LSH v4 #53 annotations: A Tale Old as Time

 Annotations for LSH v4 #53:

• On sale 11/23/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 680 (Oct 24, 2021)
• Timeline: Sept 17, 2995

Notes:

• Page 6 panel 2: Skor is a world on which its Science Foundation invented a radium-capsule that could restore frozen cells to life, if not permanently damaged. It failed to revive Lightning Lad (ADV 312).
• Page 7: this is a flashback to how we got to page 1. On the bottom is what’s going on in Glorith’s unconscious mind.
• Page 9 panel 2: Google Translate tells me the soldier is saying “Where are you going, sir?”
• Page 11 panel 5: this is the first indication Jo has that Tinya might still be alive
• Page 11 panel 7: this is a retcon to explain how Glorith survived getting turned to protoplasm in her pre-Mordruverse only appearance in ADV 338
• Page 12 panel 2: When did Celeste betray Glorith? A mistake or a plot point we forgot about?
• Page 14 panel 2: oh, no, Celeste is dead! Pour one out for a dead Legionnaire.
• Page 18 panel 5: the SW6 origin is being retconned
• Page 20 panel 5: spoilers for the end of the DOA arc in Valor in issue 17
• This issue came out 11/23/93, one week after Valor 15; Valor 17 won’t come out until 1/11/94
• Page 24: 
• The woman in pink with the Mohawk is Jeryl, former UP ambassador and most recently Vice-Chair of the UP, last seen in Legionnaires #5
• The man in red with the Mohawk on the right is from Tyrraz, which is Tyr’s home planet
• What is a Dominator doing in the UP chamber?

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding, Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50). 
• Thu 9/14/95: Cocheta Drisden fails to escape from Takron Galtos, and is moved to Quarantine; Grimbor attacks the team and Ivy’s Li’l Legion on Quarantine trying to grab her (LSH v4 #51).
• Sat 9/16/95: Kent and Celeste arrive on Talus from Quarantine, as Ayla and Brin reminisce and Vi monitors the Khund situation; Mysa tells the crew that since they just defeated Mordru, they have to take on Glorith to keep the balance (LSH v4 #52).
• Sun 9/17/95: Relnic shows Jacques that the Legion is working with the Khunds; Rond rushes off in a Time Bubble; the Legion lands on Baaldur and confronts Glorith, with disastrous consequences to the team; in her mind, Glorith is confronted by the Time Trapper; the UP calls for the Legion’s disbandment (LSH v4 #53). 
• Mon 9/18/95: 
• ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). The Proteans want the Legionnaires to go inside a crashed ship, where after defeating more Khunds they find Kid Quantum (Legionnaires #10). 
• Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). Kono arrives to help out (Legionnaires #10).
• Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). Inferno helps out in Essen (Legionnaires #10)
• Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9). More Legionnaires arrive to help (Legionnaires #10). 

Valor #14-15 annotations: DOA parts 3 & 4

Presenting two issues worth of annotations of Valor here again.

Annotations for Valor #14

• On sale 10/12/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 674 (Sept 13, 2021)
• Legion timeline: TBD in September 2995

Notes:

• DOA Part 3 of 6. The book is bringing in some of the SW6 Legionnaires - they're even on the cover! - and this title will soon join the other books. But in the meantime, Valor is still in the 20th century and I'm only tracking the 30th century crew. 
• Pages 1-3: The scene with Brainiac 5, Triad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy is basically the same (identical dialogue, similar layouts) as Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10, which we’ll get to next spring.

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Annotations for Valor #15

• On sale 11/16/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 679 (Oct 18, 2021)
• Legion Timeline: TBD in September 2995

Notes:

• DOA Part 4 of 6. 
• Page 5 panel 2: We are on Lori’s home planet of Baaldur. That should wave some bright red flags for the reader, although Valor would have no idea.
• Page 7: for the next few issues, the scenes with Brainiac 5, Triad, Saturn Girl, Dragonmage, and Cosmic Boy in this series take place in between pages 10-11 of Legionnaires #16. On page 10 in the last panel they leave in the time bubble (as seen last issue), and then in the first panel of page 11 they return (which we’ll see later)
• Pages 7-9: Dragonmage first appeared in LSH #33, but didn’t appear again on panel until #41. Old Valor left with Shady in #36, and SW6 Valor went back in time in #37. So unless they met off-panel in between the end of 33 and end of 36, Dragonmage has never met Valor. Which offers a good opportunity to infodump for those readers who may be only reading Valor and not the Legion.

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I'm not tracking the dates in the Valor timeline, other than they occur in 1993. Once we get into Legionnaires #16 everything will retroactively fit into place but for the moment they're still TBD. Boldface indicates something new learned this issue about the timeline.

• TBD: Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw (Valor #11, in between Legionnaires #15-16)
• TBD: Brainy, Triad, Saturn Girl, Dragonmage, and Cosmic Boy leave to go back in time to find out what happened (Valor #14, which is the same as Legionnaires #16 page 10); the Legionnaires are in the time stream and crash their Time Bubble (Valor #15)

LSH season 1 episode 1: Happy 15th anniversary!

Who said the annotations have to be just about the comics? To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the first episode of the Legion cartoon series (original airdate: 9/23/06), we revisited the episode with an audio commentary track, and then talked about it. As usual, I have notes! But this time I was able to go back and revisit this blog from 2006 (sorry that the hotlinked pictures don't work anymore!) and find some good stuff.

