Comics that grew up with you? (LSH in my case)

[Kid Kyoto]

For those of us who might be considered grown ups...

One of Harry Potter's secrets of success is JK Rowling's idea of books that grow with the readers. Ideally a kid should start with the first book around age 12 or 13 when Harry is that age and continue about 1 book a year until the 7th and final book when Harry is 19. The books have gotten more mature, more complex and their world view has subtly changed over time. Harry at 12 is angelic and innocent and can do no wrong. At 16 he's a real ass and awkward with the girls. Whether or not you like Harry Potter I think Rowling deserves a lot of credit for this idea.

So that got me thinking about comics. Do you have a comic that looking back, you can say grew up with you?

I started reading the LSH in 82 or so. At the time they were doing a PG rated soap opera with scary bits and deaths and lots of well-written action. G rated Silver age stories were also being reprinted in Adventure Comics digest so at the tender age of 9 I had comics that were pretty much at my level of maturity.

When I was 17 the LSH did the 5 year gap and stories became much more complicated and adult. Not just in the sense of S-E-X and deaths but in terms of themes and stories. Economic crisis and middle age crisis were just as prominent as alien invasions.

One reason I hated the reboot so much was that this link was broken.

In this case it was accidental. I remember hearing in high school that the average comic reader was about my age and hearing the same in college. I wonder if it's still true now (I'm 32).

It would be interesting I think for a writer to deliberately try something similar. To plan X years of stories that would start aimed at 10 year olds but finish aimed at 20 year olds.

[Adem]

I don't think young people read comics anymore. I'm one of the youngest persons who reads comics in my LCS and I'm 16. The young ones are just there for the CCGs.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Not many will sit and read a comic anymore. More or less they play video games , go online or watch TV. Its ad...but true. I'm sorry the LSH rebooted that 1st time for you. I can understand your anger. That series had seemingly aged with the reader and its sad to see what happened.

[Ontir]

AMEN KID KYOTO!

I first found the Legion, when I was about 4. My uncle had some Legion in Adventure Comics issues. The first issue I bought, was Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #203 - the death of Invisible Kid. From that point on, I was rabid for the series. I began buying issues whenever I came across them, which was difficult in the pre-comic shop days. Eventually, some comic shops opened and I was able to get the book monthly, as well as work on filling out the back-issues. The Legionnaires had been teenagers longer than I'd been alive, but by the time I was a teen, they were growing up as well. By the time I was in high school, they were in their late teens/early twenties. As I approached 30, they were in their mid-thirties, had made lives for themselves since the Legion was disbanded, and were now coming back together, with all that life experience in tow.

It was clear that something was wrong at the point that Giffen left. The drive and momentum just weren't there. Once the Bierbaums were gone, the book just went in circles. Certainly something needed to be done, but "Zero Hour" just wasn't it! The Legionnairres who emerged where shallow, and uninteresting, even in comparison to the SW-6 Legion that populated Legionniares. I didn't have a problem with there being teen Legionnaires, but I didn't want the older Legionnaires to be de-aged, and stipped of their continuities. What came after, is sort of like someone with Alzheimer's. They look like someone you love, and to a certain extent, they sound like them, but many of the things that made them who they were, are just irretrievably gone.

[Headhunter]

I don't think young people read comics anymore. I'm one of the youngest persons who reads comics in my LCS and I'm 16. The young ones are just there for the CCGs.
I'm one of the youngest at my LCS, will turn 23 in October. Yup.

[grendel824]

The aforementioned LSH was one of the best examples, though it was a little ahead of me (which made it all that much better - I knew there was something to what I was reading, and I wanted to know more!). Giffen's run is still a treasured memory...

[Forsaken_One]

Not many will sit and read a comic anymore. More or less they play video games , go online or watch TV. Its ad...but true. I'm sorry the LSH rebooted that 1st time for you. I can understand your anger. That series had seemingly aged with the reader and its sad to see what happened.
I doubt it's reading that's the problem (though that's part of it). I think it's mostly the price. Think about it, I can get a paperback book that's a good 700 pages, a day worth of reading for me, for seven bucks. I can watch a movie, 1.5-2 hours of entertainment, for ten bucks, five if I rent the movie and watch it at home. I can get a single player video game ranging from 15 to 40 hours of gameplay for thirty to sixty dollars. And then I can get a comic book that'll last me maybe ten minute if I read real slow and reread it a few times for two fifty. Or I can get a trade paperback that'll tide me over for maybe an hour or two for fifteen to twenty dollars.

