LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 14 (2011/08)
"False Dreams"
ROLL CALL:
Brainiac 5, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, Wildfire, Aven, Dyogene, Master Kong, Harmonia Li, Akka (died), Blue Entity, Hunter (Adam Orion), Immortus, Lightning Lord, Questor, Saturn Queen, Sun Killer, Zymyr
CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Jan, Jo, Lar, Titanian boy in grey jccket & greenish pants
Harmonia Li uses the multiversal energies in Thom's suit to open the way to her "adopted world," the world of wisdom. She prepares to leave with Thom and Nura, but first the ring construct Mon-El demands an explanation. Which, apparently, Li gives offscreen -- for next thing we know, they're hurtling toward Colu to gather the other Legionnaires and head for Wisdom World. Nura has a vision of herself standing on Shanghalla, with Brainy telling her that Thom's power won the battle.
Meanwhile, on Colu, Ultra Boy slaps Immortus down, at which point Aven and the Titanians take over to neutralize him and "guide him back to the way."
Saturn Queen and LSV have another meeting with the blue entity. In order to boost Hunter's tracking abilities, SQ kills Akka (whose name is back to "Akka" this issue). The LV (minus Akka) appear on Wisdom World and are met by Master Kong, who supposedly died 3500 years ago. They immediately begin wrecking the place.
On Colu, everyone is wrapping up when Harmonia Li arrives with Thom, Nura, and green Mon-El. Li announces that her foolishness at the Time Institute has placed Wisdom World in danger.
Cut to a weird space, where Dyogene and the real Mon-El meet Dawnstar, who is still on the trail of the blue critter. Mon-El seems surprised to see her. She says that the trail ends at a dimensional barrier she can't pierce, although maybe the power ring can.
Dyogene says that maybe they shouldn't go after the blue critter, since "his strength has gestated for centuries, awaiting the day when hubris would free him to complete the evil his creator wrought." Dyogene counsels letting Wisdom World fall, saving their strength to protect Oa. He says the rings can't take them through the barrier.
Then who should arrive but Harmonia Li and the rest of the Legion! And Mon-E says, "I told you not to underestimate the Legion."
Obviously, we're getting to the end of this arc -- all the threads are coming together. And darned if I can figure out where they're going.
The blue critter was created by someone centuries past, in order to bring chaos to the universe. It's been dormant underground on Earth all this time. When Li tried to look at the beginning of time (which, might I say, was pretty stupid for someone who's been keeping company with Confucius), she somehow loosed the blue critter.
So who is the blue critter? Who was its creator? When Levitz does this kind of thing, it usually ties into existing DC continuity somehow. Anyone?
Tell you what: I have here a pristine, shrinkwrapped copy of Legion Archives #1 that I recently saved from the "50% off" rack at Twilite Zone and have been saving for a prize. If anyone leaves a comment guessing the actual identity of the blue critter, I'll send that person this prize. So comment away!
BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:
Nura's exclamation "Thank Delphi!" refers to the ancient Greek oracle. Nice.
"Master Kong" is a translation of Kung-fu-tzu, aka Confucius.
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6 comments:
Could the 'blue critter' be a devolved form of Krona? He was the ancient Oan who was obsessed with witnessing the first moment of the Universe in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and JLA/AVENGERS. In Crisis it was implied that Krona's first attempt was what brought the Anti-Monitor into being. The Anti-Monitor went back to the beginning of time to ensure that it would happen, where only the Spectre could oppose him. The conflict resulted in the multiverse being fused into one Earth and the Spectre going into kind of a coma. Technically, the readers never saw how it happened, only that it happened between Crisis# 10 and 11. Considering the Spectre's penchant for 'the punishment fitting the crime' might he have tried some alternate solution, say, devolving the immortal Krona before he could cause all these problems and burying him on Earth where he could keep an eye on him. The tie into continuity could be that it's Levitz' way to explain why there is now a multiverse once again: it may not have been caused by Krona (and reversed by Crisis), but it may have been caused by some other route, circumventing the specific problems Legion faced 25 years ago. Of course, that would screw up the current Green Lantern comics.
Or maybe the blue critter is some long forgotten extra from a 1970's story.
Comment about Nura's dream:
Who thinks this is another example of her misunderstanding her own vision (and the issue title suggests as much), and that the dead Legionnaire is not Thom but Earth Man, who had used Thom's power to gain the victory?
Dang, but that's clever pblfsda. I wish I'd thought of that. Krona would make sense - him being blue and multiversal and all.
My guess is Cobalt Blue, who was a Flash villain. So it might make sense that it somehow links back to Flashpoint (and Harmonia did mention 'Flashpoint' way back in the new LSH issue 1). And, being a Flash villain, it kinda makes sense that XS sorta kinda came across him in one of the recent Adventure Comics issues.
So Cobalt Blue is my guess!
pblfsda: Ooo, Krona. That's a good one. I LIKE that theory.
Brainy Pirate: Ooo, Earth Man dies heroically. I like that one too (more for the "dies" part than the "heroically" part, but still...)
Rob: Ooo, Cobalt Blue. Jenni DID pick up that blue crystalline rock, and a blue rock & blue flame played a major role in the Cobalt Blue storyline, IIRC. Plus there was a lot of time-travel and future stuff going on there...dern, I have to pull out those issues of Flash and re-read.
Great thoughts, everyone!
I am getting so tired of Wildfire's containment suit getting busted. It's become a cheap way to defeat him and has happened twice in the recent past. A bit of creativity would help.
And speaking of cliches, here we apparently have Dreamy misinterpreting her vision. Has her power ever proven useful, or is it always just a way for the writer to build suspense?
Regarding the blue critter, I'm wondering whether Dyogene is not some polar opposite of the blue critter. I don't think they ever explained who/what Dyogene is.
Well, issue 15 (while not 100 per cent confirming it) certainly does suggest that pblfsda got it right when guessing the identity of the now-nearly-grown-up blue baby. Well done!
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