LSH: Millennium #1 annotations: The Future Ain't What It Used to Be

Our first look at the new Rebirth-era Legion actually starts in the immediate future, not 1000 years from now, in "Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium" #1.

The Legion of Substitute Podcasters recap: http://paulfrench.ca/losp/?p=1923

Despite the title, this is not a Legion book, it’s a book that walks Rose & Thorn through the various time points in DC future history such that she ends up in the 31st century with the Legion. It’s the 1000 years leading up to the Legion from now. So this isn't a normal annotation like I've been doing the LSH v4 stories.

The issue solicitation:

• Brought to you by some of comics’ greatest talents, this epic story spans the course of 1000 years and, for the very first time, connects all of DC’s future timelines! Starring the unlikeliest of DC heroes she learns to cope with newfound immortality and roams through the disparate societies of Batman Beyond, Kamandi, and Tommy Tomorrow, wrestling with her own inner demons and desperately trying to find her purpose in an ever-changing world. Do not miss this truly unique take on tomorrow’s DC Universe, all leading up to a special launch on the millennium!

There were two covers available: the regular one, by Ryan Sook, showing Rose (though we don't know it's her yet) inside some rubble which mimics the Legion's "L with a comet" symbol; and the variant, which is half of a group shot of all characters from both issues, by Jim Cheung.

 

There were some people who were upset that this series doesn't include the Legion, despite the Legion being a part of the very title. I can see their point, though the solicitation clearly doesn't say the Legion is in it.

We were teased early on that the star of this series is a female with red hair who is currently being written by Brian Michael Bendis, and who would not be missed if taken out of present continuity. Early speculation centered on Lana Lang (but she's got the wrong color hair, and BMB isn't writing her, and she's kind of a top tier character) and then to Jinny Hex of his "Young Justice" series or Melody Moore, a firefighter in his "Superman" series. But then a tease of a woman wearing a space helmet with a rose on it pretty much sealed that it's Rose and Thorn, a semi-obscure character who is really Rose Forrest who has an alternate personality named Thorn. She had her own strip in the Lois Lane comics in the 1970s, and was an occasional guest star here and there.

(Side note: the original Rose & Thorn was a Golden Age Green Lantern villain, who was retconned into being the mother of Jade and Obsidian. This is a new version of the Silver Age Rose & Thorn, who first appeared in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #105 in 1970. There was also a post-Crisis version, a New 52 version, and now a Rebirth version. There's a lot to take in, as Wikipedia shows, but all you need to know is that (a) she's now apparently immortal, (b) she's got a split personality with Thorn as the alter, and (c) Thorn is violent where Rose isn't.)

This two-issue series finds Rose interacting with a number of characters who have been set in the future of the DC Universe, some of whom from before there was even such a thing as the DC Universe (or even DC Comics, for that matter!). We had been told in the past that some future events were now alternate timelines or parallel universes - in one case, the Time Trapper tried to manipulate events such that Kamandi's timeline would occur instead of the Legion's (SMAN 295), and we even saw in an issue of Kamandi (by way of Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2) that showed they were indeed parallel. That was even enshrined in the recent Multiversity (as Earth-51). But nobody had really sat down and tried to fit ALL (or at least many) of those future characters into one cohesive timeline, until now. We recently saw in Electric Warriors, set in 2735, how the Earth was growing out of the Great Disaster setting of Kamandi, so that's canon (until it's not). But what about the other characters, many of whom we haven't seen in a long time (not counting the Elseworlds "Twilight" miniseries)? Here's a partial list of future characters who we COULD have seen (and who might yet appear in some capacity, somewhere); the ones in cyan are the ones from this and the next issue. But note that these were their original timelines, some have been adjusted for this new series.

Earth-AD:  OMAC and the Global Police Agency, then a nuclear war in 1986, then the Atomic Knights & Hercules Unbound, then Kamandi (who was revealed to be OMAC’s grandson).	late 20th century
Batman Beyond (revealed to be Earth-12, later introduced as the future of mainstream DCU as Prime Earth)	circa 2040
Tommy Tomorrow (retconned to be Earth-54)	circa 2050
Hex, in a post-apocalyptic alternate future where 1870s gunfighter Jonah Hex was transported to	mid 21st century
Manhunter, a bounty hunter, no relation to the Manhunters	2070
Star Hawkins, intergalactic detective	2079
Chris KL-99, explorer Space Cabbie, driver for hire Space Ranger, adventurer Star Rovers, trio of adventurers	22nd century
Gary Concord Sr (Ultra Man I) Gary Concord Jr (Ultra Man II), High Moderator of the United States of North America	2174 2239
Knodar, Golden Age Green Lantern villain	2447
Eobard Thawne, aka Reverse-Flash aka Professor Zoom	2460s
Booster Gold, who stole a Legion flight ring, Brainiac 5's force field belt, Rip Hunter's time sphere, and a flying robot named Skeets from the Space Museum and traveled back to the 20th century	2462
John Fox, historian and future Flash	2645
Electric Warriors, series set in between the Great Disaster and the Legion	2735
Blaine and Jace Allen, father and son future Flashes	2764
World War VI, a war on Earth from which the Legion once faced a revived soldier (SBOY 210) and later faced some weapons used by Glorith (LSH vol 4 #16)	2783
Kristin Wells, Superwoman	2862
Knights of the Galaxy, security force	3000
Robin (Elseworlds)	3000
Batman (Brane Taylor), Superwoman (Elna Kent), Superman (Kent Shakespeare)	3051

