The Legion Of Super Heroes: Classic Or Dud?

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Who else has a sordid secret past in the steamy world of LEGION FANDOM?

(NB I don't really. Honest.)

They're an odd bunch, the LSH. I don't think I like any of the characters, the concept is good but it's so rarely used well...and yet I'm still intrigued by how they're doing.

Also search and destroy.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:32 (twenty years ago) link

S: the first 12 or so issues of the 89/90 dystopia relaunch. Grimy Giffen pencils, two or three universal reboots in the course of 4 issues! Classic!

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:37 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah the dystopia relaunch issues are my favourites too I think.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:39 (twenty years ago) link

I didn't notice until a few weeks ago when I picked up a quarter-bin copy of the JLI/Suicide Squad crossover penciled by Giffen, but he doesn't really like to draw faces, does he? Everybody's always standing in the shadows.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:44 (twenty years ago) link

Also S: The Abnett & Lanning / Coipel & numerous guest artists run (from Legion Lost into Legion Worlds into the short-lived, Levitz-loathed Legion series) - fun fun stuff! Involving Vandal Savage!

Also also S: The Giffen / Grant / Kitson L.E.G.I.O.N. series - post-Legends, taking place during the modern day; the only time Lobo's been palatable (outside of Justice League); Brainiac's a bastard!; the rock being's a she!; the nebbish gets the Emerald Eye! (I also liked the bits that were all Barry Kitson, too, circa #50, but I hesitate to recommend those.)

Of course, Legion is being cancelled to make room for The Legion of Super Heroes by Mark Waid & Barry Kitson. Gosh, if only other Jim Shooter creations had the type of tenacious longevity the Legion possessed.

David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:46 (twenty years ago) link

L.E.G.I.O.N. was actually post-Invasion!, but technically, yes, it came after Legends as well. I enjoyed that for a while. Yeah, Brainiac, what a jerk!
I enjoyed the Superman crossover in the annuals where Supes was basically, "Uh, you are too Brainiac, I'm looking at your DNA, beeyotch. Now I'm gonna hit you."
Or something like that.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:48 (twenty years ago) link

S: The Magic Wars (I think that's what it was called), the last 4 issues of the Levitz run, where basically Magic takes over and all the science shuts down. Death of Cosmic Lad, or whatever he was called, Cosmic Boy's brother. Who was never really a player, but still, it was a pretty good death. I think we even got to see his skull.
Also, Mon-El's great lead poisoning ordeal.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:52 (twenty years ago) link

From the LudicKid blog:

BRAINIAC 5. Brainy was a total tool. He had a shot at Supergirl, and he fucked it up because he was always too busy dicking around with spores in the multi-lab. Not all that fuckin' brainy, now, was he?

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:56 (twenty years ago) link

Why did Levitz loathe the recent run?

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 13:58 (twenty years ago) link

Because it erased his entire run, perhaps?

Holy crappity crap!
http://www.fact-index.com/l/li/list_of_legion_of_super_heroes_members.html

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 14:02 (twenty years ago) link

Did it really erase his entire run? I'm actually not up on my Legion (the Abnett / Lanning stuff is the only Legion stuff I've read), so I was just under the assumption that Levitz thought A&L were disrespecting characters he luv'd sooo much.

David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 14:04 (twenty years ago) link

After Zero Hour, the Legion started all over again as teenagers. Sort of Ultimatized.

never mind my "holy crappity crap" that link is pretty rub.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 14:06 (twenty years ago) link

I bought LSH for a while in the mid-90s because people kept telling me it was great. There were individual characters whom I thought were interesting but the series itself was uninvolving.

Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 14:12 (twenty years ago) link

D: The Great Darkness Saga, legendary 'great Legion story' which is totally reliant on the reveal of who the villain is, much gosh-wow reaction in 1982 (or whenever), but I read it as a trade that shoves Darkseid (for it is he) on the cover.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 14:35 (twenty years ago) link

The current series (or formerly current series) hinted that Brainy might be g-a-y.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 15:10 (twenty years ago) link

Brainiac 5 towards the end of the reboot run had one of the grebtest ever costumes, a huge puffy jumpsuit and mentally enormous shades which made him look like early-80s Miles Davis! (but green)

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 15:12 (twenty years ago) link

I always liked Ultra-Boy, because he was basically Superman, only he could only use one power at a time!

