Terrificon Recap 2: Greg Larocque And More Stories

Last week I gave my first recap of 2024's Terrificon including my June Brigman commission.

Brigman was my primary target for a commission from the show. But my second was Greg Larocque.

Most people who frequent this site know that the Legion is my second favorite DC IP. In fact, I reviewed multiple runs of the Legion over on the Legion of Super-Bloggers. In fact, I think my reviews of the first 60 issues of the 5YL Legion is my high water mark as a blogger. 

Larocque was the artist on a large part of the Baxter run of LSH, so I have always been a big fan. 

But I had a particular interest in getting a sketch from him. He was the last artist to draw the pre-Crisis Supergirl in continuity. 

You see, the DCU was re-written in Crisis On Infinite Earths #12, a book which hit the stands on 12/19/1985. After that, Supergirl was a word that couldn't even be uttered in DC Comics.

But then in Legion of Super-Heroes #31 , drawn by Larocque, we saw a statue of Supergirl in Legion's hall of heroes. 

Seven months later, in the classic Legion of Super-Heroes #38 we once again saw the Supergirl statue. Once again it was Larocque on art. Legion #38 was released on 6/9/1987, a full 18 months after the Crisis ended! A year and a half after Supergirl was 'erased' from continuity.

With all that history, I thought Larocque doing a commission sketch of the Supergirl statue for my book was a pretty cool idea. And I think he nailed it. For a Supergirl fan and a Legion fan, this was a winner.

Leviathan Wednesday: Flash #22 and Manhunter #9

Welcome to what has basically become Manhunter Wednesday, my deep dive into the Mark Shaw character as I try to show how his history leads him to become Leviathan.

Last week, I reviewed Manhunter #8, an Invasion crossover. This week I cover, as quickly as I can, Flash #22 and Manhunter #9, more Invasion information.

This is a decent story if you look at it from the viewpoint of Shaw seeing how secret organizations and duplicity lead to disaster. Remember, Leviathan is all about destroying spy organizations and abolishing secrets. What better storyline to hammer home that than a secret invasion by shape-shifting aliens. Moreover, let's throw in an immature hero like the then Wally West who almost gets taken in by it all. Shaw learns he can't trust heroes to see through these things.

Writers William Messner-Loeb, John Ostrander, and Kim Yale give us a pretty crazy story. Within the issues, Fidel Castro gets a lot of lines. In some ways, Castro almost gets a sympathetic voice. That is kind of odd. I don't delve into that too much here as I am concentrating on Shaw. But that stuck out to me.

The art is by Greg LaRocque in the Flash issue and he gets to showcase his talents nicely. There is a costume party in the issue with everyone in superhero or villain garb. LaRocque has different invitees pair off in the boozy atmosphere so we see Superman and Starfire flirting, etc. As a fan of his Legion work, it was nice to see his stuff here. Frank Springer and Pablo Marcos give us some solid if uninspired work in the Manhunter half.

Settle in. It's a two issue review so it'll be long but I'll try to keep it brief!

Crisis On Infinite Earths #7 Fallout: Legion Of Super-Heroes #38

Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 came out 30 years and two months ago.

In July, I did my best to cover Supergirl's death in that issue, the decision, the issue, and the ramifications of that in the comic world.

I was supposed to put the Crisis behind me but somehow I ended up covering some of the fallout of the issue throughout the rest of the summer.

Today I finally end my coverage of the death of Supergirl from the Crisis by looking at one more nod to her heroism in a universe that was supposed to have forgotten she had existed.

In Legion of Super-Heroes #37 and #38, writer Paul Levitz tried to reconcile Superboy's place in the Legion mythos in the new universe where Superboy never existed. John Byrne wrote the Man of Steel miniseries in the summer of 1986. Shortly thereafter, Byrne created the Time Trapper's 'pocket universe', a place where Superboy existed.

In Legion #38, Superboy turns on the Time Trapper and ends up sacrificing himself to save the world. Despite being a slave of the Trapper, he aids the Legion and dies a hero. It is an interesting story, one of the many somewhat loopy arcs that came out in the immediate aftermath of the Crisis as DC tried to hammer some major continuity issue smooth in the new timeline.

This issue, sporting a wonderfully powerful Bill Sienkiewicz cover, came out in June 1987.

