I first met the Legion DC Comics Presents, and would run into them in passing in friends’ collections and guest shots. But I wasn’t hooked until I bought the 50th issue of the Baxter paper series (summer of 1988). By my reckoning, I was probably the last person to start reading LSH at that late hour in the PLevitz era.

Still, I was hooked, and tracked down all of the LSH Who’s Who. Moreover, I was one of those who fell in love with the Giffen-Bierbaum Even More Adult and Partly Rebooted Legion, who thought that the mix of super-hero action and gritty if never entirely dark science fiction and fantasy was a welcome step forward for super-hero comics in general. I loved Lauren Gand and Kent Shakespeare and Brainy and Senator Tenzil Kem and even Kono. I stayed with the post-Five Year Gap books from start to finish, through a few low points and few highs and a total turnover of writers and artists, and I stayed with the Legion through its first total reboot

I was with the Zero Hour reboot for about six years, and loved it for maybe the first three, till Waid left and till it seemed to be going in circles. I missed most of the Abnett-Lanning era, though what little of it I read makes me hope for a collected version of Legion Lost. I didn’t get why this version of the Legion got another reboot when all it needed was good writers.

The current reboot grabbed for a year, and with the exception of Supergirl’s time with the team and Bedard’s brief run, it’s been a disappointment, once again falling back on old ideas. And while I appreciate how much Johns must love the classic Legion, I haven’t fallen back in love with them and don’t love their future, though so far the Legion of Three World miniseries has been a lot of fun. And I think that the concept of a team of young heroes in the future is far from played out.

So you can see that you have at least one dedicated Legion fan on board for this set of post. LLL!

Brace for it. LSH fans pull no punches.

That said, good luck.

K-

I’ve always loved two things about the Legion, above all else.

1. World-building. From Takron-Galtos to the Dominators taking over Earth, Sorcerer’s World to Abnett & Lanning’s war against the robots, the Braal-Imsk War to the recurrent UP Presidential elections. Levitz’s Encyclopedia Galactica entries were always wonderful.

2. The creative freedom that so many creative teams have had while working on it. The best thing about Shooter’s first run, Paul’s run, Keith’s five-years-later stuff, even the first couple years after Zero Hour and the excellent, thrilling Abnett/Lanning run is how strongly the creators were able to imprint their vision on the franchise. I’m not a big fan of the “iconic” vision of superhero franchises, and the Legion’s ability to be reinvented continually, and successfully, has been a huge reason I’ve stuck by that franchise longer than any other.

Trailsong, I haven’t read it yet, but ironically, L3W is one version that I’m very nervous about. The best part about the creative freedom I mentioned, to me anyway, was that each creator took the characters into totally new territory. The Zero Hour-version went off the rails after the first two or three years when it stopped re-inventing the Legion’s universe and started revising and revisiting perfectly good (or best forgotten, see Bizarro Legion) older stories.

Trying to reconcile all these different versions doesn’t really appeal to me. I’d rather Geoff and George put their heads down and go forward as hard as they can. I’d rather another reboot than an unboot.

But like I said, I haven’t read L3W yet, so my concerns may be for naught.

Well I can say that compared to some Legion fans I am a neophyte but I have to say I loved the Tom Peyer and DnA runs. Specifically the Andromeda/Dark Circle and Element Lad/Legion Lost storylines. I know old-time fans were irked at some of the characterizations of heroes they knew…at least there were characterizations! This makes the book stand out to me in any incarnation and I hope for all the best to Johns/Perez in the current crossover. It is going well so far but damn did you have to do that to Rond??? Long Live The Legion with many thanks to the various creators.

Legion should have balls again, and not be treated like “just another DC franchise”. Last time it did (during Giffen’s 5YL), it sort of became the ultimate true lost classic, way beyond whatever came copy-catting it years later. I mean, the whole Reboot was a waste of time and ideas.
Shooter has tried something like that, except he was sort of de-railed by TPTB and Geoff Jones so far insipid L3W – bold in its scope, thin on characterization. Oh, but Pérez was born to draw LSH…
And it is nice to see Simon DelMonte posting: I remember seeing his name frequently on DC lettercols back when it mattered. And that Giffen guy, always torturing us with his hints of coming back to LSH…

I am as old as the legion (50 this past May)and my first issue was the original Computo disintegrating Triplicate girl. I remember being home with the flu the next month (couldn’t have been more than third grade) and asking my mom to pick up the concluding issue–first time I actually followed a series instead of picking up random comics that my neighbors put out at garage sales.
My golden eras were that first adventure run–from shooter’s earliest days through probably the fatal five/mordru and up to the last couple of issues in Adventure which seemed a little lame.
Then,I didn’t notice they had reappeared (high school was busy) until going through record/comics store during college in the late 70s and slowly collected back through the previous period.
I have mostly followed the legion since then, but the only other era that really took my breath away was the five years leap forward, from Elemenet land and sean/svaughn pro fem, to the permutations of glorith, time trapper, really up to the bierbaums leaving. There were other inspired moments–actually the characterizations and the merging of the different legion selves at the end of zero hour was strong. As were the acks leading up to the death of superboy. But, for whatever reason, the loss of Kal el also took away the heart of the legion.
It has never been as strong for me again, although I would havae liked to have seen where shooter would have taken it again (and am really pissed at issue 50–no resolution to Projectra, the “death” (was that phantom girl that promptly got revived) Bad enough they cut short his run but to not even let him tie up the loose ends, given his history with the series was insulting.
What do people think will happen next? So much for honoring a series in its 50th year.