More deep diving - LSH (1984) #1-12 - The start of the Baxter run

Can you believe there was a time when a $1.25 cover price was considered expensive?

When the Legion and the New Teen Titans started their Baxter runs, there were a lot of fans who were angry that they'd have to pay extra (almost double) for an issue of their favorite title. But DC could see where the comic industry was going and they knew that fans would be more than willing to spend a little extra for better paper, which lead to better-looking comics.

They were right. As I mentioned in the last deep dive, the Titans and the Legion remained DC's best sellers through 1984 and into 1985, only topped by Crisis on Infinite Earths and a few other mini-series and one-shots. (Strangely enough, according to the data I found for March 1985, which is when LSH #12 came out, two of the DC books that outsold it were Ambush Bug and Legion of Substitute Heroes, both by Keith Giffen). So as much as I complain about his change in art styles, that didn't affect his sales.

After a bit of research, and seeing that many people call these titles different things, for the remainder of my deep dives on this series, I'll be calling it the Baxter run. I know it seems crazy to refer to something solely by the paper it used, but I think that's simpler than always saying 1984 or Volume 3 (or 2, I've seen both).

How do you start off a new series? With a bang! And this run does not disappoint. We get the return of the Legion of Super-Villains, lead by Nemesis Lad. Once again, Paul Levitz does a great job pulling Legion history into a story.

Aside to explain the history very quickly, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Ferro Lad, and Nemesis Kid all joined the Legion at the exact same time. It was quickly revealed that Nemesis Kid was working for the Khunds and, when his attempt to frame Karate Kid didn't work, he fled and joined the LSV. His power is the ability to defeat any opponent one-on-one.

Having him show up as the new leader, and decimate Orando, seemed like fate was guiding this first five-part story. I've gushed numerous times about how well Levitz (and Giffen) were able to draw on Legion history, bring it up-to-date and make it more relevant, and not lose any new readers while doing so. This story shows it at its best.

But what's another way to get attention with a new title? Kill off a member of the team. Giffen has stated that he always hated Karate Kid and Levitz, apparently, tried to keep him on the book with the promise of letting him kill Karate Kid. The promise worked, kind of, but the end result was another hero's demise and a new, harder-edged version of Princess Projectra.

Giffen didn't want to keep drawing the book so the team had to bring in a new artist. And the one they found was incredible: Steve Lightle. Another graduate from New Talent Showcase, Lightle suddenly found himself working on one of the most popular titles at DC with barely any experience under his belt. But his clean lines, attention to detail, and expressive storytelling blew away fans of the series and it softened the blow of Giffen's departure. Unfortunately, his run lasted barely a year as he struggled with hitting deadlines and discovered that drawing the Legion is a lot harder than it looks. (At least that's what I remember reading about it - if anyone else has a better explanation, please share below)

I was quite saddened when I heard he passed away in 2021. His work had a real effect on me as a young comic fan and he was one of those talents whose name would draw you to a book, even if it was just the cover art. I don't think he gets talked about in the same breath as some of the other greats, but he should be up there. Here's a great piece of artwork for you to enjoy:

Another aside: I just wanted to take a break from the dive to point out just how insanely hard it is to draw the Legion. Over 50 main characters to work with, no real frames of reference because of the sci-fi setting, and a long-standing tradition of having multiple small panels for more story. I think I made this comment before, but there's a reason why Wildfire appears on so many covers - no face to draw.

Now to the individual issues:

Issue #4

Now this is how you create a cover that makes you want to rush to the back of the book. You're thinking, "There's no way they'd kill Karate Kid!" And you'd be horribly wrong.

I hated this decision when this comic came out, and not just because Karate Kid was one of my favorites (okay, that's probably the main reason, but I'm going to argue others). I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to repeat it - since Karate Kid was not super-powered (I'm ignoring the super Karate nonsense), he was, quite possible, the most relatable hero on the team. He achieved everything he had from hard work and dedication. He didn't get lucky and fly into a space whale. Or drink a potion that someone else created. He worked, harder than anyone, to get where he was. When you factor in his father, and how he could have been a villain, that made him even more impressive. You could argue that he was the Legion's Batman.

He finally gets his 'rewards' for lack of a better term, marrying the woman of his dreams and retiring. But they couldn't let him stay retired and happy, bringing him back every couple of years for a guest appearance, or let him train the rookies in the Academy.

