Week of 14 September 2011

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

LEGION LOST 1 (2011/11)
"Run From Tomorrow Part One: Present Tense"


ROLL CALL:

Chameleon Girl, Dawnstar, Gates, Tellus, Tyroc, Wildfire

CUTE BOYS: Brin, Troy (lookin' hotter than ever with his new hair and sexy uniform)

The Legionnaires arrive in the present day in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota in pursuit of a bad guy named Alastor, who has brought some kind of unspecified plague into the past. Alastor, apparently some variant of shape-shifter, turns into a monster and threatens the town, until he is stopped by a little girl who reminds him of his dead sister.

With flight rings disabled and transuits malfunctioning, the Legionnaires struggle to repair their damaged time bubble. Tyroc retrieves Alastor and they take him onto the bubble, intending to return to the 31st century. But alas, the time bubble is destroyed. When the smoke clears, Alastor is gone. Gates and Yera are also both missing,m with no trace except "organic residue" falling with the rain. And the Legion is stranded in the past.

This story starts in the middle of things, a technique that litcrit types call in medias res. It can be done well -- witness the Universo Project storyline in LSH 32-35 (1987/03-06) -- but it can also be done sloppily. Only the future will tell, but at this point...it feels sloppy. We'll see.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Alastor. There is no previous Legion villain with that name,. However, way back in Adventure 314 (1963/11) they fought a guy named Alaktor, a scientific genius who transferred into Superboy, Mon-El, and Ultra Boy the minds of Nero, Dillinger, and Hitler. That Alaktor bears a bit of resemblance to the new guy, Alastor -- except for the turning-into-a-monster thing. Could it be that the creators meant him to be the same guy, but messed up the name? (Considering that "Akka" turned into "Atta" recently, and the general level of DC copyediting nowadays, it doesn't seem impossible.)

The mix of Legionnaires is interesting. Tellus, of course, has recently been in the 21st century...the pre-Flashpoint 21st century. Will he remember the earlier time? Will they choose to make a big deal out of it?

Three boys, two girls, and two BEMs (Bug-Eyed Monsters, for those of you who aren't longtime science fiction fans). But Brin and Troy are the only "normal-looking" ones -- to one degree or another, Dawny, Gates, Tellus, and Yera are all obvious nonhumans. If this is going to become a "space" book, as scuttlebutt suggests, then alien-looking characters could be an asset.

A character from the Legion's time brings a devastating plague to the present. Haven't we been through this before? When Karate Kid and Single Sis were traipsing around Earth during Countdown, maybe? And that certainly ended well....

Gates and Yera. I don't believe they're dead, not for an instant.

----------

Week of 7 September 2011

No actual LSH appearances this week, but...

ACTION 1 (2011/11)
"Superman Vesus the City of Tomorrow"

I bought this issue because scuttlebutt said the Legion would appear. Scuttlebutt was wrong, although there was a Legion reference.

This story seems to be set in the "past," when Superman is new in Metropolis...although it's hard to tell, since the creators didn't see fit to inform readers of that fact.

Clark Kent's landlady says, "Your friends stopped by earlier...two men and a woman -- a blonde, very good-looking. I thought they were actors." Pretty obvious that this is Garth, Imra, and Rokk, but we won't know for sure until next issue. (And if not, and I've been conned into buying another comic that I don't really want, I will be Sorely Pissed.)

 ----------

Week of 31 August 2011

No Legion comics, no Legion appearances.

Flashpoint is over. The universe rebooted because...well...uh...it did, okay? There's a new, more boring Justice League. Everything is bright, and new, and...tedious.

----------

Week of 24 August 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC comics this week. I'm ready for Flashpoint to be over.

I lied. There was this:

KID FLASH LOST 3 (2011/10)
"Kid Flash Lost Part Three"


ROLL CALL (Earth-247 Legion):

Cosmic Boy, Live Wire, Saturn Girl, XS, Bart Allen, Iris Allen

CUTE BOYS: Bart, Conner, Garth, Rokk, Wally

As Bart is running through the timestream, he sees visions of his past -- including one panel with the Earth-247 Legion. Then he Flssshs into the Speed Force, fading out a la Barry Allen in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I suppose Bart is gone now; possibly he never existed in the new timeline. This is an excellent case study for what I've been talking about. Technically, this messes up Jenni's story -- if Bart never existed, then did Jenni?

In the past, DC would insist that Jenni go away, or that she be given some origin story that doesn't involve Barry Allen. And the Legion creators would scramble to obey, making Jenni a survivor of ancient Atlantis, or a clone of Max Mercury, or an inhabitant of a pocket universe.

This is a great time to simply ignore the whole matter. Jenni is a 31st century speedster with some connection to the Allen line. Let's just leave it at that, okay? Then when DC eventually gets tired of this New 52 crap, and reboots the universe again (as they surely will), Jenni will still be there.

