I really liked the couples/pairings as they were all interesting in their own ways.The royal Princess Projectra with the street of hard knocks Karate Kid. Social outcast Timberwolf with kind/caring/devoted Light(ning) Lass, the gregarious Ultra Boy with the demure Phantom Girl, goofy unsure of self worth Bouncing Boy with outgoing Triplicate then Duo Damsel. Emotionally charged Energy without body Wildfire and soulful Dawnstar. Stoic dependable Blok with studious White Witch. Mon-El and Shadow Lass never really seemed all that memorable to me. Always felt to me like Cosmic Boy/Night Girl was rather weak relationship as I think Cosmic Boy/Saturn Girl would have been a better match though her connecting with Lightning Lad does reflect many teen romances where the best friend is odd man out and the more outgoing/impulsive/dangerous guy gets the gal instead of the quieter/serious/intellectual guy.

Another couple I remember was Star Boy and Dream Girl. A match made in the stars or clouds? I feel lucky to be able remember the adult Legion story. I'm sure it was a great idea for one issue, but to have had to live by that one story evermore... that ought to have put people off from showing futures without a lot of caveats and possible outs!

Could there ever be too many Legionnaires? For me I wanted to know that there were a hundred... kind of like Pokemon (pocket monsters) was much later, 'collect' them all! They tried it with Lilo & Stitch too where there were all the other number experiments out there somewhere. You can't tell me having a lot of super characters is bad when it seemed the more there might be the more I wanted to find out about. I think you could easily have too many for a good story though, so X-Men and Avengers need to have around five or six maximum active in a team per story with others in sub-plot appearances or doing something else somewhere to be told at another time or place.

Jim Shooter could be really sharp and dynamic at times, but sometimes he seemed to overreach beyond either his or an artists' ability (like not having a regular one or wearing one out with late changes). That whole Korvac things could've been good, it had some moments, but only without the tennis outfits Korvac and girlfriend seemed determined to wear, and with a regular artist throughout, and with a much more fulfilling (full) end in mind. Secret Wars with The Beyonder was just a repeat except maybe Zeck tried his very best whereas Perez had said something about never working with Shooter again. Obviously Valiant comics sold very well for a reason, he could tell a good story, but sometimes it seemed to me he didn't really pay off in his endings however partial like others could. Maybe he thought making permanent additions or changes, making his mark, was doing that, but that's the making history fan thing, not the wrapping up a great trip with a satisfying conclusion and setting up the springboard for the next trip. If it were easy everyone would've been doing it however.

Farrar, I know just what you mean about the allure of pairing up Legion couples, but unlike you and brutalis, I liked the Cosmic Boy-Night Girl relationship. I had become a Legion-reader earlier on, with Adventure 312, so that I knew about and liked the Subs.

And that's what I liked about the CB-NG romance... He was the BMOC, she was part of the Nerds Club. Yet Cosmic Boy was crazy about her and never thought for a moment that Night Girl was in any way not his equal or somehow unworthy to be his girlfriend.

BTW, just noticed Lemonade Lad in the right background of Adventure 350. Colossal Boy brought out his Easter uniform, I guess!

When I was reading during the Levitz/Giffen 80s run, I really liked Wildfire and Dawnstar's relationship. Mon-El's relationship with Shadow Lass never quite clicked for me. One would think that being a ghost for 1000 years in the Phantom Zone, Lar would want to have as much physical contact and love that he could get once he was freed ie multiple flings or relationships.

That's one problem I had with the numerous reboots and relaunches over the years. It presented DC with a chance to shake up these relationships and instead posit different pairings to generate more drama and different kinds of tension. However, what usually occurred was that these traditional pairings would seep into the books sooner or later, for better or worse. 

Have they collected up those Dave Cockrum Superboy & the Legion stories yet? That would make a must-have volume! I had a bunch of the issues once but not all; there were a few he did before Legion was made part of the title too.

Thanks, Hal. It's second nature for me to recall such specifics because I only read comics for 5 years (yep, I am that mythical creature Weisinger and others targeted back then: the 5 year fan ). I started reading DC, a year later started Marvel, and then like clockwork--5 years later, stopped DC, a year after that, stopped Marvel.  It wasn't anything I planned, my comics reading/buying just. petered. out.
So my frame of reference is much smaller than yours, as I stopped reading comics at around the time of what I guess is today generally considered the early days of the Bronze Age. Also I didn't read as many series as you and others have (based on what I've seen posted in threads such as 50 Years Ago, 40 Years Ago, 30 Years Ago, etc.).  I only followed the Legion in Adventure, the FF and Avengers, was able to find them on the stands and also bought a lot of back issues of these series (thanks to a fantastic little collectibles store right on my block). Due to mainly to spotty  distribution, keeping up with other series (JLA, Titans, Wonder Woman, Sub-Mariner) was really hit or miss for me...but I'm pretty familiar with the 1960s LSH, FF and Avengers. 



I think at least part of it was due to a group of really rabid LSH readers who  continually petitioned DC to get the LSH back in a regular series (this was just after I'd stopped reading comics, or I likely would have become involved!). Anyway, they were active letter-writers, published their own Legion newsletter, organized Legion-related publicity campaigns and most importantly kept in touch with DC.  Strangely enough some months ago, at a totally non-comics related event,  I met someone who had been part of this group.  I knew his name from the TwoMorrows book The Best of the Legion Outpost (I've bought a lot of TwoMorrows books in the past few years).  It's a small world after all!

It's been awhile since I have read a LSH comic. Couple of questions. I guess Superboy's memories were removed every time he returned to the past by someone in the Legion? Or was it just select memories that would affect him as Superman such as Supergirl's existence? Was Mon-El permanently cured from lead poisoning or did he have to take something everyday to prevent the lead poisoning from returning?