Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Electric Warriors: Legion Connections

It's Superman's cape. Readers of Legion v7 #23 saw Bouncing Boy carrying Superman's cape as a relic, in a belated attempt to connect the Legion to Earth-2 where Superman had been killed. The cape looks as though it's being used as a relic again, just set a couple of centuries prior to the Legion's time.

The series is set in the future of Kamandi's world. With all the retcons and reboots, I've no idea if that's connected to the legion or not. I do have a vague memory of Kamandi getting a Legion ring at some point after Infinite Crisis though. One of those dreadful prolonged Event things.

It takes no time at all for the first Legion reference. On the first page the main character, Ian Navarro, is on the end of a beating from a bipedal lion. He tells us that the humans are now fighting for Earth’s Electric Seed, to rejoin the United Planets.

There’s an early glimpse of Kamandi in a flashback, so we’re looking at a society a few hundred years further on from The Great Disaster. Cortexin, the drug that changed the animals in Kamandi, is also mentioned, as are the human reserves. The Great Disaster is a solid enough foundation, and allows DC to mine yet more Kirby goodness. I’m also strongly reminded Chaykin’s Twilight that, like this issue, links up a lot of the histories between DC’s Sci-Fi books.

We get an interesting opening panel, but it’s a really clunky scene. Ian gives a history lesson while waiting to get punched. It’s enough to establish our “hero” as a Human First activist. We don’t see what instigated the fight, and he could easily have been the one to start it. He looks like Quentin Quire and has the attitude of a young Earth Man.

The next scene reveals more background, and in a more flowing way. Our next main character, Kana, brings us closer to the central DCU. S/he meditates in the ocean depths, in front of a sigil containing the symbols of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. It’s revealed that hir Octopod tribes conquered the Atlanteans at some point, then freed them (Aqua-tie in). Later, we learn that the Octopods freed all the humans.

Superman is a particular inspiration to Kana’s people, much as he was to the Legion. A surviving artefact of Superman is mentioned and it’s revealed that the Gil Dishpan arbitrate a great galactic compromise, and it’s related to both the granting of the Electric Seeds and battles on a planet called Covenant (I thought we were going to get Takron Galtos like the JLA 3000 thing). Some nice distinctions between the outlooks of human and Octopods are made.

Ian gets home in a bad way. It seems he was picked on as he looks just like his brother (I can see where this one’s going). He’s patched up by a friendly paramedic, which is an excuse to give us even more clunky exposition on his family. That’s to set us up for the next scene which seems to be a farewell breakfast for Ian’s brother. Oscar Navarro, looking uncannily like Ian, is the one who’ll be receiving the seed. Both Octopod and humans have concerns over the seed being split across two races, while others are happy to see humans receive the honour at all.

I think Ian already has powers with the uncanny ability he has for providing Infodumps.

Easter eggs include Joker fish, which used to be poisonous, but everyone know has a tolerance due to the toxic environment. There’s a little electrical symbol that might be the Flash symbol.
We get a flash to Covenant, and its confirmed that those receiving the Electric Seed represent their world in lethal combat. The Gil’Dishpan arrive on Earth to bestow the gift of the Electric Seed. It seems Earth has been in the galactic wilderness for quite a while, and is submitting to the Great Compromise through the creation of the Electric Warriors.

It’s the first time the Gil’Dishpan have split a seed. If people are fighting for worlds, it seems unfair to allow two from the same planet to compete. Earth seemingly is unique and the event historic enough. They also allow “Oscar” to wear the cape of Superman on Covenant. That’s the indestructible cape of Superman. Quite a handy gift if you’re going to be entering combat.

Our two transformed characters are now Deep Dweller and War Cry. Not particularly inspiring, even if War Cry’s mask is shaped like the Wonder Woman logo. The two depart for Covenant. Kana tells “Oscar” of Superman’s heritage, and questions “Oscar’s silence on receiving it as a gift. With his mask, I had assumed “Oscar” had got powers like the Black Bolt and couldn’t say anything. But not so. “Oscar” feels that Superman is one of the heroes that weakened humanity’s ability to stand up for itself, allowing itself to eventually be conquered. It’s just what I like a Lex Luthor to be and it will be a shame to see “Oscar’s” mind change on it. In a flashback, it’s revealed that “Oscar” is really Ian, who took his place. It was telegraphed pretty early on, and I hope we get to see the repercussions of the switch back home.

