Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion Archives: Volume 28

Legion of Super-Heroes #21-24 "A Quiet Darkness" by Tom & Mary Bierbaum , Keith Giffen & Al Gordon, art by Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Jason Pearson, Michael Christian, Dusty Abell & Brad Vancata, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Dan Raspler

The Main Plot: Dr. Francis Campbell made a Faustian bargain with Darkseid to deliver the Gemini Matrix, which would create a being between man and god. For this, his unborn child was split into twins in the womb; now his children are the subjects which will bring Gemini into being. However, daughter Aria has escaped with a friend and is on the run, pursued by bounty hunters, on Zuun.

Brainiac 5 has brought Furball/Brin to Zuun for tests but both are detained under martial law. Brainy gets a scratchy message out to Legion HQ, then he and Brin escape. Jo, Kent and Celeste leave to help, arriving several days later and having to fight through Zuun's military.

Meanwhile, Furball has rescued Aria and friend Lori and helps them hide from the bounty hunters. Aria takes a great shine to Furball, calling him Frisky and stealing food for him. Brainy connects with them and hears about Campbell's Gemini project, which worries him. Lobo then finds them and gets away with Aria, delivering her to Darkseid and Campbell.

Jo, Kent and Celeste have joined up with Brainy, Brin and Lori in Campbell's lab. The experiment is underway but brother Cody is dying. The Legionnaires are unable to stop the process. Aria is subjected to the experiment amid her father's sorrowful apologies and becomes Gemini, absorbing her brother's soul and appearing as a grown woman. She is somehow tricked by Darkseid to obliterate him, as was his goal to achieve his "Quiet Darkness". Darkseid and Cody walk together in some realm.

The Secondary Plot(s): Dominators launch BION to track down the escaped SW6 batch, after testing him by having him kill Atmos. BION picks up on Laurel Gand's thoughts as one of the escaped SW6 subjects.

Universo schemes.

Valor discovers, in a distant Dark Circle base, a project from 2978 which cloned Legionnaires.

Cham worries that the Legion isn't what it used to be. Rokk reassures him.

Kono snoops and finds many unanswered messages from Nura to Mysa.

Jacques has sent a team to explore the Cominators' chambers. Laurel meets up with Bounty, disguises herself as Celeste and meets Circe, who Bounty is either holding or hiding.

Devlin recovers somewhat from the powersphere blast and is introduced by Violet to the rest of the Legion, circa 1978, in full uniform.

Text pieces include Dominator missives regarding the deteriorating situation on Earth and the launch of Project Champion (BION), an SP report on known thieves Sussa Pakka and Ben Pares, Tasmia's diary and Brainy's journal entry on what happened.

Comments:I didn't particularly like this arc when I first read it. The plucky young girl and her reluctant but loyal friend - kids in superhero comics just don't work for me. I still don't understand the Gemini Matrix and what happened to Darkseid. Is he dead (seems most likely), or in some other realm? And if Cody's with Darkseid, how is he in Aria/Gemini? Are they both soulless? How could a being that is between man and god kill a god? Not really following the very basis of the story has really undermined it for me.

The 5YL issues to date and the Baxter series before it jump from location to location, so I did enjoy the structure of A Quiet Darkness i.e. the main story told uninterrupted, then followed by the on-going sub-plots at the end. However, the battle scenes took up a lot of pages - that's a common complaint for me, however, and others may appreciate the fight action far more.

The visuals of Furball were striking - the glowing red eyes in the dark (similar to Darkseid's eyes in some panels), a silhouette leaping into nothingness.

Tom King's recent Mister Miracle series reminded us that Darkseid is - everywhere, everytime, always pulling the strings - by repeating the black "Darkseid is" panels throughout the story. It was an effective symbol of Darkseid's power. But this is a very different Darkseid. He seems tired, patient but pushing forward on the project, unrelenting but somewhat sympathetic of human needs, although regarding humans as inferior creatures. He looks and behaves gentlemanly for the most part, but doesn't hesitate to obliterate his servants. Entirely unruffled by events. There is some irony that Darkseid depended on children to accomplish his goal - and is shown walking hand-in-hand with Cody at the end - after his terrible manipulation of Validus/Garridan Ranzz. This was a highly original, but credible take on the character.

Francis Campbell illustrates the pact with the devil. It is difficult to like him. Although he was clearly caught in a bad bargain with Darkseid, he snivels and moans. Full of remorse, he sacrifices his children anyways. It is also a story of science gone wrong, but proceeding because no one knows how or is willing to stop it. The Legionnaires try, but (as I read it), the project got to a point where it just had to go forward to save Aria; Cody is lost. That's where Brainiac 5 pitches in and helps Francis Campbell to complete the project.

Lobo played his part well and I had the pleasure of seeing him obliterated. Even if he was just a probe....

The sub-plots, along with the text pieces, set up the next stage of the story: the SW6 batch, which are the 1978 Legionnaires. We know one set is cloned, but as Lar himself questions, are the adults the clones? This all struck me as a lot more exciting than Darkseid's machinations.

I have to wonder why The Quiet Darkness wasn't condensed a bit (all those fight scenes! and the lengthy pursuit of Aria and Lori...) and published as a two-parter on its own.

These issues were a real challenge for me, whether it was the story itself or the current world situation, I just couldn't get into it. So I know I've shortchanged it in this review; there should be more comments on the intricacies of the story and the many different artists, but it's time to move forward.

Trivia point: My issue #21 had the last four pages reprinted and was missing the text piece and letters pages.

v4 Issue 21

The thing about a lot of modern comics is the decompression that results in books that would once be contained in a single issues lasting for conveniently just enough to fit into a trade. That's why the nine page introductory scene where two girls leave a drainage pipe and evade some bounty hunters with the help of Furball is... oh wait.

I guess it depends on the quality of the story in the end. There *is* a sense of movement both in plot and characters on the run here, which gives it more of a push than a lot of space filling books. We get the girls escaping the underground *and* an action scene. It's not just talking heads, and GIffen on the art is a treat. He always lifts the issues he draws in this volume.

The girls are on the run on Zuun, and can't contact Aria's dad for some reason. I guess it's no surprise to see Brin back on Zuun, although I didn't make that connection at the time. The girls have escaped bounty hunters already. They're caught here, but it shows there's quite a manhunt for them. There's a bit of a let down as one of the bounty team leaders seems to indicate intended child abuse. I'm sure the Silver Age didn't have Luther or Mordru pull this stuff. It adds nothing at all to the story either, and is tapping into Moore and Miller comic-darkness, without really understanding where that was from.

Back at Legion HQ, Jo is sitting on his butt (the common superpower of v4) when Brainy calls in to tell them that Furball has bolted. We don't know the circumstances. We don't know why Brainy and Brin were there. We're only told that there might be something "magical" involved as the comms breakdown completely and that Zuun is under martial law. All good hints and questions so far, so I'm enjoying it.

There's humorous dialogue and light moments interspersed with the plot in a lot of this volume, often balancing out the grimness. A whole page for Kent to order a sandwich seems a bit much though. I'm sure a plot breakdown of the story would show that there's a bit of panel padding, as you'd expect (which is a different level from Trade Paperback Padding which can add whole issues on).

At a Zuunian SP precinct house, we get a payoff to one of those repeated panel pages. They're repeated because it's only a projection of Brainy. Earlier we had repeated panels (which do save Giffen time) to show the extent, both of time and carnage, of non-code approved Brin tearing apart the Bounty Hunter team. Two technique pay offs in an issue!

