Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #9 (1990)
story by Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Keith Giffen
pencils by Keith Giffen (present day) & Paris Cullins (flashbacks)
cover by Keith Giffen
Last time Laurel Gand was introduced as the Supergirl substitute, and this will serve as her origin story.
Interestingly, Tom & Mary Bierbaum are give top billing as the writers: Keith Giffen is just given “story assist”, and for the first time Al Gordon is not even mentioned.
The framing device is that Roxxas is watching a movie about Laurel’s history. These are the only pages penciled by Keith Giffen.
As if it wasn’t clear by the fact he was already responsible for a genocide in the Silver Age and that he already brutally murdered Blok, Roxxas is characterized as a truly irredeemable bastard.
Laurel introduces herself as the 9th member of the Legion.
This begins the flashback that constitutes the majority of the issue. He’s worked on a lot of series; his most notable is probably Blue Devil.
As the Supergirl equivalent, Laurel didn’t grow up on Daxam but on a space station built on an asteroid, just like Supergirl didn’t grow up on Krypton but on Argo City.
The Argo City equivalent is called Ricklef II, which I sense is probably a reference to something but doesn’t ring any bells.
Until the Khunds invade the place an DISINTEGRATE HER PARENTS in front of her!!!
Laurel certainly gets a badass introduction, because she activates the station’s defense systems that obliterate the Khund fleet!!!
Zaryan, who you might recall was the Khund that “killed” Lightning Lad, was among the few survivors.
Laurel then goes to live with her cousin Eltro, in his earliest chronological appearance.
The Science Police, incompetent since 2962.
I mean… I get that Laurel is a high-level target for the Khund, but there HAD to be better choices than making her live in an orphanage on Earth.
Why would she even NEED a secret identity on Earth? They say she’s given the serum that protects her from lead, so she’s basically indestructible here!
She’s then contacted by all the then-current Legion girls, in an overt homage to Action Comics #276.
Notice the first ever use of Triad as a codename for Triplicate Girl: it will be the codename of her Reboot equivalent, as well as of a 5YL character too complicated to explain right now.
So Laurel auditions for the Legion, and she’s immediately smitten by Brainiac 5.
I’m guessing because he already has the receding hairline of a 40 year old.
They also bond about being descendants of L.E.G.I.O.N. members.
Laurel then has to demonstrate her powers. I’m not counting the other people around as Legion rejects, by the way, since there’s no way to tell who is auditioning and who is just watching.
I love that we’re keeping the goofy details from the original!
Too bad the stunt exposed her to lead. It’s going to be pretty hard for the Legion to come up with a way to save her life, right?
We then have a little mission involving R.J.Brande’s cousin.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Brainiac 5 is not in the Legion’s Espionage Squad.
The team is lead into a trap, but they’re saved by Laurel’s boobs of steel.
Words cannot express just how much better this issue is on the strength of the artwork alone.
The story is pretty standard, but just look at how expressive the characters are finally allowed to be!
And we end the flashback with the start of the romance between Laurel and Brainy.
With the flashback over, Roxxas now discovers that Earth’s government has hired a private investigator to catch him.
Because, and I can’t emphasize this enough, the Science Police is completely useless.
All while a green energy thing is moving through space.
The hired private investigator is Celeste Rockfish, who you might have forgotten is part of the cast now since SHE HASN’T DONE ANYTHING.
And we close with Shrinking Violet… another one who hasn’t done anything yet… angsting about the fact that she’s about to meet Cosmic Boy for the first time since the war.
I had to look at the “previously” paragraph in the letters page to figure out that the Dominators have taken over Earth’s government.
Maybe it’s just me, but I completely missed this… sure the Dominators were shown to be manipulating things, but to the point of taking over the government?
In the text pages, we have a cute extract from what I assume is the 30th century equivalent of a site gossiping about celebrities.
So is she called Triplicate Girl or Triad? Make up your mind!
