THE FANTASTIC POUR
Brett welcomes Dr. Anj back to the Fantasti-Lounge for a new edition of the Fantastic Pour! We talk The Legion Five Years Later, throw back some Fireball shooters and read Legion of Super-Heroes #12. Join us in the Fantasti-Lounge as we discuss nine panel grids, the history of the shot glass, Anj’s Boston top five, And much, much more!
Secret Pour-igins: The Shot Glass
Cocktail: Five Beers Later
Ingredients (per drink)
- 1oz Fireball
- ½ oz white rum
- 1 squeeze of lemon wedge
- 2 dashes of Tabasco
Instructions
- Fill shaker with ice
- Add ingredients into the shaker
- Shake well and strain into shot glass
- Throw it down and have another beer!
Comic: Legion of Super-Heroes vol.4 #12, DC Comics, 1990
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Only the team of Brett and Anj could get me to sit through a two hour podcast about sports and the 5YL Legion!
And while I’m still not going to go read those Legion comics (unless DC has a new reprint treasury on the schedule), Anj made a case for that era that, at the very least, intrigued me. Maybe if I had read lots of Legion comics, this purposeful zag in another direction would have been of interest to me.
While I hardly have much expertise to comment, my fav LSH artist would be Steve Lightle–his sleek, glossy look always read “futuristic” to me, and his facial renderings made them look like actual younger people. His Who’s Who entries on various team members were always top notch.
Also loved all of Anj’s “liquor run” adventures! When I worked at a liquor store, every Fri or Sat we’d get a group of teens who had just turned of age to buy booze. They always bought PBR because it was the cheapest and therefore sloshed as economically as possible.
Great listen as always.
My introduction to the Legion was the Mark Waid/Barry Kitson run, which I really enjoyed. I explored more of the team’s lore and while preparing for various stories in the Secret Origins series, and eventually read “The Great Darkness Saga”. The Five Years Later era is one of the times in the book’s history that’s a blindspot for me. But I will say, perhaps because I’m not a longtime fan of the Legion with favorites or expectations, I thought the Bendis run was good.
Part of me really wants to load my 10-member Legion team with weirdos like Ferro Lad, Chlorophyll Kid, Dream Girl, and Arm-Fall-Off Boy. Alas, I’ll probably go with: Brainiac 5, Triplicate Girl, Bouncing Boy, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Chameleon Boy, Shadow Lass, and Superboy.
Great episode, as always! But Anj forgot to mention Tom Brady’s greatest achievement: surviving Nikki Glaser.
Great pairing, guys! I had no idea Lightning Lad was Proty all along. Yes, that does raise some questions, doesn’t it? I just started reading the 5YL about last year and fizzled out for some reason, but you’ve got me wanting to go back!
Let’s be clear I’m 38 . If talking about the time I showed up in face paint and wearing spiky shoulder pads that was for a costume party you can’t be the pro wrestler road warrior hawk with
Out face paint .
But any here’s the fantastic questions it’s a
Two parter
1. Ultra boy has entered the lounge he’s bin watching the old bbc only fools and horses he wants you to make two of Del boys signature drinks: a Caribbean Stallion and Bacaradi and Russian can you make them for him (this version of ultra boy is over 21) and will you try them your self ?
2. Now my favorite legionnaire comes in
Bouncy boy he wants a double burger and fries and non alcohol drink he has to pick his wife’s up at hair dressers to take to theater (what do you recommend to him )
As near as I can determine, my very first DC comic book was Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #225 from December 1976 with the Mike Grell cover depicting Superboy fighting with Wildfire. So I have “always” loved the Legion. Much of the appeal for me is the huge cast of characters, each one with their own histories, relationships, and personality traits. It’s like the X-Men in that way.
I bought Legion regularly through the 1980s and even subscribed for a while when the Baxter series began. I respect the work that Giffen and the Bierbaums did on the 5YL run, but TBH it’s not the most enjoyable read for me. My mind wants to like it more than my heart actually does.
My personal LSH team of ten: Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, Element Lad, Colossal Boy, Timber Wolf, Invisible Kid (Jacques Foccart), Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad.
Great show, guys!
I’ve always been intimidated by the Legion and all its characters, plus all the reboots. However, hearing the passion in your conversation about this version of the Legion has pushed me to finally give at least some version of it a try.
I especially appreciate Brett being so open about using Dr. Anj’s blog to help comprehend what was going on. I’ve heard the blog mentioned on the network for years, but this is the first time I can recall an actual testimonial about using it. I hope to make use of it myself.
Any recommendations on where to start? The only version of the Legion I’m even somewhat familiar with is the group that was around during Final Night.
Enjoyed the show, even though I am entirely unfamiliar with the 5YL Legion.
However, a few things you noted in the rundown of other Legion eras caught my ear – specifically that period in the late ’70s just before and after Superboy was dropped from the book, which was when I first began reading the Legion on a more or less regular basis. First, I have to say that I rather liked Staton’s art, but totally agree that Ditko was just completely unsuited to the Legion (and I’m saying that as a pretty big fan of his art).
