Retro Review: The Legion Of Super-Heroes (Vol. 4) #81-100 & Legionnaires #37-56 By McCraw, Peyer, Stern, Moder, Moy & Others For DC Comics!

Legionnaires #37-56, The Legion of Super-Heroes (Vol. 4) #81-100, Legion: Secret Files and Origins #1 (June 1996 to January 1998)

Written by Roger Stern (LNR #37-43, 45-46, 48-53, 55-56, LSH #100), Tom Peyer (LSH #81-100, LNR #44, 47, 54, LSF #1), Tom McCraw (LSH #84, LSF #1), Mark Farmer (LSH #100), Ron Boyd (LSH #100), Paul Levitz (LSH #100)

Co-plotted by Tom McCraw (LNR #37-53, 55-56, LSH #81-82, 85-100, LSF #1), Tom Peyer (LNR #40)

Scripted by Roger Stern (LNR #40)

Pencilled by Jeffrey Moy (LNR #37-44, 46-55, LSH #89, 94, LSF #1), Lee Moder (LSH #81-88, 90-92, 94-100), Mike Collins (LSH #83, 86, 93-94), Paul Pelletier (LSH #86, 94), Philip Moy (LNR #45-46, 53, LSH #94), Jason Armstrong (LSH #94, 100), Derec Aucoin (LSH #94, 99-100), Stuart Immonen (LSH #94), Val Semeiks (LSH #94), Phil Jimenez (LSH #94), Walter Simonson (LSH #94, 100), Tom Grummett (LSH #94), Todd Nauck (LNR #56, LSF #1), Alan Davis (LSH #100), John Delaney (LSH #100), Adam Hughes (LSH #100), WC Carani (LSF #1)

Inked by WC Carani (LNR #37-55, LSF #1), Ron Boyd (LSH #81-94, 96-98, 100), Philip Moy (LNR #42-43, 50, LSF #1), Drew Geraci (LSH #91, 93-94, 100), Walter Simonson (LSH #94), Mark Farmer (LSH #95, 100), Ray Kryssing (LSH #99-100), Pam Eklund (LNR #56), Bob Wiacek (LSH #100), Larry Stucker (LSF #1)

Colour by Tom McCraw (LNR #37-56, LSH #81-100, LSF #1)

Spoilers (from twenty-two to twenty-four years ago)

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the (roughly) first half of the rebooted Legion’s first run, under the directions of Tom McCraw and Tom Peyer, with contributions from Mark Waid and Roger Stern. I remember being annoyed with this series, but the first batch was actually pretty good.

That still leaves me with trepidation as I enter into the second half of this run, as Stern replaces Peyer on the Legionnaire title, and I remember some lame characters (I’m looking at you Sensor and Monstress) end up joining the team.

I still bought all of it though, so maybe it can’t be that bad? I guess we’re going to find out…

One piece of housekeeping first. Legion of Super-Heroes flowed into the next issue of Legionnaires, and so on. Basically, they were one comic, kind of like how the four Superman titles read as one weekly story in the same era. They even put little boxes with numbers in them to help keep track of how the story flowed. Because of that, I’m going to write about both titles in one column, and will use the abbreviations LSH and LNR to denote which title I’m talking about. LSF refers to the Legion: Secret Files one-off that ends the column.

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

The Legion of Super-Heroes

Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn; LNR #37-40, 44, 47, 54, LSH #81-100, LSF #1)
Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen; LNR #37-40, 44, 47, 54, LSH #81-100, LSF #1)
Live Wire (Garth Ranzz; LNR #37-38, 40-45, 47-52, 54-55, LSH #81-84, 88, 91, 100, LSF #1)
Leviathan (Gim Allon; LNR #37, 39, LSH #81-83)
XS (Jenni Ognats; LNR #37-45, 47-53, 56, LSH #81, 83-84, 88, 91, 100, LSF #1)
Kinetix (Zoe Saugin; LNR #37-53, 55, LSH #81, 83-84, 88, 91, 100)
Andromeda (Laurel Gand; LNR #37, 46, 49-51, LSH #91, 100)
Chameleon (Reep Daggle; LNR #37, 39-52, 54-55, LSH #81-84, 88, 91, 100)
Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg; LNR #37, 39-42, 44-55, LSH #81-84, 91, 100, LSF #1)
Triad (Luornu Durgo; LNR #37-45, 47, 54, LSH #81, 83-84, 88, 91-100, LSF #1)
Shrinking Violet (Salu Digby; LNR #37-41, 45, 48-52, LSH #81-84)
Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox; LNR #37-40, 44, 47, 54, LSH #81-86, 88-100, LSF #1)
Spark (Ayla Ranzz; LNR #37, 39-40, 44, 47, LSH #81-100, LSF #1)
Star Boy (Thom Kallor; LNR #37, 39-43, 45-52, 55, LSH #81-84, 91, 100)
Gates (LNR #37, 39-40, 47, LSH #81-100, LSF #1)
Element Lad (Jan Arrah; LNR #37-38, 40-42, 45, 47-50, 52-55, LSH #81, 83-84, 91, 100, LSF #1)
Ultra Boy (Jo Nah; LNR #37-40, 47, LSH #81-100)
M’onel (Lar Gand, fka Valor; LNR#37, 40-43, 45-53, 56, LSH #82, 84, 91, 100)
Apparition (Tinya Wazzo; LSH #82-91, 93-100, LNR #40, 47)
Magno (Dyrk Magz; LNR #43-45, 47-53, 55, LSH #91)
Sensor (Jeka Wynzorr; LNR #43-53, 55, LSH #91, 100)
Umbra (Tasmia Mallor; LNR #43-45, 47-53, 55, LSH #91, 100)
Ferro (Andrew Nolan; LSH #93-100, LSF #1)
Monstress (LNR #52-53, 55-56, LSH #100, LSF #1)
Leviathan II/Violet (Salu Digby, fka Shrinking Violet; LNR #52-55, LSH #100)

Villains

The Empress (Fatal Five; LNR #37)
Doctor Regulus (LNR #39, 54, LSH #83)
The Emerald Eye of Ekron (LSH #83-84, LNR #40-41, 45, 48-50)
Mysa (LNR #41-42)
Density (LNR #44)
Tongue (LNR #44)
Phantom Lad (LNR #44)
Cherry Bomb (LNR #44)
Mantis Morlo (LNR #45)
Proteans (LNR #45)
Mordru (LNR #45-50)
Doctor Psycho (LSH #89-90)
Evisceratronic (LNR #47)
Chronos (LSH #91)
Kritter (Knight Shift; LSH #93)
Rockslide (Knight Shift; LSH #93)
Taser (Knight Shift; LSH #93)
Psych (Knight Shift; LSH #93)
Fangg (Knight Shift; LSH #93)
Doc 30 (LSH #93)
Parademons (LSH #97)
Mantis (LSH #97)
Kommandant Roxxas (LNR #54)
Tangleweb (LNR #54)
COMPUTO (LSH #98-100)
The Composite Man (LNR #55)
Khunds (LNR #56)
The Dark Circle (LNR #56)
Rarb (LSH #100)
Stheno (LSH #100)
Roderick Doyle (LSF #1)
White Triangle (LSF #1)
Grimbor the Chainsman (LSF #1)

Guest Stars

Dirk Morgna (LSH #81, 83, LNR #39-40, 43)
Insect Queen (Lonna Leing, Uncanny Amazers; LSH #82, LNR #49)
Atom’X (Uncanny Amazers; LSH #82, LNR #49)
Monstress (Uncanny Amazers; LSH #82, LNR #49-52)
Kid Quantum II (Uncanny Amazers; LSH #82, LNR #49-52)
Konk (Uncanny Amazers; LSH #82)
Inferno (Workforce; LNR #39-40, 47, LSH #83-96)
Spider-Girl (Sussa Paka, Workforce, LNR #39, 43, 49, 51, LSH #83-84)
Karate Kid (Val Armorr, Workforce; LNR #39-40, 49, 51, LSH #83-84)
Leland McCauley (LNR #39, 43, 49, 51, LSH #83-84)
Evolvo (Sev Tcheru, Workforce; LNR #39, 49, LSH #83)
Dreamer (Nura Nal; LSH #84, LNR #43, 45-46, 56)
Jimmy Olsen (LSH #85)
Maggie Sawyer (SCU; LSH #85)
Dan Turpin (SCU; LSH #85)
Superman (Clark Kent; LSH #85-86, 100)
Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner; LSH #86, 100)
Flash (Wally West; LSH #86)
Wonder Woman (LSH #86)
Lex Luthor (LSH #86)
Ferro (Andrew Nolan; LSH #86, 89-91, LNR #47)
Particon (Work Force; LNR #43, 49-51)
Blast-Off (Work Force; LNR #43, 49-50)
Radion (Work Force; LNR #43, 49-51)
Polar Boy (Brek Banin; LNR #43, 49, 52)
Night Girl (Lydda Jath; LNR #43, 49, 52)
Cahvey Cannus (LNR #43)
Splitter (Floyd Belkin, Heroes of Lallor; LNR #43, 49)
Dragonmage (Xao Jin; LNR #43, 46-52)
Stone Boy (LNR; #43)
Deadman (Boston Brand; LSH #87)
Rama Kushna (LSH #87)
Phase (LEGION; LSH #87, 94, 96-100)
Strata (LEGION; LSH #87)
Impulse (Bart Allen; LSH #88, 99-100)
Max Mercury (LSH #88)
Oracle (LSH #89, 99)
Mysa (LNR #46, 48-52)
Flash (Jay Garrick; LSH #91)
Flash (Barry Allen; LSH #91)
Kid Flash (Wally West; LSH #91)
Curt Swan (LSH #92)
Atmos (Uncanny Amazers; LNR #49)
Ingot (Douglas Nolan; LSH #93)
Captain Comet (LEGION; LSH #94)
Veridium (Metal Men; LSH #95-96, 98, 100)
Platinum (Metal Men; LSH #95-96, 98, 100)
Iron (Metal Men; LSH #95-96, 98, 100)
Mercury (Metal Men; LSH #95, 100)
Lead (Metal Men; LSH #95, 100)
Tin (Metal Men; LSH #95, 100)
Taptree (LEGION; LSH #96-100)
Pol Krinn (Rokk’s brother; LNR #53)
Metron (LSH #97)
Robin (Tim Drake; LSH #99-100)
Superboy (Kon-El; LSH #99-100)
Lume (LNR #56)
Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz; LSH #100)

Supporting Characters

RJ Brande (LNR #37, 41-42, 48-52, 54, 56, LSH #81, LSF #1)
Marla Latham (LNR #37, 44-45, 47, 49, 53, LSH #81, 84)
Athramites (LNR #37, 41, 43-44, 53, 55-56, LSH #81, 100)
Tenzil Kem (chef, Legion headquarters; LNR #37, 39, 43-44, 47, 53, 56, LSH #100, LSF #1)
Chuck Taine (LNR #37, 39, 43-44, 47, 51, 55-56, LSH #81-82, 100, LSF #1)
Lori Morning (aka Future Girl; LNR #37, 39, 43-47, 49, 51, 53, 55-56, LSH #81, 84, 91)
Proty (LNR #37, 45, 47, 49, 55)
Ambassador Winema Wazzo (LSH #81-82, 94, LNR #41, 51)
Rond Vidar (LSH #81, 88, 91, LNR #39, 41, 44, 46-47, 56)
Derek Morgna (Dirk’s father; LSH #81, LNR #43)
Aven (Imra’s former teacher; LNR #38)
Bertor Ardeen (Imra’s father; LNR #38)
Sydne Ardeen (Imra’s mother; LNR #38)
Jancel Ardeen (Imra’s sister; LNR #38)
Doctor Gym’ll (LNR #38, 41, 48, LSH #82)
Xamuel Ivar (Titan’s UP Representative; LNR #38)
Arn Kwin (Braal’s UP Representative; LNR #38)
Deputy Prefect Lamar Zandoz (Xanthu; LSH #82, LNR #49, 51-52)
Shvaughn Erin (Liaison to Science Police; LNR #39-40, 47, LSH #84-91, 93-100)
Marte Allon (Leviathan’s mother; LNR #41)
Wynn Allon (Leviathan’s father; LNR #41)
XS’s father (LNR #41)
Azra Saugin (Kinetix’s mother; LNR #41-42)
Thanot Saugin (Kinetix’s brother; LNR #41-42)
Dr. Faulkner (STAR Labs; LSH #86, 88)
Tiffany Cross (LSH #87, 96-100)
Koko (Brainiac 5’s monkey; LNR #44, 47, LSH #88-91, 93-100, LSF #1)
Murl (Tinya’s father; LSH #94)
Omar Magz (Dyrk’s brother; LNR #53, 55)
Trin Magz (Dyrk’s sister; LNR #53)
Dryk Magz (fka Magno; LNR #56, LSH #100, LSF #1)

