 |
 |
The
Dark is Rising:
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Great Darkness Saga
A DC Comics trade paperback review
By Troy Brownfield
Writer:
Paul Levitz
Pencils: Keith Giffen (intro: Pat Broderick)
Inks: Larry Mahlstedt
More
Info: www.dccomics.com
|
Of
one thing, there is no doubt: I love the Legion of Super-Heroes.
I've been a fan for YEARS. While I have lapses in my collection
that I have slowly but surely been filling out, I can quite
readily affirm that I've been a fan for a long, long time.
Webmaster Shawn and I spent much time as kids reading those
DC Blue Ribbon Digest reprints. The main selling points for
me were the sheer size of the team and their diverse alien
backgrounds. It was implicit in the tales that no matter how
bad things got, there was always a brighter future to look
toward. Then came the Darkness . . .
It's
hard to convey in retrospect how suffused with tension these
issues were they originally appeared in issues #287, 290-294,
and Annual #3, in 1982-1984. Recently released in trade form,
likely due to the burgeoning popularity of the new series,
this was a Legion epic that lived up to the name with scope
and menace. From the teaser in #287, which indicates that
things are not quite right on that barren, familiar world,
to the coda of Annual #3, shock really did follow shock as
the Legion struggled against the one menace that could have
conceivably destroyed the universe. Who's strong enough to
do that? Darkseid is.
I
suppose at this point it's also hard to articulate the tension
and surprise of that particular revelation, especially since
the big guy is on the cover of the trade. Still, at the time,
the impact was huge: the ultimate 20th century villain has
returned to cover the galaxy in Darkness, and his plan will
bring an army of 3 billion super-powered servants to his side.
That's hardcore stuff for 1982, man! Levitz's writing is at
full power, all doomy prophesizing and abject fear, while
Giffen's fluid designs and style were on the comic cutting
edge at the time. (I read a statistic in the back of an old
DC Blue Ribbon Digest that reprinted Legion stories that showed
that the readership had grown by about 50,000 during
this era; imagine that today!)
One
of the great things that Levitz, Giffen and the other manage
to convey here is the Legion's tenacity. From the very beginning
of the arc, they're continually getting their asses kicked
by the machines and Servants of Darkness. And yet, and no
point do they ever give in. They wonder, they ponder, and
they worry, but they never stop. In fact, it can be argued
that they don't technically ever win at all. The point, I
would say, is in the striving. What is the light in the face
of darkness? The light of heroism, obviously, but more likely
the light of effort. As a wiser muppet than one once put,
not trying equates quite readily to failure. The heroism displayed
by the Legion and their allies in the face of ridiculously
overwhelming odds is actually downright inspiring.
The
Legion would go on to even darker days (Giffen's criminally
overlooked '89 relaunch, the whole Zero Hour ending, etc.),
but this story, this actual maturation of what the Legion
was about, remains perhaps their definitive tale. It may be
all about the Darkness, but it's surely the characters' brightest
hour. You don't have to have 20+ years of Legion fandom in
your life to know one thing: this one's a classic.
Troy
Brownfield is the Editor-in-Chief of ShotgunReviews.com. He
loves the fact that DC Direct has made Legion figures. Email
him at psikotyk@aol.com
|
