Analysis Notes
| Cover |
The clawed hands on the cover are probably the Kwai
warriors from the first scene, but none can be identified clearly as
Leos or Herros. |
| Butt shot! |
| 1 |
The crystals behind the Legionnaires are apparently all
that is left of the merged Progenitor (formerly Element Lad) and the
Omniphagos, charged by the remnants
of Live Wire’s power. (This doesn’t count as an appearance for the
corpse of
any of them, however.) |
| Legion translators rather than telepathic earplugs? |
| Proverso is the universal language of Kwai-space, parallel
to Interlac. (Note
that its name stems from that of Progenitor.) |
| Leos (pink hair, orange loincloth) is the Kwai in the
lower right. Herros is the Kwai in the upper left; by means of elimination,
that is the only one who
could have blue hair and a purple loincloth. |
| 2:1 |
Is the “disperse and evade” / “decoy
and fade” rhyme intentional? |
| “Say no more”? Why not be thinking it, since
Imra is a telepath? |
| Herros is in the lower left, Leos is in the upper right. |
| 2:2 |
“Path-kin” may refer to actual familial relations. It could relate to a simple teammate relationship, but Shikari used it
with other Kwai but has
never done so with Legionnaires, so that’s doubtful. |
| Wildfire is the yellow trail, Saturn Girl is the pink,
and Spark is the blue. |
| 2:4-5 |
These panels count as appearances for Invisible
Kid, since we can tell where he is even if we can’t see him. |
| 3:3 |
This is Leos fighting Wildfire. |
| 3:5 |
“Kwai of the Path”: this may imply that there
are other Kwai. Perhaps the Path is the name of the Kwai Township? |
| Herros is in the purple loincloth. |
| 4:1 |
It has probably been a year for the Kwai since the brief
visit by the Legionnaires, and only two of these four were part of that
group. The Kwai culture may also make less note of such identifying factors
as costumes and logo icons than we
do. |
| 4:4 |
By way of review: Progenitor was originally Element
Lad, one of the Legionnaires. When the Legion Outpost was sucked through
the rift, it was cast out of space and time. Element Lad managed to bring
them back to real space, but to a different galaxy. In the process, he
was separated from them and cast billions of years into the past. Wildfire
was also cast into the past, but as a formless energy cloud, he experienced
the intervening time differently and didn’t go mad in the process. (The other Legionnaires were kept in suspended animation for some unknown
period of time until Shikari found them. They might have been thrown
through time as well, but the coincidence of them being woken up after
billions of year to within weeks of when they were cast out of space
and time is massive; far better to assume they were reinserted at about
the proper point in time and slept just for days or weeks.) |
| 5:1 |
None of these ships is recognizable as being a reference
to other science fiction sources. One directly below the Legion cruiser
looks like a glass topper to a Christmas tree, and one behind it might
be the crystalline ship from A Distant
Soil. |
| Another notable curiosity is the “mouse”-shaped
one in the
lower right. |
| The flying Kwai might be Herros or Leos, but can’t
be identified for such
as either one. |
| Dialogue balloon is from Saturn Girl. |
| 6:1 |
Gambling for what little wealth they have. |
| The lead Kwai is Leos. Behind him are Saturn Girl and
Wildfire. Next are Spark and Herros, and then the green-haired Kwai.
Invisible Kid is, um, maybe invisible here? |
| 6:2-4 |
These Progeny young are seen again on page 18. Note the
stuffed animal
one carries. |
| 6:4 |
Ayla comes from an agricultural world, and she has made
comments in the past about not eating meat. She may be more prone toward
empathy for other beings
than some humans. |
| 6:5 |
This sets up an interesting conflict. It’s also
a clear parallel to discussions in the real world about war crimes and
similar atrocities. |
| 7:2 |
Imra’s thoughts on this are colored by her feelings,
and she comes close to making a personal attack on Lyle; is she being
a “strong woman” or
is she being a “bitch”? The scene is written by males: is Imra therefore
being written as basically a male character in drag and thus being confrontational
rather than trying to find a non-conflict method of resolving the situation? I don’t have answers for these questions. They are more just observations
on the “boys adventure” nature of superhero comics, the ways women
are often perceived to interact in online discussion forums (either “do
we have to argue to discuss” or risk a “bitch” designation
by going toe-to-toe with the guys), and that superhero stories almost never have
these sorts of discussion, preferring to beat the tar out of someone as a means
of showing personality conflicts. |
| 8:1 |
They didn’t create the technology. Brainiac 5 adapted
it from the ancient
prison which housed the Omniphagos. |
