Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Earthwar Saga- a significant turning point for the legion?

I think so. At this point you had Sherman doing some amazing art (shame it was cut so short), and you had, i believe, the first real multi-issue storyline (as opposed to a two parter if i remember correctly) that carried over with consequences for more than just an issue or two.

Some folks may make an arguement for the death of Lightning Lad and the quest to restore him, but to me this is the first significant point.

Thoughts?

So tell me when did Earth War start? Through what issues did it run through?

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241 through #245. Cover dates July trhough November 1978.

I completely agree with rickshaw about Sherman's artwork. Very nice! I think this is one of the best story arcs in Legion history.

I thought the story was kind of schizophrenic, with the Khunds and Dominators and then Mordru. However, I suppose I'm overdue to re-read it.

Sherman's artwork was *unparalled* IMO, which made Joe Staton's work, along with his stable of terrible inkers, even worse. That took a LOT of the steam out if it for me. One redeeming detail is the excellent Galactic Coordinator appearance, though.

I absolutely loved the Earthwar saga. I was new to the Legion, and didn't know anything about it's history at all when I read these as part of the whitman 3 packs. I didn't know a Legionniare from a Substitute from a Reversist (I used to misread Reservist as Reversists...). I didn't know Karate Kid had been in the 20th Century or who most of the team was that was showing up in all those giant test tubes the Dominators had them in, but I couldn't get enough of it all!!! And Sherman's artwork was brilliant!!!!

Oh, definitely a turning point. I came to the Legion a few years later, and they would refer to Earthwar all the time and I didn't know what it was. Then I finally found the back issues, and... wow! They really ought to release all five issues together in TPB form.

Those last 3 issues deserve to be re-inked if a trade is ever issued.

Sherman's artwork was indeed magnificent but the rush-job on the last 3 issues really did EARTHWAR in for me.

Like Dean, however, I'm overdue for a re-read.

Issue 242 was the high point of Sherman's career. I remember reading that he decided to leave the series because he felt underappreciated, but on his last issue, he did the best artwork he was capable of, in order to show his employers what they would be missing.

I just read it! I've heard so many good things about it I decided to check it out finally.

Ok, I have to say this is probably an arc that was explosive/dynamic if you were a monthly reader back when it came out. I don't know what came before (trust me I will check that out as well) but this was pretty exciting even now.

I agree Sherman was a good artist. His big faces and close-ups rocked. I'm somewhat of a Staton fan as well and to tell the truth I didn't see much of a change. I credit Staton for using a similiar style? What's that inking called when the shadows are b&w dots? I miss that in comics.

I never really read any pre-Giffen comics. A handful at the most. Now I know what you guys mean about Levitz's first run. (is this considered part of his first?)

I admit I had to read it twice to really get everything. Maybe I read it quick the first time. Levitz did a good job recapping everything though each issue.

Things I liked? The interaction between characters. I always loved how the members bickered. It reminds you of a workplace doesn't it? It starts off with Mon-El complaining about Wildfire. The Element Lad/Sun Boy team. These two characters got lots of action time. Nice to see both of them cut loose. I liked Element Lad saving the day at the end. Why? Because I thought of that myself and his comment earlier about losing his world.

I love WEBER'S world. Maybe I'm a sucker for artifical small worlds like LW. I liked the politics. I liked the Dark Circle. (i've always loved them). I loved the mystery!!! I loved seeing the members being POWERFUL! No real cop outs.

What I didn't like? Mordu. I know it added to the mystery and it was a big reveal? But maybe if subplot had given us more clues. Like a magic bird showing up at Legion HQ instead of Officer Erin. Was this Erin's first appearance?

Basically this story had great action, mystery, character interaction and emotion. I rank it pretty high.

Interesting this arc being remembered at this transition time. Just a comparison between this month's first page and that opening full page of Earthwar speaks volumes. If I were a new reader then, that opening page would make me want to stay for the series; no way this current issue's first page would have a similar affect. Quite the opposite, actually.
"The hope of the future can be found in the past."

Jorg, yes this is the first appearance of Shvaughn, and the first time we really got to see Weber's World and the ambassadors. That added so much to the story IMO.

I love this story, its one of my favorites. I'd say the best non-Adventure story up until GDS. Tons of action, tons of dynamics b/t various Legionnnaires and just about every Legionnaire has a moment.

I like the Mordru reveal. IIRC, this is only the second time Mordru battles the Legion in the comics (re: not counting the 'untold tale' and not counting his flashback battle with Superboy in the Action backups). That makes it a pretty major reveal!

Mordru, the Khunds, the Dominators, the Dark Circle--so many great Legion enemies that captured so much of the Legion's past. This was the GDS before the GDS.

It had everything: Action! Adventure! Suspense! Internal tension in the Legion! Romance! Returns of old Legionnaires! Returns of great villain! Political cosmic drama! New characters and settings! Not many comics in 2007 can brag about the same.

I didn't know this was only the second time they fight Mordu. That makes a difference and a big deal.

There's also the pretty forgettable fake Cosmic Boy story in Superboy, but, yeah, this is pretty much Mordru's second major appearance.

I'll agree that "Earthwar" was a major turning point for the Legion, rick, but the first turning point? Probably not. My vote for that would go to the Bates/Cockrum era of new costumes, new members, and retiring old members in the early '70s.

