Jerry posed the question in the Space Circus thread, "Was Gerry Conway a good writer?"

I'm going to be reviewing my preboot collection soon, for a couple of reasons:

a. to see how Jecky treated her fellow Legionnaires.

b. to remind myself of the Conway run


The Conway era was special to me because it was during my Jr. High years. I hated Jr. High.

Without looking back at reference, I'd say the plots were not bad, but the execution of the stories were weak. Also, the art was pretty bland after such greats as Cockrum and Grell. Joe Staton and Jimmy Janes did respectable work, just.... dull. Also, the spectacular work of Levitz/Giffen follows the Conway era, so it (the Conway era) does sort of fall away in comparison.

Actual analysis coming soon, but please feel free to post your own.....

Is this the same Conway who wrote Last Days of Animal Man?

This is the era of the Legion that I am least familiar with, so I'm looking forward to this discussion.

Conway was indeed a good writer in other contexts--Firestorm, a zillion Marvels--but he was not suited to the Legion. Very few of those stories stand out to me now (though that's a good excuse to re-read them).

First off - Conway inherited the post Earthwar and post Omega disasters; certainly a dark time.

I have to be honest - in retrospect, Joe Staton's art isn't as bad as I thought. It's just that his inkers were like a box of chocolates....

More detail soon.

When I re-read all my Legions from start to finish (at the time) a number of years ago, I found the Conway years the most difficult to get through.

The kind of dull, average stories that could kill a title. Average art, Staton was okay, Jim Sherman was great - the artistic highlight of the era.

It was a real temptation to pick up the story from the art and skip the dialogue entirely.

I just re-read Conway's first Legion offering, S/LSH # 248-49, and I have to agree with Dean's assessment that the plots were not bad but the execution left a lot to be desired.

This two-part story is essentially a rematch with Dr. Mantis Morlo, the Chemical Conqueror--a somewhat obscure villain from Adventure Comics # 362-63. Morlo's identity is kept secret until near the end of # 249, and then he is defeated in all of two pages. There's a reason why some villains remain obscure . . .

But the focus of the story isn't on the villain; it's more on the Legionnaires themselves. Conway tries to inject personalities and drama, but he overdoes it by having everyone overreact to just about everything. It begins with Shadow Lass getting injured while fighting a sewer monstrosity (created by Morlo); Sun Boy is so overrought that he takes needless personal responsibility for Shady's injury; one might think he was secretly in love with her.

Then Mon-El enters the picture. The cover gives away the emotional tenor of the story by having Mon grab Dirk and threaten him for causing Shady's "death." In truth, the scene doesn't happen in the story, although Mon does grab Brainy instead of Dirk. But in the story, Conway describes Mon as "in many ways . . . younger" than Superboy, "less confidant" [sic] and "far closer to his emotions." These traits of Mon's can be borne out by other stories, but there's no excuse for Mon threatening fellow Legionnaires and then refusing to assist them so he can remain at Tasmia's side. Mon comes off as so co-dependent that one might think he and Shady had a John-Yoko relationship.

Brainy is also acting up in this story--he's detached and unconcerned for his fellow Legionnaires--but this foreshadows his going off the deep end in the Omega story to follow.

Conway does include some nice moments of Garth and Imra as newlyweds; Garth tries to impress his new wife with his cullinary skills. Later on, Garth, who has just been elected leader, faces the weight of command in deciding how the team should proceed. These bits keep the story from being a total loss.

Joe Staton's art is serviceable but his figures are often awkward. He is inked by David Hunt in the first part and Jack Abel in the second; Abel is the more suitable inker, but just barely.

Last comment: The second half of the story does not take up the entirety of 249; a backup Chameleon Boy solo story by Paul Kupperberg fills out the issue. It's just as well, since the Morlo story isn't worth a full two issues.

Hey, I've read the first of those issues! I do seem to remember feeling like everyone just seemed to be massively overreacting to everything, but I see that as pretty much characteristic of 70s comics (or at least the 70s Legion). I see it as part of the same trend that has Cosmic Boy acting like a cocky jerk and slapping Ayla around, etc.

Writers of the '70s (and before and after) did use overreacting as a shorthand attempt at characterization, but, for the most part, they did not strain credibility overmuch. This is not the case in Conway's story.

"Conway does include some nice moments of Garth and Imra as newlyweds; Garth tries to impress his new wife with his cullinary skills. Later on, Garth, who has just been elected leader, faces the weight of command in deciding how the team should proceed. These bits keep the story from being a total loss."

And which issues would these be? I could use the info.

The first scene is in 248, the second in 249, Kid.

HWW,
Thanks for getting this started!

In the big picture, the sewer monster caper was really easy for the Legion to handle. Yeah, Shady and Dirk got hurt by the creature, but Brainy's Chemical De-Synthesizer did the trick. Morlo and the Chemoid were absolutely no problem.

They made it seem like Shady would die, but that never came across as a true possibility. False drama? False advertising?

It is clearly the characterization that shines above the simple plot.

The Legionnaires seem to bicker quite a bit as they enter the sewer and engage the monster. Maybe they're fatigued and impatient after Earthwar?

Mon-El automatically blames them when they bring the injured Shadow Lass back to hq. He demands that Brainy treat her. Brainy would rather work on his gadgets. (Both of their crazies are beginning to show!)

We see Garth's first efforts in the kitchen. It's great that he wants to impress his wife. We see that Imra is comfortable reading his mind. She knows that this is his first time cooking even though he said he used to pride himself on being a gourmet cook. Also, Imra verbally responds to one of Garth's thoughts about the food. He reacts with confusion. Note - add Venusian Crab in Butter Sauce, Steamed Martian Tris-Roots and Ganymedian Roseleafs au gratin to the Fooood! thread.

Yes, it is interesting the being the leader seems to trouble Garth, and he looks to Imra, but she lets him make his own decisions. Nice.

Brande's bankruptcy is an interesting sub-plot.

Conway's text is pretty cheesy:

"Imagine a battle fought in shadow, in waters ankle-deep with scum, in a darkness as foul and fetid as a reeking tomb...

Imagine this, and you'll grasp but a tenth of the horror--"

Tinya said it best, "Sounds like a fright holo-picture's plot!"

Your welcome, Sketchy.

I think you're right about the characterization. It was one of Conway's strong suits.

The more I think about the Garth/Imra scenes, the more I like them. In the second scene, Garth turns to Imra for silent advice, but she, recognizing that it's his turn to lead, says nothing.

The fanboy in me almost wants to criticize Conway for having Imra accidentally read Garth's mind in regards to his cooking--surely a telepath of her skill and experience wouldn't "accidentally" read anyone's mind. But the scene is funny and works in the context of the characters as Legion newlyweds.

It's clear that Conway knows his Legion history--he acknowledges both Imra and Cos as past leaders. The bantering in the sewer plays well. And Brainy's detachment continues from the past couple of issues, foreshadowing what is to be revealed in # 250.

Perhaps it's only because this was Conway's first effort at writing the Legion that the story itself amounts to little else than overacting in a third-rate horror movie.

Gerry Conway is a very talented writer and I personally some of the work he’s done in comics were the medium at its finest: particularly Amazing Spider-Man and Thor. I do, however, think his run on the Legion is among his weakest work. Like Jorge, when I reread the entire Legion run a few years back, this was probably the single toughest era for me to get through.

I believe Steve Ditko’s Legion work is in here and there’s a similar comparison. Ditko is what I consider one of the greatest artists in comics history. He has a dynamic to his work that is completely his own, and he’s a trend-setter and universe creator. He’s the medium at its finest, himself. But his Legion work is among what I’d consider some of his weaker work. It seemed a little flat and wasn’t capturing the spirit of what Conway wanted to do.

One major complaint with Conway’s writing has already been mentioned by HWW, namely the massive over-reactions of everyone in every scene. That seems to be something of a Marvel trait taken to its logical extreme, and it doesn’t work here at all. Conway consistently tries to ensure there are sequences in every story where the characters interact, and I think that’s a noble endeavor. The execution of these scenes, however, is hampered by the overreactions and therefore actually don’t read that well. Still, sometimes they worked IIRC. I like Dean’s idea though that they were fatigued after Earth War. That wouldn’t be too far-fetched.

Something else else everyone should consider is that at age 18 Gerry Conway was a successful science-fiction paperback novel writer. And he stayed that way through the entire 70’s—in fact, most of his writing was from these paperbacks. I’ve never read any of these works (I’m curious), but I wonder how they read? So his taking over the Legion is a natural fit from a genre standpoint. In fact, his Thor stories a few years earlier are so science-fiction oriented that they could easily have been Legion stories (and they’re actually pretty good!). Part of me wonders if perhaps Conway thought he was writing to a younger audience with the Legion and that’s why his dialogue suffers a little? That’s purely hearsay but I do wonder.

Conway’s Thor run often had Thor teaming up with the Warrior’s Three, Sif, Hilda (a Valkrye), the Recorder, Tana Nile, Balder, Heimdall, a bunch of new characters he introduced and Hercules. Sometimes all of them at once! So he could handle a story with 6+ heroes at once. Often they were in space: visiting new civilizations, encountering new life-forms, battling enemies, getting caught between two sides of a bad misunderstanding…all kinds of great plots. And the execution on most these stories—while obviously written in the early 1970’s—is actually quite good. You’d think he’d be a Legion natural. Yet, he wasn’t. I suspect it was an adjustment in his approach (re: who he thought he was writing to) or some kind of behind the scenes stuff we don’t know about.

Okay, by #252, the Omega battle is over. The hq is destroyed and Matter Eater Lad and Brainy have gone insane and are committed to the UP Medi Center at St. Croix. The Legion is visiting them, hoping to ease Tenzil's condition.

Brainy suggests that Jeckie create an illusion of calm into Tenzil's mind, then Dream Girl could enter his thoughts. Jeckie mentions how risky this is, and that Dreamy could get lost in his madness.

Okay... what?

I understand the illusion of tranquility, but how did Dreamy enter his mind? How was Tenz able to pull her into his madness? I don't get it.

Luckily, Dreamy breaks away before she loses her sanity, and is only stunned. Also, with Saturn Girl standing right there, why are Jeckie and Dreamy the ones getting into Tenz's head?

Tenz is as sick as ever as is Brainy. He's escorted back to his room.

Jeckie note - after they leave the mental ward, she says, "We have had much luck lately, dear friends! None of it very good..." She seems pretty annnoyed with this state of being.

The infamous Starburst Bandits attack. Staton does and adequate job of choreographing the fight and Conway's illustrative prose is over the top as usual.
"... for once in her rigidly controlled life, Imra Ranzz goes wild!"

"... but then capricious fate takes a hand..."

The bandits actually defeat the Legion - they pop Wildfire's containment suit, they use red solar rays on Superboy, they overpower Sun Boy and Lightning Lad, they konk Jeckie in the head, they don't do anything to Saturn Girl or Dreamy. Then they retreat without the cargo they were after.

Meanwhile, Brande is irritated by UP Revenue Agents.

Meanwhile meanwhile, a whiney Mon-El is sorting through the rubble of the destroyed hq.
"Grim thoughts, Mon-El?" asks Shady.
"... the grimmest..." Sheesh!

So then the team convenes on their Legion cruiser. Superboy announces that the bandits were trying to steal synthetic Neutronium down on Earth. Since they didn't get it, the Legion figures the bandits would go after natural neutronium - which comes from the core of the sun. By extracting the sun's neutronium, the bandits would cause a chain reaction ending in a massive explosion - which would destroy all 9 planets of the Solar System.

This is a really fun sci-fi plot, IMO. Can't wait to see what happens!!

Lightning Lad the leader plows the Legion ship into the Bandits' ship, stopping the extraction process. Then they scoop up all the stunned bandits. Heh, that was easy!

Now, to stop the chain reaction... SUN BOY SINGLE HANDEDLY CURES THE CORE OF THE SUN!!!!! No problem!

Notes - Dreamy is presented as a damsel in distress on the cover and 2 or 3 times in the story. Wildfire admires her "talent" when she slips out of a bandit's grip.

Garth and Imra switch between speaking to each other and telepathic communication.
"...Garth, darling... I love you..."
"And I, you... forever."

At this point, I'm getting the idea that Conway over dramatizes everything. He tries to portray mundane antagonists like these Starburst Bandits or the Sewer Monsters as SO perilous, but then they're all defeated SO easily. It just comes across as ... irritating.

Well put, Cobie. Thanks for the background on Conway and for reminding me that he wrote the Thor stories with Sif, the Recorder, etc. Those are probably my favorite Thor stories ever.

Yes, there probably was some kind of behind-the-scenes chicanery going on that we'll never know about. One of the pratfalls of being a writer for a company like DC or Marvel is that Conway's name is on the first page, so he gets sole credit or blame for the story.

Dean, you've got to keep these reviews coming! You're combining both an enthusiasm for the fun aspects of the story with a frank acknowledgement of some of the over-the-top dialogue and sketchy plot moments.

The Starburst Bandits naturally seem a little corny in retrospect but seeing you lay out their plot like that for me actually makes me kind of like them a little! That is typical of Conway: he always had some pretty groovy sci-fi plots for the antagonists of his stories (and in many cases antagonist is a better word to use than villain for his stories). The problem as we're all noting at length is the execution of these plots via over-dramatization. But the plots themselves show moments of brillance.

HWW--another interesting thing to consider is that Conway was still in his mid/late-20's when he wrote these stories, and had just gone through a traumatic experience of being Marvel EiC for like fifteen minutes before exiting the company entirely (apparently on not so good terms). So he might have been experiencing a personal dilemna that was affecting his writing (namely, a potential blow to his enthusiasm for writing during this time).

Sketch Lad, you've got me thinking about Dream Girl's abilities. Sure Imra's got the mental training, even if she did choose to phone it in that day, but it occurs to me that if anyone should be an expert on the unconscious and subconscious it should be Dreamy. She could be portrayed as advising the group as to how an opponent might think, motives, and patterns more deeply rooted than Saturn Girl.
Please excuse me for being a bit off topic, and I don't know if this has been discussed before, but thank you for getting me thinking.

Possibly, but professional writers should not let their personal lives interfere with their work.

Good question. I can only assume that Conway took Dream Girl's name literally and thought she could influence Tenz's dreams.

Another gaffe I noticed was at the bottom of Page 9, where it looks like one of the Starburst Bandits is kidnapping the unconscious Dirk. Two pages later, Dirk is returning to hq with the rest of the team.

I have little else to say about # 252. The Starburst Bandits could have been interesting, but I thought they looked silly riding flaming horses. As with Morlo above, they are not important as villains.

This story doesn't really have a clear purpose or goal, other than to show the Legionnaires conducting business as usual. The climax comes when Garth decides to risk all of their lives (even Superboy's?) by ramming the bandits' ship. It is an emotional moment, but for what? One panel later, the Legionnaires are in their transuits, mopping up the villains (all of whom also miraculously suvived, it seems; otherwise, Garth would be in violation of the Legion Code). Then Sun Boy becomes a god who singlehandedly stabilizes the sun's core. One wonders what the range of his solar powers is, since he and the others had to be far enough away from the sun to avoid being burned alive.

I've always been a fan of Blok and the League of Super Assassins, so I was really hoping I wouldn't totally hate their intro story (SLSH #s 253&4) upon re-reading ... and I didn't! I think it's a really good story.

BUT...

... there were a LOT of terribly convenient coincidences that happened.

The first one is that the League specifically wants to kill Superboy, Colossal Boy, Timber Wolf, Light Lass, Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl. Well, guess which 6 Legionnaires happen to be the ones left on Earth? Yep, those 6. The others go off to Brande's planetoid to plea for money to rebuild their hq and starship (because the UP said they weren't a high enough priority). That's when the Legion learns that Brande is bankrupt.

Supes' group of 6 decide to blow off some stress by taking a night out on the town. Get this - - Timber Wolf knows exactly where to go - - the groovy New Aquarius Niteclub where you dance in a tank of cooling crystalline and a hologram show where they add a chemical relaxant to the air like in suspended animation chambers! Gim and Supes both comment on how much Brin and Ayla seem to be enjoying it. Yep, that's our Brin - always with the hook up!

Charcter note - Gim is grumpy and lonely for Vi. Also, he says that Jo is normally very depressing to be around, but being with Tinya seems to really be good for him. Was Jo depressing to be around?

Another note - Blok really slugged Ayla bad. I'd imagine this would be hard for her to move beyond. Of course, Superboy somehow tempered his punch, so she never felt the full effect. Also, Ayla's used to getting slapped around (Cos, Mekt, etc....) (sorry!).

Another note - Brin is getting pretty intense. "... the human race... nothing but a bunch of pig-headed...". He wishes to be Lone Wolf again. He brings Ayla to his really cool apartment on the 40th floor. All he has is a lean mat and a light globe. "Comfort makes you weak..." Ayla asks if love makes him weak too. "You know how I feel about you... must I say it?"

The LoSA attack a Science Police ship, killing several officers. This shows that they truly are murderers. Check! Then they go on to rather easily kill all the Legionnaires but Supes. One little clue - Superboy hesitates before totally leaving Colossal Boy alone right before he's killed. What could that mean?

Well, that's an interesting triple-date.

Jo & Tinya, Brin & Ayla and... Kal and Gim? Hmm. Didn't see that one coming.

In the second half of the story, Supes goes to Brainy's hospital room to ask for his help. Lazon attacks and kills Superboy by becoming an emerald green beam of light.

Brainy gets permission from the hospital's board of directors to work on this caper. With a guard and a floating mini computer watching over him, he contacts the Subs! He figures out that none of the murdered Legionnaires are actually dead. Superboy used his x-ray vision to activate the suspended animation chemicals in their bodies to fake their deaths! How convenient!

With Brainy's leadership, the Subs pull off a brilliant sneak attack on the hidden LoSA. Blok poetically forfeits (how convenient!). Then, Brainy siphens energy from Lazon in order to re-animate the Legionnaires.

Brainy didn't seem crazy at all in this story, except maybe when he was watching Lazon "kill" Superboy.

Overall, I really liked the story. The ultra-conveniences I mentioned were a bit much, and by now Conway has tried several times to push buttons by trying to trick us (the readers) into thinking Legionnaires will die - but they don't really. Also, the corny dialogue and text are over the top.

