Let’s finish the “Legion on the run” saga. These are the last 5YL issues that I never read prior to the retrospective… will it actually get decent?
I’m not very hopeful.
Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #58 (1994)
by Tom McCraw & Stuart Immonen
Considering this is 30th century technology, that’s surprisingly low-tech.
I do appreciate using the wires to credit the artist, though, nice touch.
The Khund are attacking Weber’s World (the artificial satellite where the United Planets keeps its bureaucracy), but the Legion shows up to fight them.
Hey, White Witch is finally doing something that isn’t seducing men twice her age!
I’m not entirely sure why they brought Lightning Lass in the mission, since she’s currently stuck as a child… and presumably without her powers? They didn’t say, but she doesn’t use them and she’s regressed to a younger age than when she got them the first time.
Meanwhile, Invisible Kid II and Infectious Lass face Universo.
I had honestly missed that they got married.
Invisible Kid II isn’t even the one to convince the United Planets that the Khunds are going to attack. That’s a job for Loomis… remember Cosmic Boy’s war buddy from the beginning of the series? He’s been in the background since forever, but I’ve barely mentioned him because he never gets to do anything interesting.
Great job as always, United Planets.
In addition to Khund soldiers, the Legion is also facing the Khund ex-Legionnaires and the Heroes of Lallor.
If your story requires Brainiac 5 solving his problems by punching them, you probably shouldn’t write the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Or if you send WILDFIRE in an espionage mission.
I’m lost on who the redhead is supposed to be. A little help here?
Well that’s what happens when you don’t let BRAINIAC FIVE handle the technical supplies.
Although this is 5YL Brainy we’re talking about, so they probably still wouldn’t work.
The way Duplicate Boy’s powers work has always been nebulous, but I don’t particularly like how he’s able to copy Wildfire’s powers.
Two things have been consistent for Duplicate Boy: he’s a powerhouse and he’s not particularly bright.
I thought that the Khunds were working with Universo, but apparently not.
Look I’m not saying they shouldn’t use Universo… the enemy of my enemy and so on… but considering the guy has mind-controlled the planet TWICE, maybe a bit of caution?
Hey, Brainiac 5 almost acting in-character! That’s something!
Turns out the Khund are smarter than expected: they didn’t plant just one bomb!
Laurel Gand decides she’s going to handle this herself. Can’t blame her for not trusting 5YL Brainy.
The United Planets learn the same, thanks to the unnamed representative from Titan.
Meanwhile, Duplicate Boy is taken down by the returning Dawnstar.
This is a very bad showing for Duplicate Boy, considering she doesn’t have wings anymore.
Before she can share a moment with Wildfire, Celeste Rockfish shows up.
Veilmist is perfectly willing to betray the Khunds in exchange for some Ultra Boy action…
…and gets herself killed.
And if you think the meme is too harsh, that’s basically the same reaction Brainiac 5 has.
With a combination of X-Ray vision and super-speed, Laurel gets a lot of the bombs.
Shrinking Violet is stuck defusing just one of the bombs.
Well SOMEBODY f##ked up. We’ll see next issue who.
In other plots, we are introduced to something that will play a major lore at the very end of the series: the Infinite Library, a mystical place where ALL the knowledge of the universe is kept.
The Infinite Library is a FASCINATING concept, which I assume is heavily based on The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges.
I’m surprised it doesn’t show up more frequently in other comics; it would be really easy to connect it to, say, Destiny of the Endless or something.
Especially since, as we will later learn, while the Time Trapper has used the Library he’s not the one who created it.
The Infinite Library contains all the knowledge of the entire history of the universe, so I look forward to seeing how Glorith ends up squandering that literally infinite potential.
Considering her first course of action is restoring Mordru to full power, she’s not off to a good start.
Technically he’s restored TWICE, because he also steals his magic back from Sorcerers World.
And we close with Mordru assuming his original form from his Amethyst appearances and striking an alliance with Glorith.
no pages with The Grid
23 pages without a grid
1 splash page
no text pages
Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #59 (1994)
written by Tom McCraw & Mark Weid
pencils and cover by Stuart Immonen
Odd choice to have a title like Earthfall when Earth was destroyed way earlier.
Mon-El and Shadow Lass show up to help, accompanied by the pre-Crisis Dev-Em.
With all the time paradox shenanigans, does anyone else notice he doesn’t look like he should?
Breaking news: there are no news.
