LSH v4 #9 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 9)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #9

• On sale date: May 15, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 9 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 562 (July 22, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on December 2, 2994

A few names at the bottom in bold may be Interlac or other Legion fandom references, if you recognize them, please leave a comment!

• Per this issue’s IOKIAS, this is another fill-in issue. Through a long sequence of events, they ended up having two fill-in issues back to back, so last issue was the revised origin story and this became a good spot to introduce Laurel’s back story since we just met her.
• Page 1 panel 1: Cygnus IV is the home planet of the Bacard Barley Interstellar Travelling Carnival & Sideshow (LSH v2 261). Also, Cygnus was the pre-Crisis home system of Warworld, Mars II, and Mongul’s home base.
• Page 2 panel 7: Laurel says she’s the 9th to join. She’s a distant descendant of Valor.
• Pre-Crisis, this was the joining order: 1-2-3 Cosmic Boy/Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl, then 4-5 Phantom Girl/Triplicate Girl, then 6-7-8 Chameleon Boy/Invisible Kid/Colossal Boy, then 9 Star Boy, then 10-11 Supergirl/Brainiac 5, then 12 Superboy, then 13-14 Sun Boy/Shrinking Violet. But we find out later that Kid Quantum had already come and gone right before her, so she should be the 11th, not 9th. 
• Page 3 panel 1: Ricklef II, named after fan James Ricklef. Looks a lot like Argo City! 
• Page 3 panel 3: Laurel will eventually take the name Tiger Rose towards the end of the run, years from now. Also, the Electro-Towers were also used on Earth during the Khundish invasion of ADV 346-347
• Page 3 panel 4: Notice that Laurel’s mom is wearing clothes that resemble Jor-El (subbing red for green)
• Page 3 panel 5: Zaryan of the planet Brok originally appeared in ADV 304, now retconned to be a Khund (and the ADV 304 story was later retold in ADV 517-519 by Paul Levitz and Kevin Sharpe). He was responsible for the original death of Lightning Lad; Bierbaum says that retconning him into a Khund tied things together and made the stakes retroactively higher.
• Page 7: Eltro Gand again
• Page 8: This whole sequence, including specifically the name Cranston Creek, is a rewrite of “Supergirl’s Three Super Girlfriends” in ACT 276
• Page 9 panel 6: They apparently tried to retcon the name “Triplicate Girl” into “Triad” here, complete with a relettering, but someone must have forgotten about it since she never goes by Triad again.
• Page 10 panel 5: Laurel is wearing a costume based on Valor’s, but doesn’t appear to have a code name. 
• Page 12: In the original, Supergirl hit some Red Kryptonite which turned her into an adult (ACT 267), so she was ineligible to join the Legion, but she joined soon after, along with Brainiac 5 (ACT 276). Also, as in the original, Bouncing Boy was still an applicant at this point.
• Page 13 panel 2: Brainiac 5 modified Mon-El’s serum to allow him to permanently live outside of the Phantom Zone (ADV 305), so this is a nice callback to that
• Page 13 panel 5: Sun Boy wasn’t a member when Supergirl joined, and if he’s a member when Laurel joined, that should now make her the 12th member and not the 9th.
• Page 15: The Shrine Asteroids are unknown under that name, but they look like the Mount Rushmore of Space (ADV 310)
• Page 19: Roxxas has just been betrayed by Earthgov, who (via the Dominators) hired him to hunt down the Legionnaires in the first place.
• Page 20: Yucutan VII was last seen in issue 7. Recall that planet J586 was the home of plant-based life and the 20th century Green Lantern named Medphyll.
• Page 21 panel 4: Celeste and Jan headed towards Winath (along with Bounty and Devlin). They left Trom in issue 7 back on 11/30, so they've been en route for 2 days.
• Page 21 panel 7: The Westerner first appeared in LSH v3 #24 as a student in the Legion Academy, but training how to use his powers out on the frontier and not to become a Legionnaire
• Page 23 panel 4: who’s that statue with the comet symbol?
• Omnicom page 1: looks like an old Adventure letters page, with excerpts from actual Adventure letters columns. 
• Letters from Freedom Gale of Brookline (named for Gail Freeman of Brookline and Ken Gale), Rimbor; Sharleen Sopowitz of Metropolis; Eddie Jones, of Jefferson City, Toonar; Flynt Brojj of Metropolis (who first appeared in SBOY 209; named for Mike Flynn and Harry Broertjes)
• Sharleen Sopowitz wrote the following letter which was published in ADV 347, and copied verbatim to this issue: "Dear Editor: When, in heaven's name, are the Legionnaires going to have some genuine weddings? When I saw the issue in which you advertised the marriage of two couples, I was overwhelmed - but unfortunately, it turned out to be a hoax. I think the rule prohibiting Legionnaires from marrying should be changed. I'm sure they could do their work just as well if they were married. How about some real weddings - soon? -Sharleen Sopowitz, Brooklyn, N.Y"
• Eddie Jones also had a letter published in ADV 347: "Dear Editor: I notice that most of the girl Legionnaires have boy friends they particularly like. For instance, Phantom Girl goes for Ultra Boy and Shrinking Violet likes Duplicate Boy, of the planet Lallor. But what about Duo Damsel? Does she flip over one particular boy, or is she just a two-timer? -Eddie Jones, Jefferson Cit Mo."
• 1915 Euclid Avenue was the address of Nancy Northcott
• Omnicom page 2: history of the Khunds and Zaryan
• 2975 1st Khund invasion of Earth (ADV 304)
• 2977 Garlak defeat (ADV 346-347)
• 2982 Garlak in league with Dark Circle and Mordru (Earthwar)

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Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8); on Cygnus IV, Roxxas watches a holo of Laurel Gand; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan arrive on Winath (LSH v4 #9)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #8 Annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 8)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #8

• On sale date: April 10, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 8 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 561 (July 15, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on December 1-2, 2994

