Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #5

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #5 (2011)
by Chris Roberson & Jeff Moy
cover by Phil Jimenez

Yet another cover full of characters that are NOT in the story. Being a Kirk cover, he’s surrounded by Legion ladies.

This time the alternate cover doesn’t help us, since it ALSO includes Legionnaires that are not in the story. But it’s from Mike Allred, who will pencil the NEXT apocryphal crossover.

You might remember that both teams are currently separated in two different time periods.
The one stuck in the past (left to right: Saturn Girl, Dr. McCoy, Cosmic Boy, Spock, Brainiac 5, Chekov) have been captured by Vandal Savage.

He has access to surprisingly advanced technology.

The rest of the cast is in the 23th century ruled by the Terran Emperor, who has given them new clothes. Left to right: Uhura, Sulu, Kirk, Shadow Lass and Chameleon Boy, plus Lightning Lad who is not in the panel.

Speaking of Shadow Lass, she’s one of the few women unaffected by Kirk’s legendary sex appeal.

Kind of surprising that Lightning Lad is the one to mention Mon-El when telling Kirk to knock it off, instead of Shadow Lass herself.

But back to the plot, we have to resolve last issue’s baffling conclusion that showed the Terran Emperor was Flint.

Kirk recaps the events of “Requiem for Methuselah” for those who haven’t seen it (and you should, it’s a good one despite being in Season 3), explaining that Flint was an immortal that impersonated various historical figures.

I mentioned in the first issue my impression that the writer only read the Great Darkness Saga and nothing else, but at the very least they DID watch the Flint episode.
I recalled that in the episode Flint mentioned having been DaVinci and Brahms, so I was confused to see the mention of Pollack and “Sten”…

…so I went back to check the episode. Spock mentions that Flint’s personal gallery includes paintings by Pollock and by the fictional “Stenn” (that’s how it’s spelled in the subtitles anyway).

The episode explicitly tells us that Flint was Brahms and DaVinci, but it doesn’t outright say he WAS Pollock. Still, it’s not a stretch to add it to his aliases, and it’s thematically appropriate later.

There’s also the problem that the Emperor shouldn’t be Flint without additional changes to the timeline, because Flint died in that episode.

The Legionnaires recap the origin of Vandal Savage, who also shared Flint’s habit of being historical figures…

…but all of them were warriors and conquerors, not artists.

And sure enough, it’s all because of time travel shenanigans that are not fully explained.

This part of the story is a bit of an infodump, so Chameleon Boy brightens the mood with some fanservice.

Both Shadow Lass and Kirk seem to find this funny.

Then the Emperor shows up to confirm he’s ALSO Vandal Savage, accompanied by some attendants. I recognize two races from Star Trek (the catwoman and the B&W woman); I’m a bit uncertain about the one with green hair. The one with a fin on her head looks like Savage Dragon’s cousin, I don’t recognize a specific reference.

We haven’t checked what the heroes stuck in the past are doing in a while.

But they’re rescued by one of the natives… kind of.

This turns out to be the key to understanding what the heck is going on.

The girl is mind-controlled by a being coming from the future, and who has been imprisoned by Vandal Savage.

Because the baffling idea behind the bad guy of this miniseries… Vandal Savage and Flint ARE THE SAME PERSON.

Chameleon Boy continues to be the blessing of making boring panels more entertaining.

Turns out that the way Vandal Savage managed to become the Terran Emperor and take over the Galaxy is that he exploited the power of the cosmic being that he SOMEHOW managed to trap.

Okay that explains how he created his empire, but… how did we get to a fusion between the Star Trek and the Legion universes???

Remember that last issue the Emperor noted that he should’ve been warned about the arrival of time travelers? It’s not his first time.

In fact, we are treated by a two-page spread showing off his collection of time machines!!!

And oh boy, is that a great collection! The big sphere in front of the Emperor will be addressed later, but what are the others? As far as I can tell:

1.  no idea
2.  the TARDIS from Doctor Who
3.  the time machine from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
4.  that dagger looks familiar, but I can’t quite identify it
5.  the Cosmic Threadmill from Flash
6.  the Hot Tub Time Machine
7.  the Stargate for the eponymous franchise. Which is not technically speaking a time machine, but it CAN be used for time travel.
8.  the ship from The Alternative Factor, a Star Trek episode you’re better off skipping. I would say this ALSO shouldn’t count as a time machine, but that episode was so confusing it just might.
9.  the time-pod from the Next Generation episode “A Matter Of Time“
10.  the time pool that the Silver Age Atom used, maybe?
11. the Aeon ship from the Star Trek episode “Future’s End“
12. the Legion’s Time Bubble
13. the DeLorean from “Back To The Future”
14. no idea
15. the time machine from H.G. Well’s “Time Machine”. Specifically, it looks like one from the 1960 movie adaptation
16. no idea
17. the Time Tunnel from the TV series of the same name

Please let me know if you recognize numbers 1, 4, 14 and 16.

What were we talking about? Oh, right, there’s supposed to be a story.

We return to the team in the past, where the mind-controlled girl leads the heroes to the trapped alien who has a bit of an attitude.

And so we close the issue with the revelation of who has been trapped here and exploited by Vandal Savage.

And it’s Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation???

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Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
Nothing Legion-related happens!!!

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Spoiler alert: how does Vandal Savage manage to trap Q, who is basically omnipotent?
NEVER EXPLAINED!!!

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
This one is definitely more for Star Trek fans than for Legion fans.
Unlike the previous two issues, it doesn’t seem interested to draw parallels and contrasts between the two franchises.
It’s not a bad story in itself, even though there’s absolutely no reason for connecting Flint with this: for all intents and purposes, the Terran Emperor IS Vandal Savage. The retcon that Flint has always been an alternate version of Vandal Savage doesn’t even work, and not just because they’re from different universes: Savage is WAY older than Flint, since the former is from cavemen times and the latter is from about 4000 BC.
The splash page with the various time machines is a fun easter egg, but now I really want to see all those various franchises showing up!!!