THE LEGION: TURNING 45 WITH #25

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

45 years, and they still don’t look old enough to shave. Next month, the Legion of Super-Heroes celebrates its 45th anniversary with issue #25 of the current series, the first part of “Foundations,” which promises the return of Superboy to the ranks of the Legion. Newsarama caught up with some of the celebrants.

Legion #25 contributors Tom Feister and Eric Wight provided more information about their respective chapters in this special issue. At the same time, take a trip back to the past with the legendary Dave Cockrum.

“Foundations is about ‘an ancient evil, prophesied in Dream Crime, finally raising its hellish head’ - that's the PR line anyway,” said series editor Steve Wacker. “Beyond that, we wanted a way to give people an easy place to jump on the book again, but without boring the pants off the readers who are solidly behind this book month-in and month-out. With this book there's always the sense that its decades long history is both a blessing and a curse. Dan [Abnett] and Andy [Lanning] have done a lot in the last few years to redefine the entire world of the Legion, so we wanted a story that served as an introduction to not only the basic Legion concepts, but to the universe they've redefined.”

For the uninitiated, the editor gave an explanation on the current five-part Dream Crime story arc, which is running from issues #19 to #23. “Dream Crime is about a classic Legion villain who takes over a galaxy-wide, telepathic communications system. Along the way, we delve into the personal conflicts of a couple of the main Legion members and see the return of some Legionnaires that fans have been clamoring for. Also there are a few story elements that lay the foundations for ...err.. for Foundations which begins in #25.”

The Legion has gone a long way since its inception. To some, this is the best comic in the current pile of funnybooks. Others might think that this is no longer the same Legion as before. However, to Wacker, this present incarnation of Legion is about the friendship involving teenagers in the 30th century.

“Everyone on the book probably feels different about this, but my personal feeling is that at the end of the day, the book is about three friends (Live Wire, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy) and their absolutely altruistic, non-ironic belief that they can help every being in the universe. All three play a big part in Foundations.”

The Legion is a tough and dangerous concept because the book was created with this 1950s American Cold War idealism that comics have really moved passed. The subtext to those early stories was that the U.S. - through the United Nations - had succeeded in bringing peace and prosperity to the universe. So the Legion's responsibility was to use their superpowers to help protect this massive society - they call it the United Planets - from outside evil, as well as to help spread its protective blanket even further.

“Nowadays, the concept of a happy and joyous imperialism is pretty outdated and naïve. However, in the Legion you're seeing a civilization 1000 years from now, so you're in sci-fi territory. The challenge then is to hypothesize a society in which forming a team of teenage super-heroes is the obvious, healthy, and effective response to the world's, and the galaxy's problems.

“The other angle that interests me is the idea of teenagers as the authority. These teenagers are the premier peacekeeping force in the universe. How the hell does that happen? And what teens wouldn't want to, effectively, be the police?”

Along with the kickoff of the six-part Foundations arc, issue #25 features an artistic lineup that bring back a legend and showcase the work of some of the current crop of artists, including the cover artists themselves. “This anniversary issue sees the return of legendary Legion artist Dave Cockrum into the funnybooks, contributing to a part of the entire Foundations arc,” Wacker said. “Dave is joined by Paul Rivoche, Eric Wright and regular cover artists Tony Harris and Tom Feister. Each of those talents are working on a different chapter of the story and accomplishing different things. For example, Tom and Tony's chapter is all outer space action.”

The move inside by the regular cover art team, as just evolution, Feister said. “It was time to take the next step with what we do. If we aren't pushing ourselves to do something new what's the point? It began as an experiment in doing covers, and so the natural progression is to try something more challenging. Our chapter finds a small group of Legion members on a rescue mission that gets strange when there is a very unexpected rescue made.”

Back to the overview, Wacker gave more of the lineup: “Paul's chapter is a final look at a Legionnaire that we last saw in Legion Lost, and Eric's chapter takes us back to Smallville, as we revisit one of the classic scenes in Legion history.”

According to Wight, “it's basically the first appearance of Legion retold in modern continuity. Or at least it appears that way. It was a lot of fun to drawing, being a fan of Smallville as well as Legion.”

