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The Wanderers were one of Jim Shooter's brain
children, back in the 60's, when he was writing the
Legion of Superheroes. The first hint of their
existence was a statue of Quantum Queen seen in
one of the Legion "imaginary" story
set in the Legion's future, the infamous "Adult
Legion" stories. I remember one of these stories
with balding Cosmic Boy puffing on his pipe,
because older people smoked pipes, right?
It would be two more years before the Wanderers
actually made their debut. The Wanderers appeared
on the scene in Adventure Comics #375 in a story
where they come to Earth to introduce themselves
to the Legion and pledge eternal friendship. On
their way home, however, they passed through the
Nefar Nebula, a "space cloud" with strange
radiation that can cause complete character
reversals. Turned bad, the Wanderers stole the
Seven Stones of Alactos, which brought out the
Legion to trail and capture them. The two
super-teams fought and the Legion eventually
subdued the Wanderers.
I hate to say it, but apart from Quantum Queen,
this team looks like a collection of
third-raters that even the Legion of Substitute
Heroes should be able to best. Celebrand, the
leader, seems to have no powers at all, and was so
uninteresting that when they finally got their own
book, writer Doug Moench didn't even bother to
bring him back. Apparently, being team leader's
not good enough.
The costumes are the worst collection of
off-the-rack comic book pseudo sci-fi outfits. They're about as
distinctive as a gray flannel suit. But, worse
than that are the powers. You have Quantum Queen's
energy powers, which are interesting and
formidable, and Psyche's emotion control could be
useful, but Ornitho changes into birds, whee and
Dartalg (I'll go into the names, shortly) with his
puny little blow gun, ugh. Elvo and Immorto could
be interesting, but we never got to see them
enough to make them really interesting. Immorto
isn't really immortal, he's just ressurected every
time he's mortally wounded, close enough, I
suppose.
But, worst of all, this team from somewhere
across the galaxy seems to be made up entirely of
pink-skinned humanoids indistinguishable from
northern European types. Except for Ornitho's
wings, I mean. At least this would be addressed,
somewhat, in the Wanderers limited series.
Apart from that first appearance, the Wanderers
have only appeared in the background at gatherings,
such as Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel's wedding, the
Legion's rededication ceremonies and seen fighting
the Daxamite hordes of Darkseid in The Great
Darkness Saga.
By the late 1980's, there was a chance for a
Wanderers series, and noted British artist Steve Dillon was
tapped to redesign the Wanderers based on ideas by
Doug Moench. As mentioned before, Celebrand was
dropped as Moench felt he was uninteresting. In
the story, the Wanderers have died and been cloned
by a Controller and given somewhat different
powers.
Ornitho lost his wings, but not his power of
flight or ability to transform into any bird-form.
Dillon's design is of a slight, frail-looking man
with odd hair. The idea is that his bones are
hollow, like those of a bird and he has to be
careful when planetside.
Ornitho's name is changed to the slightly better
"Aviax" in this series. Elvo was changed, as well,
given large pointed ears and darker skin, he lost
some height in the cloning process, too, which
probably did little to put him in a good mood.
He's called "Elvar".
Immorto becomes ReAnimage, and is given the
additional power to resurrect the recently dead,
in effect, healing them and bringing them back to
life. One wonders why his power didn't resurrect
him when he and his team mates were killed, eh?
Quantum Queen's look changed a good deal in
Dillon's designs, silver hair and silver costume,
her powers remained essentially the same. Dartalg
got shafted, if you'll pardon the near-pun,
becoming Dartalon and long lost cousin of
Porcupine Pete! This poor bastard goes from being
just a lame-oid with a blow gun and a goofy
skullcap to a spiny freak that no one wants to
dance with, or stand next to in an elevator.
Psyche's powers were extended a little, but
nothing much.
Sadly, not one of Dillon's simple, elegant
designs survived into the series, where artist Dave Hoover
mangled them beyond recognition. This is what they
appeared like in the series . . .
