itsokimasenator

             We open this issue with an explanation of the Dominators dilemma — the Substitute-Heroes have taken over the underground Metropolis chambers and the only way for the Dominators to get back in is to blast apart the barriers the Subs have set up.  But if you blow up the barriers you risk setting off a self-destruct mechanism that could trigger a chain-reaction and blow up all the underground chambers around the world.  This is a bit of foreshadowing that will be of great significance 11 issues later.  And another example of the Dominators’ unfortunate fascination with explosions and self-destruct mechanisms.

            With #26 we officially began Keith’s third story arc, “The Terra Mosaic.”  That title I think just kind of came to Keith by default because he realized he was juggling so many balls at once that the story he was going to be telling over the next dozen or so issues was certainly going to be a mosaic.  Keith started Legion #1 with a full-page star field and the caption “Five Years Later…” and eventually decided that was the title of his first arc, which extended until about #13, when the Legion had truly re-formed and the next arc was dubbed “The Legion of Super-Heroes.”  Now, about a dozen issues after that, it was time to focus on the rebellion to overthrown Earthgov and its secret Dominator masters, in what would be the stretch run of Keith’s time on the book.

            The story opens with a big knockdown drag-out between BION, the character created by Tom McCraw who had all the powers of the Legionnaires, and Laurel Gand.  I’m not generally a fan of big long fights but I have to say Keith plotted (and Jason Pearson drew) a pretty interesting fight that gave you a good feeling of what it might feel like to be an invulnerable Laurel Gand and face a foe who actually had her completely overwhelmed.

 Commenter Strangerhythms is correct that Devlin O'Ryan was a reporter for the Daily Planet for his first several appearances, but we were asked to stop making that reference and later on his work was credited to the "Interstellar Press" or something like that. I believe the Superman team felt, quite logically, that the Daily Planet was part of their mythos and we shouldn't be using it. I don't think it occurred to us to ask permission to use it, which wasn't very considerate of us, though it also was logical for us to think that the mere existence of a news agency of the future using the same name as a great newspaper of the 20th century was a logical, simple idea that didn't impact on anyone else's continuity.

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One anecdote about just how obscure Tenzil was -- I once got the chance to speak briefly with Jerry Siegel, who wrote the story that introduced M-E Lad back in Adventure 303, and Mr. Siegel had no recollection of the story or the character whatsoever.

 

I've been really busy over the last couple months and hadn't had a chance to add anything to this journal.  Finally today, June 20, I was able to take a couple minutes and respond to the very kind comments that a couple folks left on my earlier entries.  I decided the more general readership of this journal might be interested in some of those comments and so will post them here as new entries.

Regarding that first Mike Grell story in which Invisible Kid I was killed off, I agree that Grell's work in that issue was really reminiscent of Neal Adams, more so than his later work. And while Legion fans of my generation tend to prefer earlier artists like Cockrum and Swan to Grell, I've certainly found over the years that many younger fans got hooked during Grell's years and will probably always regard that period as a real golden age for the group. Mike's art worked great for a big readership. My impression is that his era was perhaps the most commercially successful Legion era ever. 

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 Here are the covers to #2 and 3.  At one point we were toying with the idea of attaching the covers to the recollections I've posted for each issue, but it was getting to be a tedious, time-consuming process, so we ended up pasting a couple covers into a comment and then giving up.  Since Mary isn't around at the moment and I'd rather not just erase the work she did on this, I'll post these two covers for your enjoyment and free up my "post an entry" function for additional comments.

            I was personally a lot more interested in Charma than Grimbor, and was disappointed when they killed her off by Grimbor's second appearance (and how silly could the U.P. be to take somebody who biologically instills hatred in females and lock her up with a bunch of female criminals[1]).  So we brought back a sister of Charma as one of the underground-chamber experimental subjects during the Terra Mosaic story.  It makes some pseudo-scientific sense that the Dominators could have the ability to manipulate someone's physiology or psychology enough to bring out a previously latent ability.  And why wouldn't they be secretly experimenting on the siblings of super-powered individuals to see if those individuals had the necessary genetic makeup (or close enough to allow the Dominators to express the power through some alien-technology manipulation). 

[1] One can only assume nobody realized Charma had this effect, but then why wouldn't she have explained it?  Maybe she wanted to die. Or stage her death, to free herself of Grimbor.  Hmmm.  Maybe that sister of Charma we created wasn't really a sister.

