I'm a long-time Legion fan and have followed almost every incarnation of the team as it was published, the exception being the DnA/Coipel Legion series. I dropped both LSH & Legionnaires when the time-lost team returned to the 30th Century (around issue...100?).

Why'd I drop the books? As I recall, there were financial considerations (as is usually the case), but I also hadn't been enjoying the books for some time. I didn't follow Legion Lost, etc. b/c I needed a break, I guess, although I've since picked up Legion Lost (haven't read it yet), and will probably pick up the DnA series, eventually.

The thing that's always confused me (ok, ONE of the things that's always confused me) is that, for all the effort DC puts into making LSH a viable franchise, they put remarkably little of the concept's brilliance into collected trades. They shouldn't JUST be getting around to reprinting the Levitz years. Seriously, the reprint program for Legion should be as deep as the one for JLA.
Dave Ziegler | Email | 05.27.08 - 1:29 am | #

Though I'm a long time comics fan I'm definitely more Marel-centric in my reading and couldn't tell you anything about the previous Legion stories. I did pick up the recent reboot by Waid (mainly due to his work on FF) and really enjoyed it, but once he left the title it got dropped in one of my periodic culls.
Alex Smith | Email | 05.27.08 - 1:41 am | #

I remember being in elementary school in the early 1980s and a friend had a Legion comic...the only thing I remember about it is that at one point Superboy is referred to as "the boy who will grow up to be Earth's greatest champion," and it made me think, "Well, nothing bad's going to happen to him, then."

I didn't really get into the Legion until 1996, when Legionnaires #40 came out -- the cover was cheesecake that told a story, and it intrigued me enough that I bought a copy. Then I started buying both current issues and back issues, going back to slightly before the Zero Hour reboot, as well as a few 1980s quarter-bin issues and "The Great Darkness Saga" trade paperback.

And the closest I've ever come to bailing out were this most recent reboot, until Jim Shooter came along...and the first few issues of Legion Lost (which I grew to like by issue 5, then grew to love by issue 8 -- I just had to get used to it, because that series was quite a jolt after all the rebooted Legion's dances and beach parties.)
Brian Smith | Email | 05.27.08 - 2:46 am | #

I've been reading the Legion since the days of the Blue Ribbon digest reprints, and I've stuck with them through every reboot. Even when I give up and say - "this isn't MY Legion anymore" - I always come back and have to back peddle to see what I missed. But I've been reading Legion currently since at least the 5 year gap...soft reboots be damned. I'm not giving up again no matter how many cloned Legions they want to try and throw at me. Er....I hope they don't try that cloned group of teens again. That was just confusing.
Grendel Red | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 3:58 am | #

I was a big Legion fan back in the day (followed them through goofy female space pirate days, etc). I loved the five year gap stories, but basically stopped reading after the Zero Hour reboot.

I missed the Abnett? Legion, though I've heard it was pretty good. I got back on for the latest reboot, but lost interest when Shooter took over (though my interest had fallen off before that, really).

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Johns/Perez Legion book, though. At least it'll be pretty.
Vincent J. Murphy | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 4:36 am | #

I started reading with the Great Darkness Saga, tracked down the preceding Levitz-Giffen issues and stuck with it through the Levitz era. Economics forced me to drop it, which I did with the first 5 Years Later...but later I caved, and I ended up picking up all the back issues about a year and a half before the Zero Hour reboot. Those Giffen-Bierbaum issues were dense, but the whole 5 Years Later/magic revamp was a big mistake. The Zero Hour reboot was the most successful, I thought, but the charm was erased by the Abnett/Lanning stories, which were great stories but the tone of the book changed significantly. I wanted to like the recent Waid revamp...but it never really clicked for me. The best, strongest run the title has had in the last 30 years was the Levitz run. So, I'm hoping the Geoff Johns manages to relaunch the "Levitz Legion" that we've seen in Action Comics so recently.
Bart Jarmusch | Email | 05.27.08 - 5:08 am | #

I started reading the Legion at Zero Hour and have been a faithful fan since. I was saddened to see them reboot it with the Waid series but have enjoyed the result.
Jacob Dunman | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 5:09 am | #

I've always found the Legion intriguing but it is exactly those reboots you discussed that has kept me away. No matter how good the title might be, history has proven time and time again that major changes are around the corner at all times. Besides, that's a lot of backstory to catch up on. Too much to keep track of and it's always changing.
Woody! | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 5:26 am | #

The first I heard of the Legion was in that crossover with the Byrne-Superman that sort of destroyed it as a viable concept... then I found a Dutch translation of the Saturn Girl/Cosmic Boy wedding treasury edition, then later bought a shitload of Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes comics. Didn't read much of them after the Five Year Leap.
Martin Wisse | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 6:02 am | #

