Newsboy Legion
Newsboy Legion (German: Legion of the Newspaper Boys ) is the title of a series of comic stories published by the US publisher DC-Comics since 1942.
In terms of genre, the newsboy stories, which focus on a group of smart newspaper boys, are a mixture of adventure and crime comics . Science fiction and fantasy have also found their way into the series since the 1970s .
Release dates
The spiritual father of the newsboy stories was the American Jack Kirby , who first introduced his creation in a story published in the comic book Star Spangled Comics # 7 from April 1942. This story - which Kirby drew and wrote with his partner Joe Simon - introduced the characters and the setting of the newsboy stories - the urban slum of the so-called "Suicide Slum" - and also developed the first storylines of the series.
For nearly five years, DC published more newsboy stories in Star Spangled Comics , until the series after issue # 65 of January 1947 was removed from the series to make room for other features.
In the early 1970s, Kirby - by now the most popular author and illustrator in the American comic industry - returned to his youth project and created new newsboy stories adapted to the changing zeitgeist, which DC published in the series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen .
In the late 1980s, the authors Roger Stern and Jerry Ordway took over most of Kirby's newsboy concepts and built them into the series they oversee about the superhero Superman, in which the newsboys are still occasional supporting characters and main characters in sub-plots or backup stories figure. DC also publishes special editions from time to time such as the 1994 miniseries Guardians of Metropolis written by Karl Kesel , which focuses on the Newsboy characters.
action
The early 1940s newsboy stories describe the adventures of a clique of four newspaper boys who live in a squalid neighborhood of New York City. The adventures varied between intricate everyday problems, such as child care attempts to get hold of them, arguments with other child gangs and pranks that the newsboys play on adults around them, and "serious adventures" such as fights against criminal gangs such as Intergang and - through conditioned the zeitgeist of the war - against German and Japanese spies and saboteurs.
The "Legion" consists of four boys: the handsome Thomas Tompkins, called Thommy , the leader of the group, the smart nerd Anthon Rodriguez, who is called Big Words because of his tendency to knock on words , the daring and hot-headed Patrick MacGuire, called Scrapper , and the playful John Gabrielli or Gabby , a particularly dreamy and playful boy with a vivid imagination.
The newsboys, all orphans, owe their gang names to the fact that they earn their living by delivering newspapers. After the newsboys, despite their inner noble character, came into conflict with the law on various occasions, the policeman responsible for their district, Jim Harper, took them under his wing and became their guardian and foster father. Together with Harper, who secretly leads a double life as the "superhero" Guardian , the Newsboys have a series of further adventures: They compete against criminals like Boss Moxie and the Crazy Quilt and try to prove Haprer's identity with the Guardian - the they suspect but not know for sure. Harper always denies this and can ultimately always thwart the newsboys' attempts to unmask with playful trickery.
The early newsboy stories eventually end with Harper being shot dead by a criminal on one of his missions.
The "modern" newsboy stories of the 1970s start there again: In Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 133 from October 1970, the four adult news "boys" who are now respected scientists in the so-called "Cadmus Project" - one strictly secret genetic research facility of the US government, whose headquarters are located in a huge futuristic bunker complex consisting of miles long corridors below Metropolis - Harper to new life by reconstructing the dead person's consciousness and transplanting it into a clone body of his old body. The four newsboys now also have their own sons who will support the "reborn" Guardian on his new adventures. The main adversary of the cloned newsboys is Dabney Donovan, a former Cadmus chief scientist who has gone mad. Her main allies in adventuring are Harper, the young reporter Jimmy Olsen and his friend, the superhero Superman and Angry Charlie, a wood-eating purple "cuddly monster" created by Donovan.
