Tom McCraw (LSH/L* co-plotter/colorist), Tom Peyer (LSH co-
plotter/scripter), and Jeff Moy (L* penciller) were the guests on
America Online's Legionnaires Chat for Thursday, July 18, 1996.
Legion of Super-Heroes Chat is held every Tuesday in the DC
Comics Online area of AOL at 6:00 p.m. EST. Legionnaires Chat is
held every Thursday in the same area at 10:00 p.m. EST.
(Keyword: DC CHAT.) Regular guests include Tom Peyer, Tom
McCraw, Roger Stern, Mark Waid, Jeff Moy, Ron Boyd, KC Carlson
and Mike McAvennie.
DISCLAIMER - Information presented herein is not guaranteed to be
reliable. Due to the nature of the chats, misinterpretations of
the creators' comments do occur. No wagering.
SPOILERS - Information that tends to spoil current or upcoming
issues is located toward the end of this report. THERE IS
SUBSTANTIALLY MORE SPOILER MATERIAL THAN USUAL IN THIS REPORT.
No spoiler space separates such spoiler information.
VERB TENSE - Yeah, I know I change verb tense from sentence to
sentence. If I got paid to write up these reports, I might
actually go back and make it consistent. At least I ran it
through the spell checker.
===============
Tom Peyer stepped in to help Roger Stern out with the plot for L*
#40.
Jeff was working on the last 6 pages of L* #43.
Peyer reported that it took about a week to plot and script a
typical Legion issue. He tries to give detailed art
descriptions, but encourages the artist to do the scene
differently if the artist desires.
IMPULSE #21 is scheduled to be a Legion appearance. McCraw
claims that the whole issue is one gag after another, but
indicates that he and Peyer are getting even in LSH. He promises
to torture Bart a lot.
McCraw claims that no begging is necessary for a "Girl's Night
Out" style story. He and Roger Stern have been discussing such a
story, but nothing is set yet. Jeff was willing to do the story.
Peyer observes that M'Onel is trying to keep his Valor identity a
secret.
McCraw indicates that each issue's ending will be a shocker for a
while.
Peyer had a Mordru idea that he retracted because it was too
gross. He wanted to have Mordru conceive children by remote
control, through use of dopplegangers that crumble into dirt when
their job is done. Mordru's goal would be to have heirs on every
world. It wasn't an idea that he worked on for very long, so it
didn't bother him not to pursue it.
Peyer thought that they would keep the lid on the Legion election
results until the results had been incorporated into the books.
He estimated that the results would be revealed around L* #45/LSH
#89.
McCraw reports that recent word balloons may seem more crowded
because Pat Brosseau has reduced his letter size somewhat.
McCraw observed that the smaller size permitted more dialogue
without obscuring the artwork.
Peyer indicates that fans are stuck with him on LSH.
Kid Quantum II was introduced because the team was going to
Xanthu, and the creators reasons that the Xanthan government
would give a stasis belt to someone else.
McCraw thought that a Bizarro Legion story was a good idea, and
suggested that Luthor could try to clone the Legion.
Jeff suggested giving a character a haircut when a fan complained
that it was difficult to tell Invisible Kid and Star Boy apart.
McCraw teased that he and Peyer had come up with a good real name
for Inferno, but he wouldn't reveal the name. He thinks
Inferno's detractors might change their minds when they see her a
little bit more.
Peyer joked that it would be a good idea to have the Metal Men
return to the 30th century with the 20th century Legionnaires,
that they could be primitive trash robots. He claims that he'd
kill to do a Magnus/Metal Men crossover.
McCraw was not sure if any Marvel Family characters would be
available for a crossover, but thought that they might be able to
get Marvel Bunny. He could imagine a Marvel Bunny/Gates story.
McCraw reports that nothing is set yet on the outcome of the 20th
century trip.
Peyer declined to say when the 20th century storyline was ending,
and indicated that he believed in suspense. He promised that
every issue of the 20th century storyline would contain at least
22 gripping page-turners.
