I've been meaning to get both of these groups together on a cover for a while, but it has always been a challenge, given the huge rosters that each team has. It's more like teaming up two armies! Looking at the final cover, one thing really stands out to me - Dave Cockrum really knew how to design costumes!
This is a beautiful cover Ross, in every sense of the word. Dave C. did a little art for me when he was still going to cons. A very nice man. Didn't know about his medical problems but wished the was more that could have been done to help him.
ReplyDeleteAlways loved both of these teams. Great cover.
ReplyDeleteArmies is right. Nicely done! And, yes, Cockrum is one of the best costume designers. I always wished his Futurians could have been more popular.
ReplyDeleteAnd let us redefine beautiful, if only for a moment. That cover explodes with color and power. Great job, Ross!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of these two legions meeting without fighting is great. I'm kinda hoping for a follow up of Superboy and Gladiator standing side by side as the last Guardians would be sweet - but this is so delicious that I'm not sure how you could follow it up!
But it's all right. I trust you. Keep knockin' em out, kid!
Great cover even it is a colorist's nightmare. RIP Dave Cockrum.
ReplyDeleteFor most of the female Legionnaires (about half the ones shown here), these are among my least favorite designs. The exceptions are the body-modest outfits on Light Lass and Shrinking Violet, and (probably ironically) the cleavage-window bell-bottom outfit (plus pigtails) on Phantom Girl. Many of these male costumes also fall under the "nice try" category, though Lightning Lad is pretty sleek-looking (except for the white section on the legs), Karate Kid's totally works, and Wildfire's is a classic that should never go away.
ReplyDeleteI'm not as familiar with the Imperial Guard (at least, on a character by character basis), but I think nearly all of the costumes shown here work pretty well. While my memory is as solid as a block of cheese (yeah... Swiss), I'm thinking that those are Cockrum designs while the Legion are Grell, so that probably makes sense.
(Mike Grell's art always bothered me; everyone's nose looked oddly two-dimensional, and I found that distracting.)
On a couple of specific Legionnaires:
1. I'd been about to suggest that Dawnstar meet Angel, but I see that that happened way back in #1132 -- though I'd like to see them meet again, with a newly-discovered familial relationship.
2. I just recently realized that Wildfire is not the only DC character who lives in a containment suit; there's also the Human Bomb (after a fashion), and the Justice League Unlimited version of Captain Atom. Does Marvel have any heroes like that? It'd be interesting to see them form an intertemporal support group or something.
I want to say that Nuke from Squadron Supreme wore a containment suit, at least the Supreme Power version did. And though it wasn’t for radiation, Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy needed a containment suit (up until he became Major Victory anyway)
DeleteLove the title! Makes me wish you had Dan Garrett, Ted Kord, and Jamie Reyes working toegether as...the Blue Beatles.*
ReplyDeleteP.S.---I've never had any complaints about the Grell-era costumes Mr. Cockrum designed. I found them all refreshing!
*Insert rim-shot here. :-)
I was just thinking about the Futurians the other day. It’d be great to see them team up with the Outsiders or the New Teen Titans!
ReplyDeleteAwesome!!! I want this comic to exist!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Sun-Eater was a good choice of adversary--because with THIS accumulation of powers, it would take either a cosmic-level menace like the SE, or a hugely powerful villain like Thanos, or a hostile interstellar empire, to pose a credible threat to the two teams.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm always happy to see the Legion. I know less about the Imperial Guard, except that they are Marvel's homage, of sorts, to the Legion, as the Squadron Supreme are an homage to the classic JLA.
In some ways, this reminds me of the cover art for that graphic novel "The Golden Age." The one where the JLA first forms to battle a Lovecraftian version of Dinosaur Island?
ReplyDeleteActually, "The Golden Age" was a DC mini-series published back in 1993. I believe the one you're thinking of was entitled "The New Frontier!" Which is of much more recent vintage.
ReplyDeleteOh! Right. Thanks.
ReplyDelete@Mike: Well, that at least gives us a start for Containment Suits Anonymous.
ReplyDelete@Cary: If there was one more Blue Beetle anywhere, you can bet that DC would do an "Abbey Road" parody cover.
