Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #16-18

Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #16 (1991)
written by Tom & Mary Bierbaum & Keith Giffen
Pencils by Carlos Garzon & Keith Giffen
cover by Keith Giffen

I’m no Khund sympathizer, but I would also shoot that costume on sight.

The war isn’t going great, and Brainiac 5 discovers that the chemical superweapon that the Khunds have been using… the Red Terror… is from a major 28th century war.
We will a lot of references to this “Great War” throughout the rest of 5YL.

And it’s brutal stuff: the Red Terror can drive whole planets insane, and that’s on top of some heavy artillery.

Considering how this series has been structured, you probably already figured out who the “Great Demon Mother” is going to be.

We then move to the Khund homeworld, where I really miss the old “Encyclopedia Galactica” entries. The artwork does a good job of selling the environment, though.

There’s some interesting politics at play with the Khund, stemming from an internal struggle between the Khunds that are still following the old ways (basically being Star Trek’s Klingons) and a new completely bloodthirsty branch completely devoid of any redeeming qualities.

Back to what used to be Legion Academy (now United Planets Militia Academy), they’re anticipating an invasion.

One of the cadets… I guess that’s Power Boy? Why am I being asked to remember Power Boy’s civilian name, which has MAYBE been said ONCE!?!?
Sorry, I’m just SO FED UP with this codename thing.
He’s angry at White Witch for not contributing.

Which is a dick move considering the amount of abuse White Witch suffered, I know, and Duo Damsel correctly calls him out on this.
On the other hand, after 16 issues of most of the heroes twiddling their thumbs, it WAS refreshing to see SOMEONE trying to make them ACTUALLY DO STUFF.

Speaking of abuse, Shrinking Violet now sports an artificial leg, after her own was blown off last issue. I like how she COULD just have an organic one, but it’s framed on her not wanting to take the necessary time off for the procedure.
Technology seems to have progressed since regrowing Lightning Lad’s organic arm was initially treated as a one-off miracle.

This also grows Violet’s current characterization as a no-nonsense badass. This feels like a natural progression from her Volume 3 self, as she’s no longer lashing out at anyone on sight.
Credit where it’s due, but I can add her to the Legionnaires where I like the direction 5YL is taking (a category currently consisting of her, Matter-Eater Lad and… no that’s about it).

Back to the Khund homeworld, where a guy named Orlak is buying slaves.

He’s a Legion collaborator, and the people making contact are actually Chameleon Boy and Laurel Gand. I’m guessing he would have taken Shrinking Violet if it wasn’t for the injury, as she’s the only other remaining member of the Espionage Squad.

Well maybe he should have waited for Violet.

Because of the split between the Khund forces, it’s becoming VERY difficult to predict what they’re going to do.

So while the Legion expects them to attack Shadow Lass’s planet, they attack the Academy one.

This seems to have shaken White Witch into helping.

Bouncing Boy, badass heart of the Legion since 2961.

Back on Khundia, the Demon Mother is revealed to be… come on, who else did you expect, the Legion has like TWO major female villains and Emerald Empress is dead.

You know what, this was a pretty awesome issue! Good characterization, a solid plot, nice worldbuilding, and for once there was no grid… well, spoke to soon.

Tyroc is back on the spotlight! I don’t think anyone saw his return coming.

Turning Tyroc into a badass guerilla fighter is a welcome change.
Turning former Substitute Heroes Fire Lad and Chlorophyll Kid into the same, while also making them completely unrecognizable… not so much.
I don’t get Giffen sometimes. He wrote the Subs as laughingstock and continues to treat Polar Boy without any respect, but for some reason the actual losers of that team get this treatment?

Things are SO bad that the resistance is allying itself with Universo!

The final old familiar face is Invisible Kid II, who is now in a relationship with Infectious Lass.
Talk about wanting to live dangerously!

We also meet a Universo henchman, the incredibly confusing Grimm.
WHAT IS HE???

As if things weren’t complicated enough… Universo is secretly working with the Dark Circle.

