How the 80's wrecked the Legion...

Warning before anyone starts reading - this is going to be long. So to make everyone feel good before we begin, here's a beautiful Mike Grell Legion cover.

All New Collector's Edition C-55 - yes, that's really the name of this comic.

Caveat before starting - this is all my opinion and, in many cases, this is complete conjecture. I wasn't there when they were making these decisions and I'm guessing as to what I think happened. Any comments made concerning creative talents are made with this basic understanding - me saying that these artists/writers were good or bad choices is reflected on how they achieved the primary goal of creating sellable artwork - did it sell? I'm not saying they're good or bad artists - I'm just saying that they either weren't the right choice or they weren't popular.

Also, any time I mention someone said by a person who worked in comics, it's from a podcast. I'd rather say it upfront than keep writing it over and over.

Also also, I've gone back and added a few new comments to this, marked by <>. Yes, it's already too long and I've made it longer.

Part 1 - What is the central theme of the Legion?

Before we talk about where everything went wrong, we need to talk about what makes the Legion work.

I wanted to start here because I've been thinking a lot about what Howard Chaykin. I'm paraphrasing here, but his point was that Superman could no longer work in today's society because the character, and theme of the book, is one of relentless optimism and naive belief in man being able to make the world around him better. With the relentless cynicism and nasty behavior in today's society, Superman was too much of an anachronism to exist as a meaningful character.

My argument against this would be that Superman works, in all eras, because of that optimism and belief. Good writers understand this, lean into it, and make it work, regardless of the world around. Bad writers tell you that this is why Superman is boring. I actually think Chaykin is a great writer, but also a cynic.

I believe that the Legion is the same. Much like Star Trek, and a lot other science fiction that gained popularity in the 60's and 70's, it's about an idyllic future world where things are brighter, cleaner, and people are living better lives. The Legion is, at its heart, optimistic. We read this book because we want the future to be this kind of world. I don't know about you, but when I was reading these books as a kid (heck, when I read them now), I wanted to live in this world.

The Legion is about teamwork, optimism, hope, acceptance, and positivity. Those are the central themes.

Part 2 - In the 1970's and early 1980's, DC did not understand why the Legion was popular. Or, even worse, they may not have cared.

I know that I delve into history far too often in these columns but I think it's important to know where things came from to understand how they arrived at their destination.

In the 1960's, according to Al Milgrom, the editors and people in charge of DC sat down and took a look at the up-and-coming Marvel books to try to figure out why they were selling. They couldn't. They didn't understand why people liked Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. They figured they had the better draftsmen, the better artists. They believed Marvel just had cartoonists. They couldn't understand why the readers would care about these titles.

In the 1970's, DC and Marvel could not be different types of companies. Marvel was throwing everything at the wall, with almost no editorial interference, building off the worlds that Kirby and Stan Lee (among others) had built. They were free-wheeling, rarely hitting deadlines, but were producing some incredible work and introducing the world to artists who would completely change the comics industry as we knew it. Here are just a few: John Byrne, George Perez, Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck, Jim Starlin, etc., etc... They were comics set in the 70's, drawn by people living in the 70's, and the readers were connected to the books.

DC, on the other hand, was the well-run machine, with artists who had been making comics for a while. This was a professional job, the creators arriving to work in suits and ties and cared more about making a living creating comics than the content of the comics themselves. They didn't break new ground, but they did meet deadlines. They were efficient and cost-effective. The books arrived on time and, as long as the pre-orders came in, editorial didn't seem to really care if they were popular or being talked about. They just wanted them on the spinner racks. Reading over them, you could place them in almost any decade - they didn't feel modern or that they spoke to young readers of the 70's.

In 1972, a young artist started working on the Legion back-up feature in Superboy #184, inking Murphy Anderson. Dave Cockrum, a long-time Legion fan, was ecstatic to be working on the book and within a few issues was drawing it by himself. He started introducing new costumes in almost every new issue, dragging the Legion from the 60's into the 70's. He was obviously a fan of science fiction and the book began looking more and more imaginative and different. Fans started connecting to the characters, even if the stories weren't that deep. They looked modern and fresh.

Essentially, although no one would describe it this way, he was "Marvelizing" the Legion.

Their popularity took off and soon there were no more Superboy stories in the Superboy book. There was just the Legion, with Superboy the constant guest star. A smart company would look at the sales increases and figure that they should keep the talented artist to keep the fans happy. Instead, Dave Cockrum left the book in 1974 and started work on the X-Men.

DC Comics got very lucky as Mike Grell entered the building while Cockrum was leaving. Like Cockrum, his first regular comics work was on the Legion and both he and the title flourished. The book's sales continued to increase because the dynamic artwork drew everyone's attention. I imagine DC just thought that people really liked Superboy. After all, he was the iconic character.

