Week of 21 November 2007

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

COUNTDOWN #23 (11/21/07)
"The Bottled Imp"

No LSH content in this issue. There are some Dominators getting blown up, if that sort of thing excites you.

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ACTION #859 (1/08)
"Illegal Aliens: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 2"
ROLL CALL: Blok (cameo), Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Invisible Kid II (cameo), Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl (cameo), Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet (cameo), Superman, Ultra Boy (cameo), Wildfire (Lightning Saga Legion)
Justice League of Earth: Earth-Man (formerly Absorbancy Boy), Golden Boy, Radiation Roy, Spider-Girl, Storm Boy, Tusker

Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl descend into the ruined Batcave, but are soon surprised and taken prisoner by the Justice League of Earth. Meanwhile, Superman learns that the Justice League is a group of rejected Legion applicants, led by Earth-Man (formerly Absorbancy Boy). The JLE has turned the legend of Superman around, saying that he was an Earth native who fought to defend Earth from aliens. The populace of Earth has turned against the Legion and aliens in general.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: The basic situation, Earth turned against the Legion, occurred in ADVENTURE #359/360 (8-9/1967) "The Outlawed Legion/The Legion Chain Gang."

Legionnaires found the ancient Batcave in ADVENTURE #341 (2/1966) "The Weirdo Legionnaire"

The Legion's costumes are pretty impressive: they recall the classic costumes, but have a more modern look. Cosmic Boy's outfit recalls that of Cosmic King from the LSV. Most of the Legionnaires have belts displaying the Legion emblem, but Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, and Invisible Kid have different belts.

The alien detention center in the last panel is an updated version of the original Legion clubhouse.

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LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #8 (1/08)
"Three's a Crowd"
ROLL CALL: Bouncing Boy, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad, Phantom Girl, Superman, Timber Wolf, Triplicate Girl

The Trips go on dates with Bouncing Boy and Superman...but Starfinger shows up to cause trouble.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: In classic Legion continuity, Chuck and Luornu became a romantic couple and eventually married. Prior to that, Luornu carried the torch for Superboy.

In classic continuity, a previous incarnation of Starfinger kidnapped Luornu on the day of her wedding to Chuck.

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Week of 14 November 2007

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

COUNTDOWN #24 (11/14/07)
"Prime Example"
ROLL CALL: Karate Kid, Una (Lightning Saga Legion)

Karate Kid's "immune system is crashing" and he seems near death, but the Atmoic Kights come to the rescue.

Really, Val and Luornu haven't done much for the last few issues except follow various people around and engage in the obligatory fights that occur in the DC Universe whenever heroes from different titles meet. Honestly, it seems that they were included in COUNTDOWN just in order to sell more comics to die-hard Legion fans. (I suppose I could be charitable and say that they're there in order to show that the Legion is part of the great events taking place in the DC Universe...but I prefer the cynical version.)

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SUPERMAN #670 (1/08)
"The Stand (The Third Kryptonian: Finale)"
ROLL CALL: Dawnstar, Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Wildfire (statues only) (cameo)

In a fight with Amalak in the Fortress of Solitude, several Legion statues are toppled in the background (page 37, center panel). It's not a Legion appearance as such, but fanatical completists (you know who you are) will want to know about it.

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Week of 7 Novembert 2007

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

COUNTDOWN #25 (11/7/07
"Bedlam Below"
ROLL CALL: Karate Kid, Una (Lightning Saga Legion)

Fourteen pages of Karate Kid, Una, and Firestorm fighting the Atomic Knights and exploring a bunker beneath Bludhaven. (No word on whether the bunker is known as Command-D.) Val is in bad shape, sweating and coughing up blood as the virus progresses.

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Week of 31 October 2007

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

ACTION #858 (12/07)
"Superman & the Legion of Super-Heroes Chapter 1: Alien World"
ROLL CALL: Bouncing Boy (cameo), Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy (cameo), Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl (cameo), Element Lad (cameo), Ferro Lad (cameo), Invisible Kid (cameo), Karate Kid (cameo), Light Lass (cameo), Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad (cameo), Mon-El (cameo), Phantom Girl (cameo), Princess Projectra (cameo), Saturn Girl, Sensor Girl (cameo), Shadow Lass (cameo), Shrinking Violet (cameo), Star Boy/Starmn (cameo), Sun Boy (cameo), Superman, Timber Wolf (cameo), Triplicate Girl (cameo), Ultra Boy (cameo), Wildfire (All presumably Lightning Saga Legion)

Superman doesn't seem to remember the Legion until Brainiac 5, acting by remote control, restores his memory. (During the Lightning Saga, Superman seemed to have memories of the Legion...and he has Legion statues in his Fortress. So what's up with his sudden amnesia?)

