Legionnaires Annual #2 (1995)
written by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw & Tom Peter
pencils and cover by Jeff Moy
This is the big one: the finale of the White Triangle saga.
Mark Waid even returns to the writing team, after leaving the main books.
Don’t expect Workforce to be of much use against the Daxamites.
The attack is well under way: there are only FOUR Daxamites attacking Earth, but they’ve devastated Miami before the story even started.
We don’t see the first attack, and perhaps it’s for the better.
The Legion is going to need all the help it can get for the upcoming fight, but unfortunately Saturn Girl still hasn’t recovered from her brain injury.
I’ve been harsh on Cosmic Boy in the previous issues, since he made a lengthy series of terrible decisions. But it’s heartwarming to see how much he values her contribution to the team: he definitely changed his mind after the way he treated her.
But nobody is safe on Earth, even in Saturn Girl’s hospital.
I wonder why the Daxamites are not incinerating everything from orbit like they did with Trom.
Potentially because they don’t think they’re not enough of a threat?
With Andromeda currently missing, Ultra Boy is potentially the only person on the planet who can fight the Daxamites on equal ground… but he’s still too inexperience to get past his one-power-at-a-time limitation.
Another Daxamite fights off both Leviathan and Inferno.
Even trying some strategy to keep him distracted doesn’t work. These guys are just on a different weight class.
Even Brainiac 5 and R.J.Brande are stumped.
The discussion is interrupted by Live Wire’s return.
Roxxas almost manages to convince the United Planets that the people ravaging the planet are not Daxamites. Which SOUNDS absurd, but even with the Kryptonians extinct there are tons of pre-Crisis precedents of other people gaining the same powers.
However this is Andromeda’s moment: she shows up to reveal to the United Planets that Roxxas is behind the White Triangle.
She’s fully prepared to beat him up… except Roxxas wasn’t dumb enough to stay unprotected.
We’re not getting the old Galactic Encyclopedia entries yet, but this is close enough.
We’ve tried fighting off the Daxamites through strength and strategy, and now with fear.
Nothing is working.
Since the Daxamites are not wearing their TranSuits™, Cosmic Boy figures out that they must have taken Andromeda’s serum… which actually makes you insane.
There IS a plan in place at this moment, but it has a tiny flaw… the Legion has to stay alive for it to work.
An important part of the plan is something that only Live Wire could do, as we were told before… reach out for Saturn Girl.
Reason #247 for why Saturn Girl is the best: even brain damage doesn’t stop her from saving the day.
Up to this point Workforce has been nearly useless, but this will be Karate Kid’s moment to shine.
I’m afraid I don’t know enough about Red Dwarf to make a meme out of this, but that’s definitely Rimmer.
One of the Daxamites is targeting the civilians attempting to leave the planet, and Karate Kid is the only hero around.
And without missing a beat, Karate Kid KICKS HIM IN THE HEAD.
He still gets hurt and doesn’t technically win the fight… but he managed to scare the crap out of the Daxamite!!!
The fight between Andromeda and Roxxas has been going on in the background the entire time.
And it’s not going well for her.
The rest of the team isn’t doing much better. XS in particular will be really shaken by her inability to save everyone.
Brande is finally back to Earth with a secret ally, just in time to see the Eiffel Tower up close.
The secret isn’t hard to figure out, but Brande’s new ally disintegrates the Tower and terrifies the Daxamite.
In another minor victory, Ultra Boy actually knocks out a Daxamite.
“There’s three of you” is hilarious if you know a future retcon (no spoilers yet).
A rare moment of joy in this action-packed issue.
It doesn’t last long: after a BRUTAL splash page…
…Apparition is incinerated by the Daxamite, while she’s in Ultra Boy’s arms.
Saturn Girl’s contribution is to handle communications between the Legionnaires: since the Daxamites have super-hearing, they can’t discuss the plan out loud.
And once we approach the end, we start to understand why: they’re luring all the Daxamites into a trap.
Meanwhile, Roxxas falls into a different kind of trap.
Probably the first time in the series when everyone is rooting for Andromeda.
Roxxas has one last trick up his sleeve: damage the Atomic Furnace™ (I’m kind of disappointed it’s not called a PowerSphere™ like in the original continuity) so much that the intense heat could potentially harm even a Daxamite.
And I’m guessing it does: this is the last Reboot appearance of Roxxas.
Despite that victory, things are bleak. Without a last minute miracle, the founders will be the last Legionnaires.
But if you need a miracle…
…always bet on the green guy and the moustache.
At the very last possible moment, Brande shows up with the future Element Lad…
…and open a Stargate DIRECTLY in front of the Daxamites! Even more impressive when you consider they’re flying at top speed!!!
Right before closing the Stargate, Saturn Girl manages to glimpse something.
Or someone.
All in a day’s work!
