Mon-El will be making his live-action debut in the upcoming season of Supergirl. I am hoping his presence on the show will lead to The Legion of Super-Heroes down the line, but I suspect he will end up being yet another love interest for Kara/Supergirl. I prefer her with Brainiac 5.
So, Mon-El is a Daxamite, right? Not a Kryptonian. Was that always the case? It should be interesting to see if the Legion makes an appearance and if she has any adventures in the 30th Century...
ReplyDeleteI hope not, one thing Supergirl sucked at was creating love triangles
ReplyDeleteMon-El was a Daxamite from his first appearance ("Superboy's Big Brother"), although initially it was thought he was Kryptonian - but when he didn't appear to react to Kryptonite*, Superboy knew he wasn't Kryptonian.
ReplyDeleteSupergirl in a romance with a non-Kryptonian type kinda struck me as disingenuous - but then, her cousin did that for along time, so go figger.
*Superboy exposed Mon-El to a kryptonite ray... and protected himself because the projector was encased in lead. The lead should have started killing Mon-El, but Kryptonite is actually a protective element against Daxamite lead poisoning.
Nice cover, Ross! It's a shame you couldn't find a bit of artwork for Annihilus (Am I remembering right in who that is?) that fit better with the two heroes, but that's life. Every other aspect of this is simply great.
ReplyDeleteIn the original timeline, Mon-El notably spent 1000 years in the Phantom Zone. That, plus the title for this cover, makes me wonder if we might someday have a crisis between the Phantom Zone and the Negative Zone.
On a similar note, you could team up Barry Allen and Luke Skywalker: "May the Speed Force be With You!"
Lar Gand was given the name Mon-El because Superboy found him on a Monday, and was sent into the Phantom Zone as a safety measure until such time in Adventure Comics featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes when Braniac 5 found a cure for lead poisoning. I'm waiting for the next season of Supergirl to begin in October to see how TV will do the origin of Mon-El.
ReplyDeleteYou know it's amazing that their bringing in characters like Snapper Carr and Mon-El from the Superman books and only one from the Supergirl canon... Lena Luthor. I was hoping that they'd bring in Lesla Lar, Kara's opponent from Krypton.
Mon-El and Gladiator is one of those team-ups that seems so obvious in hindsight, but which I never would have thought of. And I like the way Annihilus's brighter art style and the lighting on the two heroes makes it look like Annihilus is glowing.
ReplyDeleteIf they bring in Mon El, I hope his weakness isn't lead. I thought that was the silliest thing ever.
ReplyDeletePairing these guys with Annihilius is inspired. He's one of the few villains who could threaten beings like them. I wonder if DC's Phantom Zone and Marvel's Negative Zone could be different names for the same place. That would be a gold mine for stories.
I'd read this story in a New York minute, Ross. "Inspired pairing" doesn't even come close to describing this rendering! With regard to Mon-El's finally making it to live-action TV (as opposed to background cameos on rerun episodes of the WB cartoons)? I whole-heartedly agree that it's long-overdue. I'm just wondering if he'll arrive on Earth in the modern-day? Or, if CW will make it the basis for a SUPERGIRL/LEGENDS OF TOMORROW crossover by having him journey back from the 31st century?*
ReplyDelete*It would present quite the migraine-worthy paradox for Kara to meet him on that basis...before he's even met her, contemporaneously!
Nice homage to my favorite legionnaire Mon-El and his Marvel Comics clone "Gladiator" created by former Legion artist Dave Cockrum.
ReplyDeleteNice job and a 10 score !
@ Anonymous...Actually Gladiator is a clone of Superboy rather than Mon-el. I was always disappointed the Legion did not take off like DC hoped. They were intended to be DC's answer to the X-Men. I just hope when DC brings them back they will stick to what I consider the classic team...namely from the 80's before crisis.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous...Actually Gladiator is a clone of Superboy rather than Mon-el. I was always disappointed the Legion did not take off like DC hoped. They were intended to be DC's answer to the X-Men. I just hope when DC brings them back they will stick to what I consider the classic team...namely from the 80's before crisis.
ReplyDeleteNo, Gladiator was a knock off of Mon-El. The Imperial Guard was a homage to the Legion of Super-Heroes of which Cockrum left and took over the artist chores.
DeleteIf looking at the Imperial Guard, each legionnaire is represented but not Superboy!
One could make the argument that its either one but I believe him to be Mon-El as he wouldn't be represented while every other member is .
DC later created a homage to the All New X-Men as a Legion adversary called the The Legion of Super Assassins.
I also loved the Brainiac 5 crush on Supergirl. Probably because he was a super brainy teenager in love with a super girl who never reciprocated. That was something I could identify with at the time.
ReplyDeleteScott Cummins- The Legion actually came before the X-Men. The Legion of Super-Heroes first appeared in 1958; the X-Men didn't appear until 1963, and didn't become popular enough that DC would want to emulate them until the early '80s. The common link between the two teams is Dave Cockrum, who was the Legion artist in the early '70s, and went on to design the new X-Men team Marvel started in the mid-'70s.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct .
DeleteAlso Cockrum created Nightcrawler and Storm for DC to be new members of the LSH but took the characters to Marvel after quiting because of their failure to return his original art .
@Scott & Alaric: I always thought the X-men were supposed to be Marvel's answer to the Doom Patrol.
ReplyDeleteWhat might have changed about Mon-El's background, at some point, is whether Daxam had originated as a colony from Krypton (or even vice versa) lonnng ago in the past...
ReplyDeleteAnd IIRC during the final stages of pre-Flashpoint continuity it was stated that Mon-El's ancestry actually included an Earth-human strain -- from the days when Daxam had an active space programme (and maybe even, like Krypton, an empire) -- before its society retreated into xenophobic isolation!
Frankly, Gladiator looks like he's posing for the centerfold of the Shi'ar equivalent of PLAYBOY. :-|
ReplyDeleteYou can argue it either way, but I think Gladiator is a take off of Superboy/Superman rather than Mon-El for two reasons. First, his name is derived from the title of Philip Wylie's novel "Gladiator" which is a possible inspiration for Superman. Second, Gladiator's true name is Kallark, an obvious portmanteau of the names Kal and Clark.
ReplyDelete