Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes What I found today at my LCS!

What did I find today?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Because I didn't go. I had a rare opportunity to spend the day with my mother and special needs sister. We spent the day doing some light christmas shopping, and eating at Georgio's. I got to spend time with two out of the three women in this world I love the most.

Better than anything I could find at the LCS.

Got some old stuff, but not legion unfortunately.

So,
Superman Family #202. Weak lead story, but good costume for the "bad guy". Obviously written by a dude though. Bad romance Supergirl stuff.
Superfam #205. Supergirl vs. Enchantress. Not bad. Listen, Superfam was a cash thing, lot's of "names" but stock house art, stock house stories. Doesn't mean they weren't fun though. Something the new stuff seems to be missing. DC's doom and gloom current curriculum is leaving me flat, but these old stories are seriously deliriously fun.
Justice League of America #97. Starbreaker, written as a vastly powerful dude, came across as just a dink in this issue. Cosmic power, dealing with run of the mill lackey's.
Justice League of America #91. Flash is dead. Agin.

I def think some of those writers were on meth based crack, with a little absythinthe thrown in for good measure.

Absinthe makes the heart grow fondue.

Or, rather, it turns the brain to cheese -- good cheese.

Gouda cheese?

I visited Gouda once, 5 years ago. Charming little town

With a distinctive smell when you get close to it.

Hi folks. Well, haven't really been getting a lot of stuff lately, so for the last couple of months I've basically got two legion books, one was the tabloid, and the latest is only a replacement book for me, it's a whitman copy of Superboy and the Legion #244.

But a fun one I found is Superman Family #203. This was mostly done by Rozakis as writer, Jack Harris, and Marv Wolfman as the writers. Got some Tuska, but mostly house style for the characters.

Yeah, I'm kinda lost on the new books, mainly buying them out of some weird kind of completest loyalty in a few cases.

I really miss Legion and a great, timely JSA book.

Nightwing has become some kind of weird neutered big brother affirmation teen beat thing...

Flash...has great art.

Green Lantern Hal is good, but I can read it in less than five minutes.

Guess I'll have more fun haunting the back issue bins.

Rick, have you tried the new Birds of Prey?

Ann, I have. I'll say it isn't bad at all, but it seems to lack a certain spark to me. I mean, it's got freakin' Barda in it, I mean...BARDA... and it's ... nice.

I think whats missing for me from a lot of the new stuff is that anticipation like we had years ago. I don't read previews anymore, because I try to get that old feeling back. But, the colors seem washed out to me. The build up with stretched out stories designed to make nice tpbs eats away at that urgency the old books seemed to generate. It's not just BoP, though. Again, I'm buying the book. Have been since Dixon, but these last few iterations have seemed...lacking.

Maybe some of it is I don't know who the transporting blond lady was. Cassandra seemed...slightly off to me, and Sin is now a goddess truck.

I know those older issues I'm buying now are very...silly in some respects, but when I look back, it seems like they were written by guys in short sleeved white shirts with ties on in bad offices that probably smelled like mold, and that mold along with some tainted bagels and possibly some little green pills in the bottom of the coffee pot created some shit that made Hunter Thompson seem like a sunday school teacher.

But, I'm old now, and nostalgia may be starting to take hold.

So, today's pickup.

Green Lantern #9, current series. The origin of the ring Hal's using was much more impressive than the one he now has at the end of the issue. yes, I get what the writer is saying about earth, we be full of anti-authoritian contrarians , but creating a ring out of willpower alone, gathering the remnants of previous energy expenditures...now that's impressive. And frankly, I was enjoying him being back on earth. Eight issues and he's gone again.

And honestly, I liked it better when there was one GL per sector, and it wasn't set up like a cop corps.

Now, the good stuff.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #90. I never, ever had this issue or any reprints, if there were any. Grell. Some things are timeless. This makes my old collector's heart happy. And it was like $3. Ten times the cover price when it was released, but worth all 300 pennies. I've seen that iconic cover since I can remember, but to actually HAVE it. Well, I've never been cool in my life, but this...majorly cool.

JLA #165. Supes, Bats, Wondy, GL and GA, original run. Haven't read it yet, but slowly filling in my silver age collection of JLA. Cover seems to say JLGL, but supes face looks like Jim Aparo. Not to shabby either way.

The Flash, 290. Had this when it first came out, read it til it fell apart. Heck was a great replacement for Novick, but I don't think the inking and coloring lent itself to his stuff. And it had FIRESTORM as the backup. I miss Ron and Martin.

The Flash 250. Golden Glider makes her first appearance. Always thought she was underplayed, given the backstory they gave her. Especially as she was one of the few female foes of Flash.

Superboy #191. Honestly, didn't even read the main story about some girl underwater with a dolly and wagon. LEGION BACKUP, BABY! Regulus makes a ...ah humh...regular re-appearance. Cockrum seemed to still be getting his feet wet, and introducing new costumes. At least, I think Regulus' look was new. And it holds up, still killer today.

Superboy #193, agin with the backup, baby. Lot of Cockrum, and not a Lyllt bit of fun here. New costumes in full swing. Cockrum and Grell. To great artists that went great ...well, seperately, but still.


And finally, The New Adventures of SUPERBOY #1. Would it be wrong, even knowing what I know about him leaving the Legion for this...to still have secretly hoped for a cameo by the crew?

Anyway, other than a new GL, that's all for my back bin dumpster diving for discounts, diva's and dreamgirls for this week.

All that for the low low low price of under $25, which is pretty much my limit per week.

