Analysis Notes
| Cover |
Thunder doesn’t encounter the powered-up Lord Pernisius in this issue. |
| Thunder isn’t pictured wearing her Legion belt. |
| General |
As one online fan put it, “My eyes! My eyes!” Keron Grant seems to have combined the worst elongated forms of Lee Moder with second hand Humberto Ramos influences - and more that a few really bad drawings - to produce this style. And Tom Peyer’s script seems to keep pace with the art throughout. (On the other hand, there seems to be a bit of the old “look what I’ve got in my nostril” viewpoint style that Gil Kane used to be noted for, so maybe “My nose! My nose!” would be more appropriate.) |
| 1 |
The Scurrches (“scourges”) appeared far less human in the image seen in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #115. |
| Role call panels do not count as panel appearances. |
| 2:1 |
Presumably Sensor could eventually affect the Scurrches, but she would have to detect their senses and develop illusions appropriate to them. The heat of battle is not the time for such research. |
| 2:2 |
Dr. Deacon’s attitude here is much less reverent of the Scurrches than last issue. Maybe chewing the scenery gave him a sour stomach? |
| 3:1 |
It is unclear how Lord Pernisius is able to withstand Jeka’s illusions; probably sheer force of will. (This would make him a viable opponent for a 30th century Green Lantern, too.) |
| 3:2 |
Observe that although the illusion is being dispelled, Dr. Deacon is still reacting to it. |
| 4 |
Based on the auras around the Legionnaires, the Coluan Force Sheath blocks the expression of powers. Note that Thunder doesn’t have the aura in 4:1, but does in later panels; she must not have been trying to exert her powers in 4:1. |
| 4:4 |
“Landlord of the Universe?” Dr. Deacon is apparently willing to share the scenery chewing chores. |
| 4:5 |
The Legionnaires still have force sheath auras despite being “out”. They are presumably in the process of lapsing into unconsciousness and are still attempting to exert their powers, albeit weakly. |
| 5:1 |
What a wonderfully primitive dungeon. Sometimes the old methods truly are the best. |
| The object on the table is Sensor’s cybernetic arms. |
| 5:2 |
Intriguing: the only thing which would make Sensor controllable was something that would make her see illusions. |
| 5:2-3 |
Dr. Deacon is apparently an addict of some sort; this will be seen to be an addiction to Silver Ale in the next issue. (Silver Ale was referred to as a quasi-legal drug from Rimbor in Legion of Super-Heroes: Secret Files #2, although it has also been seen as a publicly available beverage. Perhaps it is an addictive drug in its more concentrated form, which is most readily available on Rimbor.) |
| 5:5 |
If this speech is meant to humanize Lord Pernisius - “I had to fight for every dime I have!” - it doesn’t succeed. |
| Nothing on a multiglobal scale? Lord Pernisius’ wealth approaches that of R.J. Brande, undoubtedly putting him on the Top Twenty Richest Sentient Beings list. Chew that scenery, baby; you’re nothing unless you’re Number One! |
| 6:4 |
Thunder has only been in the 30th century a short time, so she is more familiar with locations as coordinates rather than as particular named places. |
| 6:5 |
As will be apparent in 7:5, the brown henchmen has six arms - or had, anyway, since the right-side ones are missing. Thus the brown henchman is Lefty, and the green one is Zeek. |
| Dr. Deacon can tell that he’s never going to get that drink he wanted. |
| 7:3 |
He would probably kill you for calling him “Perny”, too. |
| 8:1 |
Sensor’s drugged state probably picked up on the word “kill” (7:4) to make the connection to Thunder being dead. |
| 8:2 |
Apparently just a glancing stun blow, since Sensor doesn’t appear to be injured in later panels. Of course, the skin of a reptile is apt to be tougher than human, which would also help shrug off the weapon burst. |
| 9:1 |
“Thousands of years later...”: the 90th century, to be exact. |
| 9:2 |
Thunder’s time away is presumably one-for-one, like Superboy’s used to be. (Although Superboy’s was voluntary, in order to keep his age consistent with those of his Smallville peers.) |
