LSH v4 #13 annotations: "State of the Universe"

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #13

• On sale date: 10/2/90
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 13 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 567 (August 26, 2019)
• Timeline: December 10th (just a few seconds after last issue) to the 11th, 2994

• It's a cool looking cover, with each section representing one of the plot threads in this issue, but the section at bottom gives a little too much away about who's there (which was supposed to have been a surprise)
• Picks up just a few seconds before the end of last issue (which ends at panel 4)
• Page 2: we meet Ivy and Garridan in the nursery. Garridan was born in November 2985 (revised timeline), so he’s just shy of 9 years old here. Ivy was created by Giffen and she will be seen more going forward. 
• Page 3: Gim must be wearing a transsuit here since he's underwater without any gear.
• Page 4 panel 6: among Kent’s powers are NOT holding his breath forever.
• Page 6 panel 4: That’s a novel strategy for an invasion, hire a PR firm to shape opinion so the public will eventually go along.
• Page 6 panel 6: Roxxas is babbling like a madman – but he *IS* a madman! It’s clear that he’s insane, with the voices in his head coming from imagined Trommites that he killed, so he should be easy to discredit.
• Page 7 panel 1: Darzyl is the Planet Vorm claimed to be from when he joined the Legion under false pretenses as Dynamo Boy (ADV 330). 
• Page 7 panel 3: Mano, without his bubble helmet, was last seen in LSH v3 #25 trying to join Emerald Empress’ new Fatal Five. Note that he has his Mordruverse look here.
• Page 8 panel 2: Gigi Cusimano (named after Paul Levitz’s wife) first appeared in LSH v2 #301 and last appeared during the Magic Wars in LSH v3 #62. She’s now the Chief of the Science Police, having taken over from Chief Kimball Zendak (also last seen in LSH v3 #62, but we don’t know what happened to him that he’s no longer in that position).
• Page 12: probably the next day, Gim has gotten Kent as far as Toonar as promised. Toonar was mentioned in issue 3 as a place the Lightning Ring Plantation could sell some Quatro grain, and in the “Legion Groupie” letters page of issue 9. Toonar is where the Legion traveled after being abandoned in the vastness of infinity by a space-fatigued Sun Boy (ADV 318). 
• Page 13: Laurel wasn’t there for the fight against Roxxas because she was still on Zirr (on 12/3-5, issues 10-12) [I didn’t realize this at the time we covered this issue!]. She says “If only I’d just stayed on Winath in the first place, instead of running back to Zirr every two days”, but the timeline doesn’t allow that – Rokk and Rond got to Winath the day of the attack.
• Page 14 panel 1: Collingwood Inn on the planet Gnogg, which is an inhabited but radioactive world, whose money (Ergloks) is pure radium (ADV 377).
• Page 14 panel 4: Brek is still wearing his Braino headpiece that he put on during the trial six days ago (issue 11).
• Page 14 panel 6: Savignano mentioned (named for Lisa Savignano)
• Page 15 panel 1: Brande’s Planetoid is the home of R. J. Brande, located inside the orbit of Mercury and first seen in ADV 351.
• Page 15 panel 2: Weber’s World is an artificial planet built to help administer the United Planets Federation governmental operations. First appeared during Earthwar (SLSH 241).
• Page 15 panel 9: Furball is back. He wasn’t around for Roxxas’ attack on 12/3, but it sounds like he’s been going off for days at a time since then.
• Page 16 panel 2: Celeste says she’s got a “tendency” to glow green, suggesting it happens from time to time since she was healed on 12/5 (about six days ago).
• Page 16 panel 3: Angtu was Mano’s homeworld, which he blew up (as seen in ADV 352)
• Page 16 panel 5: Tombor is a dead world whose inhabitants transformed themselves into wraiths as their world died. They refused an offer by Phantom Girl to return them to normal, having come to prefer their new state of existence (ADV 340).
• Page 18: haven’t seen Lydda or Loomis since they were en route to Kathoon on October 25 back in issue 2. This scene takes place after Vi and Rokk have their talk, even though panel 5 says “now that we’ve finally nailed Roxxas” which took place six days ago.
• Credits: Dan Raspler is the new editor, their third so far (Waid 1-6, Eury 6-12 plus Ann1, Raspler 13-?)
• State of the Universe memo
• Volume 1 Mentions the following UP worlds having been conquered by the Khunds: Lallor, Sklar (home of the Sklarian Raiders, Kono’s people), Tsauran (home of Ontiir), and Rann
• Volume 3 mentions Leland McCauley III and IV. It’s been 13 years (revised timeline) since we saw the younger McCauley, who would be in his mid-20s by now. No mention of where Brande stands in the richness rankings.
• Volume 4 says that since Earthgov seceded in 2990 “resistance forces have opposed Earthgov since the introduction of repressive measures… but with little success to date.” This is very likely related to the “raid on anti-government terrorists” seen back in issue 1, in which ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) escaped.
• Page 21: Interlude on Baaldur, this is the first time we’ve seen Glorith’s homeworld and the first time we’ve seen her in present time (previously, only in the Mordruverse and in flashback in the Annual). 
• Page 22: in the Pocket Universe, the Time Trapper still lives, his form but not his essence was destroyed by Mon-El. 
• Page 22 panel 8: By altering the time stream, Glorith has become the Time Trapper, suggesting that this is why the Time Trapper is someone else after every reboot or time stream alteration. 
• Page 24: But is he really truly for sure dead this time? Glorith has turned Time Trapper to dust and gotten rid of him in a manner that calls back to how he killed her the first time around, by turning her into protoplasm (ADV 338). There’s a LOT in this week’s IOKIAS about why this section is in here (it has to do with the Superman office).
• Also includes a poster of all the main characters, but they were never all in the same place at the same time.
• Impromptu Fatal Five 3/5 reunion (Persuader, Mano, and Garridan that used to be Validus) in this issue, the first time we’ve seen more than two since they broke up. 
• Tharok was last seen disappearing at the end of the Dark Man story (LSH v2 271)
• Mano last appeared in the LSH v3 26, where he unsuccessfully tried to kill a Legionnaire so he could join Emerald Empress’ new Fatal Five
• Emerald Empress took over Weber’s World and tried to turn it into her own planet-sized weapon (LSH v2 301-303). She rebuilds her own new Fatal Five (LSH v3 21-26), but ultimately dies when Sensor Girl cuts off the Emerald Eye from her (LSH v3 57-58). The Emerald Eye made one further appearance in LSH v3 61 during the Magic Wars.
• Persuader has been a killer for hire (seen in the Lady Memory storyline in Tales 318-319) and a member of Emerald Empress’ new Fatal Five 
• Validus was eventually cured of the effects of Darkseid’s manipulation and turned back to a normal child Garridan Ranzz, but he was the carrier of the Validus Plague which affected people from Titan and Winath.