       Boy, this shape-shifting alien sure was an interesting character, made all the moreso by his step-son relationship with Legion founder R.J. Brande.  It's funny how when those sorts of twists are first introduced, I have a tendency to dismiss them as out of the blue, having nothing to do with the earlier creators' intentions, and I have a very hard time making them fit into my "feel" for how Legion history fits together.  And I'm sure many of our readers were familiar with that feeling when confronted with some of our more bizarre character developments.

       But as time goes on and the twist is built upon, you eventually find yourself having trouble remembering what it was like before that bit of continuity was established[1].  When I re-read our version of the Legion's origin (Legion #8-9, I think), it's hard to for me to consider the events that led to the Legion's founding without considering R.J. Brande a shape-shifting Durlan and Cham his son.

 

 LEGION LORE: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #25

            This is one of my favorite issues; I think an example of how one of our story ideas, laid out by Keith and penciled by a talented artist, could come together pretty well.

             This was the story where we meet and first interact with the “SW6” “clone” version of the Legion, and kind of a payoff on the many issues where we were talking about a secret “SW6 batch” that the Dominators had been carefully guarding and then desperately hunting down after the “batch” escaped during the chaos that followed the destruction of the moon.  Keith made a good call in picking Devlin O’Ryan to be the current-day character to meet this group and introduce them to the Metropolis of 2995 and to be driven crazy by their relative naiveté about life in 2005.  In a way, it took him out of character in that he was (by design) probably the closest in character to the classic Legionnaires of the 1960s.  But nobody at that point was more aware of the desperate circumstances on Earth and the ruthlessness of the corrupt Earthgov than was Devlin, who’d made himself a target by helping expose the secret takeover of Earthgov by Dominators in his reporting for the Daily Planet/Interstellar Press.

 LEGION LORE: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #23-24

            These issues made up the second half of the four-issue “Quiet Darkness” arc that Al Gordon wrote.  His story was a very thoughtful follow-up to the “Great Darkness” and got us some good insights into a number of characters that didn’t get a lot of attention elsewhere, such as Celeste and Kent Shakespeare. 

           In the back of each issue we dialogued some pages that touched bases on the book’s primary storylines.  In #23, we learn that Jacques has a team trained and ready to take Earth’s mysterious underground chambers that are apparently the driving force behind the Dominators’ secret takeover of Earthgov.  Laurel (disguised as Celeste) and Bounty are on Earth, where they meet up with a new ally, who Bounty accurately describes as “Possibly the last person you’d ever expect.”  It’s Circe, the corrupt Science Police commander who’s switched sides and is now working against Earthgov, enraged by the ruthless way the Dominators are slaughtering dissenting humans and any Science Police officers who don’t go along with the program.

 LEGION LORE: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #21-22

            With #21 we begin the four-issue break for the “Quiet Darkness” story written by Al Gordon, the book’s regular inker.  We’d worked closely with Al and had no problem stepping aside and letting him take over for a four-issue shot, though what neither he nor we realized was that there was some serious consideration being given by the editor of dropping us in favor of Al.  That hadn’t crossed our minds, but it was sobering to say the least when we attended the Wonder Con in Oakland that year and had a couple people come up and say they were sorry to hear we were off the book.  It turned out they worded the solicitations for the “Quiet Darkness” issues (intentionally or unintentionally) to imply that we were out and Al was the new regular writer.  I remember Al being as stunned by this as us.  We were certainly proceeding with work on the future issues assuming we’d remain on the book over the long haul, and that’s how it ultimately worked out.  

           Al’s story was a strong one within the Legion mythos and I believe brought a boost in sales, because it picked up the Darkseid storyline after the Great Darkness and gave a prominent role to Lobo, or the Probe version of Lobo that Darkseid has manifested in this story to hunt down a little girl with transcendent powers named Aria.

 LEGION LORE: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #20

            This was the issue where we finally gave some detail about what happened to Rokk (Cosmic Boy) and Vi (Shrinking Violet) at the notorious battle of Venado Bay during the Braal-Imsk war (which occurred during the five-year gap between the Levitz Legion and the Giffen Legion).  As we learn in this issue, the Imskians employed a special weapon that used the Braalians magnetic fields against them, killing many, destroying the arm of the Loomis character and taking away Rokk’s magnetic power.           