| 9:5 |
Man, what a neck on that girl. Audrey Hepburn in training! |
| This panel seems to show a heavy Humberto Ramos influence (look at the hands and feet). |
| 9:6 |
That Cece Beck refers to Javert and his wife as “Mom” and “Dad” indicates significant time has passed since she was adopted by them in Power of Shazam! Annual #1. About 2.5 years of real time has passed between the issues’ publications, which might be sufficient. (Recall the “Blonde Phantom Effect” from John Byrne’s Sensational She-Hulk: characters in limbo get to age at real time rates, but characters in active use barely age at all.) |
| 10 |
Observe that when transformed back to Cece Beck, the drugs were not in her system. |
| 10:2 |
While Thunder’s dialogue makes for a reasonably logical explanation - time travel via the Rock of Eternity being stopped at a point in time when it didn’t exist (like an “Iron Curtain of Time,” perhaps?) - the description is inconsistent with The Power of Shazam! #<43>. There, she was being pulled back to the 20th century from the 90th and slipped away from Tawky Tawny in the timestream. The remainder of her description may be reasonably accurate, as we do not know how much time she spent in the timestream; it may have been the Rock of Eternity’s destruction which caused her to slip away from Tawky Tawny, or the destruction may have freed her from the timestream while she was trying to return to the future. |
| Cece Beck’s return to the her home time makes an interesting parallel to the time travel abilities of the Flash and company, who are able to revert to their home time after using the Cosmic Treadmill by ceasing a set of special internal vibrations. |
| 10:4 |
Although Javert is more tolerant of magic, he used to be a lackey of the Science Council of Binderaan, and undoubtedly still distrusts magic to a degree. |
| Cece is much taller and apparently older than in Power of Shazam! Annual #1, supporting the passage of a few years for her. Place her at perhaps 14 as Cece, 18 as Thunder, rather than the 10/16 (estimated) mix from before. |
| 11:1 |
The red skinned character is a Tyrazzi. The flying globe is presumably not the Emerald Eye. |
| 11:1-2 |
The rod that the gang member has pointed at the shoeshine boy is presumably a weapon, perhaps akin to a cattle prod. |
| 11:3 |
The ring on the gang member’s jacket may indicate a link to Lord Pernisius’ organization. |
| 11:4 |
You probably wouldn’t trust the law on Rimbor anyway; paying for help is probably the safest way to go. |
| 11:5 |
“Sara” is presumably the secretary/administrative assistant of the gang. |
| 12:1 |
Dyrk is Dyrk Magz, former Legionnaire Magno and now part of the Legion’s support staff. |
| 12:2 |
Man, check out those noses! Paging Jughead Jones, paging Jughead Jones! |
| 12:4 |
And fresh scenery to chew. |
| 13:1 |
No idea what a “muh” is. “Mind”, perhaps? |
| There is an apparent Coluan among the pedestrians. |
| 13:4 |
The law (in this case, probably licensed freelance law) apparently acts as police, jury, and Judge Dredd on Rimbor. |
| It is unclear why the Bounty Hunter appears to have vertical lines down his face and neck. Perhaps there was intended to be some kind of facial tattoo or makeup which didn’t get into the final character design. |
| 13:5 |
And he smokes, so you know he must be bad! |
| 14 |
Oooh. Ultimate teenage angst! |
| 15:1 |
The lightning transformation, time travel, and time spent in the 90th century apparently cleared the drugs from Thunder’s system. |
| Although Thunder seems to have appeared in the middle of the dungeon, it is doubtful that she would have returned to the 30th century anywhere except where she left. Thus, she probably reappeared in her shackles - or where they had been, since they were apparently destroyed in 7:3 - and quickly snapped them with the Strength of Hercules, now that the drugs are purged from her system. (Alternately, she may have returned to the 90th century from where she left, and then the movement she made there translated into a different location in the 30th century. That is unlikely, though, due to the chance of embedding herself in a solid object when returning to the Legion’s time.) |
