Why is the Great Darkness Saga Considered So Great?

[Panic]

I read it (or most of it) when it first came out. I was about ten or eleven and very much a Marvel guy - Legion, Teen Titans and, a year or two later, Firestorm were the only DC comics properties I rated as highly as Marvel's comics. I'd read about four Legion comics before The Great Darkness Saga, and I really liked the concept of the comic, but TGDS was on a whole new level.


I'm just going to be repeating what a lot of people have said already, but part of the joy in reading the Legion was the fact that they so obviously had a rich and complex history that a new reader would just get the odd reference to, and you'd have to piece it all together. I think someone here said it was immersive, and that's exactly right - it was Star Trek for super-heroes. With TGDS we suddenly had an epic story, one with a villain or villains who could actually convincingly challenge powerhouses like Mon-El, Ultra-Boy, Superboy, Wildfire... the whole team was struggling to even win one battle, and there was the big mystery of who the bad guy was (I didn't even know Darkseid, and it was still great).


As others have said, Giffen's art was unique and ground-breaking - for one thing, it was the first comic where I'd seen colour drawings without a black-line to define them. That was a pretty cool special-effect back in the day of limited colours and low-quality paper. The story blew me away then, and I still think it is one of the best stories I've read in comics, though admittedly nostalgia plays a part. It's certainly in my top ten DC comic stories, one of the greats of my youth.

[Timothy Hunter]

There are better Legion stories out there

Like what?

[dancj]

You can just tell when you read it that Levitz and Giffen were having the time of their lives. And while they did have about another year before Giffen's art went south, this was definitely the peak of their work together.

To that's madness. When you think his art went south is when I think it got really good.

[caj]

To that's madness. When you think his art went south is when I think it got really good.

I guess everyone's different. To me, his art was amazing up until the Prophet/Omen storyline (#307, I think).

[titanfan]

There definitely is a feeling that this was a story arc meant solely for those who have followed the title for a long time.

I do think that would help. It's not as bad as the Judas Contract (which doesn't hold up today as a standalone tale) where you had to read the 3 years of stories that came before it to get the emotional impact.

At the time, it was the biggest story with the Legion facing a big villain and all being used, etc. A lot of Legionnaires that were usually in the background got to step up to the forefront and actually do something. It was like a big crossover event that wasn't really a crossover. For me, it was the biggest story in scope that I had read at the time.

[Panic]

To that's madness. When you think his art went south is when I think it got really good.

I guess everyone's different. To me, his art was amazing up until the Prophet/Omen storyline (#307, I think).

I loved his Great Darkness era art style with Mahlstedt inking (probably up to #307, I'm not sure exactly when it started to become simpler) AND his 5 Years Later style (inked by Gordon), but I found the transitional issues awkward.

[Ropeburn]

Supergirl threw Darkseid through a friggin' planet. Doesn't get any cooler than that.

I guess everyone's different. To me, his art was amazing up until the Prophet/Omen storyline (#307, I think).

Agreed. Wasn't Giffen accused of plagiarism at that time and that's why his artwork changed so drastically?

[caj]

Agreed. Wasn't Giffen accused of plagiarism at that time and that's why his artwork changed so drastically?

If memory serves, I think it was the new direction that was accused of plagiarism. Can't remember the artist's name, but I'm pretty sure it was the new style, not the old one (which was compared to Kirby). Then when he came back to Legion, he was copying Kevin Maguire. lol

[QBall]

The Great Darkness Saga was good times and bad times in equal measure for me. I started reading Legion from issue #272 and followed it from there.

So there I am, loving the title and always eager for the next issue. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, at that time in the UK the local newsagents never stocked annuals or oversized issues...

Took me two years to track down the conclusion once I learned that dedicated comic shops existed and persuaded my parents to let me spend "that much" on a single comic (I was very young and it was a much different time).

[j9ac9k]

If memory serves, I think it was the new direction that was accused of plagiarism. Can't remember the artist's name, but I'm pretty sure it was the new style, not the old one (which was compared to Kirby). Then when he came back to Legion, he was copying Kevin Maguire. lol

His name is (was?) Jose Munoz and his style was definitely an influence, as much as Kirby was an earlier influence. Aping someone's style, while frowned upon, doesn't make it plagiarism - Giffen was obviously evolving. I actually loved his Maguire-esque style and his darker, 5YG style which I think had departed enough from Munoz to become its own thing.