Legionnaires #37 (1996)
written by Roger Stern & Tom McCraw
pencils and cover by Jeff Moy
After the ending of the Draft Era, a new era for the Legion begins: one that I have decided to call Legion Divided, although the reason for it won’t be apparent for a while.
Things are going pretty well for the Legion, all things considered, although R.J.Brande isn’t a big fan of the ending of the previous storyline.
This is obviously being treated as a jumping-in moment for the Legion, so the recap is being handled by the Plot Convenience News Network.
Always a treat to see how the public perceives the Legion, especially in a period where regular people don’t know EVERYTHING about them.
Poor Leviathan just can’t catch a break.
You can blame this caption for Ultra Boy and Element Lad not being in the official membership count yet.
But as you probably figured out by the cover, the focus is going to be the OTHER de facto member.
We begin in Brande’s offices on Mars. I’m guessing it’s the same place where he met the founders in Legion of Super-Heroes #0.
This a moment that requires you to imagine that the relationship between Mon-El and Superboy from the original continuity carried over to the Reboot version of Mon-El and post-Crisis Superman. If you view this through that lens, this is a great panel.
HOWEVER, this requires you to completely forget that this is actually the same character from the Valor series… he has BARELY met Superman. Arguably he has about a strong relationship with the 1996 Superman that he has with the 1996 Superboy, and remember they met exactly ONCE.
That being said, completely removing the Valor series from your memory is always a plus.
The problem, as you may recall, is that by the 30th century Valor is worshipped as a god across the whole galaxy.
All you really need to understand Mon-El is in this panel, though.
Not coincidentally, it’s also all you need to understand Superman.
Of particular interest is a quote from Brande that catches Mon-El’s attention…
…because, if things played a bit differently, this would have been a HUGE hint about a future revelation.
Because Brande was SUPPOSED to eventually be revealed to be Martian Manhunter (!!!), still alive in the 30th century. Definitely as a parallel to the original Brande being a Durlan.
I could not find a reference to how early the idea was proposes, but it does fit perfectly with this exchange (which would otherwise go nowhere).
I’m very glad that they dropped this: not only I was never a fan of the original retcon of Brande being a Durlan, but Reboot Brande has a VERY distinct personality that doesn’t fit with J’onn J’ones AT ALL.
We’ll catch up with Mon-El later. Meanwhile, the Legion girls are playing in a simulation.
They’re here to play Flash, of course.
I think the whole reason why this sequence exists is that Jeff Moy was upset he didn’t get the chance to draw Flash villains while XS was trapped in the past.
Not that I’m complaining.
Now that the Legion is a fully independent entity, they get to write their own constitution.
Interestingly, this means that unlike in the original continuity, the Legion Constitution wasn’t originally written by JUST the founders.
Things are changing rapidly, starting from the fact that we’re going to get a new leader.
While Cosmic Boy’s leadership proved to be SPECTACULAR at the end, it makes perfect sense for him to resign. Handing the whole conspiracy must have been exhausting!
A classic rule gets revisited: diversity of powers. But it doesn’t seem it’s as rigid as it used to be: duplicate powers ARE allowed, but that priority should be given to diversification.
My understanding is that if there are multiple candidates, the ones with new powers should be given priority. Which makes a lot of sense, both in-universe and from a narrative perspective.
But it’s not all about business. We also have personal relationship shenanigans, with Live Wire being worried that the other two founders are getting a bit too close.
And speaking of awkward personal relationships:
Andromeda decides she’s leaving; I’m guessing she feels like she hasn’t atoned for her actions enough to be worthy of staying.
Brainiac 5 takes this in the most Brainiac 5 way possible.
In case you forgot… which would be understandable, it hasn’t been mentioned in quite a fiew issues… Kinetix is technically still on a quest for the Emerald Eye.
Checking with the Empress is her priority.
Good thing there are no red flags whatsoever about her obsession.
It’s amazing to me that more characters don’t make a big deal out of the fact that Kinetix is now completely different. Not that the 30th century would consider a tail and pointed ears to be weird, but still, why is Violet the only one to notice?
Well… it might be because she’s paying way more attention to Kinetix than even Kinetix realized.
(wow, I haven’t had the chance to use that meme in AGES, isn’t it?)
I am extremely happy to announce that eliminating the draft will NOT result in the loss of Comrade Gates.
