Retro Review: Valor By Fleming, Waid, Busiek, Bright, Doran & Others Springing From Legion Of Super-Heroes For DC Comics!

Valor #1 – 23 (November 1992 – September 1994)

Written by Robert Loren Fleming (#1-8, 10), Mark Waid (#9, 11-19), Kurt Busiek (#20-23)

Pencilled by MD Bright (#1-4), Jeffrey Moore (#5-8, 10-13), Paris Cullins (#9), Colleen Doran (#14-23)

Inked by Al Gordon (#1-2), Trevor Scott (#3-6), Brad Vancata (#4-5), Ray Kryssing (#7, 9), Ron Boyd (#8), Mike Sellers (#10-13), Mischa McDowell (#14-19), Mark Farmer (#15), Colleen Doran (#17, 20), Dave Cooper (#20-23)

Colour by Eric Kachelhofer (#1-8, 10), Tom McCraw (#9), Dave Grafe (#11-23)

Spoilers (from twenty-six to twenty-eight years ago)

It’s wild to me that there was a time when the Legion of Super-Heroes could support two monthly titles, and a solo ongoing series.  When Keith Giffen and Tom and Mary Bierbaum rewrote the Legion’s continuity and timeline, they replaced Superboy as the Legion’s inspiration with Lar Gand, formerly known as Mon-El, but now known as Valor.  In the 30th century, many worlds heralded Valor as their founder, after he led the human victims of Dominion experimentation to worlds that would help them nurture their new abilities. A thousand years later, when Valor made his way to the 30th century, he discovered that he was universally revered.

The Giffen/Bierbaum run doesn’t do all that much with Valor, and we don’t get to know him very well at all.  We did, however, get to see his younger self when he became a recurring character, for a while, in LEGION ‘89 (or maybe it was LEGION ‘90), the book that explored the lives of some of the ancestors of the Legion of Super-Heroes, also co-written (at least at the beginning) by Keith Giffen.  This was before Lar Gand took on the mantle of Valor though.

Finally, in 1992, Gand took on that name, got involved in the fight against Eclipso, and then landed in how own series.  The thing is, I remember almost nothing about this comic. I remember liking it when it started and being annoyed that Valor’s costume is different from his usual frumpy one.  I remember that this title cycled through a few different creative teams in a hurry, and then as DC led into the Zero Hour event that erased the Legion again, the title crossed into the other Legion titles, and then ended.

It had a short life, but at times a good one.  Does it hold up now? Let’s find out…

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

Valor

• Lar Gand (20th Century teenage Lar; #1-17)
• Lar Gand (30th Century SW6 Lar; #17-21)
• Lar Gand (30th Century adult Lar; #22-23)

Villains

• Lex Luthor Jr. (#1-3)
• Eclipso (#1)
• The White Spider (#3, 10)
• Kanjar Ru (Warden, Starlag II; #5-7)
• The Unimaginable (#6-8, 10)
• Packard (#9)
• The Time Trapper (#11-12, 23)
• Warlords of Baaldur (#15)
• Glorith (#16-19, 21, 23)
• Khunds (#18-19)
• Dominators (#20)
• Krinn Magar (pre-Braalian War-Leader; #20-21)
• Mordru (#23)

Guest Stars

• Superman (Clark Kent; #1, 14)
• Dr. Bruce Gordon (#1)
• Supergirl (Matrix; #1-3)
• Lobo (#3-4, 12)
• Vril Dox (LEGION; #4, 12)
• Phase (LEGION; #4, 12)
• Stealth (LEGION; #4)
• Strata (LEGION; #4, 12)
• Lydea Mallor (LEGION; #4)
• Snapper Carr (Blasters; #5-8)
• Dust Devil (Moshe, Blasters; #5-6, 8)
• Frag (Fritz, Blasters; #5-6, 8)
• Jolt (Carlotta, Blasters; #5-6, 8)
• Gunther (Blasters; #5-6, 8)
• Churljenkins (Blasters; #5-6, 8)
• Amos (Blasters; #5-6, 8)
• Mrs. Levy (Blasters; #5-6)
• Looking Glass (Dexter, Blasters; #6, 8)
• Willa Farr (#8)
• Darkstar Chaser Bron (#9)
• Triad (Legionnaires; #11, 13-19, 23)
• Catspaw (Legionnaires; #11)
• Kilowog (Green Lantern; #11)
• Garryn Bek (LEGION; #12)
• Brainiac 5 (Legionnaires; #13-19, 23)
• Saturn Girl (Legionnaires; #14-19)
• Cosmic Boy (Legionnaires; #14-17, 19)
• Wonder Woman (Justice League; #14)
• Green Lantern (Hal Jordan, Justice League; #14)
• Guy Gardner (Justice League; #14)
• Maxima (Justice League; #14)
• Flash (Wally West, Justice League; #14)
• Dragonmage (Legionnaires; #15-18)
• Alchemist (Legionnaires; #15-19, 23)
• Ultra Boy (Legionnaires; #15-17, 19, 23)
• Matthew (Linear Men; #18-21)
• Hunter (Linear Men; #18-21)
• Liri (Linear Men; #18-21)
• Waverider (Linear Men; #18-21)
• Dev-Em (#22)
• Andromeda (Legionnaires; #22)
• Drura Sehpt, formerly Infectious Lass (Legion of Super-Heroes; #22)
• Stone Boy (UP Academy; #22)
• Colour Kid (UP Academy; #22)
• Jacques Foccart, formerly Invisible Kid (Legion of Super-Heroes; #22)
• Tasmia Mallor, formerly Shadow Lass (Legion of Super-Heroes; #22-23)
• RJ Brande (Legion funder; #22)
• Marla Latham (Brande Industries; #22)
• Fire Lad (UP Academy; #22)
• Computo (Danielle Foccart, Legionnaires; #22)
• Troy Stewart, formerly Tyroc (President of New Earth; #22)
• Rokk Krin, formerly Cosmic Boy (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Brainiac Five (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Luoruno Durgo, formerly Duplicate Girl & Triplicate Girl (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Imra Ardeen, formerly Saturn Girl (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Garth Ranzz, formerly Lightning Lad (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Tenzil Kem, formerly Matter-Eater Lad (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Nura Nal, formerly Dream Girl (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Gossamer (Legionnaires; #23)
• Jan Arrah, formerly Element Lad (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Thom Kallor, formerly Star Boy (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Ayla Ranzz, formerly Lightning Lass & Light Lass (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Superboy (Clark Kent; #23)
• Inferno (Legionnaires; #23)
• NRG, aka Wildfire (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Lydda Jath, formerly Night Girl (#23)
• Dream Girl (Legionnaires; #23)
• Virus, aka Shrinking Violet (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Shrinking Violet (Legionnaires; #23)
• Star Boy (Legionnaires; #23)
• Matter-Eater Lad (Legionnaires; #23)
• Apparition (Legionnaires; #23)
• Celeste Rockfish (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Chuck Taine, formerly Bouncing Boy (Legion of Super-Heroes; #23)
• Bouncing Boy (Legionnaires; #23)

