Lo, The Lethal Legion (?)

I just noticed that Marvel Comics has solicited orders for something called Dark Reign: Lethal Legion #1-3 (June - August 2009). After reading the brief description, it appears that they are pulling another old super-villain team out of mothballs for a mini-series tied into their Dark Reign event.

I remember the first version of the Lethal Legion who originally appeared in The Avengers #79 (July 1970). Consisting of Grim Reaper, Swordsman, Power Man, Living Laser and Man-Ape, the Legion initially got the drop on the mighty Avengers, until the Reaper discovered a heretofore unknown connection between the Vision and his deceased brother, Wonder Man. Later on several members of that version of the Legion were tricked by the villain known as Count Nefaria into battling against the Avengers again, solely to allow Nefaria to secretly syphon off their super-powers for himself. The teams lineup has continually changed over the years.

Now, it seems as if villainy is all the rage at Marvel these days, and not just in Dark Reign. There are the Thunderbolts, who were originally the Masters of Evil (another group of Avengers foes), Deadpool, and Dark Reign's own uber-bad guy, Norman Osborn; who has long since outgrown his old Green Goblin shtick and become the Marvel Universe equivalent of Lex Luthor.

I like the various rogues gallery foes for most of Marvels heroes as much as the next guy, but endlessly spinning off so many series for their stable of baddies doesn't leave much room for the classic villains within the pages of the regular titles - does it? I don't know how I feel about this tendency, but I don't think that I really like it. I would much prefer seeing these guys work their dastardly deeds within the pages of the heroes own books.