Back then, the blogosphere was in high gear, and it was pre-Facebook so people went to blogs for their news. I was updating this frequently with all sorts of links, the stuff you'd now see people posting to one of several Facebook groups. This cartoon was like crack to me. I mean come on, it's a LEGION CARTOON! Here is a quick look at some contemporary articles I rounded up for the first episode's premiere, more feedback and reviews from the next day, and some final thoughts and wrapup on the episode.

The series is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray (here's the original 2020 press release, from when they were only available from WB Animation, but now also available from Amazon) as well as streaming. 

There's a persistent myth that the Supergirl/Legion episode of Justice League Unlimited was supposed to be a back-door pilot for a new Legion series, but both JLU producer Bruce Timm and LSH producer James Tucker both have shot that down.

• In a 2009 interview with Bruce Timm by ToonZone magazine:
• TIMM (ToonZone, 2009): We just wanted to do a Legion of Superheroes story, and again, going from the comics where Supergirl and Brainiac had a romance, we thought, "Oh, that would be an interesting thing to do with Supergirl that we hadn't done before." We hadn't really shown her as getting into more adult issues of romance and stuff, so it just seemed kind of like a fun thing to do. But it wasn't ever intended to be a backdoor pilot, no.
• But as to where the series came from then, we have to go to series creator and showrunner James Tucker: 
• Tucker (Voices of Krypton, 2007): There have been Legion developments over the years, and they never... they've always gotten stalled, and I think the only reason the Legion got the green light this time was because Superman was going to be in it and there was a tie-in to the then-upcoming movie "Superman Returns". So the Legion itself as a concept is kind of a hard sell to an audience because you don't have Superman, and there aren't any characters in it who have any broad-based appeal to the average non-fanboy audience. And so in this day and age it's hard to sell an original cast of characters, you know, it's just a hard sell, especially when the market has to rely on toy sales, you know it's just harder. If I had my druthers, it'd be nice to do a Legion... and actually we do have a Legion story this season which won't have Superman in it. But you need him in it, you need the name recognition or you won't have a show.
• Tucker (The World’s Finest, 2008): Let’s get the myths out of the way. The Legion series was never tied to the Justice League Unlimited episode. Supergirl was never, ever going to be in the Legion. The true origin of the series came out of Cartoon Networks desire to have a Superman-centric series to premiere when the movie Superman Returns premiered. Superman as part of the Legion worked for them. So the series was originally developed for Cartoon Network, then they passed and Kids WB! stepped in. They, too, wanted a Superman-centric series with Superman fresh out of Smallville, learning to be Superman. That’s the reality.

But what’s the deal with SuperMAN vs SuperBOY? 

• We can thank the copyright lawsuit for that one. In a nutshell (as small a nutshell as complicated legal cases can fit into), following the copyright laws of the 1940s as amended in 1976, Siegel or his heirs could file to reclaim the copyright to Superman in 2004 in a one-time exception, which they did. DC, obviously, did not want to lose (or even have to share) copyright to any of Superman, so they fought back in court. This happened coincidentally at the time when Superboy Kon-El died in Infinite Crisis, which really had nothing to do with the case – it wasn’t that DC couldn’t use the name Superboy, it was that they couldn’t use young Clark Kent in Smallville as Superboy. And it was also around this time that the new Legion show was getting set up with a young Clark Kent from Smallville who was called Superboy, and so the easy way around that was just to call him a young Superman. But WB had to go back and re-dub the dialog in the episodes that had been recorded to call him Superman instead. After years of litigation, in 2013 the judge found that back in 2001, WB made an offer of a payment of $3 million, an annual stipend of $500,000, a 6% royalty of Superman and a 1% royalty of his publications, and full medical benefits, and agreed to insert the line "By Special Arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family" in all future Superman productions. The Siegel heirs accepted this offer at the time, and the judge ruled that this had terminated the Siegels’ copyright rights. (The Shuster heirs had already effectively signed their rights away in a similar 1994 agreement.) Read the Wikipedia article on the lawsuit.
• And that’s why we’re here to talk about the first episode of a new series called “Legion of Super Heroes” (with no hyphen), in a new continuity from what had been seen before, starring Superman.

Press release:

• LEGION OF SUPER HEROES, 11:00-11:30 am: In the year of "Superman Returns" at Warner Bros., Kids' WB! is proud to present a new series developed especially for the "Too Big For Your TV" block by Warner Bros. Animation, inspired by the DC Comics legend. One thousand years from now, a group of teenage super heroes travel back in time to recruit the greatest hero of all, Superman, and enlist him their fight against evil in the 31st Century. While their intentions were good, their time travel skills were not, and Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy and Timber Wolf end up going too far back into the past, accidentally retrieving the young Superboy instead (June update: the young Superman, before he moved to Metropolis). Together, this unlikely Legion of Super Heroes bands together to defend the rights of all free worlds and uphold the laws of the newly formed United Planets. That is, if they don't kill each other first. LEGION OF SUPER HEROES combines humor with high-stakes, grand-scale super heroics to create the ultimate sci-fi, super hero fantasy for kids of all ages. Each episode of this fast-paced, character-driven action comedy will pit Superboy and the Legion against otherworldly threats and adversaries who challenge the team on both super heroic and emotional levels. The series is executive produced by Sander Schwartz, and produced by Linda Steiner and James Tucker for Warner Bros. Animation.

