Reboot: Legionnaires #0

Last November, our good friend and fellow Legionnaire David Sopko sadly passed away, struck by illness even as he was preparing to cover the Reboot era of the Legion for the blog. Though Siskoid is now getting ready to cover the era, we did not want to jettison the work already done by David, and so we present his coverage of Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires #0 in his chosen format, before other bloggers take the reviews over. If, like us, you miss David, remember him with us through his last works.

Legionnaires #0; October 1994

“Close Encounters”

A Review by David Sopko

Story: Mark Waid and Tom McCraw

Pencils: Jeffrey Moy

Inks: Ron Boyd

Letters: Pat Brosseau

Words/Colors: Tom McCraw

Assistant Editor: Mike McAvennie

Putting it all together: KC Carlson

The origin of the Legion of Super-Heroes continues.  Adding more members quickly.  Two new members joining this issue, with several more being recruited at the end of the book.

Legionnaire Roll Call: Live Wire (Garth Ranzz); Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn); Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen); Triad (Luornu Durgo) and Apparition (Tinya Wazzo)

Villains: Roderick Doyle

Other characters: René Jacques "R.J." Brande; Marla Latham; United Planets President Chu; Winema Wazzo, Bgztl Ambassador to the United Planets; Gim Allon; Atmos; S.P. Officer Gigi Cusimano; Reep Daggle; Querl Dox; Kid Quantum (James Cullen); Lyle Norg; Star Boy (Thom Kallor); Rond Vidar; XS (Jenni Ognats)

The Issue:
Rokk, Garth and Imra watch the promo video for their new team, The Legionnaires.  Garth wonders why his named changed from Lightning Lad to Live Wire.  Turns out it was a marketing move.

They're going to be appearing at a United Planets Assembly to get their sanctioning.

Meanwhile, Roderick Doyle is planning to plant a bomb at the meeting to put an end to Brande, the Legion, and any hope for continued cooperation in the form of the United Planets.

Tinya Wazzo runs in with an arm full of files for her mother, who is an Ambassador to the United Planets. She phases through the United Planets symbol globe, noticing something odd about it.

The Legion of Super-Heroes is introduced. As the various Delegates and Ambassadors start questioning the need for these young heroes, Imra notices that there is a panic starting to grow in the room.  Turns out that the doors to the conference are jammed. Imra also catches Tinya's discovery of the strange object in the globe and says something about a bomb, which sends the entire room into a full fledged panic.

The three young heroes jump into action. Live Wire and Cosmic Boy remove the bomb/globe from the building while Imra tries to pinpoint who planted it.

Lournu Durgo, R.J. Brande's assistant, splits into her three bodies and saves Brande and President Chu.

Once the bomb is gone, the Legionnaires chase after the individuals that planted the bomb and locked the doors. Some boxes mysteriously move and expose one of the perps.  He is taken captive and they begin to look for the other ones. One of them draws a bead on Saturn Girl, but is stopped by Tinya, who had followed the Legionnaires.

24 hours later, the Legion of Super-Heroes is reintroduced.  They are now 5 members strong, having added Triad (Luornu) and Apparition (Tinya.)

President Chu has decided that the Legion needs to go on a mission to keep the wave of positivity going.  Brande is incensed that she wants to use them in this way, asserting that they are not ready for it yet.

She agrees and sends notices to the governments of six planets. The notes are to particular young people that have powers that Chu thinks can be helpful to the Legion. They include Gim Allon (Leviathan), Reep Daggle (Chameleon Boy), Querl Dox (Brainiac 5), James Cullen (Kid Quantum), Lyle Norg (Invisible Kid), Thom Kallor (Star Boy), and Jenni Ognats (XS).

Continued in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #62.

Omnicom Notes

• The Legion starts out in generic uniforms and soon get their more distinctive outfits. Although there is a theme to their design.
• Garth, Lournu, and Tinya all get to keep their updated names from the previous Legionnaires (Batch SW6) series from the 5 Years Later run.
• The members continue to join in pretty much the same order as they did in the classic tales, just in an extremely accelerated manner.