So in the economics of entertainment comics aren't very cost effective. To equal the time a movie will keep me entertained I'd need to spend around twenty dollars. A video game would be around $200 for the 15 hour version, nevermind the 40 hour version. And so on. The great golden age of comic book retail was when a kid could go to the newsstand and spend his allowance on three or four comic books. Now the allowance I got when I was twelve years old or so, even adjusting for inflation, would barely get me three comics.

[Josh S]

I would maybe buy a comic once every couple months when I was a kid. I just really felt overwhelmed by the fact that stories were already up into the hundreds. I really started getting into comics maybe five years ago and even then due to outside "forces" it's been an off and on hobby. So, I guess I didn't really grow up with any comics.


That's alot of typing just to say that, but oh well.

By the way, pardon my ignorance, but is LSH Legion of Super Heroes?

[dazzler_slave]

Yup, LSH is indeed Legion of Superheroes, and I am sad to say that it took the Mark Waid reboot to get me into them, though, I kinda want to look at getting back issues some day.

For me, I grew up with the New Mutants. When I first started collecting superhero comics, I was 12, and the New Mutants was one of the first titles I collected. At that time, Bret Blevins was the artist, Louise Simonson was the writer, and they were smack dab in their teenager years. As I got to be an older teeneager, they broke up and became X-Force, a group of late teen heroes. By the time I hit my 20's they were in THEIR early 20's so I kinda feel a close kinship with Dani, Sam, Roberto, Amara, Rahne, Doug, Shan, James, Theresa, Tabitha and Illyana. I grew with them. (And, being 29 now, surpassed them in age). Man I loved that crew of mutants.

Here in the DC Universe, the closest comparison for me would be the Titans. Nightwing and company were teenagers long before I was, but I caugth up with them and we entered our 20's at roughly the same time.

[Ultraman Max]

I'm not sure there was a comic that grew with me as I tended to read alot of different stuff from alot of different eras. I recall that Tim Drake and I were the same age at one point but that's no longer the case, not that I want it to be as I remember when I was younger being really irritated that Dick Grayson was no longer Robin like he was on the Superfriends and Batman episodes I could still see on TV at the time (this was 1989? and I was around 12 or so).


There've been several times where I've run into kids who want to read comics in bookstores or the local Media Play or grocers, but don't because the character in the books aren't the ones they're familiar with on TV. Or the character isn't in the book in costume enough. Usually the situation almost always ends with the kid picking up a manga volume that is much closer to it's televised counterpart. In a few cases they'll buy the specific show tie-in title if they see it, if they don't walk away altogether in frustration that is. I'd go into a rant about product consistancy and brand expectations being the best long term selling strategy in a consumer culture used to getting what it wants and expects, but I'd rather not. ;)

[Kid Kyoto]

I guess at the end of the day there aren't all that many comics that ever did grow up. Like Ultraman said people expect brand conistancy so you can't have a 40 year old Dick Grayson sitting around whinning about the good old days. We'll have teen Legions and wotnot forever and ever.

TV shows are a bit different in this regard since you have human actors who age. I think one reason for Buffy's popularity is that a generation of high school and college kids grew up with Buffy as she went from HS to college through first love and first lust to losing her mom and finding a job.

If Buffy was traditional comic she would a HS student forever.

[dougiemccoy]

I would have to say LOSH would be the book i have to pick. been reading this off and on since i was in the 2nd grade... even though not real happy with right now. and haven't been years. this book is one of my all time favorite of all times.

[synthetikdemon]

I stopped LSH as soon as the reboot happened, I had grown up with the Legion , through the magic wars, into the Earthgov saga, I had loved the sw6 concept, and then I dropped it, stone cold.

Maybe the new one will be good, I am reserving judgegment, but yes I grew up on LSH, and although I read others, there are some you cant avoid reading.....Long Live the Legion!