And fans -- please don't start complaining about Jenni's inconsistent origin, and demanding that DC Do Something. It's like The Lord of the Rings: you don't want to draw the Eye of Sauron in your direction. Likewise, we don't want to draw the attention of DC to the Legion. Just let them leave our corner of the DC Universe alone, and we'll be fine.

Sigh.
----------

Week of 17 August 2011

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

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #16 (2011/10)
"Endings"


ROLL CALL:

 Brainiac 5, Colossal Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Earth-Man (died), Element Lad, Gates, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lass, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, Quislet, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Sun oy, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Wildfire, Dyogene, Harmonia Li, Sodam Yat, Blue Entity, Saturn Queen, Zymyr

CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brek, Brin, Dirk, Gim, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Mon, Troy (note to Thom: ditch the beard and take off the mask, and we'll talk)

Well, this is it. LSH v.6 didn't last very long, did it? (Longer than v.1, anyway...)

The cataclysmic final battle takes place on the planet of wisdom. Saturn Queen attempts to take over Earth-Man's mind and use him to defeat the others. But he's assisted by Sodm Yat, Dyogene, armonia Li, and the other Legionnaires -- incuding Mon-El and his power ring. Together, they all give Earth-Man enough power to resist Saturn Queen's control and defeat the Blue Entity. However, Earth-Man dies in the effort, a hero in the end.

Shadow Lass takes his body and flies away, flinging back a snarky comment at Mon-El and whispering to the corpse, "Now they know who you really were.

Mon-El resigns from the Green Lantern Corps and gives Dyogene the ring back. Dyogene settles into the dirt, remarking that he will help heal the world of wisdom, and perhaps a new Mogo will in time arise. He salutes the Legion as "Proud successors to the Corps."

Harmonia Li tells Brainy that she is going to come back with them, and apply for Legion membership -- she hints that she has suitable super-powers.

ANNOUNCING A WINNER: In this issue the Blue Entity announces its identity: "I am the curse of the Oans, before they even dared call themselves Guardians...evil loosed on the universe by Krona's crime. Long ago, and reborn when Titan fell and mortals dared to look upon the unknowable. I am the serpent of Eden, the worm who devours Yggdrasil, and the end of all things..."

Reader pblfsda caught the Krona connection before anyone else, and so is the winner of Legion Archives #1. Email me your mailing address at don at meerkatmeade dot com, and I'll mail it out to you. Good work!


BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:


Dyogene is "Little more than a clump of Oan soil, held together by tears and dreams"; it is hinted that he may also be the embryonic form of an intelligent planet like Mogo. Whether or not the people of the wisdom planet will have any vote, is unclear.


The Legion stands together. It's one of the most common threads in Legion stories, and the trick of tying all the Legionnaires together in one gestalt is one Levitz has pulled again and again, from Earthwar to the Great Darkness and beyond. Other creators have done the same. 


Mon-El, Shadow Lass, and Earth-Man: Wel, apparently I was wrong about Shady just feigning her romantic interest in Earth-Man. I still don't understand it. I'm beginning to wrap my head around the Cosmic Boy/Night Girl split, but I think there's more to be told about why Shady and Mon broke up. I hope this "new beginning" won't prevent that story from being told.


Harmonia Li: She hints that she has powers that might qualify her to be a Legionnaire. Huh? The power to summon ultimate evil to destroy the universe? The power to make mysterious, oracular pronouncements? What will her code name be, Enigmatic Lady? Hubris Lass? Arrogant Girl?


CHRONICLER'S ERROR?:


Dream Girl saw a vision of herself saying that Thom's power saved the day. Uh-huh. Sure. Things don't seem to be going very well for Nura. I'm still convinced that something's going on with her. I thought she was a Durlan spy, but I guess I was wrong on that -- but the defining feature of Nura's power is that all her predictions come true. This one sure didn't. What are you up to, Mr. Levitz?


The Bue Entity said that it was reborn when "Titan fell and mortals dared gaze upon the unknowable." Except...Harmonia Li isn't exactly a mortal, is she? In fact, she is an immortal. Do you suppose that she could have told the Blue Entity that she wasn't a mortal, and the Entity would have said, "Oh...never mind" and gone away?


(Okay, there were other scientists with her on Titan, and they probably gazed too.)


NEXT UP: A few Legionless weeks, and then we'll see just what damage this new reboot of the DC Universe does to the Legion. I don't have a good feeling about this. Prove me wrong, DC....


 ----------

Week of 10 August 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC Comics this week.

