Legion of Super Heroes - the Levitz/Giffen Era Reviews

[caj]

That Sensor Girl story is, IMHO, one os the most underappreciated classics of the Legion. Great Greg LaRoque art, cool cliffhangers, the spotlight on little used legionnaries... All-around great. I think it was Levitz's best outting without Giffen. Really wish DC'd collect it.

Peace

Yes, that was a great mystery and Levitz's pacing of that story was perfect. Loved that storyline.

[caj]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of Legion of Super Heroes Annual #2 - Superboy unintentionally strands Dream Girl and her group in the past, Karate Kid and Projectra get married, and Element Lad and Shavaughn return with the shocking news of an imposter in the Legion.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...-annual-2.html

[caj]

Other than Dream Girl's hair, I loved the artwork in this issue. However, I wish Giffen would've been able to draw it.

Great to see Superboy and Supergirl together again in these pages (first in TGDS final chapter, then in #300, and now here)

(sigh) if only Projectra and Karate Kid had gotten the long happy ending they deserved.

I admit I did not snap to what Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad were eluding to (or even Colossal Boy and 'Violet' for that matter).

[hareluyafan1]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of Legion of Super Heroes Annual #2 - Superboy unintentionally strands Dream Girl and her group in the past, Karate Kid and Projectra get married, and Element Lad and Shavaughn return with the shocking news of an imposter in the Legion.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...-annual-2.html

One of my favourite issues. Although I was a bit annoyed that no-one raked Superboy over the coals for getting Dream Girl and co stuck in the past and causing them to miss the wedding, accident or not.

Being a Dream Girl fan I loved that she was the only one smart enough to try and reason with the 'Olympians' when they first regained consciousness (plus her judo-throwing Zeus- I think it was judo anyway- was awesome). Of course Thom had to be an idiot by mouthing off. I also found his behaviour during Nura's tenure as leader pretty annoying. Yes it sucks when one's partner has less time for them, but that's part of being a leader and having more responsibilities. True, he was worried about her when they regained consciousness again which was nice to see, but any Legionaire would be concerned for a teammate so he can't get much credit for that.

Imra really suffered during this time. How did she NOT know that Violet was an imposter??? And Dream Girl knew about Karate Kid & Projectra's wedding announcement but was clueless about Violet as well.

Levitz really dropped the ball with these two.

With Dream Girl it makes sense. She gets precognitive glimpses of the future but she can't control what she sees. There was no way she could have known about the switcheroo.

Imra though... Sure I can understand her respecting peoples privacy and not reading their minds whenever she wants but not sensing anything out of the ordinary is hard to buy.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

You guys are forgetting that Saturn Girl's powers don't work that way. They aren't constantly on all the time. She's a telepath, not a perpetually function mind sensor. She has to actively turn her powers on and use it on a specific person. You guys are expecting her powers to function or be used in ways that up to this point they never had functioned before.

Sun Boy didn't constantly generate heat and light. Phantom Girl wasn't perpetually semi-intangible. Whatever room or area Shadow Lass was in didn't automatically grow darker just because she was physically present. Dawnstar wasn't constantly aware of where everyone and everything was. Why are you crying foul that Saturn Girl wasn't constantly probing people's minds even unconsciously when she'd never been depicted as using her powers like that before?

One thing I'd like to address is the short shrift Levitz gave to the "curing Matter-Eater Lad" sub-plot. Because he gave it very little space, and even within what little space he devoted to it, M-E Lad himself is barely an afterthought. It's well-known that Levitz considered Matter-Eater Lad a dumb character with an ever dumber power, but not even trying to focus a little bit on him in the plot about curing him of insanity is cold. Just the bare minimum of space to say, "okay, we're going to try to cure him, oh wait, he's cured, BYE!"

[caj]

You guys are forgetting that Saturn Girl's powers don't work that way. They aren't constantly on all the time. She's a telepath, not a perpetually function mind sensor. She has to actively turn her powers on and use it on a specific person. You guys are expecting her powers to function or be used in ways that up to this point they never had functioned before.

Sun Boy didn't constantly generate heat and light. Phantom Girl wasn't perpetually semi-intangible. Whatever room or area Shadow Lass was in didn't automatically grow darker just because she was physically present. Dawnstar wasn't constantly aware of where everyone and everything was. Why are you crying foul that Saturn Girl wasn't constantly probing people's minds even unconsciously when she'd never been depicted as using her powers like that before?

One thing I'd like to address is the short shrift Levitz gave to the "curing Matter-Eater Lad" sub-plot. Because he gave it very little space, and even within what little space he devoted to it, M-E Lad himself is barely an afterthought. It's well-known that Levitz considered Matter-Eater Lad a dumb character with an ever dumber power, but not even trying to focus a little bit on him in the plot about curing him of insanity is cold. Just the bare minimum of space to say, "okay, we're going to try to cure him, oh wait, he's cured, BYE!"

