RIP Neal Adams

Neal Adams needs no introduction, and many people will write elsewhere lots of good things about him and what he did for the industry over the years. So instead, I'm just going to recap his Legion work.

In the late 1960s, Adams drew a lot of covers for DC, including Adventure Comics, for which he pencilled and/or inked 13 covers towards the end of the Legion's run.

His first cover was #365, introducing Shadow Lass. It’s not that the previous covers by Curt Swan were not good, it’s just that Adams’ covers were that much better. He then did #366 (Validus blasting Superboy in a boxing ring, a precursor to his later Superman vs Muhammad Ali tabloid), #367 (surrounded by shadowy members of the Dark Circle), #368 (the mutiny of the super-heroines), #369 (intro Mordru), #371 (Superboy leaves the Legion), #372 (Superboy is smashed as a glass statue), #373 (the Tornado Twins), #375 (Bouncing Boy is the most powerful Legionnaire), #376 (the execution of Chameleon Boy; inks over Swan pencils), #377 (the Legionnaires are for hire; inks over Swan pencils), #378 (the Legionnaires are dying; inks over Swan pencils), and #379 (the dead Superboy is ejected into space; inks over Infantino pencils).

Jim Shooter recalled working with Adams in this 2008 interview:

JS:  By the way, it was great working with Neal, although I only worked with him on covers.  In the old days with Mort, with every story Mort required a cover sketch or a detailed cover idea if the writer in question could not sketch.  As a matter of fact, he required two cover sketches for each story.  What he would do is he would take the better one and make it the cover and make the other one the splash page because he used to do the symbolic splashes, rather than splash panels that started the story.  He’d call it the second cover.  So, I did two cover sketches. 

When I did the interior stuff I just did it in pencil, but with the cover sketch, I colored it, because they taught me how to color, so I did a whole color comp of this cover.  I put the logo and everything.  And usually they’d pick one of my designs and follow it.  I can’t think of an instance where they didn’t pick one of them.  What was really, really cool was the first time the book comes out and I see the cover and it was Neal Adams.  It was like, “Whoa!”  It was amazing.  Because more than any other guy, Neal would look at my crude little drawing and he would know what I meant.  And he would say, “All right.  I’ve got it.”  And then he would do this brilliant thing that was like he was reading my mind.  (Chuckle.)  And I would look at it and say, “Yeah, I meant that.”  (Mutual laughter.)  “That’s what I meant.  Yeah, good work, man.”

Stroud:  Just knocked it out of the park.

JS:  Oh, unbelievable.  Doing those covers with him…I just couldn’t wait to see what he did.

Stroud:  Sure.  You and the rest of the world.  He’s a formidable talent. 

Adams also did a wraparound cover for Batman #238, which inexplicably contained a Legion reprint story (from Adventure 324, the Legion of Super-Outlaws aka the Heroes of Lallor) and featured on the cover all of the characters inside the book.

Adams pencilled a famous group shot of the Legion for the 1976 DC Calendar, inked by the late great Dick Giordano, and this was later reused (with some cropping and rearranging of characters) as the cover to the 1978 Tempo paperback book with Legion reprints.

Finally, a few decades later, Adams provided what would turn out to be his final Legion cover, a variant for issue #44 of Jim Shooter's Threeboot run (LSH v5) cover-dated Sept. 2008. In the above interview, Shooter continued:

JS:  He’s doing a cover for the new series, by the way. 

Stroud:  Oh, is he?  I hadn’t heard that.

JS:  Yeah for issue #44.  Yeah, he asked to do it.  He actually sent an e-mail to Levitz and Didio saying, “Hey, good move hiring Shooter and I want to do a cover.”  And they asked me, “Would that be okay with you?”  I said, “Oh, sure, let’s give the kid a break.” 

Stroud: (Laughter.)  Yeah, I guess we could do that.

JS: “We could see our way clear.”  So anyway, he insisted I give him a sketch, and so I did, and now I’m sitting here and can’t wait to see it.  I can’t wait to see it.  It’s going to be cool.  I’m not going to get many covers from him, he’s a busy guy, but it’s a very, very cool that he wanted to do one. 

