Week of 4 June 2008

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

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #16 (7/08)
"One World Under Gog Part 1: He Came, and Salvation With Him"
ROLL CALL: Starman/Star Boy (Lightning Saga Legion) (cover only)

Starman/Star Boy appears on the cover of this issue (at least, most of him does), but not in the comic itself.

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LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: 1,050 Years of the Future TPB
June 2008

Contains the following stories and features:

• Introduction by Paul Levitz (new)
  
• "The Legion of Super-Heroes" reprinted from ADVENTURE 247 (with cover)
  
• "The Stolen Super-Powers" reprinted from ADVENTURE 304
  
• "The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires" reprinted from ADVENTURE 312 (with cover)
  
• Text page by Jim Shooter (new)
  
• "The Adult Legion" reprinted from ADVENTURE 354 (with thumbnail cover)
  
• "War of the Legions" reprinted from ADVENTURE 355 (with thumbnail cover)
  
• Cover picture from LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION C-49
  
• "The Legion's Home Base" reprinted from LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION C-49
  
• "Last Fight for a Legionnaire" reprinted from SUPERBOY 212 (with cover)
  
• Cover picture from ALL-NEW COLLECTOR'S EDITION C-55
  
• "The Origins & Powers of the Legionnaires" reprinted from ALL-NEW COLLECTOR'S EDITION C-55
  
• "The Future is Forever" reprinted from LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #300 (with cover)
  
• "The Legion Constitution" adapted from WHO'S WHO IN THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 2-6
  
• Pinup reprinted from HISTORY FO THE DC UNIVERSE PORTFOLIO
  
• "Zero Hour and the Legion of Super-Heroes" by Mark Waid (new)
  
• "Time and Chance" reprinted from LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 0 (with thumbnail cover)
  
• Cover picture from LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 80
  
• Pinup reprinted from LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES SECRET FILES 1
  
• "Bedtime Story" reprinted from LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE 80-PAGE GIANT
  
• Cover picture from THE LEGION 3
  
• "Legion World" reprinted from THE LEGION 3
  
• "Third Time's the Charm?" text page (new)
  
• Cover of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 37

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: If this collection can be said to have a theme, I think that theme is "Death and Change." (Okay, two themes.)

Death: There's the death of Lightning Lad and Proty, the deaths of several Legionnaires in "The Adult Legion," more deaths than I care to count in "The Future is Forever," Garth's (believed) death in "Legion World," and the one that dominates both "The Adult Legion" and "The Future is Forever," the death of Ferro Lad.

Change: Lightning lad dies and is reborn, the Legionnaires grow up, Matter-Eater Lad leaves to go into politics, whole possible futures come and go, the Legion is rebooted, they get their own world....

Paul Levitz put his finger on it in his introduction: "...the ingredient that made the series unique among comics of the time: the possibility of real, and even tragic, change in the status quo. Characters could die, be reborn, even crippled, love, marry or separate...storytelling tools that wouldn't be used widely in American comics until two decades later."

After fifty years, we know that the one constant in the Legion is change. And that's why I have hope that the Legion will still be around (in one form or another) in another fifty years. The Legion changes with changing times, so it is always able to adapt.

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