SLSH #16

(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comic.)

SUPERGIRL LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #16 (5/06)
(L 2006-5)
(Untitled)
ROLL CALL: Chameleon, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Element Lad, Karate Kid, Light Lass, Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Supergirl, Triplicate Girl, Ultra Boy

While the rest of the DC Universe is starting “1 year later,” this month the Legion starts “1001 years later” with a change in title and the arrival of Supergirl. The Maid of Might is promised to become a regular Legionnaire, and all I can say is, “took long enough.” This is a great homage to the original days of the Legion, when Supergirl and Superboy were both members, and when the name of the feature was “Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes.”

Still, we’ve learned that ties between the Legion and the rest of the DC Universe are a double-edged sword. Sure, it would be nice to have Supergirl dashing back & forth through the time barrier, summoned by a blinking Legion statuette. But sooner or later the folks who run the rest of the DC Universe will make some change that impacts the Legion. Supergirl will die, then be retroactively removed from existence; Superboy will never have existed, not even in a pocket universe; eventually Glorith shows up and starts rebooting reality, and then things go all to hell.

So far, the creative team behind this current Legion incarnation have done a good job of being fresh and new while still respecting the Legion’s long history -- it will be interesting to see how they handle having the Girl of Steel back in the LSH.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Klar and his neighbors live in “Eando Towers” -- an obvious reference to Eando Binder, the pen name of brothers Earl and Otto Binder (“E and O,” get it?). Otto Binder was the writer who created the Legion in Adventure #247.

Cos’s suggestion of open elections for Legion Leader recalls the old tradition of having the readers vote each year for leader. Cos says “We have 127,000 members...” I wonder if this number has anything to do with the comic’s circulation figures? Are there really 127,000 Legion readers out there?

Flight rings apparently project a force field that protects Legionnaires from the vacuum and cold of outer space, a field which manisfests as a yellowish aura about each Legionnaire. Nice update of the old transuit concept.

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