Honestly I’m with White Witch on this. This Brainiac 5 SUCKS.
I don’t think the comic even tries to defend Brainy.
Thankfully we are spared from Flederweb joining the Legion for good.
Oh so Universo WAS working with the Khunds? Great job setting up this complex web of alliances and betrayals only to expose the conspiracy basically off-panel!!!
Although it IS pretty satisfying to have Infectious Lass be the one to take him down.
She’s a fan-favorite for a reason!
So here’s a thought… couldn’t Dawnstar have used her tracking abilities to find the location of the bombs? It’s never been super clear how her powers work, but she’s always mentioned that they work best in space and they were in a space station.
Dev-Em might be the pre-Crisis version, but we are in a post-Crisis universe so at least super-hearing doesn’t work in space.
Laurel Gand has been hurt so badly that we’re not even shown the body.
The time paradox shenanigans continue, because Celeste Rockfish suddenly turns from an energy being into a Darkstar… the interstellar police force that replaced the Green Lantern Corps for a while.
More connection from whatever the heck Celeste’s powers were supposed to be to Green Lantern.
This ties into the Legionnaires series, where the kids are exploring time.
All Ultra Boy cares about is the fact that there’s a Time Bubble™ available.
Why is this such a shock to him!? The Legionnaires HAVE used it multiple times during this era!
When Ultra Boy mentions his suspicion that Glorith hasn’t killed Phantom Girl but just hid her somewhere in time, Mon-El suddenly remembers his time with L.E.G.I.O.N.
It’s particularly impressive that Mon-El remembers that AT ALL. Not just because he didn’t spend all that time with L.E.G.I.O.N., but because thanks to his awful miniseries it’s entirely possible he’s gone into a thousand year exile TWICE.
Ultra Boy is itching to go back to the 20th century for a crossover to find closure, and Spider-Girl gives him her blessing.
I’ve decided to include Spider-Girl in the membership count. There’s no official mention of her joining, but everyone else is treating her as if she’s a member of the team now.
Okay so how does the age reversal thing work? If Ayla has regressed to childhood, BEFORE the time she gained electric powers, why does she have them now?
But will Shrinking Violet get through her injuries?
Yes. I’m glad we kept that tension for LITERALLY TWO PANELS.
Remember that the comic made repeated mentions that Glorith’s age reversal doesn’t affect just the body, but the mind as well.
With that in mind, Timber Wolf and White Witch is an even worse couple than it already sounds.
As we have already seen on Legionnaires, Cosmic Boy has gone insane and is attacking New Earth.
This was apparently good enough to give him the cover.
This might have hit differently if Cosmic Boy snapped back when Earth was destroyed!
There is an explanation for why it’s happening now, and it will be addressed later, but still.
Laurel Gand was hurt so bad that the doctors have been operating on her behind the scenes the entire time…
…and she dies. Off-panel.
Supergirl died in one of the most memorable death sequences ever.
Laurel, her replacement, dies off-panel in an issue where she has no dialogue.
Even Brainiac is not going to mourn her to the same extent he mourned Supergirl.
no pages with The Grid
23 pages without a grid
1 splash page
no text pages
Legion significance: 3/10
The long overdue ending of the “Legion on the run” saga… and not much besides the Legion being hunted has been resolved. Even Laurel’s death, which SHOULD be a big deal, doesn’t mean much because the entire universe is about to end.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really. I mean super-hearing doesn’t even work in space!
Depression scale
#58: 4/10
The Legion is actually doing SOMETHING, but the bad guys lose mostly because of their incompetence…
#59: 6/10
…and a hero dies mostly because her teammates suck.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
Definitely better than the previous parts of the saga. Which isn’t saying much.
There are glimpses of the Legion acting like itself, but this isn’t clicking for me. And not just because everyone looks like crap.
The conspiracy plot feels rushed, the fights are unimpressive, and Laurel’s sacrifice doesn’t have anywhere near the gravitas it should have.
We are legion
From issue 58, Dawnstar returns to active duty and Veilmist dies.
From issue 59, Laurel Gand dies. But I’m also moving Mon-El and Shadow Lass back into active duty, and adding Spider-Girl as a member.
37 active Legionnaires. Of these, 22 are in the “Legionnaires” team
1 presumed dead (SW6 Mon-El)
3 in sick leave (Kent Shakespeare, Devlin O’Ryan, Lightning Lass)
3 reserve members
26 resigned members
21 deceased members
91 people have been members
68 people have been rejected
We’re approaching the 5YL endgame now!