Supporting Characters

• Babbage (Pilgrim One’s AI; #3-11)
• Alia (Green Lantern; #5-11)
• Lori (#12-15)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

• We open with an image of Lar Gand being pulled on by five Eclipsos; he’s actually sitting with a psychiatrist who is showing him Rorschach ink blots. He claims the image is actually of a butterfly.  The next he is shown makes him think of Eclipso’s moon base, where during the Eclipso: The Darkness Within event, he was made to be Eclipso’s slave for months. He remembers fighting, and being defeated by, Superman while under Eclipso’s control, and then rescuing Dr. Bruce Gordon, who was in the process of destroying Eclipso’s base.  He claims that the image is that of a flower though, and the doctor challenges him. She drops the ink blot cards, and he picks up one that makes him think of his father. He opens up to the doctor, explaining that back on Daxam, he and his father used to play a game called Paragon, which is much like Chess, together. His father was often away, but when together, they would play.  The last time Lar saw his father was the day it became clear that he would win his first game. His father left without allowing his son to win, and left on the Earth mission that led to his death. The doctor tries to get Lar to cry, but he is of the view that to do so wouldn’t be manly (at this point, it’s interesting to think that a Daxamite would respond to Earth methods of therapy).  With the session over, the doctor joins Lex Luthor Jr. (this is the era where a young man with a red beard and pony tail was in charge of Lexcorp – I have no real memory of whether or not this is the same Lex Luthor that is always a villain, or a different character). The doctor tells him that Lar is physically healed, but still traumatized from the Eclipso ordeal. Lex shows her a large yellow spaceship, claiming it is his solution to his Lar problem.  Lar has snuck the one ink blot out of the doctor’s office, and looking at it, hears Eclipso’s voice say the words “Lunar City), which makes him throw up. He leaves the facility (Lex sends a drone to follow) and flies to a jungle in South America where some Eclipsos (I don’t remember how that works) have created a Stonehenge like structure made of magnets. Eclipso turns it on, and it begins to pull the Moon towards the Earth. Lar uses a new feature of the disks on his costume to retract his cape (wouldn’t it catch on his neck?), and begins to fight.  Since these Eclipsos aren’t real people, he cuts loose, until he is captured in Eclipso’s black light. Eclipso gives him a black diamond, which should allow Lar’s anger to provide Eclipso control of him, but it doesn’t, as Lar does not feel any animosity towards his father any longer. The sun rises, and the Eclipsos retreat. Lar sees the structures around him as Paragon pieces, and starts to smash them, while yelling at his father for never coming back, and for not being more proud of him. Lex deems this pathetic, and calls for Supergirl (this is the Matrix version) to go get Lar for him.
• Lar is taking the wreckage from Eclipso’s machine and fashions it into a gigantic Paragon piece, with an eternal flame, as a tribute to his father, who he has decided he forgives.  Lex is watching this on a screen, and worries that Lar could derail his plains, which is why he’s sent Supergirl after him. This is the first part of Lex’s plans for Lar. Supergirl shows up and introduces herself to Lar, who is impressed by her.  He shows her his work, and tries to show off his flying skills. She’s not impressed, and tells him that Lex has sent her to get him. He gets upset by this, and then Supergirl blasts him with her psycho-kinetic energy, sending him falling into the ground.  She rushes down to make sure he’s okay, and he pulls her to the ground and won’t let her up. She blasts him again, at full strength, and sends him flying into the sky. As he falls back down, she hits him with a tree trunk, knocking him into the memorial he just built.  She apologizes, as the structure collapses on both of them. Furious, Lar chases her, as she starts heading back home. When Lar finally catches her, he sends her spinning towards a mountain. She is able to stop herself, but he can’t, and they both get knocked into the rocks.  Lar is fine, but Supergirl uses her invisibility to hide from him. Then, she changes shape to look like Lex, and tells Lar to take her home. They arrive at Lexcorp, and Lar says he owes Supergirl an apology for losing his temper. He enters the facility, and finds the real Lex waiting for him, which confuses him a little.  Lex tells him he needs Lar’s help to get the big yellow spacecraft we saw before off the ground. Lar interprets this to mean the ship belongs to him, and he gets very excited. Later, Supergirl begins to put back together the memorial Lar built for his father.
• Lar is in space, flying his yellow spaceship, the Pilgrim One, and is under attack by seven enemy vessels.  He turns on his AI, Babbage, and they try to figure out how to get themselves out of this situation (the ship isn’t programmed for evasive action).  The ships, led by a pirate called The White Spider, manage to surround Lar’s vessel in something called a “vicious circle”, which allows them to use their tractor beams to immobilize him.  Lar is unable to shoot them at the angles they’ve chosen, but he does manage to use his own tractor beam to crash into one of the ships, freeing himself from the others. He decides to make a warp jump to Cairn, where he figures being in LEGION space will protect him.  Babbage is concerned, as Lar makes the jump based on guesswork, putting them at risk of flying into a sun or something. The White Spider’s ships follow. Now that they are safe in warp, Lar decides to narrate to Babbage the story of how he got the ship. Basically, when Luthor Jr. gave him the other big yellow ship, he took it apart and built this vessel out of it.  Luthor’s people weren’t happy to see what he’d done to their work, but Lex let him leave in it. As he left, Supergirl came by, and Lar heard them talk about how she found him cute but was only interested in Lex. Once in space, Lar was surprised to learn of Babbage’s existence (which doesn’t make a lot of sense if he built the ship). Telling this story puts Lar to sleep, but Babbage wakes him once they’ve reached their destination.  They come out of warp in an asteroid field, and Lar maneuvers his way through it, aiming for Cairn. The White Spider’s ships also arrive, and the feedback from their drives shorts out his system. He surrenders, but when one of them fires on his ship, denting it, he feels he has no choice but to go into space to fight them. He damages some of their ships, and the Spider and another fly away. As he inspects his ship for damage, Lobo shows up, and calls The One a ‘sissy cruiser.’  Lar punches him in the face.
• Vril Dox, the leader of LEGION, watches on a vid screen as Lar and Lobo fight.  Vril is on a new LEGION space station. Phase joins him, and is surprised to see what’s happening.  She notices that some of the pirates that attacked Lar before are repairing their ships, and she heads out to help and arrest them.  Lar calms down and tries to apologize to Lobo, which leads to four tedious pages of Lobo imagining various cartoonish punishments he can heap on our hero.  In the end, Lobo decides he wants to trash Lar’s ship, which escalates things. Babbage flies the ship away from Lobo, but he follows, with Lar following him.  He uses his flash vision (here it’s called Laservision, which is not canon) to mess with Lobo’s bike, and the fight is back on. Lar tosses Lobo towards the space station, causing Dox to realize he needs to deal with this problem himself.  As Lobo fights Lar, he causes a lot of damage to the station, until Dox comes out in a space suit and tells him to stop. Dox figures Lar is there for the anti-lead serum. A few days later, we see that Lar has worked to fix the station. Babbage returns with The One, and they head to Cairn.  There, Lar sees his former LEGION colleagues, Phase, Stealth, and Strata. Dox gives him more anti-lead serum, but Lar wants another favour. He wants to be able to fix the minor damage done to The One, and to get a warp telemetry unit. Dox agrees to help him. Lar meets some of the other LEGION folk, including Lydea Mallor, the daughter of the deceased Lyrissa Mallor (they seem impressed with one another).  Phase warns Lar that Dox can’t be trusted, and suggests he have his serum tested. Later, Lar is happy to see that his ship is fixed, and Dox tells him he installed the warp unit himself. Lar thanks him and leaves. Dox tells Lobo that he pre-set the warp drive to send Lar to Starlag II, a prison in a system where he won’t have access to his powers. We also see that Lobo tagged The One with the words “Lobo Rules”.
• Jeffrey Moore became the regular artist with issue five, and I feel like his art is an improvement.  Lar is surprised to find his ship flying through a wormhole, but Babbage explains that Dox has programmed him to fly directly to Starlag II, the massive prison that is close to a red sun, rendering Lar powerless.  Babbage manages to send out a distress call before being locked out of control of the ship. The ship is brought into the station by a tractor beam. When Lar exits it, the floor falls away beneath him, and he is dropped down a tunnel.  He’s able to stop his fall by bracing himself against the sides of the tunnel, and uses the last of his fading strength to smash a robot waiting for him. Something hits him from behind and he falls. He wakes in an octagonal cell, and tries to push his way through a pink membrane that covers one wall.  He gets caught in the stuff, but his head exits the cell. He meets Kanjar Ru, the warden of the station. She explains that he’s been charged with stealing a LEGION warp drive telemetry unit, and that it was Vril Dox himself that reported the theft. Lar tries to explain he’s innocent, but we see that every being there claims the same thing.  He’s tossed back into his cell, which he learns is shared with an old Green Lantern (whose name is not given) who has been there for a long time. The GL mentions something called the Unimaginable, but doesn’t explain. Somewhere else, the Blasters, the team of powered humans and a renegade Dominator led by Snapper Carr is starting to think that their mission to go around the galaxy and help folks is a failure.  They are voting on what to do (this sequence is tough because I don’t have a clue who any of these characters are, despite having read Invasion recently) when they receive Babbage’s distress call. The green-skinned girl (Carlotta? Churljenkins?) thinks Lar is cute. They decide to try to rescue him. A loud noise on Starlag II manages to turn on Babbage, who accesses the station’s schematics. He is curious about the Unimaginable, and feels that investigating it is part of his mission to study new life forms, so he somehow manages to fly out of the station.  The noises made by the Unimaginable wake up Lar, and he’s scared when he hears an emergency alert going out across the prison.