 ----------

Week of 3 August 2011

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

ADVENTURE #529 (2011/10)
"The End"


ROLL CALL:

Bouncing Boy, Duplicate Girl, Night Girl, Chemical Kid, Comet Queen, Dragonwing, Glorith, Gravity Kid, Variable Lad (died), Cosmic King

CUTE BOYS: Chuck, Hadru, Tel

It's taken me a while to post on this issue, because I've been sorting through my feelings on two different levels. More on that in a moment, but first a synopsis:

Chemical Kid, Comet Queen, and Dragonwing confront Cosmic King, who has already defeated Bouncing Boy, Duplicate Girl, and Night Girl. They are basically getting their butts kicked (and not in the good way) when Glorith, Gravity Kid, and Variable Lad show up. The newly-arrived kids make a good showing, until Cosmic King threatens to melt their bodies (and not in the good way). Variable Lad, whose powers have turned him into a giant silver cobra, attacks Cosmic King and when the smoke clears, Variable Lad is dead and Cosmic King is nowhere to be seen (although wherever he is, he's missing part of his shirt and most of a glove).

Later, during the mopping-up process, everyone is grieving for Variable Lad. Chuck tells the cadets that their chances of making the team have just gone way up. Gravity Kid announces that he's resigning from the Academy and going to Takron-Galtos as a "trailing spouse" of Jed Rikane aka Power Boy. As he elaves, he voices his hope that none of the rest of them wind up like Variable Lad.

Okay, now my two things.

Tel and Jed: Hooray for the very public admission that they're a couple (spouses, actually). I know there have been gay relationships in the Legion before -- in the Glorithverse Legion, Ayla and Salu were an item, and there was the whole regrettable Jan-Shvaughn/Sean thing; and in the Earth-247 Legion there were strong hints that Lyle and Condo had something going on, and of course Lyle kissed Brainy, and there were other gay couples among the supporting characters. And admitted, Tel and Jed aren't technically in the Legion. But still, this is (more or less) the Legion I grew up with, and to me at least, there's something momentous about this.

And yet....

They aren't Legionnaires. They're supporting characters, and it looks like they're being shuffled off to the sidelines, to appear only as cameos in the next "all hands on deck" Earthwar/Great Darkness/L3W storyline. Even worse, is Tel's final line foreshadowing? Is he going to Takron-Galtos only to die during the next prisoner escape, or when bad guys use his life as a weapon against Officer Jed?

I hope I'm wrong. I can envision a great subplot going on, about how someone (I'm looking at you, Rokk Krinn) kept Jed from joining the Legion out of homophobia -- a subplot leading to revelations about what Garth and Rokk did together in the early days of the Legion, and how Rokk has always felt weird (or maybe it was Rokk and Pol, brothers who shared a small single bed while the family was living in squalor on Bismoll Brral, the innocent games of childhood, the struggle for dominance, and Rokk's subsequent self-imposed guilt over Pol's death...) -- and the joyful reconciliation as Rokk comes to term with his homophobia and Tel & Jed welcome him into a celebratory three-way....

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

So there's where I am: mixed feelings. Happy to see a gay couple in the Legion; dismayed that they're probably going to be sidelined and ignored or worse.

The last issue and the New 52 reboot: Yeah, I know, the Legion is supposed to be changed the least of all DC's titles. And even though Adventure Comics is going away, there will still be two Legion titles, at least at first. However, I feel a real sense of loss here. There's a break, and however much Paul Levitz tries to minimize the disruption, I still feel like some plot threads are going to be lost in the transition.

The future will tell, of course. But for now, it seems like the story of the Academy group is over before it really got started.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Deaths: I've seen speculation that Variable Lad isn't really dead. Some people are saying that we don't see any bodies, so the jury is still out. That could be true...but among the debris I see bits of silver dragon, and what's clearly part of the dragon's head. In addition, that's clearly a coffin the cadets are bearing (although they seem to be putting it into a garbage truck). Besides, the emotional point of the whole story demands that Oaa is dead. All I can say is, Dr. Gym'll isn't going to be happy.

Cosmic King, on the other hand...was on the planet of wisdom in the last issue of LSH. There's no body, and it's hard to imagine that Levitz would kill him off permanently. I'm going to guess that he was spirited away by the Blue Entity (remember, he was on a mission for Saturn Queen). This is one of those details that I fear may be lost in the rush to wrap up the LSH storyline.

----------



 ----------

Week of 27 July 2011

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

I did not see any LSH content in DC Comics this week. However, I do have this:

DC COMICS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE (2011/07)
Amazon Listing here


ROLL CALL:

Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Karate Kid (Val), Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Saturn Girl, Sensor Girl, Starman/Star Boy, R.J. Brande, Sodam Yat

Just in time for the reboot of the entire DC Universe, here's a beautiful hardcover guide to the major heroes and and villains of the DC Universe. This book seems aimed at kids and casual comics fans, not the sort of well-informed readers who hang around here. OTOH, it does have Legionnaires: one listing for the Legion of Super-Heroes, along with individual listings for Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Karate Kid, Lighting Lad, Mon-El, Saturn Girl, and Starman.

