Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! The Archives & Digests: The Forewards

Has there ever been any discussion here of the introductory essays to the Archives? I've usually rushed right to the actual stories, but the foreward essays have good material in them, too.

From Volume 1, essay by Mike Gold: Gold points out a number of reasons why the Legion was different from other comic book series. It was the first group of characters to make appearances in multiple titles of the Superman line - not just confined to the original Superboy title.

This was Weisinger's idea and was, as Gold writes, "something unique, something that we take for granted today but was unheard of at the time." Not only did the Legion make nearly a dozen appearances in the months following their initial introduction, but "statuettes of the various Legionnaires kept on popping up, so the super-group was kept before the readers in any number of ways". Smart guy, Mort.

Other Legion standards which were unusual for comics at the time: the book-length story and the two-part adventure.

Fan participation/ company responsiveness to fans was another aspect that was particularly important to Legion development. We know that story!

It was Mike Gold himself who suggested in the 70s that "The Legion of Super-Heroes" be the title of the book. After 20 years, this was the first time the Legion's name alone (without Superboy) appeared on its original comic book (it had been used on reprint comics).

Finally, one aspect of Legion fandom history which may (or may not) have changed:

"By now (late 1950s), it was clear what the fans wanted. We liked time travel stories, we liked seeing a lot of super-heroes together, we liked seeing the birth or the roots of a series... and we liked being in on the ground floor."

I wonder if time travel stories are as popular today; a lot of Legion fans seem to want to keep them out of the 21st century and vice-versa. We like to see a focus on a few personalities, with character development - although maybe we still like the big group scenes also. There doesn't seem to be the same desire for the "roots", if I judge by the acceptance - even appreciation - we've shown for the absence of the origin story in the latest Legion series.

I don't have the Archives but as a rule I always read the forwards in graphic novels. There's so much to be gained from the author's view of his earlier works. There's also a lot to be picked up from other author's views of a high quality piece of comic book goodness.

Barry had some interesting stuff to say about Empire in the collected graphic novel and I picked up a lot about how he works from the material there. The Levitz text pieces in the old Legion reprints digest filled in so many gaps and gave so much rich detail that that alone made them worth getting.

Then there's Miracle Man, The Watchmen, almost all the really good ones have something that adds a lot of depth and enriches the experience for the reader. Plus it's cool to see what a writer might say in his own voice. For me it makes the whole process more human and personal.

I rarely read the forewards to the Archives. I think, somewhere in the back of my head, I intend to go back and do so. But after several hundred pages I forget and give it a place on my bookshelf.

There's no reason they have to time travel to the age of Superman & his amazing friends. Have them visit ancient Rome to track down a mystic artifacts origin, or pop over to the 27th century to discover the truth of a historic event. Levitz wrote text pieces for those little digest versions of the Legion? Man, and I've been passing them by!

Anybody have a list of which ones have added bits?

Oh my, I'm sure somebody can give you that list. Pov is usually great for those little tidbits, heck he might even have them memorized.

They were just wonderful reading, so much behind the scenes stuff and details about who and why on things that I think they're invaluable. It's the first place I remember seeing writer and artist credits for the earliest Legion stories.

I think that material has been printed elsewhere in the years since but I'm not really sure. Even if you've got the Archives they're probably good to have anyway 'cause there's lots of other old DC goodness to be found in them.

The letters from Levitz ran from Adventure Digest #491 through at least #503 (being the last issue I have). If anyone would like I can post just the text pieces here for our discussion and dissemination.

Yes, I have all the archives. And every regular Legion appearance since Adv. 300 (save some TMK), some of their earlier appearances, most of their guest shots, the issues where letters columns to the aforementioned issues were.

And someday I'll meet a girl who finds that impressive. Or can live with it. Oh, I'd just be happy to meet a girl. :-)

And now I have to start pursuing reprints!

(I am so very, very sad.)

Lightning Lad, it would be great if you could post those Digest letters. Levitz is always interesting. In fact, his two archive essays are too short - I wish he'd written another two pages!

