Comics Archeology

Legionnaires #34 (1996)
written by Tom Peyer & Tom McCraw
pencils and cover by Jeff Moy

I can’t believe it never occurred to me to rename her “Shrinking Violent” when she returned to duty after the whole Durlan impostor saga. It would have fit SO well.

As usual, the first page has the roll call of the team. But this one has probably the most unique easter eggs ever…

…because it’s spelling “Legionnaires” in sign language! How cool is that!?
Having Triad contributing three letters and figuring out a way for Gates to use sign language if he doesn’t have hands is particularly brilliant.

The story itself begins with Shrinking Violet taking on Starfinger on her own.

She beats him up very efficiently…

…revealing he was Element Lad all along.

He was very obviously brainwashed, so Saturn Girl tries to get him out of this.
I choose to believe that the fact that Element Lad is in his underwear during this is a callback to his very embarrassing first costume.

The last time we saw Element Lad he was mourning his people on his homeworld, but we learn that he was ambushed…

…where we learn he was ambushed by Apparition’s mother, who used him to get revenge on the Legion.

But that will have to wait because Lori Morning got herself in trouble.

I don’t know, Saturn Girl, the alien was perhaps a bit rude and Lori didn’t know she was doing something racist… but she WAS doing something racist.

Jeff Moy is so great at drawing body language that you can immediately tell Lori is still a kid despite being physically older than Saturn Girl.

Element Lad isn’t the only one in only his underwear in this issue.

Considering Shrinking Violet is… well, a shrinking violet… you’d expect she’d be mortified by this!

But her victory against Starfinger has accelerated her growing out of her shell.

Who would have expected VIOLET would be the first Legion girl to adjust her costume to be a little more sexy?

In other plots, Mon-El is enjoying his newfound freedom to kick some ass.

Never thought I’d ever see ET become a cop, but these are clearly from the same species right?

More importantly, Mysa has found a new source of power for Kinetix.

Who gets her powers back complete with a completely new look.
Which not only looks WAY better than the original, but this is far from the last time she will get a radical body change so…
Kinetix metamorphosis: 1

But we eventually return to the main plot, when Cosmic Boy informs the President about the incriminating information against Apparition’s mother.

You would expect this be the biggest news of the day, but that honor belongs to something else taken from Starfinger’s memories…

…the Sun-Eater is back!!!

In a secret meeting, the President informs about the Legion about the Sun-Eater.
Which was last seen in the 20th century (more on that later).

This is barely a legend on Earth, but there are other worlds that have created living weapons to deal with it. One of which is Mano!
If we take this at face value, it’s re-writing the origin of Reboot Mano… but considering later revelations (no spoilers in the comments!) this is definitely not the actual origin.

As you probably have figured out, this is an excuse to introduce the Fatal Five.

There are already reasons to doubt the origin that the President gives for the Fatal Five.
Not only it doesn’t work with what we were told about Mano earlier, but the idea that the Fatal Five were created to defeat the Sun-Eater doesn’t work even with what we are told in this story.
Sure it can conceivably work with Mano, Validus and Persuader… they all have powers that could conceivably affect the Sun-Eater, and Tharok is smart enough to be an advantage…

…but this makes no sense for Emerald Empress.
She doesn’t have the Emerald Eye (yet), and her only power right now is… nothing: she’s only a hand-to-hand fighter.
How is that going to help AGAINST THE SUN-EATER???

At least there is still a reason for them to be called the Fatal Five.

The Legion is ordered to free the Fatal Five in order to have them help against the Sun-Eater.
Notice Gates has a unique chair… could he even sit down on a regular chair?

Come on Gates, what could possibly be morally questionable about the President ordering you to free the five most dangerous criminals in the Galaxy?
On of which has absolutely no usefulness whatsoever against the Sun-Eater?

I feel this is like a case of “the bug who cried wolf”, because if Gates hadn’t been complaining to EVERYTHING maybe the others would have listened to him.

After all, who could POSSIBLY think this is a massive trap?

Legion significance: 10/10
This kicks off the main plot of the final stretch of the draft era.
Without spoilers: don’t trust everything said by characters of this issue.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I’ve heard some complains that this is when the series starts to move through plots too quickly, but I disagree: I actually think this is working on multiple levels in selling how big and complex the Legion world truly is.
Although granted, we ARE leaving behind a few subplots that SHOULD have been a bigger deal.
Last issue Star Boy randomly developed uncontrollable powers: you’d expect SOMEONE to worry about that, but it goes completely unmentioned.
The revelation of Apparition being part of a plot to assassinate the Legion also should have had a bigger immediate impact: while the Sun-Eater is indeed a big deal, the President doesn’t dwell on the assassination plot for a single moment!
Unless the President has something to hide? Naah, if you can’t trust the President of the United Planets, who can you trust?

Who did it better?
I was very surprised to learn that there were complains about the Starfinger mystery.
For longtime Legion readers, there were hints that it was Live Wire: he disappeared right before Starfinger showed up, and he hesitated in battle against Saturn Girl.
But I disagree that the story was unfair about this: those were VERY minor hints, and in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if 95% of the readers immediately suspected Live Wire.
In fact I’m really curious about this: let me know in the comments if YOU were suspecting Live Wire or not. I certainly wasn’t, and in fact the powers demonstrated by Starfinger worked with Element Lad WAY better than they would have with Live Wire!
He was shooting rays to melt or disintegrate stuff… which can easily be explained in him altering the composition of what the rays were touching. The fact that this wasn’t explicitly told just makes this way better than the clunky exposition we received from the original Starfinger, which was a brainwashed Lightning Lad.
It might be because I’ve never particularly cared for any version of Starfinger, but point to the Reboot for me.

While I can’t talk yet about the conspiracy linked to the Fatal Five, their introduction here pales in comparison to the original.
The premise is the same, but the original took the time to immediately sell us that each of them was a real threat and that combined they would be a match for the whole Legion.
Point to the original.

Emerald Empress is where the Reboot seriously drops the eyeball.
Because the Emerald Eye has its own separate subplot, which includes its rediscovery, it makes sense to introduce her without the Eye first… but couldn’t have made her at least slightly interesting? Especially since, as I mentioned, her being the female version of Karate Kid makes NO SENSE if we’re supposed to believe she has anything to contribute against the Sun-Eater.
Point to the original all the way.

Speaking of the Sun-Eater, he was also a state secret in the original version, but the United Planets had been aware of it for just a couple of centuries instead of a thousand years.

I will compare this Sun-Eater saga to the original next time, considering how important certain revelations will be.
But that mention of the Sun-Eater being last seen in the 20th century are interesting… because the Sun-Eater will be the main force behind the 1996 crossover “Final Night”.
I will eventually talk a lot about that crossover, since it’s quite important for the Legion, but I should be mentioned that while the Sun-Eater HERE looks like the pink cloud of the original continuity… the Sun-Eater of Final Night has a completely different look.
Which honestly works way better for something that eats suns.