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Original Legion of Super-Heroes #14
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1
From legendary writer Paul Levitz (THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA) and artists Mike Grell (GREEN ARROW, Warlord), James Sherman and more comes SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES.
It's the long-awaited wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, with a ceremony bringing together Legionnaires and friends from across galaxies! But amid the celebration, one guest's joy for the happy couple is mixed with apprehension: something is wrong with the 30th century, and only Superboy can see it. To figure out what happened to the Legion's future, Superboy and his friends must venture a thousand years into the past--to 1978! Plus, the Legion face off against the Worldsmith, rescue their billionaire benefactor, take over Superboy's brain and more!
Continuing directly from the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES, this volume includes stories from SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #234-240, ALL-NEW COLLECTORS' EDITION C-55 and DC SUPER-STARS #17.
It's the long-awaited wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, with a ceremony bringing together Legionnaires and friends from across galaxies! But amid the celebration, one guest's joy for the happy couple is mixed with apprehension: something is wrong with the 30th century, and only Superboy can see it. To figure out what happened to the Legion's future, Superboy and his friends must venture a thousand years into the past--to 1978! Plus, the Legion face off against the Worldsmith, rescue their billionaire benefactor, take over Superboy's brain and more!
Continuing directly from the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES, this volume includes stories from SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #234-240, ALL-NEW COLLECTORS' EDITION C-55 and DC SUPER-STARS #17.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2017
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73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 8, 2018
"Outa space! It's Phantom Girl!" declares one young by-stander, clearly overjoyed at being rescued by the teen/twentysomething team sensation, the Legion of Super-Heroes! I always loved the huge cast and "special club" vibe of the LSH. They're like cosmos-saving teen celebrities with great goofy names, costumes, and powers, each one unique enough for readers to have a handful of favorites. And they seemingly exist in a youthful, bright future where differences are overlooked and/or championed rather than stomped on by fear and discrimination. Of course, these 30th century tales are a product of their time so there's still some obvious 20th century flaws like the Chinese-descended yellow barbarians occupying the moon or "cool black Legionnaire" Tyroc being the only character with no lines, left out of every mission. These stories are more 70s soap opera than the earlier quirky 60s sci-fi era that I prefer, and everything is quite dramatic - if at times illogical! All of the guys are covered head-to-foot while the gals soar around the solar system in bikinis and suspenders. At least there's Cosmic Boy's man-corset putting some equal-opportunity flesh on display! Other than the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, the stories collected here are colorful but fairly forgettable. With its wraparound cover and bright, crisp coloring the book itself is beautiful if a little on the pricey side.
November 10, 2024
Collects DC Super-Stars #17 (Jack C. Harris, script; Juan Ortiz and Bob Smith, art), Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #234-240, and All New Collectors' Edition #C-55 from 1977-78. Most of the writing is by Paul Levitz, but Gerry Conway, Paul Kupperberg, and Jim Starlin contribute to various issues. The art is by a variety of people: Ric Estrada & Jack Abel (#234), Mike Grell (#235), James Sherman & Bob McLeod (#236), James Sherman & Jack Abel (#C-55), Walt Simonson & Jack Abel (#237), Jim Starlin (#239), and Howard Chaykin & Bob Wiacek (#240), with assorted assists by Vince Colletta, Josef Rubenstein, and Walt Simonson. Most of the covers are by Grell. Issue #238 reprints Adventure Comics #359-60 from 1967, written by Jim Shooter, with art by Curt Swan & George Klein, but in this collection only the cover for #238 by Jim Starlin is reproduced (the 2-part story, one of my all-time favorite Legion tales, is reprinted in full in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives #7 and Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes #3).
Levitz continues to modernize the Legion in these stories, with the marriage of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad the centerpiece of the run. It's interesting that C-55, an oversized special, doesn't really spend much time with their wedding, but focuses on an interesting time travel paradox. They don't address it here, but when time is split as it is in this story, when the divergence is ultimately fixed, no one frets about the billions of lives that will never happen in the alternate timeline. The rest of the stories are enjoyable, if somewhat forgettable. Wildfire, the Legion leader during this run, is kind of a jerk, but provides some internal conflict. The artwork is very good, despite being done by a revolving door of artists, including early work by Howard Chaykin.