Concerning Saturn Girl's power, what you say is a fair statement. I do find it questionable that with all their technology, the Legion didn't have any kind of security scan that would recognize that an imposter was coming into the building. Especially since they had a Durlan on the team and was aware that Durlans could impersonate people.

I kind of agree with Levitz - if that's the way he actually felt - that the name and powers of Matter Eater Lad made the Legion seem childish and immature. I never cared for the character either but I give Levitz credit for not just forgetting MEL like he did Tyroc. He did at least cure him and give him a future away from the Legion.

[caj]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of Legion of Super Heroes #304 - Invisible Kid and White Witch join Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel on a training with the students of the Legion Academy, Star Boy leads a team considering which student is ready to become a Legion member, and Wildfire is forced to say goodbye to Dawnstar

One of my favorite issues of the Levitz/Giffen era.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...eroes-304.html

[caj]

Something interesting about this issue that is not discussed in the review deals with a discussion that Lamprey and Nightwind have about a fellow student living in a special wing of the Academy. Most readers (including myself) thought this was a story idea that never came about.

However, in reading an interview with artist Steve Lightle years later, he said that the student was actually Tellus. Levitz was discussing with Lightle about bringing in new blood to the Legion and Lightle mentioned this student in the special wing. Lightle actually made up the whole story of Tellus being an ocean-breathing being that needed a special helmet in order to leave his special wing and function outside ocean waters. Lightle also designed his entire look. Levitz's however was the one who came up with his powers and gave him the name 'Tellus'.

Here's a link to Tellus' story:

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...ho-tellus.html

[Thor-Ul]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of Legion of Super Heroes #304 - Invisible Kid and White Witch join Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel on a training with the students of the Legion Academy, Star Boy leads a team considering which student is ready to become a Legion member, and Wildfire is forced to say goodbye to Dawnstar

One of my favorite issues of the Levitz/Giffen era.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...eroes-304.html

This is the way how the Legion had to work. The Legion academy was the best way to create and promote new characters. If only...

[Nomads1]

Legion of Super Bloggers review of Legion of Super Heroes #304 - Invisible Kid and White Witch join Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel on a training with the students of the Legion Academy, Star Boy leads a team considering which student is ready to become a Legion member, and Wildfire is forced to say goodbye to Dawnstar

One of my favorite issues of the Levitz/Giffen era.

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspo...eroes-304.html

Not being as versed in Legion lore back then (even though I had seen stories mentioning the Legion Academy and featuring it's students), this issue blew my mind at the time. It was as if, suddenly, there was the potential for a whole new Legion out there. I couldn't help picturing the academy students not just joining the Legion, but forming their own team.

Peace

[caj]

A Legion Academy book would've been a LOT of fun, especially if Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel had been a part of it. I also liked how Wildfire, Invisible Kid, and White Witch were involved in this issue.

They had a great group of young members with Laurel Kent, Lamprey, Magnetic Kid, Power Boy, Nightwind, Comet Queen, and Shadow Lass' cousin Grev.

I think getting to know each Academy member on a monthly basis would've made it even more special when one of them graduated to being a full time member of the Legion.

[SJNeal]

Is it just me, or have the last few covers been really... boring? :-/



Not including Annual #2, that one's great

[Nomads1]

That I recall, at the time, we had Power Boy, Shadow Lad, Laurel Kent, Lamprey, Crystal Kid, Nightwind, Comet Queen, Magnetic Kid, the mystery member (Tellus) and that wierd little guy that seemed to eat technology. I always thought Dev-Em would fit well with this crowd.

Peace

[Sutekh]

That I recall, at the time, we had Power Boy, Shadow Kid, Laurel Kent, Lamprey, Crystal Kid, Lamprey, Nightwind, Comet Queen, Magnetic Kid, the mystery member (Tellus) and that wierd little guy that seemed to eat technology. I always thought Dev-Em would fit well with this crowd.

Man, I loved the Academy students. Nightwind, Lamprey and Crystal Kid, particularly. (I always found Power Boy a bit dull, although purple skin with orange hair was a fun contrast.)

And yeah, that little guy, who always said 'Urk' and hence, in my head, is named Urk.

I fanwank that he's not an actual student. 30th century Metropolis is built over the past dozen iterations of the city, with technology constantly updating and rendering obsolete all the stuff under it. The 'Urks' are genetically engineered scrappers, created to eat obsolete tech and excrete solid 'ferrocrete' in it's place, so that it doesn't cause any structural undermining. The Urk that keeps showing up in Academy holos is just a particularly fearless example of their kind (as they are engineered to stay out of sight, normally).

And yeah, I know Lu once called him 'a particularly disruptive student,' but I choose to think she was being generous.

[Nomads1]

Shadow Lad. Grev's codename was Shadow lad, not Shadow Kid. My bad.

Peace