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. From here on out, I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (blue). Bold text is something new added this issue.

• 2/17/89 – Mekt admitted to Labyrinth Penal Institute (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63 – date as given in the 2995 Sourcebook)
• October 2989 – the Great Collapse
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1) 
• April 2990 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3)
• TBD 2990 – Earthgov secedes from the United Planets, and the Science Police Earth splits from the Science Police Proper. (LSH v4 #2). Since then, “resistance forces have opposed Earthgov since the introduction of repressive measures… but with little success to date.” (LSH v4 #13)
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/27/91 – Mekt released from Labyrinth, rehabilitated (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1) 
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• TBD 2992 – Brek Bannin arrested for insurrection (LSH v4 #11)
• 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1) 
• 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help Roxxas escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1)
• 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher [Sourcebook] (LSH v4 #3)
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Mordruverse (LSH v4 #5)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8); on Cygnus IV, Roxxas watches a holo of Laurel Gand; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan arrive on Winath (LSH v4 #9)
• Wed 12/3/94 – Rokk and Rond arrive in the morning, having left Laurel behind on Zirr; everyone (Rokk, Rond; Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Mysa; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, Jan; Brainy, Garth, Ayla, Vi, Imra) is on Winath when Roxxas attacks; Bounty, Mekt, Cham, and Celeste are seriously injured, while Jo disappears and is presumed dead; Earthgov linked to Roxxas; Tenzil arrives on Earth (LSH v4 #10)
• Thu 12/4/94 – On Winath, Roxxas is on the loose, and kills a doctor and nurse in the Bloomfield Free Clinic. On Earth, Tenzil participates in the Batcave dig, meets with Shvaughn and Brek (who is released for the first time since incarceration 2 years prior), has dinner with Prosecutor Jakobi, then falls asleep. (LSH v4 #11)
• Fri 12/5/94 – Tenzil and Brek in court; Holo Scene news article on the trial (LSH v4 #11); Celeste is healed by a green glow; the former Legionnaires team up to capture Roxxas, who reveals Dominion control of Earthgov (LSH v4 #12)
• Wed 12/10/94 – All-points bulletin on Persuader, who meets Kent Shakespeare in on Quarantine trying to attack Char Burrane Jr. (LSH v4 #12) Persuader is defeated by Kent and SP Captain Gim Allon, who then takes Kent to Toonar. (LSH v4 #13)
• Thu 12/11/94 – Kent leaves Toonar for Winath; Laurel fights Khunds in deep space; Tenzil and Brek on Gnogg. (LSH v4 #13)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). Timber Wolf was irradiated during Black Dawn, eventually turning him into Furball. Char Burrane (Starfinger II) was somehow involved. (LSH v4 #12)
• Rokk and Loomis are injured at Venado Bay on the Braal side, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1) She says that Braal attacked Imsk, and they were just defending themselves. She was head of security on the damper project and knew what it would do, but fought against it (not hard enough, in her admission). (LSH v4 #10)
• Kent Shakespeare and Gim Allon are both ex-Legionnaires, but it’s unknown when they left. (LSH v4 #12)

LSH v4 #12 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 12)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #12

• On sale date: August 14, 1990
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: None (Tom replied on Facebook that he apparently just forgot)
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 566 (August 19, 2019)
• Timeline: Part 1 on 12/5, same day that Tenzil and Brek are in court; part 2 on 12/10

A few names in bold are likely former Interlac people or others in Legion fandom, if the name is familiar, please let me know!

• Cover – the now-iconic new L symbol, which has made it through to the Reboot, Threeboot (slightly revised, with the comet going lower left to upper right), retconned into the Retroboot, both animated versions, and now slightly revised for the RebirthBoot. But recall it’s not the VERY first time we’ve seen it, which was in issue #5 (Mordruverse). Kind of appropriate that it’s showing up as we review this in August 2019, with the imminent return of the Rebirth Legion.
• Page 2: Cham isn’t dead, but he’s hiding in his traditional robes while he heals
• Page 3 panel 3: So Celeste McCauley is the cousin of Leland. Back in issue 6 we first heard the Dominators talk about her real name; this is probably Leland McCauley IV (first seen, as a kid, SBOY 214, and who will appear later in this series) and not his father III (first seen ADV 374, then once more in Adventure and twice in the Baxter run). 
• Page 5: Devlin is healing from the bee-stings he got on 12/3. Since Roxxas was on the loose and killed the doctor and nurse on 12/4, this would be 12/5, the day that Brek and Tenzil are in court in issue 11.
• Page 8: Confirmation that Furball is Brin Londo, who is now a were-furball due to the Black Dawn radiation’s effect on him combined with the zuunium in his body (and note that we still don't know very much about Black Dawn, see the stuff at the very bottom in the Unknown Dates section)
• Page 10 panel 5: Roxxas looks like Two-Face, and the blood on his forehead makes him look like a Dominator
• Page 11 panel 9: this whole page is a fakeout, with Roxxas’ split personalities on commentary
• Page 13: Jo finds the Khund with antiques and fossils
• Page 14: Roxxas claims Earthgov hired him to kill the Legionnaires, which does not make the Dominators happy. But any decent lawyer could claim those are the ravings of an insane person and not trustworthy.
• Page 15: Cham had Marla make uniforms
• Page 16: This marks the end of the first storyline, though it’s kind of odd how they just smash-cut to a page that’s nothing but a starfield (probably the same one from issue 1) and the name of the group. 
• Page 17: Start of the next storyline, which takes place 12/10/94 (via the Omnicom text page). Science Police officer Cavett named (after Christopher Cavett). And there’s an ex-Legionnaire working on Quarantine? Recall from the Omnicom story in issue 3 that Garridan Ranzz is on this world, which was first seen in ADV 313.
• Page 19: The ex-Legionnaire is named Kent Shakespeare, and he’s a new character. The guy in the green jacket is probably Char Burrane Jr., as we’ll find out in a few pages
• Page 20: Persuader has been hired “to do a job” but he’s not after Garridan.
• Page 21: It’s SP Commander Gim Allon. SP officer Nofzinger mentioned.
• Omnicom 1
• New uniforms will be space-rated, customized for colors and symbols, have long-range subspace beacons (after the “disaster on the asteroid”, likely a reference to the Legionnaires getting stranded in LSH v2 289) and long-range telepathic earplugs, plus the new L symbol. Murphy Caldwell mentioned (named for the son of Roger Caldwell).
• Omnicom 2
• 12/10/2994 - APB for Persuader, headed for Quarantine
• Planetoid 7RK, where he was last seen, was where Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra go while chasing a space renegade (ACT 392)
• The clinic is called the Luc & Perla Ranzz Memorial Clinic, after the parents of the Ranzz children who were killed when their spacecraft got stuck in a meteor storm (SBOY 207).
• Turns out he’s got a contract to kill Char Burrane Jr, son of Starfinger II, who is on Quarantine. Molock Hanscom (Starfinger III) is alleged to have had Burrane Sr killed in retaliation for Burrane Sr (Starfinger II) having Lars Hanscom (Starfinger I) murdered.
• Lars Hanscom was Lightning Lad’s doctor who secretly brainwashed him into becoming Starfinger in order to extort Rejuvium from Earth (ADV 335). Next appeared when he kidnapped one of Duo Damsel’s bodies on her wedding day (SBOY 200). Later had cosmetic surgery and assumed the identity of Dr Larsh, Imra’s obstetrician. Killed by Char Burrane prior to LSH v3 29.
• Char Burrane found a ring in which Starbright and Starlight lived, and decided to kill the first Starfinger and take over his criminal gang. Chameleon Boy and Colossal Boy went undercover to try to take him down, but he escaped in the end (LSH v3 Annual 4).
• We don’t know anything about Molock Hanscom to date, but it will be revealed next issue that he was first seen as Moloch the Merciless, the leader of the Cosmic Spy League (ADV 320), before being taken down by Dev-Em and the Interstellar Counter-Intelligence Corps. From this briefing, he has had Burrane killed off-panel and has taken on the mantle of the new Starfinger.
• The Burrane gang had some involvement in Black Dawn
• Persuader got the Atomic Axe in the mid 2960s from Wolf Behbach

