Friday, January 25, 2019

Chameleon Boy and The Human Torch



One of the great things about The Legion of Super-Heroes was that so many of the individual members were strong enough to be solo stars in my eyes.  Some, like Karate Kid, Mon-El, and Cosmic Boy have even made that leap.  I'd like to see Chameleon Boy in some solo adventures, I love his power set.  Other choices to branch out on their own would be Dawnstar, Ultra Boy or Wildfire.

15 comments:

Brucecramer26 said...

Another great cover.

AirDave said...

Awesome cover!
I really need to track down the entire Valor run. I had a few issues back in the day. I like characters like Chameleon Boy or J'onn J'onzz - they can "disguise" themselves as anyone!

Anonymous said...

Cham was certainly versatile and confident enough to be made permanent head of the LSH Espionage Squad.

Carycomic said...

Evidently, Swamp Thing and the Black Panther got their keesters handed to them in STF #2470. But, I have to wonder if Cham came here from the 31st century for another reason (besides the professed one in the word balloon). Like, say, preventing a radical change in history? Such as the founding of the "Brande Corporation" a thousand years ahead of its time?

Bob Greenwade said...

Funny that the Anonymous poster should mention the Legion Espionage Squad; on reading the main blog entry, my first thought was that that group would've been worthy of its own spinoff series.

I also wondered that no writer ever came up with a similar concept for another specialty team in the Legion, such as a team of investigators, a team of heavy-hitters, or a team who can enter hostile environments. With a cast of characters to choose from as large as the Legion had -- and with no real reason that any given hero couldn't be on more than one such Squad at the same time -- there would be enough possibilities to keep the Legion's world as intricate and exciting as the X-Men franchise (criticisms against the latter notwithstanding), if not more so. For that matter, if DC were to play things correctly, it still could work.

Anonymous said...

Timber Wolf had a mini-series.
Ordinaryguy2

Jay Johnson said...

@Bob Greenwade: I dunno. For me, the various times there were several X-Men or Avenger teams with "specialty" missions were some of the weakest. The basic problem is that there aren't that many variations of each type of mission to keep a continuing book going, so you end up with re-tread stories or lots of filler (not that anybody seems to care about that in these days of 3 pages of story in a 22 page book).

Some of the old Legion stories, where you would have the Espionage Squad up one month, Superboy, Mon'el, and Ultra Boy repelling an invasion the next month, relationship soap opera the next month, Brainy pulling a last minute save out of his ass the next, etc., was the stuff that worked best for me.

Carycomic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carycomic said...

Would it be possible to have a sequel where Super-Skrull and his fellow Totalitarian, the Composite Superman, have a falling out for some reason?
Like, say, maybe as the result of Chameleon Boy's manipulations to that effect?

Bob Buethe said...

Back in the late '60s/early /'70s, the Legion was a backup series in Action Comics and Superboy. Since the stories were so short, they only focused on two or three Legionnaires at a time. That formula worked pretty well, as it gave the lesser-powered members like Duo Damsel and Invisible Kid a chance to shine.

Kid Charlemagne said...

Any cover with at least one Legionnaire on it gets my approval. ^_^

Greenwade's mention of the X-Men reminds me of an "Elseworldish" thought which has crossed my mind sometimes.

Dave Cockrum left the Legion in 1974 or so to go work with Chris Claremont on the X-Men.

What if it had been the other way around, and Claremont had come to the Legion? The Legion, IMHO, has the same kind of potential that the X-Men had. A writer of Claremont's caliber could have turned the Legion into a cash cow for DC, as in the real world, he turned the X-Men into a cash cow for Marvel. It might even have made a difference in the post-Crisis revision of Superman--if the Legion had been DC's #1 franchise in the mid-'80s, DC would never have dared to let Stimpy Byrne wreck the Legion's continuity by eliminating the original Superboy.

(Why do I call John Byrne "Stimpy"?:
"DON'T TOUCH IT! IT'S THE HISTORY ERASER BUTTON, YOU FOOL!" ^_^)

Simreeve said...

Kid Charlemagne said...

"Greenwade's mention of the X-Men reminds me of an "Elseworldish" thought which has crossed my mind sometimes.

Dave Cockrum left the Legion in 1974 or so to go work with Chris Claremont on the X-Men."

Did you already know that Cockrum originally designed Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, as potential Legionnaires?

Your "Elseworldish" idea about Byrne working on the LSH is indeed intriguing.

Kid Charlemagne said...

Yeah, Dave Cockrum (may he rest in peace in Raspberry Heaven) described his creation of Storm and Nightcrawler in the foreword to LSH ARCHIVES Volume 10. He did not mention Colossus in the foreword; maybe DC would have considered him a clone of Ferro Lad. (Indeed, IIRC, one of the Amalgam comics amalgamated Colossus and Ferro Lad.)

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, it wasn't as "Colosso Lad." That might've confused the heck out of Gim Allon's mom!

Carycomic said...

It might've done more than confuse Spider-boy if the Minions of Morlun had come after him on Earth-Amalgam.

Support STF: The Lost Issues!