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

LNR 37 – A news broadcast recaps recent events, explaining how RJ Brande became the President of the United Planets, and looking at the Legion and how much the team has changed and grown. The newscasters talk about how XS and Kinetix have returned, one with a tail, and how Andromeda wasn’t actually dead. They mention that Brainiac 5 is no longer in prison, and speculate as to whether or not Jan Arrah and Ultra Boy are going to join the team. They also question the identity of another Legionnaire who looks a lot like Valor. At the same time, Valor arrives at RJ Brande’s home on Mars, where RJ has invited him. They talk about RJ’s collectibles, including an original cape of Superman’s. Lar talks about how difficult it is for him to know that people worship him now, his knowledge of ancient Martian history, and the secrets he’s learned while spending a millennium in stasis. XS, Spark, and Triad appear to be in the 20th century, where they are attacked by three of the Flash’s villains – Weather Wizard, Gorilla Grodd, and Captain Cold, but of course it’s a VR training thing. Ayla says she hopes that both she and her brother Garth will be allowed to stay on the team, which Jenni says she thinks of as her family. Marla Latham meets with Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Live Wire, Invisible Kid, and Leviathan, who are working on writing the team’s constitution, now that Brande has made them an autonomous arm of the UP. We learn that Rokk plans to step down as leader, and that an election is going to happen soon. Marla asks about their clause looking for “diversity of powers”, which does not preclude members from having the same abilities. Marla says that Brande wants Rokk and Imra to go to Titan and Braal to promote peace, and they agree. Andromeda goes to visit Brainiac 5 in his lab, but interrupts him, causing a pair of explosions – his experiment, and his temper. Laurel explains that she’s leaving the team, and wanted to tell him, since she heard how upset he was when he thought she was dead. Brainy acts like a jerk to hide his feelings, and Laurel storms out. Kinetix, Leviathan, and Shrinking Violet interrogate the Empress about the Emerald Eye of Ekron, but she doesn’t tell them anything. Vi is worried that finding the Eye is a bad idea, and doesn’t like it when Zoe and Gim flirt with each other. Gates talks to his homeworld, and is upset that they won’t let him come home, since his serving on the Legion is seen as a great honor. He tries to teleport to the mess hall, but ends up in the memorial hall, where some Athramites are removing Andromeda’s statue, and Star Boy is paying his respects to Kid Quantum. Thom is upset because his world wants him to come home, and he wants to stay (and is also hoping that Brainy might figure out what’s going on with his powers). Gates goes to the mess hall, where Chuck and Tenzil are chatting. Ultra Boy enters, wearing his new uniform, which Triad thinks is a little dark. Jan, who now goes by Element Lad, transmutes some of the black leather into brown, but just then, Jo collapses in pain. He recovers quickly, and orders a Bgztlian Blue (whatever that is) from Tenzil; Triad notices that this is Apparition’s favourite treat. Chameleon and Invisible Kid watch Lori play with Proty. The little guy mimics whatever shape Reep takes on, but when they both turn into Tangleweb, Lori gets scared (and annoying). Lyle asks Reep about the situation on Durla, and Reep makes it clear that he doesn’t want to complete his familial duties, seeing it more important that he continue to represent his people in the UP. As Rokk and Imra prepare to leave on their goodwill trip, Lar arrives. He’s disappointed that Laurel left, and shows everyone his new Legion costume. He’s decided to take up Rokk’s offer of membership as a “detached service agent”, which leaves him the freedom to continue exploring the galaxy. He has also taken on the name M’onel, which is Martian for “wanderer”. Rokk an
d Imra are surprised to learn that Garth wants to come with them on their trip, and the love triangle situation looks like it’s being recognized again.
LSH 81 – Dirk Morgna is still giving off a massive glow, and it’s kept him from sleeping. He’s in a psycho-radiology institute (I guess that’s a thing), and is sick of having to be isolated and alone. His doctors have no choice but to sedate him with gas so they can examine him. While they do, they talk about the fact that his father never comes to see him. At Legion HQ, Brainiac 5 is examining Kinetix, although he’d rather not be. He determines that she is fine, aside from the magical transformations she’s undergone. She keeps making it clear that she wants to learn about his energy-tracking equipment. Brainy’s not happy to see other Legionnaires waiting to be examined. XS needs to be cleared of ill-effects from time travel, while Element Lad needs to be checked for brainwashing issues, Ultra Boy for his stomach pains, and Star Boy for his new powers. Brainy is sarcastic, and Jo storms off. Thom tries to follow, but loses control of his new speed, and ends up flying right through the final panel that Leviathan is helping reattach to the facade of the building. Gim is furious with Thom, and wants him to return to Xanthu. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Live Wire are approaching Titan, and it becomes clear that Rokk wants Garth to blow it with Imra. Dirk recovers from his sedative quicker than expected, and when he learns that his father is not being kept from seeing him, but just isn’t coming, he gets angry and melts the wall, leaving the institute. While a group of Legionnaires hang out, a floating package approaches Spark. Zoe uses her magic, revealing Invisible Kid. At the Time Institute, we see that President Brande has restored the facility, although Ambassador Wazzo is not happy about it. She mentions that Rond Vidar is a teenager (I thought he was older), and Brande, challenging her, offers her a job on his staff, and is surprised when she accepts it. Thom calls him, wanting to talk about something. Dirk continues to walk away from the facility. Brande calls Gim and tells him to take a team to Xanthu to convince the government to leave Star Boy on the team. Lyle tries to talk to Ayla, but she has to go; Chameleon is furious with him, and it’s revealed that it was Reep sending the presents, with Lyle’s help. Gim interrupts them, telling them to prepare to go to Xanthu. Zoe interrupts Brainy during an experiment, to tell him that she’s been left in charge in Gim’s absence (which doesn’t make a lot of sense). She asks again about energy tracing, but is interrupted by an emergency call. Derek Morgna learns that Dirk has escaped, and is overcome with guilt at not being able to face his son. Dirk arrives at Morgna industries, and wants to melt some irradiated gold left over from Regulus’s experiments. A Legion squad (Vi, Jo, Zoe, Jan, Luornu – who is a more sensible choice for leader, and Jenni) try to calm things down. Jan tries to encase Dirk in an inertron shell, but Dirk blasts him in the face, blinding him. Jenni grabs him and runs off, while Jo gets blasted by Dirk too. Jenni takes Jan to Brainiac 5, who is irritated again. Dirk goes looking for his father, who admits that he feels like a coward, but wants his son to touch him even though he’ll get burned. Jenni shows up with a specially treated transuit that she puts on Dirk, containing his heat and brightness, making it possible for father and son to hug. Brainy had Jan alter the suit. Brainy calls Zoe and tells her that he’s quitting the team.
LNR 38 – The three founders – Rokk, Imra, and Garth, are on Titan, where they are given a hero’s welcome. Garth gives a speech that fires up the crowd, his arm grows back, and Imra starts to make out with him, because he’s dreaming. In reality, the three of them are stuck in customs, caught up in red tape. Imra uses the time to meditate some, where she imagines she’s having a conversation with Doctor Aven, her mentor. She is almost drawn into a place of great darkness in her mind, and Aven helps pull her out. As it turns out, Aven is actually there, and he gets the kids out of customs. They go to Imra’s parents’ place, where they meet her younger sister Jancel, who seems to be into Garth. Imra’s mom shares her memories of Imra’s childhood with them, although Imra left the family when she was five to go train. Imra’s embarrassed. Rokk checks in on the team, and is surprised to see that Triad is running the show now, with Leviathan on Xanthu with a squad. Triad fills him in on Kinetix using the monitor room to search for the Emerald Eye, explains that she convinced Brainy not to quit, and mentions the upcoming election. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Doctor Gym’ll, who Luornu has hired. The founders go to a magno ball game, where they are guests of honor, alongside the UP representatives of Braal (Arn Kwin) and Titan (Xamuel Ivar). Rokk enters the game, and the crowd goes nuts for him, giving everyone hope that Titan can accept peace with Braal. The three kids stand on the playing field when a bomb explodes in the viewer’s stand. Stray voltage destroys Garth’s cybernetic arm, and we see that Ivar and Kwin are hurt. Later, at the hospital, Jancel tries to turn Garth against Imra, so Garth tells her off, leaving her vowing vengeance. Kwin is badly hurt, and the doctors think that the best treatment would be a mental probe to see why he’s resisting treatment. Ivar doesn’t want Imra to enter his mind, and ends up revealing to her that they are lovers. He consents to let Imra enter Kwin’s mind, where she finds him surrounded by his own darkness. She works through it, and finds Kwin’s consciousness. He admits that he planted the bomb, hoping that if he made it look like he was the target of an assassination attempt, it would help promote peace somehow, but then he saw that the Titanians were accepting Rokk, he tried to defuse the bomb, instead setting it off. Imra convinces him to live, and he comes back to consciousness. He asks to speak to Ivar alone, and then says he’ll confess to the Science Police. Back on Earth, the small group of Legionnaires still around finish voting for leader (Gim’s squad voted before they left), and we learn that Shrinking Violet has been chosen (which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me).
LSH 82 – Brainy blows up his lab again (why does he always just seem to be mixing chemicals, and to what purpose?), which makes Chuck and Shrinking Violet unhappy. Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl come rushing to see what happened, before realizing that as leader, it’s Vi’s job to deal with it. Brainy, meanwhile, is pleased with Vi, calculating that she’s taken a lot off his plate by having hired Dr. Gym’ll (even though it was Triad that did that before Vi won the election). Gym’ll is consulting with Live Wire, and tells him that he can probably never wear a prosthetic arm because of his lightning powers. Ultra Boy is in pain. Leviathan’s squad (including Star Boy, Invisible Kid, M’onel, Spark, Gates, and Chameleon) is still in transit to Xanthu. Lyle tells Ayla that it was really Reep giving her the secret admirer gifts, and her reaction is not ideal. The team lands, and is met by four of the Uncanny Amazers – Insect Queen (based on the old Lana Lang character), Atom’x, Monstress, and the new Kid Quantum, who doesn’t look happy to see them. There is some tension between the teams, especially when Thom announces that he doesn’t want to stay on Xanthu. Jo continues to feel this strange pain, until he thinks of Tinya and it subsides. He gets dressed and heads to Tinya’s old quarters. He walks in, and sees a phantom hand come out of his chest. At a reception on Xanthu, Thom is not happy to see Gim agree with Xanthu’s president that he should stay. Kid Quantum blames Gim’s leadership for her brother’s death, and with things looking unproductive, the President goes along with an advisor’s plan, and decides that the two teams should fight in a cage match to determine Thom’s future. Jo discovers that Ambassador Wazzo is the person who put her arm through his chest; she’s there to clean out Tinya’s room. Jo is upset to see that the bracelet he bought Tinya is in a box marked trash, and when they begin to argue, Jo feels the pain again, and things start flying around the room, knocking Jo out. The Legion gets ready to fight the Amazers, and the advisor tries to make fun of Lar for not wanting to participate, until he sees him lift the arena they are going to fight in with one hand. There are a couple more Amazers than we saw before, a girl with a floating head named Konk, and a bald guy whose name we never learn. When the fight begins, Gim and Reep feel heavy and have trouble moving. Gates gets conked on the head by Konk. We see that Kid Quantum is using her powers (technology?) to cheat on the Amazers’ behalf, but after the advisor puts down her brother, she stops, and Gim and Reep fall, knocking out the remaining Amazers. Thom is going to stay with the Legion! As Winema tries to help Jo, Rokk, Imra, and Vi all end up in the swirl of Tinya’s things flying around the room. Winema borrows Jo’s ring to fly him to the infirmary, where she interrupts Gym’ll and Garth. There is a flash of light, and Tinya appears, stuck in a ghostly phantom form, that apparently only Jo and Winema can see. She claims she somehow hid inside of Jo just before the Daxamite fried her to a crisp.
LNR 39 – Kinetix meditates, trying to find the Emerald Eye, when Lori Morning interrupts her to talk about a boy she likes. Zoe tells her to slow down, and reminds her that she’s really only ten years old; Lori storms off. A squad of Science Police are transporting Doctor Regulus to Takron-Galtos when the two in the cockpit of the cruiser hear screams. Shrinking Violet welcomes back the squad that went to Xanthu. Leviathan is upset that Star Boy is still with them, and Spark is not talking to either Invisible Kid or Chameleon. In the commissary, Brainy works on some equations while eating, and is ignored by everyone. Ultra Boy refers to himself in the third person (referencing Tinya, I guess), and when Ayla tells XS that Reep is her secret admirer, Jenni shouts, drawing everyone’s attention. Triad’s three selves start discussing this, while Gim continues to complain to Vi. We learn that M’onel decided to stay in the Xanthu area, and that Element Lad is on leave, and that Live Wire is consulting other doctors about his arm. Luornu pulls her selves inside and leaves the room. Brainy walks to his lab, passing Lori and Zoe, and considering that no one is noticing him at all. On Gallan, a mined out industrial wasteland owned by Leland McCauley, the Workforce is gathered, as Leland notices an SP cruiser landing without permission. While Zoe looks for Lori, she finds Luornu, who is suffering from a splitting headache. She offers to help her. Lori is bothering Rond Vidar, who is wondering where Brainy’s gone, as he does some chronal sensor work. Lori kisses him. At the same time, Rokk and Imra are kissing in the monitor room, but get interrupted by Shvaughn Erin calling in to report that the ship transporting Regulus has gone missing, and that since Gallan is not in SP jurisdiction, they want the Legion to look into it. Rokk calls Vi, and is sent to join an away team. Vi has brought Rokk, Gim, Ayla, Reep, Zoe, Luornu, Jenni, Jo, and Dirk Morgna with them (Gim is now complaining about Dirk being there). As the ship approaches Gallan, it gets messed up by the atmosphere, so the team has to bail out (how many cruisers do they lose?). They join up with McCauley and some of the Work Force, who are sitting around in the dark. Spider-Girl is happy to see Jo, but he tells her that they can’t ever be together again. The team splits up to search for Regulus, and find Karate Kid trapped in debris. Rokk frees him. Another group finds Inferno, who is freaking out because of the darkness. Jenni has to slap her to get her attention, and Jo calms her down. Violet calls for the team to gather on her signal. She, Gim, and Dirk find Regulus, who has merged with the planet’s power grid. He explains that since Dirk blinded him, he uses other heat-based senses to “see”, and shrugs off Dirk’s attack on him. Rokk wraps him in metal, and suddenly Triad splits into three different looking aspects of herself. “Orange” becomes a little girl, “Purple” is dressed provocatively, and has messy hair, while “Neutral” is suddenly wearing a miniskirt. Regulus knocks them all down, and explains that he also controls electromagnetic forces now, and controls the whole planet, despite no longer being strapped into the power grid.
LSH 83 – Leland McCauely, who is with Evolvo and Spider-Girl, launches his command centre into space, as Gallen (I swear it was spelled Gallan in the previous comic) becomes more toxic under Regulus’s attacks. We see that Regulus has most of the Legion on the ropes when Ultra Boy, XS, Inferno, Chameleon, and Spark arrive. Regulus pops open some transformers, spilling paralyzing liquid everywhere. Apparition’s ghost gets Jo to move out of the way, while the three Triads fumble their attack on Regulus. Dirk tries to fight Regulus, but Shrinking Violet pulls the team out, worried that the environment is becoming too toxic even for their transuits. Dirk refuses to leave, joining Inferno in attacking Regulus. As Triad tries to reintegrate her selves and fails, Rokk thinks he sees Imra and starts making out with XS, who is pretty happy to get her “heart’s desire”. Regulus hurts Dirk and Inferno. Leviathan insists to Vi that he go back for Dirk, who has burned out his powers, returning to normal. Regulus has moved outside, where he faces the Legion and Work Force again. He pulls canisters of toxic waste out of the ground. In orbit, McCauley frets over how the planet is becoming a write-off, but hopes he can save some of the factory infrastructure by draining his pipes full of acid (why does he have that?). At Legion HQ, Star Boy and Invisible Boy find Gates’s politics interesting, while Saturn Girl feels a psychic alert. Element Lad, who we were told is on leave, is in the chapel, meditating, when his parents’ spirits visit him and try to convince him to transmute himself, killing himself. Imra rushes in to stop him, and Brainy tries to interrupt them, but it’s like they don’t see or hear them. Garth comes in (also, apparently not off-world as we were told), and shows Imra that his arm grew back; she can tell something strange is happening. Back on Gallen, Regulus absorbs some toxic energy or something, and grows really big (I’m sorry, what are his powers again?). Kinetix thinks about how she wishes she had the Emerald Eye. Everyone tries to stop the acid plumbing from leaking, but it doesn’t stop Regulus from becoming ever more powerful. Gim decides that he’s not going to let Regulus win, and grows very big. He pulls up an acid pipe, and tries to choke him with it or something. It’s hard to tell exactly what happens, but it looks like Regulus gets buried in waste, while Gim collapses, with burns all over him. Vi rushes to him, erecting a green barrier around the two of them to keep the others out. Gim is happy to hear that he managed to save everyone, and dies having achieved his heart’s desire (that’s the second time we saw that phrase). Violet is upset, and we see that her eyes have become green. She yells for Gim to come back, and green light covers the scene. Suddenly, everyone is outside Legion HQ, and Kinetix realizes that Violet, who is now dressed in green sexy clothes, has the Emerald Eye of Ekron.
