All New Collector’s Edition C-55 (1978)
by Paul Levitz & Mike Grell
One of the worst titles ever for a series (more on that later), but THE best issue for any Legion collector. This one is NOT easy to find.
The cover is actually a fantastic wraparound by Mike Grell, and overall one of the greatest DC covers ever published. This thing is just GORGEOUS, not just for the artwork but because this comic is the oversized 10″x14″ tabloid (or “treasury”) format that is rarely used in comics.
Now, the first thing anyone wonders when they read the full name of the issue is “What kind of name is All New Collector’s Edition C-55 !?”
Well, that’s because this title started in 1972 as tabloid size reprints (starting with, of all things, a reprint of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” stories!).
This started as simply “Limited Collectors’ Edition“, until it was renamed as “All-New Collectors’ Edition”.
The series mostly reprinted old stories from Superman, Batman and Shazam, but it has other claims to fame like the “exact reprint” of the first issues of multiple DC characters. In addition to this Legion story, other famous “All-New Collectors’ Edition” include “Superman vs. Shazam!”, an adaptation of “Superman: The Movie” and unquestionably the most famous one, “Superman vs. Muhammad Ali”.
As for why the hell the issues are called C-something… well there are a few of the reprints that are numbered F-something as in “First Edition”, but for the C-issues ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But enough rambling: let’s tackle this larger-than-life (literally!!!) comic, which appropriately begins with a dedication to Legion writers Otto Binder and Ed Hamilton.
We begin with Superboy leaving the 20th century to attend the wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, who are going to resign after that. So we’re still dealing with that idiocy.
This obviously draws a comparison to the first Legion wedding. I find it funny that Saturn Girl wants a small wedding considering that, even if she only invites other active Legionnaires, there’s a minimum of 21 guests.
The fact that two of the founders are getting married at Legion HQ is appropriate, though.
Something is off when he reaches the 30th century: not only he’s not recognized, but the Science Police is far more militarized. They also have skulls on their helmets!
Never a good side having skulls on your helmets.
Superboy is shocked to learn from the other Legionnaires that Earth is under constant attack from other worlds, but Princess Projectra reassures him that this is perfectly normal.
Using her powers to make the scene visually more interesting better illustrate the scenario, Projectra explains that everything went to s#it in 1978, with a nuclear war whose effect are still felt a thousand years later.
Superboy doesn’t remember any of this… which is confusing, because even if this story was published in 1978… Superboy shouldn’t BE from 1978!
If 1978 is the present, that’s when SuperMAN lives: Superboy is from roughly 15 years before that.
Still, I can believe he retains enough knowledge from his various time travel shenanigans to know that there wasn’t a nuclear war in 1978.
That means that history has been changed radically… but God forbit this interferes with the wedding! (???)
Ah, one of the exceedingly rare occasions where Karate Kid’s horrible series is referenced.
Wait… since HIS memories are fine, does that mean that that garbage series took place in an alternate timeline and we can safely ignore it? Now THAT would be perfect, so it’s my headcanon now.
Time for the wedding itself, which… while still being drawn by Grell… is not quite as stunning as the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel.
Compared to that old double-page spread, this is indeed a smaller wedding… the bride and groom only invited the Legion, the Substitutes and RJ Brande.
Too bad Levitz (on the left) and Grell (on the right) decided to photobomb the occasion!
Still, a sweet moment for the culmination of the Legion’s original power couple.
But if there is one constant in superhero weddings, is that they must be interrupted by a supervillain. Or, in this case, by a war!!!
I really like the panel where THE ENTIRE LEGION immediately flies into action. Great use of the additional space granted by the tabloid size!
This is an assault from the Moon colonies, and since their ships are conveniently equipped with red sun radiation they can even take care of Superboy and Mon-El.
This is the moment for Wildfire to show his abilities as the Legion’s current leader!
Too bad that, as we’ve been shown pretty consistently, Wildfire really sucks as a leader.
Meanwhile Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad have been kidnapped by the Lunarites, which at first I thought were either supposed to be aliens or humans somehow mutated from living on the Moon…
But nope: they’re just Chinese!
Still, props to the Lunarites for having build a Lightning Lad-proof prison.
And it also protects them from Saturn Girl’s telepathy because… I’ve got nothing.
Now you might expect the couple to be helpless prisoners the entire issue… but Lightning Lad just escapes anyway!
That was a nice subversion of expectations, but it’s not the last: since the couple escaped and is behind enemy lines, you might think that finding their ship will take the rest of the issue… except that’s specifically why we have Dawnstar in the team!
Good to finally get to see Dawnstar to anything, she’s been surprisingly absent since her introduction.
Levitz takes care of establishing some limits to Dawnstar’s power, though: if it was simply “I can find anything I’m looking for”, that would be WAY too limiting for the stories.
Nice bittersweet moment.
Even without Dawnstar, they do manage to find them… by exploiting the fact that Light Lass USED to have the same powers of Lightning Lad, and that makes it easier to find them with a magnet.
Sounds legit.
Well that takes care of the 30th century plot, for now. But we still have the trouble of someone having changed history, so the rest of the Legion moves to 1978.
Pre-Crisis time travel rules dictate that the same person can’t travel to a moment in time where he/she is already alive, so it means Superboy has to stay inside the Time Bubble.
Why did they bring him along then!? Couldn’t he stay behind to help the rest of the team!?
Don’t feel sad for Superboy, though.
