Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes So who did YOU think was the villain of the GDS?

Taking away the headgear, and the mustache, did anyone think that Darkseid was related to Blok in some way?

No, but I did remember getting confused during one of the battles where Blok was fighting a servant. I was like, "hey, isn't there an extra servant here... oh, never mind."

@ Dave's post -

I'm so jealous that Dave got to share GDS with his cousin! After I was 11 or so, I was flying solo as a comics fan, much less a Legion fan.

Sometimes I wonder if the GDS wasn't responsible for Darkseid's emergence as a premiere DC villain. Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about how widespread his use was prior to this storyline (meaning outside of the New Gods books themselves), but, anecdotally, it sure seems like he wasn't used a whole helluvalot in the interim between the NG books being cancelled. I know there were definite exceptions, but I would hazrd he wasn't as premiere a DCU villain as Luthor, Brainiac, Joker, etc.

It seemed, almost immediately after GDS, that Darkseid started popping up everywhere. He showed up as the big bad in the X-Men/New Teen titans crossover and was the centerpiece of the Super Powers incarnation of the Super Friends and the ensuing massive toy push and a comic book tie-in. Thereafter, he (and the other New Gods to a lesser extent) was a staple of the DCU and appeared very frequently.

It's quite possible that all this can be tracked and explained back to Super Powers, but I have to wonder whether it was truly the GDS that set all of this into motion.

That is certainly the case. Prior to GDS his biggest DC appearances outside of the Fourth World were in the Secret Society of Supervillains and as the villain in one of the lesser regarded JLA/JSA crossovers. After Levitz/Giffen rejuvenated him, EVERYONE wanted to use him. Remember the first line of Super Powers toys didn't have him, it was only after the first Kirby mini-series that he was injected in as the secret villain (ala GDS), and then it took off from there (with the Super Friends Cartoon falling in line shortly after). I remember everyone being so sure he was the villain in Crisis (As the Anti-Monitor had the same shadowy mystery for the first half of the series as in GDS). After that he was a focal point for Legends, Cosmic Odyssey, etc, but none of that would have been the case if GDS wasn't so successful at the time.

As a fan who absolutely loves the GDS, let me add my own insight. In my Legion reading roadmap (see that awesome thread for more details, of course), I had a somewhat unique course: I “discovered” them by randomly starting to read the first issues of the postboot Legion and totally falling in love with the concept. I was probably about 13 or 14 at the time. Even though it was two issues a month that was not enough for me, so I was determined to read the entirety of Legion history to get my fill. Boy, little did I know what I was in for. It took me a long, long time to figure out all that continuity in the pre-internet days.

But long story short: I started with the Adventure Era, which my Dad had *most* of, and read the whole Silver Age. Like many 14 year olds, I suspect, I thought it was pretty good but not great until right around Nardo, and then it got awesome. I finished the Adventure stories and then…my Dad’s collection jumped ahead to Legion #306 by Levitz & Giffen. He was missing the entire 1970’s. Only later, I would help him track down every issue during those years (so we’re now only missing 3-4 of the first LSH stories in Adventure / Action). But I was blown away by Levitz & Giffen, and thought it was the coolest, best thing I had ever read. It remains my favorite run with only TMK being a contender for that title.

Which leads me to learning about the GDS in the letter’s pages of those issues, since fans were not shy in praising Levitz and Giffen for a job well done. I knew I wanted it, but those issues were hard to find. So I ended up getting my Dad to buy the very first graphic novel we ever bought: the Great Darkness Saga. I had never actually read a graphic novel before but this was a special occasion.

And you know what? It was among the greatest comic book stories I’ve ever read. At that point in time, say around 15 or so, it filled me with excitement and joy in a way very few Legion stories have ever done—or very few comic book stories ever had. It was just epic, with just about every Legionnaire having a part to play. The scale was so grand. The Legion was so majestic and powerful at this point in time. And the story was so 80’s in the sense if was complex and serious but still had an enormous sense of fun and adventure. The art too, was magnificent.

When I picked up the GDS to this day, I still feel that sense of excitement. I’ve reread it probably more than any other story ever, and I bring the trade with me in my briefcase when I travel sometimes.

Getting back to the real topic though: by the time I read GDS, I was kind of the opposite of you guys. I didn’t know that much about the Legion, but I knew just about everything there was to know about Darkseid. With a father and uncle who loved and lived for Kirby, I knew the entirety of the New Gods mythology by the time I was like 10. I had read every New Gods / Jimmy Olsen / etc story long before I ever even knew about the Legion. I loved the JLA / Darkseid story during the Perez years before I even understood who George Perez was. In other words, I didn’t even realize Darkseid was a surprise villain until years later when I finally bought the original issues too and read the letter’s pages to see everyone making guesses.

