Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion Archives: Volume 29

Legion of Super-Heroes #32 by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Jason Pearson, Karl Story & Al Gordon, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Michael Eury

Kono finds Cham asleep before a report on his missing father. She looks sympathetic, then dumps some ice cream on his head. After getting more info on his father's whereabouts, through shady sources, Cham leaves to find R.J..

The SW6 Legion pick up transmissions from the trapped Subs and break into a conversation between Ron-Karr and Jacques. The develop an escape plan together.

King John and Relnic argue over releasing some information which could "break the Dominion's back on Earth". Universo misses the moon and worries about an unknown future.

Staq decides to leave Dirk behind, since they don't know how to help him. Ron-Karr relays the details of the escape plan and the existence of the SW6 Legion. Phantom Girl appears, confirming this to a surprised Staq.

Jacques wants to join the rescue mission but is convinced to remain in command in Africa. Porcupine Pete, Tyroc and others head to Metropolis, flying under the radar and escorted by SW6 Andromeda. Gim creates a diversion, bewildering Dominator pilots. Jan, Ayla and Rokk cause the Earthgov building to levitate, creating a disturbance felt in the sewers by Bounty, Circe and Sussa. Cham impersonates Pinnacle Command, orders the Subs to surrender and has them board a Dominator ship, which is really an illusion cast by Jeckie over Porcupine Pete's vessel. Cham disappears by turning into an insect and joins Val and Jeckie.

The Subs team has escaped, but learn that Grinn set off the chambers' auto-destruct to prevent the Dominators from using the specimens. The explosion kills Val, Jeckie and Cham; Lyle vows revenge.

Text piece: report from Marla to Cham on R.J. Brande, believed to be on the planet Yal.

Comments:
The adults keep talking, but the kids get in some solid action. There's a lot of good old teamwork in their plan to rescue the Subs. Cham's impersonation of Pinnacle Command isn't immediately apparent; I might have expected the SW6 to swoop in and physically rescue the Subs as they entered the Dominion ship, but it turned out to be a deception, and a good one.

Lifting the building/the Earth globe and letting it crash to the ground was apparently a diversion or a disruption of communications. It's not shown, but there may well have been casualties resulting. After Jan's stunt in #31, it suggests a bit of an act-first think-after approach. They're having a great time, however, until the death of three Legionnaires takes the fun out of the mission.

The SW6 very rapidly went from being suspicious of everybody to fully trusting and working with Jacques Foccart, simply on the basis of listening to transmissions from the Subs' team. It's a leap, but it does move the story along.

I like the contemplative Universo. He's set plans in motion, but is cognizant of the fact that there are matters outside his control.

It's a cute touch to have Tenzil making fun of Tyroc's powers as yodeling and to have SW6 Tinya remark on how the Subs have grown. Maybe Tenzil's a little too cute; he comes off as manic.

v4 Issue 32

The two panels of Kono showing sympathy for Reep, but dumping the ice cream on his head anyway get the issue off to a good start. There was a mention in the annual about their sparring. I think TMK took that across to Legionnaires when they started some Danielle/ Cham sparring. That was going to lead somewhere until they realised how old Danielle was. Kono was pretty bored in the annual, and I'm surprised she hung around the Legion HQ as long as she has.

There's even more pages about getting the Subs out of the tunnels beneath Metropolis. If they had worked out a decent escape plan in the first place, we could have saved a couple of issues. Jacques is risk averse to the point of immobility. We get our third stunned surprise as a SW6er meets his older counterpart, or in this case legacy character.
Elsewhere there's some more talking in various factions regarding the possible attack on the Dominator homeworld. Did we see any of that, or would it have caused a risk of some excitement? Universo meets an agent of the Dark Circle. The Circle character doesn't enquire into the whereabouts of the Circle colleague who Universo shot. Perhaps this is actually the same guy, and they just forgot.

Back on Legion HQ, Rokk is concerned about Cham running out on the team. This isn't Rokk criticising Cham. It's just that Cham has had so little exercise in the last 15 issues, theres a chance he'll injure himself running. Rokk tells him that the situation on Earth is critical. It seems as though the world is in a little snow globe of stasis, destined to forever have been in critical condition and to remain so until the end of time.

Under Metropolis, there?s some more standing around talking. Fire Lad feels the weight of leadership. They'll be leaving some pods behind. Is there a reason Chlorophyll Kid can't open them? I genuinely forget. Maybe the Dominators have reprogrammed it.

More standing around in the resistance HQ. Jacques bravely volunteers for action, then conveniently allows himself to be talked out of it. He's a sly one.

Not to be left out of the standing around, two Mon-Els Valor's hang around the UP fleet. "It sure is tough to just sit up here and wait." You should try sitting out here and reading about people sitting and waiting, buddy.

But it's not all standing around! No Ma'am. Circe, Bounty and now Sussa are *walking* towards a possible encounter. In amongst all this are hints about the destruction of the chambers, some unspecified consequence and Grinn looking to destroy them all as he considers them Dominator weapons.

I'm really hanging on a bit as a reader. It's not a terrible issue by itself. But as a run of issues, it's being tough going. And then... a resolution!

SW6 create a decoy craft, while the remaining Subs fly in and escort their colleagues, who had surrendered on a telepathic cue, out of danger. The Dominator running the show turns out to be Cham, while Jeckie pulls some illusions to make the cruiser used for the escape look authentic. It's a bit of a convoluted escape plan. Jan or Tenzil could have made a tunnel from anywhere down into the chamber ages ago, for a start. But it shows a few panels of people doing something.


A sting in the tale is that Grinn has indeed set off the self-destruct sequence of the chambers. There are multiple detonations of chambers around the globe. Several miles in Metropolis are devastated. In itself dramatic. But in recent issues we've seen the same bit of land get hit by lunar fragments and have power spheres detonate. I've no idea how the Metropolis chamber survived to even get to this point. Despite being nearby, Bounty, Circe and Sussa will walk out of this. Val, Jeckie and Cham won't.