Brainy brings Superman to the year 3008, where the Science Police attack him in Legion Headquarters, injuring him. Colossal Boy, Wildfire, and Dawnstar rescue him (Dawny has apparently gained the power to grow enormous boobs). In the last panel, we find out that Earth's sun is now red.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: A seven-page flashback very tenderly tells the story of how poor, lonely Clark Kent was visited by Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl, who whisked him away to the future to join the Legion. It's a really sweet retelling of the familiar myth, and shows how much the Legionnaires' friendships meant to young Kal-El. (Notice that the Legionnaires call him "Kel-El" or "Kal," not "Clark.")

The double-page center spread of the Legion is nice, if a little inaccurate (by the time Timber Wolf was a member, Luornu was Duo Damsel; Ferro Lad and Shadow Lass were never contemporaries, and Light Lass is missing her insignia)...but I read it as an idealized composite memory of Superman's

Gim, Dawny, and Drake have great new costumes -- but Drake's is easily the best. Parts of his containment suit seem to be transparent, so you can see his energy swirling within.

The Legion team who came to Headquarters were not expecting Superman -- apparently they were on some other mission. When he breaks in, Colossal Boy takes a packet from his belt and says, "I've got the rings." Flight rings, probably...but where were they taking them?

Curiouser and curiouser....

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COUNTDOWN #26 (10/31/07)
"Halfway to Hell"
ROLL CALL: Karate Kid, Una (Lightning Saga Legion)

Firestorm joins Val and Luornu, and helps Val uncover "the secrets beneath the cratered city of Bludhaven...bringing him closer to his ultimate fate." Which, apparently, is the "inciting event" of the Great Disaster.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: Val has been involved with the Great Disaster before: at least, he once visited Kamandi (in KAMANDI #58 in July 1978).

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JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #10 (12/07)
"What a Wonderful World"
ROLL CALL: Star Boy/Starman

The Superman of Earth 22 (Kingdom Come) shows up at Justice Society headquarters, and Star Boy/Starman babbles on about his sojourn in that continuity. This is obviously a Star Boy/Starman, probably the Lightning Saga one, but I'll be damned if I can figure out exactly where he came from or where he belongs.

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SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #35 (12/07)
"E.R.G.onomics Part 2 of 2"
ROLL CALL: Atom Girl, Brainiac 5, Evolvo-Lad, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Supergirl, Timber Wolf, Wildfire

Great Krypton, the art in this book is awful.

For some reason, Colossal Boy and Light Lass are on the cover, even though they don't appear in this issue.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: The relationship between Drake and his brother Randall is a new (and interesting) twist on the character.

Atom Girl rides between telephones on a fiber-optic line, and credits the trick to her "twenty-first century namesake" -- the Atom. Not only a kewl bit, but it links Atom Girl to Ray Palmer's legacy...I think this is the first time there's been a parallel between Ray Palmer and Salu Digby.

Supergirl doesn't seem to distrust Brainy as much as the others do. In the old continuity, Supergirl and Brainiac 5 were an on-again, off-again couple.


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Catch the Infection

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

DOCTOR 13: ARCHITECTURE & MORALITY (Trade Paperback, 2007)
(Collects TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #1-8)
ROLL CALL: Infectious Lass

Okay, I missed this entirely.

This is an out-of-continuity story that features nine characters who are being written out of the DC Universe: Doctor 13, his daughter Traci, Anthro, Andrew Bennett, Captain Fear, JEB Stuart's ghost, Genius Jones, a Nazi gorilla named Julius, and Infectious Lass. They fight back against the "architects" (presumably the DC head honchos) and manage to survive as "Team 13."

At least this explains (if "explains" is the word I'm groping for) why Infectious Lass was hovering in the timestream in BOOSTER GOLD #3 a few weeks back.

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