---

So here's the updated timeline of things we know, as of this issue (new stuff in bold):

• 2/17/89 – Mekt admitted to Labyrinth Penal Institute (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63 – date as given in the 2995 Sourcebook)
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1)
• October 2989 – the Great Collapse
• April 2990 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3)
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/27/91 – Mekt released from Labyrinth, rehabilitated (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• TBD 2992 – Brek Bannin arrested for insurrection (LSH v4 #11)
• 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1)
• 10/23/94 – Reep Daggle begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk Krinn; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help Roxxas escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1)
• 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher [Sourcebook] (LSH v4 #3)
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Mordruverse (LSH v4 #5)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8); on Cygnus IV, Roxxas watches a holo of Laurel Gand; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan arrive on Winath (LSH v4 #9)
• Wed 12/3/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond arrive in the morning; everyone (Rokk, Rond, Laurel; Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Mysa; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, Jan; Brainy, Garth, Ayla, Vi, Imra) is on Winath when Roxxas attacks; Bounty, Mekt, Cham, and Celeste are seriously injured, while Jo disappears and is presumed dead; Earthgov linked to Roxxas; Tenzil arrives on Earth (LSH v4 #10)
• Thu 12/4/94 – On Winath, Roxxas is on the loose, and kills a doctor and nurse in the Bloomfield Free Clinic. On Earth, Tenzil participates in the Batcave dig, meets with Shvaughn and Brek (who is released for the first time since incarceration 2 years prior), has dinner with Prosecutor Jakobi, then falls asleep. (LSH v4 #11)
• Fri 12/5/94 – Tenzil and Brek in court; Holo Scene news article on the trial (LSH v4 #11); Celeste is healed by a green glow; the former Legionnaires team up to capture Roxxas, who reveals Dominion control of Earthgov (LSH v4 #12)
• Wed 12/10/94 – All-points bulletin on Persuader, who meets Kent Shakespeare in on Quarantine (LSH v4 #12)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). Timber Wolf was irradiated during Black Dawn, eventually turning him into Furball. Char Burrane (Starfinger II) was somehow involved. (LSH v4 #12).
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1) She says that Braal attacked Imsk, and they were just defending themselves. She was head of security on the damper project and knew what it would do, but fought against it (not hard enough, in her admission). (LSH v4 #10)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)
• Kent Shakespeare and Gim Allon are both ex-Legionnaires, but it’s unknown when they left. (LSH v4 #12)

The 1996 Legion mailing list drinking game

Just to show you how things come and go and come back again...

Back in the olden days of the 1990s, before the web was a thing, you had Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists and that was pretty much it if you were online. The longest-lived lasting mailing list was called LSH-L and was hosted in various places over the years, eventually dying out with the rise of web-based message boards. But just like today, people liked to argue about who or what was better, and we'd hear the same arguments over and over. And to make fun of those people, you'd have a drinking game. Here is the "official" LSH-L mailing list drinking game, which has a time stamp on my computer of 2/12/96. I've highlighted the ones that are STILL coming up today, especially with the upcoming Rebirth Legion under Bendis.

Recall that the Peyer/Stern/McCraw/Moy/Boyd Reboot started up in August 2004, so this is only a year and a half later. Come with me to those thrilling days of yesteryear of AOL and IRC chats, of flamewars and in-jokes. You can see what a typical month looked like - all 2113 messages in February alone, or an average of 75.5 messages per day! - on the mailing list via the Wayback Machine (here's January through October 1996, and you can even see the subject line of this post in the February archive), but you can only see the subject line and none of the contents.

(And relatedly, here's an Omnicom post I wrote back in 2005 covering what I knew of the history of online fandom up until then, including the mailing lists.)

