Legion Alternities

Not to discount the imminent finale of the Waid/Kitson run on Supergirl and the Legion, but there are an awful lot of Legionnaires and Legion-related stuff running around the DCU these days. Over at Legion World, they came up with this list (complete with page scans):

• Starman in the JSA, who appears to be the pre-Crisis Star Boy by way of the Kingdom Come universe
  
• Dawnstar, Dream Girl, and Karate Kid, all in JLA and/or JSA, all apparently pre-Crisis
  
• the pre-Glorithverse Fatal Five, in Brave and Bold #3
  
• Statues of the pre-Glorithverse Legion in Superman's Fortress, from Action Comics Annual #10
  
• Superman's Legion flight ring, as mentioned in JLA #0 and #8
  
• In Action Comics, Superman tells his dad about the last time he faced a Sun-Eater, how he had help. Could he be referring to Final Night, or is this a reference to some as-yet-unknown Legion career?
  

(I'm not prepared yet to fit Mon-El into this scenario. This one from the Action Comics Annual isn't the same guy as pre-Glorithverse, since he interacted with Clark Kent before he became Superman and he was rescued by a different Legion in the 31st century than his pre-Crisis counterpart. I'm also discounting Infectious Lass in Tales of the Unexpected, that doesn't seem like a story in any kind of continuity.)

(And then there's the tangentially related items, like Sun-Eaters in 52; a Durlan agent in Green Lantern Corps #7; Ventura, the Gambler's Planet in Brave and Bold; a blue-skinned woman from Talok IV in Green Lantern #18; the apparent origin of the Emerald Eye, even though we'd seen two of them previously in the L.E.G.I.O.N. series; Sun Girl, in the Teen Titans, who claims to be from the 31st century and could be linked in an as-yet-unknown manner to Sun Boy; Dominators in Green Lantern Corps #8, Green Lantern #16, Outsiders #44; etc. I'd put these on a lower tier of Legion-ness, though Sun Girl still bears watching.)

Based on Dream Girl's Darkseid dream-image and Karate Kid being alive, if we assume that this is somehow the pre-Crisis Legion, that puts lower and upper bounds on what time period they're from (LSH v2 #295 to LSH v3 #5), and then we have to figure out how. Darkseid here could be a vision of her future, which would then back it up a little to just before the Great Darkness Saga.

Matthew from the Legion Abstract wrote something on the Legion World thread a couple weeks ago that didn't strike me as profoundly relevant (or at least possibly so) until today.

Maybe LSH #300 is the key to sorting all this out.

In writing that story, Levitz and Giffen showed how the writers didn't have to be slaves to the Adult Legion stories of the past, by showing us alternate futures. Here's what might have happened if Computo won, or if Blok had followed the Dark Man, or if Mordru had won Earthwar. Brainiac 5 finally found a place for Douglas Nolan in one of those alternate timelines, one in which he took his brother's place as a Legionnaire.



This fits into the time frame I just mentioned very neatly.

A couple months ago, when the Action Comics Annual with Mon-El came out, we noticed a set of life-size Pre-Crisis Legion statues in Superman's Fortress. Leaving aside the obvious question of why Superman had a set of life-size Pre-Crisis Legion statues in his Fortress, the costumes of the Legionnaires gave an exact time point. Here's what I wrote:

The costumes of Cham, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Shadow Lass date the statues to immediately prior to the Great Darkness Saga (I checked the covers to be sure - Saturn Girl's non-bikini appeared on the cover to LSH v2 289, while on 288 Shadow Lass is in her non-cloaked costume; Cos was already in his post-Grell costume and Cham hadn't yet changed to purple and yellow).

That's two things that point to the Legion right when the Levitz/Giffen team took over.

Hypertime vs Alternate Futures vs the Multiverse. Didn't things used to be easier when we all knew what the difference between Earth-1 and Earth-2 was? We've already seen the Pre-Zero Hour and Post-Zero Hour Legions meeting via the magic of Hypertime, in LSH v4 #105 and Legionnaires #61.



But supposedly Hypertime is no longer a viable concept in the post Infinite Crisis continuum, so we can't use that any more. And the Multiverse is coming back in some form, and I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see 52 Earths out there, one "grown" from each of the so-called "missing seconds".

There's something, though, about the Legion at this point in time. Maybe this is one of the alternate realities that Brainiac 5 didn't record? What could be the divergence point for this timeline - when did Star Boy go missing for a little while around that time frame?

