Posted by darren in Comics
Once the Legion regrouped if you will, Paul Levitz had decided that it was time to shake up the group’s membership some, and that meant the exit of a few key Legion players.
The three founders of the Legion, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy cast their vote for Legion leader, and then resign from the Legion to discuss with Element Lad (who is reelected as Legion Leader with Brainiac 5 as his new Deputy Leader) what their new roles will be in the group. Coinciding with this event is the fact that the case that brought together these three teens officially comes to a close as the would be assassins of R.J. Brande were due to be released from prison at the same time.
Cementing their new role as “Legion Advisors” the three remain on call when needed, but the vacuum left behind, must be filled and so Element Lad asks Wildfire to organize a mass tryout for Legion membership.
Meanwhile, we find out about Comet Queen who is a student at the Legion Academy. Turns out she has the hots for Bouncing Boy and wanted to be a Legionnaire so badly she had heard about Star Boy’s origin (flying through a More >
Posted by darren in Comics
In the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes is in a resting period for most of the team as we see Chameleon Boy and his father R.J. Brande return to the highly toxic and xenophobic tribal world of their origin, Durla.
The team also gets a few new costumes as showcased here on this cover, a tribute to an older Legion cover from its Silver Age origins in Adventure Comics. When the father/son pair arrive on Durla, immediately they are set upon by their fellow tribal Durlans for leaving Durla. The Durlans appear as a race in large purple robes with tentacles come from the hood, presumably these tentacles transform into the antennae we see Cham wear. R.J. Brande, Cham’s father, is also powerless at this time and has been stuck in his form of an older humanoid male since the origin of the Legion when the founders stopped the assassination attempt on his life.
R.J. had arranged for Reep/Chameleon Boy to join the Legion in its early days as a way of helping Durlan relations with the rest of the United Planets, but Durla itself remains a reluctant world. A toxic atmosphere laced with radiation and pollution, the counsel of Durla imprisons Chameleon Boy and R.J. More >
Posted by darren in Comics
Top Row: Supergirl, Invisible Kid II, Colossal Boy, Dawnstar, and Superboy
Second Row: Sun Boy, White Witch, Karate Kid, Projectra, and Timber Wolf
Third Row: Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, Blok, Star Boy, Dream Girl, and Brainiac Five
Fourth Row: Ultra Boy, Wildfire, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Element Lad, and Chameleon Boy
Fifth Row: Proty, Shadow Lass, Duo Damsel, and Bouncing Boy
In the Legion of Super-Heroes #300, the Legion is assembling for its re-dedication ceremony. This ceremony takes place every so often, but this is the most elaborate one we have seen on panel. As additional Legionnaires arrive to the headquarters we see Element Lad, Ultra Boy, and Phantom Girl welcoming Superboy and then his cousin Supergirl to the party. Supergirl inquires where Brainiac Five is, and Invisible Kid II (along with the dyed energies of a pouting Wildfire) show up and Jacques asks the same question and that leads us into the meat of the story.
Brainiac Five, Circadius Senius, and Rond Vidar are working on a patient at the Time Institute, it is an odd thing to have a medical patient here, but odd is what Brainiac Five specializes in. Apparently this patient has accessed some ability to transfer his More >
Posted by darren in Legion
Sun Boy, Brainiac Five, and Blok fight the Servants of Darkness while Dream Girl holds a newborn baby?
When we last left the Legion they were scattered to four different worlds.
- Takron-Galtos – The United Planet’s Prison Planet – Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy, Mon-El, and Shadow Lass
- Avalon – Where Mordru was imprisoned – Brainiac Five, Star Boy, Element Lad, Timber Wolf, Wildfire, and Dawnstar
- Naltor – Where the LSH stopped the Servants of Darkness from kidnapping Dream Girl’s sister, the White Witch – Sun Boy, Light Lass, Dream Girl, Blok, and Invisible Kid II
- Earth – Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl were attacked by the captured servant but saved from Lightning Lad when he snapped out of his electrical brain fever.
As the Legionnaires on Takron-Galtos leave that world, they miss the shuttle just arriving carrying the now convicted Chameleon Boy who is serving out a sentence for treason.
At the Sorcerer’s World, also known as Xerox, Dream Girl and Element Lad’s teams meet up and Dream Girl officially begins her leadership tenure. The Legion descends down through mystic illusions until they get to real land and meet the Teachers of the Sorcerer’s World.
As Ultra Boy’s team arrives the ship they are in blows apart as one of the More >
Posted by darren in Comics
In the DCU there are the arch enemies like Lex Luthor, Joker, and Cheetah, mostly these are dark reflections of the heroes that they find conflict with often, however, then there are those baddies who supersede any specific hero/villain relationship and those villains find themselves in conflict with not only heroes but the universe at large. These villains are usually well equipped, long term strategists, and possess overwhelming amounts of power.
It is in this backdrop that we begin to discuss The Great Darkness Saga in the Legion of Super-Heroes.
When last we left our discussion of the Legion, the Legionnaires had been held prisoner in their own headquarters by the villainous C.O.M.P.U.T.O. and in their midst they had elected a new Legionnaire as Jacques Foccart joined the Legion as the second Invisible Kid. Prior to that, Legionnaires Mon-El and Shadow Lass had been called to investigate a planet that had just appeared in United Planets space and no probe had successfully returned from investigating the planet. Mon-El and Shady found out why when they landed and the planet’s defense systems nearly killed them both and it is that “Prologue to Darkness” that serves as the prelude to The Great Darkness Saga.
And The Servant Shall Be More >
Posted by darren in Comics
Here we are finally actually talking about some Legion stories!
We’re going to start with Legion of Super-Heroes #284 which is two issues prior to when I started collecting, but I might as well include it as this is the beginning of what Legion fans call “The Levitz Era.” Paul Levitz that is. Paul was a lifelong writer, comic guy who started working at DC Comics back when he was in high school. Paul had written the Legion prior to this run, but this is the definitive run of his writing in my opinion, and the definitive run of the Legion of Super-Heroes, so lets hop on in!
In issue #284,we witness Bouncing Boy staring at the bronzed statues of dead Legionnaires Chemical King, Ferro Lad, and Invisible Kid stating to himself that he’s getting himself out of the game. His wife, Duo Damsel shows up to get him and they bounce off to a Legion meeting where they announce their resignations.
The Legion is called to stop some organ-leggers, a 30th century take on the Tijuana kidney theft urban tales of today, but with more of a pirate bent. Timber Wolf and Light Lass are already at the hospital called Medicus One where the More >
Posted by darren in Comics
Here we are again, ready for the next ones? I hope so, because here they are.
These would be Superboy, Ultra Boy is the large “T” or very stylized bird, Star Boy, and Shrinking Violet.
Superboy is the junior high-high school version of Clark Kent prior to his leaving Smallville and going off to Metropolis. The Legion became a plot device to get Clark out of the rather boring Smallville scene and into the future for some sci-fi stories, and the Legion has existed ever since. Clark is an outcast in Smallville due to his powers and the Legion comes back in time to be his friends. The Legion winds up teaching Clark what it means to be a hero, which they learned by watching historical records of what Superman did. You have to love time travel loops, huh?
(the awkward implications of X-Ray vision.. and why are the guys checking each other out? Poor Lana never had a chance.)
Ultra Boy is Jo Nah from the planet Rimbor. While piloting a space cruiser, Jo Nah was swallowed by a space whale (Jo Nah and the whale? easy to remember huh?) While in the space whale he became imbued with Ultra Energy which he can use More >
