The Legion Enters Its Golden Age
Written: Aug 29 '08 (Updated Aug 29 '08)
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Pros: Wonderfully plotted and drawn classic stories.
Cons: A couple of duds in this collection.
The Bottom Line: A fine reprint is excellent format of classic 1960s comic books.
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| sweaver's Full Review: Comic Books Legion of Super Hero Archives Vol.5 Ha... |
The Legion Archives Volume Five (not sure what this picture on epinions is about, it isn't the book) captures what is the beginning of the greatest era of the popular DC Comics future heroes, the Legion of Super-Heroes. It collects Adventure Comics #340-349, an era when things were really beginning to happen for the super-team from the 30th century.
Under a cover drawing by Tom McCraw come ten of the best comics stories of the 1960s. Sporting original cover dates from 1966, but published beginning in 1965, this marks an era of change for this team. The Legion had first been featured in a Superboy story in Adventure #247 as a throwaway idea, but proved popular enough that they were brought back first as guest stars, then as a regular series beginning in Adventure #300. Sales were good, but were much better when Superboy was on the cover and in the comic in those Superman-crazy days, and so he starred in every issue at this point.
The book begins with reprints of the character drawings and origins from various contemporary sources, to give the new reader a scorecard. We then jump right into the two-part Computo story, a major Legion villain actually created by team member Brainiac Five. Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by the superb art team of Curt Swan and George Klein, the story is at once a rip-roaring adventure yarn that pushes the powerful Legion to its limits, a quaint 1960s look at computers, and a major move forward for the group into powerful storytelling. It also seemingly features the death of team member Triplicate Girl, but it is revealed that only one of her three bodies perished.
"The Legionnaire Who Killed" from Adventure #342 features Star Boy's trial and expulsion from the Legion for killing a man in violation of the Legion's no-killing code. Written by science fiction veteran and frequent Legion scribe Edmond Hamilton, it is something of a morality play on the nature of self-defense and whether the mass-inducing super-hero had a choice. A good story, that ends with Star Boy joining girlfriend Dream Girl and the Legion of Substitute Heroes.
#343 presents a throwaway tale by Hamilton, Swan and Klein titled "The Evil Hand of the Luck Lords" positing that much of the Legion's recent fortunes, Bouncing Boy's loss of power and Lightning Lad's loss of an arm, were caused by bad luck, or by an outside source. A decent 1960s comic tale, but not up to the standards of the rest of the book.
#344 and #345 bring another two-part story, on the often-popular theme of all or part of the Legion being jailed, with titles "The Super-Stalag of Space" and "The Execution of Matter-Eater Lad." Hamilton, Swan, and Klein teamed up for this potboiler in which Brainiac 5 sends a message that he has been taken captive, and a team goes to get him only to be shot down and captured themselves. They find a prison where heroes of many worlds are held captive by an alien with a grudge against law enforcement, forcing them into slave labor and provoking them into action where killing the heroes seems justified. The Legionnaires finally manage a jailbreak but are captured, and are set to be executed when Superboy, Mon-El, and Ultra Boy show up for a last-minute rescue.
Adventure #346 and #347 form an exciting two-parter introducing a new series writer, one 13-year old Jim Shooter. Shooter would go on to great fame, including a long tenure as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, but his first work was here as a mere youth writing stories about super-powered teenagers one thousand years in the future. Shooter provided more authentic dialogue for young people, and also surprising intricate plotting and imagination. Writing his stories as full scripts complete with pencil drawings on notebook paper, Shooter became a great success story by just trying to help his family's dire financial situation.
#346 featured Shooter's layouts with finished art by veteran artist Sheldon Moldoff, and started throwing off classic Legion concepts at once. Four new members were inducted in that first issue: Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Nemesis Kid, and Ferro Lad. Also introduced were the Khunds, a warlike race threatening Earth. As the Legion scrambles to protect the planet from invasion, it becomes clear that one of the new members is working against them. In #347, with art largely redrawn by Swan and Klein, the villain is revealed and Earth is saved.
#348 features the first story Shooter had actually submitted for sale, with finished art by George Papp. It introduces Dr. Anton Regulus, nemesis of Sun Boy and very nearly the vanquisher of the Legion. Sun Boy recovers from injuries just in time to defeat the man who accidentally created his power while trying to kill him.
#349 by Shooter, Swan and Klein introduces another classic Legion villain, the hypnotist Universo. In this first appearance, the villain leads the Legion on a merry chase through time, nearly dooming them in past eras, until overcome by his own son.
The first four volumes in this set are interesting historically for comic book fans, in this set the stories really get GOOD. Quality was already improving before Shooter joined the staff, but it is the Shooter/Swan era that is often regarded as the team's best, even though it was forty years ago. It was a classic time when a kid was tossing off ideas like hotcakes, and a veteran artist influenced by Norman Rockwell was turning out astounding art. Curt Swan never particulary liked drawing the Legion, with its cast of characters approaching the size of an actual legion, but he always did a marvelous job of it. The imaginative, sometimes wacky stories of the kid seemed to inspire him to some of his greatest pencil work ever. George Klein, one of the top 1960s inkers, may have been the best artist ever to apply brush work to Swan's pencil drawings. The Swan and Klein combination was artistic gold.
Realistic artwork on a futuristic series. It seems strange, but it worked, keeping the stories grounded in believability. Rarely have there been better comic books.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 39.95
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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Epinions.com ID:
sweaver
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Member: Shawn Weaver
Location: Vienna, WV, USA
Reviews written: 251
Trusted by: 44 members
About Me:
Husband, father of 4, Chemistry and Physics teacher, church choir
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