It really is simple. I loved the Legion since first coming across them in Adventure Comics, pulled in by the Neal Adams covers and captured by the idea of a bunch of friends in the 30th century, of somewhere Superboy and Supergirl could go to be themselves and belong. But each re-boot takes the LSH further away from the one I knew. It's post-modernist theory in practise - the different elements of the LSH get shuffled up differently each time, and the surface is changed, but each time it means less to me. There is nothing more disdainful of an audience than the continual reinvention of a character's history. It shows contempt, and it deserves such. And so I don't care anymore.
colsmi | Email | 05.27.08 - 6:08 am | #

I was a haphazard reader of Legion, picking up the occasional issue here and there, until the very end of the post-ZH Legion series. I was a fan of the concept of the team, and knew a good bit about them, but never a regular reader until that point.
CandidGamera | Email | 05.27.08 - 6:08 am | #

I've been a fan of Legion since The Great Darkness Saga, and loved everything up until the Zero Hour reboot, and it really hasn't been the same since. Varying degrees of awful since then, as a matter of fact.

With Shooter rumored to be leaving the title already, and considering how awesome the Johns/Frank grown-up Legion in the recent Action Comics arc was, I'm hoping they relaunch the title with that Legion, which would please me a great deal.
Matt Smylie | Email | 05.27.08 - 6:10 am | #

I'm not a big Legion fan. Picked up an issue every once in a blue moon as a youth in the late '70s/early '80s, and read some Silver Age reprints somewhere or other during that period.

I think the problem I've usually had with the Legion is that there's too much silliness in it to take seriously, and too much serious in it to take... sillily?

Anyhoo, I did read the Legion for extended periods twice. Once, when they did the big '80s "dark and gritty" revamp. I think largely because anything "darker and grittier" appealed to me then. Stopped around the time they blew up the Earth, as I realized after umpteen issues I still only had the vaguest notion of what was going on, and it wasn't all that much fun.

Then I read the '90s series (the one that had Xs and Monstress and the little bug guy.) That was a pretty fun series. Can't remember exactly why I started reading it (maybe following Xs over from IMPULSE?) or why I stopped. Possibly stopped because I've never been big on "teen" titles in general - wasn't all that big on my own teen years, and not that keen on vicariously reliving them later. I seem to have a limit of a year or two on any teen-oriented title before getting sick of it.
suedenim | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 6:15 am | #

My first exposure to the Legion was in Who's Who but I could never bring myself to buying the series. It wouldn't be until Legionnaires that I'd buy a Legion series every month, which I did for a couple of years until the Final Night miniseries.

Then I got divorced and comics took a big back seat to getting my life in order.

I looked at the first issue of Waid's new take on it and didn't hate it so I may look into snagging the trades when time and money permit.
De | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 6:52 am | #

I read the Legion on and off up until the Zero Hour reboot, but the five years later stories really, in retrospect, took a lot of the shine off of the Legion for me.

I mean, first off, DC skipped ahead five years, made everything grim and gritty, had all these story points floating around not explained, so that's alienating enough. Then a mere five or so issues in, they decided it was time to fix the varying continuity issues that Crisis on Infinite Earths, but hey, let's not really explain who a lot of these characters are or who they're replacing! And then to add to the headache, let's also have a story with a bunch of teenaged clones of the Legion running around!

By the time the Zero Hour reboot came along, I couldn't have cared less about the Legion. The Giffen-Bierbaums stories were just too convoluted, too messy, and frankly impenetrable. I'm sure I've missed out on some great stuff (I generally love Abnett and Lanning's work) but between the late 80s-early 90s run and all the reboots since, I figured, why bother?
Jack | 05.27.08 - 6:57 am | #

I'm generally a fan of the idea of the Legion, and I've probably picked up just about every reboot for at least a year, but none have ever really made me want to read more. I really enjoyed the Legion Lost series, but after that ended, it felt like the fumbled the ball as that was really strong. I'm also disappointed that series will probably never be collected.
Jason | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 7:07 am | #

I started reading Legion when Mark Waid rebooted it, and very much loved it. Now I'm getting the Showcases (working my way through v2 right now) and I'm constantly giggling at how fun they are.

I'm 24, btw.
Matt Park | Email | 05.27.08 - 7:07 am | #

I've read only a handful of Legion stories. Some have been just fine, but for the most part they haven't really made me all that hungry for more.
Todd Lawrence | Email | 05.27.08 - 7:19 am | #

I've been following Legion since the late 1970s -- around the time of the 60-cent Giant issues, right before Earthwar began. I've followed it from series to series, and I have to say I've enjoyed the various reboots and restarts the series has had. But when JSA #1 showed that teaser panel of Dawnstar's arm and flight ring, I realized that I really missed the Legion I grew up with.

