Legion Etrangere

Last time, I was extolling the virtues of the Superman Family over the darker and more popular comic book icons: Batman, Wolverine,etc. Where the lone wolves do have their own surrogate families (Alfred, Robin and Babs for the former; the X-Men AND the Avengers for the latter) none are as numerous-not even Xavier's School- than Superboy's Legion of Super-Heroes. That's Clark Kent of Smallville's super-powered fraternity, mind, not the buff bad boy Conner. And this blog will hopefully show why I love the Legion.
 Here's my first glimpse of the LSH:

It's from 1969 and it's an ad in ...something or other. What a beautiful cover! The Girl of Steel looks mighty pretty and the lower central shot depicts a diverse and intriguing bunch of super-types. I didn't get to see them until six issues later, however.
It's still 1969. Star Trek had started on tv a few months earlier. I'm in Miss Morrison's class in primary school, in the Hut. She's blonde and lovely. Another kid brings in this comic. I covet it.

For years, until I track down a copy in the 80s, I only vaguely remember Duplicate Boy in his unflattering brown outfit. The Legion back-up turns out to be a human interest story of the absurd Matter-Eater Lad, whose dad is unemployed and gambles.Young author Jim Shooter is trying to give his comical protagonist a case of the Peter Parkers. But what I remember is a robot Maitre D' and Chemical King's aircar.
Given the vagaries of comics shipping in the West of Scotland during the 60s and 70s, my next encounter with the LSH is from nearly 12 months before:

It's bought for me in Ayr Bus Station. It features a team of villains called the Taurus Gang, four of whom are very memorable: Black Mace, Shagrek, Mystelor and Quanto. It also introduces me to two Legion lovelies- Dream Girl and the majestic Princess Projectra; and to the plucky Legion of Substitute Heroes. This issue sums up the appeal of the LSH to me: unconventional Marvel-esque names and one unique super-power per member.
Next, a classy piece of Trek-inspired sci-fi , with a moody image by Cover God, Neal Adams:

The abdundant cover copy suggests just how much is going on in the book itself: a new HQ, as the cover tells us- twice! An arsenal, an invasion, the Miracle Machine, the Controllers, a cameo by the Fatal Five (who captivate me) and an extended sequence in a futuristic Tokyo with my first favourite Legionnaire, Karate Kid.
My next LSH story and my third issue of Adventure is again pencilled by Win Mortimer, who doesn't have the same sophisticated line as Curt Swan (in the issue above) but his fluid style has something of Ditko. Many DCs of the late 60s/early 70s have morbid, eerie cover images more in tune with Marvel's horror line of the early Bronze Age:

Like many LSH stories of the 60s, it focuses on a small group of characters amid the two dozen members. In this two-parter, the Legionnaires are poisoned. The resolution in the second part is somewhat bathetic but this issue stayed with me for two reasons. First, Karate Kid goes off on a solo suicide mission against the Fatal Five and I got to see this team do their thing, especially the bizarre Validus and the Emerald Empress. Secondly, the letters page mentioned an Adult Legion story and characters who would join at some future date: Power Boy, Quantum Queen, Reflecto. Again, just the names of these unseen Legionnaires suggested all sorts of cosmic adventures.

Girvan  in the summer of 1970 and a newsagent in the vicinity of Monty's Hairdressers. I can still picture reading this comic, overlooking the harbour near the golf course. Again, it stays with me for two reasons: I notice the Legion cruiser looks like the Enterprise; and it introduces me to another Legionnaire. It will be some years yet before I find out what Timber Wolf does but he sounds fascinating, even if he's in disguise. The next LSH story I read is also in Action. It's a romance between Chameleon Boy and a rich girl called Janice. It's a little fable about prejudice and class but it's also a yucky love story!
Around this time, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and was treated at Stonehouse Hospital and Belvidere in Parkhead. I remember him buying me this ghoulish number, when he was going for radiation treatment! Again, it's got the supernatural theme and it's by the LSH's own Jim Shooter and the awesome Gil Kane:

Anyway, my dad was back in touch with his sister, who lived on a farm near Galston. Her son, my cousin Jim, was now at high school and like any sensible mum, she was giving his collection of DC comics from the early 60s away. To me.

Another yucky love story! Phew! It was just a cunning plan...

Not only did these issues introduce me to the Legion's "distant" past but also to the mind-boggling feature Bits of Legionnaire Business where kids from all over the US submitted their own super-heroes, who just might join the team. Sadly we never got to see Vampire Boy, Negative Nell or Dimension Damsel.
Below  is an issue I longed for for years. I did get it in the mid-80s but despite the gorgeous cover, it didn't live up to the promise of the Adult Legion vs. the Legion of Super-Villains clash I saw in my head, as per Ultra Boy's banner. But what could?

