LSH: AOL Chat for 5/19/98: McCraw, Moy & Boyd

Alex Tam

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May 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/19/98

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Tom McCraw (LSH/L* co-plotter/colorist), Jeff Moy (L* penciller), and Ron
Boyd (LSH inker) were the guests on America Online's Legion of Super-Heroes
Chat for Tuesday, May 19, 1998. Legion of Super-Heroes Chat takes place
every Tuesday in the DC Comics Online area of AOL at 6:00 PM EST.
Legionnaires Chat is held every Thursday in the same area at 10:00 PM EST.
(Keyword: CHAT DC.) Regular guests include Tom McCraw, Jeff Moy, Jason
Armstrong, Ron Boyd and Mike McAvennie.

Thanks to T. Troy McNemar who originated the Legion Chat Reports; so much
of the format of these writeups was derived from his hard work.

DISCLAIMER: I can't guarantee the reliability of this report. Essentially,
the Legion chats involve about twenty-five fans shouting repeated questions
to the creators. The creators are sometimes unable to answer questions
thoroughly or clarify their responses. As a result, misinterpretations may
occur on my part.

SITUATION NORMAL ALL SPROCKED UP DEPT.: The transcript for this chat
*ahem* faced difficulties, so to speak. Therefore, this report is entirely
from memory. Corrections and additions are very encouraged!

SPOILERS: Information that spoils current or upcoming issues is found
toward the end of this report. There's no spoiler space to separate such
info from the more general comments.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to these chat reports, send an e-mail to
"majo...@mlists.com" with the message "subscribe lsh-chats". To
unsubscribe, send the message "unsubscribe lsh-chats" to the same address.

PLUGS: To subscribe to Lev Kalman's humorous LSH pics, send an e-mail to
"majo...@mlists.com" with the message "subscribe lev-pics". You'll get a
new cartoon e-mailed to you about once every two weeks.

To browse this fan's STARMAN website, visit
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Finally, for all your LSH online needs, check out the Legion of
Super-Resources at http://www.idyllmtn.com/rac/dc/lsh/lsh_res.htm

:=========================:

Jeff will be appearing at an Indianapolis con on June 7th.

Ron has just finished inking LSH #108, his final issue. His other book
ADVENTURES IN THE DCU is "unofficially" cancelled. He's also doing an
issue of Marvel's WHAT IF? #113.

There are no plans for Ferro to change his costume.

Inferno was supposed to join Young Justice, but plans for that have been
cancelled.

Tom thought that Jeff should draw Sensor's tongue more, so the "tongue
count" would be increased. Tom joked that it's important that Sensor smell
more.

According to Tom, Brainy is now known as "Brainiac 5.1". The name that
Gates jokingly coined has stuck. Some of the changes wrought by the
anomaly were written in for a reason, while others weren't.

Umbra might be able to manipulate her shadow "puppets" (as seen in L* #62)
effectively enough to scare her opponents.

With last weekend's Motor City con, Jeff has started distributing
convention prints with some female Legion cast members. Nura is depicted
with the Adam Hughes-designed costume she wore in the "End of an Era" story
pre-ZERO HOUR. However, she won't be joining the team; Jeff drew her like
that to mess with our heads.

After an appearance in POWER OF SHAZAM!, Thunder will join the Legion cast
with LSH #110. Eventually, she will become a Legionnaire.

The books will soon address whether Lori will join the Legion.

-- Alex Tam
gol...@intergate.bc.ca; Nachro2 on AOL

Ben Weiss

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May 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/19/98