Stroud:  Absolutely.  I can feel the chills down your spine from here. 

JS:  It’s going to be good.

Continuity in Valor #11-21 and Legionnaires #16

Starting with issue #11 of Valor, Mark Waid came on board and course-corrected the series from being a science-fiction outer-space super-hero book into one more closely tied to the Legion. Issue #11 wrapped up most of the plot threads from the first 10 issues, then ended it with an ominous warning that Valor was going to die at the end of the next story arc.

They actually went and did it - by the end of #17, the hero we had been following since issue #1 was indeed dead (as dead as you can be in the comics - and this death lasted!). That six-issue storyline was called "D.O.A.". If you read the series as it came out, you noticed that some of the SW6 Legionnaires (from the Legionnaires series) appeared, but it had nothing to do with what was going on in their own series at the time, which was easy enough to tell because both the Valor and Legionnaires series came out the same week.

It wasn't until Legionnaires #16, which came out the same time as Valor #21, that we saw the events of issues #11-20 from the perspective of when they happened to the Legionnaires. So now, in retrospect, we can see how that whole timeline fit together.

• The Legion part of Valor #11 takes place somewhere in between Legionnaires #15-16
• 11: Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw
• The Legion parts of Valor #12-14 are the same as Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10
• 12: DOA 1 – Is that the Time Trapper? Or maybe Glorith?
• 13: DOA 2 – Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history
• Valor #13 pages 21-22 take place during the last couple panels of Legionnaires #16 page 8, as Cosmic Boy is finishing up his workout and headed to the lab, he sees a white flash. Brainiac 5 and Triad are discussing the legend of Valor, and then a time blip happens and the computer says there’s no record of Valor.
• 14: DOA 3 – Brainy, Triad, Saturn Girl, Dragonmage, and Cosmic Boy leave to go back in time to find out what happened
• Valor #14 pages 1-2 and page 3 panels 1-6 are an expanded version of Legionnaires #16 page 9
• Valor #14 page 3 panels 7-8 are an expanded version of Legionnaires #16 page 10 panels 1-2
• The Legion appearances in Valor #15-19 take place outside of time, in between Legionnaires #16 pages 10 and 11
• 15: DOA 4 – The Legionnaires are in the time stream and crash their Time Bubble
• 16: DOA 5 – The Legionnaires fight Valor and find out that Valor's companion Lori is Glorith
• 17: DOA 6 – The Legionnaires fight Glorith, but Valor succumbs to the effects of his lead poisoning and dies; SW6 Valor appears
• 18: DOA Aftermath 1 – SW6 Valor is told that he will have to spend another 1000 years in the Phantom Zone in order to save time, and he does not take it well
• 19: DOA Aftermath 2 – a talk with Waverider and seeing his fellow Legionnaires vanish convinces Valor that he must relive his life in the Phantom Zone, and the timeline is reset.
• Valor #19 pages 19-20 are are an expanded version of Legionnaires #16 page 11: the Legionnaires return to their present with no Valor-related problems and unaware of the journey they took, but there are other time shenanigans going on...
• There are no more Legionnaires in Valor #20-21, but Valor's story continued with Sudden Death Overtime, back in his present of summer 1994.
• #20: Sudden Death Overtime part 1 – Valor tries to recreate his historical events, but there are Timequakes as seen by the Linear Men, which result in Star Boy, Dream Girl, and Bouncing Boy appearing in Legionnaires #16.
• #21: Sudden Death Overtime part 2 – As a result of the timeline issues, Valor splits into multiple copies of himself and manages to do all the things that legend said he did over the years (as seen in LSH v4 Annual #2), in just a few hours, then resigns himself to having Glorith send him back to the Bgztl Twilight dimension. But the Linear Men realize it’s too late…

Coming up next: 

