The Griffen Legion - This is Incredible

[Nomads1]

I've read a little bit of the Legion . . . not much. I have several trades and some loose copies (pre-Crisis and post) that I have set back. I plan on reading the early series with Levitz and then moving on forward.

Are there any recommendations for pre-Crisis? Some of the pre-Crisis stuff is pretty campy. Some of it I enjoy because I grew up in those times but some other stuff is just way too campy. I would not mind reading some good runs from that period though.

The Legion gives a leap foward from the ultra-campy camp when Jim Shooter takes over the writing, and REALLY starts to build the Legion mythos. The stories with Curt Swan on art show a miuch more modern silver age sensibility. But it gives ANOTHER leap foward when Dave Cockrum takes over the art, revamping most of the costumes and the technological look of the whole series. After that,it's impossible not to be imersed in the Legion lore and not to fall in love with it. Cockrum's tenure, though fantastic, is relatively short, but Mike Grell keeps the torch going, and even after he, and Jim Shooter, leave, with Paul Levitz and Gerry Conway taking over the writing, the book doesn't loose momentum, even with lesser artists taking over. Jim Sherman (awsome) and Joe Stanton (and even a couple of uncredited Jim Starlin issues) carry the book until it drops the "Superboy and..." and becomes simply the Legion of Super-Heroes. The initial period of the sole LSH book, with Gerry Conway on writing and Jimmy Janes on art, is IMHO, weak, but the book manages to regain it's footing towards the end of their joint run, and soon is fireing on all cilinders with the return of Paul Levitz on writing and Pat Broderick on art. Soon Giffen is upgraded from back-up artist to full artist, and the rest, as they say, is history. Long story short, I'd definitely hop on when Cockrum arrives, but there is a lot of good stuff before he does also.

Peace

[DCJdog]

Thanks for the info - I was just searching around and found this:
https://www.amazon.com/Superboy-Legi...words=superboy

Hopefully, DC doesn't cancel it. I plan on going on a Legion run before long.

[Anthony Shaw]

The Legion gives a leap foward from the ultra-campy camp when Jim Shooter takes over the writing, and REALLY starts to build the Legion mythos. The stories with Curt Swan on art show a miuch more modern silver age sensibility. But it gives ANOTHER leap foward when Dave Cockrum takes over the art, revamping most of the costumes and the technological look of the whole series. After that,it's impossible not to be imersed in the Legion lore and not to fall in love with it. Cockrum's tenure, though fantastic, is relatively short, but Mike Grell keeps the torch going, and even after he, and Jim Shooter, leave, with Paul Levitz and Gerry Conway taking over the writing, the book doesn't loose momentum, even with lesser artists taking over. Jim Sherman (awsome) and Joe Stanton (and even a couple of uncredited Jim Starlin issues) carry the book until it drops the "Superboy and..." and becomes simply the Legion of Super-Heroes. The initial period of the sole LSH book, with Gerry Conway on writing and Jimmy Janes on art, is IMHO, weak, but the book manages to regain it's footing towards the end of their joint run, and soon is fireing on all cilinders with the return of Paul Levitz on writing and Pat Broderick on art. Soon Giffen is upgraded from back-up artist to full artist, and the rest, as they say, is history. Long story short, I'd definitely hop on when Cockrum arrives, but there is a lot of good stuff before he does also.

Peace

Thanks for the information drop.

[Zero Hunter]

I've read a little bit of the Legion . . . not much. I have several trades and some loose copies (pre-Crisis and post) that I have set back. I plan on reading the early series with Levitz and then moving on forward.

Are there any recommendations for pre-Crisis? Some of the pre-Crisis stuff is pretty campy. Some of it I enjoy because I grew up in those times but some other stuff is just way too campy. I would not mind reading some good runs from that period though.

Whenever someone asks for a great legion story from the old days I have to mention this one. A quick two parter but still one of my all time favorites. After months of hints it is finally revealed that Brainiac 5 has had a complete mental breakdown and has created a creature so powerful it can destroy everything and the Legion are powerless to stop it.

