Legion of Super-Heroes (5YL) #1-8 - It was the best of times... it was the worst of times...

I wanted to thank everyone who read my column on how the 80's wrecked the Legion. It's the most read article I've ever written and I got some great feedback and comments on it. I'm so glad to see that people are enjoying what I'm writing and coming back. To be completely honest, when I wrote my first re-read column, I wasn't sure if anyone was going to care, or read any of it. I was actually worried that the moderator of this subreddit was going to kill the whole idea right from the beginning. But we've started a great journey together and there are a tons of comics to look at, so let's get going.

In the early 80's, as Swamp Thing was garnering critical acclaim and sales were slowly improving, DC asked writer Alan Moore to create another project for their company. He didn't want to be tied to regular continuity and wanted to work on a title that was free of any company-issued constraints.

So he came up with the idea of a story that would use old characters from publishers that had either gone out of business or lost the copyrights. His initial proposal to DC featured super-heroes from Charlton Comics, a company that many in DC and Marvel editorial had worked for in the past, but was basically out of business by that time. In fact, in 1983, Paul Levitz had bought each of their super-hero characters for $5000 as a gift for DC Managing Editor Dick Giordano, who had worked on them at Charlton.

Once Giordano read over the proposal, he realized that this story would make these characters unusable in any future stories. So he asked Moore to create his own characters. Captain Atom became Dr. Manhattan. Blue Beetle became Night Owl. The Question became Rorschach. The Peacemaker became the Comedian. And DC was able to introduce the Charlton heroes into DC continuity during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Because of Dick Giordano's request, and realization that these characters had future value, most of the Charlton heroes have become key parts of the DC Universe and, in some cases, become successful licensed properties for movies and television. Characters like the Question and Blue Beetle have become fan favorites and have been mainstays since the mid-80's.

So the million dollar question is this: Why did no one see the same value in the Legion of Super-Heroes and stop the Five Years Later stories from ever happening?

LSH #1 - I'm sorry, but this is such an ugly cover...

Re-reading Volume 4 of the Legion is a very weird experience. To be honest, there are some issues that I would put on the pantheon of great Legion tales. There are also issues that I can't stand. There's a part of me that just wants to call it the longest "Elseworlds" tale of all time. But DC says these stories happened (maybe - who knows at this time), they're part of continuity, and I have to accept it, whether I like it or not.

One interesting choice they made at the beginning of the series was to stop using the super-hero names and use their "real" names. So it's Rokk Krinn. And Dirk Morgna. But it's Cham for Chameleon Boy, not Reep Daggle. And it's Vi for Shrinking Violet, not Salu. One character even calls her both. It would make sense if they hadn't spent decades calling Rokk "Cos", but I think it's just the names that the writers like, not what actually has any internal consistency. I'll be referring to the names they're called, so I hope this doesn't get too confusing.

On an aside, when you're writing a book that had been criticized, for decades, for being too hard to get into because of all the weird names and characters, why would you make it harder for new readers to get into the book by ignoring the names that are easier to understand and more recognizable?

I love the dense nature of the books, especially as, in the early 90's, books were becoming quicker to read. I love the way they held to the nine-panel format and gave this book a distinct look. The extra text pieces are brilliantly done. In the beginning, this was an incredibly well-designed book. Aside from the logo...

However, the artwork is really, really... bad. When I look over my collection, I realize that I have tons of Keith Giffen books. I'm a genuine fan of his work. I think he might be one of the best layout artists ever. He might be one of the best plotters ever. But what he does on this book is just... horrible. I get that he's trying to create a darker look and tone, but everything is just ugly. I'm happy when guest pencillers take over for an issue.

According to Mark Waid, who was the editor at the beginning of this series, they were also hamstrung by the fact that DC would not let them even mention Superboy. So they're trying to create a book, that has, throughout its history, had Superboy at the core, and they have to completely ignore that character. It's somewhat insane, when you think about. So I do give credit to them for finding creative ways around that problem.

One more thing, you're probably going to notice more bad jokes as we go through this re-read. The grim and gritty gets too much sometimes and I find a little bad levity helps. So I'll just apologize now and continue.

