The Legion of Superheroes Archive; Volume 4 by Kurt Swan and George Klein

This fourth volume of the Legion of Superheroes covers reprints from the 1960's. Thirteen stories are included. They are:

The Story of the Bizarro Legion- When Bizarro sees the Legion of Superheroes, he gets jealous and decides to start a Bizarro- Legion of his own. But when he and his Legion decide to "helP' the Universe in their own way, can Superman and the rest of the Legion find some way to deal with them?

In the "Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire", "Triumph of the League of Supervillains", and "Revolt of the Supervillains". a criminal sneaks into the Legion and sets out to disgrace the other members of the Legion, thereby leaving himself in charge. He succeeds, but when he recruits the three founding members of the Legion of Supervillains, Cosmic King, Saturn Queen and Lightning Lord, can he control them when their plot is to throw him out of the Legion and take over?

The "Super Moby Dick of Space" has Lightning Lad losing his arm to a sort of armored space Whale, and he seems to blame the Whale for his problems. But has he gone so insane that he wishes to kill the Whale? And can the Legion stop him before he breaks one of their bylaws and has to be ejected?

In "The War Between Krypton and Earth" and "The Civil War of the Legion", a plaque is discovered on an archaeological expedition that claims that Krypton conquered earth in the far past. Superboy is amazed and troubled to hear this and travels into the past to learn the truth, One set of Legionaires travels to Earth, where they meet the inhabitants of Atlantis. The other set travels to Krypton, where they meet a bunch of Kryptonian scientists who are persecuted for doing scientists and help them emigrate to Earth. Needless to say, it eventually leads to a big battle, the Legion must pick sides, and the Kryptonians win, with the Atlanteans becoming Mer-People. But what happens to the Kryptonians afterwards?

"The Unknown Legionnaire" has the Legion trapped on the planet of the Proteans, who are kept alive only by the services of the Unknown Legionnaire. But who is it?

In "Starfinger", "Starfinger Rises Again" and "The Secret of Starfinger", the Legion are menaced by the titular villain. But can they discover his true identity and unmask him before the world?

In "The Insect Queen of Smallville", Lana Lang discovers an alien who is hurt and trapped beneath a fallen tree. She helps free him. and in return, he gives her a ring which can give her the powers of various insects. But can she use her new powers to uncover the true identity of Superboy?

"The Weddings that Wrecked the Legion" and "Legionnaire Dropouts" tells the tale of when Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, as well as Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl, got married and had to leave the Legion. But when three villains joined the Legion in their place, would the Legion ever recover?

In "The Menace of the Sinister Super-Babies" and "The Time Trapper's Invincible Infant-ry", the Time Trapper sets up a plot by which many of the Legion are turned into babies- but still retain all of their powers! How will the Legion return the babies to normalcy and defeat the Time Trspper?

In "The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho", Superboy meets a boy from another planet with amazing powers. He sought to join the Legion, but they rejected him. He wants Superboy to get him another hearing. But is it possible for Kid Psycho to join the Legion?

In "The Menace of Beast Boy"- The Legion is summoned to deal with the animals of Vorn, who seem to have developed Super-intelligence and are attacking the people, But when they find out that the Villain is Beast Boy, a former hero from the Planet Lallor, can they persuade him that this isn't the course he was meant to be on?

I enjoyed reading these stories, many of which I hadn't read before because the comics they originally appeared in were old, expensive and hard to find. Not that these Archives are cheap, exactly- they were $50 new. Of course, they are also out of print- so I had to resort to Amazon resellers, but I'm glad I did. Since I wasn't all that enamoured of the Legion reboot, this is my best chance to read the real, original stories.

The Legion is kind of unusual for a Superhero comic, with so many characters, you can feel lost at times trying to remember them all, and all their powers. But with rare exceptions, the Legion tends to work in smaller groups- the exceptions are the big world-spanning threats to the galaxy- and even then the Legion breaks down into groups coming at the big plots from different directions.

I like the early stories a lot. The Legion charter, with provisions like "Only one Legionaire with a specific power in the Legion" or "No married Legionnaires" (a provision that would later be dropped- but not for some time), and "No killing by a member of the Legion, ever". gave the Legion their own quirky vibe. As time passed, the Legion expanded, and members joined, left or moved to the Substitute Legion, either as teachers or students. The ever-changing cast provided lots of interesting stories and characters to read about.

If a slightly quirky futuristic group of Superheroes based in the 30th century is something you find intriguing, I'd direct you to this book. Even if it doesn't really float your boat, these early stories have a charm all their own, and I'd be remiss if I didn't at least suggest them to you. Recommended.