Matthew asked Brad Meltzer directly:

Did you and Geoff Johns just generally draw a set of Legionnaires from a nonspecific point in Levitz-and-Giffen-era continuity, or was there care taken to insert this crossover at juuust the right point in the Legion's history, to make sure that, for instance, the Legion roster had everyone on it that you needed?

Meltzer's answer: "Fair question. Can't answer it. :-)"

Sounds to me like Matthew's on to something.

Coming up in Action Comics #850 next month:

In this extra-sized special issue, writer Kurt Busiek reunites with artist Renato Guedes to visit the 31st Century and the Girl of Steel! Supergirl's looking for a way to back from the future and to realize why Superman doesn't want her to wear the "S" shield, but both Superman and Supergirl in for a big surprise when they see what the past has in store! With time-viewing sneak peaks at the upcoming year's events!

Meanwhile, back in "52"....

Here's a bit from Newsarama's weekly interview with 52 editor Steve Wacker. This week, obviously, the big story is the Emerald Eye.

NRAMA: For those of us not fully up on our Emerald Eyes – is this the first mention of the Head of Ekron? Or at least first sighting? And did Lobo do the tearing?

SW: Head of Ekron is new. It’s been called the Emerald Eye of Ekron for years but we never knew what Ekron was. There have been a lot of good Emerald Eye stories throughout the years, but some of my favorites are from the L.E.G.I.O.N. series from the late-80s, early ‘90s - which also starred Lobo for a time, my research lovin’ friends.

NRAMA: If you can recall, who brought the Emerald Eye to the table (figuratively)? And was the head a part of the package at first, or did that come in later? Are we going to see more of Ekron’s body parts?

SW: My memory is that Grant had made a good point early on in our meetings that he wanted the team caught in the Zeta beam accident (from weeks 4 and 5) to be extremely messed up physically and psychologically. The idea was to really show the terror and pain of interstellar disaster and instantaneous spacefolds rather than have everyone disappear into a special effect hole and wake up in a safe lump on the ground.

They were all riffing on the idea of Green Lantern missing an eye and the one he had not being his and that led Grant to thinking about the Emerald Eye. The Emerald head idea is expanded on in the script. I’ll ask the guys if they mind if I share that here. Remind me next week, internet.

NRAMA: We’ll have more from Geoff Johns on this on Monday, but in Green Lantern #13, we saw the Guardians chanting “52.” What the heck? Generally speaking, are we going to see a growing presence of 52’s storylines and elements in the DC titles? Any particular places we should be looking for tie-ins and touches?

SW: The first place I’d look is in the ongoing books these guys are working on. Supergirl and the Legion, Batman, Checkmate and Teen Titans. Now that the One Year Later stories have several months under their staples to establish their status quos, you’ll probably be seeing more hints as to what happened in the missing year. (There was also another early clue in the last few pages of JSA #87, if you’re keeping count....and I know you are.)

And later, in the Q&A section:

Q: Will we be seeing any of the Legion of Super-Heroes in 52?

SW: More likely you’ll see one of stars of 52 in Legion before too long. Paul Levitz presented a couple ideas to me and [Mark] Waid about ways to make 52 pay off for Legion that we liked, so keep your eyes peeled and ask me later.

This is probably (but of course, not necessarily definitely) a reference to Mon-el, or whatever name he's using. Which suggests that as has been speculated, Mon-el, or whatever name he's using, will play a part in the next half-year of 52.

The Emerald Eye of Apple Jacks

This week's issue of 52 (issue #20) cover-features a giant green eyeball -- what is probably Alan Scott's missing eye (eeewww), and what will probably turn out to be the Emerald Eye of Ekron, or at least one of them.

So imagine what I thought when I saw this in the supermarket tonight:

52: Eye See You

So as it was pointed out to me, I have neglected to mention the latest 52 rumors and appearances.

A big green eyeball makes an appearance in issue 19. Lobo has it in a box. If it's still in continuity, I believe Lobo was around during the L.E.G.I.O.N. days when Garryn and Marij'n Bek had their own set of Eyes, and if not, he must have at least heard of the Eyes.

There are also those who think that Supernova just might be Mon-el. Tom Foss thought so back in June. In another installment of "crazy theory theater" recently, Tom tries to tie together Mon-el, the Dominators, and the cover of LSH #24 in which we see someone dressed an awful lot like Mon-el. And don't forget that Mark Waid said in Baltimore that there's an "extraordinarily good chance" we'd see him even before we expected. Wonder Girl thinks it's Kon-el, but "Kon" is just two letters down the alphabet from "Mon".

Where's this going? I dunno. There are as many theories right now as issues published, so who knows. All I know is that something is going on.