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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 11, 2020 7:52:48 GMT -5
As did Karate Kid for 15 issues in the mid-70s as DC tried to cash in on the martial arts craze. Yep, and I had all 15 issues, as well as the whole run of Richard Dragon, DC's other mid-1970s contribution to the martial arts craze (I purchased the entire runs of both from Lone Star's catalogue in 1981 or so, when the back issues were super-cheap - I don't think I paid more than $5 for both runs, more than 30 issues in all.) I hardly remember anything about either series, just that they were mostly mundane with pretty bland art, although I vaguely recall that Richard Dragon had a few good issues here and there. But to answer Beccabear's question, yes, the Legionnaires, including Superboy, did appear in a few of the later issues of Karate Kid, as did Robin if I recall correctly - the set-up for the series was that Karate Kid traveled back in time in pursuit of some villain, and then ended up hanging out for a while, because he thought the 1970s were groovy or something.
I think there were two or three issue where other Legionnaires showed up in Karate Kid's series, plus Projectra in maybe a couple more. It's true that he originally showed up in the 20th century chasing Nemesis Kid then decided to hang out there because it was groovy, but they then added the reason that he was staying there to prove himself worthy to Projectra's dad to marry her. Yes, I thought the art in the series was forgettable. The villains were pretty lame too, and I think they struggled in trying to decide if it was a superhero comic or a martial arts comic. Yes, Robin was in an issue, and the story for the last issue of Karate Kid was actually concluded in the pages of Kamandi. |
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Post by String on Jan 19, 2020 13:14:55 GMT -5
A few questions about some long-standing Legion relationships: - in what issue did Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel wed? - in what issue did Colossal Boy and Yera wed? (Was she still in her guise as Vi at the time?) Mon-El and Shadow Lass seem to have been dating for quite some time. Is there any specific issue that shows when they did start dating? What about Brin and Ayla, any issue where they are shown first dating each other? I'm still reading through the Baxter series and I'm just about up to #50. One character that I've never read that much about during this period is Atmos:  The champion of Xanthu who was imprisoned by Universo, had some sort of fling with Dream Girl while imprisoned with her and later freed. Thom is drafted into becoming Xanthu's champion again afterwards (forcing him to leave the Legion) while Atmos is trying to join the Legion although it seems mainly due to his wanting to continue his relationship with Dream Girl. It's an interesting love triangle that Levitz sets up here. He has a striking character design but I have to ask, what is up with his arms and chest? Are his biceps actually missing? Is that part of his costume invisible for some reason? I find his look equally unnerving cause I always think some foe is gonna snap his arm off like a twig at that weak junction with his shoulder. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 19, 2020 16:19:27 GMT -5
A few questions about some long-standing Legion relationships: - in what issue did Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel wed? - in what issue did Colossal Boy and Yera wed? (Was she still in her guise as Vi at the time?) Mon-El and Shadow Lass seem to have been dating for quite some time. Is there any specific issue that shows when they did start dating? What about Brin and Ayla, any issue where they are shown first dating each other? I'm still reading through the Baxter series and I'm just about up to #50. One character that I've never read that much about during this period is Atmos: The champion of Xanthu who was imprisoned by Universo, had some sort of fling with Dream Girl while imprisoned with her and later freed. Thom is drafted into becoming Xanthu's champion again afterwards (forcing him to leave the Legion) while Atmos is trying to join the Legion although it seems mainly due to his wanting to continue his relationship with Dream Girl. It's an interesting love triangle that Levitz sets up here. He has a striking character design but I have to ask, what is up with his arms and chest? Are his biceps actually missing? Is that part of his costume invisible for some reason? I find his look equally unnerving cause I always think some foe is gonna snap his arm off like a twig at that weak junction with his shoulder. Off the top of my head, Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel wed in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #200, and I think that Colossal Boy and Yera got married 'off panel". I'm not sure exactly when, I'll have to look that up at some point. Unfortunately, I can't answer any of your other questions right now, but they are good ones! |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 19, 2020 17:19:08 GMT -5
It was a dispute involving art from that wedding issue of Superboy #200 that led Dave Cockrum to move to Marvel. He had been recently married and wanted the splash panel of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel back I think. DC couldn't seem to handle such a request... so crazy. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl married in the second giant tabloid sized Legion in the '70s with an all new Mike Grell drawn story. I must've been crazy to part with that and a number of other tabloid treasuries!
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Post by Farrar on Jan 19, 2020 21:23:00 GMT -5
A few questions about some long-standing Legion relationships: ... Mon-El and Shadow Lass seem to have been dating for quite some time. Is there any specific issue that shows when they did start dating? What about Brin and Ayla, any issue where they are shown first dating each other? ... I can give you a rundown about how it unfolded in the 1960s. Brin and Ayla:
Adventure #327: Lone Wolf (later known as Timber Wolf), is introduced. Ayla fell hard for him; Prince Hal posted about this issue a bit earlier in this thread.