I don't know the source of all this informaton; it seems drawn from various different versions of the DC Universe, and there are some odd things out of left field here and there. Karate Kid, for example, is described this way: "Though fast on his feet, he's not always the quickest of his team to leap into action -- he always looks for a peaceful way to victory first. Karate Kid uses his fighting skills only when he must!" (It also notes that recently "...he was exposed to a rare version of the OMAC virus which left him incredibly sick" - which seems to be another way of saying "dead.")

My guess is that the book was edited with an eye toward impressionable kids, and they didn't want to encourage children to go out and emulate Val by dashing off after the Fatal Five alone, or leaping up to smash power spheres to save Orando....

Saturn Girl's write-up notes that she "...sometimes flies using her flight belt, rather than her Legion flight ring." Uh...yeah, sure.

Most interesting, however, is a note in Starman's entry: "Dream Girl (a.k.a. Nura Nal) is Starman's 31st century girlfriend and Legion teammate. Nura's power to see the future recently drew the attention of the evil Doctor Destiny, who kidnapped her and transported her to the 21st century. But Starman and the rest of the Legion of Super-Heroes were quick to travel back in time to save her."

Say what?!

I have a theory. Remember that Dreamy was one of the missing Legionnaires in L3W? Remember that panel in Adventure that showed the Legion rescuing Dreamy from 21st-century imprisonment? Remember how that whole thing was never addressed? At the time, I guessed that Dreamy was supposed to have been captured by Brainiac, but the writer just forgot and left her out.

Perhaps not. Perhaps there was a storyline somewhere involving Doctor Destiny. Anyone know anything about this?

Bottom Line: I wouldn't treat this book as canon in any way, and you've seen all the art before, but it's an attractive volume at a pretty attractive price ($16.99 undiscounted). To this Legion completist, it was definitely worth the price.

----------



 ----------

Week of 20 July 2011

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

DC COMICS: THE NEW 52 #1 (2011/09)
"Legion Lost/Legion of Super-Heroes"

ROLL CALL:

Chameleon Boy, Chamelon Girl, Dawnstar, Dragonwing, Gates, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Ultra Boy, Wildfire

CUTE BOYS: Brin, Jo, Tyroc (with hair!)

This is a free promo for the "New 52" (wonder what they'll call it in five years? "The same old 52"?).

We all have a lot of questions about this new restart at DC, and few answers about how it will affect the Legion. We've been told that the Legion will be among the books least affected; that ought to be a comfort.

Yet we've seen this happen again and again: DC changes Superman's background, and those changes alter the Legion's history. The Legion's creative teams go through all sorts of contortions to bring the LSH into conformity: pocket universes, Valor, reboots, Crisis after Crisis -- only to have DC, sooner or later, restore the status quo.

Here's what I'd like Paul Levitz to say to the DC powers-that-be: "Do what you like with the DC Universe, rearrange Superman's life however you want, eliminate Superboy or keep him, give Supergirl whatever origin you want. But don't expect me to change the Legion's history to match your fashions. I've got the Time Trapper and the Infinite Man on my side, along with as many alternate timelines as I want and the time-travel magic to move between them at will. If there are discrepancies, just don't worry about them."

And here's what I'd like him to say to the fans: "I will take care of the Legion, but don't push too hard. If you start complaining to DC about discrepancies between the Legion's history and the present-day DC universe, you're going to upset the applecart. Do you remember Glorith? Do you remember Valor? Do you really want them to dig out some fan writers to ruin the Legion again? Do you want another reboot? Or would you rather find out what happens next with these characters we all care about? Then just be cool, okay?"

Of course, none of this is going to happen. Sigh.

----------

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #15 (2011/09)
"False Victory"


ROLL CALL:

Brianiac 5, Colossal Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Earth-Man, Element Lad, Gates, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lass, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Sun Boy, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Ultra Boy, Dyogene, Harmonia Li, Black Mace, Blue Entity, Chameleon Chief, Cosmic King, Hunter (Adam Orion), Lightning Lord, Questor, Radiation Roy, Saturn Queen, Spider Girl, Sun Killer, Terrus, Tusker

CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brek, Brin, Dirk, Gim, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Mon, Tyroc

Harmonia Li and Thom work together to take the Legion to the planet of the Wise, where they join in combat against the Legion of Suepr-Villains. The Legion appears to gain the upper hand, but Saturn Queen appeals to the Blue Entity, who tells her that Earth-Man is the key to her victory.

A surprisingly-straightforward story with lots of action. Dyogene gives the best explanation we've gotten so far of who the blue entity is: "...the nemesis of Oa, the doom from our original sin, reborn through mortal arrogance. He would topple the balance of the worlds, and sees this timeless sanctuary as a fulcrum...he will come here."

Last month I offered a pristine, shrinkwrapped copy of Legion Archives #1 to the commenter who guessed the actual identity of the blue critter. pblfsda suggested "a devolved form of Krona" -- a guess that instantly impressed everyone else. It looks as if pblfsda is on the right track, but let's hold off until next issue when All Should Be Explained...although my guess is that pblfsda will soon have a copy of Legion Archives #1.