• End of an Era Part 1: Legionnaires #17
• End of an Era Part 2: Valor #22
• End of an Era Part 3: LSH v4 #60
• Zero Hour #4
• End of an Era Part 4: Legionnaires #18
• End of an Era Part 5: Valor #23
• Superboy v3 #8
• Zero Hour #3
• Zero Hour #2
• Zero Hour #1
• End of an Era Part 6: LSH v4 #61
• Zero Hour #0

Valor #21 annotations: Sudden Death Overtime part 2

Annotations for Valor #21:

• On sale 5/17/94 (same day as last week’s Legionnaires #16)
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 706 (April 25, 2022)
• Timeline: Sometime in 1994

Notes:

• Cover: Just a neat little touch how the costumes of the Legion of Super-Valors are each slightly different and not just copied and pasted.
• Page 1: Shareth is a new planet which we’ve never heard of before
• Page 6 panel 1: as a reminder of which of the Linear Men is which - the white-haired guy with the cyborg eye is a future Rip Hunter, the blond man is Matthew Ryder, the woman is Liri Lee, and of course Waverider who is Matthew Ryder from the alternate future ruled by Monarch.
• Page 8: The Legion of Super-Valors?
• Page 17-18: Revisiting the events of LSHv4 Annual 2, only earlier than they had been going to have happened
• Page 22 panel 5: It's too late... for the entire continuum! Coming up....
  
  
  

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I'm not tracking the dates in the Valor timeline prior to issue 11, other than they occur in 1994, just the Legionnaires stuff (and where they fit into Valor's continuity). Boldface indicates something new learned this issue about the timeline. To make it easier to follow, the 1994 dates will be in red text and anything outside of time (like at the beginning or end of time) will be in blue text.

• Date unknown, Sept 2995: Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw (Valor #11, in between Legionnaires #15-16)
• 9/29/95: Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history (Valor #13, which is the same as Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10); Brainy, Triad, Saturn Girl, Dragonmage, Ultra Boy, 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).
• Outside of time: the Legionnaires enter the time stream and crash their Time Bubble (Valor #15); The Legionnaires fight Valor and find out that Valor's companion Lori is Glorith (Valor #16) and then fight Glorith, but Valor succumbs to the effects of his lead poisoning and dies; another Valor appears (Valor #17); Brainiac 5 tells SW6 Valor that he will have to spend another 1000 years in the Phantom Zone in order to save time, and Valor does not take it well (Valor #18), but the presence of Waverider and seeing his fellow Legionnaires vanish changes his mind. Once he accepts his fate, the Legionnaires appear back in their own time and the legend of Valor is restored (Valor #19, which is the same as Legionnaires #16 page 11). From Vanishing Point, the Linear Men see a timequake affect the 30th century (Valor #20), which causes Dream Girl and Star Boy to appear (Legionnaires #16).
• Sat 8/6/1994: Valor tries to re-create the feats he did before he went into the Phantom Zone, but fails; the Linear Men watch Valor from Vanishing Point (Valor #20). As a result of the timeline issues, Valor splits into multiple copies of himself and manages to do all the things that legend said he did over the years, in just a few hours, then resigns himself to having Glorith send him back to the Bgztl Twilight dimension. But the Linear Men realize it’s too late, the future is doomed (Valor #21).

Legionnaires #16 annotations: Guess Who's Back!

Annotations for Legionnaires #16:

• On sale 5/17/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 705 (April 18, 2022)
• Timeline: Sept 29, 2995

Notes:

