Legion of Super-Heroes v4 122

Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #122 Reboot » Post-Zero Hour Cover by Olivier Coipel, et al Story title Legion of the Damned Part One (subtitle was to be "The End of All Things", but this was left off in the issue) Previous story Legionnaires #78 Next story Legionnaires #79 Publication date 27 October, 1999 Cover date December 1999 Creators Writer(s) Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) Penciller(s) Olivier Coipel Inker(s) Andy Lanning Letterer(s) Comicraft Colourist(s) Tom McCraw Editor(s) Mike McAvennie Cover artist(s) Olivier Coipel (pencils) Andy Lanning (inks) Patrick Martin (colours).

Legion of the Damned Part One

The issue opens with a shot of a bright, shining Metropolis... before pulling back to reveal that it's a poster, surviving amid a crumbling ruin of a city.

It's a month since the Blight "entwined" Earth, reducing much of it to a wreck. A wreck smelling of "rot" and "fungal putrescence", with permanent heavy cloud cover.

A group of President R.J. Brande's Resistance - comprised of Live Wire, XS, Chameleon and Lt. Shvaughn Erin - emerges from a hideout and Shvaughn scans for Blight-energy patterns. Getting a clear reading, they start to move a group of refugees, aiming to take them to Brande, who intends to collect as many people as possible and then open one last Stargate away from the devastated planet.

As they go, however, Shvaughn starts to get a reading on her Blight-detector, which rapidly grows stronger. Live Wire barks at everybody to "MOVE!", and at XS and Chameleon to get the people under cover, when a Blight teleport tendril cracks to the ground behind them. Live Wire tries to go round a corner - and is confronted by a couple of Blight and the controlled, "Blighted" Karate Kid, Umbra and Ultra Boy

Live Wire shouts out an escape plan and blasts Ultra Boy as XS begins to panic and is verbally slapped down by Shavaughn, who orders her to get the people underground. Umbra taunts this, then moves on to Live Wire, telling him how "liberating [the] joy of Blighthood" is and chokes him with her darkforce. She's shot by Shvaughn, which breaks her hold, but as Shvaughn tries to pull Garth up, she's hit by Karate Kid and only saved when he's grabbed by XS, who throws him into a wall.

Meanwhile, Chameleon tries to guide the refugees away, but is confronted by a third Blight, who easily disposes of him and captures the people.

As Ultra Boy recovers, the fight turns. He knocks Garth aside, Umbra takes Shvaughn, and as XS tries to rush to her aid, she's knocked out by the Blight. Live Wire, the last one standing, radios Brande to move the refugees, until he is "choke-weeded" by Ultra Boy. The Blight and their Blighted review their takings, and the Blight signal the Stem to teleport them all.

Once they're gone, a rat comes out of the shadows, shifts back to Chameleon. He looks at the choke-weed, reflecting that they got Lyle the same way, and that they'd got everyone but him. He picks up Live Wire's L* belt buckle from the choke-weed, and starts to cry at his own helplessness.

The captive Legionnaires and refugees are taken to an internment camp in what had been the "Old Municipal Parkland" in the west of Metropolis. Ultra Boy reports to one of the Blight there that two of the captees had been members of Brande's resistance cell, and the lead Blight directs that all of them must be interrogated as a result, directing them to be taken to the Stem, where the Blight's teleport tendrils emenate from. And no-one has ever returned from.

Chameleon, meanwhile, is lost, unable to return to Brande's headquarters in case he is followed, and knowing that they would move soon if they hadn't already. He hides in the ruined Science Police HQ - where Sensor and her team had been lost after the Blight had learned to track flight ring transmissions - to wait to see if he had been followed. He isn't disappointed, as the Blighted Star Boy and three Amazers. Using stun grenades he'd pre-wired, he takes out the Amazers, then hides. Star Boy, however, uses his powers to sense the thing with the wrong density - but as he spots him, he hits Star Boy hard with a maximum intensity stun from his blaster.

He wonders if he should have killed his friend, believing his mind to have been lost forever when he was "entwined", even though it's against the Legion code. Hearing more noises outside, and expecting more Blighted, he reluctantly sets the blaster to lethal levels before checking.

What he finds are the previously missing, unblighted and confused Apparition, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5.1 and Monstress.

Roll Call

Legionnaires

NB: Legionnaires who appear only as "Blighted" are listed under "Villains"

• Apparition
• Brainiac 5.1
• Cosmic Boy
• Chameleon (as Resistance member)
• Live Wire (as Resistance member)
• Monstress
• XS (as Resistance member)

Villains

• Blight
• Blighted
  • Konk (not entirely clear)
  • Insect Queen
  • Karate Kid
  • Star Boy
  • Ultra Boy
  • Umbra
  • one unknown

Other characters

• Lt. Shvaughn Erin (as Resistance member)
• President R.J. Brande (voice-only, as resistance leader)

Planets and Settings

• Earth
  • Metropolis
    • Generic streets
    • Blight Internment Camp, "Old Municipal Parkland", West Metropolis
    • The Stem
    • Science Police Headquarters (as ruin)

Notes

• The title "The End of All Things" was used in the "Next issue" blurb of Legionnaires #78, since all other subtitles from LotD and Widening Rifts were also used in the previous "Next issue" blurbs, it is odd that this issue doesn't use it for a subtitle, and indeed goes without. As a result, it is used as a subtitle for differentiation purposes.
• Brainiac 5.1's face plates were greatly simplified for this issue by Oliver Coipel to simply five metal plates (three circles on the head, two rectangles on the cheekbones) rather than groupings of smaller plates and dials. No explanation is given, but it would become the default depiction of the character from this point onwards, with only the fill-in artists on Widening Rifts and the cover of Legion Worlds #1 reverting to the earlier look.

Solicitation

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #122

Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; art and cover by Olivier Coipel and Lanning.

The Legion's greatest challenge begins in Part 1 of the 4-part "Legion of the Damned!" It's just one short month, but the alien threat known only as the Blight (introduced in LEGION Secret Files #2) has completely taken over Earth and possessed its inhabitants. Only a few Legionnaires remain, but they may not last long, since the Blight are using the team's former colleagues to hunt them down and crush the last of Earth's resistance! Continued in LEGIONNAIRES #79. For more information, see the feature article [Not available].

32 pages, $2.50, In stores October 27.

Cover images

• 

  Solicited cover art

• 

  Published cover

See also

• Legion of the Damned
• Legion Publication History - Other issues published (late) 1999-2001
• Legion Publication History - Other issues of Legion of Super-Heroes v4
• Post-Zero Hour Chronology

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