Each chapter in the two issues here is presented in (presumably) chronological order, but since Kamandi is here and OMAC isn't, that's a big change to the timeline. Each chapter beings "And then...." indicating the passage of time, and each is written by Bendis.

Issue 1, chapter 1 – President Supergirl (art by Jim Lee & Scott Williams)

• There was speculation as to how far in the future this really is, given how futuristic things look, but in an Instagram comment Bendis said this takes place 80 years in the future, so approximately the year 2100
• Flashback to Suicide Squad? With Boomerang, Harley, Killer Shark, Deadshot, Killer Croc, and Naomi, the radioactive stuff maybe made her life longer
• The medicine she took to suppress Thorn was running out

Issue 1, chapter 2 – Batman Beyond (art by Dustin Nguyen)

• Batman Beyond was originally part of the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), later incorporated into the mainstream DCU with several series and miniseries; instead of being in the 2040s, he's now slid about 100 years in the future
• Wonders why people still dress up in costumes and fight crime. “There’s a cycle here… Good. Bad. Gods. Monsters. Heroes. Mobsters. Criminals. Crisis. Apocalypse. Reset. Reboot. Rebirth. And over and over and over….” This becomes a recurring theme for Rose/Thorn throughout the series, her life has ups and downs and reboots just like the Earth. What's her purpose, why is she immortal?

Issue 1, chapter 3 – Kamandi (art by Andrea Sorrentino)

• Recall that the Great Disaster that ruined Earth made the animals all humanoid. The Crisis Omnibus has determined there was an Earth-86, in which the Great Disaster occurred due to the nuclear war, and an Earth-295, in which the Great Disaster occurred due to natural causes. 
• This takes place immediately following the end of Kamandi #29, in which the suit of the Mighty One (Superman) was being held for safe keeping. Something happened to Superman in the Great Disaster, it's implied that he died, leaving his suit behind. Thorn takes it in hopes that it'll give her his powers, but of course it's not the suit that holds the power, it's the person in the suit. Again, what does it take to be a hero?
• Compare the final page of the original Kirby story (click here) with what's in this issue, there are poses and dialog showing that this immediately follows issue 29.
• When Thorn takes the super-suit to the big building with a glowing blue light. It’s something Event Leviathan related, apparently.
• Again, the running theme in this series about Earth being ruined and rebuilt
• See this article written in 1976 for Amazing World of DC Comics #12 by Paul Levitz, by the way, that ties together the events of Earth-AD, from OMAC, Atomic Knights, Hercules, and Kamandi to the New Gods and even Wonder Woman. (Page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6)

Issue 1, chapter 4 – Tommy Tomorrow (art by Andre Lima Araujo)

• Tommy Tomorrow strip originally ran 1947-1963 in Real Fact Comics, Action, World’s Finest, then Showcase, so he's really a Golden Age character that saw new life in the Silver Age. It was set in the year 1990 and then later 2050, later relegated to Earth-54 because the future he was in doesn't match the "real" world (like life on Mars and Venus, for example).
• Planeteers were a future space police force
• Just to confuse things, in the immediate aftermath of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was revealed (in History of the DC Universe #2) that the boy known as Kamandi was rescued from his bunker and the Great Disaster never happened. The boy was adopted and became Tommy Tomorrow.
• Notice that this is far enough in the future that the Earth has recovered, or that Rose is not on Earth when she meets Tommy (because the Earth is too far recovered for the events of Electric Warriors to have taken place along with all the stuff in the next issue).

So Rose is halfway through her journey through time, the long way. Next issue we see Rose and/or Thorn meeting Booster Gold, OMAC, and the Legion (finally!).

Did I miss anything relevant, or did I miss listing someone in the millennium table above? Let me know!