Legionnaires #18 (1994)
by Mark Waid & Tom McCraw
pencils by Chris Gardner
cover by Stuart Immonen
This is technically a Zero Hour tie-in, but it’s so minimal that we can look at this first before delving into the crossover.
We last left off with Mordru and Glorith having absorbed the time powers of Infinite Man, and confronting a huge number of Legionnaires.
Don’t worry guys… these two have already squandered infinite potential multiple times, I’m sure you’ll do just fine.
The use of these powers feels like a mixture of the Magic Wars and the Glorithverse.
Therefore fusing one story I didn’t care much for and one that I disliked.
In the middle of this, Kono gets rebooted. We’ll see her briefly in the Reboot where she has a very minor role, but as of 2025 she hasn’t returned as a member.
I should highlight that Glorith and Mordru, who currently have all the time powers of the Infinity Man, are just allowing the Legionnaires to enact their plan.
At least Infinity Man had the excuse of having gone insane because of the experiment that gave him his powers.
Well okay, it’s not entirely fair to say they don’t do anything: they send their own version of the Legion to attack.
But whereas the LAST time Glorith did this was at least a bit of fanservice, by picking some classic Legion villains that hadn’t appeared in decades, this is a confusing bunch.
I get the dead Legionnaires… Invisible Kid I, Blok, Karate Kid, and I’m guessing the SW6 Chameleon Boy.. and Dawnstar was recently rebooted, fine.
But the others are currently active Legionnaires! Worse, there are TWO versions of the rest in this story!
They don’t even send the Evil Legion to take care of the Legionnaires who are actually trying to accomplish something.
Not that it matters, because Devlin O’Ryan is rebooted.
He has not returned as a Legionnaire, and I don’t think he’s ever been shown in any other continuity even as an easter egg.
Projectra’s reboot doesn’t even warrant a panel, we’re just TOLD she disappeared.
There IS a Reboot Legionnaire that shares her name (kind of), and while I really liked that one as a character, it’s best to consider her as a separate character altogether… so in that sense, we have to wait for the 2004 Threeboot for Projectra’s reboot.
Evil Brainiac 5 throws a jab at his 5YL and SW6 counterparts, which I find funny because the Reboot Brainiac 5 will be FAR more creative in the use of his force field.
To continue the tradition of 5YL Brainy sucking: not only his plot to give Duo Damsel force field powers made no sense, it seems it was also temporary!
To be fair to the Brainys, when the two good versions work together they DO remember they can be creative as well.
Regular Saturn Girl is able to take down Evil Saturn Girl thanks to her 70s costume.
No wonder she switched back to the classic, it seems she’s quite cold wearing it.
I hadn’t even considered the possibility of Evil Cosmic Boy could have been Evil Magnetic Kid and therefore fitting with the deceased members… but nope!
At least that’s a win for the Substitute Heroes, right before Polar Boy and Rond Vidar are rebooted.
Polar Boy will have minor cameos on the Reboot and Threeboot eras, but won’t return until the Retroboot gives him a prominent role in 2008.
Rond Vidar will be a recurring supporting character during the Reboot, only to disappear until 2008’s Legion Of Three Worlds.
This makes White Witch angry enough to summon the powers of Amethys, which I guess she’s been able to keep despite the whole time manipulation thing?
She does manage to separate Glorith and Mordru.
This stops the effects of their powers in the rest of the Galaxy (allegedly? We’re not shown), but at the cost of White Witch being rebooted.
There are versions of White Witch in the Reboot and Threeboot, but they’re basically disconnected from the original version.
The original will return in 2008 with Legion Of Three Worlds, in a character assassination that is infinitely worse than what happened to her during this era… and from what I gathered she’s in the Bendis Legion as Mordru’s daughter.
In other plots, the SW6 founders are traveling through time.
I had honestly completely forgotten that was a subplot.
When their Time Bubble™ breaks, they’re conveniently saved by Ultra Boy… who is STILL in the 20th century, even though he was trying to return to the future on L.E.G.I.O.N. #70.
That’s the Zero Hour connection, because this is when the Legionnaires hear the message that Superman is giving to the entire superhero community.
In parallel to all of this, Cosmic Boy is stranded in the Infinite Library.
As I’ve mentioned, the Infinite Library is a FASCINATING concept.
Cosmic Boy is understandably not appreciating the amount of reading material available, considering he had to abandon his family to prevent Glorith and Mordru from getting here.
Or maybe they placed Cosmic Boy here on purpose, since he’s destined to help their cause.
This certainly contradicts the way they acted when he stole the key to the Infinite Library, but I have two theories:
A) they knew he HAD to get into the library, they just didn’t know HOW
B) they had no clue what they were doing but Glorith wrote in her library that it was totally on purpose
This is a good moment for Cosmic Boy: he’s determined to get back home even if it LITERALLY takes him forever.
And throughout most of the issue, the bottom of the page includes a panel of Cosmic Boy going through the Infinite Library.
For DECADES.
Multiple times, because he learns how to get young again!
Until, at SOME point, he finds an exit.
Or rather… the exit finds HIM.
And we finally end the issue with the long-awaited (by me at least) return of the Time Trapper.
Who has teeth now.
Legion significance: 5/10
Once again, the Cosmic Boy scenes are the only ones that will have a real impact. Please no spoilers in the comments.
Depression scale: 7/10
Last time I was excited at the sight of the Legion at least TRYING TO DO SOMETHING… too bad they suck at it.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
We don’t even get interesting throwbacks.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Still barely a story, but the addition of the Cosmic Boy subplot running in parallel to everything else at least makes for a novel approach.
We are legion
Kono, Devlin, Projectra, Polar Boy, Rond Vidar and White Witch are rebooted.
35 active Legionnaires. Of these, 17 are in the “Legionnaires” team
1 in sick leave (Kent Shakespeare)
1 presumed dead (Cosmic Boy)
no reserve members
12 resigned members
44 deceased or rebooted members (22 are rebooted)
92 people have been members
68 people have been rejected
“ Who has teeth now.”
It was the 90s, lots of people had teeth then.
But did they always have spittle dripping from them?
Boy, did I hate the artwork on those later Legionnaires issues. I was very happy to hear that Jeff Moy was going to take over the book permanently after Zero Hour.
The Cosmic Boy sequence and Time Trapper moment are the redeeming moment of this series: It gives the readers an idea that SOMETHING is going to happen. And it is INTERESTING.