Analysis Notes
| Cover |
This cover was originally released as the promotional art for the series. Note the peculiarity of the inclusion of Nightwing and Cyborg on the cover, while Flash, Omen, and Arsenal are omitted despite being far more significant to the story. |
| Inside Cover |
The images on the inside front and back covers do not count as appearances for those characters. |
| General |
With the conclusion of this story, this entire series becomes a time travel/Hypertime rewrite of history. As such, only pages 37-41 and 43-48 are tracked for continuity appearances with regard to the mainline DC universe. |
| 1 |
This is the Legion bunker, some 168 feet below Europe (although where under Europe is not specified). It may well be a Brande Industries facility. |
| The Legionnaires and Titans are wearing neural blocks on their foreheads, devices designed to protect them from Universo’s control. |
| Art error: Kinetix’ “eclipsed moon” emblem is drawn incorrectly. |
| 2:1 |
The second image on Brainy’s screens is presumably Metropolis, but the others could be from anywhere on Earth. |
| This console looks decidedly low tech compared to what we are used to seeing with the Legion. Heck, it looks low tech compare to real world 20th century possibilities. |
| 2:4 |
Gates is a Marxist, and the Tamaranians are hereditary royalists. No wonder he doesn’t like them. |
| 3:2 |
Shouldn’t Troia’s legs be appearing somewhere in this image? |
| Coloring error: Kinetix’ throat emblem should be metallic, not green. |
| Ultra Boy’s chest emblem is inconsistent here with the rest of his appearances in this series, where the black completely surrounds the green. |
| 3:3 |
Is Brainy telling them to ignore the Legion code against killing? |
| 3:5 |
The stuff about Atlantis not being attacked and all that is never followed up on. |
| 4/5 |
Okay, so how did they suddenly get from underneath Europe to Metropolis? (And then see page 19, where some of these characters are in Paris.) Answer: this is Paris, not Metropolis, and the Legion bunker is somewhere under France. |
| Despite Ferro’s comment, we only see Ultra Boy and M’Onel take action. |
| 6:1 |
The disconnected green “wing” has apparently come free from the ship Ultra Boy is attacking without damage. Shoddy H’san Natall workmanship. |
| 6:3-7:1 |
We don’t see a body, but the intent here is apparently that Live Wire is dead. |
| 7:3 |
And that ends Monstress’ life. (Interesting that they chose a green energy beam to do it.) |
| 8-9 |
This is still the Earth-U timeline, occurring after the scene on pages 38-42:1. |
| 9:1 |
Nightwing should recognize Saturn Girl as one of the Legionnaires who were trapped in the 20th century for some six months or more. |
| 9:3 |
Lilith may know that Nightwing is Dick Grayson, but that isn’t something she would blurt out this way. In fact, several members of the current team have seen his face but have been given a false name. |
| 10 |
Telepathic time travel? Come on. What might be happening is the near-future rethreading of the past causing ripples in Hypertime that affect the earlier selves of those involved. If Imra were to be unconscious again as the event horizon for the history change approaches, she might have further such episodes. |
| 10:5 |
Don’t worry, Kory. She lost us all. |
| 11:4 |
I think your little dream session has addled your mind, Imra, or you would recall that the Titans ended up in the 30th century via cryogenic suspension — time travel the hard way, as it were. |
| Again, though, perhaps those Hypertime ripples result in this sort of impression that “something is wrong.” While that would seem to set up a paradox of the activity prompting itself to occur, we’re also talking about an alternate timeline being excised from the main one and rethreading occurring as a result. Given that sort of a major paradox, this minor one could even be seen as ensuring that the major one is maintained. |
| 12:1 |
I am Universo. I am an ugly troll with a hunched-over ape-like gait. See me and tremble. (Or just let yourself be boggled as to why I’m walking this way. Maybe I thought I was being dramatic? I guess that’s what happens when you are imprisoned your entire life while growing up: you don’t have the life experience to know what is dramatic and what looks plain dumb.) |
| 12:3 |
I see that among the files Universo found in those computers was one of the old correspondence courses from the Manga Khan School of Melodramatic Dialogue. This is quickly devolving from menace into ridiculousness. |
| 13:2 |
Arguably, they wanted you dead, but they couldn’t bring themselves to do the deed. |
| This argument that he is worthwhile but the rest of humanity needs to be exterminated comes straight from Ra’s Al Ghul. Maybe there is a connection between Ra’s and Brother Blood after all. |
| 13:3 |
Komand’r seems to be implying that she bargained for her immortality with Universo, but that’s impossible. He doesn’t have the ability to grant it in the first place, and in the second, he wasn’t around at the time she would have gained the immortality. This may point to another force in Blackfire’s past, perhaps Neron. (But that is all for naught, since any such bargaining presumably comes after the timeline divergence point, and thus Starfire continuing to be around may preclude such an event. Until we see her in the mainline DC 30th century, Blackfire’s immortality is only part of the Earth-U timeline.) |
| 14:4 |
The Devil-Fish must be a known denizen around Atlantis, since no one is reacting oddly to its presence. |
| 15:1 |
