RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Superboy's Legion

...by Davis/Farmer is the greatest Legion story since the days of John Forte, Swan, Hamilton and Siegel..

Discuss....

Peter (and may I say how fond I am of the ENTIRE Zoo Crew):

Many here might agree.

Such a shame a SUPERBOY'S LEGION sequel was shot down by DC's current PTB...

Levitz is just jealous that it's better than Karate Kid....

I can't knock Levitz as he has long-been the LEGION's "gaurdian angel" at DC...

And yet I can't disagree with you either...

It's true! It's Damn true!

I see Levitz, from hints dropped in several places in the lettercolumns (and occasionally elsewhere), as being far less than fierce about defending the quality of his earliest writing for DC. That would include the first nearly-two-year stint on the Legion, the "Karate Kid" series, and briefer work on other titles.

He seemed, to me, to admit that this was when he was learning the comics writing craft, and was far from always on top of the many threads of the Legion tapestry. He picked up enough savvy to untwist the multi-issue mess of the Reflecto story, and then went on to thrive in creative combination with several artists -- first Broderick, but then the early Giffen, most of all.

I doubt it's envy that stopped any notion of a "Superboy's Legion" sequel, which if it kept the same creators, would have been as superb as the first go-round.

DC seems, instead, to have gotten this buzz in its collective head against Elseworlds works. Prestige fears, about diluting their icons? Corporate cost-cutting? Too much supervision of creative egos? Who knows. Perhaps all of the above.

The story was incredibly convoluted. That didn't keep it from making a satisfying puzzle for the readers.

Yet Levitz admitted later that Roy Thomas and others involved with the plotting had written themselves into a corner. Levitz pulled a friggin' miracle of story explanation to resolve it all.

Those things happen. It's nothing against the story, as such -- and it had a lot of at least well-done art (and some that wasn't). Soap operas are similar messes, done every day -- that doesn't make them "bad." What differs here is that serial comics stories have to come to some sort of closure eventually. Levitz provided it.

Superboy's Legion was great... And since we're seeing a sequel to the Davis/Farmer miniseries "The Nail", who's to say we mightn't see a sequel to "Superboy's Legion" some day?

Sure it'll probably be ten years from now (if at all!), but I'd be glad regardless.

One of the things I liked the most about "Superboy's Legion" was how they managed to have almost ever member make a significant contribution during the big fight at the end in a way that was believable, rather than just setting up contrived situations for each hero to get some spotlight and do something.

If they can write great teamwork scenes like this all the time, I'd want them to handle the main series.

Labradorian, the Reflecto saga was an ok story, but I don't think it can be classified as one of the better stories in Legiondom. As Greybird stated, the story was very convoluted. This was because the plot started with Gerry Conway, got passed to Roy Thomas, and then to Levitz who had to sort it all out. Levitz then wrote a "miracle issue" which wrapped up the plot threads. (A letter-writer in a subsequent issue tried to sort out this issue, and did an admirable job.)

It's kind of funny; in Levitz' first stint as Legion writer, he also had to resolve plot threads started by multiple witers, leading to a quite unsatifying ending to Stargrave's first appearance.

Well
i agree with some of what has been said, but convluted, hardly. I was a kid when that story came out and i didnt find it confusing, a lot going on but not a mess. And it was one of the more memorable storyline taht cmae out.

I thought Levitz wrote his Legion stories as a kid. Or am I getting him mixed up with Jim Shooter?