In this series, the Wanderers travel in one of
the goofiest starships I've ever seen. And I've seen
all the goofy ones! It has to flip over to
land . . . seriously. 180 degrees, ugh! and ugly!
In preparing for this column, I bought a few
issues of the series and the only redeeming factor in the
issues I read were the Ken Steacy covers! There
was this ludicrous and insultingly stupid
storyline about the offspring of "natural" born
beings and cloned beings turning into voracious
life-hating monsters capable of interstellar
travel. Here's a tip for the writers out there. If
you're going to write science fiction, READ some
science fiction and while your at it, read some
FRIGGIN' SCIENCE!!!! Ugh! It pains me when I read
these kinds of stories with their transparently
anti-science themes. Science is not a monster, it
is not the enemy!!!
(Steps down from soap box...mutters: Friggin' Luddites!)
Anyway, back to the Wanderers . . .
They managed to remain out of the spotlight in
the 90's revamp of the Legion, as did many other former
supporting cast members, but with this new Legion
series, which I am enjoying immensely, thanks for
asking, there's a chance to bring back the
Wanderers.
Unencumbered by their previous appearances, I am
free to redesign them as I please and how I see them is
more like a team of freelance troubleshooters,
super-powered mercenaries and investigators,
problem solvers, if you will. And, unlike Doug
Moench, I see a need, even a purpose, for
Celebrand. He's the captain of the ship, literally
and figuratively. He's the brains behind the
operation, he's their negotiator and the liaison
with planetary governments. The Wanderers are
hired by governments and corporations to solve
problems that fall outside the law or the usual
societal remedies. Not exactly hired guns, but
they will fight when they have to.
I only gave new names to three of them, I
shortened Dartalg/Dartalon to Dart and made his weapons
throwing darts of various types. Ornito/Aviax is
Avix and I returned his wings, attaching them to
his arms, his entire body is feathered, except for
the mane of blue-white hair on his head. His
homeworld is one of light gravity and he wears a
grav belt when away from home. The starship ISV
Wanderer has gravity set to .4 g as an
accommodation to Avix. Elvo's a good enough name, I
just made him even more alien looking than in the
series. The sword and shield are his weapons of
choice, but like Dart, he's trained in a wide
variety of weapons and fighting skills.
Immorto/ReAnimage is a tough one, I hate both his
previous names, really hate them, so I changed his
name simply to Lazarus. Psyche and Quantum Queen
are good enough names, so they can stay. Psyche is
human, like Lazarus and her powers are essentially
unchanged. Quantum Queen I decided is not human,
she takes humanoid form to suit her companions,
but her natural state is a complex interaction of
energy fields. She is able to assume material form
when she puts forth sufficient effort, but prefers
a more "relaxed" state as a dense plasma state,
faintly radiating in the infra-red. She's a
hottie, yes.
As for Celebrand, as you can see, he's much like
his original look, but no tights.
The black close-fitting suit is the "underwear"
for his vac-suit. Yes, he's got a cigar going
there in his right hand. It's the future, all
cancer-causing elements have been engineered out
of smokes, by them. They eat carnicultured meat on
the Wanderer, too. Take
that PETA and you veggie-nazis!!! The future is
vat-grown, cloned animal flesh, yaaaayy!! (not so
far-fetched, it has been done recently and made
into sausage. "carniculture" learn it, know it,
live it)
Damn, my soap box keeps finding it's way out.
And, just for good measure, the somewhat
retro-style Independent Survey Vessel WANDERER. Because there
are times when you can't wait around for the bus,
or the teleporter, to get you where you're going.
Or, you don't want to be left at the mercy of the
bus driver or the teleport authority. Celebrand's
talent is an almost instinctive understanding of
hyperspatial math and he is able to plot
hyperspace courses with minimal instruments.
Almost "by hand", you might say, though his
intellect is nowhere in the range of the Coluans,
you could say he's very, very smart.
Joe Singleton's Great Big Fat Contest:
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