LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1ST SERIES)

Regular monthly series but a difficult one to follow title-wise.

The Legion of Super-Heroes began appearing as an irregular back-up feature in Superboy (1st Series) with #172. Superboy's last solo story appears in #196 after which Smallville and its characters are left behind.

Beginning with #197 the cover title reads "Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes". With #222 the cover reads "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes". Issue #230 is the last which bears the name "Superboy" in the indicia.

With #231, the name "officially" changes to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. After #258, the comic was wholly replaced by this title, The Legion of Super-Heroes (and The New Adventures of Superboy).

The title is known as The Legion of Super-Heroes until #313 and Annuals #1-3 have the same title. With #314 the title is changed to Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes and continues under that title until the last issue. #354 - Annual #4 carries this title, as well.

It should be noted that while the cover title is "Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes", the official title according to the indicia is simply "Tales of the Legion".

A new separate series, Legion of Super-Heroes began in August 1984 and ran alongside Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes. For 12 issues both titles produced new stories.

Then, to further complicate matters. beginning with issue #326, the long-running Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes series began reprinting the new Legion of Super-Heroes series as part of DC's "hardcover/softcover" trial. The new Legion of  Super-Heroes series was released solely through the direct market while the "Tales" series would continue to be released through both the direct and newsstand markets.

This format was designed to emulate the mainstream book market where a book would be released in hardcover with a paperback (or softcover) release coming about a year later. In this case, the higher-priced direct market Legion of Super-Heroes edition was the "hardcover" and the lower-priced newsstand Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes edition was the "paperback." Most specialty comics stores quit ordering the Tales series after #325.

All various name changes within the original Legion of Super-Heroes title run that began with #258 are collected here under this this one title entry for ease of access.

All issues were distributed in the U.K. at the time although issues #267, 294, 325, 337-338, 340, 343 were all Limited Distribution in the U.K.