Legion of Super-Heroes (LoSH) Appreciation 2020

[caj]

My all time fave issue is probably Superboy and The Legion of Superheroes issue 251. Brainiac 5 has had a complete mental breakdown and gone insane. He creates the creature Omega that is so powerful that not even the strongest members of the Legion can stand against it. The team fights the creature across space until the final showdown at Legion HQ.

There's an interesting story to that issue. I read an interview with Paul Levitz about issues 250-251.

Apparently, Jim Starlin had drawn and wrote a 60-something ending to a storyline that had abruptly ended in issue #239. It was supposed to be for a giant-sized issue of Superboy and the Legion. For whatever reason, the story was shelved. Later, Levitz was asked to rewrite the story for issue #250. According to Levitz, he took Starlin's art pages and did a "52 card pick-up" and changed things all around in order to fit the new storyline he had written. It turned into a two-issue story with some art added by another artist. According to Levitz, Starlin was understandably very upset with it all.

Several of Starlin's art pages were discarded and Starlin later sold those pages at conventions, so the odds of ever seeing the original storyline he had envisioned are very slim to none.

[caj]

Paul Levitz was doing the Legion for the longest time to. I thought he was just the writer for volume 3, (1984 -1989), but he started writing the Legion as early as 1977 under Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes.

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Superboy_...roes_Vol_1_225

With the exception of a 2 year hiatus under George Conaway, he appears to have been primarily the sole writer for the decade. (I remember Conoway via picking up back issues of the legion as a teen, because I think he had my favourite Legionairres more in the spotlight than Levitz)

As for today's Legion, I gave the recent series a shot, but the Legion of my childhood was wiped out in the 1994 Zero Hour timeline reset...so I've never quite been able to get back into them.

Not trying to be obnoxious, but his name is actually Gerry Conway. He was also the writer of many other DC books over the years, including Justice League of America for many, many years. He also co-created Firestorm the Nuclear Man.

[Electricmastro]

Inferno (aka Sandy Anderson):

[kcekada]

.

I'd happily read a mini-series about the adventures of the one-off characters introduced in the Universo Project, imprisoned alongside Imra, Reep, Brainy and Dreamy, like Silver Sword, Energax, Gas Girl, those acrobatic twins (whose names I forget) and Xera of Manna-5!

Same here. So many great characters with untapped potential in the Legion mythos. I'd like to see a backstory on Weight Wizard on any of the other prisoners from the Super Stalag of Outer Space.

[comradepitrovsky]

I'm really enjoying the new Legion, and I'm hoping for the Saturn Girl/Jon Kent romance that they're sort of hinting at.

[Hatut Zeraze]

I'm really enjoying the new Legion, and I'm hoping for the Saturn Girl/Jon Kent romance that they're sort of hinting at.

#6 was certainly a fun read. I really think I am going to like Monster Boy. Sook's designs are so pleasant to look at.

[sifighter]

In fairness I do like a good number of the redesigns and new characters appearances, if I had any that I don't think I liked it would probably be shrinking violet and element lad. I think Sook makes a lot of characters look pretty good. If I had to name favorites of the new characters, probably Monster boy and Gold Lantern. Monster boy because I like his power set and Gold Lantern because I'm partial to lanterns and he had a pretty decent showing in the most recent issue.

[houndsofluv]

how's the current run doing in terms of sales ? I've seen talk that its tanking but the lastest issue is the second-highest selling dc title on comixology rn .. is that unprecedented or is it just a better digital seller? I wasn't really paying attention until recently lol

[Frontier]

how's the current run doing in terms of sales ? I've seen talk that its tanking but the lastest issue is the second-highest selling dc title on comixology rn .. is that unprecedented or is it just a better digital seller? I wasn't really paying attention until recently lol

Some titles just do much better digitally. Usually the ones focusing on younger heroes.

[0nt1r]

I’m not fond of them breaking the “no gadgets” rule with Legionnaires, but given this is a reboot, I’m hoping they get there, particularly as we’re dealing with a Gold, not Green Lantern.

I’m eager to find out the deal with “Corpse Kid,” whom I’ve seen referenced as “Eradicator,” which suggest Radiation Roy, tho there was also a “she” reference, which makes me think more Celeste “Neon” MacCauley/Rockfish. Now, suddenly, there’s a mention of Ferro Lad, whom we’re supposed to meet next issue, and I’m wondering if there’s been a whole lot of misdirection, and that “Corpse Kid” is actually Ferro Lad?

[Sutekh]

I’m not fond of them breaking the “no gadgets” rule with Legionnaires, but given this is a reboot, I’m hoping they get there, particularly as we’re dealing with a Gold, not Green Lantern.

I vaguely remember there being some weaselly technicality with Rond Vidar, whose 'super-power' was that he was immune to his dad's mind control, and the Green Lantern ring was just a cool thing he had. It could be amusing if 'Gold Lantern' had some trivial super-power of some sort, that he used to qualify for Legion membership, like a perfect sense of direction, or the ability to count really fast and accurately, or to perceive three extra colors into the infrared spectrum.

Interesting that he's got *two* gold rings, one on each hand, and he seems to be able to use them to transmute stuff (gold as in lead-to-gold alchemy stuff, perhaps?).

I guess he needs something unique, since we've seen Brainy, White Witch, Dr. Fate *and* Ultra Boy creating colorful energy shields / constructs in the last five issues, so he'd hardly be interesting on a team already teeming with people with that powerset.

The art is amazing. I'm not a fan of the story so far, and am getting whiplash trying to figure out what's going on with President Brande. "She's their supporter, founder, best ally! No wait, arrest them all! No wait, they gave us hope and it was all great and part of why I chartered them in the first place! No wait, arrest them all again!" But that art, nice. I love the stylized stuff around Gold Lantern, in particular (although I'm not a fan of every redesign, with White Witch, in particular, being dull and weirdly busy, ruining the sleek lines of her monochromatic look, IMO).

[The Whovian]

I vaguely remember there being some weaselly technicality with Rond Vidar, whose 'super-power' was that he was immune to his dad's mind control, and the Green Lantern ring was just a cool thing he had. It could be amusing if 'Gold Lantern' had some trivial super-power of some sort, that he used to qualify for Legion membership, like a perfect sense of direction, or the ability to count really fast and accurately, or to perceive three extra colors into the infrared spectrum.

Interesting that he's got *two* gold rings, one on each hand, and he seems to be able to use them to transmute stuff (gold as in lead-to-gold alchemy stuff, perhaps?).

I believe one is his gold lantern ring and the other is a Legion ring.

[Sutekh]

I believe one is his gold lantern ring and the other is a Legion ring.

Oh wow, that's totally obvious from the picture! Thanks for pointing that out. I'll go hide now.

[j9ac9k]

From the last panel, the art still makes it seem like the effect that he's generating is coming from the two rings, rather than his Lantern ring alone.

I guess we'll know more in a year when Bendis gets around to another "spotlight" on the character...

[Vampire Savior]

Oh, boy, that character again. Zatswan's illegitimate little brother. I just...I'm not sure what to say about that, but it tickles me.



Hey, artist, if you're watching this, I can give you some tips. The real secret to getting that Zatswan hair down is employing Hogarth's line of beauty, from The Analysis of Beauty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analysis_of_Beauty



Without doing that, you'll never get it just right.