Let’s finish the 1993 stories, before 1994 changes the Legion for years.
Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #51 (1993)
by Tom McCraw & Cristopher Taylor
cover by Stuart Immonen
With a title like “Unchained”, who could possibly be the villain?
We begin with Cocheta, the daughter of Charma, using her powers on males in order to escape. Notice that we’re back to have Takron-Galtos as the space prison, and we have a bit of Interlac here and there.
She’s stopped thanks to the intervention of Sara Cusimano. Ether she’s a relative of GiGi Cusimano or they forgot her first name.
The issue is a bit of a spotlight on Ivy, who you might remember is a kid who was introduced as a friend of Kent Shakespeare.
I can’t take her seriously with that look. That thing coming out of her head is supposed to be a leaf, considering she has plant powers, but to me it looks like she always has toiler paper stuck on her head.
That’s not a gender-bent Timber Wolf. That’s the new look of Celeste Rockfish, because even if Giffen is gone we are not done with characters being unrecognizable.
She has befriended Mara Williams, who has gained superspeed thanks to Dominator genetic manipulation. You’d think she was being introduced as a potential Legionnaire, but she’ll go nowhere.
Celeste has been in this book since issue 6 and she gained powers in issue 12, and WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT HER POWERS ARE.
As you have already seen, the artwork is pretty terrible in this.
But its worse offence is turning Grimbor into a poor copy of Cable.
Making S&M Reed Richards look that boring is QUITE an accomplishment!!!
It’s been a while since we’ve seen him, but remember that THIS is what he used to look like.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kind of miss the Bierbaums right now. With their weird horny plots, at least Grimbor would not have been boring!
He will later show up on Legionnaires, so we’ll see.
With the adult Legionnaires prisoner, Ivy leads a mission of superpowered kids.
Mara Williams gets freed, disabling Grimbor’s armor and allowing him to be beat up by Kent Shakespeare.
I remind you that Grimbor used to be such a threat that it took the entire Legion to fight him.
This whole thing REALLY looks like an introduction to make these characters Legionnaires, but they immediately fade into the background.
This is especially jarring for Mara, who even gets her own text page.
2 pages with The Grid
20 pages without a grid
1 splash page
1 text page
Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #53 (1993)
written by Tom McCraw
pencils by Stuart Immonen (present) & Cristopher Taylor (flashbacks)
cover by Stuart Immonen
The cover advertises a spotlight of Timber Wolf. Will he finally get a decent story after so long?
One of the highlights of the issue are the flashbacks returning to the pre-5YL years.
Unfortunately, they have atrocious artwork.
We even get a flashback to Timber Wolf’s origin story.
Needless to say, John Forte did it better.
When you draw characters more stiff than JOHN FORTE’s, that’s a bad sign.
Thankfully the scenes set in the present are by Immonen, who is the saving grace of this period.
I can’t believe how fast the series is sidelining Mara.
I don’t know if she could have become a better character than Spider Girl, but at least I hope she might have done SOMETHING beyond constantly annoying Ultra Boy.
Meanwhile the flashbacks play Timber Wolf’s greatest hits.
Golden rule: don’t remind readers of better stories. This is making me want to drop the book and re-read the GDS again.
We do get something new from the flashbacks: Timber Wolf’s childhood.
Between the previous issue and this one I’m not just asking myself if Christopher Taylor has drawn a child before, I’m questioning if he’s ever SEEN a child before.
It’s neat to learn something new about Timber Wolf, but basically it boils down to “his parents were constantly fighting”.
But the most important flashback BY FAR is the one that FINALLY tells us what happened during the gap!!! Most importantly, the “Black Dawn” event that has been referenced multiple times.
Turns out it was Doctor Regulus trying to turn down the Sun.
It’s a throwback to the last issues of Volume 3, including the awful costumes and the fact that Sensor Girl upstages Dream Girl so much that SHE is given prophetic powers!
At least until a page later, where two important things happen: Timber Wolf is exposed to a lethal dose of solar radiation, and the Sun is about to die.
Wildfire had to sacrifice his life in order to keep the Sun from dying.
While it’s great to finally get SOME context for what the characters already knew, it’s a pity this is rushed in a couple of pages in a flashback. Why not do a full issue set in the past and really explore it?
But as we saw last time, Wildfire has mysteriously returned from the dead.
Without telling everyone a new secret that won’t be revealed until the end of this era.
I guess that focusing on the Black Dawn flashback too much would have prevented several pages of flashbacks to scenes we’ve already seen done by FAR better artists.
In the one bit that I actually liked, turns out that Lightning Lass visited Timber Wolf while he was in a coma and slowly transforming into Timberwolf.
They had stopped being a couple long before this, but they’re still friends and teammates and it’s about time they show it.
But after 22 pages (!!!) we finally meet a plot for the team.
Too bad we can’t focus on that, because it’s FREAKING GLORITH AGAIN!!!!