• Cover: Adam Hughes and Karl Story. Also recalls the cover to LSHv4 #40 with someone who looks like Wildfire, “Guess Who’s Back!” While a great cover, it spoils the appearance of Dream Girl, Star Boy, and Bouncing Boy in this issue. Also, I couldn’t help singing to myself Eminem’s “Guess who’s back / Back again / Shady’s back / Tell a friend / ….”
• Page 1: The title of this issue, “Saved by Zero”, is the title of a 1983 hit song by The Fixx.
• Page 3 panel 1: that’s not how physics works, if something is held down and then gravity is removed, it’s going to stay there until something makes it move, just turning off the gravity won’t make things float away
• Page 4 panel 2: the timequake from Valor #20 hits the 30th century, and Star Boy appears.
• Under the old clone storyline rules, only those who were Legionnaires immediately after ADV 349 were cloned; Star Boy and Dream Girl didn’t return until issue 351.
• Page 6 panel 4: recall in LSH #57 that Polestar left the adult Legion team to go back to New Earth, assume it took him a day to get there. This issue thus takes place at the same time as LSH #58, with the fight on Weber’s World and Glorith teaming up with Mordru. I estimate this to be 9/29/2995.
• Now that the two series are synched up, I can retroactively place the Legionnaires appearances in the last several issues of Valor properly (see the timeline below for the synched version)
• Page 8 panel 2: Catspaw asks how Cosmic Boy is doing since his injury. That was on 9/18, or 11 days ago.
• Page 8: Valor #13 p 21-22 take place while Cos is walking to the lab, when he sees a flash. Brainiac 5 and Triad are discussing the legend of Valor, and then a time blip happens and the computer says there’s no record of Valor.
• Pages 9-11: covering events previously seen in Valor #13-19
• Page 9: Valor #14 p 1-2 and p 3 panels 1-6 are an expanded version
• Page 10 panels 1-2: Valor #14 p 3 panels 7-8 are an expanded version
• After page 10: The Legion’s appearance in Valor #15-19 takes place between pages 10-11
• Page 11 panel 1: The timeline is reset after Valor agrees to go back into the Phantom Zone in Valor #19. The Legionnaires return to the 30th century unaware of the journey they took.
• Page 12 panel 3: Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl realize that Dream Girl isn’t supposed to be there.
• Page 15 panel 2: Another timequake, goodbye Ferro and hello Bouncing Boy!
• Page 16: Invisible Kid is in cahoots with Rond Vidar
• In LSH #53, the adult Rond sees something in the time stream and runs off in a Time Bubble. He next appears in issue #57 when he has grabbed the deceased Circadia Senius (from before he died) to check out the black void in the time stream. In this issue, Senius is gone and Rond is now teamed with the SW6 Invisible Kid.
• Page 18 panel 4: gone, never to return? To the 30th century, maybe, but we readers will see them again in 9 weeks (publishing time) in the pages of Zero Hour #3.

It's beginning to look a lot like Zero Hour....