I enjoy the Waid/Kitson/Shooter Legion, but man do I want to see more of the Johns outgrowth of the Shooter/Levitz/Giffen Legion.
Rob S. | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 7:31 am | #

The 2nd LSH Showcase is out? Hot Damn!

I got hooked by the blue ribbon digests, though only two of them (one with Urthlo & the Space Mutiny, the other introducing Ultra Boy (and Marla Latham, Legion Liaison!) I read and re-read those until I got old enough to go to the comic shop myself, and was confused by the slightly older versions of the characters I loved (especially Sun Boy sleeping around).

I didn't really get back on board until the ZH reboot.
Mike Zeidler | Email | 05.27.08 - 7:34 am | #

I started with the Waid reboot and enjoyed it, though I wait for the trades.

I got hooked on the first Showcase and am waiting for Previews to finally carry v2. I have no idea why it's on Amazon and not here. I might have to suck it up and buy the Archives.

Now I find myself professing to be a Legion fan. The concept really works. I once described it as "X-men lite" and then a good comic book fan schooled me properly and showed me how the X-men ripped off Legion...and the original did it better. Boy was he right.

The reboots don't bug me too much, since the elastic continuity of the DC universe through the Crisis catastrophes is something I'm oddly fascinated by. The old stories are still canon, and yet they didn't happen.
Gyuss Baaltar | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 8:07 am | #

I love the Legion, always have but the continual reboots have left me cold. They're continually re-inventing the whell and it's completley unnecessary. Waid, who I laothe, had some interesting ideas but again, re-invented the wheel. Do we really neeed another version of all the characters and their origin stories? Just bring back the original Legion and tell new stories with them. The animated series has even given them an out for including Superboy/Superman.

I bought Waid's run out of curiosity; but it quickly lost my interest. Shooter's run has driven me away.

I really enjoyed the five year gap period but in retrospect it was a huge mistake. They should just ignore that it happened, then collect it in a trade for me.

*heh*
lankyguy | Email | 05.27.08 - 8:41 am | #

I grew up reading the stripped-cover Adventures and Superboys that my best friend inherited from his dad, entranced by the zillions of characters and the fact they used each other's real names. I become a devotee of the "Levitz Legion" in the late 80's and following faithfully until the Glorith reboot (even as I decried the erasure of Superboy).

Then, the Bierbaum Legion, coupled with truly amateurish art and coloring, punted me off the title. I glanced through Legionnaires but the past few reboots left me feeling like there was no trace of "my" Legion. (I did dip my toe in the first Waid "Legion as a movement" trade but found the art bland and the script clumsy).

So I have to admit that Brad Meltzer brought me back, via his truly sentimental take on the Legion in the Lightning Saga. It didn't make much sense, it was a little fan-ficcy, and . . . I loved it. Flat-out loved it.

That got me reading Action, and despite Gary Frank's increasingly creepy art--and Johns' characterization of Lightning Lad--I'm waiting with bated breach for the return of the "real" Legion! Hoorah!
gorjus | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 8:43 am | #

I had always known about the Legion (Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes is one the earliest books I remember reading) but didn't start picking it up on my own until about the start of the Baxter series and the whole (25-year-old spoiler) Leagion of Super Villains/Death of Karate Kid story arc.

I stuck with it through the 5 Year Later soft reboot, which I really, really liked. I thought it honored enough of what came before, but also acknowledged the heavy burden of trying to reconfigure a continuity where Superboy/Supergirl never existed. I liked the mystery... trying to piece together what had happened to everything in the 5 years, on top of trying to figure out who had been switched out/switched in continuity-wise. To me, it was a smart attempt to evolve the Legion mythos beyond what had come before.

I made the leap to the Legionnaires series after Zero Hour, but only stuck with it for about a year. I had a hard time telling if it was supposed to be a reboot or not. The whole setup with the Legion clones seemed cool, but then Zero Hour seemed to be a hard reboot... kinda. I don't know. We had a few characters from the 5 Year Later gang running around. I missed my old Legion too much, and moved on.

I think the only reason I haven't returned since is that I feel like I'd be too confused, plus it kind of shakes reader confidence that this series can be rebooted on a dime. I love the concept of the Legion, but the teen soap opera aspect of it really takes a hit when they decide to start fresh every time.
Mathew | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 9:10 am | #

I've had a few dalliances with Legion books in the past 20-something years. I've really wanted to like it but I've found the continuity (or lack of) to be impenetrable, thus I've mostly stayed away.

I think Mike's comment about revamps of the title not "ignoring what came before" has been the problem for me. If DC made a clean start on the book that didn't make me feel like I needed a degree in Legionomics before picking it up, I might give it a go. Otherwise, the devotion to the long and convoluted history of the team has always made it a "for members only" book, in my estimation.
philip | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 9:54 am | #

Q1. How many of you have been reading Legion for an extended period of time?

