Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes The Best Moments of the Levitz Legion

In the name of fairness, there are still many things I find pleasurable about the Levitz Legion:

The Universo Project, all of it.

Tasmia's quest to save Mon-El's life.

Badass Saturn Girl.

Sultry Nura.

Tellus.

Quislet.

Sensor Girl.

Sarya leading the Fatal Five.

My favorite parts:

Polar Boy becoming a full fledged member

Timber Wolf going to Lythlys to carry out Karate Kid's will

Magnetic Kid sacrificing himself during the Magic Wars

The epic battle against the Time Trapper

The Universo Project

Sensor Girl

I like that issue a lot, too.



I have mixed feelings about that, because after he became leader, the creators basically shat on him.

Whoops, I have even more moments I left out:

Issue #39 (Colossal Boy/GiGi story)

Issue #14 (new members join! )

Issue #59 (Invisible Kid flashback story)

This is one of my favorite Legion issues of all time. Steve Lightle's cover alone should be hung in a museum.



Yeah, those weren't bad at all, and they had good art by Curt Swan (39) and M.D. Bright (59).

I forgot to mention my favorite pre-Baxter era moments too! I'm being really forgetful today... :

Cosmic Boy facing his parents' killers (all time favorite Legion moment)

Great Darkness Saga (of course!)

The Origin of the Universe File (LoSH #295)

Chameleon Boy reclaiming his powers (LoSH #301)

The Star Boy spotlight issue (#306)

Earthwar.


Stories finally IMO used the setting. There were mysteries to solve. Clues to be noticed. The art contained the story, it wasn't just illustrated words.

The Greatest Hero of Them All - what a bounce back from a bad hand dealt!

Greg LaRocque

Earthwar was ground-breaking space opera, it was DC's equivalent of Marvel's Kree-Skrull War in Avengers, only better.

And I heart Greg LaRocque.

Another thing I loved from Levitz Mark 1 was the Legion vs. the Fatal Five story drawn by Jim Sherman and (an uncredited) Michael Netzer. It was tight, suspenseful, and well-structured.

Backtracking to Levitz Mark 2, I've always had a sentimental spot for the 35th Anniversary Lightning Lad/Luck Lords issue, even though it has a lot of flaws. There's some beautiful art to be enjoyed there -- Greg LaRocque's panoramas of the Luck Lords dimension are breathtaking IMO, and most of the guest artists acquit themselves quite well (especially Mike Grell.)

I'm normally very wary of revisionist writing. Until the Luck Lords story, it hadn't occurred to me to consider connections between the events in LL's life or in any Legionnaires life but I loved that Levitz' revisionist approach because it made sense and didn't really disrupt anything.

I'm always glad to learn that somebody else likes that issue.

I'm getting an itch to get the boxes out of the garage. Of course, that would mean finally clearing the mess in the spare bedroom and possibly buying (ugh) some shelves.


Maybe I'll relocate some things from the spare that look least like mouse food, out to the garage and bring the boxes in, after checking for nests of course.

My favorite Levitz moments, from memory and in no particular order:

GDS, of course.

Earth War--wasn't fond of the art when I first read it, but the story was an amazing and massive undertaking.

LSH 300--tying all the various eras of the Legion into a cohesive whole and resolving the long-standing thread of Ferro Lad's twin.

Dream Girl as leader -- a surprise, but Levitz rolled with it.

Element Lad as leader -- about time.

Ayla dumping Brin, leaving the Legion, and then returning as Lightning Lass: after decades of being a so-so character, the future Spark showed spunk.

The impersonation of Shrinking Violet: a subplot that built for a long time, encompassing even the GDS, and led to a surprising climax and resolution. It also created one of the more appealing supporting characters, Mrs. Gim Allon.

Various transitions: Star Boy's beard and later departure, the founders stepping down, Garth and Imra becoming parents . . . all of this made the Legion feel like a real team of young people who were growing up and, in some cases, moving on.

The Blok-Timber Wolf friendship.

Darkseid's curse. Not so good for the Legion, but it added depth and tragedy to much of their previous history.

I love this, although in hindsight I wonder how much of that was Levitz and how much was the influences of Karen Berger and Jenette Kahn.