| No way to tell if any of the Kwai in this scene are Leos
or Herros. Since this
looks like a council of elders, probably not. |
| 9:2 |
Dan and Andy seem to still be trying on “Lone Star” as
a codename
for Shikari. |
| 9:3 |
Wildfire doesn’t want to be stuck between Lyle
and Imra, especially if they were to encourage him to take sides. |
| 9:4-5 |
Notice what there apparently is none of here: a (sexual)
attraction between Imra and Lyle. If they transcend their differences
here, they could become tight
platonic friends, something that isn’t displayed too often amongst superheroes
(and especially teenage ones). (Of course, there was a time when the creative
team intended for Lyle to be gay, so the platonic relationship could be influenced
by that.) |
| 10:1 |
Brek is the ice bear (its powers are seen in 14:4). Note
the issue this raises, since Brek Bannin is the traditional real name
of Polar Boy, who has already been introduced in the postboot continuity
(<was his real name given?>). Presumably this is mostly a joke
name: this Credo member is “Polar Bear”. |
| 10:2 |
The Credo emblem has a five-pointed flower with another
five-pointed flower inside it. Since there are five Credo here, it seems
likely that the Credo are split into five-person squads, perhaps four
privates plus a corporal. (And by extension, units of five squads plus
a sergeant, divisions of five units plus a lieutenant, and so on up the
chain.) |
| 11:2 |
Yes, it is: Imra was doing that on a personal basis, not
trying to recruit others to do it en masse. (Well, she did try to influence
her teammates in that direction.) Different in degree, and undoubtedly
in intent, but perhaps not on
a fundamental level. |
| 11:4 |
To the other refugees here, the Legionnaires are
just a pair of beings from yet another race, probably speaking an unintelligible
language. Pay them no mind. |
| 11:5 |
“Part of the one”: that’s fascism at
its root, being one stick in a bundle and thus stronger as a group than
individually. (That’s
also the root word of “faggot”; the bundle of sticks, not the gay
epithet.) |
| 11:6 |
From page 6, it doesn’t look like the presence of
the Progeny is any
secret, although perhaps where they were staying isn’t broadly known. |
| 12:2 |
Just a hint of the underside of a refugee camp. |
| 12:3 |
<Didn’t we see Legionnaires with energy protein
bars or some such
in the belt pouches once before?> |
| 12 |
It’s interesting to note that in the preboot,
Wildfire had a reputation as a bit of a hothead, but here he is the calm,
centered one of the bunch. Of course, he did have a few billion disembodied
years to mull things over, and the benefit of two merged personalities
to help balance things out a bit. |
| 13:1 |
The armored figure in the middle is Herros, in his war-skin. |
| 13:2 |
Confirmation that the Progeny are evolved pill bugs. |
| 14:4 |
“The One”: foreshadowing of the revelation
on page 21. |
| 15:2, 15:4 |
This slashing of the transuit echoes what Tangleweb did
to Andromeda’s
suit in < >. |
| 15:4 |
It’s not clear why Spark would still be wearing
her transuit. The Legionnaires have been wearing them all along, but
it’s not like there’s an atmosphere issue on the Township. |
| 16:1 |
The patch probably involves wrapping the affected area
in a similar material and inducing a chemical reaction it in to bond
with the original transuit. |
| 16:4 |
Note that Brek’s ice broke the hoses on Wildfire’s
back. This should prevent him from directing his powers through his jetpack
to allow him
to fly (or at least limit that flight ability significantly). |
| 17:1 |
This counts as an appearance for Invisible Kid. |
| 17:1-2 |
A couple seconds must have elapsed between these
panels. Brek had to move from behind Rayl, and the word “now” indicates
a time lapse. |
| 18:1 |
Saturn Girl and Invisible Kid must have split up to find
Spark, heading in different directions in the bilge decks. Lyle just
happened to get there first. |
| 18:3, 18:5 |
As noted, this is the child Progeny (heh) from 6:3-4. |
| 18 |
Does a dying child awaken a certain maternal instinct
in Imra, something she
won’t have the chance to explore since Garth died? |
| 19:2 |
This counts as dialogue for Saturn Girl. |
| 19:3-5 |
Moral of the story: don’t fuck with a telepath. |
| 20:1 |
Dialogue is from Saturn Girl. |
| 20:3 |
The Kwai will have repaired Wildfire’s suit. It’s
made of Kwai
use-weave, after all. |
| That is Leos next to Spark. |
| 20:5 |
Enkenet’s response won’t be revealed until The
Legion #9. |
| 21:2 |
Note the Credo member between Singularity’s legs,
with green skin and yellow eyes: that appears to be a Resource Raider,
as yet unseen in the postboot
continuity. |
| 21:4 |
Recall that the Legion was who broke Singularity out of
the illusion he had lived in for so long, shattering his dream of a perfect
(if false) world. |
21:5
|
That is not Blue Devil in the background. |
