Lightning Storm: the JLA/JSA/LSH teamup prologue in JLA #7 (updated)

Last time the JLA, JSA, and Legion met it was a two-parter with Mordru and the Demons Three. This time it'll be a 5-part (I think) story winding through both the JLA and JSA books, starting with Dr. Destiny as the villain (though I'm sure there'll be more).

The prologue starts on the last page of this issue's JLA #7. Batman and Black Lightning are checking out the unconscious body of Trident, a D-list villain. They're lacing microphones and transmitters in his costume so that when he goes free, he can lead the JLA to wherever it is that he goes. Batman tries to fingerprint him, but he doesn't match the Batcave, Gotham PD, AFIS, or the Hall of Justice files (they should try CSI, they always get hits). But it matches something from Superman's Fortress - it's Val Armorr, aka Karate Kid. End prologue.

Dun duh DUUUUNNNNNN!

So now we've apparently got four Legionnaires running around the 21st century (or about to): Star Boy (as Starman), Dream Girl, and Dawnstar in the pages of JSA, and now Karate Kid in JLA. I think we're meant to believe that it's the pre-Zero Hour Legion team, more specifically perhaps the pre-Five Year Gap time. We'll leave aside for now the question of how Karate Kid's fingerprints got into the Fortress's computer. (And I guess that means that it wasn't a red herring that Karate Kid's picture was on the original version of the JLA #1 cover and in the group shot for Countdown!)



Batman seems to recognize the name "Legion of Super-Heroes". He would have met up with the post-Zero Hour version during Final Night and/or Genesis, and he met the pre-Crisis version a couple of times in Brave and Bold, once with the Legion itself in #179 and once with Karate Kid in #198, plus the JLA/JSA teamup above (issues 147-148) and of course during the Crisis on Infinte Earths.

With a month to go in 52, it still remains to be seen how the return of the multiverse along with possible alternate Legions will play into this.

Next issue: the Justice League of America, the Justice Society of America, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Sweeeeet!

Scott over at Legion Clubhouse has a writeup from Wizard #187. Brad Meltzer and Geoff Johns will alternate writing duties as the teamup passes from JLA to JSA and back.

"The Legion is as important to the DC Universe as the Justice League and the Justice Society," Johns explains. "That's what we're trying to illustrate. There's stuff that's going to come out of [the crossover] that's going to propel the Legion and show them as having a very important role in the DC Universe, even if they're not here."

Meltzer adds: "The Legion, when they were established, they were inspired by something that happened in our time. So to me, that tie is a thread that [has] sometimes been frayed and lost, and it's one that I think should be vital and we're really trying to show it."

Update 4/5: Brad Meltzer wrote on his blog:

And for all those who have asked, yes, that's Karate Kid. Yes, he's here. And yes, the crossover is SO much JLA/JSA/LSH fun. I think we'll put the real cover to issue 8 up during the middle of next week, so get ready for the geekasms (or at least mine).

DC's solicitation has this cover and this text. I didn't realize it's a fake cover:

Beginning the long awaited, epic crossover between the new Justice League and the new Justice Society, uniting the combined writing talents of best-selling author Brad Meltzer and comics mega-star Geoff Johns for the ultimate team-up! "The Lightning Saga" 5-parter begins with the mystery of who Trident is, and how his identity crisis will change everything!