By killing him, there was a much smaller effect on the readership because he was already retired. Most newer fans had no idea who he was and didn't care as much. Just imagine if, instead of Karate Kid, it had been a regular member who was in the middle of a current story line. The shock is greater, the emotional impact stronger, and the readership would be caught completely off guard.

I will say this, they gave him a great death that really showed his true nature. He wouldn't give up, even though he knew he was beaten, and sacrificed himself to save the planet.

The changes that it brought to Projectra worked incredibly well. Having her execute Nemesis Kid showed just how mature the team had become and made the story more realistic. I loved this part in issue five, right after she's broken Nemesis Lad's neck:

Projectra: It's done.

Element Lad: Y-you broke his neck.

Projectra: I executed a condemned man, Element Lad, as is my royal privilege. Do any of you dare call me wrong?

In two panels, Projectra went from the weak Legionnaire with the image powers to a leader and monarch. That's how you write strong women. In retrospect, it was also somewhat ground-breaking that it was the male character who dies so that the female character could grow and develop.

But man was I angry when I read this.

Issue #6

Speaking of strong female characters, this continued development of Light (now Lightning again) Lass was done beautifully. We've seen Garth against Mekt over and over again - it was great to see Ayla be the fighter this time. It almost feels like Levitz decided, back when he took over the book, that he was going to bring the women to the forefront and show how important they are to the team.

My only complaint, and I'm not sure if it was just a bad combo or artist and inker, was the work by Joe Orlando and Larry Mahlstedt. It just didn't work for me and was a real let down after some great work by Lightle.

Issue #8

Love this cover and love the story here. One thing that I really like about Lightle's work on this series is how he's quickly able to differentiate the faces of the team members. He makes Ultra Boy, Element Lad, and Chameleon Boy looks so unique that you could just look at a portrait, even without the hair or antennae, and immediately know which is which. There are a lot of popular comic artists who can't do that.

A quick aside to whomever posted on this subreddit, asking for Phantom Girl stories - there are a lot of good issue with her (this two-parter being one of them) during the Baxter run.

Levitz is always planting seeds and I doubt anyone got to the end of this issue and was expecting this to come back and haunt the team. It's a great take on the idea of the best of intentions not always having the greatest of results.

Issue #12

I chose this issue, although I could've chosen any of them, because of how simple this issue is. There's the election for the Legion leader, the big three (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad) resign, and the team solves a mystery in space.

You could argue that not much happens, but yet it's the perfect way to show just what Levitz brought to the book. Instead of focusing on big events every issue, he understood that the title needed to breathe every once in a while to make you care about the big events. To go back to my complaint about killing off Karate Kid, since he was never appearing in these quiet issues, the readers didn't have the same sense of loss. If, instead, Ultra Boy had died, fandom would have been stunned because they had gotten to know him through the quieter issues.

Issues 9-12 are all about Levitz laying the groundwork for where the book would go in the next year and setting up the melodramatic subplots that kept readers coming back. For example, when Dream Girl kisses Element Lad in front of his girlfriend, Shvaughn Erin, joking about the election but also starting a subtle flirtation that would go on for a while, Levitz planted questions in the reader's mind and also solidified each character's traits.

The biggest shock here, of course, is the resignation of the three founding members, dropping the Legion membership to 19 and removing a huge part of Legion history. And, amazingly enough, two of them never rejoined over the rest of this run. I think Levitz understood that it was time to move the team forward and this offered him a great opportunity to add some very different personalities to the book. We'll talk about that more in the next dive.

Random questions/comments:

• For issues 3, 4 & 5, I believe Giffen broke down the book, laying out each page, and then Lightle penciled the book. Was this the first time Giffen did this? Was this the start of what would become a cornerstone of his career?
• Has there ever been an artist with a shorter time on the Legion, but was still so beloved, than Lightle? Are there any other books that he's connected to?
• I've mentioned this before, but I find it strange that, for many people, their first exposure to the work of comics masters like Joe Orlando and, earlier, Steve Ditko and Curt Swan, was through these issues of the Legion. I've discovered many Orlando books since reading issue 6, realized just how amazing he was, and still struggled after seeing the mediocre work mentioned above.
• The introduction of the new president of Earth in issue 10, with the beginning of the Universo subplot, did so many little things well that I missed it the first time I read it. Levitz, again, expanded and diversified the Earth and made it feel so much more global than before. Also, the reader knew there was something bad happening, but had no idea where it was going to go. The payoff wasn't until issue 32 - almost two years later. Does that ever happen nowadays?

I've rambled enough today. Tune in next week when we continue our look through the Baxter series.