@Bob: actually, there was the Golden Age Blue Beetle from Fox Features. A chain mail-wearing version of the Green Hornet, basically.
ReplyDeleteAwesome cover -- although I can't help but think what it would look like as a double-page spread a la the Treasury/Collector's editions...
ReplyDeleteMore ideas for Containment Suits Anonymous: the Tangent Universe Batman, and Alphonse Elric (from Fullmental Alchemist). Negative Man (or Woman) from the Doom Patrol might count as well.
ReplyDelete@Cary: If that BB is public domain, or if DC can acquire the rights, then there you go. If DC doesn't do it, maybe someone on DeviantArt could.
@Chuck: Yes! Maybe Ross could start doing the occasional "wrap-around" cover.
The Cockrum/Grell era of Legion is my absolute favorite. I love those costumes, as ridiculous and revealing as they are. The costumesfor men and women are equally revealing. Saturn Girl & Shadow Lass are wearing two-piece bathing suits. Cosmic Boy is showing his bare pecs, bare abs, etc. Tyroc is a close second.
ReplyDeleteContainment Suits Anonymous - For a while, Jack of Hearts had to be contained and I THINK he had to wear a special costume.
ReplyDeleteVance Astro was trapped in his suit, or his thousand year old body would crumble into dust.
In Superman Adventures, Superman began radiating deadly energy and had to wear a containment suit.
The Chief of the Robot Patrol had a Robotman-style suit of armor that he wore in one tale to allow him to walk, and granted him limited super strength and invulnerability.
For that matter... let's cite Cliff Steele too. And Bob Crane, the Golden Age Robotman.
In the JLA story "Tower of Babel", J'onn J'onzz had been changed so he couldn't stand sunlight - but a containment suit let him operate.
Does the Supermobile count?
Stingray has a suit that lets him breath and operate underwater.
Those are the first that come to mind. There are probably more I can't think of right now...
@Unknown: Cosmic Boy isn't visible (or at least he isn't clearly visible) in this grouping, so I'd forgotten about that costume of his. Tyroc's was done badly on purpose, so it gets a pass... but that one of Cos' was even worse. Ugh. It was downright embarrassing, and the skin exposure was only part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Saturn Girl and Shadow Lass' costumes are basically semi-glorified two-piece bathing suits, with high boots. I really don't know how practical that would be for an action-oriented job with lots of fighting. Even when I was in my early teens, I thought that was a head-scratcher.
(That said, this simple purple jumpsuit of Brainiac 5's strikes me as going just a tiny bit too far in the other direction -- though for some iterations of the character, that would make sense.)
@ELS: And, for a while, Superboy and Supergirl had to wear lead armor to work with the Legion of Super-Heroes, disguised as Sir Prize and Miss Terious, while Earth was surrounded by a cloud of green Kryptonite (until Color Kid changed it -- to blue, I think).
But I think I'd want the ones who had to be contained permanently, especially if they're non-DC, and third-party heroes would be even better.
Ross - an absolute favorite. Great job on this.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Mr Freeze's suit basically a containment suit of sorts? Keeps him cool and it also gives him super strength.
ReplyDeleteAt one point, it was revealed that Wildfire's suit was actually the Red Tornado's body. Is that still canon?
@Bob: yes, I do believe the Fox BB is public domain, now.
ReplyDelete@Bob G. - In Adventure Comics #s 350 and 351, a cloud of Green K. surrounded Earth, preventing Superboy and Supergirl from hanging around with the Legion unless they wore lead suits, as you noted. But they just returned to the past, having been made to forget the Legion.
ReplyDeleteSir Prize and Miss Terious were Star Boy and Dream Girl. But you're right; until the Legion could get the Kryptonians* back on Earth, Star Boy and Dream Girl were in lead armor.
*Of course, no one ever reflected that the Kryptonite cloud would affect Beppo and Krypto. That's mean.
For the record? Sun Boy, Ultra Boy, and Mon-El all had the same outfits throughout their LSH stints. Both before and after the Grell/Cockrum era!
ReplyDeleteAlso, when Jack Kirby first introduced Sersi the Eternal, to the Marvel mainstream universe, he made _her_ one-piece swimsuit with thigh-high boots more eye-candy-like than anything designed by Grell and Cockrum, put together!!
ReplyDelete