Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archives Volume 11

(See the previous threads on
Archives #10, Archives #9,
Archives #8, Archives #7, Archives #6, Archives #5, Archives #4, Archives #3, Archives #2 and Archives #1 and feel free to add in your two cents on those stories. It's NEVER too late! )


For the next few months, we'll be reading and discussing the stories re-printed in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 11. Archives 11 has this cover:



Here we have the early issues of Mike Grell's artistic run on the Legion. While Grell is not universally beloved like Cockrum, I personally think he did a very good job of keeping the Legion afloat artistically and upholding the high artistic standards set by his predecessor.

Story-wise, it's more of a rollercoaster. We open with the devastating death of a long-time Legionnaire, and close with another long-time Legionnaire committing flagrant adultery. Cary Bates writes the first few stories, mostly in his established, reliable style, before beginning to rotate with the returning Jim Shooter. IMO, we have Shooter here at his best, worst, and somewhere in between.

The goal here is to read and review at least one issue a week. If the issue has two stories, we review them both the same week. Cool?

For those of you who own the floppies or are following in Showcase, the stories reprinted within are, in order:

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #203-212.

Got it? Good!

Let's get re-reading.

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #203

I used to dislike this story, until He Who Wanders helped me to see it from a different perspective. After years of regarding it as a desperate attempt by writer Cary Bates and editor Murray Boltinoff to keep the post-Cockrum Legion vital through an injection of cheap shock, I now realize that the initially jarring shift in tone from the relatively light-hearted last few issues is a perfectly natural progression for the Legion. The first precedent which comes to my mind is the way that the joyful triumphalism of Adventure 350-351 (the Devil's Dozen story) was immediately followed by the dark tragedy of Adventure 352-353 (the attack of the Sun-Eater, the formation of the Fatal Five, and the death of Ferro Lad). Without those dynamics of light and shade, it wouldn't be the Legion.

And speaking of dynamics, Mike Grell makes what I regard as an explosively good artistic debut on the Legion. His style, with its heavy Neal Adams influence, is much more in keeping with DC's early-mid 70s house style than Cockrum's was, but I think it's got enough distinction and enough youthful, hungry energy to stand on its own. There are a couple of awkward fish-eye-lens panels (page 5, panel 4 and page 18, panel 1), but they're more than compensated for by the good stuff -- I'm thinking in particular of Superboy's battle against Validus (the lower half of page 15 and the entirety of page 16) and Invisible Kid's death (the entirety of page 20, with the striking and powerful juxtaposition of Validus crushing Invisible Kid in a long shot with a close-up of a dying Invisible Kid's hand crushing Tharok's brain mechanism. Pretty violent for its time, but still leaving the worst to the imagination.)

I liked Invisible Kid -- I even liked his ahead-of-its-time-yet-never-truly-fashionable headband -- and am upset to see him die. Though I'd have preferred the death of a Legionnaire I dislike, such as Cosmic Boy or Karate Kid, the story wouldn't have worked the way it was intended. Overall, I consider this to be one of Cary Bates' better Legion scripts, and a good send-off to an underappreciated Legionnaire.

Superboy #203 & the LSH

This story is important for two very different reasons, and while there are other things to talk about too, it's hard not to focus on them right away.

First, Mike Grell becomes the official full time Legion artist and takes the LSH into yet another new era. This is one of those moments in Legion history where the fans need to step back and appreciate how truly lucky they were. It doesn't really get much better than going from Cockrum to Grell. The sting of Dave leaving is definitely there, no doubt. But he's gone and we must move on--and the sheer beauty of Grell's art softens the blow.

His style is similar to Dave's in the sense that's it's just incredibly different and dynamic than what we had seen in comics before. Much like Jim Starlin (another part of this art movement in the mid 70's) it dabbles in the photo-realistic detail of Neal Adams but allows the artist to be as stylized as they want. The result is stunning. Of special note is the fight scene between Validus and Karate Kid & Sun Boy which is just tremendous in how dynamic and energetic the panel layouts are.

