Just a bit of housecleaning: the Legion barely appears here, but I don’t want this to overlap with the following issue and I’m trying to keep this as close to the main series as possible.
I’ve covered the Supergirl parts of issue #4 before, and the Legion only has 3 panels there. Two of which only feature Dawnstar.
Crisis On Infinite Earths #5 (1985)
by Marv Wolfman & George Perez
This is the issue with the Perez two-page spread that, for the longest time, held the record of the highest numbers of characters featured together in the same comic book image.
I’m not entirely sure when the record was beaten, but was either “JLA vs Avengers” or “Legion Of Three Worlds”… both George Perez stories.
As I’ve done before with the Metal Men, let’s see which Legionnaires we can spot.
Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel are there, right next to Mon-El and Star Boy, despite the fact the two were Legion reserves at the time.
Cosmic Boy is a bit above them.
We also have current regulars Shrinking Violet, Blok, Element Lad and Dream Girl.
Colossal Boy is, of course, the Legionnaire taking up the most space. Between him and the girl with the pink costume (I don’t recognize her) are both Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl… plus FOR SOME REASON Chlorophyll Kid!?
That is one weird inclusion! I mean Polar Boy is there, but at least I can imagine him being useful.
Timber Wolf and Lightning Lass are next to each other. Perhaps Perez was a fan of their lost relationship.
I’m sure it’s not a coincidence: Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are next to each other (despite being reserves at this point)…
…but more poignantly, Brainiac 5 and Supergirl are looking at each other. I wonder if he just realized we are close to her death.
Dawnstar continues to be the Legionnaire with the most Crisis appearances, being held by Earth-2 Superman since she’s been injured.
Chameleon Boy and Shadow Lass are the only two Legionnaires that are not near a teammate.
That means that out of the 19 then-current regular members only Sun Boy, Wildfire, White Witch and Invisible Kid are not anywhere to be seen.
Well, I guess Invisible Kid might be there.
(EDIT: as pointed out in the comments Invisible Kid is on a different page, and I missed Wildfire)
Although Sun Boy is shown in the next page attending to Dawnstar. So I think we can safely assume Wildfire was not recruited by the Monitor’s team, right? He would’ve rushed there.
(think about it. They recruited CHLOROPHYLL KID but not Wildfire!!!)
(EDIT: as pointed out in the comments, Wildfire IS there. Still no idea what CK is doing there)
The Legion does have a very minor speaking role later, witnessing the time shenanigans caused by the Crisis. And I guess a reminder that there is no Legion equivalent on Earth-2.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Brainiac 5 is the only one who is beginning to figure out what is happening.
I do wonder how Timber Wolf knows Kole from the Teen Titans.
I’m pretty sure he’s not met Martian Manhunter either, but at least I can understand if he knows him from history. But Kole should be pretty obscure for the 30th century, right?
And finally, the Legion agrees to join the strike team that is going to attack the Anti-Monitor.
Spoiler alert: it won’t end well.
Legion significance: 0/10
Only for people who review every single Legion story.
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
Since this is not a proper review, I can’t give a real score.