One thing about Levitz was he created some of my favorite "new" Legion characters, and was pretty good at aliens:

Atmos
Chameleon Girl
Chief Zendak
Circadia Senius
Danielle Foccart
Dawnstar
Doctor Gyml’l
Magpie (Merg Gaterra)
Mandalla
Mentalla
Ontiir
President Desai
Quislet
Tellus
Variable Lad (actually my favorite of all that group of Academy kids. I was sorry he had to go.)
Visi-Lad
The Westerner
Xart Prax
Xymyr

… and “Urk”

Most mentioned by others already;

Universo Project complete with Badass Saturn Girl and tons of interesting background characters like the Silver Sword and Xera of Manna-5.

Tellus, the first really *alien* Legionnaire of this iteration (at least somewhat a Lightle creation as well)

Sarya’s own Fatal Five.

Sensor Girl and the mystery thereof.

The LSV attack on Orando (which I’d love to see re-drawn with better art, for the first few issues).

Polar Boy becoming a Legionnaire and the adjustments he has to make from being a Legion groupie to being on the inside and having to accept that things are a lot less black and white (his argument with Saturn Girl during the trial of Brainy was classic).

Timber Wolf going to Lythyl, and the belated explanation for how teen Val could have mastered a hundred martial arts style so quickly (pockets existing outside of spacetime inside the planet!). The introduction of Myg, whose potential was sadly wasted by Geoff Johns (who also mysteriously turned him into a middle-aged graying-haired Caucasian, from an Asian younger than the rest of the Legion…)

New members join! Woo! Agreed, amazing issue, and amazing cover! I would love to see development of Energy Boy and ‘the Skreaks’ (Flotsam & Jetsam?) and various other individuals seen in the background!

Chameleon Boy returns to Durla. Beats Durlan shapeshifter by turning into a hummingbird!

Both Steve Lightle and Greg LaRocque, great artwork!

Violet’s impersonation by Yera and the introduction of the Imskian separatist movement.

Cool character development for many characters, including Dream Girl, Element Lad, Chameleon Boy, Polar Boy, Shrinking Violet, Shadow Lass, etc.

All those fascinating character subplots & interaction… all that lovely art… Too many to choose, so picking up on events instead…

#284 – Lots of those Levitz subplots start working, membership updates and Broderick art.
#287 – Giffen - The Legion on Khundia, Broderick – Great Darkness lead in. Both with plenty of fall out.
Great Darkness Saga
#300 – Superb alternate legion-verses.
#303 Emerald Empress and lovely Giffen work.
#304 Legion Academy
#305 Violet impersonator revealed.
#311 – new HQ
Danielle as Computo
Who shot Laurel Kent
Baxter LSV story
#13 – Brin on Lythyl
#14 – New members – and the changing of the guard that led up to it.
Brainy’s obsession to the new Fatal Five, Mentalla and Sensor Girl reveal.
#50 Much of the conspiracy and certainly this pay off issue
#54 – The great new look. They’re not kids any more!
#57-58 – The last Sarya as Empress story.

Since there was so much good work between the events, the above list doesn’t really do his tenure justice.

Here's one more for me:

Sun Boy battling and defeating Dr. Regulus

IIRC, that was Greg LaRocque's first issue, and he would get even better over time.

Greg LaRocque is a very underrated Legion artist. I think he gets overshadowed by his contemporaries from the same era, like Giffen and Lightle.

Indeed, and I think he's a better artist than either of them. His art is not cold and sexless like Giffen's, and even though Lightle was arguably better at composing a single image, LaRocque was better at putting together the images in a way that made the inside page resonate (which, I think, is why Lightle's covers are better than LaRocque's, but LaRocque's inside pages are better than Lightle's.)

This is a good way of putting it. I've often thought Brek was imprisoned during 5YL due to his inability to accept and roll with the changes in the aftermath of the team's breakup and the Dominators' control of earth. (Of course, some Legionnaires, such as Dirk, adjusted a little too well.) Brek came off as someone who had a black-and-white outlook on life; this was evident in his decision to put Brainy on trial for his role in the Conspiracy. Brek wanted to prove a point, it seems--even if no one (including him) was clear on what that point was.

It's a viable defense, but I still think the treatment of Brek was very mean-spirited on the part of the creators (has Giffen gone on record as hating Brek?)

I'd have to re-read the issue to see if I agree that it's mean-spirited , but I've always said I like it when my heroes have realistic flaws, and Brek's desire to prove himself (apparently) seems very realistic.