Comics Archeology

Legionnaires #35 (1996)
written by Roger Stern & Tom McCraw
pencils and cover by Jeff Moy

Roger Stern joins the creative team as the co-writer; he will stay on the Legionnaires series for most of its run.

I firmly believe the most important secret weapon of the Reboot is having two regular series.
That helps dealing with the Legion’s huge roster, but it also gives us more chances to have a look at the 30th century.
Not only that, but this issue specifically will focus on the supporting cast. That’s hard to do when you have only 1 regular series and a dozen Legionnaires as minimum.

I’m sure that readers at the time took the mention of Ron Vidar’s father as a sign of the eventual re-introduction of Universo.
That won’t happen: Universo will be in the Reboot, but he will be quite different from the original and completely unrelated to Rond.

With the whole Legion busy in the other book, Lori Morning has decided that she’s going to play superhero.

Despite nobody giving her permission to present herself as a Legionnaire.

As a reminder, Legion HQ is still under reconstruction after the fight with Chronos; this put an even bigger target on the Legion considering that time travel is illegal.

But the HQ is also in bad shape, so it’s attacked by unknown intruders.

The closest thing in the Reboot to Chuck demonstrating his Bouncing Boy prowess.

I’d still trust him to save the day.

Everyone contributes to the defense, even the Athramites!

Well, they tried.

Even Shvaughn Erin isn’t of much help, because the invaders have a unique power.

Okay is EVERY building in the 30th century required to have generators that can blow up the whole city!?

Chuck has a unique idea to distract the invaders: a very unexpected reference!

I don’t know why I was surprised to see a cameo of the Space Canine Patrol when Krypto was a member.
(yes, I will cover the SPCA in the hero origins retrospective. Why wouldn’t I?)

We also have the closest thing the Reboot has to Matter-Eater Lad using his powers in combat.

Turns out that the invaders are shapeshifters.

M-E-L defeats his impostor with an application of his power never shown before (or probably since): acid spit.
On one hand, it’s a pity he never used this in the original continuity as it would have solved one of M-E-L’s problems, the total lack of range.
On the other hand, I’m glad we never saw it because eeewwww.

Future Girl to the rescue!
Don’t worry Rond, as a guy born in the 20th century I also wonder how we even reached the 21st, let alone the 30th.

I can’t imagine why Future Girl wasn’t offered membership.

She does save one of the aliens, who were not Durlans at all: they’re Proteans.

Yep, this is the Reboot introduction to Proty.

Don’t encourage her, Rond, she might decide she wants to be a superhero after all.
Naaah, that would require her to get her hands on something that gives her easy access to superpowers, and what are the odds of that?

In other plots, we catch up with the Legion being surrounded by the Fatal Five…

…aaaaand the comic does absolutely nothing with the 3 whole pages it gives them.
I should not be thinking “I don’t care about the Legion, go back to the other characters” WHEN I’M READING A LEGION BOOK.

But on the bright side, someone has finally completed her subplot.
Still waiting on Kinetix to hurry up on hers.

Legion significance: 4/10
Proty will plague the Reboot for a while, but mercifully not as much as he (it?) did in the Silver Age.

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
The day was ultimately saved by a ten year old girl who defended Legion HQ better than their Science Police liaison.

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
A lot of your enjoyment of this will depend heavily on your tolerance on Lori. It wasn’t a problem for me, since she hasn’t reached her more annoying era, but I found the praise she receives to be way overblown.
Kind of a missed opportunity to actually learn anything about the supporting cast… other than M-E-L having acid spit, did we get anything?
Speaking of M-E-L, while his interactions with Chuck are great… this is kind of his biggest role in the Reboot. He’ll stick around for a bit, but he never finds a way to meaningfully interact with the rest of the cast. Unlike Chuck, who will be integrated far better.
We also have 3 completely unnecessary pages to remind people there is another Legion book, and 1 page on the return of XS. While I’m very glad she’s back, it’s not the best use of space in my opinion.

Moy Tongues: 16

Who did it better?
I’ve never liked Proty, so I’m not exactly fond of seeing him (it?) back… but making him essentially Lori’s pet instead of Chameleon Boy’s pet is a much better idea, considering that at least we don’t have to worry about him stealing the spotlight.
If you already find Lori irritating, however, I feel for you because Proty can only make it worse.