Legion-style transuits must be of a higher tech level than the Devil-Fish could procure. |
| 15:4 |
Not like we don’t expect they’ve been doing that for the past few weeks while Universo was conquering the United Planets. |
| 17:1 |
“Sarhatu” is made up for this series. Of course, looking at the depiction, this island has very little plant life. The entire volcanic island could easily have created itself in the intervening millennium. |
| “Hovertron” is a new term. It must be a special type of gravcar. |
| 17:3 |
<Is this the same ship as was seen at the end of Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes: Universe Ablaze #1?> |
| 18:2 |
Intriguing that the two Titans with mental powers are the ones who remain under Universo’s control, rather than being the ones most likely to break free. |
| 19:1 |
This is the first mention that Atlantis is a major, destination on 30th century Earth. This can be taken as a difference between Earth-U and the mainline DC Universe: perhaps the absence of Tempest from 21st century Atlantis caused it to take a different direction in this timeline and become more of a player in surface world affairs. |
| This is nothing like watching Trom “fall.” Trom was destroyed from space with no warning and no opportunity to fight back. |
| 20:6 |
Legion casualty #3. If this weren’t a throwaway timeline, the characters would survive, somehow, or at least they wouldn’t be tossing their lives away like this. (Perhaps this is another instance of Hypertime ripples having an effect on the characters: the subconscious awareness of the impending termination of the timeline induces a certain ennui and recklessness.) |
| 21 |
These cells are presumably part of the Science Police complex. Why they should have rough-hewn stone walls like this in the 30th century isn’t clear. Perhaps that is a façade, a sort of joke by the designer: if it’s going to be used as a prison, make it look like one. |
| 21:4 |
Brother Blood doesn’t want to blow anyone to oblivion; that’s Universo’s schtick. Blood wants to subvert their wills and rule as a religious leader. He wants to be worshipped. |
| 22:3 |
The cape collar around Blood’s head seems to flare huge at times. |
| The gray panel at the based of the force screen is probably a gate for passing food and other such items into the cell without bringing down the force-field. |
| 23:2 |
“New Sydney”: this undoubtedly means that Sydney got destroyed at some point in the intervening millennium on Earth-U (which says nothing about its fate in the main timeline). |
| 23:3 |
It took Brainy this long to have the computers scan for places that were not being attacked? He’s slipping. |
| This image is the same as in 18:3. |
| 25:2 |
Constantly changing harmonics might keep Apparition bottled up, but come on! Star Boy’s mass power should be able to break the mechanism. Thunder’s strength surpasses everyone on the planet except M’Onel. And Kid Quantum’s deus ex machina powers could surely get them out of there. (How much do we chalk up to “Hypertime ripples” and how much to substandard writing?) |
| 26:1 |
Actually, the Devil-Fish probably broke and kept away the control. |
| “If you’ll help me?” Shouldn’t that be, “If you’ll let me help?” |
| 26:6 |
Note the absence of the Devil-Fish. Shouldn’t it continue to be part of this grouping, at least long enough to say it will continue the fight underwater while they go to battle Universo on the surface? |
| 27 |
So there’s a segment of the armada just hovering over the middle of the Atlantic or something? Why? |
| 28:1 |
If Saturn Girl has taken over Brother Blood’s mind, what does that do to the acolytes and general citizenry whom he controls? Just the fact that they appear to be running around in this panel is probably sufficient answer |
| 29:1 |
Null energy was what took away Cosmic Boy’s powers at the battle of Venado Bay in the preboot. |
| 29:3 |
That’s a pretty powerful bomb if it can penetrate 168 feet of rock and then still get through Brainy’s force-field. |
| 29:4 |
Legion casualty #4. |
| 30:2 |
This counts as an appearance for the Flash. |
| Off-panel dialogue is from Arsenal. |
| 30:3 |
Okay, how did the Titans get to Sarhatu? The only person who knew of Universo’s antenna there was Brainiac 5.1, and he only got the information to Saturn Girl. Further, Troia was fighting the Tamaranian ships, while Flash and Arsenal were… well, we were never told what they were doing. Presumably Saturn Girl forwarded the info to all the other Legionnaires and Titans, and Flash swept up Troia and Arsenal and got to the island first. |
| 32:3 |
Saturn Girl has her hand on a console; the feedback is electronic, not her own powers. |
| Saturn Girl, Starfire, and Brother Blood were the closest set of characters to the South Pacific, since they were in Metropolis. |
| Coloring error: Brother Blood is in the background in this panel. |
| 33:1 |
Coloring error: Jazmin’s flight ring should be gold, not brown. |
| New power for Kid Quantum: force-fields! |
| Cosmic Boy’s team came from somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps the next closest group to the South Pacific. |
| 33:5 |
Let’s see: the same machine that was going to allow Universo to fry brains throughout the cosmos can also send astral images through time, even when one of the people isn’t physically using the equipment. The Willing Suspension of Disbelief is getting mighty thin. |
| 34:1-3 |
Is Kid Quantum’s barrier geared to keep just Universo at bay? Everyone else seems to have gotten inside. |
| 35:4 |
Imra’s ethics have really fallen by the wayside on this one! |