Ratings:

• In the first weekend, this was the highest rated non-cable show in its slot. In the 10:00 a.m. slot, 61% of the TV sets were tuned to cartoons, and of that 61%, 8% of all TV sets on at 10:00 a.m. were watching the Legion, which was about 2.2 million people watching. Think about THAT one – The most recent issue (Supergirl & the LSH #19, during the Threeboot) sold about 43,000 copies, while 2.2 million people watched the Legion its first weekend. That's as many copies of the various Legion comics that have been sold, cumulatively, since from September 2000 to September 2006. As many people watched that one episode on one day as bought the last six years worth of comics combined.

So who's in the show, anyway?

• Lots of Legionnaires whose Mission Monitor Board symbols are in the opening credits:
• Chameleon Boy, Chemical King, Ultra Boy, Shadow Lass, Lightning Lad, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Matter-Eater Lad, Dawnstar, Star Boy, Polar Boy, Element Lad, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Blok, Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet, Superman, Brainiac 5, Dream Girl, Bouncing Boy, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Ferro Lad, Quislet.
• Then, in the flying sequence near the end of the opening credits, we see these guys:
• group 1 - Lightning Lad, Bouncing Boy, Phantom Girl, Brainiac 5, Timber Wolf, Saturn Girl
• group 2 - Superman, Star Boy (in his current Kitson costume, as a black man), Element Lad (pink and black, with long blond hair), Matter-Eater Lad (yellow and green, reboot costume), Shrinking Violet (pink and black reboot costume), Cosmic Boy (purple and black reboot costume). Then the point-of-view rotates and we see Colossal Boy (blue and red pre-Crisis costume), Triplicate Girl (split into 3), then they fly off into the Legion symbol.

Dynamic Music Partners got Emmy nominations for music for both seasons.

Legionnaires #10 annotations: Little White Lies (or: "Stragedy")

 Annotations for Legionnaires #10:

• On sale 11/16/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 677 (Oct 4, 2021)
• Timeline: Sept 18, 2995

Notes:

• Page 5 panel 2: Both Tenzil and Violet should have recognized the Protean (or Antarean) as a member of the same race as Proty I & II, who they had met
• Page 17 panel 4: Paris restaurant DuGarm’s named for legendary Interlacker Keating DuGarm. Also, read the room, Dirk – you’re talking about going to a fancy Paris restaurant while you’re helping out in an area where people have no food.
• Page 18 panel 1: back on page 1, they said “Location: Unknown”, but now it says Antares II. Antares II is the homeworld of the protean creatures, which I guess the writers didn’t want to reveal too early.
• Page 19 panel 1: I hope “Stragedy” is deliberate on Tenzil’s part
• Page 22: last time we saw Kid Quantum was in LSH v4 #39 when he and the team were rescued from McCauley’s compound, about 5 months ago (in March 2995, Legion comic time). 
• Where does KQ fit into continuity to begin with?
• In the revised 5YL timeline in the 2995 Sourcebook, Kid Quantum joined early in the team’s history, in between Chameleon Boy/Colossal Boy/Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5/Laurel Gand (August 2973)
• He was seemingly killed on July 16, 2974, after a year in the Legion, prior to Shrinking Violet/Sun Boy (July 28) and Matter-Eater Lad (Dec 24) joining, so neither of them knew him personally. (Nor, of course, did the new SW6 members Catspaw and Dragonmage)
• As a reminder, the Legionnaires were "cloned" in 2978.
• My best guess, after reading ahead through #12 and LSH #54 is that issues 9-11 all take place on the same day, which is 9/18/2995.

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding, Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50). 
• Thu 9/14/95: Cocheta Drisden fails to escape from Takron Galtos, and is moved to Quarantine; Grimbor attacks the team and Ivy’s Li’l Legion on Quarantine trying to grab her (LSH v4 #51).
• Sat 9/16/95: Kent and Celeste arrive on Talus from Quarantine, as Ayla and Brin reminisce and Vi monitors the Khund situation; Mysa tells the crew that since they just defeated Mordru, they have to take on Glorith to keep the balance (LSH v4 #52).
• Mon 9/18/95: 
• ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). The Proteans want the Legionnaires to go inside a crashed ship, where after defeating more Khunds they find Kid Quantum (Legionnaires #10). 
• Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). Kono arrives to help out (Legionnaires #10).
• Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). Inferno helps out in Essen (Legionnaires #10)
• Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9). More Legionnaires arrive to help (Legionnaires #10). 

LSH v4 #52 annotations: Wolf Tales

Annotations for LSH v4 #52:

• On sale 11/02/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 676 (Sept 27, 2021)
• Timeline: Sept 16, 2995

Notes:

• Page 2: Timber Wolf is in his feral-looking state, so this probably takes place either between SBOY 197 (when TW got his new look) and 216 (after which KK went back in time) or SLSH 246 (KK’s return from the 20th century at the tail end of Earthwar) and 283 (issue before TW had surgery to restore his face). Light Lass has red hair here, I know she was a blonde for a time so that would help narrow it down.
• Page 3 panel 3: Do artists really notice that they’re drawing Karate Kid’s collar too high or him to have any peripheral vision at all?
• Pages 5-6: this is an adaptation of Lone Wolf’s intro story in ADV 327 (Hamilton/Forte, Dec 1964)
• Pages 9-10: adaptation of LSH v2 289
• Page 11 panel 4: is that Amethyst speaking to Mysa?
• Page 15 panel 3: Dr Regulus has gotten the pouches, armor, and shoulderpads upgrade too
• Pages 15-18: this is the post-Bierbaum version of Black Dawn - FINALLY!!!
• Page 19: adaptation of LSH v2 #295
• Page 20: back to ADV 327 again
• Page 22 panel 3: 
• Elia – Dominator homeworld – so now we FINALLY learn who attacked the Dominators at the end of the war, forcing them to retreat from Earth. We saw this in #32 but we never learned who invaded Elia.
• Grykk – World on which Colossal Boy battled a giant who terrorized a city of normal-sized beings (ADV 301).
• Zerox – aka Sorceror’s World, currently destroyed
• Page 24: “special thanks to Jerry Steinhelper” – I ran across Jerry’s name in one of the Legion FB groups and asked him about this. He replied:
• For the Charlotte Con, I brought my entire Legion collection with me (only missing Adv #307 and the 1975 calendar).  Waid, Carlson, etc. went through them  in the hotel room while we graded the trivia quiz.
  
