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I read through Spider-Man: Blue last night. That's Loeb and Sale's color miniseries for the wall-crawler. Such a great story. Beautifully drawn.
The whole thing is Peter, married to MJ, but reminiscing on Valentine's Day about the events that led up to his relationship with Gwen Stacy. And he's telling Gwen all this while speaking into an old recorder.
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Back in March, in this thread, Aberzombie brought up Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga. That led me to rave about Paul Levitz, whose Legion stories from the 1980s I contrasted favorably with those of Jim Shooter from the 1960s. (Here's a link to that post.)
In writing that post, I referred to Paul Levitz' first Legion run. Then I proofread my post and frowned. It wasn't his FIRST run. What about all those Legion stories he wrote in the 1970s? So I edited my post to say "Paul Levitz's SECOND run". Later I re-read my post and frowned again. In the 2000s, when I got all Legion-crazy and collected over 50 of those Paul Levitz issues, why did I never look into Levitz's FIRST run, from the 1970s? I don't recall ever even considering it. I'm not such a Legion fan anymore, and can no longer seem to read more than a few issues at a time, but still, I wondered what I might have missed out on. Maybe Paul Levitz - still a young and immature writer - had some room for improvement in the 1970s, but hey, I got and enjoyed reading his stories about Aquaman and The Huntress from that decade, even if his dialog wasn't quite up to snuff.
So the next time I ordered old comics from Mile High, I threw three of Levitz' Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes issues into my order. I chose issues 228 through 230, simply because they were cheap. With hindsight, I should have chosen some later issues which were twice the length, thus getting more bang for my buck, but I didn't think to check the page counts. Ah well; live and learn. But the issues I DID get proved worthy additions to my collection. Yeah, some of Levitz' dialog could have used some minor revision, but he had good IDEAS for stories, and the plots and action beat the heck out of the Legion stories of the 1960s.
Maybe I should justify what qualifies me to make that comparison. I bought and read the first three DC Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes volumes, thus covering every Legion story until mid-1968. Possibly Jim Shooter's Legion stories improved during the next ten years, in which case my dismissing Shooter may be unfair, but I'm judging by what I've seen.
Anyway, I got to start my reading with a bang. The rest of this post is spoiler-heavy, but hey, there were ALREADY spoilers; in Adventure Comics issue 354, Jim Shooter had foretold that Chemical King - whom we had never even SEEN and would not see until 17 issues later - "sacrificed his life to prevent World War VII". (I was fortunate enough to see that bit of foreshadowing in the third Showcase volume, which also showed me the first appearance of the Dark Circle in Adventure Comics issue 367.)
So I thrilled to see those very events - related previously in only one brief phrase in Adventure 354 - unfold in Legion issue 228. I've often ranted that I prefer LINEAR time travel stories - in which the future cannot be changed - over stories it which it can. Not only do I regard the business of changing history to be inherently illogical, but every story about changing history - with no major exceptions that I can think of - seems unable to stay true even to its own - already absurd - rules of logic. Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, characters like Superboy simply could not change history in the DC comic-book universe, and that's the way it should be, in my not-so-humble opinion. The letters page, speaking of issue 223, mentioned a "billion possible futures". I don't know what that's about, and I don't want to know. Issue 228 showed us history happening the way it was meant to happen.
Issue 229 made a perfect follow-up to that story, as the Legion went after the Dark Circle in retaliation. Even issue 230 mentions Chemical King's funeral, if only briefly to set the stage for Bouncing Boy's solo story (as I've seen done in so many other team books). And it's nice to see an alien that isn't just a human in a funny suit.
Last year, I got so thoroughly hooked on Denny O'Neill's Iron Man run that I frequently had to order many issues of that stuff from Mile High Comics. This time, I'm not nearly so hooked on Levitz' Legion stories, so it will probably be some time before I order comics again. But I look forward to that day - whenever it is - so I can get a little more of that Legion material.
My latest order from Mile High also included other comic books that I wanted as a result of stuff Aberzombie brought up in this thread. I'll probably post about some of those other issues another day.
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Reading through that new Transformers series is not only filling me with fond memories of my cartoon watching youth, it’s also filling me with memories of my earliest days of comic collecting. My first series being G. I. Joe from Marvel. I think I’ve also got the first Joe/Transformers miniseries (from ‘87) in my collection somewhere.
The other day I started re-bagging and boarding my collection of Detective Comics. Of course, while doing so I read through a few issues. One three-part story that always stood out for me was when they introduced Mr. Kadaver and Corrosive Man. That was in the Grant and Breyfogle era.
