Tag: legion of super heroes

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Legion of Super Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga

This is a review of the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga, written by Paul Levitz with art by Keith Giffen. You can read my review of Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes Volume One here. 

The Legion of Super Heroes are a group of 30th century youngsters with superpowers who have teamed up to defend the universe. Back in the Silver Age they were all teenagers. Thus, the monikers Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Light Lass, etc. The stories in this volume, written in the late 1980s, treat them more as New Adults (early twenties). Think space opera combined with superpowers and dopey melodrama.

By dopey melodrama I’m talking romance, because let’s face it, everyone loves romance!!! How about an example? Light Lass convinces her beau Timber Wolf – who has a face that could scare a block of concrete – to undergo cosmetic surgery. 

Soon afterwards Timber Wolf is shanghaied into a disastrous intel mission on the Khund (not-nice aliens) homeworld. They are rescued in the nick of time by a team led by Saturn Girl, which crashes on an asteroid. By the way, Saturn Girl is Light Lass’ sister-in-law. 

Hey, why doesn’t Light Lass lead the rescue party? Wonder what’s up with that? Our hapless heroes are rescued by another search party led by Light Lass, who sees Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf hugging. Light Lass quits the Legion, giving Timber Wolf an ultimatum – stay or go with her. What will he do? 

In the meantime, Princess Projectra and Karate Kid return to her homeland and are almost burned at the stake. Brainiac Five accidentally resurrects an old Legion foe, Computo, which marks his one billionth screw-up since he joined the team. Everyone forgives him, because they’re used to it. And someone stirs in a deserted old planet in backwater space.

The Legion receives a much-needed shot in the arm when Keith Giffen comes onto the title as artist and co-plotter. We have new Legionnaires – Blok, who is a living rock; Invisible Kid, whose little sister is host to genocidal computer Computo; and The White Witch, a sorceress. 

This volume features the Great Darkness Saga, a five issue storyline that involves the awakening of cosmic menace Darkseid in the 30th century. I am not giving anything away because the cover of this volume shows us Darkseid, who terraforms an entire planet into his effigy. 

Darkseid sends out degraded versions of cloned heroes as his emissaries – to collect items of power, and then people. The Legion is overmatched, especially when Darkseid learns of the existence of the planet Daxam, which orbits a red sun. He warps the planet under a yellow sun, which means billions of super-powered Daxamites under his control! Can the universe survive? Well, yeah, but it’s a big story.  

Nowadays, the Great Darkness Saga would be a special event with multiple issues in twelve different titles. Instead it’s just there – the best Legion of Super Heroes storyline ever created, one of the top superhero comic storylines of the 20th century, and a high point of both of the creators’ careers. If you like superhero comics combined with space opera it doesn’t get any better than this.

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Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes Volume One

This is a review of Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes Volume One, written by Paul Levitz and featuring art from a number of artists, including Mike Grell. The Legion of Super Heroes is a Silver Age invention, with an ensemble cast of 30th century teenaged superheroes and superheroines, including Superboy (who flies in from the 20th century).

This volume features three interesting storylines. The first is the wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, whose nuptials are disturbed by the Time Trapper. The Trapper alters history but nobody knows it except Superboy, who travels to the 30th century from a time period BEFORE history was changed. The second story features Grimbor the Chainsman, whose goal in life is tying up members of the Legion. Surprisingly, good ole’ Grimbor hasn’t been used all that much lately.

The third is a storyline about the framing of Ultra Boy, a character who possesses Superboy’s abilities but can only use one of his powers at a time. Ultra Boy visits former lover, An Ryd. Yes, that’s her name. Ultra Boy seems confused as to why she would choose a cheap motel room for their meeting. Unfortunately for him, An Ryd has no interests but self-interests and sells him out. I have no idea if she’s an objectivist, but this story makes it clear that Ultra Boy is really stupid. Poor An Ryd is murdered and Ultra Boy wakes, framed for her murder.

When his Legion buddies ask him to explain, Ultra Boy of course acts like a criminal and runs away. Left on his own, there is little doubt Ultra Boy would be in solitary for a hundred years, but luckily there exist Legion members with three-digit IQs. The culprit – not the murderer – is revealed, and Ultra Boy is vindicated!

There are a bunch of interesting things about this storyline, chief among them being that Ultra Boy cannot decipher social cues, especially sexual social cues. His girlfriend, Phantom Girl, looks very wholesome and even wears her hair in ponytails. There’s also the heavily muscled older male science officer who seems to take Ultra Boy’s betrayal personally. All stuff I would have missed back in my teens.

Anyway, did I mention that Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad get hitched? They have to quit the team because the Legion’s charter forbids married members. One of the reasons I enjoyed these issues so much is that nobody ever asks the obvious question, such as ‘why not change the charter then?’ The members themselves act more like new adults than teenagers, but there’s still a lot of posturing, chest-beating, and stupid drama.

 Paul Levitz is the gold standard for the Legion of Super Heroes, and these stories are better than most of the comics being published around that time period (late 70’s, early 80’s). Recommended for Legion of Super Heroes fans and also fans of space opera, because a few of these stories (Time Trapper) feature interesting science fiction concepts.