Legionnaires #1 Annotations: Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!

Annotations for Legionnaires Annual #1:

• On sale 5/13/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 709 (May 16, 2022)
• Timeline: N/A

Notes:

• Part of the 1994 Elseworlds annuals theme, typically unrelated to the main book. This one is completely standalone, and maps the Legion roughly onto Arthurian legend.
• Page 1: we’ve been to Thanagar twice before in the pre-Zero Hour universe: some Hawk-people were killed by Professor Ivo (LSHv3 Annual 1), and it was attacked by Daxamites under control of Darkseid (LSHv2 294). It was also mentioned as the site of a Science Police convention (SBOY 217) but we didn’t go there.
• Page 2: Rokk pulling the Nth metal out of Thanagar with Brande seems to parallel Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone with Merlin. 
• Page 4 panel 3: Avalon was the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recover from being gravely wounded at the Battle of Camlann. Since then, the island has become a symbol of Arthurian mythology, similar to Arthur's castle Camelot. In regular continuity, we saw Avalon where Mordru temporarily made a home (in Lord Romdur’s Castle) and then a bit later when Darkseid dug him up and stole his powers.
• Page 9 panel 2: In the Threeboot, the Legion flight ring was retconned to being made of Nth metal. 
• Page 11: take a drink for a Legion traitor!
• Page 13: even though he was a traitor, do we still take a drink for a dead Legionnaire?
• Page 15: take a drink for a golden statue
• Page 17 panel 2: is Tenzil eating Thor’s hammer Mjolnir?
• Page 22: take 3 drinks for 3 dead Legionnaires (Dox, Lyle, Brek)
• Page 25 panel 5: “either we hang together or we hang separately” is a paraphrase of a saying attributed to Ben Franklin at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
• Page 26 panel 2: Jeckie’s “spell of making” is from the movie “Excalibur”  
• Page 27: I found the page of original art on Heritage, it sold for only $74 in 2018
• Page 28 panel 1: Imra is in subcircle 9; in Dante’s Inferno, the 9th circle of Hell was “dedicated to those people who betrayed their loved ones, friends, best friends, countries, cities, guests and even their masters”, and of course Imra has betrayed Rokk by having an affair with Garth
• Page 42: Garth rescuing Imra is reminiscent of Lancelot rescuing Guinevere from being burned at the stake after being found out regarding their affair
• Rough analogs for the Arthurian legend in this story:
• Rokk = Arthur
• Imra = Guinevere
• Garth = Lancelot
• Mekt = Mordred
• Brande = Merlin
• Nth Metal = Excalibur
• Avalon = Camelot
• Miracle Machine = Holy Grail
• Dark Circle = Morgaine le Fey (or maybe the Saxon hordes)