Legion of Super-Heroes Before the Darkness 2

Product as described. Well packaged.

The issues presented are not the best LSH stories ever, but they complete the re-issuing of Legion stories begun by the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives, and take us up to The Great Darkness Saga. There are some surprises, like wonderful cover art by George Perez, Ernie Colon, and Dave Cockrum and some interiors by Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantino, and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. Plus a 2 page pin-up by Joe Staton (in black and white...not sure why or where it's from originally).Again, it's not for everyone. But for those of us who read and loved these stories when they first came out (waaaay back when), this collection is a great bit of nostalgia.

If I'm doing my math right, one more volume of this series will bring me up to the point where my collection of the comics begins. I had a lot of the early _Adventure Comics_ issues, back in the day, but, as with so many other kids of my generation, My Mother Made Me Throw Them Out, along with lots of other stuff that, taken together, would have paid my kids' tuition, at least for a year or two.Anyway, we have here a silly-feelgood story from a DC Christmas Special, followed by a bunch of regular stories by Gerry Conway or Roy Thomas. Near the end, Paul Levitz (my favorite Legion writer) comes back as scripter.One of the things that this volume makes clear is that the era of the Legion as soap-opera was now in full swing. Love, loss, lust, amnesia, missing persons, accusations of murder all contribute to a dozen stories, plus the Christmas issue and a framing tale from a DC Comics Digest, of...well, moderate to good quality. There is nothing here that I would call "great"; the last great era of the Legion was a year or so out, to begin with the Legion's first-ever Annual and the "Great Darkness Saga" that informs the title of this batch of archive volumes.Similarly, the artwork by a whole bunch of people, including Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantion, and Dick Giordano, is never less than workmanlike, but rarely rises above it, and when it does, it's mostly Ditko doing the stuff he'd learned at Marvel when he was illustrating _Doctor Strange_.Necesssary for me, and for other Legion completists who missed these issues the first time around. Probably not so much for anyone else.

I only wanted 1 copy but ended up with 2 and I tried to cancel 1 of them

Great stories and great art!

Quick summary on DC’s LoSH reprint status. The Archive Editions included all Legion material up to Superboy #233. You can also get the Silver Age Legion in Omnibus format. “Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes” volumes 1 and 2 pickup with issue #234 and runs through issue #259. Before the Darkness volume 1 takes up the baton with issue #260 and volume 2 spans issues #272 to #283. The Great Darkness Saga covers issues #284 to #296 while The Curse contains issues #297 to #313. We also get all annuals and any appearances by the Legion in other comics. That’s everything up to July 1984. Unfortunately, many of these volumes have gone out of print and some have risen significantly in value on the secondary market.The quality of Legion stories moves up and down like a sine wave. This isn’t the worst period in terms of writing and artwork but it sure as hell ain’t the best. Some of the writing is really lame brained. For instance, a villain named Grimbor the Chainsman sets up a barrier around Earth and the concern is mass starvation within weeks. Seriously? The Earth needs to import food to survive more than a few weeks? I also found Wildfire insufferable, which is nothing new. He has a lot of personality similarities to Green Arrow except not quite as annoying. Most of the characterization of the Legion members is pretty bad and tends to be limited to characters getting pissed off. When characterization is this bad, I end up pining for the flat characters of the Silver Age.There are a couple of appearances by some of the heavy hitters of Legion villains including Mordru and Time Trapper. The Mordu story was pretty bad with Mordru being beaten very easily despite being one of the most powerful characters in the history of the DCU. Time Trapper had the best line in the book. After trapping a handful of Legion members in 1981 he told them it was easy for them to get back to the 30th century. All they had to do was wait 1000 years. That was kind of clever.I’ve been a Legion fan for around four decades and I’m a little bit of a completionist. I feel that one of the best eras ever for the Legion came just after The Curse when the series switched to a “Deluxe” format. Hopefully those stories are coming up next. This collection is pretty forgettable. There are no new characters introduced and no memorable storylines. I suppose the biggest storyline would be the identity of the mysterious Reflecto, but it really wasn’t great. We do get art by two legendary artists in Steve Ditko and Carmine Infantino but the two were past their prime at this point and if I didn’t know who the were I would see their art as very subpar. I can only recommend this collection for Legion superfans.

Muy bueno para recordar historias clásicas de la Legion de Superheroes