25 January 2023

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Tabloid Edition by Paul Levitz, Mike Grell, Vince Colletta, et al.

Legion of Super-Heroes: The Millennium Massacre

Collection published: 2021
Contents originally published: 1978
Acquired: March 2022
Read: November 2022

Writer: Paul Levitz
Artists: Mike Grell and Vince Colletta, James Sherman and Jack Abel
Letterered by Gaspar
Colors by Jerry Serpe & Tony Tollin

DC has been taking its "tabloid editions" from the 1970—massive oversized comics—and reprinting them as high-quality hardcovers. I previously read the Suerpman vs. Wonder Woman one; most recently, they've reprinted All-New Collectors' Edition #C-54, which depicts the marriage of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. This story was previously collected in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume One, but I wasn't passing up the chance to see some Mike Grell and Vince Colletta art at jumbo size.

Thankfully it looks great because as a story it's not up to much. Superboy travels to the future to see the wedding, only the timeline has changed, so everyone is mean. He still manages to convince the Legion to look into this; the team splits up into three groups to handle different aspects of a crisis. It has its moments—I do always like some Saturn Girl—but even by the standards of comic-book time travel, I don't think it really makes sense, and the Legion in twentieth-century New York doesn't seem to be worth getting Mike Grell to illustrate at enormous size. Give me something cosmic and epic! Still, I'll take Mike Grell drawing Dream Girl any day, and the new afterword by Levitz providing background and context is nice.

I read a Legion of Super-Heroes collection every six months. Next up in sequence: Before the Darkness, Volume One

2 comments:

  1. That you appreciate the beauty of Colletta's inks over Grell is unique in the land of comic book aficionados. I agree that the Warlord collaborations were more in line with each of these artist's visions.

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    1. I did not know that this was a controversial statement! I thought it looked good; they are both great artists in their own right working together.

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