September 1973: Superboy #197. That’s what it says in the indicia, anyway, but on the cover it’s now Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes–a title it will retain for the next few years, becoming Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes on its cover at the end of 1976. This issue’s lead story is by Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum.
September 1977: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #231, the first issue whose indicia features the new official title of the series, is written by 20-year-old Paul Levitz and drawn by James Sherman, Jack Abel and Mike Netzer.
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January 1980: Legion of Super-Heroes volume 2, #259. Superboy is kicked out of the title that used to be his (and moves over to a new, freshly numbered comic book); the Legion take it over as their own series, and finally get a half-decent logo. This issue’s by Gerry Conway, Joe Staton and Dave Hunt. Paul Levitz returns with #284, Keith Giffen joins him with #287, and all of a sudden the team catches on in a big way again.
September 1982: Adventure Comics #491. The Legion return to Adventure in reprint form: now a digest-size anthology, Adventure reprints a couple of early Legion stories each issue. It gives up the ghost with September, 1983’s #503.
August 1984: Legion of Super-Heroes volume 3, #1. Legion has now become so popular that a new series is launched (by Levitz, Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt) with a “hardcover/softcover” plan: it’s printed on extra-nice Baxter paper with a $1.25 cover price and sold only in comic book stores. It runs for 63 issues. Meanwhile, the previous Legion series (75 cents, less nice paper, sold on newsstands too) is retitled Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes with #314; for its first year, it features new material, and then continues with one-year-later reprints of the Baxter series, finally being cancelled with #354.