I've finished up to #50 now and I can kinda see more of your point about Polar Boy. Once the overall goal of the inner conspiracy was revealed, most if not all of the rest of the team was on board with their decision. Except Polar Boy who, once again, was questioning their decision, chiding them for not informing him any sooner as to what they had planned so he could consider any other possible options.

A reasonable request I would think but it underscores the idea that he may not have been fully ready for such responsibilities. It does point out a flaw with the reader's election poll being a popularity contest but again, I think it also forces the onus back onto the writer to fit such a choice into his stories. I think Levitz did well overall here with Polar Boy in that regard by showing his apparent limitations and the reactions and responses of the other Legionnaires to his role.

Plus, I gotta say, #50 was terrific. I know Giffen can be polarizing to fans for a myriad number of reasons but if you're gonna have a throw down with the Time Trapper, this issue more than delivered on that hype. I loved the build-up from the previous issue where Brainy believes that, despite their need to avenge Superboy's death and the wrong inflicted upon the team, it just may not be possible. His belief that everything he knew and/or fashioned in regards to time travel seems utterly wrong. Levitz put some strong emotion into those scenes and it carried over to #50. From the surprise co-conspirator who joined them to Brainy's taunting of the Trapper and his surprise weapon to face him to White Witch's refusal to sink to such measures to Mon-El's rage to what happened to Duo Damsel to the last battle scenes, Levitz and Giffen were great here, loved it.

I also received (and read) the treasury edition of Garth and Imra's wedding. Man, that was a quick wedding! I haven't read all that much of this period in the team's history but I loved the whole 70s groove vibe throughout this story. Bell bottoms and capes everywhere, certain hairstyles of the characters, it was fun to see and read. The overall story was good and epic (I love Wildfire's knee jerk reactions here. Pi$$ed over Superboy bailing on rescuing Garth and Imra, wait, what, history has been changed? Seriously?....Oh okay, fine, how do we fix it then? Drake can be such a hothead).

I was little taken aback though by the appearance of the Lunarites who kidnapped Garth and Imra. Descendants of the Chinese that settled (or conquered) the moon, they were yellow. Their leader looked like the long lost son of Yellow Claw. I halfway expected SP officer Jimmy Woo to show up and join the fight. Just didn't expect to see a stereotypical racial display like that here.

 

I've bean reading through every Legion story. Having just finished the Baxter series (so sad that it's over ) I'm now onto the "Five Years Later" 1989 series, and I have to say, it's tough sledding. I'm really not enjoying it much. I can't stand Giffen's art, and the stories are confusing. Very little explanation as to what's going on, and they've created new timelines (without explanation) two issues in a row! That's ridiculous. I think I'm now in the "Glorithverse" or whatever it's called. Anyway, I told myself I'd make it through all of the Legion of Super-Heroes comics (at this rate it'll take me years) so I'll just keep plugging along, waiting anxiously for the "Archie Legion".

I'm almost there myself with my re-reading. Part of my problem initially with the 5YL run back then was I wasn't all that familiar yet with the characters' actual names and back stories. No one is in costume, everyone is being referred to by their given name and Giffen's altered depictions of them wasn't helping me either. Throw in new characters and as you said, a couple of new timelines within a few issues of each other and I was gonzo confused by it all. The nine panel grid Giffen used was distinctive and even though I was confused by it, it was something I wanted to understand, to become invested in, dark and foreboding or not.

So now after all these years, I have a better comprehension of the team overall, it's history and characters so I'm actually looking forward to diving into it with a fresh set of eyes and understanding. (Though time travel paradoxes still give me a headache).

I do like Giffen's art though. His Legion art was my first real introduction to the team from around the time of the Great Darkness Saga. So his overall style and look define the Legion and the characters the most for me. Which is why I'm excited mostly for his resuming his collaboration with Levitz here near the end of the Baxter series. I've made it up #52 and I can already see his influence growing. The trial issue of the team dealing with the consequences of Brainy's action to defeat the Time Trapper and the overall conspiracy was intense and helped illustrate the growing seeds of division within the team. Brainy's defense was insightful for his character and I thought his parting scenes with Luornu were very good.

