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Possibly the only interesting thing about this month's
fashion victims is that they were created as an homage
to Marvel's Uncanny X-Men, following the appearance of
the Shi'ar Imperial Guard in X-Men 107 and 108. As
everyone knows, the Imperial Guard is an analog to the
Legion of Super-Heroes, created by Chris Claremont and
Dave Cockrum.
Back in the day, issues, legal and otherwise,
prevented the kind of inter-publisher crossovers we've
become used to in the last 10-15 years. When a writer
and artist wanted to feature another company's
characters in their book, they had to create analogs
of those characters, as with Marvel's Squadron Supreme,
a pastiche of DC's classic Justice League team.
Likewise, appearing in Superboy and the Legion of
Super-Heroes #253 were were introduced to The League
of Super-Assassins.
The League didn't start out as bad guys, they were
made that way by the mysterious Dark Man, who, as the
story unfolded, turned out to be a clone of the Fatal
Five leader Tharok. The clone was made from a cell
sample by one of the scientists who helped rebuild the
cyborg half-body for Tharok. The Dark Man possessed
powers Tharok never exhibited, or had demonstrated in
a much more limited fashion, such as the ability to
control others' minds. The Dark Man also seems to have
had a level of intelligence similar to his progenitor,
whose intelligence was raised by virtue of the synergy
between his brain and the super-advanced computer to
which it was mated. The Dark Man was a kind of psychic
vampire, as well, feeding on life energy in some
fashion. A, shall we say, "less that perfect" clone,
eh?
The League of Super-Assassins were a group of refugees
from the doomed planet Dryad, five human colonists and
one native of Dryad, representing the silicon-based
life forms who were the previous dominant species on
the planet, prior to human colonization. rescued by
the Legion, these youths were brainwashed into
thinking the Legionnaires caused the destruction of
their world and set out to destroy the Legion.
As motivations go, it's not implausible, it's just
that I never liked brainwashing as a plot device.
Plus, it doesn't explain why all the human members
went and joined the Legion of Super-Villains.
So, here they are, in no particular order . . .
Neutrax, which, by the way, is rife with taunting
possibilities, for the less mature super-heroes. Maybe
that's why he sits with his legs spread so wide in all
the Joe Staton illos of the team. Can you say "Ken
Doll?"Neutrax has the power to temporarily neutralized
anyone's powers. Visually, he's a Cyclops analog, with
a beam shooting out of his visor and all, with Charles
Xavier's handicap thrown in.
I designed my own float chair in SketchUp and used it
for both illos. One note here, there's absolutely no
consistency with regard to these costumes, even in the
comics where they first appeared. Probably not until
the LSV story where Jeckie killed Nemesis Kid would
any artist bother making a decision on their costume
details. Just a pet peeve of mine.
This guy goes by Mist Master, which, again, offers
some interesting possibilities, taunt-wise. He has the
power to become mist. Yeah, I know, I'm getting scared
just thinking about it. Get Hal Jordan to come over
and whip up a giant green fan with hi power ring, this
guy is toast. His ability to mist out and reassemble
sort of makes him a Nightcrawler analog, but it's a
bit of a stretch.
I only combined these next two sets because it was
convenient when I was sketching them up.
Blok, who would go straight and become a Legionnaire
was depicted at various heights in his first
appearance. Also, he had distinctive humanoid facial
features which, I suppose, were later chiseled away.
Titania, I kinda like. She's got some of that Big
Barda vibe that I dig.
Again, paired for no good reason . . .
Silver Slasher is, I suppose part Colossus/part
Wolverine. Whatever she is, she's all boring. The
razor sharp nails of doom have been done to death.
Yawn. Plus, she wears a costume the exact same color
as her metal skin. Ugh, we hates it!
Lazon, apart from his name, has the beginnings of a
cool costume. Of course, this could NEVER be allowed
to stand, so each subsequent drawing of him weakens
the design further, in the first story and in later
illos, such as DC's "Who's Who".
He can convert his body into light and throw light
beams around. I guess that makes him sort of a Havok
analog.
So, to bring the X-Men analogy back on track, I
eliminated the Cyclops visor on Neutrax. In fact, I
took his whole mask off and let his chrome dome shine.
In my version, his power is purely psionic and
targeted to the areas of the brain governing the
activation of superpowers. You still have your power,
but you can't find the light switch for a short
period.
I can't say much about Mist Master, except lets lose
that name and call him "Vapor", instead. His power
resembled Metamorpho's, but with fumes.
[Insert obligatory fart joke >HERE<]
I gave him a cloak, because cloaks are cool. Don't
listen to those kids, they don't know what's cool,
wear your cloak with pride!
Back to Blok and Titania. I went ahead and chiseled
off those humanoid facial features and dressed him in
something like one of his later Legion costumes.
With Titania, I tried to evoke a bit of the New Gods
style with her costume. I gave her big, clunky,
ass-stomping boots, because they're vital in many
combat situations. I like her colors.
And last, but not least . . .
Lazon and Silver Slasher--or Slasher--we can see she's
silver, no need to drive it home.
I tried to keep some of Lazon's costume design but
wanted something a bit more "lasery". The symbol on
his chest is loosely based on the symbol on all
lasers' warning labels. I think of Lazon as a photonic
being who settles into a more-or-less solid state at
times. Of course he can fire a laser blast from his
visor, because he's the Cyclops of the team. Also,
he's the least "human" now that his body is composed
of photons. Gives him a bit of that Summers boy angst.
Slasher, well, she's still silver. Her costume is NOT.
I tried to give a silver-wire Wolverine haircut.
Not my favorite group of villains, all said, but not
the worst, either. Wouldn't mind seeing them come back
in some form.
Laters . . .
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