LSH v4 #3 Annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 3)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #3

• On sale date: November 14, 1989 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 3 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 552 (May 13, 2019)
• Timeline: per the 2995 Sourcebook, Blok dies on Nov 21, 2994 (in flashback); for the events of issue #5 to take place on the date given in that book, the rest of the events of this issue must take place on November 27.

Names in bold are possibly Interlac or other Legion fandom, if you know, please leave a comment!

• Page 1: checking in on some other former Legionnaires: the former Dream Girl, Sun Boy, Element Lad, Mon-El, Dawnstar, Polar Boy, Star Boy, Brainiac 5, and Chameleon Boy.  Dream Girl is now the High Seer of Naltor; Earthgov is still concerned with Universo (who was name-checked in issue 1 as a terrorist); Jan is on Trom; Mon-El was supposed to be dead, but appears to have gotten better; Dawnstar is out somewhere; Brek is in lockup; Thom is a baseball coach on Xanthu; Brainy is on Colu, working on something for "a solitary child"; and Reep is there with Rokk on Rimbor.
• Page 2: Ooh, the blue probes are all spies, too!
• Page 3: Mordru was last seen in LSH v3 27, where Mysa was helping the teachers of her world help to reform him. Rond Vidar was last seen in LSH v3 50, helping to take down the Time Trapper once he was revealed as a Green Lantern.
• Page 4 panel 3: Mekt Ranzz was released by the Luck Lords in LSH v3 #45. After being defeated again, he was put into a psych ward.
• Page 4 panel 9: Toonar is a Standard U.P. world to which the Legion traveled after being abandoned in the vastness of infinity by a space-fatigued Sun Boy (ADV 318).
• Page 6: statues that used to be in the LSH HQ - there's Invisible Kid, Triplicate Girl, Ferro Lad, and Superboy. The last panel shows an eternal flame for Pol Krinn, Mon-El, and Tinya, who never got statues in the HQ.
• Page 7: We won’t know the secret behind Furball for a while.
• Page 10: The Puppet Planetoid is a world onto which the children of a fantastic race of super-sized giants from another dimension dangle their stringed puppets, which appear to be five times the height of a normal human, through a tiny gateway between dimensions (ADV 313). As Puppet World, seen in flashback of Ultra Boy saving Sun Boy from the clutches of one of the giant puppets (ADV 316).
• Page 11: After learning that Roxxas has escaped from prison, Element Lad tracks the pirate to Trom. Angry over the death of his people, Element Lad attempts to kill the former pirate, but is prevented from executing Roxxas by fellow Legionnaire Chemical King. Element Lad's need for revenge is satisfied when he learns that Roxxas has been insane by his guilt over the genocide of Trom. (Superboy 211) The guilt at the Trommians he killed has caused him to develop multiple personalities, so all the speech bubbles we saw earlier were all him.
• Page 12: Strata from the L.E.G.I.O.N. At the moment of his death fighting Roxxas, Blok seemed to have an out-of-body experience in which he was back on Dryad, and met Strata of L.E.G.I.O.N., who he recognized from mythology (his being the lone survivor of his race is a retcon, when he was first introduced his whole race had learned to coexist with the humans colonizing his planet). Note that Blok's appearance here changes to match his evolution in the regular series over the years.
• Page 14: The 2995 Sourcebook says Blok's death was on 11/21/2994, though not given in this issue (and the Sourcebook's dates are valid unless the actual date in the book contradicts it)
• Page 15 panel 1: First mention of Tharn. As we’ll find out later, after the destruction of Zerox most of the survivors (mostly sorcerers) resettled on Tharn. During the economic collapse of the galaxy following the Magic Wars, Tharn was undefended when threatened by the Khunds. To face this menace, the ruling sorcerer's council restored Mordru's power to him (even though they know the power would corrupt Mordru). He defeated the Khunds and set himself up as Emperor.
• Page 15 panel 2: Vrykos was originally mentioned in that Amazing Heroes #172 article as “Ryko” the vampire who was going to join the Legion. Apparently things changed.
• Page 18: the remains of Blok have been delivered to Winath. It apparently took several days in transit.
• Omnicom 1:
• Story mentions Quarantine World is the medical planet to which the female Legionnaires were sent after contracting a strange crimson virus, in actuality red kryptonite radiation passed into them by an evil doppelgänger of Supergirl, in hopes of extending its life (ADV 313).
• Dated 11/17, about 10 days prior to the action in this issue
• Garth and Imra started the Lightning Ring plantation in 2991 after leaving the Legion
• Validus Plague ravaged Winath in 2990, slightly disfiguring Garth and causing him to limp; son Garridan is on Quarantine World
• Salu has been on the plantation long enough to be mentioned in the article as the "latest addition"
• Omnicom 2:
• Dr Zan Orbal first appeared in Adventure 351 when he restored Lightning Lad’s arm and slimmed down Matter-Eater Lad. 
• Drs. T.B. Katz (named for Talbot Michael Katz), J. Ligit (named for Jon Ligget), R. Woker (Rob Walker & Mike Raub), D.J. Gel Mor (Mary's brother, Dave James Gilmore), S. Pa Kar mentioned
• City of Haslemere mentioned (part of Ray Chan's address)
• By the time of the Validus Plague in 2990, Brainiac 5 had already left the Legion.
• This explains why only Graym is at home with Imra (without his brother), and why Garth has a limp
• Page 25: There are three sets of speech bubbles - the purple one seems to be the master, the pink one is the scared child, and the blue one who urges the pink one not to give in to the purple one. But Pink does, and the body of Mon-El arises from his grave on Shanghalla (as we caught a glimpse of back on page 1).

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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
• 4/90 – 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).
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 2/20/91 – Tinya accused of having a “torrid affair” with Thom before announcing her upcoming wedding to Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/23/91 – Tinya’s wedding dress announcement (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/30/91 – Tinya and Jo wedding set for June 9 (LSH v4 #2)
• 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)
• 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).
• Nov 2993 – Xenobiology Update article on the Winathococcus Validus bacteria (LSH v4 #3) 
• 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).
• 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)