 The inside art was by then-current Legion artist Greg LaRocque. I loved LaRocque's work on this title.

Here is the end scene where Superboy's body is laid to rest and a Superboy statue is placed in the hall of heroes. After all, dupe of the Trapper or not, he was still the team's inspiration and he died to save them all.

But look in the background!

Yep!

That is a statue of Kara in the hall of heroes.

We are two full years away from her death in the Crisis and definitely well into a History of the DC Universe where she didn't exist.

I am sure that this somehow slipped by the DC editors.

But serious kudos to Paul Levitz and Greg LaRocque for slipping her in. She died saving the multiverse. She should be remembered ... honored.

And so ends my 30th anniversary of the Crisis review.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 Fallout: Legion Of Super-Heroes #31

I have been looking at Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 over the course of this summer. With coverage of the issue itself over, I have been looking at some of the fallout from Supergirl's death.

Remember, Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 came out in July 1985. When Crisis ended, the history of the DCU was rewritten. Supergirl never existed.

And yet in Legion of Super-Heroes #31, a book which came out in November 1986, still had a piece of Supergirl history.

Now it is one thing to have this happen in the immediate aftermath of the Crisis when creators were dancing through the raindrops of continuity issues. But this is a year later ... and months after John Byrne's Man of Steel, a book which cemented Superman's history as being Kara-free.

Here on the opening splash page of LSH #31, Sensor Girl is walking amidst the monuments of the fallen Legionnaires.

And there in the background is Supergirl's statue!

How great that writer Paul Levitz and artist Greg LaRocque snuck this little beauty into the background.

I wonder if editorial saw it and decided to keep it or if it snuck under the radar.

At least this book recognized Supergirl as the hero she was, saving the multiverse and being a valued team member.

It wasn't the last time this very book thumbed their nose at continuity and included a Supergirl reference. But that'll wait for next week.

Who's Who Volume 13 - Supergirl, Streaky, the Legion of Super-Heroes, etc.

I figured it was time to plug one of my favorite things on the web right now - the Fire and Water podcasts - which are available every Monday. The link to the accompanying tumblr site is http://fireandwaterpodcast.tumblr.com/

The podcasts are hosted by the Irredeemable Shag who runs a Firestorm site ( http://firestormfan.com/  ) and Rob Kelly of The Aquaman Shrine (http://www.aquamanshrine.net/) hence the fire/water title. The hosts have great rapport with each other, the shows sounding more like conversations. The podcasts cover reviews of the Aquaman and Firestorm books, DC role playing games, Power Records, and general DC comic news. But the topic I love most is their reviewing of the classic DC Who's Who book from the eighties, issue by issue, page by page.

This week they reviewed Volume 13, my second favorite issue as it covers a bunch of Legion entries as well as a boatload of Superman related stuff. But there was enough Supergirl stuff in this issue that I felt I needed to include some coverage here.

First off, look at the lower right cover.

That's right, it's Streaky the Super-cat getting some love from Lilith of Teen Titans fame. Good for him to get one last nuzzle before being shunted to comic book limbo.

Yes, there have been subsequent Streakies in other mainstream Supergirl incarnations but never a X-Kryptonite fueled, cape wearing daredevil! (Makes me miss Landry Walker and Eric Jones Cosmic Adventures even more).

As this is the L book, we get a gorgeous splash page by Greg LaRocque of the Legion of Super-Heroes. And LaRocque brings his A game here, including everyone who has ever been in the Legion, including the honored dead.

I will say I was somewhat disappointed that the team only gets a small 'history'. Sure it opens up way more space for the beautiful art. But Legion fans pride themselves on their knowledge of the team's lore. Surely something else could be written about their history. I do like that they are called 'unquestionably the most powerful team in the DC universe'.

As I said, LaRocque put in all the Legionnaires. That includes Supergirl.

She had been killed 6 months earlier in the Crisis. So I remember being happy to see her here amongst friends again.

Also in the issue is the Legion of Super-Pets which includes Supergirl's animal pals Streaky and Comet. I had forgotten about this entry completely and was glad to see that these characters that are important in Supergirl's history merited a small blurb in this encyclopedic book.

