Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Convince me that Shadow Lass is interesting!

See, I liked the body-covering costume because it showed that a woman didn't have to bear it all to be sexy.

I agree that the cattiness never really suited Tasmia, but I have a different take on her devotion to Mon. If she was raised to be the planetary champion from birth, then perhaps she was never permitted to develop a normal social life. So perhaps she clinged to the strongest man she could find (first Brainy and then Mon). As she grew up and spent time away from Talok, she developed a more independent streak, as mainifested during Levitz/Giffen and later.

In my opinion, it wasn't Shadow Lass who proved you don't have to bear it all to be sexy, it was Sensor Girl. Steve Lightle designed one of the best costumes in the history of comics for Sensor Girl. Giffen, on the other hand, always, even in his earliest LSH work, tended to make all his characters, male and female alike, sexless. That's one of the main reasons why I think he's so overrated.

Just so everyone knows, I'm actually really interested in Shadow Lass now!

I especially like this whole barbarian princess take on the character.

Yeah, I'm suddenly wishing I'd done something with her in my last fic. Perhaps for mythic May we'll see something from Tasmia Mallor, Warlord of Talokk VIII...

I hated Sensor Girl's costume.

I'm dying for Shady to wear purple or indigo. The black's been done to death.

Gold and silvery metal also look really great against her skin.

I wonder if Talokkians come in colors other than light blue and pale green? 'Cause an indigo-skinned Tasmia would be hot...

If Shady and Brainy had a child, would the child be turquoise?

No clue, but you can be sure that s/he would have serious attitude!

Love the "archie" Legion comment
And it is true, the old Legion had had 30 years of time to establish likes and dislikes, the personalities did not come over night but in the 80s and 90, they were there cause so much had happened. As for Shady, I thought she was a really lame character in her appearances in the 70s, but she got interesting in the 80s and especially after Mon went dead...

I think they made her character rather interesting in the new continuities too, compared to most of the other female leads. They tried to make her a darker character, which in combination with her super-powers is a logical thing to do. So while I'm really not a big Tasmaniac, I think that in comparision to most other "Archienaires" she got rather interesting, but you certainly could make her even more interesting if you would enhance her power to maybe cause phobia and so on. Like Phobia, the Teen Titan villain maybe.

I think my problem with the description 'barbarian warrior princess' is the connotation that Talok VIII is not technologically advanced. Which isn't the case. It's as least as tech-savvy as Earth-- if not more, given Lyrissa (spelling?) Mallor's usage in L.E.G.I.O.N.

Feasting and duels aside, the tribes of Talok didn't seem socially 'barbaric' either. With the exception of the 'Hill People'.

Whose champion, Lady Memory, really *does* qualify for the description 'barbarian warrior princess'.

Yeah, Talok VIII was usually depicted as technologically advanced, but even then they had modern technology disguised as ancient looking weapons and stuff. So, I'd say "barbarian warrior princess with sci fi elements" is probably more accurate.

Crotch Armor!

My favorite backstory would be Umbra'a but would have to include Lady Memory. Lightle's postboot Talok was amazing, true SciFi. I'll forgive him the costume as the character was young at the time and you know these young ones and their dressing ways. The partner shadows were fun as iconic but would have to have given way to common sense, changed to a purposeful construct by Umbra for fancy occasions.

Few other Legionaires and worlds would be able to carry their own book as well as Shadow Lass I think but WaK's version, still not fleshed out, has been the least visually interesting for me of all incarnations.

Because I adore Shady, and think we should be talking about her as much as possible.

I adore Shady too.

All kidding aside, what's YOUR opinion of Shadow Lass?

A: Slim Shady.

Q: What did the Legionnaires call Tasmia when she went on a diet?

Thank you, Johnny Carson!

She doesn't need to go on any diet, she's got curves and she's proud of 'em.

She's one of the Legionnaires that's just kind of "there" to me. I don't dislike her in any way, but I'm not really a fan either.

^^That was totally me when I started this thread!

Incidentally, might I just mention my utter hatred for her relationship with Earth Man!

I had quit the book by the time she started dating Earth Man.

And I'm glad I did.

Say, EDE, what's your opinion of her now?

I definitely find her interesting now!

Perhaps I've forgotten something about Shadow Lass over the years, but her hookup with the foul Earth-Man left me in disbelief. Not after she had such a strong relationship with Mon-El (aka "Valor"). Convince me, if you can, that something in Tasmia's character allowed for that choice. (As far as I'm concerned, reboots are irrelevant on this issue. )

YAY!

I wasn't reading the Legion during the Earth Man period, so I can't comment on it.

Some personal snapshots of Shady over the years . . .

. . . I first encountered her in S/LSH 200. She and Mon-El stayed on duty at Legion HQ while the rest of the team went to Mars to attend the wedding of Chuck and Lu. In one panel, she and Mon are walking and holding hands. I like that image of them together.

. . . In S/LSH 215, she uses her power to give Night Girl a boost in defeating two thugs who have overpowered Lydda. This is mainly Night Girl's story, but I like Shady's supporting role.

. . . Around this time, a friend gave me a copy of Adv. 368, in which Thora magnifies Shadow Lass's power to such an extent that her shadows cover half the city (or something like that). I think this was the first time I realized the implications of her power and how frightening it would be to be cast in total darkness. Even with the normal range of her power, Shadow Lass was quite powerful but rarely depicted as such.

