I'm looking for a completist guide to the Legion

[ultradav]

Virtually every Legion story published between 1958 and 1985 can fit in a consistent continuity--with just some niggling exceptions that are easy to ignore and also given the fact that Paul Levitz decided the Adult Legion stories happened in an alternate timeline. And even after 1985, the Legion was pretty much left to keep within its continuity until a few issues into the 5 years later run by TMK, at which point Mike Carlin imposed restrictions on what they could do. That's in 1990--after that, yes, it gets very confusing.

But between 1958 and 1990, there is not a lot that is going to trip up a reader--other than the fact that this is one large Forsytean saga with a huge cast of characters. But the Legion was essentially the thing that kept comic book fandom going. It's what we wished other comic books could be. It established the idea of continuity and it had characters who grew and changed. It was an unfolding drama. Everything from FANTASTIC FOUR to X-MEN to TEEN TITANS owes a debt to the Legion of Super-Heroes. Things that happened in a story twenty years earlier could pay off in a current story. Without the Adult Legion stories, you might never have had Days of Future Past.

It's sad that so few people remember that legacy and instead remember all the confusion over multiple Legion timelines from the last 25 years.

Great post! I've been re-reading old Legion stories in order (up to just before the Baxter series launch now), and what's really interesting is the letter columns. You can see how active the fandom was, and how that impacted the stories in so many ways, from voting on Legion Leader (a GREAT concept, I wish they'd bring that back somewhere, gave you great WTF twists like Dream Girl's win), to the various fan names worked into the story in wink-nod moments (see real names of Lamprey, Crystal Kid, Nightwind, etc), to the different fans-turned-creators like the youthful Jim Shooter, Paul Levitz, Tom & Mary Bierbaum. It was really cool.

On another note, I still get a kick out of the fact that LSH basically sidelined Superboy in his own book to the point where they took it over completely. lol

[Jim Kelly]

Julie Schwartz and Mort Weisinger both greatly influenced the growth of comic book fandom, chiefly by turning the text pages in their comics into letter columns, with the addresses of the letter writers published in those pages (allowing fans to connect with each other directly through the mail).

Weisinger had organized a science fiction club when he was a teen and Julie was the first to join (Otto Binder also joined them). Together Mort and Julie published a fanzine, which gave them contact with science fiction editors and writers--from which their agency grew. Neither Julie nor Mort forgot the importance of fandom and they got a lot of the ideas for comic books from their fanmail.

So by the time the Marvel super-heroes started to appear there was a nascent fandom ready to latch onto them.

By featuring the Legion in the various Superman titles, before they had their own home in ADVENTURE, Mort could build up interest in the Legion. Fans started to campaign for the Legion to get their own title. When they finally did get their own place in ADVENTURE, the letter column now christened the Legion Outpost brought all those fans together on the page. No wonder that their fanzine was then called THE LEGION OUTPOST.

[ultradav]

I think DC would do well to bring back that kind of fan involvement. I know the death of letter columns probably was directly linked with the rise of the internet and people not sending physical letters in anymore. But they could feature posts from messageboards or something, as long as they let posters know their comments could be featured. Re-reading the old LSH issues and their letter-cols, it really feels like an intimate fandom, and was probably great marketing as well.

[buttler]

Great post! I've been re-reading old Legion stories in order (up to just before the Baxter series launch now), and what's really interesting is the letter columns. You can see how active the fandom was, and how that impacted the stories in so many ways, from voting on Legion Leader (a GREAT concept, I wish they'd bring that back somewhere, gave you great WTF twists like Dream Girl's win), to the various fan names worked into the story in wink-nod moments (see real names of Lamprey, Crystal Kid, Nightwind, etc), to the different fans-turned-creators like the youthful Jim Shooter, Paul Levitz, Tom & Mary Bierbaum. It was really cool.

On another note, I still get a kick out of the fact that LSH basically sidelined Superboy in his own book to the point where they took it over completely. lol

How funny! I've actually been doing that too, reading all the Legion stories from the beginning in order, and right now I'm up to about issue 33 of the Baxter series.

Sometime in the early '80s (or maybe the very late '70s), there was actually a list of all the Legion stories to date, including in other titles. (Not including just a cameo or a mention, but any significant appearances.) It was in an extra page that they had for a while next to the letters page. The list ran through 2 or 3 issues, but I can't remember which issues offhand. I think it was after "Superboy &" but before "Tales of the Legion," but I'm not 100% on that. I'd have to leaf through my back issues to see.

[Jim Kelly]

How funny! I've actually been doing that too, reading all the Legion stories from the beginning in order, and right now I'm up to about issue 33 of the Baxter series.

