| General | The issue introduces a new costume for Wildfire, but he is next seen (The Legion #35) in his previous outfit. This indicates that this issue was published out of sequence, that it occurs after The Legion #38 and prior to the Legion’s appearance in Teen Titans. |
| Cover | This depicts a scene occurring prior to the start of this issue. |
| 1:1 | In the anti-matter universe, space is white and the stars are black. |
| 1:2 | The captions are dialogue from Vox. |
| Unclear whether the “rings” refer to planetary rings (a là Saturn) or power rings such as the Weaponers of Qward gave to Sinestro. Probably the latter. | |
| 1:3 | The Weaponers create weapons; the Thunderers use them (especially the thrown lightning bolts). |
| 1:5 | “He” would be the Anti-Monitor, who was born on Qward millions of years ago. (Writer Keith Champagne confirms this, adding “even if we weren’t allowed to call him by name.”) |
| 2 | “Childhood’s End” is also the title of a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, about humanity being offered a golden age of peace and prosperity in return for their freedom. (No particular plot similarity to this story.) |
| 3:1 | The tattooed mustache and beard areas give Thalon a resemblance to Lobo. There isn’t any apparent actual connection, though. |
| 3:2 | This is Vox. None of the other inset panels are named individuals. |
| 3:12 | The “Hmm…” balloon differs from Vox’s captions. This is dialogue from Invisible Kid; he is spying on things. |
| 4:2 | The “war” is the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It’s not clear just what the status of the Crisis is in current DC continuity. It may have occurred in some form via Hypertime, or it may be that the “infinite” nature is a myth native to Qward’s legends about the Anti-Monitor. |
| 5:1 | The Thunderers treat the Weaponers as an under race. Why they would negatively refer to Lord Thalon’s own progeny, since he should be seen as “better”, is not clear. |
| 6:3 | This is Wildfire’s helmet. |
| 6:4 | In other words, Thalon has seized upon the Anti-Monitor myth and placed himself in the prophesied role of heir apparent. |
| 7:1-4 | This is a power battery akin to that of the Green Lantern Corps on Oa. It is left over from the 20th century, when the Weaponers created yellow-based power rings. |
| 7:2 | It hasn’t been stated thus in the postboot, but Wildfire was traditionally made of “anti-energy”. It makes a certain amount of sense that “anti-energy” would be energy associated with the anti-matter universe and used for powering equipment there. |
| 7:6 | Needless to say, we will only count appearances for Wildfire when he is seen, not just his energy effects. |
| The energy winding up the cable is a power feed coming out of the battery and out to Qward at large. | |
| 8:3 | First off-panel dialogue will be counted as from Invisible Kid. Second is from Chameleon. |
| 8:4 | First dialogue is from Chameleon. Second is from Umbra. |
| 8:5 | First dialogue is Invisible Kid. Second is Shikari. Third is Chameleon. Fourth is Karate Kid. |
| 8:6 | First dialogue is Karate Kid. Second is Umbra. Third is Invisible Kid. |
| 9:4 | After returning from the Fires of Creation, Umbra’s powers shifted to allow her to create semi-solid objects out of her shadows. |
| 9:5 | Umbra’s shadow does not count as an appearance for her. |
| 10:10 | This is the same guard as before. |
| 11:1 | This is Chameleon as a Hykraiuan, the race which the preboot Tellus was a member of. Hykraiuans have only been seen in the postboot during “Our Worlds at War” in the 21st century. |
| 11:1, 11:4 | Steve Lightle created Hykraiuans with details about the bumps on Tellus’ back relating to different emotional states. That detail was generally ignored in the preboot, but Lightle gets to bring it back here. Red relates to < >, and purple to < >. |
| 11:3 | This would seem to confirm that Weaponers reproduce by cloning. |
| 12:4 | Shikari should have armored up here. |
| 14:5 | Lord Thalon’s blast misses Karate Kid. He is feigning unconsciousness in 14:6. |
| 14:6 | That is Shikari’s knee on the right. |
| 15:1 | Wildfire is apparently being used to power the Qwardian power battery. |
| According to writer Keith Champagne, the skeletons on the floor and those hanging from cables inside the battery are Weaponers whom Thalon has killed and stashed there, in order to preserve his ruse of claiming to be the Anti-Monitor reincarnate. (Possibly the hanging ones were energy casters of some sort whom Thalon tried to use to power the battery.) The fact that there are two skeletons flanking Wildfire could be read as representing the two individuals who make up his component self (Atom’X and Blast-Off), but Champagne says that was not the intention. | |