Cheer up, Mess. What an opportunity - something new to hunt after and collect - back to eBay! Thrill of the chase and all that.

How about I post one a day? That will give some time to discuss and not clutter up the thread with the images.

Here is the first one, from Adventure Digest #491.

I still have only 2 Archives, #8 and #9, which my wife bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago.

I think #8 includes the first publication of the Legion's origin, written by E. Nelson Bridwell. The foreward is a wonderful tribute by Levitz to Bridwell. Bridwell was quite the Renaissance Man and a real authority on heroic stories from the dawn of time to the present day. A fascinating, classy man who contributed immensely to Legion lore, and comics in general. There aren't enough people like him around today, in comics or in life in general.

RE: the Levitz comments to Digest #491 - several interesting points here.

I never really noticed the silhouettes in the first story, but there they are! Still, I don't see how people got Supergirl out of that, except for wishful thinking.

Odd that Levitz states that the second story's writer is unknown for certain - in the Archives, Jerry Siegel is listed. That makes me wonder if Sigellium was derived from Siegel's name - and did he indeed write the story, or were the Archive compilers inspired by Sigellian to put his name down?

Possible. Or maybe somebody came forward with some info after #491 came out.

Thank you so much Scott.
One of my very first posts to an LMBP discussion was about those very panels with mysterious Legionnaires.
Great memories.

I dont think they are saying kara is in the panels just that she joined when brainy did which had occured before superboy did.

Since I don't know what my day looks like tomorrow, here is the next installmant. From Adventure Digest #492.

Otto binder was, of course, one half of Eando Binder, one of the sci-fi authors I loved as a child, though I can't seem to remember any of his books at the moment. Eando was a pseudonym used when writing in conjunction with his brother Earl. (Get it? Earl and Otto? E and O, Eando, get it? :-)

Funny that he would invent my favorite comic and so many of my favorite books from the same age, and I never knew it until many years later.

Well, continuity wasn't the biggest feature of early legion issues. Among other problems is this: Every single legionaire other than the "Three Founders" is either shown being inducted or mentioned as "recently joined" at the time that they first appear in the comic. What this means is, if you assume the stories happened in chronological order, there is nobody in the Legion for those mysterious extra legionaires in the first story to be. The easiest explanation is that there were a lot of legionaires who got fired between the first and third story (nobody but the founders in the second, at least, identified as a Legionaire).

The idea then being that the later Supergirl story, where several Legionaires were introduced, could have actually preceeded the Superboy story, thus explaining some of the other Legionaires.

Or something like that.

This is where the Archives colouring problems become apparent - the 2nd panel YK posted just has blackened silhouettes in the Archives - so I was thinking people were trying to thing Supergirl was one of those, not just going on the story continuity.

In the second essay, Levitz brings up the "walk-on appearances" to which Gold refers in his Archives v.1 text. I wonder if this was consciously planned to build up interest in the Legion, or if the writers just thought it was fun and/or easy to bring a legionnaire into the story.

Ah, the happy go lucky days before "continuity" was a watchword.

What century was the Legion in again? In the 30th? Or was it their grand kids in the 21st? Or something. And how many names did the police force go by?

Still, I half miss the days when an author could feel confidant that nobody would really care if he changed a minor backpoint of the story in order to make room for something he wanted to tell.

I wonder how many times 'ol Mort recycled stories back then. I vaguely remember liking Superboy stories where he met some super powered guy and they struck up a friendship for one issue. There was always a reason they wouldn't or couldn't be super pals by the end of the story though.
Poor Kal.
I might have read and reread that story a dozen times with a different coat of paint slapped on it but I kept giving 'em 12 cents and they kept entertaining me. ..and that's what comics are all about to an eight year old.

There sure was a lot of emphasis on romance back then. A lot of superhero stories were girl chasing boy or vice-versa, with a few villains or monsters thrown in.

I wonder when continuity became such an issue? When the eight year olds got to be picky teenage readers? Or when they got to be picky comic book writers?

Maybe when boy genius Jim Shooter started?

Here's the next one, from #494.