• According to this week's IOKIAS, Keith had fallen behind and a fill-in story was needed, so they decided to re-tell the Legion’s new origin story in light of the post-Mordruverse reboot
• Cover: one of the last Legion projects Curt Swan worked on before his death.
• Page 1 panel 2: They were marooned on Grocz on 11/30, let's say they found the freighter on 12/1 and spent the day en route to Zirr, arriving the night of the 1st. Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take a day of R&R on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath. Grocz was mentioned once, it was listed on the Legion's interplanetary clock: when it's 1:27 on Earth, it is 8:49 on Grocz (ADV 312)
• Page 1 panel 3: Zirr was the homeworld of Mon-El’s friends Garl and Englen, who belong to a race of yellow-skinned, dome-headed humanoids (ADV 321). Tom Bierbaum’s IOKIAS has more.
• Page 7: we already met Liggt, in Cham’s nightmare flashback in which the brothers fought to the death. Ji Daggle was introduced as Reep’s mom back in the Dagon the Avenger story (SLSH 258).
• Page 14: the 20th century legacy of Lar Gand – is this the first time we’ve seen the name “Valor”? Note that we saw Lar Gand join the L.E.G.I.O.N. in the 20th century in issue 16 of that title.
• Page 15: the ADV 247 costumes
• Page 16: the new first case (try to bring in Doyle) and the traditional first case (the Quintile Crystal, as seen in DC Super-Stars 17)
• Page 17: Lucifer 7 was the first case that Tinya & Lu helped work on (from Secrets of the LSH #1); Tinya broke up a spy ring as seen in the recent Secret Origins 42 story
• Page 18: Nine Worlds Ice Cream, first seen in ADV 247. That’s Chris Sprouse and his soon-to-be wife in panel 4. Notice the Kathoon ice cream on the menu, so everyone take a drink.
• Page 20 panel 2: Lester Spiffany was the son of a rich jewel dealer, who tried to buy his way into the Legion (ADV 301). He first appeared in 2974 (modified timeline) and this is 2994, 20 years later, so “Spiffany” could be either the son at roughly age 35 or his father Horace in his 50s-60s.
• Page 21 panel 4: “Lar brought me out to visit his friends”, that’s Garl and Englen.
• Page 22 panel 5: Englenna, named after Garl and Englen
• Omnicom 1: 
• Gail Ken and Via Edwards named after prolific letter writers Ken Gale and Ed Via
• BI subsidiaries are leading suppliers of anti-grav belts, communications systems (both later extensively used by the Legion), and energy plants; Brande is a key financier of time travel (played a big part in Legion lore) and tele-psychic techniques
• Omnicom 2: 
• King Jonn of Pasnic (named for Nick Pascale) was first seen in SBOY 193 “the War Between the Nights and the Days”, where we see Luornu get a new costume. 
• Somi Gan is Life Lass of the Heroes of Lallor. We saw her only once during the Baxter run (issue 62), and her last appearance before that was LSH v2 #317 in a Heroes of Lallor story.
• “The United Resistance Militia” – that's a new one!

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Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 2949 – The Durlan (later RJ Brande) arrives at the old Metropolis Spaceport and meets Marla Latham (LSH v4 #8)
• 2959 – Brande Industries formed (LSH v4 #8)
• 2/8/72 – Assets Magazine story on Brande Industries (LSH v4 #8)
• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• Mon 12/1/94 – Rokk, Cham, Jo, Kono, Furball, Rond, Laurel, and Mysa travel from Grocz to Zirr (LSH v4 #8)
• Tues 12/2/94 – Rokk, Laurel, and Rond take some R&R time on Zirr with baby Lauren, while the others go to Winath; Marla reminisces (LSH v4 #8)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #7 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 7)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #7

• On sale date: March 13, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 7 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 558 (June 24, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on November 30, 2994

• Page 1: Vrykos is a vampire. The green woman is one of Mordru's other wives, the one who told Mysa that none of the other wives liked her.
• Page 2, panel 2: from what I remember reading online in the 90s, this is how this Daxamite woman Laurel Gand got the name “Flying Buttress”. Hmm, “Gand”?
• Page 6: Rokk is having dinner with Mordru, making this a slight flashforward to night, where the Laurel/Rond/Vrykos stuff is going on in the daytime. Callback to previously when Rokk says he hates elvabird.
• Page 7 panel 9: notice Jo calls him “Wolf” instead of “Furball”
• Page 16 panel 3: I guess this is why we've never seen Vrykos's face before, they wanted a big reveal
• Page 19: “and there’s always Glorith” – we haven’t yet seen how she fits into the post-Mordruverse/post-Time Trapper world yet, though we know she takes the place of the Time Trapper in some way
• Page 20: Celeste, Bounty, and Devlin convince Jan to leave Trom with them, but he suggests they go to Winath to both pay their respects to Blok and to start looking for his killer
• Page 21: Mordru has magically banished the ex-Legionnaires on Grocz, “days from civilization”. Grocz was once listed on the Legion's interplanetary clock: when it's 1:27 on Earth, it is 8:49 on Grocz (ADV 312)
• Page 22: Planet J586 is where the Green Lantern Medphyll was from, back in the 20th century, but it doesn't look like it's ever been seen in the 30th before. Some sort of energy signature appeared headed to Trom, then changed course for Winath, suggesting it could be following Celeste, Bounty, Devlin, and Jan. Yucatan VII was seen in LSH v2 289 as the place where Blok and Sun Boy go to try to find the missing Legionnaires, who are actually on an icy asteroid.
• Page 28: Earthgov President Mojil Desai first appeared in LSH v3 #10 was later revealed to be under the influence of Universo prior to the Universo Project. Last seen in LSH v3 #56.

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Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6); with the help of Laurel Gand, Rokk’s crew rescues Mysa and Rond from Mordru but are teleported to Grocz; Celeste, Devlin, Bounty, and Jan leave Trom for Winath (LSH v4 #7)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #6 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 6)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #6

• On sale date: February 13, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 6 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 556 (June 10, 2019)
• Timeline: This issue takes place on November 29-30, 2994 (the Mordruverse story last issue was on 11/29, but since that timeline went away, this picks up from that point)

Names in bold look like they may have been from Interlac or other Legion fandom, if you recognize the names please leave a comment!

