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Somebody will do this better than me but...

In the sixties Legion starts out as a Superman/Superboy spin-off. This period is covered by Archives & Showcase Presents. The classic stories are by Jim Shooter.

Then after fits and starts the Legion kicks Superboy off the cover and take over the numbering and becomes LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980)

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen started their classic run in 284(?). I wouldn't recommend starting before this. A good way to get the idea is with The Great Darkness Saga TPB.

From there everything is good script-wise for a long time. The book does a weird change where it splits for a year and the original numbering with new stories goes up to 325 (the title changed to TALES OF THE LoSH with 314(?)

In the meantime you have LoSH (1984) which as I mentioned is solid all the way through. If you can get the 1-63 run cheap go for it. I think the first 10 or so issues were recently reprinted as trades.

Then you have my favorite run, but it's controversial. LoSH (1989) - made more confusing in Mile High because they show the ZERO issue stunt as the 1st issue. That issue has nothing to do with #1. Anyway, the first issue of LoSH (1989) starts with the words: "Five Years Later" and sure enough the new creative team (Giffen and some long time Legion fans) pushed the story ahead five years later. It had the same deconstructionist flavor as many of the contemporary DC titles of the time (Blackhawk, The Shadow, Batman Year One, Twilight, Doom Patrol, etc). That series stays great from 1-38 when Giffen finally leaves. Remember IMO.

Finally everyone gave up and decided the Zero Hour was a good reason to do a full reboot. The ZERO issue was part of that reboot. LoSH 62(?) starts the new era of the Legion. Legionaries is published at the same time and the books are basically bi-weekly. I (and others) derisively call this period the "Archie Legion". Instead of the steadily growing and now mature Legion that had run consistently (more or less) since the beginning you had cutesy retellings (with a twist!) of classic Legion stories and encounters. I jumped off here. Mark Waid was the main writer. Remember that name.

This idea ran out of steam and Abbott and Lanning (of Annihilation fame) come on board at the end of the series w/Coipel and do a story called "Legion of the Damned" and everything gets brutal again. LoSH 122 - 125 of the main series & 79-81 of Legionaries. I wouldn't recommend tracking these down unless you can find them cheap. Rare & expensive. Plus Coipel is pretty rough.

Then you have the great LEGION LOST 12 issue miniseries. I think it's a huge shame this was never reprinted and it was a subject of consternation on the old DC boards for a while. No spoilers but the set up is some of Legionaries are "lost" in a different dimension/edge of the know universe (something like that) and they can't get home.

Then LEGION WOLRDS which shows what the non-lost team was doing.

Finally a new series(!) starts up. This is LEGION (2001). The writers are DnA and Coipel does the art. I found it to be focused more on sci-fi ideas and subtle characterization that over the top super-heroics. I loved it and it brought me back to the Legion full time. Unfortunately there aren't any trades for this. My conspiracy theory is that DC was mad when Coipel left to Marvel right when he was started to get well-deserved notice. DnA were gone with #33 and it didn't feel right. I don't know the politics but as a reader it seemed like they had another 2+ years worth of story in them. So the series falls apart again and it's cancelled w/38.

THEN WE HAVE ANOTHER FULL REBOOT! LoSH (2004) Uggh. And guess who's back? Waid. I can't say anything good about the little I've read of this series. DnA had a competent group of heroes facing amazing situations and moral dilemmas - Waid has the Legion caught up in a painful youth rebellion that makes the late 1960's/1970's ROBIN seem like a thoughtful and erudite dissertation of the nature of adolescence. I'm not sure what if anything happened with that series but it did receive a well-deserved (from what I can tell) death.

Finally something weird happened while all of this was going on...

Geoff Johns started writing stories about the LoSH in the Superman titles, JSA & FINAL CRISIS. The weird thing - this Legion looked like the people from the "classic" pre-five years later Levitz era. The era that most fans love. Others will know more but there's supposed to be yet another series out soon.

MY BIGGEST QUESTION? - WHY HAVEN'T WE SEEN A GRANT MORRISON LEGION?

