The Legion of Super-Heroes these days is a franchise that very few people know anything about. Unfortunately, a ton of reboots and fiddling with the continuity have left them a less stable franchise than they were throughout the '70s and '80s. During those eras, the book stood alongside the X-Men and the New Teen Titans as one of the most popular superhero comics on the stands.
The Great Darkness Saga was one of the reasons for that. It was a massive, epic story told across multiple issues where the Legion was pushed to its absolute limit fighting against a villain that everyone knows these days, but was considerably less popular at the time in Darkseid.
10 One Of Darkseid's Earliest Appearances Outside The Fourth World Comics
Having Darkseid reveal himself as the main villain of this arc can seem like a bit of a played-out idea. Darkseid is always the villain of things these days, and it often feels like he’s around a little too frequently. But at the time, not many people knew who Darkseid was.
He was simply the main villain of Jack Kirby's The Fourth World series, which wasn't a terribly popular comic at the time and only became bigger later on. The character had made his first appearance in nearly a decade in these comics, but he instantly established his identity and became a fan-favorite in one of the biggest superhero comics of the era.
9 The First Storyline For The New Invisible Kid
This arc starred the newer Invisible Kid that’s rarely discussed these days. The second Invisible Kid was Jacques Foccart, who had the ability to make himself undetectable by using light waves.
He was also able to teleport, but he wasn’t really able to control it. Invisible Kid had made his appearance just that month, and was immediately thrown into an adventure like this and had to figure out how to survive.
8 The Daxamites Destroy Their Own Planet For Darkseid
One of the biggest things this arc had to it was Darkseid using his incredible power to swap the Daxamite homeworld with the location of his own. With this, Darkseid was able to empower all of the Daxamites and put them on the level of Mon-El and Superman.
Because they were new to the power, he bent them all to his will and had them in service to him for half the arc. Worse yet, his first plan upon getting them to work for him was having them destroy their own planet.
7 Dream Girl Leads The Legion
Back in the day, one of the coolest things about the Legion was that the leader would change constantly. It was a vote-based system, and the leader wouldn’t just be the same couple of people over and over again like most super-teams.
Occasionally, even fan votes would be allowed to decide who was leading the team. For this story arc, Dream Girl was placed in charge of leading the team, beating out Element Lad and a few others vying for the position. Fortunately, it worked out in her favor, because her premonitions are why the team won.
6 Superboy Fights A Clone Of Himself Under A Red Sun
At the end of the arc, the team fought near a red sun, leaving Superboy in trouble — and the team wasn’t all that much better off considering Superboy was one of their strongest fighters.
But thanks to Brainiac he was able to be outfitted with special technology that allowed him to maintain his powers while fighting against a clone of himself. This gives readers the awesome imagery of Superboy battling his most powerful enemy yet under a red sun.
5 Supergirl Makes A Return To The Legion Of Super-Heroes
The reappearance of Supergirl is actually a major deal for the Legion. The character had been missing from the comics for years, while Superboy was the only Kryptonian representative for the team.
But against such a massive threat, Kara Zor-El was summoned to the future to do battle against Darkseid. Both she and her cousin were powered up to battle him, but the two of them were both defeated, with Superboy even being sent back to his home time.
4 The Legion of Substitutes Join The Battle
So much of this arc was about pulling out all of the stops. Readers might not be aware, but the Legion of Super-Heroes actually had some stringent requirements early on in the series.
If characters had too similar powers they were kicked out, and if they couldn’t control their powers they weren’t allowed to join either. The Legion of Substitute Heroes weren’t often used, but this arc called on them for a brief (though impactful) appearance to help the Legion deal with the Daxamites as well as finding their boss.
3 Light Lass & Timber Wolf's Relationship Falls Apart
One of the running C-plots in this story arc was the frazzled relationship between Timber Wolf and Light Lass. While on a mission away from Light Lass, Timber Wolf found himself stranded with Saturn Girl. The two shared... something close to an emotional moment together, only for Light Lass to find them at the last moment.
In the end, Ayla thought the Legion was causing their relationship nothing but trouble and gave Timber Wolf an ultimatum at the end of the arc: leave the Legion, or lose her. Unable to give up his friends, Timber Wolf lost the woman he loved an issue after the arc ended.
2 Highfather Appears
Darkseid’s plans mostly go off without the Legion being able to meaningfully put a stop to them. The only thing that saves them is the White Witch using her powers to summon a strange child... who turns out to be Darkseid’s opposite number from New Genesis, Highfather.
Highfather uses the remnants of his power to restore Superboy and Supergirl’s power, restore Orion, and heal the Legion so they can give Darkseid one last fight. He’s not able to stick around, but his presence is the sole reason the team was able to win at all.
1 Orion Fights Darkseid
Darkseid used his powers to bring back a number of powerful warriors who were completely in his control. One of those warriors happened to be his son Orion — cloned and with his memory missing so he could be a worthy servant.
In the last issue, Highfather restores him to give Darkseid the thrashing he deserves. Orion is said to be the only person capable of bringing Darkseid down, and even the clone gets closer than he should have.