Also, I share your fondness for that brief period that Ultra Boy, suffering from amnesia, was a space pirate. I loved those stories so much that back then and later I wished more had been made of it. Ideally, I wanted Ultra Boy to split off from the Legion with a few other members (Phantom Girl, Shadow Lass, Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, and maybe also Princess Projectra and Timberwolf, as well as Night Girl and Fire Lad from the Subs) to form a new team of roving space rangers who were not above using weapons and bending the rules from time to time.
I am now inspired to try that nip of Fireball that is sitting on the liquor console.
‘Twas Anj and 5YL that started me with all of you! Eleven (!) years ago, backstage during the run of Light Up The Sky at The Lyric Stage Company, I was idly perusing my phone in search of Legion of Superheroes web content. I found the Legion of Super Bloggers, and specifically a post by the good doctor in which he stated that he was a guest on a podcast, a word I had until then ignored. As the podcast was about Secret Origins and specifically the issue with the secret origin of the Substitute heroes, I searched for that, listened to it, and liked it enough that I searched for other episodes about issues of that book that I enjoyed. Within a year, almost all radio play in my car was replaced by podcast play. Listening to Ryan led me to Rob, Shag, Siskoid, the Franklins, et al. Whereas, I appreciate Dr. Anj’s enthusiasm, and his excellent chronicle of the Five Years Later book, I shall never read it. Thank you Anj for helping me to find this fine crowd that built the Fantastic Lounge, and for your persuasive arguments, but I’m still going to pass on it.
I found the Legion at about the same time that Anj did, the Cary Bates/ Mike Grell stories published between issues 210 and 220 of the original Superboy title. I concur with our distinguished mixologist that the stories drawn by James Sherman AND inked by Joe Rubenstein have the best artwork. (The stories inked by Jack Abel were a crime on poor James Sherman.) AS the precedence has now been set of guests returning to the mic at the Fantastic Lounge, maybe Brett will invite me back to chat some Sherman-drawn Legion!
Cheers and Long Live the Legion!
Loved this episode and this was the best name yet for a drink – 5 Beers Later is brilliant! Dr. Anj is always a treat to hear, and Brett was ok too.
I also started buying the Legion in the Grell days, and while I always enjoyed it, it was never my favorite. Peak years for me were the Levitz/Giffen into the Baxter years. But while I thought the 5YL was a great idea, it never grabbed me the way it did for you guys. Which is fine. I actually fell off near the end, and missed all the reboots except for an occasional dip in. A few years ago, some of my COVID reading was the Legion Silver Age Ombibuses – which I highly enjoyed.
In terms of a team – I would go with: The Original 3 plus: Brainiac 5, Ultra Boy, Princess Projectra, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Invisible Kid (Jacques) and Shrinking Violet.
I’ll have to reread the 5yl years again, but my memory of it was that it was a very different idea that came after the end of the Great Darkness Saga whitch was kind of a natural end point. After all the whole team had just beat Darkseid. My first Legion was definitely a Grell, but the best stories were Levitz /Giffen. my lineup, Brainiac 5. Saturn Girl, Wildfire, Shadow Lass, Chameleon Boy , Ultra Boy Dawnstar Cosmic Boy and Phantom Girl. Yeah maybe a darker Legion pirate team would work. At the very least the cover to Legion #275 is a classic.
This was another great episode, Brett and Dr. Anj, and I can’t believe I almost forgot to comment! I tend to listen to these podcasts while mowing the lawn (now) or shoveling the driveway (the other 50% of the year in Wisconsin) or when I’m driving. In these cases, I can’t stop and comment like I’d like to. Safety first, friends!
I am huge Legion fan and the Baxter series is probably my favorite. I worked in a comic book shop in the ’90’s and I used the first five issues of that series to get customers to sample the book. This was before DC made a trade paperback of that story called “An Eye for An Eye.” (I love that story because it featured literally EVERYBODY.)
By the time, 5YL came along, I was all in. I loved it, even if I didn’t always understand, like Brett, what the heck was going on in some panels. To get my customers to try this series, I made my own “cheat sheets” with the character’s code name, their real name, and their home planet. It was like Cliff Notes to have alongside you as you read. Or, you know, like Wikipedia is now. It sold well as the store I worked at because of this. I even have a letter published in the lettercol of issue 16 or 17 or thereabouts.
So, I’m a Legion fan for life. Pre-Baxter. Baxter. 5YL. And all that came after. I scratch my head at some of the reboots and threeboots or whatever, but, it’s still the Legion and the next time they bring them back, I’ll be there for them again.
My team of 10 would be Timber Wolf, Wildfire, Polar Boy, Tellus, Quislet, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Ultra Boy, Blok, and Phantom Girl, but that list would change if you asked me again tomorrow. (Except for Timber Wolf. He’d be on my team every time.) The appeal of the team is just that, so many characters and so many different combinations of how to use them. I also really loved the series titled L.E.G.I.O.N. For the first several years, that book did such a great job connecting the “present day” heroes with their predecessors or ancestors depending on which direction you were going. And Vril Dox was just a character that I loved to hate.
Thanks again another fun show. And another reason to “flip through” DC Universe Infinite at all the stuff I need to read or re-read… you know, when I get all that free time someday. Long Live the Legion!