Analysis Notes
| Cover |
All the Khunds on the cover have the same facial markings, while the ones inside the book have varying ones. (Sprouse was probably working from a single model sheet example.) The marking are probably actually related to family or social standing, rather than the perhaps military unit indicator that these on the cover might mean. |
| Credits |
Carmela Merlo is Roger Stern’s wife, and does a lot of plotting/scripting work with (or for) him. |
| 1:1 |
Lunabase is drawn a bit too large here. Comparatively to the size of Earth, each of those domes would be about the size of the state of Washington! |
| 1:3-4 |
It isn’t readily apparent here, but Tinya is wearing her hair in two ponytails, her classic style from the preboot. |
| Note that Jo passed the steering column across the cabin to Tinya. (And the steering column is miscolored in 1:4.) |
| 1:5-2:1 |
Speaker is Leland McCauley throughout. |
| 2:1 |
Ultra Boy and Live Wire’s images both date back to when they were on the WorkForce; Jo’s costume has changed since then, and Garth has lost an arm. Their contracts were bought out in < >. |
| Karate Kid defected to the Legion in < >. |
| Inferno was fired in < >. (“Fired.” Heh.) |
| Blast-Off died and Radion was injured in Legionnaires #50. Radion and Particon quit the WorkForce in < >. |
| 2:2 |
Only two of Evolvo’s forms are shown; his ape form is not seen here. |
| “Spider-Girl” is a typo; there should be no hyphen. |
| 2:3 |
Piston is Tyrazzi. |
| McCauley changes his tune about device-based powers in 21:3. |
| The preboot Catspaw - with less fur and some clothing - was a member of the teenage “clone” Legion. |
| 3:1 |
Lupine looks a lot like the late postboot form of Timber Wolf (although without the “circus tent pants” he wore in his mini-series). |
| It is unclear if Lupine and Catspaw are “counterparts” because they applied as a couple, or if McCauley is just lumping them together because of the beast motif. |
| It is also unclear is Amilia Crugg intends to actually be a fighting member of the WorkForce, or merely part of McCauley’s greater “team” of employees and advisors. |
| 3:2 |
The symbols here are presumably in the Khundish language, and are as yet indecipherable. |
| 3:3 |
The Khundish captain’s comments make it sound like McCauley’s capitalism is a foul as his being Terran. Of course, the Khunds stem from the same root as Star Trek’s Klingons, that of an anti-Federation alien race, and thus they parallel Communism (or whatever foreign enemy may be prominently on the horizon). |
| Note that while there are two Khundish races - pink and yellow - neither is in apparent superiority over the other, with the captain being pink and the lieutenant being yellow. Compare to Marvel’s two-toned alien race, the Kree. |
| 3:4 |
Interesting philosophy, that the Khunds are being patriotic at the same time as the readers see them as the villains of the piece. |
| 4:1-3 |
Proty typically acts as Lori’s verbal conscience. Not that she heeds him any more than her internal one. As observed later in the issue, this is due to her upbringing at the hands of the original Chronos. |
| 4:4 |
“My best?” If this is in reference to Lori saying she uses the H-Dial better than anyone else, that would imply that Robbie Reed and the other 20th century H-Dialers may have also been pawns of the Time Trapper. |
| 4:5 |
If he can be surprised, the Time Trapper is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. |
| 5 |
In the preboot, Proteans were telepathic. Proty may still be semi-telepathic, allowing Saturn Girl to pick up its thoughts easier than with other beings. |
| 6:7 |
Although this was revealed in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #105, it is a flashback to behind the scenes in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #< >. |
| 7 |
The panels around the central image of Lori should be read clockwise from the top, starting with Fireball and ending with Blip. |
| At least four of Lori’s other forms are not seen here: Spangle, Dinah Soar, “Glorith”, and Blobetta. |
| 7:3 |
The “way cute guys” were Science Police officers. |
| 8:3 |
This is the first indication we’ve had that Monstress wanted to join prior to the battle with Mordru. She certainly didn’t seem particularly enthused about the Legion in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #86. |
