L.E.G.I.O.N. #68-69 annotations: Enter the Dragon

In the main 30th century series (LSH, Legionnaires, and now Valor), we're rapidly approaching Zero Hour, but in the 20th century we still have to wrap up the loose end of "who is Phase?" Up until now, Tinya Wazzo was apparently killed (her body never found), but we know that Glorith sent her back in time to the 20th century in retaliation for how Jo Nah upset her plans (all as seen in LSH v4 Annual 2) and then pulled The Durlan out of that time and stuck him in the 30th century to become R. J. Brande, who would found and fund the Legion which would put a check against Mordru, which is what Glorith wanted all along.

But behind the scenes, with Zero Hour coming up and the creative teams knowing that the LSH was going to be rebooted while the L.E.G.I.O.N. was not, they had to come up with a way to keep Phase in the 20th century after Zero Hour.

Meet Enya, Tinya's never-before-revealed cousin.

In the first two parts of this 3-issue sequence, Jo (aka Emerald Dragon) and Phase have a few pages in each issue: Jo arrives, talks to Phase, and then leaves (but you'll have to wait for issue #70 for that).

Annotations for L.E.G.I.O.N. #68:

• On sale 5/31/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 712 (June 6, 2022) (at the end of the episode)
• Timeline: 8/7/1994

Notes:

• Recall in our last 30th century issue (LSHv4 #59, which came out 5/24/94, the week before this issue), Valor said "you know, I forgot to mention it earlier, but like 1000 years ago when I was in the 20th century, there was this girl who just now reminds me of Tinya, though of course I didn't know her as Tinya back then."

• Jo Nah leaves Weber’s World in the 30th century in a time bubble to go to the past to find Tinya. He ends up on Cairn in the 20th century, in the pages of L.E.G.I.O.N. #68-70. That's pretty much all there is to #68, Jo's appearance is on pages 22-24.

Annotations for L.E.G.I.O.N. #69:

• On sale 6/28/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 713 (June 13, 2022) & L.E.G.I.O.N.P.O.D.C.A.S.T. episode 103 (June 17, 2022) in a 2-part crossover podcast!
• Timeline: 8/7/1994

Notes:

• The Jo/Phase part only takes up about 6 pages of the issue (p. 4-6 and 14-16), with the rest of it being about regular L.E.G.I.O.N. stuff that this blog doesn't cover.
• So the new retcon is that Phase is not and never was Tinya, she's been Enya all along. Blame everything on the Zero Hour time shenanigans. From issue 2's text piece, for example, we know that Tinya was alone on her trip from Bgztl to Earth. But now Tinya's cousin Enya was retconned in to being with her.
  
  
  
  
  
• Having Enya being Tinya's identical twin cousin leaves the character free to stay in the 20th century (as we'll see next issue) with the L.E.G.I.O.N. But it also leaves Tinya as being actually dead. That still satisfies Glorith's motivation to punish Jo, but undoes a plot point that had been in place for years working just fine.
• In this issue, we get an info dump of backstory for Enya: she was an interplanetary trader, operating just inside the law. Jo speculates that Glorith might have wanted to send Tinya back in time but got Enya by accident, as Glorith isn't the most competent foe they've faced (which is the first time he's described her like that).
• This issue came out the week after LSHv4 #60, which is "End of an Era" part 3, and takes place the same day as issue #68.
• Because of the decision to have Jo be here for three consecutive issues with Phase, that messes up his availability to the 30th century books. Even though he's only here in the 20th century for a couple of days, he's out of the 30th century books (LSHv4, Legionnaires, and Valor) until L.E.G.I.O.N. #70 is done, and that means he skips all of the "End of an Era" parts 1-5. He will return in the Zero Hour series and then for the Legion finale.
• I'm working out the timeline for the Legion's participation in Zero Hour, and given that issue #0 comes out on 8/9/1994, I'm counting that as the day the universe reboots. Backing up from there, it appears that all of the stuff Valor did in one day in Valor #20-21 took place on 8/6/1994, and L.E.G.I.O.N. #68-69 take place on 8/7/1994.
• After looking at the podcast schedules, it turned out that the Subs only had to stall for 2 episodes to get the LEGIONPODCAST to sync up. Given when each team released their new episodes, the Subs took the first half of the issue while the LEGION gang took the second half. It worked out well!

Best as I've been able to keep track, Jo left the 30th century on 9/29/2995, while he arrived on 8/7/1994.

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few days of story as we get close to Zero Hour. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow), 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. 

Due to the timelines in the stories bouncing between 2995 and 1994 and things happening "simultaneously" 1001 years apart, I'm keeping the events in the order that they happen to the people involved, not strictly chronological by day and year. 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.

• 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). Meanwhile, SW6 Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history (Valor #13, Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10), so a team of Legionnaires goes 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). 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).
• Fri 9/29/95: 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, LSHv4 #59); Rond, SW6 Brainiac 5, and SW6 Invisible Kid arrive on Weber’s World in a time bubble at the same time as with Mon-El, Shadow Lass, and Dev-Em, but they're all too late to prevent the death of Laurel Gand from the Khund bomb; Jo leaves for 1994 to find Tinya (LSHv4 #59).
• 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).
• Sun 8/7/1994: Jo Nah arrives from the future in the time bubble (L.E.G.I.O.N. #68). He meets who he thinks is Tinya, but it turns out to have been her cousin Enya all along. He wants to bring her back to the 30th century (L.E.G.I.O.N. #69).