[Nomads1]

Whenever someone asks for a great legion story from the old days I have to mention this one. A quick two parter but still one of my all time favorites. After months of hints it is finally revealed that Brainiac 5 has had a complete mental breakdown and has created a creature so powerful it can destroy everything and the Legion are powerless to stop it.

That's the uncredited Jim Starlin issues I mentioned (if I'm not mistaken, he signs as Steve Apollo). It continues from the super-sized SLSH #239, in which Ultra-Boy is framed for the murder of his former girlfriend, also by Starlin, and which served as basis for a good part of the 5YL LSH Annual #1.

Peace

[ultradav]

Here's a question: how do people feel about the (editorially mandated) replacements conceived in this run, namely: Valor, Laurel Gand / Andromeda, and Glorith?

I've heard it said on this forum before that the Legion needs Superboy or Superman -- but they created a reality in which a tie to the the Super-mythos was nonexistent (I didn't notice this until recently, but they even changed the name of Devlin O'Ryan's paper from The Daily Planet to the Interstellar Press mid-way through the run). How do fans of the run feel about that?

[Zero Hunter]

I loved Laurel Gand. I do think she was even better in the reboot when she went by Andromada.

[Tazpocalapse]

I remember it was a fan made website that i believe was called Legion Outpost that had a extensive guide to the Legion universe including a star map that displayed notable planets and worlds in the Legion universe. Does anyone have a linking work to those star maps?

[bearman]

That LSH 251 cover reposted above...that looks for all the world like Steve Ditko 's work, to me.
Gerry

[ultradav]

I loved Laurel Gand. I do think she was even better in the reboot when she went by Andromada.

SW6 Laurel debuted the Andromeda name pre ZH, but I loved her too! She was a new Supergirl (with a dash of Laurel Kent), but in many ways superior to the Maid of Might.

I got into Legion right after they dropped the "Superboy and... " part of the title, so I didn't have a lot of loyalty to him on the team. I think I preferred when Supergirl made cameos to when Kal did.

[AcesX1X]

I remember it was a fan made website that i believe was called Legion Outpost that had a extensive guide to the Legion universe including a star map that displayed notable planets and worlds in the Legion universe. Does anyone have a linking work to those star maps?

idk about star maps, but i did find this? it seems to have many valuable pieces of knowledge concerning these characters

http://www.legionworld.net/#pan1

[kcekada]

As a on again/off again Legion fan dating back to the Cockrum days, I had mixed feelings on the series. I didn't like Giffen's more stylized illustrations -- and really disliked the 9 panel grid. But it was an interesting series. However, it really got to the point where I felt it had gotten too far away from the classic Legion concept -- which I was missing. When DC decided to reboot -- I was ready, but the reboot should probably not have started from scratch.

[kcekada]

L.E.G.I.O.N. was also really well done. The links to the 30th Century were handled so well. The characterization of Vril Dox II as well was great, and influced future writers' takes on Brainiac Five pretty strongly.

Very solid series while Kitson was involved. He even took over the writing towards the end -- and provided some really strong stories. When it became R.E.B.E.L.S. under Tom Peyer -- it lost everything that had made it worth reading.

[ultradav]

Very solid series while Kitson was involved. He even took over the writing towards the end -- and provided some really strong stories. When it became R.E.B.E.L.S. under Tom Peyer -- it lost everything that had made it worth reading.

Yep. I low key enjoyed the humor in baby Llyrl Dox being the villain, but in general the series deteriorated. The worst part was finding out that Phase was not Phantom Girl but Enya Wazzo -- what a huge let down.

[Zero Hunter]

I will say to get things back on track that for me the Terra Mosaic (issues 25-36) story line was one the best Legion stories ever and really made the whole Giffenbaum pay off in such an amazing way. To have a full year of just one story is hard to pull off and they did it. Everything they set up in those first 24 issues really paid off big in this story.