So let's dive into the first issue:

We move five years after the events of LSH Volume 3 #63 and everything has changed. The Legion of Super-Heroes has been disbanded. The United Planets have collapsed, Earth is all alone in the universe, Braal (home of Rokk) and Imsk (home of Salu) had a brutal war, which left the former Legionnaire powerless. Dirk Morgna is now a talking head for EarthGov. Chameleon Boy is insanely rich, running his father's company. The old Apple Macintosh fonts are still being used in the 30th century. And everyone pouts. A lot.

Cham reaches out to Rokk, who's a prisoner on Braal after the war ended, with a proposition to put the Legion back together.

This is a book that is solely written for Legion fans. I doubt there was any attempt to create a comic that would appeal to new readers. There is so much detail in here, most of which will be inaccessible to anyone who hasn't been reading the Legion for a while, that I feel like it's almost impenetrable. To be completely honest, I even had trouble with some references, and by this point in time, I had been reading the Legion for almost a decade.

By the way, this book was the 23rd best-selling book in September 1989. It was only outsold by the Batman books, New Titans, and the Justice Leagues Europe and America. If this relaunch was handled correctly, this book could have been one of DC's cornerstones. Instead, we get this...

As the series continues, we learn more about what's happened to our favorite heroes:

• Jo Nah, having lost his fiance Tinya Wazzo in a strange accident, has become a criminal back on his home planet of Rimbor. He's also working with a new character, Kono, who we'll talk about more later.
• Brin Londo has continued to mutate and is now called Furball, but we don't know that yet.
• Garth Ranzz, Imra Ardeen, and Ayla Ranzz are running the family farm on Winath, where Salu comes to live to escape the crimes her planet committed during the war with Braal. Garth has been injured by a disease from his son Validus, who's living in quarantine.
• Blok was just chilling, relaxing on an asteroid and, unfortunately, they needed a way to show just how vicious and violent Roxxas is... so he was killed quickly. I guess the fact that Roxxas killed an entire planet, minus one person, wasn't enough.

Which takes us to the most important issue of this run:

LSH #4 - Giffen does love chins, doesn't he?

How do you fix huge continuity problems? You let Mon-El punch them.

Tasmia Mallor is back on her home world, still mourning after the death of her husband at the end of the previous series. She's lost her job and spends her days in funereal clothes. Okay, I know that Mon-El was important, but this is the time for some good therapy, right?

But then Lar comes back to life and the two decide that there's only one person who can help. Brainiac 5, who's back on Colu trying to figure out how to cure the Validus disease that wiped through Winath and crippled Garth.

And just to add to the confusion, Mon-El refers to his wife as Shady, his pet name for her. But they've never told the new readers who she is and why that name exists. She's not Shadow Lass here, so it doesn't make sense. I just feel that you can't have it both ways when you're trying to get people to read this book. Why add confusion?

Anyway, we discover that the Time Trapper actually created the Legion so they could neutralize Mordru, who was the biggest threat to the 30th century. That everything he did was to ensure the safety of the universe in that era.

So, of course, Mon-El does the only thing he can do. Instead of listening, or thinking about what might be the greater good, he kills the Time Trapper, wiping out the timeline as we know it.

Why do I call this the most important issue? Here is where the creative team is able to clean house, so to speak, and make sense of all the continuity changes that came before. Instead of dealing with a non-existent Superboy, or a pocket dimension floating out there in space, they can rewrite Legion history and make it all make sense in the current DCU.

This is basically the first version of Flashpoint. Or how I remember Flashpoint. It's been a while since I read it.

LSH #5

I am a sucker for alternate universe stories where the timeline dramatically changes and we see the results. This is one of those stories.

With the Time Trapper dead, Mordru comes to power and controls the universe. Almost all the heroes are imprisoned or dead, his power is spreading, but there's a small group of rebels working to overthrow him.

Andrew Nolan and Mysa meet up to discuss visions she's been having of an alternate timeline. After talking with Rond Vidar, they realize that there are three things needed to defeat Mordru right from the beginning:

• The inspiration
• The Daxamite
• The financier

They discover a crude magic spell that will bring all three things to their universe, in the past, and ensure that Mordru will never become as powerful as he is. So Glorith, one of Mordru's wives, undertakes the spell in her own lust for power. She doesn't realize that the spell is fatal, but the power of her death will accomplish everything needed.