Sometime in the early '80s (or maybe the very late '70s), there was actually a list of all the Legion stories to date, including in other titles. (Not including just a cameo or a mention, but any significant appearances.) It was in an extra page that they had for a while next to the letters page. The list ran through 2 or 3 issues, but I can't remember which issues offhand. I think it was after "Superboy &" but before "Tales of the Legion," but I'm not 100% on that. I'd have to leaf through my back issues to see.

In the early '80s, ADVENTURE COMICS was converted to a digest format and featured at least one Legion reprint in each issue, and it had a text column--I think writen by Paul Levitz. It seems to me that the list of all the Legion appearances was in there. But I could be wrong on that.

[ultradav]

How funny! I've actually been doing that too, reading all the Legion stories from the beginning in order, and right now I'm up to about issue 33 of the Baxter series.

Sometime in the early '80s (or maybe the very late '70s), there was actually a list of all the Legion stories to date, including in other titles. (Not including just a cameo or a mention, but any significant appearances.) It was in an extra page that they had for a while next to the letters page. The list ran through 2 or 3 issues, but I can't remember which issues offhand. I think it was after "Superboy &" but before "Tales of the Legion," but I'm not 100% on that. I'd have to leaf through my back issues to see.

Nice! That was in the early 80s (I know because I just passed it!), also after they did things like print the Legion Constitution, the Interlac alphabet, the Legion symbol guide, the map of Metropolis. It was this cool bit of world-building that was really great to see unfold.

[condoarlik]

Thanks for the help everyone. There's a list called the anal retentive legion checklist that is good pretty much til the beginning of DNAs run. I think I will use it and finish up with research on comicvine. Then maybe I'll do a little cross referencing. The most difficult to figure out for me is back in the silver age where they seem to cross over a lot and then, reboot era where they visit the 20th century, and then also the new krypton stuff.

I'm really excited to finish up and have it all read. Fortunately my father have me a large chunk of legion stuff from superboy and all the way to eye for an eye

The COMPLETE Legion index is being compiled at:

www.facebook.com/bitsoflegionnairebusiness

Go to the photo albums, and look at the indexes which are categorized according to years. The indexes include all mainstream appearances, cameos, mentions of Legion-related characters, flight rings, Legion alien races, etc. There's even an album of complete Legion merchandise. You will be surprised at the comics you are not aware of.

[MajorHoy]

The COMPLETE Legion index is being compiled at:

www.facebook.com/bitsoflegionnairebusiness

Shouldn't you have an avatar of Chemical King?

[caj]

Although it only goes through the mid to late 80s, the Official Legion of Super Heroes Index is pretty thorough on Legion appearances.

[Lee Stone]

The COMPLETE Legion index is being compiled at:

www.facebook.com/bitsoflegionnairebusiness

Go to the photo albums, and look at the indexes which are categorized according to years. The indexes include all mainstream appearances, cameos, mentions of Legion-related characters, flight rings, Legion alien races, etc. There's even an album of complete Legion merchandise. You will be surprised at the comics you are not aware of.

I'd recommend putting it on a non-Facebook site and just linking to it on Facebook.

[Lee Stone]

Although it only goes through the mid to late 80s, the Official Legion of Super Heroes Index is pretty thorough on Legion appearances.

If it had been done just a few years later, it would've contained the entire original pre-5YL era.

[Spiderboy12]

Although it only goes through the mid to late 80s, the Official Legion of Super Heroes Index is pretty thorough on Legion appearances.

Um, not quite. The Legion Index came OUT in the 1980s. But the five published issues only covered the Legion until 1970, through Action Comics #391, as I recall (literally a single issue before their last Action Comics story).

[caj]

Um, not quite. The Legion Index came OUT in the 1980s. But the five published issues only covered the Legion until 1970, through Action Comics #391, as I recall (literally a single issue before their last Action Comics story).

I stand corrected. It was the Justice League of America index that went into the 80s.

[Chcknman69]

Try this Link to get you started up to 1986..... Mike's Amazing World is an Awesom Site for chronologies.
http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mik...haracterid=305

[Lonewolf36]

Ok anyone who wants to be a completest should go to this site Legion Outpost II Ezine Archive.
http://www.infiniteearths.org/lsh
The issues are free an in PDF format.
Couple of issues has a Legion checklist that covers every appearance including anything to do with Legion including cameos and alien races associated with the Legion. The issues contain info from the beginning of the Legion through most of the Zero Hour Reboot legion. It's the best source of Legion info i ever come across by far.