Adventures of Superman Annual #2 pg 52 (Featuring L.E.G.I.O.N.)

This is the first page I ever purchased from a Comic Art Live event (Spring 2022, to be precise), which I suppose also makes it the first piece of art I ever purchased from any kind of convention!

It doesn't happen very often, but I do enjoy stumbling across pages featuring my favourite characters from comics other than their flagship titles. A page like this, which features the L.E.G.I.O.N. characters most prominently while still having a bunch of great images of Superman, is just perfect for my collection!

This annual saw Superman having to "defend" Project Cadmus after it's breached by an alien with a mind that's a little too similar to Brainiac's for comfort. As it turns out, that mind belongs to Vril Dox II, Brainiac's son, who's come to Earth to track down and kill his father for his numerous crimes. The rest of L.E.G.I.O.N. follows hot on Vril's heels, and we get quite the sequence of unfortunate events where L.E.G.I.O.N. ends up facing off against Cadmus's finest before someone thinks to explain the misunderstanding! This page here takes place after our heroes have been led into the catacombs below Cadmus, and discovered that several failed genetic experiments from Cadmus's past have built a community for themselves in the sewers.

I find the argument between Vril and Superman to be particularly well-crafted. Considering Superman is usually morally right, and Vril is usually logically right, I think the writing stays true to both their characters and lets both of them make some very good points (with just the right amount of levity thrown in by Lobo at the end, there!).

Speaking of Superman, I'm very happy with his presence on this page! Even with a Legion-focused collection, it's not always easy to come across relevant art with him on it. I'm also glad that one of the panels is a great closeup of Lyrissa Mallor, whose presence in the L.E.G.I.O.N. title was all too brief. Lar Gand (not yet calling himself Valor or M'Onel) is here too, and his stint as a L.E.G.I.O.N.naire was even briefer! The art is gorgeous, too. The fourth panel, with Vril and Supes properly facing off, is just golden. I like the "camera" angles Gammill went with for each panel, and it's pretty cool to own a page inked by LSH superstar Dick Giordano without having to pay an arm and a leg for a Bronze Age page! I do have to wonder how the extra shading on the published page was added in, though. There's no evidence of a stat anywhere, so maybe the extra lines were added in by the colourist? At any rate, I'm glad the original art has less shading on the characters' faces.