FROM BACK ISSUE #22 - PAUL LEVITZ & KEITH GIFFEN TALK LEGION

[MattBrady]

From BACK ISSUE #22, on sale May 16 from TwoMorrows Publishing:

“Pro2Pro” interview by Philip SCHWEIER

Every so often, a comic-book writer and artist will join forces to capture lightning in a bottle. Dynamic duos such as O’Neil and Adams, Claremont and Byrne, and Wolfman and Pérez bring a smile to many a fan, and remembrances of great and hallowed runs on titles.

In the early 1980s, DC Comics’ The Legion of Super-Heroes had begun to stumble. A succession of fill-in stories illustrated by various artists had taken the bloom off the rose. But then a young writer named Paul Levitz (whatever happened to that guy?) joined with artist Keith Giffen to make Legion their own. Like many who find themselves within the gravitational pull of the Legion of Super-Heroes, they found themselves drawn to the book, both as a team and as individuals.

PHILIP SCHWEIER: I know it’s Friday and you guys are anxious to start your weekend, so I figured we’d just kind of leap in and talk about The Legion of Super-Heroes.

PAUL LEVITZ: I remember them.

KEITH GIFFEN: Yeah.

SCHWEIER: All right. Well, Paul, we’ll start with you. You came onto the book in, like, the late ’70s, when it was still one of DC’s most popular titles. How were you tapped as the new writer for The Legion?

LEVITZ: I think it was the fact that I would kill anyone else who was picked. [laughter]

GIFFEN: The Legion of Super-Heroes was not something you actually volunteered for.

LEVITZ: Yeah, I was a real Legion fan as a kid, and [writer Jim] Shooter dropped it right at a point in time when I was starting to be allowed to write on a serious basis at DC. Whether I was ready to or not is arguable, but at least the tide had changed in that direction. There weren’t a lot of guys lined up wanting to do it, and I probably would have killed anyone of my sort of stature who tried because I wanted it that badly—and did it that badly.

SCHWEIER: Why do you say that nobody was really interested in doing it?

LEVITZ: Well, if you don’t love the Legion, it’s a pain in the ass.

GIFFEN: Yes, the amount of characters was so big that we’d always keep flow charts.

LEVITZ: Yeah, I mean, you’d literally have to write the book with a scorecard and notes, and that’s if you knew them and loved them. If you didn’t know them and love them, it was a lot of work.

GIFFEN: If you really didn’t care about these characters, it would be agony.

SCHWEIER: I see. So accepting what some people might regard as a rather intimidating baton, what were your goals and ambitions for the book?

LEVITZ: I think I was about 19 or 20 when I took it over. At that age, it’s not so much goal, it’s “Wow! I got it!” [Philip laughs]

GIFFEN: You know, I don’t think it was that “Wow, I got it!” when it came to The Legion. But, Paul, back when you and I cracked this nut called “comics,” the monthly gig was the Holy Grail.

LEVITZ: Yeah, that’s also true to point out. I know there were very few monthly titles and very few monthly group books. Legion had gone monthly at that point, so it was one of maybe … God, at that point, five or ten monthly group books you could write in the whole business. It was always the type of book that I had the most affinity for, both as a reader and a writer. That’s a good point, Keith.

GIFFEN: It’s like, who said you had to love The Legion to get into the book and do it? But even if you didn’t have a love for The Legion, nobody in their right mind back then was going to go, “A monthly book? A regular income? Hell, no!”

LEVITZ: Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. There were plenty of guys who would have taken it, purely for the cash, and it had been written for the cash a couple of times in its past.

GIFFEN: And it showed.

LEVITZ: Yeah.

SCHWEIER: So why do you say that not many people wanted to do a monthly book at the time?

LEVITZ: No, no, most people wanted to. There just weren’t many of [those books] around.

GIFFEN: Yeah, and also, if you were going to do a monthly book—even the Justice League was manageable. But no, the Legion—how many members were there?

SCHWEIER: About 25.

LEVITZ: I mean, it’s about 18 or 20 on duty at any given time.

GIFFEN: And plus, it’s not like you can go and reference things. The last time I checked, they didn’t have any photo reference on Khundia. [Paul and Philip laugh]

LEVITZ: That was the wonderful thing and the awful thing about it. I really loved the fact that Legion was off in its own little corner so I didn’t to worry about how the streets of Metropolis were organized or what villain Superman was fighting this week or anything to match with the rest of the team. Then we could have this wonderful science-fiction time inventing stuff.