• The Blasters arrive at Starlag II, and Gunther, the Dominator, sends a code making the people running the prison believe that they are there for legitimate reasons.  They are shown a video that outlines the prison’s features, and after fooling around for a bit, get ready to rescue Lar Gand. Two of the Blasters – Churljenkins and Amos, pose as Gunther’s prisoners, until they learn how to open the cells, at which point Amos uses his mental powers to convince the guard escorting them that he is in fact a prisoner.  Lar paces in his cell, which irritates his cellmate. The Warden and some guards leave the wing of the prison where the Unimaginable is incarcerated. They don’t notice that Babbage has piloted the Pilgrim One, Lar’s pretty big ship, through the corridors and is hovering above them. Babbage pilots the ship through some closing doors, tracking the Unimaginable’s signal.  He notices that the walls have become organic. The Unimaginable is an energy being, like a small sun, that is being held in a living crystal cube that it is constantly eating away at. Somehow, the Pilgrim One is pulled against the crystal, and it starts to grow tentacles that attack the cube (I have no idea what’s going on here). Snapper and Fritz teleport into the prison.  Snapper makes Fritz angry, because when he gets angry he explodes. He blows up Starlag II’s outer weaponry, which creates a distraction for all the guards. The rest of the Blasters watch what’s happening through Looking Glass. Gunther, Amos, and Churljenkins figure out what cell block Lar is in. Snapper teleports everyone to them, and the station starts shaking, likely because of the Unimaginable.  Some guards find the Blasters, and there’s a fight. Snapper and Amos make their way to Lar’s cell, and free him and the Green Lantern. Another explosion happens (not because of Fritz). Kanjar Ru starts yelling about the Unimaginable, but is knocked down when an odd-looking alien identifying himself as Doctor Bendorion tells them that he’s destroyed the Unimaginable.
• Issue seven opens with Lar being approached by Pilgrim One, which has grown tentacles that try to grab him.  Somehow, Lar’s powers return just as he’s about to be crushed, and he manages to fight off the tentacles and get into the ship.  Inside, he can hear the tentacles battering at the door. He starts to talk to Babbage, who explains that it inadvertently freed the Unimaginable, which can control inanimate objects, which is how it grew tentacles out of the ship.  Seeing the Unimaginable almost fried Babbage’s “mind”. The tentacles stop banging on the door, so Lar checks outside and sees that the ship is back to normal. He starts to pilot it, and tells Babbage what happened to him in the last issue and before this one started.  When Doctor Bendorion appeared in front of Kanjar Ru she ordered him captured, which is when Lar slipped away looking for his ship. Now, he flies it through Starlag II while trading weird banter with Babbage. They come across a corridor where many guards are fused into the strangely patterned walls.  Lar sees the old Green Lantern, sleeping, and wakes him up. The GL is surprised to see how powerful Lar is, and explains that Bendorion was the Unimaginable, and attacked the guards and breached the hull of Starlag II. Lar pilots his ship into the hangar where they first arrived, and he sees the Blasters fighting the guards some more.  He flies over to help them, and Snapper tells him that he should go after the Unimaginable. Kanjar Ru turns on Starlag II’s self-destruct or something. Babbage flies the Pilgrim One out into space, and they figure that the Unimaginable is on his way to blow up the system’s red sun.
• While Lar, the GL, and Pilgrim One have made it off Starlag II, it looks like there’s very little time before the Unimaginable makes the system’s sun go nova.  The Blasters are still on Starlag II, and fight their way to their ship. Looking Glass captures one of the guards as the team get on their ship. Coming back out of the mirror dimension, he claims that the Blasters are too late, as Kanjar Ru’s started the countdown sequence.  Gunther confirms this, but they don’t know what the ship is counting down to. The Blasters are not able to escape before the docking bay door closes, and they can’t blast their way out. Dust Devil tells Snapper that his mother is not on board. Babbage receives a signal from the Blasters, but they aren’t able to go help their friends, as Starlag II changes its configuration into a large spaceship, and warps away.  Babbage wants to warp away too, but Lar has detected two life signs on a small moon, and wants to rescue them before the star goes nova. They land on the moon, and while the GL sleeps, Lar goes out to find a small spacecraft. A pink dragonish character (about the size and shape of the X-Men’s Lockheed) sticks its tongue into Lar’s eye; the creature is a salt cretin, and there’s a woman who is trying to capture it because it’s the last of its kind.  Lar helps her for a few pages of silly cartoonishness that lasts for more than half an hour. The woman finally introduces herself as Willa Farr. Lar’s powers start to return again (what’s up with that, anyway?), and Willa realizes he’s a Daxamite. Lar manages to catch the salt cretin, and Will puts it in a container and boards her ship, warping away. Lar returns to Pilgrim One, and they launch just as the star goes nova.
• Issue nine reads like a fill-in issue, except that two issues after writing this, Mark Waid becomes the new regular writer.  Lar is fighting some pirate-types on a world where everyone is kind of purple. When he defeats them, everyone praises him, but it bugs him that a pretty girl doesn’t seem interested.  Someone explains to him that the pirate types work for someone named Packard, and that the people like Lar more than they do their usual champion, a Darkstar named Chaser Bron. Just then, Chaser Bron arrives in a ship with some more captured pirates.  He’s a big beefy guy with a pinkish tone to him. The people tell him that Lar is a challenger to Bron’s role on the planet, and when Bron yells at him, Lar, wanting to look good in front of the girl, mouths back, and decides to challenge Bron. It’s then that Lar learns the girl is Bron’s daughter.  Later, on his ship, Lar talks to Babbage and the Green Lantern about how he doesn’t want to stay on this planet and be its champion. Lar, in his typical goofball fashion, ends up talking himself into the challenge more than out of it, until the GL points out he’d have to stay on the planet the rest of his life.  On the day of the challenge, Lar makes a bit of a speech, looking for a graceful way to bow out of things, but Bron tosses a massive boulder at him. Lar’s temper gets the best of him, and he starts to fight as if he wants to win. As they fight, Packard shows up on a flying cannon thing, and blasts them both, figuring he can now pillage the town.  Lar recovers quickly, and starts to fight the pirates. Bron, meanwhile, has disguised himself as one of the pirates, and trashes the cannon before Packard can turn it on the town (that he wants to pillage, and so presumably not destroy). Afterwards, Lar and Bron make peace, and as he flies off, he turns back and sees the girl smile at him.
• Lar is piloting Pilgrim One, and White Spider and his pirates are pursuing him.  Lar decides to avoid his usual response, and instead try to play a game of chicken with White Spider, convinced that will cause him to back off.  The Unimaginable appears in White Spider’s ship, in the Doctor Bendorian form, and kills him, and then pilots the ship right at Lar’s. Lar evades him, and the ship hits the other pirates’ two vessels, destroying them all.  That’s when Lar and Babbage realize that they were really facing the Unimaginable. Lar fires on it, which gives it the ability to follow the path of his blasters into the ship. The Unimaginable grabs the old Green Lantern, wanting to settle a score, and has Lar’s seat contain him (Lar feels his powers slip away again).  We learn that the Unimaginable killed the GL’s child, and see a vision of young Ran-Dee running and calling for his mother when the sun explodes in the sky above him. The GL rejects this version of events, believing Ran-Dee died instantly. The Unimaginable restores youth to the GL, and we learn that she is in fact female.  Basically, she returned to her world to find it scorched after the Unimaginable destroyed the sun. The being revealed itself to her, and she revealed herself to also be an energy being, and encased the Unimaginable with her lifeforce, which rendered her unconscious. Later, some other aliens found them, and recognizing that they needed to be kept together, put them both in Starlag II.  The Unimaginable teleports itself and the GL to a moon, leaving Lar behind. Lar looks like he’s getting sick, but Babbage assures him that Dox’s anti-lead serum was normal. On the moon, the GL discovers she can’t release her energy form again, and is attacked by the Unimaginable. Lar flies down to help, but can’t control his flash vision properly. He possibly kills or disperses the Unimaginable, and picks up the GL to take her back to the ship (he feels bad he never realized she was a woman).  His powers undergo a spasm and he passes out, with Babbage calling his name.
