Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #24

So now that I do have a PayPal Account I can finally do some shopping on Ebay USA. Which brings me to my question: Technically, if I did not miss anything, the Blue Ribbon Digest #24s original material is the only original material pre-Zero Hour that is still missing in my collection.

It is actually offered twice on Ebay right now, but shipping to Germany makes it slightly expensive. So: Can anybody here please tell me how many original pages there are in this issue? The reprints I do not really need as I have the Archives, but I read that there are some George Perez sketches in it as well...

Thank you very much for answering

It's a 15 page sequel to The Colossal Failure/School for Super Villians by Paul Levitz & Carmine Infantino that frames a reprint of the original two parter. There's also a 16 page Meet The Legion section by Paul & George.

I could kick myself for selling that (and the other reprint digests) to a local comic shop when I was a kid. I went X-Men crazy and sold all my Legions....to get more X-Men! Those digests are the most virtually irreplaceable items I got rid of. What can I say...I was a kid. Ironically, the Legion turned out to be the long-term passion of the two.

I might add that the sequel, the original two parter & the Meet the Legion section comes in at 67 pages total including the cover. It'd be perfect for a double sized reprint but I think we all know that won't be happening anytime soon.

Hm. That link lists this framing sequence as the first appearance of Shvaughn since Earth War. It says that appearance predates her reappearance in the annual! Man, I wish I hadn't gotten rid of that digest! My second Levitz-era collection is suddenly incomplete!!!

BTW, can anyone synopsize fairly thoroughly what happened in the new material of that digest? I'm struggling to remember what happened other then Marte Allon being turned into glass.

I'm curious about it as well. It is the only Legion story I've never read (I ignored digests entirely until they made Adventure into one).

Have the Archives reached this Digest yet? If so, did they skip it? If not, do we think this Digest is likely to be included in the Archives?

On a related note, have the Archives reached that giant-size Saturn Girl/Lightning Lad wedding issue yet? And if so, was it included? I'm hoping to go All Archives for all my early Legion stories one day and I'd hate to find out they're missing important stories.

There's a house ad for LSH #288 in it so it probably should have been reprinted in The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition.

The tabloid Saturn Girl/Lightning Lad Wedding issue was between SLSH #236-7 and the last issue reprinted in the Vol 13 Archive was SLSH #233.

^ Ooh that's exciting. So it could possibly be in the next Archives then? I guess we'll wait and see.

Were the sales of the last Archive good enough to merit a Vol 14? I did my part & bought a copy at my local comic book store.

It's not in the GDS Deluxe Edition. Either they forgot it, or they felt they would have to put the original "Colossal Failure"/"School for Super-Villains" story that it framed in as well for context and felt that would be too cumbersome. Probably the latter.

No clue on whether another volume is forthcoming. Some thought it wouldn't get as far as it already has because we're well past the Silver Age in them and the comparative rarity/value of the individual issues in question is very slight.

That said, many thought the LSH Archives would be discontinued well before this point, so there's hope for more. I personally hope it at least gets thru Earth War, which remains the only major Legion story I've never read or don't have.

Also, not 100% sure, but last I saw, the LSH Archives has produced the largest number of volumes in the program of ANY of the other Archives series--including supposedly heavier hitters like Batman, Superman and JLA!

Does it have anything to do with the GDS? It's a book of a story arc, not a book of "every LSH story released between X and Y", surely. Even without needing a load of pages for a story from much earlier.


Well, New Teen Titans started with comics from 1980 and managed four volumes, taking it up to comics from 1982...


DC's slowed their Archives program down a lot - they did more last year than they did in 2011, but the release schedule is a long way below its peak.


Depends how you count it. If you mean literally "have any other series reached Vol. 13", not amongst DC stories (there are 26 Spirit Archives), the next highest is All-Star (GA JSA), which was completed with Vol. 11 [plus a volume 0 with the two pre-JSA issues, and a "JSA All-Stars Archives" collecting together the solo stories that don't have enough for archives of their own, so that's arguably 13 as well], with JLA at 10.

HOWEVER, Superman and Batman have more than one series going, so they're well past 13 apiece in total:

• Batman has eight "Batman" (GA Detective Comics) Archives, eight "Batman: The Dark Knight" (GA Batman) Archives, two "Batman: The Dynamic Duo" Archives (SA Batman & Detective Comics) and two "Batman in World's Finest" Archives for a total of 20. Plus two Robin Archives on top.
• Superman has eight "Superman" (GA Superman) Archives, five "Superman in Action Comics" (GA Action) Archives, three "Superman: Man of Tomorrow" (SA Superman & Action) Archives and two "Superman in World's Finest" Archives for a total of 18. Plus two Supergirl Archives and one "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane" Archive (!).

