Analysis Notes
| Cover |
Completely non-representational. |
| Coloring error: Zoe’s collar band should be green. |
| 1 |
Roll call panels don’t count as panel appearances. |
| “Phlogista” is from the Greek word for “inflammable.”
“Lucichuacanis” is not immediately obvious as reference to
anything, but “luci” means “light” (as in Lucifer),
so the name probably also relates to the fiery planet. |
| Only eleven Legionnaire silhouettes are seen here (Thunder’s
leg is seen below the bottom caption panel). Based on page 3,
the unseen one is Leviathan. Thus, left to right, the silhouettes
are Thunder (behind caption), Ferro (very thin), Sensor, Live Wire (based
on position on page 2), Spark (seen by the hair style), Kinetix (again,
based on page 2 position), Invisible Kid (carrying a display on page
2), Karate Kid (again, by position), Brainiac 5.1 (with Koko on his
shoulder), Triad (per the hair style), and M’Onel in flight. |
| The Encyclopedia Galactica was a commonly used narrative
device during the Levitz era, although they usually used smaller type,
keeping the captions from taking up quite so much space. |
| The comment about hidden life on Phlogista is a bit odd.
After all, it is never known if any planet sustains some hidden
form of life until that form is found, at which point it is no longer
hidden. A bit heavy on the foreshadowing. |
| The vision shields everyone is wearing
are reminiscent of the goggles Ultra Boy sported in < >. |
| 2 |
After his encounter with the space leeches in the previous
issue, Ferro might be concerned about melting, even through the Anywhere
Machine. |
| Sensor might be seeing the Anywhere Machine projections
as similar to her own illusions, and thus be experiencing the receiving
end of her own power for the first time. |
| Observe that Thunder and M’Onel, due to their invulnerability,
do not need goggles. |
| Kinetix’ “...” balloons count as speaking. |
| 3:2 |
“MacCauley” may be a typo for “McCauley”,
since the described action is right up Leland McCauley’s alley.
For the moment, however, we will consider “MacCauley’s Consortium”
to be a distinct entity. |
| 4:2 |
Observe that Vi, Brainy, and Lyle are nonplussed
by the size change. Lyle probably simply knew what Brainy was
initiating via the holo display he is holding, but there is also his
varied background as an EarthGov spy to take into account. He
may well have experienced the effects of rapid shrinking before. |
| 4:3 |
Ah, the good old “giant molecules” schtick.
Haven’t seen that very much since the old Micronauts series. |
| Hope Thunder doesn’t break anything by touching
the molecules like that. |
| 4:4 |
Between the castle-like buildings and the apparent ships
travelling between molecules, it looks like the United Molecules will
prove to be one of those weird-mix-of-technology cultures that heavily
populated Silver Age comics. |
| It is traditional that these sort of molecular worlds are not actually
molecules as we know them but rather subspace pocket dimensions which
are entered by shrinking past a certain size in a certain area.
(Imagine trying to find the exact same molecules a second time!)
