It's hard to believe that my run on the 5YL era is over and I can only hope that I did it justice in my reviews. For me, it once again solidified the early issues of the run as one of the most ambitious and excellent runs I have read in my comic history.
While the Five Years Later run was something of a reboot, resetting the future as a darker place, it leaned heavily on Legion Lore. I have heard some people say that 5YL is and advanced Legion course, something Legion scholars would take in their senior year of the Academy.
Still, I am sure DC wanted this to be the 'new reality'. This was an effort to bring in new fans and new readers. As such, it made sense that they would try to introduce the new team and dynamic to a broader market. For example, the Legion has a good showing in the 'loose leaf' Who's Who series, a good way to define the team and expose them to many readers.
Above is the team page, showing the team as it was constituted in the early issues.
While not as fantastic as the fold out poster fans were given in issue #13, it is a nice, classically Giffen team photo.
The information on the back really focuses on the 5YL history to that point. 40 years of Legion history is truncated to three paragraphs. Then we have 4 paragraphs about the Five Year later landscape and a brief rundown of the team.
I like the inclusion of the three Legion headquarters as well.
But this wasn't the only Legion group showcased in this collection of Who's Who.
It's an interesting point in Giffen's art style. You can see the traces of the Maguire influence he picked up reflected in the similarity to the famed JL cover, but it's still all very KG.
ReplyDeleteIt also points out one of what I think turned into a weakness for the book; those grey uniforms were meant to pull the team look together and highlight their other differences. But it never quite worked as some of them are definitely getting lost in it.
Interesting seeing Bounty stuffed into a corner there as it's pretty much what happened to the character.
I still laminated a copy for my wall :)
This period of the Legion was a landmark for DC Comics, moving beloved characters forward in a shocking scenario while remaining true to the spirit of the Legion. You can see its influence today in books like Omega Men. Thanks for the wonderful series of posts!
ReplyDeleteI can see the Battle Angel Alita manga octopus-lips influence on the female characters becoming more and more predominant.
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