A1. I became a die-hard Legion-reader shortly after it became "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes". I collected everything new that was published -- including L.E.G.I.O.N. '89, etc al -- and collected every reprint I could get my hands on (Adventure Comics digest -- I miss you so!) The books were tough to find out on the High Plains of my youth, but they were worth the search. Their interconnected storylines, deep sense of continuity and relative isolation from the rest of the DC Universe added to their appeal.

My obsession with -- ahem -- "love of" the LSH eventually resulted in an encyclopedic knowledge of the pre-crisis LSH.

And I though Five Years Later was great.

Q2. How many of you were Legion fans, but had enough of the various tinkerings with the formula and dropped the book?

A2. This is the down-side of my love. When it became clear that the company didn't care about the Legion's history or its complex pantheon -- "Live Wire"?!? -- I quickly lost interest in the stories. I loved my Legion and if I can't have it nobody will do.

Q3. How many of you came on with one of the various reboots, attracted by the fresh starts they offered?

A3. I picked up the first TPB collection of the latest reboot at the library and thought it was clever but I could not reignite the passion of that first love. I didn't even finish the book. I'm afraid that the Legion will never be more than nostalgia to me now.

That said: Long Live the Legion!

-- SCAM
so-called "Austin Mayor"
http://austinmayor.blogspot.com
so-called "Austin Mayor" | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 10:08 am | #

I started following the Legion in the early '70s, when they were first taking over Superboy's title. I dropped out post-Earthwar, when the book seemed to lose direction and the art no longer appealed (I wonder whatever happened to Jimmy Janes? How did he ever get that gig in the first place?). I picked it up again circa "The Great Darkness Saga", and stuck around until Crisis on Infinite Earths, when all the energy and joy seemed to get sucked out of it. Plus that was when the frequent reboots began, which just made things irritating and confusing. I've peeked at various incarnations since then, but none of them grabbed me enough to stick around. Now I just roll my eyes when they announce another "bold new direction".
J. Kevin Carrier | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 10:31 am | #

I've had various encounters with the Legion over the years -- a supermarket 3-pack in the early 80s, of comics from three years before that for starters. I enjoyed those stories, but didn't have a frame of reference for them, as at least one was the end of a story and another had a cliffhanger. Then again, I was 11.

I've looked in from time to time and collected for about a year after Zero Hour. There was a TPB a few years back when the clone Superboy was dragged to the future for a while, which I liked. I also found Waid's run accessible, and bought all the trades.

I've seen the early legion and it holds no interest for me. I haven't really seen the Bierbaum years or the Five Years Later, more than one or two issues here and there. I'd love more TPBs of the 70's adventures.
Salamurai | Email | 05.27.08 - 10:49 am | #

I am an old school legion lover from the Dave Cockrum days straight up through the Levitz/Giffen up until right before the crisis reboot. Thought that was a huge mistake and haven't picked up their book since, but I have gotten their appearance in Brave and Bold and in Action. Mostly because they most resemble the Legion I remember.
awb | Email | 05.27.08 - 10:51 am | #

I got hooked on the Legion with Earthwar, and read it more or less continuously through the first few years of the Giffen/Bierbaums run. I got tired and bored and bowed out, and have never been back for a lasting run since.

I had the good fortune to borrow a friend's run of the Abnett & Lanning years, and loved it. I can see why it turned off folks early on, though - the pacing isn't the best for monthly reading. It ought to be collected, as it reads superbly in larger chunks. I felt about it much he way I did about Warren Ellis' stint on Excalibur and then Grant Morrison's time on X-Men, that for the first time in years or decades I was actually reading about the characters I grew up caring about.

But the truth is that the Legion as I got invested in it won't ever be coming back. I see no prospect for the sustained gradual evolution that made Levitz's years such a joy, with characters getting real lasting successes and happiness along with the drama and grief. It doesn't fit the way Marvel and DC do comics now. There's just no prospect of a stretch of, say, five years without major events that would impose significant changes on the operating foundations of the Legion and their milieu, and without that kind of time scale, there's no long-term growth.

Geez, I sound like the Feral Child at the end of The Road Warrior. "That Legion now lives...only in my memories." But really, I'm not much interested in reading yet another reinvention of entities which will bear familiar labels. What I'd like to see now is a new series with a better-protected creative environment that could aim for the ambience without the hassles.
Bruce Baugh | Email | 05.27.08 - 10:57 am | #

The only Legion series I read for any length was the Waid/Kitson reboot because I found the first 2 TPBs in the library. I stopped reading Legion because the library didn't get any more, as far as I can tell, and the book was good but not wow-knock-me-out great enough for me to find out if the library had more or buy the rest.