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last couple months 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). Recovering from the fight with Glorith, several Legionnaires find themselves older or younger, and head for Quarantine to see if Brainiac 5 can reverse the effects (LSH v4 #54).
• Mon 9/18/95: Brainy tests the Legion on Quarantine; Kent and Devlin, who have both been de-aged, stay behind while the others go to Talus (LSH v4 #54).
• 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). Dragonmage helps restore the Soul of Antares, and Andromeda calls HQ to say she’s found them and bringing them all back (Legionnaires #11).
• 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), then goes to Paris where he finds someone has chained a tunnel shut (Legionnaires #11).
• 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). Cos is taken to the medi-center, while Spark, Brainy, Phantom Girl, and Ferro tend to a wounded child with odd powers (Legionnaires #11).
• Tue 9/19/95: The Legion gets captured at Talus and taken to Weber’s World (LSH v4 #54). 
• In Metropolis, Kid Quantum is sworn in, and Computo sends M-E Lad to help Kono with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #12). Kono uses the Grandin Gender-Reversal Disease to turn Tenzil into Tenzi, where they go undercover, but he quickly blows his cover (Legionnaires #13). They manage to signal the rest of the Legionnaires (Legionnaires #14).
• In Acapulco, Invisible Kid arrives to help, but he’s zapped unconscious, while in the Acapulco medi-center , Cosmic Boy nearly dies but Saturn Girl’s telepathy stabilizes him while a jealous Livewire watches (Legionnaires #12). Invisible Kid manages to break free of the mental-energy vortex as Andromeda and Ultra Boy arrive, while Cosmic Boy recovers (Legionnaires #13). Rokk is released, and Saturn Girl links the minds of the team to try to rescue their downed teammates (Legionnaires #14). The team manages to calm the mind of a young boy who was creating the dangerous hallucinations and everyone survives. (Legionnaires #15).
• In Paris, anti-alien hysteria picks up, so a team goes there, where they are blasted by a Dominator child who thinks they are attacking her (Legionnaires #12). She teleports them to a prison, but they escape. They find the girl in the sewers, and she sends them to the Archduke's palace to stop the xenophobia, only to find Grimbor instead (Legionnaires #13). They escape Grimbor’s traps and discover that the mayor of the Paris dome has been working with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #14).
• Wed 9/20/95: The Legion is briefly detained on Weber’s World but escape, while the UP officially disbands the Legion; Universo tells Cham and Computo that the Legionnaires aren’t needed to help (LSH v4 #54).
• Date unknown: Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw (Valor #11, in between Legionnaires #15 on 9/19 and #16 on 9/29)
• Sun 9/23/95: The team arrives on Rimbor, and Jo brings a team to an old warehouse but he and Sussa are captured by a rival gang. (LSH v4 #55)
• Wed 9/27/95: Legionnaires start the process of going undercover while hiding out on Rimbor, and Sussa escapes (LSH v4 #54). Universo is looking for the Legion on Rimbor; Jo recruits other gangs to go against the government, while Mysa and Vi sneak into government HQ to find out what’s going on; on Starhaven, Dawnstar undergoes a vision quest (LSH v4 #55); the Legion exposes Khundish interference on Rimbor and escape (LSHv4 #56).
• Thu 9/28/95: The Legion tries and fails to protect Starfinger III from the Khunds, while fighting the Legion Academy, the Khundish ex-Legionnaires, and the mind-controlled Heroes of Lallor; Polestar leaves for New Earth while the rest of the team go to Weber’s World; Valor finds something strange with Dev-Em; Rond Vidar finds something strange in the time stream (LSHv4 #57); Ayla is growing younger since the battle with Glorith, and to comfort her, Vi reads her a bedtime story (LSHv4 Ann #5).
• Fri 9/29/95: Arriving at Weber’s World, the team tries to stop the Khunds’ bombs from destroying the planet; Dawnstar arrives and meets Wildfire; Firefist kills Veilmist; and after studying at the Infinite Library, Glorith travels to Tharn where she restores Mordru’s powers to help her conquer the universe (LSHv4 #58). SW6 Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history (Valor #13, Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10); Brainy, Triad, Saturn Girl, Dragonmage, Ultra Boy, and Cosmic Boy leave to go back in time to find out what happened (Valor #14, Legionnaires #16 page 10).
• Outside of time: the Legionnaires enter the time stream and crash their Time Bubble (Valor #15); the Legionnaires fight Valor and find out that Lori is Glorith (Valor #16), and then fight Glorith, but Valor succumbs to the effects of his lead poisoning and dies; SW6 Valor appears (Valor #17); Brainiac 5 tells SW6 Valor that he will have to spend another 1000 years in the Phantom Zone in order to save time, and Valor does not take it well (Valor #18), but the presence of Waverider and seeing his fellow Legionnaires vanish changes his mind. Once he accepts his fate, the Legionnaires appear back in their own time and the legend of Valor is restored (Valor #19, Legionnaires #16 page 11). 
• Date unknown, 1995: Valor tries to re-create the feats he did before he went into the Phantom Zone, but fails; the Linear Men follow Valor from Vanishing Point, and see a timequake affect the 30th century (Valor #20), which causes Dream Girl and Star Boy to appear (Legionnaires #16).
• The Legionnaires instantly return to their present, unaware of their meeting with Glorith and the Valors (Valor #15-19, Legionnaires #16 page 11); Star Boy, Dream Girl, and Bouncing Boy appear with the Legionnaires and Ferro Lad is long dead, leading Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad – who seem to be the only ones aware that something funny is going on – to take a Time Bubble to figure it out (even though Invisible Kid and Rond Vidar are secretly aware that something’s happening); Polestar appears at New Earth (Legionnaires #16).

