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

[caj]

I really got a kick out of the Violet/Colossal Boy/Yera/Duplicate Boy mess. However, the more I think about it, Yera's relationship with CB does raise eyebrows in a modern setting.

What if the genders were reversed in the Yera/CB relationship?

I was intrigued by the mystery but the fallout was ridiculous. How could Yera NOT go to prison??? She impersonated a Legionnaire for months. And how could all the Legionnaires just shrug their shoulders and say 'well, she didn't know the whole story.'

But the real head scratcher was how Yera was able to get past both Saturn Girl and Dream Girl with her charade. One can read minds and the other can glimpse the future. Surely one or both could've picked up on this.

Colossal Boy was the real disappointment in all of this. He should've been furious and hurt. After all, he had been in love with Violet for years. He couldn't tell she was different? Okay, end of rant.

[Anthony Shaw]

I was intrigued by the mystery but the fallout was ridiculous. How could Yera NOT go to prison??? She impersonated a Legionnaire for months. And how could all the Legionnaires just shrug their shoulders and say 'well, she didn't know the whole story.'

But the real head scratcher was how Yera was able to get past both Saturn Girl and Dream Girl with her charade. One can read minds and the other can glimpse the future. Surely one or both could've picked up on this.

Colossal Boy was the real disappointment in all of this. He should've been furious and hurt. After all, he had been in love with Violet for years. He couldn't tell she was different? Okay, end of rant.

Yera took identity theft, literally. No one can that naive.

Great points about SG & DG.

I can sympathize with CB due to the cliche that love is blind. When in love, it is not uncommon to see what you want to see, and ignore signs of trouble. Element Lad picked up pretty quickly that something was off with Violet. I think CB was too caught up in his feelings, and went with the flow.

[Zero Hunter]

I do think it was a mistake for killing off Nemesis Kid.

Also, how was Jeckie able to just walk up on him, and break his neck? She must have put serious fear in him, when he was previously pummeling her.

Nemesis Kid should be on the same tier as Roxxas.

Nemesis Kid was only as strong as the person he was fighting. That was how his powers worked adapting to his opponent. He was countering Projectra's illusion but that did not help him with her sheer hatred and determination. Without having someone to leech off of NK was not much of a trained fighter because he never had to be and he was so cocky so when faced off with someone who wanted nothing more than to kill him he freaked out. Plus I'm sure at some point or another KK had giving Projectra some hand to hand combat training.

[Zero Hunter]

I was intrigued by the mystery but the fallout was ridiculous. How could Yera NOT go to prison??? She impersonated a Legionnaire for months. And how could all the Legionnaires just shrug their shoulders and say 'well, she didn't know the whole story.'

But the real head scratcher was how Yera was able to get past both Saturn Girl and Dream Girl with her charade. One can read minds and the other can glimpse the future. Surely one or both could've picked up on this.

Colossal Boy was the real disappointment in all of this. He should've been furious and hurt. After all, he had been in love with Violet for years. He couldn't tell she was different? Okay, end of rant.

It is not like Saturn Girl just walks around headquaters casually scanning her teamates minds. Unless Irma had a real reason to suspect something she would never just scan someone. Same kind of goes with Dream Girl and the way her powers work and how her visions are usually kind of random or of very serious events.

With Colossal Boy sure he was in love with Violet, but it was more a crush than real love. He was never really that close to her before and kind of loved her from distance so when she suddenly started showing interest in him he just went with it. He never really knew her well enough before to notice that it was not the real Violet. When it was revealed he realized he was never really in love with Violet and it was Yera he had fallen in love with.

[caj]

Nemesis Kid was only as strong as the person he was fighting. That was how his powers worked adapting to his opponent. He was countering Projectra's illusion but that did not help him with her sheer hatred and determination. Without having someone to leech off of NK was not much of a trained fighter because he never had to be and he was so cocky so when faced off with someone who wanted nothing more than to kill him he freaked out. Plus I'm sure at some point or another KK had giving Projectra some hand to hand combat training.

I read an interview with Steve Lightle, who was the artist on that issue. He also referenced Projectra's sorcery background as being a huge part of her defeat of Nemesis Kid. It's why he drew the close-up of her eyeball. He was trying to illustrate that NK was frozen/petrified by the mystical spell she cast on him so she could kill him.

[SilverScarlet]

Anyone out there a fan of the Fansets Legion pins? If so, please head over to their Facebook page and let them know! They are currently in negotiations with DC to review their contract, and it's not going well. DC wants to pull the plug on the Legion line, which will result in the whole DC line being scrapped.
Sadly, this is why a Legion line of ANYTHING never works out....they get a third to half way through, and it gets scrapped! Hopefully this won't happen with the Fansets line....Lew wants to do the entire Legion!

[caj]

It is not like Saturn Girl just walks around headquaters casually scanning her teamates minds. Unless Irma had a real reason to suspect something she would never just scan someone.

I don't know, she was able to detect the thoughts of the criminals who were going to kill RJ Brande when she first met him. She had no reason to suspect something until she read their minds. Plus, Imra was trapped on that asteroid with Yera and three others. I just find it hard to believe that someone with her abilities never realized an imposter was there.

And I haven't even mentioned how Yera was able to fool Brainiac 5 as well. It just made no sense to me that with all their powers, technology, and experience, a Durlan was just able to walk in and take over the identity of one of their own completely undetected.

