Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! SLOSH #23: Spoilers ahoy

This was a great issue. I actually have one beef on the art (sorry, Barry)--Rokyn looked very 31 C and not that Kryptonian. Other than that, awesome.

So many good layers and subtleties here, it's delightful. Rokyn returns! Now Brainy is claiming ancestral credit for Kandor? Is this another "New Earth" phenomenon? (NOT that I'm complaining!) The Legion really IS being incorporated effectively into the DC universe.

I genuinely felt for Supergirl and Cosmic Boy. I'm thrilled that the disorienting radiation was revealed as a Zeta Beam -- it makes sense, ties down pretty definitively how Kara got there, and pretty much confirms that Lyle is a jealous little schemer--he didn't mention the Zeta Beam part, perhaps as a way to keep Cos avoiding Supergirl permanently?

Great to see Brainiac 5 back in action again, still snarky, but more stable. "A marriage of true minds" may be beneficial for him.

It will be interesting to see how/if this version of Kara is ever reconciled with the "rebel without a cause" version now appearing in her own mag. However it's done, I do hope that we see Supergirl as at least a semi-regular in the book going forward. The JLU creative team were right -- Kara fits in with the Legion in a way she NEVER can on 21C earth. She may feel the need to stay in the 21C out of a sense of obligation and affection for Superman, but the Legion is her home.

Now I'm completely confused about Kandor.

Yesterday, in the DCMB Superman forum , Kurt Busiek stated that Kandor was *not* a Kryptonian City. When I pointed out the happenings of SLOSH #23, his only response was "a lot can happen in a thousand years". In the same thread, he seemed to contradict himself a bit when he confirmed that 'Godfall' is still in continuity. I did not read 'Godfall', but it's my understanding it re-establishes Kandor as a Kryptonian city shrunk by Brainiac, though one populated exclusively by non-Kryptonian aliens.

On to Wikipedia , which states that post-Birthright Kandor is a Kryptonian city inhabited by non-Kryptonians.

Post-Infinite Crisis, Rucka & Kelly's 'Supergirl in Kandor' arc refers time and again to the "true children of Krypton" but none of the humanoid inhabitants are actually identified as genuine Kryptonians.

A thousand years later, the representatives of Kandor/Rokyn appear to be Kryptonians. If not, why would they consider Supergirl one of their "thousand-year old ancestors"?

See what I mean?

it's probably setup for "infinite supergirl crisis"

Kandor has always confused me and I wonder why they brought it back? Oh that was Waid wasn't it. doh!

I'd rather they'd killed Brainy and given Dream Girl his super mind instead of the other way around. He's been over featured and she under featured since day one.

Yeah but Brainy maybe THE Legionnaire. IMO he's the star of the book. Sure he's not that likable but he's usually the mainstay of the book.

Ultra Boy, I was talking about all the years of fighting that led up to that final battle, which (as we know) ultimately ended in the death of both characters.

The girl with the green energy bolts....
Can be a re-imagined Lamprey?

What bugged me about the Kandor scenes was that the Legion attitude problem reared its head again. Sure, Cos and Saturn Girl, preemptively threaten the people who are going to take care of your supposedly mentally unstable friend - do you really think that will guarantee her getting better treatment? If you distrust the Kandorians so much, then just don’t hand over Supergirl to them in the first place.

And the tentative romantic steps between Kara and Rokk make me snicker. Sorry, but this version of Cos in love is comedy gold. His agonised head turn away from Supergirl… Soap Opera! Of Space! Another problem is that she doesn’t seem all that into him, either, she just seems to be flattered by the idea that someone might be in love with her.

This sounds like me being a nay-sayer, but I honestly liked the issue.

The scenes on Talok, almost everything Ayla does – people start fleshing out nicely (I’m also glad that Ayla is more sceptical of Supergirl again. They seemed a bit too buddy-buddy all of a sudden on the roof last issue). I also enjoyed the return of Jeyra Entinn.

Is it just me, or were the Legionnaires, especially Kara, drawn younger-looking this time? I appreciate that; usually they look to me as if they could justifiably tell EACH OTHER to eat it, age-wise.

Looking forward to that arc Mr. Kitson has been announcing!

Well, she currently thinks he's a dream rather than a real peson, so that could explain why she's not really all that committed to him yet...

Imaginary boyfriends aren’t all that lovable to begin with? Take your irrefutable logic away from me, you!

I thought the Legion had finally convinced Kara that she wasn’t dreaming, though, and even then she shows nothing but neediness towards others. Okay, she’s having quite a bad time right now, but still – where Cos is showing some true affection, the only thing she wants out of him or any of the others is to be loved and/or not to be deserted. Seems to me that she liked him because he liked her, not because he’s Cos, and now that she believes he’s real that doesn’t seem to have changed. Poor Cos, for now the radiation poisoning might have been preferable. Or let’s give her some time and hope she’s immune towards super-pontificating, maybe?

If Supergirl still thinks that the Legion is a dream then it’s even sadder that she puts so much value on her “imaginary friends” and is so hurt when they leave her.

Hmm. Do you think I might be overanalysing? Have I put someone to sleep already? What is the deep significance of the winged Kryptonian dinosaurs?

Adventure #333 established the existence of the "great, tame lizards of Krypton" -- creatures that closely resembled Earth dinosaurs and (thanks to a plot device too convoluted to explain here) may, in fact, have been their first ancestors! Despite their ordinarily shy and docile nature, some of them ran amok and wound up eating an entire colony of Kryptonian scientists, a tragic event for which the Legion was partially responsible.