But Giffen had most of the characters out of costume (foreshadowing perhaps?) except for Polar Boy. I will admit, I do hate his tick of having that one little sliver of ice breath exhaling from Brek in nearly every scene he's in. Yes, I get it, he's cold-natured, he has ice powers, message received, ugh!

Still, I'm glad they showed the repercussions of the conspiracy, Brainy leaving, Tasmia taking Lar back home to heal (and bonding to him in what looks like quite the permanent way) instead of just glossing things back over to normal. But even going back to routine matters isn't as simple as Magnetic Kid, Tellus and Ayla discover on Braal. (Is she trying to hit on Pol here? Seemed like she was flirting a bit with him and either he wasn't having it or didn't catch onto it).

Now though, I have to wait to fill in some of the remaining issues I've missing from the run. I bought a few small sets off eBay to finish it so while I wait for those to arrive, I can dive into the batch of Superboy and the Legion issues I just received. In my effort to track down Chuck and Luornu's wedding, I came across a set of issues from #197-215.  Bates and Cockrum, eh? Sounds good to me, will dive into those starting this weekend.

I would argue that the series rewards such efforts, but then I'm a fan of the 5YL era. The first few arcs are closer to a science-fiction novel than to a traditional super-hero comic, actually; there is a sense that this is serious, that we are heading toward an ending. The status quo from the previous volumes has been upended and there is no inkling that it will be reestablished; characters have grown older, some have died, more die in the course of this story and some must live with the bad life choices they've made. It's definitely not "more adventures of our sympathetic crowd of superpowered teenagers", but rather "middle-aged people you used to care for struggle to do good as the world collapses around them".

My first reservation about the run is that the book goes too far in that direction. I was eager to see how our now-old characters would manage to reclaim their heroic heritage and show us that hope was warranted after all, but that's not how things went. From bad to worse, events just pushed the cast deeper and deeper into despair until there was little else to do but pull the plug and reboot. My second reservation is that in its transparent desire to kill our sacred cows, the book shortchanges many classic characters, totally ignore others, and gives an undue importance to very minor or entirely new ones. Not that new characters are a bad thing, but new characters who are retrofitted into the continuity and said to always have been important annoy me to no end (Impulse and Kid Quantum here, or Sentry or Blue Marvel over in the MCU).

I was really enjoying 5YL fresh when it was out. Totally different interpretation for the LSH which was a more hard edged science fiction style not seen before. It took the "normal" classic DC optimistic future fantasy tropes and turned it all upside down. There was lots to enjoy and personally I think of it as an alternate future and outside of LSH continuity.  

Yes, that is absolutely true. Around that time, it was a frequent thing to take long established characters and run them through the grinder, making them darker and cynical (Batman, Green Arrow, or all the DC cosmic characters in Twilight. The Bwah-ha-ha Justice League was quite an outlier).



That's fair, especially since the new direction eventually led to a dead-end that required a reboot. I enjoyed the ride, personally, and the fact that these characters were already well established made their travails more poignant, but if there was no viable exit strategy then an Elseworlds series might have been a better idea.



I didn't mind the many unexplained aspects, personally, provided they seemed to be based on undisclosed information and not on sheer improvisation. I could have done without most of the story elements that (apparently) were based on long-standing fan speculations. It would also have been cool to add one comment about the fate of Wildfire, or to give us a smidgen of information about Kent Shakespeare!



Laurel as a Supergirl analog was just great! I loved the idea that the strongwoman of the team would look strong. The soap opera aspect with Rond and Querl was stretched too thin, however, and never paid off.

One thing I absolutely loved about the 5YL era is how its rewriting of the Legion's history explained the origin of all those human-looking aliens who have super-powers (tying the Legion with the Invasion! event). That was an awesome piece of retroactive continuity. (On the other hand, the "Garth is actually Proty" retcon made me a little sick. Talk about jumping the horse, especially since that massive revelation had zero impact. It was totally gratuitous).