• Cover: homage to Justice League of America #10 and Sensation Comics #109, which also have characters as fingers on a giant hand
• Page 1: new character Celeste Rockfish, a private investigator (shout-out to The Rockford Files), mentioned in the Mordruverse issue
• Page 8: Cham’s brother Liggt (named for John Liggett). The 2995 Sourcebook puts this at 5/9/2971, about a year and a half before the formation of the Legion. Cham was almost 14 years old.
• Page 10: More about some horrible battle at Venado Bay in the Imsk/Braal war
• Page 11: Furball is Brin Londo, something mysterious happened called Black Dawn (mentioned earlier by Polar Boy’s resignation letter back in issue 1) in which Timber Wolf got irradiated
• Page 12: Mysa is seeing what everyone else sees
• Page 13 panel 1: Korr is home to Sky City, built on a giant pillar high above the planet's deadly smog. Sky City was the repository of the few Comet Jewels, said to the rarest of all jewels, stolen by Jungle King while the Legion worked to prevent the city from toppling over under the influence of an earthquake beast (ADV 309). Chadwick is named for fan Jim Chadwick (later a DC editor).
• Page 14 panel 6: no spoilers, but this person will be important in the near future.
• Page 15 panel 7: First we hear her name is Celeste Rockfish, now the Dominators call her Celeste McCauley. We know there has been a Leland McCauley III (first seen ADV 374, then once more in Adventure and twice in the Baxter run) and IV (first seen, as a kid, SBOY 214, and who will appear later in this series). Notice also the McCauley Omnicom prominently featured in the series so far.
• Page 16: Vrykos was originally planned to be a vampire Legionnaire, but Giffen and the Bierbaums apparently had other plans for him. From the preview article in Amazing Heroes: “The remaining new Legionnaires include Ryko, about whom Keith Giffen notes, “If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the vampire myth in the 30th century, then Ryko will answer your questions;” and Celeste, a light-energy woman who “is possibly the most powerful Legionnaire we’ve ever come across – even though she’s not aware of it yet,” Giffen states.”
• Page 17: no spoilers, but this is a brand-new character who is and was very important in Legion history. She calls the Legionnaires being held by Mordru her “old teammates”. Who is she? Review the blonde female Legionnaires: we know she’s not Saturn Girl, and Supergirl is gone with the Mordruverse. Not Projectra (who we haven’t seen yet) or Dream Girl, both of whom had white hair, although White Witch had white hair and skin and now she’s Caucasian skin and reddish hair, closer to her original appearance.
• Page 18: Mr Weisen is named after Mort Weisinger, a long-time DC editor and the Legion's first editor for over 15 years.
• Page 19: Accompanying Devlin from the Daily Planet are Celeste and Bounty.
• Page 20: Trom is one of the Gandian worlds. This is a new thing, pay attention.
• Page 22: Michael Eury is now co-editor, Waid is handing off duties
• Omincom 1: 
• First few paragraphs are the summary of the first battle with Mordru (that we never saw), summarized in flashback in Adventure 369. At the end of that, it was originally Superboy and Mon-El who locked Mordru in the vault, here it’s said to be Lar Gand and Star Boy. (Which makes one wonder how the Adventure 369-370 story was retconned, since they went back to Superboy's time in the mid-20th century). 
• Then after the Magic Wars, we hear for the first time how Mordru came back to be named Supreme Teacher of Sorcerors’ World. We learned earlier that 7/6/2992, the day Mordru was coronated, was also the same day that the Legion finally disbanded for good. Coincidence? 
• Alturny Ansky (Al Turnianski) and Ah-Zhay Draveed (Ajay Dravid) mentioned
• Page 24 Omnicom 2: The beginning of the Great Lar Gand Retcon, now that Superboy is off the table
• He’s now said to be one of Daxam’s greatest heroes of the 20th and 30th centuries, fighting Glorith since the 20th century.
• The Conspiracy (LSH v3 46-50) was now against Glorith for reasons we don't know about yet (we'll see this later in the upcoming Annual). Eltro Gand was released from Lar Gand’s mind during this battle.
• Spent 1000 years in the Bgztl Buffer Zone (formerly known as the Phantom Zone)
• Said their goodbyes and retired to explore deep space out beyond the Lallorian Colonies just before the Great Collapse
• Dev-Em is now from Daxam (he used to be from Krypton, so that's an easy enough retcon) and is the “third great survivor of the 20th century” – meaning Lar Gand and Glorith? His tenure with the Interstellar Counter-Intelligence Corps appears to be intact.
• The destruction of Daxam?
• Mentions Raub Woker (named for Rob Walker and Mike Raub), also mentioned in a medical article in issue 3
• Letters page has some surprisingly critical comments. 

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which cost the Legion (LSH v4 #1); Mordru coronated as the Supreme Teacher of Sorceror’s World (LSH v4 #6)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• Sat 11/29/94 – Cham, Rokk, Jo, Kono, and Furball arrive on Tharn and are captured by Mordru; after being hired by Earthgov to find Blok’s killer, Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty leave for Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• Sun 11/30/94 – Celeste, Devlin, and Bounty meet Jan on Trom (LSH v4 #6)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

Annotation help needed

This one is for the old-timers in the group. As part of the Legion of Substitute Podcasters, I'm researching all of the references in the Five Years Later run to annotate the story as we cover it each week. Tom Bierbaum has identified a lot of Interlac/fandom names in his "It's OK, I'm a Senator" blog posts over the years, but there are still a lot left. Can anyone identify who or what these names might refer to? If it's not on this list, I've already got it. (And yes, I'm sure some of these are just completely made up too.)

This will be edited from time to time when I have removed people from the list.


Issue 1: Havron Xid, Brin Tami, Rath

Issue 2: Barretta West, Khard Wlessey, Kakaqik, Dell, Sargenan Arar, Gigleo Whyka, Krevoy Zaxton, Byzjn

Issue 3: S. Pa Kar

Issue 5: Gavril, Ives, Foxmoor, LACSA

Issue 11: Richard Gunther, Aydon Jecks, Lyme, Malden

Issue 12: Nofzinger, Wolf Behbach

Issue 15: Battersea, Sydenham Hills, Galt, Kiritan, Braden

LSH v4 #5 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 5)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #5

• On sale date: January 16, 1990 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 5 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 555 (June 3, 2019)
• Timeline: this takes place on November 29-30, 2994, but in an alternate timeline

Any bold names below might be Interlac or Legion fandom related, if you recognize something, leave a comment!

• Page 2 panel 1: the 17th anniversary of Mordru's reign, which means he came to power in 2977, but there was no Mordru stuff in 2977 (in the Sourcebook revised timeline). The closest was 9/24/76 in the untold first battle, and 11/78 where he chased Superboy back to the 20th century (Adventure 369-370) in his first appearance in print.
• Page 2, panels 4-5: Gavril and Ives are new. Celeste will be important later, Foxmoor not as much. Jacques and Douglas are probably Foccart and Nolan (Invisible Kid II and Ferro Lad in another timeline). Looks like Brek Bannin in panel 5.
• Page 4: the story of Ferro Lad's sacrifice
• Page 5: the shape-shifter with mercantile power is RJ Brande
• Page 6: Not Dream Girl, but Glorith, who was briefly and obscurely one of Time Trapper’s pawn/minions in ADV 338
• Page 7: RIP Heroes of Lallor and the Ranzz family.
• Page 8: the Puppet Master is the Time Trapper
• Page 10: the high-tech screen reads LACSA in Interlac
• Page 11: Agents 5AJ and 5HY (part of London postal codes)
• Page 13: the exchange of Phase and the Durlan from L.E.G.I.O.N. #9... "The Puppet Master brought the Durlan into the 30th century"
• Page 14 panel 9: Andrew Nolan is going to cross over into a TV show?
• Page 21: "The legendary source of inspiration must be replaced... the financier must be delivered... many of the original pieces gone with the Puppet Master, so we make our own and pray they serve their purpose." So going forward, things aren't going to be identical to how they used to be - in particular, with regards to the Time Trapper and Superboy's replacements in the timeline. 
• Page 23 panel 9: first appearance of the current "L + comet” symbol, which endures to today (in Reboot, Threeboot, and retconned into Retroboot)
• Knights of the 30 = 30th century, not 30 characters

No timeline in this issue because it doesn't count, but it starts in the afternoon of Nov. 29th and ends the next morning when Mordru wakes up. Next issue resets the timeline back to Nov. 29th and picks up from there.