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 15:19 (twenty years ago) link

I liked The Great Darkness Saga, even though it got Darkseid wrong, I remember thinking. I liked the '60s Legion stories a lot, all the stupid ones where they got turned into babies and so on, and some really good teen-Shooter stories - he didn't create the Legion, though. I can't say I care much about any of the characters, really.

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 15:58 (twenty years ago) link

I like Triad, because, well, three chicks.

Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 16:00 (twenty years ago) link

(sorry)

Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 16:00 (twenty years ago) link

Triad had an enlightened plot whereby one of the three was a nun, one was a tart and one was in the middle.

(incidentally when is Chuck Austen going to have Superman fight two super-sisters called Virgin and Whore?)

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 16:02 (twenty years ago) link

And Triplicate Girl (as she was once known) aka Duo Damsel (ditto) at one point hooked up with Chuck Taine (why do I know his real name?) aka Bouncing Boy.
http://members.shaw.ca/legion_roll_call/legionnaires/bouncing_boy/clobber.jpg

Which meant she had low standards.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 16:35 (twenty years ago) link

That was tragic because she had the BIG EYE on Superboy but it could never be!!!! So she immediately swung from most studly boy in universe to the inflatable lard man who couldn't get into the Legion. It was like some wierd self-destruction kick, esp. considering she had threesome powers.

(On that unseemly note, the 30th Century was the most chaste place in all time, but it gradually got filthier and filthier until Growing Boy was accusing Sun Boy of porking his wife over a 'friendly' game of Hyper Dungeons And Dragons.)

Vic Fluro, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 18:34 (twenty years ago) link

You must respect the Disco Legion.

Phantom Girl's ponytails, my god...

Stephen X (Stephen X), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 19:29 (twenty years ago) link

And the holes in her bellbottomed jumpsuit, keener than the 70s Wondergirl togs!

Huk-L, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 19:53 (twenty years ago) link

LSH fashions - http://ape-law.com/GAF/Article/article05.html

H (Heruy), Thursday, 7 October 2004 05:43 (twenty years ago) link

I loved the LSH but something that always struck me as a bit silly was that almost all of them came from planets where EVERYONE had the same powers (Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, etc) which kind of makes the "wow, Legion, superpowers thing" a little weak.

H (Heruy), Thursday, 7 October 2004 07:39 (twenty years ago) link

S: pretty much anything written by Jerry Siegel or the underage Jim Shooter from the sixties. pretty much anything written by Giffen, whether co-plotting with Levitz, making fun in Secret Origins, or steering with the Bierbaums on dialogue.

D: pretty much anything else. skim the Giffenless ones written by Levitz if you like, they're not awful as such. just about anything from the '70s is nigh-unreadable (including the over-age Jim Shooter).

The dystopian relaunch would have been supermegaultraclassic if the Superman office hadn't forced them to reboot the universe at the end of the third issue. They handled it pretty well, but really lost momentum on the overall story what with having to spend every other issue introducing new stand-in characters and rewriting history. Still, the first twenty or so non-fill-ins are great and I kept reading up until the editor fired the writers and got the colourist to start writing from the editor's plots (true story!).

kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 7 October 2004 13:08 (twenty years ago) link

Very very fond of all the '60s stuff, and especially of (yes indeed) the first year of the Giffen "five years later" relaunch. Also loved the story in the late '80s or early '90s where we find out the secret that Garth has been carrying around for 20 years or so--one of those huge shocks that's still totally consistent with everything we've seen before it. Also the fact that they had the first not-a-big-deal gay superhero couple in mainstream comics: Ayla and Salu! (Even though I think somebody later tried to retcon them as just good friends.) The half-assed attempt to out Element Lad was also sorta welcome (he's gay! but he's got a girlfriend! but wait, his girlfriend is actually a boy who took gender-changing drugs to try to impress him because he thought E.L. liked girls! but wait, he's actually the last survivor of his planet so maybe he has no sexuality at all!).

Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:13 (twenty years ago) link

oooh, what was the big secret? i seem to have missed that.

