Tom McCraw, Jeff Moy, and Paul Levitz were the guests on America Online's
Legion of Super-Heroes Chat for Tuesday, December 19, 1995. You can go back
and look again if you want, it does say Paul Levitz. Legion of Super-Heroes
Chat is held every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. EST in the DC Online Chat area of
America Online. Previous guests have included Tom Peyer, Tom McCraw, Mark
Waid, Roger Stern, Jeff Moy, Ron Boyd, KC Carlson, and Mike McAvennie.
(Paul won't get added until he's made at least two.)
DISCLAIMER - The LSH Chat takes place in a fast and furious environment that
barely allows the creators to keep up with the questions let alone answer
all of them thoroughly. The information presented herein is my best
interpretation of the creators' remarks. No guarantee of accuracy is made.
SPOILERS - Material that tends to spoil upcoming books is located towards
the end of this report. No intervening spoiler space is used.
SPECIAL THANKS - As always goes out to Andrew Woodard for sending me a copy
of the chat log.
==========
Paul appreciated fan requests that he return to writing, but indicated that
he's not going to write anything until either he quits his day job or his
kids get old enough that they don't want to play with him.
Tom will be at the Philly con in January.
The Legion of Super-Heroes is not one of the DC/Marvel Amalgam books.
Legionnaires is finally receiving a name for the lettercol, but Tom would
not reveal the name. Tom opined that Mike McAvennie was getting better at
the lettercols, but needed to watch his jokes.
Jeff's T-Shirt will be delayed because he decided to rework it after
Marketing asked for some changes. The original design had the 3 founders in
the middle and about 7 others charging out. The original design won't be
uploaded on AOL for now because it would reveal too many upcoming story
points. Look for the shirt in about 4 months. There will be 10-11
characters on the new shirt, including Imra. The LSH logo and symbol will
be on the sleeves.
Flight Rings are on hold for now.
Paul indicated that DC would love to see LSH toys, but they haven't talked a
toy company into paying for it.
Paul promised to nudge the marketing department for more LSH merchandise.
Jeff enjoys doing new roll calls for each issue, but Lee Moder uses stock
illustrations in LSH.
Paul rarely sees the creative teams on any DC books unless they summit meet
near DC. He tries to go over each DC/Vertigo title with the editor once a
year and give feedback and information. He tries to avoid being an
"ubereditor" that sticks his nose into things too often.
Jeff would like to work on an LSH cartoon, but doesn't have time right now.
The Circle "L" numbers will roll over to "1" again in 1997.
Tom thinks a Legion/Superman crossover would be interesting to see. He
joked that the Superman titles might benefit from a jump in sales from the
crossover.
Tom complimented Jeff on the pages of L* #37 that had been turned in so far.
Tom would be all for a Legion spotlight book, but asked what they'd do after
they'd spotlighted all the members. Tom thought the Espionage Squad would
make a good mini-series. Paul believes that a third Legion title would have
to take a different approach and pointed out the failure of "The Wanderers".
Paul opined that a quarterly or a Showcase run might be fun.
Tom thinks the Wanderers are lost.
There are no swimsuit issues planned, but Tom asked if we'd like to see a
snowsuit issue. Or an inviso-suit issue--they'd just put objects in the way
for long distance shots.
Both LSH and L* will have annuals in 1996. Tom couldn't reveal the theme
for the 1996 annuals.
The next Superboy crossover is way in the future.
Brainiac 5 does not know that Andromeda is really alive. Tom pointed out
that Brainy had no reason to believe that Laurel wasn't dead.
Sun Boy will check out of the hospital once he's cooled down.
Star Boy's costume is white rather than purple because Tom felt there were
already too many purple costumes on Legionnaires.
If you think Gates is comic relief, wait until you see him against the Fatal
Five. Tom thought Gates on the Espionage Squad would be a great laugh.
Tom pointed out that they've never said the current villain's name is
"Starfinger".
Someone will be getting to know Brainiac 5 in LSH #77. Tom promised a few
surprises in LSH #77.
Shrinking Violet receives a new costume in L* #34. The new costume has the
same general color scheme as her current costume.
Saturn Girl is scheduled to receive the next Legionnaire spotlight. Tom
points out that there wasn't much know about Imra in the preboot. Saturn
Girl's spotlight should appear sometime next summer. No origin stories are
in the works unless you count spotlight books.
We've only seen one Emerald Eye so far.
We will see more of the Espionage Squad at work real soon. Tom believes
that Invisible Kid does a great job of leading the Espionage Squad. When
someone suggested that Apparition would be a valuable ES member, Tom asked
"Why would she make a valuable member now?"
Gates can't open a gate into the great beyond to bring Apparition back.
However, Mysa may have that kind of power.
The announcement for reader elections of the Legion leader should be coming
up soon. It probably won't happen until after LSH #80, though. Both Jeff
and Tom believe that a vote for Gates is a vote to disband the Legion.
Tom promised that Chuck would get to use his talents in Legionnaires #35.
Of course, he wouldn't say which talent. Tom believes Chuck is too smart in
this incarnation to accidentally drink a bouncing serum.
Tom *thinks* the Legion roster is set for another year or so.