But those revelations come toward the end of the issue.  We open with a Dominion battlewagon arriving at Earth, as the Dominators begin to more overtly run the planet after years of secretly pulling the strings within Earthgov.  This is taking place in the aftermath of the destruction of the moon, which has left Earth in utter chaos and plunged the world into a nuclear winter.  We find Dirk (Sun Boy) in a healing tank, having been turned into a living furnace by the explosions of the powerspheres that followed the impact on Earth of the lunar debris.  Dirk’s body is literally burning itself up and there appears to be little hope for his survival.  In fact, before the issue ends, Earthgov declares Dirk deceased, though the casual presentation suggests to alert readers that this report shouldn’t be taken at face value.

 LEGION LORE/LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #17

            This issue wrapped up the three-part "Khund Wars" storyline we did as a fill-in to help Keith catch up and recharge.  In this issue Brainy comes up with enough cures and defenses to fight the re-claimed 28^th-century technology the Khunds have been using to overrun U.P. worlds.  So the Legion and U.P. forces finally win a battle against the rampaging Khunds, saving Talok VIII from invasion, only to realize the attack was a diversion and the Khunds real target is Xolnar, the world where Chuck and Luornu have set up a U.P. Militia Academy.            The besieged heroes on that world narrowly survive when Chuck uses his "morale-boosting" skills to rally the traumatized Mysa into regaining some of her "White Witch" form. 

           I realize in retrospect I hadn't ever been that fond of the group  Emerald Empress, Persuader and Mano all seemed to be basically variations of the same kind of villain/power (except I thought EE was very sexy) and every member of the group seemed a little too "all powerful" to work well as a team.  

           The character never meant a lot to me in earlier years, though he was really vital to the team in the sense that, because of his sheer size (when using his power), he was always an important presence in the group visually.  On the "Mother Book," he never got any juicy roles, but I liked him as a top-flight Science Police officer.  

        Lately I've convinced Emma a couple times to let me read her Legion Archives stories as her bedtime reading and she's starting to get pretty interested in the 1960s incarnation of the group.

        For some reason, Triplicate Girl appealed to me back when I was about 6 or 7 and first picking up the Legion.  Maybe she reminded me of Bobby Jo of "Petticoat Junction," who'd caught my eye (though Phantom Girl looks a lot more like Bobby Jo).  It was probably just that I really tended to prefer the brown-haired characters (Green Lantern and Ultra Boy being my absolute two favorites from back then).  As I've mentioned before, I probably perceived the brown to look more natural than the yellow for blond or blue for dark brunette. (A few years after writing this, I also realized I may have been drawn to the only Legionnaires of that era whose name started with the letter "T," since I went through a phase where I really liked athletes or characters named Tom or who had "T" as their initial.)

       At any rate, I've always had a fondness for this character and an ability to identify with her quiet, nice personality, especially when they depicted her impossible crush on Superboy.  Most of us can probably identify with that feeling of a hopeless teen infatuation with somebody who's out of reach.

 The little essays I'm posting on this journal are taken from the Amateur Press Alliances (APAs) that I belong to.  Most of what's been posted so far is from what I wrote three years ago and more.  I'll be posting some more recent material shortly, but if you're a big Legion fan and would be interested in reading these kinds of things as soon as they come out (and interacting with a lot of other Legion fans) you might consider signing up for one of the apas.  
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        There are those who questioned our use of Mordru, building him into this colossal force, destined to conquer the universe unless epic counterforces could be marshalled to oppose him.  Certainly that's a stretch based on the character's previous depictions.  I think two things steered us in this direction, the first being that in his initial, definitive appearance, Mordru really was about as formidable a foe as the Legion had ever faced.  Shooter strove to really make you feel like this guy was way beyond your average Legion villain when he showed the few remaining Legionnaires fleeing through time rather than face him directly.  Okay, the character has since never really lived up to that advance billing, but it seemed like a great challenge to see if we could help Mordru actually achieve that degree of formidability.( Read more... )

       I don't suppose anyone regards our "Mordru Arises" swan song on the "Mother Book" (Legion #43-48) as a classic, but I like the story a lot, especially how it explores Mordru as a self-pitying character who feels fully justified in his fury, especially with regards to his ghastly punishment at Amethyst's hands, being buried alive for 1000 years.  Mordru thinks his enemies deserve no pity and he's got a few logical reasons for that attitude.