LSH v4 #58 annotations: Down to the Wire!

Annotations for LSH v4 #58:

• On sale 4/12/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 704 (April 11, 2022)
• Timeline: Sept 29, 2995

Notes:

• Page 6 panel 1: first appearance of the Infinite Library, found by Glorith, which she used to restore her powers.
• The Infinite Library was "built outside of time by unknown hands. This fabled library's volumes store the history of everyone and everything in every timeline. Scholars have spent lifetimes searching for it, always in vain."
• Could it have been part of Lucien's library (from "Sandman")? Here's the description of part of that library, as in this quote from "Season of Mists":
• Lucien: "Oh, it's a very unusual library, Matthew. Somewhere in here is every story that has every been dreamed. "
  Matthew: "They're just books."
  Lucien: "Oh yes. But unusual books. You'll find none of them on Earth. In this section, for example, are novels their authors never wrote, or never finished, except in dreams.”
• Page 9 panel 4: Cupid and the Lallorians all appeared last issue, and it’s “Garak” of the Glow, not “Garax”.
• Page 24 panel 4: Mordru reverts to his younger self, as seen in the Amethyst miniseries

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last couple months 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). Recovering from the fight with Glorith, several Legionnaires find themselves older or younger, and head for Quarantine to see if Brainiac 5 can reverse the effects (LSH v4 #54).
• Mon 9/18/95: Brainy tests the Legion on Quarantine; Kent and Devlin, who have both been de-aged, stay behind while the others go to Talus (LSH v4 #54).
• 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). Dragonmage helps restore the Soul of Antares, and Andromeda calls HQ to say she’s found them and bringing them all back (Legionnaires #11).
• 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), then goes to Paris where he finds someone has chained a tunnel shut (Legionnaires #11).
• 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). Cos is taken to the medi-center, while Spark, Brainy, Phantom Girl, and Ferro tend to a wounded child with odd powers (Legionnaires #11).
• Tue 9/19/95: The Legion gets captured at Talus and taken to Weber’s World (LSH v4 #54). 
• In Metropolis, Kid Quantum is sworn in, and Computo sends M-E Lad to help Kono with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #12). Kono uses the Grandin Gender-Reversal Disease to turn Tenzil into Tenzi, where they go undercover, but he quickly blows his cover (Legionnaires #13). They manage to signal the rest of the Legionnaires (Legionnaires #14).
• In Acapulco, Invisible Kid arrives to help, but he’s zapped unconscious, while in the Acapulco medi-center , Cosmic Boy nearly dies but Saturn Girl’s telepathy stabilizes him while a jealous Livewire watches (Legionnaires #12). Invisible Kid manages to break free of the mental-energy vortex as Andromeda and Ultra Boy arrive, while Cosmic Boy recovers (Legionnaires #13). Rokk is released, and Saturn Girl links the minds of the team to try to rescue their downed teammates (Legionnaires #14). The team manages to calm the mind of a young boy who was creating the dangerous hallucinations and everyone survives. (Legionnaires #15).
• In Paris, anti-alien hysteria picks up, so a team goes there, where they are blasted by a Dominator child who thinks they are attacking her (Legionnaires #12). She teleports them to a prison, but they escape. They find the girl in the sewers, and she sends them to the Archduke's palace to stop the xenophobia, only to find Grimbor instead (Legionnaires #13). They escape Grimbor’s traps and discover that the mayor of the Paris dome has been working with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #14).
• Wed 9/20/95: The Legion is briefly detained on Weber’s World but escape, while the UP officially disbands the Legion; Universo tells Cham and Computo that the Legionnaires aren’t needed to help (LSH v4 #54).
• Sun 9/23/95: The team arrives on Rimbor, and Jo brings a team to an old warehouse but he and Sussa are captured by a rival gang. (LSH v4 #55)
• Wed 9/27/95: Legionnaires start the process of going undercover while hiding out on Rimbor, and Sussa escapes (LSH v4 #54). Universo is looking for the Legion on Rimbor; Jo recruits other gangs to go against the government, while Mysa and Vi sneak into government HQ to find out what’s going on; on Starhaven, Dawnstar undergoes a vision quest (LSH v4 #55); the Legion exposes Khundish interference on Rimbor and escape (LSHv4 #56).
• Thu 9/28/95: The Legion tries and fails to protect Starfinger III from the Khunds, while fighting the Legion Academy, the Khundish ex-Legionnaires, and the mind-controlled Heroes of Lallor; Polestar leaves for New Earth while the rest of the team go to Weber’s World; Valor finds something strange with Dev-Em; Rond Vidar finds something strange in the time stream (LSHv4 #57); Ayla is growing younger since the battle with Glorith, and to comfort her, Vi reads her a bedtime story (LSHv4 Ann #5).
• Fri 9/29/95: Arriving at Weber’s World, the team tries to stop the Khunds’ bombs from destroying the planet; Dawnstar arrives and meets Wildfire; Firefist kills Veilmist; and after studying at the Infinite Library, Glorith travels to Tharn where she restores Mordru’s powers to help her conquer the universe (LSHv4 #58).