Back to Wacker: “Finally, Dave's chapter, which I should mention is being exquisitely inked by Al Milgrom - for any comic historians Paul Levitz had the idea of matching them up since they were both assistants to longtime DC artist Murphy Anderson, anyway, Dave's chapter is about a reformed villain who has close ties to the Legion and the revelation that he may be crazier than suspected. It was a blast getting Dave to come back to the book even for a few pages since he had such an influential run on the book before he went over to the dark side to help reinvent the X-Men.”

Cockrum on the chapter that he contributed to: “Spark, Live Wire, and their brother Mekt. It deals with the relationships between them and Mekt's eventual rehabilitation.”

As an aside, as for Cockrum, who, apart from his initial run on the title illustrated five pages to LSH #300 back in the day, the artist doesn’t look back on his art with too many fond feelings. “I didn't like the way that art looked. I guess I was largely to blame, but also the inking was harsh and the coloring garish. My style these days is dynamic and a lot more attractive, as anyone can attest who's seen my work on Soulsearchers and Company. Hopefully, I could convince the editors that I can still 'do it'.”

And speaking of Cockrum, TwoMorrows Publishing is publishing The Legion Companion with a new cover by Cockrum and Joe Rubenstein later this month, and it will offer up a complete look at the history of the 30th Century’s greatest heroes through interviews with Cockrum, Steve Lightle and other legendary Legion creators and include rare and unused Legion character designs by Cockrum and gang. The edition also features Cockrum’s unfinished Timber Wolf story, only five of the planned 12 pages were completed. Other unused character designs include Typhoon and Quetzal, the latter of which later saw life of sorts through Storm and Black Cat.

Back to issue #25, Wacker explained who would be the glue holding the issue together: “It’s all held together by Chris Batista's pencils, with Robin Riggs, Doug Hazlewood, and Chip Wallace on inks. Originally, Chris was just supposed to stick around for Dream Crime only, but his stuff was looking so good, it became obvious that he just ‘got’ all the characters in this massive cast. I made it clear to him, in my own subtle way, that staying on the book was his only option.”

As for future storylines, Wacker offered a slight peek into the future. “There's another story coming up that's drawn by Steve Lightle [Lightle is drawing an Umbra story in this month’s Legion #24] and written by Keith Champagne that takes the Legion to the planet Qward. Beyond that there are some other fantastic things coming up that I just can't talk about.”

[Comics&Beer]

This comic rocks!!!

Keep up the good work.

[rdcoyner]

Glad for the article. I only got turned onto Legion recently, but now have the entire DnA run. Maybe an Up to Date column on their on this title would be good...

However, I'm still a little worried about things to come. After Olivier Coipel's great art Chris Batista's seems a little bland. I can get over it though as I've been engrossed with the stories Abnett and Lanning have been telling. I love all the little asides along the way that lead in to the much larger ongoing story. Maybe it makes collecting it harder, but it's nice to see there's an overall plan. That said, I hope they have a good explanation for reviving Live Wire - sure we didn't see the body, but that was a pretty emotional send off and a powerful end to Legion Lost. And what's the point of having Superboy when you already have M'Onel? Oh well. Time will tell. I just hope these aren't cases of editorial telling DnA how to do their job and in the process undoing their great work so far.

Also, for any older Legion fans, can you give me some numbers and creators on Legion you would recommend I check out. I've really dug these characters and would like to see some of their history - even if it might not apply to current continuity because of Zero Hour.

[Kevin T. Brown]

3 runs for you:

Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum
Cary Bates and Mike Grell
Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen

Any issues by those teams are well worth reading.

[J.C. Bakken]

So, it looks like it's the Kal-El Superboy who's coming into the Legion.
How can that be?

[tralfaz]

where are the TPs for Legion Lost, Legion Worlds, and the Blight storyline?

[MisterE]

I tried this comic for the first 15 issues. I'm still not sure how I feel about it other than to say that it's not MY Legion, or rather the Legion I enjoyed the most (LSH Vol. 4 by Giffen, Gordon and the Bierbaums).

