Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Who Are These Legionnaires?

I've been working on my Legion index, and I need some help. Here's a panel from Adventure #353, the Death of Ferro Lad story:

I'm trying to identify the Legionnaires pictured. Here's a closer view (click to embiggen):


 The first two rows are easy: Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid in the first row; Cosmic Boy, Superboy, Saturn Girl, and Princess Projectra in the second. It's those next two rows that are giving me some problems.

Here's a version with identifying numbers to the right of each figure:


#1 is pretty clearly Mon-El, and #6 is Colossal Boy.

#7 and #8 look like girls. The possibilities are: Dream Girl, Duo Damsel, Light Lass, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, and Supergirl. #7 looks like Violet. #8 seems to have a cape, which means either Duo Damsel, Phantom Girl, or Supergirl...to me she looks most like Duo Damsel.

That leaves #2, #3, #4, and #5. The possible boys are Bouncing Boy, Chameleon Boy, Element Lad, Karate Kid, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad, Star Boy, Sun Boy, and Ultra Boy. We can eliminate Bouncing Boy on body shape. #5 has a distinctive collar that only Sun  Boy and Invisible Kid have; since Invisible Kid is in the first row, #5 must be Sun Boy.

. #3 has a cape, which means it's either Lightning Lad or Star Boy. I'm going back and forth between the two, but leaning toward Lightning Lad (Thom has brown hair, about like Invisible Kid's: look how Invisible Kid's hair is darkened but #3's isn't.)

#2 is either Chameleon Boy, Element Lad, Karate Kid, or Matter-Eater Lad. He's clearly not Chameleon Boy or Karate Kid; M-E Lad has dark hair and it looks like #2 doesn't, so I'm inclined to go with Element Lad.

That leaves #4 as Chameleon Boy, Karate Kid, or Matter-Eater Lad (or possibly Star Boy, but I'm having trouble believing that #4 has a cape.) I want it to be Chameleon Boy: he appeared in the previous panel, so we know he's there. But there is no hint of antennae, and this figure seems to have hair. Cham has those funny sticky-out shoulder-things, but they could be obscured by the word balloon on one side and Lurornu's head on the other. And those two tiny lines just over Luornu's right shoulder might be meant to indicate part of Cham's costume.

I want to say we can leave out Karate Kid, based on the the hint of a collar around #4's neck. But we can also rule out Matter-Eater Lad because #4 has light hair and Tenzil's hair is dark.

So it's either Cham (without antennae and with a mistaken hint of hair) or Matter-Eater Lad (without his hair colored in).

So what do you think, loyal readers? Who's who in this picture?

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6 comments:

Prof. Lemaris Lang said...

Life is too short. Just make it up. No one will be able to argue with you.

By the way, thank you for following my blog.

Loren

Meerkatdon said...

Loren: I like the way you think!

Brainy Pirate said...

The more important question is what's up with the tent in Brainy's pants??????????

Paul Newell said...

Here are my picks:

1. Mon-El
2. Chameleon Boy (The line that looks like a fringe could actually be antenna).
3. Lightning Lad
4. Star Boy
5. Sun Boy
6. Colossal Boy
7. Shrinking Violet
8. Phantom Girl

Meerkatdon said...

Brainy Pirate: OMG you are right! I missed that entirely. Is this the earliest evidence for that Brainy/Lyle thing that we've always known was going on?

Meerkatdon said...

Paul:

I see exactly what you mean with #2: if that's an antenna, then that could certainly be Cham's head. But the costume is wrong: Cham has shoulder-things so big that they might be horns, and #2's shoulders are unadorned.

I could certainly go with #4 being Star Boy. That hair looks like the flattop that he often wore at the time. (Funny, in those early stories half the time Thom had a flattop and half the time his hair was curly. Guess it depends on what he and Nura had been up to.)

#8 as Phantom Girl, yeah, I can see it. Tinya had that 1940s hairstyle with two blobs coming out from behind her neck, while Luornu had a Mary Tyler Moore thing going on with two point sticking out from behind her neck. It's hard to tell in this picture; half the time I see blobs and the other half I see points.

I am obsessing way too much about this, I know.