Legion of Super Heroes Five Years Later Reviews

[caj]

A FAILURE ?
One of the high points of my decades of comics reading.

I assume you are referring to the last sentence in the review. I agree that 'failure' is a harsh and overstated word to describe this book. However, although this Legion definitely had/has a nice size cult following, I don't believe it's viewed as one of the high points of Legion history by most Legion fans.

[caj]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of issue #28 - A look back at the life of Dirk Morgna (Sun Boy), including his unhappy childhood, the incident that gave him his powers, and a peek into a window of what happened during the Legion's 5-year gap period.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...heroes-28.html

[SJNeal]

Is it just me, or is Jason Pearson's art slightly reminiscent of Doom Patrol-era Richard Case...?

[caj]

Is it just me, or is Jason Pearson's art slightly reminiscent of Doom Patrol-era Richard Case...?

I definitely see some similarities. I hadn't thought about that until you mentioned it.

[GCWaters]

I assume you are referring to the last sentence in the review. I agree that 'failure' is a harsh and overstated word to describe this book. However, although this Legion definitely had/has a nice size cult following, I don't believe it's viewed as one of the high points of Legion history by most Legion fans.

I was a huge LOSH fan back in the '60's....the death of Ferro-Lad still chokes me up! I vividly remember going into my local drugstore and finding out that, not only had comics gone from 12 cents to 15, but Supergirl was now the headliner of Adventure Comics and not the Legion...a sad day! That said, when Five Years Later started, I picked up the first few issues. Then, unfortunately, I stopped buying and reading comics altogether for about ten years. When I saw the Omnibus, I remembered this run and that I had liked it, so I picked it up. I'm four chapters from the end, and amazed at how good this is. It's a non-traditional take, for sure, and as someone mentioned earlier it's more of a sci-fi story than a superhero story, but boy is this good....

[Zero Hunter]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of issue #28 - A look back at the life of Dirk Morgna (Sun Boy), including his unhappy childhood, the incident that gave him his powers, and a peek into a window of what happened during the Legion's 5-year gap period.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...heroes-28.html

The rise and fall of Dirk was heartbreaking. It did ring true though with his character. Looking back at his character over the years it is very easy to see Dirk being manipulated like he was until by the time he sees the truth it is way too late. The Dominators knew that his ego was his weak point and setting him up as the best hero fed right into it. Dirk loved the fame and adoration and the Dominators used that against him.

[kcekada]

A FAILURE ?
One of the high points of my decades of comics reading.

It was a failure in regard to the longevity of Legion of Super-Heroes as a concept. It was well written, but so so dark. Actually, it reads as if it was intended to close the book on the Legion -- and in many ways, it did that.

[caj]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of issue #29 - Brainiac 5 deals with the fact that his creation, Computo, has gone rogue once again, the SW6 Saturn Girl is persuaded to do a mind probe on Universo, and President Wellington suffers an on-air attack.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...heroes-29.html

[caj]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of issue #30 - The Dominators go on the offensive in the wake of President Wellington's assassination, the SW6 Legion wonder what they're place is in this cold new world they're in, and the Subs step up in the battle for Earth.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...heroes-30.html

[caj]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of issue #31 - Shvaughn Erin reveals a shocking secret about herself to Jan Arrah (Element Lad). Lar Gand comes face-to-face with his younger version. Plus, now that the Empress is dead, who is controlling the Emerald Eye?

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...heroes-31.html

[kcekada]

While that story was years ahead of it's time, it didn't sit well with me. What was worse, though, was the revelation that Lightning Lad was actually Proty I. I don't think they pleased many longtime fans with that one.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

While that story was years ahead of it's time, it didn't sit well with me. What was worse, though, was the revelation that Lightning Lad was actually Proty I. I don't think they pleased many longtime fans with that one.

I've read somewhere that Tom Bierbaum said that he and his wife were trying to make as many fandom-generated theories about Legion lore into the actual canon as they could. Which is a shame, as 99.9 percent of fandom ideas are utter garbage. I used to be a member of an LSH-centric fan group on Facebook, and almost all the ideas I saw on there about either how to "improve" the Legion, or what the various members would do if somehow they got to be hired to write the Legion, were basically exercises in "how to make the Legion appeal to an audience of one." From retconning Supergirl into being Superman's sister instead of his cousin (from somebody who legit insists that her being his cousin is a barrier for new, Millennial readers to get into her), to killing off almost all but the most powerful Legionnaires "so that fans will see what a true fighting force looks like," to some dude with no writing experience but years as a runner of role-playing games who wants to see the Legion "evolve" into an actual military legion consisting of hundreds (if not thousands) of members from each homeworld where all the inhabitants have the same power, the Subs and the Academy get far more attention, and most of the classic Legionnaires we know and love instead leave to become the rulers of their planets. I had to leave that group because of the wars that erupted during Bendis's early days of setting up his version of the Legion over whether or not he should make the vast majority of the membership part of the LGBTQ+ diaspora and/or whether or not the Bendis LSH would be yet another reboot vs. "Legion: The Next Generation*."

*I could never understand the inability of the folks insisting Sook's early artwork was of a "Next Generation" to posit a believable explanation foe how any "Next Generation" would just happen to consist of folks who replicated all of the OG Legion's powers as well as chose to duplicate all of the OG Legion's identities.

[caj]

I've read somewhere that Tom Bierbaum said that he and his wife were trying to make as many fandom-generated theories about Legion lore into the actual canon as they could. Which is a shame, as 99.9 percent of fandom ideas are utter garbage.

Yeah, I think that was the eventual downfall of this book. There were definitely some great ideas (which I usually gave credit to Giffen for) and way too many "wait, what????" (which I usually blamed the Bierbaums for). Maybe it was unfair of me to think that way, but it's the truth.

[kcekada]

I think Mayr Bierbaum created Kono -- a character I detested!

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I think Mayr Bierbaum created Kono -- a character I detested!

Kono -- ugh. Devlin O'Reilly and Kent Shakespeare were cringe-worthy, too.