KC Carlson, Editor Lad

A KC COLUMN by KC Carlson

Before jumping in, I just want to point out that today I get to review the relaunch of the Legion of Super-Heroes (a DC comics series that I had a lot to do with — like editing it for close to a decade — a fairly long time ago). That doesn’t happen very often since, before the recent hiatus, the concept had been running off and on for sixty years.

Legion: Secret Origin #1

The last version of the series disappeared back around 2013 during DC’s New 52 era. There was a 23-issue run (plus a zero issue) of the regular Legion of Super-Heroes book, a 16-issue run (plus a zero issue) of Legion Lost, and a six-issue Legion: Secret Origin miniseries. And then the LSH pretty much disappeared, except for a handful of oddball team-ups with other characters —like the Star Trek characters in 2011 (co-published with IDW), Batman ’66 (a 2017 one-shot), and Bugs Bunny (and a legion of other Warner Bros. animated characters) in a one-shot back in 2017. And then it was gone again.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1

But now it’s back, and Bendis has it! That’s Brian Michael Bendis, BTW. Apparently, he’s been a closet LSH fan for a while (like a lot of us), and he couldn’t wait until he could get his hands on the series. You can learn a lot of the reasons why in the various text pages that appear in Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 after the main story. Interestingly, while being interviewed about his plans for the series, something he says has been redacted! Yikes! Controversy already!

LoSH: Millennium is intended to be brief, just a two-issue teaser to get attention before the series proper restarts. Bendis’ artistic partner on the upcoming ongoing series is Ryan Sook. His work doesn’t appear in LoSH: Millennium #1, but he IS interviewed about the upcoming series, and a number of his character designs are included. Sook also provides the stunning cover for LoSH: Millennium #1 (and I’ve already had to explain the distinctive design to a non-LoSH person).

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2

The most interesting thing about Bendis’ Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 is that he’s got the chutzpah to title the book like that… (SPOILER ALERT!) when it actually hasn’t got any Legion of Super-Heroes characters in it! Oh, wait… Supergirl (now the President of the United Planets) makes a brief cameo appearance. Instead of Legionnaires, this first issue actually spotlights such semi-obscure DC characters as Rose and Thorn, Batman Beyond, Kamandi (the Last Boy on Earth), Captain Comet, and Tommy Tomorrow (and look for things like the Space Museum and Booster Gold — and probably others — in Issue #2).

I said I was going to review this issue, but there’s not much to say about it beyond that, since it’s all setup and teasing to whet a jaded audience’s appetite.

Superman #15

One last thing: There’s a few comics that help lead into Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 & 2, and The Legion of Super-Heroes #1, so here’s your handy LSH checklist for the next few weeks:

• Superman #14
• Supergirl #33
• Superman #15
• Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1
• Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2
• Legion of Super-Heroes #1

Legion of Super-Heroes #1

Long Live the Legion! Do they still say that? Hard to know when we haven’t actually seen the series yet… Maybe they’ll say something like “Hey! Your Plossic (30th century lingo) is blocking my garage!”

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KC CARLSON SEZ: Way back when I was editing the Legion series, DC co-workers started calling me Editor Lad, and, of course, that stuck much longer than I expected. (And ended up as a lettercol sign-off.) I also want to give a shout-out to long-time LSH writer and editor Paul Levitz (also DC Comics vice president, executive vice president, and president — who knew?) for much encouragement over the years.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2 Variant Cover

WESTFIELD COMICS is not responsible for the stupid things that KC says. Especially that thing that really irritated you. What do you mean that you’re too confused about all the characters? You haven’t even seen many of them yet! (That’s in a couple more weeks… )