They followed that up not too long after with another three-part story that had some dude who could create Tulpas, and Batman had to recruit Etrigan to help out. I was always impressed with writers who could work Etrigan into a story, especially with his rhyming.
Good stuff.
I remember the Tulpa one. The three thugs went from being all Gung ho to begging cops to arrest them.
Back in October, in this thread, Aberzombie brought up Scarface and the Ventriloquist. I reminisced about the first two issues of Detective Comics I had ever bought, back when they were new, which happened to form the first Scarface/Ventriloquist story. Years later, I read my friend's Batman material, including Knightfall, Knightquest and KnightsEnd. I was pleased to see the Ventriloquist return. Aberzombie's comments made me curious to research details about the Ventriloquist, and when I did, I felt surprise at learning of a "Return of Scarface" story BEFORE Knightfall. "The Return of Scarface" started in Batman #475, continued in Detective Comics #642, and concluded in Batman #476. Having loved the first Ventriloquist story, I felt curious about the second. So last month, when I ordered comics from Mile High, I included those three issues in my order. I just read them this week.
And they were awful! AWFUL!!! Especially the ending! It almost read like Alan Grant DELIBERATELY wrote a bad ending just to surprise the readers!
Alan Grant co-wrote the first Scarface story. Could it be that story wasn't as good as I remembered? I HAVE gotten fussier in the years since then, after all. I had to re-read Detective Comics 583 and 584 to remind me of what a great story that was. No, the writing just went from great to horrible over the course of those four years.
I remember, back in 1988 through 1992, when I would buy the odd issue of Batman or Detective Comics, that I felt that the Batman stories were growing worse and worse. That's why I stopped getting them in 1992. Batman seemed to do less and less as time went on. He barely did anything, in his own series'. And he barely did anything in The Return of Scarface. What the heck happened to him?! In the concluding issue of first Scarface story, Batman was so determined to put the Ventriloquist behind bars, he...
In contrast, what does he do in Part 3 of "The Return of Scarface"?
And why didn't Batman do anything about the Ventriloquist afterwards? Did he get too busy with other matters, in Detective Comics 643 and Batman 477? Maybe. I'm not getting those issues to find out. But even so, is this the same Batman who, as I said, multi-tasked in the first Scarface story? (Ah, I'm giving up on spoiler buttons at this point.)
I wondered: how did the Ventriloquist wind up in Arkham at the beginning of Knightfall? In some other story? I looked it up in comicbookrealm.com, to find that the Ventriloquist's next appearance, three months later, was in Detective Comics Annual 5, in which he helps the Joker escape from Arkham Asylum. According to my Google search, no, Wesley does NOT wind up in jail nor in Arkham Asylum in that story; he just disappears. And his next appearance was in Knightfall, which starts out with him in Arkham Asylum. How did he get apprehended to be sent there? As far as I can tell, the comics never tell us this. Maybe ordinary people - such as the police, lawyers, government agents, and the like - managed to nab him for something... like tax evasion, perhaps? Heh. Well, that would be fine. But then why read "The Return of Scarface" at all? I would advise anyone to skip it.
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Saw a post from Walt Simonson this morning on The Book of the Face. It was a page of art from an adaptation of REHs The Cairn on the Headland. He and Archie Goodwin had started it, but never finished.
It got me thinking - how many other great stories and/or adaptations of great stories were started by some of these now legendary comic creators back in the day, but never finished. It might be fascinating to see book of fragments of comic stories. I’ve seen collections of old writers work that included similar “fragments”.
It got me thinking - how many other great stories and/or adaptations of great stories were started by some of these now legendary comic creators back in the day, but never finished. It might be fascinating to see book of fragments of comic stories. I’ve seen collections of old writers work that included similar “fragments”.
Years ago, when I was seeking comics with an Old West setting, one of the few that I liked enough to read twice was Rio by Doug Wildey. I read it in a trade paperback I got from a public library. It included the few existing fragments of the final, unpublished story, including unfinished art.
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It got me thinking - how many other great stories and/or adaptations of great stories were started by some of these now legendary comic creators back in the day, but never finished. It might be fascinating to see book of fragments of comic stories. I’ve seen collections of old writers work that included similar “fragments”.Years ago, when I was seeking comics with an Old West setting, one of the few that I liked enough to read twice was Rio by Doug Wildey. I read it in a trade paperback I got from a public library. It included the few existing fragments of the final, unpublished story, including unfinished art.