• Mark Waid took over the title as writer with issue eleven, and he opened it in the 30th century, with Legionnaire Triad looking at a hologram of Valor and sighing.  Catspaw asks about him, and Triad explains how Lar Gand worked to populate the worlds that many Legionnaires came from, before being exiled into Limbo by Glorith, until he could be rescued by the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century, and join them (interestingly, Bouncing Boy is shown as being part of the team when Valor joined; I guess the Dominators didn’t think he was worth cloning, as this whole Legion became the SW6 batch.  Triad also explains that a few weeks prior, Valor was lost in the time stream. In the present, Lar is shown wrecking a console in Pilgrim One by mistake. He’s recovered somewhat, but can’t seem to control his powers. Babbage informs him that the ship is damaged and can’t make it far without repairs. Lar is worried about the Green Lantern, and suggests that they can go to Oa. Babbage agrees they can get there, but they’ll have to go through several wormholes to make the trip.  As Lar looks at the GL, his heat vision kicks in. When he closes his eyes, his enhanced senses go wild, and as a way of managing all the noise, he starts smashing everything on the ship. The GL calms him down somehow, and he’s happy to see that she’s okay. Babbage points out that the ship is heading into a meteor swarm, and doesn’t have any shields. When Lar tries to steer, he wrecks the stick. He decides that the GL has to pilot the ship, since she doesn’t have super strength.  As he exits the ship to smash the meteors, she tells him that her name is Alia. Lar clears the path, and then decides to head to Oa on his own to get help. On Oa, Kilowog is training three new Green Lanterns. He sends one to catch a falling star, that turns out to be Lar. The Lantern immediately attacks him, and the others pile on for a bit, before they all capture him. He tells them he needs help with his ship, which comes barrelling at them (I guess they’d already gone through the wormholes?).  The Lanterns can’t do anything, because the ship is yellow, so Lar has to grab it and stop it from crashing into the planet. He manages, and then rushes into the ship, bringing out the injured Alia. Later, Alia thanks Lar for helping her, and he explains he’s heading back to Vril Dox for help with his powers. Kilowog tried to repair Pilgrim One, but ended up rebuilding it into a much smaller ship, that he calls Pilgrim Two. Lar is happy enough with it, especially once Babbage comes back on line, and they head off to Cairn.  Somewhere, the Time Trapper laughs at the fact that Lar is going to Cairn.
• The D.O.A. arc begins in issue twelve, with the Time Trapper watching what’s going on with Lar.  Lar is wading his way through LEGION headquarters on Cairn, looking for Vril Dox. Stealth, Strata, and Garryn Bek watch him, and Phase explains how Dox had Lar sent to Starlag II.  Strata isn’t able to stop Lar, whose powers are out of control, and neither is Lobo, who gets punched right into orbit. Dox comes to talk to Lar, and calms him down and gets him to agree to some tests.  He can tell that Lar’s strength is fluctuating wildly. He asks about Lar’s senses, but the youth flies off quickly (through a wall), rushing to help a woman being attacked by a dinosaur-like thing. He saves her, and she introduces herself as Lori (it’s already obvious that she is probably Glorith, but I don’t actually remember that).  She explains that she was working with some explorers who were excavating some ancient caverns and found two prehistoric “dinobeasts” that were woken up and attacked. Lar can’t find any proof of where they came from, but right then the other dinobeast attacks, and Lar has to use his full strength to fight it. Lori has to help at one point, and eventually, Lar uses his cape to choke the poor creature.  Lori tells him she feels safer staying with him, so they return to LEGION HQ. Dox tells him that his lead serum has failed, and he suspects something accelerated its lifespan. He tells Lar that he has only one month to live. Lobo shows up wanting a rematch, but Dox gets rid of him. Garryn Bek asks Lar his plans, and he says he wants to return to Daxam, at which point Garryn tells him something about his homeworld that he didn’t know (it’s kept from the reader), and Lar rushes off again, but then loses his flight powers and crashes to the ground.
• Lar and Lori are flying the Pilgrim Two to Daxam (there is no sign of the Babbage AI), and Lar is certain that he’s not going to die from lead poisoning.  He figures that the doctors on Daxam can cure him, although he doesn’t know why his planet has cut off all communications with the rest of the galaxy. They have to fight their way through the planet’s automatic defenses, which is only possible because Lar’s anti-lead serum somehow preserves his powers even under Daxam’s red sun (this is the same serum that is failing and in previous issues is causing him to lose control over his powers, but don’t pay attention to that, I guess).  As they land, they see large riots in the main city. Lar’s neighbourhood, meanwhile, is empty, and he finds a quarantine sign on his house. He heads to the Science Center, where he learns that some plague has hit, and that it has an eighty percent fatality rate. He goes to see Kir Vorn, who appears to be an important person he knows at the Center, where he learns that some of the Daxamites who returned from the Earth Invasion brought with them an alien they found in distress, who they believe was carrying the disease.  The alien has now escaped. Lar has a theory about the disease, but Kir doesn’t want to hear it. Instead, Lar and Lori go looking for the alien, as they know that the Daxamites are going to kill him. Lar is sure that the problem is lead poisoning, but he figures if there is lead on the planet, he can use his telescopic vision to find it, as that’s the only thing he can’t see through (it’s worth noting that before he was looking for his family, but couldn’t find them, even though that same telescopic vision would probably be helpful in the search).  The crowd hunting the alien is setting fire to everything, so Lar pauses to rescue two people. He figures out that the alien’s ship, which is in the Science Center, is made of lead (he figures that some of it must have burnt up in the atmosphere, and blanketed the planet with lead particles). He finds the alien hiding within it, but being next to it makes him weaker. He wraps the ship with other metals, and tosses it into the sun. He sends Lori to explain to Kir what happened, and he goes to his brother Del, in an infirmary. Del, who expects to survive the poisoning, takes him to their mother, who is dying.  Lar and her have a moment before she passes. Lori comes to comfort him (who is this girl again?), and he tells her that now he believes he will die. In the thirtieth century, Triad is looking at Valor files again, and talking about him with Brainiac 5 when everything goes black and white for a moment, and the computer suddenly has no records of Valor or Lar Gand.
• Triad starts freaking out that the Legionnaires’ computer has no record of Lar, while still displaying a hologram of his image.  Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl try to figure out what’s going on, and Cosmic Boy joins them, wondering if they also felt the energy-wave he just felt.  They talk about how Valor is their inspiration, and then the computer does find records of him, as a minor hero from the twentieth century only. Brainy heads to a time bubble to get some answers.  Somewhere in, presumably, Africa in the 20th century, Lar saves a guy dressed like Mowgli from a lion, and then impresses Lori with his humility. Together they fly to New York, while Lar talks about how he wants to get help from Earth’s heroes to fix his medical condition.  He finds the Justice League (Wonder Woman, Maxima, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and the Flash) in battle against some high tech guys. Lar dives into the fight, and Flash notices that he’s not at full strength. They start to turn the tide of battle, and even Lori, who was left on a rooftop, gets to take one out with a solid kick.  A massive vessel rises from the river and blasts Lar. Falling, and losing strength, he decides to fly right through it, destroying it. Flash fishes him out of the water, while Jordan rounds up the attackers. Maxima reads one’s mind, and discovers that they are from the distant future, and don’t know why they are there. They all suddenly disappear.  Lar points out to Lori that this is just like the dinobeasts from before. Guy notices that Lar is unwell, and he explains his lead poisoning situation. The League says they can’t help, and Wonder Woman asks if there isn’t anyone else on Earth who might be better suited to assisting. Lar floats outside Lexcorp’s headquarters for a while, debating going to talk to Lex, when Superman comes to see him.  They go flying for a while, and talk about Superman’s recent return from death, and the need for hope. Superman takes him back to Lori, who is waiting with the Pilgrim Two (I’m not sure why they were in Africa if their ship has been in New York or Metropolis all along). Lar decides not to talk to Lex, and instead he and Lori head out to space. Lar wants Lori to pick the worst place in the galaxy, and he says he wants to spend his last week trying to make it better.  Lori kisses him, and the ship continues its journey.
