Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness Vol. 1

If you’re a lover of the “classic legion,” you might be surprised at how entertaining these stories are, some forty years after they were printed. Gerry Conway does most of the scripts here, and while there’s nothing mind-blowing or revolutionary in their pages, they’re full of charm and energy that shines through.I’m biased of course, because I love these characters, and love anything space and science fiction related, so this may not be for everyone. Admittedly, some of the stories are quaint. There are juvenile and fantastic plots, and characters spout melodramatic dialog that will make anyone who takes themselves and their comics too seriously, cringe with embarrassment. But for lovers of the Legion, these stories brim with an innocence and vitality that’s incredibly refreshing, many years on.It also doesn’t hurt that the art on the book, mostly by Jimmy Janes and Dave Hunt, is solid, old fashioned style pencilling that’s hard to dislike. But there’s a lot going on visually in the book to enjoy. The majority of covers are by a very strong Dick Giordano. George Perez produces the cover used for the volume itself. There’s an issue drawn by Jim Sherman which is gorgeous, next level stuff, and all the guest artists produce competent, if not transformational work. Joe Staton and Steve Ditko produce some issues here, and by and large, all the artists deliver decent work that perfectly service the stories.There’s a single issue by J.M. Dematties that perfectly showcases his particular style - zany plots steeped in faux-mysticism, with heavy exposition and dialog barely contained by the artist - but fun and entertaining, taken for what it is.The volume itself is fantastic quality. Great, crisp, matte paper that perfectly reproduces the colors of the past. All the covers are included. There’s a contents page, and all the artists and creative people are properly attributed. And although I am not impressed by DC’s decision to re-use a cover from one of the books as opposed to producing a new image, it’s hard to deny that the dust jacket and wrap-around of the hardcover image underneath, are some of the best from the collection.About the only somewhat annoying thing in the volume, is a slightly perplexing introduction by Paul Levitz, undoubtedly the best classic Legion writer and one of comics most underrated writers period. Levitz produces an introduction here, which, rather than celebrating the efforts of the artistes involved, offers an apology for the quality. This is a confounding pattern with Paul; who amusingly apologizes, after a fashion, to readers coming to a collection of the Great Darkness Saga, for the fact that they are robbed of the surprise of the main villain, by the very nature of coming to a collected edition, printed several years after the fact. In fact, he has “apologized” for other eras, and other stories, even including his own. And if I didn’t know the man better from his writings, his apology in this volume would smack of hubris - of a man returning to an era of comics which in his estimation, failed to achieve the creative genius of the days when he was in charge of writing it. Thankfully, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.Instead, I think it’s a misjudged attempt to explain away the lightness of the stories; the fantastical, frequently illogical aspects; the occasionally cringeworthy dialog; the slightly shifting and stilted characterization; and the sometimes silly plots; by trying to offer some historical context, of what was happening at DC Comics at the time, and how those events may have impacted the quality of the pages one is about to read.There’s no need. No one coming to these volumes expects Shakespearean writing coupled with Michelangelo’s images. It also does the creators involved, a disservice. And really, it’s a message intended for the wrong audience. “New readers,” if such exist, are unlikely to have an interest in an obscure comic, about a group of teenage superheroes, set 1000 years into the future, inspired to do good, by Superman’s legacy. In fact, the only people likely to be buying these volumes, come for the nostalgia, and already know what to expect. They’re looking for a fix; a reminder of a time and place in their lives, when the “DC implosion” had no meaning, and all that mattered, were these brightly colored pages, about teenage superheroes, in far flung places, doing amazing things.And a very good fix it is.

Tempted to drop a star since while this volume is awesome it doesn’t have the holiday story where Superboy and the Legion hunt for the Christmas star. It does have the Legion miniseries though besides issues 260-271 of the regular series. We get to see the Legion’s parents. Tyroc gets an origon, Bouncing Boy & Duo Damsel return. The Fatal Five plus the Dark Man keep the Legion on their toes. Lot of good nostalgia for me in theses stories.

