Talk:Legion Publication History/1979-1982

Should we track Insect Queen & Elastic Lad appearances in the LPH?

Reboot brought up the subject in one of his edit summaries, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

Pre-Crisis Insect Queen

For me, this one's fairly easy. Lana only appeared in costume in four issues (someone correct me if there are more, but I'm pretty sure that's right), two of which are Legion stories. Since one of the other two is her origin, its not too much of a stretch to include all four. Given that there are so few Insect Queen appearances, if I did NOT know about the two non-Legion stories, I would be very glad to find them mentioned in the LPH. If there were dozens, with only two being Legion-related, I would be less inclined to consider the non-Legion stories significant. I can definitely appreciate arguments both ways for the two non-Legion stories, but I would rather err toward making the LPH more useful for new Legion readers/collectors who want the most complete data they can find.

Pre-Crisis Elastic Lad

The non-Legion E-Lad stories are a bit harder for me to justify. I count 14 Pre-Crisis EL stories listed in the LPH, 2 of which are full Legion appearances, 2 which have a Legion/Mon-El cameo, and 10 which have no real Legion connection except that Jimmy is (or will later be) a Legion Reservist. Of the 14, 7 take place before Jimmy gains Reservist status or even meets the Legion. I'm more sympathetic to arguments against including all the non-Legion stories. However, there's always going to be that element that wants them there ("But he's a Legion Reservist..."), and I also feel that with over 1600 issues listed in the LPH, it not too horrendous to include 10 issues that at least some percentage of Legion fans think should be on the list. Also, it looks like Elastic Lad might become an ongoing story element in the Countdown series, which might rekindle interest in the old appearances.

Of the four full Legion appearances mentioned above (2 Insect Queen, 2 Elastic Lad), three are basically stories that could have never happened and Legion history would not be dramatically changed. However, the Insect Queen appearance in the first Mordru story is pretty significant, and arguably one of the best Legion stories ever written. That's just one more factor that to me makes including the Insect Queen stories more justifiable and the E-Lad stories less.

Another possible way of accommodating the non-Legion stories is to include them on the as-yet-uncreated LPH/Precursors page, which I am assuming would also include early Mon-El & Dev-Em stories, Halk Kar, Twice Told Tales, etc. The early Jimmy and Lana issues would fit there, the data still available for anyone wanting to research early appearances, but keeping the regular LPH more "pure". The "Post-Jimmy joins the Legion" stories could also go there, although they wouldn't technically be precursors.

Any other thoughts? -- Gopher 13:25, 11 June 2007 (PDT)

My thoughts

My thoughts basically fall into three cats:

1. If you're tracking them for all appearances as Insect Queen and Elastic Lad, why are they not being tracked for all appearances?
2. If it's taken as read that they're being tracked in their Legion IDs and their Legion IDs only... why isn't Superboy being tracked (and, FTM, Pete Ross)? After all, Superboy is FAR, FAR more critical than either Insect Queen or Elastic Lad to Pre-Crisis Legion history. And yes, I see the problems of scale this would cause, and perhaps it should be done in the same way as L.E.G.I.O.N. - i.e., a separate page - if it were to be done.
3. My personal thoughts? Go with first appearance, origin (if different) and any issues which have an impact on their appearances with the Legion. That last criterion is deliberately vague, yes :) and could probably be stretched to all four Lana-as-IQ issues as well as her actual first app. - but would still not include all those Jimmy-as-Elastic Lad issues or every Superboy issue. - Reboot (SoM) talk page 15:16, 11 June 2007 (PDT)