Naturally, Blok and the League will return to the pages, so we have that to look forward to.

Just thought of something... why didn't the League harbor resentment against the Subs? They're the ones who foiled the dastardly plot!

Always liked the League story despite it's flaws. Wasn't Blok originally a human transformed by what happened to the rest of them...I seem to also remember one of the others calling him cousin.

Yes, Silver Slasher calls him cousin and asks if she should use his "new" name: Blok. She says thanks to the Legion he is now a hideous monster.

She also says "our home planet" which is identified as Korlon.

The Dark Man is mentioned as well...

Yeah, that's what I thought I remembered. Obviously someone decided to take Blok in a different direction.

I always thought the League should have been a much bigger threat over the years...something that I plan to work on in my stuff coming up.

Y'know, Gim might have been the one who know about those venues. It's one of those questionably placed word balloons. Still, it was mentioned *twice* how much Brin enjoyed it. (I'm just adding to the list of evidence of Brin's chemical addictive personality.)

The thing is, Dreamy was always portrayed as one of the best precogs on Naltor, but even she had little to no control over her visions. If she was able to predict the actions of their opponent on command, she would be a far better Legionnaire/hero.

Actually, this reminds me of the time when Jeckie was sick and Cham, Imra and Nura oversaw her treatment. Must re-read that story to figure out everyone's role.

Thanks, KK!

'Kay, I just took a look at SLSH #233, where Jeckie's in a coma because she's so upset about Karate Kid heading off into the past. Evidently, her illusion powers turned inward and she was living in a fantasy world (where Val is with her loving and laughing!) Dreamy's idea was to turn the "dream into a nightmare" to try and scare Jeckie out of it, using Saturn Girl's powers. That didn't work (but looked KEWL thanks to Mike Nasser!).

This makes sense from Dreamy's perspective because she constantly wakes up from her sleep when she gets an intense vision in her dreams.

Note - Dreamy mentions how her people, the Naltorians, don't even understand their own powers, so she'd be lame at understanding Jeckie's. Imra mentions that the magic element to Jeckie's power is very different than what she is used to, so she is stumped as well.

It is Cham and his understanding of illusion that suggests that Imra helps Jeckie turn her fantasy world into a lonely world (making Val disappear). This is what works and brings Jeckie back.

Okay, interlude over. Back to the Conway era....

# 255, "the Super-Spectacles Swipe"

Again, we are presented with a murderous villain, the Gorgli. He kills the crew in 4 Science Police patrol ships when they try to stop him from holding the entire population of 30th century Tokyo hostage.
(The Gorgli went back to 20th century Smallville and stole Clark Kent's Kryptonian eye glasses to use as lenses for a very powerful weapon.)

It's cute to see Lana Lang trying to prove that Clark is Superboy. Nothing really new there.

The UP ask for the Legion's help against the Gorgli, which is interesting because they address the tensions between the two groups, but the Legion is shown to have their priorities straight and they get right to work on the mission. They are not powerful enough to crack the Gorgli's defenses, so they go get Supes.

Superboy is not tough enough to crack the defenses either, so they go back to pre-explosion Krypton and snag a couple of lenses from Jor-El's workshop (where they meet sweet baby Kal).

They make their own weapon with Jor's lenses and create an implosion up against the Gorgli's weapon. Now they can free the Tokyo denizens and put the Gorgli in jail.

Notes - The verbiage and text are kept nice and simple. Not a lot of poetry going on. That's a good thing.

Cosmic Boy comes across as an expert on Jor-El and/or Kryptonian history. It makes me wonder if Paul Levitz made note of this kind of thing and decided to use it in his characterization of Cos.

When the Legion is blasted from outer space back to Earth, Wildfire formed and energy shield around them or else "they would have burned up on re-entry." Have we seen these kind of protective energy shields from him again? I can't think of a time. That's a handy use of his powers.

Otherwise, the characterization wasn't a huge feature in the story. It was a fairly interesting romp. It's just that Conway's deadly antagonists who are super easy to beat are getting old.

Re: # 253-54

I have to love the cover of 253. Six beings are breaking through a wall, and Superboy asks them if they are here to join the Legion. If insane Legionnaires (Mon-El on 248) won't sell comics, maybe stupid ones will.

In spite of the coincidences Sketchy mentions above, the story holds together very well. It's also a satisfying read, with two mysteries (the League blaming six Legionnaires for the destruction of their homeworld and the Legionnaires' not being dead, after all) and well choreographed action--particularly the Subs' sneak attack on the League. The action here is kept on the League and their confusion, while Conway trusts in the reader to figure out what is going on. (Night Girl does provide us with a recap of the Subs' abilities at the end, but it's not intrusive.)

Note, by the way, that Stone Boy is nowhere to be found. He might seem a natural opponent for Blok, if Night Girl had swung Stone Boy as a club. But Blok's surrender at the end works better: It was unexpected, given that he was extremely powerful, and it paves the way for him to turn good guy later on.

The story is not perfect. The premise, for example, asks us to believe in the wholesale slaughter of Legionnaires, but that hook hadn't been effective since Adventure # 310, when Mask Man killed everybody. Also, it's a good thing the six Legionnaires went to two night clubs which provided them with the means to survive. If Superboy had suggested that they just chill out at home instead, they'd be goners.

But this story does two positive things: 1) It redeems Conway's repuation as a Legion writer, and 2) it shows how it is possible to tell a complete and satisfying story in two issues. Modern comics writers should take note.

This thread is great, and is making me want to go back to those issues-- truly an accomplishment by you all!


I do think the Subs' takedown of the League of SA was excellently portrayed.

Re: # 255

This so-so story relies on the gimmick of the Legionnaires going back in time to seek help from Superboy's father, Jor-El, as indicated on the cover. This they do, but not quite in the same manner as depicted. Another case of the cover misleading the reader for dramatic effect--an all-too-common technique of the '70s.

The story covers a lot of ground. There's Clark's discussion with Pa Kent about the effectiveness of using glasses as his disguise, Lana suspecting Clark is Superboy, the kidnapping of the people of Tokyo, the Science Police and the Legion's failed attempts to stop Gorgli, the Legion seeking Superboy's help, another attempt to stop Gorgli, and the trip back to Krypton. It's too bad, though, that all of this amounts to very little.

Too much of this story is told in flashback. After the Legionnaires approach Superboy, Cosmic Boy and Wildfire spend the next seven pages telling him what's been going on. This lengthy recap stops the story cold and kills the dramatic tension. If a flashback has to be this long, perhaps it should not be a flashback at all.

The story would have been more meaningful, I think, if the Legion had actually requested help from Jor-El. He dies soon, anyway, so there's little chance of his knowledge affecting the future. (It would have been a touching moment when he realizes not only that his son will live but that he will grow up to have good friends.)

Instead, Shrinking Violet gets some assistance from Baby Kal-El. We're meant to think that Superboy was such a good person all along that even as a baby he helped a strange, tiny lady. Wouldn't it have been more realistic (and interesting) if Baby Kal had grabbed the lens away from her and said, "Mine"?

As it is, there are no real consequences or deep insights into the characters or situation, making this one of the most forgettable Legion stories I've ever read.

Here's a thought.... Why did Gorgli kidnap over 10 million sentients from Tokyo in exchange for 10 thousand human slaves? He didn't even demand only the best, fittest humans. What a maroon! He should have just snatched the ones he wanted and beat it.

#256 "This is Your Life and Death Brainiac 5!"

It is determined that Brainy's insanity is totally incurable, short of a miracle. Totally incurable. Totally. Um...yarite.

The Legion wants to help Brande with his bankruptcy. This subplot is sssssllllooowwwwwlllyyyy moving along.

The Legion forcibly takes over Cosmic World, an amusement park that hovers over the Grand Canyon. They literally force the owner off premise and then evacuate 2 million customers. Whoa! The Legion WILL have that place! They even fight off the Science Police.

Meanwhile, it's Timber Wolf's turn to have a fit about how hopeless it seems to re-build the hq and the Legion itself. Ayla is sure they can! Another sub-plot sllowwwwlllyyy moving along.

Now we see Brainy endure a number of scenes from his childhood. We see his parents! A blonde father who he looks just like and a dark haired mother. Next we see Brainy picked on as a freak at school, then his father berating him for being dominated.

This time, the Science Police actually shoot and KO Cos and Superboy. Whoa!

Finally, we see what's going on. LL and SG are using a machine inside the park to create the settings Brainy has been in. In the final sequence, adolescent Brainy helps a little Coluan girl. In reality when this happened, she was afraid of him, he felt rejected. This time, the machine is set for her to embrace him.

... AND HE'S CURED! IT'S A MIRACLE!

Why did they need to close down the whole park when all they needed was their hologram room?

Why the "life or death" title? We know he's going to live. We also know he's going to be cured. Conway over-dramatization again.

Hey, the poetic verbiage is way better now, 2 issues in a row!

Cliffhanger ending - the science police bust in to take them all to jail!

D'oh!

Why'd they even need that room, they have someone that can read minds and someone else that can Project illusions...

Actually, they addressed that. Somehow they knew that Projectra's illusions are not powerful enought for Brainy's formidable mind. Garth had to super charge the machine in the park in order for it to have enough power to affect Brainy. Saturn Girl was there to guide the process.

Still, they didn't need to commandeer the whole place - by force.

Heh! That question is addressed in #257!

But first, a Legion Espionage Squad made up of Cham, Vi, Mon and Shady go to Brande's Corporate Tower on Earth, which is closed off and is being guarded by the Sci Police. Vi sneaks in and has a tussle with a vacuum cleaner, but gets away to complete her part of the mission.

On Cosmic World, Brainy won't let the Legionnaires tell the cops why they took over the park. Note - almost every time we've seen Saturn Girl, she has admitted to reading someone or another's mind. Garth's, the doctor's, Brainy's, etc etc. Wasn't her policy of never reading minds without permission in place at this point? Well, she's broken it. A lot.

Meanwhile, we learn that several floors underneath the surface of Legion hq are intact and functioning. Progress!

Back at Cosmic World, there's an earthquake which disrupts the park's anti-gravity generators. The Legion bursts into action. Brainy claims that the device he was working on during his "indisposition" indicates that the quake is being caused by "ecological abuse" by the owners of the floating park. He instructs LL and Cos to blast at a certain spot in the canyon, and voila! the quake stops.

Now the owner of the park is relieved to know that the Legion commandeered the whole place in order to save lives. The police captain doesn't believe a word of it, but respects the post Earthwar Legion enough to just let this go.

So, was Brainy's device actually what caused the earthquake? Why did he invent it, during his "indisposition?" Was he going to try and bust out of his room on St. Croix? And the question still remains... why did the Legion take over the whole park instead of just using one room?

Finally, Vi unlocks the door to Brande's office, where her team gathers. They learn that the President of Earth was the one who electronically stole all of Brande's funds!

This was 10 pages of plenty! The drama was appropriate, the verbiage was normal, not too poetic. Plots advanced, characterization remained consistent if not innovative.

Next -- Chuck and Lu!

In "Once a Legionnaire..." Chuck and Lu have chosen a life of colonists in the frozen northern part of Wondil IX. They stop an out of control flying cargo sled from damaging its supplies (valuable machinery seeds - kewl!). Norsk, a fortune seeker is excited to have Legionnaires with him. They ask for his discretion, they don't want the others to depend upon them too much.

After a romantic night together, Chuck and Lu are off with Norsk to search for a Cyrstalak deposit, as scouted by the survey ships that first found Wondil. When they reach their destination - the Ice Caves, an ice dragon attacks! Chuck and Lu act injured leaving Norsk to shatter the (unbeknownst to him, totally harmless) beast.

Now Chuck and Lu can just be regular citizens and Norsk can be the big (loud) hero of town.

This story was actually pretty cute.

Oh, and the art by Ditko wasn't all that bad really. It's just that we Legion fans were used to Cockrum and Grell and Sherman. The Legion by Staton and Ditko had definitely had some goofy cartoony moments.

Wow. You guys are doing a great job. I can't wait to see the conclusions and final verdicts on Conway when the reviews are done. I'm also looking forward to the your reviews of Space Circus, which tops my list of worst Legion story of all time. Will you be able to find anything redeeming about it?

A couple of quick thoughts on what has been presented so far. Conway started the Legion on the heels of the infamous DC Implosion. Morale at the company must have been very low, and I think it contributed to some of the surviving books veering off course artistically.

Joe Staton did some great work on a number of DC titles. I'm not a fan of his Legion work. However, I have very fond memories of his depictions of Superboy and the 20th century scenes in #255.

See now, I have my complaints, but I can always find redeeming value in Legion comics. I'm a nut for the obscure characters. In fact, that reminds me that I haven't really been "collecting" them in these reviews. Not too late! I also like to "collect" the creatures, tech, locations, etc. I also look for the slightest personality traits and/or superpower usage shown to judge how it fits with that character both before and after.

I find that any/all of those things can redeem a Legion story. Even if it's a lame Legion story.

Cool. Have not read these issues in years. Did not remember that.

Re: 256-57.

For me, these issues are the high point of Conway's run. The resolution of Brainy's madness comes in an unexpected and heartfelt manner, while the culprit behind Brande's bankruptcy was indeed a surprise.

Conway successfully integrates Marvel-style storytelling in these issues through overlapping plotlines--something Levitz had tried to do a few years earlier with less success. This time, Conway keeps the action moving in well-paced scenes. He also pulls off a successful balance between action and characterization.

Was Brainy's cure a miracle? Maybe, maybe not. The doctor at St. Croix admitted that Brainy's insanity was caused by self-imposed rejection of the real world, unlike Matter-Eater Lad's organic madness. Brainy, simply, had chosen to be insane, which mirrors certain real-world illnesses. I'm not an expert on psychology, but it's well established that many people become institutionalized because they cannot cope with real life. Brainy's childhood experiences certainly led him down that path.

(By the way, I couldn't help but think of Spock's childhood as portrayed in the last Star Trek movie, although the basic story had been established during the original series. If Conway was going to borrow ideas, at least he chooses his material well.)

What the Legionnaires did to help Brainy shows their devotion to their teammate--and how much they were willing to risk to help him: arrests, lawsuits, possibly the end of their careers.

That Brainy figures out what's going on shows Conway’s respect for the character. Brainy's got a 12th level intelligence--he should figure it out. Also, the Legionnaires don't cure Brainy so much as he cures himself after he realizes what they are doing for him. This story illustrates the camaraderie and—let's face it—love that the Legionnaires have for each other. Who wouldn't want friends who would go to such lengths as this?

Yes, it is convenient that the earthquake saved the day--but at least Conway gets in a dig at corporate ecological abuse, a problem still relevant today.

In # 257, the Legion Espionage Squad goes to work to find the culprit behind Brande’s bankruptcy, and the revelation is a shocker—as are the reasons behind the president’s actions, as revealed in the next issue. Conway does not paint the prez as a greedy bad guy but as an empathetic leader who tried to ease the suffering of people left destitute by the Earth War. In this context, it is R.J. Brande who unwittingly becomes the bad guy, as he continued to live lavishly while remaining oblivious to the suffering of others.

The Espionage Squad’s break-in of Brande Industries is paced very well, particularly Violet’s run-in with the mechani-vac. Her vulnerability at tiny size is aptly portrayed, as is her resourcefulness in destroying the machine. She even gets in a dig at neo-abstract art (one wonders if this is Conway’s opinion, as well).

As for the Chuck-Lu backup story, it’s a pleasant diversion—like a letter home from friends we haven’t seen in awhile. But, like a letter home, it lacks depth or subtlety. I agree that Ditko’s art, while an usual take on the Legion, serves the story well.

The complexity demonstrated in these two issues represents Conway’s Legion at its finest. The Brainy arc and its resolution remain one of my favorite developments in Legion history.

I'm trying to remember whether I own any of these. All the Legion comics I had from the period immediately after it were from the flea market. Now they're probably sitting 3-4 timezones away in my kid brother's garage. [grumble] It's never enviable to have been the creative team from right before the team that made the book take off. (Think of poor Marty Pasko's run on Swamp Thing. I just saw that being commented about on another comics board.) I'd love to be able to read these and judge for myself.

I hope you do get a chance to read or re-read these issues, cleome. The more different perspectives, the merrier.

By the way: an unintentional bit of irony can be found in # 256. When Shrinking Violet tells Cham that she wishes the rest of the Espionage Squad--Phantom Girl and Saturn Girl--were able to help with Brande's problem, Cham replies, "They have their own duties [. . .] and frankly, knowing what they hope to do, I wouldn't exchange places with them for all of R.J. Brande's former fortune."

During 5YL, Cham will have Brande's fortune.

[snip]

...and a freighter's worth of therapy bills.

He can join the frikkin' club.

Exactly. The entire DC line (well what was left after the rash of titles cancelled from the DC implosion) suffered horribly on many levels and quality was down across the board. Also
Gerry Conway became DC's go-to guy and was spread really thin over a bunch of titles. Besides Legion, he was writing JLA, Wonder Woman and some other titles that escape me at the moment.

Another problem was the changing formats forced on by the DC implosion. The Legion title went from being giant-sized to regular sized to then just 18 pages (and sometimes less) very quickly, and stories already in the can or in process had to be reworked for the new format (the Omega storyline for example). I think this led to some pacing problems and treading water in Gerry's early issues.

If you can prove to the clinic officials that you spent twenty-plus years believing that your aunt was actually your mother *, you too will qualify for the year-'round quantity discount on emergency sessions. Even over three-day weekends and on Klordny.

*<span style="font-size: 10px;">Or vice versa</span>

Conway was also writing Weird Western at the time. Firestorm became a back up feature in Flash which Conway continued to write.

Wonder Woman was undergoing major changes. Conway was essentially rebooting the series in a way that allowed Steve Trevor to be returned again while erasing his multiple deaths from Diana's memory.

On the Space Circus thread I theorized that Conway may have been overworked and burned out by the time he got to the Legion. I did a little research on his career today to help us consider that theory in our analysis of his Legion stories. This list is far from complete but it does give us an idea of how busy he was.

Conway started contributing to DC while still in his teens. Around 1970 he got some stories published in House of Secrets, All Star Westerns, and Phantom Stranger.

