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.
