Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes LSH v3/Baxter Legion re-read thoughts

Hi everyone! It's been a minute - a busy holiday season and an even busier January (way more than I had anticpated both at work and home) have kept me busy. As some of you know, I've been doing a couple read-throughs of the Legion at various point of time over the course of 2021, notable the reboot era from Zero Hour. But also, around the May timeframe, I started a readthrough from Adventure 267, with only a small gap of maybe 20 stories from the very early bronze age, notably the Mike Grell illustrated issues.

So to bring it around to now, a couple weeks ago I finally finished the Baxter era of the Legion - the 67 issues between 1984 and 1989 where Paul Levitz created what is probably the best single run of the Legion ever created. Having read through 99% of the Legion stories in order to read the setup that Levitz took from the end of the prior series (really turning around the tone, IMO in that classic first Annual issue in 1982 with the Foccarts and Computo and of course the Great Darkness Saga), I was able to appreciate all the little bits that were set up earlier (Violet being impersonated being a great example) and then expanded upon, while laying even more groundwork.

But so many great story arcs one after the other! The high-stakes LSV story to kick everything off, Dream Girl as Leader, Sensor Girl's mystery, a new Starfinger, Universo, the war on the Time Trapper. All interspersed with nice character moments - Brek finally becoming Legion leader and finding its much better to want than to have, Ayla's return to the team and the beginnings of her relationship with Vi, the new Legionnaires and their interactions with the team. The Baxter format was nice in that it had the extra pages for the longer storytelling that was well exploited by Levitz, either by including these secondary threads as "b" stories in the main narrative, or by having a separate B story. The addition of some classic annuals just added to an already outstanding title.

A few things didn't land well for me - Quislet, while having some interesting moments, didn't really do much for me as a character, and the whole Nura/Atmos mind rapey stuff was just oddly placed, and (to me anyway) not well explained when it was resolved; I'm guessing it had to be wrapped up to deal with the upcoming end of the title.

The aspect of this run that REALLY worked for me over the course of 67 issues was the gut-punch of Superboy's death in issue 38, almost at the exact middle of this era. The Legion stories up to this point were pretty epic and built upon the past events over the course of their history in a dramatic way. Due to the events of COIE across DC, its revealed that the Superboy that the Legion had been working with for decades was a duplicate pinched off into a pocket universe by the Time Trapper, so whenever the Legion went back in time (for the most part), it was to this universe. But it didn't lessen the impact of this Clark's death at all. And to me this became a pivotal moment in the series; up to this point, the Legion was a united force held together by the ideal of Superboy, however once Superboy is gone, the team has no real cohesity, and the team begins to drift apart under Polar Boy's watch, certain members and cliques focused on their own interests, until the Magic Wars briefly reunites the team before the title's end.

So this thread is generally for folks to discuss their favorite bits of the Baxter era. Talk about what worked for you, or didn't, in these stories. To me, this is the absolute best the Legion was (and to be honest, the idea that they would scrap this for the 5YL Legion has me scratching my head), but I'd love to hear your take on this era. I may do some story arc recaps as the mood strikes me (I do have to start reading the v4 stuff, after all), but it would be interesting to hear what folks feel about these stories over 30 years later.

Ah, the Baxter Era. It used to be my absolute favorite iteration of the Legion. And on a purely visual level, it still is.

Because while many people have complained that the Baxter paper stock made Carl Gafford's coloring too garish, I will counter that this was exactly the glossy, glammy look that the Legion had always demanded, yet rarely gotten in the past. Also, the great majority of these issues were drawn by either Greg LaRocque or the late, great Steve Lightle. LaRocque gets a lot of stick from fandom for not being detailed enough or imaginative enough or tech-y enough, but none of the former are artistic prerogatives of my personal taste. LaRocque drew gorgeous women, and without ever being exploitive or grotesque. His greatest strengths were the human(-oid) figure in motion (no surprise that he followed up the Legion with an even longer run on the Flash,) and a keen compositional eye which made the panels harmonious with each other. As for Lightle, his work was, quite simply, perfection. Lightle had all of LaRocque strengths and none of his weakness.

You'll have noticed by now I still haven't mentioned Keith Giffen. The most diplomatic thing I can say is that his style was the polar opposite of LaRocque's -- Kirby-esque in his dynamics and details, emulating Bande Desinee in his depiction of future-tech, and all sorts of weird creatures -- all of this seemingly at the expense of the ability to draw a halfway attractive humanoid. Giffen's men look like out-of-shape wrestlers and his women like interchangeable mannequins. And I won't even get into his whiplash-inducing stylistic shifts. Nor, really, do I have much left to say about his dubious philosophy, his flippant sense of humor, his difficultly following through on what he sets up in his stories, or his playground-bully mean-spiritedness -- put simply, Giffen's not my thing.

