Comics Archeology

Legionnaires #38 (1996)
written by Roger Stern & Tom McCraw
pencils and cover by Jeff Moy

Poor Saturn Girl can’t catch a break in this continuity!

The founders are visiting Titan as part of a goodwill mission.

This is everything Live Wire has wanted!

So of course it’s a dream. If there’s a constant across continuities, is that the universe is out to get Garth.

I’m actually surprised that Titan has such strict border controls… who in their right mind would WANT to go there!?

You know Saturn Girl, the expression “being alone with your thoughts” doesn’t mean actually being WITH them.

She’s currently torn between the two other founders. While I hate the term “Archie Legion” for this era, admittedly it doesn’t come completely out of nowhere.

So, uhm, is it common practice for telepathic mentors to sneak into the private thoughts of their teenage students, or is this considered creepy on Titan as well?

Turns out that Saturn Girl hasn’t fully healed from the mental scars caused by the Composite Man.

Thanks to Aven, the Legionnaires are finally able to get past security.

Time to actually meet Saturn Girl’s family! Turns out she also has a little sister in this continuity.

And you know what trope is called for: embarrassing baby pictures!

This is a cute moment, but it also highlights why Saturn Girl barely ever talks about her family.
She was such a telepathic prodigy that she was taken away to be trained when she was only FIVE.

Cosmic Boy takes the time to call back the Legion, and it turns out that Leviathan is an even wors deputy leader than he was a bad leader.

We do have an explanation for why Brainiac 5 didn’t actually leave last time: Shrinking Violet convinced him to stay.
This will lead to a great moment later, but I really would have preferred to actually see their conversation.

We have a much appreciated return: Dr. Gym’ll is here!!!
He won’t play a huge part in the Reboot, but he’ll be around for most of it.
Notice that’s he’s brought in to lighten Brainiac 5’s schedule, so his complains in the previous issue must have been legit.

We interrupt this goodwill mission to bring you a game of Magno-Ball.

Surprisingly enough, we get a perspective of the status of the two planets involved (Titan and Braal, which is Cosmic Boy’s world) from their leaders.
These two won’t really play any role past this issue, so it’s interesting that they are the onyes given the spotlight here.

Less surprising: sport being used for diplomacy. It’s very common in the present as well.

Both for good and for bad reasons.

The founders deal with the crisis well, but for some reason it turns out that channeling electric powers through a metal arm was a bad idea.

Saturn Girl’s little sister appears only a couple of times, possibly because I can see her growing into a supervillain.

How much younger than Saturn Girl is she supposed to be? If her sister was taken away when she was five, how old was Jancel? Like three years old?
Granted, we established that Titanians share their memories telepathically, so she could still remember.

You bad of a sibling you have to be to make LIVE WIRE consider himself luck with HIS brother!?
Also, I love the detail of him instinctively trying to use his missing arm to point at her.

If you thought I was kidding about her giving off future supervillain vibes.

The Braalian representative is in a coma, but the Titan representative objects at taking a mind scan.

You might expect this to be because of political intrigue, but…

I doubt President Chu wanted these two to become THAT close, but hey, at least she did something positive.

Turns out that the Braalian representative was the one to set up the bomb (!!!) because he wanted to calm down the Titan extremists.
Because extremists who push for isolationism and all-out war are typically calmed down when there is an assassination attempt against their enemies.
Sounds legit.

She convinces the representative to confess because there are only two pages left.

And at the final page, we finally have the very first election of the Reboot!!!

I think she is contractually obligated to do this gag in every continuity.

As much as I praise Jeff Moy’s artwork in this era… and man does it deserve the praise… but it looks like Purple Triad smoked something heavy.

And the new Legion leader is going to be… drum roll please…

You know what I love the most about Legion elections: speculating about who voted for who!

This is a difficult one, since we don’t have outright votes. Perhaps some will be clarified in later issues, but it’s fun to speculate who would have voted for who.
There are currently 17 active Legionnaires; we are explicitly told that seniority is not a factor, so I’m going to assume that ALL Legionnaires voted.
While there were no outright candidates, based on her actions in the previous issues I’m going to assume Kinetix did SOME level of campaigning.
I’m also going to assume that nobody is going to vote for Cosmic Boy out of respect for his decision to step down.
Considering that, who are the Legionnaires most likely to have voted?

Live Wire= I think he would vote for Saturn Girl; he hasn’t spent enough time around Shrinking Violet to be convinced to vote for her.
Cosmic Boy= Saturn Girl. He sees Violet’s potential but would think it’s too soon.
Saturn Girl= Shrinking Violet. She was one of the first to recognize Violet could be a force to be reckoned with.
Triad= I think she would have voted Violet, not so much because of their friendship but by how she managed to convince Brainiac 5 to say.
Leviathan= despite being the hardliner, I think he’s the kind of guy who would vote Kinetix because he likes her.
XS= a tough one. She would 100% have voted for Cosmic Boy if he ran, and she missed most of the character development of both Violet and Kinetix. So I think she might actually have the only one to vote for Triad, because of their friendship and because she knows how good Triad is at running things.
Chameleon= tempted to vote for Invisible Kid but ends up being the only one to vote for Spark at the last second.
Invisible Kid= I think he’s the kind of guy to vote for himself.
Brainiac 5= he would normally vote himself, but he does have good reasons for voting Shrinking Violet this time.
Spark= it could go either way, but I can see Kinetix having a style that she finds more appealing.
Shrinking Violet= she would have voted for Kinetix…
Kinetix= …who in return would have voted for totally heterosexual admirer.
Gates= he was uncharacteristically nice towards Kinetix last issue, so I’d say she won him over.
Star Boy= could go any way, he doesn’t seem particularly close to anyone. Let’s say Violet.
Ultra Boy= hasn’t been around Violet a whole lot, so I’d say he voted Saturn Girl.
Element Lad= spent a bit of time with Violet after his return and she does give off more pacifist vibes than the others, at the moment.
M’onel= voted for Violet because of how well Andromeda spoke of her.

With the above assumptions, the election would have been:
Shrinking Violet: 6 out of 17 votes (35.3%)
Saturn Girl and Kinetix: tied, 3 votes out of 17 (17.6% each)
Triad, Spark and Invisible Kid: 1 vote each (5.9%)

Had Cosmic Boy been eligible, I believe he would have won EASILY.
I would predict a landslide for him… he wouldn’t have voted for himself (most likely still voting for Saturn Girl), but the only Legionnaire I can see not confirming him as leader would have been Gates.

Legion significance: 8/10
It’s not explored much here, but Violet becoming leader will have HUGE impact.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
A solid breather issue. My only real complain is that the resolution of the main plot feels VERY rushed, and while the characterization of the representative was handled very well… they still matter for like four pages, so it’s hard to get TOO attached.

Moy Tongues: 19

Who did it better?
Saturn Girl had already been established as being a prodigy from a young age, as far back as Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
But her family plays no real role in the original continuity, giving the Reboot an easy win.
I’m disappointed that her sister will only get ONE additional appearance… can you imagine if she really did grow into a supervillain and teamed up with Lightning Lord or something?