Retro-Reviews: Legion of Super-Heroes 1984-85

Legion of Super-Heroes #1-16 by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, Steve Lightle and others (August 1984- November 1985)

I love ‘80s comics. These are the comics I grew up with- the characters, the type of story-telling and even the house ads remind me of my youth. So, naturally, I had a lot of fun reading these issues. It felt like home, like summer days when school was out. That means that I enjoyed these issues more than somebody else might. But even setting aside the scent of nostalgia, I think these are pretty good comic books. The stories, the characters and the art all hold up well after two decades. They’re certainly worth reading, and reviewing.

These issues are from the 1984 re-launch of the Legion of Super-Heroes when DC was moving their titles to a higher quality stock of paper. And Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen give the Legion a story worth a re-launch. The series opens with a huge epic against the Legion of Super-Villains. It starts slowly as individual Legionnaires are attacked by their nemeses, while small groups of Legionnaires watch helplessly as villains they’ve just defeated are teleported away. The epic  also takes time out for a side-story with Lightning Lass, bringing her back into the series after some time away. And finally, there’s an epilogue at the end of the epic in which several Legionnaires fight to find a way home after the big battle. With all of that going on, the Legion of Super-Villains story lasts an epic eight issues. That may not seem like much today when every series opens with a six-issue arc, but it was a huge story at the time. And, unlike today’s six-part stories, the Legion epic was packed with nearly constant action. Plus, the length of the story indicated that something huge, something spectacular, was going on.

In this case, that was certainly true. Early in the story, we learn that Lightning Lord, the older brother of two Legionnaires is getting a Legion of Super-Villains back together. Some of the new Super-Villains are opposite numbers to members of the Legion. For example, there are heroes with magnetic powers, shrinking powers and telepathy to act as counterparts to Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Shrinking Violet. Other Super-Villains have personal vendettas or are vanquished foes who want revenge. They may not have the duplicate powers of a Legionnaire. But they have a reason to hate the Legion of Super-Heroes all the same. Together, they vow to each kill one member of the Legion as their part of the greater plan.

Throughout the first several issues, we see small battles. The battles include villains who are about to be recruited into the new Legion of Super-Villains such as Micro Lad of Imsk. Or the battles feature current members of the Super-Villains testing out the Super-Heroes in single attacks. The battles slowly grow in intensity. At first, they feature only one Super-Hero or only one Super-Villain. Eventually, they feature fights between similar sized groups, three against three or five against five.

Along the way, we also see some disagreements among the Legion of Super-Villains as to who is actually running the group. Lightning Lord claims to be the one getting everybody together. But not everybody is sure they want Lightning Lord to be the leader, especially after he makes some pronouncements that turn off the others. Meanwhile, we discover that another villain is making a move to be in charge. Indeed, we get hints that he’s been manipulating Lightning Lord from the beginning. Though the name didn’t mean much to me, the secret Machiavelli is none other than Nemesis Kid.

 Slowly, the Super-Villains defeat and kidnap various members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This is one point at which the plot actually falters a little for me. Since the Super-Villains are sworn to each kill a Super-Hero, it seems a little silly that they would take defeated and unconscious Legionnaires back to their headquarters. Why not just kill them on the field of battle, earn your place into the new Legion of Super-Villains and be done with it? I’m able to get past the inconsistency, but it does make the battles feel a little less dire than intended and the villains a little less credible. It also has the unfortunate side-effect of making the constant reminders that one Legionnaire will die in the upcoming battle, as foreseen by Dream Girl, seem staged. Plenty of Super-Heroes were down and out at one point without dying, so the eventual death of a Legionnaire seems a little contrived. Even then, the hero who dies sacrifices himself to save others so the members of the Legion of Super-Villains don’t directly kill even one Legionnaire.

Other than that somewhat significant plot point, I enjoyed the story immensely. There are some great fight scenes, especially in issues 3 and 5. I don’t recognize all of the villains, but neither do I feel that it’s necessary. The battles are orchestrated well enough that I can tell who the villains are supposed to be and often which hero they’re supposed to stand against. There are some great single battles, great mid-size battles and great grand-scale battles featuring more than a dozen opponents on each side. There’s plenty of action here for those who like that sort of thing. Including me.