LNR 40 – The Legionnaires brought from Gallan (it’s spelled with a second ‘a’ again), along with Dirk, Karate Kid, and Inferno, stand staring at the changed Shrinking Violet, who now looks like an adult and uses the Eye of Ekron to bathe them in light. She claims that it was the Eye that allowed her to become team leader, and she teleports away Inferno, Karate Kid, and Dirk. The other Legionnaires gather in the monitor room, and are joined by Shvaughn Erin, just as they are teleported away. The entire team finds itself in the assembly room, including M’onel and Apparition, teleported to their seats by Vi. M’onel is confused, but immediately recognizes the Eye. Vi has them do a roll call, which establishes that everyone can see Brainiac 5, but only Ultra Boy can see Tinya. Vi explains that she found the Eye in the Scavenger’s place, and it is what gave her the confidence to beat him. Shvaughn enters the room and shoots the Eye, which restores itself immediately. Vi turns Shvaughn into a baby, before Vi continues to narrate her story. She was angry that Leviathan was more interested in Kinetix than in her, and explains that the Eye helped her gain confidence, causing her to change her costume. Vi says she’s using the Eye to give everyone their hearts’ desire (Jo worries that means that Tinya is not really alive again). Vi then gets angry at people, and turns Lyle, Jan, Reep, and Gates into toads, demanding total obedience. She wants to bring Gim back to life, and teleports Lar, Garth, Jo, and Jenni away on missions, and then teleports away herself. The others don’t know what they should do, but Triad has an idea. Lar finds himself in a distant system, where a religious order is able to reanimate the dead. The friar in a temple doesn’t want to help, so Vi, from a distance, takes control of Lar’s body, and has him threaten the friar. Jo, Garth, and Jenni are at the morgue with Gim’s giant body. The probe (I’m glad someone still uses Giffen’s probes) detects “transdimensional ectoplasm” on Jo; Vi is upset that the Legionnaires aren’t working quicker, and makes Jenni use her speed to gather information. Garth tries to stop her, and immediately loses his restored arm. While Vi is busy with them, she isn’t able to keep control of Lar. Jo and Tinya try to get away from Violet, but she finds them, although she still can’t detect Tinya, and points out that she couldn’t have brought her back as she died before Vi had the Eye. She teleports Jo away. Luornu, Zoe, and Imra try to hide from Vi in the VR training room, communicating telepathically. Vi suspects something’s up, and almost drowns them all, before teleporting them to her, along with Jo. Zoe tries to get her to fight the Eye’s control, but instead she splits into two people. The other Vi uses the word ‘Eye’ instead of the first person pronoun ‘I’, like Garryn Bek used to, and teleports the Legionnaires back to her again. The two Vis merge, and we see that she has transformed the whole Legion, giving them all new uniforms with eyeballs on them, and refers to them as the Emerald Legion.
LSH 84 – At Workforce HQ, on Earth, Inferno continues to worry about what’s going on with the Legion, and when McCauley tries to stop her from getting involved, she quits and storms out. Shrinking Violet and the Emerald Eye have gathered her Emerald Legion, more provocative and green-themed versions of the regular Legion, to change the world. She turns some common criminals into animals, and has everyone talk like drones. Apparition is getting nervous, especially when she can’t connect to Ultra Boy at all. Saturn Girl senses her, though, as Tinya returns to Legion HQ, where Marla Latham, Lori Morning, and the infant-bodied but adult-minded Shvaughn Erin try to figure out what’s going on. Marla gets a call from Nura Nal, trying to explain a precognitive dream she had, but Marla ignores her, and is surprised to learn that Leviathan is dead. Inferno melts her way into the room. Imra is the only Legionnaire thinking clearly, but when she tries to probe Violet’s mind, she’s caught. Imra tries to get the Eye to blast Vi, but she shrinks, and it’s Imra who takes the hit, returning to her normal self. The other Legionnaires are upset with her, and she runs. Vi takes the team into space, where she has the Eye change a communications satellite into a giant eye. Marla is surprised by this, as Imra joins the small group at HQ. She can now see Tinya, and she shuts down the mouthy Inferno. She wants to go to space to stop the Eye, and wants Inferno, Tinya, and Shvaughn to come with her, giving the two with bodies flight rings and Legion belts. We see Brainiac 5 and Element Lad go about making changes to parts of England. On the Eye Satellite, there is some debate about their aims, as Gates pushes his opinion until Kinetix turns him into an egg. Violet is angry about Zoe’s independence, and they start to fight. Zoe claims the Eye is giving her power, and as the two girls battle, everyone else is momentarily confused. Imra reaches out to them telepathically, and they start to remember. M’onel tries to attack the Eye, and that’s when Imra and her small crew enter. Violet knocks Zoe down, and has the Eye blast her, aging her. Violet sees how things are all going wrong, and orders the Eye to take her back in time to undo what she has wrought. We see the satellite explode.
LNR 41 – This issue opens with Garth narrating recent events. He woke on the ruined satellite, and helped dig XS out of some debris, thinking she was Imra. He powered up a monitor, and discovered that the wreck was falling into Earth orbit. Jenni found a number of Legionnaires – Kinetix, Star Boy, Element Lad, Chameleon, Triad (who thankfully was back to normal), and Invisible Kid. M’onel dug himself out, and after Garth told him what was going on, flew outside to slow the satellites descent, while the others put on their transuits. Lar brought the wreck into the ocean, and Zoe kept everyone together in a telekinetic bubble. It became clear that seven Legionnaires were missing (to say nothing of Inferno, Baby Shvaughn, and Tinya’s ghost). The UP came to rescue the team, with RJ Brande himself present. President Brande pulled Garth, Lar, Luornu, and Lyle aside to show them what happened with the Emerald Eye (they couldn’t really remember). Rond Vidar was also there, and he explained that a chronal fluctuation suggests that the missing Legionnaires went somewhere in time (again?). Brande also showed them that Violet also escaped. We see Vi talking to the Eye, which does its best to manipulate her into remaining its pawn. Brande broadcasts across the UP, explaining what’s happened to the team, stating that seven Legionnaires have been sent on a special mission, and relaying that Leviathan has died, and will be buried on Shanghalla. Doctor Gym’ll tells Garth that he can regrow his arm, but only if Garth gives up his lightning powers, which he doesn’t want to do. Luornu tries to help Zoe come to terms with her guilt; she is even more upset when she sees the statue of Leviathan the Athramites are placing in the memorial hall. Jenni runs across the world, followed by Thom who can somehow keep up with her. He uses his powers to slow her down, and she explains that she was trying to break the time barrier the way her grandfather would have. The team and many others gather on Shanghalla for Gim’s funeral. Brande gives a speech. When Lyle tries to comfort Marte and Wynn, Gim’s parents, he’s interrupted by Ambassador Wazzo, who Admiral Allon tells off. Jenni hugs her father, while Zoe talks to her mother and brother, who didn’t know she has a tail now. Jan is confused, as his people view death differently from everyone else. Wazzo asks Brande about the “special mission” the other Legionnaires are on, and wants to know how Ultra Boy is. She tells him that Tinya’s spirit is linked to Jo. The Legion flies home on two cruisers – on one, Thom talks to Gim’s parents, while on the other, Zoe keeps talking to her family. She mentions Mysa’s name, which her mother reacts to. At that point, Mysa appears on the cruiser, and teleports it to Zarrox, the Sorcerers’ World, where she looks evil.
LSH 85 – In a flash of green light, the missing Legionnaires and friends appear in the sky. Cosmic Boy, Gates, Brainiac 5, Spark, Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy, Apparition, Shvaughn Erin, and Inferno maneuver out of the swirling green energy (it’s odd that in LNR, Brande referred to seven Legionnaires being away, but there are only six here, not counting Tinya, who he didn’t know about). Jo rescues Shvaughn, who doesn’t have a flight ring, and it takes everyone a few minutes to remember what has happened to them. Ayla is worried about her brother and Chameleon, while Tinya gets jealous that Jo is holding Shvaughn, and reminds him that he still has her flight ring (although, Imra gave Shvaughn a flight ring when she was still a baby, which by the way, she isn’t anymore). Imra links everyone’s minds so they can see Tinya, which is a nice surprise. Brainy tries to get everyone’s attention, but they are distracted by a jumbo jet that just misses them. Brainy explains that they are in the late 20th century, and that he needs to get the residual emerald energy if he hopes to get them home quickly. The energy floats into an office building, and Gates teleports after it, interrupting a news broadcast being given by Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy hears, and somehow understands, Gates trying to talk to Brainy over his ring, and catches the name Brainiac. Brainy thinks the energy will dissipate when it touches the ground, so they have to get to it before then. When the energy touches a car, it turns it into a retro future car. Next, it merges into a stone wall, which Gates recognizes as the Great Wall of China, despite the fact that they are in Metropolis. Ayla is disgusted to learn that 20th century people still ate meat. Ayla blasts open the stone wall so they can chase the green energy, causing a beat cop to call in the SCU. As the team enters the hole in the wall, Jo holds it open, and sees a caped figure who knows his name and can apparently speak Interlac. Maggie Sawyer gets the call, and heads out with Dan Turpin to deal with it. As the team keeps chasing the green stuff, Rokk flirts a little with Imra. The team runs into the SCU, who are wearing armor, and while the team tries to explain themselves, Brainy modifies their telepathic earplugs so they can broadcast translations (which has not yet been a problem in this issue). The energy enters one of the armored guys, and it starts fighting them (and referring to itself as ‘Eye’). It looks like the conflict is going to extend to fighting the cops, but then Shvaughn realizes they are cops, and keeps Inferno from frying them. Rokk tries to disarm the cops, which makes them more hostile, but then Superman arrives, with Jo, and de-escalates the situation. Things are still a little confusing, as this is not the Legion that Superman knows. He recognizes Rokk and Imra, but asks about Lightning Lad. Rokk explains that they know how to get home, but Brainy, holding his utility belt, and looking sad, says that perhaps they don’t. From here, this group moves into the Final Night miniseries, which I think I’m going to go dig out, so I can stay current with this story.
LNR 42 – Mysa stands on a rock, looking down at Live Wire, Triad, XS, Kinetix, and Kinetix’s brother and mother. Mysa is upset that Zoe failed her, and wants to reclaim the power she gave her. Garth speaks up, and is blasted by lightning that doesn’t affect him. He strikes back and appears to have killed Mysa, but soon they are fleeing as their cruiser begins to sink into lava. Mysa appears again and fires off bolts of energy that trap the Legionnaires. Zoe moves her family away before she is caught. A voice tells the Saugins to hide. Mysa is annoyed that she can’t find Zoe’s family, but leaves with her captives. It turns out that Invisible Kid was able to make the Saugins invisible, which tired him out. Lyle explains that they can’t call for reinforcements. At the same time, M’onel is searching for the missing group, and reports back to Chameleon, Star Boy, and Element Lad that he can’t find them. Mysa has the group in a big crystal structure; Zoe explains that she was shown a different vision of the world when she was last there. Mysa enters, and Zoe tries to get her to release the others. Instead, Mysa wants to use the same artifact that took Zoe’s powers away before to strip her of her new abilities. The artifact is taken from Mysa, as Lyle makes his move. Everyone is freed, and as Mysa rallies, Zoe grabs the Star of Akkos from her. Zoe’s figured out that Mysa has been manipulating her for some time. As they argue, Zoe’s mother comes in, and we learn that she and Mysa know each other. When Azra was pregnant with Zoe, she found a dying Mysa on Tharn, while on an archeological dig. She rescued the old woman, giving her a magical artifact to help her restore her strength. The aura of that scepter also surrounded Azra, and her unborn child. We learn that Zoe was changed then, making her more receptive to absorbing magic, which is how she got her first set of powers. Mysa then planned to use her to get the Eye of Ekron. Azra insists that Mysa make things right, so she restores her original powerset, fixes her skin colour, and takes away her tail. Garth is the only one noticing Mysa trying to leave. She pulls out another mystical artifact and teleports the team away. Chameleon is on monitor duty, telling RJ Brande that they have no leads, when everyone appears in the room with him. Later, Zoe writes her in journal about what happened, and decides she is going to keep the green outfit Mysa put her in. She feels bad about what happened to Shrinking Violet, and just then, Jenni comes to keep her company. Garth is exercising when he is joined by Brande, Luornu, and Lyle. They want Garth to become team leader now that Violet and Rokk are missing and Gim is dead. He at first doesn’t want the job, but then agrees to take it on as acting leader until the membership can organize an election.
LSH 86 – This issue is a tie-in to the Final Night event, wherein the Legionnaires in the 20th century (with Shvaughn and Inferno) are helping the Earth’s hero population manage the crisis caused by the Sun-Eater having enveloped the sun, plunging the Earth into a cold darkness. Ultra Boy, Shvaughn, and Gates are out helping get people indoors, but Jo, seeing similarities between Metropolis and his home on Rimbor, has an idea he wants to check out. Cosmic Boy lets him know that the sun is set to go supernova within the day, but Shvaughn feels optimistic, because they are from the future so they know that things will be okay. Saturn Girl, on the same coms channel, points out that the Legion Superman knows isn’t them, suggesting multiple futures. Jo leads Shvaughn and Gates into a train tunnel, where he finds some homeless men. He offers to warm them up, and Gates freaks out, having never experienced this kind of situation (I guess he’s an armchair activist). Inferno has to fly Spark to STAR Labs, since she gave away her flight ring. Inferno is impressed with how disgruntled Ayla seems, and she detects some hostility in the way she speaks to Imra over coms. At STAR Labs, a few heroes stand around, including Ferro, a young teen hero who has shown up in an issue of Adventures of Superman and in Final Night (in the original Legion Sun-Eater story, it’s Ferro Lad who saves the day by sacrificing himself). Rokk and Imra are also there, and when Imra becomes overcome by the stress of the situation, Rokk goes after her. He gives her a pep talk, that causes her to flashback to a slightly earlier pep talk. It seems that Brainy had gone into a Radio Shack-like store and was not impressed with the quality of 1996 computers. He wanted to take a pager, and got angry when the storekeeper expected him to pay for it. At the same time, the Legion waited for him on a roof, but had to go in to rescue him from the argument he was causing. Brainy’s questioning of Rokk’s leadership led to more problems, until Rokk magnetically dragged everyone outside by their belts, and gave them a speech. He talked about how frightened he was in the Legion’s first fight, with Tangleweb (which only a couple of this group were there for), and mentions how he thought about how the people who loved him didn’t know where he was. At this point, Imra told him he doesn’t have the same worry, and they kissed, which upset Ayla. Back in the present, Rokk and Imra return to the group of heroes, where Ferro is trying to share his plan to deal with the Sun-Eater. Shvaughn calls Rokk to tell him that Jo and Gates are arguing in the tunnels. Overhearing, Ferro suggests he come with Rokk, since he knows those tunnels. When Rokk, Imra, and Ferro arrive, we learn they are arguing over the fact that Gates wants to force the homeless men into a shelter. Ferro knows these guys, having stayed there at one point, and Jo and Gates reach a ridiculous compromise (deciding they will become advocates for the homeless as a hobby – I can’t tell if Jo is being sarcastic). Imra feels humbled when she learns that Ferro has grown up in institutions because he’s different (he wears a mask to cover his disfigured face, and can turn into iron), and that his mother just rejected him a couple days before. Back at STAR, the heroes allow Ferro to pitch his plan – it involves him carrying a bomb into the sun (which is how it was dealt with in the Silver Age). Imra keeps Brainy from being mean to him through telepathic force, and instead Brainy claims he’s not smart enough to make this plan work. Luthor wants Green Lantern Kyle Rayner to return to the sun, but just then, Kyle fades away in green light. Superman makes a speech saying he’ll go (so, are we going with the bomb plan then?), and comments that he’d always intended to take the place of whoever was chosen to deal with this anyway. We can see that this gives Ferro an idea as the issue closes.
LNR 43 – The Legion is holding a try-out, and tons of colourful (and familiar) characters turn up outside the HQ, hoping for their chance to join the team. Lori Morning is upset that she wasn’t asked to join, while Chuck worries about potential damage to the building. Live Wire, Triad, Kinetix, and Star Boy are going to run the selection, and things already get off to a bad start when some joke characters get overzealous, and a woman fires her cat-claws. A Braalian in the crowd, Dyrk Magz, stops them, but Garth worries that choosing Dyrk would look like he’s trying to replace Cosmic Boy. Garth tells anyone whose powers come through artificial means to leave, disappointing many. Dirk Morgna watches the proceedings from home with his father, and they talk about how in another reality, Dirk could have been a Legionnaire had he not lost his abilities. A privacy screen has been erected on the plaza, and we see a few rejects leave. They are stopped by Spider-Girl and a hologram of Leland McCauley, who offer Particon, Blast-Off, and Radion places on the Work Force. Young Brek Banin, who we know as Polar Boy, is rejected by McCauley too, mainly because of how short he is. Dejected, Brek bumps into Lydda Jath, who we know as Night Girl. She’s also been rejected, but is more upset by the fact that she didn’t get to meet Cosmic Boy. Brek suggests they find some way to put their powers to good use. Triad tells a dog-man named Cannus that he has passed to the next level (apparently he was part of the short-lived Legion Academy that the UP ran, that we never heard about). The next candidate is Jeka Wynzorr, from Orando. Zoe is surprised to learn that there are humanoids on that planet, and Jeka proceeds to show her illusion-casting ability, convincing the Legionnaires that she is teleporting them to various environments, and has flame powers. The next candidate is Dreamer, Nura Nal, who gets rejected because her future-casting abilities require her to fall asleep. She demonstrates, but also sees that she has been rejected; Thom asks her on a date. XS, in the monitor room, talks to M’onel, who is still searching for Shrinking Violet and the Emerald Eye. Thom is not too impressed with Splitter, whose arm can detach. The next candidate is Dragonmage, who starts to demonstrate his sorcery, but is stopped quickly by Garth. We see Dragonmage talk to a reporter, upset that he was rejected because of “sorcerphobia”; he storms off vowing that the Legion will be sorry. We see Stone Boy get rejected too. Thom tells Garth that he should consider Dragonmage, but Garth is adamant (which is weird, considering that Zoe is sitting next to him, and her powers are magic-based). The five finalists – Dyrk, Floyd, Tasmia Mallor, Cannus, and Jeka are gathered. Garth is still not sure about adding another Braalian, but Luornu sticks up for the kid. Just then a big green alien busts in and shoots the Legionnaires. Cannus runs, while Splitter falls apart. Dyrk grabs the guy’s blaster, while Tasmia wraps him in shadows. Jeka dives into the shadows to stop him. Tasmia is surprised to see that the Legionnaires are fine, and when she drops her shadows, we see that the alien is wrapped in a large snake. The bad guy is really Chameleon, and this was all a test. Splitter recognizes he’s not ready. When Luornu tells Jeka to drop her illusion, we learn that Jeka, and her people, are actually big snakes. She is pleased to see that the Legionnaires are not xenophobic. Later, everyone hangs out in the dining hall. Luornu brings in the three new Legionnaires – Magno, Umbra, and Sensor, who now has cyber-arms.