On a more solemn note, this is the last Legion issue pencilled by Yildiray Cinar. I am very sorry to see him go; to my eyes, he captured the Legionnaires and their world in a unique and beautiful way. I wish he could have stayed through next issue, to bring the LSV storyline to its conclusion. I wish Mr. Cinar all the best in his work on Firestorm.


BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:


Notice that Lightning Lord mentions that Saturn Queen sent Zymyr back for "more pillagers," which explains the presence of hordes of villains in that magnificent two-page spread.


...That doesn't, however, explain what Cosmic King is doing here, while he's simultaneously infiltrating Legion Headquarters over in  Adventure. 


Hunter has gained the power to control wildlife (due to the blue entity's magic, which has been boosting the powers of all the villains.) This power is reminiscent of an old Legion villain, Jungle King/Monster Master.


----------




CHRONICLER'S ERROR?:


On page 4, there's a puzzling figure right in front of the leftmost Legion crusier, to Dream Girl's right -- the one who says "It's clearly where the villains who ravaged Colu went..." By the logic of the situation, it almost has to be Brainiac 5...but he's colored completely wrong.

 ----------

Week of 13 July 2011

There were no Legion appearances in DC Comics this week.

----------

Week of 6 July 2011

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

First, apologies for being so late. It's been awfully hectic around here lately. Now on to the comic:

ADVENTURE #528 (2011/09)
"Graduation Day"


ROLL CALL:

Bouncing Boy, Chemical King (memorial statue), Duplicate Girl, Ferro Lad (memorial statue), Invisible Kid (Lyle) (memorial statue), Karate Kid (Val) (memorial statue), Kid Psycho (memorial statue), Night Girl, Chemical Kid, Comet Queen, Crystal Kid, Dragonwing, Glorith, Gravity Kid, Lamprey, Nightwind, Power Boy, Proty I (memorial statue), Variable Lad, Cosmic King

CUTE BOYS: Bob, Chuck, Hadru, Special Mention for Jed & Tel


It's Graduation Day, and Lamprey is off to the S.P. outpost on Houp, while Power Boy, Nightwind, and Crystal Kid are off to the new S.P. special squad Takron-Galtos. Gravity Kid is upset; he and Jed have a tender farewell scene that confirms the two of them as a couple.

Meanwhile, a shadowy figure sneaks into Legion Headquarters, in service of Saturn Queen and armed with codes to deactivated all the alarms. It turns out to be Cosmic King.

Back at the Academy, Bouncing Boy, Duplicate Damsel, and Night Girl detect an ambiguous Headquarters alarm, and head off to investigate. They are followed by Comiet Queen, Chemical Kid, and Dragonwing.

In a nightmarish sequence in the Hall of Dead Heroes, the three Legionnaires are attacked by the HQ defenses, and then face Cosmic King himself. He gets the better of them, then turns to face the newly-arrived trio from the Academy.

All in all, a fun issue with plenty of action. The scene between Jed and Tel is sweet, although it would have been nicer to see them kiss. Oh, well, progress is progress, I suppose.


BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Houp, Lamprey's next post may be a misspelling of "Huop," an energy world inhabited by energy beings. The world was first mentioned in Adventure #377 (Feb 1969). It makes sense for Lamprey, with her electrical powers, to be assigned to an energy world.

Cosmic King has not really appeared much in action against this Legion. He was always more an Adult Legion villain. (Of course, the Retro Legion is pretty much an adult Legion, aren't they?) Unless I'm mistaken, this may be the first time he's been written by Paul Levitz. Anyone know for sure?

 ----------

Week of 29 June 2011

I did not see any LSh content in DC Comics this week.

I did get my copy of the hardcover collection of Legion Lost. I re-read the series, and while I can see many reasons that people liked it, it really wasn't my cup of tea. I guess I just prefer my Legion a bit less dark and miserable.

Ah, well. It's still good to see the Legion popular enough for DC to feel they can make money off a hardcover like this.

Makes me think of some other series I'd like to see in hardcover or trade paperback. Just off the top of my head:

• The death of Superboy
• The Universo Project (maybe combined with "The Condemned Legion" from Adventure)
• The Conspiracy storyline
• The Emerald Empress series from late in the Levitz/Giffen run
• Secrets of the LSH and Who's Who in the LSH in one volume
• Earthwar
• A Legion Weddings collection, including "The Weddings that Wrecked the Legion," Chuck & Luornu's wedding, Garth & Imra's wedding, Ultra Boy & Apparition getting hitched in the Earth-247 Legion, and probably one or two others I've forgotten
• End of an Era
• The whole 20th Century Exile storyline from Earth-247
• A collection of Brainiac 5 Goes Crazy stories
• Legionnaires 3 and Cosmic Boy
• A collection of Legion of Substitute Heroes stories
• Wanderers
• Valor
• Legion Worlds

Okay, DC, that should keep you busy for a while. Release these over the next couple of years, and you can charge me $20-$30 apiece. I'm stupid, I'll pay.

