The Reboot Reading Order (part 1)

I was recently asked to create a Reboot Legion reading order list, to go with my 5YL reading order list. For the most part, you'll just alternate back and forth between "LSH" and "Legionnaires", but there are some odd appearances here and there in other titles (in particular, XS with Impulse and/or Flash, or appearances in Showcase '95 or '96). 

Additionally, there are some published stories that take place out of chronological publishing order - for example, Legionnaires Annual #3 came out after Legionnaires #43 but it takes place chronologically before Legionnaires #35. These stories are marked with an asterisk (*).

See part 2 here.

1. LSH v4 #0
2. * LSH Secret Files #1 (story 1 only)
3. Legionnaires #0
4. * LSH v4 Annual #6 (story 1 only)
5. LSH v4 #62
6. Legionnaires #19
7. LSH v4 #63
8. Legionnaires #20
9. LSH v4 #64
10. Legionnaires #21
11. LSH v4 #65
12. Legionnaires #22
13. LSH v4 #66
14. Legionnaires #23
15. LSH v4 #67
16. Legionnaires #24
17. LSH v4 #68
18. Showcase '95 #6 (Legion story 1 only)
19. Legionnaires #25
20. New Titans Annual #11 
• Not a Legion story, but the Pre-Zero Hour Time Trapper appears in a video, retconning some Titans history and some of Zero Hour. Time Trapper next appears in Legionnaires Annual #3.
21. LSH v4 #69
22. LSH v4 Annual #6 (stories 2 and 3)
23. * Showcase '95 #6 (Legion story 2 only)
24. Legionnaires #26
25. LSH v4 #70
26. Legionnaires #27
27. LSH v4 #71
28. Legionnaires #28
29. Legionnaires Annual #2
30. * Superboy v3 #17-19 (for Lar Gand appearance)
• Published concurrently with LSH 70-72, but reads best all at once and this is a good spot for it
31. LSH v4 #72
32. Legionnaires #29
33. * Guy Gardner, Warrior #29 (Brainiac 5 has a cameo in this story that ties into Legionnaires #29)
34. LSH v4 #73
35. Legionnaires #30
36. Superboy v3 #21 (Future Tense)
37. LSH v4 #74 (Future Tense)
38. Legionnaires #31 (Future Tense)
39. Underworld Unleashed
• Not required to read the whole thing, but it explains what's going on with Chronos in the next two issues
40. LSH v4 #75
41. Legionnaires #32
42. LSH v4 #76
43. Legionnaires #33
44. LSH v4 #77
45. Legionnaires #34
46. LSH v4 #78
47. Dead Heat storyline (Flash & Impulse with XS)
• Note: the Dead Heat storyline was published simultaneously with LSH 75-79, but reads best all at once and fits best here. XS leaves the 20th century after a few pages of Flash #112 and immediately goes into Legionnaires Annual #3.
1. Flash v2 #108
2. Impulse #9
3. Flash v2 #109
4. Impulse #10
5. Flash v2 #110
6. Impulse #11
7. Flash v2 #111
8. Impulse #12
9. Flash v2 #112
48. * Legionnaires Annual #3 (Dead Earth)
49. Legionnaires #35
50. LSH v4 #79
51. Legionnaires #36
52. LSH v4 #80
53. * Showcase '96 #8 (Legion story only)
54. Legionnaires #37
55. Flash v2 #114 
• Wally meets the Tornado Twins in the future pre-Legion - not essential reading, but this is where it fits into publishing order
56. LSH v4 #81
57. Sergio Aragones Destroys DC #1
• Non-continuity, but this is publishing order
58. Legionnaires #38
59. LSH v4 #82
60. Legionnaires #39
61. LSH v4 #83
62. Legionnaires #40
63. LSH v4 #84
64. Wonder Woman Gallery #1 
• Pin-up book, one page shows some Legionnaires for some reason, but not required reading
65. Legionnaires #41
    
66. LSH v4 Annual #7 (Dead Earth)
67. Power of Shazam! Annual #1 (Dead Earth)

As of Legionnaires #41, we find that the teams have been split and half are back in the 20th century (the LSH book) while half are still in the 30th century (the Legionnaires book). One of the first things that Team 20 runs into is the Final Night crossover....

