Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion in Crossovers Pt. 7 - Zero Hour!!!

The first (sorta) sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour was apparently meant to streamline the DCU even further and make it more comprehensible after the continuity changes from Crisis. It didn't work. On with the show -

The Plot - Time is unravelling from both ends. A chronal crisis is eating up both the past and the future. At first Extant (Monarch/Hawk/whatever) seems to be the villain responsible, but the last issue reveals that Hal Jordan has been destroying time so that he can remake the universe into something more pleasant.

Is the Legion in it? - Oh yes. The mini series ets started with the Time Trapper getting trashed by an unknown villain. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Live Wire of the SW6 Legionnaires makes an appearance, as does Jo Nah (or Emerald Dragon) who is searching the past for his lost love Tinya. The last panel of the series features a mysterious new Time Trapper with long, flowing locks.

Legion Tie-ins? - All four Legion-related books had tie-ins to Zero Hour. The 6-part "End of an Era" ran through Legionnaires #17-18, Valor #22-23, and Legion of Super Heroes #60-61. L.E.G.I.O.N. #s 69-70 also played an important part. This would be the end of both Valor and L.E.G.I.O.N. comics.

So was it any good? Well, kinda sorta. I remember looking forward to Zero Hour with great anticipation wondering what kind of earth shattering events would take place. As it turned out, nothing much really changed in the DCU. Except the Legion.

The series itself was kind of a letdown. Hal Jordan was nuts. We already knew that. Extant was evil. Other than the fact that he used to be called Monarch, we already knew about him. The Team Titans turned out to be fakes or some such. *Yawn* Flash was "killed" which I didn't believe was real. I was right. The JSA didn't fare so well either. I didn't care too much about them at the time, but even I thought the way they were slaughtered by Extant was pretty lame. The art was ok, but the story really didn't make much sense. And using Damage to blow up to start the Big Bang seemed like about as reasonable as Green Lantern using his ring to move the earth out of the way of incoming meteors.

But the Legion send-off will remain one of my all-time favorite Legion stories. In six issues, the writers had managed to squeeze in every single Legionnaire as well as most of their supporting cast. Valor and Shadow Lass got a touching goodbye as did the original 3 (six!) Legionnaires. I remember thinking that the revelation of the Time Trapper's true identity was pretty cool, but looking back it seems kind of lame. But the Legion got a chance to go out as the true heroes we knew them to be. The Postboot Legion's sendoff was nowhere near as inspiring as seeing Valor working at saving a planet to be used for earth in spite of the hopelessness of the situation. The art in End of an Era wasn't great, but the story moved me because, like the Legionnaires in the end, I really had no idea where the Legion was going to go next. If they really had to go, at least they went like heroes, and not in a humiliating way like the JSA.

End of an Era was followed up by the zero issues of Legion and Legionnaires. The Legion issue retells the origin of the Legion and is probably the best telling of that often overtold story. The Legionnaires Zero issue just built on what the Legion issue had started but showed the first sign that things would be different by introducing new Legionnaire XS.

The L.E.G.I.O.N. tie-in issues make me upset to think about. I have no desire to reread them because of the lame explanation of Phase's origin. I could handle Tinya's death waaaay back in Legion #2 because as a reader I was in on the special secret that she really wasn't dead. After five years of watching Jo Nah suffer for his dead wife-to-be, we were finally going to see a satisfying reunion. And it turns out it was really Tinya's cousing Enya all along. Wattagip!! And to make matters worse, L. would be cancelled in favor of the ugly and boring R.E.B.E.L.S. in whcih the infant son of Dox takes over the L.E.G.I.O.N.

So what'd you guys think of Zero Hour? It didn't live up to its hype, that's for sure, but were you still entertained? And I'm always curious how other Legion fans reacted when they realized that this was the end of the only Legion that they knew for good and for final.

I hadn't really followed the Legion back then, but when I read the final issue - LSH 61 - I almost cried at seeing the last few pages.

Zero Hour itself was BAAAD. So they gather a bunch of heroes to stop whatever's happening, but they spend most of their time standing and doing nothing. Superman was supposed to be their leader, and they even had Metron on hand, but they had no modicum of a game plan. Hardly any of the deaths were effectively or meaningfully done. The whole story was confusing and almost nobody was utilized effectively. Waverider went after the JSA at Vanishing Point, but he didn't bother bringing anybody with him and nearly got his *ss whupped. The last-minute entry of Hal as the villain wasn't well done either. The moral question of playing God was addressed, but not much else. I'm just glad the art was pretty, because at least the thing wasn't a total waste.

What did I think of Zero Hour?

I almost dropped DC Comics entirely.

It was only due to the quality of a few of the books that came afterwards (Starman, some of the "Weirdoverse" books, the initial Legion reboot) that I stayed.

I eagerly awaited in anticipation. Jurgens art at his peak! The Atom! A young Hal Jordan in the future in #1! Aquaman back with the DCU heroes! The JSA! 90's mainstays the Ray and Damage in the same mold here as Firestorm was in Crisis!

Ugh. I remember thinking its not that bad, but I was really just fooling myself. Awful death of the JSA. Disgusting reveal of Hal as the main enemy--I almost started to root for him with "yes! Make an Earth-2 again for the JSA!". People standing around, talking.

But, just like Starman and some good DC#0 issues, something great happened with Zero Hour for me: I picked up LSH#0 and Legionnaires #0 and read the first few post-boot Legion issues and really, really liked them. My Dad said, "well, why don't you start at the beginning", and so I started at the beginning (well, almost, Adventure #300) and read through the history of the Legion, albeit an imcomplete run and realized I loved this series more than anything I'd previously read, even as much as Spider-Man. I've filled in many gaps since and find it ironic that Zero Hour, which brought me in as a reader, also destroyed the Legion that I love more than the others.