Since Vi’s location (via the Anywhere Machine) was on M’Onel’s
moving shoulder, it would appear that there is a wide area of Phlogista
where such interfacing to the United Molecules can occur, perhaps even
over the entire planet. |
| Coloring error: the character to the far left is Spark,
but the hair is miscolored. |
| 5:1 |
“Giants” would indicate that the Legionnaires
shrunk into view rather than suddenly appearing. Since nothing
was damaged by their arrival, they were probably intangible until the
reduced to the same size as the United Moleculans. |
| The “heavenfire” is presumably the heat and
light from Phlogista, transferred through the subspace interface. |
| Either the subspace interface always deposits visitors
in the same place, or the Legionnaires were able to “aim”
for a particular location, and Emperor Goss’ palace, being a presumably
large building, would make sense. Since she had been there before,
Leviathan presumably guided the Legionnaires this time. |
| There is as yet no expectation of Emperor Goss appearing
again. For the moment, we will target him and his troops as Supporting
Characters rather than Villains. |
| 5:2 |
Coloring error: Koko is on Brainiac 5.1’s shoulder. |
| 5:3 |
Gee, I hope this sort of appear/disappear stunt doesn’t
provoke a warlike action from the United Molecules. |
| 6:1 |
Oh, so its just a super holodeck. Or for an in-comics
reference, take a look all the way back to The Avengers #3, from
the Silver Age, where Iron Man used a device to send his interactive
image anywhere in the world. It presumably works via the stargating
of some kind of a nano-holoprojector to the site (although how such
could interface with Vi’s shrinking powers to access a subspace
world is harder to rationalize). |
| Observe that this sideways addresses the old dangling
plotline about the Legion’s VR chamber. |
| The Anywhere Machine’s name has echoes of the old
Miracle Machine, although it certainly isn’t in that power class. |
| 6:3 |
Ayla says, “Because after all, ‘With great
power comes great responsibility.’” |
| Lyle’s comment may indicate that he is worried that the Anywhere
Machine obsoletes him. This could lead to an attempt to expand
his powers. |
| 6:4 |
Notice that everyone except Kinetix has taken off their
visor. One wonders how she has managed to even eat for the last
several months (or weeks, Legion time). |
| M’Onel - then known as Valor - spent 1000 years
in an otherworldly phantom zone, able to at least periodically view
the outside world but unable to affect it. He may have even gone
mad from time to time, but it certainly contributed to his current strength
of character. |
| 6:5 |
Yeah, go to Disneyland or something! |
| 6:6 |
Brainy’s dialogue here is a sure sign of how much
his personality has changed since facing the Fires of Creation. |
| Ferro can be identified through the doorway, but none
of the others can. |
| 7:1 |
Koko says, “I know what else feels good!” |
| I don’t know that Brainy would be fooling himself
by reveling in praise, but he certainly doesn’t need an expanded
ego. |
| 7:2 |
Ah, the same old Brainy underneath, just with a veneer
of socialization on top. We wouldn’t want him another other
way, though, truth be told. |
| 7:3 |
Hiding unauthorized scientific experiments has a long
tradition in superhero comics. |
| 7:4 |
“Secretly gathered” = swiped from Lex Luthor’s
computer systems. Brainy would probably say that Luthor’s
attempts at encryption and other protections were, while more advanced
than he expected based on other 20th century technology, still pitifully
simple and easy to bypass. And Luthor’s copyrights have long
since expired by the 30th century, so Brainy’s use of them now
isn’t technically illegal. (And as a sideline, Brainiac 5
shared 30th century technology of his own to created the force field
generators used to contain the nova explosion in The Final Night.
Given that thousands of these were assembled at Luthor’s facilities,
it is hard to imagine that Luthor didn’t manage to swipe at least
a single device, if not complete plans for them. You know he would
have if at all possible.) |
| The holo image of a brain is presumably part of Brainiac
5.1’s work on the Bizarro project. |
| In the post-Crisis continuity, Bizarro was a project
of Lex Luthor’s to attempt to clone Superman. The first Bizarro
duplicate was destroyed, but another was created later on. The
assorted Weisinger-era Bizarro add-ons - Htrae, Bizarro Lois Lane, “Us
hate beauty. Us love ugliness,” and so forth - are not (yet) established.
(Which is something of a shame. Bizarro World was the height of
Superman Family silliness, but there’s a corner of the heart that
it always plucked at so well.) |
| 7:5 |
Darn right they wouldn’t. Computer hacking
is still a crime, no matter how smart you are. |
| The two rightmost symbols in the Bizarro tank are “biohazard”
and “radiation”. This does not bode well. |
| 8:2 |
During the Levitz/Giffen era, a holographic Dungeons
& Dragons game was a staple of the Legion’s rec room.
