Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archive 35

thanks Christopher, and especially for pointing out the issues that we might miss - Annual 2, Superboy 21. (LSH Annual v4 6 should also be added here!)

we're actually drawing from a reread I started earlier, so we have to make sure we pick up the Showcase issues too

https://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=783685#Post783685

Also: even the newest poster should have a say, and suggestions are always welcome thanks for recommending a good stopping point! I like it, and I support stopping here, then picking up again to go to LSH 80/ L* 37, the end of the Chu sting (the next major Reboot event, in my mind)

Welcome to Archive Volume 35, covering LSH 0, Legionnaires 23 -25, alternating with LSH 67 - 69, LSH Annual #6, Showcase '95 #6, Legionnaires 26, LSH 70.

Links to previous Archive discussions comprise the first post of Archive 33.

Legion of Super-heroes 69
Absolute Power
Issue information

Summary:

The battle against the Composite Durlan (C.D.) continues. He reveals that Cham's from the royal lineage of spiritual leaders; and that they kept C.D. and two others like him imprisoned despite them being genetically engineered to be able to copy powers.

The Legion tries, and fails, to use Cham's knowledge to stop the C.D., necessitating Saturn Girl's telepathic intervention. She manages to render him catatonic - at the cost of her own mind.

Thoughts:

The battle continues to flow naturally, and nearly everyone gets something to do. I'm particularly pleased with the good use of XS and Kinetix.

Zoe's caring and "big sisterly" nature is further highlighted here, and it fits in well with her encouragement of Vi and Gim in past issues. She's the one who tells Cham to keep his head in the game, and she's the one you see trying to reach out and stop Imra from entering C.D's mind. Zoe's power levels are also impressive - she (and Cos) were able to stall the C.D. long enough for some important background. Said exposition was also delivered in a way that fit the flow of the story.

XS has grown as well; you can see she's scared, but she barely hesitates to place herself in almost certain danger to save Cham and innocent bystanders, and to buy her teammates time. I love the panel of her telling herself NOT to think so she won't spoil the plan. I also like how the writers referenced her crush on Cos without making it feel out of place. Hey, she thought she was going to die!

It was also nice seeing Brainy and Lyle working together to mix up the chemicals to stop the C.D. Love the contrast between Lyle's greater tactical ability and Brainy's greater analytic ability. Lyle's mistake in translation was believable, and kept the momentum of the fight going. Because of it, I almost didn't notice how abrupt Imra's sudden burst of courage was. We go from her adamantly refusing to enter C.D.'s mind - and lashing out at Cosmic Boy to cover up her own fear - to jumping right in and shutting C.D. down despite the obvious fear and danger it is putting her in. That last page of a catatonic Imra is made all the more powerful because of her heroism.

Let's not forget how heroic Chameleon is as well. He staves off the grief over his father's death to focus on shutting down C.D. He also bravely puts himself in danger and helps keep bystanders out of it.

Cosmic Boy does a good job leading the team this issue. It's good to see him take to leadership so well.

Now let's go to C.D.s motivation. It shows that the 30th century isn't quite as shiny and bright as we thought; much like with the oppression of Carggites with differences, the C.D.s are punished simply for being. They had absolutely no control over their creation. His hatred is understandable (though I wonder why he didn't free the two other C.D.s? but from a storytelling standpoint that would have been undesirable as well - no way the Legion could have dealt with three C.D.s at once).

The art has improved; Lee Moder and Ron Boyd make a good combination. The Legionnaires are a lot less angular and it's easy to follow the action.

All in all, this is a good issue. The action is solid and flows naturally; good character bits are mixed in throughout without slowing the story's pacing; and nothing is shoehorned in. This is much, much better than the first part of the story.

either we're not done yet, or things did change. where did you see the comment, that the previous issue was a good stopping point? I can;t quite find it

Legionnaires 23

"Flight"

I'm rereading this again and I just spotted Spark sticking out her tongue on page 13, second panel on the right from the top.

Moy would have spark stick out her tongue in each of the issues he drew and it was a fun thing to try and spot every issue back in the day.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual 6
Deep Background
Issue Information

Summary:

Shvaughn Erin is appointed Legion Liaison Officer. She gets teased mercilessly by her fellow Science Police officers. Though she is upset, she is a professional; she goes through the Legion's files, and digs deepet into the origins of XS, Kinetix and Leviathan. At first, she skips over Leviathan's file; like most Science Police, Shvaughn believes the Legionnaires are incompetent glory hogs, and thinks Leviathan betrayed the ideals of the Science Police to join the Legion.

