Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Jeff Lemire's QUANTUM AGE - The Legion of the Black Hammer Verse

Yeah the last issue opened ... 100 years from now ... the origin of the Black Hammer (of the league) pre her membership in the Quantum League .. then cut to a scene where she is all jaded and the Quantum League has broken down ala 5 year gap ... which is said to be 25 whole years later. (I'd be up for her being 1000 years old but that doesn't seem to be whats going on).

So, the timeline's not great because it seems like according to the first issue: Spiral City 3041 AD. Which is the dark 5ygap version and contemporary era of the series.

The first issue says 25 years earlier to 3041 (5YG), we cut to the heroes in their golden age, Hammer Lass, Archive, Storm Girl ... that armadillo ...

So was Hammer Lass in the Quantum League for less than one year even if the "100" was a typo meant to be "1000" ? Including her romance with Archive which is a major part of the series.

I am leaning towards shoddy writing ... which is bizarre since Jeff Lemire is awesome.

Maybe it has to do with Chronokus/Time Trapper. (?)

I mean I don't truly mind because the series is wacky but it does seem like a major oversight or gaffe. Which is really weird because there is not all that much text in the issues, and I don't think Lemire could forget that its 1000 years in the future rather than 100 .. twice ...

I thought about it being a 100/1000 typo, but since they spell it out as "One Hundred" and it's said twice (both in the caption and in dialogue), it seems deliberate.

Then I thought that maybe she was a time traveler (like Supergirl!) who travels 900 years to the future to join the League, but that doesn't seem to work given that the "twenty-five years later" is pretty clearly the main setting of the story. And it really seems like they would've made that more explicit if it was what was going on.

So, yeah, I'm completely confused.

There have been a couple of editing errors, yeah. They referred to Gravity Lad as Gravity Boy at one point. But was that the other way around?

I am hopeful that the time travelling things is part of the wider plot, and will make sense as it goes. There's possibly different timelines at play.

Hammer Lass' great-great grandmother claims to be from the 21st century. She would have passed on her hammer to someone of that time, but Chronokos has convinced her otherwise. So, she has travelled to the 31st century, seemingly stopped in the time of the Quantum League, and then moved 100 years further on to pass on her hammer. Hammer Lass may have gone back in time by a century to join the Quantum League. 25 years after that falls apart, Hammer Lass will travel to the end of time to contact Chronokos.

It seems to have been Gravity Lad, even on his trading card, before Barbali-teen calls him Gravity Boy in the cliffhanger. Let's hope there's not both or someone is going to be attacked needlessly.

so grandma travels to 3041 ... then 100 years later ... then 25 years after 3041. Then the new Hammer Lass goes back to 3016 to join the League and fall in love with Archive.

"Now" being 3041.

It could just be referencing wacky future time travel in comics.

I thought grandma travelled to 3041, then 100 years later and that it was the granddaughter who went back 100 years to join the League and then 25 years at snail pace from that date.

Of course, it's been a day now and the universe is papering over the time paradoxes in my brain, like it always does.

yes, i think you are right, i didn't express myself correctly.

but at this moment it is so wacky i won't even bother to correct myself. haha!

Yeah "right" doesn't mean much when it's second guessing a plot containing a Trapper.

I got my copy and... yeah once again that reveal was lost on me. I know who the character is but I'm not shocked about it.

I was a little surprised at the closeness of the reveals to the main Black Hammer book. Now Lemire could have fun with time travel and retcons, but it does seem to show who survives the main series by at least 1000 years. Mind you, all of the Superman family turned up in the Legion so... time travel and retcons again...

Issue 5 Legion connections



The issue is a set up for next issue's confrontation between our reassembled team and their former friend and now foe. Two of the characters from Black Hammer continue to play prominent parts, and there are plenty of Legion connections with the two of them. A third character also returns with some Legion notes added at the end of the issue.

I just got and read the collected edition of 1-6, and gosh, the writer sure was inconsistent with names and stuff. A character referred to on-panel as Fireball is shown in the creator sketches as Furnace Lad. An asian woman with a lotus symbol on her chest and drawn in a martial arts-y flying high kick that was always smiling and joking (and I referred to as 'Laughing Lotus' in absence of anything better to call her) turns out to have been name-checked as Stratus or Stratum, suggesting wind powers (when I had thought she might be the Karate Kid of this 'Legion'). Modula, one of the three founders, along with Gravitus and Archive, has teleportation powers, except when she can blow up ships with some sort of energy from her hands. Most characters are little more than names like 'Laser Phaser' who may or may not be the same person as 'Laser Lad.' Others don't even have that, like the dude with the stag antlers or the lady with wasp wings and a yellowjacket-looking helmet.

This book has potential, but could benefit from a content/consistency editor in the worst way.

The Asian girl had been called Judo Girl in the individual issues.

But yeah I noticed this book needed a better editor.

Huh, she's called Stratum in the same panel that calls 'Furnace Lad' Fireball... Perhaps Judo Girl and Furnace Lad are their 'classic Legion' Lad/Lass names, and Fireball and Stratum are their shiny new single word Reboot names, like Umbra and Livewire?



But yes, this is true.

A World of Black Hammer Encyclopaedia was released this week, following very much in the steps of DC's Who's Who. There's an entry for the Quantum League, allowing me to add in a few more details to the cast images I had. Some of the names seem to have been changed since the single issues were released. I wonder if they got a little too close to the Legion? They weren't consistent even in their own book with Gravity Lad/ Gravity Boy being used within the space of a few pages.

No doubt there will be a crossover between the two teams at some point.

There's even a nod to Legion World in the last issue of it, as we see the team arrive on Quantum World.




Antler Boy = Tusker
Archive 5 = Brainiac 5
Doppler Damsel = Duplicate Damsel
ERB = Tellus + Cosmic Boy
Furnace Lad = Sun Boy
Glue Girl = Light Lass
Goliathan = Blok
Gravity Lad = Star Boy
Hammer Lass =
Hornet Girl = Insect Queen
Ice Boy = Polar Boy
Lasar Phaser = Wildfire
Mechanos = Gear
Modula = Gates + Element Lad
Monster Boy = Chameleon Boy
Storm Girl = Nightwind / Harmonia
Judo Girl = Karate Kid
Trionic
Gorilla Girl = Monstress
Barbaliteen = Martian Manhunter in 30th Century

Antler Lad is clearly an homage to the LMB's own erstwhile ally Antler Lass and her giant rack!

Where was this posted?

Some new details, such as character names, are in The Black Hammer Encyclopedia book.