Your favorite version of Legion of Super Heroes

[Jim Kelly]

It wasn't my first Legion issue or my first SUPERBOY issue, but issue 197 holds a special place for me. I had been picking up the odd issue of SUPERBOY every so often--which would sometimes have a Legion story in it and sometimes not--but with 197 this was the first issue where they were given starring credit and the fact that it was 197 meant there were only a few issues to go before it hit the magic 200. I decided to keep buying the comic for the next few months until it hit 200. And then I kept buying it after that for the rest of the run (the final issue being 354).

[kcekada]

Superboy 197 is a fan-favorite among many Legion readers. It starts with that amazing purple cover by Nick Cardy -- and then just gets better with the interior art by Dave Cockrum and the amazing make over of Timber Wolf (who previously had a very generic/boring look). It's so sad -- and a black mark against DC editorial at the time (led by Carmine Infantino) that Cockrum left the series over being denied the original artwork for the 2-page spread of Duo Damsel's and Bouncing Boy's wedding.

Grell did a decent job as a replacement -- but his art was kinda rough in those days -- and he couldn't match the creativity of Cockrum.

[Nomads1]

Superboy 197 is a fan-favorite among many Legion readers. It starts with that amazing purple cover by Nick Cardy -- and then just gets better with the interior art by Dave Cockrum and the amazing make over of Timber Wolf (who previously had a very generic/boring look). It's so sad -- and a black mark against DC editorial at the time (led by Carmine Infantino) that Cockrum left the series over being denied the original artwork for the 2-page spread of Duo Damsel's and Bouncing Boy's wedding.

Grell did a decent job as a replacement -- but his art was kinda rough in those days -- and he couldn't match the creativity of Cockrum.

I agree. Cockrum is one of the definitive Legion artists to me. Amazing, considering the realitively small body of work he did on the title.

Peace

[caj]

Looks like Superboy 197 may rank as the all time favorite issue of Legion for fans.

[Thor-Ul]

For me more than a issue, it was a saga, the Conspiracy.

[Sutekh]

I agree. Cockrum is one of the definitive Legion artists to me. Amazing, considering the realitively small body of work he did on the title.

Peace

Plus the creator of the Legion homage over at Marvel, the Imperial Guard, where he got to use all of his unused costume ideas, I imagine! (And his unused Devastators/Outsider characters that DC rejected, Nightcrawler and Wolverine, even if he gets no credit for Wolverine...)

[Robanker]

This is a hard split for me between Superboy & The Legion and the Levitz run.

[Tugger]

I did enjoy Five Years Later Legion (until #39) but as I can only vote for one, it has to be Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen plus Baxter book, as this was Legion at the height of its creativity and popularity.

[Thor-Ul]

An interesting bit of information I learned today in the marvel forum. Did you knew this little fact from the Superboy and the Legion of Super-heroes era? I didn't:

The Imperial Guard was created to be part of an "unofficial crossover" with LEGION, not unlike when Marvel had the Squadron Supreme in AVENGERS and DC had the Heroes of Angor in JLA, or when Marvel had the invaders fight a team called the Crusaders who were all analogues of the Freedom Fighters, and DC had the Freedom Fighters battle a team called the Crusaders who were all analogues of the Invaders.

But DC had schedule trouble with their half of it, and then decided to scrap it, because it would have been delayed enough that it would have felt like a response, not a fun surprise.

It has been speculated, but never (I think) confirmed that some of the faux X-Men characters created for the Legion to fight did show up, though, as the League of Super-Assassins, including Neutrax (Professor X), the Silver Slasher (Wolverine) and Blok (Colossus).

kdb

[Sutekh]

An interesting bit of information I learned today in the marvel forum. Did you knew this little fact from the Superboy and the Legion of Super-heroes era? I didn't:

I had heard that the League of Super-Assassins were supposed to seem X-Men-ish, but they were quite a bit different than the X-Men, unlike the Imperial Guard, who are pretty much one-for-one Legion expies, but had no idea it was supposed to be some sort of coordinated 'swap' between the two companies (that turned out to be not-so-coordinated...).

I can see Neutrax is the dude in the wheelchair (but has different powers, and a visor/vision power like Cyclops), Blok is the big stone dude (as opposed to Colossus, the big metal dude), Silver Slasher is the metal-claws person (a la Wolverine), but Mist Master, Lazon and Titania seem pretty unique and don't have obvious X-Men parallels. (Although they can kinda/sorta work as reversals. Iceman turns to solid ice, Mist Master to vapor. Lazon has light powers, Banshee has sound powers. Redhead Titania is all physical, while redhead Jean Grey is all mental.) But there's not really a Beast, Angel, Nightcrawler or Storm analogue.

It would have amused me if the Legion had some one-off villains who were fairly obvious riffs on the few Imperial Guardsmen who *weren't* obvious Legion riffs, such as Hussar, Warstar, Manta, Earthquake, etc. It would be cheeky, particularly if they showed up once and then got more or less abandoned (unlike the Imperial Guard, or Squadron Supreme, who keep showing up, which looks kinda 'eh').

[kcekada]

For the Crusaders cross-over, I think Marvel had a much more subtle homage. I was only reading DC at the time - and it was obvious that their Crusaders was the Invaders -- and I really like the Americommando design. I read Marvel's version a couple of years later -- and while you can certainly tell which characters are being homages --- the designs were very original. Ghost Girl and Phantom Lady have no visual similarity.

DC's Avengers were mostly a disappointment, so I can't help but think DC's X-Men would be a disappointment as well.

[Kurt Busiek]

DC's Avengers were mostly a disappointment, so I can't help but think DC's X-Men would be a disappointment as well.

Well, there's always the first (I think) DC parody of the X-Men, from when the Inferior Five met the Eggs-Men, students at Professor Egghead's Academy for Superheroes:

Basilisk (Irish Autumns)
Levitation Lass (Penelope Pink)
Icarus (Melvin Murgatroyd XIV)
The Ape (Harry McElhinny)

And my favorite, Winter Wonderlad (Billy Gander).

kdb

[Tugger]

I had no interest in picking up the current Bendis run (has it ended?) but I recently came across Future State and bought the two LSH issues solely based on the covers / artwork and have to say I enjoyed them.

[Jim Kelly]

Wasn't Atmos supposed to be some kind of homage/parody of another super-hero? I have a vague recollection of reading that--but I've no idea which character or what publisher.

[EmeraldGladiator]

just like Twitter isn't real life, CBR forum isn't the whole world but funny how popular the Levitz version of the Legion is the favorite of which it is the same team as the previous version and the Retroboot but DC has never gone back to this version for a prolonged period, besides Johns brief flirtation with the retroboot with the JLA/Superman/Legion of 3 Worlds storylines. Yet keeps trying reboots and each reboot is less successful than the previous one.