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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 4, 2016 16:02:17 GMT -5
Found this  And this  In a box of comics I kind of forgot I have. (Half my comics are stored in my aunt's basement.) Are these good ones to read? The second one features the story in which Lightning Lad looses his arm to the Super Moby Dick of Space...so, obviously, yes. Cool. Anyone know if these are (generally) full stories or if they're chopped up ala '70s Marvel Tales reprints? |
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Post by dupersuper on Jan 4, 2016 16:11:34 GMT -5
I have the second one: they're all full stories.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 4, 2016 17:37:26 GMT -5
I just got to the point (in 1984) where The Legion of Super-Heroes split into two comics. /244963.jpg) This is the last issue of the old series that was titled "The Legion of Super-Heroes." It had started as "Superboy" in the late 1940s and eventually became the home of the Legion of Super-Heroes under the title "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes" (#222 to #258). With #259, it became "The Legion of Super-Heroes." The month after LSH #313, The Legion of Super-Heroes #1 appeared. It was a deluxe comic book, ptinted on higher-quality paper, and only available in comic-book stores.  This series is where the main Legion chronology was focused, continuing with the Levitz/Giffen/Mahlstedt team. The first five issues featured a major revenge plot as numerous LSH villains gathered and made a pact where each of them swore to kill a Legionnaire. The storyline ended with the death of one major character (I won't say who so as not to spoil it for the beginning LSH fans who haven't read it yet). It's a very compelling storyline. I read it a year after it appeared in LSH #1 because it was reprinted in Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #326. You see, while the main storyline continued in the new LSH #1, the companion series "Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes" followed different groups and storylines and had a different art team.  But only for a year. After that year had ended, they started reprinting the stories from the new Legion of Super-Heroes magazine.  I remember the five-issue Legion of Super-Villains storyline (from LSH #1 to #5 or Tales #326 to #330) very well. I read that particular storyline for the fourth or fifth time a year ago. (I recommend listening to Blue Oyster Cult's Fire of Unknown Origin album while reading it.) But I don't remember anything from Tales of The Legion of Super-Heroes #314 to #325. The covers look familiar. But I don't remember the stories at all. I remember being kind of disappointed with this series at the time, but I bought them all, hoping it would get better. As you do. I'm actually looking forward to reading them again! I was flipping through the first issue and the art is very good. I wonder if my disappointment back in the 1980s had more to do with my expectations than what was actually on the page? I was in college by then and not reading as many comics, so maybe I just bought these automatically and flipped through them and didn't really read them that close? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 4, 2016 17:44:25 GMT -5
 Reptisaurus, this is one of the BEST COMICS OF THE SILVER AGE! I am jealous that you've never read it and have a copy and are able to read it now. Not just any old Moby Dick! Not just a Super-Moby Dick! Not just a Moby Dick of Space! He's the SUPER-MOBY DICK OF SPACE! (I will admit the hyphen has always annoyed me. It should be "The Super Moby-Dick of Space." The other way, it looks like the creature is a special kind of Dick, the Super-Moby kind.)) |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 4, 2016 18:10:11 GMT -5
Cool. I really like the contents of the Digests but I wish they weren't so freakin' small!
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 4, 2016 21:34:04 GMT -5
Reptisaurus, this is one of the BEST COMICS OF THE SILVER AGE! I am jealous that you've never read it and have a copy and are able to read it now. Not just any old Moby Dick! Not just a Super-Moby Dick! Not just a Moby Dick of Space! He's the SUPER-MOBY DICK OF SPACE! (I will admit the hyphen has always annoyed me. It should be "The Super Moby-Dick of Space." The other way, it looks the creature is a special kind of Dick, the Super-Moby kind.)) Right! He's not just one of those regular Moby Dicks of Space. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2016 8:04:22 GMT -5
Reptisaurus, this is one of the BEST COMICS OF THE SILVER AGE! I am jealous that you've never read it and have a copy and are able to read it now. Not just any old Moby Dick! Not just a Super-Moby Dick! Not just a Moby Dick of Space! He's the SUPER-MOBY DICK OF SPACE! (I will admit the hyphen has always annoyed me. It should be "The Super Moby-Dick of Space." The other way, it looks the creature is a special kind of Dick, the Super-Moby kind.)) Right! He's not just one of those regular Moby Dicks of Space. Nothing is just "regular" when it comes to LoSH. Everything has to be "super" something. This is part of what makes them the best. They're so ridiculous. AND lovable. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 5, 2016 15:34:12 GMT -5
I just read Tales of the Legion #314 (pictured above with the White Witch on the cover) and it's pretty good. They're gathering up the loose ends of a story thread from a few issues ago (Ontiir of the Science Police and his involvement with the Dark Circle) with Brainy, Sun Boy and Supergirl (in her 1980s headband phase) attending his court-martial for treason. He escapes in a spaceship and the Legionnaires chase him to the Dark Circle planet and then it's continued. It's a good choice of Legionnaires. Brainy and Kara are two of my favorites. (The headband is STUPID but there's a certain nostalgic charm to this 1980s relic.) And Sun Boy isn't one of my favorites but he's grown on me a bit, especially as his characterization as a bit of an arrogant jerk has been pretty consistent. He's awful enough to be a little annoying but seldom bad enough to be unlikeable.
And the art's very good! Terry Shoemaker and Karl Kesel.