GIFFEN: Yeah, and I just love visual world-building.

LEVITZ: Well, and you brought an enormous amount to that, Keith, because you took the approach when you came on board several years later, of really wanting each world to have its own visual character.

GIFFEN: Mm-mm, yeah. It’s part of the fun.

SCHWEIER: Well, Paul, your initial run was very ambitious, what with the Khund War and Chemical King’s death and introducing Dawnstar. You were off to a pretty great start. How did you expect to follow it all up?

LEVITZ: Well, you know, I’d argue the “great start.” I mean, the thing I look back on with great sadness about my first run was the number of issues I didn’t do in the run. It was a point in life where, as I said, I was just being allowed to write seriously and I was kind of grabbing assignments right and left. I haven’t done the math, but I think probably 30% of the pages in the time of my first Legion run aren’t my pages. And Gerry [Conway] would pitch in and help out with a fill-in story, or I’d get one of my friends of my generation like Paul Kupperberg to dialogue stuff with me or help me out in some fashion. So I never really built the momentum that I wanted to.

There’s some things I’m very proud of in the Khund War story. The Earthwar story is the longest story done in Legion to that date, and probably may in fact be the longest story DC had done to that date. It was one of the first five-parters the company ever did. I think my reach did exceed my grasp, but we were certainly trying to reach.

SCHWEIER: Well, there’s a lot to be said for that. You don’t reach, you don’t achieve.

LEVITZ: Yeah, it’s better to reach and achieve, yes.

GIFFEN: I always find if don’t reach or grasp, where you’ll wind up is still better than if you would have if you hadn’t.

LEVITZ: Probably true.

SCHWEIER: Absolutely.

LEVITZ: I mean, there were some beautiful little stories in there.

SCHWEIER: Yes. Jim Sherman and Jack Abel, I think, were some of the artists that were on that run … and maybe Joe Staton.

LEVITZ: Yep. Originally, Mike Grell was scheduled to do it. That’s where Dawnstar came from. Mike had created her. I just said, “What would you like to draw, Mike? Make up something.” And he came up with Dawnstar and then I built the character around that, but he wasn’t available for the book.

Then Jim Sherman was the scheduled artist, but doing a monthly was really out of his reach, even if we cut some of the pages out for backups and things. He had commercial commitments. Jim is a wonderfully successful commercial illustrator and designer. He’s done eclectic things like—I believe he did the Major League Baseball logo. One is reminded of that at this time of the year, as the playoffs are going on.

SCHWEIER: I never knew that.

LEVITZ: And he really felt like he was sort of perfect for the Legion because he was very much a Curt Swan for his generation. He really knew how to draw faces and emotion in the way Curt did, a very realistic artist.

SCHWEIER: I loved his work.

LEVITZ: But there was just no way he could keep up with the book, so we had him, [and] Mike Nasser as the theoretic primary alternate for him. But as the scheduling was challenging, more and more people jumped in and eventually, Joe Staton replaced him. It was at the end of my first run.

SCHWEIER: Now, Keith, you came in around issue #270?

GIFFEN: I can’t help you there, man.

LEVITZ: I think you came in on the backups on, like, #285 or 286.

GIFFEN: Yeah, I seem to recall one of my first backups was a Dream Girl story.

SCHWEIER: So how did it finally come your way?

GIFFEN: Okay, I was back at DC. I was on probation after having flamed out spectacularly a few years earlier. I’d been doing ghost stories and some of the DC House of Mystery stuff when Dick Giordano was the editor, just a regular editor. I was working with Bob Kanigher and I graduated to Mike Barr onto the Doctor Fate backup in The Flash.

LEVITZ: Oh, that’s right, yeah.

GIFFEN: But I’d always had my eye on Legion of Super-Heroes. You know, I was not a huge, huge, huge Legion fan back then, even though I’d read them all as a kid—the John Forte Legion, I was very much aware of it. But what I saw, looking at Legion of Super-Heroes, was a lot of incredible untapped potential in terms of the visual take on the book—what you can do with different cultures, how you can approach the characters, how you can really make the stories really just stand out. And when they needed some backups for The Legion, Mike [Barr] put me on them. I don’t recall what happened with Pat Broderick, whether he flamed out or just decided he didn’t wan to do the book anymore.

LEVITZ: I think he was having some issues at that point. I don’t really remember what all of them were. I think he was having trouble producing the volume. Again, it’s a very challenging assignment to do.

