Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! 1994 Legion Elseworlds

I'm looking for information on LSH Annual #5 (Legion of OZ), and LEGIONNAIRES Annual #1 (Legion of Avalon), both from 1994. Has anyone seen synopses/reviews/art around?

I own 'em. Whatcha need?

--GD

Ooh. Legionnaires Annual #1 (Legion of Avalon) was a great story!

I also own both the issues, but can't provide scans for them at the minute. I can crank out some reviews if need be.

If either of you could give me a synopsis or a review or anything, that would be wonderful. I'm trying to decide if they're intriguing enough to go digging through my local comic store's currently unsorted back issues.

Off-hand, I can tell you that LSH Annual #5 was fun with a few nods to the Lore and some nice Swan art in the beginning, but it's easily forgettable and nothing grand to write home about. If you find it for reasonably cheap, it may be worth the buy. Legionnaires Annual #1 I'd recommend because it's just plain fun. The Legionnaires all dressed in Renaissance-type spins of their costumes, protecting a unique future modelled after the middle ages. I like a lot of the roles people play (Cos as the king/leader, Nemesis Kid as the traitor, Garth as the drifting hero who captures Imra's heart). Had some pretty art in the first part and (I believe) both these annuals featured Jeff Moy's first work on the Legion. The Avalon story was incredibly, with a set beginning, middle, and end for that era of the Avalon Legion we got to see.

My apologies for gushing about the Legionnaires annual. I'll try to muster up the time to properly define the stories tonight, unless someone wishes to go ahead and do it.

The Legion of Avalon was sort of a mish-mash of the Legion crossed with "King Arthur" type trappings. I think that Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad were rough equivalents to Arthur, Guinivere and Lancelot. It had the requisite amounts of betrayal, heartache and sacrifice in fine Arthurian style, as well as the standard Elseworlds body count. I remember enjoying it, but it wasn't earth shattering or anything. It had some early Jeff Moy Legion art, which I liked.

The Legion of Oz I don't recall enjoying as much, and probably only read twice which is a really low number for anything Legion.

This probably doesn't really help much, does it?

Quick synopsis off the top of my head for the Legion annual, if only to drive home the 'take it or leave it' stance:

LSH Annual #5:
With the threat of Ayla rapidly de-aging, Vi decides to tell her a bed-time story to calm her down. The story is about a young girl (Ayla), who is constantly bickering with her twin brother.

One day, while fighting in their father's lab, Ayla gets trapped in some experimental time bubble and is spirited away. She lands in a magical, Oz-homaged world, killing the Bad Witch. With a quick explanation from the Good Witch (Mysa Nal), and the help of her small Imskian friend, Vi, she sets out to find the magical land of Gandia, where she may find the means to return home. Wizard of Oz parodies ensue.

Following the 'Star path', she takes several 'Star Gates' to different worlds, encountering bizarre demons and the like and finding three new friends (Brainy, Wildfire, and T-Wolf) who are also looking for various skills, emotions, or whatever. The random worlds madness ensues for about twenty pages, until they arrive at Gandia.

Sadly, the hero who could help them is missing, and the whole kingdom of children is under attack from the villain Starfinger, whose a bit perterbed that his sister (the Bad Witch) was killed. I don't remember how, but, of course, Ayla and friends defeat Starfinger and manage to use his ring to return the hero of Gandia (Valor) to normal from his imprisonment as a shield. The children of the land turn into adults, as they were apparently all de-aged by Glorith (I don't remember if she was a servant to Starfinger or what), save for the Princess (Laurel Gand), who along with Valor is able to give Ayla the means to return home.

She does so (again, memory escapes as to how), and awakes in the bubble in her father's lab. She finds her brother standing over her worried, and discovers that she's now several years older than her twin because of her ordeal. She hugs Garth, promising she'll never tease him now that he's younger than her. She's much too 'old' for that now. :rolleyes:

Vi finishes the tale to find Ayla sleeping, and then goes outside to worry about the de-aging a bit more with the other Legionnaires on the run. Back in bed, Ayla is crying to herself, awake and listening to her friends talk about how she easily might not exist in a few days.

LSH Annual #5 was okay, and 'Aires Annual #1 was fun.

they're worth snagging, but neither are 'must haves,' unless you're a completist.

as much as I didn't like the regular series, the L.E.G.I.O.N. annual that same year was a complete hoot... Elseworld-spoofing James Bond, classic Swan Legion, and Beverly Hills 90210.

I don't know if either are worth digging through unsorted back issue bins, unless you think there might be other random stuff you'd like to pick up.

I remember liking "Legion of Avalon" moreso than "Legion of Oz". The story in Avalon was bigger and more dramatic, had more Legionnaires and better art. The parallels between Arturian and Legion lore were nicely interlaced. The Oz story was cute, but more tied to Oz than Legionlore and didn't feature as many Legion parallels.

Thanks, everyone, for the reviews. I think I'll try to get both, eventually. Unfortunately, my first foray into the unsorted back issue mountain mostly yielded X-men and Spiderman, with a box of Bat-family stuff as well. But I'll keep looking. : )

It's worthy to note *hic* that the Legion of Avalon tale was scripted by none other than *hic* Mark Waid.

Holy crud...there was a dotLegion take on the classic LSH? I only bought that book when there was a legion related story arc involving Phase or Lar Gand or Lyddia so I completely ignored that annual way back when...bummer, now *I* have to do some digging for back issues too.

Here it is, Yellow Kid: *hic*

Ah ha ha ha ha!!

That's great! Thanks.