I would be more willing to buy this narrative of “if we defeat either of them, the other one gets more powerful” if:
A) Glorith hadn’t been defeated like six times already in this continuity
B) both villains didn’t thoroughly suck every time
no pages with The Grid
23 pages without a grid
1 splash page
no text pages
Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #53 (1993)
by Tom McCraw & Stuart Immonen
I hate this character so much.
I had to check multiple times if I lost a chapter. But from what I can tell, we really do start the issue with Glorith using her time powers against Brainiac 5.
She’s wiping the floor with the Legion…
…until she tries to use her powers against Devlin.
You might remember that he has the power to reflect any attack, so Glorith ends up deleting herself from the timestream. First Mordru, now her… is there ANY type of attack Devlin can’t reflect!?!?
The rest of the issue has a… weird structure.
Two thirds of the page follow the Legion’s fight with Glorith set BEFORE the start of the issue, while the bottom third shows Glorith’s past from her perspective.
In the interest of clarity, I’m following Glorith’s part first.
I like the stylistic choice of keeping this section in black and white, and I have to imagine this was done because at this point the Legion’s history would have been incomprehensible to new readers.
Even more impressive, this issue has FOOTNOTES!!! I feel like they’ve been missing for ages.
It is kind of impressive that the Pocket Universe still managed to stick around, despite the moratorium from the Superman editors from ever mentioning his connection to the Legion.
While this flashback doesn’t outright SAY the origin of the SW6 Legion, it sure looks like they’re linked to the Time Trapper.
There is an official statement that the SW6 Legionnaires are NOT clones, however.
Why is this revealed here and not in the Legionnaires series, which STARS THESE PEOPLE!?!?
This flashback ends with Glorith being killed by her own attack, reflected by Devlin.
We are not done with her however, because:
A) I still have to cover her appearances in the Valor series that run parallel to this
B) she will be back, because this era wants to kill me
So now we go BACK before the mission even started, with the Legion finding out that Matter-Eater Lad seems to be backing the Khunds.
Followed by the Legion arriving at Glorith’s planet. If there was a point in showing this sequence of events out of order, it’s lost on me.
Wildfire is the first one to actually land a hit on Glorith, who discovers his secret. We don’t.
Still no word on Celeste’s powers, which is just nuts. She’s BLATANTLY using Green Lantern powers, what’s the hesitation on saying it!?
Glorith eventually gets serious, aging Celeste into a corpse and turning Kent into a child.
Cosmic Boy ALMOST gets to use his powers, thanks to some gizmo from Brainiac 5.
He’s managed to go without powers since ISSUE ONE; I believe that’s some record.
But he’s still kind of useless. It’s incredible how the series started by positioning him as the rock (pun intended) of the Legion, but he hasn’t done anything for like forty issues.
We eventually circle back to Glorith deleting herself.
Not the best ending to a fight, guys.
I sure am glad we focused on Glorith the whole time, instead of following the United Planets framing the Legion as Khund collaborators.
The issue ends with a teaser of the changes done by Glorith to the Legion.
no pages with The Grid
23 pages without a grid
2 splash pages
no text pages
Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #53 (1993)
by Tom McCraw & Stuart Immonen
Since this is advertised as “first issue of a brand-new era”, did DC really believe this was the relaunch needed to save the Legion?
Well we begin with a recap that is completely unreadable thanks to the stars in the background.
I have good feeling about this.
Changes made by Glorith include making Brainiac 5 very old…
…Lightning Lass slightly older, so slightly that you can barely tell…
…cure Timber Wolf, make White Witch young again despite never having been old…
…and making Devlin a teenager? How old was he supposed to be!? He was even a love interest for SW6 Shrinking Violet, to the point that she might still be thinking of him as her boyfriend!
Also Celeste is now green. It’s a good thing her name isn’t literally a shade of a different color, or this could be confusing.
Ah, well, that makes sense. WHAT ARE HER POWERS???
Ultra Boy finally, and I do mean FINALLY has had enough of Spider Girl constantly be horny for him. Time and place, lady!!!
Ah, my bad, White Witch is a teenager now.
Brainiac 5 is so old that he needs an ugly exoskeleton to move around. I find it ridiculous that there isn’t a better way to handle this in the 30th century.
I am considering Kent Shakespeare in sick leave now, since he’s too young to be in the Legion.
Devlin is later confirmed to have been left behind, so I’m counting both as sick leave.
While aging Lightning Lass accomplishes nothing, this was a good scene.
Meanwhile Ultra Boy wants to go into the past to escape this mess of a book to look for Phantom Girl.
Spider Girl is offered membership, but doesn’t say yes right away.
Oh no, Wildfire, keeping track is such a mess already that I am NOT taking you out of the membership count!!!
The Legion ship is stopped by the authorities, but I guess Immonen was so bored that he decided to just do a two-page spread of empty space.