In the late Sixties and early 70s, a series called Double Double Comics were sold in the UK: repackaged giants made up of four unsold DC comics, sans covers. Frustratingly, the covers rarely reflected the contents but one bought for me in Strathaven looked like this:

Oddly enough, it featured the first part of this rematch with the Fatal Five ( the debut of Shadow Lass) and a multi-page feature on the Powers and Origins of the Legionnaires. I pored over those pages for several years.It was an update of a 1961 feature and depicted the Super Pets that I'd read about in the text pages of Super DC (see last month's first Superman blog!)  It also gave me a glimpse of a character I'd only seen as a memorial statue: the deceased Legionnaire Ferro Lad. This was another part of the book's appeal- sometimes heroes could die.
Here's another Thorpe and Porter Double Double from 69/70. The JLA/JSA story wasn't inside, although a "Junkheap Heroes"- era Blackhawk issue, a  swinging' Doom Patrol  yarn with an evil Guru and a Lovecraftian Neal Adams Spectre story were!

Next, sometime in 70 or 71, from Newton Stewart in Galloway,(maybe Dean's on Victoria Street?) this is a "doozy":

That's a hell of a dramatic cover: all the classicism of Swan and the groovy new logo and corner bubble. The headshop hip of Haight Ashbury is writ large in the fan-designed costume pages; four of them went on to actually feature in  LSH stories. The two-page HQ diagram is of the plaza/tower block hq from the Dark Circle issue, not the funky yellow rocket ship of the Forte stories reprinted here. That's the great charm of the Legion at this time: as a reader, you could redesign the stiff, militaristic jumpsuits with bell-bottoms and fringing or even create your own Legionnaire.
By the early 70s, the Legion feature was relegated to shorts in Superboy's comic. Like this oddity:

I can't tell you why this juvenile jape merited a photo-cover but the LSH feature was drawn by George Tuska and revealed that Chemical King was a mutant. They were extremely rare at DC -and in the 70s, relatively rare at Marvel.
In the early 70s, my mum went back to work for a solicitor, which meant my brother and I had to be "minded" during the summer holidays . I remember a red-headed kid called Robert turning up at our sitter's house with this five-year-old  Curt Swan original. I was determined that he should let me have it.

This was a remarkably mature theme for a kiddie comic-particularly a DC comic. As a highly-structured militaristic organisation, the Legion puts one of its own members on trial for manslaughter! It's the title's great strength that even the stodgiest of its members- the crew-cut astronomer's son Star Boy- can become a  tragic hero. And check out platinum blonde babe Dream Girl!


I had my first hospital stay at Stonehouse as a kid in May 1972. My parents brought me a Marvel or DC comic every other day (including the infamous Green Lantern/Green Arrow overdose issue and the JLA/ Deadman team-up!) The Jules Verne Superboy issue I posted last time also feature The Eight-Legged Legionnaire: Lana Lang's second appearance as the original Insect Queen.Another facet of the Legion's charm: no matter how ludicrous, it values all of its members for their unique qualities.

Post Kirby's defection to Infantino's DC regime, reprints-and reprint titles- flooded the stands and the Scottish newsagents. This one was bought one Sunday, somewhere in Ayrshire, I'm guessing:

Behind this vibrant Cardy cover was another reprint- another Legion traitor story, a popular trope in this series. Also, since the villain is possessed by a demon, it's also an example of how magic features prominently in this sci-fi series. Most importantly, though, this comic featured an updated text piece on the powers and home planets of the Legionnaires. So...Timber Wolf was a super-acrobat from Zoon!

At the end of 1972, again in Strathaven, I got this issue:

 It was that little blurb on the upper right-hand side that drew me to it on the spinner in Baird's, the newsagent and pet store on Kirk Street, just opposite the Sun Hotel. This little shop was dark and smelled of fish food; the owner's miniature dogs would come and whimper round my ankles as I combed the rack below the lurid True Detectives. It's the derelict shop here that was seemingly taken over by a Jack Burns: www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-1307-strathaven-kirk-street-sun-hotel-avondale/map?show=streetview 
At some point in the late 60s, the owner had stocked Marvels, especially the giants but in the 70s it was exclusively a DC shop. And what a find! The Legion short featured one of those Adventure fan costume designs (Duo Damsel) and new looks for Karate Kid and Chameleon Boy. These redesigns were the work of one Dave Cockrum and my next Legion purchase in that self-same shop would feature more of his new  Legion costumes, cameos by Swamp Thing and Man-Thing and a muscular new look for the Fatal Five:

My favourite villains in a full-length adventure (you should pardon the pun!). The rather top-heavy new logo suggested that the Seventies would be a bold new era for the 30th Century's finest...

Next: Iron Mike
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