Levitz continues to modernize the Legion in these stories, with the marriage of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad the centerpiece of the run. It's interesting that C-55, an oversized special, doesn't really spend much time with their wedding, but focuses on an interesting time travel paradox. They don't address it here, but when time is split as it is in this story, when the divergence is ultimately fixed, no one frets about the billions of lives that will never happen in the alternate timeline. The rest of the stories are enjoyable, if somewhat forgettable. Wildfire, the Legion leader during this run, is kind of a jerk, but provides some internal conflict. The artwork is very good, despite being done by a revolving door of artists, including early work by Howard Chaykin.
February 29, 2020
The Legion was my first comics love, the book that got me into comics for good all the way back in 1980. I had never read the stories in this volume before, which were published several years before my start. Paul Levitz got his start on the Legion here and while you can see seeds of what his work on the book eventually blossomed into, it is a different book at this point. Still, it's fun to see the Legion in action, especially with a young Dawnstar just figuring things out. The art is all over the place (at least there's some Mike Grell), but holds together reasonably well. I'm probably rating this higher than it deserves, but I am a mark for the Legion and I'm okay with that. I have the next volume on my shelf waiting for me, though I'll probably read a few things in between. Long Live the Legion!
August 23, 2017
Picking up where the Archives series left off, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Volume One captures a moment in the franchise with a couple of key developments.
After rare space radiation fuses four members into a Composite Legionnaire that bedevils the team, the young heroes deal with the need to perpetually keep the time-traveling Superboy ignorant about key future information before he returns to his own century. While Cosmic Boy’s visit home is disturbed by an odd alien creating natural disasters on his world, Mon-El tangles with Khundian raiders on the edge of space and Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad decide that, though it means they’ll have to leave the Legion, the time is right for them to get married. The whole team turns out for the wedding, which is marred by a time-altering plot set in motion by one of the team’s biggest foes. The Legion defends its benefactor, R.J. Brande, against a violent interloper with an ax to grind. Ultra Boy finds himself at odds with his teammates when a mysterious figure sets him up for a murder. And finally, Grimbor the Chainsman returns with a plot to take revenge on the Legion.
By the mid-70s, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes had become one of DC’s higher profile titles. This phase was primarily written by legendary Legion scribe Paul Levitz, with contributions from Gerry Conway and Jack C. Harris, among others. Levitz did his best to balance the large cast, with more than twenty full-time members and a large trove of supporting characters, with varying degrees of success. Some characters fared better; Superboy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Wildfire and Braniac 5 all managed prominent placement in stories that offered some genuine character development. A few characters shone in single-issue spotlights that gave them a chance to spread their wings. Others struggled for any page time at all. Future fan favorite Dream Girl had a few “blink and you missed it” appearances, while poor Tyroc, already saddled with a problematic character concept, somehow managed to be the only member left behind when everyone else went off for a major confrontation. That’s the nature of a beast like Legion and if Levitz would excel at the tricky balancing act more successfully in future years, his batting average for this run was still pretty good.
One of the big takeaways from the collection was how successfully what had once been among the more “square” books in the comics world had successfully embraced ‘70s modern. The era’s fashions could be detected in the book’s aesthetic and the youth culture vibe permeated the pages. Levitz, Mike Grell and company succeeded in transforming Superboy and the Legion into a compelling mix of science fiction fantasy and young adult soap opera.
This was Grell’s swan song as the book’s regular artist. Grell had solidified his reputation with a lengthy stint on the demanding book and departed just as he was about to launch into superstar status. Sadly, his epic finale was marred by the sludgy inks of the legendarily ham-fisted Vince Coletta. James Sherman, Grell’s official replacement, contributed to several issues and at his best, did some first rate fantasy/action work, though like Grell, inker selection was key to the success of Sherman’s output. Numerous well-known creators, including Jim Starlin, Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, Bob McLeod, Josef Rubinstein, George Tuska and Mike Nasser, also chipped in contributions, demonstrating the juice of the franchise at the time that it attracted top talent, including several future industry legends.