The SW6 Legion has its first casualties, and Giffen gets another Karate Kid notch. It's a killing that's abrupt and pointless like a lot of deaths in war. But the SW6 batch should have never been there long enough for this to have happened, and the any drama is offset by feelings of the slow plot and the forced nature of their departure.

[quote-thoth]The two panels of Kono showing sympathy for Reep, but dumping the ice cream on his head anyway get the issue off to a good start. There was a mention in the annual about their sparring. I think TMK took that across to Legionnaires when they started some Danielle/ Cham sparring. That was going to lead somewhere until they realised how old Danielle was. Kono was pretty bored in the annual, and I'm surprised she hung around the Legion HQ as long as she has. [/quote]

The sympathy panels gave a hint of more depth to Kono - only for an instant and she was back to non-stop hijinks. I would have liked to see more of the serious/sympathetic side. How old is she supposed to be? 14, like the original Legionnaires?



Or he's a clone.



Something else about really, really old technology and proton jelly and explosives. I guess Ral's not that good.



Yeah, we've already seen Karate Kid die in a much more dramatic issue and the other two are still around in adult form. It does seem like pointless death; they're just sitting around are are collateral damage. Maybe it's supposed to be a counterpoint to their just-concluded successful deception (although Karate Kid didn't do anything).

More likely she's 40, but with the mind of an 11 year old. Kind of like the loathsome pop singer P!nk.

Nah, Kono's totally a teenager.

She is sorta 14 going on 40 sometimes. She's the right age but wouldn't fit in with the SW6 Legion - not so earnest and naive. In that sense, she seems older.

The difference between how '50s teenagers are '90 teenagers are viewed. A perspective skewed as soon as you're not in either of those times.

Legion of Super-Heroes #33 by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Jason Pearson, Karl Story & Al Gordon, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Michael Eury

On Winath, Garth/Proty stands before the statue of Kid Quantum and expresses regrets to Proty II about not going with the other Proteans.

Cham, disguised as a shepherd, finds R.J. on Yal. R.J. expects to soon find the Soul of Antares.

Rouvin, a young prospector, exchanges his ore for money at Xandi's tavern, then pays off the town's robot cop for his "discretion". Rouvin goes home and composes a text on galactic peace. On his walls are a Legion flag and a costume like that on the statue of Kid Quantum.

The Dominators get information on the Soul of Antares (thereby relaying it to the reader). It is the combined sentience of the Protean race, hidden in a humanoid body to prevent the subjugation of Proteans by Glorith. Seven Proteans retained their sentience in order to later find and restore their race's sentience/soul. The Dominators hire Orion the Hunter to find the Soul.

The Hunter arrives on Yal, accompanied by a robot cop, Ecar. Ecar destroys the local cop and threatens the townspeople. Cham intervenes and is shot by the Hunter, who threatens to kill him if R.J. doesn't reveal where the Soul of Antares is. Rouvin appears, with Xandi and announces that he is the Soul. Ecar joins them, but turns out to be the Proteans, who attack The Hunter. As Hunter flees, Cham launches his own attack and defeats the Hunter. Rouvin boards a ship for Antares, unaware that the pilot has been mind-controlled by the Eye of Ekron.

On Earth, SW6 Garth and Imra are saved from a Dominator attack by four pod survivors/escapees, one of whom is Danielle Foccart. The others are Crystal Kid, a cat lady and a young mage, Xao Jin. Imra promises to put them in touch with the Resistance.

Text: history and speculation regarding the Llorn civilization and the Proteans.

Comments:
I didn't quite know what to make of this story when I first read it. It's a western, which hadn't been done before in Legion tales, and brings in the character, Kid Quantum, who I figured was from some early issue I'd never read, rather than another retcon. It's a complicated retcon, but a one-page exposition and the text history piece supply the details. This Llorn involvement goes way back in the history of Antares II and the Legion comic itself (Adventure #334, 1965).

The story has some of its roots in the Baxter era incident of R.J. Brande meeting secretly with Proteans. Now we find out why - I don't know if this story was the original intention of that scene. We don't learn what motivates R.J. to take on the mission of finding the Soul of Antares, but presumably it's more altruistic than either the Dominators or whoever is controlling the Eye.

We get some follow-through with the Eye of Ekron. It's master hasn't been identified, but McCauley's keen interest in R.J.'s meeting with the Proteans back in the Baxter era is a clue.

The Dominators' interest in the Soul of Antares ties the story into the main arc of the Earth-centered developments, although, given all the problems the Dominators are facing, this seems like a diversion.

Rouvin is cute and looks cool; he's charming, polite, confident and a thinker. Of course Xandi falls for him - but he's not a man, he's a sentience-hosting body. So what does that make Garth? The Legion flag and costume on his walls must only be hints for the reader; why would he draw attention to himself, especially after paying off the police?

Kid Quantum staged his own death as a Legionnaire to host the Soul of Antares. Garth/Proty would have known and voices regrets for not doing more. Did the Proteans first approach Garth to help them find their race's sentience and he refused? It's not stated.

A few small touches which I appreciated:
- the robot cops make sense for sparsely populated planets, as Yal appears to be
- R.J. really enjoys his food
- R.J.'s considerable charm vs Cham's demanding approach with Xandi
- Cat lady calling Garth "Sparkles" and Imra grabbing him away from her
- the return of Danielle Foccart, with an ability to communicate with computers.

Imra seems to know Danielle, that she's related to Jacques, although SW6 would never have met either. Maybe Jacques asked the SW6 team to keep an eye out for his sister.

The Robot Police of Yal was a deep cut, they were seen in some sort of "Police of different worlds" parade in an early issue of Adventure. I'm thinking 324 or 325. I don't have access to that archive volume at the moment, nor to my own Legion Help file, but if any of you have it, the reference is there under the entry for the planet Yal.

I had, and still have, mixed views on this one. The planet where most of the action takes place is so bland when it comes to panel backgrounds, it lessens my interest in what?s going on in the story.

It?s welcome to get some information on Kid Quantum. For TMK to sneakily retcon him in post Mordruverse was really well done, considering what else was going on. During this reread, I wonder if, had the Mordruverse story not happened, we?d have seen him as part of the 5YG Legion anyway. We?ve seen Kent Shakespeare join then, only to seemingly be best buddies with all the Adventure era team.