He received some attention from Roy Thomas who got him some work at Marvel which included being published in Daredevil, Man-Thing, and The Incredible Hulk.

He wrote the Amazing Spiderman from issue #111 (1972) until #149 (1975). He received critical acclaim for the death of Gwen Stacy story line and is credited with helping create the Punisher while working on that title.

He wrote Fantastic Four #133 (1973) through #152 (1974).

While at Marvel he also did some writing for Thor and Iron Man.

In 1976, for DC, he wrote the first few issues of the relaunched All Star Comics which featured the Super Squad and introduced Power Girl. He worked on this series with Thomas, Wally Wood, and, interestingly, Keith Giffen did some of the layouts. It was some of his earliest comics work. I found an interview where he had some very kind words about Conway.

1976 - Conway had become an editor at Marvel and had a brief stint as Editor in Chief. He wrote the DC/Marvel crossover tabloid Superman vs Spiderman.

1977 - He returned to DC writing the relaunch of the New Gods, a few issues of Super Team Family, some Superman and Batman stories, and a couple of issues of S/LSH #232 and #234 prior to becoming the regular writer.

He picked up the following regular assignments at DC:

Firestorm #1 through #5, plus an annaul, plust the back up series in Flash. The first issue was dated March 78.

Weird Western #45 through #70 (April 1978 to August 1980).

Justice League of America #151 (Feb 78) through #255 (October 86). Some major contributions here include bringing Zatanna and Firestorm into the League, introducing Red Tornado's adopted daughter Traya, several JLA/JSA summer team ups, and the introduction of the Detroit League.

Legion of Super-Heroes #248 (Feb 79) through #278 (August 81).

Wonder Woman #259 (Feb 79) through #285 (November 81).

During the late 70s and early 80s he also had occasional stories published in Superman, Action and DC Comics Presents. He was a regular contributer to DC Dollar Comics including steady runs on Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen and a few Supergirl stories in Superman Family. Some Hawkman, Black Canary and Red Tornado stories in World's Finest.

Firestorm reluanched in 1982. He wrote the first 53 issues, leaving the book in 1986.

He returned to Marvel in 1988 and wrote Spiderman for a couple of years before leaving comics for television. In 1990 he became a story editor for The Father Dowling Mysteries.

Thanks for the recap of Conway's career, Jerry.

It's easy to forget how ubiquitous he was, and how many major comics events he wrote. I didn't pay much attention to credits (still don't, for the most part), so I was unaware that he wrote Gwen Stacy's death, created the Punisher, etc.

I have some free time, so I hope Sketchy doesn’t mind if I go ahead and review the next two issues . . .

S/LSH # 258 (“The Mind Attack of the Psycho Warrior”) and LSH v.2 # 259 (“Psycho War”)

Insanity is a recurring theme in Conway’s Legion stories. First, we had Brainy and Tenz going mad, and now we have the Psycho-Warrior—the villain who kicks off the Legion’s own series (“at last,” as the cover of 259 says).

S/LSH # 258 begins where the previous issue left off, with the Legionnaires showing Brande what they’ve already learned: that the mastermind behind his bankruptcy is the president of Earth. Immediately afterwards, the Legion and Brande are attacked by phony science police officers. (Plot hole: Who sent the phony officers? One might assume it was President Kandru, but this is never stated. If so, it means the prez is guilty of far more than embezzlement! Attempted murder, maybe. Assault, definitely.)

The Legionnaires make short work of the phony officers before the real SP arrive, then they confont President Kandru in front of the Earth Planetary Council. Kandru doesn’t deny his crimes; in fact, he’s glad they’re out in open. He freely admits to stealing Brande’s money, apparently so it could be used to help rebuild earth. (Like a true politician, Kandru never explicitly says what he planned to do with the money.) The president is led away, and Brande, shamed by his previous lack of concern for his fellow man, tells Earthgov to keep the money, for which he receives a standing ovation.

The above is my favorite part of the story and, along with the cure of Brainy’s insanity, a high point of Conway’s run. Conway pulls off an ingenious reversal: the president, who committed the crimes, wins our sympathy because he did so out of concern for others while Brande, a good guy, is confronted by his own unintentional evil—indifference toward the suffering of others. Conway blurs the line between good and evil here, and asks us to consider those terms with far more complexity than super-hero comics are wont to do. Perhaps, since the reader identifies with Brande and the Legionnaires, he’s also asking us to consider our own indifference.

The resolution of this plotline, in fact, makes what follows anticlimactic. The Legion is attacked by a nutcase who escapes from the St. Croix mental hospital, and who targets four Legionnaires specifically: Superboy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Sun Boy. Having learned the Legionnaires’ psychological weaknesses, the Psycho-Warrior attacks Dirk, Imra, and Garth, turning them into catatonic vegetables.

The story continues in 259, in which—in another lengthy flashback—the Legionnaires learn who the Pscycho Warrior is and why he hates them so much. Like the League of Super-Assassins before him, PW’s hatred is based on a misplaced anger due to a traumatic event: the death of his lover. It seems very realistic that he targetted those four Legionnaires solely because he saw them visiting Brainiac 5 when the latter was in the psych ward. (It is mentioned that he targetted Dirk specifically because PW’s lover died in a supernova, but this rationale seems almost an afterthought.) This story also took on greater resonance after John Lennon’s murder by a psychologically disturbed young man one year later.

All of this leads up to the main reason for this story: PW attacks Superboy by revealing to him how his foster parents died in the past (which, of course, is still in Superboy’s future). Nevertheless, Superboy is able to push through his anguish and defeat PW. Then, as Superboy returns to his own time, Saturn Girl—with the agreement of the other Legionnaires—implants a mental command in Superboy’s mind so he will never return to the 30th century and have to relive those memories.

Overall, the story holds together very well—if one accepts the shaky premise that brainwashing Superboy was necessary. If Saturn Girl could mentally command him not to return to the future, why couldn’t she command him to forget learning about the Kents’ death in the first place? Saturn Girl also mentions that he might discover other events about his future—but hasn’t that always been a danger? The Legion didn’t worry about him learning about Supergirl or Batman (Adv. # 341), for example, because a previous mental implant (by Supergirl herself) made him forget anything he learned about his own future when he returned to the 20th century. Why be concerned about what he might learn now?

It’s just a convenient excuse to remove Superboy from the title so he can star in his own solo book again (The New Adventures of Superboy) and the Legion can have its own series.

However, what should have been a major event comes off as anti-climactic. Because Superboy doesn’t know this is his last encounter with his friends from the future (and, as it turns out, it isn’t), the ending lacks emotional depth or resolution. Likewise, the Legion doesn’t seem all that teary-eyed about losing him; instead, they give him a quick brush-off, like a kid whose feelings they don’t want to hurt.

On the other hand, the scene where Kal learns of his foster parents’ demise is heart-wrenching and well scripted. It resonates with a fear all of us have and don’t allow ourselves to think about: that we will one day lose our parents and be powerless to prevent it.

So, the end of S/LSH and beginning of LSH v. 2 was a good story that could have been better. Conway may have been overworked at DC, but he knew how to make us think and pull our heart strings, for the most part.

By coincidence, I just read that issue and I have exactly the same objections. Conway addresses the issue of why they needed the hologram room when they had Princess Projectra, but only by hanging a lampshade over it . Conway has someone say that the hologram room was more effective than Jeckie, but there is no explanation of why this is the case. Similarly, there is also no explanation of why the Legionnaires had to take over the amusement park by force, instead of just explaining what they needed it for.

An odd point about #259 is that in this story, the villain attacks several Legionnaires with a weapon that's designed to paralyze their optic nerves. And it works on Wildfire, who has no optic nerves.

Thanks for the link to TV Trope, Sir Tim. I'd never heard the term "lampshade hanging" before. There are a bunch of other terms there that might be useful, as well.

As for the Legionnaires commandeering the park--I can only assume that doing so reduced the chance of anyone interfering with their plan.

It is indeed a shame that they didn't explain their motives to the park manager--they probably assumed that he would refuse since they needed the hologram room for what was essentially a personal matter. Still, it's a shame that they didn't try. The manager may have been a fan of Brainiac 5's who would have gladly made the room available, or perhaps they could have borrowed money to rent the room for an afternoon.

A word about Joe Staton's art.

Staton's competency increases as he goes along. The figures are no longer awkward, as they were in 248-49. In fact, his particular strength is that the camera angles and layouts keep the story moving without sacrificing clarity.

Yet Staton's art still has an annoying cartoonish quality, particularly in the faces. These issues look as if they were drawn for a very young audience and are quite a letdown from the more dynamic styles of Cockrum, Grell, and Sherman. It is perhaps not Staton's fault that his subdued style followed theirs.

I'm getting the impression of Staton as a reliable workhorse, a la Don Heck and Don Perlin, who got assignments because they always turned in their work on time and always did a competent job. They got work whereas more dynamic artists such as Neal Adams couldn't keep pace with the demands of a monthly comic.

I don't think Staton's Legion work will ever by among my favorites, but I do respect his work more after re-reading these issues. Many artists today have no clue how to pace a story or maintain clarity as well as he did.

HWW brings up a great point on the previous page about Conway’s attempt to take the Marvel style of overlapping plotlines and apply to DC’s comics. This was something Levitz and other 1980’s DC writers would take to the next level but in the late 1970’s it’s a much more apparent trend that Conway helped kick off (Len Wein late 1970’s work at DC being another place this is found). Conway had been doing this at Marvel with ASM and Thor for years—taking this concept from the late Marvel Silver Age and then adding even more plotlines and layers. Sometimes he would even go a bit *too* far, where subplots would take 6+ issues to resolve. I think it was something he constantly toyed around with throughout his entire career (the duration and execution of subplots), as any writer should.

The Subs assault on the League of Super-Assassins is one of those things I knew existed but completely forgot about until this thread. Kudos, Dean, for reminding me! I might have to dig that one out of the collection and reread it. Actually this entire thread has whetted my appetite to specifically reread this era. I’ve likely been a bit unfair to it in the past, since I’m usually rushing to get to Levitz’s stuff.

Brainiac 5 is such an essential figure to the Legion—moreso than any other I’d say, even Superboy, Mon-El and the three founders (with perhaps Saturn Girl being the closest). He’s the Legionnaire I would think most people think of when they hear “Legion of Super-Heroes”. Issues #256-257 help further that idea, giving a great Brainy story in the middle of a particular era.

I also like end result of the embezzlement story with Brande’s money. Conway shows science-fiction at its best here: take a highly imaginative setting and use it to showcase a story about real issues of the moment, such as man’s tendency to enjoy the good life and forget about the plight of his fellow men.

Oh, I totally agree. When we look at work from eras that were a bit farther away and can get some more historical context around it, its interesting to understand it in that sense. But I do believe writers have a responsibility to not let personal lives interfere in the quality of their work; though you would think they could let it inform the actual work itself (hopefully in a good way). But I agree, in the same way I believe an artist has no excuse not to meet a deadline. Just like an insurance agent has a duty to make sure the person is actually insured—it’s their job.

Little sidenote
Regarding Gerry Conway’s larger writing career, and since I’m a hardcore Spider-Man fan, I can say with some degree of confidence that Gerry Conway left his mark on Peter Parker in such a way that all subsequent Spider-Man stories bear a certain degree of his imprint. He’s probably the only other writer besides Stan to do this to Spider-Man. He not only wrote Gwen’s death, he wrote all the issues of Peter morning Gwen and the issues in which Peter finally is able to move on past it—and did it in a very convincing, realistic way (about two plus years of stories). He had become so well connected to Spider-Man that apparently they practically begged him to do the second solo Spider-Man comic, Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man.

Oh, some other great characters he created were the Jackal and Firelord. But so many of his best creations at Marvel were the characters that have never reappeared since their debut like Kartag the Keeper.

So this thread inspired me to dig out some of my Legion stuff and read it, and for some reason I thought I had more of Conway's stuff. Turns out I'm missing a lot of issues that you guys are talking about and I have only one issue of the "Space Circus of Death" instead of both.

Therefore, don't have a lot to comment on now (don't want to get too far ahead of the thread) but I have to say that I also enjoyed issues #256 and #257. True there are plot holes (and the classic "we can't tell you why we are doing this" even though there is no conceivable reasons why they can't except it would ruin the tension) but the character moments seem genuine.

Early on all the drama felt ridiculous and over the top, but here it is either dialed back or fits the context of the story better. The look at Brainy's past is nice (how many times has Brainy gone insane and had to look at his past, that happened postboot also right?) and just seeing the Legion's love of each other is nice.

Art still isn't great, but it is serviceable.

Thanks for keeping things moving, HWW, and also to the others who've added comments. This is a fun and interesting project. I've been kind of busy the last couple of days, so I had a little lapse in posting.

I'm getting the impression that Conway and/or the editor have felt the need for making minor scenes have more drama than neccessary. For example, taking over the whole park (Cosmic World) instead of just using the room they needed with permission, and in #258 when they created fake murderous cops for absolutely no reason or explanation. This over-the-top drama in the quiet moments make the typical anti-climaxes even more anti-climactic.

In #258, I will agree that President Kandru's motives were understandable and Brande's reaction was pretty noble. I mean, maybe the UP could have tried ***communicating*** with Brande, but I'm sure the President was not thinking clearly.

As for the Psycho Warrior, man, he sure is powerful and sneaky! We'll have to see what happens next issue.

This part of the story moved right along. Threads were coming together and the dialogue and narration were not over the top. The only real complaint was the fake, murderous cops out of nowhere.

This DID feel like part one of a 2 parter for sure.

#259 opens with the Legion reeling from the Psycho Warrior's sneak attack. Um, somehow they, even Superboy, could not detect that he's just behind a hill next to them.

We learn the origin of PW, he wasn't always a bad guy. He's from a rough planet, full of monsters. He and his girlfriend went off on a space trip (to Earth) and she died in an accident involving a nearby star going supernova. His survival suit is armed with mega powerful weapons.

He began to hate the Legion while he was in the same hospital as Brainiac 5. It is mentioned that Sun Boy's uniform logo really set him off. His instability was mentioned many times.

PW attacks with an Optic Detonator, which should not have worked on Wildfire, but it did. It takes all the Legionnaire present out of commission. Then he and Superboy face off. It was pretty sad when Supes learned about his adoptive parents' deaths. It was sad when he made PW admit that he was blaming himself for his GF's death. Lots of touching, sad moments.

This time, Supes goes back to the 20th, never to return.

I have very few complaints about this story. I suppose just the standard complaint I have - some random baddie comes along and seems like a major threat to the Legion, only to be defeated in a panel or 2. The drama in this issue was appropriate and even well done. The art was okay fine. It would have been nice to see this story illustrated by an artist who excels at portraying real emotions.

Oh, BTW, my copy of this issue was signed by Joe Staton at a con! I remember only meeting him very briefly and didn't have a chance to talk much Legion.

My personal signficance about 259 is that the Legion was the first series I subscibed to, and 259 was the first issue to arrive in my mailbox. As it was also the first issue of the Legion's own series, I thought it was a good omen.

As for the Psycho-Warrior as a "minor baddie," I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, if Superboy was going to leave the Legion, one would think he would do so after a battle with one of their major foes, e.g. the Time Trapper of the Fatal Five. On the other hand, PW works precisely because he runs counter to what we would expect: He's a nobody who had an enormous impact on Superboy and the LSH.

(Digression: This reminds me of Kennedy's assassination. Many people cannot accept that JFK was brought down by a lowlife such as Oswald, hence the multitude of conspiracy theories. Others find it all to real that a nutjob took a shot a president who was riding in an open-air limousine. (Reagan was also attacked under similar circumstances, though he survived.) Psycho-Warrior fits in with this popular theme of the '60s and '70s that the mighty can be brought down by the obscure. Another example: Nixon and Watergate.)

I also think the ending of the conflict works because, as Dean points out, Superboy forces PW to confront his own responsibility in his girlfriend's death. Again, Conway blurs the distinction between good and evil. PW is not evil, just disturbed. Like Kandru, we can feel sorry for and perhaps even empathize with him. To me, this is more meaningful than a protracted super-hero battle.

Conway also forces us to face up to the reality that powerful heroes have weaknesses that can be exploited by unknown or unseen adversaries. This is also true for each of us, as demonstrated these days by computer viruses.

Just one more note before moving on.... the way Staton drew the monsters from PW's world was a shame. They were really cartoony and silly looking. Kinda took away from the intensity of what was going on.

Now we come to the infamous Space Circus story. Honestly, my general recollections are that it seemed like a Scooby Doo mystery - ironic that Staton would go on to illustrate Scooby Doo comics.

#260 we learn that the Bacard Bailey Interstellar Travelling Carnival and Sideshow is actually a Cultural Delegation from the Cygnus Federation. Lead by Aton Gissark, they are trying to show how Cygnus and the UP have a lot in common, despite past antagonisms. However, circus personnel are being murdered and the murders might be politically motivated. The Legion is asked to help.

We learn who the suspects are (some kewl new alien species to add to the list!), we see Legionnaires in disguise as circus performers and we see some kewl new beasts in this story.

The action and characterization are very standard in this and again, it feels like part 1 of a 2 parter.

The art should have been really fun and decorative and maybe a bit zany, but it was Staton's standard fare, with John Calnan's unprofessional looking inks.

In #261, the murders keep happening and the suspects are among the dead, so we're narrowing down the options. Gissark can't stand it anymore and decides to take the circus back home. It was described as a "gypsy caravan to the stars." The Legion offerend to go with them in order to keep trying to solve the murders.

Mon and Star Boy follow one of the suspects outside the ship and are met with an explosion. The rest of the Legionnaires go out to tend to them. The ships start speeding away, preparing to jump into hyperspace, leaving the Legionnaires behind. Brainy has now figured out who the killer is!

The Legionnaires all hold hands with TWolf in the lead. They actually catch up with the ships' energy chain, which Brin grabs. They are then thrust into hyper space. It's all rainbow-y and trippy, so Brainy has Jeckie create an illusion of "familiar reality. It's then that Aton Gissark arrives and confesses that he was trying to start a war between the UP and Cygnus IV because way back when his human ancestors went to that world, the natives never accepted them. He hates them for it. Aton is easily apprehended but then he escapes and is lost in hyper space. The Legion just leaves him.

