Legion of Super-Heroes #9
Legion of Super-Heroes (Vol. 3) #9 marks the first appearance of Ganglios, the Legion Academy cadet who would go on to join the team as Tellus — one of the first genuinely non-humanoid members in the group's history, breaking a long-standing visual convention for the franchise. His debut in this issue, titled 'Reunion,' arrives at a creative high-water mark: Paul Levitz and Steve Lightle were pushing the title's cast and visual vocabulary in directions the Legion had never attempted before, building toward a class of new recruits that would reshape the team's identity. The issue also continues the story threads — the lost Legionnaires' return and Science Police subplots — that demonstrate Levitz's then-unprecedented approach to ensemble soap-opera plotting in mainstream superhero comics. As part of the landmark Baxter paper series, #9 belongs to a publishing experiment that helped establish the direct-market specialty shop as the center of gravity for the American comics industry.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 3 launched in August 1984 as one of DC's earliest dedicated direct-market 'deluxe format' titles, printed on Baxter paper stock rather than the cheap newsprint used by the concurrent newsstand sister book, Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Writer Paul Levitz carried over from the celebrated Vol. 2 run, but the opening arc saw penciller Keith Giffen depart mid-story, replaced by Steve Lightle, who would handle interior art through roughly issue #15. It was during this Lightle period — which included #9 — that Levitz and Lightle developed the characters Tellus and Quislet together, with Lightle later crediting himself with the idea of introducing the first fully non-humanoid Legionnaires in the team's decades-long history.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Ganglios (Tellus), the telepathic and telekinetic Legion Academy cadet from the methane-ocean world of Hykraius — the first genuinely non-humanoid character to be introduced as a future Legionnaire in the title's history.
- Titled 'Reunion': the story resolves the multi-issue 'lost Legionnaires' subplot, reuniting scattered members including Element Lad with Science Police officer Shvaughn Erin, and features a battle against Sklarian raiders in Hong Kong.
- Written by Paul Levitz; pencilled by Steve Lightle (inked by Larry Mahlstedt), with a cover date of April 1985 and an on-sale date of January 10, 1985.
- Published as part of Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 3, DC's Baxter-paper direct-market series launched in 1984 — one of the publisher's earliest experiments with the specialty-shop format and higher-quality printing stock.
- First appearance of Symyn Zendak (nephew of established Science Police character Kimball Zendak), a minor but noted supporting-cast addition per the DCU Guide.
- The issue also features an early appearance of Gigi Cusimano, the Science Police officer who would become a recurring supporting character throughout the Levitz run.
- Tellus's design was conceived by Steve Lightle, who drew inspiration from a throwaway panel in an earlier Legion issue depicting an unidentified alien at the Legion Academy; Levitz and Lightle co-developed the character's powers and backstory.
- The story was later reprinted in Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #334 (April 1986), the newsstand reprint title that ran delayed versions of the Baxter series for readers without access to specialty shops.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #334 (1986), Les Vengeurs #5 (1986), Les Vengeurs #6 (1986), The Legion of Super-Heroes: The More Things Change #[nn] (2009)
Key issues in Legion of Super-Heroes
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