Brin will have to appear before a Polar Boy enquiry panel for breaking the code later, though...

There's only a little tease as to who the villain behind all this activity is. A "Hmmm" earlier on, a shadowed (and well dressed) half figure here, before the reveal that it's Darkseid.

Gordon chooses to not make this the big reveal of the issue. He doesn't build up a giant galaxy threatening confrontation (I imagine this caught a lot of folks off guard, and perhaps a bit frustrated). He has Darkseid look at a longer game, as befits someone of his lineage. Even villains like Mordru and Glorith seem short lived, and unimportant to him. His return, in the Great Darkness Saga, ended with his realisation that the galaxy would not simply submit to his control as a god. He could well have won that war, but he felt the galaxy had changed. From his words here, the last thing he wanted to do, was end up like another Mordru. It's been eleven years (see RPG from chronology) and he's been working on an experiment involving one of the escaped girls. The girl has brother, and the two seem key to Darkseid's plans. The children's father has been working with the New God, putting him into a dubious light (although there's indications that they are trying to save the children).

In earlier (and other) comics, we could have got a big build up to Darkseid's return, a big battle and an ending that got completely bogged down in the philosophising exposition from the main villain sucking all the momentum out of the story. I've read sagas from the big 2 just like that. Gordon's approach is quite different. Darkseid isn't hiding anything here. His motivations are different, yet focused on a goal nearing completion. Gordon sets up most of it in the first of four parts. "...and believe me, I know what a disappointment children can be" is a great line.

Like the first Great Darkness Saga, I'm left wondering who one of the servants was. I hadn't actually thought of him as a servant before this reread, but Darkseid tells the bounty hunter leader "pleasant return, -- my friend"when killing him, indicating that the guy had been brought back from an earlier death. Also, that he might have opposed Darkseid since it was "my friend". So, who was he?

Another of Darkseid's servants turns out to be Lobo. Giffen was involved in his creation, and he was very popular at the time. So, it's a sales boost and a sign that a big gun would be going after the kids next issue. I'm trying to recall if I minded him being in the issue. The thought of him have survived into the 30th century to be a recurring character wouldn't have gone down well. Gordon has set up the reveal through the last bounty hunter, so he gets credit for that (if only at the end once Lobo was safely out of the way). Seeing Lobo front and centre of the RPG cover was enough for me not to buy it at the time. Not the only reason, but I bought a lot of RPG stuff around it.

Elsewhere, the main storyline continues...

The Dominators discover that every SW6 pod has been opened. Fortunately, they may have a way of retrieving their subjects. Way back in #1, we saw Computo working away at the apartment blocks the old Legion HQ had been turned into. We now learn that the Dominator's had made full use of the Computo technology and what was in Weisinger Plaza (which is what I conclude the Dominator meant by "Weisinger Laboratories")

The SW6 provided Project Champion with genetic samples, which is about as big a clue as you'd need to guess their identities. Not that I did, but it continues this volumes ability to give plenty of hints, all building up to the reveals.

We see some of those powers (but not necessarily give away ones) used against Atmos, who is beaten and killed. The RPG indicated that Atmos had just been released for Champion to hunt down. The comic shows a pretty powerful Legionnaire (brought in during the Five Year Gap) suddenly hunted down and killed.

As Universo and Grinn dance around the possibility of Foccart not surviving the liberation of Earth. It was seemingly Universo who knew all about the chambers. This information presumably came from his Dark Circle contact, we see lurking outside. It's another reminder of how interlinked everything in the volume is.
'The person who helped release that information, Devlin O'Ryan, has been saved by the SW6 inhabitants. He recognises one of them and compliments hr on getting something fixed. He's referring to Vi's eye, and is another set up example.

The final text piece shows what new lengths The Dominion will go to in controlling Earth. They now employ starvation tactics against insurgents.

The issue is one where the Quiet Darkness story is working in a four-issue framework, with its own pacing including a nine page introduction, while the main storyline works across fewer pages, yet crams in subplots with the density we've come to expect in the volume. It's like getting a double issue in the space of a single one as a result.

Agreed, it was dark enough already without that thrown in. In retrospect, it makes the bounty hunters look like amateurs. Why wouldn't Darkseid hire the best? Or is there a reward for anyone who finds the girls?



This really struck me as dated! Maybe at the time it seemed futuristic.



Haven't gone through the series with that in mind, but there have been a few instances where it was made clear that nobody was killed and a few which were questionable. At least Brin could argue that he wasn't in his right mind as Furball.



That comment about Mordru and Glorith said a lot in one sentence.



Oh, I never calculated the timeline. Brilliant, it makes sense now that he slunk off after GDS and began this project.


Good question, I hadn't thought of him as a servant either, even on this reread.



Evidence of your good taste....

v4 Issue 22

Like the first part, this issue begins with Aria, Brin and Lori on Zuun. They find the plaza they're on deserted and locate a place to sleep. Not far away, Lobo finds the remains of the bounty hunter team Brin dealt with last issue. Good luck on telling Polar Boy that severed head is just a flesh wound Brin!

It's 3 pages for a group to find a ledge and for Lobo to talk to a head. Not fast paced, but I'm trying to view it as a part of a whole. Let's see if my hypocrite alarm goes off when I moan about the next Bendis issue.

On their way to Zuun, following Brainy's comms last issue, are Jo, Kent and Celeste. One of the things TMK gave to Jo (this can also be read as "yet another thing TMK gave to Mary Sue Lad ) in this volume, is that his smuggling activities gave him lots of contacts across the UP. Including Zuun, allowing him to get a permit to land there. By itself, smuggler Jo follows on from his pirate, amnesiac, days and the times where he was on the run from his own teammates. Looking back at the whole volume, you'd need Ultra Strength to carry all the roles they gave him. It's the reason, that I enjoyed his character in the volume, but even after all this time, I'm happy when someone else gets the spotlight.

TMK also try to establish a team bond between Kent and Jo. They must have operated together for all of five minutes during the five year gap.

>Whoosh!< Why, it's Timeline Teen with an Ultra Update!

Kent joined the team in April 2990. Tinya was killed in April 2991. Jo left the team in May 2991.

Thanks Timeline Teen! ... waits till she's gone. Yeah, thanks for shooting down that theory...

A year is quite a bit longer than I thought. It was also when the team hadn't quite disintegrated. While Kent's Adventure Comics like "old days" may look as though he's be retrofitted to take Superboy's place, he does have a decent spell with Jo on the team.

We get told that Celeste's powers are dangerous. We've yet to see them in action, so it's hard to be sure. Yet, the power in the ship goes down here. And it also went down, back when Celeste was looking for Jan Arrah! Could she be... Siphon Lass?!

With the power down, it's a long haul to Zuun. The light tone changes as Darkseid stops monitoring them (he bought that device from OmniMons, also used by the likes of Kang and Mordru). The Old New God decries cynical mankind and its brief lifespan, talks about the universe deserving something grander, while telling us that it's not a place for gods either. I think he's a little bored without the likes of Desaad and Baron Bedlam concocting schemes to topple mankind. We learn that the scheme he *dies* have is related to something called the Gemini matrix. It's a myth about to become all too real. Yet Coda, the captive twin, has severed his tie with the escaped Aria, endangering the project. Their father has seemingly tried to sabotage it before now, making me wonder how he got himself and his kids this far into things. He's not getting a lot of sympathy here.