XS: Running Scared reveals that XS is indeed part of the Flash family; she's the daughter of Dawn Allen and granddaughter of Barry Allen. In this reality, XS' mother Dawn and her uncle Don went into action to rescue Dominator captives, but were themselves slain. The news made it to Earthgov; to protect the family, grandma Iris took Bart (who manifested speed powers) into the past (though XS didn't know about it, just that they were safe). XS' dad took her to his homeworld, Aarok, where they could hide from the UP... but not from the Dominators.

Her powers manifest themselves when she sees Dominators torturing her father. It takes time, but eventually the stress of watching her dad be tortured gets to here. She runs out and saves him, and stray Dominator shots blow up the lab they were in.

XS' dad is worried that her powers will put her in harm's way (we know they have!), but XS is determined to make it right.

Shvaughn is impressed, and continues.

Kinetix: From Dawn to Darkness tells us that Kinetix's obsession with power stems from the feelings of perfection and usefulness that using said power gives her. Sadly, her quest for more power leads her to losing hers!

We open with a scene from Kinetix's dream journal, where she uses a lot of flowery words to talk about her love for power. "I'm not a person anymore, but a personification, a presence... a visitation. .." "I'm too powerful, too pure to allow such suffering to exist..." Whoa, girl! She uses her powers to make plants grow, turning a barren area into a paradise. Whew. So that's why she's not satisfied with what she has now.... She wants to be ablde to do that!

We find her and Violet on an archeological dig. Zoe gushes about power, and Vi calls her out on it. Zoe is taken aback, and talks about her origin. Her mom was an archeologist, and Zoe always felt useless hanging around digs and being unable to help. One day, her mom fell ill from poison gas, and nothing could heal her. But Zoe taught herself a magical spell from an old book, and used the Moon of Koll to heal her mother. "It could transform a drop of love into a wellspring of health, once in a lifetime..." Zoe succeeded, despite her mother's fears and her brother Thanot's skepticism. It's telling how, when Zoe's family is hugging, Zoe kept looking at the Moon of Koll. The feeling of "being useful" made her throw herself into her mom's work so she could find more power... which she did, through an energy-pool on Titan. She absorbed it and gained her amazing telekinetic abilities. But Zoe still says it wasn't enough, not when there's so much more. Violet finds the Star of Akkos hidden in the ground. In her rush, Zoe digs it up - almost burying Vi, who calls her out on it again. Zoe barely hears as she holds the Star... which charges her up.... and makes her lose her powers! Violet comforts her as Zoe stares forlornly, saying that she just wanted the power to end suffering and to feel "perfected".

Shvaughn sympathizes and continues. She reads through the remaining Legionnaire bios, files on RJ Brande, stargates, the Legion HQ and staff (interestingly, Marla is described as the team's advisor and Brande Industries liaison (his primary assignment now!), while Tenzil is described as non-officially acting as Legion counselor. The Athramites are aesthetic designers and maintenance coordinators. We get a map of Legion HQ, descrpitions of the Legion cruisers, telepathic earplugs, transuits, utility belts, and a brief history of the United Planets including a list of member worlds (though the writers built in an out, saying the UP is currently expanding).

Finally, Shvaughn has only one file left...

Leviathan: Greater Good shows Gim choosing to leave the Science Police for the Legion because his commanding officer was just using his him to further his career. He believes the Legion will enable him to do more good.

We flash back to the day Gim was drafted. He lashes out at his Science Police colleagues for teasing him; he is focused on building a career in the Science Police. Chief Wilson, Gim's commander, refuses to let him go. Gigi Cusimano, Gim's close friend, tells Gim to be wary of Wilson using Gim to further HIS own career. Gim reflects; he does see the appeal in joining the Legion as a force for good, but has always wanted to be in the Science Police. Gim gained his powers from a meteoroid crashing near him.

They are called away to deal with a terrorist situation. Racists are threatening to blow up some alien hostages. Roon Dvron makes an appearance. Gim has a plan, but Chief Wilson (that idiot) strolls right in and takes charge, refusing to risk Gim as "Gim is his ticket to fame". Two Science Police officers go up, and one is killed by the terrorists. Wilson STILL refuses to let Gim go, at which point Gim defies orders, grows to giant size and takes out the terrorists with one slap of his hand.

Gigi is upset at first, worried that Gim has outgrown their friendship. Gim reassures her that is not the case, but that Wilson's actions have shown him that he needs to serve the greater good. Gigi says she will stay in the Science Police and help expose Wilson for the gloryhound that he is.

