Giffen, Levitz reunite to celebrate DC's superteam of the 31st century
By Brian Cunningham
Posted 04/19/08
Not every comic book franchise turns 50 and is still in the public eye to celebrate it.
DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes whoops it up for their 50th birthday this year, and on hand to honor the 31st century superteam at the New York Comic Con are luminaries from its storied history: luminary creators Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen and current Legion editor Mike Marts. Comics historian Peter Sanderson moderated the panel.
"The Legion came before the Justice League, Teen Titans and X-Men," says Sanderson. "It really deserves a lot of credit for creating the modern superhero team book."
Levitz, now DC's President and Publisher, revived the franchise during the 1980s with penciler/co-plotter Keith Giffen making it one of the industry's top sellers. "The Legion started changing [comic tropes]," Levitz said. "They began the moment of change. They were teenagers without adult supervision acting as adults."
"I don't think the Legion made its mark until the post-apocalyptic futures," said Giffen. "The Legion was the happy future. That's when The Legion made its mark. What other book could have come up with Bouncing Boy [who turns into a ball and, er, bounces] or Matter-Eater Lad [who can eat anything]? I would've loved to have sat in on those meetings."
Levitz gave props to former Legion writers Jerry Siegel, Ed Hamilton and Jim Shooter (who started at age 13 in the 1960s and recently took the Legion reins again). "Jerry Siegel brought a sense of humor, he kept the tongue firmly in cheek," Levitz said. "Ed Hamilton, one of the great sci-fic writers, brought in the space opera and first sense of scale. He brought The Legion to bigger scope and scale. Shooter brought a sense of character to the Legion; it's bizarre to have a 13-year-old have that sense of humanity."
There was the comparison to the X-Men: a teenage cast, diverse backgrounds and varying powers. But Marvel's mutants also forced change in the future team by creating a stronger sense of diversity through different cultures. Said Levitz: "A lot of early comics characters weren't even WASPs—they were WASs. They didn't even have the Protestant distinction. Then the [1970s] X-Men came along to give diversity and The Legion adapted well."
To Giffen, the Legion was "always about the price of heroism and that they're willing to pay it."
"The Legion doesn't have a good default setting," said Levitz. "If you don't invent new mythology, it gets painful. I was very lucky to work with so many artists—notably Keith—who loved the challenge of drawing it all."
"I recall in a script for 'The Great Darkness Saga'—the panel description was 'the entire population of planet Daxam take off from the planet,'" Giffen elaborated, to audience laughter. "Only in The Legion can you get away with that."
The panelists also recalled their favorite Legion artists. Leading the way for all three was the late Dave Cockrum, whose amazing costume designs in the early 1970s are still revered. (Cockrum would go on to co-create X-Men stars Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm and more.)
"Dave Cockrum and Jim Sherman," said Giffen, plainly.
Levitz acknowledged one more: "I'm a sucker for Curt Swan. I know he didn't enjoy it, but you saw the humanity he drew."
Over its 50 years, the Legion has been rebooted several times. The panelists were asked their thoughts on them. "I know one was great," Giffen deadpanned to audience laughter. (Giffen pushed continuity "five years later" in the late 1980s creating a darker vision of the Legion; it created much controversy.) "I knew I didn't want to spend a year deconstructing what Paul did, so I bumped it five years later, always planning to return it to what Paul did."
"It's like someone messing with your kids," said Levitz. "It's not that the next guys are wrong or less legit than yours. But these are your children. 'It's MY kid you gave the piercings to.'"
When asked why the Legion is still vital, Giffen quipped, "If I knew that, I'd still be on the book!"
Giffen was called on the carpet for wanting to kill Legion stalwart Karate Kid; he helped kill him with Levitz in the mid-1980s and he also plotted the character's demise again recently in Countdown to Final Crisis. "I only agreed to do Legion so I could kill him," Giffen said. "If I go on it again, he's dead. Two words: super karate. Hey, everybody in the field has a character they hate. I just have the bad taste to say it out loud."
Marts elaborated on the Legion's immediate future. "Shooter has a very intricate plot coming up, perhaps even a wedding. And we'll have a major Legion-related project coming out toward the end of year."
To sum up, Levitz put the panel into perspective: "Legion does fairly well. It may not be the biggest seller, and yet this room is full of people who care about it, and it's delightful to have people give a damn."
