Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #62 (1994)
written by Mark Waid & Tom McCraw
pencils and cover by Lee Moder
Shockingly for the 90s, the Legion books did NOT start from issue 1 with the Reboot.
We begin with Cosmic Boy and Live Wire training…
…until they’re the subject of a prank by the other Legionnaires.
Yeah this Discount Holodeck is not exactly useful for most Legionnaire training.
The Legionnaires are already galactic celebrities.
The Star Trek influence on the early Reboot was already very noticeable before Data and Spock showed up!
One of the things carried over from the SW6 Legionnaires is that the three bodies of Triad will have different personalities. You can already see shades of that with Purple being the flirty one.
The volunteer members are meeting the draftees for the first time, and Kid Quantum wastes no time to make himself unsufferable.
Thankfully Xs won’t talk like that very often. Also I will probably end up calling her Jenni most of the time because Xs is quite an obnoxious codename.
Flawless member introduction, no notes.
Chameleon at this point does not speak Interlac like all other members. That’s going to be an important part of his character for him; it will be dragged a bit too much… it will take the entire draft period before he speaks normally… but trust me, it will be worth it for the eventual conclusion.
The complete lack of communication from the United Planets about the whole draft is probably intended as being a signal of government fumbling everything… but it could make sense.
There could be the worry that the volunteers are more loyal to Brande than to the UP, in which case it does make sense to take control of the Legion away from them and give it to people the UP can control more directly.
Also making complete sense: the United Planets selecting Leviathan (the new Colossal Boy) as the team’s leader.
The volunteers wanted Cosmic Boy to be the leader, but from the UP perspective… Cosmic Boy is just an athlete, while Leviathan is a Science Police officer.
Saturn Girl would have made more sense than Cosmic Boy, but she’s only a Science Police cadet.
We are formally introduced to the Transuit™, the transparent costume that the Legionnaires wear OVER their costumes when they operate in space.
They are not a Reboot invention (they’ve been around since the 70s), but it’s worth to introduce the technology to new readers.
I think this could be the last continuity to use the Transuit™; the Flight Ring will eventually pull double duty and ALSO allow the Legionnaires to operate in space.
It’s a pity to have lost a bit of lore, but the rings are less awkward to handle.
Leviathan might be a good SP officer, but Cosmic Boy is clearly the one with the most leader charisma.
Thankfully from this point everyone gets a costume, because Leviathan and Invisible Kid look way too similar with this artwork and I was having trouble telling them apart!
The Legion find the ship they’re supposed to inspect, and Leviathan immediately suggest they split up. It’s not out of nowhere… this is a pretty big team already… but aside from JLA and JSA stories by Gardner Fox, is there EVER a piece of media where splitting up is a good idea?
Case in point:
There aren’t a lot of survivors to take care of.
This gentleman is Tangleweb, and he’s going to be the Legion’s very first supervillain.
Yeah to say that these kids were NOT prepared to face a giant spider monster would be charitable.
Especially when Tangleweb’s children show up, leading Jenni to completely panic.
For three panels, but she will later obsess over this initial failure.
Leviathan orders to regroup, but Kid Quantum disobeys orders and attacks Tangleweb alone.
His showboating, an especially his reliance on tech-based powers, gets Kid Quantum killed.
Tangleweb manages to escape (we’ll see him again), and Leviathan resigns.
As his first act as the new Legion leader, Cosmic Boy shows why he deserves the position.
Legion significance: 9/10
While Tangleweb himself won’t show up a lot, this sets up the official reason why the Legion won’t accept members with powers based on technology.
I think it’s a bit of an overreaction… they could just reject glory hounds that don’t listen to orders… but it does follow the Legion’s tradition.
Kid Quantum’s sister will show up WAY later in the Reboot, proving herself to be a far superior Legionnaire and an interesting character.
This botched mission will also be important for the development of Leviathan and Xs.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
The artwork has taken a step back; Lee Moder is not a bad artist, but he’s no Stuart Immonen and no Jeff Moy: I don’t think he quite captures the same energy, and several faces or poses leave something to be desired.
The story also feels rushed and without the nuances of the previous issues: Waid and McCraw are not exactly subtle in telling you how much Leviathan is a bad leader or how Kid Quantum is a bad everything.
The team losing a member in the fist real mission also feels rushed, and Tangleweb is little more than a generic monster (even if he does play the part well).
I would normally give this a 7/10, but it’s still riding the hype of the previous two issues so I’m feeling generous.
Who did it better?
We have several things to compare here.
The selection of the first leader is far superior here, being imposed from above and immediately beig transferred to the most competent around.
As opposed to the original version, which had Cosmic Boy be selected as leader by a computer.