This is a direct reference back to that. |
| Note the misspelling on the video game name. This
is why we have letterers rather than assigning that task to people whose
strengths are in illustration. |
| They are using PlayStation-type control pads. In
1000 years, no one managed to create a better player/game interface
than something where you have to memorize dozens of button combinations
to get the moves you want? (Maybe it’s one of those retro
things that Team 20 brought back with them. They got used to playing
such when stuck in the 20th century and had Brainy rig up a similar
device in the 30th century. The primitive controls add an extra
challenge to the game.) |
| 8:7 |
There is a group shot of the Legionnaires on the wall
behind Live Wire. It includes Ferro, Monstress, Sensor, Chameleon,
Saturn Girl, Live Wire, and Spark. (The last two are guesses based
on hair styles.) The image probably comes from the Legion Day
celebration in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #100. |
| 9 |
Observe that all three of the Legionnaire girls tagged
with lesbian potential are used in this subplot. (Vi and Ayla
were an acknowledged couple in the preboot, but this is some of the
first postboot interaction they have had as a duo.) |
| 9:1 |
Zoe’s green lipstick has got to go. |
| 9:2 |
Ayla’s observation is unusual. It has appeared
that Kinetix has been completely insensitive to stimuli for the
past several months. This at least explains how she has been able
to function at a minimal level, however. |
| Leviathan’s central image on this page is part
of panel 2. |
| 9:3 |
Observe that Zoe’s neck emblem definitely does not
match how it was drawn on the cover. |
| 9:4 |
It is somewhat peculiar that Imra hasn’t taken that
step, or that Zoe hasn’t been referred to Dr. Ryk’rr for therapy
during the several weeks she has been in this state. |
| 10 |
This is Sensor’s quarters, as seen by all the hats
(gifts from Monstress, presumably). In particular, the Carmen
Miranda hat from Legionnaires #59 is in 10:5. No idea why
a snake would need a human bed, though. (Maybe it’s a habit
she has picked up while living among these decadent primates?) |
| 10:1 |
If mechanical arms look ridiculous on a snake, a cape
surely should. (A cape kind of requires shoulders.) |
| 10:2 |
Sensor presumably has been cruising through the historical
files on the 20th century to pull out this image, since no one in the
30th century has had direct contact with Captain Marvel. (Spark
and Saturn Girl did with the female Captain Marvel during The Final
Night, but not with the male version.) While a lot of information
about the late 20th century has been lost, and thus Captain Marvel’s
name might not be well known, there might have been surviving unlabeled
images which 30th century computers could call up with a visual pattern
matching algorithm, using Thunder’s costume design as a starting
point. |
| 10:3 |
What other possibilities might there be? How about
Now that DC has explained the origin of the Phantom Stranger in The
Kingdom, perhaps the far-future explosion of the Rock of Eternity
catapulted the aged Billy back through time, where he will be Shazam
and thus his own origin. (Of course, this would mark Thunder’s
quest as ultimately futile.) |
| 10:5 |
“Quixotic”? Foolishly impractical?
(Or just loftily romantic and elegantly chivalric?) |
| Finding the Grail was an Arthurian quest slated for a
year and a day. This is going to drag on forever! |
| 11:1 |
More info from the Encyclopedia Galactica. |
| “Titleholder” does not necessarily indicate
hereditary or royal ennoblement. Lordship on Rimbor could be the
result of a contest (world class wrestling, maybe)? |
| The title of “Lord Pernisius” is applied on
top of the character’s real name, whatever it might be. This
parallels British royalty, where Lord So-and-So is the lord of
So-and-So. |
| Labelling Pernisia as the “northwestern” continent
has two potential meanings. If the planet is divided into hemispheres
- like Earth - then that would be the main continent in the intersection
of the northern and western hemispheres (like North America).
Alternately, if all the continental landmasses are grouped in one area
of the planet - as could be the case if the purple areas depicted are
land - then the northwestern one of the grouping would be Pernisia.
