Now that Legionnaires has reached the end of the Bierbaum run, the rest of the series will mostly revolve around the time travel shenanigans of Zero Hour.
While the full origin of the so-called “SW6 Batch” Legionnaires won’t be told for a bit more, at least thanks to LSH #53 we know that they are not clones like it was originally thought.
So I think this is a good time to examine the original idea of them being clones created by the Dominators and put in stasis for years.
I’m only talking about the in-universe explanation, by the way, leaving aside the original plan of using the Legionnaires series to re-tell old Legion stories.
Is it possible to identify a single point in time from which ALL these characters could have been taken?
Given that Ferro Lad is one of the Legionnaires, that already gives us a narrow window: he must have been taken between Adventure Comics #346 where he was introduced and Adventure Comics #353 where he dies.
But we can narrow it down further: Lightning Lad has two organic arms and Matter-Eater Lad is not obese, so they must come from after Adventure Comics #351 where their previous status quo is restored.
That’s a very close window now. There are only 3 potential moments to choose here:
A) between Adventure Comics #351 and #352
B) during Adventure Comics #352
C) during Adventure Comics #353
Option A is the one with the least problems (for now… more on that later).
Option B could also be true, even if it’s the first part of the Sun-Eater storyline: the first scenes of #352 establish the Fatal Five, and while the SW6 didn’t give any explicit mention of having already met the Fatal Five during the first issues of Legionnaires (unless I missed something)… it’s a possibility.
There’s also a missing opportunity here: in #352 several Legion members are said busy in “dimension QK-51” (whatever THAT is)… some of those missing ARE part of the SW6 batch, so if they WERE supposed to be the originals they could’ve said that the real ones never came back from QK-51.
I doubt the Legionnaires could have been taken from the second half of #352, otherwise a few would have asked what happened to the Sun-Eater immediately after waking up.
Option C is the least likely, because Adventure Comics #353 doesn’t have a clear point where the story is interrupted long enough.
But even given these possibilities, there is a potential additional clue: Laurel Gand.
While she’s a completely new character, she IS supposed to be the equivalent to Supergirl… who returns to active duty in the finale of Adventure Comics #351, even if she’s not in the Sun-Eater storyline that follows.
So there you have it. Pretty straightforward, right? The Legionnaires were most likely either cloned right after Adventure Comics #351 ends, or at any rate their duplicates have memories that get up to that point.
Except… we have a big problem.
The Proty retcon.
Because the Lightning Lad that joins the Legionnaires (before he changes his name to Live Wire) is supposed to be the ORIGINAL Lightning Lad: thanks to the retcon, the one who was resurrected had Proty’s mind.
Saturn Girl acknowledges in LSH #33 that the SW6 Lightning Lad doesn’t sound like the one she remembers from her immediate past, suggesting this is the original one before his “death”.
Except this is completely irreconcilable with the idea that he was picked up after Adventure Comics #351, considered he died in Adventure Comics #304 and was resurrected in Adventure Comics #312.
It’s outright impossible for the SW6 Lightning Lad to have been cloned or picked from time THAT early, because his memories don’t match AT ALL with the people he interacts.
He wouldn’t know a lot of the other SW6 kids! Element Lad was introduced between his death and his resurrection, as was Light Lass: obviously he’d still know her (she’s his twin sister!), but she wouldn’t get gravity powers until Adventure Comics #317.
And the Shooter characters (Projectra, Karate Kid, Ferro Lad) would be introduced even later.
So since clearly he MUST have memories that go past Adventure Comics #312, we have few scenarios left… and I don’t think any of them make much sense.
SCENARIO A: the clones
If the SW6 Legionnaires are clones, they were cloned shortly after Adventure Comics #351, which is where their memories end.
Lightning Lad, however, also maintains the memories of what Proty was doing after taking over his dead boy. SOMEHOW.
As mentioned this was dismissed by LSH #53, but while it was considered a viable scenario it would have needed to consider the Proty retcon.
SCENARIO B: the switcheroo
If the SW6 Legionnaires are the original ones, they were kidnapped (potentially when some of them were in “dimension QK-51”) shortly after Adventure Comics #351, which is where their memories end. We have been following clones for all the years after that.
Lightning Lad, however, had the mind of Proty erased and transplanted into a cloned body, SOMEHOW, and for years we have been following the LL clone with Proty’s mind.
But also, SW6 Duo Damsel is able to recover her third body: while this could make sense if she was a clone, if she’s supposed to be the original it means she WAS kidnapped after Adventure Comics #351, but her body is healed in order to give her back her Triplicate Girl powers
SCENARIO C: the time duplicates
This is suggested from the revelations of LSH #53.
The SW6 Legionnaires are time-displaced versions of the originals, kidnapped or copied shortly after Adventure Comics #351, which is where their memories end.
Lightning Lad, however, requires two sub-categories… as does Duo Damsel.
She ALSO causes problems here, because she lost her third body in Adventure Comics #340 but regains her Triplicate Girl powers.
This gives us TWO sub-categories!!!
C-1: Lightning Lad and Duo Damsel were was kidnapped or copied at the same time of the others, but he had the mind of Proty erased while maintaining his memories while her body was healed in order to give her back her Triplicate Girl powers
C-2: Lightning Lad was kidnapped or copied before his death in Adventure Comics #304, but had the memories of Proty from #312 to #351 transplanted into the new body. Duo Damsel was kidnapped or copied after Adventure Comics #351, but her body was healed in order to give her back her Triplicate Girl powers AND she was given her memories from #340 to #351.
SCENARIO D: nobody thought this through
Yeah that’s probably it.