His origin, based in that Adventure era, is far too similar to that of Element Lad. Quantum is also a mystery lad, hiding out in the Legion to get away from an enemy. This volume continues Jan?s spiritual journey, and in a twist lets him discover just how much he has to learn. Kid Quantum goes down a similar route, replacing spiritualism with political theory.

Having a giant Legion flag and your costume hanging in a shack probably isn?t the best way of keeping your secret hidden, but the scene tells you what you need to know about what motivates him.

Even when this one came out, I shook my head at the Legion getting some extra diversity, only for him not to be black at all. Not quite the facepalm I did at what Happened to Kid Quantum in the post boot though.

The Hunter was never as good as his old man. The last time I saw him, he?d become one of those fallen villains who hang out in numbers, in this case the Legion of Super Villains. He?s beaten rather badly at this one. He does injure Cham who comes across (and not for the first time in his career) as a guy who people say is good at espionage because of his powers, in the face of the evidence. A nice touch is the reminder that Cham hasn?t recovered from his injuries from the Roxxas attack. It loses points by having Cham appear as a Plastic Man clone, rather than use any of his actual powers. Like Kent being everyone?s best mate, of course Cham would be the one admiring the new creative team?s character.

It?s a tightly plotted story, picking up on the Brande/Garth/ Protean plot hints throughout the volume. There?s also the twist of McCauley?s interference at the end, keeping with his single page introduction not long ago.
By this stage I was probably tired of the glacial Earth saga, reflecting my fatigue with the book. Although this story has its strengths, it was more a relief from the main plot, even as it meant yet another issue with nothing getting resolved.

We do get to visit Earth. Firstly, with the Dominators expressing an interest in the McGuffin of Antares. Secondly, when we meet some survivors of the chambers. Despite the place being obliterated by explosives, we get the excuse that by deactivating the closest explosive allowing them to survive all of the others. The first thing I?d have picked up on is how much I preferred Chris Sprouse?s art. It was the main reason I?d picked up Hammerlocke, and I thought it stood out. We get reintroduced to Crystal Kid and an older Danielle Foccart. Danielle could link with the Dominator computers to deactivate the explosive. That?s despite it taking Chlorophyll Kid to get into the Dominators systems due to their biological base. I guess Danielle is a bit of a biological computer too, so fair enough. Crystal Kid becomes something of a comedy figure, although he was the one that definitely stopped some of the Dominators. Catspaw is another entry into the Tigra/ Pantha group and Dragonmage is so new to it, he?s an academy candidate at best.

TMK do one the things they do so well, by regularly reinforcing ideas. We?ve seen Garth when inhabited by Proty. Now, we get to see what he was like prior to his death. He?s much more emotionally driven, something Imra picks up on. How she knows this would suggest that the SW6 timeline started after his death. But that should mean that this one has a Proty inside him too. If he doesn?t, is he the clone? If he does, has its influence been reduced? The point being that TMK are continuing to apply character traits to the Adventure Legion, ahead of the now long gestating Legionnaire series, in whatever from it?s in. As per SW6 tradition Imra and Garth don?t do a thing to stop any Dominators in the scene, allowing the new introductions to get the spotlight. This is standard comic book practice, but it?s the SW6 guys that could have been getting some action-oriented spotlight umpteen issues after their introduction.

On a final note, I was reminded of the Manhunter reading the robotic sheriff with the flexible programming. It made me wonder if that?s the way they went. And also if this guy?s organisation would be the start of something similar. The obvious big reveal in them rediscovery the Manhunter technology, would be the discovery of a capsule in the Himalayas. Depending on how overly-precious the Super-Office was, we might discover it was Laurel Kent. Probably not, but had Laurel Gand not already been introduced, she could have been here.

Good memory! It was #325, they were pictured in one panel as the "Robot Law-Corps of Planet Yal".


Yeah, hunting a blue probe isn't that much of a challenge.


I saw the ad for this and looked it up. Never read any of the issues - any good?


This was an unresolved question for me, if Proty is in Garth, was he affected by the Dominators' experiments? I didn't realize how long the Legionnaies series was gestating until I read the Editor's notes in the next issue.


Oh, nice tie-in with the Manhunters and Laurel Kent!

Good memory on Yal, Chaim!
(quietly informs the Green Lanterns & Brainiac 5 that Chaim may have become one with the Legion Help File. But will he use that power for good or to reform the Manhunters?!)



Sprouse's art is a treat. I recall there was a lot of work done for the setting, character backgrounds etc. But I don't think it always transferred across to the page. The initially interesting cast, didn't really turn out to be. I have it on my pile for a reread thread if I ever get back to Knights of the Galaxy and Atari Force.


The SW6 batch (whether clones or actual Legionnaires) is said in the RPG to have happened a couple of years after Proty was projected into Garth. It's absence here, is perhaps a clue that these were clones (although Giffen was going to reveal the opposite). I guess I read the editor's comments without realising the impact they'd had on the main storyline. It's only with later rereads and the information that I'm painfully aware of how this, along with all the other behind the scenes issues, interfered with it as a reading experience.

thoth lad is actually the alter ego of...Connector Kid! Do keep it a secret Cramer, and whatever you do, don't post it on a forum...oh...

Legion of Super-Heroes #34 by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Jason Pearson, Karl Story & Al Gordon, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Editor Michael Eury

Leland McCauley offers to see the U.P. access to Earth via Omnicom. If they're not interested, he'll do business with the Dominion.

THe U.P. fllet attacks, the Resistance fights on the ground (including Sean); the Dominators achieve a stalemate by hovering their ships over cities, preventing a U.P. assault.

Universo hypno-suggests to his Circle contact to commit suicide. As Universo leaves his compound, filled with Circle adherents, he detonates explosives.

Sussa breaks through rubble to a Dominator command center. Bounty kills the Dominators there, angering Circe. Circe uses a code to purge all SP data and prevent Dominator access.

Rokk frets about sitting on the sidelines; Laurel gives him a pep talk.

Dirk emerges from his pod, still on fire. Adult Jan decides he won't stand aside while Dominators attack.

