Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Gerry Conway's Legion

Yes, Silver Slasher calls him cousin and asks if she should use his "new" name: Blok. She says thanks to the Legion he is now a hideous monster.

She also says "our home planet" which is identified as Korlon.

The Dark Man is mentioned as well...

Yeah, that's what I thought I remembered. Obviously someone decided to take Blok in a different direction.

I always thought the League should have been a much bigger threat over the years...something that I plan to work on in my stuff coming up.

Y'know, Gim might have been the one who know about those venues. It's one of those questionably placed word balloons. Still, it was mentioned *twice* how much Brin enjoyed it. (I'm just adding to the list of evidence of Brin's chemical addictive personality.)

The thing is, Dreamy was always portrayed as one of the best precogs on Naltor, but even she had little to no control over her visions. If she was able to predict the actions of their opponent on command, she would be a far better Legionnaire/hero.

Actually, this reminds me of the time when Jeckie was sick and Cham, Imra and Nura oversaw her treatment. Must re-read that story to figure out everyone's role.

Thanks, KK!

'Kay, I just took a look at SLSH #233, where Jeckie's in a coma because she's so upset about Karate Kid heading off into the past. Evidently, her illusion powers turned inward and she was living in a fantasy world (where Val is with her loving and laughing!) Dreamy's idea was to turn the "dream into a nightmare" to try and scare Jeckie out of it, using Saturn Girl's powers. That didn't work (but looked KEWL thanks to Mike Nasser!).

This makes sense from Dreamy's perspective because she constantly wakes up from her sleep when she gets an intense vision in her dreams.

Note - Dreamy mentions how her people, the Naltorians, don't even understand their own powers, so she'd be lame at understanding Jeckie's. Imra mentions that the magic element to Jeckie's power is very different than what she is used to, so she is stumped as well.

It is Cham and his understanding of illusion that suggests that Imra helps Jeckie turn her fantasy world into a lonely world (making Val disappear). This is what works and brings Jeckie back.

Okay, interlude over. Back to the Conway era....

# 255, "the Super-Spectacles Swipe"

Again, we are presented with a murderous villain, the Gorgli. He kills the crew in 4 Science Police patrol ships when they try to stop him from holding the entire population of 30th century Tokyo hostage.
(The Gorgli went back to 20th century Smallville and stole Clark Kent's Kryptonian eye glasses to use as lenses for a very powerful weapon.)

It's cute to see Lana Lang trying to prove that Clark is Superboy. Nothing really new there.

The UP ask for the Legion's help against the Gorgli, which is interesting because they address the tensions between the two groups, but the Legion is shown to have their priorities straight and they get right to work on the mission. They are not powerful enough to crack the Gorgli's defenses, so they go get Supes.

Superboy is not tough enough to crack the defenses either, so they go back to pre-explosion Krypton and snag a couple of lenses from Jor-El's workshop (where they meet sweet baby Kal).

They make their own weapon with Jor's lenses and create an implosion up against the Gorgli's weapon. Now they can free the Tokyo denizens and put the Gorgli in jail.

Notes - The verbiage and text are kept nice and simple. Not a lot of poetry going on. That's a good thing.

Cosmic Boy comes across as an expert on Jor-El and/or Kryptonian history. It makes me wonder if Paul Levitz made note of this kind of thing and decided to use it in his characterization of Cos.

When the Legion is blasted from outer space back to Earth, Wildfire formed and energy shield around them or else "they would have burned up on re-entry." Have we seen these kind of protective energy shields from him again? I can't think of a time. That's a handy use of his powers.

Otherwise, the characterization wasn't a huge feature in the story. It was a fairly interesting romp. It's just that Conway's deadly antagonists who are super easy to beat are getting old.

Re: # 253-54

I have to love the cover of 253. Six beings are breaking through a wall, and Superboy asks them if they are here to join the Legion. If insane Legionnaires (Mon-El on 248) won't sell comics, maybe stupid ones will.

In spite of the coincidences Sketchy mentions above, the story holds together very well. It's also a satisfying read, with two mysteries (the League blaming six Legionnaires for the destruction of their homeworld and the Legionnaires' not being dead, after all) and well choreographed action--particularly the Subs' sneak attack on the League. The action here is kept on the League and their confusion, while Conway trusts in the reader to figure out what is going on. (Night Girl does provide us with a recap of the Subs' abilities at the end, but it's not intrusive.)

