[Legion Fan Club] Reader Y2 M10 Monster Boy?!? 40 Years of Legion for our February selection!

[Legion Fan Club] and Legion of Super-hero Fanatics of all ages and sizes, this chilly month of 2021 we will continue to take a double-sample of the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 2019 Bendis series along with stops at 3 or 4 other Legion eras from 1980 on.

40 year Itinerary: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #266-267, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1989-) #5, The Legion (2001-) #5 / JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED (2014-) #9 LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (2019-) #5-6

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**Era 1 : Disembark here for Bronze Age Legion!

losh 267 Steve Ditko Legion 1980

(above: Steve Ditko Legion 1980 from LoSH 267)

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #266 DC Universe Bouncing Boy and Duo Lass accidentally free Kantuu from his centuries-old prison (Part 1).

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980-) #267 DC Universe (Part 2) The Legion must find a way to re-bottle the genie Kantuu.

**Era 2: Stop by here for the Dark / Copper Age featuring Keith Giffen as writer / artist (with writing assists from husband / wife fan team of Mary and Tom Bierbaum)!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1989-) #5 DC Universe The natural order having been restored, Mordru rules the universe from a position of absolute power. Can a handful of rebels restore the timeline?

**Era 3: Take a gander at the Modern Age / “Movie” Age of comics :

The Legion (2001-) #5 DC Universe Earth’s moon is targeted as the latest stage of human evolution. Sadly, the Legion may not be around to stop it! Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett writers

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED (2014-) #9

DC Universe “The Infinitus Saga” continues as the team joins the Legion of Super-Heroes, a Thanagarian war fleet and a Rannian war fleet to battle the endless forces of Infinitus! Jeff Lemire writer

Also of note, check out the JSA Book Club this month for the Justice League Crossover with Legion from around 2006 with your host there @JasonTodd428 :jsa_book_club: :justice_league_book_club: Two Worlds, Two Teams, One Mission [February 2021 JSABC/JLBC EVENT]:jsa_book_club:

**Era 4: The post Doomsday Clock new Age of Legion Excellence:

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (2019-)!!! A double shot again this month thanks to the “time shift” here on DC Universe Infinite!!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (2019-) #5 DC Universe Mon-El comes clean about his connection to Jon Kent.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (2019-) #6 DC Universe Meet the latest crop of Legionnaires: Gold Lantern! Monster Boy! Doctor Fate!

As always, please post your favorite panels / covers or quotes from these 4 eras of Legion!

Long Live the Legion!

Long Live the Legion!

Long Live the Legion!

Next month, we continue our “Quadruple Decker” Dagwood Sandwich approach to Legion reads, straddling 40 years for a bit longer !!!

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So odd to see the Legion in the Infinitus Saga. It was comprised of deceased, missing and former members, and even one maimed Legionnaire included. It also gave us the return of the time-lost Legionnaires from Legion Lost, to the group. And then, of course … it’s always strange to see a Supergirl Version that’s unaware of the Legion. working with them. At this point, the Legion no longer had it’s own magazine (and wouldn’t for many more years to come) So much was left on the table - unexplained - in this tale, while still being an entertaining read if you didn’t care about the Legion or its continuity, After all, they were only guests in this book!

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Honestly when this came out in 2015 I was much more involved with the Justice League United group and following Jeff Lemire’s work like a lost puppy than I was with the fact that Legion was showing up, appear as guest stars.

Now it’s interesting to go back and review. It’s like which version of Legion are we being given this time? Interesting thoughts @kevin_oyer.50320

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Just throwing the two together there. At this point in the story of the new Legion I found myself having to organize the first six books and keep a mental list of all the clues dropped here and there, as that’s the way Bendis is telling this story - Here a little, there a little - leaving the reader with a “Some Assembly Required” sort of homework assignment.
This one panel (now in retrospect) is interesting, in that Bendis will be working on the Justice League in the future and plans to include the Legion in his plans there - somehow.

Of course Issue #6 made a big splash with fans of GL, as the alternate cover for it featured Gold Lantern, a new member about whom little was known at the time. Amusingly, Monster Boy (at this time) seems to have a penchant for Twentieth Century monsters - whenever he changes into one.
Lastly I find a place to smile in all the turmoil within this issue - in one panel, that reminds me of the Legion of my youth … and I’ll close with that … … …

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It is interesting that Bendis uses a cover from the Morrison run of JLA in the mid-90s which is probably my favorite JLA of all time.

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I read Era 1, Bronze Age.

I’m not sure where, but I’m almost certain I’ve read this story before. It wasn’t here, but I know I don’t own these issues so I’m not sure where it may have been.

And one of the reasons I really liked this always because it’s a very simple and straightforward one and done type story. There’s no real lingering plot threads, everything’s explained pretty well in it.