And I also had to include the Lois Lane page as she was (I believe) the only supporting character who got a page on her own merits. Jimmy Olsen got in as Elastic Lad. Alfred Pennyworth makes it in as The Outsider. Lana Lang is in as the Insect Queen.

Lois is Lois. That's good enough.

And boy, I love Bob Oksner's art.

Anyways, I highly highly recommend the Fire and Water Podcasts as a great comic forum. And if you are a Who's Who fan, you need to listen to those episodes in particular.

Mayfairstivus Post 2: Supergirl In The DC Heroes Game

Welcome to another day dedicated to Mayfairstivus, a holiday celebration of the Mayfair DC Heroes role playing game from the 1980s. A number of DC comic related blogs will be running DC heroes posts during this early holiday period.

I posted the DC Heroes V2.0 Superman and Lex Luthor stats late last week. Today I am happy to be posting the DC Heroes V1.0 stats on Supergirl!

Back in the late 80s, I was playing DC Heroes as Wildfire from the Legion. I am a giant Legion fan and Wildfire is my favorite so it was great fun to act as the hot-headed anti-energy construct. Mayfair had supplemental information books out put out for different teams including the Legion. The books are co-written by Paul Levitz, so there is definitely an air of legitimacy. You get the sense that Levitz loved authoring the book and ranking the Legionnaires based on their power levels and skills. As the collector I am, I have held on to the 2 Legion books released for posterity.

Here is the Supergirl entry. Sorry the font is so small. The entry is a post-humous one as this was published after Crisis on Infinite Earths. I have said all along that I think Levitz had an affinity for Supergirl so I bet he pushed for her to be included. After all, Legion fans might want to play her regardless of current DC Continuity.

As you can see, just by the sheer text in the purple field, Supergirl has a lot of powers, skills, and vulnerabilities, etc.  that needed to be ranked.

The history section concentrates on her time with the Legion including her initiation into the group and her missions against Darkseid and the Dark Circle on Weber's World. It also includes a line about her relationship with Brainiac 5 ... a relationship that "ranged from adolescent flirtation to something more, but which was never as important to her as to him." Ouch!

There is no artist credits listed any where in the book but this looks like Ed Hannigan's work.

For ease of your eyes and so you don't need to download the above picture, here is a quick look at her offensive stats. Remember, this is version 1.0. Superman's strength was a 50 and was the highest listed stat. So Supergirl is just below that level.

This picture is clearly Greg LaRocque's work. He was the current Legion artist.

And, for comparison's sake, here is Superboy.

Earlier this year, I did a review of Supergirl's Legion appearances during the Levitz years and she was treated with complete respect. She was an enthusiastic hero who engaged in fisticuffs with Darkseid and battled the Emerald Empress. So I was not surprised, in reviewing these books, to notice that Supergirl is nearly uniformly stronger and tougher than Superboy. My guess is that Levitz wrote her as a more polished and experienced here than Superboy was when they were with the Legion.

Still ... it is pretty cool to see these numbers laid out.

The book contains information on all the current Legionnaires as well as stats for Legion villains as well.

It also includes some smaller things that I really loved. For example, here is a pictogram of the Legion emblems seen on the monitor board. I like how the male and female symbols are incorporated in a number of emblems as a way to explain the Legionnaires powers. I mean is anything more perfect than Shrinking Violet's and Colossal Boy's?

And there is also a great Legion group shot done by LaRocque.

There on the middle left is Supergirl, flying amongst the group. I am so happy that the current Supergirl has a Legion affiliation.

The book is a great resource for fans of the Levitz Legion. I am so happy I held on the book. The only downside is the jarring purple ink motif which I think takes away from the book rather than adding to it.

I hope you are enjoying the Mayfairstivus as much as I am!
The blogs below are joining in the Mayfairstivus celebration and are fantastic! So please visit them as well.

The Anti-Didio League of America
The Aquaman Shrine
Booster Gold:BOO$TERRIFIC
Comic Make Me Happy
The Continuity Blog


DC Bloodlines 
Diana Prince as The New Wonder Woman
Doom Patrol:My Greatest Adventure #80
Firestorm Fan

Flash: Speed Force
Girls Gone Geek
Green Lantern Corps: The Indigo Tribe
Hawkman:Being Carter Hall 
Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter vs. The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Once Upon A Geek
Power of the Atom
Subject: Suicide Squad [Task Force X]