#tom bierbaum

[onlylonelylatino]

One of Triplicate Girl's three bodies is killed by Computo. Art by Stuart Immonen

[balu8]

Legion of Super-Heroes #1

Five Years Later...

by Keith Giffen/Tom Bierbaum/Mary Bierbaum; Al Gordon; To McCraw and Todd Klein

DC

[nerds-yearbook]

The Pre-Zero Hour introduction of Laurel Gand, Celeste Rockfish, and Devlin O'Ryan was in Legion of Super-Heroes vol 4 6, with a cover date of April 1990. They were created by Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon. ("Legion of Super-Heroes" Legion of Super-Heroes vol 4 6, DC Comic Event)

[smashpages]

Out this week: Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus (DC, $150): 

The future shown in DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, up until the late 1980s, was one filled with hope and inspiration, but that all changed in 1989 with the introduction of the “Five Years Later” storyline. Keith Giffen, Mary Bierbaum, Tom Bierbaum and Al Gordon introduced a bleak chapter in the team’s history, one where they had disbanded following a war between science and magic. Five years later, Chameleon Boy puts the wheels in motion to reunite the team. This well-regarded story gets collected in omnibus form, with this first volume including Legion of Super-Heroes #1-39, Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1-3, The Adventures of Superman #478 and Timber Wolf #1-5.

See what other comics and graphic novels will arrive this week.

[smashedpages]

On this day in 1989, a brand-new Legion of Super-Heroes title debuted by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon. The creators took a completely different storytelling and artistic approach to the future teen super team in this well-regarded volume.

After public sentiment caused Earth's government to turn against the Legion of Super-Heroes, the team disbanded, and our story picks up five year later when Chameleon Boy decides to reform the team. His first recruit is Rokk Krinn, formerly Cosmic Boy, who no longer has his powers.

You can read more about it in this oral history of the "Five Years Later" storyline.

[cryptocollectibles]

StormQuest 4 Issue Mini-Lot (1995) by Caliber Press

Written and drawn by various, covers by Willie Pepperss.

[youtwitinmyface]

Youngblood Strikefile #6

PREVIOUSLY: YOUNGBLOOD STRIKEFILE #5 The Day After, Part 2 Written by Eric Stephenson Drawn by Sam Liu Down in the sewer, Thomas encountered another humanoid monster, who calls himself HUSK. This monster has killed several guards from the same lab that Thomas escaped from. Husks reveals his background, he’s a reject from a government project that was supposed to save him from dying, but instead…

[cantsayidont]

September 1986. ELVIRA'S HOUSE OF MYSTERY was basically just a revival of DC's sting-in-the-tail horror series (which had expired a few years earlier), now hosted by Elvira. Besides this nifty Bill Sienkiewicz cover — whose green skies and the presence of Adam Strange identify the setting as Ranagar, capital of the planet Rann — this issue has some early professional work by Eric Shanower, later the creator of AGE OF BRONZE, who lettered the first of the two main features. I think the Elvira framing sequences may have been written by Tom and Mary Bierbaum, later of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES fame. (They were credited in the previous issue, but not this one.)

[keycomicbooks]

Aliens: Xenogenesis #1 (1999) Tom & Mary Bierbaum Story, Dave Ross Art

#Aliens: #Xenogenesis #1 (1999) Tom & #MaryBierbaum Story, #DaveRoss Art "Xenogenesis" This is it: the future of Aliens starts now with Xenogenesis! https://www.rarecomicbooks.fashionablewebs.com/Aliens%20Xenogenesis.html#1 @rarecomicbooks Website Link In Bio Page If Applicable. SAVE ON SHIPPING COST - NOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK UP IN DELTONA, FLORIDA #DarkHorseComics #KeyComics #ComicBooks #KeyComic #DarkHorse

[mimeparadox]

While the decisions the Bierbaums made in their attempts to make the Legion more diverse were often baffling, especially when seen through contemporary eyes, good god, they wanted it so bad, and it's hard not to love them for it.

“My name is Holt… I’m a friend of Mekt’s.”

Mekt Ranzz & Holt in Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) Annual 3

Bonus:

— Tom Bierbaum (2009)

[why-i-love-comics]

Element Lad info page

written by Tom & Mary Bierbaum art by Coleen Doran, Al Gordan, & Tom McCraw

[onlylonelylatino]

New Earth by Stuart Immonen

[balu8]

Legionnaires #2: In Death's Grip

by Tom Bierbaum/Mary Bierbaum; Chris Sprouse; Karl Story; Pat Brosseau and TomMcCraw

DC

[nerds-yearbook]

DC launched the 4th Volume of the Legion of Super Heroes with a cover date of November, 1989. The issue introduced Loomis created by Keith Giffin, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon. The issue was dedicated to John Forte. ("Five Years Later...", Legion of Super Heroes 1 vol 4, DC Comic event)

[dc-polls]

"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament Entry #34

Shvaughn/Sean

[ID: Cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #1 that says Young Romance. Shvaughn Erin cries into a handkerchief and says, "*choke* He spends so much time saving the world... When will he find time for me?" In the foreground Element Lad looks off into the distance. A narration box reads, "All my life, happiness eluded my grasp... and nothing I ever cared about lasted! Was this the way it had to be with Jan, too? The Elements of Heartbreak!" /END ID]

What Happened?

