When does the Bronze Age end for the Legion?
The end of the Silver Age for the Legion is pretty clear and convincing – it’s when they moved out of Action Comics (issue 392, Sept 1970) under original series editor Mort Weisinger, and into the backup of Superboy (issue 172, March 1971) under new Superman office editor Murray Boltinoff. Archives #9 ends with Action 392, as does the upcoming Silver Age Omnibus vol. 3.
The end of the Bronze Age for DC is generally – but not universally – agreed to be Crisis on Infinite Earths, which ended in issue 12, cover-dated March 1986. That would suggest that the Bronze Age for the Legion ended with the final Crisis crossover, LSH v3 #18 cover dated Jan. 1986 (recall that the last two issues of Crisis only featured then-current day characters, so the Legion didn’t appear). But in discussions elsewhere, others have made other starting-point arguments, so I’ll throw it to the hivemind to debate.
Some have given the end of the Bronze Age as early as LSH v2 #282, primarily because Paul Levitz came on to the series with issue 283 as the main writer (and Giffen came a few issues later). But while tonally the Legion moved forward into the Modern Age at that time, that’s pretty early, it was cover-dated Jan. 1982, a full four years before Crisis.
Another popular choice is LSH v3 #1, the Baxter series, as kicking off the Modern Age, which is closer in time, cover-dated Aug. 1984, but still well pre-Crisis. On the other hand, another popular choice is LSH v3 #37, the start of the Pocket Universe Superboy story arc, in Aug. 1987, but that’s a year and a half post-Crisis and already a year into the John Byrne Superman reboot.
Although there’s nothing really thematically different about the Legion in the immediate aftermath of Crisis (between issue 19 and 37), it’s hard to point to something specific and say “this is where the breakpoint is”, so we're going to have to be arbitrary and just pick something.
So I’ll go with LSH v3 #18 as the end of the Bronze Age of the Legion. Convince me otherwise, with these or other issues.
Posts
3 comments:
I don't think you can choose a hard point for when the Bronze Age Legion ended because I don't think you can choose a hard point for when the Bronze Age ended period.
Camelot 3000, Ronin and Thriller all came out before COIE and you will never convince me those are Bronze Age books.
But none of those three series are DC Universe proper, so you can classify those as precursors to the Modern Age (or Copper Age, or whatever).
And for most DCU series - Superman and Wonder Woman are notable exceptions in their reboots, and the new Batman Year One - there is no easy breakpoint to point to, which is just what happened with the Silver Age/Bronze Age circa 1970 plus or minus a couple years.
I like to stretch the Bronze Age, so I'd like to say that the end of the Baxter Series (Magic Wars) is the end of the Bronze Age, though maybe a better point would be when Giffen returned to the Baxter series, which I believe was with #50.
Post a Comment