In my opinion, the lasting legacy of "Earthwar" is that it proved that a Marvel-style multiple-issue story could work for the Legion. (Why no one had attempted to do this before remains a mystery to me.) It showed that writers such as Levitz could be amibitious in telling "large" Legion stories, instead of stories that utilized only a few characters and villains acting in petty ways.

Another legacy of "Earthwar," which I also mentioned in my "Great Darkness -- Revisited" thread, is that Levitz tried to show meaningful consequences of the war. Earth was plunged into a depression, and Brande was bankrupt (after the president stole his funds to feed the poor). The Legion had to fend for itself in rebuilding its headquarters (destroyed by Omega in # 251), and they also assisted Brande in rebuilding his fortune (which was understandable in a familial sort of way -- Brande was the Legion's "father" -- but it also showed the Legionnaires acting as mercernaries or as a commercial enterprise. I don't recall anyone questioning this portrayal at the time, but perhaps someone should have. It would have made the consequences of the Earthwar even more significant by showing how people's loyalties can be divided in times of crisis.)

I should go back and re-read those issues, too, before making further judgments. But, for right now, I believe "Earthwar" was a valuable stepping stone on the way to "GDS" and the more mature and meaningful stories that followed in the Levitz/Giffen and Giffen/Bierbaums eras.

I had forgotten about that one

I love Earthwar and enjoy it more than the GDS. It was probably Element Lad's finest hour and the return of the married founders at the end made the Legion (almost) whole again. But I wouldn't necessarily call it a major "turning point" except in one sense -- it boosted the popularity of the already popular 70s Legion high enough they got to headline the series about a year later.

Levitz's first run was less cynical and beholden to faux "realism" than his second run. He brilliantly reinforced the developed mythos of the Legion in the 70s, whereas later he began dismantling it. Earthwar need to be collected in trade as one of the best examples of the LSH in its prime.

Funny, I never saw Levitz's second run as "cynical." Rather, I saw it as life affirming and holding true to the Legion's overall identity while allowing individual characters to grow and change. To me, this is a celebration of the Legion's mythos, not a dismantling of it.

heh, nice defense of Levitz's 2nd run! To his credit I think all comics got the faux realism thing going in the 80's.

I'm not even sure what "faux realism" means. There was certainly an attempt to make super-heroes more believable by having them experience problems that ordinary humans undergo -- but this idea had been started by Marvel in the early '60s. DC was slow to catch up, but not by much. Certainly by the '80s, virtually every Marvel and DC hero was portrayed as a well-rounded character who underwent believable changes (as well as not-so-believable ones). So, I'm not sure what aspects of Levitz's Legion were "faux realism."

Thinking about Earthwar, in many ways it was the apotheosis of Shooter's Legion.

Shooter's first story introduced the Khunds. He also created the Dark Circle, Universo and Mordru, accounting for most of the Legion's serious bad guys up until the Great Darkness.

Shooter also moved to make the Legionnaires more 3-dimensional and distinctive, played up the relationships between members, told 2-part stories, etc. Bates, Cockrum, Grell and Shooter again took things to the next level in the early 1970s with very cool costumes and more grown up situations. All of this "Marvelized" the Legion, and the characterizations of Wildfire and Dawnstar were the icing on the cake. Earthwar crystalized those characterizations.

So, Levitz took all these elements and wove them into multi-layered, multi-part tale and introduced some of his own elements, notably Weber's World (who was it named after, anyway?). This was probably as good as the Dark Circle and Mordru ever got. (The Khunds were given a lot of nice development by Levitz in the 1980s.) All three levels of bad guy had tried to conquer Earth in the past, and failed, so how cool that they all end up working together (sort of), and come within a hair's breadth of succeeding. That's what I most remember from Earthwar--I think it was the most suspenseful story in Legion history. Right up to the end, I thought the Legion was toast.

Oh I just remembered. I didn't like Khundia. There were people wearing head phones and skate boarding I think. It looked very earth-like.

And I don't where the name Weber's World comes from. It had to be in one of those Encyclopedia Galactica entries.

I've always thought of the Khunds as DC's version of the Klingons. Same warrior race idea, same convenient bad guy usage, same initial letter.

In addition to Weber's World, "Earthwar" also re-introduced us to the perpetual diplomat, Ambassador Relnic. Every time I see his name, I think its spelled backwards, or perhaps it's an anagram. Does anybody know its origin?

Never thought of it like that, but I agree completely. Earthwar then stands as a culmination of 'phase #1' almost, or at lest a part of the culmination, the next I'd wager being Superboy's exit from the title.

I love Earthwar. I think I need to reread it, as its one of the few stories that I've only read one time. Pov was with me when I bought the whole thing for like five bucks!

Shooter's Khunds actually predate the Klingons, but not by much. But clearly 70s LSH was strongly influenced by Trek - they even had transporter beams briefly (during Earthwar, I think?)

Sherman's art was great, but IIRC, he left becuase he didn't like mixing Mordru into the story.

The story was kind of all over the place, and while it had its neat elements, the strongest part to me was the potwar implications - that was the real "turning point" for me: the aftermath, the political and economic fallout, and the need to rebuild.