There are no plans for a Batman crossover.
Peyer and McCraw both thought that Gates was the most likely
Legionnaire to become addicted to the Cartoon Network while in
the 20th century. Peyer observed that Gates thinks the Cartoon
Network is CNN. Jeff dissented and opined that Spark would be
most likely to become addicted to the Cartoon Network. McCraw
thought Ultra Boy would fit in well with the MTV generation.
McCraw indicates that he had to restock on the color green for
the current issue of L*, and that there was even more green in
LSH #84.
Jeff points out three tongues in L* #40: A Triad Purple, a
Lizard, and an XS.
The Emerald Legion shown in the last issue of L* is the real
Legion; not duplicates.
Saturn Girl will not be shown in pink during her time in her
"Emerald Legion" costume. Lee Moder designed her bikini-costume.
She'll either be in green or in her regular uniform for LSH #84.
All the Legionnaires will be in green while in "Emerald Legion"
costumes.
Jeff thinks that he is responsible for the Emerald Legion
costumes for Kinetix, M'Onel, Cosmic Boy and Ultra Boy. He
forgot to put Ultra Boy's tatoo on his arm.
When asked about Emerald Violet's choice of "grunge and skin"
costumes for the Legionnaires, Jeff observed that she was in
"that kind of mood."
Jeff was ready to retire after the last page of L* #40 because it
was the last time he got to draw the real Ayla for a while.
McCraw pointed out that XS is wearing a visor and helmet on the
last page of L* #40.
Peyer thought that Leviathan's death worked from a story
standpoint. He indicated that Leviathan is dead, and that the
story was not part of some plan to bring the character back.
Peyer pointed out that when he was a kid, heroes didn't die and
LSH changed that fact. He observed that there have only been two
deaths so far in the postboot, Kid Quantum and Leviathan. He
conceded that they have faked a few deaths. He concluded that
the LSH fans in attendance did not want a whole lot more deaths.
Peyer stated that it would be a while before all the
ramifications of Leviathan's death were apparent.
Ferro shows up during the upcoming FINAL NIGHT crossover.
Peyer reported that all of the 20th century Legionnaires except
Ultra Boy and Apparition will appear in the L.E.G.I.O.N. team-up
happening in SHOWCASE '96 #11 & #12.
Ultra Boy and Apparition will be busy with Deadman in LSH #87,
and the story will address some of the circumstances of
Apparition's return. Peyer indicated that they had obtained the
services of Kelley Jones for 7 pages of the Deadman story. Peyer
quipped that Kelley had agreed to use Lee Moder's style so
Deadman would be skinnier than usual.
Spark receives a spotlight around LSH #89. Peyer stated that
there are personality changes in store for her. He indicated
that Spark would not receive any power changes while he was
alive.
McCraw reported that he is almost caught up with his workload,
but concedes that L* #43 will take a lot of time. (L* #43 is the
tryout issue.) McCraw was looking forward to picking up some of
the pencilled pages to start color work, and mentioned that it
was a fun issue.
Jeff was not sure how many tongues had appeared so far in L* #43.
L* #43 will include lots of guest appearances and three new
members. McCraw indicated that fans will need WHO'S WHO IN THE
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES to identify everyone. Jeff reports that
some of the previously-existing characters will be redesigned
while others will remain the same. McCraw predicted that fans
would recognize some characters right away. Peyer reports that
one old member will be drastically redesigned.
McCraw observed that he couldn't imagine Timber Wolf joining the
team while Spark wasn't around. Spark will be with the 20th
century team.
Peyer thought that Tyroc might have to wait a while to join the
Legion.
Upcoming L* stories involve the revenge of the rejects and an
appearance of a villain not seen for a long time. He claimed
that a fan was scraping the bottom of the barrel when Zoraz was
suggested. He later conceded that it wasn't scraping any deeper
than Quicksand and Holdur.