What about the rest of you? What Legion series would you like to see released in bound form?

 ----------

Week of 22 June 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC Comics this week.

Kid Flash Lost #1, a Flashpoint spinoff, takes Bart to the year 3011 in the Flashpoint universe. There, Earth is part of Brainiac's empire and there's no hint of a Legion. (I knew I didn't like the Flashpoint universe.) Two more issues are scheduled; I suppose it's possible that some Legionnaires may turn up (Jenni, maybe?), so it's worth watching this title.

Proceed with extreme care, however, and take every precaution, or you might accidentally read some of it. If you do, apply an antidote as soon as possible: re-read some old Legion stories as quickly as you can.

----------

Week of 15 June 2011

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

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 14 (2011/08)
"False Dreams"


ROLL CALL:

Brainiac 5, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, Wildfire, Aven, Dyogene, Master Kong, Harmonia Li, Akka (died), Blue Entity, Hunter (Adam Orion), Immortus, Lightning Lord, Questor, Saturn Queen, Sun Killer, Zymyr


CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Jan, Jo, Lar, Titanian boy in grey jccket & greenish pants


Harmonia Li uses the multiversal energies in Thom's suit to open the way to her "adopted world," the world of wisdom. She prepares to leave with Thom and Nura, but first the ring construct Mon-El demands an explanation. Which, apparently, Li gives offscreen -- for next thing we know, they're hurtling toward Colu to gather the other Legionnaires and head for Wisdom World. Nura has a vision of herself standing on Shanghalla, with Brainy telling her that Thom's power won the battle.


Meanwhile, on Colu, Ultra Boy slaps Immortus down, at which point Aven and the Titanians take over to neutralize him and "guide him back to the way."


Saturn Queen and LSV have another meeting with the blue entity. In order to boost Hunter's tracking abilities, SQ kills Akka (whose name is back to "Akka" this issue).  The LV (minus Akka) appear on Wisdom World and are met by Master Kong, who supposedly died 3500 years ago. They immediately begin wrecking the place.


On Colu, everyone is wrapping up when Harmonia Li arrives with Thom, Nura, and green Mon-El. Li announces that her foolishness at the Time Institute has placed Wisdom World in danger.


Cut to a weird space, where Dyogene and the real Mon-El meet Dawnstar, who is still on the trail of the blue critter. Mon-El seems surprised to see her. She says that the trail ends at a dimensional barrier she can't pierce, although maybe the power ring can.


Dyogene says that maybe they shouldn't go after the blue critter, since "his strength has gestated for centuries, awaiting the day when hubris would free him to complete the evil his creator wrought." Dyogene counsels letting Wisdom World fall, saving their strength to protect Oa. He says the rings can't take them through the barrier.


Then who should arrive but Harmonia Li and the rest of the Legion! And Mon-E says, "I told you not to underestimate the Legion."


Obviously, we're getting to the end of this arc -- all the threads are coming together. And darned if I can figure out where they're going.


The blue critter was created by someone centuries past, in order to bring chaos to the universe. It's been dormant underground on Earth all this time. When Li tried to look at the beginning of time (which, might I say, was pretty stupid for someone who's been keeping company with Confucius), she somehow loosed the blue critter.


So who is the blue critter? Who was its creator? When Levitz does this kind of thing, it usually ties into existing DC continuity somehow. Anyone?


Tell you what: I have here  a pristine, shrinkwrapped copy of Legion Archives #1 that I recently saved from the "50% off" rack at Twilite Zone and have been saving for a prize. If anyone leaves a comment guessing the actual identity of the blue critter, I'll send that person this prize. So comment away!


BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: 


Nura's exclamation "Thank Delphi!" refers to the ancient Greek oracle. Nice.


"Master Kong" is a translation of Kung-fu-tzu, aka Confucius.

 ----------

Week of 8 June 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC Comics this week.

No, that's good news: this week, DC is all about the Flashpoint crossovers, and I don't think any of us wants to see the Leigon dragged into that train wreck.

----------

Week of 1 June 2011

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

ADVENTURE 527 (2011/08)
"A Comet's Tale"


ROLL CALL:

Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chemical King, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Duplicate Girl, Lightning Lad, Night Girl, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, Chemical Kid, Comet Queen, Dragonwing, Glorith, Gravity Kid, Mandalla, Shadow Kid, Stone Boy, Variable Lad, Saturn Queen

CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brin, Chemical Kid, Chuck, Condo, Garth, Gravity Kid, Jo, Rokk, Shadow Kid, Stone Boy

A recap of Comet Queen's origin story, followed by some updates on her more recent activities. Oddly, there's no mention of her time with Rokk, Lydda, Luornu, and Myg in the second Legion of Substitue Heroes.

