 IV. THE 30th CENTURY: The Legion Era Begins - 2997
This chronology © 2002 Greg Gildersleeve
May “Close Encounters.” Now known as Cosmic Boy, Live Wire, and Saturn Girl, the Legionnaires debut at a UP conference and foil an attempted bombing. Triad and Apparition join. President Chu institutes UP-wide draft for other members. (L* #0) [Note: The date of 299405,31 (May 31, 2994) appears on Brainiac 5's omnicom. As noted in the Introduction, topical years are ignored in this chronology, while topical months and days are often included.] “Greater Good.” Science Police Lt. Gim Allon rescues hostages from an “anti-races movement” at the T’Massii Colonization Office on Mars. He then resigns from the SP and accepts being drafted into the Legion of Super-Heroes. (LSH Annual #6, third story) [Shortly after Gim received his draft notice in “Close Encounters.” The “anti-races” group is presumed to be the White Triangle, though they are not identified as such in this story.] “Forced Friends, Deadly Consequences.” Leviathan, Kid Quantum I, XS, Chameleon and Invisible Kid join. Leviathan is named Legion leader. On their first mission, the Legion fights Tangleweb, and Kid Quantum dies. Leviathan resigns as leader and is replaced by Cosmic Boy. (LSH #62) “The Quick and the Dead.” XS foils an attempted bombing of Kid Quantum’s funeral. The Legionnaires arrest Brande’s business partner, Roderick Doyle. Mano destroys his homeworld, Angtu. (L* #19) The Legion investigates a space anomaly which they later refer to as the “F-203 incident.” (Revealed in L* #57; Cosmic Boy said this was shortly after the Legion was organized; his briefing of the incident to Brainiac 5 suggests that this took place before the latter joined the Legion.) Jazmin Cullen of Xanthu undergoes experimental procedures to enhance her natural quantum powers so that she doesn’t have to rely on a power belt for control as her brother James did. When the experiments prove successful, she takes her brother’s place in the Amazers as Kid Quantum II. [As revealed in LSH Secret Files #2 and others. Exact date is conjecture. Assumes the experiments took place shortly after James’ death.]
June “Things at Hand” / “The Descent of Mano.” Legion Headquarters is unveiled. Brainiac 5 joins. The Legion fights Mano at McCauley Industries on the moon. (LSH #63/L* #20) [Date is conjecture. Assumes Mano’s journey from the ruins of Angtu to earth’s moon took a few weeks.] “Sibling Rivalry.” Spark joins. The Legion meets Ultra Boy. Live Wire is forced to leave the Legion by President Chu. (LSH #64) “Enter the WorkForce” / “Breakout” / “Hard Time.” Live Wire joins Leland McCauley’s WorkForce (Ultra Boy, Karate Kid, Spider Girl, Evolvo, Inferno). LSH and WorkForce stop a riot on Planet Hell. (L*#21/LSH #65/L* 22) Star Boy of Xanthu, en route to joining the Legion, is involved in a spaceship accident which leaves him incapacitated for several months. (Shortly before LSH #66) [Note: The accident is described in Legends of the Legion # 4.] “Membership Drive.” Andromeda, Shrinking Violet, and Kinetix join the Legion. (LSH #66)
August “Flight.” Invisible Kid creates the Legion flight rings from an element invented by Brainiac 5. The girl Legionnaires enjoy a night on the town. Andromeda allows three White Triangle terrorists to escape. (L* #23) “Insect Fear” / “Me, Myself and I” / “Sticky Situation.” LSH’s second fight with Tangleweb ends in the latter’s defeat. Triad Neutral is beaten by White Triangle members. The Composite Man escapes from prison on Durla. (LSH #67/L* #24/LSH #68) “Skin Deep” / “Absolute Power.” LSH fights Composite Man. Saturn Girl is left in a coma. (L* #25/LSH #69) “From Dawn To Darkness.” Kinetix and Shrinking Violet, while vacationing in the desert of an unidentified world, discover an artifact called the Star of Akkos. The artifact, however, robs Kinetix of her powers. (LSH Annual #6, second story) [Shortly before “Deep Background.”] “Deep Background.” Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin is appointed Legion liaison officer. (LSH Ann #6, framing sequence) “Authority.” Saturn Girl is partially cured by Aven, but is left with a childlike personality. WorkForce fights the White Triangle. Live Wire leaves Workforce. Andromeda is poisoned by lead while fighting White Triangle members. (L* #26) “Beyond Belief.” Brainiac 5 cures Andromeda. Triad leaves the hospital. Kinetix takes a leave of absence. (LSH #70) “Eyes of Hate.” White Triangle members from Daxam destroy a stargate. Cosmic Boy confronts Andromeda about her White Triangle association. Andromeda gives her cure for lead poisoning to Ambassador Roxxas, who passes it on to other White Triangle Daxamites. Ultra Boy and the Legion battle human White Triangle members. (L* #27) “Heaven and Hell.” Planet Trom is incinerated by White Triangle Daxamites. Invisible Kid organizes the Legion Espionage Squad with Chameleon, Shrinking Violet, Triad, and Apparition. Kinetix’s ship is lost in space. (LSH #71) [Note: Kinetix’s subsequent “rescue” and transformation by Mysa on the planet Zarrox falls outside this chronology since, as Zoe said in L* #42, “It’s so hard to judge the passage of time on Zarrox.” What seemed like a few days to Zoe may have taken several months of regular time.] “Nightfall.” The Legion Espionage Squad battles the White Triangle at the Alamo. Four Daxamite members of the White Triangle invade earth. (L* #28) Chuck Taine’s parents are murdered by the White Triangle Daxamites. (Revealed in LSH #76) “Four Horsemen.” The White Triangle War. The Legion and WorkForce battle four Daxamites as they ravage earth. Live Wire rejoins the Legion and Saturn Girl returns to active duty. Apparition’s body dies when she is immolated by one of the Daxamites. (Her spirit lives on by taking refuge in Ultra Boy’s body, as revealed later.) The Legion defeats the Daxamites with the help of R.J. Brande and Jan Arrah, the last surviving Tromite. Andromeda turns herself in and is secretly sentenced to prison on Planet Hell; the UP tells the public that she has died. (L* Ann #2) [Immediately after “Nightfall.” The final scene, revealing Andromeda’s fate, presumably takes place several days later.] “Absent Friends.” The Legion attends a memorial service for Apparition and Andromeda. President Chu again forces Live Wire to leave the Legion and reprimands Cosmic Boy. Dr. Zaxton Regulus takes over Morgna Industries. (LSH #72) [The day after the final scene of “Four Horsemen.”] “Rising Sun.” LSH battles Dr. Regulus. Dirk Morgna gains sun-like powers. (L* #29) Brainiac 5 begins experimenting with time travel. (Warrior #29/L* #29)
October “End of the Road” / “Struck by Lightning.” Live Wire searches for and eventually finds his brother, Mekt, now known as Lightning Lord. Spark joins Live Wire in battle against their brother. Lightning Lord is defeated, but at the cost of Live Wire’s right arm. After seeing manifestations of Valor, several Legionnaires time travel to the 20th century to free him from the Stasis Zone. (LSH #73/L* #30) [Date is conjecture. Garth is still 14 in L* #30, so date assumes that this takes place before his birthday in November.] “Prisoner Of the Super-Heroes” / “One Thousand Years of Solitude.” The Legionnaires return from the 20th century with Superboy. In order to find the equipment necessary to free Valor, they battle Scavenger, a packrat and Superboy enemy still alive in the 30th century. Brainiac 5 invents his personal force field belt. Superboy accidently leaks the quest to free Valor to the public, which sparks religious fervor throughout the UP. The Legion ultimately frees Valor and cures him of lead poisoning, but keeps their victory secret. Superboy is made an honorary Legionnaire and returns to his own time. The Emerald Eye of Ekron breaks out of a case in Scavenger’s lair and slowly begins to possess Shrinking Violet. (LSH #74/L* #31) “2-Timer” / “Here And Now.” The Legion is attacked by Chronos, a villain from the 20th century who seeks to steal their time machine. During his assault, Legion Headquarters is damaged. The Legion defeats Chronos with help from Lori Morning, a 20th century child aged by him into an adult body. Brainiac 5 is arrested for illegal use of time travel. (LSH # 75/L* #32) [Note that parts of “2-Timer” take place in both 1995 and 2996.] Live Wire is fitted with a cyber-arm. [After “Prisoner of the Super-Heroes,” in which he is not wearing the cyber-arm.] Invisible Kid’s lab at an Earthgov training facility is broken into by his friend, Jacques Foccart, who is being controlled by Mara Grace. Jacques is apparently killed when he drinks Lyle’s invisibility serum. [L* #66. Two years before the story (set in 2999). Although Lyle was a Legionnaire at this time, it is possible that he maintained one or more labs elsewhere. Jacques, of course, survived and gained somewhat different invisibility powers. He became a secret agent for Black Hole.] Brainiac 5 is incarcerated on the prison planet, Takron-Galtos. [Before “The Inhuman Touch.”] Star Boy and Gates join the Legion. [Shortly before “Bouncing Back.”]
