How can I get into Legion of Superheroes? * Very Mild Re-Birth Spoiler*

[Big Al]

The cartoon was remarkably faithful.

I think in the past 10 years, the closest DC has come to recapturing the classic LSH spirit has been in stories written by Geoff Johns. I already posted about the Action Comics trade paperback in a previous post.

The other trade paperback I would highly recommend is Legion Of 3 Worlds by Johns and artist George Perez...

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An epic story, it features probably every Legionnaire ever created (which is a lot!). But if the hundreds of X-Men doesn't bug ya? You're going to love the Legion!

Plus, it's got classic George Perez artwork. Just a great book and well-worth a read!

that's actually one of my all time favorite comics right there. I love the way it's written and drawn and not to spoil anything but Polar Boy is totally awesome when he makes a huge stand.

great stuff right there.

[Jim Kelly]

Back in the '50s, Superman and even more so his younger self, Superboy, was forever encountering heroes like himself. The Legion of Super-Heroes (actually only three main characters and a few background characters with no speaking parts) were not much different than the other fellow travellers. And like most of them, they might never have been seen again. But I guess readers liked them. And Mort Weisinger was one of the few editors who was inviting reader feedback--and he read those letters and created more comics in reaction to them.

For a few years, the Legion were travelling players in the Super titles. They had no permanent home, but they were such fan-favourites that they were finally given a residency in ADVENTURE COMICS. They took over the spot that belonged to Bizarro World--but the creators of that series (mainly Jerry Siegel and John Forte) weren't out of a job, they were simply moved on to doing the Legion stories. A lot of weirdo humour in Bizarro World found its way into the Legion. Superboy remained the lead feature in the book as he had been for over a decade, but the Legion proved so popular that they eventually took over the lead spot from Superboy (it helped that Superboy was a member and appeared in virtually every story). This wouldn't be the last time that the Legion, buoyed by fan support, annexed Superboy's own book.

I make such a big deal about fan support because it's a key element of the Legion. They were one of the first--if not the first--super-hero teams that thrived on the support from readers. Comic book fandom was in its infancy--and fandom coalesced around the Legion. So much so that new writers of the Legion would be drafted from fandom. One of these was Jim Shooter--who was only fourteen years old when he got his start. Weisinger liked the ideas that Jim had submitted (in the form of his own hand-made comic books) and soon Shooter was guiding the future fortunes of the group.

It's really the X-Men that is like the Legion--not the other way around. Days of Futures Past is based off a Shooter Legion story. The LSH proved how important fandom can be and other comic books took note. It's just too bad that DC editorial has never been the biggest fan of the LSH and never fully appreciated its value as a fan favourite. Time and again the Legion were screwed over by editorial wrong-headedness--putting them back to bottom and having to buld up all over again.

[colonyofcells]

Probably better to wait for the Rebirth Legion title to come out soon. My guess is the Rebirth Legion will be similar to the merged Legion that recently appeared in Justice League United. The merged Legion from Justice League United had members from the major eras of the Legion : pre coie, 5YL, archie Legion, retroboot, etc.

[Jim Kelly]

If they really want the Legion to last, I think they should look to the past to see how the Legion was able to implant itself in fandom and develop as a going concern. Introduce the group in another series that has a strong readership; put them in other popular books: encourage fandom to support an ongoing series; give them an ongoing series that has a chance of surviving for more than a year.

I think they did that with Superman and the Legion etc. But the problem there was that they were screwing over Jim Shooter's Legion at the same time. They didn't re-introduce the classic Legion in the cleanest way possible. Also I don't trust Geoff Johns with the franchise because he forgets too much Legion lore and just makes stuff up that later will only create continuity confusion. I'd prefer a writer who can think the whole thing through and institute a plan that will make sense over the long haul.

Giving Saturn Girl a cameo was a good start. I think the next place we need to see the Legion is in a Superman book, where their origin should be firmly established. And after that in a Batman book--in some fashion--because Batman is the most popular character in the DCU.

[colonyofcells]

In tv, Legends of Tomorrow is using the justice society and Supergirl seems to be introducing the Legion. There are lots of Superman family titles that can introduce the Legion. Last time they used the Justice League Justice Society team up to reintroduce the Legion. Superman titles do not sell well so I would guess they will use the Justice League title again to reintroduce the Legion. If the Superman family titles have great sales, can maybe use a crossover of the Superman family titles to feature the Legion. I remember the New 52 had lots of boring Superman family crossovers.

[Zero Hunter]

Probably better to wait for the Rebirth Legion title to come out soon. My guess is the Rebirth Legion will be similar to the merged Legion that recently appeared in Justice League United. The merged Legion from Justice League United had members from the major eras of the Legion : pre coie, 5YL, archie Legion, retroboot, etc.

God I hope not. I hated that mess of a story and just throwing all the versions into one was a very bad idea.

[colonyofcells]

My guess is dc is heading towards merging the many versions to try to unify the customers and this should help forums have less quarrels about which version should be featured in the current title.

[Robotman]

Johns' Superman and the Legion of Superheroes story is one of my favorite comics of all time. Highly recommend it.