As I mentioned a few months back, when Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes swapped books, it cut the LSH out of my Silver Age reread. Following Action Comics #376, the Legion became the new backup feature while Supergirl took top slot in Adventure Comics. The DC app drops Action at this point. My own collection has precious little as 1969 was when I wound up taking a break from comics. And I hadn’t found the two Legion Archives covering this era on sale cheap enough.
When my brother visited me in Durham last year, he mentioned DC had a new reprint line out, DC Finest. It doesn’t really have a unifying theme that I can see but at least some of the books are “let’s reprint obscure stuff in color!” A Metamorpho collection for instance. And also my Legion of Superheroes gap years, in the form of a collection called Zap Goes the Legion (I can’t post the cover due to our ongoing tech problems).
The collection starts slightly before the switch to Action Comics, with Adventure Comics #374 (which I talk about here). Normally the overlap with stuff that I have would be a drawback but not this time. I’ve never read Adventure #378 (the only one of those final Adventures issues I don’t have in my collection) and for some reason it’s not on the DC app. As it’s part one of two, I’ve always wanted to read it and now I have. It’s even good.
In “Twelve Hours to Live” (Jim Shooter, J. Winslow Mortimer), a handful of off-duty Legionnaires are celebrating Brainiac Five’s birthday with him. Superboy checks the party refreshments for any sort of poison, but he doesn’t check the drinking cups. They’ve been coated with a deadly poison mixed with green kryptonite. Now the Legionnaires have only — well, it’s right there in the title.
Shooter does a good job making this a moment for characterization. Brainy drives himself nuts struggling to find an antidote and kicking himself when it’s obvious even his genius can’t make it happen. Superboy goes home to Smallville but can’t bring himself to tell anyone. Duo Damsel wonders what the point was — what the hell did she think the power to split in two brought to the table? That feels like it’s setting up for something but it doesn’t happen in this issue or any of the stories that follow.
Karate Kid provides the action, deciding he’ll go out fighting. He hunts down the Fatal Five and makes a suicidal attack on their asteroid base. Much to his frustration, instead of dying in action he escapes when Validus, trying to kill the Kid, blows a hole in the base wall, forcing everyone to flee. The Legionnaires return home to their HQ to die. And they do. Why yes, there is a loophole in the scenario and the following issue ends with them restored to life.
Shooter does well adjusting to the backup story format, making most of the tales (at least through the end of 1969) short character studies. A crook gets Timber Wolf hooked on “The Forbidden Fruit,” (Shooter/Mortimer) the nectar of which is super-addictive. Yep, it’s a drug story back before the Comics Code allowed that — though as it’s a not-real future drug, presumably nobody objected. In any case, the story plays Timber Wolf up as a brooding outcast who doesn’t allow anyone but Light Lass to get close to him.
“Half a Legionnaire” in #380 (Shooter/Mortimer again) has Duo Damsel’s two halves separated for weeks while one of them has to serve as a space courier. Much to Luornu A’s shock, when her double returns home she’s … changed. No longer are they the same woman in two different bodies. It’s resolved a little too easily but it touches on the psychology of splitting years before Peter David had Jamie Madrox doing it.
“The Hapless Hero” in #381 (same team) reveals Matter-Eater Lad’s parents are hard-up for cash and depend on his LSH stipend to stay afloat. It’s startling as most Legionnaires appear to be middle-class and comfortable, although again it’s wrapped up too fast. And I’d love to know why Bismollians, who can eat anything, would be hard-pressed to put food on the table. Is it a cultural thing? Or is it that Earth bans Bismollians from using their powers for fear they’ll eat houses, sidewalks, beds.
Overall, the Legion’s handling the transition quite well.
Covers by Curt Swan. All rights to images remain with current holders.
DC Finest is DC’s answer to Marvel’s Epic line– big thick paperbacks of older material. For DC I think it’s a chance to put some stuff in print that maybe wouldn’t get a lot of sales in a deluxe omnibus format.
I do like that they’re including more obscure stuff. So far I’ve ordered Aquaman, Doom Patrol, Metamorpho, and Plastic Man. I’m tempted by more, but I only have so much shelf space (by which I mean I have like no shelf space). I do wish they put these out digitally, like Marvel does.
Weirdly the Legion is a huge blind spot in my comics reading. Though when I was a kid I was always hoping DC or Marvel would hire me like they did 13-year-old Jim Shooter.
I’m really torn on the Metamorpho book. I have so much of the original run, plus reprints, that it’s self indulgent to shell out the cash. Then again, I’d really like to have the whole thing. I suspect it’ll come down to how much I have to spare when it goes live.
The first of the new Metamorpho series went live on the DC app. As I’d heard, it’s a lot of fun.
I really wish DC would get their act together when it comes to digital releases.
They are literally sitting on a gold mine of unreleased material, it’s almost like they don’t want to make money
Even though they currently have more on the app than I can get to, I agree. Some of the gaps are so odd and abrupt I wonder if there’s some arcane technical reason beyond my ken, or if they just have their heads up their butts.
Well rumour has it that they canned most of the digital dept staff during a merger/takeover.
No idea if it’s true, internet rumours are like 10 a penny.
A few years ago they were releasing those Golden Age Batman books digitally and then even those were phased out.
I wonder if it’s equivalent to those TV programs streaming services make, then never air to manipulate their tax bills.