Favorite Pre-crisis Superman Artists besides Curt Swan and Wayne Boring

[Adekis]

Oh, and he didn't have to enact any stupid changes to the costume to make him look contemporary either.

Just as well, since a "costume change" in this period of LSH history would likely have put him in speedos and a fishnet tank top. 

Haha, no doubt! Lightning Lad's costume looks pretty amazing during this period really, but I can never figure out what the hell they were thinking for Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl!

I don't mind Grell's otherwordly and unrealistic poses any more than I mind Kirby's giant proportions - huge heads with huge teeth, giant hands on beefy arms, etc. It's just part of the stylization.

Grell's Superboy, like the rest of his Legion, did indeed seem to have crossed that line from teen to adult, but to me, he was growing into someone different from the adult Superman appearing elsewhere.  His bone structure, his jawline, his frame were difficult to reconcile with what we knew from Superman, Action and World's Finest.  I was tempted to view the LSH character as "alternate Universe Superman" instead of "Superman when he was a boy."

I don't know about the art, but I definitely started feeling that way about the character to a certain extent. The Legionnaires were inspired by Superboy, but occasionally don't seem to know Superman exists, that kind of thing. The writers developed Superboy in the Legion a way not entirely different from how Dick Grayson evolved in the New Teen Titans, but since Kal already had a future self ready to go, it's definitely a little weirder, less linear.

You know, I said that Superboy's sideburns don't quite work given that he's not actually from the '70s, but like... maybe he is.

Anyway, Byrne made reading Superboy as a totally different character much more cromulent - but breaking a whole lot of the Superman Mythos in the process. Maybe it's best not to read too much into that stuff, haha! 

[nightwing]

You don't have to be a telepath from Titan to know what they were thinking with Saturn Girl.    But Cosmic Boy was weird.  I confess I went my entire youth without noticing there was no collar to his costume, and it was the same color as his skin.  I just recently realized he went bare-chested aside from those two black areas around either side of his rib cage.  I have no idea how they would have stayed up.  Maybe they were partly made of metal and he held them up with his superpower.

Garth did win the "best male costume" in the Bronze Age Legion, which is only fair considering how uninspired his original togs seemed.  I also liked the blue and green iteration of Element Lad's outfit, though it may have been a little over-detailed.  Imra's outfit held obvious appeal to us young lads, but it doesn't seem very practical to go into battle in a bikini.  The one that always brought the story to a screeching halt while I stared goggle-eyed was Dawnstar.   

As far as the sideburns go, I suppose there's always a balance between temporal logic and commercial appeal.  Would kids of the 70s have wanted to read about a kid with a 50's wardrobe and haircut?  Anyway, we were used to these anachronisms as TV watchers:  60s-era TV heroes used hair tonic whether their adventures were set in the Old West or the 23rd Century.  The Happy Days gang started with authentic looks but soon sported Disco-era hairdos, wide lapels and bell-bottoms in the "50s".  Heck, pioneer family patriarch Pa Ingalls had a perm! 

Anyway, Grell only ever drew one hairdo for male characters, and that included sideburns.  When Ollie shaved his goatee over in GL/GA, we were totally dependent on the colorist to differentiate him from Hal.  If Ollie ever met Travis Morgan in a black-and-white Showcase volume, I'd be completely lost.