Coda appears to Aria in her dreams, becoming a husk that reminds me of Barry Allen in Crisis, He screams alert the SPs and we get to see Brin in action, leaping and running across the cityscape. The SPs that lose them are met by Lobo, who slaughters them, as he killed the officers that were holding Brainy. I never recalled Lobo being this indiscriminate with his killing from L-Acronym or from the JLI series. Here, he might as well be Roxxas in a suit, and it's a bit one note.

Above Zuun, Celeste knocks out the power again. Giffen wanted places to be tougher to get to. But he didn't tell us that we'd have to watch so much of the journey. It's another scenes where a Legion team does very little, other than add some light comedy value.
Brin takes the kids to Brainy. There's a nice payoff for Aria and Lori hearing rats earlier on. Like Kent with Jo, Brainy indicates a longer relationship with Celeste than we've seen. Brainy and the girls have a connection in Aria's dad. I think there was a time where the Brainiac title wasn't a hereditary thing, but more of a scientific title handed out by the Coluans. I think DC switched it back after Brainiac-Bob turned up in an issue that Brainiac-Phil was supposed to be in. We don't learn much more about the Gemini Matrix beyond the wacky legend it's supposed to be. We get a double payoff for the earlier rat comment as Lobo finally hunts down his prey.

It's a decent chapter. Lobo goes from beginning his hunt to finding the girls. Brainy and Brin link up. We get a *bit* more on the Gemini Matrix, but not much and back up is on the way. This is one that could have been made a three parter, by the looks of it. But it's not overstretched as it's only 18pages.

In the main storyline, Legionnaires are sitting around, just like the first part of the book! Another tie in is Cham saying it's not like the "old days" as Kent did.

It's an odd exchange between Rokk and Cham. It's supposed to show Rokk's quiet leadership skills and tell the reader that things might have changed, but the core values are still as important and haven't changed. But Rokk says that it was the team's structure that dragged it down before. It was actually an inability to leave Earth that cost it in the 5YG. If they had relocated to Xanthu, or anywhere else, they'd never have split up.

Rokk must have been hit on the head during Venado Bay. He says that the rules, uniforms and powers weren't what made them a team. From the guy who was part of a rule obsessed, statue fetishists who loved nothing more than rejecting people because of the powers they had and getting teammates to take the walk of shame to the exit door. It's quite the revisionist take on the Adventure era. TMK must have the power to Rose Tint everything they see.

To counterpoint Rokk's amazing leadership, Cham seems to have trust issues with the people he's known and worked with just as long. He wonders how his father kept his sanity, but his dad had very little to do with the Adventure team (even through this volume's retcons).

Elsewhere in the HQ, Rapidly Redundant Lass, Kono, sneaks a peak at Mysa's mail. We learn that 1) Nura is constantly trying to contact her and 2) Giffen isn't the only one who likes repeat panels.
It's the final scene that jumpstarts a lot of subplot. We've seen Lar and Tasmia (not in this issue) go off exploring into Dark Circle space. Lar saves files from being purged on a Circle outpost. The file fragments give more insight into the SW6 batch, and the superb work TMK did with this volume. They've tied The Unkillables (Adventure 361) with Nardo (Adventure 344) and the Dark Circle Invasion (Adventure 367) together with the Circle's long-standing cloning interest. We'll learn that other stories are tied into all this such as those including the Legion's own cell bank that gave brief returns to Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid (Superboy 206). There are also links to Universo taking control of Earth (Adventure 359) explaining *why8 we see Universo and the Circle working together in this volume. There have been plenty of little hints throughout, and it's one of my favourite parts of this, and most other, Legion volumes. As this cloning activity occurred in the past, Lar is left with the question. Is there a doppelganger Legion, is he part of it?

A huge cliff-hanger this issue, and one that looks as though it's going to bring Lar and Tasmia back to Earth. It also ties in very nicely with the Dominators sending their Legionnaire killing Project Champion to track down the SW6 Legion. The text page gives us Tasmia's journal, where she notes that something has changed in Lar. Something else that scares him. Lar's mood change gets across the importance of his discovery., but it does seem as though Tasmia lives a bit too much through him. A second page acts as an introduction to Susa Paka's later appearances. There's even a connection to TMK's Foxworth character in there.

v4 Issue 23

We start with Jo, Kent and Celeste facing off against Zuunian authorities. As per last issue, Kent (known as Impulse in his Legion days) must have been busy in his short time with the team, to be afforded a decent sized reputation. The two hold off a number of troops and some cargo robots. Without flight rings, Jo's a bit less combat capable than in the old days and the fight isn't over in a couple of panels.

There's a hint that Celeste's power (we're informed yet again that she's dangerous) may not be Siphon Lass, as Aria seems to be the source of all that interference. Yet Kent tells Celeste that she's still Legion material as she shows off her new identity as Nad Kicker Lass! How Kent is an arbiter of Legion material is not explained. The RPG suggests that he was something of an inspiration when he was a member. This was down to his Superman genes before that had to be retroactively ignored, even before it was published. But he wasn't there that long. His powers remain ill defined. He seems resistant and strong, but little else here. That doesn't make him stand apart from Jo. The creation of fake combat manoeuvres seems a little silly when they've just left Celeste vulnerable in front of a firing squad. A bit of mistimed humour there.

The Zuunian troops are trying to distract the Legion while they get a lock onto their target: Aria. I rolled my eyes a little at them having teleporter technology in a galaxy that's supposedly grittier than before. But they don't, and it's a nice use of the Boom Tube to further Darkseid's plans.
All those months that Brainy has been studying Celeste have build up to a rare, and with all the more impact for it, splash page as she saves a teleported Lori from the cargo droids. The burst of emerald energy wipes out the droids and the troops. Fortunately, there's a lot of people ahead of her in the Code Against Killing trial queue. The GLC don't seem to be bothered much either. In the old days Kent's so fond of telling us of (although he wasn't there), you'd get an original and power demonstration in the same issue. And with an arc resolution. It's taken quite a while manoeuvre Celeste into a position of immediate comic-book danger. It is a pretty powerful page, and one that leaves Celeste transparent and unconscious.

Another good use of the Giffen Repeating Panel (also an off beat '60s band) is Brin getting thumped over a treeline twice in exactly the same way. It says a lot of about Brin's loyalty and determination. But he can't win because it's Lobo. He's one of those irritating characters that win because... well...because. Brin's one of the strongest Legionnaires and if the Furball powers have added to that, then I'd have fancied his chances. But Brin can't win... because...

Lobo carts Aria off to see Darkseid. But not before our second child abuse subtext in as many issues. Take a look at yourselves writers. Elsewhere Jo's recent experiences of finding himself have left him with the conclusion that all women are dangerous. Well done Jo (Ultra Idiot).

The two Legion groups meet up as Brainy plays a message form Aria's father. Again, it's all a bit vague around the Gemini Matrix, but it's enough for Brainy to figure out that Darkseid is involved. While there weren't many clues, anyone who'd heard a boom tube in the Great Darkness Saga would have figured it out.
There's a second splash page! Darkseid is expecting guests! He's dressed for dinner already, but will it be Elvabird like it was with Mordru? Will it be a confrontation of text pages?

This chapter used a couple of action scenes (always welcome form Giffen in this volume) to get groups together before a final confrontation. We didn't learn a great deal along the way, but Celeste looks like she'll be one of the team going forward...as Semi Transparent Lass!

