Analysis Notes
| General |
Invasion had three primary effects on Legion-related things. First, it introduced several Legion-era alien races (Dominator, Khund, Gil’Dishpan, Daxamite, Durlan, and Imskian) to the 20th century. Second, it established L.E.G.I.O.N. And third, the death of one of the Daxamites inspired his son to become a hero: Valor, later known as M’Onel. |
| Although Legion-related content is not part of every page in this issue, it is sufficiently pervasive to make covering the entire contents the only reasonable response. |
| Cover |
This is an obvious swipe of the American flag being raised at Iwo Jima. The art is by Bart Sears and an unidentified inker. |
| 1-5 |
These images are from video screens at NORAD. |
| 1:2, etc. |
Locations appearing on maps are not tracked. |
| 2:1 |
Dominators would later be revealed to have a plant-based technology, although that may have developed mostly in the thousand years after this story, and may not even be applicable in the postboot. The would also be depicted with speech impediments involving either “R” or “S” sounds, neither of which are present in this series. |
| Dominators are divided into castes according to the size of their forehead disks, but do not otherwise have names (see page 42). Later, a separate scientist caste with diamond-shaped markings would be introduced. |
| 2:2 |
“Gil’Dishpan” has since been termed a mistranslation of “Gil’Dan”; this retcon occurred in < >. |
| 2:4 |
Okaara is a planet in the Vega system. Prior to this series, they had been seen as beneficent warriors, training other Vegan races against the Citadel. |
| 2:5 |
Khund stamina — the ability to endure — increases the longer they endure? Please. |
| 2:6 |
The state of Thanagar has gone through so many upheavals that it is impossible to keep track of whom the planetary government was friendly to when. |
| 2:7 |
While the brown area with the dot for Moscow is roughly the shape of Asia, there is no land mass in the Arctic Ocean as seen here. |
| 2:8 |
And if you thought the other map was bizarre, this one put Cuba somewhere in Polynesia (not to mention that Melbourne should be on the south coast of Australia, not the northern interior). As seen elsewhere in this issue, there is a Khund base in the South Pacific, so the label for Cuba is a typo. |
| 3:3 |
That is the back of Tempest’s head (Tempest I, of the Doom Patrol, that is, not Aqualad). |
| 4:3, 15:3-4 |
Despite the description, these are Imskian mercenaries working for the Khunds. |
| 4:6 |
That is Chunk laying on the ground. |
| 5:1 |
Superman is the only identifiable character here. |
| 5:6 |
This is a random Khund soldier, perhaps the one in charge of the Command Center in Melbourne, seen on the screen on pager 18 (but with an incorrectly colored moustache); the Khund Commander looks different and does not wear a helmet. |
| 6 |
Among the characters seen here: Maxwell Lord, Oberon, General Eiling, Captain Atom, Amanda Waller, and a Deadman-inhabited technician (all on the platform); Wildcat, four Rocket Reds, Hawk, Adam Strange, Swamp Thing, Changeling, Martian Manhunter, Nuklon, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Dove, Obsidian, Firestorm, Duchess, Kilowog, Spider-Man, Peacemaker, Firehawk, Nightshade, Crimson Fox, Lodestone, Robotman, Spectre, Robin, Batman, Chunk, Mister Miracle, Blue Beetle, Ambush Bug, Aquaman, Power Girl, Extraño, Black Orchid, Hawkman, Guardian, The Question, Winder Woman, Starman, Negative Woman, Wild Dog, Creeper, Flash, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Katana, plus numerous unidentifiable characters (all on the floor). |
| 6, etc. |
All appearances of Deadman’s aura count
as panel appearances for him. |
| 7:2 |
Subset of characters seen on page 6. |
| 7:3 |
Seen here are Martian Manhunter, Manhunter, Extraño, Ice, Dr. Fate, Aquaman, and Green Lantern. |
| 7:5 |
0500 hours Greenwich Mean Time, presumably. |
| 9:3 |
Coloring error between the word balloons. |
| 9:5 |
Wonder Woman, Aqualad, Flash, and Adam Strange. |
| 10:2 |
Negative Woman, Mister Miracle, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold. |