Valor #20 annotations: Sudden Death Overtime part 1

Annotations for Valor #20:

• On sale 4/12/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 703 (April 4, 2022)
• Timeline: Date TBD [will be determined when the events synch up in Legionnaires #16]

Notes:

• Kurt Busiek picks up the title to the end of the series from here (with help from Mark Waid)
• Page 5: amazingly, Kurt and Mark manage to recap issues 11-19
• Page 9 panel 1: a time-spasm hits the 30th century and will make its effects felt in Legionnaires #16, which we’ll cover in a couple weeks
• Page 11: the full-page splash was inked by Doran, her only inking this issue

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I'm not tracking the dates in the Valor timeline, other than they occur in 1994, just the Legionnaires stuff. 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.

• Date unknown: Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw (Valor #11, in between Legionnaires #15-16)
• Date TBD (but will be established in Legionnaires #16): Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history (Valor #13, which is the same as Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10); Brainy, Triad, Saturn Girl, Dragonmage, Ultra Boy, 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).
• Outside of time: the Legionnaires are in the time stream and crash their Time Bubble (Valor #15); The Legionnaires fight Valor and find out that Valor's companion Lori is Glorith (Valor #16) and then fight Glorith, but Valor succumbs to the effects of his lead poisoning and dies; another Valor appears (Valor #17); Brainiac 5 tells SW6 Valor that he will have to spend another 1000 years in the Phantom Zone in order to save time, and Valor does not take it well (Valor #18), but the presence of Waverider and seeing his fellow Legionnaires vanish changes his mind. Once he accepts his fate, the Legionnaires appear back in their own time and the legend of Valor is restored (Valor #19, which will also be seen in Legionnaires #16 page 11.)
• 1994: Valor tries to re-create the feats he did before he went into the Phantom Zone, but fails; the Linear Men follow Valor from Vanishing Point, and see timequakes affect the 30th century (Valor #20, which will be seen in Legionnaires #16).

Legionnaires #15 annotations: All Choked Up!

Annotations for Legionnaires #15:

• On sale 4/12/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 702 (March 28, 2022)
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/32150.html
• Timeline: Sept 19, 2995

Notes:

• Cover: Hey look, it's Jeff Moy!
• The events of this issue take place about the same time as when the Legion got captured at Talus and taken to Weber's World (LSHv4 #54).
• Page 11 panel 3: Keiki is the mermaid from the Atlantis dome in issue #7. But don’t worry about this subplot, it’s not going anywhere because End of an Era starts next issue. It’s likely that Inferno’s girlfriend with the temper who we saw in Paris is the one who sent this “keep your hands off my man” note, but since the Bierbaums didn’t continue on the book, that subplot (plus Dommie the Dominator girl) didn’t advance past this issue.
• Mayf, the boy from Acapulco, was eventually (if the Bierbaums had continued writing the book) going to be the new Kid Psycho.
• Legionnaires #9-15 took place over two days. I’ve heard of decompressed storytelling, but seven months to cover 2 days?
• This is the final Bierbaum issue. Next: a bold new direction! I can't recommend highly enough going back to read Tom's "It's OK, I'm a Senator" blog for all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of everything from who created which new characters to what DC editorial was doing to the team that week.

