A Case of Light Lass

If there has ever been a character I've had a conceptual problem with in the Legion, it's Light Lass.  I'm not talking about Ayla Ranzz in general; I like Ayla with her lightning powers.  So I'm going to focus on those times when she went by the name Light Lass or Gossamer, which is basically pre-COIE, the SW6 Legion and the Threeboot.  People seem to like Light Lass, even writer/artist Phil Jimenez.

First of all, let's explore the origin. Ayla was first admitted to the Legion as Lightning Lass.  When Lightning Lad returned, they shared the same powers.  This did not seem to be an issue at the time.  However, Edmond Hamilton must have thought it was, so he creates a story where Dream Girl thinks the Legionnaires are going to die and Lightning Lass is one of them.  So in a weird case of semantics, Dream Girl thinks that if she changes Ayla's powers, she won't die, because she is no longer Lightning Lass.  Ayla thinks her powers were taken away, not changed.  So a week after the supposed incident occurs, Ayla discovers her new powers to make things "super-light" (because there is nothing extraordinary about making objects lightweight) and changes her name to Light Lass.  Turns out, Dream Girl changed her powers for nothing but Ayla is unfazed as she can now lift the clubhouse.  Light Lass keeps the alliteration of her original codename, despite it being somewhat confusing to describe her powers.

Universe Building: Heroes of Lallor

One of the notable things about the Legion is that it literally had to build its own universe of characters over the years.  Having Batgirl join them for a mission wasn't going to happen, so they had to create characters that could serve as antagonists/allies/supporting character.  Introducing the Heroes of Lallor:

L-R: Beast Boy, Gas Girl, Duplicate Boy, Life Lass, Evolvo Lad

They initially showed up as Legion antagonists but they were really tricked and it was just a misunderstanding. Beast Boy later dies but appears to be connected to Orintho of the Wanderers, another 30th century team that was once pitted against the Legion and became allies (they didn't really care much about these similar stories in the 60s).  Lallor's status in the UP varies based on the continuity over the years.  Duplicate Boy is probably the most prominent member and has been seen the most in various stories.  He also came into play because he was dating Shrinking Violet prior to being replaced by Yera.  We get a Gas Girl solo appearance during the Universo Project storyline.  Gas Girl could have even played a bigger role in the Universo Project story and been considered for membership, but Levitz appeared to be looking for a way to get Saturn Girl back on active status in a logical way. The team makes a 5YL appearance. Some of them are seen in the Reboot as parts of other teams and Evolvo Lad makes an appearance during the Threeboot, but they are missing from the Retroboot.

The Heroes of Lallor have been used successfully as supporting characters over the years.  They seem to be fairly powerful, more powerful than some of the Legionnaires! Duplicate Boy can imitate multiple superpowers at one time with none of their weakness, just not intelligence.  Gas Girl can change into any gas, which can be quite useful for defense, offense and infiltration. Life Lass had an almost magical ability to imbue "life" into objects.  The upper limit of this wasn't shown.  Evolvo Lad could go from a big-brain to a super-strong Cro-Magnon form strong enough to punch Supergirl.  His Threeboot version had telepathy in his evolved state.  

Given Lallor's proximity to the Dominion and Khundia, the Heroes would make an excellent border patrol team which helps to justify their existence as a superteam.  When we got the Tales series, we should have had a story or at least seen one or two of them support the Legion team. Perhaps a Reserve membership is order for the Heroes?  I feel like there is some unexplored territory with these characters and they interest me enough to want to see them again.

As a side note. I feel there was a missed opportunity to revive these characters in the Retroboot.  In Vol 7, Star Boy decides to mount on a rescue mission for Brainy and Dreamy.  What he gets is a rag-tag bunch from the Academy.  Given that the Heroes are not Legionnaires, I think Star Boy should have contacted them to help with the rescue mission.  Duplicate Boy can mimic Dawnstar's tracking powers and could have gotten them to the Dominion world. It would have also spared us the horrible Comet Queen betrayal. (I did mention that mind control was one of Levitz's crutches).  I hope a new writer finds a way to bring these characters around again.