Drink every time:

• The Floating V4 Flamewar starts up.
• The Floating Legion Racial Diversity Flamewar starts up.
• The Floating Sexism/Objectification Flamewar starts up.
• Someone's Anti-Defamation League is mentioned.
• Twice, if a new ADL is started.
• Someone says a Legionnaire should be gay.
• Twice if it's Jan, Ayla, or Vi. 
• Three times if it's Lyle or Condo. 
• Chug if it's Gates.
• The LSH team says there's no plans for a particular character in one of Troy's reports.
• Twice if someone asks when Tinya or Ferro is coming back.
• Twice if the team says that Marvel's afraid of the Legion.
• Three times if the team says there are no plans for a third Legion series, but a miniseries is a possibility.
• Finish the keg if the Legion actually teams up with Marvel characters.
• Somebody follows up a 50 or more line article to just say "Me too!"
• A simple comment ignites a flame war.
• Someone tries to make head or tails out of LSH Science.
• Twice if the use diagrams, equations or cite books.
• Michael Grabois brings up the "Klordny" quotes.
• Someone de-lurks.
• Someone misspells Ayla, Luornu, Imra, Cargg, Bgztl, or Shvaughn.
• Twice if someone mispronounces Ayla.
• Someone tries to think of a way to bring back the preboot version.
• Dr. Mayavale is mentioned.
• Tom Peyer, Roger Stern, or Ron Boyd posts a message.
• Twice if Tom McCraw or Jeff Moy show up.
• Three times if KC Carlson shows up.
• Chug if RobRaza shows up.
• Someone comments about a character's tongue in a Moy story.
• Chug if they're keeping a list.
• Someone thinks of a way to keep the "Mon-el" name.
• Someone says "This isn't my Legion".
• Mordru's Vaudeville career is discussed.
• Twice if Glorith is mentioned as his partner.
• Three times if any other villain is mentioned.
• Someone mentions "Deathboing", "Arm-Fall-Off Lad", or "Fortress Lad."
• Yeechang Lee's IRC announcement shows up on time.
• Someone takes a poll.
• Someone mentions one of the Anal Retentive lists.
• Someone disparages the "Timber Wolf" miniseries
• Three times if they try to defend it
• Someone wishes Chris Sprouse or Adam Hughes would take up the art chores.
• Someone starts an X-Men vs. Legion thread.
• Three times if someone posts in a non-flammatory manner
• Buy a round for the group if your name is Tuckerized into a story.
• Chug if someone mentions your new "Legion number."
• Chug if someone claims that the "Wanderers" series is what got them into the Legion.

(And of course, for those not of legal drinking age, please substitute milk, Coke, fruit juice, or your non-alcoholic beverage of choice.)

Originally posted Feb. 11, 1996 by Michael Grabois <orbit@ix.netcom.com>
Updates and suggestions by:
T. Troy McNemar, Esq. <troyesq@indirect.com>
Mike Morris <MykePM@aol.com>

LSH v4 #11 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 11)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #11

• On sale date: July 17, 1990
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 11 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 565 (August 12, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on December 4-5, 2994

A few names in bold are likely former Interlac people or others in Legion fandom, if the name is familiar, please let me know!

• This is yet another fill-in issue, the third in 11 issues. Read IOKIAS for the back story behind that.
• Cover: Eyestalk Guy!
• Page 1 panel 7: Tenzil in “The Conan Pose” after Frazetta’s “Conan the Adventurer” book cover painting
• Page 1 panel 8: for those too young to remember, between 1963-1988 there was a weekend TV show called “Wild Kingdom” sponsored by Mutual of Omaha that featured wildlife and nature.
• Page 2: Tenzil arrived last night (12/3). This is the next day.
• Page 3: The archaeological dig has uncovered the Batcave in the Jersey District of Metropolis. Prior to this, the Legion took refuge in the Batcave while on the run from Universo in ADV 341 (and Tenzil was there at the time), so the cave must have collapsed between 2977 and 2994
• Page 4 panel 7: Tribute to former Batman co-creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger
• Page 5: the only way this fits into the timeline is if Tenzil did the Batcave dig live on TV in the morning, then came back to the Bismollian Embassy and took Brek’s case at lunchtime.
• Page 7 panel 4: So Cham’s not dead, despite a headshot, because his brain was elsewhere at the time
• Page 7 panel 6: Brainy knows Bounty’s secret, but he’s keeping it for her. No known patient records for Bounty (who has unexplained scar tissue).
• Page 8: yay, telepathic earplugs!
• Page 9: finally ties in with the storyline. Brek has been in prison for 2 years and has been seen occasionally in this series so far, now it’s Tenzil for the Defense.
• Page 11: Jakobi (a reference to one of the first law firms to advertise aggressively on TV, Jacoby & Meyers, and a nod to a favorite race driver of Tom’s back when he was a kid, Bruce Jacobi)
• Page 13 panel 3: Tenzil has slept through the night, making this the morning of Friday 12/5
• Page 13 panel 8: Richard Gunther = ???
• Page 14 panel 2: Khfeurb Chee Bez, the former Antennae Lad (occasionally Antennae Boy), is now a TV reporter
• Page 14 panel 5: Aydon Jecks = ???
• Page 14 panel 7: J*ss Toor Tsaquin had an eye on an eyestalk growing out of his forehead, not just an eye there. He was warden of Labyrinth after the destruction of Takron-Galtos. He made a few appearances after his intro in LSH v3 #22, last appearing in LSH v3 #54.
• Page 16 panel 2: The judge talks about his full docket next week, with Bensam on Thursday, Chang on Friday, and Green Lanterns on Monday. Based on this being Friday 12/5, Bensam is to be sentenced next Thursday 12/11, Chang's hearing next Friday 12/12, and the Green Lanterns at the beginning of next week, on Monday 12/8. (Note that it would have been easier if this day were Monday 12/1 or Tuesday 12/2, then it would make more sense with Bensam on this coming Thursday 12/4, Chang on Friday 12/5, and GL on next Monday 12/8, but figuring out the dates for the issues prior to this wouldn't let that happen and still fit the dates as given in the comics and the Sourcebook..) Bensam is Interlacker Richard Bensam; he was listed as a known associate of Shvaughn Erin back in issue 2. Chang is Marko Chang, who we heard about last issue as the former UP Councilman who was helping fund the Dominators plot
• Page 19: Braino of Mrynah, the noblest being of all time, has only been seen as a memorial (ADV 320)
• Omnicom 1
• Bril Tone and Har Daws – on Facebook, Tom said these are “references to my colleagues at Daily Variety, whose reviews appeared not under traditional bylines but under three- and four-letter “signatures” (my “sig” was “Bier.”). “Bril” was Brian Lowry (now with CNN), “Tone” was Tony Scott, “Har” was Jim Harwood and “Daws” was Amy Dawes, all friends and Variety staffers of the late 1980s / early 1990s.”
• The critics seem to think this is made up, as they reference “performances”.
• Page 23: quotes
• Bierbaum, from IOKIAS: There's a spiral of word balloons that, without explanation, represent travel backward in time, since the further they go from the reader's eye, the further back in time they go. I believe virtually every one of the balloons is from Legion history, though I think some of them may have been from stories yet-to-be-published at that time. I think at least one letter-writer tried to identify as many of the balloons as he could. I know we selected some quotes from that first Universo story where he sent various Legionnaires back in time, plus the "Soljer" story from the Grell years that took place in, I think, the 27th century. And we took a quote from the appearance of Antenna Lad, whose crazy-looking ears could pick up radio transmissions from throughout time. Here we used the one snippet that Antenna Lad picked up during his brief Legion try-out that has always stuck in my mind: "He's three-eyed Sam from the plant WHAM!" Note that the LSH Annual would come out one week after this issue.
• That’s why they call it invulnerability, pal! [Jo explains why he survived an explosion on Rimbor, LSH v4 #2]
• … Have the rest of our lives to spend together… / … Can’t believe we’re finally doing it! [Jo, after proposing to Tinya, LSH v4 Annual 1, p 53 panel 3]
• … My God… the entire planet… every man, woman, and child slaughtered…. [Valor, referring to Glorith’s destruction of Daxam, LSH v4 Annual #1, p 3 panel 1]
• Stop him! Stop him! / Too late… he’s out the airlock… [death of Ferro Lad, ADV 353 p 19 panel 5]
• He did it… he saved the galaxy… but at what a cost… [death of Ferro Lad, ADV 353 p 20 panel 5]
• He’s going to kill Mr. Brande! / Get down! Everybody down! [the Legion’s origin, as remembered in LSH v4 #1]
• I mean, bloody liberty, that boy was murdered! [Jo Nah’s parents, LSH v4 Annual 1, p 12 panel 6]
• He’s three-eyed Sam from the planet Wham! [one of the broadcasts that Antenna Lad picks up, ADV 305]
• We’ve been spotted! / A gamma grenade! / We’ll fill in the crater… bury him here. / It’s… all we can do… [Private Mike “Soljer” Essad dies in 2783, SBOY 210, page 3-4]
• … Vacation on Venus… [one of the broadcasts that Antenna Lad picks up, ADV 305]
• Sonic assassins or something? [Not sure where this is from]
• Foul perrverrted scheme of the highest caste… [A Dominator, LSH v4 Annual 1, p 23 panel 2; this is from when Jo went back to the late 20th century and met Valor]
• A day that will live in infamy… [FDR’s 1941 speech, but did this ever appear in a comic?]
• Behold… he lives! Truly he is the great sun-god! [Chameleon Boy travels to the year 1300 while looking for Universo, ADV 349 page 10; the exact quote is “the great Incan sun-god”]
• He is the tool of our enemy! Slay him! [Colossal Boy travels to the year 693 while looking for Universo, ADV 349 page 14]
• Great Isis! She disappeared! [Shrinking Violet travels to the year 1243 BC while looking for Universo, ADV 349 page 11]
• Page 24: Jo has been transported to Lyme Fields, Malden Precinct, Khundia District