GIFFEN: Yeah. Yeah, you tell me. [chuckles] And when Mike approached me, it was still kind of, you know, “We’re still watching you closely, but would you want to take over the actual body of the book, pending Paul’s approval?” And I seem to recall, Paul, you actually came to me and for some reason I think you might have thought you had to sell me on taking over The Legion because you led with, “I’m going to use Darkseid.” [laughter] And if I had any doubts about it at that point, those doubts pretty much evaporated because I was a big fan of the Kirby Fourth World stuff. I was getting a chance to come onto a book that I thought had a whole bunch of potential and I thought, “It’s the monthly gig. I’ve reformed myself.”

LEVITZ: [chuckles] You should remember, for perspective, that it was almost impossible to talk artists onto The Legion. There were a few of us crazy enough to love it as writers—the old days, Shooter and myself, certainly the two primary bozos—but Curt Swan, when I would try to assign him a Legion story, I had to practically promise Curt three other things of his choice.

GIFFEN: I was the odd duck. I was the guy who actually wanted, and was glad, to come on board.

LEVITZ: Absolutely. Remember [the instability] we’d just gone through—Staton had done a run, and Joe’s a wonderful artist, but it was not a book he ever really enjoyed, particularly. Jimmy Janes had done a run. He was spectacularly ill-cast as the artist for that series, I think.

GIFFEN: He was a good meat-and-potatoes storyteller.

LEVITZ: Yeah, he knows how to draw, but he knows reality better than he knows fantasy.

GIFFEN: And to me, reality has always been a distraction [Paul and Philip laugh], so I was really thrilled when I picked up the Legion assignment, just for the fact that, you know, I would never have to look up what a Studebaker looked like again. [Paul and Philip laugh]

And then, when Paul started feeding me the stories, there was just some kind of a connection that we made wherein he gave me a lot of leeway in terms not only of artistic input, but input into the stories, and it just became just a really fun assignment. And I guess the length of our run stands as testament to the fact that it was fun.

LEVITZ: Mm-mm, and the reader can feel it. Joe Orlando always used to use the argument to me, as an editor, that the reader can tell sincerity.

GIFFEN: Yeah, but once you can fake that, you’re made. [laughter]

SCHWEIER: Now this was at a time when Wolfman and Pérez were doing The New Teen Titans.

GIFFEN: Oh, I wanted to knock them off #1 so bad back then! We were always chasing them, and I just wanted to just get one month where we could just knock them off the perch.

SCHWEIER: My impression, having gone back and re-read the stuff, was that the two of you, your collaboration, seemed to be similar to theirs as far as your being co-plotters sitting down and hammering out stories.

GIFFEN: Mmm … not so fast, there. Paul and I would discuss certain things, and Paul was certainly always open to input from me. But when Paul sat down to write the plots, Paul wrote the plots, I got the plots. Paul’s always been very generous in giving me a little bit more credit than I was due on those early Legion stories. I might sit down and go, “Wouldn’t it be cool if—?” But I was in no way, shape, or form a co-plotter.

LEVITZ: Well, I think you sell yourself a little short there, Keith. But we didn’t sit there and break down a beat sheet together, certainly.

GIFFEN: To a certain point, but it was never anything I would have considered co-plotting because I would always get the plots and it would still come across as something fresh to me. And as I’d read, I’d go, “Oh, look, he used it. That’s cool.” But I think the closest we might have come to actually co-plotting anything was when we were in the midst of “The Great Darkness Saga,” where it started blending together. But for the most part, I was pretty much following your lead and just nipping around your heels with little ideas here and there.

LEVITZ: Well, but I think you underestimate the effect of the little ideas on the overall, because there’s clearly a difference in the level of imagination of the stuff that came out when we were at out best harmony there for whatever it was, two or three years, and what I’ve written in most of the rest of my career. And part of that was just the reaction, back and forth. You’re a very unrestrained, creative thinker, I’m a more linear, literal one, and you’d come in with something that was at the margins of not making sense—

GIFFEN: Told ya I did that a lot.

LEVITZ: —but had a germ of something cool and interesting in it. And I’d say, “Okay, if we take the octopus married to the elephant and we knock off four of the legs and jam it in this damn box, maybe it’ll actually fit in this story,” [Keith laughs] but ended up having several more legs than I probably would have been able to come up with myself.