I guess the problem with this story is that it was a really dull mystery. There was no emotional connection to any of the victims. The Legion as circus performers was only okay - not even especially clever or entertaining.

Again, the ending took 1 page.

The characterization didn't shine. The action seemed like filler. It was just pretty blah.

Ric Estrada did the art for #261 and if I hadn't read that, I would never have known the difference between his work and Staton's.

So I don't have the first part but do have the second. Have to say I don't think this deserves it's rap as worst Legion story ever. sure it's kinda dull and mediocre, but surely there are worse stories.

doesn't seem like a strong mystery, and any time you try to do a detective story in a comic you better have a mystery that is strong for at least 2/3rds of the story (most comic book mystery don't end strongly, but holding the readers' interest for most of the way even if the ending falls flat seems to be pretty successful).

However, I did like the trippy and way out there idea that you can just grab onto a hyper drive chain (or whatever it was). Nice to see Jeckie use her powers (I'm a fan) and loved how the villain died. The idea that Jeckie's illusion was so good that the villain forgot where he was. Of course now I'm wondering what the guy was doing out in hyperspace in the first place, it would be unlikely that they would survive and couldn't he just kill them if they reached their destination?

Oh well.

Like I said, it doesn't seem too memorable, but I don't think it can possibly be the worse Legion story ever.

Now I think we're actually about to get to the good part of Conway's run. I liked the story with the Legion's parents getting kidnapped as well as the Dark Man story (yay BLOK) and I found the death of Ultra Boy to have some great moments. Grimbor's chains around Earth were hokey and pretty stupid, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless.

Re: # 260-61.

I agree with Steph that it's not the worst Legion story.

It's an off-beat tale with the Legionnaires in an unusual situation: pretending to be circus performers to solve a mystery. The plot seems ripped out of "Charlie's Angels" or any number of other prime-time detective shows.

I also agree with Sketchy that we're not emotionally invested in any of the suspects, so, as a murder mystery, it falls flat. To make matters worse, all of the suspects die, leaving us with only Aton Gissark as a character we've met; the murderer has to be him. (Well, it could be someone we haven't met, but that would violate the conventions of the murder mystery genre.)

So, what are the story's saving graces?

1. It is very well paced. I think this is important to mention because many modern comics throw pacing out the window completely with stories that are either read in five minutes or take two years to tell. Conway again tells a complete story in two issues with a setup, a goal, complications, and a resolution. It may not be a memorable story, but it's a textbook example of how to tell a story.

2. It makes effective use of most of the featured Legionnaires, particularly Projectra and Phantom Girl. Tinya, for example, gets to singlehandedly defeat two rampaging circus beasts.

3. After the tumultuous events of the past twenty issues (the Earth War, Brainy's madness, the destruction of Legion HQ, and Superboy's departure), it's nice to see an "ordinary" Legion adventure. This issue gives both the heroes and readers a breather.

Staton's art, as noted by Sketchy, is more of the same, although his faces are getting more expressive. Notice Secretary Pheng on p. 9 of 260, especially. I also like Staton's take on Jeckie in this issue.

Backtracking a bit. Here are my responses to the reviews posted so far.

Issues #248 and #249 – I think you guys nailed it in assessing the sewer/chemo saga. Not a horrible story by any stretch. The characterization is overly dramatic. Conway gets a lot of leeway from me, here, due to the format changes, general editorial disarray at DC, and his honest efforts in setting up the Omega story amid all the chaos.

Issue #252 – Starburst Bandits. This one immediately makes no sense to me. How could the Legion place so much trust in Brainiac 5 after the events of the last two issues? Their reward for his trust is bad psychology. Projectra and Dream Girl used their powers in new and unexplained ways. It felt like a forced attempt to make them valuable to the team. More bad dialogue. Oh, Garth, Darling…. Errr. Son Boy saved the day in an unsatisfying and unrealistic fashion. Bad science.

Issues #253 and #254 – The League of Super-Assassins is perhaps Conway’s best contribution to the Legion. Blok, after all, went on to become a Legionnaire who was loved by many. None of the members was terribly original. However, none of them were really lame either. They made good second string villains and members of the Legion of Super-Villains in future stories.


#255 – The Super Spectacles Swipe – I liked this story. It had a 1950s or 1960s feel. It was kind of sweet and campy. By this point the series was starting to feel kind of boring. This issue changed the pace a little bit.

#257 and #258 – Count me in with those who are dissatisfied with the Legion taking over Cosmic World in such a reckless fashion. Brianiac 5 is cured by bad psychology. This was a very unsatisfying resolution to the events of the Omega story.

I hated the Chuck and Lu back up when it was originally published, mainly due to the Ditko art. I’ve totally changed point of view on that over the years. I now get a big kick out of Ditkos Legion work. Another nice change of pace story. No complaints.

#258 and #259 – Psycho Warrior was a boring villain. I never bought the explanation for Superboy having to leave and not come back. Weren’t these issues addressed back in the Adventure era? What changed? The Dick Gordano cover to #259 showing Superboy fly away with a tear in his eye was powerful. Pity the story didn’t measure up.

So, now we are up to one of the most significant points in Legion history. The team has just kicked Superboy out of his own book. Fans will forever debate whether or not this was a good move. How will the Legion fare without Superboy? Has the team just lost it’s heart, inspiration, and purpose? Hmmm. Why don’t we start addressing those heady issues by going to the Space Circus of Death?!? Dick Grayson goes undercover at the circus from time to time. Not the Legion. And come on, didn't they just hijack an amusement park a few issues ago? Conway has totally run out of inspiration by this point. Why is this one of the worst Legion stories ever? Because it is one of the most boring Legion stories ever. The Legion should never be boring, and, fortunately, rarely has been. It is here, and it’s just a shame because of the timing. Superboy just left. There are 20 plus Legionnaires who now have a chance to shine. Not in this story, though.

Keep the reviews coming guys. You are doing a super job.

A review of # 262.

If Conway was running out of inspiration for the circus story, things get only worse here. This issue shows him still mining TV shows for ideas. "The Planet that Captured the Legion" reads like warmed-over "Star Trek" by way of "Lost In Space."

While helping R.J. Brande create stars, several Legionnaires (Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy, Karate Kid, Shrinking Violet, Dream Girl, and Colossal Boy) have a run-in with space pirates. Not alien pirates, mind you, but good old-fashioned earth pirates who traverse space in wooden ships!

The pirates are, natch, androids created to serve "the Engineer," the creator of a self-sufficient planet built to amuse him. But it seems the Engineer died 250 years ago and the planet has been on autopilot ever since, even destroying a solar system in search of "suitable companions" for its dead master.

The story is so full of science fiction cliches that it offers nothing new. It's mildly entertaining to see the Legionnaires work with Brande and doing something other than super-heroing (making stars for profit), but that alone cannot salvage this turkey. The Legionnaires go through the motions of using their powers in standard ways, then the resolution comes down to Cham, who impersonates the Engineer and orders the planet to destroy itself.

The only saving grace is that this story lasted a single issue.

Actually, there is another saving grace in that the opening scene takes place on earth and catches us up with the rest of the Legion's slow progress in rebuilding their HQ. Ultra Boy and Light Lass flirt with each other and goof around; Lightning Lad worries about the burdens of command, etc. Mainly standard stuff, although the Jo and Ayla pairing was fun for a change.

James Sherman returns to the Legion and is credited as sole artist (meaning he's not paired with an inappropriate inker), but his return is a mixed blessing. While Sherman's space scenes are magnificent, most of the artwork is bland. I also don't care for Sherman's stylized versions of certain Legionnaires, e.g., Cham's high forehead or Garth's wavy mullet.

While discussing the Space Circus story, some of us have concluded that it's not the worst Legion story ever. Conway generously gives us at least three other candidates for that: the Mantis Morlo story (248-49), the Starburst Bandits story (252), and now this cliche-ridden mess.

Previously, I've noted how various Legionnaires have been shown brooding over the hard times they'd faced - post Earthwar issues, the destruction of their hq and mentally ill members. So, I feel it's important to mention that back in #260, the group seems to be on the mend, emotionally. They have a group hug/cheer. It comes across as a bit cheesy, but certainly good to see.

This sentiment is continued in #262, as illustrated by the team left working on the hq (Ayla & Jo flirting, Wildfire and Shady talking about getting happy, etc). Garth and Imra speak in Conway's earlier style about worrying about the other Legionnaire off on missions. It comes across as just too much. "How did you ever manage it, Imra? How did any of you ever manage it?" She calls him "darling husband." A lot. Bleh.

It was so cool to see the Legion working with Brande to create a new star. Wonderful!

The story with the Engineer was another typical Conway formula - the Fantasyworld Planet is shown to be very dangerous because they killed an entire planetary system. Then, it's stopped by Cham simply impersonating the Engineer. Sigh.

The thing is, the art is so amazing I absolutely love this comic book! Every single panel of every single page just blows me away. The detail, the craftsmanship, the action, the glamor. Dreamy looks beyond fantastic.

It's interesting that we have very different takes on # 262, Sketchy. You admired Sherman's art; I did not.

I truly think this is the worst Conway Legion story I've read yet. I remember seeing an episode of "Logan's Run" that had virtually the same premise: the main characters are taken in by the android servants of a master who has died. The androids let the heroes go only after they find someone else to serve.

For that matter, the idea was used in the original "Star Trek" series episode "I, Mudd" and later in the "TNG" episode, "Casino Royale."

Dreamy may look fantastic, but she has very little to do in this story. Just to give her something to do, Conway has her foresee an explosion--which occurs--and then pass out. Shades of Stan Lee-era Scarlet Witch!

The story would have been much more interesting, I think, had Conway followed the premise on the cover: the Legionnaires are trapped on a world and can only get off if they kill. They would really have had to use their brains to come up with a solution.

I'm not saying that one view of the story is better than the other; I just find it interesting that we focus on different aspects and use different standards to judge it.

It's interesting that pirates will return to Legion pages after this story (Cpt. Frake and crew).

HWW, we do agree that it was a weak story. I bet I would be whining a LOT more if there was more of Staton's "servicable" art instead of Sherman's masterpiece (IMO, naturally).

#263 - "Day of Judgement"

It's very Conway. Dagon the Avenger kidnaps some of the Legion's parents and leaves word that if he isn't given a billion credits, he'll kill them. We have 3 suspects, all of whom blame the Legion for being laid off from their jobs when Brande went bankrupt. Cliff hanger ending.

The more interesting part is seeing the parents. Shady's mom gets a touch of spotlight. Crav and Myrta Nah bicker about how Jo never gets a word in...

As for Legion , it's fairly novel to see Tyroc included in a story! However, he needs to leave to be with his people on Marzal. That makes Wildfire furious. Speaking of Wildfire, he's pretty snarky with Dawnstar.

Jimmy Janes's art is nicer to look at than Staton's. He makes the characters look very attractive, in fact, there are a couple of quite beautiful close ups. My complaint would be that it's still not as good as last issue's work by Sherman, nor previous Legion legends Grell or Cockrum. (Later we'll get dynamic and innovative work from Broderick and Giffen.)

My copy of this issue is very worn. This was back when my best friends were my comics!

#264 - "Dagon's Cavern of Doom"

Gah! I can barely tolerate writing this.... they figure out who Dagon is by tracking down which of Brande's employees worked on the Legion's new security system. Once they found him with the parents, Lightning Lad simply zapped him and it was over.

There were other distraction in the issue, like Dawnstar trying and failing to find Dagon. The Legionnaires almost collided with an aircar. Whatev.

I just find these stories to be tedious!

Meanwhile, Shady and Dawny go off to Marzal to see what's up with Tyroc.

I actually like these two issues. I always like stories where the Legion's parents show up, I just find it fascinating the Legionnaires HAVE families. I mean, so many heroes have parents who are dead, are only children, etc. But I have parents, I have siblings, so I love seeing comic characters who share that with me. I still find the idea that most of the Legionnaires have living parents refreshingly novel (which means it will be retconned away asap).

Yeah the Dagon mystery is weak weak weak, but maybe it's because I'm a child of the 90's (comic wise) that I don't expect there to be decent mysteries in comics so something as formulaic as "there are three suspects who don't like us, must be one of them (even though I'm sure there are entire planetful of people who don't like the Legion).

Still, I like the emotions shown. I like how Wildfire is so mad at Tyroc for leaving at such a crucial time, I think if one of my friends left in my time of need (my parents are missing) I would be angry and hurt as well. Furthermore, even though Wildfire is the most vocal about it, you see the anger and disgust in the other Legionnaires, but I also enjoy how others try to come up with a defense for Tyroc's action. Some people will always try to give the benefit of the doubt and others won't. Nice touch.

Art was very nice, some good dynamic scenes.

Really, I think everyone always said how bad the Conway run was that I was expecting worse. And although the stories tend to end weakly I still enjoying reading about the Legion.

I feel like I should insert the fact that I very much appreciate the way the Legion members are all accounted for in Conway's time. This group is here, that group is there, another group is elsewhere, all while big picture events are occurring. That is a definite positive.

steph,
I'm glad to hear that you don't dislike these stories as much as you thought you would. I think they're just rather dull and formulaic. That and they precede the legendary Levitz/Giffen era.

Re: 263-64.

I agree with both of the points Dean and Steph made: the resolution of the mystery is weak, but the focus on the Legionnaires' emotions provides much interest.

Dagon is the latest in a long string of one-shot villains. However, that's actually reassuring: Whereas other DC heroes could count on regular matches with the Joker, Luthor, etc., the Legion must have been doing something right to have so few recurring enemies.

Also, there is something believable about a villain who knows the Legion's security system and blames them for his loss of job. It's also realistic that he's defeated rather easily since (as my brother, the cop, can attest) most criminals are kinda stupid.

So, the focus of the story isn't on the villain. Sadly, it isn't on the parents, either. After the buildup of their introductions in 263, they quietly fade into the background, serving as nothing more than McGuffins (Alfred Hitchcock's term for something that a character is after). I would have liked to see some of them try to escape from Dagon's energy cage or have interactions with their Legion offspring. It's odd that none of the Legionnares whose parents were taken are present when they are freed. (Well, Wildfire says his parents have been kidnapped, too, but we have to take his word for it.) What's the point in having the parents appear if we don't get to see them interact with the Legionnaires?

Conway includes Marvel-style bickering amongst the Legionnaires, and some of it works better than others. Wildfire, granted, has always been a hothead, but here he's portrayed as reckless and out of control. He nearly collides with an aircar and then goes nuts when the Legion is misled about the parents' location. This from a guy who was recently the Legion's leader? On the other hand, some of his dialogue is entertaining ("Me? Why does it always have to be me?" and "Oh, darn it all, anyway!"--the latter when his latest encounter suit is destroyed.)

Light Lass scolds Wildfire for his recklessness and seems to be the voice of reason throughout the story. Dawnstar takes it hard when her tracking powers fail her ("I am useless here") and doesn't understand Wildfire's snippiness toward her. It seems that Wildfire is the center of Conway's characterization. This is easy to understand: as a "hothead," Drake would fit right in with the Marvel Universe.

I also agree that Janes' art is an improvement over Staton. While Janes is not as dynamic as Broderick and Giffen, he tells a story well and, as Dean said, makes most of the characters look attractive. My only complaint is that none of the parents looked old enough to have Legionnaire children.

So, the Dagon story is better than most other recent offerings, but it's still a so-so story. As a reader at the time, I was still waiting for something "big" to happen.

In Legion Companion, Glen Cadigan interviews Conway. Here are some revealing insights about his Legion tenure that might inform our discussion:

• At the time, he was under contract to write 150 pages, or about 6-7 titles, per month for DC.
• He had read the Legion sporadically but was never a fan. ". . . I was probably more a fan of Paul [Levitz]'s stuff than the series itself."
• The one-issue or two-issue stories were the preference of editor Jack C. Harris. Conway actually preferred longer stories.
• As a writer, Conway rarely plans his storylines out in advance. He has "notions," "sprinkle[s] seeds" and "sets challenges" for himself "to resolve later." An example is the Dark Man, whom he introduced as a device to explain the League of Super-Assassins and only later developed into a villain. He agrees with Cadigan's suggestion that his writing style is like improv.
• He describes the Legion as a "second-tier" book for him as a writer. His passion was JLA.

Just wait until we get to the Lord Romdur story. That one is a real groaner.

My thoughts on # 265, "The Brigadoon Syndrome":

Conway is credited only with the plot; J.M. DeMatteis wrote the script. While DeMatteis has written countless memorable super-hero stories (including the Defenders and JLA), this isn't one of them. "The Brigadoon Syndrome" is a serviceable story that accomplishes its simple objective--to write Tyroc out of the Legion--in the simplest manner possible.

This is unfortunate as, during his short existence, Tyroc never developed much of a personality, nor did he get to participate in many Legion adventures. Almost from the moment of his creation as "the first black Legionnaire," Tyroc became an embarrassment--a discofied stereotype of a black man with an ill-defined power that could do whatever the story required of him.

He returned with some fanfare in # 263-64--even being cover-featured on both--only to leave unexpectedly when he received a summons from home. (He cryptically explained his departure as having to do with the "roots" of his people's existence. How topical of a black character in 1980 to mention his "Roots"!) Shadow Lass and Dawnstar followed him to Marzal, his island home, where they all became trapped when the entire island vanished into another dimension.

Issue # 265 picks up the story as the two confused Legion ladies demand answers from Tyroc. He is slow to give those answers (a typical Conway strategy of trying to prolong suspense), but finally relates the story of Marzal's history: the island was settled by African slaves who revolted on the slave ship carrying them; only after landing on the island did they discover that it periodically shifted into another dimension, returning to earth every 200 years for a period of 30 years.

As for Tyroc himself, he inexplicably discovered his sonic scream power as a child, when he drove away a monster from the other dimension. (In a complete lapse of originality, he is shown wearing a smaller version of his discofied outfit even as a child.) Since he believes that his power comes from the alien dimension, Tyroc reasons that his departure from the island (to join the Legion) triggered Marzal's premature return to the dimension.

After giving this explanation, Tyroc concludes that his scream power can create a hole in the dimensional barrier long enough for Shady and Dawny to get through, then Dawny's tracking ability can guide her and Shady home. Tyroc chooses to stay with his people, who would never give up Marzal as their home.