  Months go by and then Tom, knowing I had very easy access to every book, called me up and told me what he was planning for the issue and asked me to write a quick summary of Timber Wolf from Adv #327 to the then present. 
  
  I reread every panel there was of T-Wolf and instead of giving him the expected paragraph or two, I sent him a fully detailed biography on the life and times of Brinn Londo.  If memory serves it might have been 10 pages long. 
  
  Tom never once even hinted at my name going in the credit box.  That was a complete surprise to me that Wednesday when it came out.
  
  Thanks again Tom McCraw .

OK, now we have to discuss Black Dawn a bit. 

In IOKIAS, Tom Bierbaum says “Black Dawn:  In a nutshell, Dr. Regulus went insane and was going to cause the sun to go off in a nova-like explosion.  Wildfire saves the day and sacrifices himself.  We don't want to give many more details because it was a heck of a story that maybe someday, somehow will get told.  See the 2995 Mayfair Sourcebook for a few more details.” What we knew coming into this issue from #12 and #28 was that during Black Dawn, Timber Wolf is seriously injured, Wildfire is lost, and Starfinger II (Char Burrane) and the Khunds are somehow involved, although in this issue's retelling, the Khunds are nowhere in sight (and Regulus has been 90s-ified with armor, shoulderpads, and pouches).

So let's go to the Sourcebook (and don't pay attention to the fact that the details of this tremendously important event weren't told in the comics themselves, only in an ancillary book that was developed for a game - but I digress). 

EXCERPT: Legion Incident Report: Black Dawn. 

Filed By: Unofficial Deputy Leader Brek Bannin, Aug. 13, 2991

LEGIONNAIRE ENGAGED: Timber Wolf.

INCIDENT: Failing to quickly obey Sun Boy's warnings to get back to shelter, Timber Wolf was caught partly exposed when the radiation swept past, apparently giving him severe radiation exposure. Decontamination procedures were started right away aboard the cruiser. and we took him as quickly as we could to Medicus One. We got there about 11:40 a.m., about 20 minutes after Timber Wolf was hurt. It looked like he suffered very bad radiation burns and maybe some mutation. We don't know his chances of making it yet. We also don't know of any next of kin. We've told all the ex-Legionnaires about Brin's condition and Marella Tao. Earthgov won't let us get the get-well messages people are sending, though we think there are hundreds of thousands of them.

EXCERPT: "Black Dawn Overview," Interstellar Press, page 1, Aug. 12, 2991.

… The exact fate of Legionnaire Drake Burroughs, Wildfire, remains clouded in the wake of the Black Dawn tragedy. In a prepared statement, Legion spokesman Brek Bannin referred to Burroughs as having paid "the ultimate price" to save the system but added that his death has not been confirmed nor has been his exact status …

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding, Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50). 
• Thu 9/14/95: Cocheta Drisden fails to escape from Takron Galtos, and is moved to Quarantine; Grimbor attacks the team and Ivy’s Li’l Legion on Quarantine trying to grab her (LSH v4 #51).
• Sat 9/16/95: Kent and Celeste arrive on Talus from Quarantine, as Ayla and Brin reminisce and Vi monitors the Khund situation; Mysa tells the crew that since they just defeated Mordru, they have to take on Glorith to keep the balance (LSH v4 #52).
• Mon 9/19/95: 
• ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). 
• Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). 
• Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). 
• Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9).

LSH v4 #51 annotations: One Break, Coming Up!

      Annotations for LSH v4 #51

• On sale 10/19/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 675 (Sept 20, 2021)
• Timeline: Sept 14, 2995

Notes:

• Reminder: This is the first issue of the main series after the Bierbaums have left. Tom McCraw is the new writer, but he’s been on this series since the beginning as colorist, so at least he’s familiar with what’s been going on, and he wrote the second half of last issue. The Bierbaums are winding up their run on Legionnaires for the next few issues.
• Page 1 panel 2: That’s Cocheta Drisden. 
• She was mentioned way back in issue 27 on the panel in the Weisinger Chambers of who had been mind-wiped and what their powers were. Her status at the time was “Mind wipe: Complete” and her powers listed as “hypnotic control of males”. She has apparently gotten better.
• At the time we speculated that she was either the sister of Charma or daughter of her and Grimbor, but without the powers of making women hate her like Charma had.
• In issue 40, we saw a woman with those powers help escaped convicts turn the crowd pro-Dominion and anti-SP, until Universo stopped her. In IOKIAS, Tom Bierbaum said “The Charma look-alike turns out to be Cocheta Drisden, who I believe is the sister of the original Charma.”
• Page 3 panel 3: 
• “Sara Cusimano” – likely related to Gigi somehow, but I don’t think we ever find out. 
• “Pat Jeres” (JAIR-iss) was in DC’s marketing department, in 14 years rising from “Representative – Marketing Publications” to “Director – Marketing Communications”. 
• In a 2003 Sequential Tart interview, she said “Overall, I’m responsible for DC’s message to comic book specialty stores and their consumers. The production of our Previews section still comes through my group as do other Diamond communications and the role of trade press liaison. In addition to the consumer conventions – pretty much everything you see at a convention (and some of what you don’t) comes through my group from the logistical planning and programming content to booth design and talent scheduling – we’re responsible for other events such as retail promotions, direct market trade shows and the meeting of our retailer focus group. We do DC’s newsletters to retailers and the trade press. We’re also key in preparing material for presentations such as the slide shows you see at conventions.”
• Page 4: Ivy was created by Al Gordon and first appeared as a patient on Quarantine and a friend of Kent Shakespeare’s in issue 13. We saw her briefly in issues 20 and 37. In issue 20 she made a comment that “the cactus blabs”, suggesting she talks to plants, but all we know about her is that she got upset when Kent left without her. Don’t know how old she is, but Garridan was said to be 9 years old when we first saw him in this series back in December 2994 (it’s Sept 2995 now).
• Page 5: Mara Williams, aka Rush. Steve Lightle had created a speedster character named Allegra for the Legion but like Cockrum and Nightcrawler, he eventually took his character to Marvel. I didn’t catch this the first time around, but here’s a nod to the Flash/Green Lantern teamups of the past.
• In a 2002 LegionWorld post, Lightle said “Allegra was part of the early planning for the Legion reboot. As I originally conceived of her, she was a descendant of Wally West who was born with the curse of both an accelerated metabolism and accelerated aging. Allegra's development, feeding, general well being and teaching were entirely overseen by high speed computers. No normal human could even begin to communicate with her. Thank God that Iris and Barry Allen could step in to raise her as their own. The idea was received by my editor and members of the Legion "reboot" team of creators with enthusiasm, as I recall. You could certainly speculate that Allegra inspired both Impulse and XS. Who can say? The name Allegra was not yet marketed as an allergy medication. In fact, it comes from the Latin "Allegro," which means music played fast. I added the "a" at the end so that it would be unique and because it made the name seem more feminine.” Steve eventually got to use Allegra in the New Genix team for a story he did in Marvel Comics Presents.
• I’ll leave links to Lightle’s 2017 Facebook post and discussion with Jeff Moy, and his 2019 interview with Michael Eury for Back Issue #120 where he discusses Allegra at length.
• Page 6 panel 7: Dr. K’eg Grafe, named after TBD
• Page 7 panel 5: Celeste is finally trying to understand how to use her powers, which is a hanging plot thread from this book that’s been dangling for years. Dr. Shariff named after TBD
• Page 10: if you’ve ever wondered what Grimbor would look like with ‘90s Extreme shoulderpads and pouches and big guns, here’s your answer.
• Page 12 panel 8: Ivy talks to plants
• Page 13 panel 5: In Interlac that reads “Taylor” after the artist 
• Page 18 panel 2: Meet the Li’l Legion: Scales, who can turn into a dragon; Spunge, the energy absorber; Garridan Ranzz, with powers of mental lightning; Link, the telepath; and Ivy, talks to plants. Scales and Spunge actually first appeared in LSH 13 but just as background characters.
• Page 24: Quarantine File on Mara Williams – genetically manipulated using DNA from the Tornado Twins
• The second paragraph mentions Medicus One, but that was destroyed back in issue 19 when the moon blew up (April 2995). So this file is from before then, as the file mentions her just getting the stabilizer that was blasted by Grimbor.
• Also a typo, should be “Senius” instead of “Sensus”
• We’ll see her a few more times in this series.

---

Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding, Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50). 
• Thu 9/14/95: Cocheta Drisden fails to escape from Takron Galtos, and is moved to Quarantine; Grimbor attacks the team and Ivy’s Li’l Legion on Quarantine trying to grab her (LSH v4 #51).
• Mon 9/19/95: 
• ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). 
• Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). 
• Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). 
• Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9).

Legionnaires #9 annotations: A Legionnaire Falls!

     Annotations for Legionnaires #9

• On sale 10/12/93
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/29740.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 673 (Sept 6, 2021)
• Timeline: Sept 18, 2995

Notes:

• Page 1: pretty sure that Sprouse, Story, Hughes, and Stelfreeze were all studio-mates (Gaijin I think?)
• Page 9: Gim Allon of the SP last appeared in LSH v4 Annual 3 when they had the reunion on Winath.
• Page 16: I own the original art of this page, I bought it on ebay in 2002 and had the seller bring it with him to the San Diego Comic Con so we could meet up and I could save on shipping. Adam Hughes was there and I had him sign it.  
• Page 16 panel 2:  Murgador was last seen in Superboy 220. You’ll recall that was a planet saved by the Legion from the tyranny of the slave masters from planet Thargg. Its capital city is Gondra. Tharggians placed a bomb at the center of Murgador and threatened to detonate it unless the 2 billion inhabitants of Murgador mine their own planet as slaves, but Phantom Girl snuck down and disabled it (SBOY 220).
• My best guess, after reading ahead through #12 and LSH #54 is that issues 9-11 all take place on the same day, which is 9/18/2995.

---

Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding,  Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50). 
• Mon 9/19/95: 
• ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). 
• Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). 
• Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). 
• Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9).

