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The following is something which I found recently while going through my Legion collection. It was written by Paul Levitz for the Legion's 30th anniversary, and since it's currently the Legion's 45th, I thought that it applied now, too. It appeared in the Legion of Super-Heroes # 45, cover-dated April, 1988, and reflects Paul Levitz's attitude toward the Legion, its creators, and its fans. I enjoyed it, and I figured that others would, too.


Dear Readers,


It's hard to believe the future is three decades old. When ADVENTURE COMICS # 247 came out with a Superboy story called "The Legion of Super-Heroes," the first Sputnik satellite had just begun orbiting the Earth, the first working model of a laser was under construction and the most advanced computers filled a room to work with less memory than today's video games. But we've lived comfortably for thirty years in a fantastic vision of the future created in those "primitive" times.


As long time readers know, that first story was a throw-away idea, tossed out randomly by editor Mort Weisinger, writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino. There was no intent to create an idea to last decades, but to simply entertain ADVENTURE's readers for another month. Yet something about the Legion had appeal, and Weisinger and his other writers picked it up for subsequent stories in ADVENTURE, or Supergirl in ACTION, and before long a trickle of mail was coming in, demanding more.


It was the readers who brought the Legion to life - demanding they receive their own series (first in ADVENTURE # 300-380 and then in ACTION # 377-392); then, demanding editor Murray Boltinoff bring them back from limbo when their series was abandoned after Weisinger's retirement; readers who have followed the Legionnaires year in and year out, carefully watching and correcting our smallest errors, creating countless ideas for characters and costumes, and urging us on.


And it was the writers and artists who brought the Legion to life - Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton and John Forte when the series debuted; Jim Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Curt Swan, Pete Costanza and Win Mortimer in the heyday of ADVENTURE and ACTION; Cary Bates, Shooter again, Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell when the Legion was reborn in SUPERBOY; Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Jim Sherman, Mike Nasser, Joe Staton, Jimmy Janes, Pat Broderick, Keith Giffen, Steve Lightle... and this writer, all in the past dozen years.


And, somehow, it was the characters themselves who brought the Legion to life. Their relationships, personalities, stories, grew untrammelled by any limitations on their creators' abilities or the space available for their stories to be told.


It's been a wonderful thirty years. Personally, I've been here for some twenty-five years as a reader and eleven (interrupted) years as a writer. Some of you have been here longer - a rare few even from the beginning - and some of you have just come in, perhaps even with this issue. To all of you, readers, writers, artists... thank you for making this world we've shared possible. And to all of you, welcome to the future... It's barely begun.

Paul Levitz


It was nice to see Paul acknowledge both the readers and the creators of the Legion, something which I don't think the industry does enough of these days. "Thank yous" to the consumer seem to have been replaced with "take it or leave its," which is ironic, considering that there's less of the consumer's dollar going around today than there was yesterday, and yet it seems to be taken for granted moreso now than then.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. What did you think?

Glen

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From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003  |  IP: Logged |