| 36:1-37:2 |
So Lilith’s mind got yanked back through the timestream. What did that do to Saturn Girl, who was relying on her to get them to the right time? And how will Lilith manage to “catch up” to Imra again? |
| 37:4 |
These are the main timeline Titans, from before the Earth-U split. |
| 38-42:1 |
This is the main timeline, but Saturn Girl and the Omen from the future are the Earth-U versions. |
| 38 |
Curious comment from Nightwing, since the first casualty is/was Jesse Quick, anything but a “stationary” target. |
| 29:1 |
Now Kid Quantum’s powers are somehow helping the time travel? Sure would have been nice for that to have been mentioned earlier! |
| 39 |
<Unfortunately, Jesse Quick and Damage were already dead before Roy fired at the spear. They can’t even keep the continuity within the story straight!> |
| 40:4 |
Once again, Nightwing should recognize Saturn Girl. |
| 41:1 |
Now they are cross-Hypertime ghosts, since their timeline has been severed by the defeat of Brother Blood in the 20th (or 21st) century. |
| 41:2 |
No, only about a third would be dead, not “most.” |
| 42:2 |
The implication here seems to be that Omen and Saturn Girl are racing back to their 30th century bodies before the timeline fully collapses. (What not getting back would do isn’t clear.) Or maybe it’s just that they only have a few seconds of memory of the truth about the splintered timelines, and that will shortly fade and they will only know that they have managed to defeat Universo and company, nothing more. |
| 43-48 |
We now shift back to the main DC timeline. |
| 43-46 |
The placement of this portion of the story in Legion continuity is difficult. We shall presume that the details seen in the Earth-U timeline are a strong match for the main timeline. The presence of Thunder and Star Boy, plus the general state of the Legion, clearly place this prior to “Legion of the Damned,” and thus prior to Legionnaires #78. Although the intact state of the Legion Outpost might place this before the Fatal Five’s attack in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #120, and thus prior to Legionnaires #77, the Outpost was brought back to Earth after the Fatal Five’s attack for repairs prior to its destruction behind the scenes in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #122. We shall thus place this between Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #121 and Legionnaires #78. |
| 43-44 |
These pages are largely taken from Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes: Universe Ablaze #1, pages 8-11. |
| The interpretation of this scene must be that in the 20th century, Brother Blood’s people had cryogenic chambers hidden under the pyramids. In the Earth-U timeline, they placed the kidnapped Titans in them, where they stayed for a thousand years. In the main DC timeline, the Titans investigated why Blood had been at the pyramids, found the cryogenic equipment and removed it, restoring the pyramids to closer to their original state. (If the Legion investigated closely, they might find indications of that cleanup project.) The tomb raiders (in both timelines) are simply that; the Titans managed to miss this amulet entry key, and it lay hidden for a thousand years. |
| 45:4 |
This counts as an appearance for Dr. Aven. |
| 46:2 |
Note that the “sketchy” details referred to in 46:1 are apparently wrong; Brainy is on the Outpost, not in Metropolis. |
| 47:2 |
Roy is wearing a Tomb Raider t-shirt. Although this refers to the computer game, it also relates to how this story began. |
| 47:3-4 |
Radio dialogue is from Lian Harper, using the Titans intercom. |
| 47:5 |
This is just a dream image. |
| 48 |
As with similar comments about Nightwing, Argent arguably should recognize some of the Legionnaires, but perhaps her memory of her “dream” isn’t very clear. |
| These count as appearances for the Earth-U Legionnaires. |
| Aftermath |
In the end, this mini-series is a bit of a letdown: the only way out of things was to press the Cosmic Reset Button and use time travel to actually change history. (Shades of Zero Hour, which was also written by Jurgens.) Sure, we knew from the beginning that something like that would have to happen in order to undo the deaths of Nightwing and the others, but that itself is a marker that the story may not have been as well plotted as it should have been.
On the other hand, the rules of Hypertime (such as they are) say that the Earth-U timeline has been severed from the main DC universe, not that it has been destroyed. Projecting the future of that timeline could be interesting. The real battle — defeating Universo, Brother Blood, and Blackfire is done. The Legion has taken some losses, but they have seven new potential members, four of them very experienced. Assuming that most of the history of the Legion is the same in the Earth-U timeline as in the main one, replace the four dead Legionnaires with Titan counterparts — Troia for Monstress, Arsenal for Karate Kid, Starfire for Live Wire, and Argent for Brainiac 5.1 (for the force-field) — and shuffle the other three off into other roles (Tempest to Atlantis, Omen to Titan, and Flash to a mentor role, perhaps). The Blight are already on their way to Earth, and the team that was away during the invasion — Cosmic Boy, Apparition, Brainiac 5.1, and Monstress — is reduced by half. How the Blight invasion and the subsequent Legion Lost series go could keep Legion fanfic alive for quite some time. |
| Back Cover |
These images come from 35:2 and 35:3. They count as cover appearances for the characters. |
