Annotations for Justice League Adventures #28

Annotations for Justice League Adventures #28

• On sale 2/4/04
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 632 (November 23, 2020)
• Timeline: DCAU 2980

In the "New Kids in Town" episode of Superman: The Animated Series, a trio of Legionnaires (Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Chameleon Boy) travel back to the past to Smallville chasing Brainiac, to a time just before Clark Kent became Superman. She telepathically tells him about the Legion, and from that scene we get this image showing what the DCAU Legion of 2979 looks like:

Everyone from this scene appears in this issue (only Brainy has a more sensible haircut, having lost his mullet). 

The Legion would appear once more in the DCAU, in the final season of Justice League Unlimited episode called "Far From Home". In that one, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Supergirl travel to the 30th century where they help the Legion battle the Fatal Five.

Notes:

• We’re reading this because it was just reprinted in the "Justice League Unlimited: Time After Time" TPB earlier this month. The writer of the issue, Jason Hall - who's a listener to the podcast! -  provided some information after hearing this episode.
• The DCAU continuity was only internally consistent with itself, and so anything we see in this issue pertaining to the Legion was based only on what we had seen before in a single episode of Superman: The Animated Series. Anything else pertaining to the Legion was fair game, so Hall cherry-picked items from pre-5YL, 5YL, and Reboot (up to 2003) continuity that fit the story he wanted to tell.
• Page 1: that's Professor Hamilton, from the Superman books, and Ludwig's appearance is based on that of writer Jason Hall
• Page 2 panel 5: “Fort Bridwell” after E. Nelson Bridwell
• Page 4 panel 4: the couple at the bottom are artist Min Ku and his wife
• Page 6 panel 1: Kilg%re was from an early Wally West Flash issue (Flash v2 #3), and when it appeared on the “Supergirl” TV show, the name was pronounced “Kilgore”
• Page 7 panel 3: rainbows and circles means traveling through time, all we need are calendar pages
• Page 8 panel 1: this view of Metropolis and LSH HQ is from the animated show; plus a new version of Kent Shakespeare
• Page 8 panel 2: reads “Kent Shakespeare” in Interlac
• Page 8 panel 3: reads “Legion of Super-Heroes” in Interlac
• Page 9: the kid is actually a contest winner, wearing Colossal Boy’s Silver Age costume. I wonder if this page was meant to have dialog? Subway had some sort of contest where the winner would get drawn into an upcoming issue of Justice League Adventures. Jason Hall thought it would be more fun to have the boy appear in the whole story, not just one page, and had to get permission to put him in more.
• Page 11: The editor requested that the story only use four Legionnaires in an active role, that's why we only see Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Andromeda, and Kid Quantum.
• Page 11 panel 1: this takes place in 2980, meaning it's a year or so after the first appearance of the Legion in the DCAU (the Superman: The Animated Series episode "New Kids in Town", aired 10/31/98, took place in 2979). The Justice League Unlimited episode "Far From Home" (aired 4/15/06) takes place a few years later.
• Page 11 panel 3: All of the Legionnaires seen here are from the group shot in “New Kids in Town”, except for Shadow Lass who’s new here. 
• Page 12 panel 2: Hawkgirl mentions freedom fighters from Daxam, who they had met in Justice League Adventures #3
• Page 13 panels 3-4: Shvaughn Erin saying “sprock”, “nass”, and “grief” are from the Reboot
• Page 13 panel 5: Andromeda has a thing for Brainy, though in the “Far From Home” episode he starts developing a thing for Supergirl (Andromeda is not present in that episode)
• Page 14 panel 2: it’s the Silver Age Computo, but with the Reboot name C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
• Page 14 panel 3: This Computo ALMOST killed one of Triplicate Girl’s bodies.
• Page 14 panel 5: Wonder Woman is dressed up as Laurel Kent, while Hawkgirl looks like Dawnstar (neither of whom exist yet in this continuity, but neither appear in “Far From Home” either). The "Check out the Justice League babes!" line is from the editor, not writer Hall.
• Page 15 panel 1: the Green Lanterns aren’t allowed on Earth, as seen in pre-Crisis history in LSH 295
• Page 15 panel 3: Wonder Woman alludes to a flirtation she had with Batman
• Page 18 panel 4: this Phantom Girl has the ability to short out electronics that she phases through (like Kitty Pryde) – as we saw being set up earlier when she shorts out Kent Shakespeare’s camera-bot; this came from her Reboot incarnation
• Page 18 panel 5: they defeated Computo in one page, a lot faster than the pre-Crisis or Reboot Legion did
• Page 19 panel 3: the man's name is LUDwig DYTEman, and he is a Luddite (get it?)
• Page 21 panel 1: in the Legion trophy room, we see Starfinger I’s costume, Lightning Lad’s robot arm, and an old-school jetpack. And is that a statue of Superboy or Reflecto?
• Green Lantern is in the future in this issue and also in "Far From Home", but in the episode he doesn't acknowledge meeting the Legion. It must be that the shock of traveling through time wiped his memory of being in the future and meeting the Legion. (Not the writer’s fault, since “Far From Home” appeared 2 years after this issue!)