Of course, this is pretty much the sexiest the Legionnaires ever get in their history. We see that start here though it'll only get sexier. There's almost a nice transition from Dave (the man who made them sexy) to Iron Mike (the one who amped it up even further) in the sense that once again Nura is in her sexy nighty! Was that going to be her new costume? One has to wonder!

The opening sequence itself, with a team of Legionnaires trying to break into HQ against another team is great too. Such things weren't new to comics, but the LSH, and DC itself really, hadn't seen it done in such a modern way yet. It just feels very different than what we're used to.

The other major element of this story of course is we get the second death of a Legionnaire as Invisible Kid makes the ultimate sacrifice. Taken apart from the Myla stuff (which I'll get to in a minute), the death is actually better than I remembered: heroic and with Lyle figuring out what the others could not. It comes incredibly sudden, almost out of left field, but those kind of deaths are always much more realistic and hard hitting on rereads.

Unfortunately, either Bates or Boltinoff felt the need to shoehorn in a happy ending so readers didn't get too upset, so we get stuck with the Myla part of the story. This part is unnecessary and adds little more than a campy sense of "everything works out in the end". Without this, it would have been a fairly straight forward story without perhaps too much nuance; by having it, it makes the story feel ridiculous.

Legionnaires die, just like everyone else. And that gives the stories more weight--the heroic moments are more heroic and the romantic moments more romantic because any issue may be that Legionnaires last. I've been saying this era felt "fresh", and the reaffirmation of the superheroes' vulnerability underscores that.

I did like the scene with Lyle and Tinya which explores their friendship (and surely inspires the later scene with Jacques and Tinya years later). More female / male friendships without sexual tension are always welcome. I also like the very subtle nods to Brainy and Lyle's long established friendship. Those two things could have been used to much greater effect and could have replaced the Myla subplot with some strong (re)writing.

Lastly, he's always been a force to be reckoned with, but this issue truly cements Validus as MAJOR foe of the Legion. His relentless march to the LSH HQ reminds me of Omega, and one wonders if this was an inspiration. In Crisis on Infinite Earths there is a scene where Lex Luthor tells Brainiac about the absolute scariest and most powerful super villains and he used Validus as an example; this issue certainly makes the case as to why.

I agree and disagree at the same time. Yes, Cockrum and Grell took the Legion to a level of sexiness they'd never had before, but I think that a little over a decade later, after what I consider a long period of sexlessness, Steve Lightle and Greg LaRocque took the sexiness to the NEXT level. That, to me, is the sexiest the Legion has ever been.



I think your point is valid, but I can't help but wonder if most readers, especially younger ones, might have found the story too grim to bear if not for the semi-happy ending.



Agreed 100%.

Y'know, when I posted the "sexiest ever" comment, I hesitated and wondered if perhaps the Lightle / LaRocque era was possibly able to surpass the outright sexiness. Ultimately, I stand by my opinion on Grell's artwork, but its definitely close in my mind, so we're not far off at all! There was also a kind of one-two punch with Lightle and LaRocque just like Cockrum & Grell too.

(The only other possible artist IMO is Oliver Copiel but only around the start of the Legion series, midway through his run).

With such a vast array of characters and costumes, plus the youthful element (and especially when the characters feel like they're in their 20's more than teenagers), the Legion works better when it feels sexy and exciting!

Agreed about Coipel. His characters got very sexy in the early issues of the Legion ongoing; shame that DnA sank just as Coipel began to soar, but that's a whole other discussion.

I reviewed 203 three years ago on my blog.

My opinion, I'm happy to say, has not changed. I still think it is a wonderful send-off for Invisible Kid and one of the most effective super-hero deaths ever. It works because Lyle is portrayed as fallible--so smitten with love that he shirks his duty, yet he redeems himself in the end. In fact, he cannot accept that his lover is a ghost, and blots it out of his mind--even deceiving himself that he's going to bring Myla back to our dimension as his wife. To me, these traits make Lyle all the more human and endearing, and it was these traits I tried to develop in my "Myriad" fanfic. In 203, they make his death all the more real because we care about him and want him to succeed.

