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

[Comic-Reader Lad]

started superboy and the legion of super-heroes volume two and "earthwar." garth, imra, bouncing boy, and duo damsel are the last (kind of?) legionnaires left to save the day. hope to finish "earthwar" up tonight.

did the khunds get a post-crisis makeover? they're rather human-looking here, most/all depictions of khund warriors from my collection are a bit more brutish.

i'm still not used to apologetic brainy.

brainiac 5: let's take a cruiser and check this out.

element lad: i'm the deputy leader, i make the calls.

brainiac 5: oh sorry my bad.

Well, let us know what you thought of Earthwar. You'll notice an art change as you go along. It's unavoidable as SLSH was a giant-size monthly, so it was impossible to find an artist who could keep to the schedule. Many of the issues had backup features, but that still didn't help. That's why there was that reprint in #238 (which as a young fan, I was ok with since I didn't have the original issues at the time.)

However, by all accounts, Earthwar still came together as a great story that brought a lot of disparate elements from the Legion's past together in one epic story.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Doing some research, I actually found an old story where Chemical King and Invisible Kid had a significant interaction!

It was from the Legion's backup days in the early 1970s. This story was from Superboy 176, dated July 1971. It was written by E. Nelson Bridwell and drawn by George Tuska entitled "The Invisible Invader." I actually have this issue and remember the bare bones of the story, but as it was really an Invisible Kid spotlight, I forgot that Chemical King was in it at all!

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Here's more of the I-Kid/C-King relationship. In Secret Origins (1986 series) 47, dated Feb 1990 that featured origin stories of dead Legionnaires, Robert Loren Fleming did Chemical King's origin that expanded on the relationship established in Legion 59 from 1989.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

[Adset]

i really liked earthwar. it was my first pre-crisis interaction with mordru and the dark circle. i went in faaaaairly spoiler-free so i didn't pick up on the fact that mordru was behind it all. where does earthwar rank in classic legion lore for you guys?

[caj]

i really liked earthwar. it was my first pre-crisis interaction with mordru and the dark circle. i went in faaaaairly spoiler-free so i didn't pick up on the fact that mordru was behind it all. where does earthwar rank in classic legion lore for you guys?

I didn't figure out Mordru was behind it either. Not sure where I would rank Earthwar. It's not one of my favorites, but I was really into Justice League of America when that came out.

[Nomads1]

i really liked earthwar. it was my first pre-crisis interaction with mordru and the dark circle. i went in faaaaairly spoiler-free so i didn't pick up on the fact that mordru was behind it all. where does earthwar rank in classic legion lore for you guys?

One of my favorite Legion storys. Also didn't catch the Mordu twist. I just feel sorry that Jim Sherman didn't get to finish on the art. Joe Staton was competent, but not on the same level. The rotation of inkers also didn't help. Jack Abel and Murphy Anderson were okay, but the issue with Joe Giella, sadly, was awful.

Peace

[Zero Hunter]

started superboy and the legion of super-heroes volume two and "earthwar." garth, imra, bouncing boy, and duo damsel are the last (kind of?) legionnaires left to save the day. hope to finish "earthwar" up tonight.

did the khunds get a post-crisis makeover? they're rather human-looking here, most/all depictions of khund warriors from my collection are a bit more brutish.

I think a lot of the aliens in the Legion books got a makeover at one point or another. The Khunds and Dominators definitely did.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

One of my favorite Legion storys. Also didn't catch the Mordu twist. I just feel sorry that Jim Sherman didn't get to finish on the art. Joe Staton was competent, but not on the same level. The rotation of inkers also didn't help. Jack Abel and Murphy Anderson were okay, but the issue with Joe Giella, sadly, was awful.

Peace

I agree about Joe Giella. As a rule, I thought he diminished the art of whatever penciler he was inking -- Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, etc.

Vince Colletta is another toxic inker for me (and one of the most reviled in all of inking history). Colletta was only good on pencilers who weren't that great. The only penciler whose work I actually PREFERRED Colletta on was Jose Delbo on Wonder Woman.

But I would definitely put Jack Abel in the Giella-Colletta class. I thought his inking on James Sherman was a goddamned crime. The first 2 chapters of Earthwar with Bob McLeod inking were STUNNING.







As for the story, Earthwar is one of my very favorite Legion stories in spite of the art changing over the course of the 5-parter. When I first read it, I didn't appreciate it because I was young and it was more densely plotted than the typical DC story at the time. Over the years, I grew to appreciate it, and I see that a lot of what the Legion became began with this story.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

By the way, I don't care what anyone says, I really liked Tyroc when he first appeared. He came on with a big splash, and I was excited to see a Black Legionnaire.