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Alex Tam wrote:
>
> Tom McCraw (LSH/L* co-plotter/colorist), Jeff Moy (L* penciller), and Ron
> Boyd (LSH inker) were the guests on America Online's Legion of Super-Heroes
> Chat for Tuesday, May 19, 1998. Legion of Super-Heroes Chat takes place
> every Tuesday in the DC Comics Online area of AOL at 6:00 PM EST.
> Legionnaires Chat is held every Thursday in the same area at 10:00 PM EST.
> (Keyword: CHAT DC.) Regular guests include Tom McCraw, Jeff Moy, Jason
> Armstrong, Ron Boyd and Mike McAvennie.
>
> Thanks to T. Troy McNemar who originated the Legion Chat Reports; so much
> of the format of these writeups was derived from his hard work.
>
> DISCLAIMER: I can't guarantee the reliability of this report. Essentially,
> the Legion chats involve about twenty-five fans shouting repeated questions
> to the creators. The creators are sometimes unable to answer questions
> thoroughly or clarify their responses. As a result, misinterpretations may
> occur on my part.
>
> SITUATION NORMAL ALL SPROCKED UP DEPT.: The transcript for this chat
> *ahem* faced difficulties, so to speak. Therefore, this report is entirely
> from memory. Corrections and additions are very encouraged!
>
> SPOILERS: Information that spoils current or upcoming issues is found
> toward the end of this report. There's no spoiler space to separate such
> info from the more general comments.
>
> SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to these chat reports, send an e-mail to
> "majo...@mlists.com" with the message "subscribe lsh-chats". To
> unsubscribe, send the message "unsubscribe lsh-chats" to the same address.

> :=========================:

> Ron has just finished inking LSH #108, his final issue. His other book
> ADVENTURES IN THE DCU is "unofficially" cancelled. He's also doing an
> issue of Marvel's WHAT IF? #113.

Oy. Hope the luck turns around, Ron.

> According to Tom, Brainy is now known as "Brainiac 5.1". The name that
> Gates jokingly coined has stuck. Some of the changes wrought by the
> anomaly were written in for a reason, while others weren't.

This is confirming my worst fears. You'd think the writers would have
figured out by now that some of us DON'T APPRECIATE IT WHEN WRITERS
FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE CHARACTERS WITHOUT A GOOD REASON! The changes had
BETTER not be permanent.

> Umbra might be able to manipulate her shadow "puppets" (as seen in L* #62)
> effectively enough to scare her opponents.

One thing this team does well is deal with the logical extensions of the
Legionnaires' powers.

[Nura] won't be joining the team; Jeff drew her like

> that to mess with our heads.
>
> After an appearance in POWER OF SHAZAM!, Thunder will join the Legion cast
> with LSH #110. Eventually, she will become a Legionnaire.

To which I ask, why? Thunder may be a fine character on her own, but I
don't see why she needs to join the Legion--especially in place of an
established member like Nura. If the Legion writers want a blond female
heavy hitter, they should bring Andromeda back as a full member.

> The books will soon address whether Lori will join the Legion.

This prospect, I don't even want to contemplate.
Ben
eleme...@lsh.org

Kevin Chang

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May 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/20/98

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Ben Weiss wrote:

> > After an appearance in POWER OF SHAZAM!, Thunder will join the Legion cast
> > with LSH #110. Eventually, she will become a Legionnaire.
>
> To which I ask, why? Thunder may be a fine character on her own, but I
> don't see why she needs to join the Legion--especially in place of an
> established member like Nura. If the Legion writers want a blond female
> heavy hitter, they should bring Andromeda back as a full member.
>

I'm not sure why you think Thunder is replacing Nura, per se, any more thanone
would assume Monstress, Kid Quantum II, Gates, or any other new post-
boot legionnaire would be "replacing" Nura. She's just another new
character in Legion lore, and one with a pretty spectacular and interesting
pedigree at that. Kind of reminds me of GL Rond Vidar.

Nor do I think "blonde female heavy-hitters" is so categorically iconic that
admitting more than one should be taboo. Andromeda and Thunder are
drastically different _characters_, much like Superman and Captain
Marvel (who traditionally both have, I might add, that comic-book black
and blue hair.)

In any case, I don't think Andromeda is that far out of the picture...

> > The books will soon address whether Lori will join the Legion.
>
> This prospect, I don't even want to contemplate.

Dial "H" for "Hear my prayers, what gods there be. Don't let this happen."

-Kevin

Pip...@my-dejanews.com

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May 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/20/98

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In article <356260...@earthlink.net>,

Actually, they showed the best "logical extension" of Umbra's power in the
Mordru storyline where Tasmia was able to block Radion's power. This is the
really powerful aspect of Umbra's power = absorbing other types of energy, not
just visible light waves.