• Valor is on Baaldur, Lori’s world (in case you weren’t convinced that she’s really Glorith yet), where he is working to put an end to generations of civil war.  There is some Lawrence of Arabia type scene happening in a desert, and he stops that battle by dragging a huge plow through the desert, bringing water behind it.  He’s tired (he is still dying), but Lori is impressed with his start. He moves on to another battle and gathers up the combatants’ guns, melting them all. In the time stream, the Legionnaires have to explain to Dragonmage (why bring him?) who Valor is, even though he apparently met him during the Dominator war. The others (Brainiac 5, Triad, Saturn Girl, Alchemist, and Ultra Boy) figure that Jin’s poor memory is proof that Lar is being erased from the timestream, which makes many of their existences suspect.  Jo sees a wall in the timestream, and it looks like the Legionnaires’ time bubble hits it and shatters. Lar continues ending war on Baaldur by taking away the means to create more weapons, and working with Lori to fairly distribute food. They chat for a bit, and Lori encourages him to speak directly to the people about why they should abandon war. Lar starts broadcasting his message of peace around the world, but also realizes that each warring city-state has control of a small nuclear arsenal. He doesn’t know how to get rid of these missiles, but has an idea.  He starts kidnapping the rulers of each state, which makes them all angry. Lori points out that this has angered all the rulers. Lar’s plan involves letting all the warlords know where exactly in space he’s hanging out. They fire their missiles at him, and he gathers them and tosses them in the sun. Another big missile comes along, and detonates. Lori thinks Lar is dead, but he’s fine (although his shirt got shredded, his pants are intact). The people of Baaldur start chanting Valor’s name, and Lori suggests that he become king (remember, he has only a couple of days left to live at this point).
• Lar dreams that he’s healthy again, and that things are going well with him and Lori, and then he wakes up emaciated and alone.  His new Baaldurian servants are not much help as he goes looking for Lori, and while he’s getting weaker and sicker by the day, he thinks nothing of flying around the planet to search for her.  He spots her entering an energy vortex of some kind, which leads him to a strange land. He sees Lori and two others talking to a tall skinny figure in purple robes, who we should immediately recognize as the Time Trapper.  The Trapper is angry that these people have failed in their missions, and kills two of them by summoning weird creatures. Lar rushes to save Lori, but finds that he’s mistaken, and she’s an old woman missing teeth. The Time Trapper reveals that she is actually Lori, and she begins to make the appeal for him to join her.  Just then a portal opens, and the seven Legionnaires – Cosmic Boy, Ultra Boy, Triad, Alchemist, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, and Dragonmage – fall out. Lar assumes they are with Lori, and attacks them. The Legionnaires are confused, as they think he is their time-lost friend. Imra figures out that this is really the young Valor, before he met the Legion.  Ultra Boy, the only one strong enough to deal with him, attacks. Brainy tries to reason with Lar, but refers to the Legion, which Lar takes to mean LEGION, and he attacks Brainy, thinking he’s working for Vril Dox. Imra tries to calm him down, and then decides instead to probe Lori’s mind, where she learns that she is the bigger threat. She tries to get Jo to attack her while Jan and Rokk contain Lar.  Lori ages Jo and Imra, and then frees Lar. He asks her who she really is, and she reveals herself to be Glorith, the Legion’s enemy. She tells Lar that she’ll cure him, so long as he swears allegiance to her.
• With everything revealed, Glorith tells Lar that he doesn’t have much time left, and should accept her offer to be cured. Lar is in shock, having believed that “Lori” loved him.  Alchemist (who could probably cure Lar with his powers, really) tries to intervene, but Saturn Girl, who has been aged, tells the Legionnaires telepathically to stand down, suggesting that Triad triplicate, and have two of her selves slip behind Glorith.  Lar asks her how long she’s planned this, and she tells him about how she started to age the anti-lead serum while he was fighting Supergirl back in #2, and kept on eye on him as he started to lose control of his powers. She then came to Winath and conjured the dinobeast he saved her from.  She explains how she’s manipulated him all along, but also fell in love with him. She wants to rule the galaxy with him forever. As she talks, the Legionnaires prepare to spring into action, but she notices Triad in the reflection of a gem, and uses her powers on the two triplicates behind her.  The rest of the team attacks, but Lar tells them to stop. He grabs Glorith and flies away, leaving everyone to believe he is accepting her offer. As she flies off, the aged Legionnaires revert to normal, which they think is because she is not thinking about them (but that contradicts how her powers continue to affect the Legion in their own title, especially since she’s dead there).  Glorith continues to talk to Lar about her Edgar Rice Burroughs style visions of their future. The Legionnaires, left behind, argue a bit. Cosmic Boy begins to forget who Valor is, but Brainiac 5 believes that the laws of time make it impossible for things to change. Lar tells Glorith he’s not going to join her. The Legionnaires follow, but Cosmic Boy disappears. Brainy still feels like everything is going to be fine.  Lar starts to weaken, and appeals to Glorith’s better side, and asks her to put her love for him over her love for power. She refuses, and says she won’t cure him. She cries as he dies in her arms. The Legionnaires arrive, and Saturn Girl feels Lar die. Brainy goes a little nuts, accusing her of breaking time. Glorith says she can’t bring him back to life, but just then a vortex opens and another Valor, presumably the SW6 Valor who has been lost in the timestream, appears.
• It is the SW6 Valor, who entered the timestream back in LSH #37; he explains that his time bubble was destroyed, and that he has just emerged in this moment.  He recognizes the corpse of his younger self, and is suitably confused. He sees Glorith, and wants to hit her, as she is the reason he spent a thousand years as a phantom.  She explains that she is using her powers to keep all of time together at the moment. As Brainy tries to explain things, Dragonmage blinks out of existence. Valor doesn’t want the future to change so drastically (remember, without him colonizing a bunch of worlds, the Legion would never exist).  The problem is that, were Valor to relive his life again, it would mean spending all that time in the “twilight dimension” (which I thought we were calling the Bgtzl Buffer Zone now). The thought of that terrifies Lar, and he takes off. The Legionnaires want to go after him, and have Glorith send them somewhere where they can get a starship.  She sends them to the Pilgrim Two, and no one questions the fact that Valor flew away from a completely different place. Brainy claims he can use the ship to track Valor (despite the fact that the ship is one thousands years before any tech he’s used to), and there is still no sign of Babbage. They take off. At Vanishing Point, the Linear Men watch Lar, and decide that they don’t have to intervene.  As Lar is flying and thinking about how unfair his situation is, he almost gets hit by a torpedo. A big giant ship is chasing a small shuttle, and he realizes, when the big ship fires at it, that he should help out. He lets the torpedo hit him, and then repairs the shuttle. The big ship disappears, then reappears behind him. It hits him, so he throws an asteroid at it, but the ship appears to phase out of reality to let the asteroid pass through it.  The beings on the ship, recognizing how powerful he is, send out something called cybercloaks, kind of like space mantas, to capture him. Somehow, they are able to grab him and sap his strength. When he comes to, the person in charge of the big ship starts to unwrap him. The Legionnaires find Lar, and recognize that he’s in Khundian space, just as we see that a large Khund is holding him.
• The Linear Men endure another timequake, and realize that their only hope to save the time stream is to get the Valor who just arrived in the 20th century to live out his life again.  The remaining Legionnaires enter Khundian space, but Alchemist and Brainiac 5 blink out of existence, leaving just Triad and Saturn Girl to solve the problem. Lar shows the Khund that he was faking being captured, and attacks, pulling his ship apart from the inside.  The whole thing feels familiar to Lar, who is confronted by the Khund leader, who is now wearing a massive battle suit. Glorith struggles to hold the time stream together, and the Linear Men send Waverider to help change Valor’s mind. Lar keeps fighting the Khund, until he realizes that all the other Khunds have abandoned ship.  The leader feels disgraced, and retreats as well, although it’s not clear exactly how – does he teleport away? Saturn Girl reaches Lar telepathically, and tries to convince him to do the right thing. Lar wonders why everything always falls down to him, and then Imra disappears. Waverider arrives, and explains to Lar that he can patch him into the life he’s already lived, and thereby save the future.  He explains that Lar has already destroyed this experimental Khund vessel, and that he should do so again. Lar sees Luornu on his ship, and while he can’t hear her, he is able to intuit what she is telling him. He flies off, but then returns to smash the Khund ship. We are suddenly back in the 30th century, where Luornu, Imra, Brainiac 5, Ultra Boy, and Cosmic Boy all look at an image of Valor, but don’t remember why; it’s clear that time has been fixed.  We see Glorith crying over Lar. Waverider tells him that they’ve accomplished what they needed to do to temporarily protect time, but that now they need to complete Lar’s other tasks – freeing the human subjects from the Dominators, seeding them on many worlds, which Lar is to help them terraform, all in forty-eight hours (which makes absolutely no sense, but whatever).