To be honest, Legion fandom was always one of the things that kind of scared me off the title. Hitting rec.arts.comics way back in the day meant I was aware of Legion fandom well before I was aware of the Legion, and I developed a healthy fear of something that seemed to generate so many fanatical fans (I was a fan of Star Trek and Star Wars and Suicide Squad before I was aware there was such a rabid fandom for any of them, and the Trekkers and SW freaks and Suicide Squidders still scare me a bit sometimes). It also seemed so COMPLICATED from the outside looking in, which is as far as I'll go to accommodate the view that continuity is what prevents new readers from picking up comics.

Plus, my OCD comic book fandom quota was probably full from being a Uncanny X-Men fan (still off the wagon since the late 80's, except for X-Men First Class). I did kind of like the Legion cartoon, though never as much as BTAS or post-season 1 Justice League. Mostly, I really liked Triplicate Girl's character design and Bouncing Boy. It did get me a step closer to understanding, if not joining, the rabid Legion fandom.
Edward Liu | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 11:27 am | #

"Otherwise, the devotion to the long and convoluted history of the team has always made it a "for members only" book, in my estimation."

This is a good point, one I'd forgotten as a contributing factor to my leaving the '90s book. IMO, one of the best things about a "reboot" is that you can do things *differently* than they were the first time. But too often, they just redo what was done before, with some slight changes. For instance, if there ever was a story best left in Silver Age mothballs, it's that thing about Ultra Boy and the Giant Space Whale. And yet....
suedenim | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 12:18 pm | #

I've always been afraid of the Legion due to the daunting continuity (I started reading comics in the early '90s), but usually enjoyed seeing them crossover with Impulse or Superboy II or whoever.

I tried the Waid/Kitson reboot for about ten issues, and really like the version of the team in the cartoon/comics based on it.

I'm looking forward to seeing George Perez draw a million characters every two pages, but that's the extent of my interest in the new greatest hits-looking take.
caleb | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 1:13 pm | #

I started reading back in the Earth War days (when I was all of 10), and it was the first book where I sought out back issues to fill in the story gaps. I stuck with the Legion right up until the Zero Hour reboot, and at that point, I dropped the book cold-turkey.

My main reasoning was that I'd already read and knew the origin of the Legion and their early adventures, and didn't feel any need to read them again. My Legion had grown up with me and grown older with me, which had been one of the biggest appeals and reasons I'd enjoyed it so much. I felt little need to hop back into my "childhood" with them to relive a lost youth.

I think as I moved into my 20s, I was less interested in going back to my youth, and looking forward. The same thing didn't hit me when Superman or Batman rebooted after Crisis, but in those cases I was still in my mid-teens and able to absorb the idea of restarting. The Legion reboot hit when I was 26, and far less interested in starting over. I suspect this is one of the reasons why the Ultimate line doesn't work for me, either (or the recent OMD Spidey revamp, or any of the other 'back to the start' type books out there).
Jason | Email | 05.27.08 - 1:54 pm | #

Started with Earthwar. Actually the last issue of Earthwar, I think it was. Karate Kid holding Superboy for 5 seconds until the scan went over, beng the only non-super person to ever restrain a Kryptonian for that long. Yeah, I'm a LSH geek.

Anyway, I'm still buying it, aside from that 3 year break when I didn't buy any comics at all.

I actually like this last reboot pretty well. Better than the "archie" legion.

But it's not the same. And I agree with whomever above me said that unless somebody wants to commit to multiple years of issues without getting sucked into any DC crisis crap, it can never again be what Levitz had created. What I remember, thinking back to all those stories, was the gradual growing of these characters. Not "personality transplants" but gradual shifting of personalities, thru logical stepping stones.

I swore the last reboot was going to be it for me, when they reboot again I'm out. Of course, if they are actually bringing back "my" legion they will probably get me onboard for one more go-around.

Mike Nielsen
Mike Nielsen | Email | 05.27.08 - 2:21 pm | #

I started buying the Legion regulary in 1976 and got almost all the back issues over the years, but I stopped shortly after the Zero Hour reboot because that reboot seemed lifeliss and it was easy to stop since the characters weren't the same ones I'd known for years.

I did not start again until the latest run which started out well but has been pretty lackluster lately. That said, I'm still on board barring any dips in quality.
H | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 2:28 pm | #

I gave up on Legion when Abnett and Lanning came on board. The dark Legion didn't do anything for me.

I tried it again when Mark Waid took over, and while I liked his version of Supergirl, I found that I didn't like the rest of the Legion; they came off as rather nasty snots. So, I dropped it again.

I was delighted when Jim Shooter came back and was starting to enjoy the Legion once more, but I just heard that he's leaving the title due to the Final Crisis: Legion of Three-Worlds nonsense.