LSH v4 #4 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 4)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #4

• On sale date: Dec 12, 1989
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 4 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 554 (May 27, 2019)
• Timeline: this takes place on November 28, 2994, the day after Mon-El's resurrection on Shanghalla

• This issue was originally going to be very different, but the Superman office decided that there was to be no Kryptonians and no reference to Krypton, so Mon-El had to have a backstory transplant. What happens with the Time Trapper this issue (and next) was the Bierbaums and Giffen's way of changing the backstory while keeping as much as possible. See this week's IOKIAS for the details.
• Page 1: Tasmia Mallor has been the Talok VIII Planetary Protector, but she's been replaced by her cousin Grev, aka Shadow Kid (last seen in LSH v3 #47)
• Page 4: it’s the Time Trapper! Last seen in LSH v3 #50, he's the purple speech balloon
• Page 5: Brainy is still working on the Winathococcus Validus cure (as we saw him in issue 1)
• Page 7: Here's the story of Eltro Gand. In Action Comics 384 “Lament for a Legionnaire”, Dream Girl foresaw Mon-El is going to die in five days, and of course, her predictions are never wrong. The Computo News gets wind of it and says that Mon-El will die, so it went public. Dream Girl gets another premonition that he’ll battle a band of invaders on the day of his supposed death, and when that day comes, Mon-El fights off the invaders while the Legionnaires are trapped. But it turns out that it’s not Mon-El, it’s Eltro Gand, a descendant of his brother’s, who knocked Mon out and took some of the serum to prevent lead poisoning, and who planned to die in Mon-El's place. But when they go to get Mon, they find that he’s dead, because his serum wore off. Eltro brings Mon’s body back to LSH HQ where there just happens to be a Daxamite machine called the Exchanger, which was built on the principle of the device that revived Lightning Lad when he was killed (ADV 312), as it transfers life essence from the living to the dead. So Eltro sacrificed his life to bring back Mon-El’s. We now see the pink speech balloon is Eltro, talking to the purple which is Time Trapper. Eltro is killed by the Trapper, leaving Mon-El in charge of the body. Tom credits Margie Spears (in his IOKIAS) for the theory that it was a life-force and mind transfer. 
• Page 9: a new backstory on the Time Trapper vs the Legion, he now created the Legion to oppose Mordru so that the Trapper could conquer the universe
• Page 19: this whole Mordru vs Time Trapper thing is a brand new retcon. Panels 5-7 explain where the “Pocket Universe” came from, and that all previous time travel from the 30th century had been to that Earth, not Earth-1. (That conveniently forgets about all the times the Legion met Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, the JLA/JSA, etc. Also, Supergirl/Matrix was from here.)
• Page 20 panel 1: one exception that had been punished – Superboy
• Page 22: fade to white at the end. This becomes a Legion tradition for when continuities get wiped out. We will see this later in Zero Hour, Legion/Titans Universe Ablaze, and at the end of the Reboot right before the Threeboot.
• Page 23 Omnicom
• “When attempting to interfere in a political dispute on Talok VIII, Mon-El suffered a violent mental breakdown… he attacked and injured Colossal Boy, Star Boy, and Timber Wolf, and sent him into the Phantom Zone until he calmed down.” That was depicted in Tales of the LSH 318-319 (although in that issue he wasn’t actually projected into the Zone, he snapped out of it when Superboy showed him the projector). 
• Then the story of his immunity serum wearing off is from LSH v3 #23.

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 2/20/91 – Tinya accused of having a “torrid affair” with Thom before announcing her upcoming wedding to Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/23/91 – Tinya’s wedding dress announcement (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/30/91 – Tinya and Jo wedding set for June 9 (LSH v4 #2)
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• Nov 2993 – Xenobiology Update article on the Winathococcus Validus bacteria (LSH v4 #3) 
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• Fri 11/28/94 – Mon-El goes to Talok VIII, then Shadow Lass and Mon-El visit Brainiac 5, then Mon-El destroys the Time Trapper (LSH v4 #4)
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #3 Annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 3)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #3

• On sale date: November 14, 1989 
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 3 Recollections (March 28, 2009) This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 552 (May 13, 2019)
• Timeline: per the 2995 Sourcebook, Blok dies on Nov 21, 2994 (in flashback); for the events of issue #5 to take place on the date given in that book, the rest of the events of this issue must take place on November 27.

Names in bold are possibly Interlac or other Legion fandom, if you know, please leave a comment!

