[Legion Fan Club] 6/7/23 Reading: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #284-286, just before the Great Darkness Saga!

Welcome to another very special session of the [Legion Fan Club], 4 years 1 month of [Legion Fan Club] fun now, as we continue our quest to read all of Legion tales digitized on DC Universe Infinite…one issue at a time!

June 7th 2023 Reading: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #284-286 (Feb-Apr 1982), just before the start of the Great Darkness Saga! WRITTEN BY: Paul Levitz Art by: Pat Broderick

Click on blurs below to go to the issues (blurred to prevent spoilers, these are only 41 year old tales after all):

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #284

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #285

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #286

Please join in the discussion below.

  1. What is your favorite part of Karate Kid’s story through these three issues?

  2. Are there any favorite scenes this time around with the pre-Crisis Superboy for you?

  3. Which of the three Legion comics had the best storyline and villain?

Please post any favorite panels, covers or pages in the discussion below as well.

We’ll plan to do this again in two weeks with next Legion reading!

Not a Legion Fan Club member yet? Crave a nifty gold ring for your icon? To join and get in on other discussions, our private Discord channel and our archives, click here: Legion Fan Club!

Long Live the Legion

Long Live the Legion

Long Live the Legion

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Yum!

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  1. I have always liked Karate Kid. I like his relationship with Princess Projectra. I didn’t like how easily he was defeated by her cousin.
  2. It was fun to see Superboy show up for the “cookout” with his teammates. I always enjoyed seeing him have other teens like him to interact with.
  3. Regulus was the best of the villains in these issues.
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It’s amazing to me how Karate Kid keeps showing up from one iteration of Legion to the next over the decades.

I was an adult reading comics when the whole Kung Fu and Karate craze set the comics on fire with Master of Kung Fu and Richard Dragon and also of course Karate Kid. It’s just amazing to me that someone without wild sci-fi Powers continues to work well with these different groups like The Legionnaires of the 90s and even the most recent Legion of Super-Heroes group by Bendis.

I agree, I enjoy having him as part of the team and also in this three issue story run.

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  1. I’ve always liked the KK and PP relationship, I don’t know if i had a favorite part of KK in this arc, but seeing how easily he was defeated by PP’s cousin was a bit disappointing.
  2. Him offering to give everyone a hot foot was funny.
  3. The Best storyline was seeing Dreamy kick ass, in issue 285, none of the villains were that impressive in these issues to me. I felt like Organus was a potential great villain, but defeated too easily.
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I was glad to see so many of my favorite characters in these three issues, but I’m wondering if the story lines wouldn’t have been better served making each of these a little longer to develop them better.

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Almost time to post the new reading, did anyone have any other comments on this one first?

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I didn’t get a chance to re-read these this week, but I will say I loved Val and Jeckie’s relationship overall and the “Anybody Home” cover is one of my top ten Legion covers.

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We’d love to see your top 10 covers sometime for Legion!

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Should I add them to this discussion or start a new topic?

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Oh here is fine, or if you prefer, you can send just a message to our fan club.

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All right, here are my top twenty Legion covers. Counting down to number 1 but the last few are kind of tied.
20. Threeboot Legion issue 15.


The humor makes this cover for me and it was fun seeing the missing legionnaires (and even in the circles).

Nineteen. Legionnaires issue 54


I love alternate versions of characters and this Golden Age Legion was well done. (plus the mug ring)

Eighteen. Bendis Legion issue 9


I love the thought of each legionnaire getting a solo series and I loved seeing the logos.

Seventeen. Superboy and the Legion 244


This cover showed the danger the Legionnaires were in very well. This was also the first time I ever saw the legion and the diversity caught my attention.

Sixteen. Secrets of the Legion 2


This cover made me buy the series and I love the characters along the edge looking in.

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Next five.
15. Threeboot Legion issue 1


I love the simplicity of the design and it showed that these were not your old legionnaires well. I also enjoyed the other two times they used the same basic pose with different characters.

  1. Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes issue 2

    I thought the design of this one was dynamic and exciting.

Thirteen. Legion of Super-Heroes 293


I know most people like the cover of 294 better (the bowing to Darkseid cover) but this was more engrossing to me and I like that Kal and Jo are literally trying to keep the Legion from falling.

Twelve. Adventure 354


An atmospheric cover and seeing characters that hadn’t been introduced yet as memorials got to me.

Eleven. Tales of the Legion 339


I’ve always thought the Tales covers tended to be as good as the original, but this one i felt was better although I already knew who made it.

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Next five.
10. Adventure issue 500


The idea of the Legion using the Time viewer to look at themselves made sense. also, the back cover had the younger characters looking at the older ones in the same positions

Nine. Legion of Super-Heroes issue 285


The cover that started this. I just enjoy seeing Gim busting in and being humorous.

Eight. Best of DC Digest issue 24


Dramatic (Plus this issue has Perez drawings but that doesn’t affect the cover.)

Seven. Legion Index issue 4


a classic full roster that doesn’t seem crowded. I wish the DC indices had continued, but I think the info for the next few issues was posted on-line somewhere.

Six. Five Years Later Legion issue 5


This is a great picture and after issue 4, I didn’t know what to expect with this issue but this represents the issue very well.

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The next Four (and an extra)
Five. Legionnaires 3 issue 4


The minimalism works and the thought of the Trapper winning was shocking

Four. Baxter Legion issue 13


Timberwolf is my favorite Legionnaire and Lightle’s artwork here is awesome.
Here is the extra

I love Lee’s Brin and this is my favorite of his costumes. This isn’t on the list only because I saw it first as a poster of all the alt covers and I don’t think of it as a cover.

Three. Legion of Super-Heroes issue 300


The family picture works well for an anniversary issue and the fact it was a jam session of artists makes it even nicer.

Two. Adventure 247


What can I say? It’s classic (just look at all the homages) and catches the feel of the story well.

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And finally:
One. Baxter Legion 38


This may actually be my favorite cover of any comic, minimalistic and evocative. I cried reading this and find it ironic that issue 38 of the next series is when the Earth blows up.

Well, that’s my list. Feel free to critique it.

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That’s quite the heavy hitter list, thank you for posting.

It actually took me a little bit to figure out what you meant by the mug ring, I kept looking for someone that had a mug on their finger lol, then I finally saw the circle in the upper left corner.

I have a thread I posted a long time ago here celebrating covers with a solid color theme like a white cover or a blue cover even with either none or very little background, so all the covers you have like that I immediately would agree with you on.

There’s something about the gold lettering along the top of the anniversary issue 300 that really helps that cover pop as well.

The red topper for Adventure Comics 500 is really cool and the way they change up the back and front cover is fun as well.

It’s too bad I’m so easily influenced, but I’m going to go find out what the ICG Illustrated Index of the Legion goes for these days on the web.

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I have to say I love all the covers you posted. Your no. 1 is my favorite as well.
There are an few other Legion Covers, that I like as well, here they are.

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This cover portrays the sad tale within.

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The Reflecto revealed and Karate Kid cover were actually very close to being in the list.

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