Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #21-24

Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #21 (1991)
written by Al Gordon (Part 1), Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum (Part 2)
“moral support” by Tom & Mary Bierbaum (Part 1)
pencils and cover by Keith Giffen

 This is the last saga where Keith Giffen provides the artwork, but he will still be a writer for a while. And it’s a storyline that I rarely see praised, even by the 5YL fans.
Welcome to the Quiet Darkness.

We begin somewhere, where two girls are escaping from something or someone.
Don’t you just love it when a story starts with no establishing caption and gives you indication of what is going on?

These are Aria (the brunette) and Lori (the blonde), and we eventually learn they are being pursued by some kind of mercenaries.

Speaking of the mercenaries, I was initially confused because I was wondering if Cosmic Boy had finally decided to shave or if this was Kent Shakespeare without glasses.

But the girls are rescued by Furball, a.k.a. the currently warped Timber Wolf.

Who just MURDERS EVERYBODY.

Well, everyone except the girls, and Aria soon befriends him.

That whole thing took NINE PAGES, by the way.
To be fair to the comic we DO find out where the action took place: that was Zoon, the rarely-seen birth planet of Timber Wolf.

Speaking of which: since Ultra Boy is back with the team and HE knows that Furball is Timber Wolf, has he told anyone? If yes, why are they still calling him Furball?
Also also, what happened to the idea that Laurel Gand was taking Celeste Rockfish’s place? Was the subplot dropped before it even started?

Thank you so much, Brainiac 5, now everything is crystal clear.

In other plots, Kent Shakespeare is having trouble with his food order.

I’m beginning to understand why we never visit Zuun. There’s nothing to see here!

The mercenaries are executed for failing to deliver Aria to their boss…

…which would be DARKSEID.

This plot is apparently going to be more important than the whole Glorith business, so pay attention whenever something happens.

Darkseid is interested in Aria because her father Francis has been running experiments on both her and her brother.

Yes. The most important events in the past thousand years, according to Darkseid, are due to a guy named Francis.

And Darkseid has apparently recruited Lobo to get Aria.

In the second part of the book, we return to Earth which is SOMEHOW still intact but I’m guessing is currently experiencing nuclear winter.

Where we discover that all the pods from  Batch SW6 have escaped. We won’t learn what SW6 is until the end of the saga.

But we first learn about another Dominator experiment, which apparently involved vivisecting Validus… SOMEHOW.
No, really, HOW!? Leaving aside the fact that Validus was essentially indestructible… he was turned back into a human child by Darkseid! In fact we have SEEN him with his parents, so what the heck is going on!?

This is part of a plan to create a new super-soldier, with the powers of Validus and those provided by the SW6 Batch.

Well this new soldier killed Atmos, so he’s already my favorite 5YL villain by default.

Yeah sure, combine stuff from Validus and Computo, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

Ladies and gentlemen, Devlin O’Ryan FINALLY DOES SOMETHING!
Specifically, he’s the one spying on the Dominators and discovering their plans.
He also meets up with a familiar figure…

…well, familiar to HIM. We won’t learn who she is in this issue.

The Dominators also learn that last issue Circe killed their Earth representative, so they decide to implement the “90% solution”.
Well that doesn’t sound ominous at all.

And we close with Universo plotting to break his alliance with Invisible Kid II.

The text page informs us that the Dominators are basically putting Earth under martial law.

The Grid: 23 pages out of 25
no pages without a grid
1 splash page
1 text page

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Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #22 (1991)
written by Al Gordon (Part 1), Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum (Part 2)
pencils by Keith Giffen (Part 1), Jason Pearson (Part 2)
cover by Keith Giffen

 You know, that was actually interesting, easy to follow, and dealing with long-established plots that are in dire need of being resolved.
Since we can’t have that, let’s return to the Darkseid plot.

Which begins kind of in the same way the previous issue started. Not surprising, considering that barely anything has happened in this plot.

Do I even have to make jokes about this plot being a snoozefest if the characters themselves can barely stay awake?
Also… could Giffen please give his characters MORE THAN ONE FACIAL EXPRESSION!?
Aria is supposed to be yawning here, but she makes the exact same expression of characters that are yelling or being hurt or doing anything really.

Lobo on the case means more and more people get killed.

Ultra Boy clearly hasn’t told anybody else that Furball is Timber Wolf, and I can’t figure out a reason for that.

A strange darkness sabotages the ship, so the team will need even more time to get to Zuun.
Oh great, exactly what this plot needed: slowing down to a crawl.

Is Darkseid getting paid by the panel? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DO ANYTHING INTERESTING HERE!?

The experiments involving Aria and her brother Coda are related to something called the “Gemini Matrix”, which shockingly is not related to the Anti-Life Equation.
(maybe? The A.L.E is a notoriously nebulous concept)

Look… I like Lobo, but he works best as an over-the-top satire of hyperviolence. This book was already very violent and brutal, so he doesn’t feel particularly noteworthy here.
Also, WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE LEGION?

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DO SOMETHING ALREADY???

Well the team is greeted by a welcome committee, so MAYBE something will finally happen.
Credit where it’s due though, that panel with Celeste’s silhouette against the stars is gorgeous!

Then Aria sees her brother decaying in front of her eyes, shattering reality itself…

…but it was just a dream. THIS COMIC IS LITERALLY ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

Furball murders more mercenaries after Aria, but eventually brings her and Lori to Brainiac 5.

Who FINALLY feels a bit like Brainiac 5 again, ranging from insisting on not being called just “Brainiac” to his incredible social skills.

We learn that Aria’s father is kind of a big deal, even on Colu.
Although he’s suddenly named Frances, while earlier he was Francis.

Aria casually mentions who her favorite Legionnaire is, and we have a confirmation that Brainiac 5 knows who Furball is.

The entire Furball plot is a complete waste of Timber Wolf, but I begrudgingly admit that was a cute moment.

In the second part of the book, Chameleon Boy is complaining that the Legion isn’t acting like a team anymore.

I like the sentiment behind Cosmic Boy’s answer, but I think it’s misrepresenting both Volume 3 as well as Volume 4.
The problem with the Legion in the latter half of Volume 3 wasn’t rules weighting them down, it was the fact that EVERYBODY constantly ignored every rule and did whatever they wanted!
But also this conversation sounds hollow when applied to Volume 4 for several reasons.
First of all the Legion is still following no rules and everyone is doing whatever they want, so we have exactly the same problem of Volume 3 all over again… but most importantly, if you’re pushing the narrative that the important part is sticking together, which would be a great theme for the Legion… the team in Volume 4 is even MORE scattered than it was before!
People are going on separate missions without informing the others, and we don’t even know where some of them even are! Like, has ANYONE cared to talk with Element Lad, just to name one?

Also, by snooping around Kono discovers that Dream Girl has been trying to get in contact with White Witch for months without getting an answer.

In other plots, the Dominators dispatch their super-soldier to retrieve Batch SW6…

…but also Valor breaks into a Dark Circle base, discovering they’ve been messing around with DNA samples as far back as Adventure Comics #344 (that’s where they’re referencing Nardo from).

This involves something called Project Doppelganger, meaning the Legionnaires just might have been clones for decades.

Yep. The Legion did the Clone Saga first.

In the text page, we have a diary of Shadow Lass where we learn her reaction to the destruction of the Moon. This is:
A) kind of hard to read with the dark background
B) an interesting showcase of the hypocrisy of not caring all that much about the disasters on other planets
C) the most this comic has come to address the feelings of the Legionnaires about the immense destruction, and it comes from a character WHO WASN’T EVEN ON THE PLANET

We also have a Science Police report about a heist carried out by former LSV member Spider Girl and superthief Benn Pares (from Superboy #213) that sounds INFINITELY MORE INTERESTING than whatever Darkseid is supposed to be doing.

The Grid: 23 pages out of 25
no pages without a grid
no splash pages
2 text pages

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Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #23 (1991)
written by Al Gordon (Part 1), Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum (Part 2)
pencils by Keith Giffen (Part 1), Jason Pearson (Part 2)
cover by Keith Giffen

Because nobody demanded it, Lobo meets the Legion. Kind of.

Ultra Boy, Kent Shakespeare and Celeste Rockfish have arrived at Zuun, where they’re welcomed by these weird monsters and a small army.

Obviously the two superheroes are sure they can get through this unscathed, but shouldn’t Celeste be at least A LITTLE worried? As far as SHE knows, she’s just a regular human!

Even if Celeste Rockfish barely does anything, everyone treats her like a member of the team so I’m adding her to the active members from this batch of issues.
Even if, so far, the range of her abilities has been shown to:
1) turning green off-panel
2) kicking one guy in the crotch

It takes SIX PAGES to deal with these few soldiers and monsters.

All while the bad guys stumble into using teleportation to get Aria.

Speaking of her, Lobo finds his target while eating dirt. At least I pray that’s dirt.

Lobo is a Superman-level threat, so I don’t have much of a problem with hm knocking out Brainiac 5 and Furball without breaking a sweat. But this is a good moment to bring up something that’s been bothering me for a while: WHERE IS BRAINIAC FIVE’S FORCE FIELD???
He hasn’t used it ONCE during Volume 4. Sure he gave his force field belt to Duo Damsel when he quit the Legion, but why didn’t he build himself a new one?

Lori went as far as tackling Lobo to save her friend (!!!), but she’s accidentally teleported by the bad guys before Lobo can murder her.

To protect herself and Lori, Celeste demonstrates her power for the first time in a totally necessary splash page.

Good luck figuring out exactly WHAT she did, though.

I have no idea what they’re talking about here.

I’m guessing Lori misinterpreted “core gyro unit” as “gyro soap” (SOMEHOW), but even it that’s the case… what just happened???

Having completely failed at their initial mission of finding Furball, Ultra Boy and Kent Shakespeare try flying the ship to a hospital when they run into Lobo, after he’s kidnapped Aria.
At least they have the decency to get back into costume.

At least I think that’s supposed to be Kent’s costume, as it’s just a piece from Star Boy’s.
They recover Brainiac 5, who in turn has recovered the message Aria’s father sent her.

And Aria’s father explains… uhm… well this doesn’t really explain anything.

But it’s apparently everything Brainiac 5 needed.

“What the heck are you talking about?” should be the tagline for the Quiet Darkness.

I have an easier time taking Darkseid seriously when he goes around in his usual skirt that when he has this frilly shirt.

In the second part of the book, the one that IS ACTUALLY RELATED TO THE MAIN PLOTS, Invisible Kid II is ready to get to the bottom of what the Dominators are hiding beneath the surface.

This really says a lot about just how useless the current Legion is: not only the Supergirl equivalent is glossed over, but we’re hyping the revamped version of the Subs… which on its own I would have nothing against, except for the fact that THEY HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING ON-PANEL.

We are FINALLY doing something with the subplot about Laurel impersonating Celeste, although I still find it utterly bizarre that this is not a Chameleon Boy plot.
Also that is supposed to be Bounty, right? She’s barely recognizable from her previous appearances given how dark-skinned she is here, although to be fair SHE HASN’T DONE ANYTHING YET so it’s not like there’s much to base this on.

All of this just to meet Circe. And notice Bounty has YET ANOTHER skin color here.

The subplot about Devlin O’Ryan meeting some mysterious figures still doesn’t get resolved.

As well as the Mon-El subplot about the doppelganger, where the only thing we learn is that its origin are older than Shadow Lass meeting the team… something we already knew from the previous issue.

In the text pages we have details of how the destruction of the Moon AND the Power Sphere explosions affected the planet. As if things weren’t bad enough, this also unleashed new plagues!

Plus the adventures of Spider Girl and her associates. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I would rather be reading THIS than what is being shown in the actual comic.

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

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Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #24 (1991)
written by Al Gordon (Part 1), Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum (Part 2)
pencils by Keith Giffen (Part 1), Jason Pearson (Part 2), Dusty Abell (last page only)
cover by Keith Giffen

The end of the Quiet Darkness, a saga so quiet you barely noticed anything happened.

I might have to retract my earlier statement. The “Gemini Matrix” might have something to do with the Anti-Life Equation after all.

To me this feels like pseudo-philosophical nonsense that almost makes the Omen storyline feel coherent.

Why is Brainiac 5 involved with all these legends?
(if you lost track, by the way, he looks like this because he took a beating from Lobo)

We interrupt this superhero story for a conversation between Francis (now back to that spelling) and his dead wife.

Apparently he sacrificed her life in exchange to let the twins live, and something something Matrix.

Best Darkseid panel ever.

After all this, the twins are finally reunited.

Most chill Darkseid EVER.

Good thing Brainiac 5 just showed up, because the procedure is killing the twins.

Thankfully this is not the Brainy from the beginning of the series, so at least HE TRIES SOMETHING.

Aaaadn then we grind everything to a halt to discuss the legend.

So to recap, the legend says that whenever someone begins a nondescript medical procedure on some twins, the universe will do everything to keep them together?
How did THAT unbelievably generic legend get so ubiquitous Celeste casually knows it?

This is all so that Aria can absorb her twin’s soul after he dies… I think… and it triggers a transformation.

Specifically Aria transforms into THIS. Even Medusa would tell her to get a haircut.

I’m sorry, that’s Gemini.

And that’s apparently the bridge between man and god.

Throughout the entire story, Lobo has been wearing sunglasses… and once they come off, we learn this isn’t the real Lobo but just a probe.
Well that just makes his role even MORE pointless than it already was!!!
Why would Darkseid even NEED this!? Even if he’s not as powerful as he was in the Great Darkness Saga, this feels WAY beneath him!!!

Darkseid also turns Furball back into Timber Wolf.

Darkseid then threatens to kill Lori…

…which is just a trick to force Gemini to kill HIM.

Meaning that Darkseid plan had been suicide all along.
This COULD have worked… the idea that Darkseid is looking the Anti-Life Equation because it’s the only thing that will allow him to finally die is a long-standing theory… but everything has been so flat and boring that it doesn’t work for me.
Also: the 5YL is so depressing that Darkseid would rather kill himself than stay here!!!

And so we end the story with Aria having been turned into an adult after watching her twin die horribly. That’s not going to leave massive emotional scars or anything.

Also her twin might be in Heaven with Darkseid? Even Brainiac 5 can’t figure this out.

The second part of the book gives us the final form of the Dominator final form: B.I.O.N.
We don’t learn what the acronym stands for in this story.

She tracks down Laurel, who is still posing as Celeste, and even calls her as being part of Batch SW6. I’m guessing he’s confusing her with someone else (more on that in a bit).

And we close for real with the revelation of who has been talking with Devlin O’Ryan in the previous issues: it’s Shrinking Violet… but younger.

And the last page is one of the most shocking reveals the Legion has ever had, because this is what has been locked in Batch SW6 for so long: the ORIGINAL Legion.

Are those clones? Are those real? That’s going to be the basis for the rest of the 5YL era, so no spoilers in the comments!

The text page has the Brainiac 5 notes on the Gemini Matrix. I still have no idea what he’s talking about.

I really, REALLY liked Brainy not accepting the mystery.
Also the jab at Ultra Boy is quite funny.

And if you pieced together the information from before… B.I.O.N. is supposed to have the powers of ALL the SW6 Legionnaires.
That’s like three Martian Manhunters!

The Grid: 20 pages out of 25
1 page with an imperfect grid
no pages without a grid
2 splash pages
2 text pages

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Legion significance
Quiet Darkness: 0/10
Everything else: 8/10
Despite being given prominence, the Quiet Darkness ends with a whimper that doesn’t amount to anything. It’s always the second story in the book that does the heavy lifting.

Silver Age-ness: 4/10

 Depression scale: 5/10
Like I said, this is TOO DEPRESSING FOR DARKSEID. And ultimately the Legion’s involvement doesn’t seem to amount to much… wouldn’t Aria have transformed and killed Darkseid without them?
That being said, and despite the text pages informing us of new diseases… this is MARGINALLY more hopeful that what preceded it.

Does it stand the test of time?
Quiet Darkness: 2/10
Man was that a whole bunch of nothing. What was even the point of all this? Why involve Lobo, give him so much space, and then switch him with a probe? Why involve these specific Legionnaires while sidelining everyone else? There are a few good scenes here and there, but to me it looks like they decided they had to do a Darkseid story because he’s popular… and then forgot to write an actual plot. Which is infuriating because there IS something legitimately interesting in the background of the last issue, but it’s not really explored.
Everything else: 7/10
I actually rather enjoyed the other plots here, as they DEFINITELY feel they belong to the Legion more than the Darkseid stuff. Even though I still can’t bring myself to care about Circe.

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We are legion
Ultra Boy has officially returned, so he’s in the active category along with Celeste.
Also I am moving Element Lad, Mon-El and Shadow Lass into the reserve members. Element Lad has been nowhere to be seen for too long, and the other two are acting independently now.
Invisible Kid II, Tyroc and Matter-Eater Lad are still considered resigned since they joined the Subs, not the Legion.

The SW6 Legionnaires really complicate things here. How should I consider them?
Well, they’ve been taken from the Adventure Comics era, and as far as they can tell they’ve never resigned from the Legion… so even if the others don’t know about them yet, I’m considering them as fully active Legionnaires. This means that:
A) Issue 24 has the highest jump in membership ever, adding TWENTY Legionnaires
B) this blows the record of the highest number of active members, surpassing the 26 active members of the Shooter era

31 active Legionnaires
3 reserve members
32 resigned members
11 deceased members
77 people have been members
51 people have been rejected

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Interesting letters: this is the last batch of issues where I still have access to the letters page.

For historical context, this era coincides with the first Gulf War… but I think that the parallel with the Khund war is a big stretch.

But the same letter also has a legitimate question that I also raised: where the heck was Element Lad during the Red Terror stuff!?

The answer is frustrating beyond words. It’s been evident that Element Lad was busy on Earth?
HOW? HE HASN’T DONE ANYTHING!!! But even if he was, couldn’t the Legion at least TRY TO CONTACT HIM? His power was a perfect match for dealing with the Red Terror!!!
Also, something I didn’t mention at the time: if the Legion has these “chronal howitzer” that are basically an instant win against any adversary who can’t time travel… and even some of those, as Glorith proves… why do they never use them again?

Well at least they’re admitting they don’t give a crap about some parts of the Legion history and are picking and choosing whatever they want.

I’m usually very hard on how this era uses easter eggs, but those were innocuous and kind of clever.

Reaction to Furball continues to be mostly negative, but he does have his fans.

You can tell I really don’t care for the character because I didn’t notice that Celeste was the first Legion girl from Earth.
Then again, SHE NEVER DOES ANYHING.

There’s also resistance against the obvious downplaying of superpowers. In fact, Mon-El and Laurel Gand are pretty much the only ones who are allowed to use them.

This is another criticism, although to be fair the issue started during Volume 3: Shadow Lass is barely her own character anymore, she’s WAY too dependent on Mon-El for any kind of plot.

I never got why some readers have such a high opinion of Glorith. Yeah she’s hot, but to she’s a black hole of charisma and as she comes off as trying WAY too hard.

There’s some discussion about just how many generations there are between Brainiac 1 and 5.
The approach of not making this a straight descendance is not used by many incarnations; the most used one (which was valid until Volume 3 and will return later) is just that Coluans live long enough to cover five generations in a thousand years.

Wildfire WILL eventually show up in this era… to the despair of both readers who dislike him and probably even more for those who like him.

My biggest gripe for how this book handled the destruction of the Moon is that there wasn’t A SINGLE SCENE showing even ONE Legionnaire trying to help ANYONE.
Sure they don’t have enough powerhouses to fix it, but… is it too much to ask for a couple of panels with Mon-El lifting some rubble to find survivors? Or Element Lad transmuting falling debris into something non-lethal? Or Brainiac 5 repairing some infrastructure?
Nope, apparently that’s too much to ask.

Another letter brings up the death of Circadia Senius (although he later DOES show up)… even when we do get scenes of heroism, it’s apparently a mandate to show they are useless.

The same letter has my exact opinion of Ultra Boy’s subplot.

As anticipated, this is the end of Giffen’s role as penciler for the series.

Called it. I knew the new Dev-Em was 100% Giffen.