The real highlight is the backup, the first of three parts on the origin of the White Witch. Art by George Tuska and inked by Karl Kesel. Tuska looks pretty awesome here. The White Witch and her sister Dream Girl are also favorites of mine. It's cool to see their background in such detail. And it's great to see a veteran of the Golden Age like Tuska (who gets a bad rap as an artist sometimes) looking so great this late in the Bronze Age!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 5, 2016 16:22:53 GMT -5
I read Tales of the Legion #315 and #316 while I had a very leisurely (but small) lunch.  I think I like these early issues of Tales of the Legion better than the last few issues of Legion of Super-Heroes before it moved into the deluxe series with a new first issue. #315 finishes the current Dark Circle storyline (for now!).  And Tales of the Legion #316 features a one-shot story with Cosmic Boy and some of the Subs (members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, for all you newcomers). Stone Boy is kind of hilarious. And Polar Boy is always so full of hero worship for the Legion, but also a bit defensive about the Subs (as usual). Of course the heart of the Subs is Night Girl, who has had some nice moments through the years, and that includes a few scenes in Tales of the Legion #316. And the origin of the White Witch wraps up in #316 and it's a doozy! More great Tuska/Kesel art. And appearances by several of the LSH's most famous foes! I'm a bit sorry I don't remember these comics well at all! The covers of #314 and #315 look familiar to me. But if somebody had shown me the cover of #316, I'm sure I would have said that I've never seen it before. I was in college and working at the same time (and I went overseas for two months over the summer when a few of these issues came out) and I was also not enjoying many of the comics I had loved just a year or two previously. (Although I was still buying a lot of comics that I didn't really like that much.) So I must have just bought these, looked at them when I got them and then put them away. But they're pretty good! Especially the Tuska art on the White Witch origin! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 6, 2016 12:10:41 GMT -5
Usually, when I read a number of issues of the same comic book in sequence, I only read one or two issues in a day. But for some reason, Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes has been addictive and I've read eight issues in two days. Usually when I read a run, I'm reading a series that I'm familiar with (which is why I have all the issues, naturally). I think the fact that I don't remember these stories is making this re-reading that much more compelling. And I have come across a couple of storylines that I do remember! This one in particular:  I remembered that as soon as I saw the cover. And I just finished this one:  And I remembered that Dawnstar and Brainiac 5 are trapped on a rather primitive planet where the locals think Dawny is a winged demon. (It's continued in the next issue and I'm having trouble saving the next issue for tomorrow because I don't remember how it ends!) |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 9, 2016 10:58:16 GMT -5
Well, I read through to Tales of the Legion #325.  That's the last of the Karl Kesel issues. That means I read the Kesel run in 12 parsecs. #326 is where they start reprinting the stories published a year previously in the new Legion of Super-Heroes comic. (I've read the next seven or eight issues fairly recently but the Legion of Super-Villains storyline in #326 to #330 is an LSH classic, so I'm going to keep reading.) #323 wrapped up the Dawnstar/Brainiac 5 story and the next two issues wrapped up the Dark Circle subplot that's been moving in and out of the main stage for a while. It turns out that the Dark Circle ... I don't want to spoil it. I will say I was a bit underwhelmed, but then I'm not much of a Dark Circle fan. Give me the Fatal Five any day! |
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Post by Batflunkie on Jan 10, 2016 7:18:03 GMT -5
Always kind of wanted to get into LOSH (and with the "cosmic" element of DC being so sparse, I'll take what I can get), could anyone recommend me some issues to start with? I keep getting told to just read Great Darkness Saga, but it really doesn't feel like that great of a jumping off point for someone new
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 10, 2016 12:55:04 GMT -5
Always kind of wanted to get into LOSH (and with the "cosmic" element of DC being so sparse, I'll take what I can get), could anyone recommend me some issues to start with? I keep getting told to just read Great Darkness Saga, but it really doesn't feel like that great of a jumping off point for someone new The Great Darkness Saga is a little over-rated. I would suggest starting with the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives. Just pick a volume. With so many consecutive stories in each volume, you should be able to figure out what's going on and it's bound to be something totally bonkers. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 10, 2016 21:30:46 GMT -5
I will always be grateful to TLOSH for teaching me that women have no Adam's apple. Otherwise I would never have been able to tell them apart. So thank you, Lightning Lass, for being revealed as impersonating your brother Lightning Lad and being caught because of this. Even all the heroes with X-Eay vision were fooled.
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Post by Action Ace on Jan 10, 2016 21:39:22 GMT -5
Always kind of wanted to get into LOSH (and with the "cosmic" element of DC being so sparse, I'll take what I can get), could anyone recommend me some issues to start with? I keep getting told to just read Great Darkness Saga, but it really doesn't feel like that great of a jumping off point for someone new For a single issue, I recommend Legion of Super Heroes Annual #1 from 1982. This era is probably a good one to get started unless you like Silver Age comics. Then picking out a Showcase or Archive from your local library might be a good idea. The trade titled Legion of Super Heroes: An Eye for an Eye collects the start of the 1984 Baxter series. I think there was one more trade that followed from this era. There is a big collected edition called Legion: The Curse. This collects Legion 297-313 plus the Annual #3. This would be right after The Great Darkness Saga. All of these comics are before the the jump aheads and reboots of the last quarter century. |
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