The Legion Files > Library > Creators >

 

 

Home
Gallery
Library
Feedback
Links
Search
Site Map

Last updated:
10th Jun 2001
The man himself

Dave Cockrum

Introduction
NB Dave Cockrum now has his own web-site (www.DaveCockrum.com).
The mind-deadingly prolific Dave Cockrum came to the Legion during one of its leanest periods. Over the course of a mere 12 issues, virtually single-handedly, he revitalised the ailing Legion with improved settings, equipment and costumes.

Accomplishment
It was the 1970’s, the Legion had left the Action and Adventure series and was now relegated to a series of occasional back-ups in Superboy, the Legion’s popularity was waning. The art and stories were little better than pedestrian, with settings, costumes and equipment dating from a previous decade and showing their age. With the arrival of Cockrum, the Legion was finally dragged kicking and screaming into the 30th Century.

The then youthful new-comer gave the Legion a face-lift. Enthusiastically, he provided most of the Legion with new costumes many of which continued to be used for many years afterwards. (which only he could interpret well – witness Tinya’s bell bottoms), and the Legion cruisers and HQ were redesigned to give a newer more futuristic feel.

Ever inventive, he was responsible for the introduction Wildfire, the first of a "new wave" of heroes (and my personal favourite - sorry guys) distinguished by having lame or overly complex powers (MatterEater Lad or Chemical King), nor lame code names (MatterEater Lad).

Unfortunately, the stories were still total pants for the most part, illogical, inconsistent, dull and pointless. On one occasion, Superboy was rendered so weak by Green Kryptonite that he doesn’t have the strength to talk, but happily inhales and then expels the Green-K with super-breath, which is inexplicably immune to Kryptonite exposure (a precedent that allowed the TV Superman to pick a lock with nothing more than a tie and super-breath when similarly exposed). Still, with art like this who cared. Not the readers, with revived popularity, the Legion once again took over the comic eventually replacing the Teen of Steel permanently and completely.

Style
Perhaps strangely, his best work is from the start and end of his run. Initially he benefited greatly from working with Murphy Anderson. The art displays a maturity missing from his first solo work on the Legion, however he quickly found his feet and by the time he left the series he was hitting his stride.

Throughout his stay his work exhibits a rich vibrancy which brought the Legion a visual freshness, which even now, over 20 years later, makes it seem new all over again.

Dig Dave's funky alien landscapes

His alien landscapes had a disturbing organic feel well before Giger’s Alien with none of the latter’s disturbing sexual overtones. Sadly while Cockrum’s alien landscapes were unique among his peers they were similar if not identical to each other.

Machinery, too, benefited from the Cockrum touch. He had a way with depicting any metallic object, rendering it sleek and desirable. The Legion now had ships of a majesty to match their prominence.

Contrary to popular opinion not everything he did during this period was solid gold, he was young and raw, and it often showed with ill-proportioned figures and awkward postures. Still, there is no denying the richness and energy he brought to his work, and his run on the Legion showed a steady improvement.

After
Leaving DC and the Legion, Cockrum moved to Marvel and the much-celebrated X-Men taking several potential Legion members and rejects with him including Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus. Cockrum had originally planned NightCrawler to be among the line-up of the Outsiders. Intended as a spin-off to the Legion the series never took off. Murray Boltinoff is purported to have dismissed NightCrawler as "too funny looking".

During his stay at Marvel he did some excellent work on the Avengers, but, I feel he reached his peak with X-Men #107, which introduced the Shi’ar Imperial Guard a rather blatant copy of the Legion. Indeed some costume designs had been originally intended for the Legion. Sadly, after this his work steadily declined, and although he contributed 5 pages to LSH #300 it wasn’t up to his highest standards.

Outro
Despite some misgivings Cockrum is my favourite all-time Legion artist. He brought a new much-needed energy and vitality to an ailing Legion. Without Cockrum it’s doubtful that the series would’ve recovered when it did, if ever. Conversely, if he had stayed with the Legion, who knows, we may now be bemoaning the introduction of the umpteenth L-title

Checklist

Title
Issue
Date Story Writer Inker/Penciller
Pages
Superboy
184
Apr 72 One Legionnaire Must Go! Cary Bates Murphy Anderson
8
Superboy
188
Jul 72 Curse Of The Blood-Crystals Cary Bates Murphy Anderson
10
Superboy
190
Sept 72 Murder The Leader Cary Bates Murphy Anderson
11
Superboy
191
Oct 72 Attack Of The Sun Scavenger Cary Bates  
Superboy
193
Feb 73 War Between The Nights And The Days Cary Bates
(Nick Pascale)
 
10½
Superboy
195
Jun 73 The One-Shot Hero Cary Bates  
9
Superboy
197
Sept 73 Timber Wolf, Dead hero, Live Executioner Cary Bates  
13
Superboy
198
Oct 73 The Fatal Five Who Twisted Time Cary Bates  
20
Superboy
199
Nov 73 The Gun That Mastered Men
The Impossible Target
Cary Bates  
13
7
Superboy
200
Feb 74 The Legionnaire Bride Of Starfinger Cary Bates  
20
Superboy
201
Apr 74 The Betrayer From Beyond
The Silent Death
Cary Bates  
13
7
Superboy
202
Jun 74 Lost A Million Miles From Home
The Wrath of The DevilFish
Lore of The Legion (character sketches)
Cary Bates Mike Grell  

Wiacek

6
14
4
Superboy
205
Dec 74 Lore Of The Legion (character sketches) Cary Bates  
2
Legion of Super-Heroes
300
    Paul Levitz  
5

 


- Home - Gallery - Library - Links -
- Feedback - Search - Site Map -

The Legion of Super-Heroes, all characters and distinctive likenesses thereof ™©®DC Comics. These pages ™©®¥¤µAmnesiac5 and are protected under United Planet statutes relating to intellectual stuff and any naughty sentients infringing such will have their brains sucked out by Tangleweb... so there (hey, I've seen it done, it's not pretty)... or maybe a lecture on the evils of the imperialistic fascist hate-mongering UP, courtesy of Gates (hey, I've seen it done, it's not pretty).

Any mistakes, omissions or trangressions, please let me know and I'll sort it.

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source