In the main storyline, Jacques has prepared a team of specialists to attack the Dominator chambers. It's why they've been on Earth all this time. The ripples of the Superman office mandate continue as Laurel can't refer to her flying power as Super speed. It's Ultra Speed from now on. She and Bounty meet a remorseful Circe, who seemingly loved Dirk all along. It's a 180 degree character shift, and I was never that convinced by it.

Elsewhere shadowy figures (and Vi) talk about Devlin and that power giving Null Radiation he's got. Elsewhere again, Tasmia also seems to have undergone a 180 degree character shift. Lar gets to leave her behind on the pretext that it's "Legion business" That should have got him put in his place so traumatically that he'd be grateful for a 1000 years in the Phantom Zone before daring to come out. Instead, he gets to add that it's Legion business form before Tasmia's time. So, that's all right then. Because it's not like Tasmia was ever involved in dealing with Legion villains form before her time...like Mordru (Daxamite Dolt).
Visi Lad gets a mention in the text pages, as the Dominion talk about contagion protocols (as we do the rereads in lockdown mode). A second page has more on Susa Paka's activities, with a mention of the Spiffany family!

Middle acts can be tough to navigate. This issue didn't help itself by having so many off character beats, something the book has been strong on. That's down to Gordon being on the plotting duties, but T&M don't help if the dialogue chosen was theirs. Gordon would probably have been less involved in the main storyline, where Tasmia is a shell of a character this issue. Having your favourites as a writer is one thing, but they're fans of the Adventure era where she made her debut. It's a chapter that gets the characters where they need to be, at a leisurely pace, ahead of the finale. I seem to recall that Giffen wasn't originally going to be available to draw this four parter. It's all part of why there's two books in one for this second year, with T&M running a multi-part Khund War and A to run this multi parter, while K's main storyline is at the back of the book.

v4 Issue 24

The Adventure #300 style cover is a little bit of a giveaway concerning Aria. Tracking Lobo, the team have a short conversation regarding the "Life Equation Matrix." It's something Celeste happens to conveniently know about. TMKG have persevered with the Brainy/ Celeste relationship through some bickering. It's their difference in approach here, with only Celeste almost understanding something beyond her reach that gives their relationship a boost. It lends itself to her now forgotten detective roots too. A Brainy/Laurel/Rond/ Celeste range of subplots would have been good to see in the book.

The revelations behind the Matrix have been a less than forthcoming. With other TMK subplots, we've had a layering effect with each reveal overlapping and adding. This story tends to just keep it vague, although we get a bit more in this chapter. Francis' dream tells us that he got into this to save his wife and children during childbirth. But Carole, his wife, seemingly chose to die to prevent Darkseid having his way. It also seems that Aria and Coda are the same person, divided as part of Darkseid's experiments.

The Legion arrive, but there's no Elvabird dinner for them, as the experiment reaches a critical point!

Part of the strength of this story is how it plays with the perception of Darkseid's appearance in the book. Levitz showed his villains to change their outlooks, goals and even form. Gordon does something similar in this story. He also does the Legion a massive favour by having Brainy reach an incorrect conclusion.
The experiment uses a matrix to create two forms with a single soul. At a certain point in their maturation, and in close proximity to each other, one form dies and passes into what looks like another realm/afterlife. The soul still ties the two forms together and the living part seems to access the form in the afterlife, resulting in a transformation: Gemini. Why it turns Aria into a grown woman isn't explained and will turn into a creepy comic writer clich? in a later issue.

Brainy thought that Darkseid would use Gemini as a puppet, one halfway between human and god. But Darkseid gave up his plan of galactic conquest at the end of Levitz's Great Darkness Saga. It's a universe he doesn't want to be in and one he feels has no place for his kind. He uses the power of Gemini to remove himself from it, and he joins with the child in the other realm. It could only take the power of something like Gemini to facilitate such a feat, especially concerning someone on the scale of Darkseid. The New God was aware of magical/ legendary artefacts back in the GDS when he sent his servants out to collect them, and the Gemini legend fits into that knowledge.

It's an ending without a huge battle. That's fitting to the story and the reality in the power level gap. There are few Legionnaires, and Darkseid warns them not to interfere with an Omega powered raise of a finger. It's a power he uses to dispatch Lobo, beloved of contemporary fan boys for beating everything (because). Darkseid gets what he wants by manipulating Aria's emotions, in a true wish granting way. He restores Brin (the prince in Aria's mind), but with the knowledge that the change will kill him. As he moves onto Lori, Aria acts and the pact the New God held with Frances is fulfilled. Frances' child *is* saved, as Darkseid promised. Frances and Aria reconcile a bit easily since she just saw him stand by while goons dropped her in a tank. Her form is still changed but we're told the Gemini power has gone, used in transporting Darkseid.

I think the previous stories in the volume set this one up quite well. We'd seen Rokk negotiate with Mordru and the Legion not being able to zoom in and save everyone form Roxxas or the Khunds. Sometimes the sheer scope of what they face is unknown to nearly all of them, as with the case of Glorith/ Time Trapper and the SW6 chambers. These themes certainly carry into this story. It's one that I prefer to an attempt to top the Great Darkness Saga, or an attempt to recover the same ground. Things that would happen in a later volume, to mixed success at best.

In the main storyline Project Champion, now known as B.I.O.N. (copyright complaint from the RPG owners/ Marvel/ ITC (British Champions)? ) begins his hunt at the SW6 chambers. He soars above Metropolis, until he locates the Laurel Gand. It's a lovely coming together of plot threads. It's another confirmation that the SW6 group are a Legion, without beating the reader on the head with a cloning manual. Along with that are all the earlier Legion stories, mentioned in the last review. It also feeds into Lar's fears. The Laurel Gand BION finds is the one from the pre-SW6 opening issues. Clearly the two Legions are indistinguishable (BION isn't too good at checking biological ages). It also weaves Laurel seamlessly into Legion history. She's now part of those earlier stories from which the genetic samples were taken. As one final reveal, Devlin is taken by Vi and introduced to the SW6 group, including Laurel.

Imra says "...after all these years, the Legion of Super Heroes is back." This indicates that they know how long they've been in the chambers for. Or that they've had a chance to check the dates from scouting in the wider world, If the latter, they would surely have known of the existence of another Legion.

One thing that is going to increasingly annoy me, is the amount of sitting around the cast do. The SW6 chambers were breached back in #20. Devlin meets the team in #24. If SW6 was the main Legion, would you buy a book where they sat in an underground bunker for 4 issues?

Adventure 359: "Crumbs! That Universo seems to be in control of Earth! Let's have 4 issues of risk assessment before taking any action." I'm sure Editor Mort would have been thrilled with that. It has never worked for me that a Legion team would do so little for so long. And the liberation of Earth story has a *long* way to go yet.

Well, if Querl can't figure it out...



I do seem to really like the Giffen v4 fight scenes. I liked the cargo robots in this story. Big enough to cause problems, without being a serious threat. Kent is trapped under sheer weight of numbers and Jo can't switch between powers too much or become Ultra-vulnerable. That said, it's a story where there was room to pad out certain scenes to keep to the plot points/ page count requirements. As it's Gordon first/ or very early writing credit, it's important that there was space to move around in. Imagine he had tried to get another GDS type thing in there as well.




I think another thing that *really* adds to this volume is McCraw's colouring. It's top notch throughout and Brin's glowing eyes and sky he leaps into, Celeste's powers and a thousand other things would be poorer with his absence.