I'm puzzled by the comment that the "happy ending" makes the story ridiculous. For one thing, the ending is not all that happy. Lyle dies. Regardless of what happens to his spirit, he leaves a void in the lives of his friends and any family he has. This is not happy stuff.

Second, comics have always featured representations of the afterlife in some form or another. Drax the Destroyer and his wife were on their way to some higher existence after their deaths when Drax's spirit was given a detour and a transformation into a super-being. Various characters' consciousnesses have lived on in one form or another after their deaths. Even Ferro Lad's ghost dropped in to save his former teammates once.

So, does it really seem ridiculous that Lyle should spend all eternity with the one he loves? I hope not.

Among other things I noticed while re-reading this story:

-- Tharok's robot brain actually does reassemble itself before our very eyes. It's a very subtle sequence, and the meaning of it isn't clear until Lyle puts it together. It requires to reader to pay attention and then look back at the previous panels to see the transformation taking place. Well played, Mr. Bates.

-- Grell is indeed a worthy successor to Cockrum, though the differences in their styles stood out to me more this time than on previous re-reads. Grell's body movements are more exaggerated and look like they belong in a ballet. Karate Kid loses his Asian-ness, at least in this story, and the faces in general seem more generic and less interesting. But the action scenes are quite dynamic and exciting.

-- There's an odd typo on the Lyle/Tinya scene. She tells him that he and Myla are "worlds about." I'm sure she meant "apart."

-- I really like space prison X-33 and the suspended-in-mid-air surgery Tharok undergoes. This is a very imaginative use of the Legion's sci fi elements.

I'm glad I brought you around to my way of thinking, Fanfie. I think this is truly one of the best stories of the Bates/Cockrum/Grell era.

Superboy 203

Close the lid! Honestly, you’d think being irradiated would stop them from posing for a cover shot. At least we won’t see them being that stupid ag…not on the splash page too! There’s a reason it looks lead lined guys! It reminds me of the JLA's blackmail box.

The Legion practice drill seems a little long, even if we do get to see Tinya in something particularly figure hugging it does lead into the dual plots of Invisible Kid’s Invisible (or imaginary) romance and the return of Tharok. Although it’s no secret where the plot is going, the brain building itself was nicely done. I take it that having both biological and robot Tharok’s exist separately would build up to their being more than one version in later Dark Man issues. The infiltrators didn’t get to use all their powers and the Elasti-cape still does nothing for me.

Brainy’s first offer to dissect Lyle to find out what the problem is got cut from the issue for space reasons. His seconds, to invade Lyle’s mind and privacy with his Orwellian mento-scanner is fine though.

Lyle doesn’t come across terribly well in his last appearance. It’s disappointing that he was goofing off during a drill. Even his other worldly girlfriend reminds him about his duty. As a result, his side lost. He’s infatuated, and even points out that he’s waited a long time for a relationship like this. Mon-El doesn’t take it well and Lyle has to tell him that he won’t let him down a second time. Then he goes awol again, as he figures out the solution. No communication devices this issue for the Legion.

Lyle feels that Tinya is the only one he can talk to. There’s the general impression that he didn’t feel as though he fitted in with the others. That’s a common view of Lyle looking back, and it mainly comes from this issue. It’s clear that even Tinya isn’t someone he’s close with, only that he can confide in her.

As Myla appears before the others at the end, Lyle’s secret pastime is needlessly so. Why not talk to the others for a solution? In the end, he only thinks he has a solution because he’s blocking the fact that Myla is dead. So, it's not a good end for someone so scientifically minded.

The way he views his powers sounds a lot like Tinya switching to Bgtzl. In the threeboot version she interacted with both worlds simultaneously. Travel between the worlds isn’t restricted to just Lyle. Myla can go back and forth too.

