz and Geoff Johns to sign it. I missed out on Joe Staton, Mark Waid, and Karen Berger.
  
  
  
• Also pleasantly surprised that Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, and Mike Grell recognized me by name or sight.
  
  
• Big disappointment - there was no LSH stuff being given away at the DC booth, not even the pins that they've handed out in years past, or some sort of promotional poster. It would have been nice, seeing as how the Legion was on the cover of the convention book and it was one of the themes of the con.
  
  
• A lot of people stopped me and asked where I got my Legion pin and my Watchmen pin. I told them that the Legion pin was an old one, but the Watchmen pin was just a generic smiley face button with a red Sharpie marking it up. DC had no Watchmen promotional material either, missing an opportunity since by this time next year the movie will have already come out 4 months earlier and they'll be talking about the DVD for Thanksgiving.
  
  
• Lots of viral marketing stunts. HBO's "True Blood" went all out, sponsoring banners inside the convention center and stuff outside as well, including happy hours at some of the bars in the Gaslamp District, giving out a free pint of beer with a logo glass, free t-shirts and comics, and branded coasters and napkins. "Fringe" had some stuff going on too, including a "follow the clues" thing that ended up in a preview of the pilot episode (and for some reason, one of the clues was a parking lot full of cows. No, really.). The remake of the "Prisoner" show also had a booth, website, and skywriting.
  
  
• Too bad that some panels that I wanted to see were too crowded, especially the media ones. But I did get shut out of the first DC Nation one, too. Lots of people are talking about what to do but when you've got 140,000 people and you've maxed out your space, there's not much that can be done. You either wait in line for an hour or more, missing some other stuff, or you miss the panel you wanted to see live and wait to read the recap or watch the video on YouTube later.
  
  
• I talked with Chris Batista in Artist's Alley. I had no idea he was such a big fan of the Legion, both before and after his run on the book. We made tentative plans to set up an interview so hopefully you'll read something here in a little while. I bought a really cool page from him from the Foundations storyline. He also told me that he's working on an Animal Man miniseries with Gerry Conway, who's been off doing TV stuff for a while.
  
  
• If you can't make a stop at Ralph's Supermarket on the way, I highly recommend the Cine Cafe in the Gaslamp. It's only about 2 blocks away from the convention center. Prices are a little higher than you'd seen a supermarket (typical convenience store markup) but they make fresh sandwiches. Each morning before I entered the con I stopped there for a sandwich and chips to take with me. Much better than convention center food and much cheaper.
  
  
• Very impressed with the costumes this year, though I did not see a single Slave Leia. Here are all my photos.
  
  
• Huge thanks to Angus MacLennan at the WizKids booth, who brought me a bunch of Legionnaire Heroclix figures.
  
  
• I didn't hear anything about Jim Shooter allegedly leaving the Legion book, though everyone was coy about what was coming after L3W. Didn't hear anyone talking about the Superboy/Superman lawsuit, either.
  
  
• At the Pro/Fan Trivia contest (podcast here), I was disappointed that Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek were not able to make it, I really wanted to see them go head to head with Tom Galloway on Legion trivia. What made up for it was that Tom wasn't able to correctly answer some of the questions that I submitted (all of which came from my previous trivia quizzes here).
  
  
• I'll believe Mattel's Legion figures are real when I see them in person.
  
  
• Finally, Ali Kokmen (whose name I remember from Usenet years ago) wraps up the con with a speech that only Shakespeare could have written. "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers..."