posted
Looking at my Who's Who in the Legion (best Legion series Waid has ever done ).
I wanted to see if there was a dramatic shift at some point in Legion history.
Well i guess I did find one. Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl get married then leave the team. Matter-Eater Lad gets drafted by his home planet Bismol's politics.
Right there the three corniest Legion codenames (and powers) are gone. Guys like Tyroc and Wildfire join a bit later, etc. Dramatic shift. And certainly both a product of their times.
Did Grell or Cockrum get rid of BB, TG, and MEL? Or was it before them?
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "grow up", but I always think the team kind of grew up as Jim Shooter grew up. He was hired at 13 to write stories that authentically appealed to kids his age, but by the end of his first run he was writing stories about Timber Wolf's drug addiction and Matter-Eater Lad's alcoholic father, a long ways from the silly "Doctor Regulus steals the Legion clubhouse"-type stories with which he began.
There was a clear move to get rid of the supposedly "weaker" Legionnaires such as Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel, Matter-Eater Lad, and Invisible Kid (and Chemical King a bit later) around the time the team moved into Superboy's title and Cary Bates and Shooter's second tenure began. And the tendency was to replace them with nebulously powered characters such as Tyroc and Wildfire (who later became beter defined, but could do practically anything in the beginning).
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
In an interview, Cockrum stated it was his intention to make the Legionnaires look older, and he did. But in Superboy #191 (Oct. 1972), six months into Cockrum's run, Sun Boy, who had debuted 11+ years earlier, was still only 17-18 years old.
Cockrum's redesigns and Shooter's scripts pushed them forward, but it was really Levitz who officially raised the age bar. There was the infamous issue #235, which purported to explain why people in their twenties still went by the names "lad" and "lass", and in Superboy #236 (Feb. 1978), Levitz fixed the date as 10 years after the founding of the Legion, making the founders about 24 years old at the time of Garth and Imra's wedding.
So, the accelerated growing up period was probably between Oct. 1972 and Feb. 1978, when the Legionnaires aged another 5-7 years, about as fast as real time. After that, things slowed down considerably thanks largely to Jerry Conway's run.
posted
The best thing about the Legion maturing is that it gave Star Boy a chance to ditch the crewcut and grow some facial hair...an unprecedented move which makes me wonder - is Thom the first DC character to grow a beard?
From: Adelaide, Australia | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
Ollie's beard (and new costume) debuted during Black Canary's first JLA mission called "In Every Man, There Is A Demon" JUSTICE LEAGUE (VOL. 1)75, circa late 1969 (or thereabouts).
Star Boy's facial fuzz debuted in the first Legion Annual (circa 1982 - i think).
Any suggestions to the contrary will be gladly accepted.
From: Adelaide, Australia | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
There have been several dramatic shifts in the Legion's history. Not all have been tied to the Legion "growing up." The Five Years Later era marked a definite (and abrupt) shift from the Levitz era, for example. Here, the Legionnaires were already grown up, though they were portrayed as older.
The Bates/Cockrum era was arguably the first such shift, and definitely one of the most widespread. In addition to the departures of Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel (as Triplicate Girl was then known), and Invisible Kid, the Legion's entire look was redesigned, from the costumes to the technology (borrowed in no small part from Star Trek). Wildfire joined the issue after BB and DD departed. All of this happened within a relatively short period of time, from SUPERBOY # 193 (when some of the new costumes debuted) to # 203 (the death of Invisible Kid; the issue after Cockrum's departure).
By the time of Matter-Eater Lad's departure (# 212) and Tyroc's introduction (# 216), things had settled down considerably.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think it was a mistake to get rid of Invisible Kid but then again pretty brave to off a character like that. Same with Ferro Lad. Shooter got a bit more serious.
Did Shooter and Cockrum overlap? That would have been sweep.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Legion Annual #1. . . . my first EVER Legion exp.
My very favorite comic moment. Been hooked since.
I addition I believe this is time that the Legion started to show their maturity. Element Lad messin around with Officer Erin in almost every panel, Dreamy being dreamy, Violet messin around with Gim, Brainy finally confronting Supergirl about his "Crush". Timber Wolf and Imra's moment on the asteroid. And the team having to deal with Darksied and the Daxamites.
Sigh.....it just didnt get any better.....
Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
NC thanks. Super cool. I hear stories of all those comic guys sharing an apt in NYC back in the day. Must've been lots of fun. Simonson, Chaykin, Englheart, Starlin, Milgrom, etc.
As for tha maturity? I was trying to pinpoint when the characters started to mature. The end of the Shooter era and beggining of Cockrum.
I can't wait for this Legion to mature just a bit.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
That's a great time period to reread (which I just did a few months ago). With all of Legion history in mind, you can see how those issues had a sense that things were moving along and progressing.
The Legion of SaLSH #216 was quite different from the Legion of Adventure #380.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
).
