1. Since Progenitor takes a Villain role, he is listed that way, despite Jan Arrah’s past positioning as a Hero.2. Although actually an alien race, they act uniformly as Villains and are listed as such.
3. The Omniphagos may more properly be an Alien Creature rather than a Villain.
| Cover | Live Wire’s right arm is human; it was restored by Progenitor in Legion Lost #11. |
| 1 | Dialogue captions are from Live Wire. |
| The top part of this page will be counted as three separate panels: one with the founders, one with the Legion Lost #1 crew, and one with Apparition, Progenitor, and Monstress. | |
| 1:1 | This scene is from Legionnaires #0, during the parade which introduced the first five Legionnaires. |
| “It’s been quite a life”: let’s have no questions about what is going to happen in this issue, and to whom. | |
| Coloring error: some of the pink parts of Saturn Girl’s costume should be showing. | |
| 1:2 | This scene is from Legion Lost #1, as witnessed by the presence of Apparition and the absence of Shikari and Wildfire; the team has just woken up and Saturn Girl has created the image of Apparition. |
| 1:3 | The character appearances in this panel date from no particular point in continuity. |
| “I didn’t think we had anything left to lose.” Well, except for our lives. | |
| 2/3:2 | The bones are Monstress’ remains. This may be a flashback to Legion Lost #11, but it could just as easily be Progenitor simply sifting through her remains, perhaps wondering whether he created them. |
| 2/3:3-4 | These are Progeny speeders (as seen more clearly in Legion Lost #11); after destroying these, the foursome will move on to the rest of the Purge Fleet. |
| 2/3:4 | Observe that these four are the Legionnaires (and such) with the most destructive powers. |
| 4:2 | Recall that Monstress acted in an almost Deputy Leader role under Saturn Girl during the period when the Legion was split between Earth and the Legion Outpost. |
| 5:3 | While it’s been demonstrated with reason that Jan’s memories of his time with the Legion are hazy at best, here he seems to be demonstrating a lack of short-term memory. This could be caused by his body still be partly tromium. |
| 5:6 | Recall that Chameleon was almost ready to give up the Legion ideals and kill in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #122. Of course, as seen in JLA: Heaven’s Gate, his tribe is a warrior tribe dating back hundreds, even thousands of years, so the killing instinct is strong in him. |
| 6:2 | Progenitor had a hand (quite literally) in the evolution of all the intelligent races in this sector of the galaxy. He can’t remember from moment to moment that the Legion is from elsewhere. |
| If Progenitor didn’t make any shape-changing races, perhaps that was intentional. Perhaps he subconsciously avoiding duplicating races and abilities of his Legion comrades. | |
| 6:3 | In the preboot, Durlans evolved the shape-changing ability in the wake of a nuclear devastation of their planet. They can change very fast. |
| 6-7 | One of the complaints some fans had with Abnett and Lanning’s run on the Legion thus far was that Chameleon had been treated more as a “Mr. Fantastic” elastic character than a true shape-shifter. Maybe they were just saving up for this battle? |
| 7:2 | Note that “hard vacuum” isn’t an element; one more indicator that Jan’s powers have vastly increased in the past few billion years. |
| 7:5 | Recall that one of Element Lad’s schticks after being nearly killed by Mordru was to transform his body into an element prior to enacting a large transformation of the same kind on something else. |
| 8:2 | Recall that the flight capabilities of the rings were disabled in the transition to this part of the universe, but the communication ones still work. |
| The primary purpose of blocking Progenitor’s higher mental functions is to keep him from using his powers directly on her and Chameleon — they are more complex organic structures and thus somewhat more difficult to transform than pure elements, presumably — but it will also serve to stop any other activities which he directs subconsciously, such as keeping the Omniphagos in check. | |
| 8:4 | Note how Chameleon’s antennae are being blasted back. That is probably caused by the psionic feedback rather than actual wind. Durlan antennae pick up the details about creatures they come in contact with, storing them information in an internal “library”, and as such are perhaps somewhat more sensitive to psionics than human appendages would be. |
| 9:4 | The description of the Omniphagos’ purpose — simply to grow in power and size — is simplistic. There undoubtedly is some further purpose; maybe after reaching a certain size, it reproduces, for example. |
| 10:3 | You can almost hear the “DOOM” soundtrack playing here: “We can go home, but only if one of us commits the ultimate sacrifice and stays here to destroy the door after we’ve all gone through.” Which then gets followed by “No! If one of us stays, we all stay! We’re the Legion of Super-Heroes, and we’re a team!” (Cue flag-waving imagery.) |
| 11:1 | This is Progenitor. |
| 11:3 | Imagine the will to keep yourself going, in utter solitude, for billions of years. (Think of the Green Lantern that Jan would have made!) |
| 12:5 | Dialogue is from Progenitor. |
| 12:6 | It appears that Progenitor has breached Wildfire’s containment suit, which would thus dissipate his anti-energy, but 13:4 indicates otherwise. |
| 12:7 | Another segment of the “DOOM” soundtrack starts to play: both Jan and Jazmin were outside the Outpost when it went through the Rift. The quantum nature of her powers could have enabled her to survive just as Jan did, and indeed even to do the same sort of godlike creation tasks he engaged in. Further, her powers are temporal: could she — perhaps using the Ark — stop Jan by reaching back in time and switching their two roles? Could she save Jan by sacrificing herself, becoming Progenitor in his place, but perhaps a “mother goddess” Progenitor, a good goddess rather than Jan’s vengeful god? And thus salvage Jan, rewrite the entire series thus far, and send the Legionnaires home, but stay behind herself? |