There’s no letters page, but the editor makes sure that there’s a note of dissatisfaction over the departure of Cockrum.

“Dave Cockrum, who was virtually unknown in the field and gained star-artist status only after we gave him the opportunity to do the Legion, has departed.” Vietnam vet Grell “who has proved his professionalism” (ouch). “The Legion helped make Dave. It can do likewise fro Mike with your continued loyalty.”

Grell’s nightgowned Dreamy isn’t up to Cockrum’s in this first attempt. No Thom beside her either. I don’t think I’m a fan of Imra’s swimsuit. It’s just too much of a departure from the costumes I’m used to seeing her in. I can’t get used to Validus’ nose either.

Still, it’s a pretty good debut. The crushed Superboy pose was nice foreshadowing of Lyle later on. I guess that Validus didn’t kill the others, because they weren’t in his way, or as close to sabotaging the Tharok brain as Lyle was. The Tharok suspended on X-33 looked good too.

Validus gets away, because they haven’t any way of stopping him. Tharok was deadly and was only a brain in a box. A box that looked like neither the cover or the slash page.

We don’t see spirit Lyle and spirit Myla walk back across to her dimension. We’ve only an “I’ll take good care of him” to indicate he’s anything more than pulped remains on the HQ floor. I think perhaps she was just trying to soften the blow for the others. They have lost another Legionnaire that was possibly considered to be surplus to requirements and has now been moved out of the book.

Lyle’s nebulous status ended up giving us his "return" years later in Tales of the LOSH in an underwhelming story. He also appeared when Jeckie was trying to contact the dead in the Magic Wars.

Perhaps so, but I think it is very human. As I noted above, Lyle could not accept that this lover was a ghost, as indicated by his intention to bring her back as his wife. In a way, he succeeds though not in the way he intended.



I really like the use of a shifting visual focus to illustrate how he goes from our dimension to the other. This is good use of science fiction: comparing something unknown to a concept readers could grasp.

After I first read this story at age 10, I practiced holding a pencil in front of my eyes and shifting my focus between it and whatever was in the background. I never did see another dimension, though.



I hadn't read the text feature in years, so I missed the obvious sour grapes. Ouch, indeed.



Maybe it takes some time for a new ghost to figure out how to traverse the dimensions. It took Ferro Lad all of four months (our time) to do so.



Indeed. That was one of the worst developments of the Levitz/Giffen era. Sometimes the dead should stay dead.

I'm not entirely sure, but this may have been the very first time I've ever read "Massacre by Remote Control". It probably shouldn't have been since I've owned the original issue since some time in the late '80s when I procured it rather cheaply as a back issue. I think maybe I was trying to fill in the gaps and get all the issues that were at least between this issue and the Levitz/Giffen run that made me a fan. That's something that I never did, probably forestalled by the arrival of the Archives and the belief that they would keep being published and not only eventually fill the gap but do so with high quality printing.

I probably should have read it after I bought Archives 11 some years ago. I'm not sure why, but I never got all the way thru Archives 10 the first time around. So naturally, I never started Archives 11. Maybe I would have eventually read it some time ago, but along came the Archives project that this thread is the latest installment of. So I figured I could wait 'til the project got there--and here we are! Basically, from this point forward (with the exception of a few issues which may have been reprinted in a digest I read at some point), this is not at all a "re"-read project for yours truly---unless, of course, I DID actually read 203 before and forgot about it.

Anyhow, I have to agree with those who felt that this was one of Cary's best scripts to date. It's not that the basic idea is all that complex, but it's nice that there are some layers to it and some pathos built into it for he who departs.

I like the opening with the four mysterious Roman-numeralled intruders. I must confess that I didn't immediately realize whom they really were and was a little intrigued by them. Having it revealed as an exercise in Legion HQ security and using it as an intro to Lyle's role in the story was really well-done.