LSH 87 – A young woman goes to a fortune teller in Metropolis, and pulls a gun on him. She’s upset that her grandmother spent her money on the psychic rather than on her heating bills, and therefore died of pneumonia when The Final Night happened. The psychic, known as Tommy the Swami touches a gem he wears on his forehead, believing that it has some magical ability. When he touches it, energy courses out of it, and the man screams. At STAR Labs, Cosmic Boy calls all the Legionnaires to him, claiming there’s an emergency. At just that moment, Apparition begins to disappear, and Ultra Boy freaks out. The other Legionnaires leave without them, heading to deal with a crisis of Brainiac 5’s doing, which takes place in two issues of Showcase ‘96. Jo starts looking around aimlessly for Tinya, low-key panicking the whole time, when he is called by a kid on a skateboard. The kid is possessed by a spirit who can see Tinya; she tells Jo, through the spirit, to head back to STAR Labs, but Jo refuses. Tinya is upset that he can’t see her. The spirit, of course, is Deadman, who points out that something is going on with the amulet that Tinya wears on her uniform. She explains to Deadman that all Bgtzlians wear them, and he is surprised that she’s from another planet. They enter the amulet, or something, and chat as they journey within it. At the same time, Tommy the Swami has turned into a skeleton, and is going on a bit of a rampage, absorbing peoples’ energy into the gem. Deadman and Tinya get expelled from it, still as ghosts, but the woman is able to see them. When Deadman touches Tommy, part of him starts to disappear too (Tinya has bits of her that are missing). Tommy starts using the energy he’s absorbed to toss cars around, thinking he’s a poltergeist. They figure they need to go get Jo to help, since neither Deadman nor Tinya can touch Tommy. Deadman feels too drained to possess anyone, but the woman offers to host Tinya. The woman turns up in Jo’s room, and when he realizes that he’s talking to Tinya, they start to make out. Deadman pulls Tinya out of the woman, whose name is Tiffany. She claims she didn’t mind kissing Jo, and this scene doesn’t read so well in 2020; it ends with them heading out to deal with Tommy. Tommy is now wrecking a construction site, for no discernible reason, and Jo has trouble fighting him. Tinya possesses a digger (seriously, this issue is falling apart quickly), and drives it into Tommy, who regains his flesh and clothes. Tinya and Deadman’s energy continues to disperse though, so he calls for Rama Kushna, who appears in the form of a rat (really falling apart here). Rama Kushna wants to restore Deadman and let Tinya fade away, as she sees no place for her. It’s only then that Deadman figures out Tinya and Jo are from the future, and so Rama Kushna restores Tinya, but it’s not entirely clear if she can turn solid now; she and Jo embrace, and a random construction worker mentions that he can kind of see through her (before this, people could only see her through Saturn Girl’s telepathy). On Cairn, Phase (who might or might not be the Tinya from the first Legion of Super-heroes; I both don’t remember and always found it too confusing) looks for her missing touchstone (although it’s never explained how the stone would have gotten to Earth). We see that Tommy the Swami is being booked at the police station, just as the cops learn that Brainiac 5 set Brainiac free. Two weeks later, we see that Tiffany is now working as a psychic.
LNR 44 – Proty escapes Lori’s room, and she chases it into the lounge, which is very dark. The reason is, it’s a setup, and the Legion is having a surprise party for Lori’s birthday. Proty was really Chameleon, and Lori is upset that there are only eleven candles on her cake (how do birthdays work for time travellers anyway?), and that Rond Vidar isn’t there. Rond arrives, and Lori ignores Invisible Kid when he tries to give her a gift. Because Rond isn’t paying attention to her, she starts to flirt with Magno, until she sees Rond approach. He asks her to hold on to a device which drains her of chronal energy, returning her to her proper age and size (which, it’s worth pointing out, is only a few years younger than some of the Legionnaires). The Athramites descend on her, and alter her ill-fitting clothes into some creepy JonBenet Ramsay version of 1950s girlhood; she runs away. People aren’t too happy with Rond for his actions, until he explains that he wants to use the chronal energy he stored to find the time-lost Legionnaires. Garth tells the new recruits, Magno, Umbra, and Sensor that he wants them to go to a mining asteroid that has suffered a cave-in to see what’s going on. Umbra isn’t impressed with the mission. Chameleon interrupts to bring Garth to the VR room. Rond has managed to open communication with Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Spark, and Brainiac 5 (who now has a monkey on his head). While Rokk and Imra ask about Gim, Rond tries to get information from Brainy; unfortunately the link closes before he got everything he wanted to know. Jenni and Garth are both upset to see that Imra and Rokk looked close together. The new members arrive at the asteroid, and both Magno and Sensor are not too impressed with Umbra’s attitude; she seems to think she’s more important than how she’s being treated. The guy who meets them when they land is also not too impressed to see fresh recruits, and as they enter the mine, we see four villains – Density, Tongue (seriously), Phantom Lad, and Cherry Bomb – watching from a distance. These four are upset that they didn’t get chosen in the Legion try-outs, and so they’ve lured the Legion here to create more openings on the team. The Legionnaires look around the mine, and Sensor notices that the support structures were “licked in half”. Just then, Tongue attacks. This is a green, scaly alien with a tongue that he can control the shape of, making boxing gloves, a hatchet and other items like he’s the Green Lantern of oral hygiene. He also speaks in a weird French accent. It’s like someone merged Batroc the Leaper with Toad. Anyway, he manages to take down Umbra, but Magno causes a cave in that he, Sensor, and Tongue fall into. Umbra is about to help the mine guy get away when Density and Phantom Lad attack her. Tongue gets back into the fight, and traps her with a tongue-net (seriously). Cherry Bomb blinds Umbra, who fights on, taking out Density and Phantom Lad, before she manages to pin Tongue and Cherry Bomb to the ground with Tongue’s hatchet-shaped tongue. Sensor comes out of the pit she fell into, and is impressed that Umbra managed it all on her own. Magno, in the pit, finds what looks like an old burial site, complete with a tablet that spells out “Mord”, and Legion fans can see where that’s headed. Back at HQ, Lori is still having a temper tantrum. Kinetix and XS come to see her, and Jenni calms things down by admitting that she had hoped to be with Cosmic Boy, but now sees that he’s with Imra. Jenni thanks Lori for helping her realize she can’t cling to illusions, like when Lori thought she was actually in her twenties.
LSH 88 – Prior to this issue, the Legion turned up in Impulse’s book, where an escaped lab monkey attached itself to Brainiac 5. This issue opens with the monkey, who keeps saying, “Koko” on Brainy’s head. Brainy is pleasantly surprised to see that Rond Vidar, Triad, XS, and Kinetix have figured out a way to project their holographic images into the past (it’s always interesting how they are moving through time in parallel). Rokk and Imra chat with Luornu and Zoe, as we saw in the last issue of Legionnaires, while Brainy starts to explain to Rond how to come get them with the time platform. Shortly after Live Wire and Chameleon enter the chat, the chronal energy drains, and the connection ends, before Brainy could finish saying what he had to say. Just then, Dr. Faulkner enters with a couple of politicians she’s taking on a tour of STAR Labs. Faulkner’s not happy that Brainy is rude, but Imra figures out that Faulkner needs to make these people happy, and does her best to make the tour work, with Rokk helping. They see an animal research lab, just as a portal opens and some of the Legionnaires are shown entering, and one of the monkeys jumping onto Brainy’s head. This is clearly a scene from the Impulse issue, which must have had the team trying to travel through time. The Congressman enters Brainy’s lab without permission, and gets caught up in a weird energy vortex. Rokk smashes the machine, saving the politician, and Spark makes a joke about Brainy not having blown up the lab yet. This doesn’t go over well with Faulkner, and later, because of this, Brainy has his access to STAR equipment limited. He’s not happy as scientists start to confiscate some of his equipment. Suddenly, Impulse shows up, followed by his mentor, Max Mercury. Max wants to talk to Rokk, and Shvaughn offers to watch both Bart and Brainy. Once Brainy realizes how eager Bart is to help him, he has him use his speed to grab Shvaughn’s telepathic ear plugs without her noticing, so the two of them can communicate in secret. He sends Bart into the rest of STAR to get some things for him. It starts off fine for Brainy, but Bart starts looking to cut corners, and grabs a device that looks like the thing Brainy asked him to get, but from a different location, and sets off an alarm. When Faulkner comes to figure out what’s going on, Shvaughn realizes her telepathic earplugs, which translate for her, are missing. Brainy finds out what Bart did, as containment systems throughout the facility begin to fail. The team gathers, puts on transuits, and scatters to address the crisis. Gates gathers up some escaped dangerous insects (while calling his teammates humanoidists). Spark welds shut a leak, while Jo stops some corrosive solvent from hitting the main generator. Bart needs to quickly enter a code into a pad to stop a radiation leak, but can’t remember the number, so he insteads gets Brainy to do it. A little later, the gathered team explains to Impulse that they are rejecting him from the team, which I guess is what Max brought him to discuss. As well, because of Bart and Brainy’s actions, the team is getting kicked out of STAR Labs, although Max said he’d help them find somewhere to stay. As Max and Bart leave, Brainy gets the flight ring he leant him back, but feeling bad for Bart, who looks sad, gives him the earplugs so they can communicate again sometime (what are the range of these things?).
LNR 45 – Kinetix is on monitor duty, getting caught up by Sensor on the mission she just completed, and the tomb her squad discovered. Lori interrupts, having come to tell Zoe that Proty has spoken to her, apologizing for the attack on the headquarters, before going inert again. Marla is grumpy with Lori. Zoe next uses the computer to try to search for Shrinking Violet. M’onel is doing the same thing, not realizing that he’s very close to her. The Emerald Eye wants Violet to attack, but she doesn’t want to. On Earth, the team gathers to see the results of the latest election; Invisible Kid is shocked to learn he’s been chosen to be leader. Just then, the team receives a call from Vyrga, demanding that Gates return home to deal with an impending civil war. Live Wire tries to explain that Gates is on a secret mission, but the High Matriarch is insistent he come; Lyle promises to help. Lyle snaps right into leader mode, arranging a team, and saying that he wants the rookies to go get Element Lad on Trom. In deep space, the Eye attacks M’onel. He tries to appeal to Violet, and points out that the Eye’s blasts keep missing him. Violet resists the Eye, and they disappear through a stargate they open, leaving M’onel behind. The Legion squad arrives on Vyrga – Lyle, Garth, Jenni, Luornu and Gates disembark from the cruiser, and we see that the guards are not fans of Gates. On Trom, Sensor, Magno, and Umbra go to get Jan, who explains how he’s turning his peoples’ remains into crystals as a memorial. On Vyrga, the matriarch explains that a former admirer of Gates’s, Mantis Morlo, exposed himself to chemicals in an effort to gain powers like Gates. He instead became massive, and contemptuous of his former ideals. Now he wants to start a war, and is leading an insurrection. Just then, Mantis attacks, accompanied by a small army of beings that look like him. The Legion wades into the fight, and Live Wire discovers that Mantis’s army are all Proteans. Mantis created them, which means that he was also behind the attack on the Legion headquarters (this feels like a forced way of wrapping up an old plotline). The team takes care of most of the Proteans, while “Gates” grows very large and smashes Mantis. It turns out that Gates has been Chameleon this whole time. The matriarch is pleased with the outcome, and starts to think differently about the UP because of this situation. As the SPs take Mantis away, he vows revenge, while the others praise Lyle’s leadership. Star Boy is on a date with Dreamer (on the Pacific coast of Arizona, which is interesting). It’s going well, and just as they are about to kiss, Nura passes out, and has a vision of the Legion being in danger from a god. At the same time, on the planet Biel, a large figure with long hair shows up to desecrate a sacred place, absorbing its power. This is obviously Mordru.
LSH 89 – The Legion is setting up in the old Justice League headquarters in Happy Harbour, although Spark is needed to get the power system up and running. It seems that Ferro is living with the team now, but when Spark goes to say something about her time, Shvaughn shuts her down in a hurry (although I thought it was common knowledge during Final Night that the team came from a different era; at the same time, Ferro seems pretty dumb, so maybe he never caught on). Shvaughn talks to Oracle, and as Oracle asks about going to see Rip Hunter (I think the team showed up in another issue of Superman), Ultra Boy, entering with Apparition, says that Hunter shut down the Time Masters, and then mentions that he’d appreciate more information on time travel. That’s when Ferro asks about it, and Ayla tells him the truth. When Shvaughn gets angry with her, she storms off. She goes to Brainy’s lab, where he and Koko are mixing chemicals (because maybe there’s a chemical solution that opens up time travel?) and blowing things up. Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl approach Ayla, and Rokk lectures her on affecting the time stream (but I guess none of the other things they’ve done have led to that concern yet?). Ayla, seeing Rokk and Imra holding hands, gets angry and flies off. Rokk and Imra check in on the rest of the team, and then decide they are going to go off to find Ayla. Ayla, meanwhile, is wearing civilian clothes and writing a letter to her brother as a narrative device. She wanders through a rural area, and then finds some kind of government facility. When she touches the electric fence, she gets a shock, and is yelled at by a security guard. When she starts to run away, he fires a warning shot that hits her in the leg, causing him to freak out. Rokk and Imra track Ayla’s flight ring, but she ditched it in a barn. The security guard is confused that Ayla’s wound cauterized itself, and he wants to avoid getting the police involved, to protect his record. Rokk and Imra turn up, having tracked Ayla telepathically. They disarm the guard (he is pretty quick to shoot at teens – maybe he wishes he was a cop), and mess with his head a little, sending him running. Ayla’s still mad at them though, and takes off. Imra yells at her, telepathically, and this upsets a guy in a straightjacket lying in a padded room not too far away. As Imra and Ayla yell at each other, we see the guy, who an orderly calls Psycho, repeat her phrases and send mental blasts at everyone at the hospital. Ayla’s angry that Imra has betrayed Garth’s love for her, but really, the problem is that she thinks Rokk and Imra are too happy to keep fighting to find a way home. Imra promises her she’ll get her home, and they embrace. Doctor Psycho has freed himself. Back at the new HQ, Ayla keeps Koko busy so Brainy can do his work. Rokk goes to kiss Imra, but she doesn’t have a face!
LNR 46 – Zoe is with her family on an archaeological dig, and gets attacked by a hand that breaks through a seal she finds on a wall. Really, though, this is a vision that Dreamer saw, while still on her date with Thom. He drops her off, and then hears a loud noise that he investigates as Star Boy. He sees an SP cruiser about to crash, and tapping into his new powers, which he still doesn’t understand, helps the cruiser to land safely. M’onel floats in space, badly injured by the Emerald Eye, and is surprised to see that Andromeda has found him. Dragonmage meditates over the tomb the rookie Legionnaires discovered, and is surprised by the sudden appearance of Mysa, who gives him a star-shaped brand on his cheek, and tells him that he must join forces with her. Chameleon is visited by three Durlans who want him to return to Durla and take up his role as spiritual leader. He insists that he is doing more good on the Legion, which Invisible Kid supports, claiming Reep is needed for an important assignment. The Durlans leave, and Reep starts talking to Sensor, whose people also want her to return home to take up her royal duties. As Thom explains his concerns about Dreamer’s premonitions, Reep and Jeka keep talking; Lyle lets them take the day off together. Rond examines Lori, finding she has more chronal energy in her. M’onel and Andromeda talk in what appears to be a hut somewhere. Since leaving the Legion, Laurel has joined the Sisters of the Eternal Cosmos, hoping to atone for her earlier sins, and wants to stay with them. Reep and Jeka head out on the town, exploring Metropolis, using their abilities to disguise themselves, and eating a meal in a fancy restaurant. They practice what they’re going to say to their homeworlds, and support each other. A crash in the harbor sends them into action. Reep luckily has a collapsible raft in his utility belt (as you would), so they help the passengers from the yacht, and learn that the pilot was drunk. Reep rescues the guy in the boat they hit, while Jeka goes to the drunk pilot, who is considering suicide. She tricks him, showing him an image of the other boat undamaged, and gets the gun away from him. When the SP praise Reep and Jeka, it’s noticed by one of the Durlans who we saw before, and they seem to have accepted Reep’s position. Jeka and Reep walk off hand in hand. Mordru turns up on Binder-7, and retrieves some bracelets and other jewellery that Mysa had hidden there. He is not happy to see that his Emerald Eye isn’t there, and he vows to find it before he takes over the universe.
LSH 90 – Spark keeps Koko busy so Brainiac 5 can work on upgrading some computer equipment (he wears fused keyboards like a keytar), and when it doesn’t work, Brainy throws a fit. Rokk interrupts, bringing him Imra, who doesn’t have a face. Brainy figures out that she does have a face, but is projecting the image everyone is seeing. Imra comes to, and tells them that there’s a man doing this to her; they all see Doctor Psycho’s face. The team gathers, and Rokk explains that Psycho has a history of attacking women, and that they can’t call in to the facility where he’s being kept. They decide to go there, but Brainy refuses to join them. Ultra Boy carries everyone in a metal sphere Rokk is making light with his magnetism, so they can get there quicker. Ferro tries to give Imra some encouragement, but Psycho twists that. When they arrive, they find that Psycho has taken over the place. He appears to them, and starts digging into Imra’s mind, suggesting that she doesn’t really have a personality of her own. He shows that she left her education to go into the Science Police, and then straight into the Legion. He suggests that she created her romance with Rokk as a way of replacing the lack of structure in her life in this century. Psycho gets the Legionnaires to attack one another, and Rokk can’t stop him. Psycho goes deeper into Imra’s head, where he finds someone else. The team rushes through the facility, where they find Psycho’s body in a state of distress. Inside Imra’s head, he finds Aven, in the form of a psychic defense mechanism that the real Aven installed. Psycho destroys Aven, unleashing Imra’s full potential, and giving her the strength to expel him. Imra broadcasts so strongly that her face appears on people for miles, and she shuts him down. Imra talks about Psycho’s misogyny, and then the team notices that Rokk is lying unconscious on the ground. Later, we see that the orderlies attending to Psycho now all have Imra’s face, at least as he sees it.