The speech at the end where Tyroc accuses the Legion of racism and then they counter with showing him all the skin colors they already have didn't feel wrong to me in 1976 because I was young and it was echoing what was going on at the time in pop culture in general. I didn't question the idea that what would have made sense in 1976 in terms of needing better race relations should have been different in 2976.

However, the Legion had always kind of done that -- taking current stuff from the present and not really amending it too much even though the stories were 1000 years later. It's why Phantom Girl wore bell bottoms and the guys had sideburns.

Anyway, I get what Paul Levitz and other writers felt about Tyroc and his island of Marzal, but I still wish they would have made an effort to amend the aspects of the character they didn't like instead of just ignoring him.

[Anthony Shaw]

If you mean Legion of Super-Heroes Annual 2 with Karate Kid & Queen Projectra's wedding, then yes, Zero Hunter was correct.


If you want the entire Levitz-Giffen initial Legion collaboration, it can basically be found in 3 trade paperbacks:

(1) Great Darkness Saga - reprints LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 1980 series #284-296 and ANNUAL #1.

(2) The Curse - reprints LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 1980 series #297-313 and LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ANNUAL #2-3.

(3) An Eye for An Eye - reprints LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 1984 series #1-6.

That's it! Pretty easy!


Giffen then comes back for a 2nd go-round with Levitz on LSH 1984 series 51-63 that I don't think have yet been collected.

Following Legion 313, the title was changed to Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes and had a year's worth of new stories in issues 314-325. Levitz still was the writer, but Terry Shoemaker was on art. After that, Tales (and Tales LSH Annual) became reprints of the new LSH Baxter Paper series that began in 1984.


Following "An Eye for An Eye," Levitz continues without Giffen (which was fine because Giffen's art had deteriorated as of Legion 307) in the trade paperback "The More Things Change."

However, both "Eye" and "Change" are out of print. They can be found at Amazon and ebay, but buy quick because prices continue to increase.

I read all three, digitally. I loved them all.

[Anthony Shaw]

I really got a kick out of the Violet/Colossal Boy/Yera/Duplicate Boy mess. However, the more I think about it, Yera's relationship with CB does raise eyebrows in a modern setting.

What if the genders were reversed in the Yera/CB relationship?

[Sutekh]

I really got a kick out of the Violet/Colossal Boy/Yera/Duplicate Boy mess. However, the more I think about it, Yera's relationship with CB does raise eyebrows in a modern setting.

What if the genders were reversed in the Yera/CB relationship?

Oh, it's certainly a mess. It would be hard to prove motive for a rape charge, since the Durlan involved didn't shapeshift into someone's lover to sleep with them, so much as take on someone's identity, and start a relationship with someone, which is more a wild case of fraud...

The Legion, for all these self-imposed codes and by-laws, have a funky relationship with the actual law. How legal exactly free use of abilities like phasing (trespass), telepathy (violation of privacy/stalking), or shapeshifting (fraud) and where the lines are drawn, since they clearly can't make abilities common to entire races *illegal*, has always been a sketchy topic.

I can almost understand the average Earth-er falling for the perenniel anti-alien / anti-Legion agenda, because these Titanians and Durlans, in particular, can be pretty darn scary.

[Lee Stone]

Oh, it's certainly a mess. It would be hard to prove motive for a rape charge, since the Durlan involved didn't shapeshift into someone's lover to sleep with them, so much as take on someone's identity, and start a relationship with someone, which is more a wild case of fraud...

The Legion, for all these self-imposed codes and by-laws, have a funky relationship with the actual law. How legal exactly free use of abilities like phasing (trespass), telepathy (violation of privacy/stalking), or shapeshifting (fraud) and where the lines are drawn, since they clearly can't make abilities common to entire races *illegal*, has always been a sketchy topic.

I can almost understand the average Earth-er falling for the perenniel anti-alien / anti-Legion agenda, because these Titanians and Durlans, in particular, can be pretty darn scary.

Thankfully, comics are free from such levels of ultra-realism.

[Anthony Shaw]

I do think it was a mistake for killing off Nemesis Kid.

Also, how was Jeckie able to just walk up on him, and break his neck? She must have put serious fear in him, when he was previously pummeling her.

Nemesis Kid should be on the same tier as Roxxas.