Product Description

Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl -- these are the braveyoung adventurers that dared to bring about a new age of heroes! Set in thefar-flung future of the 30th century, and representing planets throughoutthe cosmos, these young heroes must band together to protect the galaxyfrom space-born threats as great as the universe itself. This beautifulcollection brings together the early issues of SUPERBOY, SUPERMAN,ADVENTURE and ACTION COMICS for a definitive Legion compendium.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #564302 in Books
• Published on: 1991
• Released on: 1997-11-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 255 pages

Customer Reviews

Legion of Super Heroes
Excellent. The characterisation is fabulous and the sub plot of the substitutes is well recognised, My only concern is the price, but that's not Amazons fault. Wonderful part of COMIX forgotten hisory.

Make's me feel 12 again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greg from Oz.

Interesting Start for the Legion
Volume 1 of the Legion of Super-Heroes is an interesting look at their earliest appearances. The team grows in fits and starts as seen through other series (Superboy, Supergirl, and Superman) as a strange assortment of teens from the future appear in Smallville and Midvale for a wide variety of odd reasons. It is hard to keep track of the growing membership as many appear only in the background and main plot points often revolve around a new member appearing for the sake of the story, such as the rather odd Star Boy and the more interesting Ultra Boy storylines. Only near the end of the volume does the Legion itself get its own storylines and the early issues begin with a bang as the Legion suffers its first death, Lightning Lad. The promise of greatness is apparent in a few of the stories, if not quite delivered, but this volume is still essential for any Legion fan.

The births of heroes presented in a great format
The DC Comics Archive Editions may come with a high price point, but it would be hard for any fan to argue he wasn't getting his money's worth. Where else could you get the entire history of the Legion of Super-Heroes (in order of publication, no less?) -- up to ELEVEN volumes now!

This first volume, of course, contains the first several appearances of the Legion and of Legion-related characters, back when they were mainly supporting members of the Superboy -- and later Supergirl -- cast. The Legion plays a very peripheral role in several of the stories -- the one where Supergirl is trying to find Superman a wife, for instance -- and in some the Legion doesn't appear at all (such as the Mon-El and Ultra Boy origin stories where the Legion is merely alluded to). Eventually the book makes it to the era where the Legion got their own serial -- "Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes," and although members of the Super-family still appear in most of these, the Legion is finally being allowed to come into its own.

The characters introduced in this volume range from the inspiring (Brainiac 5, trying to atone for his ancestor's sins, the poor, exiled Mon-El, etc.) to the deliciously silly (I confess, I'm a big fan of Matter-Eater Lad and Bouncing Boy. I'm probably the ONLY fan of Matter-Eater Lad and Bouncing Boy) and this book also contains something that was pretty rare at the time -- the death of a superhero. You just didn't see that sort of thing in DC Comics in 1958.

I can't wait to pick up volume two. Oh -- and kudos to DC for keeping the cover design of their Archives uniform for so long. Unlike Marvel's similar "Masterworks" series, I can start my LSH Archives collection right now and I know that all eleven volumes will look like a set on my shelf once I've got them. It's a small thing, I know, but it's something I appreciate.