LNR 47 – Invisible Kid is walking through Legion headquarters when he finds Dragonmage breaking in, trying to warn the Legion that Mordru is free. Lyle knocks him down, and is interrupted by another alarm; he heads off, and calls for Star Boy to come deal with Dragonmage. In the VR arcade, Lyle sees the reason for the alarm – Brainiac 5 is projecting an 8bit image of himself from the distant past. Lyle gets Element Lad to call Rond Vidar; Star Boy reports that he can’t find Dragonmage, who we see is now invisible himself. On an SP vessel, the cop that the Legion kept from going after Mano back in their early days is now dressed in a weird suit with a green gem in the centre, and is calling himself Evisceratronic (ah, the 90s). He’s on a rampage, and wants revenge on the Legion. In the 20th century, the time-lost team sits around a hospital, where Cosmic Boy lies in a coma. They discover that Brainiac 5 is up to something; he has a group of ederly patients attached to a computer, and is draining their chronal energy so he can call the future. In the 30th century, the entire Legion and its support staff sit around while Rond explains how he’s going to use the time platform to get their missing friends. Zoe and Jenni mention to Lori that she can go home, but she doesn’t look too happy about that. In the 20th century, the police arrive at the hospital, and Imra uses her telepathy to calm them down. In the 30th century, Garth is upset that Rond is going alone to get the Legion. We see Lori tampering with the platform, and when Rond activates it, it’s the Legionnaires that disappear. We see Evisceratronic preparing to attack Legion HQ. Imra and Jo bring Rokk to join the others. Brainy can’t figure out why Rond hasn’t arrived yet, and the doctors in the room are surprised to see what’s happened to the patients Brainy used. There’s a flash, and all the Legionnaires, including Ferro, are gone, but Cosmic Boy is still there. As Evisceratronic continues to prepare his attack, Mordru shows up and steals the jewel on his suit, killing the criminal. Brainy and his group are floating in the timestream. Rond figures this out, and Lori admits to what she’s done. He’s surprised that she’s so knowledgeable about time machines, and she gives that credit to her time with Chronos. She knees Rond, and takes the platform into the timestream to fix things herself. She finds the Legion, in two separate groups, and figures out how to bring them all together. The two halves of the team are happy to see one another, as friends realize that Apparition is alive, and as new members are introduced. Garth realizes that the two groups can’t touch one another, and Brainy tells Lori to engage the synchronizers. He has everyone touch the platform, and tells Lori which buttons to press. It works, but Brainy informs them that now they all live in the timestream.
LSH 91 – The whole team (minus Rokk) is finally together again, although in the timestream. Tinya enjoys that everyone is intangible, while M’onel gives Lyle leadership advice, Jo is rude to the new recruits, Triad is interested in Ferro, and Jan questions Brainy. Brainy figures out that they are all going to become molecularly unstable, if he doesn’t fix things. Imra wants to return to the 20th century for Rokk, and starts to influence Tinya. Lyle, spurred on by Lar, tells everyone to shut up and orders Brainy to fix things. He starts taking some items from the time platform. In 1997, the doctors worry about Rokk and the patients Brainy hooked up to his computer, who are rapidly de-aging. Jan gives Brainy grief for being so rude all the time, and Lyle yells at Brainy to be more decent. Garth tells Imra that Lyle is the leader now, and makes a comment about Imra’s feelings for Rokk. Brainy has drained chronal energy from M’onel, and feeds it into four teleport discs made by Gates, so the team can split into squads and retrieve some items he needs from the timestream. Luornu stays with Lar, who is in pain, while Shvaughn watches Lori and the platform. Brainy takes a squad to the Space Museum in some era (Tommy Tomorrow is there as a child), where the team is strangely solid (why not just return home, if that’s the case?). Ferro finds a Chronosphere, and while Brainy tries to access it, there are some hijinks with automated weapons and a negative-cannon. Brainy gets the flux capacitor he’s after (seriously), and they leave. Star Boy, Sensor, and one of Luornu chase two Flashes (Jay Garrick and Barry Allen), and Kid Flash, as they run through the timestream. Jeka makes them believe there’s a wall in front of them, so they can draw chronal particles off of them. Lyle, Umbra, and Inferno find Chronos in the timestream, and take something from him. XS finds herself running through the timestream, and does the same thing. Before they leave this spot, they see an older Andromeda fighting a tentacled head monster. Brainy works to fix the time platform, and opens three portals. One shows Rond Vidar in the 30th century, another shows Rokk in the 20th, while the third shows a barn in a field. Time currents start pulling people in different directions, and Luornu’s different selves start to separate into different streams. XS sends the medkit needed for Rokk to Luornu, who has to merge her selves to get to the right place. Most of the Legion (Jeka, Jan, Reep, Garth, Zoe, Lar, Jenni, Tasmia, Thom, Dyrk, and Lyle turn up in the 30th century, along with Lori, who is clearly hiding something from them. Tinya, Ferro, and Shvaughn appear back in the 20th century, but Rokk is missing now!
LNR 48 – Mordru is on a world where he finds his son and grandson. He offers them the chance to join him, but when they refuse he kills them, and thinks about how he wants the Emerald Eye back. The Eye is aware of this, and is worried. Violet, who is still with the Eye, points out the hypocrisy of its fear of Mordru’s viciousness, and it tries to convince her that they are friends. At Legion HQ, Dr. Gym’ll and Lyle are checking out Star Boy’s powers when President Brande calls and interrupts. Brande holds a briefing for the Legion, telling them what they’ve learned of Mordru since Sensor and the others found his empty tomb. Apparently the planets Mordru ruled before were far from UP space, which is why they don’t know anything about him. M’onel makes a connection with the Emerald Eye, and Brande mentions Dragonmage. We see that Dragonmage and Mysa are on Mordru’s trail, finding the place where he retrieved his armbands before. Mysa wants to go to the Legion for help. Lyle tells Brande about Dragonmage, and Umbra calls in from the monitor room to let them know about the killing Mordru did at the start of the issue. Zoe recognizes the tattoo on Mordru’s grandson, and they all realize that Mysa is likely involved in all this. The SPs on that planet get attacked by Mordru. Star Boy tells Zoe about the dream Nura had, but Zoe ignores it (which doesn’t fit, given her belief in magic). An SP cruiser lands on Sklar, a non-UP planet. Mordru comes out wearing an SP hat, and says he’s looking for his granddaughter. Zoe takes over monitor duty, while a squad, featuring Garth, Jeka, Dyrk, Lar, Jan, Thom, and Brande (since when does the President go on missions like this) heads to a UP outpost. After they drop Brande off, the squad heads for Sklar. They find an SP ship in orbit, firing on the planet below. When Lar goes to investigate, he finds the crew all dead. Mordru is at the pit the blasting has dug, and is surprised when Lar and Thom attack him. Sensor uses her powers to keep him confused, but he recovers and takes down the squad in a hurry. Brande calls Zoe and tells her to send the rest of the Legion (that are in the 30th century, not that the others get mentioned much). As he talks to Zoe, a hole opens in the monitor, and Mysa drags her through by the neck. Mordru has the Legionnaires hanging upside down (he’s turned Jan into crystal), and sends them back to their ship with the message that their mission is futile. To prove his point, he blows up Sklar.
LSH 92 – This is a strange one. It opens in 1958, where a group of teens who are clearly our time-lost Legionnaires (Rokk, Imra, Querl, Ayla, Jo, Inferno (whose name might be Sandy Anderson?), and Luornu, are all teenagers in Mr. Swan’s art class. They all have traditionally white, American style names. Joe/Jo draws a picture of Carl/Querl as a green alien, and Mr. Swan gives an inspirational talk about the importance of recognizing the humanity in every face, before the bell rings, and he complains about having so many kids (9?) in his class. Luornu is shown as Laura, Lorna, and Lauren, triplets. As class lets out, Joe wants Sandy to go somewhere with him, in his hot rod, but Irma/Imra protects her. One of the triplets is interested, but the others draw her away. Rick/Rokk’s parents embarrass him by showing Irma a picture of him as a baby, while Ella/Ayla tosses rocks at him. The triplets rush home so they can combine into one person, not knowing that Joe is able to see them through the walls of their house. The kids are all at a bandshell helping Mr. Swan decorate for a surprise appearance by President Eisenhower. Joe drives his car on the lawn, prompting a disproportionate response from a Secret Service agent. As they discuss whether or not Joe is a good kid, Gates suddenly appears above them all. His alien appearance creates a stir, as the Secret Service fear he’s a Communist Martian. Gates is confused that his friends don’t know him, as only he appears to have his memories (it’s not explained how everyone is speaking English). Gates flees, but a G-Man takes all of the kids into custody and holds them at gunpoint. He knows about the triplets and Joe, and sends Joe to look for Gates. Joe finds him under the bandshell, and fearing he’s there to kill the President, attacks him. He knocks Gates out. Later, all the kids are allowed into a hospital to examine Gates, and Carl remembers Mr. Swan’s lesson about humanizing people, and begs them not to harm the alien. The G-Man punches him out, revealing that he has green skin. As the cops bust into the room, Rick reminds everyone that they have abilities, and they fight the cops off. Gates comes to and helps them out, before reminding his friends that they are wearing flight rings. The team flies off, and recover their memories at the same time. Imra remembers that Rokk was unconscious, and as soon as she mentions it, he loses consciousness again. As they fly off, Mr. Swan talks about how those are “his” kids, and it is revealed that this whole strange issue is a tribute to the recently passed Curt Swan. Like I said, a weird one.
LNR 49 – President Brande addresses the entire UP, letting them know what happened on Sklar, and announcing that he’s putting together a taskforce to augment the Legion. We see how that news goes over on Xanthu, Vyrga, Lallor, and Orando, as well as at Leland McCauley’s base on Luna, and in the base where Polar Boy and Night Girl are trying to put together a team. Marla and Lori talk, and speculate how Violet and Andromeda might be part of the response to Mordru. Mordru, meanwhile, searches for the Emerald Eye. Vi tries to attack the Eye, seeking her freedom from it, but all she ends up doing is revealing their location to Mordru. The Legion tries to figure out a plan. Doctors work on figuring out what to do about Element Lad, while Garth feels like a failure, viewing himself as responsible for their first plan falling apart. Magno, Sensor, and Brande work to help him feel better. Jan comes to, although he’s still partially transmuted to crystal. Kinetix talks with Dragonmage and Mysa, and learns that Mysa led the assault on Mordru that locked him away for one hundred years. She is pleased to learn that Mysa wants to help, and takes her and Dragonmage to the Legion. Brande has two UP ships ready for the mission, and Mysa meets with the General and Admiral in command of them, along with Brande and Lyle. A little later, the Legion meets with the heroes who have come to help out – Uncanny Amazers Monstress, Kid Quantum, and Atom’x; Workforce members Blast-Off, Radion, and Particon; and Dragonmage and Mysa. They split into two big teams, and Jan insists on being included despite not having much mobility. In space, Andromeda approaches Violet, hoping to help her escape the Eye, but as they all talk, Mordru shows up. The UP ships chase Mordru’s signal, and Star Boy thinks about Nura’s warning that Mordru’s fate must be “sealed.” The Eye demands that Laurel leave Vi alone, and that’s when Mordru attacks, leaving Laurel to float, injured. The battle goes to a closeby planet, and the Legion picks up Laurel. Mysa wants to wait for the Eye and Mordru to wear each other out, but Atom’x, who has been in a bit of a pissing contest with Radion, phases off the ship, and attacks both Mordru and the Eye. He’s disintegrated, with Mordru draining his energy to use against the Eye. The Eye tells Vi they must join, creating the badly-dressed Veye, who offers herself (theirself?) to Mordru as his bride.
LSH 93 – Someone who looks a lot like Ferro wakes up in a cell, while a monkey-man argues with the voice of a guard about how badly they are all treated. A group five truly awful looking 90s stereotype characters (with names like Fangg, Taser, and Kritter) enter the cell and beat on the monkey guy for bad mouthing Doc 30, who I guess runs this place. We see that this facility is full of monstrous prisoners, and learn that the guy who looks like Ferro is named Nolan, and is therefore Ferro’s twin brother, Douglas. At the old JLA headquarters, Shvaughn, Tinya, and Ferro worry about the rest of the Legion that got displaced in time. Tinya mistakenly wrecks a computer with her new ability to disrupt electronics, and just then, the missing teammates reappear (including Brainy’s monkey, which was absent from their trip to the 50s). They’re worried that Rokk is not with them, but Gates locates his flight ring, back in the hospital they all left from. Shvaughn and Imra rush off with the medikit. Inferno complains about their troubles, but Gates talks about how exciting it was to see that the rest of the Legion came looking for them; he claims this is causing him to rethink his notions of the team. This gives Ferro something to think about. They order in pizza and chat, but Ferro leaves. Tinya goes after him. He explains that Gates’s words have him thinking about how he’s left someone behind, and how he has to go solve the problem on his own. At the hospital, we see that the old people Brainy hooked to his machine are young now, and learn that there is nothing actually wrong with Rokk’s brain. When Imra tells him to come back, he wakes up. Ferro has borrowed Jo’s fight ring, and flies to the facility he escaped from. He’s met by the Knight Shift – those terribly designed characters, who allow him into the facility to visit his brother. He’s upset to see that his sewing machine is broken (while on weird moments, I don’t get how Douglas is wearing a red version of Andrew’s costume, which he didn’t get until after he’d met Superman). Douglas doesn’t want to leave with Andrew – he’s learned that the doctor in charge of the place is taking government money, and he wants to work his way up to the Knight Shift and live a good life of beating on his neighbours instead of gaining actual freedom (this doesn’t really work). He wants to take on the superhero name Ingot. Andrew doesn’t agree with him, but their conversation is cut short when Taser tases them with lines of electricity that come out of his mouth. Doc 30, who is in a floating wheelchair and has mechanical arms (the better to smoke his cigar with) and an eyepatch is with them. He wants to make Andrew part of the Knight Shift, which enrages Douglas. There is fighting, but then Doc 30 uses his powers to control someone for thirty seconds to get Douglas to turn from his metal to his human form, at which point Fangg kills him. The same is about to happen to Andrew when the rest of the prisoners start to riot. Things get crazy, and Andrew is hit on the head. When he comes to, he sees total chaos before blacking out again. When he comes to again, he sees that Rokk has single-handedly fixed everything. Later, there is a funeral for Douglas, and Tinya, Shvaughn, and Gates try to make Andrew feel better. Rokk gives him his own flight ring, with a note that says “When you’re ready.” (It’s interesting that at this point, Inferno is still not technically a Legionnaire, and I’m not sure I know how they would have been able to construct a new flight ring without Brainy’s special isotope and Lyle’s knowhow).
LNR 50 – Mordru is pleased the Veye wants to marry him, while the Legion and its additional support heroes look on in shock on their UP Dreadnoughts. Mordru seals him and Veye in a bubble so they can discuss their prenup arrangement. The UP ships open fire on the bubble, unloading missiles on it in the hopes of weakening it. Sensor goes to check on Andromeda (who she’s never met), and we get a recap of recent issues. The Legion heads down to the surface, leaving behind Jan, who is trying to recover his powers by transmuting a tiki statue that just happens to be on a military vessel. While Veye and Mordru continue to talk, Particon finds a weakness in the bubble, and while the rest of the heroes watch behind a forcefield, she bursts it. XS pushes Veye away from Mordru while the rest of the task force begins its attack on Mordru. Kid Quantum uses her abilities to slow Mordru down, while Zoe, Jeka, and Mysa teleport Veye to another dimension. There, Zoe tries to get Violet to separate from the Emerald Eye, with limited success. The Legion is doing well against Mordru, taking turns at keeping him down. Mysa talks to the Eye, trying to convince it that it has no chance of remaining independent of Mordru. Mysa also appeals to Violet, pointing out her inner strength, until she decides to take action. Mordru figures out that Kid Quantum is the source of his problems, and is about to crush her when Lyle saves her. The energy-casting Legionnaires, who were being held in reserve, enter the fray, and Mordru blasts Radion in the face, causing him to leak radiation from his head which Umbra contains with her darkfield. Magno impresses Live Wire with his strength of character, and Blast-Off is killed by Mordru. Mysa rushes the separation of Violet and the Eye, and appears to take control of the Eye for herself. Mordru has grown in size, and is beginning to feel confident in the battle. He’s about to squeeze Dragonmage to death when Mysa and the Eye attack him. Jan starts to regain his powers. Dragonmage tries to absorb some of Mordru’s power, and the older wizard overloads him. Next, he blasts Mysa, restoring her youth. We learn that Mysa is Mordru’s daughter, and he pulls a Darth Vader, offering to have her join him so they can together rule the galaxy. She resists, and then the Eye goes nuts, firing blasts wildly, destroying one of the Legion’s shuttles. Jan wants to join the fray, and Andromeda offers to go with him. It turns out that Violet was shrunk down and riding on the Eye. She gets it to focus its energies on Mordru, and then to flee. The Legion rallies, and make use of Umbra’s powers to keep Mordru distracted. Jan and Andromeda arrive on the surface, with a “backup sphere”. Ever more confused, Mordru grabs the Eye and then lashes out, killing all of the heroes. He sits down to rest, and as he does, the Eye rolls away from him, and the sphere, made invisible by Lyle, is closed around him. It turns out that the Eye was Chameleon, and Sensor made Mordru see what he wanted. They close him in the sphere, with Jan creating the seal, and Mysa feels him go dormant. Later, President Brande and Lyle check in on the injured. Kid Quantum and Dragonmage are resting, while the doctor whispers to Brande that there is a problem with Magno. Radion is wearing a helmet to contain his radiation, but the doctor doesn’t know if he’ll heal or if his face can be restored. Mysa is healthy, and Lyle invites her to the mess hall where the others have gathered. M’onel is pleased that Andromeda has delivered the service for the two dead heroes, while Thom is excited that Nura’s premonition of “sealing” Mordru’s fate came true. Brande and Lyle talk about the difficulty of leadership.