Writer/editor Jack C. Harris (edited the Legion for a time) said that when he first started working at DC, he and the other young employees implored the people in charge to start paying attention to the fan letters that were coming into the company. These letters would give them a guide as to how to move the books forward. Editors like Julie Schwartz did, keeping popular characters around based on letter writer feedback.

However, the people in charge only cared about the sales numbers. If a book was selling, good. That's all they needed to know. It didn't matter if the book was bought by a comic fan, who was a collector, or by someone who wanted to get a comic so they had something to read while traveling. If the title sold, that's all that mattered. Who bought it was irrelevant. What made them buy it, aside from the eye-catching cover, was irrelevant. If they bought another one, that was irrelevant. They didn't need to listen to or connect with their fans.

So, basically, the opposite of what Marvel was doing.

This is how DC ran their business through the 70's, through the DC Explosion, which may be the dumbest thing a comic company ever did, through the DC Implosion, which was the expected result of those bad decisions, and into the 1980's. They trusted their longtime draftsmen over cartoonists, they didn't listen to the fans, and they didn't try to understand what made for a popular comic book.

Part 3 - Why the Legion was a top-selling book in the early 1980's

This is the question that led to this whole essay. Was something weird happening in the 1980's? Was this an anomaly? What could explain it?

By the time we get to the early 1980's, DC's head-in-the-sand policies and strategies resulted in Marvel having 70-80% of the market share. People were buying comics, large numbers of people, and that helped DC sales, but they were still getting destroyed by Marvel. Marvel fans, affectionately referred to as Zombies, swore to stay far away from all things DC. I had friends at the time who wouldn't even pick up a DC comic.

Let's take a look at top 10 comic sales in June 1984 (note: this are the only numbers I could find and don't include the Baxter versions of New Teen Titans and Legion - no idea why):

Secret Wars #2
X-Men #182
Alpha Flight #11
Amazing Spider-Man #253
Tales of the New Teen Titans #43
Fantastic Four #266
New Mutants #16
Thor #344
Alien Legion #1
Hercules #4

No surprises, really, aside from Alien Legion. It's got the biggest crossover of the year, X-books, John Byrne books, and two creator-driven titles (Walt Simonson on Thor and Bob Layton on Hercules). It's Marvel firing on all cylinders - creators bringing their best, encouraged by great editors, and the fans loving every issue.

The sole DC entry is New Teen Titans, which was basically a Marvel book and had George Perez. No need to try to explain why it sold so much. It's George Perez.

The top 10 for DC is as follows:

Tales of the New Teen Titans #43
Ronin, Book 5
Vigilante #7
Blue Devil #1
Omega Men #15
Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #312
Batman and the Outsiders #11
Star Trek #5
Infinity, Inc. #3
Fury of Firestorm #24

We have Titans-related books (Vigilante, Omega Men), new titles (Blue Devil, Infinity), books outside of DC continuity (Ronin, Star Trek), and one Batman book. Note that the second book on this list for DC was their first foray into creator-owned content, giving a Marvel star (Frank Miller) control. DC learned from this.

None of the trinity. None of the icons. No Superman. No Wonder Woman. No solo Batman book.

You may wonder why. I think this explains it. Who are the artists on those titles?

Detective Comics and Batman: Don Newton

Supergirl and The Flash: Carmine Infantino

Action Comics and Superman: Curt Swan

Wonder Woman: Don Heck

Aside from the Bat-books, every issue still felt like it was being drawn in the 60's. Nothing had been modernized. Nothing was fresh. Nothing appealed to any of the target audience. But they were professional comic artists who delivered their pages on time.

This is why Marvel Zombies avoided DC comics - the books felt old.

When people thought of Batman, they thought of the Adam West TV show that was made for kids. If they thought of Superman, and bought a comic expecting something like the Christopher Reeve movie, they'd be sorely disappointed. Instead, they got books made for their parents.

The only DC books that people were reading were the Titans or books completely separate from the DC Universe. The Legion of Super-Heroes were one such book, existing in their own universe, so to speak. They weren't connected to the old, out-of-touch DC Universe. They were young and fresh and the characters had real problems that the readers could relate to. The artwork was vibrant, alive, and a part of the 80's.

The Legion was one of the best selling DC titles in the early 80's because DC left them alone. They were a hit almost in spite of what DC was doing at the time.

4. Finally!! How the 80's wrecked the Legion!

Geez, you're over 1700 words in and you're just getting to the point?

The first way the 80's wrecked the Legion was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Crisis did this in three ways:

Dragging them into the shared universe.
DC's new desire to actually create books that sold to comic fans.
Making reboots commonplace.

There are books that benefit greatly from being within a shared universe. Most Marvel titles. Most DC titles. Heck, both companies had titles (Marvel Team-Up, DC Comics Presents) which only existed to show their characters living in the same world.

