Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Pat Broderick

To each their own, variety of opinions makes the world go round.

Pat Broderick has drawn a Micronauts cover for this issue of back issue out now

We are currently discussing the mid-280s issues of LSH in the Legion forum Re-Reads, which include work by Broderick.

One of my favorite pages from LSH #284, courtesy of Legion of Super-Bloggers:

For some reason, I've kept forgetting to add this:

Broderick worked with Doug Moench on a not-uninteresting 80s DC mini-series, "Lords of the Ultra Realm." It was a rather Zelazny-esque kind of fantasy, as I recall.

I picked up #4 of this. I hadn't had too many Baxter comics. Actually, this might have been one of, if not the, first. I remember the colours really popping. I'd get the same feeling when I'd later get lots of Baxter Legion in batches.

It was a pivot issue. Our hero had lost friends in the previous issue, and came back across from our Earth to a fantasy one. There, he met Squatamoton (sp), who could turn food into a mush that he scoffed. He was the Lord of Greed. Our hero fought Zorla, the Lord of War. Zorla would kill his own men to inflict a mortal wound on the hero. There was quite a lot of horror to the dark Lords. There was a guy who had a creature living inside his chest that would devour servants. Similar to the villain at the start of the Kupperberg/ Lightle Doom Patrol. Then there was a guy who sucked the life out of bikers, to gain the energy to get back into his own world. There was a reference to a Lord of Madness, just defeated by the hero. I don't recall the Lords of Light being as well thought out. But even they turned on the hero in this issue. Broderick's art was impressive, and it was the reason I'd later pick up Captain Atom (from a little book shop). Thinking back, there was some Vietnam subtext to it, that I'd have been too young to appreciate. I did end up getting the resto f the series. It might have been nostalgia, but issue #4 was still the stand out for me.

The series has a house ad showing headshots of the Lords of darkness, with the tagline "Nicer Guys You Could Find In Hell."

Thanks for chiming in on Lords of the Ultra Realm, Thoth.

I hadn't thought of this before until you pointed out the Vietnam subtext, but this was really more of a 70s Marvel kind of story than an 80s DC kind of story -- Moench had previously written one of Marvel's best left-of-center 70s offerings, Master of Kung Fu. Also, he and Broderick had worked together for Marvel in the late 70s/early 80s on Captain Mar-Vell's solo book -- it was solid space-opera, but unfortunately, it wasn't as innovative as Jim Starlin's earlier run, and the interim creative teams had done so much damage that Moench & Broderick's sterling show couldn't keep it from being cancelled, and Mar-Vell being killed off by Starlin in an overrated graphic novel.

In 20-20 hindsight, Broderick had better chemistry with Moench (and, later, with Cary Bates & Greg Weisman on Captain Atom) than he did with Paul Levitz. Broderick was at his best when he could do big, open, splashy layouts, which he couldn't do on Legion because of the density of Levitz's scripts (not entirely a bad thing, just better suited for some artists than others.) Sometimes I wonder what a Moench/Broderick Legion might have been like.

Glad to you hear you liked Broderick's art on LotUR enough that you picked up Captain Atom. And I agree with you that LotUR issue 4 may very well be the high point.

Belatedly joining this thread, but in addition to those few issues of the early Levitz Legion, he also drew the "Cham and Gim undercover against Starfinger" portions of issues 46-49 of the Baxter series, while the regular artist, Greg LaRocque, drew the "Conspiracy against the Time Trapper" portions of those issues, making the two parallel stories clearly distinct. Coincidentally strangely enough, neither were the artist on the conclusion of either story. Barry Kitson (not looking at all like the distinctive style he'd soon sport in L.E.G.I.O.N. '89+ and all future work) drew the conclusion of the Starfinger story in Annual # 4, and Keith Giffen, with his new style, drew the conclusion of the Time Trapper story in issue # 50.

Thanks, Chaim.

Any fans here of Broderick's "Micronauts" work? I, personally, like it better than Michael Golden's.

EDIT: I missed this 2014 post from Thoth Lad from the previous page of this thread:

http://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=818589#Post818589