Note, by the way, that Stone Boy is nowhere to be found. He might seem a natural opponent for Blok, if Night Girl had swung Stone Boy as a club. But Blok's surrender at the end works better: It was unexpected, given that he was extremely powerful, and it paves the way for him to turn good guy later on.

The story is not perfect. The premise, for example, asks us to believe in the wholesale slaughter of Legionnaires, but that hook hadn't been effective since Adventure # 310, when Mask Man killed everybody. Also, it's a good thing the six Legionnaires went to two night clubs which provided them with the means to survive. If Superboy had suggested that they just chill out at home instead, they'd be goners.

But this story does two positive things: 1) It redeems Conway's repuation as a Legion writer, and 2) it shows how it is possible to tell a complete and satisfying story in two issues. Modern comics writers should take note.

This thread is great, and is making me want to go back to those issues-- truly an accomplishment by you all!


I do think the Subs' takedown of the League of SA was excellently portrayed.

Re: # 255

This so-so story relies on the gimmick of the Legionnaires going back in time to seek help from Superboy's father, Jor-El, as indicated on the cover. This they do, but not quite in the same manner as depicted. Another case of the cover misleading the reader for dramatic effect--an all-too-common technique of the '70s.

The story covers a lot of ground. There's Clark's discussion with Pa Kent about the effectiveness of using glasses as his disguise, Lana suspecting Clark is Superboy, the kidnapping of the people of Tokyo, the Science Police and the Legion's failed attempts to stop Gorgli, the Legion seeking Superboy's help, another attempt to stop Gorgli, and the trip back to Krypton. It's too bad, though, that all of this amounts to very little.

Too much of this story is told in flashback. After the Legionnaires approach Superboy, Cosmic Boy and Wildfire spend the next seven pages telling him what's been going on. This lengthy recap stops the story cold and kills the dramatic tension. If a flashback has to be this long, perhaps it should not be a flashback at all.

The story would have been more meaningful, I think, if the Legion had actually requested help from Jor-El. He dies soon, anyway, so there's little chance of his knowledge affecting the future. (It would have been a touching moment when he realizes not only that his son will live but that he will grow up to have good friends.)

Instead, Shrinking Violet gets some assistance from Baby Kal-El. We're meant to think that Superboy was such a good person all along that even as a baby he helped a strange, tiny lady. Wouldn't it have been more realistic (and interesting) if Baby Kal had grabbed the lens away from her and said, "Mine"?

As it is, there are no real consequences or deep insights into the characters or situation, making this one of the most forgettable Legion stories I've ever read.

Here's a thought.... Why did Gorgli kidnap over 10 million sentients from Tokyo in exchange for 10 thousand human slaves? He didn't even demand only the best, fittest humans. What a maroon! He should have just snatched the ones he wanted and beat it.

#256 "This is Your Life and Death Brainiac 5!"

It is determined that Brainy's insanity is totally incurable, short of a miracle. Totally incurable. Totally. Um...yarite.

The Legion wants to help Brande with his bankruptcy. This subplot is sssssllllooowwwwwlllyyyy moving along.

The Legion forcibly takes over Cosmic World, an amusement park that hovers over the Grand Canyon. They literally force the owner off premise and then evacuate 2 million customers. Whoa! The Legion WILL have that place! They even fight off the Science Police.

Meanwhile, it's Timber Wolf's turn to have a fit about how hopeless it seems to re-build the hq and the Legion itself. Ayla is sure they can! Another sub-plot sllowwwwlllyyy moving along.

Now we see Brainy endure a number of scenes from his childhood. We see his parents! A blonde father who he looks just like and a dark haired mother. Next we see Brainy picked on as a freak at school, then his father berating him for being dominated.

This time, the Science Police actually shoot and KO Cos and Superboy. Whoa!

Finally, we see what's going on. LL and SG are using a machine inside the park to create the settings Brainy has been in. In the final sequence, adolescent Brainy helps a little Coluan girl. In reality when this happened, she was afraid of him, he felt rejected. This time, the machine is set for her to embrace him.