You could look at this story as Darkseid's escape. As you said, credible and original. Also decades before King came along having mined his Kirby collection.




I can see some awkward meetings between Francis and child services in his future.


It was a sales stunt that pushed my buttons and worked out very well within the story. I do wonder why the change from servant to probe. Perhaps they didn't want Lobo's rep damaged by having him as a just-as-powerful replica. I've no doubt that if there was a Lobo office, this volume would have fallen foul of it.



I'd have to dig through the companions, but I think there was ongoing uncertainty about the title, specifically Giffen's availability for it. The creative team clearly wanted to push through as tell the liberation of Earth story. But Giffen had walked at least once, resulting in (I think) the Khund War story. He's coplotter only on #18, returning for #19. So, having some flexibility in there might have been something the team needed as they weren't sure how the chips were going to fall.

There was also that creative spirit in the volume, where Giffen was willing to share that side of things with the others. Gordon's Quiet Darkness may have come form an idea that developed into something they all felt he deserved to write, with the support of the others. He'd also just seen all his Kent Shakespeare plans go down in flames, like an Ultra Boy piloted shuttle, thanks to the Superman office.



I did try to get into it by sitting in a silent room with the lights off. But I couldn't read a thing and realised I'd taken the Quiet Darkness a bit far. With the lights on, it was pretty relaxed reading. I was more frustrated with the main story, and I know it's only going to annoy me more. I've also had a few days of annual leave, away from everything that's going on in the outside world.

The Quiet Darkness wasn't really a very good story. Lobo was a blatant attention-grab and an unnecessary 20th-century intrusion. Darkseid looked ridiculous dressed in that frilly style, and there was zero clear understanding of just what was going on with Darkseid and with the kids. The conclusion didn't offer any clarity either. I suspect the story was green-lit just to get Lobo on some covers and hoping that the implied connection to the Great Darkness Saga would pull in old fans who disliked the radical changes of the TMK era (especially as the story concluded with the re-introduction of the Shooter-Swan era Legionnaires, so that would hopefully keep them).

Legion of Super-Heroes #25 by Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Dusty Abell & Brad Vancata, Letters Albert deGuzman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Dan Raspler

Devlin hears the story of how this young Legion of Superheroes found themselves in the Dominator chambers, emerging naked from pods. They get uniforms and begin to piece together what happened to them. Devlin tells them that Earthgov and Dominators are one and the same. Brainy confirms this, by hacking computers, and determines that they were prisoners of the Dominion and that 17 years have passed. The Legion observes that Metropolis is mostly destroyed and escape a Dominator attack. They take time to openly salute their old HQ, escape another Dominator assault and hide.

Devlin connects them to the Resistance, setting up a diversion meeting to mislead the Dominators. At the real meeting, the Legionnaires are shocked to meet Universo. Leader Invisible Kid cautions restraint and wants to hear what Universo has to offer. They agree to work with him. At the diversion meeting, Legionnaires fight Dominion soldiers and Devlin manifests a reflective power as he stops a Dominator from shooting Cham.

Laurel and Lar discuss the challenges they face.

The Dominators learn that the BION unit can't be found since it's tracking device has been damaged or destroyed.

A text piece presents a page from Violet's diary, in which she contemplates waking up in 2995 and crushes on Devlin.

Comments:
Amid the collapse, this is a bit of bright and shiny. It's the teen Legion with all their enthusiasm, idealism and optimism in full roar.

They're handling the situation, putting the pieces together and working out an action plan - quickly, no angst, some levity retrofitted to Tenzil. It's such a contrast to the older team, who have been through a lot more, beaten up by time and events and are struggling to recapture the original spirit.

Devlin, himself so polite, respectful and deferential to the 30-something Legionnaires, is the voice of caution, doubt and sheer disbelief in the naivit? of these kids. Suddenly, Devlin's the worried old man, which highlights even more the freshness of the SW6 Legion.

They're not naive, though: they assess the situation and just accept, believe that they are going to fix it, because that's what Legionnaires do. They have standards that don't bend to fear.

They wake up and move right into action. The absence of clothes doesn't bother them, since they've got a job to do, naked or not. It does make sense to me that a team that works so closely together and lives together wouldn't be too fussed about one another's bodies.

There's a bittersweet scene in which the Legionnaires see a statue of Dirk defaced opposite a poster of Dirk as Earthgov champion. It confuses them, especially Dirk, but they assume that Earth has turned against the Legion, rather than Dirk has become a turncoat.

Now that Devlin has manifested Reflecto powers (not named as such), one wonders if he'll join this young team, the Resistance or the older Legionnaires. He's the bridge character at this point between the three groups.

One error in the story: Jeckie and Val are blasted by Dominators, but later it's Jeckie and Jan who are injured.

It's the first issue with no Keith Giffen in the credits and new artists. Some of the art is a bit bumpy, but not enough to detract from the story.

4 Issue 25

It's the return of the Adventure Legion! "After all these years, the Legion of Super Heroes is back", says Imra although it won't be until page 3 that someone finds out what date it is. Will we see this Legion act as the Adventure era Legion? Will we see them act like they're grown up selves? Well neither. We'll get to see them doing very little as TMK differentiate their personalities from their grown-up counterparts, while ensuring that the glacial plot beats are hit.

We see some of TMK's revisions in the likes of Lightning Lad's act-first livewire role and Tenzil's humour. Laurel is with the group and there's not a Kryptonian in sight.

We see the shock of Dirk upon seeing that the statue of his grown-up self is the only one in Weisinger plaza. I like to think that his planetary champion status is a recent attempt to elevate his status. The Dirk in #1 was trying to play down his role as Sun Boy. He was faking his modesty, sure, but the message was to remind people of his heroism so they could trust him in a world after heroes.

Unfortunately, along with giving this cast of super-earnest teens some personality, how they functioned seems to have been lost. TMK overplay the team's naivete on an Earth devastated by the moon's destruction and the powersphere explosions. But they?ve seen Earth conquered by Universo, travelled to worlds of devastation and faced down the likes of Mordru with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance. They were earnest heroes willing to give their lives proactively defending the United Planets. The traditions of the team ran alongside that heroism, but seems to have eclipsed it here.

They've been back since issue 20. It takes since then and until page 5 to find clothes, 7 to hide from a small Dominator patrol, 9 to leave the chambers and 12 to stand like idiots in front of a flag. After that debacle, they are convinced to avoid further confrontation and meet up with the underground. This story has had a full strength SW6 Legion available for 6 issues. It's not the case that most of the team are half way across the galaxy, leaving a plucky squad to face the month's challenges. They are all ready to directly deal with the crisis.

In a nice reminder of those Adventure days, the group end up meeting Universo, once behind the team being outlawed. Earth is under enemy control again, but this time Universo is on their side. Well, sort of. At least he doesn't pretend to be too heroic.

A number of plot points seemed geared towards promoting writer favourites Devlin and Tenzil . Devlin's "I know what I'm doing" took me by surprise. He's been a peripheral, figure whose possible achievements have been in the text pages. Yet, he's been given an origin that's lasted long enough to get blasted by every energy source he encounters. All the subplots involving him that seemed to have been cut, result in him not being the most convincing lynchpin character here. He's even been given a romance subplot with VI, making him the book's new Mary Sue, now that Jo's plots have been resolved.

The rest of the underground don't need elaborate ruses to meet up, yet Tenzil and Devlin are key to it happening here. There's a nice cameo by the espionage squad, but it's really all building up to Devlin showing off his new powers.