Sounds interesting. I'll have to look around for that.
Batman 45 (the original, not that newer crap)
Whoa. That must date back to the 1940s. Is that the oldest comic in your collection?
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Sweet! I had ordered a 2006 Edition of DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore from Amazon. Even when I checked earlier today it said the delivery wouldn’t happen until later this week or early next week. And it was in my mailbox when I got home! Huzzah!
The reason I wanted the 2006 edition, is because I heard later editions removed certain stories (like The Killing Joke) that DC thought could sell just as well on their own.
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Yet another edition of SWEET!
The other day I ordered some back issues from the first ongoing Robin series, from back when Tim Drake was actually popular and considered by some to be the best Robin.
That series went up to, I think, issue 183. Once I get my shipment, that final issue will be the only one I'm missing from the series. Huzzah for completion!
Last month, I got a bunch of 20th-Century comics from Mile High Comics. Since then, I read those issues and discussed some of the characters in them - like the Legion of Super-Heroes and Batman - in this thread. But that last order also included comics about other heroes that I did NOT yet mention here... like She-Hulk.
Now I love STORIES. I might get comics because I hope they contain writing that I'll like. When I hear that a certain comic was written by a writer I admire, THAT might encourage me to give that comic a try. I never got a comic on the grounds that I like the artist.
However, I can't deny that certain aspects of art do grab my attention, especially ONE such aspect. It amused me that I didn't mention it already in this thread, as I posted about Wonder Woman twice. And now that I'm writing about She-Hulk, I should just say it bluntly: She-Hulk is the SEXIEST character in the comics. I've thought so for the last four decades or so, and I'm sure I can't be alone in that opinion. I'll say more about that later.
I remember back in the early 1980s, when I had little money for things like comics. I felt fortunate to find a few good issues at my local public library, including The Savage She-Hulk issues 19, 21, and 25. 25 was the last of that 1980-1982 run, which formed She-Hulk's very first story, and I thought that issue 25 was the end of the character's appearance in the comics. (I was young, and hadn't yet learned that old heroes never get permanently retired in that medium.) Later, seeing an Avengers issue in the library, I felt pleased to discover that She-Hulk had joined that group. In fact, I took out TWO issues of Avengers, both including She-Hulk.
Later still, at a bookstore, I saw a new issue of Fantastic Four, prominently showing She-Hulk on the cover. Oh! She had joined the Fantastic Four! In fact, only 3 pages of that issue showed any other members of the group. It was really a She-Hulk story, despite the series title. I bought that issue - #275 - and read it many times.
At some point, I bought a couple of issues of the original Savage She-Hulk series - #s 6 and 7, which I had found being offered at a low price. By that time, I was growing fussier, and felt that issue 7 was disappointing. I gave up on the character. When I learned that there was a silly new series, Sensational She-Hulk, in which the character penetrated "the fourth wall", I found that information mildly amusing, but felt no desire to look into the book.
By that time, I was getting involved in other stuff. I had joined a Dungeons and Dragons group, and befriended one member of that group in particular. At one point, he and I decided to order old comics by mail together, in order to save on shipping. But I didn't even consider the She-Hulk. Eventually, I took to going to his place every week and benefitting from his enormous comic-book collection. I had to stop doing that when I got married, but then HE started coming to MY house to play Dungeons and Dragons. And every now and then we'd order comics together. Typically, when I decided to order old issues, I would drop him a line, saying "Do you want to order anything with me?" And vice versa, of course.
But also, when I prepared to order, I would ask him "Do you have any issues of such-and-such-a-title?" in the hopes that I could borrow issues from him and save myself from having to buy. But by that time, he lived in his own apartment. He still does. And he doesn't have the space to keep his comics organized. Instead, he has big piles of boxes of comics, and it could be hard for him to locate and dig up issues, when he searched for particular ones. Sometimes, it would be so hard for him that I didn't want to bother him with the matter.
A year or so ago, I just woke up with a whim one day, saying "It might be fun to read a Sensational She-Hulk story, with fourth-wall silliness." But when I considered asking my friend if he happened to have any of those, I dismissed the idea. For some reason, I felt certain that he didn't. And all the issues I saw in the Mile High and My Comic Shop websites cost insanely high prices.
Last month, when I ordered other stuff from Mile High, I finally saw and ordered 2 reasonably priced issues of Sensational She-Hulk - 31 and 32 - once again dismissing the idea of asking my friend if he had anything from that title. And I didn't worry about cliffhangers; I figured the series was so whimsical, the writer would solve many of those problems with nonsense, so I shouldn't feel any suspense.