Then, the middle part of the story revealed a new and intriguing aspect to Lyle's power: the ability to visit or see another realm. This was pretty unusual as the one-power Legionnaires tended to be very straightforward and simple with what their powers could do. The idea seemed so intriguing to me that I really found myself regretting that we wouldn't see this explored further in this, his final appearance. Of course, in the midst of all this, we learn of Lyle's falling for Myla, this kind of instant-love being a remnant of a Silver Age trope. But it humanizes him in a way that makes what is to come feel more tragic than it otherwise would have. I especially liked that talk with Tinya during the sequence.

Then, the final act commences with Nura (returning in her sexy Cockrum nighty, as previously mentioned) having her premonition. I actually found it odd that she didn't proclaim, "I saw a Legionnaire die!" as she did in numerous other false-alarm visions. But things happen quickly from there as Validus approaches, and the Legion tries to suss out what's bringing him their way. Things end tragically but heroically for Lyle, but the tragedy is lightened somewhat by Myla's revelation at the end.

It strikes me that, perhaps, this may have been the most effective use of Validus and especially Tharok (albeit in the form of a component of his robotic half's brain) in terms of showing what a dangerous, "fatal" threat they truly were. I mean, you see two-thirds of the Fatal Five actually kill a Legionnaire, right? And neither gets a bit of dialogue (admittedly, not Validus' strong suit, natch), which is pretty creepy and effective. Not a fan, though, of Validus' brain mimicking facial features, though. It should just be a brain in there...no eyes or nose.

In a way, though, the Legion itself is culpable for Lyle's death. Keeping such a bizarre trophy and not having it thoroughly examined for being a potential threat proved fatal for him. There've been stories involving dangerous weapons or relics in their clubhouse causing trouble for them before, and this stands as the ultimate failure for them along those lines.

Did anyone else notice that Cary allows way more Legionnaires above his average here, even if many only have brief-but-speaking cameos? We have Lyle, Tinya, Clark, Mon, Dirk, Val, Brainy, Nura, Imra, Jan and Garth--that's eleven Legionnaires, kids! I certainly appreciate the effort, Cary! Lends a little gravitas to the issue, given how it turns out.

Mike Grell, who along with Cockrum is easily one of my favorite artists in the comics medium let alone the Legion, lands on his feet here and instantly shows some of his talent. It's more in line with what Dave had done, so there's not the huge "WHOA!" moment you get going from Tuska to Cockrum. The Legion was truly blessed to have a great artist follow another. I'm sure this had much to do with the Legion's revival having some real legs for quite some time.



While I'll agree that the execution, as I remember it, was bad, I feel that the basic idea was really fantastic and made me wish it were resolved better even more after reading 203. Honestly, the fact that Lyle could see into the afterlife and actually having his successor find him there! Fourteen year-old me was intrigued! Years later when I caught up on all the successive stories (after I'd quit around 305 with an X-Men hard-on! ), I was really disappointed that it was explained away as some demon or whatever impersonating him. To this day, I don't think that was the intended outcome of that subplot.

It's not that I think they should have brought Lyle back, but the idea to make a story that built on things hinted at in the earlier story I think was a good idea. Maybe it could have been resolved as a more solid passing of the torch between new and old Invisble Kids and perhaps Lyle could have been helped to crossover into a more appropriate afterlife, perhaps reuniting with Myla. Who knows? Maybe 2 other Legion ghosts could have helped him out? I think it could have been a classic.

Speaking of one of those ghosts, this story kind of refutes what we like to read into that Secret Origin story with Condo. I guess some have been able to explain away Lyle's infatuation with Myla, but you have to look at what was there, not just what was ret-conned. I suppose, though, that you could see as Condo being gay and harboring deeper feelings for his friend than Lyle ever suspected. Or maybe they were just really close friends?

