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

On Free Comic Book Day, Dark Horse released an issue acting as a prologue to their QUANTUM AGE miniseries, a spin-off from Jeff Lemire's BLACK HAMMER verse.

At first glance it was immediately clear Lemire was doing a Legion homage with the Quantum League, including members such as:

Archive V, Judo Girl, Glue Girl, Sand Boy, Binary Lad/Lass, Furnace Lad, Modular Lass, Gravity Lad, Techno Lad, and so on.

Quantum Age is a miniseries that takes place 25 years later after the Quantum League disbanded and Earth has been put into a xenophobic police state after a Martian invasion.

By the second issue I've realized the story is literally an unused Legion script Lemire transferred to his Black Hammer series, due to the fact the government of Earth is literally called EARTHGOV. Whereas all the other Legion-esque elements are tweaked to resemble tidbits of Legion comics, that the comic re-uses the name "Earthgov" led me to believe someone in editing got sloppy altering the story for Dark Horse.

"Earthgov" is a fairly common sci fi term, so I wouldn't read too much into that, beyond the fact that the storyline is clearly a massive LSH homage.

I liked, but didn't love, the first issue, and haven't got around to the second yet. Thanks for starting the thread, though. I actually meant to start one about it after the first issue, but never got around to it.

I've moved this to Gym'll's.

I wasn't sure where it belonged, sorry.

Thanks for creating the thread Sarky. I've just finished some issues of Black Hammer, and I was going to pick up the Quantum Age ones tomorrow.

The first issue was a good set-up. It does have a very Legion homage feel to it. I thought the art was a bit too simple in terms of showing what the future looks like - a lot of panels just had blank backgrounds. Haven't read the second issue yet, but Black Hammer really grew on me, so I'm optimistic for this six-issue series.

Hey did anyone pick up the third issue?

The known Leaguers at this point:

Archive V
Binary Lad/Lass
Cosmo Girl
Doppler Damsel
Erb
Furnace Boy
Glue Girl
Gorilla Girl
Gravity Lad
Hammer Lass
Judo Girl
Laser Lad
Modular Lass
Sand Boy
Storm Girl
Techno Boy

As well as the ice kid, the stag kid, and the insect girl

Not yet, but I'll look this week if Impossible Inc is in.

Finished issues 2 and 3. It's a slow, slow build to get the team back together, a lot of backstory but that backstory is interesting enough. The ending to #3 was a good surprise, I wasn't expecting that particular link to the Black Hammer series.

The artwork continues to be rather bland in terms of detail; that's the main negative to the series.

Yeah, the reveal was kind of lost on me since I don't follow the main Black Hammer stuff. Still enjoying it though.

Well, that was as Legiony as anything this side of the Hypernaturals. Their Brainiac even had a 5 on his sweatshirt for a big scene.

It's also taking a cue from the 5YG, by putting the team back together after something a lot more traumatic than Earthgov picking on them. The impact on the remaining heroes was also stronger. It's something I was pointing out in Raz's version of Bounty in Bits. There's always hope even in the darkest of times. We see glimpses of it here.

As DC wrings its hands over the Legion for 5 years, others have shown that it works perfectly well and have already given us some interesting takes. EGOs was another one.

I agree the ending was a surprise. So, it will be interesting to see how it all ties in. That said, you don't have to be reading the other book for this issue to work. I've no doubt we'll learn a bit more about the ending next time.

EGOs?

https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/egos

The team on EGOs did the Legion Convergence issues that weren't as good.

EGOs has things like a Suneater and Tryouts.

No I knew Stuart Moore and... whoever the other guy is, worked on the book, I just didn't know it had Legion parallels.

It also has a sort of 5YG thing going on too, and the plot of putting the team back together. Oh, and at least one of the main cast has Sub level powers.

We should have back issues left at the store I'll check out.

And this week we discover the true identity of the Time Trapper!

It's Rokk Krinn! No..wait…

I'll take a look when I visit the shop.

UGH MY STORE DIDN'T GET OUR COPIES I HAVE TO WAIT TWO MORE WEEKS

Ah, that's pants Sarky. Look forward to your thoughts on it when it comes in.

It was pretty cool, the Chronokus / "Time Trapper" reveal ...


clue:

Also another scene that reminded me of the Legion was

Its kind of funny that this series is just 125 years after the present (?) or the Black Hammer series.

Is it? I thought it took place in the 31st Century?

After peeking, the first issue opens in 3041 AD, 25 years after the fall of the Quantum League.
The Black Hammer/ Quantum Age Preview places the earlier era of heroes in the 20th century.

As I was doing a quick list for The ELectric Warriors series, here's some Quantum Age/ Legion connections

I thought it had been confirmed as being in the 31st century as well. So I was completely confused by the opening scene of this issue being "One Hundred Years From Now". And it's mentioned again later.

It seems like a major continuity goof. (Or a deliberate homage to the changing setting of the Legion in their early stories?)