• Page 1: checking in on some other former Legionnaires: the former Dream Girl, Sun Boy, Element Lad, Mon-El, Dawnstar, Polar Boy, Star Boy, Brainiac 5, and Chameleon Boy.  Dream Girl is now the High Seer of Naltor; Earthgov is still concerned with Universo (who was name-checked in issue 1 as a terrorist); Jan is on Trom; Mon-El was supposed to be dead, but appears to have gotten better; Dawnstar is out somewhere; Brek is in lockup; Thom is a baseball coach on Xanthu; Brainy is on Colu, working on something for "a solitary child"; and Reep is there with Rokk on Rimbor.
• Page 2: Ooh, the blue probes are all spies, too!
• Page 3: Mordru was last seen in LSH v3 27, where Mysa was helping the teachers of her world help to reform him. Rond Vidar was last seen in LSH v3 50, helping to take down the Time Trapper once he was revealed as a Green Lantern.
• Page 4 panel 3: Mekt Ranzz was released by the Luck Lords in LSH v3 #45. After being defeated again, he was put into a psych ward.
• Page 4 panel 9: Toonar is a Standard U.P. world to which the Legion traveled after being abandoned in the vastness of infinity by a space-fatigued Sun Boy (ADV 318).
• Page 6: statues that used to be in the LSH HQ - there's Invisible Kid, Triplicate Girl, Ferro Lad, and Superboy. The last panel shows an eternal flame for Pol Krinn, Mon-El, and Tinya, who never got statues in the HQ.
• Page 7: We won’t know the secret behind Furball for a while.
• Page 10: The Puppet Planetoid is a world onto which the children of a fantastic race of super-sized giants from another dimension dangle their stringed puppets, which appear to be five times the height of a normal human, through a tiny gateway between dimensions (ADV 313). As Puppet World, seen in flashback of Ultra Boy saving Sun Boy from the clutches of one of the giant puppets (ADV 316).
• Page 11: After learning that Roxxas has escaped from prison, Element Lad tracks the pirate to Trom. Angry over the death of his people, Element Lad attempts to kill the former pirate, but is prevented from executing Roxxas by fellow Legionnaire Chemical King. Element Lad's need for revenge is satisfied when he learns that Roxxas has been insane by his guilt over the genocide of Trom. (Superboy 211) The guilt at the Trommians he killed has caused him to develop multiple personalities, so all the speech bubbles we saw earlier were all him.
• Page 12: Strata from the L.E.G.I.O.N. At the moment of his death fighting Roxxas, Blok seemed to have an out-of-body experience in which he was back on Dryad, and met Strata of L.E.G.I.O.N., who he recognized from mythology (his being the lone survivor of his race is a retcon, when he was first introduced his whole race had learned to coexist with the humans colonizing his planet). Note that Blok's appearance here changes to match his evolution in the regular series over the years.
• Page 14: The 2995 Sourcebook says Blok's death was on 11/21/2994, though not given in this issue (and the Sourcebook's dates are valid unless the actual date in the book contradicts it)
• Page 15 panel 1: First mention of Tharn. As we’ll find out later, after the destruction of Zerox most of the survivors (mostly sorcerers) resettled on Tharn. During the economic collapse of the galaxy following the Magic Wars, Tharn was undefended when threatened by the Khunds. To face this menace, the ruling sorcerer's council restored Mordru's power to him (even though they know the power would corrupt Mordru). He defeated the Khunds and set himself up as Emperor.
• Page 15 panel 2: Vrykos was originally mentioned in that Amazing Heroes #172 article as “Ryko” the vampire who was going to join the Legion. Apparently things changed.
• Page 18: the remains of Blok have been delivered to Winath. It apparently took several days in transit.
• Omnicom 1:
• Story mentions Quarantine World is the medical planet to which the female Legionnaires were sent after contracting a strange crimson virus, in actuality red kryptonite radiation passed into them by an evil doppelgänger of Supergirl, in hopes of extending its life (ADV 313).
• Dated 11/17, about 10 days prior to the action in this issue
• Garth and Imra started the Lightning Ring plantation in 2991 after leaving the Legion
• Validus Plague ravaged Winath in 2990, slightly disfiguring Garth and causing him to limp; son Garridan is on Quarantine World
• Salu has been on the plantation long enough to be mentioned in the article as the "latest addition"
• Omnicom 2:
• Dr Zan Orbal first appeared in Adventure 351 when he restored Lightning Lad’s arm and slimmed down Matter-Eater Lad. 
• Drs. T.B. Katz (named for Talbot Michael Katz), J. Ligit (named for Jon Ligget), R. Woker (Rob Walker & Mike Raub), D.J. Gel Mor (Mary's brother, Dave James Gilmore), S. Pa Kar mentioned
• City of Haslemere mentioned (part of Ray Chan's address)
• By the time of the Validus Plague in 2990, Brainiac 5 had already left the Legion.
• This explains why only Graym is at home with Imra (without his brother), and why Garth has a limp
• Page 25: There are three sets of speech bubbles - the purple one seems to be the master, the pink one is the scared child, and the blue one who urges the pink one not to give in to the purple one. But Pink does, and the body of Mon-El arises from his grave on Shanghalla (as we caught a glimpse of back on page 1).

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/90 – Validus Plague ravages Winath; former Legionnaire Brainiac 5 helps (LSH v4 #3).
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• TBD 2991 – Garth and Imra, having left the Legion, start the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• 2/20/91 – Tinya accused of having a “torrid affair” with Thom before announcing her upcoming wedding to Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/23/91 – Tinya’s wedding dress announcement (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/30/91 – Tinya and Jo wedding set for June 9 (LSH v4 #2)
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• Nov 2993 – Xenobiology Update article on the Winathococcus Validus bacteria (LSH v4 #3) 
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• Fri 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).
• Mon 11/17/94 – Article in InterFaces magazine about the Lightning Ring Plantation (LSH v4 #3)
• Fri 11/21/94 – Blok is killed by Roxxas the Butcher (LSH v4 #3).
• Thu 11/27/94 – Mordru crushes Rond Vidar’s ring; Rokk and Cham finally meet up with Jo and decide to go to Tharn to rescue Mysa; Dominators and Shvaughn Erin watch the tape of Roxxas and Blok, whose body is delivered to Winath; Mon-El resurrected (LSH v4 #3).
• April 2995 – Imra & Garth’s twins due (LSH v4 #3)

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #2 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 2)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #2

• On sale date: October 7, 1989
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 2 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 551 (May 6, 2019)
• Timeline: this issue takes place about October 25, 2994

Names in bold in this section are possibly Interlac or LSH fandom related, leave a comment if you know who or what is being referenced!

