Legion of Super-Heroes #295

Legion of Super-Heroes #295 (1983)
written by Paul Levitz
pencils by Keith Giffen & Howard Bender

Now that the Great Darkness Saga is over, it’s about time we get answers about one of the longest mysteries of the Legion: what happened to the Green Lantern Corps in the 30th century?

There’s one Legionnaire who isn’t taking the chance to relax after the team’s victory: Timber Wolf, who is agonizing over the decision whether to quit the team with Light Lass or just end their relationship.

That’s the framing device for the extended flashback that occupies most of the story: Blok is just trying to make Timber Wolf relax.

The flashback takes time way back to the Legion pre-history. And it’s the first appearance of the Time Institute, a place that will become VERY important.

And speaking of introductions, we have a new supporting character that will become semi-regular: scientist Circadia Senus, who has a somewhat annoying speech pattern but an awesome design.

The accident at the Time Institute was caused by an attempt to look at the creation of the universe, which is the same action that eventually resulted in the Crisis. So Circadia dodged a bullet there!
(I reviewed the story with Krona’s first appearance as part of the villain origins retrospective)

Light Lass interrupts the flashback to complain to Timber Wolf that he’s not taking her offer seriously. She’s got a point, but I think this goes to show their relationship is unsalvageable.

Your regular reminder that Blok is, in fact, the best.

Once the flashback restarts, the Legionnaires are blasted by one of the Guardians Of The Universe who wants to stop them from looking into the origins of the universe.

That’s when the Green Lantern Corps shows up! And apparently there hasn’t been a Green Lantern on Earth for the past thousand years.

I’m not really up to date on Green Lantern lore, but let’s just say there have been… a few more.

And here is the answer to the mystery of why the Corps hasn’t interacted with the United Planets… is basically they don’t want to bother.

Yeah that’s, uhm, that’s quite disappointing isn’t it?

At least we get a big dumb fight between the Legionnaires and the Green Lanterns. But there aren’t many powerhouses in this team, so it’s nothing to write home about.

Since this is set in the old days, I guess it’s appropriate Durlan shapeshiftes can duplicate any other power.
Let’s just hope GL is exaggerating and she’s actually using her ring… at least that thing is SUPPOSED to be able to do almost anything.

At least Blok finds this entertaining.

The “best part” is the Legion being transported to Oa (with Circadia Senus) to discuss the incident with the Guardians themselves.

Yeah I still don’t buy the idea that the United Planets don’t need you guys.

The Guardians narrate the whole Krona story. Recall the Krona incident originally created evil itself (!!!!), whereas according to Crisis it created the Multiverse.

The Guardians agree to let Earth keep the Time Institute (originally they wanted to destroy it), but prohibit Circadia Senus from looking into the beginning of the universe again.

You might wonder why the Time Institute is important. Well, in addition to having a big role in future story… that’s where the Time Bubbles come from!!!
Not only that, but the Legion’s first intention was to use one to recruit both Superboy AND Supergirl at the same time!!!

However they don’t succeed, because someone sabotaged the Time Bubble. Thankfully, the Legion manages to return to the present… although with some hitchhikers.

Good thing we’re still following the pre-Crisis time travel rules that didn’t allow anyone to change history, otherwise things would be complicated.

The one responsible was obviously one of the Green Lanterns, who apparently is the first one to go rogue since Sinestro.

The Legion is understandably not very fond of the actions of the Guardians…

…and can you blame them?

And that solves Timber Wolf’s dilemma! SOMEHOW.

The lesson he learned was apparently that the Legion is his family.
This is not a bad scene, but this doesn’t address Light Lass’ concerns in the slightest. And the one who thinks she’s at fault for most of what doesn’t work in their relationship!

And so we end the story with Blok discovering the rogue Green Lantern was actually Universo.
Wait, WHAT!?

This explains… pretty much nothing, really.

Yeah it DOES explain why Universo has so much interest and knowledge about time travel, but he didn’t really need any of that, because he already has a son who is a super-genius in time travel technology.

It doesn’t explain how Universo got his hypnotic powers and, most importantly, the REAL mystery that has yet to be unveiled: why the heck does Universo have pointed ears when he’s human!?

---

Legion significance: 8/10
Circadia Senus will be a recurring character, and his friendship with Brainiac 5 will get the spotlight a couple of times, plus the Time Institute is hugely important.
We also have the retcon about Universo having been a rogue Green Lantern. I think it’s a stupid retcon and I will not like most of its consequences, but it IS significant.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The flashback really does get the mood right, and even the nonsensical powers.

Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Ironic given the subject matter, I know. I don’t know the full behind the scenes story, but it’s clear this was meant to give a breather to Giffen after the GDS. And doing a light story after such an epic storyline was a good idea.
The problem is that this story is not very good. The two parts don’t match AT ALL: the flashback should really have no impact on Timber Wolf. I could buy if he had a revelation by re-watching an old adventure he had with the Legion, but this was pretty stupid.
The anticlimactic revelations about the Corps are also quite flimsy, and it does one of the things I hate with stories set in the future: it basically establishes that nothing interesting happens after the present time. To add insult to injury, this attempt to give more depth to Universo ends up making him less unique.
And I sure hope Blok is wrong about nobody figuring out the connection until now… even if I bought the idea that Brainiac 5 wouldn’t deduce it, you mean to tell me SATURN GIRL couldn’t recognize Universo when they first met!?!?

We are legion
22 active Legionnaires
7 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
1 on sick leave (Matter-Eater Lad)
41 people have been members