---

Cutting down the timeline to just the last couple months 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). Recovering from the fight with Glorith, several Legionnaires find themselves older or younger, and head for Quarantine to see if Brainiac 5 can reverse the effects (LSH v4 #54).
• Mon 9/18/95: Brainy tests the Legion on Quarantine; Kent and Devlin, who have both been de-aged, stay behind while the others go to Talus (LSH v4 #54).
• 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). Dragonmage helps restore the Soul of Antares, and Andromeda calls HQ to say she’s found them and bringing them all back (Legionnaires #11).
• 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), then goes to Paris where he finds someone has chained a tunnel shut (Legionnaires #11).
• 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). Cos is taken to the medi-center, while Spark, Brainy, Phantom Girl, and Ferro tend to a wounded child with odd powers (Legionnaires #11).
• Tue 9/19/95: The Legion gets captured at Talus and taken to Weber’s World (LSH v4 #54). 
• In Metropolis, Kid Quantum is sworn in, and Computo sends M-E Lad to help Kono with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #12). Kono uses the Grandin Gender-Reversal Disease to turn Tenzil into Tenzi, where they go undercover, but he quickly blows his cover (Legionnaires #13). They manage to signal the rest of the Legionnaires (Legionnaires #14).
• In Acapulco, Invisible Kid arrives to help, but he’s zapped unconscious, while in the Acapulco medi-center , Cosmic Boy nearly dies but Saturn Girl’s telepathy stabilizes him while a jealous Livewire watches (Legionnaires #12). Invisible Kid manages to break free of the mental-energy vortex as Andromeda and Ultra Boy arrive, while Cosmic Boy recovers (Legionnaires #13). Rokk is released, and Saturn Girl links the minds of the team to try to rescue their downed teammates (Legionnaires #14). The team manages to calm the mind of a young boy who was creating the dangerous hallucinations and everyone survives. (Legionnaires #15).
• In Paris, anti-alien hysteria picks up, so a team goes there, where they are blasted by a Dominator child who thinks they are attacking her (Legionnaires #12). She teleports them to a prison, but they escape. They find the girl in the sewers, and she sends them to the Archduke's palace to stop the xenophobia, only to find Grimbor instead (Legionnaires #13). They escape Grimbor’s traps and discover that the mayor of the Paris dome has been working with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #14).
• Wed 9/20/95: The Legion is briefly detained on Weber’s World but escape, while the UP officially disbands the Legion; Universo tells Cham and Computo that the Legionnaires aren’t needed to help (LSH v4 #54).
• Sun 9/23/95: The team arrives on Rimbor, and Jo brings a team to an old warehouse but he and Sussa are captured by a rival gang. (LSH v4 #55)
• Wed 9/27/95: Legionnaires start the process of going undercover while hiding out on Rimbor, and Sussa escapes (LSH v4 #54). Universo is looking for the Legion on Rimbor; Jo recruits other gangs to go against the government, while Mysa and Vi sneak into government HQ to find out what’s going on; on Starhaven, Dawnstar undergoes a vision quest (LSH v4 #55); the Legion exposes Khundish interference on Rimbor and escape (LSHv4 #56).
• Thu 9/28/95: The Legion tries and fails to protect Starfinger III from the Khunds, while fighting the Legion Academy, the Khundish ex-Legionnaires, and the mind-controlled Heroes of Lallor; Polestar leaves for New Earth while the rest of the team go to Weber’s World; Valor finds something strange with Dev-Em; Rond Vidar finds something strange in the time stream (LSHv4 #57); Ayla is growing younger since the battle with Glorith, and to comfort her, Vi reads her a bedtime story (LSHv4 Ann #5).