Unless DC has a writer or artist, in the wings that I really, really, really like come aboard, I will be dropping the title yet again.

I doubt after Shooter's recent foray I'll ever be returning to the Legion unless something drastically smart happens.

Ray
Ray Tate | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 3:13 pm | #

Dang you Mike.. Get OUT OF MY HEAD. Hmm.. I'm a late thirties comic collector whose favorite comics have been Swamp Thing (every issue since the original run) and Legion (except for some of the late 90s stuff I've all the issues back to the old Adventure stuff).

I collect DC, love funny, snarky comic reviews and still manage to date (ok.. technically I don't date, I'm married) Sometimes I worry that when I look in the mirror I'm afraid that I'll see you. It scares me. Please stop it.

The fact that I actually like All-Star Batman (aka Batman ala Mickey Spillane) is only a coincidence).
Pope Impious XXIII | Email | 05.27.08 - 3:29 pm | #

I've been reading Legion since I was about five years old, and I have only ever dropped the book 1) when I wasn't reading any comics at all and 2) in the latter half of Waid's run, when it's horrible insubstantiality really started to wear on me. My favorite two versions of the team are probably the Levitz/Giffen era team and the DnA run, though I hear I'm in the minority on the latter count. While I've now gone back and read a lot of the backmatter of the team prior to me coming on board, I view a lot of the Baxter-era Legion stories as my 'definitive' version because I came to them first.
Jeff | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 4:33 pm | #

I don't suppose I've ever bought it off the stands except, ironically, the start of "5 Years Later". When that started coming out, I started buying it but not reading it because I wanted to read the Levitz issues first. I bought them all in quarter boxes in a few months. Then I read them and they BLEW ME AWAY. Some of my favorite comics, still to this day.

Then I read the 5YL issues I'd been buying.

And I wept.

Ugly. Ugly, mean, nasty comics that dripped with snotty contempt for everything that Shooter and Levitz and even Giffen himself had done. I was soooo disgusted.

Since then, I've flipped through some trades of some subsequent versions, but nothing has lured me back.
Matt Bird | Email | 05.27.08 - 4:37 pm | #

All time favorite: 5 year later Legion. Also: Shooter, Grell, Sherman, Janes, Starlin, Giffen/Levitz, LaRocque, Lightle, Geoff Johns/Gary Frank, Immonen, Hughes, Sprouse, Kitson just off the top of my head.

My Legion art collection has pages from: Grell, Broderick, Giffen, 5 year Giffen, Lightle, Immonen, Kitson and Gibbons.

Disliked Archie Legion. I didn’t feel like the roboot respected the characters and history. If the Legion is about anything, it’s history.

Hated DnA. Just couldn’t get past the art. Only time I actually stopped buying it.

.44
super-rob | Email | 05.27.08 - 6:46 pm | #

I first got into the Legion in about 1980 and stuck with it on and off throughout the Levitz era. I was a big fan of the Five Years Later era, but stopped collecting comics at about #36 of that series for reasons that had nothing to do with the Legion. Then in 2001 I suddenly got this acute Legion jones and ran out to the nearest comic shop and bought up all the back issues I could find. This was about 10 issues into Abnett and Lanning's 'The Legion' series. I've stuck with it ever since - although I still have quite a few back issues to fill in - and I suspect they've got me for life.

I don't like the reboots, not at all. I think it's never worth doing; you're always better off fixing your continuity than throwing it away. But the various Legion reboots have nonetheless resulted in some excellent comics.

No idea what DC's going to be doing with the franchise now; it's obviously in flux. I just hope it's good. I'll be there to read it, anyway.

And while I'm at it I'll point out that the other Legion comic, the Johnny DC title 'Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century', is quite good and worth a look from all Legion fans.
Matthew E | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 6:52 pm | #

The tabloid that reprinted Adv. 369-370 (Mordru chases Legionnaires back to Smallville) was one of my very first and favorite comics when I was a kid; the Adult Legion future stories were also early favorites. So the LSH has always been part of comics for me; most of the periods of my life when I've been reading comics I've been reading Legion.

The big holes were: late in v4 (after the moon got blown up, stayed out until End of an Era, and never read the SW6 Legionnaires book), Legion Lost, and the tail end of the DnA/Coipel "Legion" book. I think I bought every issue of both books between Zero Hour and Legion Lost, even though I wasn't really enjoying stretches of them.

And now I'm on the verge of dropping it again. I've been actively anti-enjoying Shooter's return, which is sad since it was the original Shooter era that hooked me way back when.

