Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Superman Annual 14 Spoilers and Speculations

I'll leave it to someone with the gift of writing to actually chart spoil the issue, I just want to put one speculation out there..

About Mitch...he's not gay....he's really Chamelon Boy. Why do I think this? Because we have missing legionnaires in the 21th century. We have Element Lad and Tellus with Superboy, we have Starboy with the JSA, Dream Girl is in Star Labs...so where would Cham be? Hiding in plain sight...and since he was there to encourage Mon to Live each day like its his last..and is part of his supporting cast ..why wouldn't he be Cham?

PS it appears that the forumla that Superman gave Mon was defintely placed there by a legionnaire...the hands look like Tellus'. That's a spoiler

Oh! Interesting speculation!

Remember the Origins & Omens pages in Action 874. The shaded out person with antennae talking with the Guardian and Tellus. It has to be Cham or Drura.

S-S could be right.

I loved how Robinson tied Mon-El into the history of the Americas. He's got human(Native American) blood as well as Kryptonian. And a pct of Daxamites have human ancestors as well as Kryptonian.

He was definitely inspired by the ancient Meso-american (mostly Olmec and Mayan) artifacts and ground impressions that show what could easily be interpreted as astronauts in spaceships or appear to be directions or landmarks for space travelers. This stuff has always been speculated on as evidence of extra-terrestrial encounters by ancient civilizations. The drawing of Earth in the book looks like the encounter between Mon's ancestor and the human took place with a culture on a Pangea type continent in Earth's history but whose culture was definitely carried on in ancient Mesoamerica. Cool to me because all my studies of those histories and the similarities of all the ancient civilizations lead me to speculate the history of man dates back much further than we realize, we just don't don't have any evidence of it because it happened so long ago. If this was a Pangea continent, based on the carvings on the walls this was definitely the segment of humans whose culture survived in the Americas.

Timley too since the Mayan Calendar is set to end in 2012. I bet Robinson's already got a story there, because he obviously did some history homework and wasn't just throwing it out there.

Robinson did throw however, Mon-el and Daxam smack dab into the middle of most rea life speculation about extra-terrestrial life on Earth. And he made him very much a product of Earth as well as Daxam in the process...he's not exactly an immigrant when he's on Earth.


More, he left much about Mon-el unexplored and the character very much still an enigma. Robinson obviously has a fondness for Mon-el as he's doinng a Mon-el that truly resembles the original character as he actually was IMO at a very detailed level.

Very introspective, an introvert, cerebral...yet also heavily disconnected from his own history, which is probably the only reason he retained his sanity after a thousand years in the zone.

Mon-el's powers are superfluous to who he is really and they aren't that important to him, at all outside of using them to be a hero.


He's(Robinson) also answering some of the questions that I always asked about Mon-el, like why did he seem to have so little connection to his home planet, why did he become so connected to Superman so quickly. It always seemed like the Legion was really the only family he ever really had, and from what I get out of this origin, that is pretty much the case.

I think Robison was born to write Mon-el, at least the Mon-el I liked and I don't think he's that easy of a character to explore in detail and still keep unique from Superman. IMO, Robinson is pulling that off while leaving his mystique intact. I think what Robinson is doing with Mon and in this issue with Daxam, easily fits into the original continuity as well.

The only thing I don't like so far is what they are going to do with his costume.

Quite possibly but it could also be a new Dubbilex or maybe even Xenophobe or whatever the future Green Lantern is called

They are working hard to retain the "explorer" aspect from previous boots. He found the ship (off-panel). He studied the planets (off-panel).

They do give several hints that "Mitch" is from the future. Very disappointing to me, it's rare that a good NEW character comes along and I thought Mitch gave a very good eye on which to observe Mon-El, and he can cook.

So, Cham or Tenzel?

They're trying to set-up a "Glorith" type connection of some sort, his escape (yes, escape) from Daxam is part of a grand design. Mon-El on Daxam is considered an "alien" by the "one-drop" rule, that one drop being from a whoody-doo between an ancestor and a mayan/aztec/inca (not sure which) baby sacrificing king.


I'm not sure other than setting up further stories that there was any intent to accomplish anything here other than provide a series of facts.

