Analysis Notes
| General |
This story is all flashbacks except for the last two panels.
Those occur during the first story in the issue, prior to page 13. |
| The captions count as dialogue for Dreamer. |
| 1:1 |
In classic Legion continuity, Khundia was one of two worlds
shrouded in perpetual darkness (the other being Kathoon, due to the permanent
eclipse position of its moon). Khundia is presumably a volcanically
active planet, gaining heat from internal sources. Why it has no
sun isn’t known: perhaps it somehow survived the demise of its sun,
or perhaps it was thrown out of its original system by a cataclysmic event
(a là Space: 1999). Contrast Khundia to always-day
places like Skartaris or Burroughs’ Pellucidar. |
| “Diurnal”: operating during the day.
This is sort of like the argument that “good” has no meaning
without “evil”; in a world where there is no “day”,
there is also no “night”. |
| 1:2 |
Per Dreamer’s comments, her training was done on
Xanthu, so this wasteland is there rather than on Khundia. |
| 1:3 |
“Hunago” is also the name of a creek in Pennsylvania
and a river in China, beside which one of the earliest Bronze Age city
sites was located. |
| 2:2 |
This is Dreamer, Nura Nal of Naltor, who has precognitive
powers but also has suffered from narcolepsy, possibly as a side effect
of those powers. She had something of a flighty, spacey personality
in her earlier appearances, enhanced by her tendency to collapse when
her uncontrolled powers triggered. |
| 2:3 |
The caption here implies that Dreamer’s power is
standard for Naltorians, but it is not; it has been known in her family
in the past but had skipped many generations. (In the preboot, all
Naltorians had the power, although they lost it at one point due to an
effort to reduce the prevalence of planetquakes on Naltor. It is
possible that a similar answer is at the root of the lack of powers for
the general population in the current continuity.) |
| Nura’s powers have always been uncertain, coming
to her via dreams (with all the associated symbolism). This has
caused problems in the past, most notoriously in the preboot when she
believed
several Legionnaires were gong to die and set about preventing that,
including changing the powers of Lightning Lass into Light Lass. |
| 3:1 |
This is the earliest of the flashbacks,
from < >. |
| 3:2 |
This flashback is set aboard Outpost Allon,
based on the starfield seen behind Sensor. It would occur in <
>. (It is not from Legionnaires #77, the Beach issue,
since Star Boy and Dreamer did not travel to Summer World with the rest
of the Legionnaires in that story, and Ultra Boy stayed on Earth). |
| Although the character talking to Live Wire is colored
as Ultra Boy (and will be tracked as such), it probably should be Star
Boy. |
| 3:3 |
This discussion of “warrior sages” may point
to a connection at some point between the Khunds and the Warlords of Okaara.
The Vega system (nor its myriad races) have not been seen in the Legion’s
time, which probably indicates that they no longer exist; the Okaarans
might have passed some of their skills on to the Khunds. |
| 4:1 |
She doesn’t need to sleep? Or perhaps she doesn’t
dare to? If she now receives dream-flashes in her waking
mind, what might she get while asleep? |
| 4:2 |
Amazing how significantly a character can be turned around
in just one story, isn’t it? |
| 5:2 |
Note that in all these training scenes, only Khunds are
present. There isn’t a single Xanthuan prefect to be seen.
Admittedly, they are mostly administrators while these are combat training
scenes, but their absence promotes the idea that the Khunds (via the Affiliated
Planets) are heavily in control of Xanthu’s government. |
| We have already seen some of the potential for refinement,
with his ability to determine the hidden Chameleon’s presence in
Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #121, perhaps prompted by the Blight
influence. Other refinements may include greater strength, greater
area of coverage, reaction speed, and pinpoint accuracy and subtlety (the
ability to act only on a gun’s trigger rather than the shooter’s
entire body, for example). |
| 5:3 |
In other words, Star Boy should now be much more competent
as a fighter (as should Dreamer, and presumably the other Amazers and
XS, all of whom will have benefitted from similar training). Before,
the Legion and the Amazers were aimed more as government public relations
teams than as elite fighting units. (Note that Star Boy and company
aren’t necessarily going to be that much boosted over the rest of
the Legion, though: the Lost team has been honed by being in survival
mode, Karate Kid and Ferro have had special training of their own, and
Cosmic Boy’s Subterfuge Team has also had special circumstances
to boost their skills.) |
| 6:1 |
This is a flashback to Legionnaires #81.
Dreamer had a flash that the four seen here would never be together again,
which turned out to refer to the death of Monstress. |
| 6:2 |
This is a flashback to Legion of Super-Heroes
v4 #125, with the destruction of Outpost Cullen in the Rift. This
event probably occurred before Dreamer and Star Boy arrived on Xanthu,
certainly before she had received much Hunago training; it thus indicates
that her powers are more than just visions of the future, but may be of
the past and present as well. |
| 6:3 |
Earlier comments referred to the gathering war with Robotica.
The captions here are specific to the actual attack on Xanthu, which was
only part of the war. |
| 7:1 |
This occurs between the end of the first story in this
issue and The Legion #4, when Star Boy and XS are seen again. |
| 7:2 |
This is the first view we have had of Naltor. There
were very few views of it in the preboot continuity to say whether this
largely sea-based world diverges from the preboot significantly. |
| 7:3 |
This is Progenitor, the former Element Lad, probably from
Legion Lost #10. |
| Odd that she should term Progenitor as someone she doesn’t
know. Of course, dreams work with symbols and hidden meanings, so
rather than the image, she “senses” that this is someone different
than Jan – and after a few billion years, that’s probably
true. |
| 8:1 |
This is Shikari, from Legion Lost #1. It
is another view of things from the recent past, since this would have
happened months before this story takes place. |
| The caption here feels like it would have gone better with
the previous panel, and vice versa: Dreamer doesn’t know Shikari,
and she can’t explain the change in Element Lad. |
| 8:2 |
It appears that the Roboticans are coming out of a wormhole
or rift in space. There could be any number of explanations for
what that really is, though. |
| 8:3 |
Note that this tombstone says “To the memory of”:
this may indicate Star Boy having disappeared, rather than his having
died. (Nura’s dreams have always been somewhat unclear when
it comes to death details.) In particular, we know that some version
of Thom travels back to the 21st century, adopts the name Danny Blaine,
and serves as Starman in the Kingdom Come timeline, and ends
up dying years later, probably in his 30s or 40s. There is no telling
just what this memorial means nor when it might be erected. |
8:5 |
This is Major Jork, seen in the first story in this issue. |
