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Petter Myhr Ness
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 July 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3826
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 12:26am | IP Logged | 1
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Sun Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Shadow Lass, Mon-El... all classic characters to me :-).
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Eric Sofer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 3:47am | IP Logged | 2
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I always loved the Legion of Super-Heroes. It was a good Mort Weisinger concept that seemed to be a one-and-done; what super pals did Superboy have to hang around with? Pete and Lana were great friends, but who could understand what it was to be a teenager with powers?
The concept caught on, though, and they returned again and again; perhaps slightly similar to Alpha Flight's role in the X-Men, i.e., who knew what we created there?
Their handling was haphazard though, and at least occasionally, they seemed to have the Peanuts plague - these were thirty to forty year old characters but in much younger forms.
They were a science fiction strip when the readers were hungry for science fiction, and in a venue where pretty much anything was possible; "What do we want? Super powered androids? No problem! We'll create a planet with them!" and it seemed to be legitimate.
I loved the variety of heroes, I loved another venue for Superboy*, and when they got John Forte and Curt Swan as the regular artists (not concurrently...), it was a delight.
I know that some have commented a reaction similar to Curt Swan's, in that he loved the strip, but he hated having to draw ALL those leading characters.
Through the years, the Legion went through a variety of writers and artists, but I pretty much always enjoyed the book and found it accessible and enjoyable.
...maybe it's an Eric thing? :D :D :D
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Joseph Greathouse
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 August 2015
Location: United States
Posts: 588
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 3
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As a kid, my older brother loved the Legion, but I couldn't get into them even though I tended to follow anything he read. He was my first source, after all.
Later, on my own, I did jump in to the post Zero Hour Legion and loved them throughout the entire incarnation. I haven't been able to get into any other versions, but not through a lack of trying.
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4828
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 11:28am | IP Logged | 4
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When we speak of the Legion, we must remember the twins who can switch genders -- Lass Lad and Lad Lass.(And thank you Mark Gruenwald for those two!) * * * * * * * Well, there was certainly some foresight there!
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4828
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 11:29am | IP Logged | 5
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One of the first comics I read was an issue of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
It always seemed like it should be a lot cooler than it was.
And yet it wasn't.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132295
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | 6
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It always seemed like it should be a lot cooler than it was.And yet it wasn't. •• This has nothing to do with my dislike of the Legion, but it seemed to me that DC did not have Marvel's knack for creating "teenagers". Sure, Marvel's were no more "realistic", but they were more believable -- at least, to someone who was a teenager at the time. Me!
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Brian O'Neill
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 November 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 1964
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | 7
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I first saw SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION in the plastic 'Comic Paks' in 1978ish...where it was usually 'visible' rather than stuck in between two more popular books. I then was out of touch with comics somewhat til later in 1979, and then I got that 'transition' story in issues 258 and 259 (the last issue with, and first without, Superboy's name in the title). I tried a few after that, but didn't stay with the title, because it was too much 'of its own world(s) and in its own time', with only rare interaction with any other characters.Then, I tried a few issues of the ADVENTURE COMICS digests that reprinted the earliest stories...and it all looked very colorful...but, alluding to the 'Peanuts plague' mentioned above, everybody 'sounded' like Ward and June Cleaver!
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Mike Norris
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4274
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| Posted: 26 June 2017 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | 8
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I didn't get into the Legion until the early 80's and then COIE happened! Though, for some reason I bought the tabloid size issue that featured the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl when it came out in 1978. I got the impression the Legion was DC's X-Men for a while, until the The New Teen Titans came along. A fan fave book.
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Leigh DJ Hunt
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 February 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1570
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| Posted: 27 June 2017 at 9:49am | IP Logged | 9
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Speaking of homages, there's a new Deadpool cover homaging X-Men #141 and in October, Marvel are doing variants of all 52 titles as part of the Legacy thing. All are homages to old covers. I think I spotted 5 of JB's homaged in there.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132295
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| Posted: 27 June 2017 at 10:12am | IP Logged | 10
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X-MEN 135 -- so they're homaging a homage. One more squeeze and they should finally be rid of those last scraps of originality. 141 was, as I recall, from an Ed Hannigan sketch, btw.
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Warren Scott
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 July 2016
Posts: 201
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| Posted: 27 June 2017 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | 11
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I feel I should defend Legion. The argument about everyone sounding the same is true for the Weisinger era stories (and just about all the Superman stories he edited), and most of the characters' names aren't names you would choose for yourself if you had super powers. But the comics I read as a kid in the 70s were pretty fun and while reading the later 60s stories in a couple of Showcase volumes recently, it occurred to me that they contained some of the elements of the 60s Marvels. It's almost as though the powers that be weren't really paying attention, so the creators had the freedom to veer from the norm.
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2292
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| Posted: 27 June 2017 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | 12
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I'm surprised by the people here who dislike the Legion. I came on board right when Dave Cockrum was leaving (I probably got two of his issues) then Mike Grell took over. Playing off a lot of Cockrum's designs, Grell continued that very modern look for the next few years. I loved BATMAN and SUPERMAN, but LEGION was something special. By the time CRISIS hit, LEGION and NEW TEEN TITANS were DC's two best books, and their most Marvel-like. Maybe LEGION always had that Marvel energy, going back to Cockrum (with a "feel" he took over to X-MEN) and further back to the Jim Shooter days--when a teenager was allowed to write a DC book with Marvel sensibilities. It's ironic to me that the TITANS team is the same one that did CRISIS, the aftermath of which ruined both TITANS (way too much confusion with Donna Troy after Wonder Woman was wiped from existence) and LEGION (more confusion than necessary with the removal of Superboy--why couldn't they just be inspired by SuperMAN instead?).
But, sure, if you want to hate the post-CRISIS Legion, go ahead. What a mess!
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