L.E.G.I.O.N. '92 Annual #3 pg 55

I've collected a lot of art in the last four years, but this page here is one of my very favourites! I won it at Heritage last year, after one of the strangest (and most brutal) bidding wars I've ever seen, but it was well worth the effort. Also, this annual had five inkers, so I'm not sure who exactly inked this page, but if anyone has an idea, please do let me know!

This is one of the last pages of the third L.E.G.I.O.N. annual (my favourite of the title's five annuals), and it's a part of DC's 1992 Eclipso: The Darkness Within tie-in event. Vril Dox has brought L.E.G.I.O.N. to Earth under the pretense of meeting with the United Nations to see if Earth is fit for L.E.G.I.O.N. membership, but his true objective lies with procuring one of Eclipso's black diamonds for study. Unfortunately, fellow L.E.G.I.O.N. team member Lady Quark ends up possessed by Eclipso via the diamond, and when the Justice League gets called in to deal with the commotion, she ends up defeating them all and escaping. This page here deals with the aftermath, where Vril's deputy Phase finally gets him to come clean about his real intentions (and, of course, they're still in their formal wear from the U.N. gala, just a little disheveled from the fight).

I cannot overstate how much I love this page. I really, really can't. It features L.E.G.I.O.N. members Vril Dox, Phase, Stealth, Garv, Strata, Telepath, and Lobo, along with Justice Leaguers Fire, Ice, and Booster Gold (plus some random police officers)! As a Legion collector, it's of course rather rare to get the chance to pick up art that features non-Legion characters, and I'm delighted to have a page that features the Justice Leaguers, especially Fire and Ice. And, as a pseudo-connoisseur of comic art that features characters outside of their typical uniforms, I looooooooove that I landed a page with the characters in formal wear. This annual is one of only a few L.E.G.I.O.N. issues where any of the characters are shown out of uniform, and the fact that they're all dressed up is just the icing on the cake. I especially love Stealth's dress (and I'm gonna have to ask Jeff Moy or Barry Kitson for a commission with her wearing it, someday). On a random note, I think this is the only published page I own that features an honest-to-goodness car, which I suppose is kind of hard to come by when you only collect from titles set in the future or in deep space. It's a very well-drawn car, and I love the reflections of the surrounding buildings in its windows.

Another big star of this page is the interactions between Vril and Phase. Their dynamic has always been one of the best parts of the L.E.G.I.O.N. comics, and I'm really glad this page has all the pasted-on word bubbles still attached so you get every word of their back-and-forth.

I could say I bought this page because I love the crossover with the Justice League, or because I love the giant splashy panel that features almost every character that starred in this annual, or because I love the everpresent drama between Vril and Phase. But the honest truth is that it features Vril Dox in a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his tie undone, and that makes it more precious than gold, in my eyes. ;)