Shvaughn Erin was a member of the Science Police, the 30th-century cops who assisted (or hindered) the Legion of Super-Heroes. During the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen run in the 1980s, she became romantically involved with Legionnaire Jan "Element Lad" Arrah. This upset some members of the Legion fan community who had a theory that Jan was gay. The character wasn't traditionally masculine, wore pink, and had curly blond hair (look, this just how gay coding worked in the 70s and 80s).

When Giffen and married couple Tom and Mary Bierbaum (who got their start in the Legion fan community) took over the title with 1989's vol. 4 (aka, the "Five Years Later" run), one of the things that Giffen wanted to do was kill off Shvaughn to establish Element Lad as gay. They were already using Jan's archenemy, the criminal Roxxas who years ago had genocided the rest of the his species, the matter-transmuting Trommites, as the villain for the first arc. Shvaughn was eventually spared this fate, but the writers still had to square the circle of why a "gay" character would be involved with a woman. Their solution? What if "she" was a "he?"

I'm going to try to explain the rest of this story in as sensitive a way as possible. This is a story that was written in 1992 by, as far as I know, three cishet people and your millage will vary (and as a cis person myself, I can't really speak to how well this holds up). I will generally be using she/her pronouns when the character is presenting as Shvaughn and he/him when presenting as Sean.

In Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 4 #31, the Earth is recovering from the devastation of losing the moon due to the machinations of the alien Dominators who have infiltrated and subverted the planetary government (note also, the Dominators have an extremely problematic "yellow peril" design so there's a lot going on here). In the midst of this, Jan and Shvaughn meet for the first time in a while. Jan finds out that Shvaughn is going through withdrawal from not being able to obtain the drug Profem. She explains that she had been born male under the name Sean on a very conservative planet. While growing up, Sean developed a crush on Element Lad, who as a teenager was intergalactically famous as a member of the Legion. Thinking that the only way a boy like Jan would find him attractive, Sean started taking Profem, changed her name to Shvaughn, enrolled in the Science Police academy, and eventually became the liaison to the Legion. Now, without access to the drug, Shvaughn is reverting back to her more masculine appearance.

Jan takes all of this in, before telling his former lover that "anything we ever shared physically...it was in spite of the Profem, not because of it!" Shvaughn later runs into the teenage clone of Element Lad from the Dominator's Batch SW6 (we can't get into that right now), and in future appearances shows up fully presenting as masculine and going by Sean. The adult Element Lad goes into a coma and Sean is at his bedside.

Then the Legion gets rebooted in Zero Hour, all of the Legionnaires are teens again with new continuity, and Shvaughn (when she shows up at all) is back to presenting as female with no indication that she was ever Sean. Element Lad (unless I missed anything) is only given female love interests or sexual partners by later writers, or implied to be asexual with a spiritual bend.

While Shvaughn is far from the first female love interest who gets her storyline derailed to support a gay headcanon, it is surprising that it 1. happened in canon and 2. the solution was not to kill her off, but to reveal she is trans (ish?) so the character can detransition back to a man so that his love interest can be gay. What's really weird is that Giffen and the Bierbaums also made canon a romance between Light/Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet, but never felt a need to invalidate their previous relationships with male partners, which maybe points towards the culture of the time's perceptions of male vs. female bisexuality.

--

Tournament polls will be posted after all entries are up. As always you can find all posts related to the tournament using #dc-polls-trh

[protytwo]

Hi! I saw that you’re involved (or used to be involved?) with Interlac, the Legion APA. Is there anywhere where older issues can be read? Even if they have to be paid for to read, I’d love to see the old issues where I know Legion creators shared interviews and insight on the creation of the Legion. Thank you!

I'm sorry, but no. Tom Bierbaum is still talking about his days writing the Legion. But Interlac is informal -- folks sharing their lives and opinions with their fellow Legion fans, with a limited audience in mind. Because people might share personal stuff, or vent about their bosses and workplace, the APA is distributed to fellow participants only. Think of it like a cocktail party on paper. If you thought you might want to discuss your life, opinions, and talk about old Legion comics with 30 other Legion fans, then I could put you in touch with our current Leader. Writing your own zine, and then reading what others are contributing, is a hobby that takes time and a bit of money. But I really enjoy the hobby, and have been doing my own bi-monthly zine for a dozen years now.