With this issue focusing on the SW6 Legion, I'm sure the Dominion will fall in issue 26. It's not as if we had to read a year's worth of Adventure issues to get to the end of a plot.

Universo is well-done, scheming and acknowledging that he's not a moral standard. The Legionnaires, for all their naivite, do at least show some caution. Maybe they're smartening up quickly after dallying in the chambers for so many pages.



Devlin does come off as a pet character here. Perhaps a brand new character, or somebody associated with the original Legion, might have played this role as well or better. (Shvaughn might have been a viable choice.)

For me, it's the lack of profile that Devlin got previously that was the issue here. Had he been shown as centrally as he should/could have been, perhaps him panel hogging here wouldn't seem like panel hogging.

You certainly liked the portrayal of the SW6 Legion more than I did. I take the point that the SW6 are brighter and shinier. But for me , they are bright and shiny sitting on their butts in the chambers, while the old , and worn down Legion are sitting on their butts on Talos.



At least we've found out why Marla Latham was assigned to look over what went on in the Legion.


I'd like to see that worry the SW6 Dirk, prior to any encounter with older Dirk. I can't recall if that happens, but it would be interesting to see the relationships between the SW6 guys change slightly based on how they see things turn out. Dirk and the Space Mutiny might come to mind for them.




Had they built his intrepid reporter role up, rather than the comedy relief, he could have been a window onto how the normal folk of Earth see both teams and what's happened since the Magic Wars.



I thought that too. But Val & Jeckie are blasted by guards in the chambers. Jeckie is then injured again, with Jan, as they salute the flag. I'm sure they all get blasted again at some point, which I use my Naltoran powers to predict I'm going to moan about


Working in that 9 panel grid keeps some consistency together for the volume. I agree that the story moved along well enough with it, although I prefer Pearson's art in #26. I seem to remember not being a fan of Pearson's art at all. I can't remember if I felt dispointed with the book not being drawn by Giffen or not. I do remember that the style had something to do with it. I pretty much gave up on the book at one point. It'll be interesting (to me anyway) to see why that was. That's another reason why I didn't get the RPG.

Legion of Super-Heroes #26 "The Terra Mosaic: Battered by BION" by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Jason Pearson & Al Gordon, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Michael Eury, assistant Editor Bob Kahan

The Dominators find the BION unit but are confused as to why it is tracking Celeste Rockfish, unaware that Laurel is impersonating the detective. BION tries to capture Laurel in a long and difficult fight but she escapes, badly wounded and astonished that anything could have given her such a beating. She heads to Legion HQ to warn the others, unaware that BION pursues her.

The President of Earth reluctantly agrees to introduce the new Dominator boss to the people. An underling interrupts to report that BION has been found, but is battling the wrong Laurel Gand.

Legion leader Invisible Kid accepts that Universo's team, comprised of his henchmen and the Subs, will investigate the Dominator chambers without the help of the Legion. Chlorophyll Kid manipulates the Dominator plant-based technology, Color Kid stuns the guards with a light display and the team is into the Weisinger Chambers. Dominator troops approach en masse.

At Legion HQ, a hospitalized Brin talks with Kono. Cham is anxious to openly send the team to Earth. Laurel arrives and collapses. BION waits at a distance, listening to her explain what happened and that she didn't think she was followed.

The head Dominator is furious that the troops can't destroy the rebels without wrecking all the chambers and shoots the bearer of bad news that contact with BION has been lost. He mulls over the series of bad luck events that have struck after 10 centuries of planning.

In the chambers, Ron Karr reports that the equipment is incredibly old and the detonation system can't be defused.

There's a hand-drawn map of the Legion HQ on Talus, with many joking annotations.


Comments:
Long battle scene with Laurel Gand and BION, which does establish that BION is a considerable threat to the Legion - possibly, to both Legions. I don't really understand how BION broke Laurel's arm, since invulnerable should mean invulnerable, even to other Daxamite powers, but it puts BION on a Darkseid or Time Trapper level threat.

The Subs enjoy a few pages of action and demonstrate how much they've improved their skills and coordination as a group. This suggests that Jacques Foccart is a better trainer/leader than Brek Bannin was, but possibly the Subs have just grown up and mastered their abilities through intensive practice, responding to an emergency situation. I do sense that they were to some degree potential cannon fodder, although their powers did dictate that they would precede Universo's people into the Chambers. Despite their success, they get no respect from Universo's man Grinn.

As thoth would put it, the SW6 kids get to sit on their butts for another issue. Universo has things under control with his team, including the Subs; one suspects that even Jacques would be reluctant to put these unknown, unproven and earnest children into action.

The Dominators can't do anything right at this point; although they're still in control of a subservient Earthgov, it's clear their days are numbered. If the Chambers project was so important to them that they've been at it for 1000 years, you'd think they would have upgraded their tech, which the Subs describe as ancient.

The HQ map I think was drawn up by Loomis, a mixture of straightforward description and assorted joking comments. It presents the roll-with-the-punches approach that Loomis would have to adopt to do his job, not taking things too seriously. It also provides a few insights into galactic history as Loomis catalogues the space-wrecks which cover Talus. Who knew the Llorn worked with Base 8 or that Sklarians once had a male dynasty?

4 Issue 26

Maybe it was me. With so many subplots building against the Dominators, I just felt that the second year should have been about giving Earth back its freedom. But this issue launches the Terra Mosaic. Which indicates either that this will be the focus of the year to come, or that a certain Ms Markov also survived in the SW6 chambers.

While it seemed like the overarching plot was treading water a bit for me, perhaps the plan all along was to have a few, looser, stories out in the wider UP. The alternative is that the creative issues in the book meant that it?s taken a year for it to be able to proceed as intended, and they?re drawing a line under it.

The no holds barred, violent battle between Laurel Gand and BION punctuates the issue. You can see that Laurel is in a fight for her life right from the start. Her fear at the realisation of BION?s powers is tangible.
Interweaving between the violent conflict are connections to the Dominion?s hold on Earth: firstly, through their control of BION in retrieving the SW6 specimens; then through their control of Earth President Wellington and finally through the resistance movement of Universo that seeks to overthrow them. It?s a nicely crafted set of scenes. They set the scene of the various plots as they provide some action.

The scope continues to pull outward as the Dominator?s discover that their construct isn?t attacking the SW6 Laurel Gand, while we?re reintroduced to the SW6 batch itself through Invisible Kid who has aligned with Universo. Lyle wants to be part of the operation on the chambers they escaped from. We see that the handpicked team for that mission is the Subs, along with some of Universo?s men. Universo clearly wants the secrets of the chambers for himself, and there?s a clear division in outlook between the two resistance groups.

The writers do a lovely segue as the Subs move in and we switch to Laurel going full out against BION. It?s not enough. She?s badly beaten against an effective update of the Composite Superman. It has all of the Legionnaires powers, combined with Computo?s matrix. I?ve never quite got the Lar invulnerability+ Laurel invulnerability making something even more invulnerable, though.

I read Laurel Gand?s battle as an extreme a test as BION could face (she even weighs up the Legion code against killing just to stop the thing). Looking at the issues her injuries would cause later, I?m reminded of the trend to depower heroines. Power Girl is a parallel from around this time. But with Lar Gand essentially a god in this timeline and Jo not being a similar challenge, it?s hard to think of a replacement. I?d have probably backtracked and put in a mouthy, proactive Atmos into the v4 team, only to have him get killed around here.