Suicide Squadcast: TDK vs Arm-Fall-Off Boy

We recorded this one on August 29, a couple weeks after The Suicide Squad movie came out, to give everyone a chance to watch and then we'd discuss it here without having to worry about spoilers. One of the topics we touched on was TDK, played in the movie by Nathan Fillion, and how he was "inspired" by the one and only Arm-Fall-Off Boy. So here's what I put together to talk about AFOB.

• TDK is most likely based on Arm-Fall-Off Boy (who in turn was based off of a character in Legion fandom called Ear-Fall-Off Floyd, which is where the name Floyd Belkin came from). The character has appeared with the Legion 3 times in various continuities: Secret Origins #46 (Silver Age), Legionnaires #43 (Reboot), and LSH31C #16 (TV).
• For April Fool’s Day 2010, I wrote up an article on the Omnicom about the history of AFOB, starting with Ear-Fall-Off Floyd, and then interviewing via email Mark Waid and KC Carlson, both of whom said it was probably Gerry Jones who came up with the idea for AFOB. So I asked Jones, who wrote to me:
• Early in my comics-writing days I joined Interlac briefly and even afterward hung out with several of its members. From one of them — possibly Mike Forrester or Mike Valerio, but maybe someone else entirely — I'd heard, or thought I'd heard, about a pseudo-character in Legion fandom called Arm-Fall-Off Boy. It could be that they were saying "Ear-Fall-Off Floyd" and I misunderstood, or it could be that one of them had misunderstood Ear-Fall-Off Floyd as Arm-Fall-Off Boy and passed it on to me. In any case, when I stuck Arm-Fall-Off Boy into that Secret Origins story I thought I was making a nod to Legion fandom but later discovered that I'd accidentally brought in something entirely new. Had we had more time I probably would have talked to Waid about it and gotten all this clarified, but that story was a last-second replacement for an earlier story that had been cut. Which is fortunate, ultimately. Now we have Arm-Fall-Off Boy, and yet Ear-Fall-Off Floyd is still out there awaiting his moment in the spotlight. ... I think I left [AFOB's design] mostly to Curt, although I believe I did specify that when his arm pops off we should somehow see the open socket in his body. It was a thrill to be working with Curt Swan on a Legion story, I must say.
• Curt Swan was thanked in the closing credits of the movie, but Gerry Jones was not (for likely obvious reasons). Note that it’s not a requirement to get thanked, but for creator payment purposes, if they include Swan they’d likely include Jones as well. (For example, Joe Gill and Pat Boyette created Peacemaker for Charlton in 1966, but they weren’t in the credits either.)
• Roger Stern came up with the name Floyd Belkin for Splitter’s appearance in the Reboot #43, but I never got in touch with him to find out where that name came from. AFOB’s third appearance was in LSH in the 31st Century comic, written by Matthew Manning, who had come up with the story idea as part of a pitch he had proposed when Steve Wacker was the editor (around Shooter’s time on the Threeboot, I think). He was able to write the story for the cartoon’s tie-in comic, and proposed the Adventure 247 homage cover. 
• My headcanon: Cory Pitzner (TDK's real name) was a teenage superhero called The Detachable Kid, but then he grew up. He liked being a super-hero and he was well-known by that name, but he aged out of it and changed it to TDK. But what got TDK sent to Belle Reve and joining the Suicide Squad?
• James Gunn revealed that Nathan Fillion’s The Detachable Kid has a hidden ability that he never used in The Suicide Squad. The Detachable Kid can telepathically control his limbs after detaching. As per James Gunn, in The Suicide Squad, Fillion’s character’s legs are also detachable. Gunn said that “TDK is just a guy whose arms and legs come off. That’s his only power.” This revealed an ability that TDK never reflects on screen. (This was a deleted scene.)
• If you go to DC's character page for TDK, you’ll find the character with TDK’s costume description but a picture of AFOB from Secret Origins, and his real name listed as both Cory Pitzger and Floyd Belkin.
• There’s a TDK Funko Pop, but it’s a Hot Topic/Funko Summer Convention exclusive (#1122 if you’re keeping track)
• In a video interview with ET Canada, Nathan Fillion said (joked?) that when James Gunn offered him the part, he was told that TDK stood for “The Dark Knight”.
• Nathan Fillion has described the process that went behind creating the character of TDK along with director and writer James Gunn. He said that “My participation in the invention of the character kind of went like this, James saying, ‘Here’s how it’s going to go.’ And me saying, ‘That sounds good.’ That’s what I call dissipation…I take a lot of credit. It’s all about the function of the character in the story. What is his function in the story? And TDK’s abilities, for me, clearly spelled out his function and I got it. I know exactly what you need. I know what you’re looking for. I know what you want. Boom. Let’s do this. I get it.”
• Via Sean Gunn’s Instagram: “Thrilled to announce my new show ‘T.D.K & the Weasel’ with @nathanfillion coming soon to HBOMax!* *note: some information in this post may be untrue,” Gunn joked. “My catchphrase is, ‘Let’s see you WEASEL your way out of this one.’ And I lean on the word Weasel really hard,” Fillion joked in the comments. “…and announcings Javelin as the awkwerd naybor,” Flula Borg added. 
• TDK was never shown or otherwise confirmed as deceased; when he was last shown, he was in critical condition, but still alive. It is therefore possible that he survived.
• And now TDK has more discussion time in this podcast than he had screen time in the movie.