---

So here's the updated timeline of things we know, as of this issue (new stuff in bold):

• 2/17/89 – Mekt admitted to Labyrinth Penal Institute (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63 – date as given in the 2995 Sourcebook)
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1)
• October 2989 – the Great Collapse
• April 2990 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3)
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/27/91 – Mekt released from Labyrinth, rehabilitated (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• TBD 2992 – Brek Bannin arrested for insurrection (LSH v4 #11)
• 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1)
• 10/23/94 – Reep Daggle begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk Krinn; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help Roxxas escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1)
• 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher [Sourcebook] (LSH v4 #3)
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Mordruverse (LSH v4 #5)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8); on Cygnus IV, Roxxas watches a holo of Laurel Gand; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan arrive on Winath (LSH v4 #9)
• Wed 12/3/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond arrive in the morning; everyone (Rokk, Rond, Laurel; Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Mysa; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, Jan; Brainy, Garth, Ayla, Vi, Imra) is on Winath when Roxxas attacks; Bounty, Mekt, Cham, and Celeste are seriously injured, while Jo disappears and is presumed dead; Earthgov linked to Roxxas; Tenzil arrives on Earth (LSH v4 #10)
• Thu 12/4/94 – On Winath, Roxxas is on the loose, and kills a doctor and nurse in the Bloomfield Free Clinic. On Earth, Tenzil participates in the Batcave dig, meets with Shvaughn and Brek (who is released for the first time since incarceration 2 years prior), has dinner with Prosecutor Jakobi, then falls asleep. (LSH v4 #11)
• Fri 12/5/94 – Tenzil and Brek in court; Holo Scene news article on the trial (LSH v4 #11)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1).
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1) She says that Braal attacked Imsk, and they were just defending themselves. She was head of security on the damper project and knew what it would do, but fought against it (not hard enough, in her admission). (LSH v4 #10)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #10 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 10)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #10

• On sale date: June 12, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 10 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 563 (July 29, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on December 3, 2994