This concludes part 1 of the Reboot Reading order, covering about the first two years of publishing history. Look for part 2 later this year, and part 3 sometime in late 2025 when the 20th century team makes it back to the 30th century. Oops, spoilers!

The 5YL Legion Reading Order

The Definitive 5YL Timeline

• Part 1: Five Year Gap, year 1 (June 2989-June 2990)
• Part 2: Five Year Gap, year 2 (July 2990-June 2991)
• Part 3: Five Year Gap, year 3 (July 2991-June 2992)
• Part 4: Five Year Gap, years 4-5 (July 2992-October 2994)
• Part 5: Five Years Later (Oct 2994-Dec 2994)
• Part 6: Five Years Later (Jan 2995-April 2995)
• Part 7: Five Years Later (May-July 2995)
• Part 8: Five Years Later (Aug 2, 2995-Sept 20, 2995)
• Part 9: Five Years Later (Sept 21, 2995-Oct 1, 2995)
• Part 10: Five Years Later (Oct 1-2, 2995)

Over at the Legion of Substitute Podcasters, here is the order in which we recapped the issues, which is pretty much publishing order. We grouped the early Valor issues, the Timber Wolf miniseries, and the Amethyst miniseries as one just to get them out of the way. The Eclipso storyline is mostly irrelevant, but it introduces him to the greater DCU and he gets the name Valor here. I'm leaving out the L.E.G.I.O.N. series, since Tinya was already gone from the main Legion series, until the crossover at the very end of this list.

Note that this is the reading order if you're going to read full issues. If you want to know the intricate chronology of this time period you can follow the continuity of Valor and Legionnaires (which overlap, show expanded versions, or versions from different points of view) or the definitive chronology of the entire 5YL timeline which I've just published in 10 parts (using the links at the top).

• LSH v4 #1-13
• LSH v4 Annual #1
• LSH v4 #14-24
• LSH v4 Annual #2
• LSH v4 #25-30
• LSH v4 Annual #3
• LSH v4 #31-36
• Timber Wolf miniseries #1-5 (doesn't need to be here precisely, but this a convenient location)
• LSH v4 #37-41
• * Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1, various annuals, #2 [see note at bottom]
• Legionnaires #1
• LSH v4 #42
• Legionnaires #2
• LSH v4 #43
• Legionnaires #3
• Amethyst (1987) miniseries #1-4 (reveals the new origin of Mordru plus it's an intro to Amethyst who will play a part in the series coming up)
• LSH v4 #44
• Legionnaires #4
• LSH v4 #45
• Legionnaires #5
• LSH v4 #46
• Legionnaires #6
• Valor #1-11 (the early issues are mostly irrelevant, but there are some plot points introduced here that pay off later; takes place in the 20th century)
• LSH v4 #47
• Legionnaires #7
• LSH v4 Annual #4
• Valor #12
• LSH v4 #48
• Legionnaires #8
• Valor #13
• LSH v4 #49-50
• Legionnaires #9
• Valor #14
• LSH v4 #51-52
• Legionnaires #10
• Valor #15
• LSH v4 #53
• Legionnaires #11
• Valor #16
• LSH v4 #54
• Legionnaires #12
• Valor #17
• LSH v4 #55
• Legionnaires #13
• Valor #18
• LSH v4 #56
• Legionnaires #14
• Valor #19
• LSH v4 #57
• LSH v4 Annual #5
• Legionnaires #15
• Valor #20
• LSH v4 #58
• ** Legionnaires #16 [see note at the bottom]
• Valor #21
• LSH v4 #59
• Legionnaires Annual #1
• L.E.G.I.O.N. #68 pages 22-24 only
• L.E.G.I.O.N. #69 
• Legionnaires #17 (End of an Era part 1)
• Valor #22 (End of an Era part 2) 
• LSH v4 #60 (End of an Era part 3)
• Showcase '94 #8-9 (not Legion-related, but kicks off Zero Hour)
• Zero Hour #4
• L.E.G.I.O.N. #70 pages 7-9 and 16-17 only
• Legionnaires #18 (End of an Era part 4) 
• Valor #23 (End of an Era part 5) 
• Superboy v3 #8
• Zero Hour #3
• Zero Hour #2
• LSH v4 #61 (End of an Era part 6) 
• Zero Hour #1
• Zero Hour #0