November “Bouncing Back.” Chuck Taine, an architectural student, begins his internship at Legion Headquarters. Valor, a guest of the Legion’s, departs. President Chu shuts down the United Planets Time Institute. While there, Saturn Girl is attacked by a mysterious intruder known as Starfinger. (LSH #76) [Assumes a few weeks after “Here And Now,” and a few months after the White Triangle War, to allow for Chuck to cash in his parents’ insurance policy and enroll as an architectural student. Note that Spark is just now returning to duty, after seeing to her brother’s recovery.] Cosmic Boy asks Live Wire to recruit Ultra Boy, Andromeda, Valor, and Jan Arrah for a secret mission. [As revealed in L* #36. Saturn Girl notes that this must have occurred shortly after Chronos’ attack. In L* # 33, it is revealed that Live Wire left Winath right after Spark.] “The Inhuman Touch.” Saturn Girl battles Starfinger at the Time Institute, then she and other Legionnaires confront him on planet Guron. Star Boy learns he has additional powers he can’t control. (L* #33) [Immediately after “Bouncing Back.”] “Lock Up.” Titanian criminal Nara Minsork fails in her attempt to retrieve time travel secrets from Brainiac 5's mind while he is incarcerated on Takron-Galtos. (LSH #77) [Occurs simultaneously with “The Inhuman Touch” and “Fallen Star.”] “Fallen Star.” The Legion fights Starfinger, who turns out to be Jan Arrah of Trom under the apparent control of Ambassador Winema Wazzo of Bgztl. Just as the Legion confronts the ambassador before the UP Council, they are alerted to the Sun-Eater’s advance on earth and sent by President Chu to assemble five dangerous criminals to assist in destroying the cloud creature. [Immediately after “The Inhuman Touch.”] “The Gathering Doom” / “The Fatal Five.” The Legionnaires assemble the Fatal Five -- Mano, the Persuader, the Empress, Validus and Tharok. The “Sun-Eater” turns out to be a ruse, however, and the Five attack the Legion on Takron-Galtos. Brainiac 5 escapes from his prison cell to help his teammates, but they are defeated. (LSH #78-79) [A few days or so after “Fallen Star,” to allow the Legionnaires time to travel to the various places where the Fatal Five are incarcerated or hiding.] “While You Were Out . . .” Legion Headquarters is defended from an invasion of protoplasmic creatures by diverse friends and associates: SP Officer Erin, Chuck Taine, chef Tenzil Kem, Lori Morning, Rond Vidar, and Marla Latham. (L * #35) [Occurs simultaneously with “The Fatal Five.”] “The Long Road Home.” XS, aided by the Time Trapper (who causes her to forget the encounter), finally returns to the 30th century at Sydney, Australia. (LSH Annual # 3; also L* #35). [Jenni comments that she has returned “just a few weeks” after she left in LSH # 73. Note that the bulk of this story does not take place in 2997.] “To the Rescue!” The Legion is saved from the Fatal Five by a “rescue squad” composed of Live Wire, XS, Valor, Andromeda, Ultra Boy, and Jan Arrah, plus Kintetix (who is sent back to her teammates by Mysa). The Fatal Five escape and steal a Braalian arms cache, intending to reignite the Braal-Titan War. (L* #36) [Immediately after “The Fatal Five.”] “Trust.” The Legion defeats the Fatal Five on Drak IV, while the Legion Espionage Squad maneuvers President Chu into admitting her culpability in several criminal activities, including instigating the Braal-Titan War and framing Ambassador Wazzo for the Starfinger incident. Chu is removed from office and R.J. Brande is drafted as the new president. His first acts include pardoning Andromeda and Brainiac 5, and abolishing the Legion draft. (LSH #80) [Immediately after “To the Rescue!”] Continue to: III. THE 21st THROUGH 29th CENTURIES IV. THE 30th CENTURY: THE PRE-LEGION ERA |