• Page 1, story 1: Barretta West sounds like an homage to gossip columnist/TV host Rona Barrett. “Persistent reports that Jo and Tinya secretly tied the knot many years ago” is probably a reference to the fake weddings in ADV 337. 
• Page 1, story 2: Tinya’s stepfather is named Khard Wlessey. Jo and Tinya plan to marry on the planet Deltwan, which is a world in the Andromeda Galaxy, to which Karate Kid was transported using a new experimental Warp Transport. Deltwan has vine-trees and diamond cliffs. (ACT 387)
• Page 1, story 3: Tinya’s dress by Arn Strikl. “Arn” is for Arnie Starkey and “Strikl” is for Carol Strickland, who had an Interlac feature of designing costumes for the Legionnaires 
• Page 2 panel 1: Kono ducks down Whittram’s Alley (named for part of Michael Forrester's address)
• Page 3: The Khund’s name is Kakaqik.
• Page 5 panel 5: Kono’s real name is Brita An’nan (named for Britt Daniels), of Sklar. Sklarian Raiders were first seen in SLSH 233 and 235.
• Page 5 panel 8: Stig Ah Plaza, named for the the real name of the Rimborian who became Reflecto.
• Page 6: two officers are named Dell and Sargenan Arar.
• Page 7: Algronsk & Kaston are named for the ultra polite Alphonse and Gaston, comic strip characters from the early 1900s (“After you….” “No, after you!”) 
• Page 8 panel 3: Klordny was first (and only) seen being celebrated in SLSH 232.
• Page 8 panel 4: That’s Dartalon of the new and improved Wanderers (first seen in ADV 375, last seen in Wanderers 13)
• Page 12: Lydda and Loomis are traveling in the Hotel Woodmere (named for the street of the Stamford, Conn. home of several Interlac members, a house that was known as "Yohet Manor") on their trip to Kathoon. They pass by the planet VanVlack IV (named for Mercy Van Vlack), which is a barren world where Khund Field Marshal Lorca forced a Legion Cruiser down (SBOY 217), and its moon Miranda (named for the title character of a naughty strip Mercy has drawn for many years). 
• Page 12 panel 6: a Hrykanian (Tellus’ race) and a Protean (Proty’s race)
• Page 19: Shvaughn Erin was last seen in LSH v3 62 during the Magic Wars
• Page 20 panel 1: she’s from Duar, a world that rejected helping the Legion fight the Sun-Eater because they felt they couldn’t win. (ADV 352)
• Page 20 panel 5: among Shvaughn’s known acquaintances are Feliz Alana (WAPAn Joe Filice's daughter Alana Filice), Leemac Allen (WAPAn David McLallen), Hass An (Interlacker Hassan Yusuf), Cat Anestopoulo (the literal name of an Interlacker of that era), Suzi Apczynski (Joe Filice's wife), Brek Bannin (aka Polar Boy), D. Spengler Bonita  (misspelled as “Benita”; Dee Spengler, sister of WAPAn Grace Spengler), Ral Benem (aka Chlorophyll Kid), and Ard Bensam (Interlacker Richard Bensam). Brek and Ral's names were supposed to be highlighted.
• Page 20 panel 9: so Dirk has been hanging out with corrupt Science Police Earth chief Circe
• Page 21: Jo goes back to get his shaving kit, a gift from Rokk
• Page 22: based on the speech bubbles, there are at least 5 voices. This is the guy we saw at the end of last issue, just released from Labyrinth and talking to a Dominator. Here, all of the speech bubbles are coming from him, as if he has multiple personalities inside him.
• Page 22 panel 9: first appearance of the “L with comet” symbol, although here it’s still the old-school serif L. 
• Omnicom 1:
• May 8, 2991, the search for the missing Tinya has been called off. She disappeared in a breakup of interdimensional space on 4/12/91.
• Officer Roon Dvron handled the case, and Sun Boy was Legion leader at this time
• Mentions Bgztl Premier Gigleo Whyka, UP Council President Krevoy Zaxton, and her father Byzjn Wazzo
• Mentions that the Science Police Earth had splintered off of the SP Proper.
• Refers to her stowing away on a freighter and helping to break up the Meglaro/Landro spy ring (as seen in Secret Origins vol 2 42, published just a few months prior)
• We saw Tinya's arrival in the 20th century in L.E.G.I.O.N. 9 which came out just a couple weeks before this issue, but we don't know why yet. We (as readers) know that Tinya somehow disappeared from the 30th century in what appeared to be a dimensional rift and took the place of The Durlan in the 20th century (who we don't know what happened to yet), for reasons which will be made clear in the upcoming Annual. 

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Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 2/20/91 – Tinya accused of having a “torrid affair” with Thom before announcing her upcoming wedding to Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/23/91 – Tinya’s wedding dress announcement (LSH v4 #2)
• 3/30/91 – Tinya and Jo wedding set for June 9 (LSH v4 #2)
• 4/12/91 – Tinya goes missing (LSH v4 #2)
• 5/8/91 – Search for Tinya called off; Sun Boy is leader (LSH v4 #2)
• 6/9/91 – Planned date of wedding of Tinya and Jo (LSH v4 #2)
• 1/21/92 – Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1).
• Wed. 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu. 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).
• 10/25/94 – Attack on Jo and Kono on Rimbor; Loomis and Lydda en route to Kathoon (LSH v4 #2).

Unknown dates, presented in the order they were revealed in the comics:

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)
• At some point, the Science Police Earth splintered off from the main Science Police (referred to as Science Police Proper) (LSH v4 #2)

LSH v4 #1 annotations: "Five Years Later" (part 1)

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #1

• On sale date: September 12, 1989
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: Issue 1 Recollections (March 28, 2009). This is Tom Bierbaum discussing all of the stuff going on behind the scenes that culminated in this issue.
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 550 (April 29, 2019)
• Timeline: this issue takes place on October 22-23, 2994

I've bolded the names that are probably relevant to some Interlac/Legion fandom person, but I don't know who or what they are, leave a comment if you know!

• Cover: notice the flight ring, we won’t be seeing that particular version for very much longer
• Page 2: Legion history – Lightning Lad sacrificed his life to protect against Zaryan the Conqueror, who has been retconned in this series into being a Khund (from ADV 304); death of Ferro Lad and the Fatal Five (ADV 353); Omega (SLSH 251); Darkseid (LSH v2 294). This show will be on Saturday, and given the date on the next page, it will air on October 25, 2994
• Page 3 panel 4: Vidar aka Universo was last seen at the end of the Universo Project (LSH v3 35).
• Page 3 panel 5: Marella Tao was a TV journalist who dated Timber Wolf after his breakup with Light Lass (last seen in LSH v3 51). Notice the date on the screen: October 22, 2994 (which is a Wednesday).
• Page 3 panel 7: no known green-skinned women in the Legion’s time
• Page 3 panel 9: Dirk Morgna, our first ex-Legionnaire. President Wellington is new.
• Page 4 panel 7: don’t know who that is fighting Polar Boy
• Page 5: so something happened, and Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces”.
• Page 5 panel 9: Marla Latham, Brande’s right-hand man, last seen in Secrets of the Legion 3 (although he was recently seen in flashback in Secret Origins vol 2 #42)
• Page 7: Rokk is having a flashback, except that it didn’t quite happen that way. Loomis is a new character, and we see that Rokk doesn’t like elvabird. This is the morning of October 23.
• Page 8: Rokk apparently has PTSD from his time in the war. Married (finally) to Lydda Jath, aka Night Girl.
• Page 9: Rokk hadn’t been in the Legion when “everything went to hell” either.
• Page 13: Field Commander Salu Digby arrives at occupational HQ above Braal. So Imsk and Braal must have been in the war. She lost an eye.
• Page 14: Salu will get an honorable discharge if she keeps quiet about Venado Bay (part of Glen Moss's address). Rokk’s flashback mentioned “The Bay”…
• Page 15: … but she declines, and heads off to “the plantation” to see Ayla and Garth.
• Page 18: So Cham is recruiting Rokk, who now has no powers.
• Page 20: a flashback to the origin of the Legion
• Page 22: at this point, we don’t know who this is, but there are two speakers, one of whom got the other off of Labyrinth to finish their “mission”.
• Omnicom 1:
• 1/21/2992 at the Rebirth Summit, Daily Planet article by Megan O’Ryan , Bureau Chief on Xanthu. It's later revealed (in Who's Who in the DC Universe 16) that she's the mother of Devlin O'Ryan, who we'll meet in a few issues.
• Mentions Havron Xid of Colu and Brin Tami
• Mentions Oll G.R.E. Rath of Alkoz, which was a planet whose money was kept in the Interplanetary Bank in the form of glass coins (ADV 350)
• Mentions planet Ferno, which was a world on which Ultra Boy used his penetra-vision to melt down a berserk lead monster (ADV 301)
• Omnicom 2:
• 4/13/2990 communique from President Tayla Wellington (who we heard of back on page 3).
• 75 Hamilton Plaza, named for writer Edmond Hamilton
• Trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture”.
• Per the Sourcebook, the Magic Wars ended 6/23/89, so this is less than a year later.
• Omnicom 3:
• 7/6/2992 Brek Bannin disbands the Legion
• Mentions “especially in the instance of Black Dawn, and you know what that cost us”
• Page 26: ad for Flight Ring Village, which we saw in the promo preview

---

Here's what we know of the timeline to date. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow; text in yellow is as written in the Sourcebook), 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.

