Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes, Vol. 2

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wow! And I mean Wow! What a kooky, crazy compendium of corny, comic kvetching! A lot happens in this volume, often all at once. There isn't as much bad( and hilarious) teen drama as in the last volume, but it's made up for with break neck pacing and some seriously off-the-wall stories. The writers of record are Edmond Hamilton, Jerry Siegel, Jim Shooter and Otto Binder and in some of the stories they really push the reality envelope in order to tell a good tale. The stories, which appear almost exclusively in Adventure Comics, are longer than in previous Legion tales, often lasting several issues. I like that because it allows the stories and the Legionnaires to develop a bit more complexity. They're still world's away from today's Tolstoy-esque mega-tomes, but there are enough double-backs, false starts, fake outs and misdirection to keep things humming along nicely. Several new Legionnaires are introduced, such as Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra and poor, poor Ferro Lad (sniff). There are also the Super-Pets, plenty of Super-Pets.

Here's a sampling of the tripped out world inside LSH volume 2.

**Adventure Comics # 322**The Super-Tests of the Super-Pets!-When the Legion gears up for an all out assault on The Time Trapper, they ask the Super-Pets via Saturn Girl's telepathy, to house sit their super hero clubhouse while the Legion is gone. Apparently this honor goes right to their Super-Heads because when Protty 2, Cham's pet who looks like what would happen if you microwaved the Pillsbury Dough Boy, asks to join the pet legion, the Super-Pets get all snotty and demand he(?) pass a series of impossible tests in order to join their august assemblage. The little guy shows'em good!

**Adventure Comics # 326**Revolt of the Girl Legionnaires!-The girls ruthlessly hunt down and destroy the boys in this interesting reveal of early 60's gender politics. It's Legion Girls Gone Wild!

**Adventure Comics # 328**The Lad who Wrecked the Legion!-One conceited little snot with illusory powers runs rings around the Legion. Is he just doing it because he's a jerk, or is he "possessed' of another reason? Mwahahaha

**Adventure Comics # 329**Introducing the Bizarro legionnaires!-Quote from Bizarro" Haha, Super-hero club on Earth wouldn't let me join up. But who care? Me show them! My Legion of Stupor Bizarros will be worse, more incompetent and accomplish even less then they ever did!" That pretty much sums the story up. Plus Brainy invents the Legion Flight ring.

**Adventure Comics # 332**Superboy and the Super-Moby Dick of Space!-Oh yes! It's just what it sounds like, except replace Ahab with Lightning Lad. Maybe next they'll do Silas Marner of Space!

**Adventure Comics # 335**Starfinger the 30th Century villain more dangerous than Goldfinger!-In order to help Lightning lad, Dr. Hanscom is experimenting on growing new limbs on animals. Hmmm. Anyway the Legion takes on their greatest foe yet, Starfinger, who possess the power of a specific legionnaire in each finger!

**Adventure Comics # 338**The Menace of the Sinister Super-babies!-The Time Trapper proves what a giant tool he is by the way he devolves one of his slaves into protoplasmic slime. Then he tries the same thing on the legion!

**Adventure Comics # 342**The Legionnaire Who Killed!-When the legion prosecutes Starboy for killing a villain to save his own life, it's Superboy for the defense, the Super-Defense!

This volume also features some Legion weddings, the execution of matter-Eater Lad, the Computo Saga and a bonus section showcasing all the powers and origins of every legionnaire up to that point in Legion history.

It's great Silver-Age goofiness and important Legion history, cheap at twice the price!

I love the legion since I was a kid here in Brazil;unfortunately they are not so regarded as the league or the titans.Showcase edition is very cheap and the volume is massive(over 500 pages)This second volume displays of the transition period when the statics drawings were replaced for the beautiful art of Curt Swain.Compute the conqueror and the super-stage of space are favorites not to mention the legionnaire who killed.If you read the recent work or see the cartoons on TV the showcase editions(one;two and the next one in 2009)could you aware of the saga and you could understand the most obscure references.The archives I bought previously were expensive(48 dollars each)and I do not miss the colors;showcase books are light as they were under the power of light lass;it is easy to have them at work and I am totally deaf to my colleagues jokes;maybe a child in you refuses to die too.

The Showcase volumes are a great way to get classic reprints at a very cheap price - the down side being that they are in black and white. On balance, I think it's sensible to do it that way, and the wonderful adventures of the Legion can be enjoyed by a wider audience. Of course, if you can afford it, the vibrant colours of the orignals, reproduced in the (necessarily expensive!) Archive editions, are part of the excitement.

I was a collector of the original Adventure comics and had issues 300 to 360, until I foolishly sold my collection in 1967. Of all the super heroes in the many types of comics I collected, the Legionnaires were my favorites, because they were closer to me in age. I now have DC Archives volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 for the Legion, but was not willing to pay such a high price for even used copies of volumes 5 and 8 that are listed on Amazon and elsewhere. The Showcase Presents series is an economical alternative to the color hardback archives. I found that the black and white copy of the Showcase series is crisp and easy to read and the books are a nice size to handle, especially when reading in bed. Without color, which I missed at first, I am finding myself paying more attention to the dialogue and plots, as well as small details like the character's facial expressions. I am pleasantly surprised with the enjoyment I am receiving from Showcase volume 2, which includes the innovative style of Jim Shooter, beginning with issue 446. How well I remember this major change in my favorite comic book in the summer of 66. I look forward to reading volumes 3 and 4 and seeing what happened to my favorite super heroes after I had stopped buying comic books almost 45 years ago.

before comics were so filled with relevance, they were innocent stories designed to while away the hours on a sunny afternoon. These Legion stories, complete with Superpets and secret crushes, pull you back to vacation in those simpler times.
Kuddos to the Seller, amazingly fast shipping, and perfect shape as well.

The Legion of Superheroes is the closest thing comics have to a Tolstoy novel. There are dozens of characters fighting for the spotlight, hundreds in the background, scores of locations, all bound together with often epic plots. The second Showcase volume contains issues from the mid 60s, specifically from July 1964 until September 1966. While the Beatles may have been rocking the charts and the civil rights revolution may have been in full swing, these comics seem a bit out of place--with more than a few goofy plots involving the super pets, a distinctly anti-feminine female revolt and the Time Trapper turning the Legion into little babies. There are some interesting plots here and there are some fun stories. Having said that, the group was still going through its growing pains as some new characters are introduced and some discarded while Superboy often steals the spotlight. The comics are entertaining--but not as strong as the first volume of the Showcase collection. Fans of the Legion will appreciate the work but I suspect that the audience outside of that group is limited.

I bought this book because I'm a big legion fan. Although the stories were good I was very disappointed when I discovered pages 97-144 were missing as if they were never included in the book.