Something else that works better in the Reboot is Kid Quantum himself.
Which is saying a lot considering that he’s a jackass who gets himself killed in the fist mission, but consider:
A) this time at least he has a personality
B) his origin is not a convoluted retcon
C) we actually get to SEE his rejection
It’s fascinating that Kid Quantum’s entire Reboot role is based on the text page of Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #033.
While none of what he does in that issue has much to do with this profile, a lot of what it says actually DOES show up in the reboot: the fact that he’s from Star Boy’s planet, that he uses technology for his powers, and the fact that his death was the reason for banning tech-based heroes.
Heck even the fact that he was the Legion’s ninth member can work, depending on how you arrange the draftees!!!
As mentioned, the fact that we actually get to SEE the problems that could be caused by tech powers is an improvement.
What the Reboot does NOT do best, obviously, is the first Legionnaire to die in a mission.
While I counted Dynamo Boy as the first deceased Legionnaire, it was only a technicality and he didn’t die in a mission.
And it goes without saying that Kid Quantum’s death can’t hold a candle to Ferro Lad’s, or even to Lightning Lad if you count his “death”.
We are legion
- 10 active Legionnaires (5 volunteers, 5 drafted)
- 1 deceased member
In this continuity I will also do my best to keep track of how many leaders the team goes through.
I thought of doing this in the original, but there were several periods that were not super clear on the subject.
For the Reboot I don’t consider Cosmic Boy the leader in the first two stories since he doesn’t act like that.
- 2 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy)
Two things stand out to me about this issue. The first is that so many characters are introduced at once, yet each is given enough of a spotlight that individual personalities come through. This is especially true for Invisible Kid, who introduces himself by pulling away Cham’s robe while invisible (the transparent hands provide a segue) and revealing that he can speak Durlan. Then Jenni panics, as any kid would, and feels guilty, as any kid would. The introductions are handled in a way that prevents new readers from being lost, and each reader would likely find someone to identify with.
The second thing that stand out is that, although the story feels rushed in places, it is a complete story with beginning, middle, and end. By the end of the story, we not only understand why the Legion forbids gadget-based powers but also why Cos is a natural leader and Gim is not. Cosmic Boy’s refusal to accept Gim’s resignation establishes that he can inspire others.
“but aside from JLA and JSA stories by Gardner Fox, is there EVER a piece of media where splitting up is a good idea?”
It’s always the best idea in Scooby-Doo.
Total agreement on Lee Moder. We Legion fans obviously live with his art for a few years, but I know I was very happy (at-wise, at least) when Scott Kolins eventually took over the book.
Kid Quantum’s death was pretty predictable from his drafting in Legionnaires # 0, given his fate (per the text page you referenced) in the pre-boot. By the same token, I had assumed that Jenni would be the first Legion reject. Clearly, I did not realize that they were planning to do more than re-do the old Legion.
Does my memory fail me or does Jenni pull off the classic anime trope of rushing to important event because they’re late? As a speedster… I don’t mind KQ’s death, though oddly I don’t count it as the first real Legion death which is me playing semantics. It does at least raise the stakes very early without the whole series being too grim dark.
Not in this issue, the reason why she’s rushing towards the other recruits is that she saw Chameleon and thinks he’s a Durlan spy or something.
As I remember it, Denny O’Neill, Steve Englehart, Len Wein and Gerry Conway often followed Gardner Fox’s lead and had the JLA split for no good reason beyond opportunity to spotlight individual members and small teams.
I don’t mind these pencils. They certainly please me better than Chris Gardner’s and I don’t remember out of the top of my head anything in the 5YL era looking any better (covers excluded).
Maybe it is just me, but I don’t think Gim is portrayed as a bad leader exactly. He feels like he would quickly grow into the role and, if nothing else, shows enough wisdom to acknowledge Rokk’s own skills.
It is nice – if perhaps obvious – that the draftees start this issue with generic costumes that appear to be identical to the ones seem in Legionnaires #0’s publicity piece.
I feel such relief that for once we end a story with some idea of what each Legion member is like. I sorely missed that in the 5YL period.
KQ ‘s death doesn’t feel as impactful as it should, probably because it was broadcast from a continuity ago, and because we’ve only just met him, and because he simply wasn’t likable. If it wasn’t for his sister, he’d be almost completely forgotten. Still, a solid third act in the continuing rebuild of the Legion.
Freighters are disappearing in 247-A? That sector designation sounds like a reference to something.
It’s good thing they decided to timeskip to: “They are celebrities already” instead of building the team with a slow-burn, risking the “High School” effect, which would’ve been detrimental to the series’ spirit and focus.