Hope that was helpful!

I don't understand why they didn't start the paperback reprints with GREAT DARKNESS and go forward instead of skipping ahead to the AN EYE FOR AN EYE collection (reprinting 1-5? of LoSH 1984).

And I really don't understand why we've never seen a LEGION LOST collection. That one really seems like a no-brainer since it's basically self-contained and features a sort of hot creative team.

That FERRO LAD book made no sense. I think two people on this board actually bought it.

My crazy theory is that DC has a problem w/Coipel not DnA.

One funny thing I noticed looking at Amazon while writing my response. Check out the product description for the upcoming ENEMY MANIFEST collection.

Product Description
Legendary LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES writer Jim Shooter continues his return to the 31st century with ENEMY MANIFEST, the latest volume starring the greatest heroes of the future. While war looms and a traitor plots against the Legion from within, a massive, hostile planet appears near Jupiter, and its gravity
is ripping apart the solar system! It's tense drama and high action as a recruitment drive takes place and the beginning of the Universal
Annihilation War reveals itself!

hmmm. Where have I heard ANNIHILATION before?

Your idea on the 1984 series is good.

I'd just get that and skip LoSH (1989) #39 entitled Beginings. You'd be coming in at the end of the series (only a year or two left) and running into LEGIONARIES which runs currently. Ultimately doesn't have a good conclusion because they just hit the reset button with ZERO HOUR.

You could always start with LoSH (1989) 1-10 but you might not like the art. Keith Giffen did a rigid 9-panel grid formula to try to make the stories as dense and information filled as possible.

My discovery of the Legion went:

ZERO HOUR LoSH (1989) 62? I read a few of the Archies and quickly got sick and forgot about the Legion

LoSH Archive v.10 (Dave Cockrum's costume redesign) - Impulse Buy
Imagine the days during the Masterwork gap. Before everything was reprinted. Before omnibus, premiere, absolute etc. Imagine a day when you thought to yourself - "Gee, I've got some extra money and time and those LoSH Archives look cool and there's so many. I think I'll get one. Wow, I like the costumes on this cover..."
From there I quickly got v.4 up (the earliest volumes are too childish for my tastes. I am planning to read them at some point either through archives or SHOWCASE).

While I was buying the archives I found a full run of LoSH (1989) 1-38. Amazing.

Then I found a full run of LoSH (1984) on eBay for cheap.

Then THE LEGION by DnA & Copeil started.

Then I worked my way back through the Levitz run pre-LoSH (1984) while trying to continue from the most recent archive. Read some horrible stuff just before the long Levitz run and gave up on that idea.

Found a reasonably priced set of LEGION LOST and a few LEGION OF THE DAMNED (end of LoSH 1989) to get the general idea.

Now I'm just waiting for FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS to be collected. I also read the recent SUPERMAN AND THE LEGION collection by Johns.

That sounds good.

290-310 you get GREAT DARKNESS and a good sample of Levitz & Giffen. The only strange thing... LoSH 313 leads into LoSH (1984) 1-15. The editorial in LoSH #1 (1984) should explain everything. Anyway you're getting a good 35 issue chunk of the "classic" run.

LoSH (1989) 40-50 seems like a weird place to start, but I've never read them. You're still in 5YL so realize it happens a long time after the Levitz Legion.

Legionaires: 1-10 is still the 5YL Legion. The switch is at 19?

Then....

LoSH (1989) #0 & Legionaires #0 - This is the start of the Achie Legion.

I've never read L.E.G.I.O.N. '89 but I've been curious. Let me know what you think.

For Archives...

I'd get v.5 or v.6. Those are the high points of the SA run. Shooter scripts and Swan art. Juvenile but much more mature and with more character and continuity than anything else DC was doing at the time. You can see why it took off.

v.12 is all Grell but it's not on par with his work in Jon Sable or Green Arrow. I wouldn't recommend it based on Grell's artwork alone.

If you aren't a SHOWCASE snob go for vol. 2 as a sample.