Regardless of Giffen's ill will toward KarateKid (he actually killed him twice!), he's still one of the best artists to work on Legion, and contributed toward plotting some of the best stories as well (LEGION 285-306)
But alas, Giffen's art isn't what it used to be, and hasn't been for 20 years. While Grell remains pretty consistent with his former work.
I never cared for Paul Levitz. He wrote the Legion so that the members were flat and had almost no personalities.
I've always wanted to see character driven stories.. like the ones Jim Shooter wrote between 1966 - 1970. He actually gave the Legion personalities!
My all time favorite Legion artist? Curt Swan. He drew them during the 60's and made them look damn good.
Well, there we differ in opinion.
In 285-306, I thought Levitz added a lot to Collossal Boy, Chameleon Boy, Saturn Girl, Light Lass, Timberwolf, Blok, Dawnstar, Starboy, Dream Girl and many others. Levitz and Giffen together were the first to bridge both a visual and story continuity with Legion's earliest adventures, and did several stories that cohesively reviewed their origins and earliest adventures (specifically issues 296-297, and 306).
I loved the personal drama and humor of Legion's interaction during these years.
I would agree with you though, that Levitz's earlier run from about 225-250 was pretty lame. The much heralded "Earth War" I thought really sucked, despite some good art by Nasser, Sherman, McLeod, Rubenstein, Wiacek and others.
And I'd also agree with you that issues (2nd series) 307-325, and (3rd series) 1-5 toward the end of the Levitz/Giffen run were less than inspired.
But the later issues by Levitz with Steve Lightle (third series, issues 7-13) and with Greg Larocque (issues 14-47) were good runs as well, and not until Giffen re-entered on the latter issues of the third series did the stories turn dark and decline.
I share your affection for the Cockrum and Grell issues, Beardguy. I'll always have a great affection for those runs, because that's where I started reading. But I actually think Legion hit it's greatest peak in the Levitz/Giffen years on issues 285-306. But we're talking about entertainment, so there no science to it, that's just my individual preference.
While I enjoy a lot of the ADVENTURE COMICS run by Shooter and others, I felt the art diminished those issues. It would have been nice to see a Swan/Anderson run on the series. Swan's art on Legion is, I think, pretty rushed, and far below the heights he scaled on his SUPERMAN run in the early 70's.