Neat to see that in-universe Legion superfan Flynt Brojj (you might remember him from Superboy #209) still exists in the 5YL timeline. Given the era, I’m assuming he ends up dying gruesomely.
Props for the artwork for actually depicting Laurel as significantly taller than other Legionnaires, though.
The flashback FINALLY brings some varied to the layouts! All pages with The Grid are from Giffen, with the sole exception of 1 page in the flashback that uses a 6-grid layout; the rest includes a lot of variations.
The Grid: 7 pages out of 25
6 pages with an imperfect grid
7 pages with no grid
0 splash pages
2 text page
Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #10 (1990)
story by Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Keith Giffen & Al Gordon
pencils and cover by Keith Giffen
That was kind of fun! Now let’s go back to our regularly scheduled depression party.
We begin on Winath (Lightning Lad’s planet), where apparently all resorts name their wings after Legionnaires. But never using codenames because this era hates them for some reason.
It’s also where the various sub-teams are converging, leading to a heartwarming reunion between Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad.
It would hit differently if any of them were recognizable, but still, not a bad scene.
Lightning Lass is also selling the Legion Cruiser. Surprising she kept it THIS long; given the era, I expected it to be sold for scraps much earlier.
For a moment I wondered if this was supposed to be Invisible Kid II or Chameleon Boy…
…but I’m guessing this is Roxxas? Is he talking to himself now?
White Witch is still too traumatized to do anything besides watching videos of her old adventures, in case all these reunions were making you miss the depression.
Adding to the ever-increasing cast are reporter Devlin O’Ryan (who, again, hasn’t done anything so far) and the mysterious Bounty that he’s brought along.
She has a VERY confusing history tying her to the Legion that we’ll eventually explore.
All while Chameleon Boy and Shrinking Violet are sharing a sauna. We’re already at page 7 and still no sight of a plot.
Until Roxxas meets up with Lightning Lord, who has been living at his brother’s estate.
And if you’re expecting the over-the-top madman of Volume 3… now he’s just a regular guy, because Roxxas is crazy enough already for the whole book.
Then Roxxas gets into a fight with Bounty. We still have no idea of what he’s capable of, and we’ve been BARELY introduced to her, so what are the stakes here?
Especially since this version of Roxxas doesn’t have any powers, so Lightning Lord shouldn’t have ANY problems dealing with him.
But no, the supervillain who used to be able to fight multiple Legionnaires at once is bested by a guy who owns a gun.
I do like him shooting through the panels and LL jumping through them, though, FINALLY a creative use of The Grid.
Honestly I find this version of Roxxas to be extremely lame… he just tries TOO hard to be edgy.
But I did find this gag to be truly excellent.
Sorry if I gave you the impression that the plot was moving forward.
Finally Element Lad notices the plot! Considering that Roxxas is the guy who WIPED OUT HIS CIVILIZATION, why has the Roxxas plot revolved around Lightning Lad this whole time???
Seriously, Roxxas IS JUST A GUY. How does he keep getting away with this!?
He then attacks Celeste Rockfish. Who this whole time has been talked up as this amazing private investigator but, once again, hasn’t done ANYTHING up to this point.
Roxxas is so insane that Saturn Girl is overwhelmed when reading his mind.
Can someone please, PLEASE take care of this creep? You all have superpowers and HE’S JUST A GUY!
Even if he was Batman this would be ridiculous!!!
We’re informed about the results of the Roxxas assault through the news.
And already it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense: would the news even report about Bounty? I get Celeste Rockfish since she’s quite famous, but Devlin O’Ryan is just a journalist that was around.
A little fanservice for all Dominator fetishists. I’m not judging… well okay, I might judge A LITTLE.
Well at least they confirm in-story that they control Earth’s government.
Oh come on, are you kidding me!? Roxxas evaded the Legion AND the United Planets AND the Dominators??? This is ridiculous!!!
The green energy thing from last issue is still going. Just in case you were worried about the plot moving too fast.
And we close by following the adventures of an archeologist (no relation).
