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Legion of Superheroes: Week Twenty Nine

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    mekdinosaur | Male | 53 years old | Port Moody, BC. Canada

Born in Vancouver, BC Canada...and after living in a lot of different places since then....has finally returned home.

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A SORT OF HOMECOMING


Whenever I come across a fellow Legion fan (which I am oft to do), they usually say to me: “Yeah, it’s a really good show!” or, “Do you know when season three is coming on?” To that, I reply: “I didn’t know the Legion of Superheroes had a television program.” And then, they say: “What’s a Legion of Superheroes?” And so, it goes. We fledgling LoSH fans are truly few and far between anymore. Once, there was a time when the LoSH was a flag-ship of the DC Universe. Now, after a myriad of re-boots, and re-visionings; there is narry a reference to any thirtieth century doings at all. Kids these days have no idea how much fun the Legion of yester-year was. But we do, right? We still enjoy us some Cosmic Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Phantom Girl and the gang. There’s like: you and me…and another guy…and someone else. I think. Yeah, we truly appreciate this stuff.

Hello…?

I’m sorry. Did I not explain the part where it’s not a television-show I’m talking about. It’s a comic book! You know: those floppy little things that you read?! With your eyeballs!!

It’s the Legion “of Super Heroes”, folks…It doesn’t have anything to do with the X-men!

Oh, forget it.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES: WEEK TWENTY-NINE

WHOS WHO LEGION 1

Who’s Who in the Legion of Superheroes #1-7 (1988)

Written by Barbra Randall.

Assisted by Mark Waid, Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen.

Drawn by a variety of Legion alumni artists.

 

You know what “Who’s Who” books are all about, right? Encyclopedic, text-heavy volumes detailing a synopsis of every character under the sun (or suns as it were) related to the various aspects of the DC Universe. Marvel has its own version, called: “the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe”. It’s rather lengthy, dry and undynamic resource material; however, in the age before the internet, an indispensable addition for any fan interested in every nuance of their favorite super-hero adventure tale. The Who’s Who in the Legion is no different. I read the whole thing. it took a long while to slog through. But, now: I’m infinitely more informed and aware of every single detail associated with the 30 th century. My brain, now crammed tighter than the Infinite Man’s cranium on steroids, is ready to unleash its voluminous expanse of knowledge on your unsuspecting eyeballs…

 

Not really. We just do reviews here.

First, a summary of what is included in each issue of the Who’s Who in the Legion of Superheroes:

 

Issue #1: The history of the Legion of Superheroes, part one. Character profiles from Absorbancy Boy to Dr. Gym’ll.

Stupidest character: Absorbancy Boy. Seriously; the quicker picker-upper? No, he’s just an energy thief; stealing residual power left lingering after a fight. Plus, they even spelled “absorbency” wrong. Lame.

Coolest character: Diamondeth! The living-diamond-girl. She’s her own best-friend.

Bonus material: the complete Interlac alphabet plus a pictogram representing every single Legionnaire. Way cool.

 

Issue #2: The history of the Legion of Superheroes, part two. Character profiles from Dr. Mayavale to High Seer of Naltor.

Stupidest character: Eyeful Ethel. She’s a Legion reject turned teacher with eyes in the back of her head. Not exactly the peek of originality there.

Coolest character: Dxaundii, the giant flying fish. This mother has impenetrable hide and planet-eating chompers. Moby would be jealous.

Bonus material: Legion Constitution, articles 1.0 to 3.6.

 

Issue #3: Locations of interest, including: The Dominion, Kathoon, Khundia, Labyrinth, Lythl, Nullport, Shanghalla, Ventura and more. Character profiles from Heroes of Lallor to Legion of Super-Rejects.

Stupidest character: Porcupine Pete of the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Actually; the whole group of subs are a laughing stock, but Porky is the worst of the bunch (yah, even Double-header).

Coolest character: Kid Psycho. . The poor kid lost his whole family in a tragic asteroid disaster, gained the power to create force-fields, but discovered that he grew closer to death every time he used it…and still wanted to be a hero. What a cool dude.

Bonus material: Legion Constitution, articles 3.7 to 4.6.

 

Issue #4: Legion members’ home-worlds, including: Bgtzl, Brall, Colu, Daxxam, Durla, Earth, Imsk, Naltor, Orando, Rimbor, Talok, Trom, Winath, Xanthu, and more. Character profiles from Legion of Supervillains to Mon-El.

Stupidest character: The Mess. Who let Pigpen into the Legion? Gross.

Coolest character: Mandalla. Her mother gave birth to her while incarcerated. She grew up in a prison and was only allowed to start school when she was 14 years old. Now, she’s a hero. What a gal!

Bonus material: Legion Constitution, articles 5.0 to 6.8.

 

Issue #5: A complete tour of the Legion headquarters, including some nicely detailed blueprints. Character profiles from Mordru to The Science Police.

Stupidest character: Polecat. What the , man? He’s basically a human skunk. I guess it was the Legion’s version of Pepe Le Pew? No, DC-don’t…just don’t go there. Terrible idea.

Coolest character: It’s Proty! That spunky little sentient dude. The ooey-gooey mascot of the Legion! Yay, Proty! Naw, that would be weird. It’s obviously Quislet. The coolest character ever!! You know I love my Quislet.

Bonus material: Legion Constitution, articles 7.0 to 7.11.

 

Issue #6: A complete tour of Metropolis in the thirtieth century. From Restaurant Row to Catskill Park: anyone need a vacation? Character profiles from Seerons to Timber Wolf.

Stupidest character: Starfinger. A stupid-looking robot-thing with beams coming out of his hand. The second incarnation of this character is way better.

Coolest character: Timberwolf. Just because he’s bad- and the complimentary drawing by Mike Zeck is sweeeet.

Bonus material: Legion Constitution, articles 8.0 to 8.6.

 

Issue #7: This issue starts off with a weird meandering tale about a couple of Legionnaire recruits vying for membership, which morphs into a television show, which morphs into Colossal Boy’s parents watching the show. Very dream-like and kind of pointless. Character profiles from The Time Trapper to Zoraz.

Stupidest character: Tusker. Yah he grows enormous tusks whenever he gets excited. I’m sure he’s a hit with all the ladies.

Coolest character: The Unkillables. A group of super-assassins; gathered by the Dominators from the descendants of Earths most formidable killers in history. Hard core, man.

Bonus material: A character index and some corrections to previous entries.

 

Now, the review part:

Overall, this series is exactly as advertised: an extensive, yet not overly convoluted examination of every detail associated with the Legion of Superheroes universe. The artwork is mainly the standard full-frontal or head-shot representations. They are mostly uninspired depictions, but with a few exceptions. Kyle Baker draws a mean Mordru. Mike Zeck kills on Timberwolf. Some of the humanoids are indistinguishable from each other, though. Without the color and design of their costumes, I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. I hardly recognized any of the Science Police members from how they were drawn. The writing is awkward at times, but generally effective at describing the highlight moments in each character’s varied appearances. I wouldn’t recommend reading the whole set, cover-to-cover unless you are a hard-core fan (like me). The series is mostly useful as a general resource for intermediate readers of the Legion titles. It’s nice for identifying obscure characters and gaining a greater understanding of their origins and motivations.

 

Grade A for casual reference and trivia.

Grade C for summertime reading material.

 

See, that wasn’t so bad.

Now, as I continue into the next chapter of Legion history, I may need to refer to this series again to help comprehend what the goes on…especially with Keith Giffen back in charge of the narrative. We shall see…

 

Next: Legion of Superheroes, volume three.

 

 

 

 

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