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Well, this month marks ten years I've been doing Artistic
License and I have something special, this time around.
Special for me, anyway, and a lot of work.
I decided, with this being my anniversary year, and it
being the anniversary of the Legion of Super-Heroes (Yes,
this is another LSH column) I would do as many
Legionnaires as I could. I didn't do every single Legion
character, whaddaya think I am? A masochist? George
Perez? What I did was take every Legion character that I
ever gave a damn about and gave them a new look. For
some, I tweaked the costumes I thought were definitive
for the character, others, I just did something more to my
tastes.
For instance, the first victim is Rokk Krinn, Cosmic Boy. I
always like Cos, before the Archie Legion years, and even
then, I liked the costume design better than most of his
earlier suits. For my design, I merged a couple of his
costumes, borrowing the metallic elements of the Grell
suit and reworking the black areas of the later design.
I never liked the pink or purple color schemes, and
decided on something redder.
I did these in no particular order, but it's only fitting to do
the original Legionnaires first, so next up is Saturn Girl.
Imra Ardeen has usually been portrayed as steady and
level-headed and I tried to design a costume that works on
that level. It has a bit of a military style to it, which some
of her outfits have exhibited over the years.
Instead of basic red and white, I shifted the red into the
magenta area a bit.
Of the first three, Lightning Lad's costume was both the
easiest and hardest to decide on. I haven't liked any of the
recent LL suits and think it's a mistake to toss out great
design work, just to claim "change" and Dave Cockrum's
classic 70s design works on so many levels, I merged it
with elements of Garth's earlier suit. It was difficult to
choose the critical elements and avoid changing too much.
In the end, I tweaked Cockrum's design only in the details,
eliminating the gloves and adding the white stripe at the
top of his boots, like his earlier costumes. I almost added
some orange elements, but it just didn't work.
From there, we move into more random additions.
For Brainiac 5, I wanted to evoke the old purple coverall,
but make it a bit more functional. Pockets are a techie's
best friend, so I gave him cargo pants and the jacket
conceals pockets on the top of the coverall.
Phantom Girl gets a redesign of my favorite costume for
her. I always liked that suit with the cutaway panels and
the bell bottoms.
Princess Projectra was tricky. See, most of her costumes
have been pretty plain, or so freaking revealing that it
almost makes me blush to draw them. (out of a sense of
decorum, I won't mention the years she spent being
impersonated by giant snake from an oppressive culture of
psychic slaveholders) I wanted something for her that
maintained her modesty, considering she's from a society
that's roughly equivalent to medieval Earth (or was, at any
rate, in the original version, not enough is known about
Orando, in the latest incarnation to say).
Next I have Matter-Eater Lad, the character with arguably
the worst name in comics (we all eat matter, after all).
However badly conceived he might have been, Tenzil Kem
is one of the favorite characters among Legion fans and
creators. A guy who eats stuff is a natural for comedy, and
that's been his role at least as much as his serious
appearances. For Tenz, I just reworked his old costume
and simplified elements of it.
Next I have another group shot.
Dream Girl in something like her classic 70s silver suit. I
tossed out the oddly shaped bracers and boot tops.
Bouncing Boy is one of my favorites, I borrowed elements
of his various costumes over the years and streamlined
them a bit.
For Shrinking Violet, I went back to her Cockrum costume
for most of it, but thought this was a good costume for the
billowing sleeves.
Next up, a bunch of guys.
The Cockrum costume is my favorite for Element Lad and
so I used most of that for mine. The fingerless gloves are
because in most of his costumes before this, we wore no
gloves. This is a compromise that works, I think.
Again dipping into the Cockrum and Grell well, with
Colossal Boy. Trying to lose the shorts and so this is a
combination of several of his costumes.
Ferro Lad is another character I like, and so I reworked a
couple of his costumes into this.
Star Boy combines elements of the current incarnation of
the character with the Silver age version.
Mon-El, another favorite of mine that needs no work. Just
keep the jacket loose and the cape voluminous and I'm
cool.
For Triplicate Girl, I tried to borrow from the reboot and
threeboot versions of the character. I don't think she
needs the cape she's been sporting in the recent series.
Mmmmm, Shady...
Shadow Lass is one of those characters I have always had a
"thing" for. For her, I tried to go back to some of the
classic Silver age costumes. Doesn't need to be revealing
to be sexy.