H (Heruy), Friday, 8 October 2004 06:19 (twenty years ago) link

MASSIVE AWESOME SPOILER LOOK OUT KIDS:

he was still dead from fighting the Space Moby Dick thirty years before. when Proty had sacrificed his life energy to reanimate Garth, it was all done with mirrors and the little blob of protoplasm actually just shapeshifted into a Lightning Lad shape and proceeded to enjoy all the benefits of upgrading from "Legion mascot" to "Legion founder". to wit, boning Saturn Girl 'til the Space Cows came home.

waitasec, how did he manage to impregnate her then? I suspect someone's playing fast and loose with the laws of biology here.

kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 11 October 2004 02:58 (twenty years ago) link

Was it not mind transference? Garth with the mind of Proty, having to pretend all these years? And Ayla overhears him telling the proty people how he can never be with them again. It's a really emotional momen..... no, no it's not.

Vic Fluro, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 16:01 (twenty years ago) link

there you go, I should have had faith that the scientific milieu which spawned Matter-Eater Lad wouldn't have let me down on the spermy front.

kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 00:52 (twenty years ago) link

The magic of bittorrent meant that as I slumbered the entirety of the dystopian Bierbaums/Colorist Wars era found its way onto my hard drive. Also - somewhat less welcome - the whole of VALOR (who remembered he even HAD a series?) and the TIMBER WOLF mini.

It will all fit on a couple of CD-Rs if anyone's desperate. Frankly I'm probably going to delete the bulk of it.

Tom (Groke), Sunday, 17 October 2004 08:39 (twenty years ago) link

Ah, that Timber Wolf miniseries was so bad that Giffen used a fake name for the intro sequence that he pencilled. I'm pretty sure I stopped buying it well before the fourth issue.

kit brash (kit brash), Sunday, 17 October 2004 23:29 (twenty years ago) link

three weeks pass...
Guh! This looks wicked cool!

http://www.dccomics.com/slideshows/wwt04_dc/slide_images/10.jpg

Huk-L, Monday, 8 November 2004 17:39 (twenty years ago) link

He killed the Iron Giant!!

Tep (ktepi), Monday, 8 November 2004 17:53 (twenty years ago) link

Or is it Bender?

Huk-L, Monday, 8 November 2004 17:55 (twenty years ago) link

three years pass...

A QUESTION TO THE ILC:

Having never read anything vaguely Legion-ish (discounting Brendan McCarthy’s issue of SOLO), would it be wise for me to pick up the much-ballyhooed-round-these-here-parts Johns ACTION COMICS Legion epic? I fear I’d comprehend only the conjunctions (as with earlier dalliances with Mr. Johns’ work) and be left with a whole bunch of pretty pictures by Mr. Frank… (And, gosh, they are pretty – the sole reason for this query comes from the compulsion to shout “Yowza!” as I glanced through the art of one issue at the Borders floppy rack yesterday.)

R Baez, Monday, 12 May 2008 18:19 (sixteen years ago) link

Good question. I read them as exceedingly well-executed continuity porn, but I can sort of imagine somebody who'd never heard of the Legion coming to them and pretending this was the first time we'd seen any of these characters. But I don't know, because I'm so used to all the stuff he's playing with. (Every character's first appearance does have a little breakout box explaining their name, powers, etc.)

In other words: I can't answer that.

Douglas, Monday, 12 May 2008 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link

Three yays for justifying confusion aesthetically! (I.E. I THINK I WILL HAVE A GO, DONCHA KNOW?)

R Baez, Monday, 12 May 2008 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link

It's fun. I'm not a Legion nerd at all -- I've read a couple of the 5YL issues, and the first year or so of the Waid/Kitson Legion -- but it's pretty easy to follow. The continuity-wank aspects seem largely incidental, and it's a nice, done-in-six story without too many loose ends. As usual, all the non-Braniac characters are largely indistinguishable, but it doesn't really matter as far as the story goes.

Also, in what might be a rare moment of sentimentality for Geoff Johns, no one gets their arms ripped off. Or any other appendages, if I remember right.

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 12 May 2008 20:25 (sixteen years ago) link

I think you could read that Action comics storyline with no prior knowledge to the older Legion stories. I think the way Johns wrote that story is partially to try to introduce people to the Legion. The book does a pretty good job dropping a box to tell you who is who in the beginning of the book and puts some back ground into the actual storyline.

To me, I think the fact that the Legion takes place 1000 years in the future should give whoever is doing the book free reign to go where you want. I kind of like the idea that there have been many different versions of the Legion, some with evolved beginnings and even ends.

Some of the fans of the older series don't seem to like the Waid newer Legion, but from my reading (through issue #14), I think it is pretty good.