I liked how it focused on just a few Legion characters. It reminds me of how back in the day the Avengers had a sidewalk that would tell stories of various Avengers members. Maybe it was Avengers Spotlight, or Avengers Solo. just giving these characters some place to have your own stories without having their own limited series it seems like something the legion could easily do if it’s fan base was large enough.

If I had to nitpick anything with the story it might be that at first it seemed like they would never be able to catch up with Kantuu. Which is why I assumed Kantuu stopped an attacked another planet, but then we’re able to beat him to earth. I suppose the throw away line of burning out the engines covers that though.

Overall…enjoyed it a lot.

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Thanks for joining in on the Bronze age reading this time around @Meisaj !

I like the smaller ensemble stories occasionally as well. Sometimes there will be a second smaller story doing that as well in the Legion comics.
I have to admit I wasn’t thrilled seeing a magical genie on the cover for these. That sort of character is more in the fantasy realm than the sci-fi genre that I envision Legion to be in…although I guess we do have Mordru and now Dr. Fate, don’t we?

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There was some sort of connection between the Djinn and the Guardians of OA. I’ve never figured out if the colored energies that the various Lanterns bandy about are Magic or Tech. They seem to have elements of both at times. By the way… issue 266 has a full page ad for Sea Monkeys


Sea Monkeys! Sea Monkeys! Sea Monkeys!

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Is that from a comic you own or is that from another digital site?

It’s not uncommon for me to find piles of Legion of Superheroes comics from this time period at flea markets for a bargain.

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I had sea monkeys in high school. On a whim I bought some, not from the back of a comic book, but still. Sea monkeys ruled. For the short period of time that they lived that was.

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So I think I’ve made my feeling clear on Griffen era, but I made my way through it (and taking one/two issues at a time isn’t bad). Again, I think 22 9 panel pages just feels dense. But I do like this style of story, where the whole world was remade and needs to be saved. And I did like the art.

I read The Legion series recently (it was hard to stop after last time) so I just skimmed this issue, but I really enjoyed the arguments between Invisible Kid and Saturn Girl about the Progeny. It hits home having lived through the trauma vs an outside observer, and I like Lyle reciting Legion charter to Saturn Girl.

It was also nice that they revisited the Progeny, it was easily a thread that could have been dropped and did feel like a completed story.

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I never read the Giffen Era if that’s what you’re calling the Five Years Later Run. in fact I gave up on the legion (pretty much) after they wrote Superboy out of existence. {He was my favorite character}.
Years later I collected the entire series in the 25 cent bin at a Local Comic Shop, but except for an occasional looksee (Just to see if they had come to their senses) I stayed away until the Legionnaires book started just before Zero Hour.
When I did finally read the 5YL run, I read it all at once and found it seemed more coherent.
To me … the Legion is at its best when it is bright and hopeful concerning the future - making it a place you wish would get here soon, rather than a dystopian place where members die once a month or year and the earth is destroyed that seems to hold little reason to look forward to it.
Just my 2 cents.

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It’s a scan from the comic [266] near the back of the book. I still own almost every Legion Comic I ever bought or was bought for me from the time I learned to read.
I scanned most of those comics back in 2014? when the legion disappeared from print, and they are rarely of any use now — But I like that I have them. Oh BTW here’s the original House Ad for 267.

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Incredible house ad. The size of it reminds me of when they were promoting that giant-sized
Treasury Edition “The Bible” back in the mid-70s.

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Oh I agree absolutely that’s what draws me to Legion and frankly from a branding point of view that’s when they’re their best. We can get all the dystopian futures we want elsewhere.

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Agreed. It feels like we got to explore that world a little more as a result of them taking the time in the Legion story to look around the environment like that.

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And one thing I love about reading Legion comics, and that these Legion comics do is well, is that they perpetually are 1,000 years in the future. I like that parity with “modern era” comics.

I read the Bendis interview recently where he talked about moving around in the Legion timeline and took it as a move away from this paradigm of always being exactly 1,000 years in the future.

I suppose 1,004 or 1,010 years in the future isn’t bad, but if he starts jumping decades into the future for a story it might lose a little something that I enjoy about the Legion.

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Yeah Bendis’ recent 2 issue “Future State” thing looks an awful lot like the dreary Giffen 5 years later stuff.

I caught a little of Aeon Flux last night on AXS and earlier this winter checked on a little Brave New World on Amazon when we had it, both very dystopian Futures very depressing fare. I wonder if anybody has written it uplifting future state for our world other than Legion.

I do want to note that I feel that Brian Bendis did a wonderfully uplifting thing with his United Planets move in the current Superman comics. That was actually pretty neat.

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Time to post this month’s Legion fun and file this one in the ol’ Archive! Feel free to comment on this one anytime though, the reading bar is always open 24 / 7!!!

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Alright, I need to start contributing. I read all of the Legion & Legionnaires material b4 I joined. Not trying to brag…just been reading the new comics. But I can & will start doing rereads. I obviously don’t remember everything I’ve read. So it’s been long enough that I can refresh :grin:

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