Legion of Super-Heroes: An Eye for an Eye [Paperback]

Paul Levitz (Author), Keith Giffen (Author), Steve Lightle (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (December 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401215696
• ISBN-13: 978-1401215699
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.4 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,023,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Levitz was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1956, and entered the comics industry in 1971 as editor/publisher of The Comic Reader, the first mass-circulation fanzine devoted to comics news. He continued to publish TCR for three years, winning two consecutive annual Comic Art Fan Awards for Best Fanzine. His other fan activities included editing the program books for several of Phil Seuling's legendary New York Comic Art Conventions,. He received Comic-con International's Inkpot Award in 2002, the prestigious Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award in 2008, and the Comics industry Appreciation Award from ComicsPro (the trade association of comic shop retailers) in 2010. Levitz also serves on the board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Levitz is primarily known for his work for DC Comics, where he has written most of their classic characters including the Justice Society, Superman in both comics and the newspaper strip, and an acclaimed run on The Legion of Super-Heroes, a series he's recently returned to write. Readers of The Buyers' Guide voted his Legion: The Great Darkness Saga one of the 20 best comic stories of the last century, and visitors to the site comicbookresources.com selected the same story as #11 of the Top 100 Comic Book Stories of All Time. DC Comics has just issued a new hardcover edition of Legion: The Great Darkness Saga, which made the New York Times' Graphic Books Bestseller List.

Cumulatively, Levitz has written over 300 stories with sales of over 25 million copies, and translations into over 20 languages. As a DC staffer from 1973, Levitz was an assistant editor, the company's youngest editor ever, and in a series of business capacities, became Executive Vice President & Publisher in 1989 and then served as President & Publisher from 2002-2009. He continues as a Contributing Editor, but is now concentrating on his writing.

His current writing projects include Taschen's 75 YEARS OF DC COMICS: THE ART OF MODERN MYTHMAKING, which the LA Times praised for "its colossal ambitions, insights and collected rarities" and the NY Times called "richly conceived history."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cool story but not for beginners, June 6, 2010

By 

Kid Kyoto (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Legion of Super-Heroes: An Eye for an Eye (Paperback)

In 1984 the Legion of Super-Heroes was one of DC's top selling books. So, along with the New Teen Titans it was chosen for an experiment - DC created a new book with better paper, better printing and a higher price tag. Meanwhile the normal, newsstand version continued, eventually becoming a reprint for the deluxe book.

Eye for an Eye reprints the first 6 issues of the deluxe edition. It's a great story with the entire Legion of Super-Heroes and their rivals the aptly-named Legion of Super-Villains. There are epic battles, betrayals, teleporting planets, heroic sacrifice and gorgeous art by Steven Lighte and Keith Giffen.

The problem is this story ran concurrently with the newsstand book so there are constant references to other events that are not included, or even summarized here. Wildfire and Invisible Kid disappear halfway through, if you want to know why you need to track down a 25 year old copy of Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Between pages the entire team has an adventure involving Darkseid and Mordru and Saturn Girl has a baby. But to know how that went you need a copy of the 1984 Legion Annual. And of course the story itself has more than 50 heroes and villains but at least they include some old Who's Who guides to tell you about them.

So add a star if you're a Legion expert but otherwise this is not a good place to start.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Story With Epic Plot and Character Growth, August 8, 2011

By 

Kevin M. Derby (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legion of Super-Heroes: An Eye for an Eye (Paperback)

As was noted in the excellent earlier review, "Eye for an Eye" is not for newcomers to the Legion of Superheroes. The Legion is the closest thing DC Comics has to Russian epics like "War and Peace" and "The Red Wheel." There are dozens of characters, epic plots, tons of worlds, constantly changing relationships, numerous plot threads and endless back stories.

This work is a collection of comics from the mid 1980s when DC started backing away from the traditional marketplace (such as convenience stores) and moving to other outlets such as comic stores. There is an excellent introduction here by Paul Levitz explaining the changes in the marketplace and how this allowed more mature content--including a good deal more violence--into Legion stories.

This work contains a central plot thread of the Legion of Supervillains reforming and looking to kill the heroes. There are moments of touching sacrifice, stunning retribution and epic battles--but there also tender and solid moments of character growth included as well. The art by Keith Giffen is excellent. While not for beginners, "Eye for an Eye" is an exciting tale that will appeal to most Legion fans.