• Page 1 panel 1: Claudet Circle Motor Lodge (named after part of Rich Morrissey's address)
• Page 2: Rokk has arrived on Winath with Laurel and Rond, and Rokk tells Jo about baby Lauren. Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, and Mysa are already there, as is Brainiac 5 (and of course Garth, Ayla, Imra, and Vi live there now)
• Page 5: Shagrek was a member of the Taurus Gang (ADV 374), in his only appearance. This scene of Blok, White Witch, and Shagrek is new to this issue.
• Page 6: Looks like a statue of Triplicate Girl. Bounty, Devlin, Celeste, and Jan are already on Winath as well.
• Page 7 panel 6: take note of what they’re watching on TV, it’ll come into play next issue. “Wild Archaelogy: The Titan Presidents of Bismoll” is on tomorrow.
• Page 8: First time we’ve seen Mekt
• Page 10, panel 2: No spoilers, but this panel is a clue that Bounty might be someone that we’ve seen before? Only thing is that Roxxas went insane before Bounty was originally introduced, so if he recognizes her, it’s not from meeting her.
• Page 11: Roxxas doesn’t realize Mekt has reformed, he thinks that Mekt is there to kill the Legionnaires too, because that’s what Lightning Lord would do.
• Page 15: Cham is shot in the head, Celeste in the leg.
• Page 16: Roxxas is beating the crap out of Celeste.
• Page 18: Jo’s not dead, he’s just going to be missing from the storyline for a while. 
• Page 19 panel 4: Marella Tao is back on TV, we saw her a few issues ago
• Page 19 panel 7: Lyga (after Barry Lyga)
• Page 20 panel 7: confirmation that the Dominators are secretly in control of Earthgov
• Page 21 panel 5: Electro Tower again, seen in issue 9 and way back in ADV 346-347.
• Page 22 panel 1: Senator Kem!
• Page 22 panel 4: Venturan walking money is new-ish. We first saw Barakian Living Money back in ADV 309 in the Space Bank, which was robbed by Jungle King and his Legion of Super-Monsters. Tom Bierbaum later wrote in IOKIAS: “I remember it taking me probably an hour of wading through Legion history to find where the walking money had previously appeared, so I could accurately identify it.  And now I can't remember at all where it came from.  We identify it as "Venturan" and I think that's not actually accurate in terms of where the money was supposed to come from in its initial appearance.  I believe we never found the planet of origin and just assigned it to the gaming world of Ventura.”
• Page 22 panel 5: Calorie Queen was the Bismollian member of the Legion of Super-Rejects (SBOY 212), a bunch of wannabees who tried to join the Legion in place of others from their homeworlds (Imsk, Titan, Braal, Durla, Bgztl, Bismoll). She’s one of the few who didn’t turn bad. 
• Omnicom 1: 
• Marko Chang was a U.P. council member who charged the Legionnaires with the murder of his son, Redvik, but Brainiac 5 revealed that Redvik was still alive. (SLSH 235-236) 
• Chang owns the secret bank account that Roxxas has been drawing money from, funded by massive unofficial payments from Earthgov.
• Omnicom 2:
• Mekt was admitted on Feb 17, 2989. Per the Bierbaum timeline, this was about 4 months prior to the death of Pol Krinn. Did we see Mekt go into rehab? 
• Paroled on day 829, which is May 27, 2991.

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

• 2/17/89 – Mekt admitted to Labyrinth Penal Institute (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/27/91 – Mekt released from Labyrinth, rehabilitated (LSH v4 #10)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8); on Cygnus IV, Roxxas watches a holo of Laurel Gand; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan arrive on Winath (LSH v4 #9)
• Wed 12/3/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond arrive in the morning; everyone (Rokk, Rond, Laurel; Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Mysa; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, Jan; Brainy, Garth, Ayla, Vi, Imra) is on Winath when Roxxas attacks; Bounty, Mekt, Cham, and Celeste are seriously injured, while Jo disappears and is presumed dead; Earthgov linked to Roxxas; Tenzil arrives on Earth (LSH v4 #10)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1) She says that Braal attacked Imsk, and they were just defending themselves. She was head of security on the damper project and knew what it would do, but fought against it (not hard enough, in her admission). (LSH v4 #10)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #9 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 9)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #9

• On sale date: May 15, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 9 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 562 (July 22, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on December 2, 2994

A few names at the bottom in bold may be Interlac or other Legion fandom references, if you recognize them, please leave a comment!

• Per this issue’s IOKIAS, this is another fill-in issue. Through a long sequence of events, they ended up having two fill-in issues back to back, so last issue was the revised origin story and this became a good spot to introduce Laurel’s back story since we just met her.
• Page 1 panel 1: Cygnus IV is the home planet of the Bacard Barley Interstellar Travelling Carnival & Sideshow (LSH v2 261). Also, Cygnus was the pre-Crisis home system of Warworld, Mars II, and Mongul’s home base.
• Page 2 panel 7: Laurel says she’s the 9th to join. She’s a distant descendant of Valor.
• Pre-Crisis, this was the joining order: 1-2-3 Cosmic Boy/Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl, then 4-5 Phantom Girl/Triplicate Girl, then 6-7-8 Chameleon Boy/Invisible Kid/Colossal Boy, then 9 Star Boy, then 10-11 Supergirl/Brainiac 5, then 12 Superboy, then 13-14 Sun Boy/Shrinking Violet. But we find out later that Kid Quantum had already come and gone right before her, so she should be the 11th, not 9th. 
• Page 3 panel 1: Ricklef II, named after fan James Ricklef. Looks a lot like Argo City! 
• Page 3 panel 3: Laurel will eventually take the name Tiger Rose towards the end of the run, years from now. Also, the Electro-Towers were also used on Earth during the Khundish invasion of ADV 346-347
• Page 3 panel 4: Notice that Laurel’s mom is wearing clothes that resemble Jor-El (subbing red for green)
• Page 3 panel 5: Zaryan of the planet Brok originally appeared in ADV 304, now retconned to be a Khund (and the ADV 304 story was later retold in ADV 517-519 by Paul Levitz and Kevin Sharpe). He was responsible for the original death of Lightning Lad; Bierbaum says that retconning him into a Khund tied things together and made the stakes retroactively higher.
• Page 7: Eltro Gand again
• Page 8: This whole sequence, including specifically the name Cranston Creek, is a rewrite of “Supergirl’s Three Super Girlfriends” in ACT 276
• Page 9 panel 6: They apparently tried to retcon the name “Triplicate Girl” into “Triad” here, complete with a relettering, but someone must have forgotten about it since she never goes by Triad again.
• Page 10 panel 5: Laurel is wearing a costume based on Valor’s, but doesn’t appear to have a code name. 
• Page 12: In the original, Supergirl hit some Red Kryptonite which turned her into an adult (ACT 267), so she was ineligible to join the Legion, but she joined soon after, along with Brainiac 5 (ACT 276). Also, as in the original, Bouncing Boy was still an applicant at this point.
• Page 13 panel 2: Brainiac 5 modified Mon-El’s serum to allow him to permanently live outside of the Phantom Zone (ADV 305), so this is a nice callback to that
• Page 13 panel 5: Sun Boy wasn’t a member when Supergirl joined, and if he’s a member when Laurel joined, that should now make her the 12th member and not the 9th.
• Page 15: The Shrine Asteroids are unknown under that name, but they look like the Mount Rushmore of Space (ADV 310)
• Page 19: Roxxas has just been betrayed by Earthgov, who (via the Dominators) hired him to hunt down the Legionnaires in the first place.
• Page 20: Yucutan VII was last seen in issue 7. Recall that planet J586 was the home of plant-based life and the 20th century Green Lantern named Medphyll.
• Page 21 panel 4: Celeste and Jan headed towards Winath (along with Bounty and Devlin). They left Trom in issue 7 back on 11/30, so they've been en route for 2 days.
• Page 21 panel 7: The Westerner first appeared in LSH v3 #24 as a student in the Legion Academy, but training how to use his powers out on the frontier and not to become a Legionnaire
• Page 23 panel 4: who’s that statue with the comet symbol?
• Omnicom page 1: looks like an old Adventure letters page, with excerpts from actual Adventure letters columns. 
• Letters from Freedom Gale of Brookline (named for Gail Freeman of Brookline and Ken Gale), Rimbor; Sharleen Sopowitz of Metropolis; Eddie Jones, of Jefferson City, Toonar; Flynt Brojj of Metropolis (who first appeared in SBOY 209; named for Mike Flynn and Harry Broertjes)
• Sharleen Sopowitz wrote the following letter which was published in ADV 347, and copied verbatim to this issue: "Dear Editor: When, in heaven's name, are the Legionnaires going to have some genuine weddings? When I saw the issue in which you advertised the marriage of two couples, I was overwhelmed - but unfortunately, it turned out to be a hoax. I think the rule prohibiting Legionnaires from marrying should be changed. I'm sure they could do their work just as well if they were married. How about some real weddings - soon? -Sharleen Sopowitz, Brooklyn, N.Y"
• Eddie Jones also had a letter published in ADV 347: "Dear Editor: I notice that most of the girl Legionnaires have boy friends they particularly like. For instance, Phantom Girl goes for Ultra Boy and Shrinking Violet likes Duplicate Boy, of the planet Lallor. But what about Duo Damsel? Does she flip over one particular boy, or is she just a two-timer? -Eddie Jones, Jefferson Cit Mo."
• 1915 Euclid Avenue was the address of Nancy Northcott
• Omnicom page 2: history of the Khunds and Zaryan
• 2975 1st Khund invasion of Earth (ADV 304)
• 2977 Garlak defeat (ADV 346-347)
• 2982 Garlak in league with Dark Circle and Mordru (Earthwar)