SW6 Legion and the Subs team arrive at Jacques' base. Jacques is upset that Sade pushed Grinn out of the airship. Sade is fed up with the no-kill code and accuses Valor of doing nothing while Earthlings are murdered. Lu and Jan talk about death. Vi mourns her teammates' deaths and tells Devlin he should write the story of the Resistance.

SW6 Laurel takes control of Pinnacle command's ship. Dominator leaders, with Elia under attack, leave Pinnacle Command and Earth to fend for themselves.

Text piece: King Jonn writes to the adult Legion to tell them to stay out of the fight for Earth.

Comments:

SW6 Jan is all about compassion. I can't imagine this kid threatening Roxxas with a gun. He tells Lu he can't imagine losing one of your selves - but I suspect he can.

There's a thread running through this about whether or not to let people defend themselves. Adult Jan refuses to throw his all-powerful transmutation about since Earth has to stand on its own two feet, but relents when he remembers the death of his people. Valor, however, stands aside and waits for orders, when he could also hasten the end of this conflict. I'm not sure Valor himself is clear on his policy of intervention: no to Orando, yes to Cargg, no to Dominators on Earth until ordered...in the end it's SW6 Andromeda who acts, but presumably on orders. Rokk's offer of help is declined by King Jonn. The Legion of old would have taken matters into their own hands and damn the authorities, but years of political hassle and the disaster of Black Dawn (whatever that was) may have taken their toll. King Jonn's letter has a tone of viewing the Legion as impossible-to-control meddlers.

It's a war and there is killing. Here also characters are divided. Bounty kills some Dominator clerks, angering Circe. Jacques' Resistance team is divided on whether or not Sade should be trusted after murdering Grinn. SP Earth officers kill Dominator soldiers. Universo kills all the Dark Circle members in his compound.

I thought Jonn's letter to the adult LSH was sort of funny. It really had a tone of "please stay away, you're nothing but trouble, all we need are your big guns". Yet the big guns - Lar and Jan, both adult and SW6 - didn't do much. The adults brooded, the young talked. At least Andromeda was active, but Jonn didn't mention her (even though she was on the cover). Perhaps he thought the mission was too dangerous for a girl.

Oh yeah, there was a Timber Wolf preview, which was blah, but I did learn Thrust's mother was a Durlan.

v4 Issue 34

In a galaxy hindered by technological regression and a book with scattered, loose subplots requiring regular plot updates, Khfeurb Chee Bez has become a very important part of the volume. Here, he keeps us up to date along with reporter, Cefn Gould. Cefn looks slightly Tamaranian, in a move presumably added by the artist, as the writers must be fearful of adding the Titans office to their list of foes at DC. We get to see Earthgov President Arlington Morse tell reporters that Earth is under attack. It reads at first as though he's making a rallying call against the Dominators. But actually, he's referring to the UP fleet that the rest of the page strongly hints has started attacking. It's consistent in the book to show both sides of the conflict. Earthgov is clearly still in the Dominator's pocket. Will it ruin my plans for a series of Arlington Morse: Consulting Detective?

This issue finally brings the Dominator plot closer to a conclusion. Even here though, we have reprises of several problems that had reduced it to a crawl. An injured Laurel visits Rokk. "Tough being a spectator at a time like this." I know I've said "you try being the reader," before, so this line has been used by the cast previously. But it's yet another indicator of the Legion being bystanders in their own book.

Now, that's not a terrible comic book crime. There are stories that expand beyond the central cast, or switch perspectives to drive forward the narrative. But this hasn't been one of those for a while. Instead, it's trapped in a creative limbo that would give Mon-El Phantom Zone shudders. The Legion aren't just a small part of bigger events. They were that in the Great Darkness Saga, and were still at the forefront of the book. The writers have had to work to keep them from doing what would have come naturally to them in any book in their history. Placed behind the Grand Story, numerous under-developed subplots, some new characters who do hog panels, because they get panels. Finally, there were younger versions of themselves, shown as having dynamic personalities, but coming across as Pod People sucking the life out of the old cast as they become more prominent in the book. As Rokk stands there looking for an absent Cham to help him do nothing, I just feel sorry for them at this point.
TMK spent a lot of time showing how the disintegration of the Legion had impacted on the lives of their cast. There were lots of solidly researched jumping off points in the series. They showed us people with conflicting responsibilities and duties. But they spent those years following paths, not sitting around justifying not doing anything.

Jacques spends his page, moaning about the implications of Sade's action of murdering Grinn. Some of the Subs almost support her. Elsewhere Jan Arrah has to "resist the urge" to get involved as a war rages around him. I guess he's worried that TMK would disapprove of him appearing in an action scene. He does seem to change his mind, but only because he can't tell a Dominion ship from a Space pirate's. Having changed his mind the readers get to see him decisively ... walk down a corridor into Giffen-shadows.

The creative team use Sade as a stick to beat up Lar Gand. Lar feels that he can't get involved. It's a "battle for the soul of the people." That's basically his way of standing there and not getting involved. I'd have liked to have seen some introspection on how this must be like being stuck in the phantom zone. There, he desperately wanted to interact but couldn't. Here, others want him to intervene, but he can't. As others view him as god-like (except sassy writer's fav Sade, obviously). He had the same stance on Carrgg, but like Marvel's Watcher, got involved anyway when it suited. I imagine he's here waiting for UP orders, which means he's happy to get involved again, as long as people are there to guide him. He'll end up as a Dr Manhattan, drifting away from people (Lar always wanted to go into deep space) or as a, Dark Knight Returns, tool of the state. What could possibly go wrong?

The two Legionnaires how do want to get into action are firstly Dawnstar who, possessed by Bounty murders their enemies and secondly Dirk Morgna, who has been driven insane from his injuries. Only those attached to central casting survived those chambers. Maybe he was in the vat next door to Danielle. Perhaps the other Legionnaires are looking at this as a warning to those who take an active part in the plot.

