Keith Giffen's 1983 Legion of Super-Heroes Poster

In 1983, Keith Giffen took on a daunting poster for DC Comics.  One that featured nearly every character (heroes, villains, substitutes) that had appeared in the Legion's entire history.  The picture above is only one-third of the entire image, taken from the right-hand side!  I cropped it to this side to show my favorite Legionnaires: Dawnstar, Wildfire, Star Boy, Karate Kid, Mon-El, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Colossal Boy.

Here's the full poster, you can click on it to view the scan.  I remember buying this and pouring over the voluminous cast of characters.  It could have been blown up and used as wallpaper in order to see all the characters better.

Keith Giffen blew a gasket on this poster, as he said in an interview with Jon B. Cooke (for Jack Kirby Collector #29):  "What happened was I did this Legion poster, characters all over the place. And in drawing that Legion poster I totally burned myself out on the book. After the poster I just had to walk away."

Giffen's last regular Legion issue (as penciler) with co-creator Paul Levitz was in the Baxter Legion of Super-Heroes #2.  He would return to guide the Legion in their infamous "five year later" reboot.  Nuff said.

Keith Giffen's Legion of Super-Heroes on Adventure Comics 500 cover

Now for a bit of Legion/DC Comics trivia.  Adventure Comics was cancelled in 1982 with issue 490, but it was revived soon afterward in a small digest-sized format.  DC reprinted the Legion of Super-Heroes stories in chronological order, and Paul Levitz wrote an afterword explaining various bits of Legion history.

Adventure Comics #500 was a milestone anniversary issue.  To celebrate, DC had Keith Giffen draw the front and back covers of the digest.  On the front side, the 60s era Legion looks through the time monitor at their 1980s era counterparts.

The back cover flips the mirror around, with the new Legion looking at the monitor to the older version.  Notice how all the characters are truly flipped around: Colossal Boy was standing on the left on the front cover, on the back cover he's standing on the left.   Cowabunga!  That blows my mind, man.  Nuff Said!