... AND HE'S CURED! IT'S A MIRACLE!

Why did they need to close down the whole park when all they needed was their hologram room?

Why the "life or death" title? We know he's going to live. We also know he's going to be cured. Conway over-dramatization again.

Hey, the poetic verbiage is way better now, 2 issues in a row!

Cliffhanger ending - the science police bust in to take them all to jail!

D'oh!

Why'd they even need that room, they have someone that can read minds and someone else that can Project illusions...

Actually, they addressed that. Somehow they knew that Projectra's illusions are not powerful enought for Brainy's formidable mind. Garth had to super charge the machine in the park in order for it to have enough power to affect Brainy. Saturn Girl was there to guide the process.

Still, they didn't need to commandeer the whole place - by force.

Heh! That question is addressed in #257!

But first, a Legion Espionage Squad made up of Cham, Vi, Mon and Shady go to Brande's Corporate Tower on Earth, which is closed off and is being guarded by the Sci Police. Vi sneaks in and has a tussle with a vacuum cleaner, but gets away to complete her part of the mission.

On Cosmic World, Brainy won't let the Legionnaires tell the cops why they took over the park. Note - almost every time we've seen Saturn Girl, she has admitted to reading someone or another's mind. Garth's, the doctor's, Brainy's, etc etc. Wasn't her policy of never reading minds without permission in place at this point? Well, she's broken it. A lot.

Meanwhile, we learn that several floors underneath the surface of Legion hq are intact and functioning. Progress!

Back at Cosmic World, there's an earthquake which disrupts the park's anti-gravity generators. The Legion bursts into action. Brainy claims that the device he was working on during his "indisposition" indicates that the quake is being caused by "ecological abuse" by the owners of the floating park. He instructs LL and Cos to blast at a certain spot in the canyon, and voila! the quake stops.

Now the owner of the park is relieved to know that the Legion commandeered the whole place in order to save lives. The police captain doesn't believe a word of it, but respects the post Earthwar Legion enough to just let this go.

So, was Brainy's device actually what caused the earthquake? Why did he invent it, during his "indisposition?" Was he going to try and bust out of his room on St. Croix? And the question still remains... why did the Legion take over the whole park instead of just using one room?

Finally, Vi unlocks the door to Brande's office, where her team gathers. They learn that the President of Earth was the one who electronically stole all of Brande's funds!

This was 10 pages of plenty! The drama was appropriate, the verbiage was normal, not too poetic. Plots advanced, characterization remained consistent if not innovative.

Next -- Chuck and Lu!

In "Once a Legionnaire..." Chuck and Lu have chosen a life of colonists in the frozen northern part of Wondil IX. They stop an out of control flying cargo sled from damaging its supplies (valuable machinery seeds - kewl!). Norsk, a fortune seeker is excited to have Legionnaires with him. They ask for his discretion, they don't want the others to depend upon them too much.

After a romantic night together, Chuck and Lu are off with Norsk to search for a Cyrstalak deposit, as scouted by the survey ships that first found Wondil. When they reach their destination - the Ice Caves, an ice dragon attacks! Chuck and Lu act injured leaving Norsk to shatter the (unbeknownst to him, totally harmless) beast.

Now Chuck and Lu can just be regular citizens and Norsk can be the big (loud) hero of town.

This story was actually pretty cute.

Oh, and the art by Ditko wasn't all that bad really. It's just that we Legion fans were used to Cockrum and Grell and Sherman. The Legion by Staton and Ditko had definitely had some goofy cartoony moments.

Wow. You guys are doing a great job. I can't wait to see the conclusions and final verdicts on Conway when the reviews are done. I'm also looking forward to the your reviews of Space Circus, which tops my list of worst Legion story of all time. Will you be able to find anything redeeming about it?

A couple of quick thoughts on what has been presented so far. Conway started the Legion on the heels of the infamous DC Implosion. Morale at the company must have been very low, and I think it contributed to some of the surviving books veering off course artistically.

Joe Staton did some great work on a number of DC titles. I'm not a fan of his Legion work. However, I have very fond memories of his depictions of Superboy and the 20th century scenes in #255.

