LSH v4 #1 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 1)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #1

• On sale date: September 12, 1989
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 1 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 550 (April 29, 2019)
• Timeline: this issue takes place on October 22-23, 2994

I've bolded the names that are probably relevant to some Interlac/Legion fandom person, but I don't know who or what they are, leave a comment if you know!

• Cover: notice the flight ring, we won’t be seeing that particular version for very much longer
• Page 2: Legion history – Lightning Lad sacrificed his life to protect against Zaryan the Conqueror, who has been retconned in this series into being a Khund (from ADV 304); death of Ferro Lad and the Fatal Five (ADV 353); Omega (SLSH 251); Darkseid (LSH v2 294). This show will be on Saturday, and given the date on the next page, it will air on October 25, 2994
• Page 3 panel 4: Vidar aka Universo was last seen at the end of the Universo Project (LSH v3 35).
• Page 3 panel 5: Marella Tao was a TV journalist who dated Timber Wolf after his breakup with Light Lass (last seen in LSH v3 51). Notice the date on the screen: October 22, 2994 (which is a Wednesday).
• Page 3 panel 7: no known green-skinned women in the Legion’s time
• Page 3 panel 9: Dirk Morgna, our first ex-Legionnaire. President Wellington is new.
• Page 4 panel 7: don’t know who that is fighting Polar Boy
• Page 5: so something happened, and Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces”.
• Page 5 panel 9: Marla Latham, Brande’s right-hand man, last seen in Secrets of the Legion 3 (although he was recently seen in flashback in Secret Origins vol 2 #42)
• Page 7: Rokk is having a flashback, except that it didn’t quite happen that way. Loomis is a new character, and we see that Rokk doesn’t like elvabird. This is the morning of October 23.
• Page 8: Rokk apparently has PTSD from his time in the war. Married (finally) to Lydda Jath, aka Night Girl.
• Page 9: Rokk hadn’t been in the Legion when “everything went to hell” either.
• Page 13: Field Commander Salu Digby arrives at occupational HQ above Braal. So Imsk and Braal must have been in the war. She lost an eye.
• Page 14: Salu will get an honorable discharge if she keeps quiet about Venado Bay (part of Glen Moss's address). Rokk’s flashback mentioned “The Bay”…
• Page 15: … but she declines, and heads off to “the plantation” to see Ayla and Garth.
• Page 18: So Cham is recruiting Rokk, who now has no powers.
• Page 20: a flashback to the origin of the Legion
• Page 22: at this point, we don’t know who this is, but there are two speakers, one of whom got the other off of Labyrinth to finish their “mission”.
• Omnicom 1:
• 1/21/2992 at the Rebirth Summit, Daily Planet article by Megan O’Ryan , Bureau Chief on Xanthu. It's later revealed (in Who's Who in the DC Universe 16) that she's the mother of Devlin O'Ryan, who we'll meet in a few issues.
• Mentions Havron Xid of Colu and Brin Tami
• Mentions Oll G.R.E. Rath of Alkoz, which was a planet whose money was kept in the Interplanetary Bank in the form of glass coins (ADV 350)
• Mentions planet Ferno, which was a world on which Ultra Boy used his penetra-vision to melt down a berserk lead monster (ADV 301)
• Omnicom 2:
• 4/13/2990 communique from President Tayla Wellington (who we heard of back on page 3).
• 75 Hamilton Plaza, named for writer Edmond Hamilton
• Trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture”.
• Per the Sourcebook, the Magic Wars ended 6/23/89, so this is less than a year later.
• Omnicom 3:
• 7/6/2992 Brek Bannin disbands the Legion
• Mentions “especially in the instance of Black Dawn, and you know what that cost us”
• Page 26: ad for Flight Ring Village, which we saw in the promo preview

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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
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 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)
• 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).

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). 
• 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)