Justice League Adventures #28

Justice League Adventures #28 (2004)
by Jason Hall & Min S. Ku
cover by Tom Feister

A couple of years before the Legion does its actual appearance in the proper show, they had this adventure in the book that is sort in the same continuity.

We begin in the 21st century, where a guy accidentally transforms himself into a post-Crisis Flash villain: the unpronounceable Kilg%re.
Seriously, I have no idea how you’re supposed to pronounce THAT.

Kilg&re’s deal is that he can take control of anything technological.

When he opens up a portal to the future a few members of the Justice League follow: Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Flash.
But not Superman because he’s famously slower than a speeding bullet.

We then cut to the 30th century, where Kent Shakespeare from the 5YL era gets a cameo.
Interestingly, this is specifically 2980… which is a bit weird, since this is a 2003 story and the Legion tends to be exactly 1,000 years into the future.
But it actually makes sense for this continuity: in the Superman episode they were from most likely from the 2970s if you follow the clues.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that the text crawl just says “Kent Shakespeare” in Interlac.
Cool to see that the Daily Planet logo is still in English after a thousand years, and weird to see a Kent Shakespeare significantly OLDER than the original Legionnaires.

Considering I really suck at Interlac, I’m very proud of myself for figuring out this just says “Legion of Super-Heroes” in Interlac.
Then again… the Interlac L is the most seen since it’s in many Legion symbols and I’m familiar with the Interlac E thanks to Elemant Lad’s costume, and once you figure out the caption starts with LE it’s not hard to guess the rest.

The JLA shows up here, and the Legionnaires are quire rude when they have to get rid of the press and of their fans.

The Legion introduces itself, and there are no additional members from those we already saw.
Weirdly enough there isn’t a reference to the Superman episode.

Their looks are CLEARLY based on the reboot incarnation, so I initially referred to Phantom Girl as “Apparition” last time… but she calls herself Phantom Girl here.
Kid Quantum will be introduced during the 5YL and will be a massive continuity headache there.
Brainiac 5 is an interesting case since he introduces himself as being from Colu, which is of course his planet of origin in the comics… but as previously discussed, the Brainiac from the DC Animated Universe was an artificial intelligence from Krypton.

His next appearance will go through ridiculous lengths to justify Brainiac 5 not being a robot.

Andromeda will be introduced in the 5YL as the Supergirl equivalent, although this is much closer to her Reboot incarnation.
The Justice League never actually meets any Daxamites in the show, but they did show up in previous issues of this comic.

As you might have guessed, Kilg%re came into the future to take over its computers.

This incarnation is MOSTLY based on the Reboot, although Reboot Brainiac 5 WISHES that Andromeda was THIS MUCH into him!

But not exclusively from the Reboot, since Kilg%re’s main target is the pre-Crisis Computo.
Even if it’s named C.O.M.P.U.T.O. like its Reboot version…

…it shares the basic storyline with the original, since C.O.M.P.U.T.O. never did any of this.
I also previously called Triplicate Girl “Triad” since it’s her Reboot name, but here she’s called by her original codename. I do wonder if in this version she later went with Duo Damsel?
She doesn’t show up in this version except in the earlier panel which might be a flashback, so I don’t know if she can still split into three bodies.

Since the Justice League can’t operate in the public, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl are going to disguise themselves as Laurel Kent and Dawnstar… both of which are confirmed reserves here.
Which is also continuing the theme of referencing multiple Legion eras, because neither one was in the Reboot.

Green Lantern and Flash are going to stay. Which is too bad because I would’ve loved to see how they would have been disguised… I’m telling you, we were robbed of John Steward dressing up as Tyroc and Wally West dressing up as Chemical King.

Brainiac 5 and Andromeda are confirmed to be a couple in this continuity, which makes things a bit awkward as the Legion’s episode in the Justice League will make him Supergirl’s boyfriend.

While the girls deal with Kilg&re causing disruptions in Metropolis, Brainiac 5’s plan is going great.

Since Kid Quantum won’t show up for a while, keep in mind he has vaguely defined time manipulation powers.

Personality-wise, this is very much Reboot Brainiac 5.

Despite his reputation… mostly pushed by himself… Reboot Brainiac 5 is not just a cold logic machine, and this version demonstrates it by talking things through with Kilg%re.

He’s also not as dogmatic about time travel as some of his other incarnations.

Kilg%re gives to Flash the way to prevent his attack on the 21st century, and then disappears.

Instead of using a Time Bubble™, the Justice League is able to return to the past with the Cosmic Threadmill™ which also previous appeared in the series.
Also this version of the Legion had to deal with Starfinger, and I’m assuming Lightning Lad lost his arm here as well. I do wonder if the object on the right corner is a reference to something.

In the end, the Justice League saves the day…

…and in the 30th century, Kilg%re is spending his days living in the simulation of a world without technology.

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Historical significance: 0/10
The Justice League episode will completely ignore this story. In fact, it’s hard to reconcile the two… these specific Leaguers are not in that episode, but after this Green Lantern SHOULD know about the Legion… but their existance is a surprise to him there.
This version of Brainiac 5 also feels incompatible with said episode.

Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
No version of Brainiac 5 ends up with a Supergirl equivalent.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Sick child aside, the only reason I don’t think this story could be done during the Silver Age is that it makes entirely too much sense for the time.

Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
If you take into consideration the constraints of the target audience and the need to limit yourself to a few pages, it’s a pretty good Legion story.
In fact I would argue that this is a MUCH better introduction to the Legion than the actual episode of the show, because at least THIS time the story is about BOTH the Legion and the JLA.
The characters are distinct and as complex as they possibly can be given the limited space available, it has a good message without shoehorning it, it has good interactions between the two teams… I would go so far as to call this the best one-shot introduction to the Legion that I have seen so far.

 We are Legion
14 active members
-Saturn Girl
-Cosmic Boy
-Chameleon Boy
-Ultra Boy
-Phantom Girl
-Dream Girl
-Live Wire
-Sparks
-Brainiac 5
-Triplicate Girl (possibly Duo Damsel?)
-Bouncing Boy7
-Kid Quantum
-Andromeda
-Umbra
2 reserves
-Laurel Kent
-Dawnstar
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