Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! ...magnoball?

first of all, i'd like to greet you all legion guys, since this is my first post on this forum. hi!

i have a little question for you, who are far more expert on the legion stuff. for a fan fiction i'm writing, i'd like to know if somewhere on the legion books has ever been explained the rules of the magnoball game. or, at least, how does it take place a magnoball match?
and what were the name of the magnoball team in which garth ranzz used to play?

thank you all in advance for your replies!

Hi Mr. Kayak,

I don't know the answers to all your questions, but it was Rokk Krinn (Cosmic Boy) who had played magnoball and had magnetic powers. Garth Ranzz was Live Wire aka Lightning Lad.

I am sure someone can answer your other questions though or direct you to the answer.

I don't think there are too many issues that spotlight Magnoball much, but Legionnaires #70 shows Cosmic Boy playing on a magnoball team (I believe it was an exhibition game).

Dirk Morgna (Sun Boy in the pre-boot Legion universe) is also in the issue, as his father Derek owns one of the magnoball teams, and Dirk manages it.

Some of the game is shown as Cos is playing... hope that helps.

I just looked up "Sports" in C.M. Keller's Legion help-file, and here was what it said about Magnoball:

"Another popular thirtieth-century sport is Magno-Ball, which involves magnetically projecting a ball over a net. The best players are Braalians, who have the ability to play this game naturally, and individual champions have included Legionnaires Cosmic Boy and Magnetic Kid and super-villain Magno Lad. Non-Braalians are able to play the game, though, but wearing special magnetic gauntlets (Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes # 236)."

The cover date on S/LSH #236 was February 1978 (in case that helps).

And I just looked through Legionnaires #70 as a refresher. Cos didn't play in an exhibition, he threw out the first ball of the United Planets Magnoball Playoffs. The Terran Lodestones played the Braalian Meteors. Dirk Morgna managed the Lodestones and Rokk used to play for the Meteors. His brother Pol was playing for the Meteors in the playoff game in Legionnaires #70.

It appears Magnoball was played differently before Zero Hour. In S/LSH #236 players had to get the magnetic ball over a net. But in Legionnaires #70 players appeared to have to magnetically manuver the ball into a small hole while dodging defenders...

I don't mean to keep posting, but I keep finding more info:

Cos did play a bit of "keep away" during halftime at a Magno-Ball game on Titan in Legionnaires #38. He played against both teams that were playing and still was able to score a goal (getting the magnetic ball into the small hole). The two teams were only identified as the Bolts and the Sabers. The Sabers were wearing a Saturn symbol like Saturn Girl does, conveying they are telepaths, and they are wearing metallic bracelets (like the ones mentioned in the Magno-Ball game from S/LSH #236). So they were probably the Saturn Sabers, but they were never called anything but "Sabers". The Bolts also had some players obviously wearing the same bracelets, so it appeared neither of these teams necessarily came from Braal or had Braalian players.

The U.P. Goodwill Tour that Rokk, Imra and Garth were on at the time was on Titan (Imra's home planet) and most of the issue was devoted to the past war between Braal (Rokk's home planet) and Titan, so I would have assumed that one Magno-Ball team (presumably the Bolts) was from Braal since the Sabers were telepaths. The writers just never say one way or the other.

Omni is right that the game was played differently in the pre-boot era. As I recall there was one S/LSH issues that had Cos & Night Girl visiting Braal and playing a game with Pol. It seemed to be played similar to volleyball or tennis at that time.

PS: Good luck with the fanfic. You should think about posting it here on the "Bits o' Legionnaire Business" forum when you finish it. I'm sure everyone would love to read it!

I just checked Chaim's help file and discovered that the issue I was refering to is, in fact S/LSH #236, which Omni mentions in one of his posts.

This is the Worldsmith story called "A World Born Anew"

Hey, welcome Mr. Kayak! Benvenuto!

IMO, the version of magnoball shown in the preboot reminded me of that prototypical "basketball" game that the Aztecs played -- which I think also involved getting a ball horizontally into a small hole.

thank you all for your answers, you are great!
i think i finally got an idea of what magnoball is (or should be); at least, i'll use my imagination a bit to try to add something to the descriptions you made, but i cared to work on the right basis.

for quislet: you are right, i got confused! anyway, now that i know that anyone could play magnoball with the proper bracelets, i think i could also tell a challenge between cos and garth, someday

for omnicraig: hey man, i owe you a cappuccino! thanks a lot!

for varalent: thanks for your encouragement, i'll surely post my fanfic here! i'm thinking of structuring it as a comic strip, so it couldn't be a problem for me to translate dialogues and stuff. i hope you'll like it!

grazie del benvenuto, stu!

Mr Kayak,
Happy to share the information with you and I hope it helps! Good luck with the story, and definitely you should post it here in the "Bits of Legion Business" forum!