The Legion is doing its own thing in the early Reboot, not really interacting much with the rest of the DC Universe. Actual stories involving 20th century characters will come soon, but before that we have a baffling cameo.
Guy Gardner: Warrior #29 (1995)
by Beau Smith & Phil Jimenez
It’s the grand opening of Warriors Bar, owned by Guy Gardner.
The main cover is as boring as you can get…
…why didn’t they use the alternate cover as the main one?
That one is awesome!
I’m not familiar with this series. My first impression is that the only reason to check it out is the Phil Jimenez artwork, even though most pages are SO busy they almost give me a headache.
One of the reasons why it’s so busy is that it has cameos by EVERYONE.
It also seems to be more serious than your typical Guy Gardner story, but there are fun bits here and there.
If you’re wondering how there can even be a Guy Gardner series in the period where there was only one Green Lantern ring and he wasn’t the one wearing it… in this period, he was retconned into having alien ancestry and randomly given the power to generate weapons from his body.
Yeah I still don’t get it.
And FOR SOME REASON, Brainiac 5 is accidentally transported into the 20th century.
He doesn’t talk and nobody acknowledges his presence: he’s just handed a beer by Nuklon and then disappears back in the 30th century.
This is probably the most out-of-nowhere Legion cameo I’ve ever come across.
Brainiac 5 also appears to be using Doctor Doom’s Time Platform™.
Legion significance: 0/10
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
90-ness: RADICAL!!! / 10
Does it stand the test of time? GUY/10
Yeah I can’t give a proper score without doing a ton of research into this era, since I’m quite unfamiliar with it. I know of Guy Gardner’s new powers because of his cameos in other books; they’re quite interesting, but I don’t think they fit the character in the slightest.
I really like the idea of a bar catering exclusively to superheroes, but everything else in this book is REALLY hard to follow.
New Titans Annual #11 (1995)
written by Marv Wolfman & Greg Land
I had no idea Greg Land was even drawing comics in 1995, let alone doing covers for DC.
Given its quality, I’m not surprise he became infamous for bad tracing and plagiarism.
This book might have needed 3 inkers because it’s 56 pages long, but it could also be because it needed A LOT of work to attempt fixing Land’s pencils.
Case in point: Impulse was a member at this time, and I remind you that he’s supposed to be like about 14 years old.
But why am I even talking about this book? Because believe it or not, but this has the first appearance of the Time Trapper after Zero Hour!!!
He shows up in order to release the Titans who were “under his service” during Zero Hour.
No, I have no idea what he’s talking about.
He also delivers a lengthy infodump about time travel shenanigans.
I get the distinct feeling that I would be lost even if I was following the Titans of this period.
I guess the Time Trapper is involved because no matter the continuity, his hobby to mess with the lives of teenage and young adult superheroes is the only constant.
It’s weird to learn that the Time Trapper has built from scratch ANOTHER team of young superheroes… and never bothered to make them fight the Legion.
The highest significance for the Titans is probably the revelation that the Terra that was in this lineup is not from an alternate reality.
Legion significance: 0/10
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
90-ness: IMAGE / 10
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Marv Wolfman is a fantastic writer, but in this period he’s borderline unreadable.
The atrocious artwork and the convoluted backstory certainly don’t help.
There are SOME character moments here and there that still work, but overall… even for absolute completionists, there aren’t a lot of reasons for checking this out.
