Browsing: Hero History

Or – “If Your Power Was ‘Smartest Man In This Or ANY Room’, You’d Be Testy, Too.” The day that I have been dreading has finally come…  We’re turning our attention to a Legionnaire whose span of membership is essentially unbroken from 1961 to the present, a Legionnaire who was present for the battle with Computo, the Dominators first salvo, all three of Universos attempts to take over the world, the EarthWar, The Great Darkness Saga, the Five-Year Gap Legion, the SW6 Legion and Zero Hour, as well as being key to the reboot AND Threeboot Legion stories.  If there…

Or – “Feeling The Love For The Post-Reboot Squad…” There are a couple of reasons that I chose to go with this particular Legionnaire.  The first is a sense of innate laziness, in that her history isn’t nearly as long as some of the other candidates (Brainiac 5, notably.)  The second is that, sometimes, I feel like the old guy ranting into a vacuum about how comics were better when I was a boy, uphill, both ways, through thirty feet of snow, and the starving children in Romania don’t even HAVE comics, you ungrateful whippersnappers!  Though thoroughly modern and original…

Or – “More Than Just Another Pretty Face…” As I continue with these Hero Histories, I find two things to be true… First, the dang things seem to get longer every time, no matter how much I try to limit myself or edit (and trust me, each one feels like I’ve slashed it to the bone! Lord help me when I get to Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, who’ve appeared in 85% of the Legion stories to date.) Second, I’m always amazed at how consistent the characters have stayed, even after decades of stories. Today’s subject has always…

Of the seven time-tossed members of the Legion of Super-Heroes left in the past, I had expected that the most difficult histories would be those of Dream and Sensor Girls, respectively. That was before I had a chance to really look at the facts of the situation. Indeed, both the ladies in question will be considerably easier to quantify than today’s entrant… Initially nothing more than a love-triangle fodder for Lana Lang’s quest to win over another boy, he won Legion membership, lost it, then was able to return from adversity. His story is one of loyalty, of love, but…

Or – “In Every Woman, There Is A Queen…” Generally speaking, my favorite Legionnaires are the ones who are most positive and fun:  Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad, making up for less-impressive powers by force of personality.  Blok, with his thoughtful, yet upbeat alien nature.  Volume four’s Lightning Lass, with her “all wilts in worry, grows in sunshine” serenity combined with her ability to stay positive while kicking your @$$.  But today’s entrant is a bit different…  Of the seven Legionnaires currently stuck in their past on their mysterious mission of mercy, she is the most esoteric, the one with…

Or – “The Man To Whom James Howlett Should Be Paying Royalties…” One of the most common reasons I’ve heard for not reading the Legion (after “Too Many Members!” and “Too Much Continuity!”) is the assertion that their future is too bright and shiny, and all the various Lads and Kids and Lasses too well-adjusted and clean-scrubbed. While I can admit that there is a grain of truth to that, the Legion has it’s share of darker types as well, none more so than the man originally known as The Lone Wolf. Originally a supporting cast member, Timber Wolf was…

Or – “More Than Just Warren Worthington’s Dream Date…” The initial instinct when writing the Hero Histories was to show you the hidden awesome in even the most maligned members of comics’ galaxy of stars. With Karate Kid’s sudden resurgence, (No Ralph Macchio jokes, as they mean something different in comics) we had to touch on Val, and then I felt the need to defend a couple of my boys, Blok and Matter-Eater Lad. But now there’s almost a full-scale revival, with the return of seven Legionnaires, and references to continuity that we never saw, and I feel it’s necessary…

Or – “With Great Power Comes Great Angsty Melodrama…  And Excess Radiation.” The Legion of Super-Heroes has been through many incarnations, but one of my personal favorites came in the early 1970’s when the team underwent it’s first major membership changes since the days of Adventure Comics.  With members like Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel and Matter-Eater Lad taking a backseat, the creative team behind Legion replaced them with the likes of Dawnstar, The White Witch, Blok and today’s profilee.  (Is profilee a word?)  He was born Drake Burroughs, and he’s been known as ERG-1 and NRG, but he’s probably best known as the LSH’s…

Or – “With A Name Like Matter-Eater Lad, You KNOW He’s Got To Be Good…” Gail Simone, one of the best comic writers of our time, recently said something incredibly wise about the creators who claim to only want to work on the the top-of-the-line characters.  Gail’s response to this was something akin to “if they’re not first-rate characters, MAKE THEM first-rate characters.”  Her advice goes double for today’s review subject, one of the most denigrated characters of all time.  Matter-Eater Lad has never gotten any respect, sometimes not even from his fellow Legionnaires, and he’s often trotted out as an excuse for…

Or -“Since You Won’t Join In On My Internet Meme, Time To Drop Some Knowledge…” There’s just no excuse for the lack of information available on the heroes of my youth in this, the so-called information age. When I can easily access incredibly sensitive personal data, download the plans for any number of unwise-to-create devices, or see one of thousands of pictures of Britney’s bajingo, it’s absolutely criminal to see the dearth of solid information on something as basic as The Legion of Superheroes. I’ve been talking up Blok, the Legion’s resident philosopher, historian, and silicon lifeform for a couple…

Or – “The Older I Get, The More I Miss The Old Legion…” With the recent return of the original Karate Kid (no, not Mr. Miyagi’s protegee Danny), Stephen mentioned that I was probably “frantically writing a post about Karate Kid in all his incarnations in the Legion of Superheroes.”  Well, I have to admit that until he mentioned it, it honestly hadn’t occurred to me.  After all, this is a Legionnaire we’re talking about, I said to myself.  In this, the machine age, there’s certainly a Wikipedia somewhere that’ll cover Mr. Armorr and do him justice.  “Wrong-ola,” says the…