As I said, the story accomplishes its purpose. However, Tyroc remains such a flat character that it's difficult to care about him; he does not even have to face a major decision--it would have been nice, for example, if he had struggled with some doubts about staying with Marzal. After seeing much of the outside world and making friends in the Legion, perhaps he wouldn't be so keen to give that up. Alas, what passes for drama in this story is a momentary indecision on his part about whether he can pull off opening the dimensional barrier.

As for Shady and Dawny, they are present mainly to listen to Tyroc's tale and witness his farewell to the Legion. (Shady, who has been featured in the last three issues, does not even use her power here or in 263.) The hook of the story is whether or not they can get back home, but this, too, is accomplished with almost no drama.

We are, however, treated to a flashback of Marzal's history, including a brutally honest depiction of slavery and the deplorable conditions aboard slave ships. While Conway and DeMatteis's intentions here were noble, the flashback comes off as too "comic booky" with heroic slaves battling villainous slavers. (We know that they are villainous when the captain backhands a crewmember for panicking in the face of a storm.) These scenes, like the rest of the story, lack any subtlety or depth.

Because this story marks Tyroc's swan song (until 5YL), it stands out as a high point of Conway's tenure. Unfortunately, that high point is still pretty low.

RE: #262

We're at a point where personal tastes are taking us different directions. I'm more in line with Sketch Lad than He Who Wanders on this one. Sherman can do no wrong on the Legion, in my opinion. His single issue return would have thrilled me regardless of the story.

I enjoyed the flirting between Ayla and Jo. It's a memorable scene. Star building with Brande is a concept that I enjoyed seeing fulfilled. Yes, android pirates are another example of what I came to expect as uninspired menaces from Conway, and the dialogue was thick, at times. I didn't mind the Engineer plot. It may have been used before, but borrowing from Logan's Run or Star Trek is at least borrowing from mainstream science fiction. Much better for the Legion than a trip to the circus, in my opinion.

HWW, thanks for the tidbits from Legion Companion. I've been rereading some of Conway's JLA recently. There is a definite feeling that he had more of a vision for the League than the Legion.

Your welcome, Jerry. I think I'm less willing to cut Conway slack after knowing how little he regarded the Legion. He doesn't seem to have put his full effort into the book.

If Legion writers are going to borrow ideas, I'd rather they borrow them from less obvious sources than mainstream science fiction TV shows. It demonstrates a lack of imagination and a limited frame of reference when comic book writers plunder Star Trek.

I respect your and others' love of Sherman's art, but, frankly, I don't see it. Sherman's first few issues (around # 225) were stellar, but his style is so eccentric and exaggerated that I find it hard to think of his characters as real people. At times, he seems to exaggerate things just for the helluvit (e.g., Wildfire's helmet doohickey. If Drake weren't an energy being, one might think he had self-confidence issues!). None of Sherman's women ever seem to wear bras. This is most noticable on Imra. One would think that going into battle without some kind of support would be a tad uncomfortable . . .

I'm definitely more of a "writing person" than an "art person": If the story is no good, then the best art in the world cannot salvage it for me.

#263 through #265


There are many posts here on Legion World, and elsewhere, devoted to the Tyroc situation. It's really such a muddled affair that it is hard to sort out what Conway contributed, let alone whether he deserves praise or criticism. As you guys have pointed out, these issues contain a lot of what is becoming familiar Conway formula. Was the Brigadoon Syndrome something that partially redeemed a flawed introduction of Tyroc, or was it something that made a bad situation worse? I think it made things worse because it ended up with Tyroc leaving the Legion.

To me, the racism of omission is greater than the racism of stereotypical portrayal. I don't find Tyroc's introduction by Cary Bates as offensive as many others do. I actually kind of liked his early stories. If there were flaws, they could have been written out of. The solution would have been to just let the character evolve. A good example is already discussed in this thread. Blok's introduction story provided a much different background for the character than the origin that we later learned. The problem with Marzal, I guess, was that an island of all black citizens shouldn't have existed in the 30th century. Future stories could have just shown other races on the island and the inference of segregation would have faded. The attempt to explain it with the Brigadoon Syndrome just reinforced the idea of segregation. Tyroc leaving at the end left us, again, with a Legion with no black members. The status quo and the racism of omission remained firmly and sadly in place.

Conway dealt with the same issue in the Justice League of America at about the same time. There was a two issue arc where Black Lightning was considered for membership. I thought Black Lightning's portrayal in the early years was more stereotypical than Tyroc's. He was even shown on the cover calling the JLA members "that jive bunch of turkeys" while rejecting Superman's offer of membership. The end result was the same as in the Legion. He rejected membership and the status quo of omission was preserved.

HWW mentioned Don Heck a few pages back. Conway became the writer's equivalent of Heck during this period of time. Give him a story to write and he would write it. The issue would make it to the printer on time. I imagine the editors told Conway to write Tyroc out of the Legion and to address the Marzal issue. He did it. That's what counted as professionalism. Conway delivered. The character of Tyroc was never truly redeemed. Here we are several decades later and Paul Levitz is poised to finally write some stories that include Tyroc. Strange days, indeed.

I haven't re-read the Tyroc story yet, but will get to it really soon.

If I love the art in a comic, I will definitely cut slack on the quality of the story.

Tyroc's farewell was simple enough. After re-reading all these stories, I just feel kind of annoyed the way the text is constantly telling us how extraordinary everything is, how perilous and deadly the antagonists are, but the plots and resolutions end up being SO simple and ultimately inane.

So, again, the art is okay. I keep wishing it was better, more illustrative or dynamic, to match the words.

I couldn't help but notice that Shady is wearing gloves instead of her bracelets. I like them.

Another note, Shady really complemented Dawnstar on how well she got them home from Marzal. I like that because it seems like Dawnstar has always received a lot of criticsm when her powers don't end up helping. Not much else going on characterization wise.

I agree with Jerry that some evolution of Tyroc and his backstory could easily have solved much of the "stereotype issue". I'd further add that all of this could be subtly done, then and now. Give him a current haircut, a better costume and put him in situations where you show different sides of his character (i.e. where he's helping children or something) and it can be easily done without being obvious. I'd also add other races of human beings to Marzal too and get rid of that plotline--in the 31st Century it shouldn't be so relevant.

All of your reviews of #262 make me want to go back and read it--I feel like maybe I missed it the last time I reread my Legion run (this might have been an issue we bought afterwards).

I like that Conway was using new atangonists in almost every story, even if many of them are forgetable. He did this in almost all of the major titles he worked on (with varying degrees of success). This showed he was willing to create new characters & situations and not retread old stories with 'rematches'. That takes a little bit of courage to do that so consistently, I think.

It's time for the Kantuu story, and I felt cynical about it before I even started to (re)read it.

Chuck and Lu as we know, are on Wondil IX. They accidentally release a giant genie, who makes a bee line for Earth. So they call the Legion and are able to warn Colossal Boy and Element Lad.

Those 2 guys were working out in the gym, and Gim was shown lifting a 30 ton barbell before he grew to giant size. It was probably an art error, but we Legion fans are naturally opt to try and explain how he did it. Maybe Gim's full giant strength comes to him just before he goes giant size? When he "turns on" his power, the energy build up begins while he's still normal size?

It's weird that Gim is so cynical ("pure hokum!") about the legend of genies. Uh, is he new to the 30th century and all it has to offer?

Gim and Jan meet Kantuu in space and are easily swatted unconscious. Lu and BB arrive and are also easily swatted unconscious.

To be continued...

The Janes/Chiaramonte art is only okay again. Oh, and why are Lightning Lad and Wildfire on the cover?

I guess the reason for my cynicism is that I now know the Conway formula. New menace intro'd. He/she/it will be very deadly. We'll learn the backstory. Menace will be oddly easily defeated.

Let's see if I'm right.

In #267, it takes 3.5 pages for the unconscious Legionnaires to pull themselves together. Then we meet Tage and Rin on the most mineralogically-wealthy world in the UP. I recall discussing Tage and Rin in one of EDE's threads. I like tough girl Tage and sensitive man Rin.

Anyway, Kantuu attacks this city on stilts and everyone dies except Tage. Now we know how deadly Kantuu is. Check!

Tage shares Kantuu's origin story, which he told her. This is actually interesting.... Kantuu's race, called the Djinn, went out into space on a conquering mission. They raided Oa, where the Guardians rather easily stopped them, literally imprisoned each one in bottles, and shrank them from their giant size to 1/100th of that size. The Guardians of Oa actually initiated the legendary 3 wishes scenario! Kantuu's bottle landed in "what was then Arabia." Kantuu was released by someone called Lord Saladin. However, Saladin's 3rd wish was for Kantuu to vanish from Earth. That's how Kantuu ended up on Wondil.

I think I'm doing okay with this comic book explanation of the Earth genie legend. I like that the Guardians of Oa made it all happen. It was cool to see them in a Legion comic. (I'm not a GL reader, normally.)

The Legion finds and attacks Kantuu on Earth. They easily get him to go back into the bottle. The end.

Sigh.

Gotta be honest, I'm glad Conway didn't write the Dr. Mayavale story. I'm just not in the mood to re-read that one right now.




I am, however, going to post a Group Shot by Ditko and post it in the Group Shots thread at Bits.

LOL, Sketch Lad. You've described the Conway formula perfectly. It's the exact same pattern in his JLA stories. The final page sometimes gives me whiplash. The genie concept was pure silliness. It was great to see Chuck and Lu get such a prominent role. Jan and Gim both got some well deserved screen time. This was a fun line up. I felt like Janes pencils improved a little this time out. Maybe a little less stiff?

Conway's creations *should be* very interesting or fun or crazy, but they all come out bland because of that dang formula for writing that he follows.

For me, Sherman's art can save that kind of thing. Staton, Ditko and Janes don't do the kind of artwork that can carry it.

Now we're coming up on the Dark Man story, and I'm actually not feeling very inspired to get into it.

Ah the Kantuu storyline, when I first read the first issue of this arc I really didn't like it, I guess because I found the genie idea stupid. However, once I got the second part I actually bumped it up to alright status.

Things I like:
Chuck and Lu, I always like seeing parts of the Legion universe that we don't always see, whether it be characters who don't normally get face time being the center of a story or seeing Legion reservists, subs, parents, etc it is always nice when they pop up in a story

Origin of the Djinn: Still don't like the genie angle too much, but felt the updated origin for the djinn works well for a Legion/cosmic/sci-fi book.

Tage and Rin: This scene always gets me, not only does Conway show us how powerful and deadly Kantuu is (the point of the scene) but he does a great job of making me care about what happened. I've seen a ton of crap get blown up and destroyed and probably have read millions of murders in comics, but this is probably one that didn't involve a main character that really made me care what happened. I think this scene is more than cheap shock, I really like Tage and Rin and feel sad because I know what is coming.

When the Legionnaires find Tage and say she's the only survivor, I really felt for her. So kudos for Conway for making me care about people who are obviously going to die. Also, I would love to see Tage show up again in the Legion somewhere, just saying.

Kinda Like:
A look at a different part of Earth, the Middle East of the 30th century. Nice to see some variety, even if it's very stereotypical variety (and Conway revisits the Middle East in the Grimbor/Reflecto arc). However, still appreciate getting the Legion out of Metropolis when they are on Earth.

Don't like:

Still not sold on the genie thing, the origin makes it salvageable but part of me still doesn't like it

General plot holes etc. Chuck just "happens" to know what ancient Arabic sounds like? I know he's from Earth but I think most people would have a hard time recognizing Old English, much less recognizing Old English a thousand years from now. Would have preferred if a universal translator or something had id'ed the language.

Also, how did the Legion beat the genie there in time? First we're told he's traveling super fast but the Legion is able to repair their ship and beat him to Earth (and set up their plan?)

And yeah, definitely a pattern here of really powerful villain taken down really easy. Of course it's not like the Legion never used simple tricks to beat powerful foes before, but for some reason it seems 'cheap' when Conway does it.

This one does feel mediocre too me, not awful, and has one really good redeeming factor, but still pretty mediocre.

Looking forward to the Dark Man saga though, although this one has it's problems as well, I do enjoy it.

Re: # 266-67.

After re-reading the heavy-handedness of 5YL (including Dirk’s tragic story), I find it oddly refreshing to get back to a Conway tale. As others have noted, this story is competent but mediocre. It presents four modestly powered Legionnaires defeating an incredibly powerful enemy with little cost to themselves, other than burning out the warp drive of their Legion Cruiser. This tale is indeed a stark contrast to 5YL.

I had mixed feelings about this story when it came out. None of the four Legionnaires featured were favorites of mine. On the other hand, it was nice to see Chuck and Lu again and to have some continuity with their previous Wondil IX adventure. The story ends with Chuck and Lu apparently thinking about rejoining the Legion—a cliffhanger, of sorts, that was never followed up on.

The story is also a definite period piece. Notice the roles women have here: On Vulkan, it’s the women who are fighter pilots while the men “handle operations from the command base.” It’s also Lu who ultimately defeats Kantuu. In 1980, Women’s Lib was not that old, and it must have seemed daringly original (to Conway if not to DC) to feature women in such roles. I had to laugh when Tage said she was glad that “women’s reflexes are so much faster than men’s.” Such reverse discrimination seems dated now.

I don’t mind the silliness of Kantuu being a genie or the attempt to give his origin credibility by tying it in with the Guardians of Oa. But I, too, feel he was defeated too easily. My complaint isn’t so much with the three wishes as with the Legionnaires beating Kantuu to earth and gathering up all the other genie bottles before he arrived. What did Kantuu do? Take a snooze on the way?

Janes’ art does seem to have improved. The lines are cleaner and some of his faces (particularly Chuck and Lu) are more distinctive.

This story is neither good nor bad. It’s an episodic tale of a day in the life of the Legion circa 1980.

#269 through #271

The Dark Man Saga


This story is one hot mess. Earlier, I criticized Space Circus for being boring. Dark Man is not boring. It does seem to be kind of all over the place though. It gives us a couple of lasting contributions to Legion lore.

First, is the election of Colossal Boy’s mother, Marte Allon, as Earth’s President. This was interesting and unexpected. Conway’s vision of a single day election in a festival like atmosphere was a solid concept. The idea that the candidates were selected by computer was a good bit of science fiction. Princess Projectra didn’t approve of the process and asserted that leaders on her world were trained from birth, as she defended the idea of nobility. This was nice characterization by Conway. It was progress in the development of a more interesting and complex personality for Projectra. Levitz would capitalize more on this later. Gim’s concerns about how his mother’s potential election would impact him and the Legion were a good set up for future stories and subplots. Conway is clearly making attempts at real characterization, as opposed to the melodrama and overacting mentioned in earlier posts. That’s not to say that the overacting has gone away, though. It’s on pretty obvious display with Mon-El still.

Conway makes a real effort to develop Timber Wolf’s character with this story. He gets a lot of panel time and much is made of his loner status, difficulty communicating and being part of a team. Much of it is overly dramatic and, for me, seemed over the top. Brin left monitor duty alone to respond to an emergency signal from Lar and Tasmia. Garth tried to call him on it, Brin argued, Garth backed down, Garth took it out on Ayla, Ayla fretted, and Imra lectured Garth on leadership. None of them came across well.

The other big development was the set up for Blok’s induction into the Legion. Brin and Ayla seek assistance from the jailed League of Assassins members in locating the Dark Man. It’s pointed out that the Dark Man gave the League their powers – again a contradiction to what we later learn about Blok’s race. In a complicated bit, Brin and Ayla circle the Earth in a Legion cruiser, at Blok’s instruction, in order to discover the Dark Man’s communication frequency. ??? By the end of the story, Blok’s transformation from villain to hero is completed after he frees Brin from captivity and shakes the Dark Man out of hydroponic tree on his sometimes spaceship/sometimes boat in the North Atlantic. Did I use the phrase hot mess to describe this story earlier? Are you beginning to see why?

Mon-El, Shadow Lass. Princess Projectra, Colossal Boy, and Shrinking Violet spend much of the story trapped under the ocean in a pure neutron sphere. They eventually escape after Projectra tricks a trademark Conway sea monster into fighting with an illusion of itself. During the fight, it cracks the pure neutron sphere open from the outside. The combined might of Mon-El, Wildfire, and Colossoal Boy could not bust it open from the inside. Pure neutron spheres, you see, are vulnerable from the outside but not the inside. Hot mess.

The Dark Man himself confuses me more than anything else about this story. There is a lot of mystery and drama about “Who is the Dark Man?” in the first couple of issues. He turns out to be a kind of clone doppleganger of Thaork, with a whole body. Ayla discovers a mysteriously edited video tape on the spaceship boat thing that shows how some scientist dude cloned Tharok’s brain, how the brain learned to talk in Tharok’s voice by using mental energy to vibrate the air, made the scientist dude create a body for him, declared that he is all that is dark in the human spirit, fed on the scientist dude, and revealed that he is life force vampire, and that he was creating surrogates to test those who opposed him, so that he could neutralize an opposing force in the cosmos. Got that? Good. His powers are never really clear but he seems to have a lot of them.

Eventually the Legion, Blok and the Fatal Five team up to defeat the Dark Man. As mentioned earlier, Blok shakes him out of a tree. In a classic Conway two panel finale battle, Tharok and the Dark Man charge into one another. There is a big “KRATOOM”, and they both cease to exist. They were doppelgangers and couldn’t exist together or something like that.

The greatest tragedy of this story, for me, is how ineffectual the Fatal Five appeared to be. Arguably, the Legion’s greatest villains were reduced to nothing more than simpering pawns of the Dark Man.

Things seemed to start to unravel for Jimmy Janes during this arc. He started strong in issue #269 with some great group shots of the Legion at the election festival and a stunning splash page of Validus attacking Mon-El and Shadow Lass. By the end of #271 everything looked sloppy and rushed.

The letters page of #271 gives us some insight into how Conway’s run was perceived by readers at the time. The comments were on Kantuu story. Editor, Jack C. Harris wrote at the end:

“Another really nice thing about this month’s mailbag was that there were no letters advocating a lynch mob for writer Gerry Conway. We’ve always said that it takes TIME for any creative team hit stride on a new (to them) feature. We KNEW that Gerry was the right writer for the Legion and it seems he’s finally proven it to you fans! We never had any doubts!”