I still miss the older, experienced Legion, Giffen's 9-panel grid and his now lost artstyle for that run and, despite the unusual art and modifications made to the series, I'd still rather see what the previous 35 years of history had wrought than what throwing that history out the window has wrought in the last 10.

-E-

[Banana_Oil]

Originally posted by tralfaz
where are the TPs for Legion Lost, Legion Worlds, and the Blight storyline?

Considering that it's only now that DC is making TPs of the George Perez era of Wonder Woman and the John Byrne era of Superman, there may be a slight delay on those collections.

Personally, I plan to wait until the LSH Archives catch up to the Abnett/Lanning era...by which time I ought to be 90 and senile enough to enjoy them.

[J.C. Bakken]

Originally posted by Banana_Oil
Considering that it's only now that DC is making TPs of the John Byrne era of Superman,

Which issues are we talking about here, oily?

[Fazhoul]

Why in the hell isn't Cockrum on a regular book? That sample page that was posted in the story shows that he hasn't lost any of his artistic abilities.

[Banana_Oil]

Originally posted by J.C. Bakken
Which issues are we talking about here, oily?

The Superman/Action/Adventures relaunch, obviously. The Man of Steel mini will be rereleased as well with a new Ordway cover and trade dress to match the new TP.

Always thought it was odd how quickly they made trades of "Exile" and the Supergirl series without ever reprinting the events that led up to them...

[Banana_Oil]

Originally posted by Kevin T. Brown
3 runs for you:

Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum
Cary Bates and Mike Grell
Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen

Any issues by those teams are well worth reading.

Add Jim Shooter and Curt Swan.

[Elayne Riggs]

I've seen a few pages from this (obviously). It's gonna rock! Chris Batista is crazy about the Legion, and it shows!!!

- Elayne

[jawaplumber]

All I know is that with Tony Harris, Tom Feister, and a classic-looking Superboy, I'm DEFINITELY on board

[Hunter Zero]

The Byrne Superman trades contain:
Man of Steel I - The Man of Steel 6 issue mini series.
Man of Steel II - Superman 1-3, Adventures of Sperman 424-426, and Action 584-586

While I'm loving Abnet and Lanning on writing duties for the Legion I'm still not sold on Batista. I think I just start liking the grittier style of Copiel. I think I would rather have had Kev Walker stay on after his Timber Wolf arc as the permenent guy. Still as long as there is a Legion book being printed I will be there.

[tralfaz]

I cant wait for Lightle

[rdcoyner]

Originally posted by Hunter Zero
While I'm loving Abnet and Lanning on writing duties for the Legion I'm still not sold on Batista. I think I just start liking the grittier style of Copiel. I think I would rather have had Kev Walker stay on after his Timber Wolf arc as the permenent guy.

I liked Walker's take on Timber Wolf also. Maybe now that The Eternal is wrapping up he will be able to do some more Legion work.

I think what I liked about his and Coipel's work were the added detail and changing perspective. One easy case is in Legion Lost Saturn Girl is talking to someone, while propping her arm against the wall - she's striking a pose. And you see it from three different angles. Many artists would just have her standing there with a dead-on angle - like in Batista's page above. Still, it's not bad. It's just not my preference.

[Somebody]

Noticed a continuity error on the Ranzz family page there - it was Spark, not Lightning Lord, who had the "notion to use the local wildlife"

LSH 0:

Mekt: "Damn it! It's no use! There was a short--and now the capacitor's completely drained! We're stuck!"

Ayla: "Not necessarily. There are the lightning beasts."

Mekt: "Lightning what?"

Ayla: "Excuse me again for being the only one who studies. Maybe if we lure the beasts to the ship, they'll recharge your stupid capacitor.
You guys have to be careful for a change, though. They get spooked real easily."

Garth: "Well. DUH/ We've got it, okay? No loud sounds or sudden-- HOLY--"

[And for anyone who says this was a dream sequence, this was reaffirmed by Ayla in LSH 64 - "Our big brother Mekt got us stranded on the planet Korbal -- world of the lightning beasts. I thought we could trick them into recharging our ship's batteries. I was wrong."]