| 10:4 |
Manhunter, Obsidian, Firestorm, and Floro. |
| 10:6 |
Nuklon, Green Lantern, Dove, and Hawkman. |
| 11:3 |
That’s more like where Melbourne should be. |
| 11:6 |
G’nort, Nuklon, Nightshade, a Rocket Red, Ram, Gloss, Tempest, Batman, and Harbinger. |
| 12:2 |
“Call in the villains to help” became old hat quickly after Crisis on Infinite Earths. |
| 15 |
Dialogue balloons are from the Khund commander. |
| 15:1 |
The characters here are similar to Interlac, but do not seem to translate to anything meaningful: “ar25” and “k4aj”. |
| 15:6 |
Tasmanian Devil was the Australian member of the Global Guardians. He eventually came out as being gay. |
| 16:3 |
Coloring errors: check out the blue ear on the Khund commander, and the moustache of the soldier. |
| 16:4 |
If not outright vegetables. |
| 16:5 |
“Inerton” is a typo for “inertron”, a superdense element. Preboot stories printed after this indicate that inertron was created by Dominators in the 20th century; the Khunds may have obtained it from their allies. |
| 18:4 |
Typo: “riority-1” should be “priority-1”. |
| 18:5-6 |
This is one of the Dominator commanders. |
| 20 |
The blue ship to the left belongs to Blue Beetle. The dark blue one below it and the gold one near Starman are unidentified, as are the two heroes beyond Negative Woman. |
| 22:1 |
One of these six is Kel Gand, the father of Lar Gand. Can’t tell which one, though; aliens all look alike. |
| 23:3 |
The helmeted Atlantean is Vulko (albeit rather thin). The Sea Devil is presumably Dane Dorrance, and the woman next to him is Lodestone of the Doom Patrol. |
| 24:1 |
Nothing like the colorist having to fix the penciller’s non-adherence to model sheets. |
| 24:6 |
We have nothing to fear except our bubbles being broken open. We’re methane breathers, and we’ll die in water. |
| 25:1 |
“Surprise”? The Gil’Dan have so little to fear that they weren’t checking their sensors? |
| 27:4 |
What a face. Are you constipated, Firestorm? |
| 28:2 |
We are Daxamites. We have identical, lousy fashion sense. |
| 31:2 |
Coloring error on the Dominator’s disk. |
| 31:6 |
The Dominator is possessed by Deadman. |
| 32:4 |
As will be seen later, the real Flash is in Cuba again. |
| Those are Psions in the lower-right corner, miscolored. |
| 32:4-33:4 |
The dialogue seems to indicate that two of the Dominators in the vivisection lab are the Dominator commanders. The bomb must have been detected in time for them to escape unscathed. |
| 37:1-2 |
This is Rick Flag. |
| 37:3 |
Seen here: Black Orchid, <unknown woman>, <unknown man in moth costume>, Obsidian, Heat Wave, Ambush Bug, Captain Boomerang, Duchess, and Rick Flagg. |
| 39:3 |
But the readers all know it was lead. |
| He pulled them out just in time, but now he has brought them back into the atmosphere? That doesn’t make much sense, but neither does a lot in this series. |
| Pre-Crisis, Daxamite lead poisoning was a constant, permanent thing: one exposure and you were crippled for life. That is also how Lar Gand’s poisoning would later be treated, so the only way this scene makes sense is if the Daxamites are already starting to suffer the effects of the poisoning again, but are not indicating so yet. |
| 40:2 |
“Sino-Soviet”: Chinese-Russian. |
| 40:3-4 |
It isn’t enough that heroes have to be reactive rather than proactive, only responding to threats rather than preventing them, but now they have to be over-reactive, responding to a threat by crushing the enemy. |
| 41 |
The Psion data referred to on page 43 was gathered from Psion experiments conducted here at Starlag. |
| 42:1 |
Unknown how long “fifteen parxats” is, but there is no further sign of this Dominator this issue, and probably at least a day passes, so “twenty-four hours” would be a good estimate of the length of time. |
| 42:3 |
That caste disk doesn’t look especially minute, but we’ll take their word for it. |
| 43 |
And the DC universe has been plagued by this meta-gene crap ever since. |
| The inset image here does not correspond to either the adrenal glands (which are located near the kidneys) nor the pituitary gland (located in the skull, near the nose). More likely, this is an example of what the meta-gene change might produce; here, perhaps it is a vocal shift akin to Black Canary’s sonic cry. |