• Unexpectedly (he’s not even credited on the cover), Kurt Busiek wrote issue twenty.  Valor has rushed to Elia, the homeworld of the Dominion, to try to complete his historic mission, which he has already completed in his past.  He smashes through Dominion forces, trying to complete his historic mission in only forty-eight hours (including the time it took him to get to Dominion space), although why the timeline has been accelerated has still not been explained.  As he fights, he talks about the importance of pleasing the Linear Men, which sends us to Vanishing Point, where Hunter advocates not supporting Valor. They detect a time-spasm in the thirtieth century, separate from what’s happening with Lar.  The only person that supports him is Waverider, who convinces Hunter to give him ten hours (which, given the nature of their powers, seems arbitrary and irrelevant). Waverider wants Liri to find Glorith. Lar, meanwhile, receives help from the Sub-Domina Underground (it wasn’t that long ago since I read Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2, so I understand all of this, but if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t).  Lar frees the first set of prisoners, the humans who would one day be settled on Braal. They come out of the Dominator tanks in much better shape than when Lar first rescued them, years from now, and it turns out they weren’t taken from Earth. Instead, they are a barbarian-type society, with their magnetic powers already intact. Lar tries to appeal to their leader, Krinn Magar, to let him take them to Braal, but instead, they want to take over Elia.  Lar tries again to convince Krinn, but instead they start fighting, and somehow Krinn is strong enough to hold off Valor. Lar tries to fight all of them, but takes a beating and gets knocked out. Later, he wakes up, worrying about how much time he’s lost. The Linear Men appear before him, and tell him that it’s too late, that he’s failed, and that they want to remove him from the timeline.
• The pre-Braalians go to the planet Shareth, destined to become a planet of peace and knowledge by the 30th century, and intend to take it for themselves.  Valor rushes to stop them, and using knowledge that he has from talking to Cosmic Boy in the future, he challenges war-leader Krinn Magar to combat. He doesn’t realize that this means he actually has to fight the command troika, three of the pre-Braalians, but really, that shouldn’t be so tough for Valor.  On Elia, the Linear Men still think they are talking to Lar, but it’s just an afterimage of him, because the timestream is getting weirder. They go looking for him. Lar keeps fighting the three guys, and suddenly starts splitting into multiple images of himself, that don’t act independently. The Linear Men show up, and all the pre-Braalians pile on them.  Since the fight isn’t going great, Waverider does something to make it so that all the Lars are independent, but also share the same consciousness. This makes it easy for him to take out Krinn Magar, and be declared the new war-leader. Lar figures that now that there are so many of him, he can complete his tasks, and the Linear Men stand down. We watch as he commandeers ships from Elia, drops the pre-Braalians off on Braal, which, with its vicious beasts, excites Krinn Magar.  After that, he does all the other things that he once took years to do (although I’m not sure how he got these small groups of humans to their new worlds so quickly), seeding the worlds that would become the UP, wiping the Dominators’ computers, and dropping off the diamond caste Dominators on the new worlds to help out. The Linear Men go to Glorith to get her to fulfill her part in all this. As the various Lars converge on her place (in the time stream itself?), they merge into a single Valor.  He tells her he’s ready, and is sent to the Twilight dimension (not the Bgtzl Buffer Zone). This doesn’t seem to be enough for the Linear Men, who are engulfed in green energy. Lar opens his eyes in the dimension where he knows he has to spend a thousand years, but it doesn’t feel so bad for him, as he knows that he’ll get out this time, and that he’ll see his friends again.
• Issue twenty-two is the second chapter of the End of an Era crossover, and it continues from Legionnaires #17, and carries into LSH #60.  Check the columns on those titles to get the full picture. Valor, the adult, 30th century, “original” Valor, is working with Dev-Em and Andromeda to try to fix massive structural issues that are causing New Earth to fall apart.  Inside, Drura Sehpta (fka Infectious Lass) and Jacques Foccart (fka Invisible Kid), both of the Legion of Super-Heroes, work with some of the UP Academy instructors (Stone Boy, Colour Kid, Fire Lad) to help rescue people. Tasmia Mallor, fka Shadow Lass, also uses her darkness to calm people down (because there’s nothing more calming than being plunged into darkness during a crisis).  As they all work, Valor recognizes that his memories keep changing. He gives a bit of a recap for readers – the three Daxamites and Tasmia were summoned to New Earth to meet with RJ Brande, who told them that the domes that make up the structure are too old to be maintained, and that the gravitational stress of their position threatens them. Brande’s solution is to pull the dead Earth from the pocket universe (honestly, I’m not even sure I could explain this at this point in time) into the position of the old Earth, so that New Earth can orbit it until such a time as it can be terraformed.  As New Earth is in trouble, there’s not much time, so these gathered heroes spring into action. This brings us back to the present moment, where we learn that the patch job the heroes did will hold for about twenty-nine hours. The heroes go to Brande’s space platform, where they learn that Computo (the Legionnaire, not the evil computer system she’s named after) has worked with Troy Stewart (fka Tyroc), the President of New Earth, to put together a device that will use Troy’s strange vocal powers to open a rift to the pocket dimension. The rift opens around Pocket Earth, so Computo sends the heroes there to drag it the rest of the way.  They fly down to plant anchors for their tows. While they do this, Andromeda mourns her older self. Colour Kid feels like things are ending. Shady calls Valor Mon, which confuses her, and then neither of them can remember if they are married. Lar starts to fade away, and Shady calls him Mon-El; he holds her hand and that brings him back. He says it felt like he was going back into the Bgtzl Buffer Zone (which I thought they were calling the Twilight Dimension now), but that Shady was his anchor. With the tow ropes all in place, the three Daxamites start pulling the planet through to our dimension. They manage to pull it through, but there is a matter-energy shift, which makes the planet’s core unstable, essentially making it a giant bomb, according to Computo.  Brande figures that things will be fine, as the gravity field from Pocket Earth is holding New Earth together. Brande figures they can figure out how to stabilize the core of the planet, but just then, Troy vanishes. Computo likewise fades away, as do Jacques, Drura, Andromeda, Fire Lad, Stone Boy, Colour Kid, and someone else who is probably Chlor, but is never named. Tasmia also starts to fade away, but Valor holds her, and as the Pocket Earth crackles with green energy, Brande asks what is happening.
• Issue twenty-three has the Zero Hour logo on the cover, and is the penultimate chapter of End of an Era, carrying on from Legionnaires #18, and leading to Legion of Super-Heroes #61.  At this point, this is only barely Valor’s book, as it features all of the surviving members of the Legion and the Legionnaires, and almost half of the issue is focused on Rokk Krinn’s meeting with the Time Trapper.  Valor and Tasmia are flying through space, trying to reach Talus to help their friends, although they can’t consistently remember them. We learn that Lar and Tasmia kept fading away, but then were able to bring one another back to reality due to their love for each other.  This time, when Lar fades, he’s not able to fight his way back, until someone else reaches from the timestream to help him. This person’s appearance is a surprise to both Lar and Tasmia. Rokk is confronted by the Time Trapper, who wants to talk to him. He explains how, when he first gained his powers, he saw a crisis in time, and to try to save the thirtieth century, created a barrier in time.  The Trapper explains that he’s always worked towards a noble goal. Mordru and Glorith, who have the powers of the Infinite Man, continue to fight the Legion. Valor, Shady, and Superboy (the original, young Clark Kent, not the 90s clone) arrive and join in the fight. The Trapper explains that he divided the Legion at what he thought was their greatest time, splitting them and tucking away the new versions (he admits that he did some fiddling, fixing Luornu and Garth), where eventually the Dominators found them.  This means that the SW6 kids are divergent beings, not clones. Superboy leads a strategy to bury Mordru, but it doesn’t work. Lar has an idea, and distracts Glorith by promising himself to her, so Superboy can knock her out. Her new powers leave her, and go into Lar, who grows in stature. The Trapper explains how he created the pocket universe as a safe home for his Legion, but then it was destroyed, and he kind of lost his mind for a while. He realized that it was having the two Legions that has weakened the timestream, but continued to get into it with the Legion in ineffective ways, that he partly blames on the ways in which time kept getting revised.  Something happened in Zero Hour that also affected him. Lar fights Mordru, but they are perfectly matched now, so neither is able to win or lose. Young Brainy suggests that Lar give up all of his power, sending it into Mordru, which he does. Mordru’s claustrophobia reacts strangely with his new omniscience, and as he starts screaming, all the energy casters attack him; he disappears. The Trapper explains to Rokk what his part is in things – that he is the centre of it all. The Trapper hopes that Rokk can correct his mistakes. Rokk is shocked when the Trapper removes his hood, revealing his true identity. On Talus, Brainy explains that Imra telepathically commanded to the core of the planet (which, given that they are on Talus, is really just old spaceships and probably not enough to actually contain him).  Imra explains that it didn’t work out like that, and that Mordru teleported instead to the core of Pocket Earth, which is set to explode, meaning that the threat is not over. Lar runs to Tasmia, who is badly hurt, and who disappears as she dies. Lar decides to stop fighting things, and also fades away. The rest of the team feels lost without him, but then Superboy gives them a good speech and lifts their spirits before he too disappears. The remaining Legion members and Legionnaires get ready to finish this.