Kana and Ian aren’t the only ones approaching Covenant. Khundia, Vrang and the Dominion are also mentioned. Presumably the guys on the cover are among those arriving. The Vrangs were a race from Krypton’s ancient past. They were guys with pistols, so I’m betting the man with the exposed brain on the cover is one of them. It also makes sense that the lady on the cover is the representative from Khundia. Handy that all the central characters show up at the same time.

Covenant is in sector 666 for further emphasis, just as Kana’s people had Kraken in the name of their home city.

A robed figure watches the arrival of the Earth representatives. There’s a tease that the character not only has a history with Earth, but also tried to save it in his earlier years. The issue hasn’t been coy in connecting itself up to DC properties and this is no exception. The cliffhanger page reveals the figure as…Firestorm. It’s a bit of a disappointment. You could distract the Firestorm I know with a call from Doreen and a six pack of beer. He laughingly gets “The Fury of Firestorm” into his speech. ‘Stormy is the Lord Preceptor of Covenant.

Rating: 3.75

Warcry continues to wear Superman's cape (see #1 for connection). He can absorb, mimic or amplify sound echoing (well, echo probably) parts of Stealth and Tyroc.
Kana is declared to have mastery over darkness and shape shifting - Tasmia and Reep? Regeneration/ healing powers also revealed. It's empathic like Raven of the TItans.
Khund and Dominator as main characters. Dominator can use bio energy for a number of effects. Gil Dishpan appear again as administrators of the Covenant.
Easter Egg: Earth still has Gingold supplies. Elongated Man got his powers from these, but they could easily lead to another Elastic Lad.
Saturn is inhabited. They are telepathic too. Also shapeshifters and this one can generate magma blasts/energy - a Imra/Dirk/Reep combo of overpoweredness. Overly powered characters are a thing in this book.
"sprock"

A quick read. Our two Earth heroes arrive on Covenant. They engage in their first battles. Disputes or claims are settled by the Electric Warriors. It's not clear if the claims have to have any justification. It could be enough that a world wants something, and has sufficient faith in their warrior to get it. Sort of undermines the system. Warcry loses while Kana wins. What looks like a fatal wound for Warcry is healed. The fights aren't necessarily to the death, although they certainly can be.

We meet the rest of the main cast; Serene the Khund; Dominator from the Dominion and Inceptor from Vrang. Serene and Dominator are already part of a subgroup on Covenant. It's run by Orthus and he says they all represent once strong and now fallen Empires. He could be orchestrating some resistance against the Gil Dishpan and Firestorm, who oversees the battlegrounds. Since overturning this system might well see a return to galactic war, it would be good to have a character on the team who doesn't share this resistance. Warcry's loss results in conflict between the "animals" and "humans" on Earth and the cliffhanger is that Kana and Warcry will have to fight each other next issue.

Not as good as most of the first issue. This issue introduces the cast and the major resistance subplot .Warcry is already starting to connect more with his fellow Earth representative, which adds more empathy to the cliffhanger.

The manufacturing logos over Serene in the cover are very much like those used in Hypernaturals, an Alt+Legion by Abnett and Lanning

Khunds: One of the central cast is a Khund and we see others.

Gil Dishpan: Administrating the covenant between worlds.

War Cry still wears Superman’s cape.

Bismoll. A warrior who eats things, through their hands, represents them.

Code against Killing. A number of the central cast kill to win. I wonder if a later Legion, again from a number of these planets, put in their code against killing as a consequence of what happened on Covenant.

Durlan biology. Deep Dweller survives a terrible head wound by having a different biology. It reminds me of the way Cham survived Roxxas in v4, when he revealed his brain isn’t in his head.

Dominators and reference to their world having been a superpower. Possibly a hint to Invasion.

The guards of the Covenant come from Janus, homeworld of Double Header.

Winged skeleton, possibly that of the warrior in issue one. Potentially with Starhaven links.

While the Gil Dishpan are administrating covenant and the battles between the representatives of many worlds, Firestorm suggests that he is doing it to keep a greater peace. It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere. It’s certainly better than the Arena monstrosity of a book.

