It’s that time again; the Legion must elect a new leader. This time, though, cast your votes at DCComics.com. Direct yourself here to make your selection.

Twenty-five active members appear on the ballot, including that asshat Earth Man. Notably absent from the ballot is Lightning Lad; I can’t recall if they’ve covered this in the current run, but Garth has shown little interest in leading the team again after all the suffering he went through in previous bouts of leadership. Frankly, I’d kinda like to see one of the “more alien” members like Gates, Tellus or Quislet get the nod, particularly in the face of the xenophobia that’s so rampant in the Legion’s time (and our time, unfortunately).

Polls are open until November 10. Remember: a vote for the Legion is a vote for the future. Or in the future. Something about the future. Ah hell. Long live the Legion!

Superman 700
Cover art by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson, or Eduardo Risso & Trish Mulvihill

I love Superman.  He’s just a great character, yet sometimes he seems to be taken for granted creatively.  This anniversary issue, it seems to do that a little bit.  Sure, Lois and Clark will work out their issues, and it’s nice to see Superman helping Robin, but a little more effort given to delivering these stories in a surprising manner would make for a much more memorable comic book.

“The Comeback”
Written by James Robinson
Illustrated by Bernard Chang
Colored by Blond
Lettered by John J. Hill

Yeah, it’s nice to see Lois and Clark reconciled after his year-long adventure on New Krypton. “I can’t stop kissing you” is a good line, and the final page is a beaut – but it’s a little long in the tooth, with eight pages devoted to Lois and Clark’s mostly predictable reunion.  There’s really nothing in this story that hasn’t been done a thousand times before.  The script is passable, and the art a hair below.  While the page of Superman punching Parasite through several stack of equipment is laid out nicely, the very next panel on the very next page is confusing.

“Geometry”
Written & laid out by Dan Jurgens
Finished by Norm Rapmund
Colored by Pete Pantazis
Lettered by John J. Hill

Dan Jurgens returns to Superman for a charming little “early days” story with Superman venturing out to Gotham to save Robin’s hash.  The story features a cute wrap-up and solid art, but no particular insights into Superman here.

“Grounded prologue: The Slap Heard ‘Round the World”
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Penciled by Eddy Barrows
Inked by J.P. Mayer
Colored by Rod Reis
Lettered by John J. Hill

The set-up for the next year’s worth of Superman stories, and it’s hard to tell what to expect from this.  It feels somewhat emotionally flat.  You can recognize Superman’s feelings, but the delivery comes off trite.  Barrows and Mayer’s art does a passable job handling the emotional range, and Reis does a great job on the pastoral outdoor scene prior to the Flash’s arrival.  There’s promise here, but it’s too early to guess how much will be unearthed.

Previews of Action Comics, Supergirl and Superboy offer your basic teases, villains, crossovers, guest-stars.  None of the three offer much in the way of surprises (the last graph of Sterling Gates’ page gives a suggestion that he’s really thinking about develop Kara beyond the action sets, so that’s promising), and the five-page preview of Action Comics is your run-of-the-mill Lex Luthor smug evilness.  Ooh, look, Lex fires a guy for telling Lex what he doesn’t want to hear, and then wants him killed for reacting poorly – yeah, I’ve seen that one before.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2
Written by Paul Levitz
Penciled by Yildiray Cinar & Francis Portela
Inked by Wayne Faucher & Portela
Colored by Hi-Fi
Lettered by Sal Cipriano

In the first issue of the series, Paul Levitz seemed to dip his toes into the water slowly, focusing on a few central characters and bringing readers into the 31^st century gradually.  An issue later, we’re right into the thick of it, and Levitz’s script actually feels more comfortably and more assured as the cast expands and the subplots mount.

The aftermath of Titan’s destruction dominates the issue, with Levitz balancing some action (clean-up work by the powerhouse members) and the big cultural themes (bigotry against the surviving Titans).  The Earth Man plot builds organically, with the tension between the various Legionnaires and their new colleague playing out effectively without being too heavy-handed.  It’s nice to see a superhero comic book dealing intelligently with the aftermath of major tragedies, and perhaps its due to the increase in graphic tragedies over the last ten years – but it seems very rare to see the cultural and personal effects of a major trauma unfold in this manner.