All that it’s left are Ultra Boy’s appearances on L.E.G.I.O.N., a couple of Elseworlds, and then we will jump straight into “End Of An Era” and “Zero Hour”.
Death, where is thy sting?
Prior to 5YL, there were four deceased legionnaires. Now the death toll is up to 21, meaning there’s been 17 deaths during this era. Meaning this era has been over four times as deadly as all previous eras combined.
No wonder no one is making a big thing over the death of Continuity-Patch Girl. I mean, Andromeda. Everyone’s numb at this point. Another dead legionnaire is just par for the course in this era. At least her death was heroic.
As for Ayla, her body is de-aging, but she isn’t going backwards in time. Therefore, she retains her powers, and will continue to retain them, eventually becoming an electric infant.
As bad as “Legion on the Run” was, imagine if Zero Hour wasn’t coming. The storyline might have kept going for many more issues if it wasn’t for the impending crossover.
Actually, there were 6 dead Legionnaires prior to 5YL – possibly 7, since Mon-El was considered dead at the end of the Levitz run but revealed in the early part of the 5YL to merely be only mostly dead.
I disagree that Ayla’s body was not going backward in time. At one point during this story, she had reverted to having her Light Lass powers. Seems to me like her body was actually rewinding itself.
Looking back to the end of Volume 3, I see the Archaeologist records 14 legionnaire deaths. If there were only 7 additional deaths in Volume 4, that’s a mere 50% increase over the total of all previous eras. One third of all legionnaire fatalities occurred during 5YL.
OK, I’m guessing that his count included two of Luornu’s bodies, Garth’s since-reversed death, and Supergirl. That’s four that I hadn’t thought about. The others were maybe the honorary/quasi Legionnaires Proty I, Kid Psycho and…drawing a blank on who would have been # 14 pre-5YL.
It’s probably Dynamo Boy because I’m basically the only one who considers him a member.
It’s confusing, I know. Especially since I admit I have confusing rules for what I count.
Volume 3 ended with 14 deaths.
Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid, Chemical King, Pete Ross, Insect Queen, Elastic Lad, Karate Kid, Nemesis Kid, Kid Psycho, Supergirl, Superboy, Magnetic Kid and Mon-El.
Pete, Lana and Jimmy’s deaths are from “Whatever happened from the Man of Tomorrow. Cheating a bit, I know.
Volume 4 begins with 8 deaths because 5 are no longer in continuity (Pete, Lana, Jimmy, Supergirl and Superboy), plus Mon-El is alive again.
It’s now at 21 counting:
Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid, Chemical King, Karate Kid, Nemesis Kid, Kid Psycho, Magnetic Kid from vol3.
Phantom Girl, Blok, Reflecto, Nightwind (she was a member in the gap so she’s counted), SW6 Chameleon Boy, SW6 Princess Projectra, SW6 Karate Kid, Lightning Lad (replaced by Proty, so the original is dead), Sun Boy, Blood Claw, SW6 Ferro (technically “rebooted”, but still counts), Veilmist and Laurel Gand.
The “official” counts are here:
https://comicsarcheology.com/index.php/legion-of-super-heroes-retrospective/legion-members/
https://comicsarcheology.com/index.php/legion-of-super-heroes-retrospective/legion-5yl-members/
The Infinite Library is probably inspired by the similar idea of the “Akashic Records”, invented in the 19th century by Helena Blavatsky and other Theosophists. Many an occultist believes them to be a real thing to this day.
19th century misticism is kind of fascinating, if you take the proper precautions to not get carried away by its cravings.
What an odd speech coming from the elder Brainiac 5. He is a fictional character and all, but to have him state belief in a soul and an afterlife, let alone with that attempt at certainty… it just feels utterly out of character.
He was obviously suppressing his true feelings, as evidenced not only by his tear in that final panel, but also at several points earlier in the run. Laurel had fallen in love with Rond Vidar, Brainy refused to let himself betray any lingering feelings he had for her (a situation that the younger Brainy does not connect with).
That said, Brainy has never been explicitly anti-spiritual, although there are times it might have seemed that way (particularly during the Jhodan storyline). At one point in the Levitz run he ponders exploring “death, the ultimate mystery.”
I don’t think it is a matter of being spiritual or anti-spiritual, but YMMV.
To me it is just gross writing, even given the obvious attempt at denial.