If you’re not an Australian Vs. System player (and maybe even if you are), you’re probably wondering, “Who the heck is this guy?”

Well, I’m a thirty-year-old journalist/editor who lives in the Australian city of Canberra (about three hours’ drive from the next Pro Circuit venue, Sydney). Perhaps more revealing, though, is that I’m a massive comic book fanboy and Vs. System freak.

These two passions are what bring me to you today.

At the start of 2006, I had the great honor and pleasure of being hired to do art requests and creative text submissions for the hot-off-the-presses Legion of Super Heroes Vs. System expansion.

So, how did a newbie like me gets an awesome gig like that?

I began playing Vs. System with Marvel Origins and was immediately hooked. In an effort to build the Australian Vs. community and find people to play with, I began writing columns for www.vsparadise.com. Then, UDE made me Canberra’s Premier Tournament Organizer and we established a home for Canberra Vs. at a newly opened comic store called House of Heroes. My status as a columnist and a PTO led to a gig doing coverage for Australian $10K events for Metagame.com; I took over for “The” Ben Seck, the lovable rogue the Vs. world has come to know as TBS and the design lead for the Legion of Super Heroes set.

I guess all the dots should be starting to join up now.

The first thing TBS told me to do after I enthusiastically jumped at this dream job offer was “study up.” I openly admitted that while I was familiar with the Legion of Super Heroes in a general sense, I hadn’t read a single Legion comic, so TBS gave me an extensive reading list:

The Legion of Super Heroes Vol. 4 #0, #62-125, and Annuals #6 and #7

Legion of Super Heroes Vol. 5 #1-15

Legionnaires #0 and #18-81

Legion Lost #1-12 and Legion Worlds #1-6

The Legion #1-38

The Great Darkness Saga TPB

Titans/Legion of Super Heroes: Universe Ablaze #1-4

Teen Titans/Legion Special

Teen Titans Vol. 3 #1-#26

The Death and Return of Donna Troy TPB

That’s a lot of comics, but if there is a better job in the world than getting paid to read about super heroes, I haven’t heard of it. So, apart from some difficulties laying my hands on some of the older comics required, I wasted no time in immersing myself in Legion and Teen Titans lore.

You can use the above list in the same way. It’s a great recommended reading list if you want to learn more about the characters and stories that feature in the Legion of Super Heroes set. I strongly urge every Vs. player to take a trip to the 31st century.

The first thing I learned when researching the Legion is that the future sure has a lot of history; they first appeared in 1958. Worse still, being set in the future puts you at the cruel mercy of “present day” continuity; it’s only natural to expect that the comic creators at DC will try to keep Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman on their toes with ever-changing developments and storylines. But if Michael J. Fox, the Terminator, and Homer Simpson have taught us anything, it’s that messing with the past can have a huge impact on the future. That means bad times for the heroes of the 31st century. The Legion has suffered numerous reboots and ret-cons along the way to ensure that they fit into the broader DC continuity and continue to be accessible to readers.

Despite these tumultuous twists, Legion fans are among the most passionate and dedicated of all fanboys and girls. They love these characters, and the angst and suffering that come with choppy continuity are almost badges of honor. Legion fans are just as tenacious as their beloved characters, and I respect them for it.

This fact also made the task of working on the Legion set very scary. I felt the weight of responsibility to try to ensure that the Legion cards translated all of the drama and fun of the comics onto those little bits of cardboard. Adding to this was the fact that Legion fans all love different characters and different periods of Legion continuity. Selecting the right characters and the right continuity while remaining within the realm of practicality was paramount. I personally didn’t have a lot to do with those decisions, but I can see how difficult they would have been to make.

TBS and the powers that be ultimately decided to focus most of the set on the post–Zero Hour continuity of the Legion. It was understood that this decision would not be controversy-free, but these stories ran from 1994 until 2004, making them relatively accessible to the researchers and hopefully more recognizable and acceptable to the bulk of Vs. System players, most of whom are ages fifteen to thirty.

This continuity was established in “The Legion of Super Heroes Vol. 4 #0” (published October 1994), in which Cosmic Boy, Live Wire, and Saturn Girl save R.J. Brande from assassins and form the core of the Legion of Super Heroes. This issue is specifically represented by those character cards (and by now, most of you will hopefully be aware of something very special about the foil versions of the three founding Legion members), as well as the plot twist Foiled Assassination.