Excellent review, Jerry. I had written mine before you posted yours, so there is some overlap.

My favorite part of these issues is the opening pages of 269, wherein the Legionnaires attend a political rally. There are a several good character moments in this scene: Mon and Shady run off to the beach and leave Jeckie hanging (though why she wasn’t using her flight ring is unclear). Jeckie finds the “rabble rousing” of the campain “disturbing.” And Gim learns that his mom is running for president.

To be sure, Conway tries to milk the drama for all its worth. Gim finds out about his mom on page 4, and we, the readers, do not learn why he acts so surprised until two pages later. In between, there’s a silly bit when Imra tells the “hysterical” Gim that he’s “among friends.” Frankly, the revelation wasn’t worth dragging it out that long.

All in all, the “Dark Man” story reads is it might if Marvel had published the Legion. There are several character bits, as above. Old foes (the Fatal Five) attack and capture several Legionnaires. Then we learn that the old foes are actually working for a new enemy (the Dark Man). The remaining Legionnaires have to seek help from another old enemy (Blok) in order to locate their teammates. The other enemy helps them for reasons of his own, and the Legionnaires aren’t certain they can trust him.

Fairly standard stuff.

Until Marvel creators jumped ship for DC, stylistic differences sharply divided the two companies. DC, short on character development, prided itself on clever plotlines. For Marvel, plot always took a back seat to the interpersonal drama of the characters. Spidey fights Doc Ock this month—but that’s not nearly as interesting as Peter Parker’s money woes or girlfriend woes, or Spidey being branded a menace by JJJ.

That’s pretty much what happens here. The Dark Man/Fatal Five story is serviceable, but it takes a back seat to Conway’s attempts at character development. I say “attempts” because not all of his efforts are successful. For example, he again tries to instill drama by playing up Timber Wolf’s loner status. Wolf violates Legion protocol by investigating his missing teammates’ disappearance on his own. He then argues with Lightning Lad (“I don’t care about rules”). Had Brin only just joined the Legion, his actions might have made sense. Instead, he comes off as childish and spoiled.

On the other hand, Garth’s insecurity as leader—he loses his cool with both Wolf and his own sister—foreshadows a plotline Levitz developed later, leading to Garth’s resignation as leader. This scene is quite believable—there was a reason, it seems, why Garth had never been leader before: he took matters too personally.

(And then Conway ruins the scene by having Garth tell his wife, “Now I know why you never ran for Legion leader twice.” Not only did Saturn Girl serve as leader twice, she also ran for a third term, in Superboy # 190.)

Another Marvel-esque aspect is that Conway has characters doing things that the story requires, regardless of whether these things are consistent with past portrayals. When Mano first appears, he shoots a destructive beam out of his hand. Oh, really? In every other appearance, Mano had to touch something in order to disintegrate it. Validus inexplicably talks throughout these issues.

However, the Dark Man does take a bit longer to defeat than Conway’s usual Legion villains, and the action scenes are well done. Timber Wolf, in particular, gets a good showcase at the end.

Another plus is that we get to spend some time with Colossal Boy’s parents. In a previous storyline, Conway used Legionnaire parents only as fodder for the villain. This time, Gim brings some Legionnaire buddies home to celebrate his mother’s nomination. Gim then has a heart-to-heart with his father over how it might affect Gim as a Legionnaire if his mother wins the election. This all-too-rare scene rounds out a Legionnaire by showing him connected to something other than the Legion and by suggesting political implications.

Two major events happen in this story: Tharok dies, thus ending the original Fatal Five, and Blok “reforms,” leading to his joining the Legion in the next issue. Of the former, I can only say that Tharok’s death came as a surprise—what is even more surprising is that he was never brought back (at least not to my memory); when the Fatal Five reappeared some years later during Levitz’s run, it was virtually a different team.

Of the second, I can’t help feeling frustrated because Conway never gives us an indication as to why Blok does what he does. In his previous appearance, Blok was a reluctant villain; still, it does not follow that he would risk losing his only friends in order to help the Legionnaires find the Dark Man. It was fine for the Legionnaires not to fully trust him, but, as readers, we should at least have had a hint of his intentions. Conway only has Blok tell us “I was wrong to want to kill Legionnaires” without telling us what caused him to change his stoney heart.

The Dark Man story is not bad—in fact, with three issues, Conway at last has room to stretch the story out and make it more satisfying. It’s a noble effort marred by ineffective character bits and shoddy research.

Great review, too. Yes, some overlap and fairly similar conclusions. Hopefully we inspired Sketch Lad to dive into Dark Man, or at least let him off the hook for posting a review.

We brushed earlier on the topic of art and story. In my JLA reading, I'm finding that my enjoyment of Conway's stories is really enhanced when Perez does the pencils. The Conway/Perez Starro Saga is a high point. The little Starro replicants attached to everyone's faces may have seemed silly as illustrated by someone else. The realism of the Perez art made them frightening.

I'll admit that I have a huge soft spot for the Dark Man issues, because they were the first issues of a comic that I ever bought. (I had been introduced to the Legion shortly before when I swiped a digest from my brother.) These issues also cemented Timber Wolf as my favorite legionnaire and, while I can understand people's criticism of Brin as a loner given his history, it was a nice angle to a reader without his entire history. By the way, I don't think it is necessarily contradictory with his backstory. Reading the entire run, I always figured the tension could be atributed to ambivalence. On the one hand, Brin had been alone for a long time so the Legion (and Ayla) were an attractive option. But after a few years in the Legion, the group dynamic could chafe a bit and during the S/LSH run, Brin began to think he was only still in the Legion because of Ayla. It seems to me that this all ultimately plays out after Great Darkness when Brin finally realizes that he needs the Legion, even if it is without Ayla.

On rereading, though, I agree with the "hot mess" aspects of the run. There are just too many inconsistencies, the Fatal Five does come across weak, and the Tharok/Dark Man implosion is an incredible WTF? moment.

Thanks for keeping the reviews going, guys. I finally read this 3 parter.

I'll sort of note things in sequence.

I like that the Legion has a happy occasion to think about something besides their troubles. The characterization exhibited in the political rally was pretty interesting. Colossal Boy and Saturn Girl emerged as most dramatic. I love the idea that Marte is nominated for president.

I also love the very romantic scene with Mon and Tas. However, when the "meteoroid" hits, why didn't Mon use telescopic vision? Also, they've colored in Shady's torso to indicate that we're not looking at a skimpy bikini.

I'll use HWW's word for the artistic storytelling : serviceable. I'll add that it borders on bland.

I like the action sequence of Mon & Shady vs Validus, Persuader and Emerald Empress. The two kept getting surprised by the other three until they were captured. Much better than a simple swift capture.

Lone W -- I mean Timber Wolf is acting weird (again). Why is he having such problems? As a long time Brin fan, I'm both annoyed and interested in what's going on with him. (I know that it will lead to him seeking medical assistance in the Levitz era following.)

I also like the scene where Mano and Tharok attack the Legionnaires at the Allon home. Yeah, weird.. Mano can now blast his energies from his hand! That's new.

Characterization note - Wildfire laughs off the idea of explaining "democracy to a princess." He ends that comment with a flirty note similar to the one he said about Dreamy in the Starburst Bandits episode.

In #270, the plot continues. Lone Wolf (cheeky grin) and Ayla seem to be the only ones available to fight against the 5, and they've now learned that the Dark Man is involved. I like the way the Dark Man is intro'd - involved somehow with the FF and tied to the League of Super Assasins, whom Brin and Ayla contact. They're all still crazy, except Blok.

This is the second time we've seen Ayla show some real skill as a detective, I believe. Previously, it was against Dagon the Avenger.

Ayla, Brin and Blok find the Dark Man's ship and see that he's a non cyborg (fully human) version of Tharok!

This issue had a lot of recaps and conversation along with some action. It felt very part-2-of-3.

Detective Ayla learns the Dark Man's origin - he's a clone of Tharok, ultra powered by the radiation from the bomb that destroyed half of Tharok's human body - and he's a life-force vampire. This is a fascinating idea!

The various groups of Legionnaires gather on Dark Man's ship. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl join forces with the FF in order to take down the Dark Man. The action is pretty good, illustrated by okay-level artwork.

The Dark Man and Tharok knock each other out of existence. Conway!!!!! sigh....

This larger grouping of Legionnaires haul the now Fatal Four to jail OFF PANEL! sigh....

Marte Allon is the new president.

I just sorta wish an editor or maybe one of Conway's friends or family members could have pre-read the script and let him know that his formula was showing again. There was some decent characterization stuck in between some decent action sequences, within a decent plot that ended just too simply and typically.

# 272: “The Secret Origin of Blok!”

Why this origin has to be “secret,” per the title, is unclear, as Blok says he no longer has anything to hide. For that matter, neither does this story: It’s a straightforward narrative about Blok’s history and successful bid to join the Legion.

As with most of Conway’s stories, this one offers no surprises. It accomplishes its simple objective to portray Blok in a positive light and show how he might be useful to the Legion. In doing so, however, Conway portrays other applicants as dunces who don’t recognize real villains when they see them. He also takes Wildfire and Sun Boy out of action too quickly and has Dawnstar calling Lightning Lad for help. This might be understandable if the Legionnaires were going up against the (pre-Conway) Fatal Five or the Time Trapper. Instead, they square off against the Starburst Bandits, villains who were hardly worth raising a fuss over the first time around.

The story begins well enough. At a Legion Academy training session, Wildfire blasts Blok with his energy beam in order to see how tough the latter is. Blok doesn’t flinch; he says that the energy blast tickles, suggesting that the rocky newcomer has a subtle sense of humor. Conway then develops that sense of humor further by having Blok walk through an obstacle course consisting of pistons that shoot from the floor, ceiling, and walls of the training room. Instead of attempting to evade the pistons, Blok merely allows them to crash into him and break.

As Wildfire sulks away, Blok relates his story to Sun Boy and Dawnstar, as well as three other applicants, Lamprey, Nightwind, and “the” Crystal Kid. He recounts how his world had no name until it was settled by colonists from earth who thought that the world was uninhabited. In truth, the natives—a race of living rocks—chose not to reveal themselves until they were certain of the settlers’ peaceful intentions and learned their language.

Somewhat later, Blok, then a small child, was playing with several human friends when six Legionnaires evacuated the planet before its sun went supernova, as recounted previously (S/LSH # 254). Too young to understand what was happening, Blok and his friends blamed the Legionnaires for destroying their world. Later, they were turned into the League of Super-Assassins by the Dark Man.

Although this account differs from what we’d previously been told about Blok’s origin, a far more glaring hole is left in the story. Was Blok the only native of Dryad to be rescued? No mention is made of other rock people survivors, and, during later stories by Levitz and Giffen, Blok is portrayed as the last of his race. How could it be that only Blok was rescued?

Blok’s narrative is interrupted by scenes of the Starbust Bandits, who escape from their Himalayan prison and make their way to the Metropolis zoo, where they retrieve their flaming steeds. (Why fiery horses used by criminals were turned into a sight-seeing attraction is anybody’s guess.) The Legion is alerted, and, since the team is short-handed—what else is new?—Lightning Lad issues flight rings to the four applicants so they can be tested in battle. One flight ring cannot lift Blok, however, so he requires assistance from Sun Boy and Dawnstar, who join Wildfire in leading the applicants while Lightning Lad remains on monitor duty.

The battle then goes pretty much as expected. The other three applicants, thinking the bandits to be part of a drill, blunder into the villains’ starburst bolts. Wildfire, Sun Boy and Dawny are waylaid, and it’s up to Blok to save the day. He does so by absorbing the starburst bolts and directing them back toward the bandits.

The Legionnaires then gather around to welcome Blok as their newest member.

Conway seems to be at his best when writing interpersonal stuff such as the Legion Academy scenes and Blok’s origin. These scenes are well paced and pull the reader into the emotions of the characters.

The plot, however, is full of missed opportunities. At one point, Conway sets up foreshadowing by having Lightning Lad suggest that Wildfire test Blok’s skill and courage instead of just his brute strength. Such a test never materializes. Instead, Blok defeats the bandits in pretty much the same way he destroyed the training pistons: by doing nothing.

Another opportunity is missed in the depiction of Lamprey, Nightwind, and Crystal Kid, three applicants who were created by Legion fans. It's always nice when readers get to contribute something to the mythos; however, the three applicants serve only as cannon fodder. They never even get a chance to do what Legion applicants have done since the beginning: demonstrate their powers.

Then, there are the Starburst Bandits themselves. Conway creates an interesting twist by revealing that the guns they used previously serve merely to focus their starburst bolts—the bolts originate within the bandits themselves. Yet the starburst bolts seem just as effective without the guns, leading me to wonder why they needed guns in the first place.

Steve Ditko’s art serves the story well, and he creates imaginative creatures and impressive space scenes. However, some of his character poses are laughable. What is Wildfire supposed to be doing on page 5? Walking like a space Egyptian??

Once again, Conway’s story does what it needs to do. In some ways, though, this effort rises slightly above previous ones. The focus on Blok—a single character—gives the story a grounding and purpose that most of Conway's Legion stories lack. He instills enough personality in Blok that the reader cares about him and rejoices in his all-too-easy victory.

Don't have much to add about the Blok story. Um, I like Blok. I'm glad he made it into the Legion. It's too bad Gerry Conway forgot his own story regarding the details of his past. Maybe the editor made him change things?

Can't understand why Ditko keeps illustrating Legion stories. It just doesn't fit.

I never knew Lamprey, Crystal Kid and Nightwind were fan-created characters. That's an interesting tidbit.

One thing that always struck me about this story when I read it years after I had read many other Legion stories (including Who's Who in the Legion and the 5YL stories) was how utterly, utterly BLAND the designs for the above three applicants were.

I'd first been introduced to Nightwind with those cool facial markings and hood and Crystal Kid with his crystal hair and weird puffy shirt - but here they're all given the most boring, non-descript appearances ever.

Were their outfits/looks also designed by the fans (which I find hard to believe after seeing some of the retina-searing costumes fans have designed for other characters... exhibit A - Mal Duncan) or was Steve Ditko just having a really, really lazy day?

Gerry Conway = the writer of Blacula's favourite ever comic (Justice League of America #200) so reading this thread essentially slamming him is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow.

In all honesty though I can't disagree with any of the criticisms. When I think back on this Legion-era (and it's been years since I read it) I remember a few bright sparks (he used Collosal Boy a lot which this #1 Gim-fan appreciates, and it was nice seeing things like the Legion parents, RJ Brande's return, Tyroc's island and Chuck & Lu)) but my abiding memory of this period is how boring AND annoying the stories were.

That's a tough combination to create in a comic I think (you usually need something of note going on to be annoyed by it) but Conway somehow managed to tell stories that were almost completely uninteresting while at the same time creating little ways of annoying the readers (like with Mano's weird power changes or all those disappointing endings).

Having said that, I've developed a bit of a soft spot for 70s/early 80s comics (the last time comics were at their most pure and innocent IMO - the mid-late 80s introducing us to depressing, grim and gritty "adult" stories and I don't think the medium has ever been the same since) so I'd like to re-read these comics sometime and see if I don't get some more enjoyment out of them.

One final note - preboot Wildfire has always been one of my very least-favourite Legionnaires and after reading this thread I'm beginning to wonder if Gerry Conway wasn't primarily responsible for that? I might have to re-read some non-Conway Wildfire stories sometime too and see if my opinion of him doesn't soften somewhat. After all, I can't hate a character just because one writer wrote him badly.

Night<strike>wing</strike>wind

Lamprey & Crystal Kid

All three were designed by John Workman.

Thanks Gary. That was an interesting thread. I can blame John Workman for the boring designs then. (Though to be honest, I couldn't have done any better.)

I'm shocked I've never heard of Transporter Boy or Thunderbow before this though! I thought funky obscurio characters like those two would've had about half a dozen tribute threads on Legion World by now.

EDE? Lash? What's taking you so long?

I think we've all tried to be fair in our reviews by pointing out things that worked. But sometimes you have a call a bad story a bad story.

As I pointed out previously, Conway admits in an interview that the Legion was not top priority for him--JLA was (which accounts for the favorable comments about his JLA work by you and others). Therefore, I don't feel it's appropriate to excuse his work or make allowances for it. Clearly, his heart wasn't in his Legion work.

Well, you guys pretty well summed up the Dark Man saga. although I do enjoy the arc it was for a lot of the reasons everyone has already listed and the things that annoy me were also listed. A few extra things of note (to me).

Light Lass lifting the ship. I am always impressed by this scene because I can't recall Light Lass ever doing anything on this scale before. Usually she just uses her power on one or two goons and then gets wonked from behind or something. So to see her override the gravity on an entire ship was impressive. I just wish that Conway had followed up on making Ayla more awesome by not having her turn into "girl hostage" at the end.

The Dark Man's origin. A on concept C on execution. The way the origin was revealed was cliched beyond belief. Mid-story hero comes across the records that reveal the origin in full and then gets surprised by the bad guy himself. So not to happy about that, but I liked the idea of Tharok's human half being cloned, and the idea of a life-vampire (whatever that is). Not sure if they needed to be married but still great concepts nonetheless, but then they all disappear.

The fight scenes (early on). I actually enjoyed the fight in the Allon's apartment and on the beach, it really made the Fatal Five seem fearsome in that they were able to break into smaller groups and still handle Legionnaires. I'm not used to seeing the FF shown that formidable (of course my first exposure to the FF has been post-ZH and they always seem to be portrayed as beatable in those stories).

Also liked the focus on Timber Wolf, a bit melodramatic, but I think he must have been one of Conway's favorites sense he got so much attention.

Lots of other things to like (and not like) but those were all mentioned earlier on.

I do think that Conway's run would have been more fondly remembered if he was paired with good artists. Rereading some of the Legion stories from when Grell was on the art duties and they can be pretty formulaic at times as well, but you don't mind because the Legion looks so pretty and the very panel layouts are dynamic, even if that particular scene isn't. However, none of the artist who worked with Conway drew a particularly beautiful Legion and even the layouts weren't very dynamic, so you focus more on the story but the story is lacking.

That's a good point about artists, Steph. It might be worthwhile to review the Grell-era stories at some point.

Thanks for adding a visual dynamic to the discussion. rhino.

