Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga (Legion of Super-Heroes

by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen (artist), Pat Broderick (artist)

This is Earth in the 30th Century. A world of peace and light. Preserving this peace is the Legion of Super-Heroes, a group of young adventurers who are the best and brightest of their kind. But a darkness is approaching; a centuries-old evil that threatens to destroy their entire universe. Herein lies the story of the Legion’s greatest challenge! Collects Legion of Super-Heroes #287, #290-294, and Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3.

Genres: Superheroes

Kindle Edition

Published September 24, 2024

Reviews

[Randy Lander]

So maybe sometimes you shouldn't look back at old favorites, because upon rereading, this is more the "Good Darkness Saga" :)

I grew up on the bombastic writing of '70s-'80s comics, and so I'm used to it, and I really enjoyed reading these Levitz-era Legion stories in the early 2000s when I first got into them. But reading this now was a little bit more of a slog than I expected. The banter between the Legion reads like them all being dicks to each other for no reason, and I can see where this was a big shocker, Darkseid rearing his head in the 30th century, but going into it and knowing what's coming, it's not as powerful or as amazing as it was the first time.

Which is not to say it isn't a solid Legion outing, because it is, but some of the goofy tropes of the time made this less fun to reread than I expected. On to The Curse, the hardcover that follows it up, to see if I feel the same and if I should leave the Levitz Legion in my fond memories rather than rereading.

[Colin Post]

I’m trying to explore more LSH because I’m intrigued by the upcoming relaunch but have very little knowledge of this part of the DC universe. I know this is one of the best known storylines, and I can see the appeal! First off, Keith Giffen’s art is so, so good. Classic superhero style in the Kirby school but with his own spin. He really creates an imaginative sci-fi landscape - you can feel the scale of the vast future. I had some trouble keeping track of the different characters, but that was more from my own inexperience. Overall, this story was a lot fun, kind of a mini crisis, in that worlds are collapsing into darkness and an ad hoc team has to come together to combat it. I might need to read some more LSH!

[Cole]

Never really been in to comics. This was fun to read through. Some really beautiful panels, but many felt uncanny. I felt like the buildup to the reveal was really engaging, but then the payoff was too short. But it was really nice being exposed to a new medium. Would read more comics.