LSH v4 Annual 5 annotations: Darkseid of the Moon
Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 Annual #5:
- On sale 3/22/94
- Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 699 (March 7, 2022)
- Timeline: Sept 28, 2995
Notes:
- All of this summer’s annuals had an “Elseworlds” theme. The Legion book did a takeoff of the Wizard of Oz, while a few months later the Legionnaires book did (will do) a King Arthur-style story (which is kind of odd in that the very next regular issue of Legionnaires after the Annual was the first part of End of an Era, so it’s like why even bother with an Annual? But I digress…)
- This is the final work that Curt Swan did for the Legion (though he did a L.E.G.I.O.N. story parodying the Silver Age Legion in that style for their upcoming annual). He passed away in June 1996, about two years after this issue went on sale; after this issue, he did a few pinups and story pages here and there but he was essentially retired (he was born in 1920, so was in his mid-70s at this point).
- Tom McCraw, this issue's writer, previously worked on some of Eric Shanower's Oz books. Not sure if that means anything, but it's a thing.
- Given that in the last regular issue #57 Ayla learned she was getting younger, this issue takes place right afterwards.
- The story is inspired by the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie with some elements of Return to Oz. As a tribute to the urban legend, start playing your "Dark Side of the Moon" album by Pink Floyd when we get into the story. (Or should that be "Darkseid of the Moon"?) There were lots of uses of Legion-inspired characters, and we got the obvious ones, but does anyone more versed in Oz lore know who the question marked ones are supposed to be? Or maybe they're new concepts to this.
- Ayla = Dorothy
- Dream Girl = Toto
- White Witch = Glinda the Good Witch of the North
- Starfinger = Wicked Witch of the East
- Violet & Imskians = Munchkins
- Valor = Oz
- Shadow Lass, Shadow Kid = ???
- Brainiac 5 = Scarecrow
- Glorith (as Lady Starfinger) = Wicked Witch of the West
- Tellus = ???
- Wildfire = Tin Man
- Timber Wolf = Lion
- Polar Boy = ???
- Sun Boy = ???
- Laurel = ???
- Dawnstar/Starhaven = flying monkeys
- Proty = ???
- Blok = Nome King
- Page 33 panel 5: the map that Laurel shows is roughly L-shaped. Among the lands whose names are readable are homages to various Legionnaires: Colossal Mountain Pass, [something] Keep, Dryadidia, Eatter's Place, Image State (!), Iron Hills, Land of Blobs, Bgztl's Fade Away, Rimborian Caves, Ring Around Land, Spark's Mountain, Lu's Lakes, Injun Prairie, Troy's Terrain, Land of Chameleons, KK Keep, Gandia, O'Ryan's Way, Land of Bouncers, Inviso Plains, Magno World, White Island, Ice World/Fire World, Kalloris, Shadowkins, Imskia, Lalloria, and ERG Wasteland.
- So going back over their journey, Ayla landed in Imskia in the bottom right, then went to the Shadowkin's, a maze (not shown on the map), Tellus' swamp (not shown on the map), ERG Wasteland, Furball's forest (not shown on the map), Ice World/Fire World, Inviso Plains, Gandia (where we see the map), Injun Prairie, Land of Blobs, Dryadidia, and Starfinger's Keep.
- The last page shows the artists roughly chronologically by page number and what work they did. It was easier for me to translate it into the following list showing who worked on which pages.
- 1-2 Immonen, Marzan
- 3-5 Swan, Boyd
- 6-10 Farmer
- 11-14 Boyd, Hoover
- 15-16 Von Grawbadger, John Lowe
- 17-18 Craig Hamilton, Von Grawbadger
- 19-22 Von Grawbadger
- 23-24 Hamilton, Von Grawbadger
- 25-26 Von Grawbadger, Lowe
- 27-28 Farmer
- 29-34 Moy, Marzan
- 35-37 Swan, Boyd
- 38-41 McKeever
- 42 Boyd, Cooper
- 43-48 Moy, Campanella
- 49-50 Moy, Story
- 51-53 Doran
- 54 Swan, Boyd
- 55-56 Immonen, Marzan
Cutting down the timeline to just the last couple months since it was getting so long. 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.
- Wed 7/29/95: Jacques and Drura join the team; Mysa is possessed, and goes to Tharn to confront Mordru (LSH v4 #43), but she is defeated and is absorbed into Mordru. Using this power, he raises armies of the dead in a number of worlds in both UP and Khund space. The Legion agrees to help the Khunds, but they insist that the Legion take on four new Khundish members (LSH v4 #44).
- Sun 8/2/95: The Legion fights Mordru’s zombies on Sklar, Talus, Trom, and in space (LSH v4 #45). On Talus, the Legionnaires fight their own dead, and new Khund Legionnaire Bloodclaw is killed before the team halts Mordru’s magics on the planet. Jan fights the dead Trommites on Pasnic (LSH v4 #46). The Legionnaires bring the fight to Mordru on Tharn, losing the Khund Firefist in the process (LSH v4 #47). The dead on Talus are defeated, but during the fight Timber Wolf returns to the 30th century with Jamm (LSH v4 Ann #4). With the help of Devlin O’Ryan and the spirit of Amethyst, Mordru and Mysa are separated and Mordru is defeated (LSH v4 #48).
- Mon 8/3/95: Jamm takes the Legionnaires on a prodigious trip before being returned to his own time (LSH v4 Ann #4).
- Tues 8/4/95: The Legion leaves Tharn for Khundish space, where Flederweb and Veilmist are forced to rejoin the Khundish forces. Jan recovers on Pasnic, while Amethyst and Mysa ponder the future (LSH v4 #48).