| Note the positioning of the skeletons and Wildfire, mixed in with the religious tropes of the story (Thalon being the reincarnation of Qward’s god, and Vox as the Son of God): these three play the role of Christ and the thieves, crucified on Cavalry, with Wildfire being the literal Savior of the world, the provider of energy. | |
| 15:4-5 | Invisible Kid’s head is in the foreground. |
| 16:1 | Thalon has probably absorbed some of Wildfire’s knowledge in the process of absorbing and channeling his energies. |
| 16:4 | No, but he dares to lay feet! |
| 16:5 | Karate Kid can find the weak point in any substance or structure. Does that include in people? |
| 17:6 | There appears to be figure exploding away from the power battery. No idea just who it would be, since Wildfire remains inside. Perhaps it is one of the skeletons? |
| 18:2 | Vox is visible below the energy cloud, but only his feet. |
| 18:2-3 | These panels counts as appearances for Wildfire. He’s just too bright to be actually seen. (This again has religious implications, like the idea that God’s face shines too bright to be looked at directly.) |
| 18:4 | Dialogue is from Invisible Kid. |
| 19:2 | “Twelfth-level I.Q.” is a references to Brainiac 5. |
| 20:1 | Umbra was hit twice by Thalon’s blasts. And with her powers, she may be somewhat more vulnerable to energy attacks. |
| Shikari’s wings must be folded against her back. | |
| “Is that an anti-energy salami in your pocket or are you just happy to see me, Fire Legion?” | |
| 20:6 | It’s not clear for what or to whom Chameleon is giving a “thumbs up” sign. |
| 21 | The Wildfire outfit seen here is a return to the classic, Cockrum-designed one, although the black portions were always orange in the original (at least as appeared in the comics). In the story, this also makes a certain amount of sense to create a new one: his previous outfit – perhaps heavily damaged by Lord Thalon – was created from Kwai use-weave, and while very durable, was also never intended for permanent use, nor was it intended to include United Planets high-tech equipment. Brainiac 5 has probably been working on this suit for quite a while. |
| The human/energy form echoes the preboot appearance Wildfire obtained with Quislet’s help. | |
| 21:2 | “Handsome”: is that a Coluan euphemism for “large”? |
| Orange holosign: “grok this” (“grok” means to “get” something, to fully understand it). Pink holosign: “forty 2” (42 being the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything). Magenta holosign: “life the universe and everything” (see, told you so). | |
| Wildfire’s new suit is in a stasis display similar to the one used in Superboy v1 #201. | |
| 21:5 | How long is “an extended period”? At least a few weeks, probably. |
| 21:6 | Per Legion of Super-Heroes Annual v4 #7, though, while Wildfire may not be immortal, he is in much less danger of “dieing” than Brainy’s comment would lead one to believe. (Then again, perhaps Brainiac 5 is using a bit of reverse philosophy here: by implying that Wildfire’s days [and energy] are numbered, he encourages Wildfire to be less, er, “wild”.) |
| This implied reduction in Wildfire’s powers echoes the situation when he finally joined in the preboot continuity: after destroying the Devourer on Manna-5 and then travelling to Earth under his own power, he severely depleted his energy and lost many of the powers he initially displayed. | |
22 |
Great. So we dispose of Singularity last issue, with his all-abiding hatred for the Legion and what their presence did to his galaxy, only to be replaced by Vox and his all-abiding hatred for the Legion and what their presence did to his planet. |
Character Name |
Cover |
Panels / Speaking |
| Heroes | ||
| Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg) | X | 19 / 13 |
| Chameleon (Reep Daggle) (also appears as a fish, a Hykraiuan, and a purple tentacled beast) |
X |
13 / 7 1 / 0 4 / 2 1 / 0 |
| Umbra (Tasmia Mallor) | X | 15 / 7 |
| Shikari | X | 10 / 1 |
| Karate Kid (Val Armorr) | X | 21 / 8 |
| Wildfire (“Drake Burroughs”) (also appears in floating energy form and human/energy form) |
– (footnote A) |
5 / 2 1 / 0 12 / 4 |
| Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox) |
6 / 6 | |
| Villains | ||
| Lord Thalon | 52 / 34 | |
| Vox |
57 / 44 | |
