Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Fans of the Reboot & Threeboot trying out this Legion for the first time

For the sake of eliminating the boring now-old arguement that the current Legion is not the classic, pre-Crisis Legion, let's say in the minds of fans of either the Reboot or the Threeboot, they are probably close enough to be considered the same thing.

I'm wondering how readers who really became fans of the Legion during the Reboot or the Threeboot and have decided to pick up the current Legion series are feeling about it? Is it stimulating some interest on your part? Were you hesitatent to pick it up since its not your Legion or do really not care about that sort of thing and like the concept enough to give it a try?

This is your chance--sound off!

I think this is a great thread idea, Cobie

I started with the Reboot Legion, but eventually read through the pre Zero Hour Legion as well. So it's not as hard for me to adjust to the current Legion. It's a bit like revisiting an old acquaintance, not jarring at all.

Haven't read anything after Legion of 3 Worlds though, so I can't comment on the current run.

Jeepers, Cobie! Way to leave out fans of the 5YL and SW6 Legions!

I started with the Threeboot, but I've also read enough of reboot to 'get it' as well. Honestly, I picked up Legion of 3 Worlds, so that was really my introduction to the "New" legion. It's a bit weird adjusting, they aren't really MY Legion. I'll keep buying Legion titles though, I'm happy to start adapting.

D'you reckon it's worth trying to find some Pre-Zero Hour stuff to catch up? If so, where do I start?

I highly recommend the Legion Showcases as a cheap way to read the Silver Age Legion!

And the Great Darkness Saga, Eye for an Eye, and The More Things Change tpbs are recommend for getting a taste of Levitz's classic run.

For the current Legion i'd definitely recommend GDS and Eye for an Eye over the Showcase books. Reading the Showcase volumes is like reading ancient history compared to the stuff from the '80s (scary to think, however, that the Adventure run was really only 20 years old when I started reading the Legion and now my original Legion stories are nearly 30 years old!). Still, to really get the feel for Paul's style and take on the characters, the collections of his earlier Legion material is probably the way to go.

The ADVENTURE stories *do* provide bits of background that Levitz, especially, tends to base parts of his storytelling on-- and provides quite a bit of sideways background for the reboot, as well.

Hmmm- is the fact that the Earth Prime Legion was really the first version that didn't seem to grow from the ADVENTURE stories or parallels to them significant?

I've been a LSH fan since the Grell years and there are several things unique to the reboot that I'll really miss, but that feeling is eased *hugely* by the outcome of LOTW. That may or may not have been a great story, but the fact that it acknowledged other Legions' existences and left them intact (as much as it could considering previous events) was wise. Unlikely as it might be, reboot-lovers and 5YL lovers and Superboy's Legion lovers can at least hold to the prospect that those versions can be revisited in story at some point without having to wade through some continuity wipeout.

I tend to think that if END OF AN ERA and ZERO HOUR had left things similarly, then there might have been room in more Legion fans hearts for the reboot.

I'll chime in with the suggestion that you pick up both Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes. Paul Levitz has said his stories in Adventure specifically were intended to get new readers interested in the LSH (or something to that effect), and I think that would apply to readers more familiar with the Reboot and Threeboot versions (both of which I read as well, though I also started with the Legion back in the Bronze Age).

I'd also suggest Superman and Legion of Super-Heroes trade, if you don't have or haven't read the originals, as well as Legion of Three Worlds, since Paul is picking up plot threads from those series. And I agree that trades republishing Paul's earlier work on the Legion would also serve as good background material, better than the Showcase volumes (though they are hardly without value themselves).

I started with the reboot, so I don't remember a time when this Legion was the only Legion. However, I have read almost every Legion story Levitz wrote, so these characters are very familiar to me.

Since I started with the originals, when they started, I can't address what it feels like to come back to this version, except that I LOVED the reboot and disliked most of Prime.

Saying that, the idea of the current Adventure run and the Legion book is to make it so that no one has to go back, really.
They've made enough changes that we know that things are open now and nitpicing is over.

Unless that's what you want.

Threeboot started out well (the retooled Dream Girl character was a shining star as one example) but what killed it was forcing Supergirl on the team (there are much better ways they could have done this) and by the time the Dominators storyline came into play I had really just honestly lost interest in the book.

I more or less continued to read out of sheer habit and the "promise" of a better run with Jim Shooter's return. I was motivated again ... * uhhh, hrumph* .... that was short lived.
How could we forget the terrible Shooter run which with all the background political stuff going on and Jim's ho-hum attitude in his interviews, you could tell that he really didn't give a rat's ass about the book nor the heroes he once-upon-a-time helped put on the map.
The final issue #50 is my all-time favourite comic ... NOT !!!

The new Levitz Legion, caught up to the threeboot/prime/whatever Legion and beat them out by issue #1 already ... in my humble opinion.

I'm kind of similar. My earliest exposure to the Legion was all over the map since I was using my Dad's comic book collection. I read the first four months of the reboot, then some Adventure issues, then some Levitz stuff, etc.

So when I truly became a Legion fan, I knew there was a reboot. It was only after a period of time that I learned to love the original preboot more than the current continuity so I felt the sting when certain things 'went wrong' IMO (re: Sensor = snake).

Interesting bit of trivia: Mark Waid has said if he could have used Superboy (Superman when he was a boy), he would have pushed for restoring the preboot rather than create the threeboot.

I started in the days of Pulsar Stargrave in his disco pants and the murder of An Ryd and all that jazz.

But I'm pretty cozy with any Legion that doesn't get too dark. Superboy's Legion, for instance, is a favorite. 'My Legion' is any Legion that doesn't get too depressing...

While that would have been interesting to see, considering how badly he botched the Threeboot, I think we dodged a bullet there.