This isn’t an ideal jumping on point for newcomers. Existing fans, however, will be happy to have these stories in a convenient volume and hopefully DC will release the other late ‘70s issues of the franchise, most not having previously appeared in a collected edition, in the near future.
After rare space radiation fuses four members into a Composite Legionnaire that bedevils the team, the young heroes deal with the need to perpetually keep the time-traveling Superboy ignorant about key future information before he returns to his own century. While Cosmic Boy’s visit home is disturbed by an odd alien creating natural disasters on his world, Mon-El tangles with Khundian raiders on the edge of space and Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad decide that, though it means they’ll have to leave the Legion, the time is right for them to get married. The whole team turns out for the wedding, which is marred by a time-altering plot set in motion by one of the team’s biggest foes. The Legion defends its benefactor, R.J. Brande, against a violent interloper with an ax to grind. Ultra Boy finds himself at odds with his teammates when a mysterious figure sets him up for a murder. And finally, Grimbor the Chainsman returns with a plot to take revenge on the Legion.
By the mid-70s, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes had become one of DC’s higher profile titles. This phase was primarily written by legendary Legion scribe Paul Levitz, with contributions from Gerry Conway and Jack C. Harris, among others. Levitz did his best to balance the large cast, with more than twenty full-time members and a large trove of supporting characters, with varying degrees of success. Some characters fared better; Superboy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Wildfire and Braniac 5 all managed prominent placement in stories that offered some genuine character development. A few characters shone in single-issue spotlights that gave them a chance to spread their wings. Others struggled for any page time at all. Future fan favorite Dream Girl had a few “blink and you missed it” appearances, while poor Tyroc, already saddled with a problematic character concept, somehow managed to be the only member left behind when everyone else went off for a major confrontation. That’s the nature of a beast like Legion and if Levitz would excel at the tricky balancing act more successfully in future years, his batting average for this run was still pretty good.
One of the big takeaways from the collection was how successfully what had once been among the more “square” books in the comics world had successfully embraced ‘70s modern. The era’s fashions could be detected in the book’s aesthetic and the youth culture vibe permeated the pages. Levitz, Mike Grell and company succeeded in transforming Superboy and the Legion into a compelling mix of science fiction fantasy and young adult soap opera.
This was Grell’s swan song as the book’s regular artist. Grell had solidified his reputation with a lengthy stint on the demanding book and departed just as he was about to launch into superstar status. Sadly, his epic finale was marred by the sludgy inks of the legendarily ham-fisted Vince Coletta. James Sherman, Grell’s official replacement, contributed to several issues and at his best, did some first rate fantasy/action work, though like Grell, inker selection was key to the success of Sherman’s output. Numerous well-known creators, including Jim Starlin, Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, Bob McLeod, Josef Rubinstein, George Tuska and Mike Nasser, also chipped in contributions, demonstrating the juice of the franchise at the time that it attracted top talent, including several future industry legends.
This isn’t an ideal jumping on point for newcomers. Existing fans, however, will be happy to have these stories in a convenient volume and hopefully DC will release the other late ‘70s issues of the franchise, most not having previously appeared in a collected edition, in the near future.
July 5, 2017
Though we are now into the Paul Levitz era of the Legion, it's still a mixed bag. Other writers including Gerry Conway and Jim Shooter offer stories here and there, concluding with several fill-ins at the end of the volume, resulting in pretty light continuity between the various one-off tales. In fact the plotting is so fragmentary, that the main bit of continuity in this comic, where Wildstar collapses after fighting the Composite Legionnaire in S+LSH #234 isn't resolved until the second story of S+LSH #235!
And we're still getting plenty of puzzle and twist stories, like we saw earlier in the Legion's history. What secret is the Legion keeping from Superboy? What was their first mission? Why are the Legion on trial? Mind you, we do get one mini-epic, the "Millennium Massacre", a 60-page story from the previously hard-to-get Collector's Edition #55. (Of course, it's a twist story too: why has Earth history suddenly changed?) And, the Ultra Boy story in S+LSH #239 is a prelude to later things. But these are still the exception.
