Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #75 (1995)
written by Tom Peyer & Tom McCraw
pencils by Lee Moder
cover by Alan Davis
The Legion doesn’t always participate in the DC crossovers set in the present, for obvious reasons, but they do manage to be affected by Underworld Unleashed.
After missing the entire crossover with Superboy, XS gets even by getting her own adventure.
Here’s where her character development from her first Legion mission (and her Cosmic Boy crush) comes to her rescue.
And while lost in the timestream, she comes across the villain of this issue and his henchgirl.
He’s classic supervillain Chronos, who we’ve already seen when I reviewed his first appearance, and she’s a character we will see quite a bit in future Legion stories: Lori Morning.
XS: Where am I? I don’t understand – What is this thing?
Taking her back to his base in 1995, Chronos realizes that she’s from the 30th century.
And evidently XS just let this complete stranger run tests on her… she can be a surprisingly passive character at times.
In her defense, it’s not like she could have just stayed in the timestream.
Chronos is employing other henchmen, not all of which are as young as Lori.
In fact, Lori is the daughter of one Chronos’s henchmen. I don’t recall this really coming up in her future (pun intended) appearances.
The reason why Chronos is so different from his classic self is the whole deal behind Underworld Unleashed.
The premise of the crossover was that Nekron… the least interesting Satan equivalent of DC… gave a power-up to several supervillains.
But there’s a catch for anyone who took the deal: you get powers, but you pay for them.
In Chronos’s case, he received actual time manipulation powers (he used to do this with gadgets) in exchange of aging up every time he uses them.
He also received a major upgrade in his costume, when compared to the atrocity of his original look. Without paying an additional fee: I think Nekron just took pity.
Lori is going to be… A LOT, and I know there are several Legion fans who actively despise her.
While I think Lori will definitely overstay her welcome at some point, I generally like her presence in the book. Admittedly also because she will allow me to connect the Reboot to ANOTHER retrospective I did (no spoilers in the comment for those who don’t know).
The Legionnaires themselves will have mixed feelings towards Lori, but XS is friendly from the start. Because of course she is.
Brief tangent here, because it’s driving me nuts.
XS is just saying “hello” in the previous panel, but it took me longer than it should have to realize that. Not just because the series is continuing to capitalize ever Interlac letter (that’s the vertical line before every letter)… but it’s also worsening one thing I’ve never liked about Interlac.
In general it’s a fantastic invention from a creative standpoint… it gives a lot of personality to the setting, it can be used for sight gags in the background, and it makes the future feel suitably alien.
Really I have only one problem with Interlac… way too many letters LOOK THE FREAKING SAME on the page!!!
These three (E, F, N) are easy to distinguish on their own, but unless the font is large enough it’s often difficult to read them in a speech balloon.
Some of the worst are the three ones that look like an L.
We actually see that letter quite a bit since it’s on the Legion flag… but only the middle one here is the Interlac L: the one on the left is H and the one on the right is C.
The absolute worst of the worst are U and V. Good luck distinguishing between these two unless the text is gigantic!!!
Also, while it doesn’t bother me: am I crazy or we almost never see the J, K, X and Z letters?
That’s a pity for the J since it’s one of the most unique designs… but they were not even trying for the X, and the Z evidently just phoned it in.
Now, wasn’t I doing something before being distracted?
Lori’s deal is that she is OBSESSED with growing up.
Getting this out of the way immediately: given that she’s a blonde connected to both time travel AND changing her age, the Legion fandom suspected that Lori was supposed to eventually become the Reboot version of Glorith (it’s even partially in her name).
And this was in fact later confirmed by the writers, although nothing will come from that.
Since I still have PTSD from the Glorith of the 5YL era, you have no idea how grateful I am that Lori never got to that point.
Lori may be consenting to having Chronos alter her age, but she and XS soon discover that that’s not the case for his OTHER test subjects.
Poor XS found herself in the middle of all this without a single clue of what the heck is happening.
While XS is the star of the issue, she’s not the only Legionnaire involved.
Brainiac 5 is actively looking for her in the timestream (protected by his force field); despite seeming heartless when he first learned she was lost in time, he DID basically volunteer to save her.
