Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes, Vol. 4

Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes #4

by Jim Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates

Over 500 pages of futuristic super-hero action are collected in this value-priced volume! In this new volume, the Legion battles Mordru the Merciless and The Fatal Five, and meet The Tornado Twins.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book

527 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2010

About the author

James Charles Shooter was an American writer, editor and publisher in the comics industry. Beginning his career writing for DC Comics at the age of 14, he had a successful but controversial run as editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, and launched comics publishers Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been working my way through these books kind of slowly, seeing how this series evolves, and this chapter in the saga has some interesting developments-- this is, probably, where the modern era for these stories begin, first with the amazing Neal Adams covers that crop up in this volume, then the appearance of J. Winslow Mortimer's interior art, who I don't know from a hole in the wall but who obviously has some silver age chops-- a lot of times I flipped back to the front of the book to see if the art was by Gil Kane or Carmine Infantino, both of whose work I really love. To me, the characteristic difference in the art is the way the field is deepened and rearranged-- so there is a crowded foreground where you've got some part of a body-- half a face, a hand, a ray gun, and the real action is in the middle range, where characters are, speaking and acting, and then there's a further plane behind them, or at least a fully rendered background. It makes for these wonderfully dense panels that I usually take for granted, but seeing them here, after pages and pages of Curt Swan, they are hard to miss.

Storywise, we start out with a lot of two part adventures, spread over two issues, and also an increased emphasis on the personal lives of the heroes-- this might come most clearly together in March 1969's "Twelve Hours to Live" which the Legionnaires mostly use to mope. It's kind of brilliant stuff-- Duo Damsel splits herself to play chess with her mom and ping pong with her dad so neither will feel neglected-- and it makes the emotional lives of the Legionnaires front and center.

Then, the Legion loses their anchor position, and for the rest of the volume they fill out back-ups in first Action, and then Superboy. The shorter stories mostly focus on smaller teams or three or four. There is private, emotional content, but it's not as dominant in the late Adventure issues. And then, by the time the backups have migrated to Superboy, they are much more Superboy-centric again, like early stories. It's weird, but this really does feel like the end of the road for these reprints. We've traced, over four volumes, the rise and fall of these characters in terms of their commercial fortunes and artistic growth. I don't know if there're plans for a volume five, and I'm not even sure what would be in it, but I guess I'll wait and see.

[M Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the Teen Titans compilation I read earlier, I found many of these old stories to be pretty lame. Apparently, in the late 60s and early 70s, the prevailing image of teenagers (even ones with super powers) was of a giggling, puerile bunch of love-sick ninnies. But, the stories got better as time went on and I was pleased to find that the ones I remembered with such fondness tended to be in the latter group. Sometimes it's fun to revive childhood memories. I may pursue some more of these compilations to rekindle my knowlege of some of my other old favorites and perhaps even advance my knowledge to the graphic novel era.

[Jason Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The appeal of the previous volumes in this series was the mix of all the different super powered teen heroes, and the unique mix of intergalactic villains and technology that defined their imaginative adventures.

While that appeal is still there, the combination of the eventual loss of best writer Jim Shooter and the loss of the Legion's own magazine and instead making them 7-10 page back-up stories in other magazines led to diminishing appeal, a series of comics that is moderately interesting and fun but is still definitely a disappointment of failed potential.

"Adventure Comics #369" shows the Legion in their relative full issue prime, with solid art work from Curt Swan and more importantly great writing from Jim Shooter, as the Legion begins a multi-issue arc at the hands of the evil magician Mordru. Some unique use of time travel and narration, as well as the novel obstacle of having the heroes forget that they have superpowers. A strong issue.

Unfortunately, the Legion's run as the stars of Adventure Comics faded away, and they ended up serving in back up stories of other magazines. This usually resulted in compressed plots and as a result less developed and enjoyable stories.

They had to serve as backups to some Superman adventures in "Action Comics #392", but the shortened 12 page story manages to have some merit, with a great plot by Cary Bates and serviceable artwork by J. Winslow Mortimer. Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra are baffled when the Legion has no record of their membership, and they have to fight to avoid being held as prisoners. A unique set up with some clever action plotting. The resolution was a little far fetched/silly, but the build up to it is good at least.

Being pushed into backup adventures of a younger Superman in Superboy magazine, as seen in "Superboy #191", proved to be just too much compression for the Legion stories to really thrive, and led to a middling end to an otherwise solid book. In the aforementioned #191, Sun Boy's birthday is ruined by a fight with his mortal nemesis, with troubling results. Some great artwork from Dave Cockrum at least, and maybe the start of a solid Cary Bates storyline, but the rush from set-up to ending reveal made it seem like nothing very important happened for the bulk of the adventure.

I really like the Legion of Super-Heroes style, I just hope that in any future volumes they get longer issue length to really stabilize their adventures. 4/5 with a head shake of how close it is to a full score.

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories from 1968 to 1972 are somewhat hit or miss, transitioning from their Silver Age heights to a more modern style. Young Jim Shooter does a pretty good job capturing the essence of teenagers, but subsequent writers E. Nelson Bridwell and Cary Bates a bit less so. Many of the stories throughout this volume are filled with space opera tropes, with a lot of love triangles and goofiness. The art is good, with Curt Swan's work early in the volume topping the more pedestrian work of J. Winslow Mortimer that forms the bulk of the art. Newcomer Dave Cockrum gets a tryout in the backup stories that appeared in the later Superboy issues, learning his craft that would eventually put him in the superstar category. Neal Adams provides a number of covers, also presaging his ultimate superstar status.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

By reading through the LOSH volumes of Showcase Presents, I've been able to follow the evolution of the series all the way from their appearance in 1958 until this volume, which ends in 1972. (There's one more volume which I guess completes the Bronze Age LOSH run.) It's great to see how the series evolved, and it really did just get better as it went along.

There are still some odd stories such as for some reason the Legion is always tricking it's other members instead of just talking to them, but there's some good stuff here is well. Jim Shooter really did a lot to modernize the comic, and then other creators took it from there.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are good solid comics sourced from the late 60's and showing the early talents of Jim Shooter. None of these are amazing but you can see why the book establsihed such a strong fan base over the years. I'm really impressed with how Shooter spent story time takling social issues well ahead of the curve of other DC writers - Timber Wolf having a drug addiction issue, Matter-Eater Lad living in poverty because his father was an umployed compulsive gamber - in 1969.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little redundancy as most of this was contained within Omnibus 3, but there's the last handful of issues after Legion's resurrection in the back pages of Superboy which the last bit involves some new artist named Dave Cockrum launching his career.

These last few issues are seeking to reinvent the Legion a little bit for a potential new audience. There's pros and cons to the approach.

This does get us into '72.

I am enjoying revisiting this continuity. And I look forward to the gap I've never read before The Great Darkness Saga.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts out strong with some awesome Jim Shooter stories introducing Mordru with fantastic art. Ends with some weaker stories with other writers and artists trying to make their mark on the venerable Legion.

The Silver Age had to end sometime.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this may sound strange, but the trouble with DC during this period was that their charactors were completly unbelievable, I mean could you imagine Marvel having Matter Eating Lad amongst it,s heroes. At least marvel tried too follow the laws of physics, well a bit.