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Every sequel to the Great Darkness Saga has disappointed but then again The Great Darkness Saga was one of the greatest stories ever so that is understandable. That being said then don't try to. You don't see Casablanca 2 or Citizen Kane 2 or the Usual Suspects 2. Or heck a sequel to the Empire Strikes Back or Ben Hur or the Ten Command...wait a minute never mind that last part.
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I thought the 5-Years-Later LOSH suffered from the art not differentiating between the characters likenesses, which is the only thing I recall about the title at the time.
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i think the art is actually really distinctive. they all seem like very real people.
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I loved this run. The Dark Dystopian future was a great backdrop to the state of the Legion at the time. I really loved the political battle between the various power players in the D.C. universe. The gritty art was a great contrast to the past colorful appearance of the legion. Stories that i really felt were the Dominators occupation of Earth and the fight to free it. The Death of Sun Boy and the Jan and Shavaughn issue were stories that did not grab me the first time around but made great rereads.
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My favorite version of the Legion. Mon El's actions early in the series blew me away, and the results were simply shocking to me, in the wake of Superboy's departure. I didn't come to appreciate Giffen's art until this series, and to this day he's one of my top three favorite artists of all time.
It's not for everyone, but this series was heaven for me. I was so in love with it that the Zero Hour issues confused me--I actually called the DC offices, got the editor on the phone (don't recall the name but I suppose I could easily look it up) and asked him was the origin issue (#0) a reboot or just a re-telling of the origin, after which we'd return to the 5YL universe--he informed me that this was a fresh start, and I hung around briefly before ultimately dropping the series.
LOVE LOVE LOVE Giffen and the 5YL stuff, though, and I re-read it every so often.
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The sad thing that by the time Zero Hour came I was happy to see this version of the Legion go away and get a fresh start. The Legion on the Run story is probably my all time most hated period for the Legion. The book started to lose steam when Giffen left, but jesus it just fell right off a cliff after issue 50. That last year before the reboot was just horrible. It is funny because I really liked the Legionnaries book that followed the SW6 kids that was going on at the same time, but hated what they were doing with the older Legion.
It was like they knew they were getting a reboot and instead of sending the old Legion out with and epic they deserved they just let it limp to the finish line.
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[QUOTE=Zero Hunter;2344867]The sad thing that by the time Zero Hour came I was happy to see this version of the Legion go away and get a fresh start. The Legion on the Run story is probably my all time most hated period for the Legion. The book started to lose steam when Giffen left, but jesus it just fell right off a cliff after issue 50. That last year before the reboot was just horrible. It is funny because I really liked the Legionnaries book that followed the SW6 kids that was going on at the same time, but hated what they were doing with the older Legion.
It was like they knew they were getting a reboot and instead of sending the old Legion out with and epic they deserved they just let it limp to the finish line.[/QUOTE]
Agreed, that last storyarc was definitely snooze-inducing for me, but I stuck around. I hated when Giffen left and the story just wasn't grabbing me.
It just dawned on me that the Legion did the whole 'bring the younger versions from the past into the present' thing long before the X Men, but I kind of like how the X Men handled it.
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I loved this run and the original Legion so much that I was livid when Zero Hour tossed it all away. I could not bring myself to read much of the reboot beyond a couple of issues I was that mad. lol. Now that we're 20 years past, I am in the middle of finally reading everything in order and will continue through the reboots, hopefully at this point I will be able to appreciate the different Legions for what they are. I started around 1976 Legion and am currently at the beginning of the Terra Mosaic.
I agree, Legion on The Run was atrocious and put the nail in the coffin.
With Annual #3, while I did love the character bits from the reunion (so intriguing the bit about Luorno & Gim possibly having an affair, but it made some sense), the most sketchy part was the Garth / Proty revelation. I know many fans hated this. I didn't hate it so much as that it seemed uninspired. Plus they had already done a very similar story back in issue #4 of that series when it was revealed that the spirit of Eltro Gand was co-inhabiting Mon-El's body and affected his personality. In that light it made it a little less original.
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It is also Grant Morrison's New X-Men before Grant Morrison's New X-Men. Superheroes out of their costumes for more realistic choices.
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This has been a really interesting discussion to follow. I am always looking for gems from that time period and will be checking out Griffen's run (I really like Griffen too!).
And so . . . what's the deal with all of the reboots? Did they totally change the Legion's history/make-up with COIE and Zero Hour (which I know nothing about)? I mean, is there any sort of continuity?
I read Geoff John's "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds" and was sort of overwhelmed by all of the different characters . . . did that book deal with all of these different legions? Sorry to sound like a newb but I guess I am to all this stuff. The good thing about being a "newb" is that it's all "new" to me.
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If you don't know much about the Legion, I don't know that 5YL is a good place to [I]start[/I]. Maybe better starting from LSH v3 #1 (Legion of Super Villains War), or the Great Darkness Saga (LSH v2 #290) and then going forward.
But, it is very good! It's like Game Of Thrones or something like that -- you have to be motivated to have a fair understanding of all of the different characters, but if you have that and once you do, it is magic.
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[QUOTE=DCJdog;2345167]This has been a really interesting discussion to follow. I am always looking for gems from that time period and will be checking out Griffen's run (I really like Griffen too!).
And so . . . what's the deal with all of the reboots? Did they totally change the Legion's history/make-up with COIE and Zero Hour (which I know nothing about)? I mean, is there any sort of continuity?
I read Geoff John's "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds" and was sort of overwhelmed by all of the different characters . . . did that book deal with all of these different legions? Sorry to sound like a newb but I guess I am to all this stuff. The good thing about being a "newb" is that it's all "new" to me.[/QUOTE]
There have really only been two full on reboots. The Zero Hour reboot and the Waidboot. Everything else was just small retcons. Zero Hour was a day one reboot starting over completely from the begining. The Waidboot (or Threeboot as it is sometimes called) was Mark Waid just starting up his own Legion universe already in process. After the Waidboot crashed and burned DC went back to a version of the Legion that was pretty close to the original version with just a few minor tweaks here and there.
After Crisis there were some minor changes that crept in like the Superboy who was in the Legion was not the Superman we saw after Crisis but was a different one from a pocket universe, but by and large it was the same Legion that had been going on.
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I've read a little bit of the Legion . . . not much. I have several trades and some loose copies (pre-Crisis and post) that I have set back. I plan on reading the early series with Levitz and then moving on forward.
Are there any recommendations for pre-Crisis? Some of the pre-Crisis stuff is pretty campy. Some of it I enjoy because I grew up in those times but some other stuff is just way too campy. I would not mind reading some good runs from that period though.
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Not just my favorite Legion run, but perhaps my favorite comics run ever...and that covers, now, well over 50 years of rabid fandom.
Dense, knotty, self-referential, it was wonderful storytelling for the first forty issues or so.
Made a star of Tenzil Kem, least likely superhero ever.
Hope he's part of any rebirth for the Legion.
But, if there is, the bar for it to clear will always be the brilliant Giffbaum years.
Gerry
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as for whether or not you need to know the legion very well .. i don't think so. i mean there are relationships and stuff referenced, but nothing that you don't understand after hearing the characters talk to each other.