I don't understand DC's reprint strategy, but it seems to me if they had the Levitz/Giffen stuff in a big phone book reprint they would sell very well. Take mind, there is a bunch of stuff I think that should be in print like that. I can see wanting to print stuff 'in order' or in fancy nice trades, but there are lots of stuff that still ties into current books that people can only read if they want to dive into the back issue bins.

earlnash, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 02:53 (sixteen years ago) link

The showcases are pretty much gold.

forksclovetofu, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 04:47 (sixteen years ago) link

What Earl said re: Action/Legion. Especially for a Johns comic, it's not that mired in any Legion continuity...if anything, it seems to be a whole new thing (inasmuch as any LOSH story can be whole and new). The 1-issue epilogue, despite VERY SHITTY art, is really good too.

Dr. Superman, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 22:41 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Worth getting Waid's fifth (last?) volume?

Leee, Sunday, 5 July 2009 17:52 (fifteen years ago) link

Not at all anticipating Lee-Johns of Superheroes.

nine years pass...

As we're talking about this on the other thread...

a) Tell me why I should keep reading the Great Darkness Saga when it's so goddamn confusing and slow

b) GM's Green Lantern comic was the most SPACE FUN thing I've seen from DC in a while

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 26 November 2018 15:35 (six years ago) link

Incidentally, I ordered a copy of Great Darkness Saga based on discussion in the other thread, having not read any of the Giffen-era stuff that everyone raves about.

I bought the five b&w Showcase books as they were released, thinking I might finally have the opportunity to collect and read this stuff from the beginning, but then DC in typical DC fashion decided to start a new line of HCs that leapfrogged over like 30 issues (which, tbf, were previously collected...in Archive editions that are now long out of print and selling for hundreds of dollars). But the discussion here made me decide to get over my ire and push on with whatever I'm able to get my hands on.

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Monday, 26 November 2018 15:45 (six years ago) link

I have a definite soft spot for the LSH's sprawling unmanageable mess of a cast and its inherently goofy Silver Age roots and yet oddly I have never read the Great Darkness saga.

Οὖτις, Monday, 26 November 2018 16:34 (six years ago) link

I read a review of the team’s first few teaser appearances, which commented that the degree of CB’s apparent Asian-ness varied depending on the artist.

#YABASIC (morrisp), Friday, 20 September 2019 15:04 (five years ago) link

Has there ever been any LOSH incarnation that was totally worthless, abject, boring, etc?

I can't remember anything similar to a "Chuck Austen" era for the Legion.

cpl593H, Friday, 20 September 2019 16:42 (five years ago) link

The New 52–era "Legion Lost" run was awful

#YABASIC (morrisp), Friday, 20 September 2019 19:35 (five years ago) link

you can tell the Adventure run is desperately spotty stuff by random writers who Weisinger hadn't terrorised away, when you compare to how consistent & psychologically curious the Siegel stories are

the Action run is v nothingy, and tbh most of the 70s apart from Levitz' shaky first sesh is hackwork. even Shooter's return was unnecessary, having lost what naive spark made the teenage Jim useful at writing teenage power fantasies.

Tom McCraw run worthless for sure.

Haven't read since then apart from the occasional Levitz/Giffen reunion and skimming early Waid issues in the shop.

now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Friday, 20 September 2019 19:39 (five years ago) link

Mmm the McCraw run wasn't mindblowing stuff, for sure, but I do remember it fondly. It was the first Legion reeboot, so watching the new continuity unfold and just seeing how they had tinkered with the past (Invisible Kid is alive again! Projectra is a giant snake! The Ferro Lad death is now a big crossover!) was intriguing and fun.

Shooter Mark 2 was unnecessary indeed, but I do have a soft spot for his "not that weird but not quite straight forward either" style of writing, and the art of Manapul made it passable.

I had totally forgotten about that new-52 series, though. Seeing Fabian Nicieza in his wikipedia entry waving that issue really sends shiver down my spine.

cpl593H, Friday, 20 September 2019 20:36 (five years ago) link

Shooter mk 1 was 60s, mk 2 was 70s, 21st century was mk 3

now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Friday, 20 September 2019 21:12 (five years ago) link

one month passes...