This is a series that went through many permutations in the less than two years that it ran.  When it launched, it was supposed to be the story of how young Valor became the legend that, a thousand years later, would inspire the creation of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a change made necessary by Superboy’s retconned erasure from DC history (except for where and when he wasn’t retconned, which has itself been retconned, and is too confusing to go into here).  In the legends of the 30th century, Valor freed a number of humans who had been experimented on by the Dominators, giving them new abilities, and helped them to settle on a number of planets, based on their abilities. Eventually, these planets would become the basis of the United Planets, and they would revere Valor, which in turn led to the kids who became the Legion of Super-Heroes looking up to him.

The early issues, written by Robert Loren Fleming, and featuring Lar in his new outfit, were supposed to set him onto that path, but instead, they showed a kid who was quick to anger, weirdly obsessed with his spaceship (which we never saw again), and a little girl crazy.  He was manipulated by Lex Luthor, and then by Vril Dox, and never saw any of it coming. He got sent to a prison, and hooked up with the Blasters (who were never seen again), and an ancient Green Lantern (who was never seen again).  

It was hard to like this version of Lar, who seemed to embody the worst qualities of the teen years, without the nobility and purpose he would later adopt.  It was hard to see him becoming the teen and man we once knew as Mon-El, even with a thousand years of isolation to grow up in.

