Today in Comics History, February 5: Happy birthday, Shadow Lass!

It's a dark day, a very dark day indeed. But that's no reason not to celebrate, because it's the one-thousand-years-in-the-future birthday of Shadow Lass, Damsel of Darkness Tasmia Mallor out of the Legion of Super-Heroes!


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda



Now, I've featured a few of the DC superheroes so far in this here Born on This Day feature, and it got me to thinking about the aliens. Surely they don't have a February, or a fifth! I would think it's much more likely that Tasmia was born on the Gladmir of Zeezth. Even if that corresponded to February 5, the different periods of circumanavigation around their sun would give an alien a different Earthbirth-day every year! My guess at a DC No-Prize is that by the era of the Legion, the United Planets has standardized time reckoning and universal calendars so they all align and therefore Shadow Lass's birthday does line up, thanks to bureaucracy, with Earth's February 5! There's a lot of time manipulation and changing the clock in there somehow, which explains how in her very first appearance, Shadow Lass is already dead.



from Adventure Comics #354 (DC, March 1967), cover pencils by Curt Swan, cover inks by George Klein, cover letters by Ira Schnapp; script and interior layouts by Jim Shooter, interior pencils by Curt Swan, interior inks by George Klein, interior letters by Milt Snapinn
This explains why all of Shadow Lass's future adventures were "Weekend at Bernie"-style madcap laugh-fest where Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid lugged her around and operated her like a puppet on Legion missions.

Naw, I kids the Legion, 'coz I'm wacky, and anyway, that's actually the future of the LSH we're seeing there (and I'm never certain whether it didn't come to pass anyway). In the good old-fashioned sixties...twenty-NINE-sixties, that is, Shadow Lass's true first appearance is when she joins the Legion on a mission about a dozen issues later because, as Brainy points out, she's got great hips.


from Adventure Comics #365 (DC, February 1968), script and layouts by Jim Shooter, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by George Klein, letters by Morris Waldinger (?)
Say, what powers do you have, Shadow Lass? Oh, that makes sense.


Suddenly! All the Legionnaires, including the New One Whose Power Can Be Duplicated by Turning off a Light Bulb, are trapped in specially designed cells to counteract their powers! Except for Matter-Eater Lad, who for some reason was confined to a cell made of cheese.


Luckily, Tasmia escapes from the cage specially designed to combat her powers by...using her powers. Well, that'll work, too!


Thus Shadow Lass becomes a member of the Legion, and the rest is Blue History.

Let's learn about the Legion Department:


from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985 series) #20 (DC, October 1986); pencils and inks by Steve Lightle; colors by Anthony Tollin, Len Wein, Tatjana Wood, and/or Tom Ziuko; logo design by Todd Klein


from Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #6 (DC, October 1988), text by Barbara Randall, research consulting by Paul Levitz, pencils and inks by Kyle Baker, colors by Carl Gafford
In the post-Zero Hero version of the Legion (my favorite!), Tasmia was renamed Umbra ella ella ella and had a more warlike and argumentative personality, even when she got her very own issue of a miniseries! There's gratitude for ya.




from Legends of the Legion #3 (DC, April 1998), cover pencils and inks by Steve Lightle, cover letters by Todd Klein; plots by Barry Kitson, script by Tom Peyer, interior pencils by Kenny Martinez, interior inks by Lary Stucker, interior colors by Tom McCraw, interior letters by Albert DeGuzman
Let's learn about the Legion Department, Post-Zero Hour Division:


from Legion: Secret Files #1 (DC, January 1998), text and colors by Tom McCraw, pencils and inks by Phil Jimenez
Happy birthday, Shadow Lass, or whatever you're callin' yourself these days!