After endless indecision (in and out of the book) and the seemingly endless number of issues, it takes a young Laurel Gand a page and a half to fly in and push the Dominator's HQ into custody. I can only conclude that the Legionnaires series had been green lit. There's a subplot involving Bounty, Circe and Sussa, which pre-empts Independence Day by a few years. Although Circe has access to the SP, we've not seen her hacking abilities before. I get the feeling they just needed some way of blending them back into the main plot, and that's as good as any.

Other ongoing subplots include the fate of the Dominion home world and Universo killing off a second Dark Circle agent, before killing the rest of them by detonating the base. Universo saves Earth from the Dark Circle! I can't recall why Universo teamed up with them in the first place. But there's nothing wrong with a villain team up where everyone is out to bump off the other. I'm sure the Circle had plans for Universo too. Vi seems particularly timid in this volume, as TMK establish their Legionnaire personalities. The absence of Devlin from key moments in that initial 12 issues, still makes it look odd that he's a prize reporter.

There's a lot going on in the issue. It would have been more enjoyable if I'd been reading over a year before I did. That's really the problem for me in this part of the volume. It does have good moments, but it's a 6-issue arc padded out to over 24 issues. Even padding it out, shouldn't have taken more than 12.

It was a nice touch following his encounter with Erin. But I do like the borderline psycho Jan, more than I do the idea that his quietness makes him a natural for a spiritual journey.


It's no coincidence that it's the team's most powerful members that are put into these situations. Much like Imra's pregnancy was used to take her out of the spotlight in the early issues. Laurel gets seriously wounded. Her more direct approach wouldn't do, if the action was to fall to her younger counterpart. Element Lad could transmute the Dominion fleet. His spiritual journey is used as a barrier to him acting. It's the same for Lar's god like concerns about how intervention would seem to those being lined up and shot. It would be one thing if these were viewpoints consistent with the characters. But, as you mention, it isn't. Both have acted when it suited them in this volume. It needlessly undermines the characterisation that TMK had gone to the trouble of setting up. Less conflicted characters than actors waiting for the next stage direction.


Giffen's plan was to spin off the surviving older members of the team. How long do you think a series of tired, bored, tentative old heroes last? I'm sure there are a number of books/films where the old gang get together to rekindle old fires, only to find out that it wasn't worth the effort. "As Jan, Vi and Ayla stand over the collapsed Roxxas, they reflect on their own lives, preferring them to the thought of a ramshackle team, unwanted and without purpose."


Well, that's a natural...sorry..what's that Kono?... >POW!<

I think I peeked ahead to find out more about Thrust (because who wouldn't want to know more about Thrust?). So I didn't bother myself this time.

It must have been a fun time for Al Gordon. He's on a book where his creative input is encouraged. Giffen drew Darskeid in the GDS and in Gordon's follow up. Giffen created/co created Lobo and Gordon gets to use him in both in his Darkseid story and as a father to Thrust. Lobo was ridiculously popular. And with Wolvie frenzy a thing even then, Timberwolf is a natural for a spin off. I can't even chuckle about Thrust, as I've seen a lot of worse DC characters. Lots. I always thought the art in Timberwolf showed promise too. Actually, this version is better than the Legion Lost II version.

More Kono musings.... I looked up Bierbaum's blog to see what there was on Kono and found that she was considered as a possible member for the young Legion:

What were your future plans for Kono?
We wanted her to remain in the adult Legion, but had no particularly dramatic plans for her there.? Once we got taken off that book, we agreed to bring her over to Legionnaires, and once there, our plan was to make her kind of a nemesis to Tenzil, locking horns with him in practical-joke duels, etc.? One idea was to have that relationship briefly heat up, long enough and hot enough to get Kono into a teen-pregnancy storyline. (March 28 2009)

Sigh of relief that that storyline never developed!

Yeesh. That sounds terrible.

Not much happened with the characters they brought in.

Kono had issues with the Khunds we never see resolved, or particularly dealt with. Her mother was sexually assaulted by Rimborian SPs. That never went anywhere and now seems purposefully '90s dark-for-the-sake-of-it.
Celeste and her Green Lantern links/ powers/ detective skills never went anywhere.
Kent's plans went nowhere thanks to Super Stroppiness between DC offices.
Laurel is the exception, even though...
Devlin became comic relief when I'm not sure he was supposed to be. He did get involved in plots but only because no one had a pocket big enough for a mirror.

Legion of Super-Heroes #35 "Sun Boy Meets Sun Boy?!!" by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Jason Pearson, Karl Story, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Assists Eddie Berganza, Editor Michael Eury

U.P. news anchor reports on the U.P.'s liberation of Earth.

On Earth, SW6 Lar destroys bases and weapons, but avoids a ground skirmish to "stick to the plan". Elder Lar forces Dominator battlewagons to surrender. Lyle knocks out a Dominator while other Legionnaires take over the Presidential compound. Crowds rally when they see the Legion in action and when an Omnicom alert is received saying that the Dominators have fallen and now is the time to rise up.

Adult Dirk, aflame and insane, wanders through the rubble and encounters Rokk, Andrew and young Dirk, who thinks he's a monster. This brings a moment of clarity to older Dirk. Bounty and Circe arrive on the scene; Bounty announces that the flaming creature is Dirk Morgna.

Adult Jan dissolves Dominator weapons. Jacques appears on Dominator monitors to say their cause is lost and they will be allowed to return home to defend Elia or shown no mercy if they continue to fight on Earth.

Drura disables President Morse with Toonari Stomach Flu. Young Jan has encased the Presidential compound in inertron to prevent Dominator attacks.

Sade, angered that the fighting is over, leaves.

The U.P. holds Pinnacle Command for war crimes. He orders his fleet to surrender, condemning human mercy. Andromeda disputes this, saying hatred destroys.

The U.P. promises help to Earth, declares Jacques Foccart acting President and announces the existence of a young Legion. Jacques learns of his appointment when he contacts Admiral Darios to thank him for the U.P.'s help.

McCauley and Universo toast success. The Omnicom message to announce the liberation of Earth had a subliminal message from Universo.

Text pieces: The Omnicom alert from Relnic/the U.P. re:Earth liberation and more from Vi's journal, reflecting on events, thinking about how her friends back home have aged and admiring Imra's bust.

