Tom McCraw, Roger Stern, and Jeff Moy were the guests on America Online's
Legion of Super-Heroes Chat Hour on Tuesday, August 8, 1995. John Byrne
hates the LSH, but hung around and threw jibes anyway. The LSH Chat Hour is
held every Tuesday in the Chat area of DC Online. Previous guests have
included Mark Waid, Tom Peyer, Tom McCraw, Jeff Moy, Ron Boyd, and KC Carlson.
DISCLAIMERS - The contents of this chat report reflect my best understanding
of what was said. It is not always possible to ask clarifying questions
and, therefore, the material reported may not be completely accurate. Read
for pleasure, but betting is strictly frowned upon.
SPOILERS - Material that would tend to spoil upcoming issues has been
included at the end of the report. To the extent possible, I have organized
the material so that the spoilers increase in intensity with the worst
spoilers appearing at the end of the report.
SPECIAL THANKS - This report marks the end of an era. Until recently, Sidne
Ward had been my primary source for Legion chat reports. Sidne recently
accepted a faculty position at UMKC, and will no longer be able to attend
the chats. The log that was used to create this report marks her last
regular visit to the LSH chats. Please join me in wishing Sidne the best in
her new endeavours. (Also, please join me in attempting to make her new
nickname, "Dr. Kangaroo," come into popular usage. :))
PERSONAL TO LEV KALMAN - Hi yourself. It was page nineteen. :)
========================================================
Tom McCraw has a few personal favorite Legionnaires that he'd like to see in
the book sometime.
Jeff did some pencils for Excalibur #91. His brother, Phil Moy, inked the
pages.
Neither Tom nor Jeff had visited rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh.
John Byrne asked Roger Stern if he'd be introducing Lad Lass and Lass Lad.
Roger replied that he wanted to first introduce Freezer King, and his pal
Freezer Pop. John retorted with "[w]hen will you bring in Cheryl Lad?"
Tom McCraw responded to a fan that was disparaging the Legionnaire, "Just
because you don't like Dawnstar doesn't mean that you have to trash her."
Dawnstar will be joining the team sometime after Ferro and Projectra. Tom
noted that they do have to keep some Legion continuity.
We'll have to wait for many more new members. They have a full cast for now.
Roger's first Legion story was in Superboy and Ultra Boy was in the story.
(ED - Possibly Superboy #98, which is Ultra Boy's first appearance?)
John Byrne read the very first Legion story when it first came out. He
hated them then.
Jeff arrived a little late and when told that Byrne wasn't playing nicely,
indicated that "we'll take our ball and go home :)".
Tom wasn't sure about showing a postboot version of the Legion clonebank.
He complained that the clones always exploded.
Tom likes the art teams on the Legion titles. He was happy that Jeff was
able to pencil L* Annual #2.
Jeff was working on L* #33, but it was going kind of slow.
Tom would prefer to see a new LSH "Who's Who" rather than a new gaming
sourcebook.
Tom and Mark Waid had discussed having Impulse visit the 30th century, but
hadn't actually made any plans to do so.
Tom wasn't sure when Supergirl would be appearing in the LSH. They'd tried
asking for her. (ED - LegionEditor KC Carlson should take his good buddy
SuperEditor KC Carlson to lunch and schmooze him on the DC dime. :))
The creative team has the storylines roughed out until LSH #82, which is way
into next year.
Jeff doesn't have much input in plotting the Legion titles. He claims to
leave that to more qualified people.
Tom hadn't heard of Colleen Doran's interest in doing a special issue for
the Legion titles. (ED - He didn't deny it, he'd just not heard about it.)
There are no plans for the Legion of Substitute-Heroes yet. There are no
plans for the Heroes of Lallor yet. There are no plans for the Wanderers
yet nor have they decided which version of the Wanderers that they will be
using.
Cosmic Boy isn't acting like a jerk. He's just trying to keep up under the
pressure as the Legion's leader. "You try managing the Legion and dealing
with President Chu and see how you do."
A lot of people missed Invisible Kid's appearance in L* #29. Tom offered
"shame on you," to the people who missed it. "He was in the roll call after
all!"
The upcoming Superboy/LSH crossover involves a conflict with a Superboy
villain in the 30th century. Superboy will make the trip to the 30th century.
With Chameleon, Shrinking Violet, and Triad not participating in the mission
against Dr. Regulus, there may be espionage afoot.
We might be waiting a while for Universo, Mordru, and the Time Trapper to
appear.
They have plans for a "new" Zoe. Tom's response to a suggestion that she
become the new Amethyst was "we've got something better in mind for her."
"Wait till you see what we do with her by the end of next year."
Tom asked if we knew who the "two new members" who are joining in LSH #76
were, then never got back to the subject. Yeesh! :)
However, Dirk (Sun Boy) Morgna, Jan (Element Lad) Arrah, and Ultra Boy won't
be joining yet. Dirk still has to cool down, and won't be joining soon.
Jan is not currently a member.
The creators will be exploring the current Legionnaires more. Brainiac 5
gets a spotlight in LSH #77. Brainy won't be getting the force field belt
in that issue, but it will be showing up soon.
Apparition is dead. Even if they were going to bring her back, Tom wouldn't
tell us.
Phase will not be coming from the 20th century to join the Legion. McCraw
had no idea what Peyer had planned for her character.
The creative team is discussing Mysa's (The White Witch) return.
The upcoming title, "Superboy and the Ravers," will not tie into the LSH.
(ED - It's my understanding that the new title involves Superboy and other
super-powered teens adventurers in a cosmic rave that sends them to various
corners of the D.C. Universe.)
Chuck Taine shows up in LSH #76.
XS doesn't know how to vibrate through things yet. She'll definitely learn,
and from the best teacher that there is--Flash. (ED - No elaboration on
whether the teacher was Wally West, but presumably so.)
Impulse and XS meet in "Impulse" #9. Tom was ROTFL all over the place when
he read it. The characters don't quite get along at first.
