Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Legion Five Years Later Post Cards


The midseason forced hiatus of the Supergirl show has been maddening. I am going to be honest.

I have been missing the adventures of Kara, her fight with Reign, and the Legion of Super-Heroes being live and in action on the small screen. In particular, Supergirl comic fans are waiting for things to heat up between Kara and Brainy.

With the show off the air, I have been thinking about the two and the Legion a lot. And with today being an open blog spot (no new episode to review), I thought I would mine the relationship a little bit by looking once more at the 5YL Legion. And thanks to blog friend Paul Hicks of the Waiting For Doom podcast, I have the 5YL postcard set in my collection.

Remember, in that post-Crisis incarnation of the Legion, 'Supergirl' was Laurel Gand, a Daxamite. The muscle of the team, she was big, bold, beautiful, and brutal. And yes, she had a history with Brainiac 5.

I loved Laurel, especially in the early issues. She was definitely a worthy analogue of Supergirl. And I love this picture of her on the postcard, ripping her way through a wall or a ship of some sort.


The text on the back list her as noble and heroic. Sounds like Supergirl!
 



And the set also has a Brainiac 5 card as well.

Again, this is a great picture of Brainy surrounded with screens and tech, even holding up his own personal tablet. He is immersed. You get the sense of how driven he is with his not looking at the camera. He can't be bothered with us.


His text is pure Brainy. He is brilliant, a 12th level intelligence, only the fifth Coluan to earn the title Brainiac. (Interesting that it isn't a generational number here.)

But he also hasn't the foggiest notion of human interaction.

That's perfect.


This is a spectacular set of post cards. For someone like me, who loved the 5YL Legion, specifically the first 3 years, this is an awesome addition to my Legion collection. All thanks to Paul.

Here are my three faves on the team. Of course, I love the Ayla Ranzz card. Lightning Lass is my second favorite Legionnaire on the team as well as my Legion crush.

I also Vi, strong and independent and determined. I love this sort of relaxing take on the character.


But there's more. Kono, Jan Arrah, Cham, and Celeste Rockfish.


Kent Shakespeare, Mysa, Bounty, and Jo Nah.


Brainu, Devlin O'Ryan, Furball, and (of course) Rokk.

I love this period of Giffen's work. I love this book. I love this era.

Now I want to see Brainy and Kara be awkward on television just like Querl and Laurel stumbled around each other in this book.

Feel free to head to Legion of Super-Bloggers and look for my 5YL reviews if intrigued!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh, ships are a minefield. Mostly I think the shippers are toxic horrible people who scorn everyone's sexuality but their own. Then there are a few good seeds who turn it into something creative and beautiful.

Kara and Brainy is my secret ship. It's like... I don't want ship it full on in public because statistically by shipping something there's an overwhelming risk I will eventually become an asshat, but it's my secret pleasure to hope the writers will get them together in the end. She deserves someone bright to challenge her.

Anj said...

It's a minefield, I agree.

I have often steered away from engaging or commenting.

Unfortunately, it means the loud voices seem louder.

Yes, I think Brainy/Supergirl is perfect. I hope it happens.

Anonymous said...

Those are very cool pictures.

It's funny, but seeing weirdly-colored mushrooms in some pictures makes me thinking of "Alice in Wonderland" and classic NES games like Super Mario Bros or Little Nemo.

"The text on the back list her as noble and heroic. Sounds like Supergirl!"

Yes, which it's because I shake my head when I hear some fans stating they hate Kara but love Laurel, or Laurel had way more personality than Kara.

I'd like seeing Supergirl and Andromeda meeting, but I've got the feeling that DC's position since 2004 is "We have the option to use Kara Zor-El freely so we have no need or use for stand-ins anymore". I guess I shouldn't be surprised since DC usually doesn't know what to do with Kara -or the Legion-. So, why expect them to use her replacements properly?

I hope Superman and Supergirl's status as Legion members is restored by Man of Steel and Doomsday Clock.

Martin Gray said...

I'd forgotten those postcards, great to see them again.

Does anyone know why the 5YL run has never been collected? Everything else has (hyperbolic!)

Anonymous said...

Mon El/ Kara is "Coals to Newcastle", a super-boy for a super-girl in other words....in short a very unoriginal idea. But...Querl and Kara that just POPS, the Head Cheerleader and the President for Life of the Chess Club contently walking arm in arm down the hallways of "DC High School" whilst the kewl kids and the nerds both riot in sheer astonishment. They have completely assymetrical personalities, stories and abilities...sounds like LOVE to me!

:)

JF

Anonymous said...

Loved everything about your reply.
The idea of querl and kara is the archetypal idea I love- the nerd and the alpha heroine; the IT club president and the basketball club captain and more. Mon el, doesnot compliment Kara in anyway, he doesn't teach her how to be more than she is nor does he challenge her intellectually and those relationship fights are getting old and cumbersome. It's not a relationship of equals in anyway whatsoever, a relationship should resemble Lois and Clark's in the comic world and Mon el and Kara are not that.

But yeah ultimately I want them to go with the querl and Kara route. I also wouldn't mind a bit if he decides to stay back. The arrowverse likes to experiment and take liberties and sometimes it works really well too.