‘The Great Darkness Saga’ begins with the Legion facing individual foes shrouded in black, powerful enough to defeat teams of Legionnaires, yet somehow familiar. The best sequence here supplies the title, but sadly unsympathetic packaging gives cover prominence to what inside is a rather well developed surprise. While there’s still some expository dialogue, efforts are made, with entire chapters given over to character interaction as the various relationships within the team are scrutinised.

For much of the Legion’s history there was little to distinguish say Shrinking Violet from Shadow Lass other than appearance and powers. The cast are diversified via new additions, and a giant step is developing characters. That Levitz was a better writer than when he’d previously handled the characters was obvious from his collaborations with Broderick, but the material produced with Giffen is a different league. Giffen also felt free to contribute ideas and was eventually credited as co-plotter. He also includes little visual jokes that make the art worth studying: Timber Wolf leans on a holo-screen too hard or Shadow Lass is posed as if part of the Sistine Chapel fresco. Pictograms and coded language were frequent, often in the form of pseudo-holographic overlays, uniforms were re-designed, backgrounds were other-wordly, and for the first time in a decade the Legion of Super-Heroes actually convinced as inhabitants of the 30 th century. With far more in-tune inking of Larry Mahlstedt, Giffen developed a unique visual signature for the title. Giffen became the lead artist, and his style progressed again. Yet there’s a spirit absent from Broderick’s work. Giffen’s art style had morphed, now seemingly influenced by the ornate decoration Gene Day incorporated into his Master of Kung-Fu work, and the inking of Bruce Patterson wasn’t entirely sympathetic.

After three chapters there’s a back-up strip drawn by Keith Giffen that leads into the next lead story. Later DC Publisher Paul Levitz began the revival in the company of artist Pat Broderick, whose ugly, cramped and distorted art diminishes some distinctly promising scripts in which Chameleon Boy is spotlighted and the Legion run up against an old enemy.

It turns out all that was needed was some imagination and enthusiasm. This over-size hardback or more conventional sized paperback reprints the stories that revived the title. By the early 1980s once fan darlings, 30 th century superteam the Legion of Super-Heroes were in a pretty sorry state after years of creators who really didn’t give a damn.

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