Legion of Super-Heroes 3: The Silver Age Omnibus

Quick delivery, on time, and good price. Couldn't be happier.

At first I was disappointed that the Curt Swan Legion era had ended (the second Omnibus has the most Curt Swan content ) but this collection has some really good stories that I read and enjoyed as a kid . The Fatal Five Returns , Colossal Boy betrays the Legion , etc . Some great Neal Adam's covers .If you are nostalgic for the last Legion stories of the Silver Age , this is a good purchase .

I am old enough to have read the Silver Age LSH stories back in the 60s, and I have held a special place in my heart for them. I love having them all in these omnibus editions.

Cumplió mis espectativas

Absolutely perfect.

Volume three sits at that awkward phase between the Silver and Bronze Age which each had fairly distinct tones. The Silver Age was delightfully campy while the Bronze Age took itself much more seriously and it feels like the Legion of the late 60’s and 70’s is trying to figure out what it wants to be. Jim Shooter was just 16 years of age in 1967 and when he took over writing duties for the Legion, he was just 14. I don’t even know how that was legal. His initial writing was very amateurish, although he created a bunch of enduring characters including Karate Kid, Ferro Lad, Princess Projectra and the Fatal Five.By this point, Shooters writing had improved significantly. I don’t know if Jim Shooter got some heavy editorial assistance, but his writing absolutely does not feel like it’s coming from a 16-year-old. There is some pretty good pacing and it’s not just slam bam action like you might expect from a teenager. He’s able to set up plots fairly well and keep everything flowing. Writing was not Shooter’s eventual job in comics as he would go on to become an editor so I don’t think I would call him a child prodigy. Shooter was more of a writer who peaked very young and eventually switched from writing to editing.As a huge fan of the Silver Age, I won’t deny that many of the stories were lame brained and continuity always took a backseat to fun. Shooter really showed he cared about continuity and tried his best to avoid plot holes. He brought an intelligence to the writing that belied his age. I like that Shooter was able to recognize something that occurred to me a long time ago, which is that Duo Damsel is amazing underpowered. This plot point comes up in several stories and I like that Shooter was recognizing stuff like this. He also delved more into what it means to have two selves.I didn’t have as high of expectations for this volume as I did the first two, but I’d say it delivered. I do like when new Legion members are added, and I think the only new ones were Shadow Lass and Chemical King. We get the first appearance by Mantis Morlo, whom I had never heard of, but far more important is the first appearance of Mordru. Shooter tries to include as many of the Legion heroes in his stories as possible, but he doesn’t overload any individual story with too many members. I don’t want to give the impression that Jim Shooter was putting out five star stories and most of them are fairly forgettable but he wasn’t a lazy writer and he did manage to entertain me.As time went on, Shooter seemed to become more comfortable with his writing. Shooters youth may have been his biggest asset as he clearly was putting in his best effort even if he didn’t have the polish of a veteran writer. Later in the book, the stories became shorter as the Legion switched to become a backup feature in Action Comics. Some of the stories were written by veterans E. Nelson Bridwell and Cary Bates until Jim Shooter just seemed to disappear. I didn’t notice any improvement in quality in the Bridwell and Bates stories so I guess Shooter could hold his own.The Legion has endured for over 60 years but the quality of their stories has been very uneven. The Silver Age Legion was magical, but I really didn’t enjoy the Legion of the mid to late 70’s. There was a resurgence in the early to mid 80’s but from then on out I lost interest. This is not the best period for the Legion but it’s far from the worst.

Absolutely gorgeous book, with high quality reprints on glossy pages. Third volume continues the high quality.

Great collection!

The second DC comic I bought was Adventure 307, the introduction of Element Lad.When Supergirl left Action Comics and became the main feature in Adventure Comics and the Legion left Adventure Comics and became the second feature in Action Comics, I no longer bought Action Comics from the spinner rack. I only bought them second-hand. In those days, old comics were cheaper than new ones.I thought it was simply that the stories in Action Comics were shorter but it was also Jim Shooter. He had some good ideas but he was too young. Many of his stories are like the stories that every English teacher gets every year.Near the end of this volume, you will see Saturn Girl in her pole dancing outfit and they promise us that more redesigned costumes are coming. I shudder when I see the costume Cosmic Boy wore when he joined the Village People.