Worryingly, the Legion Academy is helping the Science Police with the arrest.
Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen. Taken out by nobodies and former Subs.
So yeah, the Legion has been arrested.
Wait, on the left… is that a Gil’Disphan without a protective sphere!?
This has all been part of Universo’s plan. Honestly, given how many times he’s taken control, New Earth has no excuse by now.
So now the Legion is disbanded AGAIN.
Even people “associated” with the Legion are placed under surveillance… which apparently also include Projectra, despite being sovereign ruler of her own planet!?
Good thing Universo is dumb enough to keep Brainiac 5 in a prison with several pieces of tech. Even the 5YL Brainy isn’t THAT useless, so OF COURSE he escapes!!!
Eventually the Legion retreats…
…which sounds like a GREAT moment to argue about the chain of command.
Ultra Boy is still SO done with this series that he can’t wait to leave.
I feel you, buddy.
The big idea of this relaunch is that, since the Legion is officially disbanded, the heroes will need to disguise themselves.
The Legionnaires will continue to ignore the main series like nothing happened.
The escaped Legionnaires need to barter for new clothes, and White Witch uses her sex appeal to get a discount.
Well she IS Dream Girl’s sister.
Cosmic Boy’s new look. An upgrade from looking like the Punisher’s understudy, but it’s not a big step.
The team is called to help Ultra Boy, but we end with another teaser splash page of the new looks.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d even take SOME of the Volume 3 looks over this.
no pages with The Grid
24 pages without a grid
2 splash pages
2 double splash page
no text pages
Legion significance
#51: 0/10
A strong contender for the most forgettable issue of the 5YL era.
#52: 6/10
We finally learn what happened during the Black Dawn event. It’s not as influential as it sounds.
#53-54: 8/10
The confrontation with Glorith and its fallout are the basis for nearly all the rest of the run, but we also have the confirmation that the SW6 Legionnaires are not clones.
Silver Age-ness
#51: 3/10
Grimbor being defeated thanks to a bunch of kids is a bit Silver Age.
#52 and 54: 0/10
Not really.
#53: 6/10
Devlin’s power takes out the main bad guy AGAIN!?!?
Depression scale
#51: 0/10
Fluff.
#52: 0/10
Despite revisiting Timber Wolf’s trauma, it’s not for its own sake and he does find hope and humanity thanks to Lightning Lass.
#53: 6/10
While the big bad is ineffective to an almost comical degree, it’s ultimately a meaningless victory: the Legion wins almost by accident, they’re in bad shape, and most importantly since they wasted time with Glorith the Khunds keep conquering worlds.
#54: 7/10
The heroes can’t stop public opinion from being manipulated for the hundredth time, fail to stop Khund atrocities, and even their long time friends don’t believe them.
Does it stand the test of time?
#51: 3/10
Bland story with bad artwork. Please tell me I’m not the only one to see that toilet paper on the kid’s head.
#52: 4/10
There’s some good dialogue between Timber Wolf and Light Lass, and the Black Dawn flashback has some interesting drama. If the issue focused on either of those it could have been great, but we waste SO much time with horribly drawn flashbacks and stall for time.
#53: 5/10
I swear Glorith ruins everything. While narrating the story out of sequence was confusing and the black&white flashback ultimately went nowhere, at least they were creative choices.
But the action scenes were uninspired, the changes felt random and poorly explained, and the characters really struggle finding chemistry.
#54: 4/10
The Legion being hunted by the authorities is a time-honored tradition (how many times has Universo done this already!?). But something isn’t clicking for me: the Legionnaires seem to be going through the motions. Too many members are thinking only about themselves and Cosmic Boy’s leadership is a joke.
The less said about the atrocious new looks the better… too bad I will HAVE to talk about it next time.
We are legion
While the Legion is declared disbanded, they are clearly still operating so the count continues.
Spider Girl never officially confirms her membership so she’s not currently included.
Technically speaking Wildfire was considered dead by all Legionnaires for the first 50 issues, but since the reader didn’t know this I’m not retroactively adding his death.
33 active Legionnaires. Of these, 20 are in the “Legionnaires” team
1 presumed dead (SW6 Mon-El)
2 in sick leave (Kent Shakespeare and Devlin O’Ryan)
5 reserve members
28 resigned members
18 deceased members
83 people have been members
68 people have been rejected
And that wraps up 1993.
Next I will start looking at the 1994 stories, which despite being the last year in this continuity (and not even completely, since the era ends in September of the same year)… it’s going to be absolutely packed with very dense stories.
As a consequence, with a couple of exceptions, I’m mostly done covering multiple issues in the same review.
I would like to apologize to my readers for rushing so much through this era, as I’m fully aware that I’m not giving it the same level of attention of the other reviews and that the quality of the reviews is not at the same standard.
But believe me, most of the 5YL has been an absolute torture for me.