| 9:1 |
Four Legionnaires icons can be seen on the screen: Sensor, Saturn Girl, and Ultra Boy, plus an unidentifiable one diagonally next to Sensor’s. |
| The Triad and Ferro comment refers to Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #112, on sale two weeks before this issue. |
| Magno lost his powers in Legionnaires #50, battling Mordru. |
| 9:3 |
“Farside” may be a reference to “Farpoint”, where the initial episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation took place. |
| 10:3 |
Lori’s powers and appearance as Plasma somewhat resemble those of Wildfire. |
| 10:4-5 |
Lori apparently travelled quite a distance (a few thousand miles) during the time she was speaking. She’s probably travelling at more than 1/100th the speed of light (nearly 2000 miles per second), which would get her to the moon in a couple minutes; she probably hasn’t fully accelerated yet, either. |
| 10:6 |
Saturn Girl must have taken a few seconds to confirm her and Monstress’ departure with Star Boy (or the HQ’s computers), or else she would be on board with Monstress already. She presumably also dropped Proty off with Star Boy, as seen later in the issue. |
| 11 |
Based on the tattoo shapes, these are the two yellow Khunds from page 3. However, their uniform insignia differs and their tattoos are not colored, so they are probably from a different ship. We see what is surely their ship on page 12, and the Khund captain’s ship appears on page 16, adding to the supposition. |
| 11:2 |
As former Chief Armorer for the Khunds, Amilia Crugg recognizes the effects of Khundish weapons. |
| 12:2 |
Ultra Boy’s invulnerability field extends to his transuit and clothing (not the transuit band on his left arm). |
| 13:1 |
In the preboot, the fastest Legionnaires were Superboy, Supergirl, Mon-El, Dawnstar, and Wildfire, with Ultra Boy somewhere close behind them. In the postboot, it is probably similar, with M’Onel, Andromeda, Thunder, and XS (on land) leading the pack, and Star Boy and Ultra Boy close behind; if Plasma’s powers are akin to those of Wildfire, she probably would be faster than Ultra Boy. |
| 13:5 |
Evolvo and Spider Girl are probably being fired on by the Khunds Ultra Boy brings through the wall in 15:1. |
| 14:1 |
A Khundish slave-collar apparently coerces the wearer into obedience, although there’s no way of knowing whether that is by physical (pain) or mental means. (Probably physical, though, given Khundish culture.) |
| 14:3 |
Looks like Plasma fried the second Khund’s battle armor as well as disintegrating his weapon. |
| 14:4 |
The collars are what? Probably “programmed to self-destruct if tampered with” or something like that. |
| 15:2 |
Plasma’s comment indicates that there is depressurization occurring not otherwise indicated on panel, due to Ultra Boy sweeping through the dome to take out the two Khunds. |
| Good to see that McCauley is as reluctant to deal with Jo as Ultra Boy was to deal with him. |
| 15:3 |
<Did any of the Legionnaires meet Amilia Crugg before this? Of course, if McCauley is a public person, his association with the former Chief Armorer would be well known.> |
| 16:4 |
This is Saturn Girl giving a telepathic suggestion, of course. |
| 16:6 |
The second speaker is the Khundish first officer. |
| 17:1 |
While a first reaction is to think that Monstress is putting the Khunds at risk by throwing boulders at them, recall that the moon’s lighter gravity (1/6 that of Earth) means that the force the boulder hits with is significantly less. As well, although one Khund appears to be being crushed by the boulder, it is more likely that the boulder landed nearby, knocking the Khund form his feet with the impact, and then trapped him underneath it as it continued to roll. (Of course, Khunds are also hardier than humans, and could thus take the impact with less damage.) |
| 17:2 |
The boulder hits the two Khundish soldiers, missing the captain and his first officer. |
| 17:3 |
Monstress’ leg muscles are probably sufficient to propel her into lunar orbit. She probably made only a small jump and is being propelled mostly by her flight ring. |
| 17:4 |
Based on the angle Monstress threw the boulder in 17:2 and the one it hits at here, the boulder has bounced a couple times before hitting the Khund, blunting the damage it would do. |