- Wed 8/5/95: Tenzil travels to Tartarus and with the help of Polar Boy and friends, they rescue Eve and defeat Evillo (LSH v4 #49).
- Thu 8/6/95: Tenzil and Eve depart Tartarus for Titan (LSH v4 #49); the Legion rebury their dead on Shanghalla, and Wildfire is resurrected there (LSH v4 #50).
- Fri 8/7/95: the SW6 Legionnaires spend the weekend at the Atlantis Dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve arrive on Titan; the rest of the group arrives on Talus from Shanghalla (LSH v4 #50).
- Sat 8/8/95: the SW6 Legionnaires encounter the race of Devil-Fish in the Atlantis Dome (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil and Eve get married; Jan almost dies; Kono leaves; Sean arrives on Talus (LSH v4 #50).
- Sun 8/9/95: the SW6 Legionnaires leave the Atlantis dome on New Earth (Legionnaires #7); Tenzil sends out holos of his wedding from the day before (LSH v4 #50).
- Mon 8/10/95: Several Legionnaires leave New Earth for Colu (Legionnaires #8).
- Tues 8/11/95: Brainiac 5 thinks of leaving the Legion and remaining on Colu (Legionnaires #8).
- Wed 8/12/95: Brainiac 5 returns to New Earth with the rest of his team (Legionnaires #8).
- Wed 9/13/95 (estimated): “Several weeks later” after Tenzil’s wedding, Dawnstar returns to Starhaven; three BIONs attack the Legion on Talus; Universo convinces Relnic and King Jonn that the Legion is helping the Khunds attack UP space (LSH v4 #50).
- Thu 9/14/95: Cocheta Drisden fails to escape from Takron Galtos, and is moved to Quarantine; Grimbor attacks the team and Ivy’s Li’l Legion on Quarantine trying to grab her (LSH v4 #51).
- Sat 9/16/95: Kent and Celeste arrive on Talus from Quarantine, as Ayla and Brin reminisce and Vi monitors the Khund situation; Mysa tells the crew that since they just defeated Mordru, they have to take on Glorith to keep the balance (LSH v4 #52).
- Sun 9/17/95: Relnic shows Jacques that the Legion is working with the Khunds; Rond rushes off in a Time Bubble; the Legion lands on Baaldur and confronts Glorith, with disastrous consequences to the team; in her mind, Glorith is confronted by the Time Trapper; the UP calls for the Legion’s disbandment (LSH v4 #53). Recovering from the fight with Glorith, several Legionnaires find themselves older or younger, and head for Quarantine to see if Brainiac 5 can reverse the effects (LSH v4 #54).
- Mon 9/18/95: Brainy tests the Legion on Quarantine; Kent and Devlin, who have both been de-aged, stay behind while the others go to Talus (LSH v4 #54).
- ME-Lad, Violet, Dragonmage, Catspaw shot down over Antares II by Khunds (Legionnaires #9). The Proteans want the Legionnaires to go inside a crashed ship, where after defeating more Khunds they find Kid Quantum (Legionnaires #10). Dragonmage helps restore the Soul of Antares, and Andromeda calls HQ to say she’s found them and bringing them all back (Legionnaires #11).
- Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy find a freighter that’s been attacked by Sklarians (Legionnaires #9). Kono arrives to help out (Legionnaires #10).
- Legion tryouts at Metropolis (Legionnaires #9). Inferno helps out in Essen (Legionnaires #10), then goes to Paris where he finds someone has chained a tunnel shut (Legionnaires #11).
- Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Livewire go to Acapulco to quell food riots, and Cosmic Boy is injured by Livewire (Legionnaires #9). More Legionnaires arrive to help (Legionnaires #10). Cos is taken to the medi-center, while Spark, Brainy, Phantom Girl, and Ferro tend to a wounded child with odd powers (Legionnaires #11).
- Tue 9/19/95: The Legion gets captured at Talus and taken to Weber’s World (LSH v4 #54).
- In Metropolis, Kid Quantum is sworn in, and Computo sends M-E Lad to help Kono with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #12). Kono uses the Grandin Gender-Reversal Disease to turn Tenzil into Tenzi, where they go undercover, but he quickly blows his cover (Legionnaires #13). They manage to signal the rest of the Legionnaires (Legionnaires #14).
- In Acapulco, Invisible Kid arrives to help, but he’s zapped unconscious, while in the Acapulco medi-center , Cosmic Boy nearly dies but Saturn Girl’s telepathy stabilizes him while a jealous Livewire watches (Legionnaires #12). Invisible Kid manages to break free of the mental-energy vortex as Andromeda and Ultra Boy arrive, while Cosmic Boy recovers (Legionnaires #13). Rokk is released, and Saturn Girl links the minds of the team to try to rescue their downed teammates (Legionnaires #14).
- In Paris, anti-alien hysteria picks up, so a team goes there, where they are blasted by a Dominator child who thinks they are attacking her (Legionnaires #12). She teleports them to a prison, but they escape. They find the girl in the sewers, and she sends them to the Archduke's palace to stop the xenophobia, only to find Grimbor instead (Legionnaires #13). They escape Grimbor’s traps and discover that the mayor of the Paris dome has been working with the Sklarians (Legionnaires #14).
- Wed 9/20/95: The Legion is briefly detained on Weber’s World but escape, while the UP officially disbands the Legion; Universo tells Cham and Computo that the Legionnaires aren’t needed to help (LSH v4 #54).
- 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 is looking 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 (LSHv4 #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 (LSHv4 #57); Ayla is growing younger since the battle with Glorith, and to comfort her, Vi reads her a bedtime story (LSHv4 Ann #5).
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