Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes ComicsXF; Whatever Happened to the Legion of Super-Heroes

I'm sure some here would be interested in reading this:

https://comicsxf.com/2025/02/23/legion-of-super-heroes-history-1/
https://comicsxf.com/2025/02/25/legion-of-super-heroes-part-two/

That was a good read, thank you.

But, ultimately, I disagree with her: TMK were arrogant, pretentious fools who screwed up royally, and I will go to my grave holding them accountable.

Could have mentioned ADVENTURE COMICS readers were active in the "Bits of Bizarro Business" column which preceded any engagement with the Legion...

Updated an early sentence in the essay:

"For every writer who used their monthly schedule as a kind of ersatz talk therapy or bully pulpit (see Alan Grant), for every writer whose ongoing became a kind of freelance psychobiography (see Chris Claremont), there was a reader that wanted to push their own pet fanfic theories into the main book (TMK)."

Good read.

I've never really been reading the Legion as it happened ( aside from Legion of 3 Worlds, the Lightning Saga and the recent BendisBoot but I was more JSA/JLA focused during Lo3W and Lightning Saga ) so I have a more detached view and I could trudge through the hard parts of 5 years later to find parts I enjoyed, otherwise I might feel like Darkseid was using his anti-life equation on the book during that period of time because it seems like an Elseworlds story like Red Son Superman because it was such a departure from the standard.

I mean, it is well written - if perhaps OVER written - but I did enjoy the writer putting in the comment about Tom talking about Keith with Keith saying "aren't you glad I pulled you to the edge?"

That kind of phrase haunts me and I tend to completely avoid those personality types.

GL, I avoid those personality types as well.

NP, that era is so polarizing that one fan's hidden gems are another fan's toxic waste. For instance, one of the few stories I find tolerable is the Khund three-parter that Giffen sat out, but everyone else seems to dislike it.

I mean, I think that if they were allowed to do what the original purpose of 5YL was without the editorial interference and retcons, it would have been a better book. But who knows?

But you're right - there are some who think 5YL is the best thing ever written.

Exactly. Giffen was never somebody who started out a project with a set of intentions and ended up with the original intentions fulfilled. Look at JLI -- at first it was satirical and semi-serious, but by the end it was mostly a load of obnoxious clowning. The Despero storyline, which many JLI fans point to as a midpoint return to form, was a fluke, in my opinion.

And I'm sure he didn't have nearly as much editorial interference there as he did on Legion, right?

Right.

As a matter of fact, he got on famously with the JLI editor.