Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes So who did YOU think was the villain of the GDS?

I guess responses will mostly apply to people who read the Great Darkness Saga as it was published or somehow read the back issues without spoilage. I mean, it's not like Darkseid's face isn't plastered all over the various trades, right?

So the question is, as you read the GDS, who did you think this dark lord was?

Chances are, most of you were DC-knowledgeable enough to know pretty quickly. Not me! The GDS was my first-ever Darkseid story, and I'd never even HEARD of the character or the New Gods mythos prior to its publication! I mean, I was 12 at the time, and I seem to recall that Darkseid appearances were pretty infrequent around that timeframe, so I couldn't have been the only one, right?

So....having no other recourse but to look for clues within the stories in and of themselves, My pet theory at the time was that the dark lord was none other than....Antonio Stefanacci! My "evidence": the way the character was garbed seemed to be a near-match for one notable shadowy appearance in profile made by the dark lord. Plus, I think both of them said "I am power!" at some point. (Not sure if both did, but that was the recollection.)

I rationalized that Antonio deliberately staged the attack on himself to throw the Legion off his trail. Plus, the fact that Antonio was a riff on Dr. Strange went completely over my head as I had little or no experience with the character at the time.

Did anyone else have a pet theory that turned out to be wrong? Or even a working theory that changed once you had that "Ah-HA!" moment that made you realize it was actually Darkseid?

that makes a lot of sense...

Well, I only read the trade so the cover spoiled it for me But, I'd never read any Darkseid story before and I'd also never heard of him before so I didn't really get an "OH MY GOSH WE'RE DOOMED" or a "THIS IS SO FREAKING AWESOME" moment when I saw the cover.

On the other hand, the story did a good job of building Darkseid up as a very powerful baddie. By the last issue I was sure we would be treated to a monumental fight.

I had read the Return of the New Gods series in the late '70s and had seen Darksie's appearance in JLA, so I knew who he was. I don't recall if I had any opinions of who the mystery villain might be, though.

I do recall that, a few years earlier, I had figured out that Brainy was behind the framing of Ultra Boy and the creation of Omega, simply by how Jim Starlin depicted Brainy in S/LSH 250. (There's one panel in which our Coluan friend is smirking while the other Legionnaires look shocked at something.) I had wanted to challenge myself with the same kind of detective work in "The Great Darkness Saga," but no such luck. I think I was disappointed that the villain turned out to be Darkseid since I didn't care for the whole New Gods setup.

My introduction to Darkseid was actually through the final season of the Super Friends cartoon! Thanks to Frank Welker's top-notch voice acting, he became a favorite villain of mine right away, even though I didn't actually start reading superhero comics until a few years later (the lack of availability in the country where I grew up played a factor in it.)

So when I found out that the Legion had fought Darkseid, I thought, "Ooh, that's intriguing." I found the back issues dirt-cheap, which was good, because, to be honest, I was underwhelmed on first read. The Keith Giffen/Larry Mahlstedt art came across to me as a mediocre imitation of John Byrne/Terry Austin, with none of the sexiness. I have grown to like the story better over subsequent reads, but it's not my favorite Legion epic. That one would have to be the Sensor Girl/Fatal Five Saga.

Welker did Darkseid?!? Hard to imagine! I haven't seen the "Super Powers" era Super Friends in a looooooong time....

Whenever I think of Darkseid I think of the episode where he and his minions attend a big galactic super-villain auction and he doesn't bid on anything until he comes to the single item that he wants, and then proceeds to bid "One Bleen" for it, knowing that no one else will dare bid against him!

That and his plots to force Wonder Woman to marry him!

Wow, THAT happened on the "Super Powers" season(s)? I gotta track that shit DOWN! It's a shame that Darkseid doesn't try to force WW to marry him anymore....

I completely agree with you, Fanfie. The art was good for me, but the story itself wasn't top-notch. Don't get me wrong, I think it was great, but I didn't particularly feel that many "oh wow the Legion's just so wicked amazingly awesome" moments.

^ I agree. The GDS is probably not even in my Top 30 Legion stories. It has a lot of problems IMO.

I may have read the JLA Darkseid story by the time I had read the GDS. So, I knew he was a cosmic class villain. But the JLA had a lot of epic adventures, so it wasn't a gosh, wow thing.

I hadn't any grasp of Kirby's work either, so that side of things didn't have any impact for me beyond the story.

The ending of the GDS was a bit of a let down. the accelerated ageing of a Deus Ex Baby has never worked for me. It does gain points for it not being a defeat for Darkseid. He realises that this is no longer a universe he has a part in.

I'd need to think of my fav Legion stories to see where I rated it. It would be a tough one to ignore though.

I read parts of the GDS a few years after it was published and the rest about 15 years later...and I think that was still the first story I'd read with Darksy. Well, no, there was Titans/X-Men, but I remember nothing about the villain stuff ---- probably because back then I didn't have any frame of reference for D and only a little for DP.