LSH v4 #50 annotations: The Final Bierbaum issue

    Annotations for LSH v4 #50

• On sale 10/05/93
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/24373.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 671 (August 23, 2021)
• Timeline: August 6-9 and (roughly) Sept 13, 2995

Notes:

• This is the final issue of LSH written by the Bierbaums, though they still have 6 issues of Legionnaires left.
• This issue came out only two weeks after #49 for some reason; from August to December they got 7 issues in 5 months and had just 2-3 weeks between issues, but then after that went back to the regular schedule. The publishing schedules for Legionnaires and Valor did not change in that time. Zero Hour wasn’t until after issue 63, so they had a year to roll up the series, I don’t see why they’d add two more issues to a series they were going to reboot in a year anyway.
• Pages 1-2 were written by Tom McCraw, who wrote the second half of the story (from page 27-on)
• Page 1: Recall that J’onn was shown to be in the 30th century when he appeared at the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel on Mars back in SBOY 200, and he was just an Easter egg by artist Dave Cockrum (along with Tars Tarkas of Barsoom, from the Edgar Rice Burroughs “John Carter, Warlord of Mars” series). He did not appear in the 30th century again until this storyline, but he was said to have met the Legion of another timeline in the DC 1M Martian Manhunter book. In retrospect, he’s one of the few direct links to the 20th century DCU that Giffen and the Bierbaums had – I can only think of Mon-El/Valor and Darkseid off the top of my head (plus the clone of Lobo).
• Page 1 panel 3: you can read “KE” in interlac behind Rokk. This doesn’t match up with any known person buried on Shanghalla (Condo Arlik/Chemical King, Andrew Nolan/Ferro Lad, Lyle Norg/Invisible Kid, Luornu Durgo/Triplicate Girl, Val Armorr/Karate Kid, Pol Krinn/Magnetic Kid, Blok, Dirk Morgna/Sun Boy, Leeta-87, Braino of Myrnah, Hate Face, Mog Yagor of Vasmeer, Nimbok of Vaalor, and Beast Boy of Lallor). However, we have never seen the graves of Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superboy or Drake Burroughs/Wildfire.
• Page 3: Tenzil left Tartarus no earlier than 8/6, so figuring a day of travel, this is on 8/7
• Page 7 panel 5: That’s Troy “Tyroc” Stewart that Sean is talking to
• Page 8: in the IOKIAS notes, Tom says that the team is just returning from the Mordru Arises storyline 
• They spent some time on Shanghalla reburying their dead on 8/6
• Tenzil arrives on Titan and the others arrive on Talus on 8/7
• Page 9 panel 5: Laurel is conveniently forgetting about how she kissed Brainy a couple issues back when she thought they were going to die.
• Page 11: this is the Earthgov Artifact J-1-WRTZ container that Sussa Paka stole waaaaay back in issue 27 (3/26/95), but we’ve never found out what it was.
• Page 18 panel 2: Tenzil has been in the Senate for 13 years, which means he was first elected in 2982 (he was drafted on 9/16/81). Note that 2982 is the year that started with Dawnstar joining and ended prior to their battle with Omega.
• Page 22: Sean Erin left New Earth on page 8 and arrives on Pasnic on page 22. That’s fast! This must be some time on 8/8.
• Page 25 panel 1: Tenzil and Eve arrived on Titan on 8/7, and she had 24 hours to get married, so the wedding was on 8/8. Holos probably sent out on 8/9.
• Page 25 panel 6: the traditional wedding sticks are sticks with statues of yourself at the end, as seen on the cover of ADV 337.
• Page 25 panel 8: the Planetary Chance Machine was last seen in issue 41 when the SW6 Legionnaires were refurbishing the old Clubhouse (June 11, 2995)
• Page 26: this is the end of the Bierbaum chapter, next page starts the section written by Tom McCraw

• Page 27: several weeks later – back in issue 48, I estimated that “several weeks earlier” was 5 weeks, so let’s use that here too. In this issue, Tenzil sent out his wedding holos around 8/9, though the Legionnaires on Colu story probably took place on 8/10-12. However, Zero Hour was said to have happened on Sept 1st in the 20th century, although I suppose that doesn’t formally constrain things in the 30th century.
• Page 31 panel 1: Kent and Celeste are listed as “on assignment” (they were both last seen on Quarantine fighting zombies in issue 48). With Kono also gone, there are none of the Giffen/Gordon/Bierbaums new characters left except for Devlin.
• Page 42: One of the very first things the new team does is bring back Wildfire, who was arguably one of the most popular Legionnaires and who the Giffen/Bierbaum team refused to bring back
• Page 43 panel 1: Note that there are 3 BIONs here
• Page 47 panel 3: who’s that watching the Legionnaires?

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding,  Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50).  

LSH v4 #49 annotations: The World's First Edible Blog

   Annotations for LSH v4 #49

• On sale 9/21/93
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/24373.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 668 (August 2, 2021)
• Timeline: August 5-6, 2995

Notes:

• Page 1: Tenzil trading cards
• Panel 1: parody of Terminator
• Panel 2: Eyeful Ethel first appeared in ADV 330, then next in the Subs Special
• Panel 3: Omega and the Miracle Machine from SLSH 251
• Panels 5-6: the captions got swapped for these two. The Monument to the Champions of Many Planets include Estimate Lad (Secret Origins 37), Double Header (intro in ADV 323, last seen DCCP 59), Eyeful Ethel, Tusker (intro in ADV 331, last seen DCCP 59), and Arm-Fall-Off Boy (Secret Origins 46)
• Panel 7: Tenzil frees Brek from prison (LSH v4 11)
• Panel 8: on Tartarus (LSH v4 14)
• Page 2 panel 1: “several weeks ago” from the last known date of 8/9/95, let’s call it about 5 weeks which puts this in late June or early July, in the month-long gap between when Brainiac 5 reveals he has given Luornu a force field power after rescuing her second body from Glorith, and when Mysa goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (there’s a gap from 6/27 to 7/29).
• Page 2 panel 9: info on the Hypno-Stone via the 2995 Sourcebook will be mentioned at the end of the story
• Page 3: Mordru in a song and dance, now all we need is him on a jet-ski
• Page 5 panel 3: Tenzil says “hated ditching the Legion like that, but at least we got that Mordru mess wrapped up”. He left the Legion on 8/4 with Nura and Projectra, so this is 8/5 at the earliest. 
• Page 13 panel 2: Spaceopoly Lad mentions Vavoona, which is a location as seen on the Legion’s Mission Monitor Board (ADV 342).
• Page 14: there had been a fan theory that Tenzil had retained some of the Miracle Machine’s energies after he was cured, which made it into his Who’s Who entry (the looseleaf version)
• Page 17: callback to the trading card from Tenzil’s date. That’s WWE wrestler Big Van Vader in the mask at the bottom in the crowd.
• Page 23 panel 1: the crowd turns out to see Tenzil and Eve leave. This is no earlier than the next day 8/6.
• Page 23 credits: Tom Bierbaum mentions that the Immonen pages for this issue were from a tryout he did a year or so earlier that got him the Legion job, so they repurposed the drawn pages
• Omnicom
• This TV show aired 5/22/95, which was the day that Nura propositioned Thom on the eve of the Galaxy Series finale, and Saturn Girl was kidnapped (LSH v4 #37)
• Reges Questar had a brief stint as the hero of Zentor (SBOY 222). 
• From the 2995 Sourcebook: The Hypno-Stone had been stolen from the royal family of Titan, per a private journal entry from Feb 2992 in which Universo mentions that “they have robbed me of my precious hypno-stone”. It amplified Universo’s super-hypnotism powers.
• From the 2995 Sourcebook: Meanwhile, on 9/12/94, on the night before his wedding to Eve Aries, Evillo journaled “It is with delight that I note she almost certainly enters into this unholy union with ulterior motives – the Hypno-Stone. She knows as well as I that it has been deposited on this world by Merg Gaterra, the legendary Magpie, and would now be mine if not for that unfortunate misunderstanding regarding his delightful female companion. Gaterra's jealous rage will subside, and he will eventually identify the Stone's location to me, but if my lovely new wife is able to lead me to it in the meantime, all the better.”
• Magpie (of Angtu) is a master thief who was once recruited by an unknown source, who turned out to be the Monitor working on a commission from Universo, to steal a chip from LSH HQ which contains the operating system for the Time Viewer (Tales 320). The story between Magpie’s female companion and Evillo remains unknown. Magpie escaped from prison (Legionnaires 4) when Persuader broke out Mano.

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• 9/13/94: Evillo marries Eve Aries (LSH v4 #49).
• 5/22/95: TV show airs on the missing Hypno-Stone (LSH v4 #49).
• Late June/early July 2995: Eve Aries finds the Hypno-Stone but Evillo takes her and the stone into custody (LSH v4 #49).
• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49). 
• Thu 8/6/95 : Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49)
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7)
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7)
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).

Valor #12-13 annotations: DOA parts 1 & 2

Annotations for Valor #12

• On sale 8/17/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 663 (June 28, 2021)
• Legion timeline: TBD

Notes:

• DOA Part 1 of 6. 
• Page 1: Since this Valor is in the 20th century, I'm only going to note the Legionnaires part of this issue. No Legionnaires actually appear, but here's a familiar purple-robed figure handling a bunch of red crystals with pictures of Valor in them. We saw something similar back in LSH #43 when Mysa found red crystals with Mordru's face in them, which itself was a callback to Superboy 188 when Chameleon Boy found a "blood crystal" created by Mordru with Superboy's face in it, which instilled a deep hatred of Superboy (just like Mysa's hatred for Mordru after finding her crystals). Is this a coincidence or does it have deeper meaning? We'll have to wait and see.
• Page 9 panel 1: Lori is going to be important.
• Page 18 panel 3: We find that Lar Gand has about a month to live. He still has to do all of that world-seeding that we saw him do back in the Annual, and still has to go into the Phantom Zone (or whatever they're calling it).

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Annotations for Valor #13

• On sale 9/14/93
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 666 (July 19, 2021)
• Legion Timeline: TBD in early September 2995

Notes:

• DOA Part 2 of 6. 
• Pages 21-22: We won't find this out for a few more months, but this scene with Triad and Brainiac 5 takes place simultaneously with Legionnaires #16 page 9

---

I'm not tracking the dates in the Valor timeline, other than they occur in 1993. Once we get into Legionnaires #16 everything will retroactively fit into place but for the moment they're still TBD. Boldface indicates something new learned this issue about the timeline.

• TBD: Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw (Valor #11, in between Legionnaires #15-16)

Legionnaires #8 annotations: Brainy’s Leaving the Legionnaires!

   Annotations for Legionnaires #8

• On sale 9/14/93
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/29206.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 665 (July 12, 2021)
• Timeline: August 10-12, 2995

Notes:

• Page 4 panel 2: Metaire is shown to be the capital of Colu, while it was said to be Colu City back in SBOY 227

---

Cutting down the timeline to just the last few entries since it was getting so long. 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.

• Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
• Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48). 
• Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
• Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
• Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7)
• Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7)
• Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7).
• Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
• Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).