* Eclipso was a 20-issue story spanning that year's Annuals, that took place in the 20th century and spun off the Valor solo series (also set in the 20th century). In the first issue, Eclipso eclipses Lar Gand, then spends the next 18 story issues trying to figure out what to do next with all of the other heroes he has eclipsed. Of course, he is defeated in the end, but Lar Gand not only gets a boost in name recognition but he gets a new name (Valor) and his own series ("Valor"). It's pretty forgettable, but here is the reading order for the Eclipso story. 

1. Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1
2. Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #1
3. Green Lantern Annual #1
4. Detective Comics Annual #5
5. Superman Annual #4
6. Justice League America Annual #6
7. Demon Annual #2
8. Flash Annual #5
9. Green Arrow Annual #5
10. Action Comics Annual #4
11. Robin Annual #5
12. Hawkworld Annual #3
13. Deathstroke Annual #1
14. New Titans Annual #8
15. L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #3
16. Wonder Woman Annual #3
17. Justice League Europe Annual #3
18. Batman Annual #16
19. Adventures of Superman Annual #4
20. Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2

Or, if you don't want to read 1100 pages, you can read the recaps here (part 1, part 2).

** Valor #11-21 takes place pretty much in between pages and panels of Legionnaires #16. It partially takes place in the 20th century, and partially outside of time when he meets the 30th century Legion. You can read the Valor issues in the same order as above, as by the time you get to #16 you're already caught up in the Valor series, which by this point is tied into regular Legion continuity. But see this blog post for the details of what happens when and where.

The Definitive 5YL Legion Timeline part 10: Five Years Later (Oct 1-2, 2995)

The Definitive 5YL Timeline

• Part 1: Five Year Gap, year 1 (June 2989-June 2990)
• Part 2: Five Year Gap, year 2 (July 2990-June 2991)
• Part 3: Five Year Gap, year 3 (July 2991-June 2992)
• Part 4: Five Year Gap, years 4-5 (July 2992-October 2994)
• Part 5: Five Years Later (Oct 2994-Dec 2994)
• Part 6: Five Years Later (Jan 2995-April 2995)
• Part 7: Five Years Later (May-July 2995)
• Part 8: Five Years Later (Aug 2, 2995-Sept 20, 2995)
• Part 9: Five Years Later (Sept 21, 2995-Oct 1, 2995)
• Part 10: Five Years Later (Oct 1-2, 2995)

The "Five Years Later" story concludes on Oct 1-2 2995 (plus events on Aug 8-9 1994, the dawn of time, and the end of time, covering all of Zero Hour to the "fade to white". See the entry for Year 1 for the details.

In this table, rows are color-coded yellow if it was a date confirmed by the 2995 Sourcebook; green if it was a date confirmed in the comic itself; and blue for when I had to estimate a date. If the row is in italics, it means there was no specific date given. And finally, during Zero Hour, there were some things happening in 1994 (red text), in 2995, and at the dawn or end of time (blue text) "simultaneously". Once we get there, it's not strictly chronologically linear, but narratively linear instead.