Their stories, and their "unswerving belief in something more important than themselves', inspire Shvaughn so much that she does a total 180. She digs into all the Legion's files, reading up on all their adventures. She becomes convinced that the Legionnaires all truly believe in their mission - something that is more important than themselves. She tells off a colleague teasing her, by introducing herself as "Liaison Lass, with the powwer to super-liaise. My weakness is creeps who don't want to liaise and therefore won't talk or listen. Since my power is useless in combat, I would be lucky to even become a Reservist. But if that day comes, I will be proud to be a Legionnaire."

Thoughts:

The opening scene reminds us that the Legion has a long way to go to prove themselves to everyone. It does make a good framing sequence for the story though, and sets Shvaughn up to become a more prominent supporting character.

The one-page bios are nice and informative. The highlight of the issue, of course, are the origin stories. It's no surprise that the two Legionnaires who were created in the Postboot, XS and Kinetix, get two of the spotlight stories.

XS' origin is a nice way to tie the Legion into the 20th century DC Universe without making these ties too restrictive. The only requirement for her origin to hold up is for Barry and Iris Allen to raise a family in the 30th century. It's a pleasant story, but is very much standard superhero fare: the hero is normal, then her powers are triggered by seeing someone important be placed in harm's way. It reveals her past but doesn't really reveal anything new about her personality. If anything, she seems more confident and competent in this story than she was in LSH 62 or Legionnaires 19. We do understand her motivations for being a Legionnaire better though - she wants to make her family proud.

I've written about Kinetix's origin and powerlust elsewhere, and my opinions stand upon rereading. Zoe loves using her powers because it makes her feel useful and "perfected"; while she tells Violet her origin she refers to herself as "useless" at least thrice. It doesn't seem as though her mother neglected her, so maybe Zoe just wanted to be useful as a way to repay her. Now we understand why she craves power; it completes her. She has a very deep need for self-validation, and the story shows how addicting power can be - you see it when Violet finds the Star of Akkos, and Zoe recklessly retrieves it without regard for Violet's safety. Now the big question is - where to next? The writers didn't g to all this trouble to create a Legionnaire and strip her of her powers just as a cautionary tale.

By the way, I love the gorgeous Alan Davis/Mark Farmer art in this story.

Violet is put to good use as well. Besides moving the plot along, we see more and more that she isn't exactly shy. She doesn't hesitate to question Zoe's need for power, or to call Zoe out for being reckless. In contrast to Zoe's need for self-validation, Violet displays a sort of inner strength. She really is an odd one.

We get some informative text pieces, though the stories so far haven't yet demonstrated some of what we read. Marla Latham's primary assignment is as advisor to the Legionnaires, though I only remember seeing him in that capacity in LSH 66. Tenzil is a non-official counselor to the team, which makes some sense as he is their age. And we know RJ Brande's past is mysterious, though his "uncle-ly" manner certainly doesn't make him seem mysterious.

I'm sure many fans were thrilled to see a lot of familiar worlds on the list of UP members - besides homeworlds of introduced characters, we have Kathoon, Lallor, Lythyl, Manna-5, Myar, Naltor, Phlon, Rann, Schwar, Taltar, Tharr, Vengar (a misspelled Venegar?) and Zuun. Many Substitute Hero homeworlds on this list!

We move on to Gim's origin. He's hotheaded as ever and blows his top at a little teasing. I can give him a pass though, as he's confused by the (apparently recent) emergence of his powers and the two career options presented to him. He displays the same tactical thinking and regard for the good of many that we've seen him do in recent issues. Having Chief Wilson be a dirty gloryhound gives Gim an easy choice; he won't be able to do much good under the Chief's thumb so joining the Legion is the logical step.

His friendship with Gigi is used to help him verbalize his inner conflict, and is also a good way to show that his new powers have changed things for him. It's odd that they would send Gigi all the way to Earth just to recruit Lyle; we already know there are plenty of SciCops on Earth. I guess it's as good a way as any to get her on Earth too, but she hasn't appeared since Legionnaires 0 either.

All in all this issue served its purpose - it gave us a lot of information on the Legionnaires and their immediate universe. It added new dimensions to 3 Legionnaires and set up future storylines for Kinetix. It was a pleasant enough read, even for readers who aren't big fans of XS, Kinetix or Leviathan.

Like you FC, I felt Jenni?s story was ok but lacked something.

This Legion had been around for almost a year at this point - less I think - and we know more about each and every one of them than we know of half of the Bendis Legionnaires.

I wonder if the bios were meant to be pin-ups. Each a full page... and indeed, most of it for the art.

It seemed to flow well, and the ending narration showed how absorbed Shvaughn became, but maybe a bit too convenient.