Learn Me The Legion, Episode 1 – Origin Stories & Adventure Comics #247
Learn Me The Legion, Episode One
Welcome friends, to a whole new series – and part of the “New Fall Season” here at the channel.
Longtime Legion-denier, Chris (@acecomics) looks to right the wrong of keeping DC’s future-teen-heroes as a deliberate blind-spot in his comics knowledge… and to do so, he’s found himself a friend to help him navigate this twisting and storied franchise. Lifelong Legion fan, Al Sedano (@AdamThanosPod) has graciously agreed to educate and guide me to… maybe eventual Legion-relevance… or, at least maybe being able to identify a dozen or so of these characters on sight!
For this first episode, we share our own Legion origins… or lack thereof, Al provides a brief overview of the franchise, and we start our coverage… well, at the start – with a look at Adventure Comics #247 from 1958!
As this series progresses, we will be alternating between covering Legion stories, and focusing on prominent Legion characters, to try and get me up to speed. If you’re in need of some “Legion Learnin'”, this might be the show for you! If you’re already a certified “Doctor of Legionomics”… well, you still might enjoy hearing how ignorant I am about the property you hold so dear! Or, you can at least stick around long enough to hear how I ruined a really good song to make our theme music (apologies to Jarvis…)!
Feedback is encouraged! We invite you to write in and join us on this little audio journey!
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
chrisandreggie.podbean.com
I thoroughly enjoyed this first episode of the New series.
Since I know that you are a big fan of the New Teen Titans, I think that by the end of this series you will be just as big a fan of the LSH as you are of the Titans. My Titans and Legion fandom blossomed at the same time, and since I am a big fan of both teams I am sure you will be too. They both have that "family feeling" to them. The Legion is just a much bigger family.
My suggestion for a good jumping on point for the LSH is issue 1 of the Baxter series. It's back a ,or of years but gives you a good feel for who the classic Legion were, and a good foundation to understand all the revisions and reboots that come later.
LONG LIVE THE LEGION!
A great idea for fans of LSH or those just curious about it's history.
I'd like to propose that instead of all this nonsense they went through, all these gyrations because of no Superboy, they couldn't have done this. Just say that Superman was in the Legion when he just became Superman (i.e. was young). Just because he was called Superman; so what? Keep the Mon-el character. He just met Superman instead of Superboy. In others words just keep the whole damn Legion mythos.
I finally got around to listening to this podcast and it's another winner. I am with Al in being a huge fan of the 5YL Legion. It remains my favourite version of the team all these years later.
I found my way to the Legion through quite a circuitous route. I first saw them in the amazing double-paged spread in History of the DC Universe number 2. I immediately loved them even though I had no idea of who they were. Next I read a UK reprint of the two-part Pocket Universe story by John Byrne. They only reprinted the Superman and Action stories so it was a limited exposure to the team but it was enough to make me want to read more. I didn't manage to get ahold of the book regularly until issue 10 of the 5YL run but I soon managed to fill out that run and start getting issues of the Baxter run. I left the Legion when Giffen left and didn't come back until the threeboot which I loved. At this point I have been so soured on the Legion's reboots that I am reluctant to even try the new run. I don't think my love of these characters can stand another disappointment. Having said that I still have all my back issues and spent a pleasant few hours yesterday reading some of the second Levitz/Giffen run.