Long Live the Legion

Legion of Super-Villains #1   Here's some history for you: this issue comes out almost fifty years after the first appearance by the Legion of Super-Villains (way back in 1961). Considering how much Paul Levitz is a student of Legion history, I have to believe that this was on purpose. He's joined by Francis Portela on art for this special issue. We begin with a guard, struggling to bring his key towards the woman who calls. He's all alone on some grim world, forced by her demands to free her. The woman? Saturn Queen, of course. I guess all the S.P. technology in the universe isn't enough to beat her mind control powers. They're on Takron-Galtos and a ship carrying Kodama (you might remember him as Sun Killer) is requesting permission to land. A laser blast wrecks the ship, sending it crashing to the planet's surface, and Saturn Queen tells us that permission is denied. They pull Sun Killer's injured body out of the wreckage, wanting to bring h...

  Adventure Comics #523 Because no one demanded it, this book switched focus to the Legion Academy. You remember a few issues ago when they got Phil Jimenez to pencil a back-up story focused on the new trainees? I guess DC got excited at the possibility of having a superstar artist on the book, so we're ignoring the regular Legion team and taking a look at characters that we've already been told aren't good enough to be Legionnaires. We're also adding numerous new characters to an already crowded series, so I'm sure they got a ton of complaints about that, too. It should also come as no surprise that Jimenez only lasts three issues on this book... so any excitement of having him on the title is very short-lived. This story, titled "First Night," credits Paul Levitz and Phil Jimenez as storytellers and Andy Lanning on inks. This is a pretty darn good team, so I'm cautiously excited. A ship has arrived at The Sorcerers' World, ready to pick up the ne...

Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 6) Annual #1 To no one's surprise, I messed up the order and this annual should've been part of last week's column. Oh well, better late than never, right? This special issue is brought to you by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, with John Dell and Scott Koblish handling the inking. Giffen and Levitz - back together again! Giffen - back on the Legion for the first time since the reboot Legion! And how busy is Giffen at this time? He's writing Doom Patrol, co-writing Booster Gold, and just finished a run on The Outsiders. So this isn't one of those moments where they're helping a veteran comic creator to give him some work. He's busy. We begin on Orando, about a year ago, and an injured young woman is on the run from a beast called a "bloodseeker" and two soldiers. She's badly injured, with a horrible facial wound, and stumbling to safety. She ends up in an old, stinky wreck and is bathed in green energy. An eye motif ...

There's a website called Writing Battle  that has monthly competitions for short story writers. Each time, they assign you three story elements that you use to create your prose.   This is the third story I wrote for one of the competitions and wanted to post it here. Please enjoy! The story elements I was assigned: Genre: Crossworld Fantasy Character: Startup Founder Object: Ticket Stub      Titan Base Five  by Jay McKiernan    Although he was sitting in a relaxing, idyllic garden, Jeff Kang was stressed. Titan Base Five was everything he dreamed of. The golden ticket worked. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that the show’s producers didn’t hire any Asian people…   Officer Candy McIntosh was confused. She hated this feeling – she was obsessed with understanding everything. That had propelled her through the Training Facility, scared at least two boyfriends away, and made her invaluable on Titan Base Five. She had never seen anyone like J...

Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 6) #8 Two? Two covers in a row for Tyroc? And Chameleon Girl in costume? And does this mean Shrinking Violet's back?  The more important question is, of course, who shall lead the Legion? It was pointed out to me on Reddit that I was very wrong with my comments last week on Tyroc becoming a master forensics scientist and creating a visual ultrasound for everyone to see. And the more I think about it, the more I agree that I was completely incorrect. So kudos to Tyroc for having new powers and showing off that he understands murder weapons. It's leagues better than him just disappearing into an alternate dimension in a story ripped from a mediocre Broadway musical. Not much to recap - Durlans have infiltrated the S.P. and one of them is pretending to be Chief Zendak and, at the same time, are murdering U.P. councilors. Brainiac 5 is trying to figure out who Professor Harmonia Li is. Cosmic Boy has called an election for the new Legion leader. Wildf...