I also enjoy the minor character moments that slip in as the story progresses. I’m amused that at this point in the Legion’s history, it seems like every member has paired off romantically with another member. The constant romantic bits are kind of fun, and I enjoy puzzling out who’s supposed to be dating who. Plus, each couple has its own dynamic. Whether it’s demonstrative, shy, flirtatious, quarrelsome or something else, Paul Levitz and company do a great job of depicting the variety of romantic love. I’ve read comments by other writers that “all love stories are the same; all break-ups are unique” and “couples that stay together are boring.” I think that Levitz shows that doesn’t have to be true. Not every couple is happy. Some are struggling to get along, or to rebuild something they once have. As for those who are happy, they aren’t all happy in the same way. Some are new lovers, inflamed with passion (or about as much passion as you can show in a kids’ comic). Others are married, showing the deep connection that has grown over time. Some romances are driven by the girl, others by the guy.

There are cases in which opposites have attracted, and couples whose strengths offset the weakness of the other thing. Every couple is unique. For me, the romance is as much a part of the book as the action. It’s amusing, attractive and enjoyable.

After the huge opening arc, the characters come back to Earth and the book settles down a little. There are several over-lapping stories, though most of them are of a more domestic nature. There are the upcoming elections for president of the United Planets and for leader of the Legion. There’s also a recruiting drive to bring the roster back up to its regular size of 24. There are Legionnaires who are retiring, and prospective Legionnaires who are training. And there’s a tale in which Timber Wolf fulfills the last wishes of Karate Kid, the hero who died as part of the Super-Villains story. For the most part, I enjoyed these separate stories. I enjoyed the soap-opera nature in which the stories weaved around each other. I enjoyed seeing the Legionnaires in normal settings- Colossal Boy having tea with his mom, Saturn Girl showing off her new baby, Cosmic Boy and Night Girl talking about a vacation.

However, this was also the point in the series at which I started to experience a minor annoyance. Usually, I like new characters. I like recruitment drives and changing rosters and new blood. But I wasn’t that happy in this instance. It’s not that I completely dislike the new characters. I think that Comet Queen has a great look, and I’m glad that the Legion expanded to include non-humanoid members. However, as a way of emphasizing the fact that these new characters aren’t human, Levitz gave many of them unique speech patterns. Comet Queen talks like a Valley Girl. Quislet has awkward grammar. And I found it annoying. It worked for Yoda, but I’ve rarely seen an instance in which it’s worked for any other character. It’s off-putting and annoying, and it made it hard for me to enjoy many of the scenes that featured the newer characters. Even so, it wasn’t all bad. I’m glad that Polar Boy finally became a full member of the Legion and I’ve found the telepath Tellus to be more interesting than I expected, but I was less than enthused overall by the roster change because of the irritating dialogue patterns.

Furthermore, as the initial domestic plots tied up, the title started to struggle to find direction. The U.P. had a new president. The Legion re-elected the same leader. Timber Wolf completed Karate Kid’s last requests. And the Legion added five new members. But Levitz and Steve Lightle hadn’t set up their next stories. They seemed to focus on integrating the new members on the team, but there wasn’t much to look forward to. As such, the series started to weaken for me as it stretched into the teens. I’ve heard from others that “Crisis on Infinite Earths” wrecked the Legion. I’ve never quite believed them. And I’m not sure I believe them now. But I did notice that the Legion was declining in quality as it approached “Crisis,” even if that decline was unrelated to “Crisis.” I plan to keep collecting the series, and I hope they can turn it around at least for a little while. Yet I am a little nervous about it.

And that’s the Legion of Super-Heroes of the mid-‘80s: epic action, soap opera-like romance and some of the best adventure comics you can read. And yet, with a few obvious plot problems and other minor irritations, still less than perfect. Well worth the read, though, even if it doesn’t remind you of summer vacations when you were a kid.