Comments:

The story jumps from place to place, giving a glimpse of all the players in the Earth liberation drama. This feels a bit scattered and frantic, detracting from a sense of a large scale offensive against the Dominators. Throw a few punches, melt a few guns and it's over. However, there's only so much you can do to depict a war in a comic book. Only Pinnacle Command is held for war crimes - surely there were other guilty officers - everybody else just please exit the theatre peacefully.

I don't believe we find out who was attacking Elia; we knew the Khunds were interested, but Relnic refers to "armies of unknown origin". This is probably a potential story that never got written. There was some mention that Giffen wanted to use The Spider Guild as the attacker.

The two Lars finally go into action, following orders. Adult Lar has a real Superman vibe, so polite, smiling and unruffled as he forces a battlewagon commander to surrender.

There's a lot made by the U.P., via King Jonn's letter in the previous issue and the Omnicom message in this issue, about having two Valors in the fight. They seem to have forgotten about Andromeda; although she may lack the prestige of legendary seeder of worlds, she's a formidable force. The other two powerhouses, the Jan Arrahs, don't rate a mention by Relnic either, although they both get to use their power for offensive and defensive purpose.

Jacques defers to Lyle as a role model, which I find odd given Jacques' age and experience both as a Legionnaire and a resistance leader. He might just as well have asked Lyle for his autograph. Lyle does present himself as a strong and effective leader of the Legion. (I don't recall much about his term in the Adventure era, except for him punching somebody who disobeyed his orders.)

Imra mentally coordinates activities across the globe; she hasn't demonstrated that magnitude of telepathy before.

The story really plays up the Vi-Devlin romance (budding romance? flirtation?), which makes Vi's comment about how nice Imra's bust looks a good inside joke for readers. I thought her diary entries were a bit dopey at first, but they do have a certain innocent charm.

The McCauley/Universo scene at the end is yummy. Two conniving, urbane bad guys using their brains to develop their evil plans - it promises a good story. It may not deliver, but the issue ends on a suspenseful note.

Dirk's fate is the most emotional chapter of this saga. It's given some space to breathe in this and the following issue. It's not a novel trope: what if you encountered your older self? The Legionnaires so far who have had the experience take it more or less in stride; a moment of surprise, then it's big brother/little brother bonding and on with the show. The two Dirks undergo a much more complicated encounter; this, more than anything so far, brings forth the horror of the Dominators' activities and adult Dirk's part in them.

Sun Boy gets two designs for his name on this cover. Perhaps one of these will show up in the September 2020 issue.

One of my favorite issues. I thought that Pinnacle Command's surrender speech was very well done, you could almost feel his dejection. The Dirk-Dirk meetup was tragic and perfect, though that storyline gets even better and sadder next issue. And even though it ended up going nowhere, it was brilliant to have Universo using subliminal omnicom messages, it seemed almost forgotten that hypnotism was his M.O..

The disappearance of the Vi-Devlin relationship is one of the biggest wastes of opportunity due to the LSH-Legionnaires split. In Legionnaires, the Bierbaums take that opportunity to try and revive Tenzil's long-simmering crush on Violet (referenced in Action Comics # 381), but while Vi stays true to Devlin, he doesn't cross her path again until End of an Era.

v4 Issue 35

I had to check I wasn't reading the wrong issue This one also starts off with a newscast updating us on pretty much the same points, followed by the Dominators unable to raise their homeworld or their superiors. We saw Alt+Laurel Gand capture Pinnacle Command in half a page. Here, Alt+Lar Gand ground slots of enemy ships, partly so Lar Gand doesn't have to worry about them. In summary, Alt+Legion gets involved in action, while the Legion is thoroughly relegated to emoting its way through the volume. As if that hadn't been made painfully clear for quite a while.

Alt+Lar pauses to decide that he can't get involved in preventing some killings. Since he has super speed, he could have prevented that atrocity and a hundred others in the time it took to stop and think. Perhaps having him stop the killings while telling us that he's unable to stop them all while he deals with the main threat would have been a better option. If he starts spending all his time thinking and not doing anything, he'll get drafted into the Legion. Likewise, he lets the Dominator leader appear to surrender by himself, before appearing from off panel. Maybe that was part of the plan, that makes it okay for lots of other deaths. Even typing this, it sounds overly critical of some throw away moments. Perhaps it's just that even Alt+Lar will still have spent 1000 years in the Phantom, sorry Super-Office, Buffer Zone. He's pretty much the same guy (Eltro transfers excepted).

Pearson's art might be even scratchier and less detailed than usual. I don't mind it so much now, but I'm sure I wasn't a fan of it at the time. I don't thin I was a fan of the art in the Sunboy spotlight issue at the time. I probably didn't appreciate it fitting the story's skewed perspective as much on first reading. Having that artist as the regular may not have sat well with me. Particularly the differences to Giffen's work which I'd really liked in this volume.

Pearson draws fluid action scenes well. Of course, when it's the older Legion, Pearson hasn't been given a lot to work with there. The emotions certainly come across in a cast identifiable without costumes. He certainly reinforces the age differences between the Legion casts through height. Probably a bit too much. I keep expecting Marla Latham to appear and take the SW6 cast into protective custody from the mean v4 galaxy.

Elsewhere Alt+Lyle punches out the Dominator leader and Earth's president as if they were Legionnaires disobeying one of his orders. As with the Lars, Lyle gets the action, while Jacques gets to stand around and talk about it. Jacques gosh-wow about invisibility being wielded by a master, doesn't tie up with the plotline in the Levitz volume where Jacques got over stepping into Lyle's boots.

Gosh, those youngsters quickly cover global hotspots and deal with the Dominator threat. Look at their enemies fall in the space of a few pages! A few pages of issue 35, instead of issue 25 (or earlier had the chambers thing not been drawn out) but we're finally here. Gim smashing fighter ships and Jo using ultra speed and um strength and um flight... does he have a flight ring? I don't think so, as Imra seems to be able to communicate with everyone across a planet.