Overall, a strong story. Not as strong as the overall tale that ended with Ferro Lad's death, but I would say that this one was definitely sadder. Also, the relative implied brutality of his death compared to Ferro Lad's was definitely more of a Bronze Age hallmark in contrast to the Silver Age innocent romanticism. Kind of like how a young blond girlfriend was killed when her neck snapped after being thrown from a bridge a year earlier. (Yeah, I know being blown up destroying a space monster may not seem less brutal, but there was no corpse left behind!)

I must have snipped out a line that was going to ask "Just how was Lyle intending to get Myla into our world?" One of the darker choices was suicide once he realised what she was.

I thought they looked a bit like the Unkillables from Adventure 361.



She couldn't remember who he was, as he couldn't connect with the others apparently But Validus she knew about.

I agree that Lyle's return didn't look as though it panned out as intended. Just as he was caught between worlds, the plot was caught between Tales and the Baxter launch.

I also agree regarding the Condo retconning. But ghosts can take many forms. Perhaps Myla was taking Ecto-Fem (I shall be punished for even making that connection )

SLSH #203 was one of the first issues from the 70s I purchased in the back issue bin, and then later enjoyed re-reading when the eleventh archive came out. While I feel like I don't have any particularly new insight to add to everyone's reviews, I will chime in that I also enjoyed this tale.

I thought Lyle's death overall was well done. I felt it straddled nicely the line between that a heroic path can be perilous, as well as the normal trope of heroes dying via sacrifice. As others mentioned, this really cemented Tharok and to a larger extent Validus as a Legion threat. I did find the Myla revelation silly even when I was younger, but I know that angle makes what happens more digestible for a lot of readers.

When I was younger, I don't think I could tell distinctly where Cockrum left and Grell began. As an adult, the transition is a lot easier to see. However, I think Grell fills the Cockrum void well and the visual momentum and excitement that Dave started on his Legion run isn't dropped by Mike's joining. Like Cobie pointed out, a lot of Legionnaires come in and out this issue and that's largely how I prefer my Legion tales when they're not battling a threat requiring the whole team.

I always thought the Tinya/Lyle friendship made sense, as undeveloped as it was. In addition to their power similarities, both likely served on the Espionage Squad enough together to have built some trust. Between this and the earlier scene with her on a mission with Garth, I really liked the unstated notion that Tinya was more comfortable paling around with the guys than the girls.

Other than my points in my previous post, I can think of two ways that the Legion would definitely, imo, later benefit from Lyle having died:

1) We'd get the Legion's first legacy hero (not including Ayla's time taking over for her then-deceased brother) in the form of Jaques Foccart. Though some would decry him for his use of French and for not being "black" enough, I feel Jaques was a great inheritor of Lyle's legacy and was a terrific viewpoint character for me as I discovered the Legion with him because of the timing of us both coming aboard in close proximity. (Ironically, I originally missed the annual in which he debuted, so his appearance and references to the annual were confusing to me. But it was cool seeing him as a fish out of water during the GDS, even as I was trying to comprehend the story's scope.) I always loved his deceptively simple costume and how his invisibility effect was shown in a cool way thru it. His role in 5YL just solidified and fulfilled the character's potential.

2) I'm sure that Lyle's unfulfilled potential lead the creators behind the Reboot to give him such a big and important role during much of the era. Lyle certainly shone as a character in that era as he never had before or never would since, and I doubt that would have been the case had Lyle not been killed off in this issue. There's no doubt he was one of the stars of the era, especially pre-DnA.

This is great! Lots of posts, just the way I like re-read threads. Will catch up and comment after dinner.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe Bates and Boltinoff figured that it would be a good way to fill in the new readers that the Legion had picked up during the Cockrum era.



Very well said.

She's always come across to me as one of the girly-est of the Legionnaires, but of such contradictions are personalities formed.

