Week of 18 July 2007

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

This week...three comics with three different versions of the Legion. Personally, I'm waiting to see the other 49 versions....

BRAVE & THE BOLD #5 (9/07)
"The Batman of Tomorrow" (Lords of Luck Chapter 5)

ROLL CALL: Atom Girl, Brainiac 5, Chameleon, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dream Boy, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Invisible Kid, Karate Kid, Light Lass, Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Princess Projectra, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Sun Boy, Supergirl, Timber Wolf, Triplicate Girl, Ultra Boy

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: The events of this story "occur before JLA/JSA: The Lightning Saga"...and involve a completely different version of the Legion. I sure hope somebody at DC is paying attention to Legion continuity.

Brainy is being particularly offensive to Batman; not very smart of him, is it?

Karate Kid's fight with Batman echoes Batman's fight with a different Karate Kid in The Lightning Saga.

Although Supergirl appears as a Legion member on the splash page, only her 21st-century self takes part in the story. Good thing, otherwise it would be even more confusing.

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COUNTDOWN #41 (7/18/07)
"Another Fine Mess"

ROLL CALL: Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Karate Kid, Sensor Girl, Una (aka Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel), Wildfire

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: The events of this story take place at the end onf JLA/JSA: The Lightning Saga"...and involve the classic Legion (sorta). And the confusion only gets worse.

Val calls Luornu "Triplicate Girl" -- although in this version of the Legion, she has been Duo Damsel for quite a long time. She corrects him: "Actually, it's just the one -- it's Una now." (The last time she was down to one body, after an encounter with Glorith, we were calling her "Single Sis" -- and she gained the ability to project a force shield like Brainiac 5's belt. She got better.)

Now she's "Una" -- and, apparently, she has the power to split into one body. Huh? (No word on whether she has her force shield powers.) And she's staying behind in the 21st century with Karate Kid...and they have a very long journey ahead of them.

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LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #4 (9/07)
"Higher Education"

ROLL CALL: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl, (Young) Superman, Triplicate Girl

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: We learn that the average Coluan has eighth-level intelligence, while Brainy has twelfth-level. As Lightning Lad says, "Even among his own kind, he's a weirdo." The Legion has always been a haven for kids who were "loners, outcasts, stiffs." It's nice to see this tradition continuing.

Catch Triplicate Girl's subtle transformation on page 13: first there are three Trips, each holding a book...then there is one Trip, with one book in her hand and two under her arm, and just the last traces of her other two bodies merging. Nice effect!


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