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
	Jo’s 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
	The pre-Crisis Earth-1 Kal-El Superboy appears after helping the Legion and meets Kon-El Superboy in Smallville. Kal-El quickly realizes that this is a mix of his town and the post-Crisis version, and after a fight with Kon-El he realizes that he is the time anomaly here. Kon-El tells Kal-El that he will carry on the job as Superboy, and Kal-El vanishes	Superboy v3 #8
	Batman, Superman, Metron, and GL Kyle Rayner contact heroes, including Emerald Dragon and the SW6 founders and Kon-El, to join up in New York City	Legionnaires #18, Superboy v3 #8, Zero Hour #4
	Metron notices that Impulse is from the 30th century	Zero Hour #3
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
	The Time Trapper explains his history and reveals that the SW6 Legionnaires were taken from time by him, not cloned by the Dominators. But their continued existence warped time and caused the Trapper to go insane trying to “fix” things to actually protect the Legion from the Zero Hour energy wave. He then reveals himself to Rokk that the two of them are really temporal duplicates	Valor #23, Zero Hour #3
8/8/1994	In the middle of the night, SW6 Saturn Girl, Livewire, and Cosmic Boy and Emerald Dragon join the gathering of heroes, including Superboy and Impulse. 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, Zero Hour #3
	While trying to save NYC, Emerald Dragon reminds Booster Gold that they’ve met before. Afterwards, Waverider tells the heroes that they must try to stop time from eating itself in the past and in the future; the Legionnaires choose to go on the future mission, as this is their only way home.	Zero Hour #2
Beginning of Time	Waverider leads a team to the distant past. They are attacked by Extant, and Waverider sends the heroes back to their own time	Zero Hour #2
10/2/2995	Meanwhile, Superman leads a team to New Earth in the 30th century where they see “the end of time and space”. Metron devises a plan to stop the future from collapsing; Captain Atom blasts Metron’s Mobius Chair inside a boom tube which apparently saves the day in the future. Polestar arrives with Time Trapper, who sends the 20th century heroes back to their home while the Legionnaires remain in the 30th century	Zero Hour #2
8/8/1994	Extant says that he was not supposed to lose in the 30th century	Zero Hour #2
10/2/2995	A little while later later, someone appears in the 30th century and reopens the rift in time to make sure things happen correctly	Zero Hour #2
	The remaining Legionnaires (adult and SW6) arrive on Pocket Earth from Talus, only to find that they can’t stop the imminent destruction of the planet. The Time Trapper brings Rokk and the Legionnaires who just helped out at New Earth to Talus, and tells them that they are temporal duplicates and the only way to save the universe is by combining all of the counterparts. The Time Trapper leaves the Legionnaires on Pocket Earth, saying the future is in their hands. It’s now a group of both adult and SW6 Garth, Imra, and Rokk, and the Trapper’s Iron Curtain of Time is the only thing protecting them. The Legionnaires and the universe fade to white	LSH v4 #61, Zero Hour #1
	Then the Time Trapper confronts someone, who blasts him again and apparently destroys him. The 30th century fades to white	Zero Hour #1
8/9/1994	Heroes from the future start disappearing – first Impulse, then Booster Gold. Metron theorizes that the time entropy wave is coming back through time and that their times are now gone. At Vanishing Point. Superman and Kyle retrieve Vril Dox’s time probe (from Zero Hour #3 and LEGION #70) for Atom to use its components in creating a new Waverider. Later, on Earth, the one behind it all reveals himself: it’s Hal Jordan, aka Parallax, who says he knows how to fix the universe, even if it means destroying it. Hal was the one who stripped the Time Trapper of his powers and killed him, and Hal has decided that the universe needs him as a protector and he wants to reboot the universe	Zero Hour #1
Dawn of Time	Hal Jordan, now Parallax, wants to remake the universe and fix what he thinks is wrong with it. The Spectre joins the fight and the heroes funnel the energy of Parallax’s new universe into Damage, who explodes, re-creating the universe but without the guiding hand of Parallax. Waverider says there will be slight differences from what they knew before. Power Girl’s son is born.	Zero Hour #0
End of Time	The new Time Trapper is glimpsed at the end of time (originally intended to be the alternate Batgirl, per Dan Jurgens’ intro to the Zero Hour Omnibus)	Zero Hour #0, Omnibus

