The Dork Review

Clipped from CBR and written by Paul Newell:

What the heck do some of the terms that Legion fans use mean?

Some common terms used about the Legion:

THE ADVENTURE LEGION- Term used to describe the Silver Age Legion appearing in Adventure Comics.

ADULT LEGION- The Legion, in their early days, occasionally fought an adult Legion of Super-Villains, supposedly from their own future. This future was revealed briefly in Action Comics #289 when Superman visited the Adult Legion. But when the term is used it generally refers to Jim Shooter’s 2 part story in Adventure Comics #354 and #355. This story foreshadowed much of the Legions future, who would marry, who would die, etc. Many of this foreshadowing was used over the years until LOSH (V3) #300. Shadow Lass, or Shadow Woman as she became in that issue, was fated to die defending the Science Asteroid. Instead, she survived when the Khunds attacked the Asteroid. Any anomaly was explained away by alternate realities of the Legion, which Ferro Lads brother, Douglas viewed throughout the issue, eventually escaping to one.

THE DISCO LEGION- Name given by many fans to the Legion period appearing during the 70's. The term is a humorous reference to the skimpy redesigned outfits given to the Legion members by Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell.

PRE-CRISIS/POST-CRISIS- The Crisis divide happened between issues #18 and #19 of Legion of Super-Heroes (V3), though it would take a few issues to eradicate Supergirl from history. This would be the only major effect.

POCKET UNIVERSE- The Superman Revamp by John Byrne revealed that Clark Kent was never Superboy, the keystone of Legion Lore. So it was revealed in the Cosmic Boy mini-series, which tied into the Legends mini somewhat, that history had been changed. Cosmic Boy finds that it has something to do with the Time Trapper and warns the Legion in Legion of Super-Heroes(V3) #36. In issues #37 and #38, it’s revealed that during the Crisis, The Trapper “trapped” a pocket of time from the Pre-Crisis Universe. One containing an Earth with Superboy living in Smallville. Whenever The Legion had traveled back in time before Cosmic Boys sojourn, they were in fact entering this “Pocket Universe” rather than the actual 20th Century. The whole thing was a trap that would collapse this “Universe” and killing the Legion. Superboy, who died as a result, saved the Legion, however. This way, Superboy was shown to have always been a member of the Legion, as well as the Pocket Universe counterparts of Lana Lang, Pete Ross and Jimmy Olsen.

5 YEAR GAP/THE GAP/V4- When Keith Giffen took over as writer of the Legion after Paul Levitz had “retired”. He decided he wanted to take the Legion in a new direction and leave Levitz’s Legion as is. So V3 was cancelled and a new volume of Legion of Super-Heroes started at #1. The first page was one panel saying “FIVE YEARS LATER”. And the story continued showing that the Legion had disbanded in that time. Generally the stories in the time between #1 and Zero Hour and the events that happened off panel between the two series, are referred to by the above expressions.

MORDRUVERSE/GLORITHVERSE - When V4 of the Legion started, a edict came from the Superman office that all ties to the Superman mythos should be ended. To accommodate this, A story was written in issues #4 and #5 where Mon-El, Lar Gand, fights the Time Trapper and wipes him from existence as well as the Pocket Universe. It’s revealed that the Trapper was a counterpoint to the rise of Mordru, one of the Legions greatest foes. Because the Trapper and his Superboy, the inspiration of the Legion, ceased to exist, The Legion never came to be and Mordru ruled all. This alternate reality is the "Mordruverse". With the help of some “Legion members”, Glorith, a minor flunky of the Trapper from an early story, replaced the Trapper in the timestream. The Universe was restored, but now the inspiration of the Legion was Lar Gand, renamed Valor. Later, Mike Carlin, then editor of the Superman titles, realised that this now invalidated the new Supergirl’s origin and the Pocket Universes existence was hastily replaced in LOSH V4 #14 & Adventures of Superman #478. Though now Superboy had only met and became a member of the Legion a few weeks before the Pocket Universe Saga. The Timeline was still changed with Glorith being the Time Trapper throughout the Legions history. This reality is the "Glorithverse".

TMK- Abbreviation used for the initial V4 creative team. Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Keith Giffen.

SW6 LEGION- In issue #21 of V4 some mysterious new characters appeared. They would eventually be revealed in Issue #24 as youthful counterparts of the now Adult Legion. At first thought to be Dominator clones of the Legion, taken from their “Adventure Comic” days, they eventually split off into their own title, “Legionnaires”. When first discovered, the Dominators, who had been mind-wiping groups of super humans to build an army, had categorized them as Batch SW6.

END OF AN ERA- Six issue tie in to Zero Hour tying up the loose ends of the “original” Legion and wiping them from existence in preparation for the Reboot.

The story appeared in Legion of Super-Heroes (V4) #60-#61, Valor #22-#23 and Legionnaires #17-#18.

REBOOT/PRE-BOOT/POST-BOOT- With Legion of Super-Heroes (V4) #0 and Legionnaires #0 the timeline rebooted from the start with these issues showing the formation of the Legion. The stories before are referred to as the PRE-BOOT Legion, those from the zero issues onwards as the POST-BOOT Legion.

ARCHIE LEGION- Name some fans give to the Post-Boot Legion, due to the more "cartoony" artwork that was used at the time.

DnA LEGION- Abbreviation standing for Dan and Andy, when talking about the writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning run.

THREEBOOT- Term describing the second Legion reboot as created by Waid/Kitson.

RETROBOOT LEGION- Term describing the new version of the Pre-Crisis Legion written by Geoff Johns and Paul Levitz.