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Original Legion of Super-Heroes #16
Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness Vol. 1
The greatest heroes of the 30th century star in these classic stories that set the stage for “The Great Darkness Saga,” one of the most beloved tales in Legion history! First, the Legion-including Mon-El, Brainiac 5, and Phantom Girl-takes on a Circus of Death! Then, the villainous Dagon strikes, kidnapping several Legionnaires’ parents for ransom. And the Fatal Five return-now working for the Dark Man! Plus, find out startling new information from the pasts of the Legion and their ally R.J. Brande. This title collects Legion of Super-Heroes #260-271 and Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #1-3.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 27, 2021
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61 people want to read
About the author
Gerry Conway
2,060 books89 followersGerard Francis Conway (Gerard F. Conway) is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics' vigilante the Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man. At DC Comics, he is known for co-creating the superhero Firestorm and others, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway wrote the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 25, 2021
DC may have picked the world's worst cover for this trade but I love this era of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The kids have grown into young adults. Dave Cockrum gave them all these iconic costumes in the early 70's that really stand out. The era collected here was right after Superboy left the LSH, focusing on just the Legion characters for the first time. It's also when the industry imploded leading to Gerry Conway taking over the book. Conway's an iconic writer from the 70's and 80's but LSH maybe wasn't the best fit as there are stories like space circuses and the like. Still, these lead into what then Paul Levitz made the book what it was. And there are some great moments in this collection like the return of the Fatal Five and all of the origin stories of the LSH members from Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
February 12, 2021
The introduction by famous Legion writer Paul Levitz explains the uneven quality of the issues in this compilation; these issues were written during a period of turmoil at DC Comics called the "DC Implosion" that resulted in shuffled writers, short deadlines, and high stress levels. That explains some of the low points of this compilation -- I mean, it starts with a visit to a cosmic circus with a weak murder mystery plot that borders on "Scooby Doo" logic. The high point of his volume is the three-issue "Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes" mini-series at the end, which describes the long history and many characters of the series in a concise but entertaining framing story. I'd probably recommend that readers just read that bit, and then go on to read the "Great Darkness Saga" volume that follows.
March 22, 2021
Gerry Conway is often a good writer, so it's shocking how much of this is bad. I mean, we get a space circus (#260-261), a fantasy world (#262), a djinn (#266-267), and a demigod who seems right out of Star Trek (#268). Bleh.
The Dagon story (#263-264) could have been good, except his big reveal is really underpresented. So that leaves us with two decent Conway stories in this volume. The Tyroc story (#265) is bizarre, yet neat, even if it stinks of trying to get rid of an unpopular character. The Dark Man story (#269-271) is the only truly good one, because it closes up the Super-Assassins plot and its reveal is a nice twist. (Still, it's got some weird, over-the-top elements, such as a malevolent brain.)
Not by Conway is the three issue Secrets of the Legion, which is simultaneously dry and a tour d'force. Putting together all of these Legion origin stories and offering them up to the readership was super-useful at the time, when the stories had never been told in order (because Legion started en media res) and when they were unavailable to readers. Today it's a bit less exciting, but still interesting, and it has a major modern-day element that would surprisingly affect the main comic too.
The Dagon story (#263-264) could have been good, except his big reveal is really underpresented. So that leaves us with two decent Conway stories in this volume. The Tyroc story (#265) is bizarre, yet neat, even if it stinks of trying to get rid of an unpopular character. The Dark Man story (#269-271) is the only truly good one, because it closes up the Super-Assassins plot and its reveal is a nice twist. (Still, it's got some weird, over-the-top elements, such as a malevolent brain.)
Not by Conway is the three issue Secrets of the Legion, which is simultaneously dry and a tour d'force. Putting together all of these Legion origin stories and offering them up to the readership was super-useful at the time, when the stories had never been told in order (because Legion started en media res) and when they were unavailable to readers. Today it's a bit less exciting, but still interesting, and it has a major modern-day element that would surprisingly affect the main comic too.
April 23, 2021
Some people just don't dig the Legion, and I understand that. You have to set aside a certain amount of rationality, logic, and even common sense to even accept the concept, and the execution is, at times, utterly whack. There are stories that are just downright embarrassing to Legion fans.
A couple of those are in this volume.But there are also a couple of pretty good ones, including the four-part "Dark Man" story, which I've heard of for years. The scripting, mostly by Gerry Conway or E. Nelson Bridwell is generally competent, though never superb. The art, by a number of artists, similarly varies: the best I can say is that the characters are always recognizable, even in closeups where you don't see their distinctive uniforms.
The "Before the Darkness" concept makes me very happy. It implies that they are going to take this series of archival books up to _just_ before the "Great Darkness" storyline, which is where my collection of actual Legion comics begins. (I had a nice set of the early _Adventure Comics_ run when I was a kid, but, yes, my mother threw them out when we moved. Ah, well, I probably wouldn't have taken good care of them anyway....)
So if they put out just two more volumes (by my rough calculation) my run will be complete, and I shall be a very happy camper and probably take a couple of "me" days to read through the whole thing sequentially at some point.
A couple of those are in this volume.But there are also a couple of pretty good ones, including the four-part "Dark Man" story, which I've heard of for years. The scripting, mostly by Gerry Conway or E. Nelson Bridwell is generally competent, though never superb. The art, by a number of artists, similarly varies: the best I can say is that the characters are always recognizable, even in closeups where you don't see their distinctive uniforms.