GIFFEN: Well, I think it was a matter that when we were running with it, it became the right kind of collaboration and that was where down the line, when you look back on it, it’s really hard to tell what came from where. But I would have been satisfied saying it came from us.

LEVITZ: Yup, and I think the other thing is, at a certain point, it also starts coming from the characters.

GIFFEN: Oh, many times, I tried to talk a character into doing something and I know it sounds really clichéd, but halfway through, I’ve had to change the character because I just thought, “You know what? She ain’t gonna do that.”

LEVITZ: Yeah, they became real enough at that point that their stories were going their own way.

SCHWEIER: And I wouldn’t say the stories wrote themselves, but you could tell what moments belonged and what didn’t.

LEVITZ: Mm-mm.

GIFFEN: Mm-mm. And when a professional pretty much says that the stories wrote themselves, that’s just professional shorthand for “I was having a ball, it was easy.” [Paul laughs] Because it’s like even the easiest story that seems to flow out of you is usually the end result of a lot of subconscious percolating and conversations and it just happens to the forebrain at that point.

LEVITZ: Mm-mm. If a story wrote itself, it wasn’t too much work.

GIFFEN: Yeah, exactly.

SCHWEIER: I imagine as part of your partnership at the time, Paul, you kind of recognized, as most writers do, your artist’s strengths and wrote to them.

LEVITZ: I tried to. I tried that with both Keith and then there were occasional fill-ins through the run or guest-shots for people. If I had managed to sucker Curt into doing an issue, I’d try and make that one that had a lengthy flashback with only three of the Legionnaires so he didn’t have to draw ten of them, with more headshots and more sort of quiet emotional moments that he was so good at in his sort of Norman Rockwell style.

GIFFEN: Whereas all I wanted to do was move on to the next planet to see what it looked like.

SCHWEIER: An explorer.

LEVITZ: Mm-mm. Well, also, another facet that we’ve talked about before in interviews, but doesn’t necessarily get enough play, is that whole process of making the different worlds interesting. When you go back to the first round of the Legion, the stuff Jerry Siegel or Ed Hamilton wrote and mostly John Forte drew, the bar wasn’t set very high for differentiating planets.

SCHWEIER: Right.

LEVITZ: You know, the fire planet had some streaks of fire, the ice planet had some ice, the stories were very short, and the convention of the medium was you were writing for kids, so we didn’t have to figure out what it would really be like to be on a fire planet. But I was a great science-fiction buff and I always took the challenge from guys like Hal Clement—his conception of Mesklin is, I think, regarded as one of the most complex and accurate science fiction-built worlds, where he built an entire world around the premise of, basically, these little caterpillars living on a world where the gravity was different at the poles and the equators, and he made it work from a scientific standpoint and then sent them off on a mission. I don’t claim to have ever done one percent of that, but when we tried to approach the planets with that kind of logic to say, “All right, if that’s going to happen—you know, if you’ve got a world with that set of conditions—what will be on it? How would a civilization have gotten built?”

GIFFEN: Yeah, and sometimes, we try to do a lot of research into this stuff and go to a typical rose planet, the planet tends to have a design motif of bees, and sometimes, it was a little bit more in depth like when we would sit down and then figure out not only that Winnath was an agricultural planet, but why.

SCHWEIER: Makes sense.

GIFFEN: And keep in mind when you’re dealing with the Legion of Super-Heroes, you’re not exactly dealing with the hard, hard science fiction. You’re doing a thousand years in the future and that old saying that science—it looked like it was science we didn’t understand so sometimes, it could come across almost as if it were magic.

LEVITZ: And we weren’t spending, as you would in a novel, pages explaining the “why” of things. You know, periodically, I’d get a letter from one of our very learned fans. I remember Rex Joyner, who was a physics professor, writing in and ripping me to shreds very lovingly for misusing black holes. I’m not claiming we went to extraordinary lengths to get it right, but we tried to take advantage of what was there, the potential in all of that, so that essentially, the planet became a guest star when you got there.

GIFFEN: And it was always how could we make it that much better, how could we make it that much better? I always look at Legion Headquarters as proof of that. We must have tinkered with that every three issues. That poor building never looked the same.

Legion fans, this interview is only getting started! See BACK ISSUE #22 to read more!

