Legion Obscura #134

[Jef Peckham]

Hi gang!

Just one book out this week, but boy is it interesting. Details follow the

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ADVENTURE COMICS 517

Continuing the early Adventure era Legion stories. There is still only the
founding trio. They have only recently been deputized to the Science
Police, and their official adventures take place with mentors from the SP.
One is the (unseen) LT Zendak. Long-time fans will recall he was the SP
Chief during Levit'z second run. The other seen here is a Sergeant
Esquivel. This story is mostly about Saturn Girl's relationship with her.
Saturn Girl feels mostly useless in a first battle with forces of Zaryan the
Conqueror (Only seen before in Adventure 304), so she has Esquivel teach
her to how to fight.esquivel becomes a little protective of her protege
which leads to the climax of the story.

Other points of note: Saturn Girl sleeps with Cosmic Boy! He doesn't
remember it (The advantage of being a telepath?). Brainiac 5, working at the
Time Institute calls and tells them the Time Bubble is ready for a test run,
setting the events of this issue prior to those of Adventure 247. The
implication is they are about to go and recruit Superboy, which would make
him the first member after the founding trio, instead of something like the
tenth member. (Old-timers may recall that pre-boot continuity between
Adventure 247 and Superboy 204 ultimately established that Supergirl was
recruited first, and that members before Superboy include Phantom Girl,
Triplicate Girl, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid I, Chameleon Boy and Brainiac 5
himself.)

Until next time,
Jef Peckham
j1peckham#earthlink.net
(replace the #, dummy!)

[YKW]

Post by Jef Peckham
Other points of note: Saturn Girl sleeps with Cosmic Boy! He doesn't
remember it (The advantage of being a telepath?).

Middle-school-aged Imra and Rokk. And a mindwipe for personal convenience
rather than safety. I think Levitz' prediction that old-school Legion
fans would be outraged by this story had to do with 'shipping those two
but, really, there's a lot more to be p*ssed about than that...
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[Yeechang Lee]

Other points of note: Saturn Girl sleeps with Cosmic Boy!

As far as I know the notion of the two being more than friends first
arose in the postboot. Or was it something that the APAs fixated on
and obsessed about first, as with Element Lad's sexuality?

Brainiac 5, working at the Time Institute calls and tells them the
Time Bubble is ready for a test run, setting the events of this
issue prior to those of Adventure 247. The implication is they are
about to go and recruit Superboy, which would make him the first
member after the founding trio, instead of something like the tenth
member.

Levitz of course knows this better than anyone. I haven't seen the
issue but, assuming that it is clear that Superboy is to be the next
member:

* The Legion's plans will change and others will join first. Or,
* Levitz is intentionally changing the history.

Levitz has never been a retcon-for-the-sake-of-retcon writer; when he
has revisited early Legion history he has always been careful to make
stories fit in with established continuity (v3 #59, for example)
and/or explain long-standing mysteries (such as the origin of Validus,
or why Green Lanterns aren't allowed on Earth). I don't view
R. J. Brande's newfound unorthodox speech pattern has anything
significant.

Continuity has become far, far more malleable in the past 20
years. When v3 ended in 1989 only Superman and Wonder Woman had seen
full-scale reboots from _Crisis_; other changes were far more subtle,
such as the shift after _Batman_ #400. As DC's publisher it would be
unnatural for two decades of continuity-shifting stories to not have
affected Levitz's own style, and perhaps he is here using the freedom
"New Earth" brings.

That said, the original plan for post-v3 was for Levitz to write what
he is doing in _Adventure_: Telling stories from the Legion's
past. It's quite possible that the stories there now are ones that
began forming in his mind in the 1980s.