The "Before the Darkness" concept makes me very happy. It implies that they are going to take this series of archival books up to _just_ before the "Great Darkness" storyline, which is where my collection of actual Legion comics begins. (I had a nice set of the early _Adventure Comics_ run when I was a kid, but, yes, my mother threw them out when we moved. Ah, well, I probably wouldn't have taken good care of them anyway....)
So if they put out just two more volumes (by my rough calculation) my run will be complete, and I shall be a very happy camper and probably take a couple of "me" days to read through the whole thing sequentially at some point.
January 1, 2025
Collects Legion of Super-Heroes #260-271 and Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #1-3 from 1980-81. The main author is Gerry Conway, with help by Paul Kupperberg, E. Nelson Bridwell, and J. M. DeMatteis. Illustrators include Jimmy Janes, Steve Ditko, Joe Staton, and Ric Estrada.
The collection starts off with an introduction by Paul Levitz that basically sets the stage for reader disappointment. He recounts how the stories were created in the midst of the "DC Implosion", a time when the publisher contracted the number of its titles in the wake of diminishing sales. As a result, writers and artists were shuffled around without regard to whom might be best suited for the title. Thus, although Gerry Conway is an excellent writer, he was forced to churn out stories under strict deadlines with characters he was not totally familiar with. This leads to stories featuring a space circus and other somewhat juvenile premises. Towards the end of the volume the quality goes up a bit when the Fatal Five returns, working for the mysterious Dark Man. The book ends with a 3-issue miniseries written by Paul Kupperberg that is really nothing more than a summary of the history of the Legion and the origins of each member. Jimmy Janes adeptly handles most of the artwork, but it's a far cry from the Legion's heyday with Mike Grell. The legendary Steve Ditko pencils a couple of issues, but he was far past his prime by this point and his illustrations are mediocre at best. This volume is really only for Legion completists.
The collection starts off with an introduction by Paul Levitz that basically sets the stage for reader disappointment. He recounts how the stories were created in the midst of the "DC Implosion", a time when the publisher contracted the number of its titles in the wake of diminishing sales. As a result, writers and artists were shuffled around without regard to whom might be best suited for the title. Thus, although Gerry Conway is an excellent writer, he was forced to churn out stories under strict deadlines with characters he was not totally familiar with. This leads to stories featuring a space circus and other somewhat juvenile premises. Towards the end of the volume the quality goes up a bit when the Fatal Five returns, working for the mysterious Dark Man. The book ends with a 3-issue miniseries written by Paul Kupperberg that is really nothing more than a summary of the history of the Legion and the origins of each member. Jimmy Janes adeptly handles most of the artwork, but it's a far cry from the Legion's heyday with Mike Grell. The legendary Steve Ditko pencils a couple of issues, but he was far past his prime by this point and his illustrations are mediocre at best. This volume is really only for Legion completists.
January 23, 2023
I have neve read this particular era of the Legion of Super-Heroes before, but I see from the post-Crisis series reboot, they did remain faithful to what had gone before. Gerry Conway, who also wrote the first reboot of the New Gods in the early Seventies, composes most of these stories in this volume.
Most of the stories are serviceable, coming off the heels of Superboy's departure from the Legion. The three-part mini at the end of the book is the most interesting of the stories, and based on my knowledge of what came after, I was able to suss out immediately the Legionnaire in question. I won't spoil the identity in case you have no knowledge of LSH history. The art by Steve Ditko was a bonus, never knowing he even drew a few LSH stories. I do remember some of the covers from DC house ads from other comic titles purchased during this era. The biggest draw is these stories lead into The Great Darkness storyline, which is connected to my read-through of all-things New God related.
Most of the stories are serviceable, coming off the heels of Superboy's departure from the Legion. The three-part mini at the end of the book is the most interesting of the stories, and based on my knowledge of what came after, I was able to suss out immediately the Legionnaire in question. I won't spoil the identity in case you have no knowledge of LSH history. The art by Steve Ditko was a bonus, never knowing he even drew a few LSH stories. I do remember some of the covers from DC house ads from other comic titles purchased during this era. The biggest draw is these stories lead into The Great Darkness storyline, which is connected to my read-through of all-things New God related.
March 27, 2025
An uneven run of Legion stories - silly plotting and choppy artwork as DC navigated some heavy upheaval in the industry during the late 70s (Paul Levitz explains it in his introduction). Rereading this run of Legion comics leading up to Great Darkness, I've been a bit shocked how lackluster the title has generally been through the 1970s. Space circuses, evil clones (which actually worked better than expected), and heavy-handed origin recaps (again, kinda worked better in execution than on paper, but still not necessarily must-read) aren't stories I'm going to anticipate rereading, but the next book in this series will get into the issues that I went back to when I started buying Legion back issues. So I know it's about to get really good.
November 8, 2022
Classic stories from the Pre-Darkness era
It was great to have all of of these cool stories. The Kindle edition was missing a lot of pages from the Secrets of the Legion especially.
It was great to have all of of these cool stories. The Kindle edition was missing a lot of pages from the Secrets of the Legion especially.
April 21, 2021
In retrospect a total mess as they deal with getting rid of Super-boy in the Legion, and flounder, but two Steve Ditko issues
August 13, 2025
Le doy la bienvenida a mi vida al culebrón cósmico más Queer Diversity Woke creado por accidente. De ahora en más me declaro fiel devoto al chad de Bouncing Boy y su capacidad de seducción.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews