After a long, six-year hiatus, DC Comics relaunched its venerable Legion of Super-Heroes franchise in 2019 with a flurry of prelude tie-ins, followed by its inaugural monthly book in November. The creative team of Brian Michael Bendis (writer) and Ryan Sook (pencils) did a very good job, however, the much-anticipated reboot didn’t draw enough readers and lasted only twelve issues.
What’s a Legion fan to do? Well, back in 2010-2013, DC had resuscitated the Legion and was indulging Legion fans with multiple titles. I collected all of the 80 books that were published in that time span with the intention of reading them “someday.” Given the reality that the Legion is not a part of DC’s current or future plans, that day has come. My plan is to read and review an LSH book from the 2010-2013 period each month. At that rate I’ll get through all 80 books in 6.5 years.
As I mentioned, multiple LSH titles were published concurrently in that 2010-2013 span. I initially thought about reviewing them chronologically according to their publication date, but concluded that bouncing back and forth between titles would be disconcerting for myself and the reader. Instead, I’ll complete each title before moving to the next one. Here’s the four series we’ll be looking at:
The Legion of Super-Heroes (July 2010-October 2013) – After an absence of two years, DC reintroduced the Legion with their own monthly book in July 2010 with Paul Levitz as scripter and Yildiray Cinar as penciller. After 16 issues, the numbering reverted back to #1 (November 2011) as a part of DC’s “The New 52” relaunch and would continue to #23 (October 2013). Total issues: 42.
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in Adventure Comics (August 2010-October 2011). Paul Levitz (writer) and Kevin Sharpe (penciller). This series was more of an upbeat, Silver Age Era-inspired alternative to the “sad astronaut” pessimism of the main Levitz-Sinar series. The mission of the complementary Adventure series was to “(fill) in some gaps in the (Legion’s) backstory” in order to “help new readers understand the history and relationships.” Total issues: 15
Legion Lost (November 2011-March 2013). With the demise of the Adventure Comics series in October 2011, Fabien Nicieza (writer) and Pete Woods (penciller) followed a contingent of Legionnaires stranded on 21st-century Earth. Total issues: 17
Legion: Secret Origin (December 2011-May 2012). Paul Levitz (writer) and Chris Batista (penciller) presented this six-part series which explored the “real beginnings of the Legion.” Total issues: 6
We’ll kick off this LSH 80-issue project with a review of the Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (July 2010) next Friday.
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