Basically, she graduated from the Academy (along with Mandalla and Shadow Kid) and went into service with the Subs. (This looks to be after Superman & the LSH and possibly after L3W. After Titanfall, an encounter with Saturn Queen erased most of Grava's memories. With the help of Tellus, she regained many of her memories, and went back into the Academy to retrain.

I see that we're back to making fun of the Subs. I don't mind when they're treated with humor -- as in Superman & the LSH or in Straczynski's recent Brave & Bold two-parter...but to me, there's a basic nobility about the Subs that a lot of people miss. Sure, it takes courage for Ultra Boy or Wildfire to go up against evil supervillains -- and even more for Legionnaires like Invisible Kid or Shadow Lass -- but all the Legionnaires have their experience, training, and teamwork. For someone like Stone Boy or Comet Queen to go up against the big bad guys (which they have done, many times) takes enormously more courage.

Besides, the Subs are the team who produced Polar Boy and Night Girl, who certainly had the Right Stuff to become Legionnaires.

Anyway, it was good to see answers to some of the questions we had about Grava, and to have her star in a story. I've always liked her irrepressible optimism, her goofiness, and her unbounded confidence. Matching her with Chuck was brilliant -- the two have similar personalities. If anyone deserves to be part of the Legion, she does.

Perhaps Grava needs the same sort of transformation that's happened to Chuck: maturity, wisdom, whatever you want to call it. She needs to get over her crush on Chuck and find someone else to fall in love with and, maybe, marry.

Perhaps Glorith is the right girl for the job.
 ---------

Week of 25 May 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC Comics this week.

However, I did go to Balticon, where our Green Lantern presentation won "Most Humorous" in the Masquerade. Here's my costume -- you might recognize the inspiration:

 ----------

Week of 18 May 2011

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


LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #13 (2011/07)
"False Hopes"


ROLL CALL:

Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Earth-Man, Element Lad, Gates, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Polar Boy, Quislet, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, Wildfire, Dyogene, Dr. Harmonia Li, Akka, Blue Entity, Hunter (Adam Orion), Immortus, Questor, Saturn Queen, Sun Killer, Zymyr

CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brek, Brin, Garth, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Mon, Rokk

The battle on Colu continues, as many Legionnaires fight members of the LSV. Saturn Queen summons the blue flame, which is embodied as an older version of the unknown blue critter. This being says "...When your work is done, my dreams over the endless centuries of exile shall be fulfilled and the galactic civilization shall fall!"

Gates and Tellus show up to release Brainy from Saturn Queen's spell. Gates makes reference to legends of a world of the wise: "My ancestors knew their wisest would be taken away to become immortals beyond our star." Tellus adds that he glimpsed a picture in Gates's mind: a picture he has also seen in the mind of Harmonia Li.

At Legion HQ, Mon-El tries to coordinate various teams and individuals. He also has a brief, tender chat with Dream Girl. Dreamy returns to the lab and tells Dr. Li "I foresaw you and Thom, holding hands in space with incredible energies around you." Dr. Li announces that Thom must join her in sacrifice, but first they must stop draining the multiversal energy from him.

There's something off about the art in this issue. Not everywhere, but particularly in the pages with Brainy, Earth-Man, Gates, and Tellus...and maybe a little bit with the encounter between Hunter and Earth-Man. The art just doesn't look as...clean? Tight?

The art is credited to Yildiray Cinar and Jonathan Glapion, instead of Cinar & Faucher. (This was also true about last issue.) I assume that Glapion is doing inks, and maybe he has a bit of a heavier hand than Faucher. Anyway, it's a great example of how the penciller and inker are a team, both contributing to the final look of the comic.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:


Lots of great Quislet action tis time around. Gotta love his cry of "Upsi!" as he animates the ground to engulf Sun-Killer.

Brainy set up codes to call in reinforcements, but didn't share those codes with anyone else. That seems a bad choice, strategically. Is it Brainy's natural egotism ("no team with me present can need help") or an indication of the pressure Brainy's under?

The blue critter has been exiled for "endless centuries." Saturn Queen calls it "Bringer of Chaos." This makes it sound like the blue critter/blue flame is a Lord of Chaos, about whom I really don't know enough to guess. Anyone?

The chat between Mon-El and Dream Girl is exquisite, and shows the kind of easy friendship that many Legionnaires share. Mon's concern for Thom, in the middle of everything else that he's dealing with, is touching.

The enigma of Professor Li continues. It's pretty obvious that she's one of the immortal wise ones. More than that, I can't guess.

Gates speaks of legends of the world of the immortal wise ones -- but Gates is from a different universe. Whatever's going on, it covers the whole multiverse -- which explains Dr. Li's interest in Thom's multiversal energy.

 ----------

HOUSEKEEPING: I finally obtained a copy of Action #900. I've updated my entry for Week of 27 April 2011.

Farewell, L.E.G.I.O.N.

