Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Need A Legion Reference? Post Here

Ok, so the original Legion runs through issue 1-61, then they kept the issue numbers going bit rebooted to the postboot Legion (meaning a whole new different Legion, not the 1958 characters) which ran from issue #62 to 125. Correct?

Ok, next question, If the Legion o Super-Heroes #65 ended in February 1995, how does Legionnaires #1,1993 fit in? Which Legion is this?

Did they publish two different Legions (not comics but groups of Legionnaires) at the same time? If so Why?

Yes ... and no.

You actually have two separate questions here that have different answers. First, continuity.

As originally intended the 5YL Legion were a continuation of the original 1958 continuity, yes. However very shortly into the series an editorial mandate came down to remove Superboy from the continuity in any form whatsoever, even the Pocket Dimension version. This resulted in the Mordru/Glorith retroactive continuity change with Glorith replacing the Time Trapper but more importantly Valor (Lar Gand no longer called Mon-El since no Superboy/man connection) replacing every appearance of Superboy in the earlier stories and the new character Laurel Gand (a distant 30th Century relative/decendent of Valor) replacing Supergirl in all her earlier appearances. So while this is still meant to be a continuation of the original continuity it is already different to what was recorded.

Then things became even more complicated. The 5YL continuity was wiped out and the Reboot replaced it. Then that was wiped out and replaced by the Threeboot. Then, while Threeboot was still being published, slightly older versions of the ORIGINAL Legion started popping up and eventually once again were given their own book. This was labeled (by some fans) the Retroboot continuity since they most closely resembled the Legion at the end of the Paul Levitz run in LoSH v3 #63 with a few more years passed but WITHOUT the events of 5YL. The mini-series Legion of Three Worlds showed that the Retroboot was the Legion form the main universe (ssupposedly - at the end of v7 it was hinted that they too were from an alternate Earth) and the Threeboot was the Legion from Earth Prime, home of the evil Superboy Prime, and the Reboot Legion was from a Universe destroyed in the various Crisis. The 5YL continuity was not mentioned and has never been mentioned again. DC seems to want to forget about it. So yes it is meant to be a continuation of the original continuity, with a 5 year gap to produce some changes and development, but is now in limbo with the Retroboot being an alternative continuation of the original continuity.

As to your second question, LoSH volume 4 issues 1-125 did start with the 5YL Legion, being the same Legion as was seen at the end of volume 3 but with 5 years having passed, but didn't finish with it. When the End of an Era storyline resulted in that continuity being wiped out at the time of Zero Hour and replaced by the Reboot Legion DC did not start with a new volume and a new number 1 but kept the same numbering onwards in volume 4. So the first part of v4 1-61 is the 5YL continuation of the original continuity and (after a #0 which was the new start of the Legion) #62-125 were the Reboot Legion.

In Summary:
Original Legion - Various early stories, Adventure Comics v1 #300-380, Action Comics v1 #377-392, Superboy v1 #172 (and then sporadically until) #197-230, Superboy and LoSH v1 #231-258, LoSH v2 (LoSH v1 was a four issue reprint series) #259-313, Tales of LoSH v1 #314-325, LoSH v3 #1-63

5YL original continuation - LoSH v4 #1-61 and Legionnaires v1 #1-18 and also Valor v1 #11-23 linked in.

Reboot Legion - LoSH v4 #0, 62-125 and Legionnaires v1 #0, 19-81, Legion Lost v1 #1-12, Legion Worlds v1 #1-6, The Legion v1 #1-38, Teen Titans/Legion Special #1

Threeboot Legion - LoSH v5 #1-50 (#16-36 were titled Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes as the post-Infinite Crisis Kara Zor-El joined the team for that period.)

Retroboot Legion - Justice League of America v2 #7-10, Justice Society of America v3 #5-7, Action Comics v1 #851-864, Final Crisis - Legion of 3 Worlds #1-5, various Superman, Supergirl, Action and Adventure comics in 2010, LoSH v6 #1-15, Adventure Comics v1 #521-529, Legion Lost v2 #1-16, LoSH v7 #1-23 (Adventure Comics v2 #12 and v1 #516-520 told some tales of the early days of the original/retroboot Legion)

Bendis Fourboot - Superman v3 #14-16, LoSH v8 #1-6 (so far).

See? Simple isn't it.

So, Legionnaires #1-18 are set in the original continuity, but the series stars the SW6 Legion, who are younger "temporal duplicates" of the Legion members plucked from the middle of the Adventure Era and kept in stasis for years. The remainder of the Legionnaires title stars the postboot team. To add to the confusion, the postboot Legion's designs are largely based on the SW6 version.