• 6/23/89 – Magic Wars end (LSH v3 #63)
• 10/89 – the Great Collapse
• 4/13/90 – Communique from Earthgov President Wellington, trying to legally disband the Legion, with Imra, Rokk, and Cham “currently out of the picture” (LSH v4 #1).
• 1/21/92 - Rebirth Summit (LSH v4 #1)
• 7/6/92 – LSH leader Polar Boy disbands the Legion, mentions Black Dawn which “cost” the Legion (LSH v4 #1)
• Wed 10/22/94 – Raid on anti-government terrorists, but ringleader Vidar (aka Universo) is not captured; Cham tells Marla he’s leaving (LSH v4 #1).
• Thu 10/23/94 – Cham begins to recruit members for the new Legion, first approaching Rokk; Vi leaves the Imsk army for Winath; Dominator agents help someone escape from Labyrinth (LSH v4 #1).

Unknown dates

• Black Dawn: something big and bad happened. Polar Boy says “you know what that cost us”. Sun Boy was a previous leader. By the time it happened, Chameleon Boy had left the Legion and “watched everything fall to pieces” (LSH v4 #1). 
• Rokk and Loomis are injured in the Braal/Imsk War at Venado Bay, and Rokk lost his powers. Salu was somehow involved on the Imsk side, which did some questionably legal things. Imsk won, as the army is occupying Braal. (LSH v4 #1)

LSH v4 annotations: Flight Ring Village promo & Amazing Heroes #172

Volume 3 of the Legion's book ended with issue 63, published July 20, 1989. On September 12, the first issue of Volume 4 came out, taking the series Five Years Later. In between, though, DC put out a promotional flyer in comic shops advertising the upcoming series. I estimate this came out on August 17, 1989.


Originally, the flyer was folded in half the wrong way. It was supposed to be a shot of the three founders on the front, then you open it up and there's the old Legion HQ repurposed as Flight Ring Village in a 2-page spread, and then on the back is a text piece for what's coming up. But instead, page 3 was the front cover, open it up and there's pages 4 and 1, then page 2 on the back cover. It's presented here as it was supposed to be.

Also around this time, a preview came out in Amazing Heroes #172, telling the readers what was going to happen in the first year or so of the new series. Some of it actually came true, as characters and plot points shifted and the editor left, among other things. Still, it was a new cover by Giffen and a high profile launch.

My Legion movie trilogy

I first posted this on September 25, 2015, and have tweaked it a bit since then. If I were in charge of a Legion movie trilogy, what would I do?


If they asked me to come up with a movie treatment for a Legion movie (or a trilogy, depending on how the first one does), this is what I'd start with. A movie series has to have someone in it that the audience can relate to and identify with. Really, the only Legionnaire who is like that is Karate Kid, the only one without super powers (you could theoretically train and develop his martial arts skills, but you can't train to shoot lightning from your fingers or train to read people's minds). In the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie, that person was Star-Lord, a guy from Earth who has some cool gadgets and meets some cool people, but he's not inherently strong/raccoon-like/tree-like. In "Star Wars", it's Luke. In "Alien", it's Ripley. Karate Kid is Batman, not Superman. And sadly, while you can call the team "Legion of Super-Heroes" in the movie itself, as a movie title it really is too old-fashioned, so I'll just call it "The Legion".

My trilogy largely but loosely adapts three great Legion stories, but there's enough room to expand the list of characters, concepts, and places based on all iterations of the Legion over the last 60+ years (Silver/Bronze/post-Crisis, Five Years Later, Reboot, Threeboot, Retroboot, cartoon, Bendis's version, "Supergirl" and "Smallville" TV shows, etc.).

THE LEGION, PART 1: THE KHUND WAR

My first movie adapts Jim Shooter's first Legion story from Adventure Comics #346-347, where Karate Kid joins the Legion with Princess Projectra, Nemesis Kid, and Ferro Lad.

Act 1: introduction of the Legion; tryouts; new members join

This allows you to have KK as your point-of-view character, his first view of the Legion is ours as well. Follow him as he and the others show up, meet other recruits or hopefuls American Idol style, then go through tryouts. In the arena (think of the tryouts circa Legionnaires #34) we also learn via hologram the history of the Legion and the United Planets, so no need for an origin movie, but explain to the movie and tryouts audience that the Legion was founded in honor of the 21st century heroes like Superman and the Justice League. The Legion is well-established in the 31st century, and explain that so many worlds have super-powers due to genetic manipulation. You can put in some joke characters like Arm-Fall-Off Boy and some villains who will be seen in the next movie (in particular, the Legion rejects Emerald Empress for using an external device and Tharok for not having good character, and Lightning Lord for duplication of powers), as the movie starts out light and turns dark with the impending invasion of Earth by the Khunds.

Act 2: Khunds are one step ahead of Earthgov and the Legion during the invasion

Somehow the Khunds are anticipating the UP's and the Legion's every move and either have countermeasures or alternate plans. Is there a traitor in the Legion's midst? The story has a built-in hook - who's the traitor, is it our POV character? - and a twist (no, it's Nemesis Kid, one of the new recruits!), along with Big Stakes (turning back the Khund invasion). Maybe there's a piece in a museum where the Khunds are looking for some object like Wonder Woman's lasso, Aquaman's trident, or a Mother Box, similar to how Darkseid went looking for things in the Great Darkness Saga. A hero turning villain/traitor is a comic book cliche, but not a movie cliche.

Act 3: Khunds continue the invasion; Legion traitor revealed; invasion thwarted

With those four new members, you can add whoever else you want as the supporting Legion characters in the movie (ranging from powerhouse Ultra Boy to Espionage Squad members Shrinking Violet and Chameleon Boy or Girl) and you can have minor or cameo appearances by others, because after all, it's a LEGION of super-heroes. However, you'll need to ensure that you have introduced some of the Legionnaires that will appear in the two future movies, even if it's a relatively small role here. Aside from the four newbies, in the original story there's no specific reason for any particular Legionnaire to be there, so you pick whoever has a good costume or visually good powers from whatever continuity - Dawnstar, Blok, XS, Gazelle, Gear, Kono, etc. - or who fits the plot. The good guys win in the end, of course, but you still have the threat of the Khunds (even though the Legion stopped the invasion, for now) and the treachery of Nemesis Kid still lurking out there. This is a standalone movie with hooks for a sequel.

