Legionnaires #18 annotations: End of an Era part 4

 Annotations for Legionnaires #18:

• On sale 7/12/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 718 (July 18, 2022)
• Timeline: 10/1/2995, 8/8/1994, and the End of Time

Notes:

• Cover: This issue had a second printing, which came out about 4 weeks after the original printing, and can be distinguished primarily by the different color Zero Hour logos (red with white letters on the first, yellow with red letters on the second). Additionally, there's a small Roman numeral "II" in the price box in the upper left corner of the reprint (as seen above), and the color palette is slightly different between the two - the blacks are darker on the reprint and the reds are more muted. As best as I can tell, this is the first Legion book to have a second printing.
• You can see the two covers in my Field Guide to Legion Second Printings at https://adventure247.blogspot.com/2020/07/second-printings-in-legion-history.html 
• Page 6: the SP officer says that half the force owes their lives to the Legion. Yet just a few issues ago – literally just two days ago – the SPs were convinced that the Legion had turned traitor and were working with the Khunds.
• Page 7 panel 3: Kono’s gone, take a drink.
• Page 8 panel 3: Rokk finds Glorith’s journal, which says that his destiny is entwined with that of her greatest adversary’s
• Page 8 panel 4: If it takes til the end of time – foreshadowing who else is at the end of time?
• Page 9: the sequence of the Legionnaires trying to defeat Mordru and Glorith so the mystics can work their magics is reminiscent of the sequence from LSH v2 #300 drawn by Jim Sherman that shows an alternate version of Mordru winning Earthwar.
• Page 10: a magical evil Legion which Rond says (on the next page) is this universe’s version of the Legion - in Silver Age costumes plus Blok and Dawnstar
• Page 12: It’s SW6 Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Livewire, last seen jumping into the Time Bubble to investigate back in Legionnaires #16
• Page 13: The three are rescued by Jo “Emerald Dragon” Nah, who was last seen trying to leave the 20th century over in LEGION #70, but something prevented him from going back to the future. Superman’s appearance here is the same as in Zero Hour #4, which also came out the same week as this issue. We will see these four again in Zero Hour #3.
• Page 14 panel 6: Rokk is aging while in the Infinite Library
• Page 15: Goodbye to both Projectra and Devlin, not to mention their plan
• Page 16 panel 5: Maybe Rokk used his powers that he displayed on the previous page to de-age himself?
• Page 19 panel 3: Adios, Timber Wolf
• Page 20 panel 1: There goes Brek and Rond
• Page 20 panel 6: that’s the doorway that we saw in LSH #60
• Page 21: and down goes Mysa/Amethyst
• Page 22: at the End of Time, of course it’s the Time Trapper! He was dead, but he got better.
• This issue we lost Brek Bannin, Devlin O’Ryan, Timber Wolf, Kono, Mysa, Projectra, and Rond Vidar. From the big roll call gathering in LSH #60, here’s who’s left with just 2 parts of End of an Era remaining:
• SW6 – Alchemist, Apparition, Bouncing Boy, Brainy, Dragonmage, Dream Girl, Gossamer, Inferno, Invisible Kid, Kid Quantum, Matter-Eater Lad, Shrinking Violet, Star Boy, Triad, Ultra Boy, plus Cosmic Boy, Livewire, and Saturn Girl in the 20th century
• Adult – Ayla, Brainy, Celeste, Cham, Chuck, Garth, Imra, Jan, Loomis, Luornu, Lydda, Mekt, Nura, Tenzil, Thom, Vi, Wildfire, plus Jo in the 20th century

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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.

• 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).
• 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). The SW6 Legionnaires confront Polestar at New Earth (Legionnaires #17).
• 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).
• Sat 9/30/95: Laurel Gand is laid to rest on Shanghalla in a ceremony attended by a number of adult and SW6 Legionnaires, after which Glorith and Mordru attack the group with replicas of some of their old foes and kidnap Rokk, and then Dawnstar fades out (Legionnaires #17). Valor and others go to New Earth to help RJ Brande bring Pocket Earth into this universe, but while the Subs and several Legionnaires blink out of existence, Pocket Earth turns out to be unstable and will explode in 72 hours (Valor #22). Rokk tries but can’t escape Mordru and Glorith (LSHv4 #60).
• Sun 10/1/95: Rokk escapes Mordru and Glorith by going into the Infinite Library; the surviving members of the adult and SW6 Legions meet on Winath to help look for Rokk, but when Glorith and Mordru show up on Talus seeking the Time Beacon, the Legions go there. The magicians call forth the Infinite Man, and then they take his powers. Gim Allon disappears when his SW6 counterpart Leviathan is killed (LSH v4 #60). Mordru and Glorith begin to remake the universe, and the Legion teams fight them and their evil dopplegangers. But one by one, more Legionnaires fade out. Mysa manages to break Mordru and Glorith apart which causes their spell to fail, at least temporarily, before she fades out (Legionnaires #18).
• End of Time: Time Trapper is blasted by someone unknown, who starts to destroy time from the end going backwards and from the dawn of time going forwards (Zero Hour #4).
• 8/8/1994: Jo tries to go back to the future with Enya/Phase, but at the last second she leaves him and returns to her L.E.G.I.O.N. team (L.E.G.I.O.N. #70). His time bubble is blocked from going to the future moments later. SW6 Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Livewire fall out of the timestream in 1994, where they are met by Jo (Legionnaires #18). Metron, Superman, and Batman gather some heroes, including the Legionnaires (Zero Hour #4, Legionnaires #18).Vril Dox launches a probe into the time stream to try to figure out what’s going on; it will reappear in ZH #1 (L.E.G.I.O.N. #70).
• End of Time: Rokk spends an infinite amount of time in the Infinite Library and meets the Time Trapper when he finally escapes (Legionnaires #18).