Unlike the original incarnation of the Legion, which has had multiple apocryphal stories and so many cameos that I’m not even done talking about them (a couple will show up in the Superman retrospective), the 5YL Legion has had so few of them that I can group them in a single review.
I’ve already mentioned something that is between a cameo and an apocrypha, Ambush Bug Nothing Special from 1992.
But from the same year…
Who’s Who In The DC Universe #16 (1992)
cover by Norm Breyfogle
This “series” was a reference guide, with higher quality paper and loose leaf pages to allow the reader to put the entries in a separate binder.
Play Press actually published an Italian version of this series, and I was able to get my hands on it around the same time when I first read the Great Darkness Saga.
I didn’t have all the issues and I’ve since lost the pages, but for several years they were my only glimpse into what happened to the Legion after the GDS… and it didn’t leave a great impression.
All Legion members were referred to only with their civilian names, and my impression was that eventually everyone either lost their powers or went through horrifically tragic events, or both.
I’m not going to cover those entries (mostly written by the Bierbaums and with Giffen artwork) since there isn’t a “story” to talk about.
There is, however, an oddity in the final issue.
They even advertised the correction for Laurel Gand’s entry, so this had to be important!
The first page has a pronunciation guide. My understanding is that there’s some disagreement in the fandom on how to pronounce Ayla, the name of Lightning Lass; personally I’ve always thought of her name like this.
Sadly there is no entry for Phantom Girl so I still don’t know how the name of her home planet Bgztl sounds.
At least now I know how Kilg%re was supposed to be pronounced, but did anyone really had problems pronouncing Kono and Darkseid?
Also I refuse to accept that the G in G’Nort is silent. Pronouncing it makes the name funnier.
Laurel Gand gets exactly the same pin-up she had in issue 2, followed by an entry written by the Bierbaums.
What was so important to update to advertise it on the cover?
Nothing.
Her whole entry is EXACTY IDENTICAL to what it was previously.
What IS new, and that I think is what was supposed to be advertised on the cover, is an entry on the Legionnaires with a Chris Sprouse pinup.
It comes immediately after Laurel’s entry, so I don’t get why they bothered to reprint hers? I’ve never had a physical copy of this issue, so perhaps there’s something I’m missing.
I believe this is actually the FIRST published look at the Legionnaires outfit, since this issue pre-dates the Ambush Bug cameo by a couple of months.
What is interesting is that this is an earlier concept than what we saw in the Legionnaires series.
This issue was published the same month of Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #27, a full year before Legionnaires #1, and therefore it represents something of a rejected pilot in the sense that THIS was supposed to be the look of the original Legionnaires.
The proper entry, also written by the Bierbaums, begins with a pretty standard retelling of the Legion origin…
…and concludes with the Glorith nonsense.
Spider-Boy Team-Up #1 (1997)
written by Roger Stern & Karl Kesel
pencils by Jose Ladronn
I’ve already reviewed this one, but it bears repeating what an amazing job they did parodying the 5YL grid and mood.
You and me both, Spider-Boy.
Superman/Batman #80 (2011)
by Chris Roberson & Jesús Merino
cover by Fiona Staples
Aside for a fake-out return during the Reboot and cameos during “Legion Of Three Worlds” …both of which I’ll discuss in due time… for the longest time the only mentions of 5YL characters that I can find are brief encyclopedic entries in the DC Comics Encyclopedia.
Until we get a VERY brief cameo here.
It’s a time travel story that involves the Superman and Batman of several eras, most notable the ones from the 853rd century originating in the “DC One Million” crossover.
Among the eras, we get a glimpse of a 31st century where Kent Shakespeare became that century’s Superman.
It’s a scene in the middle of a two-page spread, so the Legion is not even mentioned.
Blue Beetle vol10 #7 (2024)
written by Josh Trujillo
pencils by Adrián Gutiérrez (intro) & Howard Porter (cameo)
cover by Adrián Gutiérrez
It would take Keith Giffen’s death in 2023 to convince DC to make an actual 5YL cameo, as this issue is dedicated to him.
And doing it on the series starring the new Blue Beetle fits since the character was created by Giffen.
The framing device has Booster Gold take the new Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, in a time travel adventure to save the Ted Kord Blue Beetle.
Since it’s a Giffen tribute, the duo interacts with characters who were closely impacted by Giffen.
Like the Justice League International, Ambush Bug and Lobo. And it’s quite meta.
But most importantly for us, this adventure takes them to interact with the Legion.
Who are dealing with B.I.O.N., of all villains.