The moment nobody could’ve predicted: the Legion (camouflaged thanks to Princess Projectra) visiting the United Nations!
By investigating the delegates, the Legion discovers that the “time shift” is probably thanks to a mysterious individual who has access to time travel before it’s been invented.
I call bulls#it on “time travel hasn’t been invented in this century”… how many times have we seen Lex Luthor and our lord and savior Professor Potter inventing time machines!?
Well at least the Legion is going to stop the UN from disbanding, right? Right?
Something else I never thought I’d see in a Legion story: a car chase!!!
(also: I’m not entirely convinced the Karate Kid of his own series knew how to tie his shoes let alone tail a car).
Case in point:
The team does finally track the headquarters of the mysterious figure, and I do like the acknowledgment that the powers of Shadow Lass and Projectra have been carrying the entire team so far… it’s a nice balance between the various power levels of the Legionnaires.
Still, whoever is behind it is surely a powerhouse, being able to one-shot Mon-El!!!
Was there seriously ANY doubt about the identity of the bad guy in a story about changing history?
My best guess about the Time Trapper’s plan is that, by changing history in 1978, he will ensure that the Legion will never exist. Which is not consistent with how time travel was supposed to work in pre-Crisis days, but then again Time Trapper always seems to be following his own rules.
Unable to follow Time Trapper (I guess? The story isn’t very clear about that), the Legion returns to the 30th century where Wildfire is STILL an ass.
Wildfire is my second favorite Legionnaire, but I’m with Superboy on this one.
Exhibit #172 of why Saturn Girl is the best.
The caption is right: this is indeed a rare occasion for the ENTIRE Legion to show up at once.
Get used to this representation of the hall, because it’s going to become the standard.
I’m not entirely sure how much sense this makes, considering previous demonstrations of Dream Girl’s power, but this is awesome!
This confirms that the Time Trapper is hiding at the end of time, which… well OF COURSE he is! Not only that’s where he always is, he explicitly said that’s where he was going! I prefer to think that Dream Girl is actually helping them figure out EXACTLY where he is… “the end of time” seems pretty vague.
Interestingly, the Legion is not going to use the Time Bubble to get there.
When I saw the entire roster present in the meeting, I thought it would contradict the trivia I previously mentioned that Levitz never used Tyroc in his classic run.
Then this happens:
Yep! Tyroc doesn’t even get A SINGLE LINE throughout the comic! That’s hilarious!
Anyway, this is actually the first time the Legion travels to the end of time.
Even without Tyroc, we have a pretty huge set of powers to throw at the Time Trapper. Even his hideout proves to be a challenge!
I especially like the speechless page with all the various traps. Good stuff!
Then we get the big reveal: the Time Trapper finally shows his true face!
And his “true identity” (which will later be retconned, don’t worry) is that he’s actually one of the Controllers.
I guess the reason his time manipulation still worked, despite going against the pre-Crisis time travel rules, is that he’s using the Miracle Machine.
The Miracle Machine is stupidly powerful, but there might be a slight design flaw: if your opponent thinks harder than you, they can wrestle from you control of the machine.
This results in the Time Trapper’s defeat, and the proper history is restored. SOMEHOW.
Well at least the marriage still happened.
Bonus: we have several pages about “the origins and powers of the Legion”, with some great Mike Grell artwork. I especially like the one about the founders.
Also nice of them to showcase multiple costumes, although it’s not done for all Legionnaires.
Brainiac 5 is specifically connected to Brainiac 2 (Vril Dox) instead of the original Brainiac.
Always weird to remember that Vril Dox was an all around good guy in pre-Crisis times, as opposed to the jackass of post-Crisis (although I vastly prefer that version).
The weirdest one is definitely Element Lad, who is shown wearing a Kirby-inspired costume that, as far as I know, he has NEVER worn.
There isn’t much new information in these profiles, but there is one mistake: Kid Psycho is identified as a honorary member, while he’s actually a reserve.
We also have the first actual image of the telepathic earplugs:
As well as the transparent skintight spacesuits that don’t typically look THIS kinky:
Legion significance: 10/10
The newlyweds will return to the team rather soon, and their marriage will be surprisingly long-lasting. The Time Trapper being a Controller, on the other hand, will be explicitly retconned as this one being just a pawn of the real Time Trapper.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
There’s something inherently Silver Age in a plan that blatantly ignores the established rules and is thwarted by thinking really really hard.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Easily a classic, but not without its faults. The two main plots (the fight with the Lunarites and the Time Trapper) are not well integrated, and the less said about the Lunarites the better. Still, both Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad shine in most of their scenes, there are a couple of surprising twists, and as a Time Trapper fan I always appreciate when he’s depicted as a threat necessitating the ENTIRE Legion to show up. Extra points for integrating into the story the exclusion of Tyroc, that was legitimately funny.
Time travel doesn’t work like that
A staple of Time Trapper stories. How does Superboy know what happens after 1978 if he’s brainwashed whenever he goes back to the present? How does the Miracle Machine manage to change history? How is everything exactly the same, down to the same exact Legionnaires and the same exact wedding, if the past 1,000 years have been radically different?
We are legion
With Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl moving to reserve status, we currently have 21 active Legionnaires and 8 reserves (the newlyweds plus Kid Psycho, Insect Queen, Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy, Supergirl and Matter-Eater Lad).
Second bonus: one of THE best double page spreads of Legion history.