See now, I have my complaints, but I can always find redeeming value in Legion comics. I'm a nut for the obscure characters. In fact, that reminds me that I haven't really been "collecting" them in these reviews. Not too late! I also like to "collect" the creatures, tech, locations, etc. I also look for the slightest personality traits and/or superpower usage shown to judge how it fits with that character both before and after.

I find that any/all of those things can redeem a Legion story. Even if it's a lame Legion story.

Cool. Have not read these issues in years. Did not remember that.

Re: 256-57.

For me, these issues are the high point of Conway's run. The resolution of Brainy's madness comes in an unexpected and heartfelt manner, while the culprit behind Brande's bankruptcy was indeed a surprise.

Conway successfully integrates Marvel-style storytelling in these issues through overlapping plotlines--something Levitz had tried to do a few years earlier with less success. This time, Conway keeps the action moving in well-paced scenes. He also pulls off a successful balance between action and characterization.

Was Brainy's cure a miracle? Maybe, maybe not. The doctor at St. Croix admitted that Brainy's insanity was caused by self-imposed rejection of the real world, unlike Matter-Eater Lad's organic madness. Brainy, simply, had chosen to be insane, which mirrors certain real-world illnesses. I'm not an expert on psychology, but it's well established that many people become institutionalized because they cannot cope with real life. Brainy's childhood experiences certainly led him down that path.

(By the way, I couldn't help but think of Spock's childhood as portrayed in the last Star Trek movie, although the basic story had been established during the original series. If Conway was going to borrow ideas, at least he chooses his material well.)

What the Legionnaires did to help Brainy shows their devotion to their teammate--and how much they were willing to risk to help him: arrests, lawsuits, possibly the end of their careers.

That Brainy figures out what's going on shows Conway’s respect for the character. Brainy's got a 12th level intelligence--he should figure it out. Also, the Legionnaires don't cure Brainy so much as he cures himself after he realizes what they are doing for him. This story illustrates the camaraderie and—let's face it—love that the Legionnaires have for each other. Who wouldn't want friends who would go to such lengths as this?

Yes, it is convenient that the earthquake saved the day--but at least Conway gets in a dig at corporate ecological abuse, a problem still relevant today.

In # 257, the Legion Espionage Squad goes to work to find the culprit behind Brande’s bankruptcy, and the revelation is a shocker—as are the reasons behind the president’s actions, as revealed in the next issue. Conway does not paint the prez as a greedy bad guy but as an empathetic leader who tried to ease the suffering of people left destitute by the Earth War. In this context, it is R.J. Brande who unwittingly becomes the bad guy, as he continued to live lavishly while remaining oblivious to the suffering of others.

The Espionage Squad’s break-in of Brande Industries is paced very well, particularly Violet’s run-in with the mechani-vac. Her vulnerability at tiny size is aptly portrayed, as is her resourcefulness in destroying the machine. She even gets in a dig at neo-abstract art (one wonders if this is Conway’s opinion, as well).

As for the Chuck-Lu backup story, it’s a pleasant diversion—like a letter home from friends we haven’t seen in awhile. But, like a letter home, it lacks depth or subtlety. I agree that Ditko’s art, while an usual take on the Legion, serves the story well.

The complexity demonstrated in these two issues represents Conway’s Legion at its finest. The Brainy arc and its resolution remain one of my favorite developments in Legion history.

I'm trying to remember whether I own any of these. All the Legion comics I had from the period immediately after it were from the flea market. Now they're probably sitting 3-4 timezones away in my kid brother's garage. [grumble] It's never enviable to have been the creative team from right before the team that made the book take off. (Think of poor Marty Pasko's run on Swamp Thing. I just saw that being commented about on another comics board.) I'd love to be able to read these and judge for myself.

I hope you do get a chance to read or re-read these issues, cleome. The more different perspectives, the merrier.

By the way: an unintentional bit of irony can be found in # 256. When Shrinking Violet tells Cham that she wishes the rest of the Espionage Squad--Phantom Girl and Saturn Girl--were able to help with Brande's problem, Cham replies, "They have their own duties [. . .] and frankly, knowing what they hope to do, I wouldn't exchange places with them for all of R.J. Brande's former fortune."

During 5YL, Cham will have Brande's fortune.

[snip]

...and a freighter's worth of therapy bills.