Our R.E.B.E.L.S. are now ended. These our L.E.G.I.O.N.naires,

As Brainy foretold you, were all Legion knockoffs and

Are melted into limbo, comic book limbo:

And, like the pointless plots of this vision,

The towers of Rann, the Tamaranean palaces, 

The Psion laboratories, the Vegan system itself,

Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this Baxter paper faded,

Leave an empty rack behind. They are such stuff

As graphic novels are made on, and their little lives

Are rounded with bright covers.

(apologies to Will Shakespeare)

 ----------

Week of 11 May 2011

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

FLASHPOINT #1 (2011/07)
"Flashpoint Chapter One of Five"


ROLL CALL:

XS

CUTE BOYS: Barry Allen, Billy, Eugene, Freddy, Pedro, Shade

XS appears in a cameo of the Flash Family on page 3.

----------

R.E.B.E.L.S. #28 (2011/07)
"Starstruck: Conclusion"


ROLL CALL: 

Adam Strange, Amon Hakk, Bounder, Captain Comet, Ciji, Lobo, Lyrl Dox, Starfire, Tribulus, Vril Dox, Widstar, Xylon, Smite, Starro

CUTE BOYS: Adam Strange, Captain Comet, Lyrl Dox, Vril Dox, assorted Rannian cannon fodder

This is the last issue of R.E.B.E.L.S. (this time around).

Tribulus, under the direction of the two Doxes, defeats Starro, who flees. Smite, having bonded with Lobo over drinks, unites with Lobo in taking down Starro. And...uh...well, that's it.

R.E.B.E.L.S. has been a problematic comic. There was a lot of potential here. The Legion connection, the other sf elements of the present-day DC universe, some really nice art...yet it never really managed to grab me. About the best story was the Annual, telling the origin of Starro.

I can't exactly say this comic was a failure -- after all, 28 issues is a respectable run. But it wasn't a huge success, either. Why?

I think there were some mistakes along the way. First, there was too much concentration on the Doxes and too little on other characters. Look at all the intriguing characters here -- Ciji the Durlan, Xylon the renegade Dominator, Wildstar, Bounder, and above all Tribulus. We didn't even get an origin story for Ciji, Bounder, or Tribulus. And we didn't get to know these characters any. One of the great things about the Legion is how even minor characters come alive, with detailed backstories and problems we care about. Except for Starfire and Comet, there was little of that in R.E.B.E.L.S.

I think the stories were too simple. Starro attacks, Starro is defeated. Brainiac attacks, Brainiac is defeated. Some nonsense with Green Lanterns. Starro attacks again, Starro is defeated again. I'm not saying that stories should have had the same multi-level complexity as Paul Levitz's best -- but a few strong continuing and interlocking subplots would have nice.

Finally, I think the creators were too ambitious in tying the series into the rest of the DC Universe. Crossovers with Blackest Day and the Brainiac/Last Days of New Krypton series were just distracting. Bringing in the Omega Men and the whole Vega system might have been a good idea, but the execution was lacking. For readers like me, who were not all that familiar with the Vega/Omega Men/Tamoran/Psion mythos, there should have been more explanation of the background. Bringing Rann and Adam Strange into the mix made it even more confusing.

There are ways to do this kind of thing well, ranging from in-story exposition to text boxes to back-of-the-comic "what's what" features. But here it was a case of too little, too late.

Ah, well. As Vril Dox says at the end, L.E.G.I.O.N. is here to stay. Eventually another storyteller will come along who can do justice to the group.

----------

DC COMICS PRESENTS: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 100-PAGE SPECTACULAR #1 (2011/06)
"Legion of the Damned"

It's back again. This time with a white logo on the cover, and the four chapters of the story in correct order. This comic reprints Legionnaires 79-80 and Legion of Super-Heroes 122-123.

Re-reading this story left me with the following thoughts:

How To Do a Legion Story That I Won't Like

(based on the Giffen/Bierbaum Method)

1. The Legion's future is too bright and optimistic. Let's make it darker and more depressing.
2. Let's join the story after all the great changes have already taken place.
3. Some Legionnaires should turn traitor to the human race, that's totally in character.
4. More despair.
5. A great evil power should turn Lar Gand into a puppet, why not?
6. Let's make everyone in the universe look grotesque. Who wants attractive art?
7. Oh, yeah, corruption should be everywhere.
8. The art is too bright. Put in more dark shadows.
9. Do everything you can to obscure people's faces. Masks, dirt, shadows, it's all good.
10. Have a few flashbacks, but don't identify them as flashbacks. Readers like being confused.
11. It still looks too attractive. Can you get a three-year-old to scribble all over the pages?
12. Put in lots of white letters on black backgrounds. Who needs to read words?
13. More splotches. All over the place. Everything in the dark, depressing future should be splotchy.

Wow, I can't wait until Legion Lost comes out next month. Even darker, with more corruption, more splotches and scribbles, and even uglier art!

----------