There isn’t an explicit explanation for why exactly XS was affected by the Time Platform™ differently from the other Legionnaires. Brainiac 5 blames the Speed Force; I have another theory on that that I’ll discuss once a different time travel plot shows up.
And speaking of time: we have the first official appearance of the Reboot version of Rond Vidar, who will now join the supporting cast.
Technically speaking, he was in the background of the second Reboot story when we first saw Brainiac 5.
Interestingly, in this version he has NO connection to either Universo or the Green Lantern Corps.
Which would make this my favorite version of Rond Vidar if only the Reboot gave him more than exactly two plots repeated over and over again.
He’s involved because in the Reboot, time travel isn’t just less prevalent than in the previous continuity… it’s actually illegal.
What happens next is… confusing.
In a time travel story? You don’t say!
Because Chronos shows up in the 30th century, holding Lori hostage…
…while also, ON THE SAME PAGE, he’s in the 20th century in a scene set earlier?
XS: What’s going on here? What are you doing-
It’s actually more complicated than that: after killing Lori’s father and absorbing XS’s youth, Chronos is simultaneously in the 20th AND the 30th century.
Somehow.
Given the communication problem of Lori not speaking Interlac, Saturn Girl should REALLY start to automatically translate every time stuff like this happens.
Cute detail of Lori calling the shrunken down Violet “Barbie”.
XS is more receptive to the suggestion.
See, what did I tell you, Saturn Girl!
I’m confused by exactly what just happened. Chronos has to be simultaneously defeated in the past AND the present, and by the way he speaks I believe that he’s experimenting both at the same time.
That’s fine, but Lori is definitely NOT doing that… did she see Chronos be defeated twice?
I really like time travel stories and I typically follow them just fine, but this one left me baffled.
Fittingly, we get two separate endings.
In the 30th century, the effects of the battle severely damage Legion HQ.
In the 20th century, XS uses Chronos’s glove to restore her youth AND save the kids.
And that was kind of useless since Chronos isn’t even dead… I’m guessing he works like Kang now?
Both Chronos and Lori will deal with the Legion the next issue: XS is left stranded in the 20th century, because it’s time for her to finally meet the Flash family.
Legion significance: 8/10
Love her or hate her (I’m 80% love), Lori Morning does have a long-lasting impact on the Reboot Legion. Rond Vidar, surprisingly enough, not as much: my theory is that Invisible Kid plays his original role as the secondary super-genius who befriends Brainiac 5. So he already fulfills Rond’s main job while also being a full Legionnaire.
And adding to the fact that the Reboot version of Universo will be completely different, it doesn’t leave Rond with a whole lot to actually DO in this continuity!
Silver Age-ness: 4/10Chronos is n
ot as over-the-top as he used to be, but he still brings with him weird time travel shenanigans.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
A lot of your enjoyment will depend on two factors: Lori and the time paradox.
Despite Lori being a divisive character and my love for time travel stories… she’s passable here, and my main concern is how confusing the Chronos plot ends up being.
I can see you disliking Lori though: this is ostensibly the XS issue… but because she’s surrounded by people who don’t understand her for nearly the whole story, we end up following Lori the most.
And Lori’s job at this point is to be an annoying brat… a job that she can do a little too well at times.
Who did it better?
The parallels between Lori and Glorith are way too flimsy at this point to be worthy of a discussion.
The only other comparison I could make is the formal introduction of Rond Vidar… and needless to say, it’s not anywhere near the same weight class of the original.
We are legion
- 11 active Legionnaires (3 volunteers, 8 drafted)
- 1 expelled member (Live Wire)
- 1 resigned member (Andromeda)
- 1 honorary member (Superboy)
- 2 deceased members (Kid Quantum, Apparition
- 16 people have been members
- 2 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy)
- 2 members have been rejected
Interesting letters: XS is a fan-favorite, but has anyone really ever liked her codename?
It’s a good one for a speedster and I guess the idea of “make the character named Excess the least excessive member of the cast” is neat… but count me among the haters of the codename.