Interesting bit of worldbuilding: his people don’t have funerary rites.
We discover this as the statue of Andromeda is being removed (since she’s not actually dead).
I wonder what Gates means when he says that his people are “forcing” him to stay in the Legion… technically speaking, he could just leave.
Does this mean he’s simply not welcomed back to his planet if he quits? I doubt they’re threatening his family or anything, I can’t imagine the Legion being okay with it.
This is a good contrast with Star Boy, whose government wants him to return to his world.
Wait how old IS Gates? Should we interpret this comment as the fact that his species doesn’t live for very long? I have SO many questions now!!!
One of the things the Reboot excels at are the downtime moments.
As long as you don’t have to eat near them.
You can thank R.J.Brande for giving Element Lad the inspiration to avoid using the horrendous “Alchemist” codename. As if Brande needed more awesomeness.
We also have a new Ultra Boy costume!
Allegedly. Isn’t this exactly the same as before?
It’s not THAT bad of a costume, Ultra Boy. In fact, ditch the earring and I think this is one of your best looks across all eras.
No subplots to see here, just Ultra Boy enjoying his dead almost-girlfriend’s favorite dessert.
We also catch up on Lori Morning and her pet Proty.
Proty does indeed seem to be closer to a pet than the full sentient being of the original continuity.
It’s Chameleon that I’m questioning: I understand transforming into various being to test Proty’s shapeshifting, but turning into Tangleweb!?
They attribute Lori’s reaction to her being mentally 10 years old, so the 30th century is REALLY used to the weirdest looking aliens.
Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl are leaving on a goodwill tour to help the peace talks between their planets. Notice we still don’t officially know who is going to be the leader.
They barely get the news of a new member: Mon-El is here to stay, and in the open now.
Sporting the new costume we saw on the cover. I rather like it, but that’s no surprise given that it includes the field of stars reminiscent of Star Boy’s older costume (which is my favorite Legion costume across all eras).
It can be a little too busy for some pencilers, but when it works, it REALLY works.
Mon-El is officially granted membership, with a special case: “detached service agent”.
Basically it means what while he’s a member, he can come and go as he pleases.
Since this basically won’t ever come into play, I’m just counting him as a regular member.
But now that he’s a member, we are finally going to address how to call him.
Because while I’ve been calling him Mon-El the entire time… technically speaking, at this point that hasn’t been his codename since 1989.
While I could get away with it during 5YL, now it’s more complicated because this character could answer to at least THREE names.
The first is Lar Gand. This is his true civilian name, but only his closest Legion friends might call him like this: as far as the general population knows, that’s the name of a god.
Speaking of which, the second is Valor. He used it as a codename in the 20th century, but by the 30th century that strictly refers to the god being worshipped.
Since he can’t use that codename without causing major trouble, he has a new one…
…he’s going to be M’onel from this point forward.
I will definitely slip up here and there and call him Mon-El every once in a while, but I will make an effort to use M’onel.
Sometimes I’m grateful that I do written reviews and don’t have to read those out loud.
Otherwise I would have needed to carefully explain why from this moment forward, Mon-El will be known as M’onel.
And finally we close with Live Wire deciding he’s going to join Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy in their goodwill mission.
Legion significance: 10/10
Soooo many setups! Nothing too major, especially considering M’onel was already practically a member and Andromeda was already gone. Don’t worry, we’ll see her again.
Although, considering the quality of some of her later stories, maybe worry a little.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
I don’t think anything stands out.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Even if it’s just setup and readjustment, there’s a lot to like here. All Legionnaires are given something to do, whether it’s a bit of character development or just exploring their downtime, and it really gives you the impression that this is a very alive team of friends. Plus Gates.
It does move quite frantically, but it doesn’t rush too much.
“Don’t call me Brainy”: 6
Moy Tongues: 18
Who did it better?
No exact comparison comes to mind. The way M’onel finds himself in the 30th century is way too different from the original Mon-El; although we lost the Superboy connection we gained the religious aspect, so it kind of balances itself out.
I don’t mind M’onel as the name, especially since I can only think that it’s pronounced exactly the same as Mon-El. In theory nothing would have prevented him from using Mon-El as the codename, but I guess the idea was to differentiate him from the original a little better.
We are legion
Andromeda resigns, but we add three new members: Ultra Boy, Element Lad and M’onel.