Those Legion adventures continued in The Legion of Super Heroes Vol. 4 #62-121 and Legionnaires #18-77. These stories include the shy Shrinking Violet ◊ Leviathan becoming possessed by the evil Emerald Eye (represented by Shrinking Violet ◊ Emerald Empress); the introduction of the villainous Fatal Five (Future Foes characters The Persuader, Mano, Validus, Tharok, and Emerald Empress); the battle against Mordru, The Merciless; and the Dark Circle Rising (as depicted on the plot twist of the same name and the character Brainiac 4).

Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (often collectively known as “DnA”) took on the books from “The Legion of Super Heroes Vol. 4 #122” and “Legionnaires #78” and wasted no time in shaking things up. First, they had The Blight enslave Earth in Legion of the Damned (depicted on various Future Foes character and plot twist cards). Then they suspended the titles and pitched half the team a whole galaxy away in Legion Lost #1-12 (represented in the set as a plot twist). Meanwhile, the remaining Legionnaires featured in individual stories in Legion Worlds #1-6.

DnA then drew together the Legion stories in a single title called The Legion, in which the lost Legionnaires return in issue #3.

The story arc in The Legion #6-#8 was Terror Incognita, which proved that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ra’s al Ghul, Engine of Change, posing as the slain Leland McCauley, was still trying to take over the world (Return of the Demon’s Head).

Perhaps the most exciting story in the DnA run was Foundations (The Legion #25-30). If Ra’s was a tasty blast from the past, then imagine the might of Darkseid, Evil Reborn threatening the 31st century!

Long before Foundations, though, the Great Darkness Saga was a story arc from the Paul Levitz / Keith Giffen Pre–Crisis on Infinite Earths era published in 1982. It is hailed by many fans as the greatest Legion story ever. In it, Darkseid rises to threaten all existence in the future. In both stories, Darkseid corrupted heroes of the past to create his “Mockeries,” including twisted versions of Clark Kent (Dark Kryptonian ◊ Superboy and Dark Superboy). In Foundations, Darkseid also transported a past version of himself from the 8th century to the 31st century as part of a plot to conquer all existence . . . and destroy a good part of it in the process (Unravel Reality). This drips with flavor from a Vs. System player’s perspective—who wouldn’t want to make Darkseid non-unique and get multiples of Ol’ Rock Face in play at the same time?

Last but definitely not least, the Teen Titans share a lot with the Legion, both in terms of themes and history.

The most recent crossover of the Titans and the Legion featured Connor Kent ◊ Superboy, Inspiration to the Legion—who had been transported to the future just prior to the Legion’s battle against Darkseid—returning to recruit the rest of the Titans to help the Legion fight the Fatal Five. The Persuader used his atomic axe to rend reality and recruit hundreds of alternate versions of the Fatal Five to wipe out the Legion once and for all (Fatal Five Hundred). The story also reunited Bart Allen ◊ Kid Flash, Heir to the Mantle, who was born in the future, with his Legionnaire cousin XS (seen together in Need for Speed).

In returning to the present, the Titans accidentally took a short detour to ten years in their future. Titans of Tomorrow is one of my personal favorites from recent Titans storylines, as the heroic Titans encounter less-than-heroic future versions of themselves. Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Sidekick No More grows up to be the ruthless, gun-toting Tim Drake ◊ Batman. Beast Boy, Party Animal has become the feral Beast Boy ◊ Animal Man, Connor Kent has embraced Lex Luthor as his “Pa” and is now the brutal Connor Kent ◊ Superman, and Cassie Sandsmark ◊ Wonder Girl, Ares’s Chosen is Connor’s dedicated lover Cassie Sandsmark ◊ Wonder Woman. The teen heroes have to fight against their more experienced future selves (Clash of the Titans), which is a fanboy’s dream come true. Luckily for our heroes, their future selves are only the Teen Titans West . . . and Vic Stone ◊ Cyborg 2.0 leads the benevolent Teen Titans East to the rescue!

Geoff Johns (writer) and Mike McKone (artist) combined to put together a great run on Teen Titans, which included the return of Raven, Rachel Roth; Deathstroke’s brutal attack on Bart Allen (Busted Knee); and every Titan (new and old) taking on the charged-up Dr. Light. I can’t recommend Teen Titans Vol. 3 #1-#26 enough to people who haven’t yet read them.

Anyway, that’s it for me. I hope you enjoy these comics as much as I did. See you at PC: Sydney!