BACK ISSUE #22 (June 2007, 100 pages) spotlights comic-book “Dynamic Duos” of the 1970s and 1980s! Additional “Pro2Pro” interviews connect Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and Dark Horse Comics’ MIKE RICHARDSON and RANDY STRADLEY. Also: Robin’s history from sidekick to solo star; KEVIN EASTMAN and PETER LAIRD’s groundbreaking collaboration on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and histories of the dynamite duos of Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Plus: a bonus SCOTT McCLOUD interview. With a breathtaking Breyfogle cover starring everyone’s favorite Boy Wonder! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Order at your local comics shop, or online at:
http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main...roducts_id=546

Single issues: $9 US Postpaid Or Subscribe: 6-issue subs for $36 US

[ElijahSnowFan]

Levitz/Giffen on LSH: one of the most dominant runs on any comic, ever.

yeah, i said it. wanna make something of it?

[Cobalt Kid]

By far the best run on the Legion ever, and one of the best comics of the 80's. Anyone who hasn't read the Great Darkness Saga is truly missing out, but know that there is at least an additional 30 issues of close to that same level of quality.

[KoozyK]

well, that settles it. next back issue run, i'm getting those legion stories

now, if only i finished what i have on my plate now...

[rodolfo leon]

if i ever wanted to be a comic writer, it would be to write the Legion first and foremost.

it's a funny thing, since i'm not really a fan of modern Legion interpretations in general, but when i think of what would be a total blast to get into creatively, this is it. so when i read about Levitz keeping scorecards and flow charts of the characters, i just get this BUZZ.

i totally understand where these two are coming from.

[Spaz_Monkey]

Great Darkness Saga.

Damn.

I had no idea who the LSH was at the time, but I remember seeing Darkseid on the cover of one of the issues. This was back when he was the lead baddie on Superfriends. I picked up the issue to see what it was about.

The next day, I raided my mom's wallet and went back to my LCS to find the back issues. I was hooked. It was one of the most engrossing stories I'd read to that point.

And the best part? The story holds up damn well to this day.

[Caleb Gerard]

Cool!

So, which was Keith's 1st MAIN issue? Which issue did Paul come back on?

Thanks in advance.

[Duke Jupiter]

Giffen landing the LEGION assignment brought me back to the book as a reader, and I really think it was the best overall run on the title up to that point. Levitz had found his voice with the characters and the title's direction was exciting. Too bad their run didn't last longer, but that's the way it goes.

This article makes me want to dig out those issues and check 'em out again. Been awhile, that's for sure.

- DJ

[Mike Cruz]

When I think of great times, this storyline, the Great Darkness Saga, always comes to mind. It had great drama, and I'm not sure if anybody remembers but for a couple of months there nobody knew who the villain was.

I think that kudos should be given also to Larry Mahlstedt who did a fantastic job of inking Giffen's pencils which are by far phenomenal. There were so many good comics coming out at that time, but this story, this team remains one of the best...ever.

[SaturnKnight]

Originally Posted by ElijahSnowFan

Levitz/Giffen on LSH: one of the most dominant runs on any comic, ever.

yeah, i said it. wanna make something of it?

Amen and halleleujah.

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's Legion Of Super-Heroes is THE best run of Legion ever.

I love how Giffen opens up about his desire to explore the different alien worlds and truly make them unique. His visions of planets like Durla, The Sorcerors' World and the 22 worlds of Vega in Omega Men left a permanent impression on me that has stuck with me for over 20 years.

God bless him; he's a genius.

[SaturnKnight]

Originally Posted by Caleb Gerard

Cool!

So, which was Keith's 1st MAIN issue? Which issue did Paul come back on?

Thanks in advance.

Legion Of Super-Heroes #287 is generally recognized in CBG and Wizard as Keith's first main issue. "The Great Darkness Saga" itself actually ran in #290 to #294---5 issues total. Classic comics recommended to any fan, DC or Marvel.

Keith's first few issues were inked by Bruce Patterson and were okay. But with #291, Larry Mahlstedt took over as inker and Giffen's pencils exploded off the page with sci-fi synergy and mindblowing detail.

Not to be missed. In any decade.

[TheGrayHulk]

Giffen is one of my favorite writers (especially in the late 80's) but I never liked him as an artist at all.

BTW: Levitz looks like an accountant that's about to kill himself out of boredom in that picture. GEEK POWER!

[SaturnKnight]

Originally Posted by Mike Cruz

When I think of great times, this storyline, the Great Darkness Saga, always comes to mind. It had great drama, and I'm not sure if anybody remembers but for a couple of months there nobody knew who the villain was.