We have a two-page spread that shows the aftermath. From XS being shaken…
…to Inferno being offered a job, to the confirmation that Saturn Girl has healed…
…to the introduction of the future Element Lad.
Who turns out survived the genocide of his race by hiding in Brande’s ship.
Since the Legion doesn’t kill, the Stargate was just calibrated to send the Daxamites an uninhabited planet where they have no powers.
We will later see that the United Planets will hunt down the remaining White Triangle members.
This could be a happy ending if it wasn’t for the death of a Legionnaire…
…or maybe two, because Andromeda is believed to have died with Roxxas in the power plant explosion.
Or at least that’s the official story. Andromeda actually turned herself in.
Legion significance: 10/10
Obviously important to Andromeda and Element Lad, but it’s also an important step in the Legion’s history: defending the planet from the Daxamites is what elevates them even further in the public view… and it puts them even more under the spotlight of the government: we’re not anywhere near being done with secret plots and secret plans!
And spoiler alert: we’ll have to wait until the draft era ends, but we’re not done with Apparition.
Considering how she survived and how the scene of her death plays out, I’m inclined to believe it was planned.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
A very solid ending to the first big plots of the era… or so it seems, because we’re not actually done with another big threat that has been staring at us the whole time. But that’s a story for the next issues.
The Annual managed to keep escalating the threat while also keeping things personal for most of the Legionnaires, and even slip in some cool moments for several minor characters.
Karate Kid is definitely the most eye-catching, but don’t dismiss Inferno ditching her psychotic tendencies and being a regular hero for the first time.
“By damn!”: 6
Slightly late, but I’m starting a counting of what has essentially become R.J.Brande’s catchphrase.
The first “By damn!” of the Reboot comes from Legionnaires #27. He actually says it twice in that issue, in the same page. We have an additional 4 in #LSH 71, but up to this issue he hasn’t said it again. That will definitely change!
Who did it better?
Karate Kid holding his own against a Daxamite is definitely a callback to his first appearance in Adventure Comics #346.
While that is absolutely a classic, its only purpose is to introduce Karate Kid to the readers… he definitely loses the fight with Superboy there.
In the Reboot, Karate Kid doesn’t win against the Daxamite… but he doesn’t lose AND saves lives in the process. So despite the illustrious precedent, I’m giving this one to the Reboot.
We are legion
Live Wire and Saturn Girl return to the team, while Apparition is dead… at least as far as this count is currently concerned.
Andromeda is publicly considered dead, but since the readers already know she isn’t and because turning herself in was HER decision, I’m counting her as having resigned.
- 12 active Legionnaires (4 volunteers, 8 drafted)
- 1 resigned member
- 2 deceased members
- 15 people have been members
- 2 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy)
- 2 members have been rejected
“For what? Giving us a chance to be heroes?” That’s 100% Waid and it gets me every time.
The Legion team really stuck the landing here, in a way that’s pretty rare for comic books or any serialized story for that matter.
Its kind of amazing that this book has stood the test of time – and unfortunate given some of the racism that we’ve been dealing with escalating over the last decade.
But this is a master class of how to write an amazing comic book – High stakes, personal moments, plots resolved and new plots seeded. Just great all around.
I always thought it was interesting that Roxxas *could* have come back – there’s no body after all.
It made it interesting that another Daxamite was used at the end of this era. One would think that Daxamites generally speaking would be ostracized after what happened here.
Element Lad’s reboot origin also qualifies as a “who did it better,” in my view. He survived Trom’s destruction because he was on Brande’s ship–a matter-of-fact and ordinary decision with lasting repercussions for him and for the Legion. Although his identity was perfectly obvious before the reveal, hiding it wasn’t the point. His introduction is woven in with a lot of other stuff happening, and it all feels so natural.
Jan’s statement that “No punishment is harsh enough for them” seems at odds with the stoic spiritualism that defined him in the preboot. However, it seems prescient given what happens to him in the DnA run.
The Daxamites aren’t wiping Earth out from orbit like they did Trom because “the job is more pleasant when performed by hand”. Yes, they’re doing it this way for the sheer sadistic pleasure of it. In case anyone missed that the genocidal xenophobes are the bad guys. Sadly, we’re living in a time when a frightening number of people have forgotten that Nazis are always the bad guys, so maybe it’s necessary for the Daxamites to show off how utterly evil they are to drive the point home.
By damn, this is how a payoff issue pays off. So many characters get Big Damn Hero moments, with individual triumphs countered by heart-rending tragedies ranging from XS almost breaking after being unable to save every single innocent to Tinya’s death in the arms of the man she loved. Some definite foreshadowing there… or is it three-shadowing in Tinya’s case?
Previous continuity gave us “The Exaggerated Death of Ultra Boy”, climaxing with Jo returning in Superboy’s body as Reflecto. The reboot team couldn’t possibly be planning anything as insane as having Tinya return in someone else’s body with a different heroic name. One Reflecto Saga was enough.