Then there's S+LSH #236, where the first story is co-authored by Paul Levitz and Paul Kuppenburg, and it feels unlike anything else to date. Legionnaires casually play about headquarters while others take vacation in foreign lands. There's even a proper role call, too often missing from this era. Though it's still a one-off story that closes all its plot threads by the end, you can see the seeds of Levitz's later style, which would mix personal and heroic stories into a seamless quilt of Legion life. The other stories from #236, starting off with the personal lives of M0n-El, then of Rokk and Lydia, share similar tropes, even if they're not quite as obvious of predecessors to Levitz's later work.
As a whole, these are interesting stories. Where to date the Legion archives have been largely interesting for their historic value, this is the first to really show the seeds of greatness. (Call it 3.5 stars, not 3.) But it would require Levitz being given total control over the comic and the ability to tell open-ended stories. Which would only require a wait for the next volume.
And we're still getting plenty of puzzle and twist stories, like we saw earlier in the Legion's history. What secret is the Legion keeping from Superboy? What was their first mission? Why are the Legion on trial? Mind you, we do get one mini-epic, the "Millennium Massacre", a 60-page story from the previously hard-to-get Collector's Edition #55. (Of course, it's a twist story too: why has Earth history suddenly changed?) And, the Ultra Boy story in S+LSH #239 is a prelude to later things. But these are still the exception.
Then there's S+LSH #236, where the first story is co-authored by Paul Levitz and Paul Kuppenburg, and it feels unlike anything else to date. Legionnaires casually play about headquarters while others take vacation in foreign lands. There's even a proper role call, too often missing from this era. Though it's still a one-off story that closes all its plot threads by the end, you can see the seeds of Levitz's later style, which would mix personal and heroic stories into a seamless quilt of Legion life. The other stories from #236, starting off with the personal lives of M0n-El, then of Rokk and Lydia, share similar tropes, even if they're not quite as obvious of predecessors to Levitz's later work.
As a whole, these are interesting stories. Where to date the Legion archives have been largely interesting for their historic value, this is the first to really show the seeds of greatness. (Call it 3.5 stars, not 3.) But it would require Levitz being given total control over the comic and the ability to tell open-ended stories. Which would only require a wait for the next volume.
July 19, 2017
I was very pleased when I heard that this volume was coming up, and that it would pick up where the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives finished. So after pre-ordering it a few months back, I started a re-read of those 12 Archives - which was quite an enjoyable task - so that I would be at the same stage as this new volume came out.
I was also looking forward to this new volume, as it co-incides with when I was 16/17, and thus has fond memories attached to when I first read some of these stories - plus there were a couple of stories I had never read! So, yes, I did enjoy this read and it goes on the shelf next to the LSH Archives. And, yes, I do hope that they continue to produce more volumes!
First, I did notice that this new volume was not of the same quality (as in paper, binding, reproduction) as the Archives had been, or at least so it seemed to me. Perhaps this makes it a little cheaper, so it isn't really a complaint, more of an observation. Though I am puzzled why they just didn't continue with the Archives??? This new volume, being volume 1 doesn't make a great deal of sense as it isn't really the start of a new era, and in fact some of the sub-plots from the last Archive are still being continued.
However it is a good collection of stories - and I hope those who are new to the Legion have means of reading the stories that came before.
I am also glad that they didn't go the way the Golden Age Omnibuses seem to be going as they now enter into material not covered in Archives. Not only are they quite expensive, but I have to purchase an Omnibus that has over 50% material I already own in Archives if I want to continue those collections :(
I was also looking forward to this new volume, as it co-incides with when I was 16/17, and thus has fond memories attached to when I first read some of these stories - plus there were a couple of stories I had never read! So, yes, I did enjoy this read and it goes on the shelf next to the LSH Archives. And, yes, I do hope that they continue to produce more volumes!
