“Who’s Who” was the DC equivalent of the Marvel Handbooks. The Legion was big enough to warrant its own spin-off, which really goes to show both how popular it was and how big its universe was. Just consider that no other DC franchise had its own “Who’s Who”.
While I’m not reviewing the entries themselves, the last three issue do include something worth talking about. The last issue will be the only one to include an actual full story so that will be covered on its own.
Who’s Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #5 (1988)
written by Barbara Kesel & Paul Levitz
pencils by Chuck Austen & Keith Giffen
cover by Greg LaRoque
Man do I miss the LaRoque artwork.
The first story is technically speaking the entry about Legion HQ, but it’s told in the form of TV presenter “Harmonia Dadaesque” being given a tour by Phantom Girl.
Harmonia calls the building “Marvelously impressive”, which is underselling it.
We’ve already seen the schematics of the HQ before, and there’s nothing new worth mentioning.
Although I wonder, were the power dampeners in the prison EVER used?
Harmonia wonders if the Legion security is bad enough to let anyone get inside, but we are reassured that she was scanned thoroughly.
In earlier eras I’m sure they WOULD have let anyone in.
Interestingly, the “Hall Of Heroes” includes Mentalla among the heroes who died in the line of duty. She wasn’t a full member, but I imagine she’s included because she was in the Legion Academy.
An interesting point about the Time-Bubbles™: they don’t need any space for takeoff, so keeping them at the center of HQ does help security.
The Reboot will make a running gag about Brainiac 5 routinely blows up laboratories; the origins of that run deep.
Every time we visit the gym, Shadow Lass seems to always be there exercising in different clothes. And with a different skin color this time… does she need to get more sun or less sun to get back to a healthy blue?
I’m kind of disappointed we never see Colossal Boy or Shrinking Violet use giant or tiny weapons.
In the final page, we learn that Harmonia played Phantom Girl in a holo-movie called “Descent Into Darkseid”, implying that the Great Darkness Saga was adapted into a movie.
I wonder who played Darkseid.
And finally we learn that Phantom Girl was on monitor duty the whole time.
Legion significance: 1/10
It’s fluff, but future stories that give a tour of the Legion headquarters will basically wink at this story. I can think of one waaaay into the Reboot, but they might have done it sooner.
I wish we saw Harmonia more often, she has a cool design.
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
It’s not really a story.
Who’s Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #6 (1988)
written by Barbara Kesel & Paul Levitz
pencils by Grant Miehm
cover by Jim Valentino
Interesting to see Jim Valentino work on something connected to the Legion, considering his role in Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy in the period where they were the Legion counterpart.
This one is a tour of Metropolis, presented by the descendant of Green Arrow who you might remember we last saw in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual v3 #1.
You might remember that Metropolis in the 30th century is WAY bigger than in the 20th, expanding to the point of including both Boston and New York City.
The parallels between the United Planets and the United Nations rarely get more obvious.
We’re going deep with references here: the parade of giant statues of Legionnaires goes aaaaall the way back to the Hamilton era. Apparently they kept the tradition!
Also, notice that the Legion HQ is in Weisinger Plaza. I don’t know if it ever came up in one of my reviews.
The local stadium holding 300,000 seats sounds impressive, considering that as of 2024 the world’s largest stadium is Narendra Modi Stadium with 132,000 seats… but I would have expected a 2988 stadium to be larger than that.
The Interplanetary Zoo is in Westchester District, which I assume covers the modern Westchester County. I don’t think the X-Men would appreciate, since that’s where they live at Marvel.
The Fusion Powerphere™ is specified to be providing 5 billion megawatts of energy.
By comparison, based on the sources I was able to find: in 2024 that’s enough to power the entire United States for about 1.25 years or the entire planet for 32 hours.
I always thought the Legion Academy was closed to the HQ, but apparently that’s all the way up to Montauk.
30th century Metropolis also includes Boston, and that’s where Metropolis University is located.
I’m assuming this means that Metropolis University is supposed to be both Harvard and MIT combined.
That’s also where the Time Institute is located.
The story began with a map of Metropolis, and the legend is spread throughout the rest of the story.
1= Manhattan (Presidential Palace)
2= Legion Headquarters
3= Westchester District (Interplanetary Zoo)
4= The Palisades
5= Fusion Powersphere
Which helps us figure out the real-life location of Legion HQ. Which we always assumed was where the 20th century Metropolis used to be.
Which would translate the Legion HQ being somewhere between Brooklyn and Queens.
I wonder if there’s any significance to this… but Levitz is from Brooklyn. Coincidence?
Legion significance: 0/10
Fluff.
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
This one is even less of a story than the previous one, but it includes more information. Which is not surprising, considering it has a whole city to describe.
It’s very cool to see that all the Earth locations we typically visit in Legion stories are not all in the same place: since 30th century Metropolis is so big, they’re spread over a much wider area than you’d think.
Regarding Mentalla, I’m pretty sure it was stated that she was awarded membership posthumously. Her statue’s presence among the other deceased members only codifies that.
Most DC atlases put Metropolis in Kansas or Missouri, relatively close to Smallville. It makes more sense for Metropolis and Gotham to cover New York City. But I might be prejudiced given that I’m on Long Island.
I was under the impression it was somewhere in Delaware, but I don’t have a source for that.
A number of non-Legionnaire heroes – Beast Boy of Lallor, for example – have been shown to have statues in the Legion’s Hall of Heroes. So Mentalla could just be there as a fallen hero, not a fallen Legionnaire. A letter-writer definitely suggested posthumous (honorary?) membership for her, but that was never taken up in-story.
I’m pretty certain that Metropolis has been said by DC Atlases to be in Delaware, though I don’t have a definite cite.
Oh, and also, that placement for Legion Headquarters is pretty comfortably in Queens, not borderline Brooklyn.
Harmonica has a design that really looks like it uses the classic Archie Comics house style – she’d fit in over there (maybe in a Josie and the Pussycats book or something) with no trouble at all, especially as portrayed in the last panel here. Just look at those eyes!