Legion of Super-Heroes: Volume 1

I've always liked the Legion whatever their incarnation. I like the earliest version because they were stories written in the 50's about teenagers @ the year 3000, by guys born in the 1910's and 20's. Wow. Just hearing that you know something entertaining is going to happen. How on Earth could they possibly create an accurate representation of teenage life in the future....with super powers? But it works, in a comic book. Many people are big fans of these heroes and enjoy the stories as fun simple yarns. Others enjoy them in a post-modern ironic sort of way. I like to do both. Sure it's simplistic and cheesy especially by today's standards, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. This could even be a good vehicle to get younger kids interested in comics, provided you can explain away some of the surprisingly cruel mind games the Legionnaires sometimes play on each other, motivated usually by petty teen drama or some kind of comic misunderstanding. See what I mean? It's teenage life in the 50's,set in the 30th century, filtered through the sensibilities of guys born when Babe Ruth was a hot young rookie. At least til Jim Shooter showed up.Here's a typical quote ......" Star-Boy is treating me like a queen, yet Superboy isn't jealous one bit. That girl from the future has made him forget me completely."......There are also neat little throwaway bits like when Clark Kent lights his Dad's cigar with his heat vision or the crazy powers of rejected Legion candidates such as Antennae Boy, whose huge antennae could pick up radio broadcasts from anywhere in space/time but who couldn't figure out a way to turn those broadcasts off. Excellent entertainment. There are almost 40 stories in this compilation, here's a sample of what you get: Adventure Comics #247-Legion of Super-Heroes!-In which we(and Superboy) meet the first Legionnaires: Saturn Girl,Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad. They mess with his primitive lil' 20th century mind a bit, but of course, it's for his own good. Adventure Comics # 267-Prisoner of the Super-Heroes!-The Legion imprisons Superboy on Superboy Planet, a planet they created, with super-heroes from around the galaxy, originally to honor the greatest super-hero of all! Quote from Lightning Lad..."We deliberately humiliated you in Smallville so that your shame would make you want to leave Earth". Action Comics # 276-Supergirl's Three Super Girl-Friends!-Perennial sad sack Linda Lee breaks out of the orphanage she lives in and pals around the future with a few female Legionnaires. She makes eyes at Braniac 5 and a merman named Jerro. And we see Braniac himself commiserating with his little space monkey, Koko. Hehe. Superboy #89-The Secret of Mon-EL!- In order to answer a question on a history test Clark excuses himself to get a drink of water, then flies at thousands of times the speed of light to travel back to ancient Egypt to find the answer to the question. In order to remain honest, he does take that drink of water, from the anc

GREAT FUN LITTLE STORIES FROM THE SILVER AGE. MYSELF AND MOST EVERYONE WHO PURCHASED THIS, WOULD HAVE PAID AN EXTRA $10.00 MORE THOUGH IF DC / WB WOULD HAVE COLORED IT.

This book was a great read from cover to cover some of it was a bit cheesy (malt shops in the future for instance) but some of it was also down right inspired (the death of lightning lad) all in all this is a great addition to any comic collection

If you were a baby boomer who read DC comics as a kid, you'll love this collection of Legion of Super-Hero stories. These early years established much of the Legion lore and besides that you get an entire 500+ pages at a bargain price. I especially enjoyed the art of John Forte who's pen defined the Legion for so long.

You should know right up front that these DC SHOWCASE reprints are in black and white. For long time fans this is seen as something of a sin, while new fans might find these collected issues incomplete - and they're both right - but, to keep the price down and the volumes bulging with material, a middle ground had to be reached and DC has gone out of their way to present these issues in the best possible light. The artwork is clear, clean and still fresh even without the color, but, I can't lie, the color really MADE some of these issues work. Superpowers are always on display with the LEGION and in black and white it loses some of its punch - so it's lucky that the stories make up for it. This is the launch of the LEGION, first as a one off issue with SUPERBOY being inducted into the club as a honorary member for all his heroic (and historical) deeds, and then as a full member on call (via a flashing lamp in his bedroom) when they need him. As the series rolls on, and as the Superboy/Superman mythology expanded new heroes and villians would be added to the roll call. Supergirl would become a member of the LEGION (after failing her first try due to some unexpected side effects brought on by red kryptonite and some close minded attitudes from the perfect people of the future, seriously, Supergirl is robbed by the LEGION in their first encounter), and every collected Superpet from Kypton and beyond would get their own LEGION as well as a LEGION of outcasts and casts off from the LEGION (proper) itself. Truly the LEGION of the 30th century (or the 21st, depending on the writer, year or need for the story - Supergirl would mostly see the LEGION in the 21st century, unless she was a guest star in the SUPERMAN series, then it would be the 30th... but, even in Superman, that would flip as well) became a very busy place for super-heroes. All the groundwork and what would become the "classic" continuity for the LEGION is here. Mon El, the death of Lighting Lad, the creation of the Science Police, and every whacked out time travel adventure you could imagine, and more, more, more - it's all in here, and it's a mess. Continuity is contstantly being rewritten, or just plain forgotten for the sake of the story (Supergirl's first audition would be for the LEGION's heirs - the children of SATURN GIRL, LIGHTING BOY and COSMIC BOY, yet they would be forgotten completely by her next adventure). And sometimes when the series recounts origins or past adventures, writers mix up facts or outright alter them to, sometimes, greater effect, but in one case (found on page 253 - SHOWCASE numbering) to what amounts to murder on Superboy's part when trying to prove that Mon El did not come from Krypton. If you're looking for trivia, then this run of LEGION stories will give you tons of question to quiz people with. DC has done a good job, and these SHOWCASE editions are an excellent and cheap way of jumping on the bandwagon. While the loss of their original co