Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! What's your Legion-reading roadmap?

Pete Ross, at least, was still canon, (albeit a Pocket Universe version), and I see no reason the same couldn't be true of Insect Queen, though it was never explicitly shown.

Oh, that's right. I forgot Pete's Legion connection was referenced in that story. Lana's still a bit more complicated, because weren't Earth and Krypton the only populated planets in the pocket universe? And her origin involves an alien. Still, her bio-ring could just as easily be a Professor Potter invention without majorly changing anything.

EDE:


Yes, but now it's labelled "The Unknown Legionnaire".

Giffen's look for Shadow Lass was definitely a lot more... modest than what came before. I mean, before and sometimes still during Levitz's second run, people were literally running around half-naked. Shady, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and don't even get me started on the ridiculousness that Laurel Kent was wearing. Emma Frost herself would probably blush at that! (or she would probably approve)

That was a Keith Giffen design.

Oh really? I thought he came onboard after it was introduced.

Do you mean the teeny bikini or the S-poncho? Cause I will fight you over the poncho!

But yeah, the various bikinis (Shadow Lass, Night Girl, Laurel Kent, Saturn Girl, even Dream Girl) were egregious and unnecessary (since super-peeps are already hot as hell in their skintight outfits, and Shady, in particular, looks great fully dressed).

Dream Girl's costume was always a one-piece swimsuit, never anything resembling a bikini.

Steve Lightle is the one to thank for that.

And so in the space of a few weeks I've devoured the whole LOSH v3 all the way to its conclusion with the Magic Wars. What a ride, what an amazing series and what a wonderful cast of characters! I said before that I was mostly familiar with the Reboot Legion thanks to DnA's run, as well as Mark Waid's Threeboot Legion, but had never actually read much of anything with the original Legion. I now feel this run has turned me into a fan of these characters for life as I'm feeling really committed to following them through whatever comes next and all their various future incarnations and whatnot. I'm now very much looking forward to the Five Years Later run as well as the McCraw/Waid/Stern period of the Reboot which I've never read.

But before I get ahead of myself, I need to spend a few words on the characters I've most come to appreciate and those I haven't. I went in with The Great Darkness Saga with no particular favorites and have come to really love the founders, the Subs, Mon-El and Shady, Colossal Boy and Yera, Dreamy and the White Witch, Brainy and what was probably the single most-evolved character Projectra. I adored her journey and transformation into Sensor Girl and loved how she was elected as Legion leader at the end of volume 3.

At the same time... I get it that characters being jerks and bitches is a classic comicbook trope, and especially with the Legion from their very first appearance, but it sometimes seemed like Levitz went out of his way to make characters unlikeable. Shrinking Violet is absolutely insufferable throughout the whole run and never moves past beyond the anger of being replaced by Yera. Dawnstar is a character I love visually, and love her power, but boy is she annoying. And not annoying in a Brainy/Jeckie fun kind of way. Jacques/Invisible Kid II is another character I really wanted to like but who never seems to move past his insecurities and newbie status. I haven't read anything with the original Lyle Norg but I remember liking him much better in DnA's Legion.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention how much I enjoyed Giffen's return in the last few issues of v3. There's an immediate switch to the dramatic and you can see who's really driving the ship there. I loved how he put the Legionnaires in civvies in their downtime, while their costume redesigns are a bit hit or miss, or rather, I do like most of them but I don't think they're distinctive enough, which I believe is a quality you need to have in such a crowded book.

In terms of Giffen's pencils, I loved them in his Perez/Starlin style, his Maguire style, his Munoz style, so it's a win win for me and I'm salivating at the thought of starting with his volume 4 next week. I know that run is highly controversial and I'm looking forward to forming an opinion of my own.

Glad you enjoyed it so much. V3 is popular with many fans and for good reason. As for V4 it will be interesting to see how you feel about it. It is very different to v3 or just about anything else which is perhaps why most fans either love it or hate it.

The one thing I will say without spoiling anything for you is be prepared to invest a lot of time and effort into v4. It is not a casual read comic and to get the most requires a lot of rereading. Hope you enjoy it. (I did and still do.)

Also, as you read v4, bear in mind that issues 4 and 5 of that run are sort of a detour from the main flow of the story, because the Superman editors forced the Legion to write Superboy out of Legion history, The story flow at the end of issue # 3 (prior to the very last page, which is the lead-in to issue # 4) picks up in issue # 6, which is immediately set in the new status quo, and we get our first look at Laurel Gand, (though she's only properly introduced in the next issue).