Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #83 (1996)
written by Tom Peyer
pencils by Lee Moder & Mike Collins
cover by Alan Davis
Someone is not happy to have been out of the spotlight.
We last left the Legion and Workforce fighting Dr. Regulus, who has taken control of McCauley’s world-plant.
And he’s quite effective despite having been blinded in his first storyline.
Neat to see his “heat-vision” here, but those are some weird details on the Legionnaires.
Notice Chameleon is apparently much colder than humanoids.
Surprisingly considering this is Regulus, the biggest threat is not from the heat: it’s the extremely toxic liquid that McCauley uses in the plant.
(a quick research suggests “dichloraxin” is a made-up name)
If you’re wondering why the plant has so much super-toxic chemicals… do I need to remind you that McCauley is a trillionaire?
Good thing that Apparition’s ghost is around to act as Ultra Boy’s brain.
Nobody else can see Apparition at the moment, including Triad.
Who for reasons that will become apparent soon now has three completely different bodies for her three very distinct personalities.
This stuff is so dangerous that even a Transuit™ won’t save you.
Only Sun Boy and Inferno keep fighting, with everyone else retreating.
This is when we learn what’s happened to Triad: every Legionnaire is getting a wish.
Including Purple Triad’s wish to be her own person and be the strongest duplicate, Orange Triad’s wish to still be a kid, Cosmic Boy’s wish to be Saturn Girl’s boyfriend…
…which apparently doesn’t conflict with XS’s wish to be HIS girlfriend.
The one Legionnaire who doesn’t seem to have been affected is Leviathan, who is still haunted by the death of Kid Quantum to push himself to stop Sun Boy from being killed.
On the bright side, Sun Boy’s wish to be normal again is also granted.
The wishing effect has reached Legion HQ as well, with Gates finally finding people interested in his political speeches.
On a MUCH darker note, Element Lad is being tempted to kill himself.
Good thing that Saturn Girl is around to dissuade him.
And just in case it wasn’t obvious enough that SOMETHING is up, Live Wire suddenly has both arms again.
Regulus has absorbed so much energy from the planet that he turns into a giant (!!!), and he threatens to destroy the Legion Cruiser before the planet becomes completely uninhabitable.
Which naturally requires Leviathan.
After all that talk about the toxic chemical, it proves to be the one thing Regulus can’t defend himself against.
Unfortunately, Leviathan is just as vulnerable to it.
Violet rushes to help… keeping the rest of the Legion away.
Leviathan’s wish has been granted… at the cost of his life.
That’s the final straw for Shrinking Violet.
Or perhaps I should say… Empress Violet.
Sounds better than Violet Empress or Shrinking Empress.
Legion significance: 10/10
This will have HUGE repercussions on the entire Legion; Violet and Kinetix in particular, but it will also kick off the Emerald Violet storyline AND the whole reason why I’ve called this era Legion Divided.
It’s also the reason why I reviewed Showcase ’96 #8 right before this, due to Leviathan’s role.
That’s right: he’s going to actually stay dead for the rest of this continuity.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I wish the story had been less blatant about the wishes being granted, and spoiling the use of the Emerald Eye on the cover. But also the wish stuff means that nearly every Legionnaire in this is not him/herself.
At least Leviathan does get the chance to redeem himself and get a hero’s death.
Although, as noble as his sacrifice was… that was kind of a dumb way to attack Regulus, wasn’t it?
I’ll give him the benefit of being in a rush, but… he was BEHIND Regulus when he approached him with the acid pipe, couldn’t he have sprayed him from behind instead of wrestling over control of the pipe? As far as “die to save the whole team” scenes go, that was pretty lame as his last act.
Also, Regulus is going to stay dead just like him. I’m ambivalent about this… making Regulus survive would’ve cheapened the sacrifice, but the Legion doesn’t have a ton of recurring supervillains with that much tradition. Plus I don’t think that, in this, continuity, Regulus ever got the chance to shine. Pun intendd.
Who did it better?
Because Kid Quantum died kind of in vain, Leviathan is the first Legionnaire in the Reboot to die in order to save the day.
Which is a very unfortunate comparison for him, as this doesn’t hit nowhere near as hard as Ferro Lad’s death.
Well, at least in terms of reading this story. In terms of impacting the team, it’s close!
We are legion
- 17 active Legionnaires
- 1 resigned member (Andromeda)
- 1 honorary member (Superboy)
- 2 deceased members (Kid Quantum and Leviathan)
- 21 people have been members
- 3 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy, Shrinking Violet)
- 2 members have been rejected
Having any death in the Big Two stick is a miracle so I will take it
“Empress Violet. Sounds better than Violet Empress or Shrinking Empress.”
But surely, “Emerald Vi” works best (and was used later in the books)
Also, you mentioned all the wish fulfillment but neglected to mention the fact that Brainy being left alone by everyone – effectively no one even noticing him – was his wish fulfillment.
What Brainiac 5? I didn’t notice him at all 🙂
This was the mission where they needed Matter-Eater Lad. Tenzil could’ve slurped down all the toxic waste and then defeated Regulus by burping on him. If Giffen had been on the book, it could have happened.
Back at the end of Original Continuity, the elder founders and the SW6 founders merged, which why they came out more or less the same in reboot continuity. SW6 Dirk had the merged with his elder’s corpse, inside Wildfire’s containment suit. Because of that, reboot Dirk has ended up in a containment suit. By the same token, since elder Wildfire had no SW6 Wildfire to merge with, there is no reboot Wildfire. Or else, since Drake and Dirk became an amalgam at the end, if they did bring in a reboot Wildfire, he too would be an amalgam character. They surely wouldn’t do anything that stupid.
Long may Emerald Violet reign!
Gim’s death is a pretty big deal: the law of unintended consequences. There’s a danger in giving people their secret desires. Sometimes, what they want is death.
The book is really hitting on adult themes while presenting them through the eyes of teenagers who want to do good and make their friends happy but learn that doing so isn’t so simple. I do think it cheapens Violet’s transition into a confident leader by revealing the Emerald Eye was behind it all, but it is so well done that it doesn’t matter. However, I don’t think Vi ever recovered as a prominent character after this storyline.
Leviathan’s death was the epytome of uselessness: I mean, he was behind Regulus, he had a pressure hose on the ready -I’m sure that’s the best way to commit suicide by heroic sacrifice, eh?
A great death scene, ruined by the worst-strategy-EVER.