Picked up issue #1 of this. Tons of fragmentary, jokey Bendis dialogue; a storyline that hinges on an artifact from the present-day DCU; and a major plot twist that, surprisingly, hearkens back to the “5YL” era (I won’t spoil it). Guess the issue was fine as an introduction; hard to really evaluate it beyond those bullet-points.

quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Saturday, 9 November 2019 23:50 (five years ago) link

Well, these guys found a lot more to say about the issue than I did... Really good write-up (full of spoilers, fyi).

quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 04:17 (five years ago) link

One other thing I’ll mention is that I feel like the artwork in the first few pages may be an homage to Stuart Immonen’s Legion work (especially since the style sort of changes later); but I’m not versed enough to say that for sure.

quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 05:09 (five years ago) link

I'll take this opportunity to go on record to say that I am NOT a fan of several of the Legionnaire designs. Karate Kid in particular, as he is clearly wearing a (stereo)typical Chinese queue hair style. Please someone tell DC that "karate" is Japanese, not Chinese. If Val is now Chinese, shouldn't he be called Kung Fu Kid?

have we learned nothing from the jackie chan karate kid ffs

Titanic was cliched Marxist crap. (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 09:53 (five years ago) link

two months pass...

Pretty brutal takedown of issue #3 on that blog: http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2020/01/lsh-v8-3.html

stop creeping my instagram storiez (morrisp), Tuesday, 21 January 2020 04:21 (four years ago) link

tldr; art looked nice though

Nhex, Tuesday, 21 January 2020 14:59 (four years ago) link

I've basically come around to the opinion that, aside from his anomalous Avengers work, BMB should basically only write solo books. He is generally good-to-very good when he does that, and he is generally mediocre-to-awful when he writes teams of characters. BMB on LOSH seems...I don't want to say 'nightmarish' but somewhere in that ballpark.

Dr. Teeth and the Women (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 January 2020 15:04 (four years ago) link

two months pass...

I really dig this old Kevin Nowlan cover; something about the (atypical) way Jo & PG are drawn:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jer7jyt4-4A/XngBcLsCmuI/AAAAAAAAO0c/GYvlWwdJN9k4tBPgJomeG1wWzBk1yv1egCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Tales_344.jpg

morrisp, Friday, 3 April 2020 05:50 (four years ago) link

That’s great! So much perspective

Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 09:58 (four years ago) link

It's so uncharacteristically loose for Nowlan, one wonders if he was hanging out with / otherwise influenced by Kyle Baker at the time

donald failson (sic), Tuesday, 7 April 2020 10:49 (four years ago) link

I think the face on Ultra Boy reminds me a bit of Chaykin with the big square jaw.

earlnash, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 16:38 (four years ago) link

Ultra Boy face is v Chaykin, good call

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 16:41 (four years ago) link

FYI, assuming the industry doesn't completely collapse before then, there's a Five Years Later omnibus coming out in a few months.

Unparalleled Elegance (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 April 2020 17:11 (four years ago) link

Wow, they're finally collecting it? It took so long, I thought it would never happen (I mean, why now?)

morrisp, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 17:20 (four years ago) link

Dunno, their LOSH collections have been frustratingly all over the place (the five b&w Showcase volumes almost but don't quite abut the two recent Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes HCs, then a couple years of uncollected material followed by four now-OOP early-'80s trades, etc.).

Unparalleled Elegance (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 April 2020 18:04 (four years ago) link

I just want the entire Levitz-Giffen run

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 18:15 (four years ago) link

^me too. I have these four:

https://i.imgur.com/Ly7N9mm_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

morrisp, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 18:49 (four years ago) link

I also have a few random early-‘80s issues. But most of my single issues are 5YL era, and then a little ways past that (until I gave up).

morrisp, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 18:57 (four years ago) link

I’ve never read any Legion tbh. I tried with 5YL a few times but realised it wasn’t going to make sense/mean anything without reading some of the early stuff. Is Darkness Saga a good place to start? (I don’t have patience for the silver age stuff.) I have a version that starts with issue 284

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 9 April 2020 13:27 (four years ago) link

(The one in the photo above actually)

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 9 April 2020 13:28 (four years ago) link

Great Darkness is pretty complex (each issue is dense AF, with multiple interwoven plotlines etc.), but is indeed peak Levitz/Giffen.

morrisp, Thursday, 9 April 2020 14:36 (four years ago) link

Other than a couple issues, most of those 80s Legion is pretty cheap in back issues.