In terms of the number of Legionnaires featured in this story, sure, it's nice to see more of the team, but most have minor or walk-on roles. Lightning Lad disappears entirely after the training exercise, while Dream Girl and Saturn Girl, both serve the needs of the plot and then disappear. Sun Boy and Karate Kid get to partake in the action, albeit briefly, and Element Lad has a substantial role early on (though it could really have been any Legionnaire who broke into the museum). However, the only really significant members are the four shown on the cover and splash page (and, even then, Tinya never gets to use her power).

There's nothing wrong with this approach; in fact, Bates is quite clever in creating the illusion that more Legionnaires contribute significantly to the story than actually do. I liken it to the approach used on Star Trek: TOS, in which many stories focused on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy plus Guest Star of the week (I suppose Lyle would be the Guest Star, since he's the one who "changes," i.e., dies) while Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov are there to man their stations and get thrown about when the Enterprise is attacked.

Yeah, I was very aware that most of the Legionnaires had what amounted to cameos in the story, but I suppose that I was happy to see Cary at least somewhat out of his comfort zone for a change. At least, for once, we didn't have all but about four off-planet, and the extra Legionnaires got to contribute in at least a small way. We had the whole kit n' kaboodle (and then some) in 200, but not as many of them in that one had a line or got in on the action--or at least it feels that way.

It is clever writing. I was updating the Grand appearance database thingy a while back, and there were a number of issues where most of the cast just appeared in the background, and provided nothing to the story. Even a couple of panels for some characters over time can make a difference.

When I first started reading Legion (issue #212) , it was shortly after Mike Grell took over. His artistic ability towards the Legionnaires served as my introduction to the Legion and perhaps because of that, he is my favorite artist by far. I loved the sexiness of the costumes and it was good to see some muscle on the men as well. I felt like he took more time to add detail, especially in the close-ups of Legionnaires faces. More background art would have been desirable however.

Massacre by Remote Control is one of the better one-shot stories in my opinion, though I never liked the whole Myla plot concept. I think those panels would have been better used to develop the plot of Tharok's Brain and how parts of it ended up in the Legion Museum. This would tie the overall plot together better and if written properly, push the envelope on Invisible Kid's unfortunate death.

Lyle was one Legionnaire who was killed shortly before I started reading Legion. I read issue #206 which deals with the clones of both Invisible Kid and Ferro Lad before issue #203; that is how I leaned how Lyle dies. Once I read a few back issues with Invisible Kid I came to the realization that I wish he had not made the sacrifice but perhaps a Legionnaire that I didn't end up liking as much (a few names come to mind but I won't mention whom for certainly I will get an outcry of fans who beloved them.)

This is one of the stories I have re-read several times over the years and many of the stories I grew up on were in this particular hardcover volume. I'm not saying they were always the best stories and I do believe that many of them would have been better told if they expanded the story to cover about 3 comics. Nonetheless however, it was this era of the Legion that I hold dearest to my heart and as a result, is when I started my Legion campaign with my Role Playing Game.

Long Live the Legion!

Welcome to the reviews, Phantom Girl.

I noticed the lack of backgrounds in 203, as well. Whereas Cockrum had lush and convincing science fiction backgrounds, Grell went for a minimalist approach. That's not necessarily a bad artistic choice--it focuses our attention on the characters--but I miss the depth and breadth of Cockrum's vision.

SLSH 203

Although I first encountered the Legion through black and white reprints of their Adventure days, followed by scattered much later stories, it wasn't until the 5YL period that I started collecting seriously. i kew enough from the earlier reprints to know the background but I just HAD to get previous issues to figure out what was going on. So I then bought up all the Baxter series and the later SLSH stories. (See? Having a new first issue and making the stories confusing but engrossing does work!)

As a result I knew for a long time of the legionnaires who died and even knew the basic circumstance but had never read the original stories. That changed recently as I read the Fatal Five/Suneater story and now this one.

Did it live up to the wait? Sort of. I guess all legends grow over time.

Still Lyle did give himself up heroicly and that was well done. The intro was a good attention catcher and the talk with Tinya was a novel and interesting part.

