JasonF

You've pretty much articulated my thoughts. I'm very happy that Levitz is still writing the (main) book, and Fabe is one of my favorite mainstream writers, so I trust the Legion in his hands. That said, I have never read a "Legion trapped in the current day" story or a "group of Legionnaires separated from the main team long term" story that has worked. But hopefully this will be the run that proves me wrong.

Laertes

I don't like the team being split up. I don't like the team being trapped in the past for more than one story arc. Not saying I'm out, but.....

fujishig

I'm not exactly enamored with the team split up thing either, but Nicieza is a good writer and Woods is a good artist. It also gives a reasonably valid reason to have each book focus on a smaller set of characters. As much as I love the size of the Legion, it's true that we usually get better stories when there's a focus on a smaller subset of members, at least to start off. When there are two books featuring the Legion in the same time period, you either have to focus on something entirely different (ie: Legion Academy, clone Legion) or mix and match so much that the books kinda blend together.

Laertes

Everyone see the new Superman books coming in September? Does this mean that Legion needs to get retconned again? Or at least, their Superboy is different once again? I like that it doesn't seem there will be big changes to the LSH but they've been rebooted on average--what?--once every two months?

davidh777

Very happy with the deluxe Great Darkness Saga. I wasn't that excited at first because I have the old TPB, but this has so many extra issues that fill in the multiple arcs that were happening at the time. I'm sure I haven't read those in at least a decade. Glossy paper is nice too. I've now pre-ordered The Curse and maybe another large collection coming in the fall. I'll skip some of DC's hardcovers (like the newer Shooter stuff) to wait for the PB, but these kinds of collections seem less likely to be rereleased in PB and are probably worth the $ anyway.

davidh777

Whoah, WHOAH. Could this finally be the resumption of the Archives series?

Legion of Super-Heroes Archive Vol. 13 (Archive Editions)
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: DC Comics (March 27, 2012)
List Price: $59.99

http://www.amazon.com/Legion-Super-H.../dp/1401234399

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Preterite

Oooohhh. And I just completed my collection of floppies from that era. Still, it's tempting - especially if it contains the EarthWar storyline.

JasonF

Earthwar would probably be the volume after this one.

davidh777

I listened to one podcast in which they said they'd be unlikely to resume the Archives since picking up the floppies would be cheaper, and I got a few random floppies myself (mostly the ones that weren't exorbitantly priced at my LCS) but I'd rather have this.

What about the marriage of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad? I remember that was in a separate collector's edition (still have it, I believe), and didn't they return during the Earthwar?

JasonF

Actually, as I think about it, we're probably 3 Archives from Earthwar. Earthwar was issues 241-245and was published in mid-to-late in 1978. The wedding was published in late 1977 in "All-New Collectors' Edition #C-55 (Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes tabloid)", aka "That Damned Tabloid."

The most recent Archive (Volume 12) reprinted up through #223. It included 12 issues at 17 pages per issue. Legion ran 17 pages per issue while the title was called "Superboy" (through issue 230), then starting with the switch to "Superboy & the Legion of Superheroes," they started doing 34 page issues. So if we assume Volumes 13-15 will be about the same length as Volume 12, then Volume 13 could run issues 224-232. Then the next volume would have 233 through 238 plus the tabloid (it's set between issues 236 and 237), and the volume after that could include 239 through 245 (which would include all of Earthwar).

davidh777

What was the issue with the tabloid?

Love the math but not the conclusion I just checked my Archive 12 and it's 240 pages just like the above listing of #13. 240 sounds like a lot of pages but we have a lot of ground to cover due to years of inactivity.

I tried googling the wedding to find out when it happened and ran across this terrible art that I had successfully blocked out for many years. That'd make it even tougher if that's the stuff we'll have to buy in order to get to Earthwar.



Then the wedding issue:

JasonF

It's notoriously hard to find in the back-issue bins. Probably less so in the internet age, but back in the mid-90s when I was really involved in Legion fandom, if you saw a copy, you bought it, no matter the price, because you knew you'd be able to find a friend (or a friend of a friend) who was willing to reimburse you.

davidh777

Gotcha, thanks. I'd guess the size played somewhat of a factor too since it wouldn't fit in standard longboxes with the other back issues.