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8); on Cygnus IV, Roxxas watches a holo of Laurel Gand; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan arrive on Winath (LSH v4 #9)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #8 Annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 8)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #8

• On sale date: April 10, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 8 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 561 (July 15, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on December 1-2, 2994

• According to this week's IOKIAS, Keith had fallen behind and a fill-in story was needed, so they decided to re-tell the Legion’s new origin story in light of the post-Mordruverse reboot
• Cover: one of the last Legion projects Curt Swan worked on before his death.
• Page 1 panel 2: They were marooned on Grocz on 11/30, let's say they found the freighter on 12/1 and spent the day en route to Zirr, arriving the night of the 1st. Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take a day of R&R on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath. Grocz was mentioned once, it was listed on the Legion's interplanetary clock: when it's 1:27 on Earth, it is 8:49 on Grocz (ADV 312)
• Page 1 panel 3: Zirr was the homeworld of Mon-El’s friends Garl and Englen, who belong to a race of yellow-skinned, dome-headed humanoids (ADV 321). Tom Bierbaum’s IOKIAS has more.
• Page 7: we already met Liggt, in Cham’s nightmare flashback in which the brothers fought to the death. Ji Daggle was introduced as Reep’s mom back in the Dagon the Avenger story (SLSH 258).
• Page 14: the 20th century legacy of Lar Gand – is this the first time we’ve seen the name “Valor”? Note that we saw Lar Gand join the L.E.G.I.O.N. in the 20th century in issue 16 of that title.
• Page 15: the ADV 247 costumes
• Page 16: the new first case (try to bring in Doyle) and the traditional first case (the Quintile Crystal, as seen in DC Super-Stars 17)
• Page 17: Lucifer 7 was the first case that Tinya & Lu helped work on (from Secrets of the LSH #1); Tinya broke up a spy ring as seen in the recent Secret Origins 42 story
• Page 18: Nine Worlds Ice Cream, first seen in ADV 247. That’s Chris Sprouse and his soon-to-be wife in panel 4. Notice the Kathoon ice cream on the menu, so everyone take a drink.
• Page 20 panel 2: Lester Spiffany was the son of a rich jewel dealer, who tried to buy his way into the Legion (ADV 301). He first appeared in 2974 (modified timeline) and this is 2994, 20 years later, so “Spiffany” could be either the son at roughly age 35 or his father Horace in his 50s-60s.
• Page 21 panel 4: “Lar brought me out to visit his friends”, that’s Garl and Englen.
• Page 22 panel 5: Englenna, named after Garl and Englen
• Omnicom 1: 
• Gail Ken and Via Edwards named after prolific letter writers Ken Gale and Ed Via
• BI subsidiaries are leading suppliers of anti-grav belts, communications systems (both later extensively used by the Legion), and energy plants; Brande is a key financier of time travel (played a big part in Legion lore) and tele-psychic techniques
• Omnicom 2: 
• King Jonn of Pasnic (named for Nick Pascale) was first seen in SBOY 193 “the War Between the Nights and the Days”, where we see Luornu get a new costume. 
• Somi Gan is Life Lass of the Heroes of Lallor. We saw her only once during the Baxter run (issue 62), and her last appearance before that was LSH v2 #317 in a Heroes of Lallor story.
• “The United Resistance Militia” – that's a new one!