The real tragedy is that we haven't seen Umbra do much of anything with her
powers since the Mordru storyline. Which shows how little she's been used. I
think we've seen more of Nura's precognitive ability than we have Umbra's
darkfields.

-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading

Keith Trotter

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May 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/20/98

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Kevin Chang wrote:

(Thunder is) just another new

> character in Legion lore, and one with a pretty spectacular and interesting
> pedigree at that. Kind of reminds me of GL Rond Vidar.

I'd agree on that - though too many 20C connections have proven risky in
the past. I've no knowledge of Thunder other than on the poster a while
back but she looks okay. As a thought- wouldn't it be great if she was
the same age as Lori before speaking 'Shazam' and then became an adult.
Wouldn't that (and Legion membership) really piss Lori off!!

Course I don't know how much has already been revealed about Thunder in
PoS as I don't collect it - do we already know what her natural age is -
anybody?

> Nor do I think "blonde female heavy-hitters" is so categorically iconic that
> admitting more than one should be taboo. Andromeda and Thunder are
> drastically different _characters_, much like Superman and Captain
> Marvel (who traditionally both have, I might add, that comic-book black
> and blue hair.)

But were sufficiently similar that Morrison excluded Marvel from the JLA
for exactly that reason (though why he couldn't include Mary I'll never
know)

Keith
¬¬¬¬¬

TheMousiah

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May 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/20/98

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First, a healthy dose of spoiler space (though none of my own comments really
have much "spoiler" potential!:)

SPOILER SPACE

That ought to over-do it! :)

I kind of find myself agreeing that Thunder and other newcomers who have too
much in common powers or personality-wise vis a vis established Legionnaires
and ex-Legionnaires should NOT be focused on before the real "stars" of this
title! The LSH mythos is already packed with players; pre- and post-boot. We
already have one CURRENT super-strong blonde female with Laurel and much like
the Capt.Marvel/Superman situation in the 20C DCU, it does seem redundant to
have two super-strong blonde ladies mucking about this crammed cast.

I would DEFINITELY prefer to see Nura achieve membership in the current LSH-
especially since the Legionnaires have now seen her alternate timeline
counterpart(s) perform as Legionnaires during their Time Trapper encounter and
now know that at least SOME versions of Dreamer certainly have the "right
stuff" for membership- and she has proven her worth with the predictions that
she has made thus far!

That said, I still see Nura as part of the current cast regardless of her
status as an "official" Legionnaire at this point- she has been part of
plotlines and has been interacting regularly enough with the Legionnaires so
far- and has had more attention than more than one "real member" of the
post-re-boot LSH! I think her official membership is coming soon enough, when
the storyline suits this- she doesn't seem in danger of being written into the
sidelines forever....
And it's great to see that the current creative folks still liked that pre-Zero
Hour SW6 costume:) !

LLL!
Dave Bakas,
Who hopes we meet the post-boot Brin and Drake and Dawny sometime soon- one
would think that Timber Wolf (as Lone Wolf, perhaps?) and Dawnstar (and perhaps
Blok?) all would make decent recruit material for the Work Force- especially
Dawny, with her pre-boot profit motives....:)

Ben Weiss

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May 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/20/98

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Kevin Chang wrote:

> I'm not sure why you think Thunder is replacing Nura, per se, any more thanone
> would assume Monstress, Kid Quantum II, Gates, or any other new post-
> boot legionnaire would be "replacing" Nura.

My point was more that the Legion can only get so big, and each new
character makes it harder to bring in the remaining preboot
Legionnaires, like Nura. I've been on record as saying that I think KQ,
XS and Gates fill gaps in the preboot Legion, in terms of power,
personality, and diversity. Kinetix doesn't, but pre-Anomaly she was
written so well that she's become an integral part of the team. But how
many times can lightning strike?

I also am very leery of introducing Legionnaires with 20th century
connections or who are established characters. I wish they'd find some
other venue for Thunder.

> Nor do I think "blonde female heavy-hitters" is so categorically iconic that
> admitting more than one should be taboo. Andromeda and Thunder are
> drastically different _characters_, much like Superman and Captain
> Marvel (who traditionally both have, I might add, that comic-book black
> and blue hair.)