First, I did notice that this new volume was not of the same quality (as in paper, binding, reproduction) as the Archives had been, or at least so it seemed to me. Perhaps this makes it a little cheaper, so it isn't really a complaint, more of an observation. Though I am puzzled why they just didn't continue with the Archives??? This new volume, being volume 1 doesn't make a great deal of sense as it isn't really the start of a new era, and in fact some of the sub-plots from the last Archive are still being continued.
However it is a good collection of stories - and I hope those who are new to the Legion have means of reading the stories that came before.
I am also glad that they didn't go the way the Golden Age Omnibuses seem to be going as they now enter into material not covered in Archives. Not only are they quite expensive, but I have to purchase an Omnibus that has over 50% material I already own in Archives if I want to continue those collections :(
January 28, 2024
A lot of LoSH goodness. Sure the stories don't hit the peak Levitz era where the character development was at its peak and there were running storylines. And yes Mike Grell only does a few issues of art and the other artists aren't up to his standard (with the exception of the Jim Starlin issue). But still some fun issues in here.
Let me start with the positive - the Tabloid Lightning Lad/Saturn girl wedding story with Grell art (and not great inking) and a Time Trapper story that lives up to the hype (I won't go into it - but when he first appeared there was a 20 issue lead up to the Time Trapper and the payoff was weaker than diluted oatmeal), and you get my fav LoSH story of all time by Jim Starlin (Ultra Boy on the run). Both the art and story are the best. It weaves in the past of the Legion, creates a nice mystery and the powers of the Legion are used well. You get a nice Grimbor story (liked him as a villain) and a follow up to the story with him and Charma.
The weak is - too often the members of the Legion don't have much personality or when they do they have erratic personalities (Wildstar has an insane hatred towards Superboy at times). And it would be nice to see more stories where their powers were used in a clever way. The art at times isn't great but it is never poor.
But overall - really loved this collection. Might not hold up by today's standard but it was a great trip down memory lne for me.
Let me start with the positive - the Tabloid Lightning Lad/Saturn girl wedding story with Grell art (and not great inking) and a Time Trapper story that lives up to the hype (I won't go into it - but when he first appeared there was a 20 issue lead up to the Time Trapper and the payoff was weaker than diluted oatmeal), and you get my fav LoSH story of all time by Jim Starlin (Ultra Boy on the run). Both the art and story are the best. It weaves in the past of the Legion, creates a nice mystery and the powers of the Legion are used well. You get a nice Grimbor story (liked him as a villain) and a follow up to the story with him and Charma.
The weak is - too often the members of the Legion don't have much personality or when they do they have erratic personalities (Wildstar has an insane hatred towards Superboy at times). And it would be nice to see more stories where their powers were used in a clever way. The art at times isn't great but it is never poor.
But overall - really loved this collection. Might not hold up by today's standard but it was a great trip down memory lne for me.
July 17, 2017
Picking up after the last volume of the Legion Archives, this new collection has the earlier Paul Levitz Legion stories. There's some good stuff here, particularly the engagement and wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, a short story dealing with Dawnstar's past and Cosmic Boy's planet, and the beginnings of the Encylopedia Galactica. A couple tales are written by Gerry Conway and Paul Kupperberb, but Levitz is the star here.
Art by Mike Grell and the sensual James Sherman, who gave the Legion a sexiness lacking since Dave Cockrum's days. Some of the art, particularly the tabloid-sized edition of the wedding of LL and SG, was ruined by the horrible Vince Colletta, who was probably the worst inker at DC in those days. He makes Grell's art almost unrecognizable.
These are some of the first comics I bought as a kid, and they're still fun to read. This book is similar to the recent Jack Kirby hardcover collections, with paper close to the original newsprint and therefore looking a lot like the originals. The only thing missing here is an introduction of some sort, to put the series in perspective of the DCU of its day.
Art by Mike Grell and the sensual James Sherman, who gave the Legion a sexiness lacking since Dave Cockrum's days. Some of the art, particularly the tabloid-sized edition of the wedding of LL and SG, was ruined by the horrible Vince Colletta, who was probably the worst inker at DC in those days. He makes Grell's art almost unrecognizable.
