Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Amazing Heroes and the Five Year Gap

Preview of the upcoming changes from Amazing Heroes #170 (1989)



Oh sure, TImberwolf is clearly in it, if you read this. But I hadn’t so I didn’t catch the references at the time.

Cover of Amazing Heroes #172 (October 1989)

An interview with the creators by Michael Eury



It’s a reminder that, even in 1989, DC were still looking to revamp their post-crisis franchises. With the Legion the primary reason was Levitz departure. But Flash and Atom were both revised in 1987 and The Huntress was another 1989 revival.

Interesting that Eury felt at the time that the Legion’s history made it impossible to revamp. Bearing in mind that this is what happened to both Superman (hence Legion issues) and Wonder Woman. It also shows that when the reboot did come, what a big decision it should have been. Rather than perhaps that the Five Year Gap had driven the property to a point of no return.

Always good to note that the five year gap was unique at the time. It’s still a much better read than when DC tried it with one year later.

Was the new run more accessible to new readers?

Considering the healthy sales that were steady, if not expanding, sales and DC’s notorious cluelessness regarding knowing their fanbase, I’d love to know why they thought they weren’t attracting new readers. I have a suspicion that this would perhaps be vocal minority, who have always targeted the Legion this way.

It’s clear that the new team were clear about providing a sense of closure to the Levitz era so it could be regarded as a whole.
As run down as the setting looked for the UP, Giffen is clear that it’s a starting point rather than a dive into “a bleak, nightmare realm.”

Giffen continues to stress that the start of this run shows an upswing so that we wouldn’t have to read through things falling apart in the collapse. In the most recent Levitz/ Giffen issues, there was a feeling that the collapse would be seen as many of the same points were touched on again.

I was wondering if Rokk really worked out as centrally as he was supposed to be. But yes, he probably was. Others rejoined because he was with Reep. Rokk faced off against Mordru. His links with Garth and Imra got them a HQ etc. After the team were back though, it might have drifted a bit for him.

Splitting apart the team into “real” Legionnaires only being from the Adventure issues is a bit painful, even if it was said jokingly. The team having looked into each of the Legionnaires for the run definitely came across to me reading it.

Interesting to see that the codenames and costumes were being discussed by the creative team. I thought there was a decent compromise on the names with “Vi” “Cos” and “Cham” being used and Jo’s symbol being fairly prominent.

Giffen’s uniforms never really worked for me. Their best moment was in the poster, where they had all been customised. With Giffen coming and going from the book, perhaps this is one of the things that was never really reinforced. Even when the team went to war against the Khunds.

New Members! – well, reminders of who they were supposed to be. The team clearly keen to keep a youthfulness to the team, so it didn’t mature too much. Of course, the Adventure Legion were serious well beyond their years, so some of these guys seemed a little more odd personality wise.

Kono - Tinya’s if not ultimate fate sort of given away. Note that underage drinking was fine!

Ryko - Who would become the Vrykos, the vampire in Mordru’s court. Second to Earth-Man in terms of characters least likely to be Legionnaires but have come close. Considering what happened to Mysa and Rond. Yuck!

Kent, Devlin, Celeste & Ivy – We got Kent, Celeste & Devlin, but Ivy never happened outside the poster.

“Sensory Deprivation Kid” – His powers seem to be a bit like Sensor Girl’s from facing the Persuader in Levtiz’s run. Those crossed with Visi-Lad.

Note that there’s no Laurel Gand as the editorial spat with the Super-Office hadn’t happened yet.

The cover date for this was October 1989, and the Legion #1 cover date was November 1989. So there are a lot of membership spoilers going on here, even taking into account the differences between cover/publishing dates.

Just at the end of page four and into this one is the nod to the additional material in Watchmen. See also Giffen’s nine panel grid

From the Into the Future section:-
The Legion Academy series was good when we finally got it years and years later. it's a shame this wasn't followed up on. I think dovetails nicely with some of Giffen's ideas for LEGION '89

To risk those steady sales with what even the editor thought would be a slow success that “won’t set the world on fire” seems a little unusual.

Superboy’s legacy was to continue to be felt. Right up until that editorial fall out.

Finally…
“Rest assured that as long as comic books are published, there will always be a Legion of Super Heroes title.”
… >sob<

Also in #172 are...

The Legion of Super-Heroes' Ten silliest moments by Robert L Plunkett.

God in the 30th Century: Religions in the Legion of Super-Heroes by Ginger Rapsus

and

The Tornado Twins Paradox: Possible Solutions by Johnny Carruthers.

Wow, this is awesome! Thanks for posting it, thoth.

Page four looked to be a repeat, so I've reupped it for more 5YG goodness.

Cool beans ... I will read this soon!

Wow. First post identifies Timber Wolf pretty much.

And issue 3 - least favorite Legionnaire dies - so it's Karate Kid Blok.

I am less questioning Giffen's reasoning that a jumping on point was needed to attract NEW readers than I am of why he would think what he was writing WAS a good jumping on point? If I were a comic book reader and saw the solicits for this I would think even more you'd have to have a good understanding of what already went.

The concept made me anxious more than excited but I was hard core so of course I picked up the new run and I loved the new run. But as I've mentioned in the Levitz thread, I was overseas when this started. I was committed to buying and reading since I'd requested my CBS guy to save them for me to pick up when I got back and I also had his voice in my head telling me it was a hard read but to be patient with the first issues, I was going to love it. I never had that month to month struggle like most readers.

In terms of cast you moved from the whole Legion, it's support and subs etc to a much smaller cast of Rokk, Cham, Lydda, Jo and Kono. So that sounds as though they are looking to introduce people more slowly. My memory tells me that they shoe horned in little updates of loads of people making that much less effective.

Wasn't Mordru monitoring everyone, so you got little panels of Star Boy being a hockey coach etc?

With the fill in issues, you suddenly had to lump everyone together to get the Legion back by the end of #12. "Oh, they're all on Winath. Hurrah!"

There was a text piece in #13 or so that could really have been put in earlier. But again, that was because the idea of slowly introducing worlds: Braal, Rimbor, Tharn etc got muddled with the fill ins.

So good ideas with mixed execution I think. Like you Blocky, I really enjoyed them but I agree that the Legion background knowledge made things easier.

The biggest month to month struggle was wondering if they would ever move their butts to topple the Dominators. That seemed to go on for years...oh, I think it did.

I remember reading that at least one creator was surprised it wasn't more obvious. They must have been thinking "but we even told you in the fan press."

But when I read the book, I thought the Timberwolf scene where he's suffering from radiation poisoning was just another new subplot. The colouring and it not being the last in the flashback sequence were give aways, but I still didn't click on that one. Which is fine. It's not as though it ruined anything, and was a surprise when it was finally shown.

And issue 3 - least favorite Legionnaire dies - so it's Karate Kid Blok.[/quote]

The famous hat trick. At least they didn't talk about that while saying that post Adventure characters weren't "real" Legionnaires.

"Why, every name in the hat joined after the Adventure Comics run!"

I have/read the Amazing Heroes article and recall thinking the recent art style and uniforms would get more weird, sadly. Some of the ideas were interesting, though.

I also recall liking L.E.G.I.O.N. more, and wishing Mr. Giffen would treat the new LSH title similarly.

The art was all wrong - the panels worked better in a mini-series like "Watchmen" and the Legion looked like Bizarros.

Contrary to their thinking, I thought it would be a "jumping off" point for readers. Sure, they would get some new readers for #1, then that would decline.

I think they finally decided to return to something resembling the familiar LSH, hence the "Legionnaires" clones.