As for Levitz, he was once my absolute favorite Legion writer. That was then, this is now. In hindsight, he built up Dream Girl only to tear her down in the most unforgivable fashion, and he seemed to fixate on his least inspired villains (Starfinger, Time Trapper, Infinite Man) rather than the ones with potential (Lady Memory, Caress, Flare.) In fairness, some of the faults in his stories were out of his control (being forced to change Sensor Girl's secret identity.)

In the final summation, the only Baxter stories that really hold up to me are The Universo Project (which DC *still* has not collected, even as a cheap, 112-page trade, even though it stands on its own beautifully apart from the rest of Levitz's Legion run) and The Greatest Hero of Them All, which Gaseous Lad already singled out above.

Addenda:

Issues number 45 (the 30th Anniversary spotlight on Lightning Lad and the Luck Lords) and 56 (drawn by the late Eduardo Barreto and focusing on Tasmia's efforts to get Mon-El healed) have great sentimental value to me, as they were among the first Legion comics I ever bought, even though I am acutely aware of their flaws.

Your comment on Giffen's stylistic shift is important, if only due to his change at the end on the Magic Wars storyline, which was a precursor to what he would be delivering in 5YL. Artistically, this is the weak point for me in this run. And while I appreciate the scope of what was being attempted in 5YL, the art was never something I was able to enjoy as much as I did in almost every other iteration of the Legion.


Completely agree on Dream Girl. I'm curious about your Sensor Girl comment - I don't think I've heard that. Who was she supposed to be originally? Imra?

But at the end of the day, I think Levitz is still my favorite Legion writer overall, as he kept with the original characters and honored their backgrounds while trying to take them somewhere new, and adding new characters to the mix (which are things we've all said should be done here on this board). He wrote intelligent dialogue with most characters having quite specific motivations or voices. Basic stuff we're starving for today.


The fact that we are getting all of the 5YL in two omnis, but not this era is unbelievable to me.

GL, Sensor Girl was originally supposed to be Kara. It would have turned out she had somehow survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and landed in the 30th Century, with most of her powers gone, but her basic five senses greatly enhanced.

Jenette Kahn put the kibosh on Levitz & Lightle's original plans, or so the official behind-the-scenes story goes. This necessitated a last-minute shift to Projectra, even though hints had already been dropped in Sensor Girl's earliest appearances that she was Kara.

Your point about Levitz's accomplishments is well taken. I'll ruminate further on that, and other things you mentioned in your reply, and then post my thoughts accordingly.

Ah, that makes total sense. I guess Kahn was doing a CYA move with all the Superboy nonsense.

But in hindsight, Supergirl makes perfect sense for that choice. Yet another instance of DC editorial being the Legion's supervillain. LOL

My sentiments exactly, GL.

Ah, this run is flat-out my favorite! I'm not 100% in love with the legacy of Great Darkness Saga, if only for the fact that everyone and their dog has tried to use Darkseid as 'the big villain' ever since, none of them as well, IMO, but it was a great story in the day, and I love how Levitz managed to give each of the characters a unique voice. In previous (and later) versions, various Legionnaires might seem interchangeable, speaking and behaving similarly, but Levitz really gave them all distinct personalities (sometimes even flawed or unpleasant or abrasive traits, which was refreshing, since it made them feel more like people, more like Marvel's 'heroes with feet of clay,' than more iconic / idealistic / perfect DC characters had sometimes been portrayed).

I loved how many new characters Levitz seemed ready to introduce at the drop of a hat. In the Universo Project we get fleeting glimpses of a half-dozen alien heroes, Xera of Manna-5, the Silver Sword, those acrobatic twins, etc. and then in the Tryouts issue that introduces Sensor Girl, Quislet, etc. we see 'Tiger Girl' and Energy Boy and 'the Skreaks' and many others. It was a feast of creativity at times! (On the downside, of all these new characters, only Atmos got additional storyline. Pfah!)


My fanwank was that Brainy attempted to 'save' her from her historically-recorded death at the hands of the Anti-Monitor, using a time sphere and math to try and pluck her out at the instant of her recorded death and leave behind a clone body to be buried. No one in the past would know any differently, but she could never return to the past, since 'she was dead there.'

But, as with so many of Brainy's terrible plans, it went awry and he only managed to extract some sort of chronal fragment of her, and that chronal fragment had only her super-sensory powers, and, even more disappointingly for Brainy, absolutely no memories of her relationship with him... And so the 'new character' of Sensor Girl, as this 'remnant' of Kara seeks out her own life and identity, apart from those she has worn in the past (and only remembers bits and pieces of, in any event).

Yep - Vi with a chip on her shoulder really stands out here, but it makes sense as it grows out of where he took the character in the earlier run. And more importantly, she read differently from Tinya or Jeckie or Imra. And, most importantly, those characterizations were consistent across time. Now granted, I didn't enjoy her some of the time, but that was because she was written that way, but it also allowed Ayla to come in and temper her to some degree. Really good, dare I say it, adult stuff.


That sounds like a cool way of approaching that! I really like your ideas there!

Someone suggested one time that she could have been the "Satan Girl" part of Supergirl, which I've always thought was an awesome idea.

I agree! That would definitely be interesting.