These are some of the first comics I bought as a kid, and they're still fun to read. This book is similar to the recent Jack Kirby hardcover collections, with paper close to the original newsprint and therefore looking a lot like the originals. The only thing missing here is an introduction of some sort, to put the series in perspective of the DCU of its day.
September 23, 2018
I really breezed through this one. I do remember that giant sized Collector's Item (C-55).. none of the other stories here were fondly remembered by me.
The art ranges from terrible to passable. This is not Mike Grell's best work (although the cover is pretty good).
The one story I read with concentration was Jim Starlin's contribution, which involves Ultra Boy getting framed for murder, and Chameleon Boy solving the case.
I always kind of liked the Legion of Super-Heroes (The X-Men clearly owed a lot to them), but I will not be getting volume two.
By the way, as it says on the back cover, this collection takes up where the thirteen volumes of LSH leave off, so it's more like volume fourteen, and the series is cruising toward cancellation.
Three stars is a generous rating.
PS.. Cosmic Boy's costume looks ridiculous, and some of the girls are wearing less than he is.
C'mon, people, this is 2979 already!
The art ranges from terrible to passable. This is not Mike Grell's best work (although the cover is pretty good).
The one story I read with concentration was Jim Starlin's contribution, which involves Ultra Boy getting framed for murder, and Chameleon Boy solving the case.
I always kind of liked the Legion of Super-Heroes (The X-Men clearly owed a lot to them), but I will not be getting volume two.
By the way, as it says on the back cover, this collection takes up where the thirteen volumes of LSH leave off, so it's more like volume fourteen, and the series is cruising toward cancellation.
Three stars is a generous rating.
PS.. Cosmic Boy's costume looks ridiculous, and some of the girls are wearing less than he is.
C'mon, people, this is 2979 already!
May 24, 2021
I've been a Legion fan for almost as long as I've been into DC comics. And yeah, the Silver and Bronze Age Legion is kinda wonky. When they were good... they were one of those rare DC books that pushed the boundaries of the Comics Code. (Up there with Green Arrow, Deadman and Swamp Thing). When they were bad... that were just so out there as to be endlessly entertaining. This collection gets a mix of both.
And in one chase, the hilarity unintentional racism might stem from the fact that the reprint editor didn't adjust the coloring to compensate for the reprint being on better quality paper than the original.
But if you like Silver and Bronze Age stuff... check it out.
And in one chase, the hilarity unintentional racism might stem from the fact that the reprint editor didn't adjust the coloring to compensate for the reprint being on better quality paper than the original.
But if you like Silver and Bronze Age stuff... check it out.
October 25, 2017
Collection of Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes stories which originally appeared in comic books from the late 1970s to early 1980s and covered a period just after I stopped reading this particular series. These stories lacked continuity, excitement, and compelling storytelling especially when compared with Marvel's X-Men series from around the same time which I just recently read. Very disappointing read for me.
March 24, 2018
I fondly remember picking up these issues off the newsstands. I still have my copy of the tabloid that presented the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl too. What I had forgotten about was how my guest artists appeared during this run - mostly so Mike Grell could work on that tabloid. So many Marvel artists like Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin and more take up pen to draw our favorite Legionnaires. Interesting indeed.
September 13, 2020
A remembrance of the 70s rebundled, but the simplicity that the world would hinge upon the UN and that it could be "disbanded" so easily, but such was the state of the world in 1978, old certainties were busy being displaced. As tired truths fell away and their answers failed to satisfy, what could even the 30th Century offer as enlightenment?
June 23, 2018
A lot of fun. Knockout Jim Starlin story at the end. Probably mostly for bronze age buffs and true die hard LSH fans.
Featuring some early Mike Grell art, but also others: Simsonson, Starlin and even a dash of the great George Tuska!
Featuring some early Mike Grell art, but also others: Simsonson, Starlin and even a dash of the great George Tuska!
January 4, 2018
Gems include "Legion's Super-Secret", "Millennium Massacre", & "Murder Most Foul".
Read
February 27, 2021Loved it
April 13, 2024
Great collection. Really good stories and artwork. My favorite artists were James Sherman and Mike Grell. I am looking forward to volume 2.