#272 - Excellent review by He Who Wonders. This issue is one of my favorites of Conway's run for reasons sited in the review. It's a nostalgic favorite for the use of the Nightwind, Lamprey and Crystal Kid. I like this field testing of applicants as opposed to the "display your powers in front of a group of Legionnaires sitting around a podium" method that we see so much. This seems logical. Wildfire gets some good moments. Blok's story is told effectively and he comes across as sympathetic and likable.

The Ditko art is.... well, just pure Ditko.

#273: “The Man Who Framed Brainiac 5” or “A Murderer Among Us?”


In this issue Mr. Conway finds himself in the unenviable position of having to explain a major lose end from the Omega story. Brainiac 5 had never been punished or held accountable for the murder of An Ryd.

Yes, it’s a difficult place to be. As the stalwart professional, Conway plows into it and attempts to explain the unforgivable while preserving Brainiac 5’s status as a hero. I’m not sure that any writer could have pulled this off. Still, I’m not prepared to let him off the hook just because the task was nearly impossible.

First, Conway kind of put himself into this position by failing to address An Ryd’s murder when he “cured” Brainiac 5 in the amusement park episode in issue #56. The cure came too easy. Fan reaction finally forced this story to be told.

The issue opens with President Allon ordering the Legion to disband for violating their own by-laws by allowing a Legionnaire who killed to remain on the team. Conway’s character overreactions and overly dramatic dialogue are on full display here. The Legionnaires come across as dim witted by gasping in shock at the President’s allegations. Um, they were all there during Chameleon Boy’s investigation of the murder, his confrontation of Brainiac 5, and Brainiac 5’s meltdown. They fought Omega.

Chameleon Boy backtracks on all of the investigative work that he did. Gosh, I’ve realize now that I was horribly wrong. Brainiac 5 couldn’t be the murderer. It undercuts the skill he showed as espionage leader during Omega story. For Brainiac 5 to be redeemed, Chameleon Boy has to look the fool. Chameleon Boy picks Star Boy to assist him in the reopened investigation. Odd choice since Star Boy has never been portrayed as one of the more clever members. The fact that Brainiac 5 coldly prosecuted Star Boy for killing in self defense back in the Adventure days isn’t even alluded to. It almost seems as if Conway never read “The Legionnarie Who Killed” and just picked Star Boy because he hadn’t seen much action lately. Unforgivable.

In the end, Pulsar Stargrave is revealed to be the true villain. Stargrave is actually a good choice for the ultimate villain. Shooter intended him to have the stature of a major villain and his position as Brainiac 5’s nemesis had been established. Stargrave’s introduction, however, was fumbled when Shooter left midstream. Do any of us really know whether or not Stargrave was actually the original Brainiac, Brainiac 5’s father, or someone else entirely? In the end, bringing a complicated villain in to solve a complicated dilemma failed. Like the Fatal 5 in the Dark Man saga, Stargrave (Brainiac) ends up being diminished. After all this, Brainiac 5 still wasn’t fully redeemed in my eyes. Yes, the murder of An Ryd needed to be addressed. Omega was the other result of Brainiac 5’s insanity. His goal was to destroy the entire universe. That part still seemed unresolved.

We were also left with the supposed death of Ultra Boy. In a direct contradiction to the usual Conway style, this development is underplayed.

The final battle between Stargrave and Brainiac 5 was given a full four pages to play out. Querl’s use of the dual force fields was actually quite clever. No complaints with Jimmy Janes effort this time out.

More side notes on Conway's accomplishments:

I'm up to the Detroit era in my rereading of Conway's JLA. I'm reminded that he had previously created Steel and Vixen. He and Don Heck were the creators of a short lived series called "Steel, the Indestructable Man" from 1978. It featured the World War II adventures of the grandfather of the JLA's Steel. Citizen Steel from John's recent JSA run is a relative of these two characters.

Vixen was originally intended to star in her own Conway penned solo magazine. It was advertised but never released due to the DC implosion. She was later introduced in a Superman story.

In a single decade, Conway had a hand in creating more DC characters who stuck, than just about any other writer that I can think of.

Hmm... I actually like the designs for Nightwind and Lamprey. Then again, I usually don't like complicated costumes.

Also, I don't think that I knew until now that the comic-verse made Nightwind the daughter of Mar Londo. Or did they? I can't remember any familial connection between her and Timber Wolf being emphasized in the Legion comics. Someone? Anyone?

That's kind of neat. They are two of my favorite 'b-league' characters.

Was he also responsible for inflicting upon us Gypsy and Vibe? 'Cause that would cancel out my goodwill.

I believe he created Vibe and Gypsy specifically for the JLA.

Re: # 273.

Jerry did an excellent job of explaining this story's faults.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I had a letter published a few issues later praising this as the best LSH issue I'd read in a long time. After re-reading the Conway era, though, I've come to realize I wasn’t completely wrong, relatively speaking: Despite its logic flaws, this issue is indeed better than most of the issues that preceded it. Granted, that's not saying much.

First, the good points:

Conway continues to inject Marvel-style interpersonal drama. President Allon's unenviable task of ordering the Legion to disband creates tension between her and Colossal Boy. Also, the Legion has to confront their lapse of not addressing Brainy’s alleged crimes. Rather than being a loose end, this lapse humanizes them: who would want to believe that their teammate and buddy was a murderer? Organizations fall prey to this sort of collective denial all the time (Enron, anyone?). It could also attributed to Lightning Lad’s lack of leadership skills that the group had been allowed to table this matter for so long.

The continuity with the earlier story was also fairly rare in Legion stories in those days. Again, Conway uses a Marvel technique of building off of an old storyline, whereas most DC comics assumed that readers had very short memories. It’s understandable, though, that Thom doesn’t mention Brainy’s role in the former’s court martial. It would have required too much explanation and would add nothing to the present story.

I also enjoyed Brainy’s one-on-one against Stargrave. This scene afforded us a rare opportunity to see Brainy do something more besides hang around his lab and offer solutions to other Legionnaires. His use of a double forcefield was clever, indeed.

Now the bad points (or, rather, more of them):

The investigation. As Jerry points out, Cham looks like a fool when he second-guesses his earlier detective work. Why didn’t he investigate whether Brainy had been in An Ryd’s room before? Surely, he would have wanted an airtight case before accusing a fellow Legionnaire of murder.

Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl visit Rimbor Space Control and discover that no ships resembling Brainy’s had entered or left Rimbor during the time of Ryd’s murder, and that no one resembling Brainy had visited Rimbor. C’mon, folks. How is it that Jo and Tinya can’t figure out that someone with a 12th-level intelligence could have easily used another ship and a disguise?

Speaking of Ultra Boy, this experienced Legionnaire lets his guard down and allows Stargrave to blast him to kingdom come after Tinya gets injured. Well, at least Jo’s obsession with Tinya is consistent with his portrayal in Adventure # 379, which I synopsised on another thread. Just as Cham has to look the fool for Brainy to be exonerated, Jo and the other Legionnaires have to look incompetent for Brainy to have his showdown with Stargrave. Conway credits neither the Legionnaires nor their fans with much intelligence.

Then there’s Stargrave himself. I can’t figure out how he fits into the original Jim Starlin story. Let’s see if I get this straight. Stargrave murdered Any Ryd to frame Brainiac 5 for framing Ultra Boy. Meanwhile, Brainy went nuts and tried to destroy the universe by creating Omega. How did Stargrave know that Brainy was going to have a breakdown about that time? Or was his involvement a coincidence?

Stargrave’s motivation is also a problem. He’s just a standard baddie who took such umbrage over Brainy’s earlier refusal to partner with him that he devotes his existence to destroying Brainy. Stargrave’s involvement reduces Starlin’s story—one of the most complex and significant Legion developments of the ‘70s—to a cliché.

I am, however, still impressed by the Jimmy Janes/Frank Chiaramonte artwork. The art finally starts to look attractive, and facial expressions—particularly Cham and Brainy—become distinct. Layouts are also more dynamic and interesting.

One major gaffe, though: The bottom panel on page 3 is apparently intended to be a flashback to # 250. That’s Wildfire’s hand pointing at Brainy, and the Legionnaires are acting shocked while Brainy looks dead calm, mirroring a scene that occurred in the earlier issue. The dialogue, however, comes from the prosecutor general in the present story.

It's ironic that I had regarded this as one of the "best" Legion stories of the time. I suppose my standards had been set so low by Conway's usual fare and the lackluster art of the period that this issue truly did seem fresh. But it's also worth noting that Conway targeted his stories for young readers who would not scrutinize the stories. It's a pity he didn't count on those same readers returning thirty years later with a more critical eye.

Check out Nightcrawler's link on the previous page, cleome. Nightwind was originally supposed to be a sister (or half-sister?) of Timber Wolf, as indicated in the brief bio that appeared in Amazing World of DC Comics.

By the time she actually appeared in the Legion comic, she had been given a new name (Berta Haris). No mention was ever made of her being related to the Londos.

It's probably just as well, as the original bio sounds very fannish. Nightwind was supposedly in love with Sun Boy and was awaiting application so she could be with him. (Shades of Lydda!)

I actually totally like the idea of Nightwind as Timber Wolf's secret half-sister!

I like the idea of that Dave Cockrum character from the Wanderers, who was kinda/sorta vampiric looking (Nocturne?) being connected to Timber Wolf in some way. He's got wolf-like traits, from his father's research (giving him a lycanthrope vibe), and she could have bat-like traits (giving her a vampire vibe).

#274 and #275

“The Exaggerated Death of Ultra Boy”
“Of Pride Passion and Piracy”


It truly is possible for a story to be so bad that it’s good. There are a number of Adventure era stories that fall into the category. The Dr. Mayavale story is probably the most obvious post Adventure example. In my opinion, these two issues also deserve to be included.

To be so bad that it’s good, a story must have a strong element of camp. Captain Frake, the space pirate villain in this story has camp to spare – especially as illustrated by the Steve Ditko. She has long dark hair and an amazingly tacky outfit. From bottom to top: Blue boots with fold down tops reach up her shins to almost her knees. Then we get some bare leg and thigh until we reach her purple and white checked short shorts, with a gold belt draped about ¾ of the way up. Next, we get a blue top, long sleeve on one side and sleeveless on the other. The top is draped from her shoulder on one side to curve below her armpit on the other. She accessorizes with gold loop earrings and tops it all off with a gray wide brimmed hat accessorized with a pink hat band. She’s mean, controlling, sharp witted and chooses to make the amnesiac Jo Nah her Ultra Boy Toy. Priceless!!

Unlike Dematties in the Mayavale story, Gerry Conway appears to be attempting to play it straight here. That makes the whole thing even more fun. To open the story, we get over five pages of overly dramatic narration while Ultra Boy drifts through space, as a result of Pulsar Stargrave’s blast in the previous issue. The drifting scenes are interspersed with the Legionnaires conducting Jo’s funeral on Earth. Saturn Girl and Phantom girl get a lot of melodramatic screen time. Tinya tells Imra that she referred to her as “The Ice Maiden”. Is this the first time that nickname was ever used in an actual story? Imra perseveres and uses her telepathy to fill Tinya’s mind with happy memories of Jo. Tinya cries and the girls hug.

Jo gets rescued by the beastly pirates who serve Frake. He gets a series of nicknames including Fresh Meat and Driftwood before he finally decides to call himself Seeker in the second issue. Cap’n Frake decks Jo out in a hot pirate outfit that includes purple boots, purple and white striped pants, a black belt with a big gold buckle, and a yellow shirt. A white scarf with red polka dots is tied around his head to finish off that stylish 30th century space pirate look. Interestingly, Frake trades in her big hat for a purple scarf when they retreat to her private quarters. Jo’s yellow shirt only lasts a few panels. Frake blasts it off him to test his invulnerability, conveniently leaving him shirtless for their first kiss.

Conway treats us to some stirring narration about Eistein’s theories on light speed and mass as Garth and Imra pilot a Legion cruiser to an orbit around Pluto. This is where the Legion first confronts Frake’s crew. Jo gets some deep space action in a blue and white space suit complete a skull and cross bones on the chest.

Karate Kid gets some brief action worrying that he hopes he still has what it takes after his extended leave of absence for personal reasons. That’s totally out of left field. There’s an untold story there.

Tinya gets in on the action wearing a red and white space suit that coordinates perfectly with Jo’s blue and white ensemble. Whatever happened to trans suits?

Imra picks up Jo’s thoughts and realizes that he is still alive. She dares not tell anyone though until she’s sure, carrying her burdern into the second issue.

Sadly, Janes picks up the art chores for the second issue. The story maintains much of its campiness, but the loss of the odd Ditko effects detracts a bit from the over the top nature of the story.

Brin and Ayla go to the zoo. Brin continues to question his place in the Legion and among the large population of Earth.

Gim, Lar and Tasmia go to a fancy dinner at a Metropolis night spot called the Moon Dome. Gim complains about his mother, knocks over a robot waiter, and decides he is a klutz.

Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Wildfire, Dawnstar, Element Lad, and Shrinking Violet fight with the space pirates on a populated asteroid. Jo’s memories slowly start to return. He starts to reject Frake which makes her furious. In a super dramatic scene, the raging Frake shoves a peasant girl out of the way while calling her trash. The peasant girl hits her head on a rock and dies. Jo snaps to his senses.

In the final sequence, Jo is blasted by one of Frake's men. There is an explosion.

Saturn Girl no longer senses Jo’s precense. She screams “Oh Garth..” and collapses. The issue ends very melodramatically with Imra in tears convinced that Jo is really dead now. She tells Garth, “Perhaps what I saw.. or thought I saw..was just the fading light of a noble dream.”

If you take this story too seriously you are bound to be disappointed. With the right frame of mind, however, it can be a fun romp.

#276
"Lord Romdur's Castle"

Star Boy, Princess Projectra, Sun Boy, Shadow Lass, Phantom Girl and Chameleon Boy travel to a medieval planet to search for some lost United Planet's explorers. They become involved in a quest to save a king from from the dark Lord, Romdur, who recently appeared on the planet. They are joined by a young man who Star Boy fears will be a traitor. Projectra gets attacked by a suction cup plant and is sick for a few panels.

When they arrive at Lord Romdur's castle, the Legionnaires deduce that Romdur is an anagram from Mordru. Mordru attacks. Star Boy uses his powers to bring the castle down on top of Mordru, thus defeating him. The king is saved. The young man who Star Boy didn't trust is revealed to be the king's son.

This issue is a contender for one of the worst Legion stories of all time. I like it better than Space Circus, but, as I've stated earlier, I've learned to enjoy Ditko's take on the Legion. For those who can't get past the Ditko artwork, this issue is an example of everything they don't like. The offending thing for me is how the powerful Mordru is so diminished.

KK is almost certainly referring to the leave of absence he took in order to live in the 20th century during his own series. The self-doubt bit is clunky characterization. Conway does the same thing with Gim ("I'm a klutz") and Drake, who nearly blasts a room full of women, children, and old men. Apparently, the only way Conway can make the Legionnaires interesting is if they lack confidence or act rashly.

You're right about the kitchiness of this story and the campy fashion sense of the space pirates. (Even more campy is the dialogue, which is peppered with pirate-isms such as "laddie.")

Even so, I had little trouble taking this story "straight." Granted, it hinges on our acceptance of the old trope of the hero with amnesia. Ultra Boy doesn't know who he is, so he sides with the villains until he sees the face of the woman he loves. Then he starts to have doubts until the death of the bystander forces him to choose between his values and his new friends. The plot here is nothing new; even so, the execution worked for me.

Jo finds himself utterly alone--even more alone than when he was accused of murder (# 239). He is so alone, in fact, that he doesn't even have his memories to fall back on, a Tinya does. In the end, though, he still does the right thing.

There is something reassuring about that--about the "rightness" of being a Legionnaire, of not killing, and of protecting the innocent. Somehow, Jo's values transcend the loss of his identity.

Stories in general are supposed to help us make sense of reality. They are supposed to find patterns in the seemingly random and chaotic events of our lives. Some stories even try to show us the way things "should" be rather than reflect how they really are. I think this story succeeds in doing all the above. It reassures us that a hero, stripped of his identity, is still hero, and that the values he upholds are still "right."

It's reassuring to read this type of story after nearly 30 years of morally ambiguous heroes. (Though moral ambiguity has its own value in storytelling.)

I also liked the scene between Imra and Tinya. Understandably angry over losing the love of her life, Tinya lashes out unfairly at Imra. Perhaps she is jealous that Imra married her love. After all, these two women had once staged a mock marriage with their boyfriends (Adv. # 337); it must have galled Tinya to see Imra's dream come to fruition while hers did not. This is one of the most "real" character moments in Conway's run.

Not all of the character moments work, however. Every time Timber Wolf whines about not wanting to be around people, it stops the story cold for me. Also, Imra's refusal to tell the other Legionnaires about Jo's survival is overly dramatic and unbelievable. She fails to consider that her teammate may be brainwashed, may have been coerced, or may have very good reasons for his actions, circumstances the Legionnaires have all encountered in the past. At least she should have told Garth. Not only would it be believable for her to share her suspicions with her husband, but one would think it her duty to tell the leader everything she perceived.

The ending comes as a surprise. Conway sets us up to expect Ultra Boy's joyful reunion with his teammates. Instead, Jo disappears again. This type of plot twist was all too common in Marvel comics, but it works here if only because it's new to the Legion and runs counter to the usual neatly wrapped-up endings.

I agree with HWW. I never had a problem taking this story "straight". In fact the biggest hurdle to me was simply how unfuturistic the space pirates looked, however, badly rendered sci-fi is hardly anything new for a Legion book.

I really like the scene between Imra and Tinya and also wondered if this was the first time "Ice Queen" was used to describe her, but since this is a theme that Levitz would pick up and I think suits Imra well it is certainly a very strong piece of her characterization that Conway added. So we have Imra as the "Ice Queen" showing that, even though she was probably never the most open or sociable of the Legionnaires, she certainly does not love any less than they do. A great moment for Saturn Girl.

I also like how Jo stays strong in his values, even though he is lost and alone in the galaxy. He Who Wanders certainly said it more eloquently than I can, so I'll say "ditto" and add that I've always preferred Jo portrayed as the good kid who happens to be from the bad part of town rather than the bad kid who is good because of the influence of his friends.