That was Brin's only appearance for a few years, until he pops up a few years later as an adult (sporting a pencil mustache) in the Adult Legion story in Adventure #354. In this issue we learn he's become a Legion member and has married to Ayla (who has retired from Legion duty), and they have twins. (It's been retconned that this particular future is just one of many alternate futures.)
Back to Legion "real time": in Brin's next appearance he's shown joining the (teen) Legion in Adventure #372.
When the Legion loses their Adventure lead feature and move over to the back-up slot in Action, the first Legion story in Action #378 features Brin and Ayla. By now they're a couple. This is the famous Lotus fruit (drug) addiction story.
Mon-El and Shadow Lass: Adventure #365-366: Shadow Lass's first Legion appearance (apart from appearing as a pink-skinned memorial statue back in the Adult Legion story I mentioned). Here she assists/joins the Legion. She seems to be sweet on Brainiac 5. Adventure #369-370: Shadow Lass works with Duo Damsel, Superboy and Mon-El to battle Mordru. In this story it's clear she and Mon-El have chemistry; as Duo Damsel notes, with Supergirl in the picture Shady's crush on Brainy was fruitless. In this story Mon is very solicitous and protective of her. Adventure #375: Several Legion members including Mon-El are competing to see who the most powerful Legionnaire is, and Shady sings Mon's praises saying things such as:"He's not vulnerable to Kryptonite like Superboy is!" Action #379: By now Mon and Shady are an established couple, calling each other endearments such as love, honey and sweetstuff.
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 20, 2020 10:58:32 GMT -5
It was a dispute involving art from that wedding issue of Superboy #200 that led Dave Cockrum to move to Marvel. He had been recently married and wanted the splash panel of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel back I think. DC couldn't seem to handle such a request... so crazy. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl married in the second giant tabloid sized Legion in the '70s with an all new Mike Grell drawn story. I must've been crazy to part with that and a number of other tabloid treasuries! I used to have the treasury sized Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl comic, then lost it over the years (I think my dad threw out all my treasury sized comics when I went off to college, though he kept my regular sized comics) and I bought it back online a few years ago and am very happy that I did! Yeah, losing the Legion's all-time best artist over the original art of a splash page sounds like a great idea!  |
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Post by rberman on Jan 20, 2020 11:23:28 GMT -5
A few questions about some long-standing Legion relationships: ... Mon-El and Shadow Lass seem to have been dating for quite some time. Is there any specific issue that shows when they did start dating? What about Brin and Ayla, any issue where they are shown first dating each other? ... I can give you a rundown about how it unfolded in the 1960s. Brin and Ayla:
When the Legion loses their Adventure lead feature and move over to the back-up slot in Action, the first Legion story in Action #377 features Brin and Ayla. By now they're a couple. This is the famous Lotus fruit (drug) addiction story. Close. Action Comics #377 is a Legion story about "Urthlo" (Lex Luthor). #378 is the Lotus fruit story in which Brin gets hooked on a psychedelic fruit and tries to get his girlfriend Ayla to try it too.  |
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Post by Farrar on Jan 20, 2020 13:58:54 GMT -5
^^^
Oh, that's right--Action #377 included a reprint of an old Legion story before commencing with the new Legion back-ups in #378. Thanks! I'll edit my post.
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Post by rberman on Jan 20, 2020 14:24:26 GMT -5
From the lettercol of Action Comics #379 (1969):  Did they really receive thousands of votes? That seems hard to believe. Often it seemed that the lettercols were languishing for lack of reader interaction. |
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Post by Farrar on Jan 20, 2020 15:16:44 GMT -5
^^^ I don't doubt those figures for a minute--the Legion had a very devoted fanbase! Legion-fanatic that I was, I even had some letters printed too  . And for years, a staple in the Adventure letter columns were the reader-submitted ideas for new characters. DC had instituted its first reader-election for the Legion leader a year before (results in #368, the winner was Ultra Boy) and it had proved to be very popular. ETA: When I first started reading the Legion in Adventure, romantic soul that I am I'd sent a letter asking who the couples were. DC sent back a sort-of newsletter that included a list of all the then-Legion couples including Light Lass and Timber Wolf (which disappointed me; I wanted her with Cosmic Boy; and I'd never heard of Timber Wolf at that point) and Shrinking Violet and Duplicate Boy (who? Again, at that point I'd never heard of him). I've never forgotten how thrilled I was to receive correspondence from DC! |
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Post by rberman on Jan 20, 2020 15:18:21 GMT -5
^^^ I don't doubt those figures for a minute--the Legion had a very devoted fanbase! Legion-fanatic that I was, I even had some letters printed too . And for years, a staple in the Adventure letter columns were the reader-submitted ideas for new characters. DC had instituted the reader-election for the Legion leader a year before (results in #368, the winner was Ultra Boy) and it had proved to be very popular. Makes sense. It's really a vote for "what character would you like to see a lot of this coming year?" Thus Wildfire got elected leader, which the Legionnaires never would have done based on suitability for the job, but his loose cannon personality was popular with readers. (See also: Wolverine) |