| The flattened Khund here is the first officer. |
| 17:5 |
It looks like Monstress and Saturn Girl has used the Khunds’ own slave collars to cuff them. |
| Monstress and Saturn Girl don’t appear to be at risk on the lunar surface in just transuits. This is in conflict with how transuit functionality was displayed in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #112. |
| 18:1 |
Lori-as-Plasma was apparently not telling Tinya and Jo the whole story, just the bare bones so as to not reveal her identity. |
| 18:3 |
Recall that the age of majority in most of the United Planets is 14. Lori is only 10. |
| 19:2-3 |
These panels refer back to < >, but are not flashbacks to any specific published issue. |
| 19:4 |
Flashback to Power of the Atom #< >, which was written by Roger Stern. Note that Atom’s uncovered head clearly marks this as from the era after his days in the Amazon, when he was wearing a new suit which allowed him mental control over his powers. |
| Lori’s dialogue here indicates that even though she appears to be 10 years old, she may be even younger than that, closer to the age four she appears to be in 19:3. This could make for some potentially interesting interplay between her and Impulse. |
| 19:5 |
Flashback to < >. Chronos is wearing the outfit he adopted during the “Underworld Unleashed” event. |
| 20:1 |
There may be a story behind Amilia’s comments here, or such a “child slays and replaces parent” motif may be common in Khundish culture. |
| 20:1 |
Would such spying help, though? |
| 20:3-4 |
Chronos had probably taken Lori on time trips of 1000 years or more before, so the excess chronal energy absorption was probably a side effect of Chronos’ Neron-boosted powers. |
| 20:6 |
This view of Future Girl was a hologram; Lori never possessed growth powers as this image would seem to indicate. |
| The break-in was masterminded by Mantis Morlo, attempting to get revenge on Gates (who was, unbeknownst to him, trapped in the 20th century at the time). The “blobby critter” is Proty, an artificial lifeform created by Morlo. |
| 20:7 |
Rond’s “good reason” was to power a device to enable him to contact Brainiac 5 in the 20th century, in order to try to rescue Team 20. |
| 21:2 |
Indeed, the H-Dial is kind of the ultimate wish fulfillment for a pre-teen girl. It’s a step or two above wearing makeup, and an American comics parallel (and predecessor) to Japanese “magical girls” manga. |
| 21:3 |
See the tryouts in Legionnaires #43 for further confirmation of Lori’s comment. |
| 21:4 |
Minor coloring error on Ultra Boy’s right shoulder; some flesh there should be dark gray, as it is really his shirt. |
| 21:6 |
This is what Evolvo was doing in 20:1-2. It is unknown whether McCauley directed him to do the research (off-panel), or if the Level 10 intelligence Evolvo took the task on himself. It’s probable that McCauley has a lot of files on the Legionnaires and company handy, ready to use against Brande at a moment’s notice. |
| 21:7 |
Perhaps the Time Trapper’s apparent surprise relates to the brief appearance of Glorith in < >? He apparently has (or had) significant parts of Lori’s “path” mapped out, and now it is diverging.
Another possibility would be that this divergence is related to the existence of Hypertime, as unveiled in The Kingdom, published shortly before this issue. The (or this) Time Trapper might not have a handle on the implication of Hypertime. |
| 21-22 |
Saturn Girl is behaving peculiarly during Lori’s departure scene. At first, she just stands there, thinking “No” and saying “Oh, no”, as though something more were wrong than just Lori making a deal with McCauley. And then she tries to ensure some contact will remain between Lori and the Legionnaires. If one were to look for ulterior motives relating to the Earth/Outpost split (and possibly unrevealed predictions by Dreamer), it would be possible to see this as Saturn Girl realizing that carefully orchestrated plans are falling apart on her. |
| 22:quote |
Elizabeth Cutter Morrow, 1873-1955. Children’s literature writer (“A Pint of Judgement”), wife of Dwight Morrow, mother of Anne Lindbergh and mother-in-law of Charles Lindbergh, president of Smith College (1939-40). |