I swear there’s more plot moving in three pages than in the previous 15 issue COMBINED.
The text page is about the Academy, but I don’t think it adds anything.

The Grid: 4 pages out of 25
20 pages without a grid
no splash pages
1 text page

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Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #17 (1991)
written by Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon
Pencils by Brandon Peterson & Keith Giffen
cover by Keith Giffen

Is it just me, or is the 5YL the grimiest and dirtiest future ever?
It DOES fit this story since we’re in the middle of a war, but it’s been the case from the start.

Lady Memory had a great introduction, but they never did anything with her. This is hinting as an interesting and complex relationship between the various tribes of Talok VIII; too bad they haven’t received enough focus.

Is Brainiac 5 finally, FINALLY starting to do something instead of giving up?

ABOUT FREAKING TIME!!!

Although there are, let’s say, a few red flags for the creator of Computo and Omega.

Time for a space battle! And one WITHOUT THE GRID, so we might actually be able to see some action!!!

It’s no masterpiece or anything, and it bothers me that Cosmic Boy looks more like the Punisher than himself, but holy crap this FINALLY feels like the Legion again!

Oh no, not… checking my notes to see who the heck is Jed… not Power Boy!

Back to the Khund homeworld, let’s see what Glorith is up to with her phenomenal time powers.

Speaking of which, why DOES Glorith need the Khund in the first place? We already saw she was able to effortlessly kill everyone on Daxam… is it just to have subjects for her empire?
It would fit her character, but you’d think she would want to take out the Legion personally.

I’m also confused about the nature of her powers.
She gives the Khund technology from the 28th century; that fits her time powers, fine.
But she does it so that the Khund can give her magic artifacts to increase her own power? Since when does she get powers by magic, aren’t all her powers derived from inheriting those of the Time Trapper?
Her incarnation from the universe where Mordru ruled the universe DID use magic… so is this the Glorith of that universe? She shouldn’t be, because that reality was retroactively erased… or was Glorith ALWAYS supposed to be magic-based?

Back to the space battle, Kono gets into the fun. And I don’t use the word casually, there are fun action scenes in this story.
Remember fun? The thing you can have in a comic book when it’s not constant death and depression? Guess we can have some of it back!

I cannot emphasize enough how refreshing it is to FINALLY have A) scenes where I can understand what’s going on B) superheroes who are actually trying!

And to think that we have to thank the Khund, one of the most stereotypical alien races for a long time, for finally shaking things up.

If you think that was too easy… that’s the point. That was NOT the whole Khund fleet…

…because they fed false information to Chameleon Boy’s contact.

This means that everything rests on White Witch and Bouncing Boy.

This is where Bouncing Boy REALLY shines! Not only he’s able to boost her confidence back…

…he’s helping her work her way through magic on technicalities!
Forget Brainiac 5, BOUNCING BOY is currently the smartest Legionnaire.

This works: the magic barrier prevents the Khunds from killing anyone else.

The Khund didn’t expect that… and they certainly didn’t expect the United Planets fleet to show up faster than they should, because Brainiac 5 adapted their own rediscovered technology.
Now THIS is the Brainiac 5 I know!!!

And for all the talk of the Khund being fierce warriors… their commanders are scum.

Orlak (Chameleon Boy’s contact) manages to redeem himself by at least trying to kill Glorith.

With her distracted, Shrinking Violet can now jump out of Laurel’s GIANT EARRINGS.

This was Chameleon Boy’s plan all along (presumably): get in the right position to throw a “chronal howitzer” at Glorith.

THIS WORKS, exiling Glorith to the End Of Time.
For all her talk about being an unstoppable force of nature, she went out like an amateur.

And so the universe is saved. Including Orando, which isn’t even supposed to be IN this universe anymore… do we ever learn why it’s back?

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That was, BY FAR, the most optimistic 5YL story so far.
Then we have the final 4 pages, which are completely disconnected.
Which begin with Earth’s government sentencing to death the Tornado Twins… you know, the children of the Flash.
(they debuted in Adventure Comics #373 as his descendants, but were later retconned as his children)

The reason for the retcon, by the way, is that Barry Allen lived in the 30th century for a while right before Crisis. His wife Iris is still technically there (she will then go back to the 20th century to be a supporting character in Wally West’s series).