Last issue, Earth began a civil war. Far too conveniently, they happen to be the only world with two people on Covenant. So that means they can fight each other in the arena. This is only a six issue mini, so things have to be condensed. Having every world have two representatives might have bloated the cast and plot. Perhaps something pitting the two against each other from within Covenant might have been better than this fight happening five minutes after they got there.

The fight is over in two pages. In this book, that’s actually only 9 panels. War Cry is the victor. This is despite being beaten easily last issue while Deep Dweller was ruthless in hers. The role reversal isn’t very convincing.

The point here is that War Cry gets to express remorse for killing Deep Dweller. This is his arc to becoming a hero who cares for other races. Deep Dweller healed War Cry after his first battle and wonder if she’s not as dead as she seems.

Elsewhere, Inceptor from Vrang fights and defeats a Bismollian. He picks up memories of the defeated foe, seeing a memory of a fallen warrior being consumed at a group of aliens at an event hosted by the Gil Dish’pan. Firestorm would also seem to be aware of these events, even if he doesn’t participate.

The alien speaking to the Gil’Dishpan looks like the Crypt Keeper. Could it be that the peace accord is partly to provide raw materials to more alien creatures who would otherwise invade every world?
There’s no hint on how the Bismollian happened to have this information.

Inceptor wants to tell Orthus, the leader of the resistance, of these events. Unfortunately, Orthus gets his throat ripped out by the teeth of Serene. He doesn’t get much in the way of dialogue or wisdom sharing before he dies. He seems to be a cut out character, useful for as long as it took to bring the others together.

Deep Dweller returns from the dead. She doesn’t keep her brain in her head, and has healed the damage. This happens just after we see some remorse, a sense of responsibility and acceptance of others from War Cry. It’s a shame that terrible things have to happen to others for him to realise all this. War Cry is the centre of attention again as Serene hooks up with him. She also hints that from her perspective that there’s an attraction between War Cry and Deep Dweller.

Inceptor tells his Dominion friend what he has discovered. His advice is to tell the others of the resistance. Inceptor could have just told them all at once, for all the difference it would have made to that plot thread. It would have deprived us of seeing a Dominator gain individuality. But that could have been done after the meeting.

Orthus didn’t get to build up much of a resistance movement. Nearly all of it has just arrived on the world. The five decide to find out the truth of what Inceptor learned. They escape their rooms and evade what little security there is. The Bismollian must have also provided maps with his memory. The five get to the right location as if they knew where it was on the world without any problems. We do see them combine their talents well, with War Cry using his sound based powers to extract the sound from a nearby room. The aliens are poring over the dismembered flesh of more fallen champions, including Orthus. Scenes in this issue suggest they consume the fallen.

The fears of the resistance are confirmed. Firestorm also watches the aliens, with plans to defeat them. Considering how powerful Firestorm is, it will be interesting to see if the hold the aliens have on the galaxy is justified.

The scope of the story has widened which is a good thing. There’s more going on beyond the war world that they fight on.

The central character doesn’t illicit much empathy. He was a bit more than an angry young man stereotype. But that has vanished as his contribution is to have other people suffer so he can learn life lessons. Despite having little personality, everything revolves around him this issue.

There’s way too much plot convenience. The characters know exactly where to go. Combat results change depending on what the plot needs rather than on skill previously shown.
Firestorm and the Gil Dish’pan have plenty of monitors. All of which conveniently miss the resistance movement.

There’s 20 pages of story and 11 pages of adverts and one text page. The story is a little too disjointed as it is and these really start to get in the way. With so much space, could DC not have bumped up the story page count.

The United Planets are formed. They have superpowered representatives. That could easily act as inspiring the structure of the Legion. Even if retcon Brande is kept, the structure could still act as the source of the Legion team.

The Legion were inspired by Superboy. But in Electric Warriors, Superman is still alive and living in the sun (taken from Morrison's DC 1 million for some reason). The inspiration for the Legion is around, and there's every reason for him to live into the Legion's time.

Lex Luthor is also still alive. Both he and Superman have survived for several hundred years by this point. There's no reason to imagine he won't survive for a couple of hundred more. Perfect for taking up the role of Luthor in all those old Legion stories. No time travel/ mucking around with 21st century continuity required.