| 15:3 |
“Help! My body is being horribly distorted!” |
| The coloring of Rimbor is reasonably consistent with that in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #113. |
| Dialogue from off-panel is from Invisible Kid. |
| 16:1 |
As is apparent on page 17, the object Brainiac 5.1 is holding is a control pad for the Anywhere Machine. The one he was using in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #113 wasn’t nearly so large and bulky. |
| Thunder is reacting to the Legionnaires being present in space without transuits on. |
| 16:4 |
Two men? Brainy should be saying “two sentients,” given that Lord Pernisius is not a man, and Dr. Deacon may not be human, either. |
| 17:1 |
The combination of the slight hallucinatory effect in 16:6 - Sensor’s powers are stronger than the Bounty Hunter thinks - and the Wisdom of Solomon is what clued Thunder in. |
| 17:2 |
The ship’s pilot is apparently not the Bounty Hunter. He must have turned Sensor over to others; this is presumably a transport ship for the Black Star Juvenile Correction Facility. |
| This is presumably a suspended animation chamber, and the pink swirls are an anaesthetic. |
| 17:3 |
How can the ship be too fast for someone with the Speed of Mercury? Perhaps Thunder means that it jumped into hyperspace - it certainly did not go through a stargate - before she could get close enough to follow it. (Most science fiction stories posit hyperspace jumps close to a planetary gravity well to be dangerous, both for ship and planet. Perhaps sufficient time - even just a few minutes - elapsed for the ship to get far enough from Rimbor to make the jump.) |
| 18:1 |
Although unlabeled, this is presumably the Prime Commune on Hoxar. These walls with neither windows nor doors make the commune appear to be a prison as much as anything. (And as with many fanatical religious communes - not that the Prime Commune is one, of course - do the walls keep people out, or in?) |
| The vehicle behind Garth and Ayla is smaller than a standard Legion cruiser. It must be a new design, a two-person mini-cruiser. |
| 18:2 |
Hoxarans, one would presume. |
| 19 |
Given Keron Grant’s art style, there is no way to tell if Pernisius has grown to gigantic proportions or not. |
| If Invisible Kid knows that Eternium is tied to Thunder’s powers via lightning bolts, the threesome sent to Hoxar is certainly the most logical team: M’Onel is invulnerable, and Live Wire and Spark should be immune to lightning bolts. Apparently the magic lightning is way too powerful for any of the three. (And M’Onel, of course, is exceptionally vulnerable to magic, making things worse for him.) |
| 20:1 |
It doesn’t look anything like a black hole. |
| The second bit of transmitted dialogue doesn’t mesh with Brainy’s speech patterns; it must be Lyle. |
| 20:2 |
It would be surprising if Sensor’s bounce was not detected and reacted to. Since the doctor and nurse on page 21 make no mention of any tremors, the facility either has strong inertial dampers or else it has a force field which Thunder bounced off. |
| Transmitted dialogue here is also from Invisible Kid. |
| 20:3 |
And again, transmitted dialogue is from Invisible Kid |
| 21:1 |
Physical straps to hold the patient down? Talk about primitive and barbaric! |
| 21:2 |
The doctor’s punchline would be to a joke about two beings fighting each other, both thinking that the other is a Durlan shapeshifter. “Shagrek and Chameleon Chief walk into a bar...” |
| No idea what race these two are. |
| 21:3 |
Recall that, until Legionnaires #43, Orandans were not even know to exist. It is no surprise that the doctor has never worked on one. |
| 22 |
There is no particular reason for Koko to have separated from Brainy’s shoulder, as they are both actually in the Anywhere Machine chamber. |
| “Excuse me,” said the doctor. “I see some scenery. And since Lord Pernisius isn’t here to chew on it...” |
| Letters |
The response to the first letter confirms the unnamed villain in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #109 as Molecule Master. |