LSH 94 – This issue is made up one page stories (with a few exceptions), and features work by a large number of artists. It has a framing conceit, showing a 90s era Mac folder icon at the start of each section. Ferro tells the assembled Legion that he’s made them new costumes, and everyone imagines something terrible. Jo and Shvaughn are working on building a flying vessel for the team, and Tinya gets jealous and storms off; Jo goes after her. Shvaughn examines Rokk, despite his doctor’s objections, because her equipment detects odd, but familiar, brain patterns. We notice Rokk looking kind of blank at times. On Cairn, the LEGION is searching for Phase’s touchstone. She tells Captain Comet that she thinks it might be on Earth, and he tells her to take a ship to go look for it. Jo tries to catch up with Tinya, not understanding why she’s so angry. She flies away from him, and he eventually realizes she’s upset because she can’t touch him. The team watches TV together, and Imra annoys everyone by predicting what people are going to say before they say it. Koko sneaks out to visit a group of monkeys, who maybe worship him? Brainy calls on Gates to help him, and Gates points out that Brainy has only ever said a few words to him; Brainy doesn’t like Gates’s politics and focus on opinion, but Gates points out that’s an opinion too. In the supermarket, Rokk and Imra discuss their medikit, and after he sees that his appearance has frightened a child, Ferro asks if it could help fix his face. Inferno, who still won’t tell anyone her real name, tries to get a beer in a bar, but gets carded. In the future, Ambassador Wazzo misses Tinya. Her husband (ex-husband?) is there for money again; when he leaves, we see that he’s a Cargitte. Triad goes to visit Superboy, tracking his flight ring, and is upset to see a blonde girl wearing it; she flies off. Jo and Gates feed homeless people at a soup kitchen, and don’t catch on that they’re scaring everyone. Ferro sews himself a Legion belt. Luornu, Rokk, and Gates go to Superboy’s girlfriend and repossess her flight ring. As the team prepares to get their new costumes from Ferro, Rokk reminds them to be kind. He holds up Inferno’s first, and when she thinks he’s staring at her boobs, she sets all the costumes on fire. Her’s survives, because he made it fireproof. Later, she tries it on, and it’s clear she likes it. It’s also clear that Ferro likes her, so she’s a little mean. Later, Ferro talks to Rokk about giving back his flight ring (it turns out that Rokk gave him his), but Rokk wants him to keep it (he’ll use the one they gave Superboy). He also makes a weird reference to wearing another ring, revealing that he and Imra are going to get married. When Inferno, Ayla, and Shvaughn go shopping, a cop harrasses the teens. Imra expresses sympathy to Shvaughn, that it must be tough to be the only adult and cop in the group. Later, we see that all of these Mac files have been put together by Shvaughn (including, somehow, the ones from the future, from Cairn, and from scenes where she wasn’t even there).
LNR 51 – Brande addresses the UP to let them know that Mordru was stopped. The news broadcast goes on to announce the deaths of Atom’x and Blast-Off, and speak to Vice-President Wazzo, the Xanthan Deputy Prefect, and Leland McCauley. Mysa, Zoe, Laurel, and Lar destroy Mordru’s trinkets. The UP soldiers tasked with guarding the dome that Mordru is in grumble about having been kept on the sidelines, until their general chews them out. Particon and Monstress try to lift Radion’s spirits, and we see that he’s doing better, but has to wear a containment suit. Laurel tells Lyle and Lar that she’s going to return to her ministry, and Lar flies off with her to escort her a while. Mysa is upset that her younger body contains less magic, keeping her from casting a spell around Mordru’s prison. Zoe confronts her about the tattoo she put on her, and shows her the other alien that Mordru killed with the same marking. Mysa acknowledges that she manipulated Zoe, and Zoe gains sympathy for her difficult life. Two ships land. From one emerges Spider-Girl, Karate Kid, and a holo of Leland McCauley, who is upset as always. From the other emerges VP Wazzo, who is also upset, until Brande points out that it was actually Wazzo’s bureau that approved the mining operation that freed Mordru. McCauley chews out Radion and Particon, and Umbra sticks up for them. Neither hero wants to return to the Work Force, but McCauley insists, and claims he has two more years on their contract. He orders Spider-Girl and Karate Kid to detain them, but Umbra attacks them, and Monstress tries to calm things down. Finally, Brande offers to buy out their contracts, like he did with Garth, and McCauley agrees. Monstress tells Prefect Lamar that she wants to stay and join the Legion as well. Back on Earth, Chuck sees a woman that looks kind of like Amethyst in the headquarters hallway, but she disappears, and he can only find Lori, who is still hiding something. On the UP ships, we learn that Wazzo is looking after Particon and Radion. Cham and Thom stay with Violet, who feels guilty. Mysa checks in on Dragonmage, and it seems like they are attracted to each other. Magno can’t access his powers, which he tries to hide from Garth and Jeka, but the mentalist can tell. Kid Quantum is released from sick bay, and for some reason, Violet suddenly starts to grow, breaking right through a wall.
LSH 95 – This was another tedious issue. The Metal Men (a group I’ve never liked much) are having some tests run on them by Veridium when an equipment failure caused by Tin’s toy mouse, Mosey, creates strife. Mercury is mean to Tin, who follows Mousey away. Ferro enters and, reading a script, demands that they hand over their responsometers, the computers that make them work. When they refuse, he tries to take one from Mercury, which leads to a fight. Veridium notices some strange energies coming from one of the labs when he looks at Ferro’s Omnicom, and he and Platinum go to check it out. They find Brainiac 5 trying to operate on Tin. Tina makes it through Brainy’s forcefield, and Brainy tries to give orders to Veridium. Veridium, aka Doc Magnus, discovers that Brainy was controlling Mousey, and set up the whole situation. Ferro and the others, still fighting, end up in the lab too, and Ferro stops Brainy from stepping on Mousey, which allows the Metal Men to capture them. Later, Doc briefs the Metal Men on the Legion. Back at the Legion’s base, Rokk wakes up Jo, gathering the team to go looking for Brainy. Tinya is mad at Jo again. Ferro tries to talk to Brainy, who is not happy when he tries to call the rest of the team. It doesn’t matter, because the Legion has arrived to get them. When Rokk tries to open their cell, we learn that Lead has been posing as the bars. The other Metal Men arrive, and more fighting starts, while Imra tries to determine if the Metal Men are really people. When Brainy notices Doc and Tina sympathizing with Tinya’s frustrations at not being able to hold Jo, he stops the fighting, recognizing that they really are sentient. He apologizes to Doc, and explains that he was hoping to upgrade their responsometers. Later, back at the base, Brainy tries to figure out how he’s going to build a computer that will let him travel through time. Spark brings him a package that has a responsometer in it, with a note from Doc asking him to “educate him.”
LNR 52 – M’onel returns to the team on the UP Dreadnought, where XS greets him and rushes him to the medical bay, where Violet has grown so big she’s punched through the wall. Zoe and the doctor try to calm her down. Lyle asks Mysa to help, while Monstress tells Kid Quantum that she’s not returning to Xanthu in favor of joining the Legion. Dyrk feels bad when Garth tells him he can’t help. They move Violet across three beds, and discuss what could be happening with her. They figure out that the Emerald Eye must have done something to her, and Reep and Zoe figure out it has to do with Leviathan and how upset Vi was when he died. Sensor tries to reach her mentally, and does find an image of Gim holding her that reveals Vi had feelings for him; she starts shrinking. She has a high temperature, and keeps cycling through different sizes. They feel like a telepath is needed, and everyone is surprised when President Brande offers to do the job. Umbra agrees to shield everyone in darkness, while Lyle tries to figure out how Brande could have hidden his telepathy so well. Lyle sends Jenni to find Element Lad, while Jeka, Zoe, and the doctor assist Brande. He enters Vi’s mind, and finds an image of the Eye. Mysa talks to Dragonmage about him helping her search for the Eye. Dyrk gets more and more frustrated with his inability to use his powers, and Garth promises him a place on the Legion regardless. Brande wades through images of Gim, and points out to Vi that the Eye, in trying to restore him, instead gave her his powers. Jenni finds Jan, who is meditating. Vi talks to Brande, and he convinces her to return to them all. Later, Jan and Vi talk about the changes they’ve been through. Later still, Kid Quantum and Prefect Lamar prepare to return to Xanthu and say goodbye, while Mysa and Dragonmage also take their leave. Dyrk says that he too wants to leave, to get help with his powers on Braal. Lyle agrees to hold a vote on Monstress’s membership. Eventually, the Legion lands their cruiser outside their headquarters, where a crowd is waiting. Brande addresses the crowd, introducing them to new member Monstress, and announcing that Vi is changing her codename to Leviathan; she grows to her largest size and enjoys the applause.
LSH 96 – Ayla dreams she, Garth, Imra, Rokk, and her brother Mekt are together and happy, but then sees how things have fallen apart. She wakes to find a psychic projection of Imra standing over her. Imra tries to make her feel better, and we learn that today is Imra and Rokk’s wedding day. Inferno decides to leave the team, which she points out she was never actually a part of. She flies off, and Jo goes after her; Tinya refuses to go with him. Brainy tries to get Inferno to return out of fear she might damage the timestream, and she throws her flight ring at Jo and heads off under her own power. We see that Brainy is experimenting with Veridium’s responsometer, with Platinum and Iron keeping an eye on things. Shvaughn comes to get Brainy to go to the wedding. Joe tries to talk to Tinya about what’s bothering her, and she comments on how she feels like he will leave her for someone solid. Imra goes to see Rokk before their wedding, not realizing that Shvaughn is watching them on the security monitors. After Imra leaves, Rokk stands there blankly, and Shvaughn realizes something. Phase, from the LEGION, is still en route to Earth. Tinya and Gates welcome guests to the wedding (one of the people Brainy de-aged is officiating), which includes Tiffany Cross, the woman Tinya helped fight Tommy the Swami, and who never met Rokk or Imra. When Tinya puts her ghostly hand on the touchstone that Tiffany wears, a weird energy passes through her and Phase. Phase, well, phases, while Jo can feel Tinya’s hair. Shvaughn goes to Imra and asks her about the things that Dr. Psycho said about her creating the structure of a relationship to offset the chaos of being lost in time. Imra blows her off and enters her wedding, although suddenly, Rokk turns into Garth. Imra is confused, but Ayla is happy to see him, and Garth leads her away, while also using magnetism to keep anyone from following. Imra realizes what’s happening, but Shvaughn still explains to everyone else that Rokk is still in his coma, and that Imra has been animating him mentally all this time. Imra realizes that she is actually in love with Garth, and reaches out to him, turning him back into Rokk, which causes him to collapse and almost fall to his death (he’s flying at the time), but Ayla saves him. I guess Rokk’s doctor was at the wedding, because he gets him on an oxygen machine, while Luornu and Brainy reconfigure his nervous system. Rokk wakes up, and somehow goes from being shirtless and in his uniform pants to wearing a t-shirt and jeans in bed. He has no memory of anything from before the fight with Psycho, not knowing that Luornu has joined them, or that he was about to be married (there are some real dark implications here). Imra kicks everyone else out so they can talk, and admits to Rokk what she’s done, and that she’s actually in love with Garth. Rokk, being the most forgiving person in any timeline, promises to help her get back to him. Outside, we see that Jo and Tinya are getting married now, after that was Rokk’s assumption upon waking.
LNR 53 – Monstress is wearing out the Athramites as she tries to decide on a costume. Marla comes to take her around headquarters and show her her new quarters, but he mistakenly walks in on Sensor as she is shedding her skin. Monstress is sweet about Jeka’s embarrassment, and they make plans to eat pigs together. Next, Monstress compliments Zoe’s outfit (which is among the worst designs on this team). Marla has no choice but to give her Andromeda’s old room, which is still trashed. Later, Monstress has decided on a uniform and got her room in order. On her way to eat, she comes across Leviathan, who is talking to the other Leviathan’s statue. Monstress is kind to her. In the commissary, she eats with Sensor, while XS acts strangely when she sees Umbra talking to M’onel. Monstress goes for monitor room training with Lyle, and meets Lori, who is there to check out the monitors. We finally learn what Lori’s been hiding – the Hero Dial from Dial ‘H’ For Hero. She uses it to turn into the hero Fireball, and heads out to check out the report of a break in she saw before. She gets into a fight with some Sklarian thieves, who knock her down and tie her up. She uses the dial to turn into Slipstream (a character shown in the poster Alan Davis drew for issues 50). She escapes, and takes down the Sklarians. Dyrk arrives on Braal, feeling terrible about having lost his powers. He can’t even operate the lift in his family’s building, but runs into Pol Krinn, Rokk’s brother, who helps him without knowing it. Dyrk’s family is kind and understanding, except his sister Trin is very upset; she is a big Legion fan. Dyrk’s older brother, Omar, is kind of a jerk, and proud of himself for being in the Science Police. Dyrk goes to the hospital for days of tests, but it doesn’t look like anyone knows how to help him.
LSH 97 – This issue ties into the Genesis event, which I don’t remember at all. The team is fighting Parademons in some kind of energy vortex, and forces them to retreat. Through a quick recap, we learn that the Legion got involved with other heroes in an attempt to stop something called the Godwave, and that Imra and Ayla went with others to the Source, where Takion died. Now the team is together on an asteroid with an Earth-like atmosphere and forest. Brainy wants to examine the Mother Box that Imra has on her arm, but the device doesn’t let him. Metron appears, wanting to scan Imra’s mind for information on the Source. Imra agrees, but cuts off the connection when she realizes that Metron is trying to satisfy his curiosity about the Source, not find a solution to their current problem. Some Parademons go to what looks like a giant tuber to awaken someone powerful. The Legion sees the energy released by this awakening, and goes to investigate. Mantis is there, and starts firing on them. When Ayla goes to fire lightning back at him, she instead makes him weightless. Ayla can’t figure out what happened to her powers. Brainy suggests that he and Imra stay with Metron, in the hopes that the New God can get them back to their own time. Imra is surprised that Rokk trusts her with this, and Brainy negotiates access to Imra in return for a Mother Box. Metron agrees. On Earth, Tiffany Cross opens her door to find Taptree there, serving as a distraction so Phase can enter the house and steal back her touchstone. When she touches it, she disappears, leaving it behind. Mantis continues to fight the Legion, and sends some of his Parademons to guard his pod; Gates deduces that the pod might be used to recharge him, and so Rokk sends Gates and Jo to investigate while the rest of the team continues the fight with Mantis. Metron is upset to learn that Imra doesn’t have any useful information in her, and teleports away. Jo and Gates fight their way through some Parademons, while the others keep fighting Mantis, trying to drain his energy. Ayla lifts a massive amount of dirt with her new powers, which Mantis destroys, but it wears him out. He teleports back to his pod, and upon opening it, finds a very powered-up Ultra Boy waiting for him. Jo knocks him out and then blasts the incoming Parademons with the energy he absorbed. Later, after the team is all together again, Triad suggests new code names for Ayla while the others rest. Brainy is surprised when a Mother Box appears in his hand; Rokk tells him he can solve time travel after they rejoin the other heroes in fixing this current problem (which is odd, because before the Legion was so concerned with damaging history, but now feel it’s okay to mess with cosmic matters?).
LNR 54 – This is another odd issue, written by Peyer alone, and featuring an Elseworlds style Legion, set in the Golden Age. Triplicate Lady (really three separate triplets), Invisible Kid, Chameleon Boy, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl, with some off-screen help from Lightning Lad take down a gangster, before flying their jetpacks to a secret meeting. Elsewhere, the Axis of Super-Villains, Doctor Regulus (now Japanese), Kommandant Roxxas (now German), and Tangleweb (now an Italian stereotype) break into an Army base and steal the atomic bomb. Sally Digby is with some kids that look like the Archie characters when she makes an excuse – it seems that only “Jughead” hasn’t figured out that she’s really Colossal Girl. Element Lad uses his element gun to stop a thief carrying a bag of money. The Legion meets on their rocket-blimp (which looks like the old Legion headquarters). RJ Brande, looking like the Monopoly guy, introduces Element Lad to the team, and then retells the story of how the Legion was formed. They get a call from the President, sending them to the Manhattan Project to track down the missing bomb. Once there, they meet Brainiac -1, an alien genius who built the atomic bomb in minutes, but has been stalling his bosses while he tries to build a forcefield to contain its energy. They learn that the Axis has put the bomb in the Empire State Building, so they all take their blimp to attack. It gets shot down by Regulus, and while the team escapes and fights the others, Brainy tries to stop the bomb. It’s too late, so they decide that instead they need to hook up Brainy’s forcefield device. He needs Lightning Lad’s help, since he has a device called a transformation. Cosmic Boy switches it on with one of his magnets just as the bomb explodes. The Legion finds itself in the timestream, in their usual identities. They try to figure out what’s happened, and Imra points out it’s like when they went to the 1950s in LSH 93; no one seems confused to see members from different points in time (no one even mentions that Violet is not controlled by the Emerald Eye anymore). Brainy feels like they are being tested – facing prejudice in the 50s and powerlessness in the 40s, and posits that something is behind it. They flash away, and the narration returns to the Golden Age, where Brande gives a speech about coexistence, with the top of the Empire State Building glowing, the force of the bomb still contained in the forcefield. With the war over (because of fear of the bomb), Brande announces the formation of the United Nations.
LSH 97 – Brainy is connecting Veridium to the Mother Box, with an immediate effect. The new combination of Doc Magnus and Mother manifests as an angry being that starts barking orders at Brainy. Lead (he and Platinum are still there) insists that Brainy disconnect this being, but Doc Magnus is angry, insisting he be hooked back up. The new being returns, and Brainy apologizes. Jo and Tinya are flying their vessel to Hawai’i to visit Superboy for their honeymoon when they get a call from Rokk, patching them through to Tiffany Cross, who is with Taptree. They tell Tinya that Tiffany’s touchstone ate Phase. At the base, Ayla shows Imra and Shvaughn her new powers by lifting Ferro off the ground. Rokk comes to call them all to Brainy’s lab. Once there, Brainy introduces COMPUTO, the new being he created. COMPUTO defends Brainy’s request for solitude to keep working. Jo and Tinya arrive at Tiffany’s, where Taptree explains that he and Phase are part of LEGION; Taptree notices that Tinya and Phase are almost identical. When Tiffany holds up her touchstone, it merges with Tinya’s, and then absorbs her, leaving the solid touchstone in Jo’s hands. Shvaughn updates her journal on a laptop. Brainy is surprised when COMPUTO calculates the math needed for time travel. Jo wants to bring Tiffany and Taptree back to HQ to figure out what’s going on. Tinya, inside the touchstone, finds Phase. They say the same thing to each other, and introduce themselves each as Tinya Wazzo. Brainy finishes the device COMPUTO directs him to, but it immediately falls apart. It still works though, and we see a portal open to the 30th century above Metropolis. Iron wants Brainy to disconnect COMPUTO now that he’s gotten his wish, which makes COMPUTO angry. We see him take over Shvaughn’s laptop, and start broadcasting a loud noise through all the flight rings. This affects Jo’s vessel as well, and he crashes. In the base, Rokk tosses his ring. COMPUTO gets ready to fight the team, and shuts off Lead and Platinum. COMPUTO uses their metal bodies to form a body for himself. Ferro tries to help, but the AI insults him. The others arrive, and COMPUTO keeps bringing up people’s secrets and darker moments. Brainy is difficult, so Imra puts him to sleep. COMPUTO grabs Triad, and when she triplicates, he holds onto the neutral body, incorporating it into his devices, and taking her over.
