Legion of Super-Heroes #296 (1983)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
With the Great Darkness Saga now over, maybe the Legion was hoping for more happy times.
They were wrong.
This serves as an epilogue of sorts for the GDS, with the great title “What do you do on the day after Doomsday?”.
If you’re Shadow Lass, you get a haircut and a new costume.
Mon-El is such a geek that his idea of a vacation is doing some science in a research base.
The security chief Queeg will make a couple appearances. I guess he must be good at his job, because who would want to invade a place where THIS is the first face they meet?
Meanwhile Blok is giving White Witch a tour of Legion HQ, confirming that it’s bigger on the inside.
Blok having a crush on White Witch is the most wholesome thing since forever.
But unfortunately he’s rockblocked by Saturn Girl calling him…
…for a party she’s throwing to say farewell to Light Lass and a welcome back to Lighning Lad.
Also, to complete the cleanup, Element Lad has resigned as deputy leader.
Honestly Phantom Girl, what DID you expect from Sun Boy?
It’s not the 70s anymore, but the Legion is still one of DC’s horniest titles…
…something that gets the unwarranted attention of her ex boyfriend Duplicate Boy, who was stalking her from another star system.
Not cool, DB.
As much as I don’t like how Light Lass has been handled so far, at least Levitz does a little course correction: she’s not leaving because of what happened on the asteroid between Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl (because NOTHING HAPPENED), but because it’s part of a larger personal crisis.
That’s a good change of perspective. Although considering how much I care for this subplot, I would’ve resolved it with just these two panels:
We get an answer to question of the story’s title. The day after Doomsday, the Legion goes back to work.
And it’s, uhm, it’s not very pretty.
I like the contrast of Sun Boy goofing off in the earlier scene, and now going in serious mode when facing a catastrophe: it gives it even more impact.
Things get personal when we learn that the nuke was used against Cosmic Boy’s family.
Things were grim before, but this is really shaking the Legionnaires. On one hand it’s a smaller tragedy than the epic disasters of the GDS, but of course since this closer to home (literally!) the impact is just as devastating.
The Legion eventually finds a connection to some terrorists, including a guy who was imprisoned on Naltor (Dream Girl’s planet) but was later released because according to the precognitive judge he had “a harmless future”. Harmless for him maybe!!!
This is a follow-up from Dream Girl’s story from Legion of Super-Heroes #285.
The Legion catches most of them…
…except the leader, who gets saved by a mysterious figure.
But surprise: the guy who helped him was just Sun Boy in disguise, as part of a sting operation to force him to confess!!!
That sounds like the kind of stuff Chameleon Boy would do, right?
Funny to mention it, because he gets a full pardon…
…which is not the consolation it should be for him, since he’s lost his powers.
Even without him, the Legion follows more leads to the guy who ordered the nuclear strike.
And holy crap, Sun Boy must’ve studied his Batman historical documents!!!
Tragically, Cosmic Boy is blissfully unaware of the tragedy that happened to his family: he was off-planet on a vacation during all this.
Other cleanup scenes: Karate Kid proposes to Projectra…
…and Brainiac 5 finally gets around to start curing Matter-Eater Lad.
Legion significance: 6/10
This is obviously significant for Cosmic Boy. His brother makes it out alive, but… we’ll see next issue. There are also multiple subplots that will pay off later, the biggest one being of course Duplicate Boy deciding to look for Shrinking Violet.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Radiation was never this scary in the Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Great stuff. Definitely a breather issue to set up many things to come, and not exactly a perfect story, but you could easily reprint it today. If I have a minor nitpick, it’d be that the terrorist strike should’ve been given a more clear background… but the brutality and the randomness of it all is kind of the point, so it’s not too distracting.
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