The Dominator?s sense of triumph is short-lived as they discover the attack on the chambers. Their skiff hurrying to get back is a humorous moment in a tense issue.
Giffen seemed pleased that he turned the Subs into an effective fighting force. But they used to be very effective until he mined them for comedy value. As mentioned before, the Subs took down the League of Assassins. There?s no Polar Boy or Night Girl here, but there is enough backup to do the job. Stone Boy has been animated, to fill in for Night Girl. Chlorophyll Kid?s power makes him something of a nemesis to the Dominion. I always saw him as a hero of those border worlds of the Dominion empire.

The Subs gain control of the chambers easily enough. But platoons of Dominion forces arrive to take them back. It?s not yet known why the resistance want the chambers. There?s a series of events that make the Subs even less trustful of Universo?s troops. You could expect a battle within the chambers between the two sides, if their goals diverge enough.

The nice setups between the scene setups continues. Laurel escapes Earth, knowing that BION will also be after her colleagues. She returns to Talos (with its JLI tech on page 19), and BION, having overcome some programming conflicts, allows her to lead him. As the team react to her injuries BION approaches for what promises to be one heck of a battle next issue.

Prior to BIONs arrival on Talos Cham was considering sending the whole team to Earth. Rokk says that the covert way is the best approach, for reasons I?ve yet to fathom. I don?t know if we ever find out why Laurel was impersonating Celeste on Earth. To make her a target for the Dominion perhaps? That certainly happened, and ironically Celeste wouldn?t have been on BION?s shopping list.

On Earth, the Dominators look to detonate the chamber the resistance are in (with its L.E.G.I.O.N. tech, only to find that *all* the chambers are linked. We?ve already seen what happened with Triple Strike and the power spheres across Earth, so there?s a feeling that this isn?t going to go well either.

The text page is a diagram of the Legion HQ. It?s quite light hearted amongst the dirt and coffee stains, much like the tone of the volume as a whole. It gives hints of Llorn tech and its? connections to Durla, and lots of other nuggets that will never get explored.

It?s an excellent issue to start off the arc, with plenty of action and plot development. Jason Pearson?s art is a bit scratchy but consistently so, which gives the reader a chance to get used to it and then enjoy it. It worked well within Giffen?s 9 panel grid. I do remember really disliking art form somewhere around this time. With the endless Earth plot, and ?subpar? art, I was going to give up. It was a big reason for me not to get the RPG. It?ll be interesting (for me anyway) to find out when that was.

That page-boy blonde kid, never a favourite, also came to mind for me. Just think, we escaped a Titans crossover here.



She put up such a fight, I hadn't thought of it in terms of her being depowered. Would Lar have fared better? Moot point, since he's not around. Atmos would have worked as a substitute. Would the team then been taken entirely by surprise? It's odd to think that, in this great big galaxy, there are so few Super-level heroes (or villains) around - and only one female - but add too many and they're a lot less special, I guess. At this point, I don't remember how BION is defeated, but Brainy is probably involved.



True, but the buffoonery lingers on and dominates my memory.



I disliked the art at the time as well, but it's grown on me. Familiarity, perhaps, or a better appreciation of the different style.

I liked the Terra Mosaic, and I especially loved the effective use of the Subs, especially Color Kid's strobes. I thought that BION's confusion was a brilliant way to get the adult Legion more heavily involved in the fight against the Dominators.

I liked Jason Pearson's art in the earlier issues of the arc, like this one, but by issue # 32 or so, his style had simplified (gotten lazy?) to the point of simple cartoonishness.

That was a good connection, since they were just discussing staying out of it before Laurel stumbled in. The adults don't know about the SW6 yet either, Valor has a clue but hasn't communicated his discoveries yet. Why not? Too far away? Better discussed face to face?

I guess they're thinking that two invulnerable combatants give each other parity, rather than both being completely unable to harm the other.


Jacques was never the most combat minded of Legionnaires. I think there's a bit later in this volume where his training regime is considered to not be the best. I've mentioned that I've thought the Subs were always pretty well trained, firstly through wanting so badly to prove themselves (something Brek would always aspire to) and then through Brainy keeping in contact with them. In this volume, however, I think they're real trainer is Tyroc. He's Planetary Champion level which is a step above anyone else around. I think he's the one to hone them further, following the fate of his city.


All a set up for when Cushion Lad comes out of the chambers next issues.


They're at the same age as when they were kicking the stuffing out of Khundish invasions, so this doesn't sit well for me. These are the characters that should headline a book. Would you read a book where the headliners have acted as they've done for 5 issues. Even Bendis would have run out of talking heads for them by now.




At the risk of this going on for even longer, The Dominion haven't put a foot right since #1, making them less look very ineffectual across the piece. The replacement of those in command, should have stopped that, but doesn't seem to have made a difference.


I've liked these little throwaways, adding depth to the wider galaxy. Way back in #2 we got some info on Rimbor and again when Jo went to the Khund/Dominion frontier.


That could well be what I'm thinking of. Enough to make me lose a lot of interest.

Legion of Super-Heroes #27 "Showdown" by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Tom McCraw, art by Jason Pearson & Tony Harris, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Michael Eury, assistant Editor Bob Kahan

The Subs enter the Chambers and discover cocoons filled with sentients to whom the Dominators gave super-powers along with mind-wipes. Universo's man Grinn wants to open the pods, but the Subs resist. Tensions rise, but the pods remain untouched.

Universo imagines what he could do with the teen Legionnaires under his command. Jacques, in Africa, is astounded to get a call from the young Lyle Norg and calls for Tenzil, who is also shocked.

BION attacks the adult Legion in the HQ, first encountering Kono who he deems of no consequence. He attacks and disables Brainy, Vi, Ayla and Cham. Rokk and Kono manage to lead him to the depths of Talus where they find Loomis and trick BION into standing on a strong gravity plate. Kono pulls out his circuitry.

The Dominator ambassador to Earth is killed by the Dominator general who is now in charge of Earth.

Sussa Paka/Spider Girl evades Science Police after stealing a canister.

Text pages include an SP report on Sussa's theft of the Stancio Dazzle Gem and a souvenir helmet from SP Headquarters. There is also a transcript of two SP officers chasing Sussa, unsuccessfully.

Comments: Most of the issue (13 pages) is taken up with BION's attack, but it doesn't drag. BION easily defeats the powered Legionnaires; it is the wit and cooperation between Rokk, Kono and Loomis which brings him down. Gold old Legion teamwork. No worries for those attacked, since BION was to bring them back in one piece.

The Chambers contain a number of familiar characters (Flyntt Broj, Myg) and some unknowns. We don't know what mind-wipe entails, but assume that they would be either under control of Dominators if revived, or mindless zombies.

I'd forgotten about the Dominator ambassador, so his murder by his replacement is sort of meaningless, except to emphasize that things are really falling apart for the Dominators.

The scene between Jacques, Tenzil and Lyle Norg is amusing and promises some interesting encounters now that the old and young Legion have become aware of each other.

I found the Sussa pages the most interesting, which betrays my love for jewel thief stories. She seems more of a rascal than a dangerous LSV member here, which is endearing, as is her association with master thief Ben Pares, a one-shot Legion character.

4 Issue 27

The Dominators give the reader a quick update on what's going on, as the Subs break into the chambers beneath Metropolis. Even the Dominator leader considers the run of fortune to be something of a joke at this point with "another glorious day begins on planet Earth."