Loved that Laurel Gand issue, and her character generally. The first year or so of 5YL was *very* good stuff.
Jacob T. Levy | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 6:59 pm | #

I cut my teeth on the Legion (and the Defenders) as a young comic reader. I was there when they slowly took over the Superboy book and Cockrum worked his magic. I bought everything Legion related for years, including that reprint book and the god awful mini that revealed Chameleon Boy's parentage. It took the Archie Legion to drive me away and I didn't come back until A Hundred And One Years Later, after which I went back and caught up on the Threeboot via trades. The only issues I skipped were the dreadfully drawn Bedard issues.

I will buy almost any Legion related output DC decides to publish but the only way I think they can increase sales is double the page count and cost of Green Lantern and have half of the book be Legion stories.
Baal | Email | 05.27.08 - 7:50 pm | #

My first issue was Superboy and the LSH #204 (Mike Grell's second issue as penciller)and I would pick it up over the next several years when I could find it on the stands at 7-Eleven. From 246 on up, I could find it regularly. I had a subscription from 258 to well into the Jimmy Janes run on art chores. I kept buying from the stands until shortly after the conclusion of the "Death of Karate Kid" reprints in the softcover version of TALES OF THE LEGION.

Having limited availability to a comic shop at the time, I only picked up maybe three issues of the Baxter series. The last issue I picked up was the Baxter issue with Brainy mourning the death of Supergirl during the CRISIS.

From time to time in the nineties and post-2K, I'd pick up a few issues of the post-Crisis Legion, and I'd try out the post-Zero Hour reboots, but they'd never really hold my interest.

For me, the Legion as a book died in 1985 with the ramifications of Crisis. The corpse just kept moving for a few years and the powers-that-be have kept trying to reanimate it, but never manage to maintain it successfully.

Maybe Johns and Perez will have some luck.
Donald G | Email | 05.27.08 - 8:34 pm | #

I started reading back in the Mike Grell S&LSH 70s as a 9yr old. I loved that the Legion was growing up as the series progressed. I loved that the future was the setting and not a time travel destination. I was amazed at the drama and the heroic deaths...that stayed dead.
I've never stopped reading the LSH even after the Byrne Massacre killed my LSH.
I've stuck with the series through all the reboots. All the reboots have had good qualities for me. Although I will admit I am tired of the LSH origin being told over and over again with every reboot.


Oh Lordy, I'm one of those crazy LSH fans.

LLL!
Lauren | Email | 05.27.08 - 8:47 pm | #

My first issue was Superboy and the Legion #205. I was five years old and Legion was pretty much the perfect comic for me back then; tons of cool looking heroes, each with one clearly delineated power. I followed it regularly into the 230s, then, aside from a stray issue here and there, lost track until exactly the right time, when Levitz/Broderick took over in the 280s. I've never missed an issue since--including L.E.G.I.O.N. and all the reboots up to the current, enjoyable Shooter run. I have to disagree with some of the above posters who complain about the reboots showing disrespect for fans and the concept--DC's simply been trying to find a winning formula for a title that's been a hard sell for a very long time. My only wish is that Brainy be written as less of a jerk, as he's been since Waid got his hands on him with the Archie Legion. Smart = arrogant manipulator is lazy shorthand. It's how many comic book writers have approached hyper-intelligent characters (see Lee's Reed Richards, for a milder example) but as Levitz showed for many years, there are other ways to write someone with 12th level intelligence. That, and I''d like the old Mon-El back.

For what's it worth, I thought the first few years of the 5 Years Later Legion was a high water mark for the series. Far from spitting on what came before, it positively reveled in it. You needed a doctorate in Legionology to follow along, for god's sake.
Cole Moore Odell | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 9:01 pm | #

I'm another one of those crazy Legion fans. Have been since 1975, and I've never missed an issue since sometime around 1976 (although there were some issues that I wish I had missed). I even run a Legion blog.

I tend to like the concept more than the actual implementation, apparently. I stuck with it through the highs and lows of the Giffen/Bierbaum v4, through the reboots and creative team changes, through stuff I loved and hated.

Your "laser-proof breasts" was covered earlier in "What Were They Thinking?!" in "The Rack of Steel", by the way. Although, "SBLAM! POOM!" would be a good name for a rock band.

Incidentally, online fandom called her "Valorie" as the female version of "Valor".

And as for Legion sales over the last 10 years, check out this post from a couple weeks ago, which also addresses the alleged Shooter rumor (which sound more like speculation than any ring of truth).
Michael G | Email | Homepage | 05.27.08 - 11:15 pm | #

I was a diehard Marvel Zombie during my teenage comics obsession, and the only DC title I read for any appreciable amount of time was the Grant/Breyfogle run on Detective Comics. I picked up the first two issues of Legionnaires and enjoued the art but felt like I was missing out on a lot of the story. The 'cast of thousands' part of my brain was already jammed full of X-Men anyways.