Should have been a contender, issue 3

In my appreciation, or condemnation, of all things LSH, I don't want to leave out the Threeboot.  It seems so many hated that run, that by the time Jim Shooter came on, I think people felt it was tainted.  It's a shame because I think Shooter really did some interesting things.  He introduced three new characters, one of those became a reservist, even though she was meant to actually be a new member  I'm talking about the little known Sizzle.

What Sells a Book?

I've been meaning to watch the Chris Claremont's X-Men documentary for a while.  There were essentially two comics books that started shaping my love of comics in 1982:  The X-Men* and Legion of Superheroes.  The LSH Facebook group I'm a part of asked today what was my first Legion comic.  It was LSH #293, right in the middle of the Great Darkness Saga. This time period of course was part of the Levitz/Giffen collaboration.  The Legion seemed to have a lot in common with the X-Men to me.  Female leaders, alien characters.  Unfortunately for me, LSH was not quite as available at my local drugstore, but X-Men was.  I have went back and collected and read most of the Levitz/Giffen stories though. 

There is one line in the documentary that really got me to thinking and it deals with when Claremont was removed from the title.  He said that Marvel thought that the characters were selling the books, not the writer.  I realized he summed up Marvel's take in a nutshell, and even DC to an extent.  Wolverine was appearing everywhere.  There were multiple X-books.  And yes, many of those characters are beloved, but we see sales figures now that all the X-books combined is is nowhere near the 400,000+ units Uncanny used to sell on a monthly basis.

Now before I go too far, I acknowledge that Claremont's statement is somewhat boastful but he did help to develop many of the X-Men even though he did not create them. And if you watch the documentary, you know his artists, his editors all helped to play a role in his success. 

But I wonder what, if any of this, applies to the Legion?

So let me dissect this a bit because it's two parts.  Unlike the X-Men who Claremont started with a blank slate, Levitz had many established characters to work with, some he had a hand in developing or creating.  So you might give this a resounding yes for the creators. There were plots and subplots that spun out.  Levitz also tried to focus on more characterization as well.  Dream Girl became a developed character.  We saw more of the interpersonal relationships populate the title, similar to what Claremont was doing with the X-Men.  

When Giffen took over the title with T&M, I still think the creators were driving the story.  The Legion was doing what Claremont wanted to do with the characters:  move them forward. Obviously this changed with the Reboot.  It's no surprise that the Reboot closely resembled the SW6 Legionnaires, even just for some type of continuity.  I feel though the Reboot is also where DC started following Marvel and decided that the characters will sell the book. Don't get me wrong, I like Roger Stern.  I have always enjoyed his Marvel work, just not his Legion work. I didn't the writing to be strong at all.

Of course our next course change was Abnett and Lanning.  I feel they tried get back to what they feel worked in the past, but it was an attempt to move forward at the same time.  Eventually this era would come to a close in preparation for Threeboot.  The Threeboot didn't work for me.  Just having new versions of the characters was not enough because the story itself did not appeal to me.  I feel Threeboot was another attempt to have the characters sell the book.

Which brings us back around to Levitz's last endeavor.  Something seemed different this time.  I don't think the characters were selling the titles and it did not appear that Levitz's writing was either.  There are obviously going to be some characters in the Legion, though I am loathe to admit, that need to be there:  Mon-El, Brainiac 5, the founders.  It's no surprise that when volume 6 came out and they had a reader election, Mon and Brainy were voted as leader and deputy . Despite attempts to bring back Steve Lightle on covers and even Giffen, readers were not having it. (I think this is where the X-men is these days.) Hopefully the publishers are realizing it's not enough to have the characters if the writing isn't there. 

And people will always say which version? which Legion?  I feel if a writer gets in there are starts developing these characters again, it shouldn't and won't matter.  The Legion is not so precious that it has to return to some status quo.  Characters have died over the years.  They should continue to die.  Some characters should move on to allow new characters to come in. Maybe some characters should be revisited to see if they can be improved.  It will be no small task to revive the Legion, moving forward into 2019 and 3019.

*If you were wondering, my first X-Men comic was Uncanny #157

A case of Harmonia

Once again, I delve into a slightly problematic character in the Legion of Superheroes.  This time, it's that volume 7 recruit: Harmonia.