Love it!

And to risk posting three times in a row, which is in bad form, I think I can honestly say this:

The GDS is a major reason that the Legion is my favorite superhero franchise, tied only with Spider-Man. It's a major reason why when I first realized such things as message boards existed, I went to the Legion Board at the DCMB's and eventually wound up meeting the posters who would co-found the LMB. It was the first DC franchise that really made me a ferocious, all-encompassing fan that could not get enough.

I knew who Darkseid was from the old Secret Society of Super-Villains, but wasn't really aware of his Fifth World / Apokalips connections.

The build-up and development of the story were amazing to me, with just a kind of limp ending involving the miracle baby or whatever.

I'm obviously with Cobie in my love for the GDS. Contextually, there was nothing on this scale that my 8 year-old comics reading brain had seen before. The idea of something that needed EVERYONE was mind boggling and completely fresh with the only close contenders being the time all the Marvel heroes gathered to try and stop Godzilla, or when Salem's Seven took over the Baxter Building and everyone and their dog couldn't break in. And even those weren't on this scale, and not from DC, and not using the Legion!

From top to bottom it fired on all cylinders and completely redefined what my benchmark would be for comic reading excitement.

I've come back to it several times over the years (my issues are pretty ratty, so I was glad for the hardcover). And yes I logically can see where it's probably dated in the dialogue and how the Deus ex Machina card was used, but while I can logically see where that criticism comes from, my inner 8 year old is blowing raspberries at you all, because this was pure comics awesome!

I thought it was the use of Darkseid in the JLA/JSA corssover that gave Darkseid that big villain ticket. The JLA was in 1980 and the GDS was in 1982?

The JLA adventure brought Darkseid back to life. Granny Goodness and the oppression of Apokalips was grim. The Injustice Society werein it. Not to mention this is where Power Girl and Firestorm started their romance by Crises. There's some Perez art too. I'd be surprised if it was a lesser thought of story.

Those Perez issues featuring the JLA, JSA and 4th World characters rank among my favorite that he ever produced (and I firmly believe he's one of the greatest artists ever in the medium).

Perez on JLA was about as good as comics get. >sigh<

And let's not forget D-Boy's endorsement deal.

This cover mesmerized as a kid!

Granny Goodness fleeing her child torture chamber, knowing the place far too well for anyone to follow. She thinks she's safe, until she runs into Barda. The look on Barda's face counterpoints Superman's speech going in about how hatred can't be used against hatred.

Darkseid+Perez+New Gods+JSA&JLA=Yum Yum!

Apokolips Now was a great title.

I'll never agree with anyone who thinks that the GDS is overrated. It'll always be what made me such a big Legion fan and one of the standards I measure other comic epics against. You really can't do a big story much better than Levitz and Giffen did here: all the big moments, the skillful juggling of such a huge cast, the little moments interspersed, the surprises, awesome, memorable artwork and so much more--all without having to include a big splashy death for so-called validation.

They literally don't make multi-parters at the Big Two anymore that even come CLOSE to delivering the majesty that the Great Darkness Saga brought in spades!

Yeah, I'm biased as hell and won't throw rocks at anyone who disagrees, but it'll always have a special, rare place in this fanboy's heart!

Truth. Not even close.

The Darkseid the Legion fought in the Darkseid Saga was far more powerful than in any other incarnation I can think of.

Ordinarily, Darkseid is portrayed as having Kryptonian-class strength and toughness, or possibly a little beyond, having access to advanced technology, and possessing “Omega-Beam” vision, which, depending on the writer, can be either completely devastating or pathetically feeble.

The 3Oth-century Darkseid, on the other hand, appeared physically more powerful than the forces of Superboy, Supergirl, Mon-El and Ultra Boy combined. He was able to teleport planets across interstellar distances, control the minds of billions of fully-powered Daxamites simultaneously, and effortlessly overpower opponents at the level of the Time Trapper a Controller and Mordru. Sensorially, he was apparently simultaneously aware of numerous events taking place over thousands or even millions of cubic light-years, even probing the minds of at least hundreds of specific individuals in conflict with his forces.

The Legion and their associates were merely an annoyance, and he was only “defeated” by the continued resistance of the Legion and their allies because his conquest of the United Planets was not entirely effortless!

At his power levels, he could have easily wiped out the Legion, Wanderers, Heroes of Lallor, and Science Police, and reigned unchallenged over the remaining Galaxy, but this would not have been a victory in his mind: he wanted them all to voluntarily bow down to him.

I think his enhanced power levels were a direct result of him absorbing the magic/power of the various items and villains he "collected". That was a really good build-up, and I admire Levitz for establishing just how scary powerful Darkseid was in a well-plotted manner.