Saturn Queen’s effects on Ultra Boy seem arbitrary, an effort to introduce some action into the script, but it’s early and we’ll see if more comes from it.  Already Levitz has had Brainiac 5 address one of my concerns with issue one, noting the unlikelihood of Titan’s explosion.

Only the second issue and already DC’s needed a co-artist (Francis Portela) to complement Yildiray Cinar and Wayne Faucher, though the effect isn’t as jarring as it might’ve been. The two styles are complimentary, as both offer solid, exaggerated superhero-style illustrations, though Portela’s layouts are slightly clearer.

But Legion remains Paul Levitz’s show, and the tension of Earth Man’s induction to the Legion, the intrigue of Graym and Garridan Ranzz’s disappearance, and the emotional honestly of Garth and Ayla’s reactions to the children’s abduction – it all rings true and human.  Now if only they could come up with a few better costumes for the ladies on the team…

Showcase Presents DC Comics Presents Superman Team-ups
Written & Illustrated by more than I care to list

This book, a 500-some page collection of the first 26 issues of DC Comics Presents, the Superman team-up title that ran from 1978 to 1986, essentially defines the concept of “for fans only.”

In each issue, excepting the two-part opener, featuring The Flash in successive chapters, Superman teams with another character from DC Comics’ expansive pantheon.  Early stories suffer from the comic book gobbledyscience that prevented me from reading many comics as a child, but the series quickly settles into a heavily plot-driven style with narratives that occasionally require an extreme leap of disbelief, but at least make sense internally.  For the most part.

Professional scripts from creators like Paul Levitz, Denny O’Neil and Steve Englehart, among others, create a scenario, mix in the guest-star in expected fashion, and culminate in a workable finale.  Joe Staton, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dick Dillin are among the artists providing solid illustrations throughout, though many of the pages are clearly designed for color and lack that in this cheap edition.

Nothing’s particularly wrong with most of the stories in Showcase Presents DC Comics Presents Superman Team-ups, but unless – like me – you’ve some innate fondness for Superman or several of his costars, this book isn’t the first I’d recommend either.

Spoilers on. Spoilers ahoy. Spoilers go on the backs of Corvettes. Whatever use, iteration or suggestion that there are spoilers ahead that you might need, please take heed.

Got it? Okay.

This week’s Superman #692 dropped a fairly huge surprise on readers concerning Officer Wilcox of the Science Police. She’s . . .

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Legion fans found reason to celebrate this week as the Legion of Super-Heroes returned to regular publication as a co-feature in Adventure Comics. Only one problem . . .

The identification captions on Night Girl and Shadow Lass are switched. Night Girl is the white-skinned powerhouse and love interest of Cosmic Boy; Shadow Lass is the blue-skinned caster of darkness and love interest of Mon-El. Got that?

Also, Mon-El himself is missing from the big group shot, and that shouldn’t be because Mon-El is currently starring in Superman. See, that’s Mon-El in the 21st century, hundreds of years before he joins the Legion. Got that, as well?

Actually, this brings me to a point I wanted to make about the Legion . . .
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Though my stalwart pal and colleague The Rev. OJ Flow already talked about this on the ‘Rama Mothership, I still think that it’s appropriate to devote the LB space this week to one of the biggest media moments in the history of the Legion: their first live-action appearance on Smallville.

The Geoff Johns-penned episode, “Legion”, did a nice job of estabilshing Legion basics for those unfamiliar with the characters.  I’ll use my wife’s viewing experience as an example.  She knew of the Legion, primarily because I have a ridiculous number of Legion comics.  She knew that there had been an animated series, and that there was one shelf in our basement occupied with Silver Age Superman and Legion figures.  Past that, she didn’t know much about the team.  She could probably tell you that they came from the future, and that was about it.

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After a brief respite, Legion Blogpost is back and shall continue to go strong!  For installment number three, I’m talking about one of my all-time favorite single issues, #300 of the original Legion of Super-Heroes run.  We will acknowledge at the outset that it is indeed a bit of a cheat; indeed, the book was Superboy and then Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes until issue #259.  Nevertheless, it was a landmark issue celebrated in grand style.