. . . Also around this time, DC published a tabloid edition reprinting Adv. 369-370, the Mordru story. For the first time, Shady came off as a distinct personality here: a proactive individual who accidentally frees Mordru. Lu cattily remarks that Tasmia is sinking her teeth into Mon-El; although such behavior wasn't clearly shown in the story, the remark established in my mind that Tasmia was a go-getter. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, there's a nice contrast between Tas, who went after what she wanted, and Lu, who pined away for Superboy.

. . . Tasmia then became a background character and girlfriend-in-residence until the Levitz/Giffen era. As I noted in my earlier posts on this thread, she adopted a new costume that completely covered her body and changed her name to Shadow Woman. Levitz was playing bait and switch with her supposed fate in the Adult Legion stories. However, the upshot of this arc was that Shady started to come into her own as an independent character.

. . . Her independence took on a whole new dimension in the later Levitz era when she married Mon-El while the latter was dying and cut off her own finger as part of the ceremony. This aspect of her personality was only hinted at in her earlier appearances, but it was a logical outgrowth of the proactive go-getter traits she had exhibited back in Adv.

. . . The warrior culture of Talok VIII and Tasmia's role as hereditary champion were aspects I was aware of all along, but they didn't really seem to jibe with her personality until the latter-day Levitz depiction. For the most part, she was portrayed as a blue-skinned girl-next-door and a supportive girlfriend and friend. However, I don't think these depictions are necessarily contradictory. They actually make her seem more fully realized than most Legionnaires (male or female) have been over the years. There's nothing wrong with being a supportive friend and a go-getter.

By the way, it may or may not be a coincidence that Damon, the main character in my novel, The Power Club, has essentially the same power as Shady. He, too, can create a sphere of darkness. I think I was tapping into all of these implications of her multidimensional personality and the untapped potential of her power when I wrote the book. (And howzat for a shameless plug?)

Thanks for sharing those snapshot memories, He Who.

Earlier in this thread, in a post made years ago, I did something similar, and I mentioned that I had a lot of gaps in my collection. Well, since then, many of those gaps have been filled, and I feel more confident about doing a comprehensive overview of her.

- We first meet her in the second Legion vs. Fatal Five story, in Adventure 365-366. From the very start, she's brave, noble, strong, and almost regal. She starts out with bobbed hair and an Alice in Wonderland headband.

- She's also in the first Mordru story, in 369-370, but we haven't gotten to that one in the Archives Re-Read yet, so I'll hold off on my thoughts on that one.

- After such a promising introduction, she became one of the most under-used members. IIRC, Dave Cockrum gave her the tiara which would become her trademark for about a decade, until K**th G*ff*n made her lose it during the Great Darkness Saga. Despite being overlooked by writers during the 70s and early 80s, she started growing her hair out when Jim Sherman was drawing the Legion. The Sherman Shady is one of my favorite versions on a purely visual level.

- After the Great Darkness Saga, K**th G*ff*n cut off her hair. I hate that look on her. Paul Levitz added insult to injury by doing a bit of fanwank with the scenes in the otherwise excellent LSH 300 where she's in whiteface, just to reconcile a coloring error on the cover where a statue of her made of pre-Adventure 365 appearance. Pointless, and offensive to me.

- Steve Lightle, bless him, gave her back her long hair thanks to an insta-grow helmet. This is in LSH Baxter #14, a favorite issue of mine, and one which, in my opinion, inaugurates the best part of Levitz's long run.

- Unfortunately, Levitz's characterization of her was off for most of his run. She was mostly there to make catty comments and moon over Mon-El.

- Then, even though I feel Levitz's run got seriously bad after LSH Baxter #45, the oasis in the desert that is the remainder of the Baxter era is the evolution of Shady. After Mon-El is fatally wounded by the Time Trapper in #50, Shady leaves the team and goes on a quest to find someone or something that can heal him. This is where I came in, with #56, beautifully drawn by the late, great Eduardo Barreto. The potential which she had shown in her first appearance was finally beginning to be realized. Unfortunately, her subplot was seemingly forgotten by Levitz and G*ff*n during the Magic Wars. Mon-El dies, she weeps, and that's the last we see of her in the Baxter era.

I won't get into the 5YL. There's too much I find wrong with it...including Shady with a mohawk. That's all I have to say.

Reboot Tasmia, codenamed Umbra, was much closer to how I had come to envision her -- rather haughty, rather abrasive, but always noble and regal. My favorite Reboot appearances include the Steve Lightle-drawn DnA issue that spotlights her (The Legion #24) and Starman #50. Oh, and Reboot Tasmia always had great hair.

Threeboot Tasmia...I can't believe I defended her earlier in this thread. Guess I was still in my The-Threeboot's-gonna-get-good-eventually phase. Nowadays, I can't even think of the Threeboot without wanting to

Retroboot Tasmia: she went back to her Sherman-era look, which was a plus. Everything else, apparently, was a minus -- I say "apparently" because I dropped the Retroboot after six issues.

In summary, she's a character who's had moments of greatness. What she needs is a writer who will give her a consistent amount of greatness.