Specifically it’s the return of Matter-Eater Lad, who has brough with him Calorie Queen from Superboy #212 and the return of weird alien money from the Hamilton era.
Legit question: how many of these characters have done ANYTHING so far???
The Grid: 22 pages out of 24
no pages without a perfect grid
0 splash pages
2 text page
Legion significance
#9: 8/10
Future stories will needlessly complicate Laurel’s history, but having her as a stand-in for Supergirl’s stories in earlier eras begins here.
#10: 2/10
The apparent death of some Legionnaires is the basis of new plots, and for Celeste Rockfish this leads to her receiving powers because… honestly it’s quite confusing, but we’ll get there.
Silver Age-ness
#9: 7/10
As a by-product of adapting moment from the Silver Age proper.
#10: 0/10
Even the funny money at the end isn’t enough to increase the score, with all the violence around.
Depression scale
#9: 0/10
It really says something that the story that begins with A CHILD’S PARENTS BEING MURDERED IN FRONT OF HER is the least depressing issue so far.
#10: 7/10
It wouldn’t be much if it wasn’t for White Witch being utterly psychologically broken.
Does it stand the test of time?
#9: 8/10
The highest praise I can possibly give to this story is that, while I really don’t care about Laurel as a character (she’s pretty much a blank slate here), I would rather continue reading the updated flashbacks than going back to the main plot.
#10: 2/10
Let’s start with the positives: this is WAY easier to follow than the previous issues, in that I can FINALLY understand what’s going on. The negative? It’s mostly because barely anything happens.
Way too many characters are just standing around with nothing to do. We’re supposed to care about two of those, Celeste Rockfish and Bounty, despite knowing nothing about them!
Roxxas also feels flat as the major villain. As I’ve said way too many times, I have a REALLY hard time buying him as a legitimate threat to the Legion… in the closest place they currently have as headquarters, too!
We are legion
The Legion is still officially disbanded.
0 active Legionnaires
0 reserve members
43 resigned members
10 deceased members
53 people have been members
51 people have been rejected
Interesting letters: you can credit or blame the Bierbaums for issue 5.
Angelo’s letter (which I’m cutting for brevity) brings up one of the points I made last time: that Glorith’s involvement wasn’t sufficiently explained.
And also, proof that the series was overestimating the reader’s familiarity with L.E.G.IO.N.
To the comic’s defense, Glorith’s generic role doesn’t seem to be a problem for most readers for what I can tell, so maybe Angelo and I are in the minority.
But I seriously question the “we’re not pushing L.E.G.I.O.N. here” answer: if you don’t want to plug the book, don’t put important plot points in another book!!!
Or is the fact that the person responsible for creating the Legion ORIGINATED IN ANOTHER BOOK, or that a Legionnaire died and was transferred to another book, not considered to be important enough to care???
Doubling down on this point:
What do you mean “it’s our interpretation” about whether Mon-El is from the “real” universe or from the pocket one? YOU’RE WRITING THE BOOK, PICK ONE!!!
Erik is not going to like the rest of 5YL.
There are a few letters from new readers published here and there, and going by the responses the book wasn’t doing too bad. But I agree with Scott’s letter here (again, cut for brevity).
It doesn’t help that the letters praising the new series are kind of aggressive towards the older fans.
(again, cut for brevity; sorry but most of these letters are very long)
And finally: this explanation makes no sense whatsoever.
In the new timeline the Time Trapper never existed, right? So he couldn’t have created the Pocket Universe, which is a BIG problem for Superman because there were VERY important storylines originating there. Most notably the post-Crisis Supergirl is from the Pocket Universe, but also it’s the whole reason why Superman left Earth and met the Eradicator… who is instrumental in bringing him back from the dead.
If the Time Trapper is still around after Glorith restored the universe… it still makes no sense for him to create the Pocket Universe if he doesn’t need Superboy for anything.
It’s a complete mess. Although it’s funny to see how for once it’s a Legion story that messes up Superman’s continuity, instead of the other way around.