For one thing, the 1983 issue boasted 55 pages of story, a spine, and a jam cover with a variety of artists composing a shot of the entire then-current roster.  Some readers have occasionally had difficulty with the book’s frequently enormous cast.  Honestly, that’s never troubled me.  I think that one of the appeals of the book is the fact that there is a literal legion.  In part, this issue functions so well because of the team’s size and rich history.

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Troy Brownfield’s unavailable today, so I’ve been asked to fill in with this week’s Legion Blogpost.

I get the “indie guy” rap around here, and I guess for good reason, since I typically prefer the non-superhero stuff, but I’ve certainly read my share of superhero comics (still do) and have certain favorites among the cape set.  The Legion’s long been a particular favorite.  My first Legion book was v.4 #74 (a crossover with Karl Kesel’s Superboy series; I literally didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Legion before that crossover).  I found those early post-Zero Hour issues appealing, and hearing of the love for previous versions, I started tracking down issues from Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen’s runs.

Reading three different incarnations at one time, I found myself excited less by any single version and more by the possibilities and range of style the Legion seemed open to.  The strangest thing about reading so many different casts – and so many characters in differing versions – I never really developed any specific favorite characters.  The characters were always secondary to the concept.  But still, people always ask who is your favorite character, so I’ve wondered about it.  I’ve a soft spot for the more interesting, less WASPy designs – Blok, Quislet, Tellus, Shikari, Gates (Sensor and Monstress’s personalities prevented them from ever gaining much favor) – but I think my favorite Legionnaire is Rokk Krinn, Cosmic Boy.

As with many things, it’s Keith Giffen’s fault.

In Giffen’s acclaimed “five years later” run, we find that the Legion has been disbanded and its members scattered.  Mysa, the White Witch,  and Rond Vidar (who, frankly, I always kinda hated) were held captive on the world of the team’s long-time foe Mordru, and a mission to free them ends with Rokk having dinner with Mordru, a nearly omnipotent wizard.  In addition to being a visually striking comic – their dinner conversation is done entirely with a half-page of text alongside a tall, half-page splash – the issue finds Rokk, powerless, negotiating with a vastly more powerful entity for the lives of his teammates.  Suffice to say, the issue ends with the Legion free, Mordru’s other rivals (the Legion’s not his only problem) at bay, and the wizard asking himself, “How can one be so powerless, and yet be the most powerful of them all.”

Later in Giffen’s run, still powerless Rokk would use his wits and tactical mind to defeat B.I.O.N., an andriod with the powers of the entire Legion.  Combine those stories with some of Cos’s leadership in the early Zero Hour issues and his maturity in stepping aside for the next generation and working with the Legion cadets during Levitz’s run, and you have my argument for Rokk Krinn, Cosmic Boy, as the greatest Legionnaire.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  My name is Troy Brownfield, and I’m a long-time Legion junkie.  50 years ago in April, the Legion made its debut in the pages of Adventure Comics.  It’s fair to say that the super-teens from the future had a seismic impact; not only was the Legion the first new super-team of the Silver Age, they played a crucial role in the development of fandom as we know it (particularly with the arrival of classic fan publication “The Legion Outpost”).  To acknowledge one of comics’ long-running teams, we’re starting a little ongoing mini-feature here just to talk about what we love about the Legion.

I’m kicking it off with:

Takron-Galtos:  I’m happy to know that somewhere out there in the galaxy, there is a prison planet for the most heinous offenders in the universe.  Making its debut in Adventure Comics #359 in 1967, Takron-Galtos has since been the scene of many memorable Legion moments.  There was the showdown between a depowered Chameleon Boy and the kid Daxamite in The Great Darkness Saga.  There was its temporary destruction in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths.  And most recently, there was the mass breakout affected by Superboy-Prime in the pages of Legion of Three Worlds.

How about you?  Favorite Legion bits?  Odd characters?  As we go forward, I’ll definitely take a longer look at personalities like Rond Vidar and Dr. Gym’ll, and I understand that one Matt Brady might speak on Shakespeare.  Kent Shakespeare, that is.  Now . . . let’s talk Legion.