But some titles and characters don't. Good writers can help, but even they can struggle.

The Legion is one of those books. For their entire existence, right up until the mid 80's, they were in their own universe. Superman didn't show up for an adventure. They didn't go back in time to help Batman. The only person to come from the 20th Century was Superboy, and you could argue that he was in his own universe as well (not the Pocket Universe yet). He was perpetually stuck 20 years in the past and had no connection to any other DC books.

If the Legion did show up, it either failed spectacularly (that horrific Karate Kid series) or worked because the talented creators kept it light (DC Comics Presents #59 - Ambush Bug goes to the future and Superman has to get the Subs to help him).

But Crisis and Secret Wars showed that crossovers meant extra money for the books. So the Legion kept getting dragged into these stories, whether it made any sense or not. After all, when there's a big event, and a group from 1,000 years in the future is a part of it, wouldn't they just tell everyone how to fix it? They know what happened.

The Legion is best when they're by themselves. Every great era of the Legion, no matter which reboot you're talking about, always works when they don't have to play in the DC Universe. When they fail, it's when they get dragged into crossovers (Crisis, Legends, Millennium), when they live in current day (Zero Hour reboot), or when heroes join the team from current day (Supergirl, new Superboy).

DC's new desire to make fan-friendly books also changed the sales charts. Just take a look at all the new creative teams/relaunches that occurred:

John Byrne on Superman/Action Comics
George Perez on Wonder Woman
Frank Miller, Alan Davis, Jim Starlin on Batman, Detective Comics
Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire on Justice League/Justice League Europe
Tim Truman on Hawkworld
Mike Grell on Green Arrow

Meanwhile, there were relaunches for the Flash, Suicide Squad, Hawk & Dove, and Aquaman.

All of those books quickly moved past the Legion in the 80's as fans searched for the books done by their favorite creators.

How did Marvel respond to DC poaching their biggest name talents? More X-books (Wolverine, Excalibur, X-Factor, Classic X-Men, etc.), more Punisher, more super-heroes, and by flooding the comic shops with content. Both companies were publishing more and more as comic readership grew.

When Volume 3 ended, Legion #63 was the 56th best selling title in June 1989. They got pushed down over 30 spots in 5 years because their own company finally decided to actually start trying and the competition flooded the market with content.

However, I think 56th on a title that's always described as hard to get into, and confusing to new readers, is pretty good.

Finally, reboot syndrome. Before Crisis, any new writer on a title had to work with the history they were given. If you didn't like the fact that Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl had kids, too bad. That was the history and you needed to work within those rules.

After Crisis, DC realized that reboots didn't just make it easier for new writers, the audience liked them as well. So every time something bad happened, they could just reboot a title, start over, and everything was fine.

I think it's fairly safe to argue that no book has been rebooted more than the Legion. It's become a joke at this point.

What's worse is that any new writer who even contemplates writing the title goes in knowing that he or she will just reboot everything before they start so they have a clean slate. There's no effort to make sense of the past because you can just wash it away.

This hurts all the potential readers of the book. Why start caring about characters or stories when you know they'll just get tossed with the next creative team?

I remember the conversations on reddit where a new fan would ask where to start reading the Legion to make sense of everything. No one had a simple answer. Maybe Great Darkness. Maybe the start of Zero Hour. Maybe Legion Lost. But none of those feel like even remotely the same book or characters. There is no other comic team where that's true.

And just imagine how DC would respond if a writer pitched this for a new Legion book: "I'm going to start as if it's Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 3) #64. We're going to dive right back into that continuity, I'm going to ignore every reboot and the 5YL stories and take everyone back to the last time the Legion really mattered to the average comic fan. I'm going to embrace everything Levitz, Shooter, Bates, Grell, Cockrum, Giffen did and not reboot anything. Superboy is still their inspiration and I'll figure out how to make the Pocket Universe work."

How quickly would they get kicked out of the DC offices?

Darkness, Imprisoning Me, Absolute Horror...

The second way the Legion got wrecked was the newfound desire for everything to be grim and gritty.

Go back to the first section of this essay where I talked about the central themes of the Legion.

"The Legion is about teamwork, optimism, hope, acceptance, and positivity. Those are the central themes."

Unfortunately, the 80's were quickly moving further and further away from those concepts. Everything got dark, brooding, violent, and bloody. Titles like The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Miracleman, Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, and many others were selling tons of copies and both comic companies had one takeaway: violence and darkness sell.

I could spend another 5,000 words arguing that all of these companies got why these books were popular wrong, but I won't do that here.

But the worst takeaway for this, as it affects the Legion, is that DC started to look at their titles and try to figure out how to get more fans. If gritty worked for Batman and made him the most popular character DC published, could it work for more titles?

