Valor #22 (1994)
by Kurt Busiek & Colleen Doran
cover by Stuart Immonen
At this point I’m convinced the only reason the Valor series hasn’t been cancelled already is that the “End Of An Era” saga needed a little more time to breathe, so juggling it on 3 series rather than the 2 main Legion books helped.
Even Mon-El has no clue what’s happening.
He’s helping the repairs of New Earth. You might think from the damages caused by Cosmic Boy’s attacks, but nope: we’ll soon see that this place just can’t catch a break.
Well at least we have several Legionnaires and Substitute Commandos being heroes. This issue will be the last appearance for many of these characters for several years, so at the very least they go out without completely sucking.
Welcome to keeping up with DC continuity, Mon-El. You’ll get used to it.
With all the time travel shenanigans, you might think that it’s linked to New Earth’s troubles.
Nope! It’s just that this makeshift assembly of cities that were never intended to be a single mega-structure is now falling apart.
I don’t blame those who put it together… it was a last-minute miracle… but I can’t help thinking that if the Legionnaires (both teams) had bothered looking into it, instead of wasting everybody’s time, MAYBE things wouldn’t be so bad right now!!!
The only one who has been giving ANY thoughts to this is good old R.J.Brande.
Because Brande is the freaking best.
His plan is absolutely bonkers: bring back the Earth from the Pocket Universe!!!
The Earth of the Pocked Universe, by the way, was turned into a complete wasteland by General Zod and his minions in Superman vol2 #22.
See, this is EXACTLY the kind of high concept sci-fi insanity that I expect from the Legion universe. As absurd as it sounds, it even makes sense!
I am SO glad that Brande is going to be an important player in the Reboot; after so many dystopic authority figures and heroes who spend time twiddling their thumbs, we REALLY need someone who just gets stuff done.
We’re not quite there yet: this is still the depressing era.
Brande’s plan requires some serious computation…
…and random powers. So of course Tyroc is on the front line!
Honestly? Not your worst look, Tyroc.
Also I believe Busiek is throwing a little shade at the Legion writers for never using Tyroc’s powers up to this point!
As a reminder, this is the era that took a guy with the power to scream portals to other dimensions… and gave him a desk job.
Forty-two minutes to move a planet isn’t a lot in a post-Crisis story.
If this was pre-Crisis, even forty-two seconds would be overkill.
Totally understandable, Andromeda, but not the right time.
Just keep calling him Mon-El, Shady. Trust me, it’s WAY easier.
This storyline is basically giving everyone Alzheimer’s.
As silly as this moment is, Shadow Lass does have a point: with all of history completely unraveling, does any of this truly matter?
Then Mon-El starts to be rebooted…
…but he straight-up refuses.
Mon-El, Andromeda and Dev-Em then PULL EARTH OUT OF THE POCKET UNIVERSE.
Good news: we have a planet to work with.
Bad news: we’re all going to die.
Man the universe REALLY hates this timeline, doesn’t it?
But while everyone is just complaining about their inevitable doom, Brande is ALREADY planning how to turn this into a victory.
Because R.J. Brande is the freaking best.
Too bad the universe hates this timeline SO much that it reboots Tyroc.
He will completely skip the Reboot and, aside from a couple of minor cameos, won’t return until 2011. That’s a 17 year gap, which I find interesting because this story was published 18 years after Tyroc’s first appearance.
Computo II isn’t so lucky. Despite the fandom having a soft spot for her, she hasn’t returned as a full Legionnaire yet: she’s only had a couple of minor cameos here and there.
Infectious Lass will have a brief appearance in 1996, but won’t rejoin the Legion until the very end of the Reboot in 2004.
Invisible Kid II will have a brief appearance in 1998 but won’t return until the “Retroboot”.
The latter is surprising: as a character debuting with the Great Darkness Saga I would have expected DC to push him rather than the original Invisible Kid, but the Reboot will go into a different direction.
Shadow Lass also begins to be rebooted, but Mon-El stops her.
All that accomplished was ensuring New Earth will survive for another 72 hours.
Which is not much longer than what this continuity has left.
Legion significance: 0/10
None of this really matters in the long run. I’m not even sure if it does matter at the time of publishing.
Depression scale: 3/10
Yes the universe is ending and even the plans that have potential are explicitly doomed to fail… but by damn if R.J.Brande’s enthusiasm doesn’t make you WANT the plan to succeed.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Excluding the fact that it would’ve been easier to accomplish and that it would have worked, Brande’s plan is insane enough to qualify.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
While this story exists to check a few Legionnaires off the list, I can give it credit for injecting some much-needed optimism. If THIS Brande had been around earlier in the series, the Legionnaires might actually have accomplished something!
We are legion
First of all, a bit of housecleaning. I’ve been holding off the fate of SW6 Mon-El because… well because frankly I still have no clue WTF happened in the previous storyline.
I suppose that, since he’s a past version of the current Mon-El from the future… now that’s a sentence that only comes up reviewing superhero comics… once he went back to the Phantom Zone at the end of Issue 21, he might have merged with the Mon-El we’ve been following in the main book. I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but since SW6 Mon-El stops being an independent character, I’m retroactively considering him dead/rebooted from this issue forward.
Adding the 5 rebooted Legionnaires (Tyroc, Computo, Andromeda, Invisible Kid II and Infectious Lass) to the deceased/rebooted category, that leaves us with the updated count:
32 active Legionnaires. Of these, 20 are in the “Legionnaires” team
3 in sick leave (Kent Shakespeare, Devlin O’Ryan, Lightning Lass)
3 reserve members
25 resigned members
29 deceased or rebooted members (8 are rebooted)
92 people have been members
68 people have been rejected
At the time of publication, it certainly mattered to those few of us who were still hanging on. Seeing the Legion slowly dismantled hurt. We cherished these characters and their long, rich history.
In hindsight, decades later, after numerous reboots, with yet another iteration pending? When fans reminisce about 5YL, they stop right before “Legion on the Run”. Nobody talks about “End of an Era”, other than the revelations about the Time Trapper. Since those revelations come later, this issue could be rebooted out of existence and I doubt anyone would care.
I would tend to agree. I loved the 5YL era and everything before it. I gave up during the legion in the run era and only learned about the zero hour stuff years later. It killed any interest I had in the reboots (I did have hope for the retroboot, but it doesn’t feel possible to bring back a version of the legion that works anymore).
Seeing these images for the first time just makes me think ‘what a waste’; and that DC really shit the bed in their decision making with this.
Brande! Pocket Earth back! Legionaires using their powers! DOING SOMETHING!
This would’ve been THE redemption arc for the whole volume, the basis for a new start! IF ONLY THEY FRIGGING REMEMBERED THEY HAD R.J. BRANDE!!!
Man, this volume is just a magnet for rotten tomatoes in its face!