CLASSIC COMIC OF THE WEEK: Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3, #14 - RIP Steve Lightle

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By d. emerson eddy — I feel like I've been writing reminiscences of creators who have passed far too often in the past year. Not that they don't deserve recognition, far from it, just that we seem to be losing people regularly. It's a reminder that you never know how long someone is going to be with us, and as such, we should cherish them while they're still here. Just this past week we lost artist Steve Lightle to complications due to COVID-19, and he'll definitely be missed. I had a handful of earlier issues, also with his art, but one there is one that I still have that introduced a handful of new Legionnaires in a recruitment drive in Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3 #14 by Paul Levitz, Lightle, Larry Mahlstedt, Carl Gafford, and John Costanza.

In my early experiences with the Legion, it seemed to me that many of their stories tended to involve standing around while testing out new members or existing threats, often within little boxes that had their logo on them. This ultimately isn't true, but it seemed like the luck of the draw that most of the stories that I had as an early reader followed that formula.

It was probably one of the reasons why I didn't really get into them until the tail end of Volume 3, which culminated in the epic Magic Wars and the phenomenal 5 Years Later that launched Volume 4. Still, Legion of Super-Heroes #14 was one that stuck with me, and I think it was largely because of Steve Lightle's artwork, as well as the introduction of one of the new heroes.

That hero is Tellus. I was always drawn to “monster” characters, and I found Tellus' design to be fascinating. He was unlike the rest of the Legion and their average human/humanoid appearances, looking more like a cross between some kind of rock and a lizard-fish, painted in bright purple and yellow colors. Tellus, and fellow applicant Comet Queen, were part of what made this issue fun and enticing when I was a kid. 

Now having read much more, if not all, of the various Levitz-penned Legion, I can appreciate more of the intricacies, politicking, and soap opera elements that went into the book, including ongoing sabotage plots and a redemption arc for a surprise member, but Legion of Super-Heroes #14 was the one that originally grabbed me, simply because of the art from Lightle, Mahlstedt, and Gafford.

Lightle was one of my favorite Legion of Super-Heroes artists, not just because he was most likely the first artist I saw draw them, but because his style seemed to straddle the line between the shadowy, blocky Jack Kirby influences of Keith Giffen, and the cleaner, action-infused lines of Neal Adams, Mike Grell, and Alan Davis. His artwork was one of the highlights when I went back and read earlier incarnations of the Legion in earnest.

I always saw Lightle’s art as one of the influences that seemed to go from Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell to Keith Giffen to him, through Greg LaRocque, Mike DeCarlo, and back to Giffen, to Stuart Immonen and the genesis of what I consider to be the Legion style that flourished in the '90s with other artists like Barry Kitson, Chris Sprouse, Jeff Moy, and Lee Moder.

And like Brian Bolland, Lightle is inseparable in my mind from being one of the premier cover artists for '80s and '90s DC Comics. Whether acknowledged or not, I feel like his artwork, his compositions and blocking, greatly helped inform visual decisions for many modern artists, right on through to today.

Lightle's passing makes me think not just of some of the early books of my childhood like Legion of Super-Heroes #14, but that we shouldn't take for granted the people that bring us such joy. We should all tell the people who create these wonderful stories that we appreciate them. Thank them for their work while they're still with us and let them know how much they mean to us all.

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3 #14

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3 #14
Writer: Paul Levitz
Penciller: Steve Lightle
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Letterer: John Costanza
Publisher: DC Comics
New Legionnaires join...and just wait 'til you see who they are!
Release Date: May 21, 1985
Price: $1.99
Read It Digitally: Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3 #14

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.