I was torn with Ayla Ranzz, should I do Light Lass or
Lightning Lass? Well, when I first got into the Legion, she
was Light Lass, so that's the powers I chose to evoke. I
borrowed mostly from the threeboot costume by Barry
Kitson. The upward arrows work better for her than the
stupid feather ever did, as emblems.
For me, the Legion ain't the Legion without the Krypton
contingent. Not much I would want to do with Superboy's
costume, but here's another take on Supergirl, based on my
favorite costume for her.
I always thought keeping Night Girl out of the Legion
because her powers don't work in daylight was weak.
Superboy's powers only work when there's a yellow sun and
they let him in. There's dark on every planet in the UP,
plus, team her with Shady and you have an unbeatable
duo!
Now, normally, I wouldn't touch Ultra Boy's costume. His is
one of the classics that I think needs no work, but I
sketched out this idea and decided to include it.
Timber Wolf is another character I first encountered in the
Cockrum and Grell era. That version will always be my
favorite and nobody but Dave Cockrum could ever get that
hair to look right. My version combines elements from
several earlier designs and uses a brown and tan color
scheme that I think works well for him.
Chameleon Boy is another difficult one. He's been saddled
with some bad costumes in the past, as well as some bland
ones. I tried to evoke the look of the 70s costume, but
with a style that integrates the elements into the over-all
design.
From my earliest days reading the Legion, two of my
favorite characters were Wildfire and Karate Kid. In fact, I
think Karate Kid was the first Legion character I ever
drew, copying a scene from the origin story.
Wildfire has one of those costumes I love. It's bold and
bright and it needs no alteration, but then, what would I
do in this space? So, I kept the elements that are essential
and I reworked the lines.
For KK, I changed the colors a bit and toned down the
collar from his black and white suit. I like brown and think
it works great for the boots, instead of white.
Sun Boy has almost the same colors as Wildfire and some
similar special effects. He's something of a ladies' man and
so I thought his suit should have a more "dashing" look.
Chemical King had one of the blandest costumes in comics.
In fact, it looked more like 30th Century business attire and
anything. For my version, I tried to keep something of that
look, but a little more casual looking.
Dawnstar is another favorite of mine, though her powers
always bugged me, being able to fly through space at
faster-than-light speeds and all that. Still, I love wings. I
tried to get a bit of her original Mike Grell costume in
here.
Now, we're getting to the more random characters that I
liked from my early years of reading comics.
First, here, is Jed Rikane, a character who was later given
the name Power Boy, but in his first appearance, he was
just a muscle guy who could control his density and carried
a sidearm. Later appearances usually left off the sidearm,
but I kept it, because I think it's a damn good idea. Plus, it
makes him different from the other characters around
him. I made almost no changes to the costume, just made
the shirt fit less like a second skin.
Did they ever give Laurel Kent an official superhero name?
I don't think so. She was supposed to be a descendant of
Superman, with only one of his powers, she was
invulnerable. She had one of those great sexy 70s costumes
and I've used those lines here, but added the color and the
S-shield. No, she is NOT a frakking Manhunter! Her hair is
really long because, what are you gonna cut it with?
Shadow Lad is Shadow Lass's brother, they both got their
powers at the same time and he was cooling his heels at
the Legion Academy for the longest time. I did a complete
redesign on him. His old costumes looked like he borrowed
his sister's clothes -- seriously.
Another almost total redesign is Tyroc.
For Polar Boy, well, why does a guy from a hot planet
need a lot of insulation?
White Witch, because every team needs a dabbler in the
mystic art.
Gates, because I enjoyed his Marxist diatribes, especially
when he was commenting on the United Planets which
always seemed to be sort of "UN-meets-European style
social democracy". I guess they weren't socialist ENOUGH
for Gates. The only thing that was missing was an opposing
voice to debate him. I always thought Timber Wolf would
make an excellent foil for Gates, if he was written in the
style of science-fiction author L. Neil Smith. It would have
been fun.
Lastly, I have a trio of later Legion characters who
appeared in the reboot era. XS, because what's a DC
super-team without a "Flash"? Kinetix, though I would want
to see her powers better defined. And Thunder, because I
like the idea of the Marvel family continuing into the
future.
Well, that's all folks. Thanks for sticking with us for ten
years and I hope we can do it for another ten!
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Copyright © 2008 Joe Singleton
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