- 17 active Legionnaires
- 1 resigned member (Andromeda)
- 1 honorary member (Superboy)
- 2 deceased members (Kid Quantum, Apparition)
- 21 people have been members
- 2 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy)
- 2 members have been rejected
Maybe Gates’s planet circles its sun a lot slower than ours does? If he lived to be 20 on Neptune, he’d be 3,300 years old. But I guess the orbit would be too distant from its sun to support life.
Ultra Boy’s costume is definitely similar to the original reboot version, but the black collar has been extended to conver the elbows and near arms; the belt decoration and pants side accents have been added to fit the Legion pattern of this era; and the distinctive boots that he inherited from the pre-Crisis design are not gone in favor of a more conventional design. Element Lad also gives him what appear to be leather bracelets where he previously had black, blue or gray ones, sometimes with an inner white band. The belt pouches also have their color and presumably fabric changed to match.
I wonder if he ever uses those pouches, by the way.
This feels like a subtle parody of the then-current mania for pouches, open jackets, shoulder patches and every other conceivable cluttering dress accessory that afflicted mid-1990s Marvel and Image. As it happens, this issue was published real close to the resolution of Marvel’s Onslaught event.
I don’t know all that much about Gates, but he strikes me as possibly having something of a conflicted relation with the ideas of duty and personal autonomy. Some of his dialogue over the years gives me the impression that he is trying to convince himself as much as anyone. So when he says that he is being forced to stay, I don’t take him all that literally; I often picture him as somewhat eager for companionship and frequent approval.
Good dialogue by Roger Stern and Tom McCraw all around. I particularly like the Brande / Lar Gand scenes.
Speaking of Mon-El, I think I disagree with you about the extent of his relationship with Superman. It is hard even today to know how much of their interactions in post-Crisis continuity survived Zero Hour, but right before ZH from Lar’s perspective Superman started out as the hero who inspired his father to a suicidal act of heroism, and then they met on the team-up against Brainiac that cost him his L.E.G.I.O.N. membership; then he changed his costume to homage Superman’s and teamed up with him and others at least twice (Panic in the Sky and the Eclipso event), where he fought Superman directly and was, as noted here, given the inspiration for the Valor name.
The two of them did not interact all that much, but it is easy to see indications that Lar thought highly of Kal and sought quite some inspiration from him.
This is a breather issue done right. Plotlines are resolved or unfold at a leisurely pace with a few surprises along the way. Fans hoping the Brainy-Andromeda relationship would resemble that of the preboot Brainy and Kara were no doubt stymied, but in a way feels true to the reboot characters. Other teenage hi-jinks afoot are afoot, as well.
Best of all, my main man, Mon, joins! And with his original code name restored. I could live with the hyphen being replaced by an apostrophe as I also pronounced the name exactly the same whereas I never warmed up to the generic “Valor.” This version of Mon also preserves his personality and the admiration the other Legionnaires hold for him while changing a few details. I thought it was inspired writing that he would become an unwilling religious figure. While his costume and name change provide a thin disguise, he can luckily move around now without being worshiped.
“It’s pronounced Teal’c, not Tealc.”
The apostrophe in M’onel signifies a very short, subtle stoppage between the M and the rest of his name. The difference between M’onel and Mon-El wouldn’t be very noticeable when spoken aloud, but it does exist.
The Arrowverse included Mon-El (son of Lar Gand) in Supergirl’s series, with no explanation for why a prince of Daxam would share a name with a Kryptonian house. It was baffling, but he had such good chemistry with Supergirl that the actors married and started a family.
So, would it be pronounced something like “muh-ONel” or “muh-on-EL?
I like that idea, but there are other possibilities. In English, the apostrophe indicates a missing letter or letters, and the pronunciation depends on the remaining letters. For example, “isn’t” contains an extra syllable (“iz-unt”) whereas “don’t” does not. In the latter case, there is no separation between the “n” and the “t” despite the apostrophe. Martian grammar, of course, could be entirely different.
In Martian, J’onn J’onzz might be pronounced exactly as John Jones, but I think most people have assumed there to be a subtle difference in pronunciation. M’gann M’razz would be a little less subtle in its difference from Meagan since there’s a vowel missing.
At least Lar has gotten away from being Valor.
Just wanted to say that, because of your reviews, I’ve recently started reading the Legion of Superheroes from the start!
GATES STAYS! I loved this issue.