Those two issues surprised me in several respects. For one thing, She-Hulk did NOT look sexy! So many people felt that John Byrne was the greatest artist and writer for that series. I saw many letters in the letters pages that clearly indicated they thought that Byrne's She-Hulk looked beautiful. And Byrne clearly TRIED. He drew her in a state of undress a lot, and she kept striking provocative poses. But... she just didn't look STRONG. Other artists did a much better job in that respect, in my not-so humble opinion.
Another surprise was that I found myself DYING of curiosity to see the next issue, #33. I just HAD to see how the Mole Man / She-Hulk wedding would play out, even if that problem DID get resolved with silly nonsense. I mean... the usual cliche would be for the heroine to refuse to marry the creep, and She-Hulk DEFINITELY wasn't the type to marry under conditions like that. I wondered how Byrne would write about it.
And wouldn't you know it, Mile High was offering issue 33 at a reasonable price, although few other issues were so priced. I planned to get it, along with more Legion of Super-Heroes material, even though I had just ordered comics less than a month earlier.
So I emailed my friend, asking "Do you want anything from Mile High?" Unusually, he asked for time to think about it. I felt a little antsy, fearing that the unusually low-priced Sensational She-Hulk issue might get sold if I delay. I figured that so long as I had to wait, I might as well ask if he had any Sensational She-Hulk, although I was pretty sure he wouldn't... but he did! He had 19 issues, including #33, and he had the Essential Savage She-Hulk trade paperback, which reprinted the entire original Savage She-Hulk series from 1980-1982! And although he wasn't sure if he could conveniently dig up most of his Sensational issues from his archives, he easily brought out issue 33, as well as 28 through 30, and the Savage trade paperback. Plus he ultimately decided he didn't want to order anything anyway.
So I put off ordering and borrowed that stuff. Reading those four Sensational issues made me decide that I had enough of that kind of silliness. Really, there's no way I could get through 60 issues like that. But what I DID read had some interesting tidbits. As I got through issue 28, for instance, I knew how that story would resolve, by tying into Fantastic Four #275, which, as you may recall my mentioning earlier, I happen to have. That was a funny coincidence. Plus the artists made Jen look beautiful. Really, why did so many readers prefer John Byrne over those guys?
And now - after FOUR DECADES - I had the opportunity to read all the Savage She-Hulk I wanted. Well, I feel that series doesn't have enough story to warrant 25 issues, but I read a few scattered issues and fragments of issues. I figure I read about 40% of that volume, collectively.
Whew! I didn't expect to go on for so long. I should stop now.
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They had some other stuff, some of which I'll already have waiting for me next week.
There were a couple more X-Men issues. They had three, but I only need two of them.
They also had the first issue of Black Panther, with that sweet Kirby cover. I have to check my collection to see if I already own a copy.
They also had the first three issues of Moon Knight's original series. I might have issue 1, but will have to check. Even still, I'm not sure I'll buy all three, since I have those in an Epic Collection. We'll see.
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I’m finally got off my lazy butt and subscribed to a service for cataloging all my comics. My subscription covers both the mobile app and the web version. It’s pretty user friendly so far. I’ve already scanned in and added a handful of books.
There’s a ton of info you can include: grade, price you paid, who you bought it from, who graded it, when you bought it, etc. For the time being, I’m just putting in grade and price, when I have them. And the occasional note, such as the FF issue signed by Kirby.
This’ll help me not only to simply keep track of my entire collection (eventually), but also let me know when there’s a back issue I already own.
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So the one I started using is called CLZ Comics. The youngsters at my local comic store recommended it to me. It has a mobile app, and a web version, each of which is a separate subscription. I went ahead and did both.
So far, it's been pretty easy to use. I started with a bunch of the back issues I've bought over the last year or two. These I've done the cover scan for, and yes, it is tedious. They do have a feature that supposedly lets you enter a series, then click boxes on each issue you own. I haven't got that far into it yet. I'm hoping it might let you also click to say they whole series. That would come in handy for some of my runs.
Either way, I've got such a large collection, it'll take me awhile to get it all cataloged. It's something I should have started years ago, but like an idiot kept putting off.
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Engaged in a conversation with my children, and my daughter said something about a thing not making sense. I repeated a line from the old Dark Knight series (book 4, when Batman is kicking the crap out of Superman):
“The world only makes sense why you force it to.”