Chlorophyll Kid gets another little spotlight as its his powers that have unlocked the chambers. Presumably he's also working on the Dominator computer systems too.

The Dominators review who they have in the vats. LWers have done this too and the vat abductee details can be found here.

Some more about how Flynt Brojj might have developed can be found here.

They seem upset that Monica Sade seems to be in there too. The Dominators know a Writer's Pet Favourite (or Artist's in this case) when they see it.

Elsewhere in the resistance, Universo is shifting his allegiances. His Dark Circle contact is less than thrilled. It's good to see the villain's plans change now he's got his paws on a Silver Age Legion. He's made sure Jacques knows about them (probably as he knows it couldn't have remained a secret) and Tenzil meets Tenzil (with TMK retconning in Silver Age Tenzil's sense of humour.). I found it odd that Jacques would struggle so much with seeing Lyle. Jacques used Lyle's formula, but they never met. Jacques did wonder about being in Lyle's shadow, but the Lyle that arrived from an alternate dimension enabled him to work through that. It also doesn't say much for the political acumen he's supposed to have.

If the grown-up Legion can't (ever) get to the action, the action comes to the grown-up Legion as Bion invades their base. He encounters Kono first. There's a reference to time shifting abilities. If that's a reference to Kono, it should be mass shifting. If it's a reference to Bion then it's an ability I don't think he should have. Those who have SW6 counterparts fall easily. After all, look what it did to Laurel. Vi's encounter is scary. It's a nice touch to remind readers of the Computo matrix inside BION, having it think that it shouldn't harm its creator. It's a shame that Brainy didn't think to use his force field in this one. Another bit of equipment that seemed to have gone the way of flight rings for a while in this volume.

Although Rokk had the same idea, it's Loomis who sets up the trap to pin down BION, focusing the gravity of the ships bound to Talos against it. Kono delivers the coup-de-grace (your actual 30th century French for "Kick the nass out of it") by ripping out it's internal systems. There's some nice teamwork here. We saw Loomis' resourcefulness as far back as #1. Kono was disabling android assassins in #2 and we were introduced to the gravity of Talos a few issues back. I did wonder about BION's super reflexes. Sorry Lar Gand's super reflexes plus Laurel Gand's super reflexes plus...etc...combined with Light Lass or Phantom Girl to perhaps escape the trap. But score one for the good guys and put it down to BION's self-importance leaving him less than sharp.

The text pages are almost a story on their own with Spiffany, Foxworth, Pares and Paka all involved in the Battle of the Starfingers. It's a shame more wasn't really done with it in the end. I felt that the last text page, which moves us onto Paka's current assignment, should have been a drawn sequence like the last page.

Paka has stolen a cannister referred to as J-1WRTZ. She stole it from Burnaby Compound and escaped down Chapel Alley. The artefact is of some significance to Earthgov and seems to be of considerable age. Burnaby is in Canada. That's where The Tornado Twins were located when they were arrested (admittedly on the other side (but super speed and futuristic transport make this less of an issue).

In checking on the cannister reference, Tom Bierbaum says that it refers to Julius Schwartz, who oversaw the introduction of the Silver Age Flash. I wonder if the cannister contains:-

Barry Allen's costume.

Barry Allen's remains, recovered by Wally in Crisis.

An energy field containing a Zeta Beam with a trapped Adam Strange inside it.

This was confusing, but I chalked it up to BION's false deduction about Kono's power. Of course, with matrix, BION should have come to a better conclusion.



A nice touch indeed, but doesn't say much for the Dominators' programming skills. They should have overridden that. And why didn't Brainy use his forcefield?? Maybe he's just gotten used to yelling at everyone as a defense.



Agreed! If they spent four issues on Quiet Darkness, they could have given one, or even half, to this story.

Thanks for the links to the vat abductee threads! I recall a lot of speculation about the contents of the canister, but nothing was every revealed, was it?

Did Brainy even regularly wear his force-field belt in these issues, especially when just hanging out at HQ? Or was he more of a non-combatant lab tech? Yes, they were grouped as the Legion of Super-Heroes, but they did very little in the way of putting themselves into front-line action, and Brainy himself, even less.

I forget if he does something with a force-field later. He gave his belt to Luornu and possibly just never made another, figuring that he was just staying in a lab wherever he was. Might have come in handy when he encountered Lobo.

I remember it later, but I think that this was post Giffen. Yet they didn't mind having telepathic earplugs in the volume as they dropped the force field and flight rings.

Legion of Super-Heroes #28 "The Sizzling Story of Sun Boy" by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Tom McCraw, art by Jason Pearson & Tony Harris, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Michael Eury, assistant Editor Bob Kahan

Two Dominators discuss someone who was caught in a powersphere explosion. Their conversation morphs into Dirk Morgna's fever dreams of his past; the reader only sees an abstract design in the background which is somehow connected to Dirk.

Seen through Dirk's memories and perspective, his father was an alpha male and a womanizer who instilled a tough, winner-take-all attitude in his son. His mother was a mostly absent socialite. We see him assume leadership of his father's lab at a very young age, discover his father having sex in the office, his first sexual experience intermingled with thoughts of his mother, the explosion which led to Regulus' hatred of him and his encounter with Regulus as a Legionnaire.

The dream breaks to the voices of the Subs in the chamber, then returns to Dirk's memories as the abstract background the form of a face. He remembers the trick Gigi, Gim and Yera played on him as them laughing derisively at him, his failure to evacuate a planet and the resignation of multiple Legionnaires under his leadership during the Black Dawn debacle, all condemning him (except for Brek, at whom he explodes). After resigning as leader, Dirk fell on hard times, getting into a soup line fight and rescued by Shvaughn Erin. Impressed with her lifestyle as an SP officer, he decides to get a job with Earthgov, although she discourages him. Circe recruits him with sexual favours, posing, at least in his dream, as the various female Legionnaires. He's caught up in Earthgov propaganda, telling bigger and bigger lies. He's attacked by a mob just as the moon fragments hit Earth. Putting on his Sun Boy uniform, he's still derided by the people, then is caught in the powersphere explosion.

The background image coalesces into a screaming, burnt face; the Subs discover hear this screaming inside a Dominator cocoon and discover a plate identifying it as Dirk Morgna.

Comments:
This issue is disturbing on several levels. It's visually nightmarish, it presents a horrible fate for Dirk Morgna and it rewrites his character from hero to a self-pitying, angry, resentful person with a serious contempt for women. How much of this is his authentic personality, according to Giffen/Bierbaums, and how much is perverted pain-induced hallucination remains undetermined. It's unlikely that Circe would have recruited him for Earthgov in a public bar dressed as Dawnstar (although it's now clear that her wig-scene, in an early issue, indicated dressing up as female Legionnaires for sex with Dirk). Other events, such as Shvaughn helping him, strike me as more true to history.

I always saw Dirk as a womanizer, but a benevolent one: someone who played the field, avoided commitment but sincerely enjoyed the company of females. No bitterness, no resentments, just a bit too loose with his affections, leading to the prank played on him by Gigi and Yera. As seen here, Dirk is a much more sadly unpleasant and unappealing character, plagued with insecurities.

There's a reference to the Black Dawn debacle, without giving any detail about what actually happened. Nevertheless, it's heartbreaking to see - at least through Dirk's eyes - the disintegration of the Legion under his leadership.

Dirk sold out to Earthgov and repented, too little and too late. Nevertheless, his fate, to slowly burn alive, is a tragedy.