Customer Reviews

Legion of Super-Heroes: The Beginning of Tomorrow

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Granted - this book is not for everyone. The Legion Of Super-Heroes started out as a gimmick in the original (i.e. 50's/60's) Superboy and attained such popularity that it eventually kicked Superboy out of his own comic (twice)! Since those simpler (sigh!) times, the tales of teen-aged heroes from many exotic worlds with unique powers protecting a future United Planets has undergone many changes to keep in step with the zeitgeist. This book reprints the early stories of the latest Legion re-boot (i.e. all the stories before just didn't happen) and relaunch of the title. The difference between this change of editorial direction and previous incarnations was that the writer(s) made an attempt to rid the title of some of its darker elements and heavy tone that had invaded the title. The thought appeared to be to make the stories more light-hearted; to try to capture the youthfulness of a group of teens. Now, I'm far removed from teenagerdom, but it did strike me as successful (at least at first). I'm still fonder of the earliest version of this idea, but I'm willing to accept this as a decent if slightly underwhelming attempt to recapture the magic that was the Legion of Super-Heroes!

I started reading the Legion books back in the 70's and in my mind this period will always be the definitive, but having just recovered my fan status I decided to buy this book and see what the actual Legion is all about. At first I thought it was kind of childish (I'm in my late 30's) but I have to admit it has grown on me. I bought some of the 90's pre-boot Legion books and found a little dificult to follow the stories, so I understand why the re-booting. At first I thought it looked kind of cartoonish, but I started to enjoy more and more as I read the stories, in fact, I did so much that I have bought all the post-boot issues and now I'm a fan of this period. I like some of the new names (I think it was a little silly all the "boy" "girl" "lad" "lass" names) like Spark, Umbra, Sensor, etc. I still have in my mind the 70's Legion as the definitive one but if You want to have some fun and laughs (characters are far more expresive) with a good comic, don't dismiss the actual Legion.

This book is a must read for those people who have no idea what the Legion of Super-Heroes are about. All the Legion books were re-booted (all stories were started over from scratch) in 1994, and the book explains everything, from the origin to the first two major adventures of the Legion. A member even dies in this volume. Buy it, and you will understand everything about the current LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES...almost everything.

The Legion of Super-Heroes has been DC's premier superhero team of the future for more than 50 years and this collection of comics starts the rebooted version of the team that emerged in the 1990s. Since that time, the Legion was rebooted yet again (often called the "threeboot") and then shifted back to a later version of the original team. With DC rebooting everything in another month, who knows what will happen?

This rebooted team, which debuted in 1994 (though this book was published much later), would introduce some new characters with XS getting the most attention in this collection. Most of the core heroes from the original team are there with some of them with new names (Lightening Lad is Live Wire, Phantom Girl is Apparition, etc). The group is thrown together with competing interests pulling in different directions and a host of characters are introduced in a single moment. Still, while the origins of the new group prove interesting some of the first stories have not aged well. While some of the characters develop well, some of them are too heavy handed (namely Live War who the authors try to show as a rebel and even as a juvenile delinquent). Some of the best characters--from Brainiac 5 to Triplicate Girl (or as she is called here Triad)--are left in the background.

The book is not a failure by any means--and it will hold the reader's attention. The rebooted Legion took time to develop and there were some memorable stories down the road (such as the classic "Legion Lost" tale). The art is not particularly memorable and some of it--including a story set in a sun--is downright bad. There are enough solid moments to make this book worth looking at but it is not one of the better collection of Legion tales to have on your shelf.

Yet another of the Legion reboots. There not necessarily being much point to this one. However, Waid's affection and knowledge of the material generally shows, so this is a competent job. Here, the Legion must help to stop some really serious problems on a prison planet. This prison planet houses a bunch of very nasty types, and some seriously powerful enemies.

Early Legion history revisited and a highly successful story. The authors did a lot of research into this and a lot of thought intothe production.

It is simply for continuity sake that this awful lot was released in paperback. One of the weakest stories in one of the weakest eras of the LSH, the authors manage to ruin the whole 30-year history for "continuity sake". Not deciding if the book should aim more mature readers (as Keith Giffen did) or infants (as Tom McCraw and Tom Peyer did), this story put an end to the first LSH saga. After this one, the book was started from scratch and any one over 13 should skip what the Legion has become. In fact, unless you do not understand what is going on currently with the book is that you may grab it. Go grab any of the Archives or better, buy older issues of the Legion of Super Heroes (before 95). You'll be pleased.