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

• 2949 – The Durlan (later RJ Brande) arrives at the old Metropolis Spaceport and meets Marla Latham (LSH v4 #8)
• 2959 – Brande Industries formed (LSH v4 #8)
• 2/8/72 – Assets Magazine story on Brande Industries (LSH v4 #8)
• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #7 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 7)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #7

• On sale date: March 13, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 7 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 558 (June 24, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on November 30, 2994

• Page 1: Vrykos is a vampire. The green woman is one of Mordru's other wives, the one who told Mysa that none of the other wives liked her.
• Page 2, panel 2: from what I remember reading online in the 90s, this is how this Daxamite woman Laurel Gand got the name “Flying Buttress”. Hmm, “Gand”?
• Page 6: Rokk is having dinner with Mordru, making this a slight flashforward to night, where the Laurel/Rond/Vrykos stuff is going on in the daytime. Callback to previously when Rokk says he hates elvabird.
• Page 7 panel 9: notice Jo calls him “Wolf” instead of “Furball”
• Page 16 panel 3: I guess this is why we've never seen Vrykos's face before, they wanted a big reveal
• Page 19: “and there’s always Glorith” – we haven’t yet seen how she fits into the post-Mordruverse/post-Time Trapper world yet, though we know she takes the place of the Time Trapper in some way
• Page 20: Celeste, Bounty, and Devlin convince Jan to leave Trom with them, but he suggests they go to Winath to both pay their respects to Blok and to start looking for his killer
• Page 21: Mordru has magically banished the ex-Legionnaires on Grocz, “days from civilization”. Grocz was once listed on the Legion's interplanetary clock: when it's 1:27 on Earth, it is 8:49 on Grocz (ADV 312)
• Page 22: Planet J586 is where the Green Lantern Medphyll was from, back in the 20th century, but it doesn't look like it's ever been seen in the 30th before. Some sort of energy signature appeared headed to Trom, then changed course for Winath, suggesting it could be following Celeste, Bounty, Devlin, and Jan. Yucatan VII was seen in LSH v2 289 as the place where Blok and Sun Boy go to try to find the missing Legionnaires, who are actually on an icy asteroid.
• Page 28: Earthgov President Mojil Desai first appeared in LSH v3 #10 was later revealed to be under the influence of Universo prior to the Universo Project. Last seen in LSH v3 #56.

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #6 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 6)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #6

• On sale date: February 13, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 6 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 556 (June 10, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on November 29-30, 2994 (the Mordruverse story last issue was on 11/29, but since that timeline went away, this picks up from that point)

Names in bold look like they may have been from Interlac or other Legion fandom, if you recognize the names please leave a comment!

• Cover: homage to Justice League of America #10 and Sensation Comics #109, which also have characters as fingers on a giant hand
• Page 1: new character Celeste Rockfish, a private investigator (shout-out to The Rockford Files), mentioned in the Mordruverse issue
• Page 8: Cham’s brother Liggt (named for John Liggett). The 2995 Sourcebook puts this at 5/9/2971, about a year and a half before the formation of the Legion. Cham was almost 14 years old.
• Page 10: More about some horrible battle at Venado Bay in the Imsk/Braal war
• Page 11: Furball is Brin Londo, something mysterious happened called Black Dawn (mentioned earlier by Polar Boy’s resignation letter back in issue 1) in which Timber Wolf got irradiated
• Page 12: Mysa is seeing what everyone else sees
• Page 13 panel 1: Korr is home to Sky City, built on a giant pillar high above the planet's deadly smog. Sky City was the repository of the few Comet Jewels, said to the rarest of all jewels, stolen by Jungle King while the Legion worked to prevent the city from toppling over under the influence of an earthquake beast (ADV 309). Chadwick is named for fan Jim Chadwick (later a DC editor).
• Page 14 panel 6: no spoilers, but this person will be important in the near future.
• Page 15 panel 7: First we hear her name is Celeste Rockfish, now the Dominators call her Celeste McCauley. We know there has been a Leland McCauley III (first seen ADV 374, then once more in Adventure and twice in the Baxter run) and IV (first seen, as a kid, SBOY 214, and who will appear later in this series). Notice also the McCauley Omnicom prominently featured in the series so far.
• Page 16: Vrykos was originally planned to be a vampire Legionnaire, but Giffen and the Bierbaums apparently had other plans for him. From the preview article in Amazing Heroes: “The remaining new Legionnaires include Ryko, about whom Keith Giffen notes, “If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the vampire myth in the 30th century, then Ryko will answer your questions;” and Celeste, a light-energy woman who “is possibly the most powerful Legionnaire we’ve ever come across – even though she’s not aware of it yet,” Giffen states.”
• Page 17: no spoilers, but this is a brand-new character who is and was very important in Legion history. She calls the Legionnaires being held by Mordru her “old teammates”. Who is she? Review the blonde female Legionnaires: we know she’s not Saturn Girl, and Supergirl is gone with the Mordruverse. Not Projectra (who we haven’t seen yet) or Dream Girl, both of whom had white hair, although White Witch had white hair and skin and now she’s Caucasian skin and reddish hair, closer to her original appearance.
• Page 18: Mr Weisen is named after Mort Weisinger, a long-time DC editor and the Legion's first editor for over 15 years.
• Page 19: Accompanying Devlin from the Daily Planet are Celeste and Bounty.
• Page 20: Trom is one of the Gandian worlds. This is a new thing, pay attention.
• Page 22: Michael Eury is now co-editor, Waid is handing off duties
• Omincom 1: 
• First few paragraphs are the summary of the first battle with Mordru (that we never saw), summarized in flashback in Adventure 369. At the end of that, it was originally Superboy and Mon-El who locked Mordru in the vault, here it’s said to be Lar Gand and Star Boy. (Which makes one wonder how the Adventure 369-370 story was retconned, since they went back to Superboy's time in the mid-20th century). 
• Then after the Magic Wars, we hear for the first time how Mordru came back to be named Supreme Teacher of Sorcerors’ World. We learned earlier that 7/6/2992, the day Mordru was coronated, was also the same day that the Legion finally disbanded for good. Coincidence? 
• Alturny Ansky (Al Turnianski) and Ah-Zhay Draveed (Ajay Dravid) mentioned
• Page 24 Omnicom 2: The beginning of the Great Lar Gand Retcon, now that Superboy is off the table
• He’s now said to be one of Daxam’s greatest heroes of the 20th and 30th centuries, fighting Glorith since the 20th century.
• The Conspiracy (LSH v3 46-50) was now against Glorith for reasons we don't know about yet (we'll see this later in the upcoming Annual). Eltro Gand was released from Lar Gand’s mind during this battle.
• Spent 1000 years in the Bgztl Buffer Zone (formerly known as the Phantom Zone)
• Said their goodbyes and retired to explore deep space out beyond the Lallorian Colonies just before the Great Collapse
• Dev-Em is now from Daxam (he used to be from Krypton, so that's an easy enough retcon) and is the “third great survivor of the 20th century” – meaning Lar Gand and Glorith? His tenure with the Interstellar Counter-Intelligence Corps appears to be intact.
• The destruction of Daxam?
• Mentions Raub Woker (named for Rob Walker and Mike Raub), also mentioned in a medical article in issue 3
• Letters page has some surprisingly critical comments. 

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)