The ending always works for me and I don't find it overly dramatic at all. Saturn Girl has allowed herself to hope, but she has now had that hope cruelly extinguished. Works for me.

Lord Romdru's Castle. Honestly, story wouldn't bother me too much except now I know how powerful Mordru should be portrayed and wish Conway had used some random mage instead of one of the Legion's most powerful foes. Also, Star Boy suspecting the knight and then being proven wrong is pretty standard as well and pretty cliched. However, I think the pacing and everything works pretty well for a one-shot, maybe just wished it had been less formalic, and if you pretned it's just a dark wizard and not Mordru it certainly improves the tale.

Re: # 276.

Yes, this issue does for Mordru what the Dark Man story did for the Fatal Five: it turns him into a wimp.

Otherwise, the story's biggest crime is that it is just average. Conway introduces us to a world we'll never see again, a king we'll never see again (though I couldn't help but think of the band Kings of Leon when I saw his name!), and a knight/prince who is so unmemorable that Conway doesn't even give him a name. So, the knight turns out to be the king's son. Who cares?

The story hinges on Star Boy's distrust of the knight and change of opinion at the end. But the knight never does anything to arouse Star Boy's suspicions. This makes Thom look like a brash jerk who's spoiling for a fight. Thom seems to have taken too many lessons from Wildfire.

There were a lot of missed opportunities in this story. As with the space pirate story, Conway simply transplants the Legion into an unfamiliar setting taken from any number of B-grade science fiction shows. You want to do a pirate story? Simply make them aliens. You want to do a story with castles and wizards? No prob--call it a pre-industrialized society. Such stories can work with a little bit of ingenuity or sociopolitical commentary. Unfortunately, Conway offers neither.

I like the idea of the Legionnaires exploring a new world, and Jeckie's royal heritage is used to good effect when she convinces the knights to cease fighting. Unfortunately, Conway does so little with either--or with anything else in this unremarkable tale--that the issue seems overpriced at 50 cents, even in 2010.

This is the last issue Conway wrote as both plotter and scripter. The next two issues, which he plotted, were scripted by Roy Thomas. One can almost envision Conway counting the minutes until he could clock out of his Legion factory for good.

RE: Karate Kid's comment about personal leave in #274.

I didn't take this to be a reference to his 20th century adventures. #274 had a cover date of April 1981. The last issue of his magazine was cover dated July-August 1978. He returned to the 30th century around September or October 1978, in issues #244.
Karate Kid appeared in, at least, #262 and #268 in the meantime. Why was he absent so frequently after returning to the 30th century? I think this was Conway acknowledging that he hadn't used Karate Kid very much.

#277 and #278

It hardly seems to fair to critique Conway in the context of these issues. It's difficult to tell exactly what he contributed. The idea of giant energy chains crushing the Earth certainly seems like a Conway concept. It seems fair to give him credit for the Reflecto as Ultra Boy twist, given the set up of Jo's disappearance and Reflecto's early fascination with Tinya. What about the Reflecto as Superboy interlude? My money is that credit for that twist goes to Thomas.

The dialogue immediately becomes more crisp when Thomas takes over. Garth and Imra stop calling each other "my darling", and Brin's brooding stops.

In the interest of being complete, I went back to check out Conway's fill in issues during Levitz's first run. I hope I caught them all.

S/LSH # 232: Can this be true? Is Gerry Conway responsible for giving the world the Klordny Festival? He just got bonus points from me. Put this man in the Legion Hall of Fame. This issue also gives us an early strong political disconnect between Imsk and the United Planets government. Shrinking Violet's response is interesting. Conway sowed the seeds for Levitz and Giffen to capitalize on in later years. Shrinking Violet became a stronger character for it.

S/LSH # 234: Bounty and the Composite Legionnaire are neither villains I enjoyed much. Space dragons? Not so much. More interesting Imskian politics. Dialogue and characterization are pretty smooth.

S/LSH #235: The conclusion of the Bounty story. Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Timber Wolf and Brainiac 5 on trial for murder. Hmmm. Interesting that this episode wasn't referenced when Brainiac 5 was put on trial again in #273. Nice resolution. Fairly solid story. Interesting note: George Tuska did the art on this story with Vince Coletta. When I heard the news of Mr. Tuska's death recently, I thought I remembered him doing a Legion story. I just couldn't place it. Glad to find it.

Bear in mind that comic book time isn't the same as real time. From Val's perspective, he could have returned to the 30th century only "a few weeks" ago.

Even though Conway had used Val before, I took the dialogue in 274 as just another awkward attempt to instill characterization.

[snip]

Thanks. I knew my memory couldn't have been that bad.

Romdur! heh

Jerry's concluding thoughts:

For years, I’ve regarded the Conway run as one of the low points for the Legion of Super-Heroes. I spent New Year’s weekend reading some old Justice League of America comics, and found that I enjoyed Conway’s stories more upon rereading than I remembered. I posted my thoughts on the Space Circus thread. Sketch Lad picked up the ball, and through the magic of Legion World, we now have a pretty comprehensive analysis of Conway’s Legion work. Nice work, everyone.

I have lots of concluding thoughts. Let’s start on a high minded note. A question that occasionally gets asked is, “Are comic books art?” My answer typically is something like “combining words and pictures has the same potential for being art as storytelling in any other medium.” However, business constraints, and the need to make a profit, have typically meant that comics published on a regular schedule haven’t met a standard that would make most of them art. Comic books have more in common with genre works of fiction, like romance novels or western novels, than great literature. The term “hack writing” is sometimes applied to those genres. That doesn’t mean that comic books are never art. That doesn’t mean that comic books can’t be sophisticated or well written. It doesn’t mean that comic books can’t tell amazing and stimulating stories. We have no need to be embarrassed by our love for comics and the entertainment they provide us. It does mean, that more often than not, comic book writing has more in common with genre fiction than great literature.

Our analysis brought home just how busy Gerry Conway was. He was contracted to produce an amazing amount of work for DC each month. He did it. He produced and, as far as we fans know, never complained.

When does a positive become a negative? When does a negative become a positive? Are we to consider Conway “a professional” or “a hack”? I don’t know the answer to those questions. I do know that writers are not machines. I do know that even the best writer is only going to be able to come up with so many good ideas in his or her career.

We know that Gerry Conway was capable of coming up with good ideas. His contributions to comics are many. A few that we mentioned are: the death of Gwen Stacy; the Punisher; Firestorm; Vixen, the Red Tornado’s daughter, Traya; Blok, and Marte Allon as President.

His work also includes many uninspired ideas and a heavy reliance on clichés. Space pirates, anyone? He made definite attempts to bring personality and characterization to his work. These attempts were sometimes over the top and melodramatic. Sometimes he succeeded. He always tried.

Art matters: Comic book storytelling is a team effort. For his Legion run, Conway was never matched with a Cockrum, Grell, or Giffen. Staton, Ditko and James each had a special talent. Some will say that talent just wasn’t a good match for the Legion. I would argue that the scripts that Conway turned in may have failed to inspire those men to their best work. Perhaps Conway was just matched with artists who were “professional” on the same level that he was. The editors put together teams that got the books to the printer on time. In recent years, there have been plenty of complaints from fans about books not shipping on schedule. Do we really want books to be on time no matter the impact on quality? It’s a debate we could have all day, and it does appear that editors are working to come up with creative solutions. The Conway run serves as an example of what can happen if editors take a mindset that puts schedule above all else. Ultimately, Mr. Conaway failed to establish that powerful chemistry with his artists that marks the best of the medium. Sometimes the spark just isn’t there.

Vision matters: Conway didn’t appear to have a clear vision for where he wanted to take the Legion. He had a vision for Spiderman, Firestorm, and the JLA. He obviously didn’t have the love for the Legion that most of us here do. His work came between the runs of Paul Levitz. Levitz obviously loves the Legion and has always had a vision for the team and each member. Conway’s work suffered by proximity and in comparison.

Conway is obviously a humanitarian. He made many attempts to instill his stories with social conscious. He used psychology to try to explain his character’s motivations. Sometimes it was bad psychology. He tried to educate his young readers, at times. Care for the environment and feminism were recurrent themes. Some of these attempts seem dated and awkward by today’s standards. So be it. He tried. As a kid who was raised on a steady diet of Conway stories, I think I’m a better person for it. Thank you, Mr. Conway.

Sketch Lad mentioned reading the Conway Legion run while in junior high. I was in high school. I think I ended up with a bad case of Conway fatigue. Last week, I spent $21.00 at my local comic book shop. I got six comics. Back in the late 70s and early 80s that $21.00 would have bought me 42 comic books. Believe me, some months I bought that many. Sometimes it feels like at least a quarter of them were written by Gerry Conway. I quit reading comics for a time starting in late 1981. That decision was mainly the result of my desire to be a cool kid my senior year instead of a comic book nerd. Honestly, though, it was a pretty easy break . I had become quite bored with comics. Our analysis illustrates a formula approach and lack of inspiration in some of Conway’s work. He was hardly the only offender. I hope that is one of the things that our analysis helps illustrate. Many of today’s fans are critical of the comics of the later 80s and early 90s. The changes of that era are sometimes presented as destructive. From my vantage point, those changes saved comics. We were sorely in need of the Millers, Moores, Morrisons, the Crisis, the Giffens, Vertigo, and the Byrne Superman. Yes, many of these changes made us uncomfortable. We needed to be made uncomfortable. Things had become too mediocre.

Those changes helped comic books grow up a bit. So here we are, adults still into comic books. Here we are subjecting the Conway stories, that were meant primarily for kids, to our harsh adult scrutiny. I’m sure that if Conway should stumble upon our critiques he would take them as the professional that he has always been. I hear strains of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” in my mind as I type this. I still feel that the Conway era was a low point for the Legion. That doesn’t mean that his stories don’t have value. I hope that Sketch Lad retains a sense of wonder for them. I found He Who Wanders’ letter of praise for Conway’s efforts on the An Ryd story while finishing up my reviews. There are early signs that he would turn out to be the exceptional writer that he is. I do have a greater respect for these stories than when we started. However, I still consider “Space Circus” to be the worst Legion story of all time. There’s a saying that a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. I’m not much of a fisherman. The closest I can come to that sentiment is that reading the worst Legion story of all time is still a lot fun for me.

Re: # 277-78.

Although Conway only plotted these issues, I feel it’s only fair to review them for the sake of completion. (I will, however, stop here instead of going back to discuss Conway’s fill-in issues during the 230s, as Jerry has done. My reasons for stopping have to do with time constraints, although, as Conway was not the regular Legion writer then, those stories also seem to belong to a separate category. Your mileage may vary.)

Roy Thomas scripted # 277-78 (and took over as sole writer for the conclusion of the Reflecto arc in 279), and his imprint is indelibly stamped on these issues. The dialogue, for example, is full of Thomas-isms such as flowery language (Reflecto to Bouncing Boy: “You pathetic mountain of corpulence!”) and irrelevant fannish commentary (Duo Damsel: “Me too, Phanty—and I’ve had a chance to look with up to six eyes”). Also, characters’ powers seem to do whatever the story requires. Mon-El can somehow sense that the matter in Grimbor’s chains was recently converted from “pure energy.” Saturn Girl can apparently sense the thoughts of everyone on earth and pinpoint Grimbor’s “super-powerful thought emanations” coming from the North Pole.

But, whatever Conway’s contributions to this story, it reads better than most of his efforts. The concept of the story has serious ramifications. Forget space circuses and space pirates; the survival of earth is at stake. The plot moves along swiftly, and more than a handful of Legionnaires are engaged. Conway and Thomas move us deftly between the actions of two teams of Legionnaires with brief asides of Jeckie and Val minding the HQ and Wildfire, et al, meeting with the president. All of the these scenes move the story forward and build tension.

There are flaws, to be sure, but they are mostly minor. I laughed out loud, for example, at the last panel on page 10 of # 278. As Tinya partially phases through a building to take a look inside, her butt sticks out of the building. The building’s supervisor, who had tried to stonewall the Legion, runs toward her, saying “I will soon grab--” Alas, we never find out what he intended to grab, as Reflecto intervenes on the next page.

Another gaffe is the unexplained presence of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel. They are treated like full Legionnaires, yet no mention has been made of them rejoining the team.

Perhaps the biggest flaw is the portrayal of Lightning Lad, who announces his resignation as leader after the current crisis. (The nature of this crisis isn’t specified, since Grimbor hadn’t tipped his hand yet.) While Garth has frequently expressed doubts about being leader, this announcement comes out of the blue. The events of his tenure have certainly been no worse than other trying times the Legion has faced, and he takes undue responsibility for one event (Brainiac 5 being framed for murder) that predated his leadership.

Conway and Thomas go to great lengths show how bad a leader Garth is. First Wildfire openly criticizes him for allowing Reflecto to escape. Then, Mon-El and Shady blunder into Grimbor’s chains and knock themselves out. Finally, Ayla lashes out at her brother in the middle of the crisis. But these are the rash actions of other people, not Garth. Perhaps Garth has failed to inspire his teammates to follow his example. Perhaps he holds the reigns too loosely, allowing people to do whatever they please. But except for Wildfire’s criticism, these actions come after Garth’s announcement. Knowing that your leader is giving up on you would demoralize any troops. By not setting up Garth’s decision properly, Conway and Thomas make him look even worse than a quitter; they make him seem callous and uncaring.

Although this story is well paced and full of expertly choreographed action, it makes me realize how ill-suited Conway and Thomas were for the Legion. Both bring a Marvel-style sensibility to the book. In doing so, they cause the Legion to lose some of its grandeur, its futuristic fantasy. Past writers had preserved that fantasy at the expense of believable character development. Conway and Thomas forced characterization upon the Legionnaires by making them bicker like the Fantastic Four. It would take Levitz, upon his return, to find the right balance between characterization and grandeur.

Excellent summation, Jerry. You raise a lot of valuable points, particularly in regard to the role of artists during Conway's run and the necessity for the changes in comics during the latter half of the '80s.

I think we've established before that you and I are about the same age. I graduated from high school about the same time that Conway's run ended. Unlike you, I continued reading comics for many years after. I didn't stop reading the Legion (for the first time) until 1990. So, my perspective comes from following their adventures for an unbroken period of over 17 years. (In a way, though, taking a break from comics has great value, as I later learned. It can give one a more detached perspective on what is truly significant about them.)

I agree with your conclusion that the Conway era was a low point for the Legion; I also agree that "the worst Legion story of all time" still has value.

For me, the principle value of these stories is that they "happened." They were not retconned away: Superboy really was a part of the Legion; Lightning Lad really did threaten to resign as leader; Brainiac 5 and Matter-Eater Lad really did go insane. I have no problem accepting these stories as part of the Legion's fictional history. As bad as some of them were (and some were very bad), they still fit into the larger whole of the pre-Crisis Legion. And, really, most of these stories were no worse than "Prisoner of the Super-Heroes," Jerry Siegel's horrid second Legion appearance.

The Legion in these stories is still recognizable--something I can't say about more recent versions of the team. Conway may not have had the liberty or the clout of a Johns or a Waid to do with the Legion as he wished; he played in the ballpark he was given. If he didn't improve the Legion, at least he left it no worse than it was when he arrived.

Conway does deserve credit for some things. First, the possibility of a Legion leader resigning had never been considered before. Though badly initiated (and Conway didn't see the plotline through to its fruition), it was quite a daring move for the time. Second, although the psychology behind Brainiac 5's cure from insanity is questionable, the story itself highlighted the Legion's love for each other.

Third, and perhaps most important, Conway played a significant role in launching the Legion's own title--an achievement in itself as DC had always believed that the Legion needed Superboy. The Legion was not cancelled during his run, which lasted some two and a half years--nearly 30 issues. He must have been doing something right.

Is it wrong to hold these stories up to adult scrutiny? Is there any point in doing so? I think there is. These stories played a significant part in our lives and in shaping who we are. I don't know that I'm necessarily a better person for having read Conway's run, but I do know that he played his part in perpetuating the values the Legion, values that I continued to be exposed to month after month for over 17 years. Those values transcended the mediocrity of his stories. From my perspective, it would be wrong not to reflect honestly on these stories and their impact on our lives.

Conway's stories, as you note, were not art. They were barely passable genre fiction. But, in an era in which DC launches multiple versions of the Legion to see which, if any, stick, it's good to revisit an era in which even mediocre stories really "happened."

I have a lot of catching up to do, which I will... soon.

Thank you for the excellent participation, guys. I'll be completing my reviews soon.

Jerry, thanks for a beautiful post.

Didn't Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel start drifting back into the action without explanation a few issues back? I don't have the issue in front of me, but if I'm remembering correctly Chuck and Lu showed up in the Stargrave framed Brainiac 5 story out of the blue. And then there was the Brave and Bold issue where the Legion teamed up with Batman and Lu was front and center there (I can't remember if Conway, Thomas or someone else penned that issue).

Also something I've always wondered - does anyone know why around this time the colorist started shading in parts of Shady's, Jeckie's and I think Vi's bodies as to be part of their costumes? Did the colorist force it upon himself to give the girls more modest costumes, or was this some kind of editorial edict? If so, why not just create new costumes for them instead of taking the lame route with the coloring?

The coloring of costumes for a more modest effect seems to have started about the time Jack C. Harris became editor. I don't recall it ever being discussed anywhere.

You're right: Chuck does put in a brief cameo in # 273, which Conway wrote. I had to look very carefully to spot him.

I don't have the Brave & Bold issue you mention.

However, their unexplained presence strikes me as another "Marvel-ism." In the Avengers--particularly during Roy Thomas's run--former members dropped in frequently with no official recogniton of them rejoining the team. This informal approach came to characterize teams such as the Avengers and Defenders.

However, the Legion always stood on ceremony when it came to members joining and leaving. Also, Chuck and Lu had worked hard to establish themselves as colonists on Wondil IX. Did they abandon that life to hang out with their old buddies?

Several issues later, Levitz dealt with this by having Chuck, in a moving scene, ruminate over the statues of the fallen Legionnaires and decide that he no longer wants to be part of this life. It's a wonderful scene, but it shouldn't have taken so long to address why he and Lu were there to begin with.

Lu was in the Brave and Bold issue. It was written by Marty Pasko and came out a couple of months after Conway left the Legion.