Even by comic book standards of the late 1950s, there was nothing especially unusual about superhero teams. With precedents dating back to the dawn of the Golden Age of comics, popular heroes had been gathering together in umbrella titles to fight crime, injustice and threats to humanity. But the Legion of Super-Heroes was different. They were created for an appearance in a Superboy story in Adventure Comics as a team. What was slated to be a one-time appearance in the first of two stories in that issue exploded into comics history, with reader response so overwhelmingly favorable that the teenages super-team was brought back for repeated appearance in Adventure, Action Comics, Superman, and Superboy until, little more than four years following their debut, the young heroes of the 30th century received their own continuing series. Now, almost 35 years after their creation, the Legion of Super-Heroes is more popular than ever, with its own series spinning off into a variety of companion titles. This second volume of The Legion of Super-Heroes reprints a baker's dozen of the group's adventures, thirteen tales which introduce long-lasting characters and elements to the Legion mythos, including members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes and the resurrection of Lightning Lad.
Log in to comment