The Legion of Superheroes has a long and varied history. Set 1000 years in the future, the Legion's story has gone from the Buck Rogers-style rocket ships and jet packs of the 50s and 60s, to the sexy disco fashions of the 70s, to continuity-intensive stories of the 80s, dark and gritty in the 90s, to multiple back-to-basics reboots in modern times. Each run has reflected America's hopes and fears for the future and every fan has their own favorite era.But you would be very hard pressed to find anyone who names the early 80s as their favorite period, or considers them even... good.And sure enough this reprint of LSH 260-271 from 1979 to 1981 opens with an apology of sorts from long-time Legion fan, author and former DC comics president and publisher Paul Levitz. He recounts how DC's financial issues at the time left them scrambling to find work for writers and authors resulting in some people being put on books they were ill-suited for.And the stories show it. Adventures seem sort of random, finishing in a bizarre plot twist in the Secrets of the Legion of Superheroes mini series. Artists change frequently and various art, dialogue, and coloring errors are all faithfully reproduced.But all that being said, it is still the Legion and the insane adventures of teenagers from the future IN SPACE and even when it's mediocre, it can be entertaining. I'd probably have passed on this book if it wasn't for my kids who recently discovered my stash of Legion books and devoured them. Knowing that this book would offer stories in the vein of the classic silver age books I got it to read with them and even when we're laughing at the stories it's still fun.

DC's attitude to reprints of the Legion's long history is perplexing. The dated and naive but adorable Silver Age stories are, at time of writing this review, only available in hefty, pricey Omnibus editions. Much of the best of the later work (such as the Cockrum/Grell stories from the early-mid seventies, and above all, the "Great Darkness Saga", and beyond, from the Paul Levitz era of 1982-1989) is resolutely out of print.And yet, this amiable but frankly mediocre era (1980-81) is collected between hard covers for our delectation and delight. Go figure.I confess to enjoying it. I'm a Legion fan but I don't own copies of the original comic books for this period, and felt my money was better wasted plugging the gap with this than in hunting down the floppies. But it would be hard to recommend this book to anyone but hardcore Legion fans. It's not that it's particularly bad, it's just terribly uninspired. Most of the stories are written by Gerry Conway, who didn't particularly want the gig and had no real feel for it. He did his best but there's no real sense of direction on display. The main artist is Jimmy Janes, who's also doing his best but who never produces anything beyond generically competent superhero art of the style that prevailed in this period. I quite enjoyed the book overall, in a benignly nostalgic way, but I can barely remember a thing about it.There are some highlights. One story is illustrated by Jim Sherman, who'd worked on the series a year or two prior to this. He's allowed to ink his own pencils and all the potential of his earlier work, which was sometimes marred by unsympathetic inkers, is revealed: sensational stuff. There's also a story by J.M de Matteis and Steve Ditko which is as mad as a mahogany frying pan and hugely enjoyable. Ditko was largely off the boil by this time but inker Bob Wiacek works hard to downplay the infelicities of latterday Ditko pencils. That story was originally found behind an issue cover drawn by George Perez, which now forms the cover for the book as a whole, and all the original issue covers are included too. Most of them are by Dick Giordano and, as you'd expect from that, they're very good. The Perez cover is symobolically significant, of course, because the arrival of Gorgeous George (and Marv Wolfman) at DC in mid-1980 really marks the point when DC, rather than Marvel, start to become the creative power in the mainstream comics world of the era.As well as issues 260-271 of the Legion's own title, the book also includes the three-part miniseries "Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes". It's indicative of the Legion's popularity among hard-core comics readers that what was only the third-ever DC miniseries was devoted to them - and it predates Marvel's first miniseries by almost two years. It's kinda fun. The plot was the work of E. Nelson Bridwell, who in 1964 became the first ever person to emerge from comics fandom to work in the industry. A self-confessed oddball, if you'd pitched Bridwell as a character to the producers of "Big Bang Theory" they'd have rejected him as too far-fetched. His obessive logic and fannish devotion to trivia, though, were such that he could come up with the plot here, in which retelling the origin of every member of the Legion - almost 30 characters - is actually essential to the story. The tale also manages to add extra layers to the origin of the team as a whole. It's a fun, if inessential, excursion.The book is rounded off with an overall introduction by Paul Levitz. Another reviewer finds it "hubristic", but that's an odd interpretation. I found it refreshingly honest for a comic book collection in its admission that the material in question is not from the first rank, and it pays warm and genuine tribute to Conway, Bridwell and the other creators.As a package of not-especially-good material, it's hard to see how DC could have done a better job with this. But, just to reiterate, anyone other than hardcore Legion fans or late Bronze Age obsessives need not apply.

:)