[kcekada]

Nemesis Kid was only as strong as the person he was fighting. That was how his powers worked adapting to his opponent. He was countering Projectra's illusion but that did not help him with her sheer hatred and determination. Without having someone to leech off of NK was not much of a trained fighter because he never had to be and he was so cocky so when faced off with someone who wanted nothing more than to kill him he freaked out. Plus I'm sure at some point or another KK had giving Projectra some hand to hand combat training.

I always felt his fear did him in. His power made him immune to her illusions, but she instilled fear without use of her powers. He was pretty much crippled at that point.

[CaptCleghorn]

I always felt his fear did him in. His power made him immune to her illusions, but she instilled fear without use of her powers. He was pretty much crippled at that point.

There's a doubt I have as to whether or not Nemesis Kid's powers were subconscious or conscious. Did he think about what ability he needed or did his body naturally come up with it. The dialogue in that arc seemed to indicate he thought up the power and used it. In that case, he was unprepared for other non-illusion traits Projectra showed. If it was a subconscious ability, then he should be unbeatable as he could counter anybody.

[Zero Hunter]

I don't know, she was able to detect the thoughts of the criminals who were going to kill RJ Brande when she first met him. She had no reason to suspect something until she read their minds. Plus, Imra was trapped on that asteroid with Yera and three others. I just find it hard to believe that someone with her abilities never realized an imposter was there.

And I haven't even mentioned how Yera was able to fool Brainiac 5 as well. It just made no sense to me that with all their powers, technology, and experience, a Durlan was just able to walk in and take over the identity of one of their own completely undetected.

Well to be fair up until her ordeal with being replaced Violet always seemed to be pretty quite and reserved so it is not that hard to think that most of her teamates never really knew her well enough to notice the difference, and Year was supposed to be a very good actress too. Again it goes back to Violet being so quite and always in the background. The way she came off back then was pretty detached from the rest of her team. Kind of there but not there at the same time. I think if they had tried to replace anyone else on the team someone would have figured it out much sooner, but because of how Violet was she was the perfect one to pull this trick with.

As for Brainiac 5 he always had so much going on at once I'm sure he wasn't paying attention to most of his teamates back then enough to notice is something was a little off.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

We've all seen Alex Ross draw his version of the Grell-era Legion of Super-Heroes on more than one occasion.

Ross did an homage to Grell's cover for Limited Collector's Edition C-49 as the cover to Back Issue magazine 61, which can be seen earlier in this thread, but here are smaller versions for your convenience.



Ross also did a Legion picture of his own creation, a version of which was posted earlier, but here's a bigger version below. However, did you know that Mike Grell returned the favor and did an homage to Alex Ross's homage to him? Below Ross's pic is the Grell pencils for his version that's rarely been seen. Pretty cool -- a reciprocal homage cycle!

[Comic-Reader Lad]

One of the things that make the Legion unique is the amount of fan interaction and input the series has had since it received its own feature in Adventure Comics. Everything from voting for Legion leaders to suggesting new members was allowed and encouraged. For example, although Edmond Hamilton introduced Polar Boy to the Legion canon, he was actually a fan suggestion.

Another thing fans did was send in costume suggestions, and unlike most other strips, except for Supergirl, the Legion actually used some of them.

For example, Saturn Girl's famous 70s bikini costume was from a fan, and so was Duo Damsel's half-and-half costume. The costumes below were mostly not used, but for some crazy reason, the Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, and Shadow Lass costumes were used -- albiet just for one story (thankfully).

The pages below come from Adventure Comics 403, dated Mar-Apr 1971, and they were used in the Legion backup story from Superboy 183, March 1972. Notice how even before Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell entered the picture, it was the fans who were suggesting more revealing costumes for the ladies.

[caj]

We've all seen Alex Ross draw his version of the Grell-era Legion of Super-Heroes on more than one occasion.

Ross did an homage to Grell's cover for Limited Collector's Edition C-49 as the cover to Back Issue magazine 61, which can be seen earlier in this thread, but here are smaller versions for your convenience.



Ross also did a Legion picture of his own creation, a version of which was posted earlier, but here's a bigger version below. However, did you know that Mike Grell returned the favor and did an homage to Alex Ross's homage to him? Below Ross's pic is the Grell pencils for his version that's rarely been seen. Pretty cool -- a reciprocal homage cycle!

All four drawings are incredible. I especially like Grell's pencils of Ross' Legion poster.

It seems Ross always has to put Night Girl in his Legion art the same way he usually puts Captain Marvel and Plastic Man into his JLA art.

[HandofPrometheus]

[CaptCleghorn]

One of the things that make the Legion unique is the amount of fan interaction and input the series has had since it received its own feature in Adventure Comics. Everything from voting for Legion leaders to suggesting new members was allowed and encouraged. For example, although Edmond Hamilton introduced Polar Boy to the Legion canon, he was actually a fan suggestion.

I don't want to steal credit from the fans, but I'd also give credit for this to DC for accepting and publicizing fan input and suggestions. The Leader voting by fans was a big start for this type of interaction. Other fans of Supergirl may be able to point out instances where fan costumes were suggested for her as well. But the Legion fandom did deliver in those days.