Oh, and why was it that back when all those old issues were coming out, Superboy was fun and interesting, and yet Supes seemed like SuperResponsibleMan, and kinda dull?

RE: JLA 165, it was definitely a Garcia Lopez cover, but I get what you're saying about Superman's Aparo-esque face; I chalk it up to both artists having the influence of Norman Rockwell in common. Also worth noting: that was legendary editor Julius Schwartz's last JLA issue -- he had decided to focus exclusively on the Superman franchise.

Great to hear you found two Cockrum Superboy/LSH issues!

That's a great bunch of comics Rick! Good week!

One from the >gasp< newsagents. At six quid, Quantum not a cheap anthology (but then what is these days), and it's not of the same professional level as the likes of 200AD. But, like a few books out there over the years, one strip delves into the source material of British sci-fi/horror. Having delved there often enough myself, it's always good to see other takes on it. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts. The last one I bought was a magazine format one that started off as a mix of news and strips, but ended up as strips before it vanished. As explained in a comics magazine, retailers never used to get much profit from comics. So, a move to things like dollar comics would give readers more story, but retailers more profit for a win-win. Pushing that forward 40 years, as does them just being too pricey for people to pick up in passing. Especially with no big name characters.

In the LCS, that company also had a Gerry Anderson anthology, called Spectrum. I've not read it yet. But you could put Captain Scarlet on pretty much anything and I'd give it a go.

An aeon ago, RPGs were becoming so popular, along with Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, that 2000AD delved into it. They released a RPG magazine that contained art and storylines from their 2000AD characters. It was called Dice Man, and you'd have Bryan Talbot, Kev O'Neill, Glen Fabry and Steve Dillon art in there.
In the comics, Pat Mills was having a massive burst of inspiration in Slaine (I also picked up a TPB of one of those). You could read that and then see how you would have got on, going through his plots, in Dice Man. I had one or two of them, and as I lugged the giant hardback home, I hope it wasn't the best one or two. If they've got a Judge Dredd one in there, it should be hilarious as you sentence the citizens of Mega City to 5 years for jay walking, or have to turn in your badge for not being strict enough.

Not much in the way of new releases. I got a What if... Aliens based on Burke surviving the film. There were a number of reasons he didn't in the film; scenes that were shot but not released and the scripts. But a decent story will always stop my eyes rolling. This could have gone in lots of directions, considering what a character he was. They've not chosen the ones I thought most likely.

Time Before Time has recently finished (last issue or 2 should still be in your LCS. Recommend starting from the first TPB.) The first arc of Sacrificers has just finished, so TPB of that can't be far away.

Random purchase was Inspectres. A team up of Arthur Conan Doyle, Houdini, Bram Stoker and a young Agatha Christie. I've not read that one yet either, but liked the 2000AD strip the Necronauts, so here's hoping.

Since the start of the year, I've taken advantage of the Comixology sales (even those have gone up in price a little). Picking up favourties like Ostrander's Suicide Squad and Wolfman/ Perez Titans among others like the Levitz/ Perez World's Finest, SSoSV (the implosion did that one a mercy) and 70's Aquaman.

I got a pile of '80s comics out of ebay at the end of last year, so lots of fun also going through those.

Thoth, I have two Slaine trades, one collecting peak-era stories painted by Simon Bisley, the other collecting early stories drawn by Glenn Fabry. I love them both!

I would have been reading The Horned God storyline in 2000AD, with Bisley's work. Bisley also stood out for the work he was doing on ABC Warriors around that time too. Also, well worth a read.

2000AD was continuing to produce some mature stories at that time, keeping its readers as they grew up too. Slaine learning the follies of being his type of hero and the sacrifice required by a King; Judge Dredd's regime undermine democracy supposedly to save it from the wars that led to the Judges in the first place; The end of Strontium Dog (due to reprint issues). They'd branch that side out into Crisis, with the likes of Third World War and New Statesmen.

Bisley's style also continued the action of some stories too, taking their style to greater extremes. Judge Dredd's Megazine would have been launched around then. Steve Yeowell's art on Red Razors is the memory I have of that.

Yep, Slaine: The Horned God is the trade I have!

Thoth, Ann, I know nothing of Slaine. Got a rundown or link anywhere?

The wiki link is better than the 2000ad link

Slaine Info here

I probably didn't read much past The Horned God. As acclaimed as having full painted art from Bisley, the plot had been built up for quite some time. Mills seeded early stories that ramped up as the story progressed.

A sort of parallel Conan using some of the same influences it entwines itself with Celtic myth cycles. But there's always more to it. Prior to Horned God another secret history behind humanity is revealed. Like Howard, Mills touches on Lovecraftian themes, combined with Celtic Myth.

Slaine later goes on an equivalent to the labours of Hercules/Herakles. Mills combined action with a deconstruction of the hero. There are points there where Mills kindly takes any heroic figure and shows it a richer, deeper world as a grown up. Life lessons that I'd not underestimate the impact of on generations of the readership.

Bear in mind that 2000ad was primarily an action/adventure comic. But the likes of Mills and Wagner on these strips meant that there were always other layers. It's a balance as a certain Mr Alan Moore discovered after some feedback on the lack of action and the dialogue in Halo Jones. Looking at power structures, class, politics and delivering them within an action strip is a feat they achieved on a regular basis, on the likes of Slaine, Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd and others.

I've no idea if that continued. There's certain logical arcs and concluding stories for these characters. But, as long running franchises no doubt there have been switches back into just the action with later creative teams.