Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover – September 22, 2020

I’ve read some reviews saying this book is awful because it’s different. That’s awful logic and is probably the reason why he have so many problems in the real world. When it comes to comic books, it’s good to break the mold and do something different. This book does exactly that.Back in the day, I lived LOSH. I didn’t read it religiously, but I kept up with it though random issues and The Who’s Who in the DC Universe series. I always liked the sci-fi and character diversity, the designs of stuff, and the rich lore developed over the decades.One day, DC decided to throw out the status quo of the series and gave us a new take where we fans were thrown into the middle of a conversation we were prompted to ask questions, piece together things and (god forbid for those haters) had to start using our heads to figure out what was going on. Jumping this series five years away from the end of the previous series (the Baxter series as it’s known) was a great way to shake things up.Now, people seem to not like this series because it isn’t the same as before. Well, that’s not how things grow. As a writer myself, I have to do shakeups from time to time to keep things interesting. Legion of Superheroes was getting boring at the time. It had a squeaky clean image and it was pretty stagnant. Writing was good but nobody outside of the hardcore fans really talked about it. It basically became like Star Trek. It always played things safe and rarely did anything controversial, that is, until the Five Years Later storyline.For me, it worked because there were so many questions that popped into my head wondering who was dead and who was alive. It was cool seeing the bright and shiny future of the previous books being knocked down. It was good seeing that there was still hope. Now, it did ale a while to get to the happy stuff, but looking back on this series, it reminds me now of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica.If you’re new to this team and this series, in particular, then you will probably not know what’s going on. If you’re buying this book at the price it’s going for, then you’re crazy. Don’t buy it if you have no idea what you’re getting yourselves into unless my review piques your interest. At 150 bucks, you’re better off maybe buying the first ten issues in a bargain bin to get a feel for the rest of the book.Things I really liked about the book were too any to list. I do like that they explained away Supergirl and Superboy. They basically took Mon-El and Laurel Gand and used them as the replacements for SG and SB. The Legion suffered from a very convoluted history which the Crisis on Infinite Earths series made worse by not revising the Legion’s origins to where it fit in to post-Crisis continuity. Confused? Then stay away from this book. This series isn’t a reboot as a whole, but it does revise a few things. Superboy was the inspiration for the team’s initial formation, but Crisis eliminated him from continuity. Since (at the time) Superman had never been Superboy, that put a crimp in things. The original team had traveled back on time to recruit Superboy to the team. It turned out (in the Baxter series$ that the team had accidentally traveled back on time to a pocket dimension and recruited an alternate past-Superboy without known it. Before I confuse you anymore, they fix that in this book. Mon-El turns out to be the inspiration for the team and that fixes the whole Superboy thing. Of course, the pocket universe thing never explained how they could have asiprrgirl on the team, so the events on this book’s Issue #5 takes care of that, too.The first 13 issues are great. They revise things, reintroduce the team with their new history, explain who Laurel hand is (Supergirl’s replacement), and there are few funny issues showcasing Tenzil Kem (aka Matter Eater Lad). I thought those issues were great. The rest of the book is good, but it does move slowly here and there.If you lie Blade Runner toe stuff, dark futures where all hope seems lost but isn’t, then you might like this book. I liked it when I read out month to month back in the day. Let’s see if it still hold me internet when yo start reading it soon.

The Legion of Superheroes' "5 Years Later" run is one of the most controversial in Legion history. And chances are if you're even thinking of picking up this $150, seven and a half pound book, you already have an opinion on it. In 1989 veteran artist Keith Giffin paired with fans-turn-pro Tom and Mary Bierbaum to create a darker, grim run of the Legion where their utopian society has collapsed, their enemies have taken over the government of Earth and the Legion itself, torn apart by losses and bureaucratic red tape, gave up and disbanded.The first 12 issues are focused on the Legion trying to pull itself back together and balancing the idealism of youth with the pragmatism that comes with adulthood. So when the team finally is reformed it feels like they've earned that emotional moment. It's a great theme and, since this run came out as I was in college, and hit me right in the heart.The Bierbaums and Giffen produce a dense book with nine-panel grids and text pages dumping a lot of information about universe of the 30th Century and its inhabitants. Obscure characters come back and Legion history is used to build a rich galaxy.One sour note is very early on when the writers were forced by editors and management to rewrite Legion history, taking out Superboy and eliminating all references to him. Which makes an already confusing book more muddled since we not only have to worry about what's happened in the last five years, but what happened across the whole of Legion history. But it's a survivable wound.Clocking in at well over 1400 pages this is an impressive book. Perhaps this would have been better as two books in a slip case, for the sake of my back and arms if nothing else. But with 39 issues of the Legion of Superheroes' "Five Years Later" adventures plus annuals, crossovers, the (honestly quite skippable) Timber Wolf miniseries and extras like Who's Who pages and the rare postcard set. It's (almost) a completist's dream. A volume 2 with the rest of the run (40-63), Legionnaires and maybe the Mayfair RPG book would finish it off.I'm glad I got it.

Legion fans have been waiting a long time for this one - a massive collection of the first few years of stories from the classic Five Years Later run by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Jason Pearson, Colleen Doran, Stuart Immonen, Chris Sprouse, and others. These stories have never been reprinted until now, and I'm glad to finally have them on my bookshelf. Really solid job on the production side, too. Hopefully, this will have enough of an audience to convince DC to come up with Volume 2!

reading

Amazon's packing leaves a slight blip on my overall score but the product quality is a 5. The box had been beaten and opened. Amazon and all online book stores need to learn how to ship expensive collector hardcover items. Such a waste to return damaged products to risk having it sent and damaged again. Keith Giffen was at the height of his creative talents here so you won't find any others besides his run on JL International that matches this style and ambition. A must-read for all comic book collector's and readers.

Finally reprinted. A unique take on the Legion, very well worth the purchase. And arrived in excellent condition too, considering how hefty it is.

Groundbreaking reboot. Love the Giffen art.Be warned the tome itself is massive!