I think that kudos should be given also to Larry Mahlstedt who did a fantastic job of inking Giffen's pencils which are by far phenomenal. There were so many good comics coming out at that time, but this story, this team remains one of the best...ever.

Keith was interviewed by Amazing Heroes during his run (this was 1983) and was asked who his favorite inker on his pencils was. His response (and I quote verbatim here):

"MAHLSTEDT! DEFINITELY MAHLSTEDT!!"

[Shadowcards]

The Great Darkness Saga was so incredible! Oddly, that was where I first heard about Darkseid.

I really liked Giffen's art style during that time. And his Tenzil Kim "Five Years Later" was the bomb.

[vbartilucci]

I saw the headline, "GIFFEN & LEVITZ ON LSH" and my heart nearly stopped.

[SyVyN11]

Originally Posted by SaturnKnight

Legion Of Super-Heroes #287 is generally recognized in CBG and Wizard as Keith's first main issue. "The Great Darkness Saga" itself actually ran in #290 to #294---5 issues total. Classic comics recommended to any fan, DC or Marvel.

Keith's first few issues were inked by Bruce Patterson and were okay. But with #291, Larry Mahlstedt took over as inker and Giffen's pencils exploded off the page with sci-fi synergy and mindblowing detail.

Not to be missed. In any decade.

The Great Darkness Saga should be MANDATORY reading by every comic fan. No matter if you are DC, Marvel, Image, DH or Indy zombie. It's just how story telling is done.

[SaturnKnight]

Originally Posted by vbartilucci

I saw the headline, "GIFFEN & LEVITZ ON LSH" and my heart nearly stopped.

ME TOO!!!

Now... if only George Perez would hurry up and finish The Brave & The Bold so we can read the headline, "PEREZ ON LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES."

[SpyGuy]

Originally Posted by vbartilucci

I saw the headline, "GIFFEN & LEVITZ ON LSH" and my heart nearly stopped.

I know what you mean. I briefly glanced at the headline and thought it read "GIFFEN & LEVITZ BACK ON LSH," then unfortunately paid closer attention and became extremely disappointed in the process.

Reading comprehension...It's not just for breakfast anymore.

[SaturnKnight]

Originally Posted by SyVyN11

The Great Darkness Saga should be MANDATORY reading by every comic fan. No matter if you are DC, Marvel, Image, DH or Indy zombie. It's just how story telling is done.

Amen, brother. A-Men!

[KingConan]

This sounds like an interesting run, especially considering Countdown seems to be re-visiting this material now. What issues did their whole run consist of?

[jedifish]

Long Live the Legion!!!

Now come on DC. It's time for Legion of Super-Heroes Archive #13.

(and Paul, gets us some more darned DC Direct Legion figures. Use your pull )

[Ebon]

Nah, their version of the Legion - especially Giffens Five Years Later- killed it dead for me; I've borrowed and read GDS.. just shook my head. The Zero Hour reboot of the Legion was the best thing to happen to it in decades, but they managed to screw that up with Legion Lost; I basically lost interest in it after that point. Now these.. things we have masquerading as the Legion.. I can only hope they vanish and we get back at least some semblance of the teens I liked.

[gwangung]

Originally Posted by SyVyN11

The Great Darkness Saga should be MANDATORY reading by every comic fan. No matter if you are DC, Marvel, Image, DH or Indy zombie. It's just how story telling is done.

The speculation on who was the Big Bad was pretty active and enormous at the time. There were just enough clues to figure who it was (I was about one issue behind on the guessing).

I think if it was done today, some of the effect would be missed because of the Internet---people would be guessing plot points early and would be watching just to see if it came true.

[Bob Shubey]

I wonder if newsarama could update its Paul Levitz photo. I think that picture is from about 1979.

[ziza9]

Originally Posted by Ebon

Nah, their version of the Legion killed it dead for me; I've borrowed and read GDS.. just shook my head. The Zero Hour reboot of the Legion was the best thing to happen to it in decades, but they managed to screw that up with Legion Lost; I basically lost interest in it after that point. Now these.. things we have masquerading as the Legion.. I can only hope they vanish and we get back at least some semblance of the teens I liked.

My jaw just broke when it hit the floor. Opinions, entitlement and all that....but, whatTTTTTT??? I can't even speak straight now. Zero Hour? ZERO HOUR? Long live the GDS! (just giving you a hard time....it's cool...but, wow...really?)