This comes at the last second, as the Tornado Twins were BARELY mentioned at all in Volume 3.
At least Don Allen dies wearing the Flash costume… or at least I think he might? He’s immediately shown to be naked like her.

This SHOULD shake Sun Boy out of his loyalty to Earth’s government. He’s been their spokesperson for a while.

If you’re keeping track of how the Flash legacy interacts with the Legion, things get a bit confusing here. We are informed that Don is survived by his wife Carmen and their son Barry, and that Dawn was unmarried. This applies exclusively to the 5YL timeline.
Because in the Reboot, which is going to affect the Flash of the 20th century… Don’s wife is named Meloni and his son is named Bart… better known as Impulse (later Kid Flash and Flash).
Dawn IS married in the reboot, and her daughter Jenni will join the Legion as XS.
They still die at the hands of the Dominators in the Reboot continuity, but that event will take place years before the Legion is even founded.

The story is also being reported by Devlin O’Ryan, who hopefully will do something as he’s done nothing but loitering around the plot so far.

The Grid: 4 pages out of 25
21 pages without a grid
no splash pages
no text pages

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Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #18 (1991)
written byTom & Mary Bierbaum & Keith Giffen
pencils by Brandon Peterson, Carlos Garzon & Keith Giffen
cover by Keith Giffen

Nobody can complain about how Giffen draws faces in THIS cover.

We begin with Projectra surviving an assassination attempt.

Turns out that someone is fomenting a rebellion on Orando.

That’s a good scene and good worldbuilding!
But what follows is a bit clumsy: she asks Mon-El to convince her people to reject the “Cult of the Circle” that’s going around… which he interprets as her asking him to take over as king?
Not only that’s not what she asked, but Mon-El comes out as a bit naïve as Chameleon Boy has JUST confirmed that there are external forces pushing for internal disruption.

You noticed that, in addition to his codename being officially Valor now, Mon-El is worshipped even more than Superboy used to be.
That’s because of his retconned 20th century adventures of course, but going by publishing order it IS a little weird because his 20th century self hasn’t really done anything impressive so far.

Mon-El and Shadow Lass infiltrate the Cult of the Circle, whose priestess is from Duo Damsel’s world.

We haven’t REALLY had a chance to look at that planet so far, so this could be interesting.
Too bad Duo Damsel won’t be joining.

The Bierbaums are credited as writers for this one, with Giffen only credited as co-plotter.
I’m not putting too much faith in that, as the credits have been riddled with errors that had to be corrected in later letter pages… but it IS interesting that whenever they’re the main writers, we’re allowed to have SOME fun instead of the usual menu of depression and despair.

Then again, things are even rougher for Duo Damsel’s planet, because if the rest of the galactic turmoil wasn’t enough they were ALSO hit by a meteor.

Be honest, this planet was just waiting for any excuse to go post-apocalyptic.

Mon-El is just DONE with everyone in this era. Considering the glacial pace at which everything moved in the earlier issues, I don’t mind the more direct approach.

While Mon-El disrupts the Dark Circle base, turns out the planet is SO deep into this cult that they’re willing to commit mass suicide!!!

On the other hand… all Valor has to say is basically “Maybe don’t blindly follow the cult that asks you to commit mass suicide” to shake them.

I don’t know, ma’am, it seemed REALLY easy to me.

A hopeful message that appeals to the better part of humanity? In THIS series? Are they allowed to do it, without following up with murder and atrocities?

In other plots, Shrinking Violet has Dr. Gym’ll check her prosthesis.

In the final Grid pages… which REALLY feel like an insert… Invisible Kid II solidifies his alliance with Universo and his goons.

I mean if you can’t trust THIS GUY, you can’t trust anyone!

Also Circe is being stalked by Bounty. Who, it bears repeating, HASN’T DONE ANYTHING so far.

Ultra Boy is still 5,000 years in the past, but he’s traveled to Earth in search of a plot.

The text page is a recruitment ad for the Dark Circle.

Sadly, Brandon Peterson won’t be penciling the next issues. That’s a pity, because I think he did a great job!

The Grid: 4 pages out of 25
20 pages without a grid
no splash pages
1 text page

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Legion significance: 6/10
The involvement of 28th century technology will eventually have cataclysmic results… quite literally. But this also pushes the confrontation with the Dominators to the spotlight.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Things are definitely better, but the zaniness is kept at zero.

Depression scale
#16: 3/10
#17: 6/10
#18: 2/10
There’s a massive war going on with lots of casualties, but things are NOWHERE NEAR as bleak they used to be. Even issue 17, which is bumped up by the brutal execution of the Tornado Twins, still has an underlying positive direction.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I don’t know how else to describe it: this FEELS LIKE THE LEGION again.
But it’s also a well-written sci-fi war, with multiple twists and turns that make the universe more complex but not unnecessarily complicated. Even the involvement of Glorith, which could EASILY have made everything spiral out of control, is kept to an essential minimum.
Even stuff that would normally bother me, like the sudden and brutal murder of the Tornado Twins, is well-played… this is essentially the Dominators pushing things too far for the public to swallow.
The Legionnaires are acting as heroes again, shaking off their existential dread long enough to ACTUALLY DO STUFF.
I do have a few nitpicks… the conversion of Cargg to a post-apocalyptic hellscape of religious zealots feels too abrupt, Glorith’s easy demise invalidates all the hype she received, most of the Grid pages feel added at the last minute… but they don’t hurt the issues too much.
We finally had a bunch of stories that were fun, hopeful, easy to read and with good artwork.
It’s enough to make you wish the book is finally on a different track!
The next issues will bring tedium, depression, a confusing story and the return of The Grid, even more rigid than before.
Because I guess this series hates my guts.

We are legion
10 active Legionnaires
0 reserve members
35 resigned members
11 deceased members
56 people have been members
51 people have been rejected

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Interesting letters: as a heads-up, I’m not going to be able to talk about the letters page for many more issues because eventually the scans and reprints I have no longer include them.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one to find the confrontation between Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy to be a wasted potential of a good scene.
Good point about nobody using their powers, although to be fair that was rectified in this batch.

Reading the answers from the Bierbaums is incredibly frustrating. What you you mean you’re not sure if the characters talked to each other?
YOU’RE WRITING THE STORY!!!

I am not going to miss these vague answers from the Bierbaums once I lose access to the letters.
I am, however, going to miss the amazing nicknames given by the readers… describing Roxxas as “a septuagenarian Boy George” is just sheer brilliance.
No idea what the jab at New York City is about, though.

The two arguments dominating the letters page of issue 16 are whether or not Laurel Gand should have a less stripperific costume, and whether the Legionnaires were right in sparing Roxxas.
I’m typically in the “the Legion shouldn’t kill” camp, but Roxxas was depicted as so comically evil that I would have accepted an exception.

Yeah I can’t imagine why anyone would find this confusing.
Also, obligatory reminder that Celeste Rockfish HASN’T DONE ANYTHING YET.
(yes, I am driving that into the ground)

Issue 17 has a very long letter (it takes up more than a whole page) that is full of lavish praise for the series, but it also highlights some key problems in Giffent’s artwork.

I fully agree with John’s letter here. I get what they were trying to do with the destruction and reconstruction of the Legion, but the story meandered so much that what SHOULD have been the focus was often in the background.

The backlash against The Grid encouraged some fans to write their support.
Even though I guess the most vocal critics probably left the series anyway.

Another case of the Bierbaums completely misunderstanding the letter. Rick is not complaining about Who’s Who giving spoilers, he’s complaining that the series NEVER EXPLAINS ANYTHING and you have to look for supplementary material!!!

As much as I complain about the lack of codenames… if the choice was between Laurel Gand and “Valorie”, I’d pick the former any day.
(the reference in the answer is completely lost on me)

As much as I am frustrated by the need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Legion to understand this series… it was much rougher in the 80s.