Naturally, there are two pages with a 9-panel grid to really make this feel like the 5YL era.
Also like the 5YL, the characters are not named and their powers are not explained.
I have no clue whether Celeste Rockfish boosting her strength with her powers (which are yellow instead of green now) fits the original 5YL, since we BARELY got ANY explanation for them.
And that’s it, because Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have to follow G’Nort into another time period.
Considering the various reboots DC has gone through, good luck figuring out if this is the actual 5YL Legion or a counterpart from another Earth.
And that’s it! Even these few appearances took a while to find.
Perhaps not surprising, considering there was no lack of Legion material in the following years, and if there’s apocryphal stories they tend to be dedicated to the Silver Age version.
But it’s been long enough since the end of this era that, given the cyclic nature of nostalgia, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new cameo pop up sometime in the future.
I just pray it’s not a Glorith cameo.
There was some confusion among fans as to whether “Darkseid” was pronounced “dark-side” or “dark-seed.”
I’m surprised that “Roxxas” should be pronounced “roh-shahs.” If a fellow fan spoke this to me, I wouldn’t know who was being referenced. I always pronounced it “rocks-us.”
The pronunciation of Phantom Girl’s home planet is even more confusing because the spelling was inconsistent: Bgztl and Bgtzl. IIRC, the former is pronounced “be-juz-tel” and the latter “be-JIT-zel.”
Phantom Girl’s home planet, when spelled correctly, is Bgtzl. It’s pronounced ‘Bug Tussle’, the same as the original home town of the Beverly Hillbillies, before they moved to Beverly Hills.
Oh, now I have headcanon that Tinya is descended from Granny.
Yeah, Roxxas was the only surprise for me in this list; I had no idea it was pronounced like that.
Also, perhaps bc I speak a Slavic language, with long runs of consonants and words that contain no vowels, I would have never pronounced Bgtzl in any of the ways I see I these comments. “Bug Tussle”? Really? Oh well, I’ll work on that.
So, how would you pronounce “Bgtzl” (I’ll go with Bryant’s claim that this is the correct spelling)?
Jumping into the conversation: if I see the word in an article or if I have to say it, I treat it like an acronym and spell each letter individually.
If it’s mentioned in a comic, I imagine it’s a nearly unpronounceable “bee-gee-zzzztl”.
Another possibility: The planet was founded by Earth natives in the 1970s to escape the domination of “Saturday Night Fever” in popular culture. It was originally pronounced “Bee Gees Toll.”
There would be no vowel sounds, I would simply run those consonants together as quickly and smoothly as my mouth can manage it. So, I guess I would pronounce it as it is spelled: “bgtzl.”
As long as you’re being completist, I think you left out Jo’s minor participation in the Armageddon: Inferno miniseries. I wouldn’t have brought it up just to nitpick an omission, but if these are included, that might as well be…it in continuity, not apocryphal.
I forgot about it until you mentioned it, but I did briefly talk about at cameo when I was covering Mon-El’s appearances.
https://comicsarcheology.com/index.php/2025/04/13/mon-el-intermission-1992/
No worries, I’m always glad to find new cameos!
I stand corrected, thanks. I must have overlooked or forgotten it because the title of the article was about Mon-El.
5YL, besides being the most depressing era, may also be the most isolated. The reboot era legionnaires get a lot more exposure to the rest of the DC universe, showing up everywhere from Guy Gardner, Warrior, to Martian Manhunter, and even Sovereign 7. Even the Bendis era, which was short and awful, only lasting 12 issues, has a six-issue miniseries of standing around and doing nothing with the Justice League.
I think this era having a tough tone to match elsewhere is a factor, but also there’s the problem of this Legion having less access to time travel than in other periods (or at least being more reticent to time travel).
So you have the additional hassle of having to bring other characters into the future to meet the Legion (and eventually go back), as opposed to the Legion traveling into the past.
At least until the time travel shenanigans become so convoluted I’m not surprised nobody wanted to get entangled with those.
One 5YL character did escape and have a career elsewhere. Aria Campbell, aka Gemini, follows Al Gordon to Image Comics, where she’s renamed Skylark, starting with the four-issue Wildstar miniseries. She’s still the inexplicable “step between man and god” and she mentions that she’s from the future.
Image Comics in the 90’s. Best not to go there.
Dammit, now I have to scout for these issues and look for the tiniest possible oblique reference to the Legion.
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You guys are okay if I skip this one, right? I’m not THAT crazy.
By all means. Skip that one.
It would not be the most solid of Legion connections even if she had kept the name “Gemini” and had her own book.