Analysis Notes
| Cover |
Compare the monotone (all purple) cover which was actually
printed with the cover image released on the DC website, much more washed
out but with a broader range of colors. No idea if the printed cover
was an error or if a decision change was made. (Also note that one
of the balls was moved for the placement of the cover copy.) |
| The Legion #7 was “Book of the Month!”
for June, in Wizard: The Comic Magazine #129. |
| “Blinded by Science!” is a take-off on the
Herbie Hancock song “She Blinded Me with Science”. |
| 1 |
This coppery moon is reminiscent of that seen in the Eloi
future in the 2002 movie version of The Time Machine. |
| There’s a very real possibility that Ra’s al
Ghul’s hypertaxis plan involves not simply terraforming the moon
but exploding it and causing the remains to crash into the Earth.
(One theory of dinosaur extinction involves an Earth/asteroid collision
on such a scale.) |
| Legion of Super-Heroes… blowing up the moon…
nah, couldn’t happen. |
| 2:1 |
“Hypertaxis” (which would be pronounced “tax-iss”
rather than “tax-eez”) would derive from roots meaning “over
or beyond” and “arrange”, and thus “extreme arrangement,”
which could be an evolution reference. The word doesn’t show
up but in a couple of places on the web, however, and none in this sort
of context, so it could be completely invented for this story. |
| “Phenotypical”: characteristics determined by
genetics or environment. |
| 2:2 |
Recall that Cosmic Boy immediately knew who Ra’s
al Ghul was, but this guy doesn’t. Despite the person’s faculties
being weakened by the alcohol, Ra’s al Ghul is probably little
more than a legend in the 31st century. |
| If this is a game show, given the evolutionary subject
matter, it’s obviously Weakest Link. (Or more properly,
Mastermind, given Ra’s al Ghul’s role in things.) |
| 2:3 |
Is this a polymer shield of some sort on the edge of Metropolis?
That’s something new. Is it something the city has as a defense
item, or did Ra’s al Ghul erect it to keep the populace in? |
| 2:4 |
Ra’s al Ghul talks about actual energy here, which
seems at odds with a cataclysmic change bringing on the change.
Perhaps his terraforming of the moon has been done specifically to create
this energy. |
| 3:2 |
Earth’s population is 12.4 billion (per Legion
Worlds #1), meaning there are going to be as many as 120,000 Terrorforms
on the planet. Given the trouble the Legion has with six or seven
of them, they are rather outnumbered. |
| This ratio of Terrorforms to the normal populace seems
in line with the Dominator research during the 20th century Invasion which
led to the Gene Bomb. If powered metahumans are a random example
of hypertaxis, the Ra’s al Ghul’s number would point to 2500
or so powered people in America in the 21st century (not counting aliens
and robots and so on), which seems a reasonable number. |
| 3:3 |
This is the globe from the 31st century Daily Planet building. |
| 4:1 |
Note the pink mist. This is presumably the wavefront
of energy mentioned in 2:4. |
| Madam Vice President is Winema Wazzo, the former United
Planets ambassador from Bgztl, and the mother of Legionnaire Apparition.
She was also vice-president under R.J. Brande. |
| Chief Zorden’s dialogue bubble is slightly misplaced:
he is the small figure between the larger black and white ones, who are
Winema Wazzo and Orla Eidoor. |
| 4:3 |
The shadows are intended to evoke the silhouettes of the
Terrorforms seen in 3:2. |
| Based on flying configurations from page 5, the shadows
are from Cosmic Boy, Kid Quantum, Leviathan, Brainiac 5, and Chameleon.
This counts as appearances for them. |
| 5 |
Coipel’s design for Ultra Boy’s chest emblem
shifts frequently. This one is more like the Alan Davis design;
a few months ago, it was closer to the original emblem from the Silver
Age. |
| 6-7 |
Given that we saw the Terrorforms zapping people with their
eyebeams, it seems likely that the energy wavefront is a side-effect,
the residue of their beams drifting ahead of them. |
| As per the comments in 3:2, there will be some 120,000
Terrorforms on the planet. Ra’s al Ghul’s comments imply
that the hypertaxis is starting in Metropolis and moving outward.
Since Metropolis is presumably the most populous city on Earth, there
will be hundreds of the Terrorforms around the leading edge of the energy.