Perhaps Barry's flying dinosaurs are post-Infinite Crisis reimaginings of those same darling creatures.

Works for me -- it'd be a holdover character trait from silver age Kara.

I finally got it, and it was well worth the wait.

One particular thing no one's mentioned is that Jann calls Triplicate Girl "Trip." I think this new nickname is a brilliant idea. I didn't really know what to call this character before, but Trip actually sounds like a real name, and is already used by poker players to refer to three-of-a-kind.

It may have been mentioned elsewhere, and I know it was touched on briefly earlier in this thread, but I'm getting well p***ed off with covers that have nothing to do with the issue involved.

The Supergirl comics seemed to be a month out of synch, and now we're getting ass kicking covers, and an anticlimax when there's no ass kicking in the comic.

So, will it happen next month? Who cares? The adrenalins worn off long before then.

Apart from the disappointment due to the lack of Kara going Karazy, it was a good move-along issue. Thanks gents - but get the covers synched please.

See, what I took from that is that Cos isn't in love with her. Not at all. (After all, he was convinced in about forty seconds that it was actually a mild case of nausea.) He's just emoting for her benefit. Ditto for his threatening the doctors, which as you say doesn't make much sense otherwise. Laying on the flattery, steering her into absolving him of guilt...he knows exactly what he's saying.

I thought the whole issue was rather skillfully showing that Cos is just as much of an unscrupulous, manipulative bastard as Brainy; but he's got the (as Matthew E points out) magnetic charisma and acting skills to pull it off better. He looks, and quite possibly is, genuinely sorry for what he's doing to you...but he still does it, and you go along with it, because he's a born leader.

How about it being a powered-up Calorie Queen? But only, if they keep the name!

This issue struck me to be a political innuendo issue timed to appear right before Election Day. Bear with me here...

1) Taking the main characters, we have Brainy as the John Kerry-esque Young Democrat; a pompous, aristocratic Liberal elitist who considers himself intellectually superior to all around him. His ambitions to lead the Legion country are clear, but his inability understand normal people and proclivity for poor decision- making (even with newfound powers of clairvoyance) makes others wary of him.
Cosmic Boy is the Bill Clinton of the group. Clearly, the former Legion country leader who's time has come and gone now needs to be replaced by a new Young Democrat. While respected by many of his peers, his leadership is based on a lot of talk and his decisions made by looking over the shoulder at opinion polls. Both these Democrats see the need to fix Young Republican Supergirl, whose relic 1000 year old moral values (truth, justice and the American way) give her a "deer in the headlights" demeanor of living in some fantasy dream world. In the trip to Rokyn the Democrats intend to spay her not only to protect others from harm of her misuse of power, but to protect her from herself as well. Democrats are just good about things that way.

2) We see Republicans - NRA Violet to the right side of hawkish Tasmia, who indulges herself and entertains her own leadership aspirations in the shadows of the far right (Talok VIII).

3) Meanwhile, other Young Democrats Trip and Jan just want to make love, not war.

4) Finally, a new hope for the future looms just out of reach in the Phantom Zone. Will it be Nancy Pelosi, Al Sharpton, or - dare we say it? - Hillary herself?

Stay tuned - and don't forget to vote next Tuesday

Great comments!

Sorry about the covers being 'out of sync' occassionally - they are done a way in advance of the issues for solicitation purposes...and although we have a route map for each issue the stories do tend to have a life of their own and sometimes we have to shift pacing as the story grows organically. Rather than shoehorn a story to fit a cover we tend to choose to put the story above all else which occasionally means a scene on the cover may not show up until the next issue - as was the case this time - or even not at all if the story we intended to tell takes us somewhere entirely unexpected. I understand the frustration though - especially when it applies to a cover I was particularly pleased with!


You never said who you were backing for Legion leader KQ

just read it... haven't read everyone else's thoughts yet.

I loved the Moebius-like flying riders. I liked that Tasmia is mulling leadership, and that Talok is still Talok (and so is Grev! now a brother).

Lar is coming back, but can he lose the little blus panties? They never worked; Lar's pants always worked better as a single red piece of clothing.

I'm glad that the LSH is addressing Kara's delusions.

Barry's art was great as always; the story was functional, but not particularly engaging.

Why is everyone always calling Mon's panties blue? They were always black in my comics.

And I liked them so there.

Mon would actually look good in black pants. maybe with a red pinstripe down the side. too military? i'd love it if a super-powered descendant of Mon's appeared by the name of Laurel Gand and she beat the tar out of Kara.

Make it a yellow stripe and give him a Stetson and he could be reimagined as Mountie-El.

Heh. If that's the case, then I'd really like to know where Cos gets his acting inspirations from. I guess in the Legion's sterile society they don't have holo programming like "Young Sentinents in Love" anymore, so does this hammy overacting come naturally to him? Or does he read 1950's earth Romance Comics? I thought his behaviour was genuine because surely no one would try to play someone else that ineptly.

Would be a shame, though, if he was acting. A bit of honest emotion and confusion would have made him more likeable, but then again they went down the "shameless manipulator in love" road with Brainy already. Well, we'll see.


Whoops, once again I fail at making plain when I'm being all jesting and rhetoric-question-y.

Life is full of unexpected Kryptonian Lizard 101 surprises, though, so I hope you don't mind me taxing your time, Tromium, since I found your dino intro fun reading!

Now I'm wondering how many other tragic events there were for which the Legion was partially responsible. They must have racked up a sizeable number of those over the years...