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legion of super-heroes

Who Watched the Watchmen? How “Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later” Changed the Future

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It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

Legion of Super-Heroes, Vol. 4. #1, written by Keith Giffen, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon, art by Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, and Tom McCraw, lettering by Todd Klein

The cover of Legion of Superheroes Vol 4 #1 features a bedraggled Cosmic Boy morosely strolling through jagged gray rocks, eyes cast downward at the busted remains of the Legion’s former headquarters. A banged-up Legion ring is wedged between stones, forgotten but still sparkling at the forefront of the shot. Transporting us from the end of writer Paul Levitz’s wildly influential run with Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3 #63 into a story taking place five years later, Legion Vol. 4 serves not just as a reboot but as a tonal reset of the franchise.

For the first time, we meet a Legion who is older, traumatized by the horrors they have seen, and cast to opposite ends of the galaxy. Still, even in the first moments of the book, there are glimmers of hope. The affable Chameleon Boy muses that the growing threats around him can only mean one thing; it’s time to get the band back together. If this sounds like an awfully Watchmen-ish take on the Legion, the fact is, you’re not wrong, but as many of this era’s fans will tell you, that doesn’t keep this story from absolutely shredding.

Covering Legion of Superheroes Vol 4 #1-12 [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? How “Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later” Changed the Future

Legion of Super-Heroes: Before The Darkness

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The Legion of Super-Heroes can be a bit of an acquired taste, and the dozens upon dozens of trades collecting their stories offer an abundance of choices that might not necessarily make it easier to break into the series. As with the characters of the Legion, the trades are many, and a lot of them don’t have a ton of depth. There is plenty of content, but it takes a while for the essential stuff to start happening, and that has been retconned and re-retconned to the end of time.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness (collecting Legion of Super-Heroes #260-271 and Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #1-3) is not essential, but it builds a bridge between the departure of Superboy and the pending Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen run that would go on to define the team for many readers. The fact is that in spite of and often because of its density, The Legion of Super-Heroes is almost always at least a little bit fun to read. Case in point: Before The Darkness begins with a fight at a space circus and ends with more than one assassination attempt under its belt. So buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride. [Read more…] about Legion of Super-Heroes: Before The Darkness

The Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later – Approaching Middle Age in a Utopia

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Let’s start this off with a controversial note: The Legion has only ever largely mattered once, and that was in a time frame that was just before I started reading comics. You see, before and after this one point, the Legion of Super-Heroes was a fringe concern. It still is, really. Just take one visit to any Legion related Facebook group, where the amount of complaints about the latest evolution of the team is only barely outweighed by people photoshopping classic-era outfits onto model photographs. For a team where the great thrill is the promise of the future, an era of acceptance, sadly so many of my fellow fans of the property are deeply focused on the past. An ongoing issue in comics fandom regardless, but all the more pronounced here.

Which of course highlights what a shadow its absolute commercial peak casts on everything else. [Read more…] about The Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later – Approaching Middle Age in a Utopia

Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 1 by Brian Michael Bendis & Ryan Sook Review!

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An incredibly important part of revitalizing interest in a franchise is a big opening – the kind that keeps people talking for a long time after it releases. When Morrison did it with the X-Men in 2001 with E is for Extinction, it became one of the most talked about books running, and still spawns countless discussions to this day. When Hickman did the same for the X-Men in 2019 with House of X/Powers of X, it brought a franchise that had once been the highest selling of all time back to its rightful on top of the industry. When Bendis started his Avengers run in 2004 with Avengers Disassembled, it was instantly unforgettable and something that people had to talk about. With the launch of the Legion of Superheroes in 2019, Bendis seemed to want to capture that kind of energy, announcing a prologue miniseries titled Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium with an all-star lineup of artists and one of the most striking covers of the year. What actually resulted, though, was an incredibly forgettable two-parter that killed so much momentum of the Legion of Super-Heroes ongoing just months later.  [Read more…] about Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 1 by Brian Michael Bendis & Ryan Sook Review!

Best Comics Ever #50: The Road to Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium!

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2019 marks the return of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes! I dive into the “Road To” Millennium which will bring back the Legion, and explore various future timelines of the DC Universe:

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[Read more…] about Best Comics Ever #50: The Road to Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium!