Legionnaires #16 (1994)
by Mark Waid & Chris Gardner
cover by Adam Hughes
This is one of the most famous examples of blatant fanservice in the 90s, but I found the pushback against it to be overblown.
I mean if you ask Adam Hughes to do a cover, he’s going to do an Adam Hughes cover!
Unfortunately, Hughes is not doing the artwork for the rest of the story.
The Legionnaires are dealing with gravity going haywire in some parts of New Earth.
Thankfully help is on the way…
…because SW6 Star Boy is here to save the day with his terrible haircut.
And if you’re wondering: no, the fact that he shows up without any previous mention IS supposed to be noticeable. You’re not supposed to just accept random stuff showing up like in the rest of this era.
Meanwhile, Cosmic Boy and his goatee are attacking the Khunds.
You can definitely tell the Bierbaums are gone because we’re actually acknowledging the existence of the other Legion series.
His younger version officially returns to active duty.
In case you thought my criticism of Catspaw was not warranted, this is her contribution to the story.
At this point this series also interacts with the Valor series, because Valor #11 to #13 takes place here.
Mentioning the main series was a good idea, but connecting the story to Valor was a bit unnecessary since the Legionnaires forgot the entire thing happened.
Lucky them.
If you thought the cover was fanservice, that was nothing compared to SW6 Dream Girl.
Saturn Girl is not asking why there’s a SW6 version of Dream Girl.
She’s asking how that costume even stays on.
The SW6 founders are the only ones who noticed time has been altered.
Wouldn’t Saturn Girl notice SW6 Invisible Kid is right next to her? Even without trying to read his mind?
The rest of the Legionnaires deal with some petty thieves and terrible anatomy…
…only for SW6 Ferro Lad to be switched with SW6 Bouncing Boy.
Turns out Rond Vidar also knows about the substitutions.
The SW6 founders decide to use a Time Bubble™ to investigate the changes to the timeline.
And apparently Rond is certain they’ll never return. As we’ve seen in the other series, he’s just about to do the same trip.
The rest of the Legionnaires are called to deal with the adult Cosmic Boy. They don’t recognize him, meaning that FOR ONCE his disguise ACTUALLY WORKS.
And we close with the revelation that, after the timeline changes, Ferro Lad is still dead.
This issue was the last appearance of the SW6 Ferro Lad, making him the first Legionnaire to leave this continuity.
Lucky him.
Legion significance: 6/10
This really kicks off the Zero Hour shenanigans, even though it’s technically not caused directly by Zero Hour.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
You would need a couple of adjustments to do this story in the Silver Age.
Depression scale: 4/10
Ferro Lad was picked up from the timeline, proceeded to spend a few months doing absolutely nothing in Legionnaires, and then was sent back to die. Without anyone remembering what he did in the team (which, again, was nothing).
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
I didn’t think it was possible, but this is even worse than Valor. At least there you can laugh at the incompetence. Here there is no story, the artwork is even worse than on Valor, and it’s basically an excuse to tie the series to events that ultimately don’t matter.
Conceivably it COULD have been fun to add Legionnaires with very defined personalities and having them interact with the blank slates of the regular series… but we’re not that lucky.
We are legion
Adding the SW6 versions of Star Boy, Dream Girl, Bouncing Boy: they ARE considered separate characters from their adult counterparts, and I’ve counted the other duplicates as well.
SW6 Ferro Lad is the first to be officially removed from this continuity.
As cleanup, I’m also moving Lightning Lass to the “sick leave” crowd, after she was de-aged.
34 active Legionnaires. Of these, 22 are in the “Legionnaires” team
1 presumed dead (SW6 Mon-El)
3 in sick leave (Kent Shakespeare, Devlin O’Ryan, Lightning Lass)
5 reserve members
28 resigned members
19 deceased members (including the rebooted SW6 Ferro Lad)
90 people have been members
68 people have been rejected
It’s the Legion of Super-Heroes / FemForce crossover we didn’t know we needed!
Ugh. Discount Erik Larsen art. Just what the legionnaires didn’t need.
SW6 Ferro Lad isn’t the first SW6er to die, since their Karate Kid was squished early on due to Giffen’s weird anti-Karate Kid agenda. Squished, then forgotten, alongside Jeckie and Cham. Ferro Lad was retroactively subtracted, but at least he’s been remembered and memorialized.
The Legion has had more than its share of bad costumes, but SW6 Dreamy is a new low.
At least Catspaw gets a point for consistency. No matter what’s happening, including reality falling apart around her, April’s just horny. Why doesn’t she have her own solo series?
Ferro is not the first SW6 to die, but he is the first Legionnaire to be rebooted out of this continuity.
Well, the continuity after Glorith messed up history and after the Time Trapper broke time.
Well, after the LATEST time he broke time.
It really says something about this era that you have to specify which mess you’re referring to………
Even Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek were powerless to stop the Legion titles from sucking in this era.
Back then, I was on the CompuServe Comics forum together with Mark Waid and quite a few other big-name creators. He told me that when DC conceived Zero Hour and the subsequent Zero Month, the mandate (for all books) was to enable the Zero issues to be an “all you need to know” introduction to the series for new readers. He, McCraw, Busiek and KC Carlson (IIRC) put their heads together and came to the conclusion that with the Legion in its current state, it simply couldn’t be done, which is why they decided to go the complete reboot route. So yes, Waid and Busiek really were powerless to right the ship.