| 13:2, 13:4 | A new strain of the traditional comic book soundtrack comes in: since he seemed to absorb Kid Quantum’s Q-spheres, will the Legionnaires try to overload Progenitor by feeding him more power than he can handle? Or are they going to try to talk him out of his delusionary state, overcoming evil with the power of love. (Urk, gack, ptoo.) |
| 14:3 | Add another power to the repertoire: the ability to absorb mass from the surrounding environment. |
| 14:5 | Seen here are Progenitor’s hand, and Shikari, Live Wire, Kid Quantum, Ultra Boy, Saturn Girl (carried by Ultra Boy), Wildfire, and Chameleon (speaking). |
| 15:1 | The first speaker is Chameleon. |
| 15:2-4 | Back to the “Someone will have the stay behind” theme. Abnett and Lanning are pulling on all the peak-of-the-crisis strings. |
| 15:5 | The Ark seems to be resting on the surface of Throne World, whereas before, it was off the surface. This is caused by the angle of view, as 18:2 places it in space again. |
| “Even if it kills me”: no foreshadowing there, nope, not at all. | |
| 16:1 | Technobabble at its finest. (I suppose incomprehensible science is better than bad science.) |
| 16:5 | Saturn Girl sure spends a lot of time in the medibay, doesn’t she? |
| This counts as an appearance for Saturn Girl, despite her being covered by a sheet. | |
| 17:2 | We’ll refer to this merged creature as “Omnigenitor”. Or would “Progiphagos” be better? One is “source of everything”, while the other is “eater of children.” |
| In space, no one can hear you go “GRRRROOOWWWWWWRRR!!!” | |
| 18:7-19:1 | It may not be wholly clear from Live Wire’s speech as to why he is resigning his Legion membership. The answer parallels the earlier exchange between Chameleon and Saturn Girl: Legionnaires do not kill. By giving up his Legion flight ring and resigning, Live Wire is left open to do the task which will allow the others to escape. |
| Secondary to this is that Chameleon is the member of the team who is closest to Live Wire’s twin sister, Spark, and thus Garth is giving his ring to Chameleon to be passed on to Spark as a memento. | |
| 18:7 | Note that Garth apparently wears his flight ring on his left hand, although he isn’t married. A couple other Legionnaires do so because they are left handed, but in Garth’s case, it is because his right arm was (until recently) mechanical, and the ring could probably only be used on the human arm. |
| 19:4 | That is Garth’s shadow on the wall. This counts as an appearance for Saturn Girl, but not for Live Wire. |
| 20 | Note that Garth is not wearing a transuit. Possibly the entire space around the Rosette has been oxygenated by Progenitor, but more, Garth knows he is going to have to die in order to stop the “Omnigenitor” (and if he fails to stop it, he’ll still die). He’ll die from attacking it before hard vacuum could kill him anyway, and the lack of a transuit ensures there is nothing to hamper his powers, to boot. |
| This scene has some strong echoes from the early days of the preboot: Lightning Lad against the monstrous (and green) Super-Moby Dick of Space (which cost him his arm), and Lightning Lad taking out the other Legionnaires in order to take on Zaryan and his Khund armada by himself (which cost him his life). | |
| 22:1-2 | These captions replicate (almost, in the case of the second one) the captions in 1:1. |
| 22:5 | We don’t see a body, so are they really dead? (Answer: yes, but only until some later writer brings them back. Picture Live Wire riding the back of the “Omnigenitor” like a Fremen astride a Sandworm, perhaps with Singularity flying alongside.) |
| There is a tendency in comics for a dying hero (and sometimes even a dying villain) to get a send-off, a transformation, and a closure to his or her career; when one has gone bad, there is typically a conversion or reconciliation before dying. Live Wire got that sort of a send-off here, but Element Lad may not have. While he certainly went out with a bang, the fans don’t get the closure they want to be able to see Jan Arrah as a hero at his end. For that reason alone, both Garth and Jan may show up again at some point. (Compare this closure to the death of Monstress, who went out crying, destroyed by the flick of a hand, or Blok in the preboot, blown up in the middle of meditation. Little closure in those cases, and thus more shocking in their suddenness, but perhaps less satisfying, as well.) | |
| The chunks of tromium here count as an appearance by the “Omnigenitor” (or its remains, anyway). |
Character Name |
Cover |
Panels / Speaking |
| Heroes | ||
| Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen) | X | 23 / 12 |
| Live Wire (Garth Ranzz) | X | 36 / 57 |
| Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn) | 3 / 0 | |
| Kid Quantum II (Jazmin Cullen) | X | 17 / 7 |
| Umbra (Tasmia Mallor) | X | 11 / 6 |
| Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox) | X | 14 / 12 |
| Chameleon (Reep Daggle) (also appears as an alien spider, an alien mollusc, an alien insect, and a winged creature) |
X | 26 / 20 2 / 1 3 / 2 2 / 1 1 / 1 |
| Monstress (Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III) | 4 / 0 | |
| Ultra Boy (Jo Nah) | X | 21 / 8 |
| Apparition (Tinya Wazzo-Nah) | 2 / 0 | |
| Wildfire (“Drake Burroughs”) | X | 11 / 4 |
| Shikari | X | 13 / 2 |
| Villains | ||
| Progenitor (Jan Arrah) | 32 / 27 | |
| Progeny | 2 / 0 | |
| Omniphagos | 4 / 0 | |
| “Omnigenitor” (merged Omniphagos and Progenitor) | 5 / 0 | |