(Note the naming similarity to Anne McCaffrey’s Pern, where there
are only two continents.) |
| This is the first indication of moons for Rimbor. |
| 11:2 |
Note that both Lord Pernisius and his guard are dragon-like,
reinforcing the subtle Pern connection. With this occurring on
Rimbor, this also feeds into Ultra Boy’s background as a member
of the Green Dragons gang. |
| How did the trader know to call it Eternium, since the
Legionnaires are the only ones who know of the stones’ existence?
While the name of the stone might have leaked out in Legion of Super-Heroes
v4 #111, a more interesting possibility is that the trader or someone
up the line has a slight sensitivity to magic and the Eternium “named”
itself. |
| 11:3 |
Um, what glow? (Coloring error?) |
| If it glows, shouldn’t that indicate it is radioactive?
(Okay, maybe just fluorescent or phosphorescent. Someone up the
trading chain would surely have tested for dangerous radioactivity.) |
| We’ll refer to the smuggler as “Ram the Smuggler,”
since its helmet design looks like the helmet design for the St. Louis
Rams football team. |
| Man, that’s one fierce piercing Lord Pernisius has
through his neck! |
| 11:4 |
“Unlocking Fluid” would appear to be some sort
of a magical (or semi-magical) potion. |
| 11:5 |
“Krakow” is a city in Poland. |
| 12:1 |
The imagery here is presumably supposed to be like arcs
of electricity jumping all over the characters’ bodies. |
| 12:3 |
Ram the Smuggler’s chest emblem looks a lot like
the mask of Marvel’s Darkhawk. |
| 12:4 |
If this chunk of Eternium has been destroyed, doers that
mean Thunder can never go home? |
| 13:1 |
This sign technically should have been in Interlac, but
they don’t want to actively hide important information from the
readers. |
| 13:2 |
Recall how Brainiac 5 was introduced in the postboot:
by pushing aside his draft notice as an “interruption”. |
| Note that Spark and Brainiac 5 struck up something of
a friendship while in the 20th century. It is arguable that she
would be better able to convince him to help Kinetix than anyone else
on the team. |
| 13:3 |
The comment that she could wait a week sounds like it
is playing to fandom, who had been complaining for months that nothing
was being done with her condition. |
| 13:4 |
It is unclear if Brainy is acknowledging that Spark’s
idea is valid or if he is being sarcastic. His expression says
sarcasm, but he then proceeds to implement the idea. |
| Koko was getting scratched in 6:1 as well. This
is presumably just typically white monkey activity, the result of a
new artist’s take on the character. |
| 14:1 |
Oooh. Bad Legion Science™ at its finest.
How the Anywhere Machine could, given its stated specs, do anything
more than show a set of neurons to Vi and Ayla is beyond me. (But
so is Brainy’s science, right?) |
| 14:2 |
The shrinking ray is a reference back to the Silver Age,
when the original Brainiac used one to create the Bottle City of Kandor.
The crypto-biology models may refer to the Bizarro experiment. |
| 14:3 |
As opposed to “Here goes nothing.” |
| 14:4 |
Whatever is going on with the Bizarro project
is presumably caused by Brainy having to divert his attention to deal
with the girls, more or less as indicated in 13:2. The again,
maybe the warriors of Emperor Goss tracked the Legionnaires down and
are taking their revenge? |
| 15:4 |
This chamber is apparently underground on Rimbor.
Note the panel sliding back above the ship. |
| 16 |
In the dialogue on this page, imagine the “///”
items as a vocal inflection, perhaps a reverb or slight echo. |
| 16-20 |
This aging/de-aging effect is one of the gimmicks of
Glorith. Although we know the Time Trapper got “caught”
in the anomaly, we do not yet know how or why. |
| 16:1 |
Leviathan might have some concept of what time “feels”
like due to her connection with the Emerald Eye. She knows power. |
| 16:3 |
This is of course nothing like what
we saw in the anomaly in < >. |
| 16:6 |
So much for keeping her unconscious. Guess Brainy’s
attention got taken away again. |
| 17:3 |
The birth of time and space itself? Shouldn’t
there be a hand grasping it? That’s the classic imagery DC
has promoted in the past. (Or maybe this is a new creation point,
one for a new universe.) |
| 17:4 |
Leviathan acknowledges one of the ways of creating and
writing characters, almost a gimmick: everyone has a personal tragedy
or flaw. (Kinetix lusts for power. Leviathan is shy.