Here's how that breaks down:

Volume 4 of the Legion (5YL/TMK/1989 series) mainly featured the Legionnaires from the prior 30+ years of comics as middle-agers. Starting at approximately issue # 21 of that series, a plot started building which indicated that the Dark Circle had cloned the Legion as teenagers, and that the Dominators, who ruled Earth at that time, had those clones (or perhaps the originals, and the adults were the clones, sleeper agents of the Dark Circle - this was intentionaly kept inconclusive) in suspended animation pods referred to as "Batch SW6". Batch SW6 was accidentally released from the Dominators' pods, and for the next year+ of Legion adventures, a group of teenaged Legionnaires that dropped right out of 1966 did super-heroics alongside the adults who were originally the only stars of the book. After issue # 41 of the Legion title, the teenaged group was spun off into its own book - that was Legionnaires, which had its first issue published in 1993. The adults continued to be the stars of the Legion of Super-Heroes title.

Both of these books took place concurrently, Legionnaires set on New Earth featuring the teenagers, and LSH set on the adult heroes' asteroid headquarters and all around the galaxy. Why? Different heroes appealed to different audiences. One book was grimmer, and came with decades of history behind it, and the other was lighter in tone, with less baggage, in the hope that new readers would feel it more welcoming (they didn't, really).

This situation came to an end in September, 1994, in the event called End of an Era, which tied into the larger DC Universe event Zero Hour. The last issues of the books featuring these characters in that universe were LSH # 61 and Legionnaires # 18.

The rebooted Legion started with LSH # 0 and Legionnaires # 0 in October, 1994 and the November, 1994 issues continued the rebooted Legion's adventues, functioning essentially as a bi-weekly comic, with the issue numbering carried over from before the zero issues - LSH # 62 and Legionnaires # 19.

I started typing the above response before EDE responded but he managed to summarise my huge exposition quite well and quickly. Good job.

In answer to your second question Legionnaires was published simultaneously with LoSH v4. This can't be discussed without spoilers, one of which I probably gave away above. Suffice to say that yes there were two teams and LoSH concentrated on one while Legionnaires concentrated on the other, but as the End of an Era storyline developed there was a lot of crossover and both teams appeared in both before being wiped out in Zero Hour.

In the Reboot Legion they used both books so a Legion comic came out every two weeks. At one stage this team was split in to two and each book followed one of these two but eventually they were reunited. Basically LoSH v4 #62-125 and Legionnaires v1 #19-81 were meant to be read together. For much of the run they included an "L" number on the front cover to help readers keep them in order.

^^I was impressed by the amount of detail *you* went into!

I just saw a panel of a John Byrne JSA comic with Cosmic Boy. Anyone know what issue of what comic it could be from?

It had Vibe, Vixen, Martian Manhunter, Gypsy, elongated man, Steel and Firestorm in the panel

Probably from the Legends mini-series from 1986-87.

Thanks!

Hey y'all, I am having a brain fart.....can someone please remind me what the holo Dungeons & Dragons type game is called that Sun Boy and Star Boy were playing in Legion Annual #1 when Computo took over Danielle Foccart? Many thanks!

They called it Dungeons and Dragons. I thought there was a different name for it as well, but maybe that was in some other issue?

Thanks FC....maybe that's why I couldn't think of it, I thought it must have been some stand-in. I guess DC must have had the D&D comic rights then!

I looked it up and DC had the licence for D&D from 1987-1991. Annual 1 predates that back in 1982. That was at the height of D&D's early popularity (E.T. which had kids playing the game came out the same year) and perhaps it was a case of using something well known and copyright not being thought of as an issue.

In LSH v3 #13 (1985) Dirk and Thom are once again playing and again it is referred to as Dungeons & Dragons.

When we next see it on Xanthu Thom's Dad suggests playing "Dragonswords" (LSH v3 #28). This has a publication date of 1986 so I guess they were being a bit more careful then.

That's all the ones I could find but I may have missed some.

That makes sense, thanks stile

Hey guys, this is more a forum question than a Legion question - but there's a thread on one of these forums where some kind and thorough person posted all the old reader suggestions for Legionnaires that used to get mailed into DC back in the 60s and for the life of me I can't find it....does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about or has Superboy Prime retcon-punched it out of existence?

It is where I got my inspiration for destined to be remembered forever characters like Key Kid and Rain Girl, and there were many more awful power ideas in there I wanted to steal to punish people for reading my stories

Here you go.

Brilliant, thanks EDE! And thank you for putting all that stuff up in the first place to enable my unhealthy love of quirky, creative and "why in god's name would you choose to fight crime with this" power concepts!

I have followed the thread now so I won't lose it which is something it only took me 11-something years to realise I could do

I just think it's cool that there are people other than me who love this sort of thing!

Hi, I need an image. In the 2003 "The Legion Vol 1 issue 25" for one panel Mekt is in a live wire costume. Does anyone have a picture of this?

Thank you so much!

Hi folks! Just wondering, do we know anything about Dawnstar's brothers Greybird and Greatfire aside from their names? Have they ever appeared on panel, do we know how old they are, etc etc?

They are definitely younger than Dawnstar. I don't believe they actually appear on panel, but I'm not positive.

Agree w/EDE - definitely younger siblings, but not sure if they appear anywhere drawn.

I thought they might be in the family scene in WWitLSH, but apparently not.