Oh, and there's also three plain "World's Finest" Archives, with the Batman/Superman team-ups.

Yes, I'm aware of all of those various Superman, Batman, etc. separate archive series, but I feel I still have a valid point. None of those separate Archive series have apparently been popular enough to get up to 13 volumes of consecutive Silver Age Batman, Golden Age Action, etc., etc. I'm sure it helps the Legion that they had a comparatively linear (and only starting with the Silver Age) publication from one title to the next with the occasional other significant appearances thrown in. BUT there's apparently less demand for continuous high-end reprints beyond a certain point despite the fact that those stories are generally greatly more expensive back issues than many of those in the latest editions of the LSH Archives series.

So give us Legion fans some friggin' props already, Reboot!

Gosh, I hope it's included in Vol 14 too! It's one of the few Legion stories I haven't been able to read yet.

No, Reboot, but the Deluxe Edition reads more as Book I of the classic (second) Levitz era with GDS as the finale as it begins with 284. Just as the follow-up "The Curse" continues that run consecutively as basically Book II. As such, it could have very well included the digest story.



Yes, there are Archives for more than the Silver Age, I know. I'm going by how the back covers of the dust jackets of the LSH volumes read: "re-presenting from the Silver Age of Comics..." Not sure if that blurb was dropped in the later volumes or not. Unless I'm mistaken the "blue" background was originally intended for S.A. collections, "gold" for Golden Age and "yellow" for Bronze/modern age like the NTT. They may have gotten away from that since.



Not disputing that, Reboot. Merely pointing out there's still reason for hope. I thought #12 might be it myself until #13 suddenly showed up. Mycomicsshop.com lists them as being 9 years apart in publication (if that's accurate)!

I'm certain that if the Archives continue, they would include the wedding issue. I'm desperately hoping those are released! I know I said earlier that Earth War is the only major story I haven't read, but I'll take that back and add the tabloid and the appearance in the JLA/JSA crossover to it! (Earth war is still the most significant one, but I've ALWAYS wanted to own and read the other two as well!

Thank you for all your answers, now I'm really convinced to go for it

As for the Archives, if there should be a 14th one I guess it would make no sense to leave TDT out because the wedding is an important milestone for the series, especially later when during Earth War, the lucky couples had to come out of retirement... and even though there seems to be a controversy about its quality, I alsways liked the story, maybe because it was one of the very few full lenght Legion stories I was able to get my hands on back then... they did not translate that much back then in Germany and what they did translate was spread over a lot of different titles and formats too hard to keep track of...

Thanks for the discussion of the Blue Ribbon Digest. I've owned it for years, but never thought about where it actually fit in order and continuity with the rest of my collection. Now because of you guys I've put it in its proper place for the first time 30 years!

You know, I've never read the Tabloid story (LL/ SG Wedding) or the Blue Ribbon Digest extras. Ever.

Definitely something I intend to read during this Archive Reread project when we get to those eras.

So....since no one has yet, can you give us a fairly detailed synopsis of what happens in the new story in the digest?

Oooh is the JLA/JSA/LSH crossover considered rare/hard to find? That's at least one off the beaten track Legion story I own. I don't remember it being all that great though, despite my undying love for that period JLA. I don't think I've read it since becoming a LSH fan though (which goes to show how long it's been) so I might have a different opinion on a re-read now that I know who those weird guest stars are (which wasn't the most exciting selection - Sun Boy, Lightning Lad, Dawnstar and Princess Projectra I think).

Speaking of off the beaten track Legion stories - Weren't there original Legion stories printed in other weird places like DC Special or some such? I seem to remember ads for an "Earth Shattering Disasters" story. And isn't there a 'Christmas' story that appeared somewhere too. Have the Archives skipped those stories or are they still coming up?

Dunno if it's rare (I doubt it), but for me, the point is owning them in Archive or deluxe format with quality paper and vibrant coloring. I'm not that much into buying '70s/most of the '80s and earlier originals as back issues because they generally look like crap.

Hmm if the Archives haven't already passed that story though, I'm wondering if it would be included? Other than the above-mentioned four, and the villain (and the setting I suppose) it seemed much more of a typical JLA story than an LSH one.

If you want it on better paper though, I'm pretty sure all of the JLA/JSA crossovers have been reprinted somewhere. It should probably be in one of them.