Legion of Super Heroes - 5-Year Gap by Giffen coming to Trade Paperback

[caj]

There were a lot of things I disliked about this run - especially the tedious 9-panel grid and Keith's art style at the time. Overall, the run makes for an interesting story -- even if I hate most of the things Keith did to the characters. Oh, and Kono always annoyed me.

The 9-panel grid didn't bother me too much unless it was the same picture shown repeatedly over and over - which is something he did frequently. But I did not care for his art style at this point.

As for the characters, I was also disappointed that he brought all these new characters in and ignored so many classic Legionnaires. I remember seeing this poster (in issue #12 or 13, I believe) and realizing for the first time that they had no intention of rebuilding the entire Legion, just about ten former members and a slew of uninteresting new ones.

[DevilBat66]

Kinda liked but mostly hated this era of the Legion.

Totally lost me with the clone stuff.

Pretty much never read the Legion regularly again until Levitz came back before the N52.

[SJNeal]

If anyone wants to see this book actually make it to print, they need to pre-order it. And then (fingers crossed!) pre-order vol. 2 if and when that's solicited.

These days, DC loves to cancel collections at the last minute, and this is a run that's just popular enough to be given a shot... but not so popular that it's guaranteed to see completion.

[kcekada]

The 9-panel grid didn't bother me too much unless it was the same picture shown repeatedly over and over - which is something he did frequently. But I did not care for his art style at this point.

I remember seeing this poster (in issue #12 or 13, I believe) and realizing for the first time that they had no intention of rebuilding the entire Legion, just about ten former members and a slew of uninteresting new ones.

Kono, Furball, and Kent Shakespeare did nothing for me. Furball was just a tragic take on Timber Wolf. Kent was visually boring. That lady who got Green Lantern powers was okay, but I'd rather they had used more Legionnaires from the previous series. I think Keith did a pretty good job with Mysa after a huge depowering early on in the series.

[CaptCleghorn]

Kono, Furball, and Kent Shakespeare did nothing for me. Furball was just a tragic take on Timber Wolf. Kent was visually boring. That lady who got Green Lantern powers was okay, but I'd rather they had used more Legionnaires from the previous series. I think Keith did a pretty good job with Mysa after a huge depowering early on in the series.

Kono was cute and did provide a different attitude and I liked that. Kent Shakespeare had a cool name but a pretty basic personality which could have given him a retro feel but that didn't work out as much as I would have hoped.

Furball wishes he was as popular as Jar Jar Binks.

The shift in cast seemed to make a lot of sense to me as most future stories do not take into account changes in personnel. they take the same people and shift them a few years into the future without realizing that folks drift out and new folks drift in. I get your feeling, but for me, the cast change made a lot of sense.

[Flash Gordon]

This is great news.

I was literally just thinking about rereading this run the other day.

[Ropeburn]

5 Years Later killed the Legion. It went from a high selling book to a confused mass of dread. Clones, bad code names like the Emerald Dragon (I did like Virus for Shrinking Violet though) and inconsistent artwork made the reboot and subsequent reboots happen. Legion has never been the same since then. It should have been a Twelve issue maxi series and then gone back to the regular Legion right after the Magic Wars. No bald Star Boys, no fat Dream Girls, no Phase/Phantom Girl confusing plotlines.

There's a reason why Geoff Johns ignored it and went back to the original source.

[j9ac9k]

5 Years Later killed the Legion. It went from a high selling book to a confused mass of dread. Clones, bad code names like the Emerald Dragon (I did like Virus for Shrinking Violet though) and inconsistent artwork made the reboot and subsequent reboots happen. Legion has never been the same since then. It should have been a Twelve issue maxi series and then gone back to the regular Legion right after the Magic Wars. No bald Star Boys, no fat Dream Girls, no Phase/Phantom Girl confusing plotlines.

There's a reason why Geoff Johns ignored it and went back to the original source.

Regardless of one's subjective response to the material (I loved most of it until about when the clones appeared), I think you're right in that the way the story went, there was almost nowhere to go with them. It was a serialized progression that, by the time they blew it all up, would have been very difficult for another team to pick it up where it left off (and no, the clones were not a good way for them to try to have it both ways). I think that they really could have had the Legion really rebuild and fix the UP, get their regular costumes back etc... to take it full circle back into the light from the depths of how the 5YG left them. That would have been an ending, but it would have left the book in a place where another team could have taken it and continued.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I'll agree that 5YL Legion was the nadir of the franchise. I stuck with it almost out of habit and stubbornness.

I was not a fan of the 9-panel grid, not a fan of the confusing storytelling techniques, not a fan of the changes made to the old members, not a fan of the new members, not a fan of the 90s style costumes complete with the required team jackets, not a fan of Giffen's art since the 1983 change (but it was better than the Munoz period of late-83-85), not a fan of not always being able to recognize who was who and who was talking in any given panel, not a fan of the removal of even pocket universe Superboy from Legion history (beyond their control, I know). Just not a fan.

With the Mayfair book, I did appreciate some things more because now at least I had some solid foundation to understand all the text pages and snippets of dialogue that were supposed to mean something, but that was 1992, 3 years into the run, and even then it ever rose to the level where I preferred the new direction. The destruction of Earth with #38 was a jumping off point for me. I only bought the series sporadically thereafter until Zero Hour reset everything with #61-62.

Like a lot of Giffen's ideas, it loses steam about a year into the run -- and I would include his overpraised Justice League International as well.

I think the poster above comes from issue 13, and that's where the story should have ended and things should have started to revert back to the classic Legion as much as they were able.

[caj]

That lady who got Green Lantern powers was okay,

I think her name was Celeste Rockfish and she was unnecessary. What I never understood was that they already had Rond Vidar with a Green lantern power ring. Why didn't they just use him???

[Zero Hunter]

I think her name was Celeste Rockfish and she was unnecessary. What I never understood was that they already had Rond Vidar with a Green lantern power ring. Why didn't they just use him???

Rond's ring was destroyed in a battle with Mordru during the gap years I believe so he was not Green Lantern anymore. Plus I think he had more the stay at home dad thing going during the 5YL period taking care of his and Laurel Gands kid.

[Lee Stone]

And poor Timber Wolf...

[Montressor]

I looked forward to seeing how Superboy would ultimately be dealt with, and was satisfied with the 'he was only around briefly' resolution, but eventually even that was done away with. I loved Glorith (still do, always will), Mon El's promotion, Laurel Gand...was a bit stunned at the Proty reveal. That was pretty heavy to me at the time, I recall. I disliked the clones, especially where they went with them towards the end.

After the Zero Hour issue I was confused--I thought it was just a re-telling of the origin, then we'd get back to the 5YL stuff (I was completely clueless and this was mostly just wishful thinking). When the books picked up and carried on from the origin story I actually called the DC offices in NY and got whoever the Legion editor was. He told me that the book had been rebooted and that the 5YL stuff was done.

[bearman]

Well, to each his own. I thought the 5 Year Gap was damned clever. Loved the young Legion, the Proty reveal, Tenzil, the new characters...
Complex and dense storytelling; great work.

[j9ac9k]

I really loved the 5YL stuff at first, but then they lost me sometime after the Dominator War. I thought they lost it by the time the "Legion on the Run" story happened, but I stuck with it to the end.