Legion of Super-Heroes Appreciation 2019 [Long Live the Legion!]

[Lee Stone]

I agree with Comic-Reader Lad about Great Darkness Saga.

Going into reading it now is kinda like watching Psycho now and knowing about the shower scene. (Back when Psycho came out, killing off the lead billed character was unheard of and made the shower scene all the more frightening.)
You can't go into it 'looking for Darkseid', because that wasn't how it was written to be read. Readers reading it back then didn't know it was Darkseid until he was revealed (unless they guessed and got it right).

And Levitz wrote Legion like a soap opera. There were usually at least three stories going on at any time, with even more future stories being setup with foreshadowing.
So just reading a few issues is kinda like sampling the first half of the week of a soap opera. It's just the tip of the iceberg.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Here's a fun one: a Batman comic that also features the Legion! With a wraparound cover by Neal Adams who unfortunately only did covers for the team.

This is Batman 238 from 1971

[Gurz]

My Superboy and Legion of Super Heroes HCs have arrived and i started to immidiatly read the vol. 1


There is something that came to my attation in The Great Darkness saga which was all the legion members were married... Being all mostly at their teen ages, seeing all of them married was weird... They were all talking like ''ok husband'', ''thanks wife'' and stuff.... lol I was like WTF, one or two may be but all the team was freaking married to each other or something was weird... lol and reading Superboy and LOSH, i can see that this weird crap comes from Paul Levits... every issue he wrote, there was a legion couple. It was like Lightning lad and Saturn girl, Timber wolf and whatever girl and Cosmic boy and whatever girl... they were like ''ok lover'', ''thanks lover''... up and down. And he even married Lightning freaking a LAD to Saturn GIRL... Paul... dude chill, calm down with couples... lol I hope when they relaunch Legion with a reboot, there will be no married legionners and just one or two dating couples in legion for gods sake... lol

[j9ac9k]

I hope when they relaunch Legion with a reboot, there will be no married legionners and just one or two dating couples in legion for gods sake... lol

Sure - stick a couple dozen super-physically fit teens in a house where they're walking around in skin-tight outfits all the time and try to have only one or two "dating couples."

[Gurz]

Sure - stick a couple dozen super-physically fit teens in a house where they're walking around in skin-tight outfits all the time and try to have only one or two "dating couples."

It's so annoying when they all date to each other... I don't know, the olympic swimming team are in their swim suits most of the time and they don't all date to each other right... lol They should just calm down with this crap, it's really annoying... Some of them can date to civilians or something, ok but not each other as a team... calm down DC...

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Actually, the Legion romances are an integral part of the series and what differentiates it from basically every other super-team.

Also, the romances started way before Levitz began writing them in the late 1970s. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl were shown to have feelings for each other as early as Adventure Comics 304, dated January 1963.

That goes true for the other Legion romances you mentioned. I can only think of 2 intra-team romances that Levitz created: Wildfire and Dawnstar, which was mostly unrequited and Blok and White Witch.

All these others were from before Levitz:
Ultra Boy & Phantom Girl
Bouncing Boy & Duo Damsel
Brainiac 5 & Supergirl
Star Boy & Dream Girl
Karate Kid & Princess Projectra
Timber Wolf & Light Lass
Mon-El & Shadow Lass
plus:
Cosmic Boy & Night Girl (from the Legion of Substitute Heroes)
Shrinking Violet & Duplicate Boy (from The Heroes of Lallor)


But Levitz also did create romances with civilians outside the Legion. There was Element Lad and Shvaughn Erin and Colossal Boy and Yera (a Durlan who initially disguised herself as Shrinking Violet).

Anyway, sorry to tell you but romances (and weddings!) among the team are a big part of its appeal going as far back as the early 1960s, and they will hopefully not go away with any future reboot of the franchise.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

My Superboy and Legion of Super Heroes HCs have arrived and i started to immidiatly read the vol. 1

So, beyond the romance angle, are you liking the stories? I can tell you that S/LSH volume 2 is better because it contains the Earthwar Saga, but there is fun stuff to be had in volume 1.

[Lee Stone]

[Lee Stone]

Sun Boy appearances:
Pre-Crisis
Post-Crisis

[Zero Hunter]

You want to talk about Sunboy you have to have the most heart wrenching scene with him ever. The Batch SW6 young Sunboy talking to the older Sunboy after he had been nearly killed when the moon exploded. The older version is begging his younger version to kill him.

[Gurz]

So, beyond the romance angle, are you liking the stories? I can tell you that S/LSH volume 2 is better because it contains the Earthwar Saga, but there is fun stuff to be had in volume 1.

Yeah, it was fun as far as i read. Some of the stories were not that well thought out... lol for example/ Braniac 5 killed an endangered spiacies, a beast which was last of its kind to save Wildfire... They should have made Braniac find a cure without harming the beast and even clone it or something... They probably have the techology but the writter didn't do it... Braniac just killed the beast... :/ not much thought given when writting probably. Eh... Things like this, but it was alot of fun to read Superboy and LOSH I'm glad, i finally got in to legion properly. Can't wait for the Keith Giffen HC of Legion 5 years later... Other than that how is the silver age omnibuses ? are they as good as the Superboy and LOSH ? other than them, not much stuff about Legion to read awailable unfortunatly.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Your opinion of Silver Age Legion will greatly depend on how much you like Silver Age Superman comics as they were written in that style -- at least in the beginning.

There have been two hardcover Silver Age Legion Omnibuses so far. The first reprints all Legion appearances up to Adventure Comics 328 (1958-1965). The second reprints Adventure 329-360 (1965-1967).

Given that these are expensive books, I'd say skip right to Silver Age Legion Omnibus volume 2 because you will see the storytelling mature once the series gets past Adventure 340. Once Jim Shooter becomes the writer as of Adventure 346 (which introduces Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, and Ferro Lad), the storytelling takes an even further leap in quality.

Classic Legion villains Computo, The Khunds, Fatal Five, and Universo among others are introduced. Also, Legionnaires join, Legionnaires leave, a Legionnaire gets expelled, one Legionnaire dies (for good), and another suffers a tragic loss. We also get a glimpse into the future of the future with the classic "Adult Legion" story.

Many of the stories that begin the world building of Legion history are found in Omnibus vol. 2. Right now, Amazon has it for only around $45.00.

[kcekada]

The Legion really were no longer teenagers by the 1980s. They did age -- albeit slowly. I'd guess in the 70s, they were all 18 or older. By the 80s, they were in their early 20s. The inter-relationships was definitely an integral part of the series -- though it was very teen bopper stuff in the Silver Age. Levitz was really the first writer to change some of the status quo by breaking up Timber Wolf and Light Lass, and giving long single Element Lad his first regular girlfriend (never mind what happened later).

[Anthony Shaw]

I finally finished the Great Darkness Saga, and I loved it! I'm almost finished with "The Curse". The Legion really reads like a Marvel book, imo. I love the soap opera drama, and characterization.

I appreciate how certain members moved away from the 70's costumes during this period.

One funny gripe is how often a character would say...sheesh!

The only other weird thing was the noticeable, and gradual change in Giffen's art, especially during the Prophet/Omen story. That story could have been developed better.

I loved the slow burn of TGDS.

[Anthony Shaw]

I really wish Shooter would have been able to finish his Pulsar Stargrave story.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the themes Shooter used in the Korvac Saga were originally planned for Pulsar Stargrave.