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dantastic's review against another edition
2.0
Legion of Super Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 collects the earliest appearances of the Legion of Super Heroes.
I loved the Levitz-Giffen run of the Legion of Super-Heroes as a kid so I jumped on this when I saw it for half cover price. I did not love this.
I read some of the stories when they were reprinted in Adventure Comics digest when I was a kid so this was mostly a nostalgia buy. While I love the DC house style of the 1960s, here displayed by Curt Swan, George Papp, and John Forte, most of the stories were crap.
Story after story featured Legionnaires lying to each other to drive the stories rather than conflict with super villains. I realize these were Silver Age stories written for a younger audience than today's comics but it's no wonder Marvel eclipsed DC around this time. They felt more like teen humor stories without the humor than actual super hero stories.
Still, the art is slick and the book is interesting in a historical sort of way. Most of the Legion is introduced here, including elements like the Time Trapper and the Sun Eater, which will play much bigger parts down the road. Some stories were funny, albeit unintentionally. My nostalgia circuits were activated quite a few times and the debut story of the Legion of Substitute Heroes gets my nod for one of the top DC stories of the Silver Age.
Legion of Super Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 was just good enough not to land in the pile destined for Half Price Books. 2 out of 5 stars.
I loved the Levitz-Giffen run of the Legion of Super-Heroes as a kid so I jumped on this when I saw it for half cover price. I did not love this.
I read some of the stories when they were reprinted in Adventure Comics digest when I was a kid so this was mostly a nostalgia buy. While I love the DC house style of the 1960s, here displayed by Curt Swan, George Papp, and John Forte, most of the stories were crap.
Story after story featured Legionnaires lying to each other to drive the stories rather than conflict with super villains. I realize these were Silver Age stories written for a younger audience than today's comics but it's no wonder Marvel eclipsed DC around this time. They felt more like teen humor stories without the humor than actual super hero stories.
Still, the art is slick and the book is interesting in a historical sort of way. Most of the Legion is introduced here, including elements like the Time Trapper and the Sun Eater, which will play much bigger parts down the road. Some stories were funny, albeit unintentionally. My nostalgia circuits were activated quite a few times and the debut story of the Legion of Substitute Heroes gets my nod for one of the top DC stories of the Silver Age.
Legion of Super Heroes: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 was just good enough not to land in the pile destined for Half Price Books. 2 out of 5 stars.
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