At Christmas, I bought myself the latest in Twomorrows' handsome line of comics artist spotlight books- Mike Grell: Life is Drawing Without an Eraser. I first became aware of Grell's pencils in the early 70s, with Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes 203.
I got it one dark evening in Glasgow's East End (Shettleston, I think) where my dad very occasionally bought feed for his racing pigeons. I was lucky enough to get the first Marvel Holiday Grab Bag too but SLSH made the greater impression upon me.
I'd read two of Cockrum's issues by that time - the late autumn of 1974- and I'd been struck by the costume redesigns for the staid, Buck Rogers-y Legionnaires. Latter-day commentators ironically call them Disco Era Legionnaires but really they predate that and have more of a hippy influence, IMO. Not only did Grell's Legionnaires look sleek and gorgeous, their powers were depicted in a more dynamic way- much as Neal Adams had revitalised the X-Men.
The most striking thing, for Adventure-era LSH fans, is that Invisible Kid's fate was never predicted in the Adult Legion stories. By all accounts a fan favourite as well as a former Legion leader, this omission was surprising. Lyle's death was certainly unexpected, where the demise of Chemical King or Shadow Woman had been foretold.
It didn't register then that I'd seen Grell's work in the first SLSH Super-Spec that summer. The signature probably stuck with me after I bought my next SLSH, in Ayr in the spring of 1975 ( probably a chilly April, like this one). Not only was that comic memorable for my first-ever glimpses of Legion villains Universo and Lightning Lord, I bought it along with a JLA, sporting a Grell cover.
Although it would take nearly five years- and the discovery of Exchange and Mart- to unearth the sequel with the Legion of Super-Villains (208, below) I was hooked by Grell's version and bought every issue I could see on the spinner rack, including the infamous debut of Tyroc, the first black Legionnaire.
Radiation Roy: greatest name for a Villainaire ever
Scottish distribution being what it was in the 70s, I failed to even glimpse Tyroc's follow-up appearances. However, I did manage to be present at the dazzling debut of Dawnstar.
Grell's flair for sci-fi exotica was also seen in Green Lantern/Green Arrow, which I sampled once or twice. The series starred arguably the best-designed duo of DC heroes ( no, not Air Wave and Black Canary!) but it didn't grab me.
By the time I was in S3 and S4, SLSH had entered its giant-sized phase. Scripters Jim Shooter and Cary Bates had been replaced by Paul Levitz and Gerry Conway. Grell still provided covers - including a couple of my favourite giant issues, the ones with the Legion Lore text pages- but he was working primarily on his own creation, The Warlord.
I don't know why Warlord with its brazen mix of REH, ERB and Tolkien didn't fire me during the height of my sword and sorcery paperback obsession. It wasn't until the early 80s that I really became interested in the series: through the digest first and then the first annual. When Dan Jurgens took over, I stopped buying it.
When I discovered the independents through the Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes, I tried the first issue of Jon Sable and the second issue of Starslayer, essentially "Bran Mak Morn in Space". Back in January, this year, I finally read the collected Starslayer but I found it quite predictable and pedestrian. I'd really like to see a collection of DC's Star Hunters or Eclipse's Sun Runners, which might be more imaginative space operas.
Although Sable was actually a short-lived tv series, Grell's mercenary hero and his real-world exploits weren't to my taste. I'd like to re-read The Longbow Hunters since my recollection of that series is also a cool one. Certainly, it was a highly successful re-launch for Green Arrow, again utilising a "world outside your window" milieu.
In the 90s boom, I sampled Grell's creation for Image: Shaman's Tears but like many of their titles, and those of Continuity Comics, it seemed a slight thing- pretty but a thin read. Nearly twenty years later, Grell produced a tribute to the LSH in the pages of the one-and-only Giant-Sized X-Men Forever. It featured Cockrum's Legion pastiche, the Shi'Ar Imperial Guard. Aside from the covers for the Arrow tv tie-in, that was the last time I saw Grell working for the Big Two.
I think it's Grell's conservative spirit of frontier justice that turns me off his writing. It's a reactionary voice that's also present in Chaykin's comics- from the Scorpion to Dominic Fortune to the Shadow- and infamously in the work of Frank Miller, particularly Sin City and All-Star Batman and Robin. The vigilante spirit is present in the climax of the first season of Jessica Jones and in the DC Zack Snyder's movies. Unfortunately, it seems to have permeated DC since DiDio's arrival.
From a visual perspective, Grell's half-naked heroes with their distaff equivalents in bell bottoms and eye shadow are a bit too baroque for me nowadays. But in a comics world that's been, unthinkably, without a Legion of Super-Heroes title for six years, the saving grace of Grell's era is that it represents the vivacity and charm of the group.
Coming up: The Great White Whale.
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