My interest in the Legion has grown over time. I bought the Great Darkness Saga TPB a few years ago and thought it was okay. I decided to give the Legion another try with the Showcase volumes and really enjoyed volume 1. I'm picking up later Legion issues out of the quarter bins when I see them, stockpiling them for the day when I can read all the way through....
Fnord Serious | Email | 05.27.08 - 11:33 pm | #

I was first exposed to the Legion with Adventure Comics 403, which reprinted the death of Lightning Lad story. I stuck with the Legion from that point until legion 280, when I stopped buying comics altogether for a few years. Started up again with Baxter series number 2, and stayed until Legion Lost, Started up again with Legion Worlds, so I wasn't gone very long.

I really didn't like the Pocket universe explanation for Crisis, but felt Levitz and company did a good job on the book, and it was clearly the same characters. I didn't like the execution of the 5 years later Legion, particularly 2 universal reboots in 2 issues, and the "Lightning Lad and Shvaugn aren't who you think" stories. By the time of the Zero Hour reboot, I was glad to see it -- a fresh start was better than dragging around the SW6 Legion, and other baggage. I thought the reboot Legion was well-executed, and just don't understand the dislike for it I see sometimes. I thought the Legion Lost and the subsequent DnA series were pretty weak.

The most recent reboot was OK, with some nice character moments, but I must admit that I'm losing enthusiasm. I was very glad to see Shooter return. If he truly is leaving, and another reboot is happening, I'll probably seriously think about just dropping the series. I don't want to see yet another alternate version, and as someone else mentioned, I'm tired of seeing the origin story retold.
Scott Rowland | Email | 05.28.08 - 10:13 am | #

I started reading the Legion in the mid-70s. The Legion was always far and away my favorite comic, and I continued reading it until I dropped comics altogether around 1985.

My last year of college, I went into a comic store out of curiousity, and purchased the then-current issue of the 5 Year Later reboot -- "The Sizzling Story of Sun Boy!" I was both freaked out and hooked. WTF was going on with the Legion? To this day I believe that if the Legion had just continued on as before, I wouldn't have felt compelled to find out more and I wouldn't be reading comic books today. (This is both a good and a bad thing.

So I picked up the Legion and bought up all the back issues I had missed, and since then I have not dropped the book, even though I have been disenchanted with it many times. I felt the Waid reboot was unnecessary, and the overall premise juvenile and unsatisfying, however I did enjoy many of the characterization touches.

The day I drop the Legion is probably the day I quit reading comics.
Wendy | 05.29.08 - 10:18 am | #

My first Legion comic was S&LSH 256, the one where the Legion attempts to cure Brainy's insanity that led to the Omega incident. For whatever reason, that story hooked me, and not only did Legion become a must read, I also went back and picked up from 240-on. I stayed devoted, picking up everything Legion related (including all the mini-series. Valor, etc.) until about three years after the ZH reboot. Of course, I gave up all comics about that time, not just Legion. (Damn that former girlfriend who convinced me to "grow up.")

I was just beginning to get back to comics through TPBs when the threeboot happened. I picked up the first, and while I wasn't fond of the concepts presented, it was still a Legion. When Infinite Crisis finally brought me back to a comic shop, I had to add the Legion title as well.

Personally, I hope that Johns' "original" Legion will supplant the Threeboot Legion after L3W, but in the long run, it really doesn't matter, as I will buy a comic featuring any of the Legions.

By the way, thanks to that ex-girlfriend ten or so years ago, I'm now trying to complete the ZH-Legion run whenever finances allow (which isn't often these days with $4.00 gas) to give me an uninterrupted 30 year collection!
Infinity13307 | Email | 05.29.08 - 11:02 am | #

Mike, you know what's cool about posts like this and the comments they bring out? We get a reminder that everything is someone's favorite, as well as being someone else's least favorite, and irrelevant to still others. Seriously, I think we've seen raves, boos, and yawns for pretty much every era of the Legion in this thread.

And that's cool.
Bruce Baugh | Email | 05.29.08 - 3:54 pm | #

I really liked 5YL LSH for about 18 issues. Eventually, the book became obsessed with canonizing some of fandom's more insane theories of the past, so you had the reveal that Garth really had been dead all those years; Imra was married to Proty, and, because Element Lad's perm suggested "gay" to fan writers in the 70s, you had Shvaughn Erin outted as being a man all this time.

Eventually, I quit reading it, and just let unread copies stack up for more than a year. I had no idea the 1994 reboot even happened until six months into the run. I liked it to a degree, but was buying more from loyalty than desire. Finally dropped it after Legion of the Damned.

I'm reading it again now, thanks to Shooter, and liking it, but I don't see myself continuing after he leaves, because I don't like Geoff Johns. I am, however, very curious what he will do, and when the stories will be set.
Grant | Email | Homepage | 06.01.08 - 8:07 pm | #