Somehow though the execution just wasn't quite there for me. I'm finding that with a lot of Cary Bates stories - they're not bad but they feel too short, like they've only just got going when they finish. Characterisation was definitely improved over the Adventure days but somehow those stories felt grander.

Still I'm glad I read this. The Myla bit didn't really work for me, and even now I can't help wondering if she was actually the Dream demon in disguise, which would seem to distract from Lyle's actions - silly dope being fooled that way. Nevertheless he did die saving the Legion and that is how I will go on remembering him.

(Oh and I agree that Jacques is a tremendous character, not least in the way he was always written not as a replacement but in honour of his predecessor.)

Thank you! The crickets were a-chirpin' loudly in the lack of any kind of response to this point I made earlier....



....which makes me wonder just how popular or unpopular Jacques' character is among the contributors of the re-read threads. My guess is he's probably right there in the middle, basically a "meh" character, for you guys and by extension most of Legion fandom.

I'll admit he's not even one of my absolute favorites, but I've always had a soft spot for him for all the reasons I mentioned in the above quote. I'd go so far as to say that Jacques is definitely one of the (admittedly many) feathers in Levitz's cap as far as his contributions to the Legion's cast and lore.

I'd be curious as to what the rest of you think of Jacques. I think it's totally appropriate to chime in with that here, given he is definitely a future consequence of SLOSH 203 in the long view.

And as for Lyle himself, I think it bears mentioning that I think he had arguably (in my mind, inarguably) the most distinguished leadership term from the point of the Legion's inception to at least where we currently are in the Archives.

I feel that for probably the first time in the Legion's annals that the leadership role felt vital and important to telling the story. This is in large part thanks to our young Jim Shooter who, in many ways, was the writer to level up the Legion from where it was in the early Silver Age. Making the leader show some real influence in the stories was just one of the ways Shooter did this.

I loved that Lyle was the leader during a significant chunk of Shooter's run. And Shooter showed him to be very confident, competent and incredibly brave while in the role. I honestly can't remember if Lyle was elected by fans or not, but if he was, kudos to young Shooter for taking the ball and running with it! Hell, kudos to Shooter if it was his idea! Either way, it was great to see a quote/unquote "weak" Legionnaire shine in the role. It's fairly rare for the least powerful members to get a shot, so it was nice to see Lyle shine like Nura would much later.

That said, the story has been nagging at me a bit since my initial review here. Mainly because of the implication that Lyle was shirking his duty to make time with Myla. Honestly, the way the story is depicted, there's just no other way to read it, even if the other Legionnaires weren't particularly hard on him.

It nags at me because this is the very same Lyle who I praised above as an exemplary leader. I don't think that Lyle would shirk his duties for any reason. So that's a significant demerit for Cary Bates for not considering the character's history.

It reminds me a little of when a character on CSI: Miami was killed off, and his character's integrity was also assassinated at the same time by it being presented that he'd been lazy about his gun's upkeep--causing a jam at a crucial moment that might have saved his life had the weapon been properly maintained. It's not an exact parallel, but Lyle's character does take a bit of a shot even as his life is ended. But the death itself, at least, is heroic and selfless, unlike the rather senseless death of the TV character.

Also, despite what good I mentioned in the previous posts eventually came from his death, it's still a shame that he was deemed expendable. Ironically, he largely disappeared after having been so vital during his leadership term. I was shocked when someone here elsewhere on the boards posed a trivia question about the Action back-ups era. The question was which was the only active Legionnaire not to appear in any of those strips. Not having read them in a while, I was thinking Supergirl, or possibly Chemical King. Nope and nope. It was none other than Invisible Kid.

Sure, he would appear post-Action and pre-SLOSH 203, but it would seem that Cary didn't have a very hard choice to make when coupled with the comparatively weak power. I think if his history and importance as easily one of the Legion's best leaders was taken into account and if he'd been given more to do in the interim of his term, maybe someone else would have fallen instead.