earlnash, Thursday, 9 April 2020 16:57 (four years ago) link

imo Five Years Later is a better place to start than Great Darkness Saga - the latter assumes more knowledge of DC and LSH history and characters - but you're definitely better off starting from #284 than the original GDS collection that kicks in at #290 or so

donald failson (sic), Thursday, 9 April 2020 18:18 (four years ago) link

I disagree with the idea that 5YL is a good entry point into the Legion (and having recently revisited it, I don’t think it’s aged very well); but any entry is better than none, I suppose.

morrisp, Thursday, 9 April 2020 18:45 (four years ago) link

Being the stupid completist that I am, I still haven't made my way through the Showcase phone books yet. I'm guessing the actual literal entry point, while possessing a certain mid-century charm, isn't the ideal entry point.

Unparalleled Elegance (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 April 2020 22:59 (four years ago) link

two months pass...

^^I picked up a copy of the first Showcase volume at a sidewalk sale (my first impromptu/cash purchase in many a pandemic moon). These early Superboy & Supergirl stories, by Otto Binder or Jerry Siegel, are – excuse me – the dumbest fucking stories I’ve ever read.

Charging for Brewskis™ (morrisp), Monday, 15 June 2020 06:02 (four years ago) link

haaaaaa.

Nhex, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 00:23 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

Does anyone know more about this Australian publisher that reprinted DC (and other) content, but apparently couldn’t use the titles? (Seems like it may be up sic’s alley.)

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-legion-in-australia.html

we don't have to be around all these coffee shops (morrisp), Thursday, 1 July 2021 03:41 (three years ago) link

was hoping to see MURRAY THE CAT when clicking through but idk anything about their strategies

my guess would be that they generally kept changing titles in order to keep newsagents interested, and in the case of Super-Heroes Album that they thought "Legion" was too fancy a name for sun-addled shirtless sprogs in the seventies to find appealing

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Thursday, 1 July 2021 03:57 (three years ago) link

one month passes...

These early Superboy & Supergirl stories, by Otto Binder or Jerry Siegel, are – excuse me – the dumbest fucking stories I’ve ever read.

I’m now reading this volume with my kid, and it’s kind of fun… turns out he has the ability to recognize & laugh at the absurdity of these old strips (I’ve never seen him enjoy something “ironically” before). I’m also getting kind of a nerdy thrill at introducing him to the LSH.

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Saturday, 14 August 2021 06:04 (three years ago) link

https://i.imgur.com/Qt7FUx5_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Superboy still not giving Lana a tumble

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Saturday, 14 August 2021 06:05 (three years ago) link

:D

never seen him enjoy something “ironically” before). I’m also getting kind of a nerdy thrill

:D :D

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Saturday, 14 August 2021 06:55 (three years ago) link

Reading these Legion first appearances, you wouldn’t know it was the beginning of a beloved, decades-long storyline.

Interesting that the only Legionnaire whose real name & backstory have been revealed so far is Thom Kallor (Star Boy) – even the main three are just stock characters in these early issues.

(Though when Supergirl first encounters them, they tell her they’re the “children” of the Legionnaires that Superboy met… I assume this was never mentioned again.)

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Saturday, 14 August 2021 20:51 (three years ago) link

By the way – my understanding is that the BendisBoot is dunzo? R.I.P. to the Legion once again.

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Sunday, 15 August 2021 06:00 (three years ago) link

Still making our way thru the early Superboy/Supergirl stories in this Showcase volume… the plotting and dialogue are just so bad (good art, tho). And Otto Binder wrote some of those great sci-fi stories in the ‘50s… IDGI.

The Legionnaires are also such scrubs here. Like real screw-ups. If it weren’t for Pocket Universe Superboy, they’d be up the creek.

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Thursday, 19 August 2021 03:51 (three years ago) link

one month passes...

Apparently Bendis says they’re coming back, whoopee

juristic person (morrisp), Friday, 1 October 2021 05:51 (three years ago) link

two years pass...

... wow

Nhex, Thursday, 12 October 2023 01:04 (one year ago) link

That’s so lovely and bittersweet. Lol at “many thankfully never saw print”

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 12 October 2023 13:04 (one year ago) link

Rest In Peace.

SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 12 October 2023 13:51 (one year ago) link

Aw, damn.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 12 October 2023 15:45 (one year ago) link


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