As Volume 3 came to end, the dark and gritty started to take over and the book really suffered from it. Gone were the bright, shiny costumes, good-looking heroes, fantastic settings, and outer space action. This was replaced by dark, heavy-inked, ugly settings, costumes, and characters.

One of my favorite unintentionally funny moments of the 5YL series is every scene where Ultra Boy is described as the most handsome Legionnaire and how every woman wants to be with him. But yet he is drawn as such an ugly being that those scenes make no sense. Whereas, when you think of Dave Cockrum's or Mike Grell's takes on those characters, you can see how everyone would be staring at the Legionnaires as if they're gods.

Also, I don't know if anyone wants to read 'adult' stories about the Legion. Do we want to read about how Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy suffered during a war? Do we want to see Roxxas kill indiscriminately with blood dipping everywhere? Not at all. Big events with high stakes are important - but they don't need to be every issue.

I think the Legion, much like the New Titans, have a sweet spot age range - 18-25. Just as no one wants to see a 35-year-old Nightwing figuring out (for the nth time) whether he wants to date Oracle or Starfire, no one wants to see 35-year-old Lightning Lad have a mid-life crisis.

Can creator control be a bad thing?

Another thing that wrecked the Legion is, in my opinion, Keith Giffen got too much control over his books. Not just Giffen, of course, but his control hurt the Legion.

In the 1980's, Giffen plotting a book meant it was going to sell. It didn't matter what kind of book it was, it just sold. From Justice League to L.E.G.I.O.N. to Legion of Substitute Heroes to Ambush Bug, readers loved what he was doing and they went out of their way to pick it up. He was the closest thing DC had to an in-house developed success story.

There was something incredibly ironic listening to Giffen talk about how proud he was of the fact that every title he worked on, he never made any changes that made it harder to work on the book after he left. He, and he was paraphrasing Stan Lee there, put the toys back in the box the same way he got them.

Except for the Legion.

I'm going to be talking more about this when I start my 5YL reread, but he also basically admitted that by the end of his run, he was so angry at the editorial interference that he destroyed the Earth. This isn't something you can backtrack on. This goes against the idea of putting the toys back in the box. He blew up the box and left others to clean up the mess.

I was floored when I heard that. How could editorial not step in and get those pages redrawn? Why did they not fire him sooner?

Giving Giffen carte blanche of the Legion, because he was such a great creative mind, wrecked them.

Would it have been so hard to find a up-and-coming talent to take over the Legion?

This is a smaller one, so it'll be our last way the Legion got wrecked - the arrival of the British writers. Their arrival showed where DC's priorities were.

In the 1980's, North American comic fans saw the arrival of talents such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Neil Gaiman, among many others. They immediately brought a new take, a new way of looking at the characters. They made every writer up their game and fans now wanted more serious stories.

They also developed fan bases that would follow them to whatever title they wanted to write. Their names alone would have been enough to make the Legion important again.

And yet DC never hired them to take over the title. When reading Alan Moore's Supreme books, with his thinly veiled Legion copy "The League of Infinity", I couldn't help but wish DC would have hired him to write the actual Legion and show off his love for the Silver Age.

Just imagine Morrison's take on the Legion, compared with how he revitalized the JLA and X-Men.

Okay, there was probably no way they could've gotten Gaiman, but maybe a mini-series?

Actually, this way of wrecking the Legion is the basic fact that it proves, without a doubt, that DC never wanted to put any resources behind the title. Name a big-name talent who came onto this book after they had made a name in the industry. Probably Mark Waid, Barry Kitson, and Brian Michael Bendis are the only ones. Ironically, those runs are not the best the Legion has to offer.

The Legion has historically been a book for new artists to learn the ropes or for artists who couldn't work anywhere else. It was Cockrum's and Grell's first regular books. It was Giffen's last chance after burning bridges at Marvel. Same with Greg LaRocque.

DC has never prioritized the book, even as more and more talent came to work for the company.

This was tough to go back over, and also kind of funny at the same time. It's rough to know that the fan base cares more about the title than the publisher. But to see DC Comics mess up over and over again is insane to me. I honestly wonder how many different times they would have gone out of business if not for their parent company.

Speaking of which, here's one of the craziest things I found: https://www.gamesradar.com/when-marvel-comics-almost-bought-dc-really/

Also, if it makes anyone feel better, the 90's destroyed the Legion, so the 80's weren't actually that bad of a decade for them. But that's an essay for a later date.

First of all, thanks so much for getting through all of this. I'm really looking forward to reading your comments and criticisms, so please don't be shy.

Second, if anyone had any better sources for sales numbers, please post them. I had a crazy hard time trying to find anything. Most of it is word-of-mouth.

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Long Live the Legion