LNR 55 – A couple of guards examine a UP warehouse that was damaged when the Sklarians attacked. Something happens, and it turns out that someone posing as the one guard kills them both. Garth chats with Dyrk while Thom and Jan train; it doesn’t look like anyone on Braal can help Dyrk recover his powers, and Garth encourages him to return to Earth. When Dyrk’s brother is a jerk to him, Garth keeps the conversation going to help him feel better. After they finish talking, Garth wonders about the weird hallucination he had (last issue), but his thoughts are interrupted when Thom’s ‘electro-vision’ sparks the gases that Jan was transmuting. Umbra calls from the monitor room (a number of Legionnaires are away right now, so Garth is in charge) to tell them about the problem at the warehouse; Garth assembles a team, but wants Umbra to stay in the monitor room. Lori watches and learns about this. The team (Jan, Vi, Monstress, Garth, Zoe, and Thom) take two flying cars, and are surprised to realize that they are going after the Composite Man, without Imra’s telepathy to stop him like last time. Vi takes charge of the situation, and tells them to stay back so the Composite Man can’t duplicate their powers. Garth blasts him, giving him his lightning, and Vi suggests that Garth and Thom blast him at the same time, but the subsequent beatdown from Vi and Monstress doesn’t affect him. Cham and Chuck are on a UP Outpost, where Chuck has been redesigning the living quarters to accommodate a number of races. Sensor is with them, but she’s arguing with her father again over video-call. The guys come into the room and introduce themselves to King Charlz Wynzorr (seriously). Reep and Jeka continue to bond over how their planets want them to return home. Lyle tells Umbra that he’s on his way back to Earth to help with the Composite Man. Lori, who watches this call, sneaks out with her hero dial, and turns herself into a flying dinosaur lady. When she arrives at the fight, she uses the dial again, and it turns her into Chiller, a Killer Frost knock-off who starts hitting the Composite Man with ice. The Composite Man can’t replicate this power, and his momentary confusion gives the team time to attack him. Jan has an idea, which he tells Vi. She coordinates with Chiller, and as the team piles on the Composite Man, Chiller coats his body with ice, which Jan then turns to steel, while surrounding him with gas. He passes out, and Jan explains he noticed that the Composite Man doesn’t really use his shape-shifting powers, so he knew this would work. A UP guy tells them that the reason why the Composite Man wasn’t sent back to Durla when he was supposed to be, is because President Chu blocked it. They notice that Chiller is gone; later, Lori is back in her room, feeling good about helping the team.
LSH 99 – Ayla is the only Legionnaire left facing COMPUTO, who has taken over one of Triad’s bodies. Gates revives and tries to help, but COMPUTO uses its tendrils to block Gates’s eyes, making it impossible for him to teleport. Ayla surprises COMPUTO by using her new weight-altering powers, slamming it into the ceiling. COMPUTO teleports away using Mother Box’s Boom Tube. Taptree is freaking out, looking at the wreckage of Jo’s ship. Jo emerges, holding Tiffany Cross, and goes back in, looking for the touchstone that’s holding Tinya’s personality. He finds it. Inside it, Tinya and Phase continue to speak the same words at the same time, and when Tinya tries to touch Phase, they appear to merge. COMPUTO is upset that it reacted emotionally to not knowing about Ayla’s powers, and gets a new idea. Oracle places a call to Robin, letting him know that something is wrong at the old JLA Mountain. Brainy and the team talk, and we learn that Luornu can survive for a few hours without merging again. Brainy tries to blame the COMPUTO problem on Iron, who Brainy assures Ferro is fine (as is Platinum). Shvaughn admits that it was her journal that gave COMPUTO so much information about them; they decide they need to bring in some allies to help them. Rokk is going to call Superboy, and Brainy sends a message to Impulse, who arrives immediately. We also learn that the portal to the 30th century is only going to stay open for another three hours and change. Taptree is bringing Jo and Tiffany back to the base when they receive knowledge of an impending nuclear disaster at a facility near Happy Harbour. Robin also hears about this, and diverts there. Superboy arrives just as Imra learns of the nuclear issue as well. Robin is joined by Impulse, and then by the Legion and Superboy. They watch as the entire nuclear plant changes into a massive tank, piloted by COMPUTO. It starts firing missiles, which the team begins to focus on. Impulse punches COMPUTO, and Robin tosses it off the tank. Brainy wants to talk to COMPUTO, which he accuses of keeping them busy until the time portal closes. COMPUTO takes over the forceshield belt, and spreads it around Brainy and Rokk, whose head it sends a tendril into. Taptree’s LEGION ship arrives and starts firing on the tank. COMPUTO tells Brainy that it knows that the only way to ensure its continued existence is to kill all humans; it (meaning both Luornu’s body and Rokk’s, which it has taken over too) disappears in a burst of light. Brainy tells the rest that he’s suffered a ‘setback’.
LNR 56 – M’onel is flying through space in a small Legion vessel, remembering how he was recently watching television with XS and Monstress when a documentary about Valor, who is him, came on. It interestingly says that Valor seeded planets with proto-cellular matter, which is in contradiction to what’s been established before. It’s clear that Monstress doesn’t know who M’onel really is, and he gets increasingly uncomfortable with the level of devotion people have for him. This is why he’s out flying around, but then he spots a Khund warship in orbit around Silvan. He flies down to the planet where he finds Khund soldiers stuffing the light-based lifeforms of that planet into large batteries (one of them mentions how Khund diplomats are recruiting Daxamites at the same time). Lar swoops in and starts to fight the Khunds, and receives some local assistance, including from Lume, who once was invited to join the Legion (before Lar did, so I don’t know how they know each other). He frees the others, and Lume tells him about the Daxam connection. Lar leaves the Khunds for the Science Police, calling headquarters to leave a message. Back at HQ, Dreamer wanders into the monitor room, worried that she can’t find any Legionnaires. She heads to the cafeteria to tell Tenzil, and he confirms that the Legionnaires are nowhere to be found. Chuck is on the space station, which is being named Outpost Allon and is going to be used as a Legion outpost, not a UP one, as the last issue suggested. Dyrk arrives and tells Chuck that since his powers are never coming back, he’s going to follow Garth’s advice and stay with the Legion in a support role. Tenzil calls, thinking the Legion might be on the Outpost, but Chuck confirms that they aren’t. M’onel approaches Daxam, thinking about how he knows little about his home planet’s last millennium. A Khund diplomat talks to a group of Daxamites in a village about how they should join them in resisting the UP. Lar intrudes, bringing up thousand year old events as proof that Khunds can’t be trusted (which is profoundly racist). The Khunds get angry, and the ranking guard orders his men to fire on him. Lar starts fighting the Khunds, getting progressively weaker under his home planet’s red sun, but with some help from a descendant (they don’t know that M’onel is Valor), he defeats the Khunds, who leave. Lar returns to his ship to join a conference call with RJ Brande, Rond Vidar, and the Outpost and HQ support crews. Rond says there’s been some chronal energy, and he supposes that the team has been drawn into time again. Brande wants Lar back to HQ. In a secret meeting somewhere, a robed figure meets with a Khund and some others; he’s not happy that the Khunds failed both on Daxam and Silvan. We learn that the robed guy is representing the Dark Circle, which is making a move.
LSH 100 – This is a huge, 96 page issue, with a few stories. The main one opens on a quick recap of the Legion’s problems trying to get back to their time. Ultra Boy and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner help a pair of planes land, after COMPUTO shut down their electronics. We see that it’s also taken out the 911 system, so Impulse is rushing around solving problems, under Saturn Girl’s directions. Brainy is upset that he’s caused these problems, but the two remaining Luornus encourage him to figure something out. He notices that Iron’s responsometer is missing, and he suspects that Ferro took it. Brainy and the Luornus join the others – Robin, Superman (who is now in his weird blue electric phase), and the Martian Manhunter. Brainy rejects Robin’s idea to infect COMPUTO with a virus, and instead thinks that an electromagnetic pulse might work best, which he believes Superman can generate. Superboy is annoyed to be guarding the time portal, which is now set to close in a vague “few hours”. He catches a flying car from the future and tosses it back into its own time. Taptree, Shvaughn, and Tiffany sit around with nothing to do; Tiffany manages to enter the touchstone, where she finds Tinya and Phase attached to each other (basically, they are now a single body with two heads). Brainy’s made devices to enhance the electromagnetic pulse, and is surprised that Luornu has developed rosters to place them at the magnetic poles. He notices she’s put herself on each team, and accepts her explanation that she wants to make sure things go correctly. As he leaves, we see the Luornus exchange a look. In the touchstone, Tiffany opens up the stone’s ‘energy’, and we see a montage that shows that Tinya, being half-Cargitte, had two selves as an infant. It isn’t very clear, but it looks like a being with a big eyeball for a head separated them, perhaps in a deal with a demon, and the one that grew to be Phase joined the LEGION in the 20th century, although that doesn’t account for the disparities in their ages, nor how this story fits with the fact that the Durlan that Phase replaced went to a different timeline (that of the original Legion of Super-Heroes). This needs to be explained more. The two Tinyas want to separate, but also don’t, but then see Jo threatened by COMPUTO (I’m not sure how Phase would recognize Jo). At the South Pole, Martian Manhunter accompanies Ferro, Spark, Imra, and one of Triad. Just as J’onn is going to plant the EMP rod, the COMPUTO-controlled Cosmic Boy shows up, and they start to fight. Ferro uses the reponsometer he took to give himself shape-changing abilities, but COMPUTO figures out it’s him and takes the device. What he doesn’t anticipate is that Iron is able to reclaim the metal in Rokk’s armor, leaving Rokk simply mind controlled. J’onn poses as Superman to throw COMPUTO off, giving Imra the chance to get into Rokk’s head. She runs to save J’onn from some fire, and is helped by Rokk, who is back to normal. Rokk reveals that COMPUTO is controlling all of Luornu’s bodies. Just then, Jo, Kyle, Bart, Gates, and the last Luornu are fighting the other COMPUTO body at the north pole (these guys got to these distant locations very quickly; you’d think the trip to Antarctica would have taken longer than the trip to the Arctic). COMPUTO knocks out Impulse. J’onn has made it back to Metropolis with the others, and leaves Rokk to help Superboy. Unexpectedly, Rokk flies through the time portal, leaving the others to question if he is in control of himself. COMPUTO has now taken control of Impulse, and while Kyle and Gates try to stop him, the main COMPUTO (in Luornu’s body) is about to kill Jo. Just then Apparition emerges from Jo’s chest, and surprises COMPUTO by punching it in the face. Superman, in orbit, is ready to start the EM pulse, but COMPUTO is able to shoot energy at him from the ground. Gates and Kyle take out Impulse, but COMPUTO grabs Tiffany, who I guess also came out of Jo’s chest? Just then the rest of the Legion – the group that was still in the 30th century – arrive with Rokk. Brainy figures this is a good time to use Robin’s idea and upload a virus into COMPUTO. The newly arrived Legionnaires all appear to have switched power sets, so when COMPUTO makes one assumption, like that Live Wire can project Umbra’s darkness, it’s surprised when he then blasts it with lightning (it apparently can’t tap into Luornu’s memories). Superman fires the virus at it from space. As COMPUTO crumples in pain, it starts to question Brainy (when did he get to the north pole?), but Superman zaps it. We learn that Luornu is fine. Back in Happy Harbour, the entire team, plus the Metal Men and some of the Justice League, and the others, all stand around chatting for a bit. We learn that Superman still thinks Live Wire’s name is Lightning Lad (further solidifying that the real Legion wasn’t completely erased), that Luornu wants Superboy to come visit the future again, and that Inferno is going to stay behind in the present by choice. We also learn that Ferro and Koko have to stay behind too. As the Legion pilots its cruiser towards the time portal, Imra and Rokk decide to let Ferro come with them, and he brings Koko, which makes Brainy unhappy.
LSH 100 – It’s Legion Day, and a ton of fans are in the plaza outside the headquarters. Ferro is sitting quietly under a tree, when he’s joined by an old man who recognizes his flight ring. Ferro admits that he isn’t sure he belongs with the team, and tells a story about his first official mission. Triad, Gates, Ultra Boy, Element Lad, Leviathan, and Ferro responded to a distress call on a research station. When they arrived, they found the crew turned to stone. They were attacked by a Tyrian named Rarb, but Jo, Jan, and Luornu took him out quickly. The problem was, he wasn’t alone, and his partner, Stheno, turned everyone to stone with one look, except for Vi and Ferro. Vi had Ferro turn to iron, and looking at the reflection in his helmet to guide her, flew him into Stheno, knocking her out. The others turned back to normal after some time. The old man gives Ferro a pep talk, and as most of the rest of the Legion flies overhead, convinces him that he can make a difference. As Ferro flies up to join his new friends, we see that the old man was really Chameleon.
LSH 100 – Jason Armstrong debuts as the new regular artist in a story set on the Legion Outpost. Ayla helps Chuck install the generator (which, I would assume, would have been one of the first things running on the station) with her new powers, and then the rest of the Legion docks, and begins to explore the place. We learn that Andromeda won’t be joining the team for the dedication ceremony. Rokk meets Dyrk, and everyone spends time hanging out. Imra makes it clear to Vi that no one blames her for stranding them in the past, and we learn that Tinya is enjoying spending time with Jo now that she’s solid again. Ferro stands in the Hall of Heroes, missing his brother. Reep and Jeka spend some time together in a danger room, and Jeka admits that her father thinks they are together; Jenni, walking by, comes to the same conclusion. Jenni asks Zoe for advice in how to get M’onel to notice her, and then rushes over to the airlock where he is arriving. Lyle asks that everyone convene in the botanical gardens. Ayla encourages Garth to talk to Imra, and Gates is rude to Jeka when Reep introduces her to him. Lyle begins to talk to everyone, first thanking Chuck for his work on upgrading the outpost. Chuck gives a short speech about what an honour it is to serve the Legion. Next, Lyle announces that Dyrk is going to stay on, taking care of monitor duty. He gives a similar speech. Next, Lyle announces that the station is dedicated to Gim Allon, the first Leviathan.
LSH 100 – In a jokey short, Tenzil gives Brainy a drink that causes him to have some hallucinations.
LSH 100 – The last story in #100 features writing by Paul Levitz; it’s the first Legion story he wrote since the end of his run, and it weirdly focuses on Andromeda, a Legionnaire he’d never written about before. Laurel is exploring a distant part of space on behalf of the Sisters of the Eternal Cosmos, her ministry. She sees a massive vortex, expelling energy. She flies into it to investigate, and finds a massive geometric design. It starts to speak to her by name, and she passes out. Lyle is happy to get some lab time at the Legion HQ when an alarm sounds, and Jenni comes and drags him outside. There, they see a massive image of Andromeda, calling for her “Lord M’onel”. She says she’s found “the fires of creation” and they are calling for him. Lyle and Brainy can’t figure out the nature of her transmission; Lyle suspects it is magical in nature. M’onel arrives, and Laurel speaks to him, asking him to come with her. Jenni gets a tracker, and M’onel follows her. They quickly disappear (Gates points out that they didn’t teleport). Brainy wants to follow, but Lyle insists he take a team with him. We see the geometric shape, and it says something about having a man and a woman who can join together and begin creation anew.
LSF 1 – Luornu narrates the story of the Legion’s founding, filling in some details from her perspective. She shows that RJ Brande was frustrated in his efforts to get the UP model running, so much so that he didn’t even notice his partner Doyle harassing Luornu in the office. One of her selves suggested that he get out and visit different worlds to better understand what people want from the UP. He found the tour a bust, until he ended up in a diner on Winath (where Tenzil was working, oddly), and the proprietor accused him of living above people. Brande decided to book a flight on a tourist class shuttle back to Earth, which just happened to also contain Rokk, Garth, and Imra. When they arrived on Earth, some White Triangle assassins planned to kill Brande, but the kids saved him. This is where the idea of forming the Legion came from, and soon he had Luornu round up the three young heroes and recruit them (much of this is taken from LSH #0). From there, we see the earliest days of the team, which Doyle wanted to take down. Brande had them touring Metropolis for photo ops, and they ended up at the zoo. Some animals broke out of their enclosures, and started rampaging. The kids tried to contain them, and they learned that Grimbor, the Chainsman (no longer the Chain-Master) was behind all of this. The kids fixed things, but not before Garth and Imra got wrapped up together, and she saw that he wasn’t just a horny kid. After this early bonding experience, the Legion grew.
LSF 1 – There are a bunch of Who’s Who style pinups throughout this comic, including one that identifies Violet’s new superhero code name as Violet. It explains that she only used Leviathan for a short time – that’s weird.
LSF 1 – There is a two-page text interview with Shvaughn Erin, wherein the reporter tries to get her to badmouth Brainiac 5, and we learn that Shvaughn is 21.
LSF 1 – In another short, we see Chuck talk to some of the team about the layout of the Outpost, and then we see a map.
LSF 1 – In a jokey short, we see the “jobs” the Legion got while they were in the 20th century. Gates worked for a delivery company until he tried to organize a union and was fired. Rokk raised the Titanic. Ayla provided pyrotechnics for that horrible 90s team, Scare Tactics. Imra provided translation services for the UN, and Ferro collected pop cans for money.

