Legion of Super-Heroes Appreciation 2019 [Long Live the Legion!]

[Comic-Reader Lad]

The five movie plan works for me. I'm only worried about Timber Wolf, and the peculiar connections to Wolverine. But writers can follow the animated series route for TW.

I read Earth War last year when I finally went digital. I think it was the first series of issues I downloaded. I enjoyed it. I really enjoy bronze age Legion. I slipped up a few times, and purchased some Gerry Conway stuff.

I think the death of Chemical King story is also very underrated.

CK's death was a good story, and pretty much the only one he ever appeared in where he made a difference. Runner up might have been his part in Superboy 211 to stop Element Lad from killing Roxxas, but that was really E-Lad's story.

The problem with his death story was, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, that it was inked by Jack Abel, who made James Sherman's art pretty unrecognizable--for the worse.

[Lee Stone]

[Zero Hunter]

Chemical King is one of those forgotten characters. I am not sure if he was created just to be killed off at some point like Ferro Lad was or if his lack of use made him expendable. Either way they never really seemed to have any plans for him. Even in the reboot era he was brought back as more a supporting character like Bouncing Boy and Matter Eater Lad were, and not really a hero. Making him and Invisible Kid an official couple was a nice touch though.

His successor Chemical Kid got way more exposure than he ever did.

[silly]

Nice.

Who are those guys in the 2nd and 3rd rows?

Why does Ultra Boy look old?

[Comic-Reader Lad]

For the record:

1st row:
Pete Ross; Jimmy Olsen as Elastic Lad; Lana Lang as Insect Queen;
Legion of Substitute-Heroes members Polar Boy, Stone Boy, Night Girl, Fire Lad, Chlorophyll Kid, Color Kid;
Dev-Em, the Knave of Krypton; Kid Psycho, a Legion Reserve member

2nd row:
The Heroes of Lallor members: Duplicate Boy, Beast Boy, Gas Girl, Evolvo Lad, Life Lass;
Super-Stalag of Space inmates: Plant Lad, Blockade Boy, Weight Wizard, Shadow Kid (later retroactively made Shadow Lass's cousin as he appeared before she was introduced);
White Witch, Rond Vidar

3rd row:
Dawn & Don Allen, Barry Allen's kids The Tornado Twins;
The Wanderers (original team): Celebrand, Quantum Queen, Ornitho, Immorto, Psyche, Dartalg, Elvo;
RJ Brande (Legion financier and Chameleon Boy's father); Marla Latham (old guy in Ultra Boy-esque costume) is the Legion Adult Advisor who only made a couple of appearances beginning with Ultra Boy's first appearance in Superboy 98.

[Zero Hunter]

Nice.

Who are those guys in the 2nd and 3rd rows?

The Wanderers (same characters before and after they were killed and cloned)




Heroes of Lallor

[Zero Hunter]

Tornado Twins - Don and Dawn Allen. Children of Barry Allen and Iris West Allen. Don is the Father of Bart Allen (Impulse) while Dawn is the Mother of Jenni Ognats (XS)

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Here's the Mike Grell poster from the Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl wedding tabloid (unfortunately inked by Vince Colletta). Hopefully this was reprinted as part of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes hardcover vol. 1.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Here's Timber Wolf getting a nice moment of glory from Superboy 209, 1975.

It's courtesy of Jim Shooter, who returned to writing the Legion in the mid-1970s before he left permanently for Marvel.

It was Shooter who renamed Lone Wolf to Timber Wolf, and had him join the Legion (along with another Shooter creation, Chemical King).

[Frontier]

I loe the pic with all the team couples.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPARTMENT:

Let's take a look at the classic pre-5YL Legion and see how that team was built in terms of which writers orginated which characters. The list below gives credit to the writer who created the character even in the many cases where the character did NOT join the Legion until another writer's tenure on the franchise.


Otto Binder (created 5 members): originated the Legion of Super-Heroes team concept and created Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad. The 3 that started it all. Later, Binder created Star Boy. Of course, he also created Supergirl.

Jerry Siegel (created 12 members): Siegel often doesn't get talked about as part of the Legion's history, but the fact is that he created many of the original, classic Legionnaires and created more than any other writer: Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Sun Boy, Shrinking Violet, Bouncing Boy, Ultra Boy, and Matter-Eater Lad. As Superman's creator, Siegel gets credit for creating Superboy.

Robert Bernstein (created 1 member): Mon-El

Edmond Hamilton (created 6 members): Element Lad, Lightning Lass/Light Lass, Dream Girl, Lone Wolf (later joined LSH as Timber Wolf by Jim Shooter), Pol Krinn (later joined LSH as Magnetic Kid by Paul Levitz), Polar Boy

Jim Shooter (created 5 members): Ferro Lad, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Shadow Lass, Chemical King

E. Nelson Bridwell (created 1 member): White Witch

Cary Bates (created 2 members): Wildfire, Tyroc

Gerry Conway (created 1 member): Blok

Paul Levitz (created 4 members): Dawnstar, Invisible Kid II, Quislet, Tellus


And there you have it! All 37 Legionnaires of the original continuity!

[caj]

Thank you, Comic-Reader Lad, for your informative post. I really learned a lot from reading that.

I know I'm being greedy by asking for more, but can you tell us who created R.J. Brande? I can't remember who was writing the book when he and the Legion's origin was created.

[bearman]

Damn, that Curt Swan was an elegant artist.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Thank you, Comic-Reader Lad, for your informative post. I really learned a lot from reading that.

I know I'm being greedy by asking for more, but can you tell us who created R.J. Brande? I can't remember who was writing the book when he and the Legion's origin was created.

RJ Brande was introduced in Adventure Comics 350. It and #351 were a great 2 part story that also introduced White Witch. In this story, she was transformed into an evil, old crone and dubbed "The Hag" by Prince Evillo, leader of the Devil's Dozen to which The Hag belonged under his mind control. At the end of the story, she regained her true form and was free of Evillo.

Anyway, it was E. Nelson Bridwell who wrote this story, and thus created both White Witch and RJ Brande. You can see his very first appearance from Adventure 350 below, followed by a page from Adventure 351 that picks up where 350 left off. It was in 351 that we were told his name. Note that it was RJ "Brandes" in this first appearance.

Also, RJ Brande was introduced BEFORE the Legion's origin was told. Adventure 350 was dated November 1966, while the Legion's origin was in Superboy 147, dated May-June 1968.

E. Nelson Bridwell also wrote Superboy 147 and used his RJ Brande character as the impetus for Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad to get together as a crimefighting organization, which you can also see below.





Here's the relevant page of the Legion's origin from Superboy 147:

[caj]

Thanks again, Comic Reader Lad. I actually have that issue (and know who Sir Prize and Miss Terious turned out to be).

However, I did not realize that was Brande's first appearance. Also thanks for letting me know where the origin story is as well.