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I highly recommend the Giffen/Bierbaum run. It's a bit spotty - some issues are amazing, some are throwaway - but it's definitely the best pre-Waid Legion. You can get all the back issues for cheap on Mile High Comics. I just did! It's series 4 1-38.
A brief guide -
1-13 This series takes place 5 years after the end of previous Legion series. Everyone has aged, everything has changed. The Legion fell apart, people lives moved on for better or worse. Over the course of this year, a new version of the Legion slowly comes together. It sets the tone for the rest of the series - dark sci-fi, focusing on large scale political corruption. The first year isn't very arc-y, but the most notable villain is the vicious serial killer Roxxas. Immediately after this very brutal and miserable storyline, there is a great, funny issue which catches up with Tenzil "Matter-Eater Lad" Kem.
The second year of the series shifts the focus to events taking place throughout the universe. 14-17 cover a war with the Khunds - I never liked those issues (which feature artwork by a young Brandon Peterson that strays very far from the 9 panel grid that is the trademark of the series) and I don't remember them very well. Mysa Nal is reintroduced in this storyline. 18-19 cover a story about the Black Circle and the destruction of Earth's moon. 20 tells the story of Venado Bay, and how Rokk "Cosmic Boy" Krinn lost his powers in the Braal-Imsk war. 21-24 "The Quiet Darkness" is written by inker Al Gordon, and are totally boring - it's about Darkseid killing himself, but it's not nearly as good as you might hope.
The third year is my favorite.
25 introduces the Batch SW6 Legionnaires, who may or may not be the REAL original teenage Legion, held in stasis by the Dominion, who at this point have completely taken over Earth. 26 and 27 feature the adult Legion attacked at their homebase by a powerful android. This story is a lot more awesome than I'm making it sound - the execution is pretty scary. 28 shows us the horrible fate of Dirk "Sun Boy" Morgna, who sold out and collaborated with the Dominion. 29-36 is the Terra Mosaic, in which the Legion and their associates fight to liberate the Earth from the Dominion.
There are a few breaks in this storyline - 31 is about the relationship of Jan "Element Lad" Arrah and Svaughn Erin of the Science Police, who is revealed to be a transgendered man. This story still pisses off hardcore Legion fans. 33 is the story of Kid Quantum, a new character who is retroactively added to the original cast for no apparent reason. Both of these issues are skippable.
There are only two issues after the liberation of Earth is 36 - 37, which is a throwaway story about space baseball (seriously) and 38, which is a very sad single issue story about the last days on Earth before the planet is destroyed.
The story carries on after the destruction of Earth, but Giffen is gone and everything changes. I don't recommend reading beyond this point. |
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