April 6, 2025
I always wanted to get into Legion and finally did it with this book. The stories were really fun even if some of them were not well executed... lol I liked that how politicians were all nothing, but villains for legion . I read some of the Great Darkness saga before and didn't like it that much and dropped it, but everyone says The Great Darkness Saga is the best story of Legion so because of i liked what i read so far, i will give The Great Darkness saga another shot.
There is something that came to my attention in The Great Darkness saga which was all the legion members were married... Being all mostly at their teen ages, seeing all of them married was weird... They were all talking like ''ok husband'', ''thanks wife'' and stuff.... lol I was like WTF, one or two may be, but all the team married to each other was too much... And the couse of this was also Paul Levitz as far as i can see... Every issues, he wrote, there was a legion couple. It was like Lightning lad and Saturn girl, Timber wolf and whatever girl and Cosmic boy and whatever girl... they were like ''ok lover'', ''thanks lover''... up and down in this run. And he even married Lightning LAD to Saturn GIRL... Paul... bro, chill, calm down with your shipping... lol I hope when they relaunch Legion with a reboot, there will be no married legionners and just one or two dating couples in legion or something...
Interestingly, Superboy was not stealing the show, interestingly because i thought he would, but Legion memebers also shined. I liked how Cameleon Boy was doing detective work when the Ultra boy was framed by killing his ex girl friend. Cameleon Boy really dug well into the case, nice murder mystery story.
I can see Cameleon Boy and Batman doing some detective work together at some Justice League & Legion cross over, that would be fun, but there is this, when there is a genious like Braniac 5 with computer mind, i would expect him to do the detective work. Never the less i really enjoyed the book overall.
There is something that came to my attention in The Great Darkness saga which was all the legion members were married... Being all mostly at their teen ages, seeing all of them married was weird... They were all talking like ''ok husband'', ''thanks wife'' and stuff.... lol I was like WTF, one or two may be, but all the team married to each other was too much... And the couse of this was also Paul Levitz as far as i can see... Every issues, he wrote, there was a legion couple. It was like Lightning lad and Saturn girl, Timber wolf and whatever girl and Cosmic boy and whatever girl... they were like ''ok lover'', ''thanks lover''... up and down in this run. And he even married Lightning LAD to Saturn GIRL... Paul... bro, chill, calm down with your shipping... lol I hope when they relaunch Legion with a reboot, there will be no married legionners and just one or two dating couples in legion or something...
Interestingly, Superboy was not stealing the show, interestingly because i thought he would, but Legion memebers also shined. I liked how Cameleon Boy was doing detective work when the Ultra boy was framed by killing his ex girl friend. Cameleon Boy really dug well into the case, nice murder mystery story.
I can see Cameleon Boy and Batman doing some detective work together at some Justice League & Legion cross over, that would be fun, but there is this, when there is a genious like Braniac 5 with computer mind, i would expect him to do the detective work. Never the less i really enjoyed the book overall.
March 7, 2025
2025 reread - while I think I liked the scripts better than I did six years ago, this run of Legion still feels disjointed - not quite firing on all cylinders. The Time Trapper tale is very fun, but still a lot of those puzzle plots that sometimes land but often feel a bit forced - Ultra Boy framed for a crime and a) his teammates give him exactly ZERO benefit of the doubt, and b) he can't let himself be taken because apparently NONE of them would try to find the truth?! (Oh, wait, Cham figures it out while we spent most of our time watching Jo brawling with his teammates.) The "guy out for revenge against Brande and sending the Legion on different missions to spotlight individual members" is nicely structured, but again ... just feels like a formal exercise to spotlight smaller teams, spurred by lackluster villain with tepid motivation.
However, Simonson, Grell and Chaykin on art duties during this run is a nice treat.
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Generally good art (Grell and Simonson), generally passable but not especially memorable scripts from a young Paul Levitz.
However, Simonson, Grell and Chaykin on art duties during this run is a nice treat.
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Generally good art (Grell and Simonson), generally passable but not especially memorable scripts from a young Paul Levitz.
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