Customer Reviews:
 End of an Era May 15, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In volume 9 of DC's 12 volume run charting the Silver Age adventures of the Legion of Superheroes, the end of an era is documented. Not only had Curt Swan, the Legion's greatest artist, left the title, this was the point, around 1970, when their unbroken run in `Adventure' comics was curtailed in favour of Supergirl and they were unceremoniously dumped into the back-up slot in `Action' comics. A crime us Legion fans never forgave and which eventually resulted in their resurrection in `Superboy' a few years later.
For a team of 26 or so heroes, the back half of a comic book was not really enough space to stretch out and give us the epic battles of yore, so writer Jim Shooter offered us a series of short stories, featuring a cast of 3 or 4 rather than the whole crowd. This allowed him to concentrate on developing the personality of each member, something that DC had failed to do, but which Marvel were already adept.
At the time, I hated the fact that my favourite bunch of characters had been treated so shabbily, but in retrospect, these are interesting stories, different from the usual hero defeats villain type and which show a development in comic book story telling that would continue into the 1970s.
For this reason, this volume is different from the remainder of the Archives series, but is no less fascinating. The story telling is compulsive and the characterisation gives real insight to a set of erstwhile cardboard creations. If you're a Legion fan, you can't really afford to miss this one.
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