It felt like Fleming wanted to use this series to check in on a few corners of the DC universe, bringing back the Blasters (which I assume no one was asking for), but he wasn’t very successful at it.  I’m not sure what happened that led to Mark Waid taking over the title, but when he came on, the tone shifted quickly. I think it was obvious (at least from this place of hindsight) that Waid was tasked with setting the stage for the Zero Hour changes to come.

He had Lar resolve things with LEGION, and then hook up with Lori (who was obviously Glorith, right?) out of thin air.  Their relationship was not believable at all, unless it was as simple as him being a teenager and able to “do things” with her, so he was of course in love with her.  I do remember being surprised when Lar was killed off, and replaced with the SW6 Valor that went missing in Legion of Super-Heroes when he tried to go back in time to see when the SW6 kids were separated from the timeline.

What didn’t make much sense is that SW6 Lar was more or less the same age as the Lar that he replaced, who was then supposed to go through a few years of completing his incredible feats, before being caught in the Twilight Dimension.  If you know teenagers, you know that they get older, and look different over a very short amount of time. There wasn’t any real consistency to this, and it seems like it wasn’t thought out at all. Granted, you could say that about everything that was happening in the Legion family of titles in 1994.

Once Lar’s place in the timestream was fixed, and he entered into what would, I guess, be an infinite cycle (except that the Lar who emerges from the Bgtzl Buffer Zone or the Twilight Dimension, or whatever they call it) would then go on to be the original Lar that eventually gets split, with the SW6 version then eventually repeating this again, and my head is hurting.  Okay, after that, the series jumped up to the 30th century, where it sort of focused on the adult Valor, as the End of an Era storyline effectively erased the Legion that I love from the DC Universe.  

That means that in twenty-three issues, this series starred three different versions of the same hero.  Can you think of another comic that has done that? The best I can come up with is Walt Simonson’s Thor (Thor, Beta Ray Thor, and Frog of Thunder Thor).  It’s pretty unusual to work a series in this way, and it’s clear to me that when Robert Loren Fleming pitched and started on this book, DC’s plans for the Legion were going in one direction, and then later on went in another.

I loved the idea of Valor taking over for Superboy as the inspiration for the Legion, and as the architect of the universe’s future.  It gave him a lot of story potential, and I feel like almost all of that got wasted. I’d have much rather seen Lar struggle with his sense of responsibility on a grander scale, but that was never to be, in the mad rush to shut down and reboot the Legion’s entire history.

For a slap-dash series like this, the art was consistently pretty decent.  MD Bright and Jeffrey Moore are both fine artists. Colleen Doran’s work here was really interesting.  I’d forgotten that she was on this book at all, but reading this again, I think she was a great choice.  I’m just not sure she had the strongest of inkers. On the few pages that she inked herself, the art seems to come alive.  

After Valor’s series ended, the Legion were wiped out and rebooted.  That’s where I’m headed, after finishing my last column on the “real” Legion.

If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.

These comics haven’t been collected, so you’ll have to go hunting if you want to read them.