I’ve been writing these columns for a few years now, and I’m not sure I’ve ever tried to tackle a run that went as long as the McCraw/Peyer/Stern/Moder/Moy run. I still have another column to go in this run, but decided that the combination of issue 100, the return of the time-lost Legionnaires to the 30th century, and the departure of Moder from the title made this the right time to pause and reflect on how these titles were doing.

And the truth is, most of what I liked about the beginning of the reboot Legion was rapidly departing from this book by this point. Separating the team in two groups, and stranding one of them in the 20th century was an interesting way of managing a massive cast, but I’m not sure it was all that successful.

The constant stream of guest stars helped to dilute the focus on the team, and I found it hard to believe that it would take Brainiac 5 so long to figure out a way to return them to their time, especially given the sheer number of other time travellers knocking around. As well, the notion that they had to be careful about changing the time stream didn’t make a lot of sense when the team kept jumping into every line-wide event there was.

In the future, the Legionnaires team had a much rougher time of it, with large scale threats like Mordru leaving death and destruction everywhere. There were character deaths, de-powerings, and other tragedies, yet Legionnaires treated them quite lightly, and everyone tended to bounce back in a hurry. Partly, this is because of Jeffry Moy – his portrayals of the kids as cute and clean didn’t always match the difficulty of the story. It’s like Roger Stern and Tom McCraw wanted to write about things as seriously as Giffen and the Bierbaums did, but were constrained by an editorial dictate to keep things light. It’s weird to think that these are kids that are 15 and 16 years old, and they’re losing friends left and right, but they keep smiling.

Similarly, it’s hard in 2020 (of all years) to read about the stretch of time when Imra made Rokk fall in love with her, while he was actually comatose. That is such a betrayal, yet Rokk just shrugs it off, and never actually examines his feelings for Imra. This is probably the darkest part of this whole run, yet it’s resolved so simply. Reading it now, I was reminded of the controversy that emerged when the Superior Spider-Man made out with Mary Jane Watson, and she didn’t know it wasn’t Peter Parker she was kissing. I feel like what Imra did is way worse (and given that the two were going to be married, I think it’s reasonable to assume that some things happened between the panels between them).

One thing that stood out in this stretch is that most new characters that were introduced to the team had no connection to the earlier incarnation of the Legion, or were huge departures from the original (Sensor comes to mind there, as they turned Princess Projectra into a snake).

Magno and Monstress came out of nowhere. It makes sense that Pol Krinn, Rokk’s younger brother, couldn’t join the team as he’d have been too young, and I guess the writers wanted to put Garth through that short moment of feeling like Magno was replacing his friend. Monstress does not make sense to me on any level. I guess she’s a cool early portrayal of a non-conforming character for DC, but I often found her to be awkward. One thing I can’t escape is thinking about how much cooler characters like Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, and Wildfire were than these guys, and I can’t imagine the writers didn’t want to give them a shot. Hell, even Tellus or Blok would have been preferable (maybe Monstress is an update on Blok?).

I wanted to take a look at a few other characters and how they developed over this time.

Live Wire – It’s nice to see Garth grow from his hornball young rebel phase, and become more like the original Lightning Lad – the dependable backbone of the team, even though he often still popped off during a fight.
Invisible Kid – I grew to really like the SW6 version of Lyle during Giffen’s run, so I was happy to see him get more screen time during this stack of comics, although I’d still like to know more about his spymaster past.
Violet – I don’t understand what happened to cause her to change her name from Leviathan to Violet, but I was generally pleased with the way she transitioned from being a thrall to the Emerald Eye to becoming a strong character with some self-confidence, especially during battle. It’s interesting that she seems to vacillate from her former shy self in social settings to taking charge during some action.
Element Lad – I hated the way that Jan turned into such a flake in this run, after the changes that Mordru caused him to undergo. It just seems like a waste of a character who has so much story potential.
Kinetix – I found myself feeling a little less irritated by Zoe through these issues, but I think that’s mostly because she retreated into the background a little more.
M’onel – I wish that Lar got more time in the spotlight, but I do feel that the writers were wise in holding him in reserve. For a while, it looked like they’d forgotten the whole Valor angle. I’m still curious to know how he’s related to the real, original Valor (not the original Mon-El).
Sensor – Is it just me, or was it beginning to look like Sensor is the main character of this book? She got a lot of screen time, which I guess is cool for diversity purposes, but her face completely lacks expression, and it made her a little boring. Also, she acts like she’s in her eighties a lot of the time.
Umbra – Tasmia joined the team, and was left mysterious and a little stand-offish. I’d like to see more of her, as the original version was a favourite of mine.
Star Boy – I don’t remember how long this storyline about Thom gaining an extra set of powers was supposed to last, but it’s a little tedious that he became a M’onel/Ultra Boy level heavy hitter, but was usually kept in reserve.
Spark – I don’t know why the writers felt the need to turn Ayla into Light Lass again, and not even in her own book. It felt a little lazy, really.
Gates – I continue to enjoy Gates, and like that he found so many things to enjoy about the 20th century.
Apparition – I feel like the story about Tinya and Phase being the same person, or Cargitte-style twins, needs to be explained and explored more.
Ferro – I remember liking Ferro when he was brought into the fold. I thought having him be from the 20th century was an interesting touch and cool way to revive an old character. The thing is, he’s really dumb and annoying in this book, rating somewhere close to Brainy’s monkey. I hope he grows on me.

One thing I liked about this run is the way some of the supporting characters were given space to grow, especially Chuck Taine, and now Dyrk (fka Magno). At the same time, I find the character of Lori Morning exceptionally irritating, and out of place in the book. The Hero Dial subplot is a cool idea, but the characters it brings forth are terribly designed, and Lori is hateful. I also never became a fan of Inferno while she was hanging out with the team, but it probably makes more sense to talk about her in her own column (which should be published around the same time as this one).

I found that this stretch, especially after Mordru was defeated, began to feel very directionless. I like that an attempt was often made at character-driven stories, but things just never fully connected.

I also feel like there’s a strong desire behind this book to keep the Legion world from following too closely to what came before. Sure, villains like Mordru and the Emerald Eye get used, but aside from Legion homeworlds, the galaxy looks very different. I was very happy to see M’onel fighting Khunds, and the return of the Dark Circle. After so many issues, things still feel unfamiliar and poorly formed, not like the rich tapestry the first Legion existed in.

Still, I have to remind myself that this book is a stark contrast to so much of the crap that was being put out at the same time, and in many ways, this traditional little corner of the DC Universe managed to navigate its way through the 90s without becoming completely grim’n’gritty, or indecipherable.

In terms of art, I do enjoy Moy’s take on the team, even if it stays too squeaky clean and cute. Lee Moder’s art suffered in this run, as the characters began to look more generic and rushed. Looking back at his first issues, especially with how he drew Rokk, Garth, and Imra, they seemed to lose personality as he continued. That doesn’t mean I was happy to see him leave the title, as I don’t remember being terribly fond of Jason Armstrong’s run.

I guess we’ll look at that next time, as my next column will take us through the end of this creative team’s journey with the Legion, and we’ll take a look at the devastatingly effective run by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Olivier Coipel after that.

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

These comics weren’t collected in trade.

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Retro Review: The Legion Of Super-Heroes (Vol. 4) #81-100 & Legionnaires #37-56 By McCraw, Peyer, Stern, Moder, Moy & Others For DC Comics!

Legionnaires #37-56, The Legion of Super-Heroes (Vol. 4) #81-100, Legion: Secret Files and Origins #1 (June 1996 to January 1998)

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