[dollman]

Originally posted by Kevin T. Brown
3 runs for you:

Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum
Cary Bates and Mike Grell
Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen

Any issues by those teams are well worth reading.

I would add Paul Levitz and Steve Lightle, and Paul Levitz and whichever artists that follow Lightle. Hell, Levitz was to the Legion what Claremont was to the X-Men. He was also the first writer to convince me truly evil and powerful a villain Darkseid really is. Not even Kirby, Darkseid's creator, conveyed the point that Darkseid was a powerful dude in the DC universe.

I not that comfortable with writers playing up the age angle. One of the great things with Levitz's run was that yes, the Legion started out as powerful teens inspired by the legend of Superboy. But they ultimately grew up, married, had kids, and new members weren't necessarily teenagers. Case in point, Quislet, Atmos, and Blok. I think the Legion has evolved from being a 30th/31st century version of the Teen Titans.

[speedball]

Originally posted by Fazhoul
Why in the hell isn't Cockrum on a regular book? That sample page that was posted in the story shows that he hasn't lost any of his artistic abilities.

He is. Check the article, he even mentions it himself. Soulsearchers & Co., written by Peter David from Claypool Comics. It's a bi-monthly book, but it does come out with regularity within that...

Kurt

[rdcoyner]

So I remember a CSN article from my youth in which Giffen talked about blowing up the Earth in Legion. Is that right? And is that the Giffen run every one talks about so fondly? If so, does anybody know the issue numbers on that? I guess this is Post-Crisis, Pre-Zero Hour and probably around 1990.

[Dave_Garcia]

Originally posted by rdcoyner
So I remember a CSN article from my youth in which Giffen talked about blowing up the Earth in Legion. Is that right? And is that the Giffen run every one talks about so fondly? If so, does anybody know the issue numbers on that? I guess this is Post-Crisis, Pre-Zero Hour and probably around 1990.

Legion of Superheroes #38, don't remember the year, but it would have been in the early to mid-90's. It was the last issue of the "Five Year Gap" that Giffen worked on as plotter/writer/artist, along with Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon (who, IIRC, wrote the Quiet Darkness saga.) later, Jason Pearson, and a few other artists whose names escape me, joined the book. And yes, the earth did explode, as the result of mankind's idiocy and Dominator tampering. And yes, it was post crisis, pre zero hour.

As others have pointed out, this was Vol 4, not Vol 3, as I'd originally thought.

And while it puts me in the minority, I LOVED the Giffen Five Year Gap stuff, though I think it lost something when the 9 panel grid went away, and once Giffen left the book, so did I.

But I recently re-read 1-38 and the first three annuals, and remembered just how much I loved the book then.

[fantomex]

why on earth have i not been picking this title up.

[Hunter Zero]

Giffen really had two great runs on the book in my mind. When he did the art for Paul Levitz writing which was very clean and crisp. And then when he did both the writing and art duties which is commonly called the 5 Years Latter version. His art really changed alot from what it was with Levitz to being by himself. He blew up the Earth during his writing/artist period.

V3 is usally regarded as the Levitz series which went form Legion of Super Heroes 1-62 and ran in the mid 80's. It was ended so Giffen could start fresh with a new number 1 issue.

V4 is Giffens baby and he wrote issues 1-38 with his partners the Bierbaums who took over for a while after he left. That version of Legion Of Super Heroes was wipped out by Zero Hour with issue 61. The rebooted Legion took over in issue 62 and ran until issue 125. I highly recomend issue 1-50 of V4.

[adampasz]

I'm a die-hard Legion fan, going back to the early 80's, when I was about 10, though I did stop collecting during the Legionaires/Zero Hour crap period in the 90s.

Even after 25 issues of this new series, I stll can't get used to the new Legion. The characters seem somewhat bland to me. Perhaps they need more solo, character driven stories, but the one's they've done -- notably the Ultra Baby issue -- weren't that great, so I don't know. At least Saturn Girl in the last arc finally showed some power and personality.

That being said, the art has been consistently excellent, and the stories have been appropriately cosmic in scope, so I stick with it and hope that some day this series starts to click for me.