Having been connected with the Legion, Devlin has to stand around. There's something for him to read. Being an intrepid off panel journalist, TMK are keen to reinforce his credentials by showing us he can read. Unfortunately, Alt+Vi has to stand around with him, as his romantic interest. The communication tells the people of Earth that there liberation is at hand, and it's now time for...um.. reprisal!... um... did they get the Dark Circle's PR to write this? Perhaps Devlin is faking his surprise. His sweater was connected to the Dark Circle in earlier issues, after all.

Next to a Legion HQ that has miraculously survived power sphere detonations, giant moon fragments and SW6 chambers exploding around it, Dirk has returned. It's a nice touch that his first word is hel(l). He's now quite far gone, thinking that imaginary peers are laughing at him. His insecurities are tied in nicely with his need to be a hero of Earth as he returns to the Legion. The meeting with Alt+Dirk allows TMK to show the younger man's personality. A personality grounded very much in the mistakes the older Dirk now looks back on in despair. Older Dirk's powers flare up for no reason, prompting Alt+Dirk's rash response. A better option would have been to show Dirk hitting out at the peer group he was ranting about only moments before. Faced with himself, and his past (a reflection in Ferro Lad's mask would have been a nice touch) Dirk collapses. As the Alt+Legion wonder what to do, Bounty & Circe appear (I'll give them that they too are returning to Legion HQ). Bounty identifies Dirk for them.

I don't recall Bounty and Circe (no Sussa?) meeting up with any of the other groups to have learned what has happened to Dirk. More off-panel comms, I guess. Perhaps the Dawnstar inside Bounty knows her way around humanoids with weird energy pouring out of them.

With their commanders captured and home world beaten, TMK tell us that a caste system built on inherent obeyance to a rigid structure cannot succeed. In the end it is forced to change, surrendering in order to fight for their now decimated homeworld. A lot is pakced into the final pages as we flit around the conflict like Sade, who gets a bloodthirsty cameo. Jan dissolves Dominator ships (standing in the most suitable grown up Legion inaction pose possible (DC missed a trick by not releasing v4 Legion Inaction Figures). Jacques makes a firm, and threatening, statement to the remaining Dominators regarding their surrender. His work with the resistance and his speech here, result in him being made acting Earth President. That's until free elections are held. That's going to take a while, as they'll have to dig up how that's done. Previously, it's been a computer that selects a shortlist of candidates. Drura gets an appearance and shows that her power alone could have ended this ages ago.

Admiral Darios, also featured in this issue, has been the most obvious nod to Return of the Jedi. But at the end we get a nice twist on it here. The Dominators' Pinnacle Command stands in for Darth Vadar at the head of a procession. He's being led across the United Planet's own Death Star, Webers World, flanked by rows of heavily armed Science Police stormtroopers. As ruthless as he was supposed to be, Pinnacle Command (Darth) was no match for these guys. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The nine-panel grid opens up one last time for a splash page telling us "It's over." Like the celebrants, I too could force a tear, although I'm not sure I'm happy for the same reasons.

It's a packed issue, capped off with Universo allying himself with McCauley. Their power and technology look likely to take full advantage of a newly liberated Earth. There's plenty of action in the issue and the tying up of a number of plots, or at least bringing the cast together as most things take another little shuffle forward.


But am relieved that this is the end of it. There are good moments in the plot. Quite a few considering the density of information in this volume outstrips the majority of other books. But, for me, they were undone by central issues within the books creation, leading to unplanned issues and altered plotlines. Then there was the appearance of SW6, created as a reboot alternative. That resulted in even more delays, while DC made their minds up, presenting us with even more glacial story progression. There's the human reaction by T&M to prefer the younger heroes of their favourite age, at the expense of the cast of the actual book they were writing, and the problems that doing that book had caused everyone involved. That's not a great reading experience if you were hooked into the book to find out what happens to the senior cast. As I mentioned before there's a solid year's worth of v4 to be picked from the two years we got.

"Even though it ended up going nowhere" applies to a lot of the scenes in this volume, unfortunately. Most of the unpursued storylines were quite promising.


Not only is the relationship with Vi ignored, so was this Dark Circle hint/tease. Devlin could have been kept as a deep Circle operative - and maybe even have dragged Vi into his plans.


Was Bounty tracking Dirk all along and if so, why? She was seen surveilling Circe, perhaps that was just to get a connection to Dirk. This scene was pretty convenient to bring everyone together but, yeah, Dawnstar powers.


Good way to put it. I've enjoyed the run, but the reread has highlighted the wanderings, paddings and lost opportunities.

Legion of Super-Heroes #36 "The Battle You've Been Waiting For - Bounty vs Sade!" & "The Conclusion of the Terra Mosaic Epic!" by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, art by Jason Pearson & Karl Story, Letters John Workman, Colours Tom McCraw, Assists Eddie Berganza, Editor Michael Eury

Jacques and Drura wake up in the Presidential Palace.

Lyle asks Troy Stewart if anyone survived the chamber explosions, hoping for news of the three lost Legionnaires. He wishes he could be more like the joke-playing Tenzils.

Circe and Bounty fight over who gets to kill Dirk. Cos breaks up the fight and Circe says he drove Dirk to this. Bounty leaves, feeling the need to hunt.

Young Dirk sits with old Dirk and plays into his resentments.

Young Lar and Laurel fly over the destruction and consider the possibility of going back in time and preventing all this.

The two Brainys confer about which group is the clone. Adult Lar tries to bring some reality to the discussion but gives up. Young Ayla confronts him to say the Legion respects the way he handled things, unlike Sade.

Bounty encounters Sade and shoots her in the shoulder to claim the bounty. A vicious fight breaks out between the two, leaving Bounty dying. An energy emerges from he body saying it can't be killed and will find another body. Adult Brainy reveals to Rokk that Bounty is Dawnstar. Lydda and baby Pol interrupt the discussion; Brainy wants to know more about what possessed her and also tells Rokk that he is likely the clone, not young Brainy. Kent talks to Ayla about her and other early Legionnaires being clones and possibly programmed by the Dark Circle but she is unconcerned.

Jacques confers with Relnic and King Jonn.

Young Dirk is depressed about how adult Dirk turned out and expects to become equally resentful and bitter. Rokk tells him this is a wake-up call and he can avoid the mistakes the older one made.