For me, The Big One is The LSV War. Not necessarily the best, or my favorite, but biggest. Well, that, and that 5YL happened at all.

I'd actually put the Sun Eater story ahead of GDS in terms of memorable moments, and the Postboot Mordru story ahead in terms of how enjoyable and epic the battle was.

For GDS great moments, it was nice having Supergirl be the one to pound Darkseid. A similar scene would be repeated in COIE...

Another was when Legion allies led the freed Daxamites towards Darkseid, causing him to retreat. Begs the question though, why didn't he just brainwash the Legionnaires too? Guess he didn't think them a threat, big mistake

Shrinking Violet's defeat of the Lydea Mallor servant was a "stand up and applaude" moment for me. Such an ingenious use of power. Too bad it turned out to be Yera instead

Being in a tank during the Legion's biggest moment probably didn't help her disposition when she was freed.

In a way, having Supergirl's action in the GDS foreshadow CoIE probably meant that she could go out on such a high note in the latter series. I wonder how her death would have been choreographed without it.

I saw a thread on top Legion stories. I'll need to have a read of it.

Remember in Transformers, there were a couple scenes where Soundwave talked without the robotic processing effects? It was that same seismic growl.



My favorite Super Friends episode of all time.

I love The LSV War. I think it's like a really good summer popcorn blockbuster movie.

I suppose I'm also in the read-it-years-later-and-was-somewhat-underwhelmed category.

The big reason why it's a classic, imo, is that it's really the Bronze Age line-up at the height of their power, in an epic storyline in which pretty much everybody is there and gets something to do (ignoring the fact that, for example, Vi is later revealed not to be the *real* Vi). It's a bit of a last hurrah before Levitz begins the process of deconstructing the team throughout the rest of his run.

That said, the whole "Legion vs. vaguely-motivated cosmic-level villains that can only be defeated by a deus ex machina" is a plotline that Levitz massively overuses, and while this is certainly one of the best entries in that sub-genre of Legion stories, I think it's impact has been a bit diluted by its imitators.

Anyone who has seen the ending of V, and then goes onto the read the GDS will be going "not again."

A friend of mine figured out it was Darkseid before it was revealed, but I didn't have a clue at the time.

I had never thought of GDS before as the grand finale of the Bronze Age Legion, but I think you've hit the nail on the head, EDE. GDS was the epic storyline that the Legion had always had struggling to get out during the space limitations of the 60s and 70s. It was also emblematic of the new DC of the early 80s, when many of their writers were either formerly from Marvel or had absorbed influences from Marvel (Levitz is an Avengers fan, and he says one of his biggest regrets is that he'll probably never get to write the Avengers.)

I was wondering as well if Antonio Stefanacci was a deliberate red herring on Levitz' part. He seemed a little too "built up" as a supporting character. And he removed the Wand of Mentachem (was that what it was called?) for study.



That's a very good point there. GDS is notable not just for having every single active and reserve Legionnaire get a scene/do something important, but we have the Subs, Heroes of Lallor, Wanderers and Dev-Em all making appearances. Even the incarcerated Chameleon Boy gets to participate.

I think EDE also makes a good point when he says the GDS' impact may have been diluted by imitators. Perhaps if we'd all read GDS when it first came out, and after following the Legion for a while, we'd all have been more impressed. I now that I was very impressed when I first read it at 7 years of age because of the sheer power of the villain and because of the scale of the final battle (my only experience with the Legion before that had been some SW6 Legionnaire issues and perhaps one or two early Postboot Legion issues). It fascinated me so much that I searched and searched for a trade, which I finally got about a decade later. It was this second reading that underwhelmed me, though, probably because of all the company-wide crossovers against insanely and unimaginably powerful beings that had come out since then.

I've been looking for that thread myself. The ones I've found using the Search feature are:

Best Legion Moments
Legion Moments that Make You Go "Wow"
Legion Stories that Haven't Been Done to Death

I've gone back to May 2010 and that's all I've seen. I'm too lazy right now to go further



I'd be interested also in what different posters would consider to be "major story arcs". The 5YL for example, doesn't really fit neatly into story arcs IMO because of all the overlapping storylines. The entire first 3 years also had the Dominators' takeover of Earth as a backdrop.

On the other side, some very momentous stories in the Adventure Era were told in only 2 issues. Quite unthinkable for more modern comics

I had never heard of Darkseid or the New Gods, and I was (relatively) new to the Legion so my guesses were all swiped away in the first issues when the big villains were taken off the table. To my cousin's credit, he figured out the First Servant was a Superman clone pretty early on though.

I remember this being SO exciting. My cousin lived next door and had a subscription (I got mine from the newsstand), I'd lord over him that I'd get the issues a few days before he did. I remember getting #293 and reading it on the car ride home. I rushed up the hill to his house and yelled through the door "I know who the Master is!"

He broke down, flung open the door and said "Who?"

I flipped to the last page reveal and said "This guy!"

After a pause, I added "Do you know who he is?"

"Umm, no."

"Me neither."

But it was heckuva cool story.

^ This cracked me up.