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Post by Farrar on Jan 20, 2020 15:28:02 GMT -5
Makes sense. It's really a vote for "what character would you like to see a lot of this coming year?" Thus Wildfire got elected leader, which the Legionnaires never would have done based on suitability for the job, but his loose cannon personality was popular with readers. (See also: Wolverine) Right, it was really a popularity contest, with characters like Ultra Boy, Karate kid, and Mon-El winning in the next few years. Prior to implementing the reader vote, the leader had been Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg), a character who'd previously not received a lot of air time. He was the leader when I started reading the Legion and he appeared in a lot of the earliest issues I read, so to me he seemed to be a key player. But as soon as U-Boy was elected, Invisible Kid became, well, invisible and he barely appeared at all. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 20, 2020 15:37:33 GMT -5
From the lettercol of Action Comics #379 (1969): Did they really receive thousands of votes? That seems hard to believe. Often it seemed that the lettercols were languishing for lack of reader interaction. I recall reading the leader voting from the Baxter series, and the total number of votes was something like 976, and Paul Levtiz commented on the sharp drop-off in the number of votes received, and speculated it was because the Baxter series was only available in comic shops, plus had a higher price, than its predecessor. So I'd say that the voting used to be in the thousands based on that comment. Granted, he's comparing the Baxter series voting to the voting in the newsprint paper Legion of Super-Heroes title from the early 80's, not to the Adventure/Action era, but I wouldn't be surprised if the voting was even higher in the Adventure/Action era, anyway. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 20, 2020 15:38:26 GMT -5
^^^ I don't doubt those figures for a minute--the Legion had a very devoted fanbase! Legion-fanatic that I was, I even had some letters printed too . And for years, a staple in the Adventure letter columns were the reader-submitted ideas for new characters. DC had instituted its first reader-election for the Legion leader a year before (results in #368, the winner was Ultra Boy) and it had proved to be very popular. ETA: When I first started reading the Legion in Adventure, romantic soul that I am I'd sent a letter asking who the couples were. DC sent back a sort-of newsletter that included a list of all the then-Legion couples including Light Lass and Timber Wolf (which disappointed me; I wanted her with Cosmic Boy; and I'd never heard of Timber Wolf at that point) and Shrinking Violet and Duplicate Boy (who? Again, at that point I'd never heard of him). I've never forgotten how thrilled I was to receive correspondence from DC! It would be even cooler if you still had that letter from DC! |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 20, 2020 15:51:10 GMT -5
^^^ I don't doubt those figures for a minute--the Legion had a very devoted fanbase! Legion-fanatic that I was, I even had some letters printed too . And for years, a staple in the Adventure letter columns were the reader-submitted ideas for new characters. DC had instituted the reader-election for the Legion leader a year before (results in #368, the winner was Ultra Boy) and it had proved to be very popular. Makes sense. It's really a vote for "what character would you like to see a lot of this coming year?" Thus Wildfire got elected leader, which the Legionnaires never would have done based on suitability for the job, but his loose cannon personality was popular with readers. (See also: Wolverine) It was definitely a popularity contest. Wildfire was a very questionable choice by the readers, and frankly Dream Girl was a questionable choice at the time, though Levitz made that work out well and made her into a much stronger character (kinda like how the Wasp grew when she became leader of the Avengers). Prior to that, she was mostly just portrayed as a flirt and someone overly concerned with her appearance. Polar Boy was another questionable choice, as he'd just gotten into the Legion not too log ago and it's pretty hard to imagine the Legionnaires voting a newbie as leader, even though he'd been leader of the Substitute Heroes. Of course, that same argument applies to Wildfire, who was relatively new when elected. Plus, Polar Boy got elected just after Saturn Girl saved the earth from Universo and Element Lad resigned as leader because he felt he was unworthy for letting that happen, and Sensor Girl (who would go on to win the next election easily about a year or two later) also stated she was unworthy for letting that happen. Really, Saturn Girl was the only logical choice for leader in reality, but she wasn't even an active member when the voting was happening, so she wasn't even on the ballot. I remember reading in a lettercol a reader who said that they should do away with the readers electing the leader, and Levitz said basically that he enjoyed the challenge of writing in whatever the readers came up with, and that it was a Legion tradition, and he felt it should stay. I'm sure my opinion is a minority one among readers, but I agree that it should have been done away with. Some of those election results (and I'm mainly thinking of Wildfire and Polar Boy, but certainly some other are unrealistic) are questionable enough to damage the realism of the stories. |
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. And for years, a staple in the Adventure letter columns were the reader-submitted ideas for new characters.