So Lar Gand replaces Superboy in continuity, the super-powerful Daxamite in the past who becomes worshipped for helping the settlers reach the worlds of the United Planets.

Lar Gand also survives into the 30th century thanks to being preserved in the Phantom Zone.

And the Durlan member of the L.E.G.I.O.N. is transported to the 30th century, taking the place of Tinya Wazzo, who is sent back to the 20th century with no memories. This will lead to huge problems down the road, surprise surprise.

With all three pieces in place, we can have a Legion again.

I'm sure that many people will disagree with me, but I consider this issue one of the best of this whole run. It's a complete, self-contained one-issue story that explains everything and gets the reader exactly where they need to be. It's perfectly plotted and there's no waste anywhere. Having only five characters, none of which played important roles in the series, was a fascinating choice and actually worked. The brighter palette of colors is also a nice change. (See, trying to say nice things about the art when I can)

LSH #6

So now we go back to our regular story.

Kinda.

Mordru is back in power, or was he always in power but they never referred to it in the first three issues, and they realize they've got to face him and try to rescue Mysa.

Does this mean that the Magic Wars never happened in this new timeline, because magic still works? I know they're on a different Sorcerer's World, but that doesn't change the outcome of that previous story? Does this also mean that Pol Krinn is still alive?

Or are we just ignoring that and hoping no one notices?

Kono is now an integral members of the team, although I'm unsure if she has any other purpose than to annoy the other characters, talk about how much better femmes are than men, and sexually harass the male characters. It think they were trying to write a tough female character but they really just created one of the more annoying people in this book.

Mordru tortures all of the "Legionnaires" by showing them the worst parts of their pasts and we realize, among other things, that Furball is Brin. We see everyone's traumas and, once again, more grim and gritty to make sure we don't actually enjoy anything.

For all the changes they made to the characters, I quite liked this change for Brin Londo. It forced him back into the lone wolf character, not through any choice of his own, and it gave some weight to the changes happening to him. When it was revealed that he has two forms, and was hiding the more human version, it made the character deeper.

More new characters are being introduced and, since most of them weren't present in past Legion stories, we need an even bigger scorecard. EarthGov has hired private investigator Celeste Rockfish to find Roxxas so he can be tried for Blok's murder. Of course, since EarthGov is being run by the Dominators, who sent Roxxas to kill Blok, they're not expecting her to succeed. Celeste brings Bounty, a character who, if any other artist was drawing the book, may look familiar, and a reporter named Devlin O'Ryan to Trom to find the one person who may know Roxxas the best, Jan Arrah.

If you're wondering how bad my rant is about the horrible idea that is Bounty, and the later reveal, just wait... it's not going to be kind.

We also meet the new version of Supergirl, Laurel Gand. She's a tall, blonde Daxamite who's super strong and likes thongs. The times are a changin'.

LSH #8

We get our first guest penciller and it's a big one: this is one of Chris Sprouse's first published works as he handles the flashback story of how the Legion was formed. What's nice about this flashback is that it's told from the perspective of Marla Latham, R.J. Brande's assistant who was his liaison to the Legion in the early days.

We see what happened when the Durlan was pulled from the 20th century and how he became the richest man in the galaxy. We see the early days with costume problems and new team members. We see the troubles with Doyle Brande, who can't handle the pressure and success.

This is a nice way to catch readers up and showing the origin tale, again, from another viewpoint makes it seem somewhat fresher than it could have. Sprouse's work is very, very different from the regular look of the book and makes me wish for him to do some more Legion work in the future. When he takes over Legionnaires in a few years, he brings an energy and clean style that is so completely opposite from the regular book that it's like it's from a different universe.

The other big reveal in this book is that Laurel Gand and Rond Vidar have a baby. Yes, we are a much more mature book than before, aren't we?

 

You may have noticed I skipped #7. I hate what they did to Mysa and, even though I think there are some great storytelling devices used in the book, I'd rather not get into the story. With one issue, they made Mordru into the worst villain ever and then treated that reveal with such... lack of importance... Again, we didn't need that much grim and gritty in these books.

 

Okay, we're done the first section of 5YL. Tune in next week when it gets darker, bloodier, and we continue re-writing Legion history.