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.

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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).
• 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).