Again, my point is that Andromeda has been left half-developed. I'd
much prefer that the writers spent more time on her, or any of a dozen
others equally in need of screen time, than brought in yet another new
character.
Ben
eleme...@lsh.org

WildCard

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May 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/20/98

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In article <35624D8E...@erols.com>,

Kevin Chang <kevin...@erols.com> wrote:
>
>
>Ben Weiss wrote:
>
>> > After an appearance in POWER OF SHAZAM!, Thunder will join the Legion cast
>> > with LSH #110. Eventually, she will become a Legionnaire.
>>
>> To which I ask, why?

Simple: Thunder will takes pre-ZH Superboy's slot as the time
travelling part-time member of the team. This time, the part timer
will travel from the future instead of the past.

At least, that's my guess on the situation.

>> > The books will soon address whether Lori will join the Legion.
>>
>> This prospect, I don't even want to contemplate.
>
>Dial "H" for "Hear my prayers, what gods there be. Don't let this happen."

My guess: Lori becomes the first auxillary legionaire, similar to Pete
Ross, Jimmy Olson (as Elastic Lad) and Lana Lang (as Insect Queen)
pre-ZH. This should satisfy everyone.

WildCard

Jon Clark

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May 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM5/21/98

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>I would DEFINITELY prefer to see Nura achieve membership in the current LSH-
>especially since the Legionnaires have now seen her alternate timeline
>counterpart(s) perform as Legionnaires during their Time Trapper encounter
>and
>now know that at least SOME versions of Dreamer certainly have the "right
>stuff" for membership- and she has proven her worth with the predictions that
>she has made thus far!

Hope I don't piss-off Nura fans as I really did like her Pre-boot and find her
appealing post-boot- but..........

Waht exactly does she contribute to the field team that she couldn't do just as
well in a role like Chuck or Dyrk? Her power is rather passive and would not
be much use in the field (Picture Nura dozing on the ground as a battle rages
around her). It also tends to be rather deus-ex-machina. Either the writer
ignores her so the characters don't figure everything out or she id used to
give them information they wouldn't otherwise get.

So I can see making her a sort of reserve/support member- but not an active
member who goes on missions. So her on-panle time would be limited.

Bill Hay

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Jun 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/1/98

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In article <199805202324...@ladder03.news.aol.com>, TheMousiah wrote:
>First, a healthy dose of spoiler space (though none of my own comments really
>have much "spoiler" potential!:)

>SPOILER SPACE

>the Capt.Marvel/Superman situation in the 20C DCU, it does seem redundant to

>have two super-strong blonde ladies mucking about this crammed cast.

Well Thunder might make for some interesting interactions with Brainiac 5.
She fits his ideal woman model (Blonde, tall, powerful), is magical
(which he distrusts if the Supergirl/B5 story is anything to go by)
and is possessed of a different sort of superior intellect from
his own (the wisdom of Solomon).

Of course one problem with having Thunder on board would be
portraying the difference between her wisdom and B5's intelligence
without turning him into a walking utility belt or her into
an agony aunt for the legion.

Mr Reaus

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Jun 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/2/98

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Bill Hay wrote:
>
>
> Of course one problem with having Thunder on board would be
> portraying the difference between her wisdom and B5's intelligence
> without turning him into a walking utility belt or her into
> an agony aunt for the legion.

Not if handled correctly. I would argue that Wisdom doesn't
necessarily mean you have all that much Intelligence. I would also say
that I have seen many VERY intelligent people who weren't very wise,
i.e. had no common sense.
Brainy has been portrayed, both pre and post boot, as someone with
high intelligence, but sometimes lacking in common sense. Lyle is a
great example of someone who has both. Thunder may too, but it doesn't
necessarily follow. 'course that's just my opinion.
--
Tim
aka Bl...@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/MrReaus/index4.html <<- my Legion Page

----------====================

...When I learned the truth about the Legion, I joined their ranks,
seeking the truth about myself.
...Instead, it only grew further from my grasp.
...I am silicon trapped among carbon.
Blok - LSH V.3 #55