In the 1980s, however, the background story of the second generation of newsboys was drastically changed in the Superman Annual # 2 from 1988: Author Roger Stern established there that the second newsboys are not the sons of the first, but that they are This is about identical teenage clones created by an alien named Sleeze while he temporarily took control of the Cadmus facilities: In this incarnation, the teenage second newsboys miraculously share the childhood memories of their genetic fathers up to a certain age, like this that it seems to them that they have experienced their adventures themselves. There are also two new newsboys, Walter Johnson, called Flip , the clone of a black-skinned director who was not a member of the original newsboys, and Roberta Harper, called Famous Bobby , a great-niece of Jim Harper.
Once again placed under the supervision of Harper (the clone), the cloned newsboys resume their old adventurous routine. In addition to the Guardian, Superman, Jimmy Olsen, and the youthful Superman clone Superboy, created by Cadmus during Superman's temporary demise, are frequent "accomplices" at their side.
The modern adventures of the newsboys include, among other things, constant attempts to "escape" from the Cadmus facilities in order to experience new adventures in the Suicide Slum, adventure rides in the Whiz Wagon, a flying convertible, the liberation of Superboy, a creation of Cadmus. Project, from the laboratory wing of the facility and finally the return of the stolen "corpse" of Superman to his bereaved. Even later, both generations of newsboys leave Cadmus when it is taken over by an ominous government official named Mickey Cannon and move into a workshop in the suicide slum.
Minor characters
Villain characters
Dabney Donovan
Dabney Donovan is a brilliant scientist who used to be a director of the Cadmus project and is now one of the main enemies of the newsboys and Superman. Donovan, whose most noticeable feature is welding goggles that he wears almost constantly on his face, appears for the first time in the issue of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 142 from October 1971 (author and illustrator: J. Kirby). There he is presented as an eccentric geneticist who lives only for his research - untouched by ethical considerations - which essentially results in the production of new clones.
In his debut story, Donovan is introduced as a former Cadmus director who breaks up, fakes his own death and goes underground after a falling out with the other Cadmus directors who accuse Donovan of unethical work practices. He set up his own laboratory deep in the catacombs below Cadmus and continues the production of his clones there. These creatures, with which Donovan repeatedly attacks Metropolis, pose new problems for Superman and the Cadmus staff. His "trademark" is that he seems to die again and again, only to return, which is mostly due to the fact that these dead are only clones that Donovan made of himself, while the "real" Donovan ( Donovan Prime ) has already escaped unscathed.
Over time, Donovan has created countless creatures who face the Newsboys and Superman partly as friends and partly as enemies. So the Hairies, the DNAliens, the underworlds who live in the sewers of Metropolis, and the clones of the scientists Mokkari and Simyan, who came from Apokolips . Another creation of Donovan is the miniature planet Transylvania, which is colonized by microscopic creatures that Donovan has modeled on his favorite characters from horror films.
Later, Donovan and the Japanese Doctor Teng create a new, younger and healthy clone body for Lex Luthor , who has incurable cancer , into which the two scientists finally transplant Luthor's brain. When Luthor tries to murder a disliked accomplice of his rebirth, Donovan escapes and becomes Luther's enemy. From then on, Donovan used his energy to sabotage Luther's business and his company LexCorp. So he instigates a group of Jimmy Olsen clones on Luthor and unleashes a "clone search" that ruins Luther's clone body. Donovan also uses the chaos caused by the plague to assassinate Cadmus director Paul Westfield.
Donovan later joins the Intergang crime syndicate , which he becomes aware of when he accidentally discovers the 90-year-old Moxie in the catacombs below Cadmus. Afterwards Donovan clones Moxie and his deceased gang members - typical gangsters of the 1940s - and gives them a "new" life, which they use to take up their old job again. Together with Luther's abandoned wife, the Contessa del Portenza , Donovan later instigates a Superman clone he created named Bizarro on Luthor, who kidnaps his daughter Lena and can only be defeated by Superman's intervention ( Superman: Forever # 1). Donovan is finally seized by Superman and returns to Cadmus as an "arrested advisor".
Adaptations
On television, the newsboy had a Cameoauftritt in the episode "Patriot Act" of the series Justice League ( Justice League Unlimited ).