These seven are merely the ones in this small section, not all of them. |
| 8:1 |
The mottled skin on the Terrorforms and the smoothness
of their bodies seems akin to amphibians. Note as well the webbed
hand in 9:4. |
| Dialogue is from Ultra Boy. |
| 8:2 |
Superheroes not fighting? Wow. |
| 8:6 |
This transforming/collapsing of people into little balls
is reminiscent of the Star Trek (original series) episode “By Any
Other Name,” where the alien Kelvins transform the crew of the Enterprise
into gray polyhedra, which will enable them to survive the hundreds of
years of journey to the Andromeda Galaxy. |
| 9:1 |
There were seven Terrorforms on page 6-7, but only six
are seen here. There were seven Legionnaires, too. Presumably
the seventh Terrorform has moved on, spreading the hypertaxis energy further. |
| 9:8 |
Note that the first three Legionnaires to go are also the
non-human ones. Are the Terrorforms simply “ball”ing every
life form they encounter, leaving God (or Ra’s al Ghul) to sort things
out later? Or are they intentionally weeding out the lifeforms which
are not going to dominate after the hypertaxis is complete? |
| 10:4 |
These are Cosmic Boy’s Goldfarbian disks (named for
Legion fan David Goldfarb). |
| 10:7 |
Brainy might have advised him to make it a parabolic shield,
able to direct the blast back at the Terrorform? |
| 11:6-7 |
So much for not being a tin-pot gang of villains: what
is the purpose in this sort of action, when the ostensible purpose of
the Terrorforms is just to transform the populace and move on? In
17:5, Ra’s al Ghul mentions keeping the Legionnaires occupied, so
perhaps he was able to program the Terrorforms somewhat, so that these
(or perhaps any) would attack Legionnaires rather than pursuing their
primary task. |
| 12:2 |
This represents a definite characterization problem with
Vi in recent years. Ever since she was revealed to have absorbed
Gim Allon’s growth powers, she has used them almost to the exclusion
of her innate shrinking powers. While an argument could be made
for her overcompensating for her perceived role in Gim’s death, in
a situation like this, where all evidence points to a single eyebeam from
a Terrorform being all it takes to remove her from the fight, growing
will only make her an easier target, while shrinking — which should
be her instinctual reaction — would tend to protect her. |
| 12:5 |
The green energy trail does not count as an appearance
for Kinetix. |
| 13:1 |
“You’re different… you have hair!” |
| 13:2-3 |
Kinetix and Violet were close friends prior to the Legion’s
disbanding. |
| 15:1 |
The Xanthuan refugees are presumably heading for the nearest
inhabited system (perhaps of the Affiliated Planets, which Xanthu and
Khundia are members); that it is in the same direction as Earth is coincidental. |
| Fifteen days: this confirms that Legion Worlds #4
occurred basically simultaneously with the Legion’s return to Earth. |
| 15:2 |
Q’Bahl (“cue ball”) is the bald one.
Despite the facial tattoos, his blue clothing marks him as a Xanthan prefect. |
| 16:3 |
If they are landing on the Lunar Terraformer, there must
not be any imminent danger of the moon being destroyed or crashing into
the earth. |
| 16:4 |
One possible use for these genome samples is to allow Ra’s
al Ghul to use them to compare against to determine which of the “ball”ed
people are genetically acceptable to him and thus eligible to be restored
at a later date. Per The Legion #8, however, this probably
refers solely to the clones of Ra’s al Ghul. |
| 17:4 |
“’Step ships”: ships using the Footstep
Drive. |
| Abyss is seen on the steps in the lower-left corner.
Only two, unidentifiable shadows represent the other three Oversight Watch
members, so they cannot be counted as appearances. |
| 17:6 |
Or Venge will slaughter someone. Between
the Robotican Baseworld coming to Earth and the foreknowledge that Ra’s
al Ghul will be taken down, it looks ever more likely that Venge
is actually a Robotican agent of some sort. (Then again, anyone
want to take bets that Ra’s al Ghul doesn’t already know that?) |
| 18:2, etc. |
Ultra Boy is holding the “balls” containing Brainiac
5, Shikari, and Chameleon. He can barely be made out as carrying
them in 14:2. When all three “balls” are seen, they are
counted as appearances for those characters, but not when only two are
visible (18:4, 20:3), as we can’t tell one “ball” from
another. |
| 18:3 |
Winema didn’t approve of Jo and Tinya’s romance,
but she seemed to eventually have come to terms with their marriage.
With Jo out of the picture for a year and Tinya on the run from here,
things got a bit worse. |
| 18:4 |
On the surface, Winema is referring to Tinya’s pregnancy,
which wasn’t known until after the Rift collapse. Of course,
Winema doesn’t know how Tinya is, either. The people she sent
out after Tinya in Legion Worlds #6 didn’t succeed in bringing
her back from Rimbor (either alive or dead). |
| 19:group |
This shot should quell concerns that Gates was partially
vivisected during his imprisonment. He appears to be intact. |
| 20:1 |
“Alien and mystical”: Kinetix is from the planet
Aleph, and while she has always appeared to be baseline human, little
has been revealed about Aleph and less about her father. As for
mystical, she received training under Mysa, including some contact while
in the womb, and was even transformed into an elfin, catlike form for
a while. |
| Winema Wazzo is the figure in black to the right. |
| 20:6 |
Brainy’s comment may mean that the three Legionnaires
were aware even while in their “ball” state, at least to some
degree. That, of course, raises the idea that, given time, Chameleon
could perhaps have restored himself. |
| 21:3 |
This triangle is the teleportation gate Brainiac 5 was
able to create from his study of the gate in the Omniphagos prison, now
known as a Threshold Portal. |
| 22 |
The Sci-SWAT team will be using nonlethal weaponry, of
course. |
| Despite their powers (phasing and telepathy), Winema Wazzo
and Orla Eidoor are not trained combatants and would be perhaps more of
a liability than a help on this mission. |
| Triad is missing from this group, as is the Terrorform
Kinetix. As the Legion’s second-best hand-to-hand combatant
(after Karate Kid), Triad hasn’t been left behind due to her powers.
She has been left on Earth to get M’Onel on his feet, contact the
crew on (the allegedly destroyed) Legion World, and otherwise conduct
Earthside operations. She will join the fight midway through the
next issue. |