Spark lives in hers brothers’ shadows.) |
| 18:4 |
Leviathan as a really big baby. |
| 18:5 |
The reflections in Zoe’s eyes count as panel appearances
for Spark and Leviathan. |
| 19:1-3 |
Bits where one hero talks another out of mental possession
or otherwise wins by the power of love conquering all usually come off
a little cheesy (and it’s been done way too often). Here,
it works better than usual because the setting has the characters in
the mind of another and subject to an acknowledged different set of
rules. Kinetix isn’t convincing them; she is convincing herself. |
| 19:4-5 |
’Please” is the magic word, after all. |
| 20:1 |
Interlac translation: “Bay 0”. Perhaps
“Docking Bay 0”, indicating that Brainy took over one of the
unused docking bays to house the Anywhere Machine. |
| 20:2-4 |
Given the “POPP” and “KRAKLL” sound
effects, the one in 14:4 probably should have been “SSSSNAP”. |
| 20:4 |
The typical dialogue would have been “-new!”,
but Bizarro’s do opposite of all Earthly things. |
| 21:1 |
The stargater is apparently returning from the trip. |
| The dialogue is from Ferro, based on what Invisible Kid
says in 21:2. |
| It isn’t clear why Ferro should be complaining but
the others aren’t. Barring comments about him being somehow
“wimpier” than the other three (which does have some validity,
given the training backgrounds of Invisible Kid and Karate Kid, at least),
perhaps there is a direct connection between the Bizarro effect and
Ferro. The most likely answer would be some kind of a sympathetic
response to the change (since Ferro himself is a changer), but we can’t
quite discount the possibility that Brainiac 5.1 intentionally used
Ferro’s chemical or genetic makeup in the Bizarro matrix. |
| 21:4 |
That the others are not affected gives weight to the
sympathetic response, that Ferro simply experienced the effects first,
but his change into iron protected his eyes. |
| 21:5 |
Attribute the second balloon to Karate Kid, since he
is to Ferro’s left. |
| 22 |
The appearance of the transformed Outpost echoes the
pre-Crisis oddities that Bizarros built, a feature not present
in the post-Crisis Bizarro. It remains to be seen if there
will be some explanation for this. |
Among the identifiable bits and pieces of the Bizarro
Inpost:
- The general yellow color scheme and the red fin in back echo the
original pre-Crisis “inverted rocketship” Legion
clubhouse (which of course the regular Outpost and the Metropolis
headquarters are both distantly modelled on).
- The entire Outpost is flipped upside down from 15:3.
- What used to be a sensor array at the bottom of the Outpost is
now radio and TV antennae, including one with a Jack In The Box
clown antenna ball on it.
- The circular grilles on the green thing in the upper left could
be windows akin to the one in Dr. Strange’s sanctum sanctorum.
- There is an engine nacelle from the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 on
the side.
- Vaguely visible in the yellow near the top is the fact that the
Inpost shell is made out of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
- Near the bottom on the left is an outhouse, which would be a play
on Outpost.
- The tops of the Outpost were once been thrusters and docking bays,
now replaced by wheels at the bottom.
- The mouths at the bottom are replacements for the former docking
bays.
- The octagonal “Play” sign would seem to be a warped
opposite of a STOP sign.
|
| Observe the reversed, warped Legion logo in the lower
right corner of the page. And note that the typically round lens
flare effects from it are now square! |
| Letters |
One of the letters indicates that Apparition’s “disruption
of electronics” powers have stabilized since her merge with Phase. |
