1: 1990. I quit five issues into the "Five Years Later" series. This was a major decision for me (I felt at the time) because I had been reading the Legion since 1972 and considered it my favorite series, the one series I expected to follow forever. But Giffen's darker version without uniforms and code names, and with that horrid nine-panel grid (which he aped from Watchmen) were antithetical to everything I loved about the Legion. The Crisis-induced redaction of Legion history proved to be the final nail.
(I will amend this by saying that I've since bought and read most of the TMK era and enjoyed it. I understand what Giffen was trying to achieve, and sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. But it reads better in a few settings than being serialized every month.)
2: 1994. I returned to the Five Years Later Legion just after Giffen departed and remained for about a year. This was the era of zombies and Legion on the Run -- not the Legion at its best. Also, I was undergoing some changes -- I graduated college, my mother passed away, I moved from my hometown and entered grad school -- and no longer had the time or interest for comics going through the usual motions.
3: 2004 to present. Four years away had given me some distance from the Legion, so I was ready to accept the reboot, it's more innocent take on the Legion, and the revisions to old stories. I accepted this new Legion as a new creation entirely, and I stuck with it through the cancellation of The Legion series. But then DC rebooted the franchise yet again. I read the preview issue and decided I was no longer interested in stories about teens rebelling against their parents. I'd been down that road. I wanted to see the Legionnaires mature, to grow up, as I did, as they did in the preboot. I do not care to relive my teen years, and I don't want to see my heroes do so either.
Inevitably, I was also undergoing some more personal changes at this time. A change in careers left me with no money to spend on comics. A hoped-for relationship left me with a broken heart. Compared to what was going on in my real life, the imaginary angst of serialized comic book characters was nothing. I had no patience for this anymore.
I read a couple of issues of the threeboot, Legion of Three Worlds (which I borrowed from a friend), and the first issue of Levitz's return. Some I enjoyed, others not. These days I'm happily retired as a comic book fan. I get my thrills from novels and other types of reading.
The Legion will always hold a special place in my heart, and I love discussing the old stories. But, in terms of following them (or any comics) today, I've moved on.
[ August 23, 2011, 09:18 PM: Message edited by: He Who LSHes ]
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by googoomuck: Adventure Comics #381, although I did continue reading through part of the Action comics run.
I remember reading an article by Roy Thomas in which he recalled subscribing to ALL-STAR COMICS in 1950 or '51 so he could get the adventures of his favorite heroes, the JSA, delivered right to his door. He received one issue of ASC before the title converted to ALL-STAR WESTERN and the JSA disappeared into limbo. He was greatly disappointed that the rest of his already-paid-for subscription featured western heroes.
I imagine Legion fans of 1969 must have felt the same way when ADV. 381 hit the stands and their mailboxes.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Despite the fact I greatly enjoyed it, somehow I dropped collecting Legion Lost after #3. I believe maybe at the time all of my other titles had gotten slow and I probably tested myself and just gave up on collecting all together. I chanced upon Legion Lost #8 a few months later and saw a cover featuring some of the non-Lost Legionnaires. Needless to say my curiosity was piqued and I had caught up on my Legion collection by that afternoon.
I also dropped the threeboot after #3, but that was because my local shops stopped carrying the title and by the time I moved I had it in my head to just let it go. I stayed caught up via here and then came back later when Shooter came in.
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I stuck with the Reboot era all throughout. I agree that the issues after LSH 100 declined, but I still enjoyed them because those Legionnaires were MY Legion. I grew up with them through elementary and high school; so even if they didn't really do anything, I loved reading about them anyway.
Not so with the Threeboot. I lost interest a little bit after Supergirl left. Usually, I love reading about young heroes finding their niche and becoming effective (that's one of the things I loved about the first 2 years of the Reboot Legion). Yet, it was a mix of these Legionnaires being so gosh darned ARROGANT (I'm looking at you, Lightning Lad and Ultra Boy); having saved the world many times before (like what they pulled off against Lemnos and the Dominators); and somehow STILL not being able to pull together as a team.
Conflict within a team is good for stories; you just know not everyone in a team that big is going to get along. But the Legion is all about teamwork DESPITE those little quarrels. The Threeboot felt like an unending squabble between huge, young and immature egos.
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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