Preterite

I actually purchased the tabloid off the newsstand when it first came out. I still have that copy, though now it's in liquid form.

And I just picked up a cheap reading copy at WizardWorld Chicago a couple of weeks ago.

davidh777

Archive 13 was bumped from March 27 to May 17

fujishig

Anyone reading the current Legion books? I've dropped both, despite liking the art teams. Legion Lost just seemed to be going nowhere, even though it featured some of my favorite Legionnaires. And LoSH just hasn't felt the same since the Johns reboot (I still have a hard time with that Shady/Earth Man thing).

JasonF

I read the post-Giffen Bierbaum run, so I'll read anything with the LSH in it. I'm still reading all four(!) Legion books, and finding something to enjoy in each (doing so easily with respect to LSH, Secret Origins, and Legion/Star Trek, and having to work at it a little bit with Legion Lost).

Preterite

As a Legion fan since the early 70's, I'm really digging the current LSH book.

The Secret Origins book is also pretty good. It's not a reboot or a rehash but a storyline that fits in and around previously published stories. It updates the team's history without violating anything (noticeable) that's gone before.

I'm tradewaiting on Legion/Star Trek. Not a Trek fan, but I'm curious as to how it will play out.

I had thought Legion Lost was going to be a mini, and was willing to support it for that long. But I'm not really interested in following it long-term and will drop it with the creative team change, if not sooner.

davidh777

How long is Trek supposed to last? Pretty sure I'll TPB that one.

fujishig

Anyone getting Legion Origins? I thought I saw a preview page where they were interacting with Superboy, and I know they were supposed to be unaffected by Flashpoint, but does that really mean that they interacted with the pre-Flashpoint DCU earlier in their history? If so, I'm surprised they would show something like that this early on.

PhantomStranger

I haven't been paying attention to the Legion lately, are you saying the current LOSH is still in the Post-Crisis timeline?

JasonF

Post Final-Crisis.

Johns did a LSH story during his Superman run in which he used a Legion that was based on the Levitz Legion (you could mostly fit that version in immediately after Levitz ended his run in the late 80s). At that time, the main Legion book was still on the continuity that Waid and Kitson created.

During Final Crisis, they did a story called the Legion of Three Worlds that teamed up 1) the Levitz/Johns version, 2) the post-Zero Hour version, and 3) the then-current Waid/Kitson version. The outcome of that was that Levitz started writing the Legion again using version 1.

Nothing appears to have changed for the Legion with the 52 reboot. However, Levitz is retelling the Legion's origin in the Secret Origins mini and it's the first time we've seen the origin of this Legion either since the 80s or ever (depending on whether you consider this Legion a continuation of the original continuity or a new/different continuity). As with any retelling, it's not a note-by-note reprint of stories that have come before, so some of the nuances are different, but the broad strokes are the same as what Legion aficionados knew as the team's origin prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In terms of Superboy, the latest issue had Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad going back to Smallville in the time bubble, but they didn't actually meet Superboy due to some plot developments. We'll see if next issue plays out as something close to Adventure #247.

fujishig

Comixology has a sale that I think ends today for 99c Legion books. Includes some old Adventure and Actin comics issues, The Great Darkness Saga (in individual issues), some of the Baxter run, some of Legion Lost, Geoff John's Superman and the Legion run in Action, Final Crisis Legion of 3 Worlds and the Adventure Comics recent run that had Legion backups or stories, plus the pre-Flashpoint Legion series. I own most of these in one form or another so the only thing I picked up was an 80 page giant that had a Legion backup story (if they had all of Legion Lost I might have picked that up too since my issues are buried somewhere, but they don't)

Adam Tyner

A lot of those comics -- even the ones that are fifty years old! -- are insaaaaaaaaanely gorgeous on a retina display too. I think everything except Adventure #247 are CMX-HD. Some of the Superboy stories are black and white, but all the Legion stuff is in color.

davidh777

I'm a big fan of any kind of 80-page giant, but I'm thinking of scrolling through those panel by panel on my phone. Another reason I'd like to have an ipad.