Adult Dirk has been shot in the head by a tearful Circe, who imagines or remembers her younger, more feminine and smiling self with arms around a younger Dirk as she shoots herself.

Adult Lar leaves Earth to return to Tasmia.

Jacques broods; adult Jan supports him and says farewell.

Devlin talks to Vi about the people who died and his hopes that Earth will be okay with people like the Legion to show the way.

[Comments:]
As in the previous issue, the story jumps from group to group, showing how they're dealing with the aftermath of the war and the efforts to stabilize Earth.

Jacques' self-doubts undermine his credibility as an effective President for a post-war Earth. The reluctant President - a set-up for his voluntary departure later in the series, but at this point, he just seems weak.

Bounty wants Morgna for herself - to kill him? Why? Is this Dawnstar angry at Dirk's betrayal of the Legion cause and Earth's people, or the Bounty entity who just likes to kill people? In any event, it's finally confirmed that she's Dawnstar and the big question is what happened to the wings. The Bounty-Sade cover provides an action-packed red-hot fight scene, but the real emotional punch of the issue comes from the Dirk Morgna story.

Dirk's final chapter here is tragic, but with a partially hopeful conclusion. Young Dirk doesn't avoid the adult version, which must have taken some courage, yet suffers moments of feeding his counterpart's bitterness and blaming. There's more hope for young Dirk, though: he sees where that path led and, speaking openly about it with Rokk, appears to be capable of changing course. This is similar to Imra getting Jan to open up; for whatever reason, these SW6 kids seem to be more supportive of one another. Maybe it's just the extraordinary circumstances in which they find themselves.

I wonder how far back Circe and Dirk go. That image of them happy together as younger people could be a fantasy of hers or an actual memory of Circe as Sun Boy's fangirl. Regardless, this one panel struck me as particularly sad, so much brightness and joy compared to the darkness, devastation and death. I had the impression, just here, that she really loved him, not just using him.

(There are a few instances of females taking extraordinary actions to pursue male Legionnaires - Lydda, Shvaughn, Grava and now possibly Circe. On the opposite side, Atmos... can't think of others. This goes beyond meeting them and striking up a relationship; it's planning, plotting and close to stalking.)

SW6 Lar and Laurel consider going into the past to try and change what's happened on Earth. This continues the theme of the younger Legion seeing their future and trying to avoid the mistakes that got them there.

Interesting. I didn't see it as weakness but consistent with how he has been portrayed over time, someone who steps up to do the job that needs doing even he is unsure if he will succeed. He will still give it his best shot. Also he has just come from years of leading the Underground fighting against an entire planetary government - more than that a controlling alien empire - but now the job is changing to recovery and helping a planet pull itself up out of the ashes. It is not weakness that raises his doubts but compassion for the people who now depend on him and his desire not to fail them.

I think Bounty is meant to want to kill Morgna just for the thrill. That's how it reads to me anyway. As for Circe, I don't think we are meant to be clear on her plans until she actually does it. The third panel on page 4 is unclear who talks about Dirk suffering and no-one having the guts to do something about it i.e. kill him. From the previous panel you might think it is Circe but from her words and reaction in panel 4 I think it is Bounty and Circe calls her on the idea that Bounty just wants to kill him for the thrill. That puts Circe arguing AGAINST someone killing Dirk. In retrospect we can see that she intended to do it but certainly the legionnaires around her didn't see it that way or they never would have let her be alone with him.

As for Bounty/Dawnstar I have always wondered how many readers actually twigged ahead of time. I admit I am not very good at picking up clues and again in retrospect they begin to become obvious but I had no idea before this moment, yet comments in the letters pages suggest that others did find it obvious. How about everyone else?

You are right about this being the emotional punch of the issue. I was impressed with both parts of it. The thoughts of the younger Dirk, his fear that he will inevitably end up the same, and Rokk's encouragement that now he's been warned he can choose his future. This was done very well and I saw the parallel with the Imra/Jan moment too. What we see of Dirk in the later Legionnaires title doesn't really reflect this and instead seems to be going down the same path the writers chose for his older counterpart, but a comment in a later letters page pointing this out had the writers acknowledging and siggesting he was in a bit of denial and his story wasn't finished yet. How it might have later been dealt with we will never know thanks to End of an Era.

As for Circe yes I agree that she is meant to appear to have loved him. She wasn't a very nice person and more than willing to deal with the devil, so to speak, but as with her reaction when the Dominators started targeting her SPs she felt for and tried to look after those she considered her own. A complex character, not one I would like to know personally, but tragic in the telling of her story.

This story is meant to wrap up the whole Terra Mosaic arc and present, if not a rosy picture, at least a possibly hopeful one for the future and having Devlin with young Salu portraying that was a good way to go.

With one panel, TMK made Circe a sympathetic, tragic figure. That scene made me feel her pain. Very well done.

The Bounty plot is much harder to figure. The similarities to Dawnstar were there from the beginning - non-Caucasian skin coloring (though not clearly Native American either - she always looked to me like she had a tan, a la Jo after his sojourn in Ancient Egypt) and an ability to track (seen maybe once in the Roxxas story). I think there was also a mention, in the Roxxas story, of unexplained scar tissue on her back which I guess was meant to lead into some discussion of the loss of her wings. But there are so many strikes against believing that she was actually Dawnstar, that NONE of the Legionnaires in all this time mentioned it at all! Brainy mentions in this issue that he realized who she was and kept silent since she clearly wanted to keep her identity secret, but she was around Cham, Cos, Ayla, Vi, Jo, Jan, Laurel, Garth and Imra (possibly Mysa, Jacques and the Subs as well) and not a single one of them noticed or asked any questions? On top of that, the sudden "need for adrenaline" came totally out of nowhere. Bounty was Celeste's partner, but they didn't seem to have constant excitement before they were hired to find Roxxas. Bottom line, I don't know if TMK planned it from the beginning or decided to throw it in mid-stream. It felt like a very badly-done story point.

I will also point out that the identity (if it was anything the Legion had previously encountered), nature and fate of the Bounty entity is one lingering plot that was not wrapped up before End of an Era.