THE LEGION, PART 2: THE FATAL FIVE

So what do you follow this up with? You want to keep your POV character front and center while at the same time featuring the main characters from the first movie (Karate Kid, Projectra, and Ferro Lad), and there's only one choice - you do the Sun-Eater story from Adventure Comics #352-353, because it's very rare that comic book good guys die in their movies.

Act 1: setting the stage

This one has a smaller hero cast, starring just five Legionnaires - you pick newbies Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, and Ferro Lad from the first movie, plus founder Lightning Lad (to help set up movie #3 as we'll see later) and another senior member (a female, maybe Dawnstar or Kid Quantum for powers and visual diversity). Because the rest of the Legion is off fighting the Khunds and can't get back to Earth in time, leaving just the newbies and a couple of vets minding the HQ - and set up a "side quest" in the movie to show what's going on and why they can't help the main cast - they're forced to recruit the individual members of the soon-to-be Fatal Five, some of whom tried out and were rejected in the first movie.

Act 2: recruiting the Fatal Five

You can largely adapt the two-part story from Adventure Comics #352-353, each hero finds one or more recruits (some of whom are killed off, Suicide Squad style), and the survivors join together as the Fatal Five, battling a Khundish weapon called a Sun-Eater alongside the Legionnaires.

Act 3: fighting the Sun-Eater; death of Ferro Lad

At the end of the movie, Ferro Lad sacrifices himself and the Fatal Five escape and realize that they're better off together as a group than they are as individuals. Remember the ending to Empire Strikes Back, how things look bleak for our heroes - similarly, the Legion has lost a member, and they are responsible for the creation of the Fatal Five. Now the Legion has blood on their hands from what the Fatal Five have done and do as a group collectively. We have a largely self-contained movie but which does have continuity from the first movie, a new story arc with new challenges, and we leave the audience with a post-credits tease for the next movie (the final one in the trilogy): Nemesis Kid and Lightning Lord recruit the Fatal Five to join their Legion of Super-Villains (though you'd have to come up with a better name for the group).

THE LEGION, PART 3: VILLAINS' REVENGE

As this trilogy follows the rise and fall of Karate Kid as the main character, the final movie in the trilogy more loosely adapts the LSV War from LSH v3 #1-5: there's a bunch of villains who try to destroy our heroes, and one pays the ultimate price.

 

Act 1: Recruiting the LSV

In the third movie, after we casually reveal that Jeckie and Val are an official couple (but not engaged or secretly married, because that would telegraph the ending) Nemesis Kid and the Fatal Five are brought together by Mekt Ranzz, who is the brother of one of our heroes and has a grudge for movie reasons (so you can have the family fight within the larger good guy/bad guy fight), along with a few others (maybe tryout rejects or former members) to form the LSV. You can pick and choose your villains based on personal history with a Legionnaire and/or bring back some that the Legion has fought in the comics (visually, I like Cosmic King, Sun Emperor, Zymyr, Chameleon Chief [change to Queen], Esper Lass, and Spider Girl) and refer to past Legion missions that we haven't seen. All have reasons for wanting to eradicate the Legion.

Act 2: Divide and conquer the Legionnaires

This is a divide-and-conquer plan that ends up capturing several less-powerful Legionnaires (Karate Kid and Princess Projectra among them) to be used as bait to capture the more powerful ones (whichever ones are used here we'll have to make sure we've seen them in the first two movies). Pick and choose elements from any or all of the Legion/villain team battles - maybe Emerald Empress backstabs Tharok because he's creepy and she wants to be the leader, and someone uses what's left of Tharok's robot brain to control Validus, for example.

Act 3: villains defeated; death of Karate Kid

Some of the uncaptured Legionnaires break the others out, and we see how the team fights as a team, not just a collection of individuals (like the Super-Rejects from Superboy 212). At the climax of the third act, Karate Kid dies at the hands of Nemesis Kid. Princess Projectra declares it's her royal privilege to kill Nemesis Kid in the heat of battle to avenge the death of Karate Kid, but after the Legion triumphs (teamwork over treachery) she's expelled by the group because Legionnaires don't kill except in self-defense, which this clearly was not. A battered Legion vows to regroup after the loss of another two Legionnaires - and now, all four of the newly-inducted Legionnaires from the first movie are no longer in the Legion. Time for another round of tryouts at the end of this one, which bookends with the beginning of the first movie; the Khunds are still out there, as is a shadowy group called the Dark Circle, and rumors of the resurrection of a mighty wizard who was thought to have disappeared a thousand years ago....

Epilogue

So that's my Legion trilogy. You have continuity in the movies, a core cast plus some other Legionnaires to fill out roster spots (with nearly 100 Legionnaires to choose from), point-of-view characters, character arcs, story arcs, and some major character deaths (including the series hero). Each movie has an arc itself, plus there's an overall trilogy arc. You've got story elements from the comics but hopefully not so much that it doesn't feel like a comic book.

Omnicom back from limbo

I put in a pretty good run on this blog over the years, starting with the rise of comics blogging in 2005 before trailing off and finally just tailing off to nothing in 2011-12. But I never stopped writing and linking, it was just all done at the Omnicom's Facebook page instead (and I hope anyone reading this follows me there too!).

So now what I plan to use this for is long-form writing that's not really appropriate for Facebook, which is much better for just making comments or posting links. One of my ongoing projects is as co-host on the Legion of Substitute Podcasters (Facebook, web, Apple podcast) which I've been doing for the last couple years. We are currently 11 issues into the Five Years Later (5YL) run, which I'm not sure I've read in the last 20 years. So in addition to covering the story, I spend some time each week doing annotations for each issue, pointing out where this person last appeared or when we first went to that planet. I've saved them all and I figured this is a good place to post each issue's annotations, aided in large part by Tom Bierbaum's "It's OK, I'm a Senator" blog in which he gave us the behind-the-scenes of each issue. I haven't really seen that done before; maybe I'll come away from this with a different appreciation for the series as a whole, which I was not fond of back in the day (to put it mildly).

Head over to the Omnicom Facebook page for my regular postings, and check back here periodically for longer stuff. I've got a couple of things I can post while I go back and grab all of the annotations and format it appropriately.

So a new Legion book, huh? It's about sprocking time.

Backstock for sale

At the beginning of the month, word was spreading that DC was doing a serious sale to retailers on a lot of its backstock, particularly Archives and Showcases. Seems to be true, and at least one retailer is now showing the results of that. Tales of Wonder (www.talesofwonder.com) has Legion Archives volumes 1-7 and 9-12 on sale for a mere $19.99 each, and volumes 1-3 of Showcase Presents The Legion for $6.79 each. While DC has not made an announcement, there is speculation that a lot of the books will be allowed to go out of print once the backstock is cleared out. If so, you really should think about picking up Legion Archives (and the other books covered by the sale) if you want them.