On the surface, it seems like a pretty Batman thing to say. However, in its own way, it’s deeply profound. Humans have spent all of their history (recorded and unrecorded) trying to develop (or discover) rules, stories, etc that helped them to make sense of the world around. And we developed frameworks (language, philosophy, etc) to help force those rules and stories into nice little boxes we could use to explain things. Both to ourselves and others.
Anyway, it’s something I was thinking about this morning.
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Yesterday, I got around to entering one of the older series I collected into my CLZ Comics catalog. Using the app, you can find a series and either enter all the numbers, or go through each issue and check which ones you have and which you don't.
I did this with my Wally West Flash run. Even though I knew I had every issue, I went through the checklist one by one. That way, I was able to check off the boxes for "direct edition" or "newsstand edition". Along with the occasional "variant cover". I'm hoping to try it with a few more series today. Get some of the low hanging fruit. So to speak.
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Woot! I exceeded my goal of getting 1000 comics cataloged by today! I input 1080, to be precise. That also includes some hardcover graphic novels, such as Batman: Digital Justice.
At this rate, and including rebagging and reboarding the remainder, in might be done in a few years. Of course, that would involve ignoring a lot of other things.
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I’m up to just over 2700 books cataloged. I hope to be over 3000 by tomorrow sometime. Anyway, during the cataloging process, I’ve added some things to my gap list, and even managed to score some of them today.
Among the back issues I picked up today:
New Mutants Annual #2 - it wasn’t on the list, but I also didn’t have it yet.
Captain America #’s 200 & 323.
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #s 43, 47, 48, & 49. I had started collecting this series with issue 1, but didn’t see it through until the end. Probably because I was a poor young college student at the time.
And something not on my list, but I picked up anyway, was Hawkman #4 (from 1964) with the first appearance of Zatanna. Very low grade, but I like Zatanna.
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Whilst cataloging, I came across the Solomon Grundy miniseries they did back in 2009. It was seven issues, and the cover of each issue had a line from the Grundy poem.
My daughter knows that poem. She learned it after (a) watching the animated Justice league, and (b) hearing me talk about Grundy in the comics. So I showed her the covers of each issue. She got a kick out of that.
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Huzzah!!!
When cataloging comics the other day, I recalled I had a huge gap in my Captain America Volume 1 collection. That was from a time when I had to cut back.
Anyway, after today’s visit to the comic book store, that gap is now 19 issues smaller.
Also, for the first time ever I bought what they call a slabbed book. This was X-Men #142. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered, but I’m pretty certain they had a misprint on the price tag and were offering it for less than intended. So I took advantage of that.
I’m pretty certain they had a misprint on the price tag and were offering it for less than intended. So I took advantage of that.
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Also, for the first time ever I bought what they call a slabbed book. This was X-Men #142.
More seriously, I keep feeling like I ought to comment on the issue itself. I didn't earlier, because I expect you'll never read THAT copy. But still, that two-part "Days of Future Past" story was one of the most defining moments of X-Men history.
I remember, back in the 1990s, going to my friend's house, reading his "X-Men" comics, and hearing him tell me that as time went on, the "X-Men" story implied more and more strongly that the future portrayed in "Days of Future Past" was the actual future toward which the world was heading.
I argued: "But that CAN'T be the future! The 'Days of Future Past' story established right away that in that other timeline, the Brotherhood assassinated Senator Kelly. The X-Men changed history by preventing it."
My friend amended "Well then, the future will be SIMILAR to the 'Days of Future Past' timeline."
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And now I'm over 6000 books cataloged. 6084, to be precise. I'll probably do some more cataloging today, but I'd like to mix it up with some bagging and boarding as well.
I've only got one batch of 100 or so bags and boards left though. So I'll need to order more. I think this time I might go with more of the Mylites from E.Gerber. This time, however, I'll probably order directly from their website. You can order up to 1000 bags at a time!
Back in June, in this thread, I wrote about how I wondered if Paul Levitz could write good Legion of Super-Heroes stories in the 1970s, like he did in the 1980s, so I ordered and read issues 228-230 and concluded that yes, he could. But since I had never read Jim Shooter's Legion material from the 1970s - only from the 1960s - I feared that my comparison between the two - in Levitz' favor - was unfair. I resolved to order and read some of Shooter's later Legion material one day. I also thought that I might enjoy reading some more of Levitz' material too, particularly the longer issues, on the theory that more pages would give me more value for my money (although I have since discovered that conclusion was fallacious and erroneous, as I will eventually explain).