I think Robinson's instructions were to write a fictional story that would best reflect the worst history lesson he had ever received. Be sure it's only facts and that it's presented in a dry and poke your own eye out fashion.

There are no beat-notes, no tension, no drama, no connection to the present, no relationships developed. We don't see his family so other than genetics, we have no idea how he came to be who he is. This doesn't even seem like the same writer doing the monthly.


Here's a few items of characterization I picked up.


We learned that Mon-El is the only one apparently on Daxam that runs around in his jammies and a cape.

He keeps a monkey and a kitty in a cage but he sacrificed them (it's in his blood) and his friend in his rush to escape the Monk so fortunately no lame Bebbo/Streaky parallels will have to be dealt with.


His human and daxamite ancestors condoned the sacrifice of babies (by the cutting out of their hearts no less). I can see the story now: affected by red-lead, Lar-Gand invades the baby-ward of Smallville General intent on eating his way through the morning's offerings.

Daxamite space exploration was inhibited by their inability to build a ship that can land safely.

To guarantee further bad stories, there is bunches that he refuses to allow the red crystals to tell him.

+++++++

At what age did Clark know he was Kyrptonian? From this issue, they imply he knows who "Jor-El is and he's only about shoulder high to Mon-El. So in the new Johns version he is a Super-tot?

I picked Tenz because Mitch is a cook, he's one of the lost, right?

Ya knwo I'm thinking either Cham or Tenz as well..unless it's soem wierdo fusion of the two O_o

At anyrate I thought the whole " sort of somewhat kyrptonians" was a nice twist and to be honest it kind of fits. I always wondred why daxamites had similar abilities to krytonians. Although I hope to one day see what happened to all the other lar's out there due to various reboots and how that all fits together.

Also I agree with Superboy on how Mon's being written and how this is the Mon El that I want to read, closer to what I remember. Although I'm pissed at mon's stupid costume change and all that..although him in the league is kind of a cool tidbit. Hopefully once he gets his butt back in the zone all the other legionnaires will come back home?

All of this makes sense and explains a lot about him.

His 'disconnection' from family and planet would also help explain his attraction to Tasmia, Shadow Lass in this continuity.
She was shown to have grown up on her own, with only a younger cousin, and I think, a great uncle or grandfather for family.

She was off planet when the F5 took over and her planet rejected her as well, she joined the Legion and never really looked back.

I remember Lar refusing to go on a mission once, because Shady was injured.

I think that their mutual orphaning drew them together like 2 kids clutching each other in a dark and lonely world.

Cham has been appearing regularly in many DC Universe titles. Be on the look out out for any and all rubbish cans ...

(snip)

After Shooter's last take, I don't care whose team he wants to bat for. I'm just glad it's safe to let him near my pets again.

<span style="font-size: 10px;">Hopefully</span>

He IS the bat.

That's a totally cool bit of analysis there.

It also puts them in a sort of sideways Romeo and Juliet place, at odds with (or simply very far removed from) their 'families' and regarding each other as the only family they have in this universe (which, in Mon's case, is more true than Shady's, as his actual family is probably 1000 years dead).

Aren't we all, after a few shots of Triple Sec...

:rolleyes:

Siddown, BB!! <strike>Nobody likes a wiseguy.</strike>

I just remembered that the new Batman is Dick Grayson, which makes him not only Legion aged but experienced with the team, as Nightwing.

I'm like the idea of Bats and the Espionage Squad better and better.

Is he married or with someone?
'Cause I can see him consoling Lydda in her possible break up with Rokk.
Who better for Batman than Night Girl?

I really liked this issue. I prefer stand alone stories to multi-part epics and this had a really nice silver-age feel.

http://bottlecityofkanga.blogspot.com/2009/08/superman-annual-14-secret-origin-of-mon.html

I liked the appearances of Durla and Imsk.

I was hoping that we'd find out how Mon-El ended up in the Phantom Zone but I guess that's coming in the Superman Secret Origins series...

that was covered in Action Comics i believe 10, where we first saw Mon-EL (Earth 0 version) post infinite crisis.

Loved the issue and the look at the history of Daxam and the Gand line.
Beautiful storytelling.

I WOULD have liked to have seen Lar's family, though, or at least, found out about them.

And I can't read the green/yellow info bubbles any better than the red and yellow ones.
sigh