The Definitive 5YL Legion Timeline part 9: Five Years Later (Sept 21 to Oct 1, 2995)

The Definitive 5YL Timeline

• Part 1: Five Year Gap, year 1 (June 2989-June 2990)
• Part 2: Five Year Gap, year 2 (July 2990-June 2991)
• Part 3: Five Year Gap, year 3 (July 2991-June 2992)
• Part 4: Five Year Gap, years 4-5 (July 2992-October 2994)
• Part 5: Five Years Later (Oct 2994-Dec 2994)
• Part 6: Five Years Later (Jan 2995-April 2995)
• Part 7: Five Years Later (May-July 2995)
• Part 8: Five Years Later (Aug 2, 2995-Sept 20, 2995)
• Part 9: Five Years Later (Sept 21, 2995-Oct 1, 2995)
• Part 10: Five Years Later (Oct 1-2, 2995)

The "Five Years Later" story continues in August and part of Sept 2995, from when the Zero Hour time shenanigans start taking effect to just before Zero Hour #4. See the entry for Year 1 for the details.

In this table, rows are color-coded yellow if it was a date confirmed by the 2995 Sourcebook; green if it was a date confirmed in the comic itself; and blue for when I had to estimate a date. If the row is in italics, it means there was no specific date given. And finally, during Zero Hour, there were some things happening in 1994 (red text), in 2995, and at the dawn or end of time (blue text) "simultaneously". Once we get there, it's not strictly chronologically linear, but narratively linear instead.

Date unknown, between 9/19 and 9/29	Triad reviews Valor’s history with Catspaw	Valor #11, in between Legionnaires #15 & #16
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 looks 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	LSH v4 #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	LSH v4 #57
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; after studying at the Infinite Library, Glorith travels to Tharn where she restores Mordru’s powers to help her conquer the universe	LSH v4 #58
	Meanwhile, SW6 Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history	Valor #13, Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10
	A team of Legionnaires goes back in time to find out what happened to Valor	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 Valor’s companion Lori is Glorith	Valor #16
	The Legionnaires 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
	The presence of Waverider and seeing his fellow Legionnaires vanish changes Valor’s 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, which causes Dream Girl and Star Boy to appear	Legionnaires #16, Valor #20
Fri 9/29/95	The Legionnaires instantly return to their present, unaware of their meeting with Glorith and the Valors	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 #59
	Rond, SW6 Brainiac 5, and SW6 Invisible Kid arrive on Weber’s World along with Mon-El, Shadow Lass, and Dev-Em too late to prevent the death of Laurel Gand from the Khund bomb, after which Jo leaves for 1994 to find Tinya	LSH v4 #59
	The SW6 Legionnaires confront Polestar at New Earth	Legionnaires #17
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, and see timequakes affect the 30th century	Valor #20, Legionnaires #16, LSH v4 #59
	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
8/7/1994	Jo Nah arrives from the future in the time bubble He meets who he thinks is Tinya, but it turns out to have been her cousin Enya all along.	L.E.G.I.O.N. #68
	Jo wants to bring Enya 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 then kidnap Rokk, and then Dawnstar fades out	Legionnaires #17
	Valor and others go to New Earth to help 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	LSH v4 #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
	Valor and Shadow Lass meet Pre-Crisis Superboy, who helps the Legions fight Glorith and Mordru. The team beats Glorith, and her Infinite Man powers flow to Valor. He then dumps it all on Mordru, who is unprepared to have his mind merge with the universe. Mordru teleports away into the core of Pocket Earth, which is ready to explode in a couple of days. Valor and Shady vanish, and after Superboy makes a rousing speech, he too vanishes	Valor #23