Some time after I made that resolution, I DID order more comics - of several titles - from Mile High. I got another issue of Kitty Pryde and Wolverine, so that now I have only one issue - number 6 - in that 6-issue limited series to collect. I got some of Roy Thomas' Savage Sword of Conan material, and maybe one day I'll write about that in this thread. But of course, I also had to get more Legion issues, including 209, 213, 215, 217, 220, 223, 224, 246, 247, 250, and 321.
So... was Jim Shooter a better writer than I had previously given him credit for? The "too long; didn't read" version is: yes, he got better, but I still prefer Paul Levitz, albeit by a smaller margin. Jim Shooter wrote some good stories, as well as some bad ones. In fact, I re-read some of Shooter's stories from the 1960s - because those stories tied in with the '70s stories I got recently - and while some of those early Shooter stories made me wince, I actually felt impressed with one of them ("The Ghost of Ferro Lad" in Adventure Comics issue 357).
And when Shooter came back to the comic-book world after a five year absence, he wrote SEVERAL impressive Legion stories, more mature than the stuff he had put out in his teens. Even when I judged some of his stories to be bad - like those in which the legionnaires don't do any superhero work, or in which the plot made no sense - I eventually concluded to my surprise that those bad stories were due not to lack of inspiration, but just to Shooter WANTING to write stories that way.
I'll say something similar about the art. I don't appreciate art like I do stories, and I'd been planning to write a rant in this post like "Could someone please explain to me why the heck people say Mike Grell is the greatest Legion artist?!" His artwork in those issues was loose, sloppy, and cartoony, making it look like Grell was working hastily and carelessly, and making it harder for me to take those stories as seriously as I wanted to. But I eventually concluded, to my surprise, that Grell WANTED it that way. I first realized this when I saw, in issue 217, an explosion that formed the words "Holy Cow! Dig the fireworks!" Grell was having FUN with this, and probably wanted the readers to feel that sense of fun. Well, that's not the kind of artwork I want; I actually liked that story for its drama, and took it more seriously than it was evidently intended to be, which is one reason I feel the series got better later.
Well, after reading those lesser Legion stories, I looked forward to Levitz' superior work - like those I had read in issues 228 through 230 - but I met with disappointment, actually. I should have looked more closely at the credits of those later Legion issues before buying them. The reason they didn't give me more bang for my buck is that they weren't pure Levitz. When Levitz would co-write with someone other than Keith Giffen, those stories seemed like mixed bags. Whom should I credit for the good parts and whom should I blame for the bad parts?
At first, I thought: okay, I know that Paul Levitz' dialog was weak back then. That's why Carmine Infantino brought in other writers to write the scripts for Levitz' "Aquaman" stories in Adventure Comics, back in 1975-76. So when I read a Legion story from 1978 - in issue 246 - that said "Len Wein: Script; Paul Levitz: Plot" I figured: okay, this is basically a Levitz story. Yet I couldn't really believe that, once I had finished the story. The ending made no sense. Possibly, Levitz might have thrown in an explanation that would make the ending work, and maybe Len Wein forgot the explanation, or just ignored it. But I'm not sure that was the case.
And here's something else that makes me skeptical about some of those credits: Issue 250 says "Steve Apollo: Story & Layouts; Paul Levitz: Words". What the...?!? If Levitz' dialog was a problem, why did the powers at DC switch his role? What is this, Bizarro World? I shouldn't have bought those issues!
Okay; breathe, Aaron, breathe! I've mentioned before that when Levitz became the regular Legion writer in issue 284, that began the Legion's golden age, in my not-so-humble opinion. Well, I feel that golden age kind of declined around the time when the Baxter Legion series began. Maybe the pressure of having to write TWO legion issues every month put a strain on Levitz' creativity... but even then, he still put out some great issues, as well as some lesser ones. Back in the 2000s, when I was collecting every Legion issue from 284 on up, the last consecutive one I got was 317, as I felt that the series had degraded too far by then.
Still, when I placed my last order at Mile High, I noticed a good price for Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #321, so I threw that into the order. Maybe it would be just like old times. But it wasn't. Once again, I should have looked at the credits more closely. Paul Levitz wrote that issue not with Keith Giffen, but with Mindy Newell. And the story was... ugh! The legionnaires didn't act like legionnaires, the extras - on whom the issue focused for long periods of time - were unsympathetic, and the story was uninteresting.
<sigh>
I don't want to read Legion anymore. I think I'll file those issues away and dig out my old Iron Man stuff.