| 44:1 |
You alone? I thought you merely analyzed it while collating Psion data. You identified it, maybe, but you didn’t discover it. |
| 45:4 |
At this point, Wally West had not recovered the ability to vibrate through objects. |
| 46:6 |
Six flying Durlans are seen in 46:2, but only five are seen here. The smoking item falling to the ground must be one that Manhunter killed with the rocket launcher. |
| 47:2 |
In the Millennium series, it was revealed that the Manhunter robots had instituted a number of human sleeper agents, tied to various superheroes as friends and family. Other notable ones included Lana Lang and the robotic Laurel Kent (whose fate in the postboot continuity is unrevealed). |
| 47:3 |
“Transformers… right before your eyes!” |
| 48:1 |
This series, with its destruction of Melbourne and parts of Havana and Moscow, set a new direction for DC crossover events to separate the DC universe from the real one. The destruction of the likes of Coast City and Gotham City, is one thing; exploding a nuclear device in Montevideo, Uruguay (see DC One Million), for example, takes things to another level. |
| 48:2 |
This is Superman and five of the Daxamites. Kel Gand is in Australia. |
| 49:1 |
Post-Crisis Kryptonians need breathing masks to survive in space. Post-Crisis Daxamites probably don’t, but they need them to be able to communicate by radio. |
| 49:4 |
It isn’t clear why the Martian Manhunter needs a space suit. |
| 50:5 |
That’s Kel Gand. |
| 52:3-4 |
Amanda Waller has always had a major chip on her shoulder, needing to constantly prove that her methods of using convicted supervillains are viable. |
| 52:6 |
Coloring error: the bottom part of Captain Atom’s chest emblem should be red. |
| 53:1 |
The Dominators have two very distinct ship styles. Perhaps they adapted more square design (upper-right) from another race, and the organic-style ones are their own. |
| None of this dialog is from the Dominator commanders,
just from generic Dominators. |
| 53:2 |
Explain this concept to me, Mr. Khund commander: “criminal”. |
| 53:2-3 |
Coloring errors abound. Carl Gafford was probably very rushed in doing this job. |
| 53:7 |
Coloring error: the Dominator’s teeth should be white. (Unless it’s suffering from nasty plaque buildup or something.) |
| The “big picture” is the Dominator research. They know that sending in the fleet to destroy the planet may kill most of the population, but it will also statistically create a few million super-powered beings who will then whomp all over the fleet. What the Dominators can do at this juncture is unclear, since there is no time table for the fruits of the Psion data to reveal a solution (although it shall provide one — the Gene Bomb —albeit a bit too late for the alien alliance to utilize well). |
| 55:2 |
In the preboot, this Durlan would later be transported through time to replace the adult Phantom Girl, and would end up becoming R.J. Brande. In the postboot, one of Apparition’s bodies replaced the Durlan, but its fate has not been revealed; it may or may not have still become Brande. |
| 55:6 |
These are Tigorr (of the Omega Men) and Garryn Bek. |
| 56:1 |
This crowd includes Doc, Callista,
Primus, Strata, Lyrissa Mallor, Elu, Dust Devil, Mrs. Levy,
Tigorr, Harpis, and Broot. |
| 57:5 |
The man is Crackpot and the
woman is Jolt, both from the Blasters. |
| 58-59 |
Citadellians all look similar, so we can’t tell which of these, if any, might be the Warden. |
| 60:5 |
Vicious queens, those Dominators. (And with a better fashion sense than the Daxamites, to be sure.) |
| 63:4 |
This counts as an appearance for the Dominator
and Khund commanders. |
| 63:5 |
“Kryptonians,” plural? Isn’t Superman the only Kryptonian who survived the destruction of that planet? |
| 64:1 |
And just how did they pick up that bit of idiom? (By “observing,” apparently.) |
| 64:2 |
Coloring error: these Daxamites all have blue-black hair, not brown. |
| 64:4 |
Unknown where the fifth Daxamite is. |
| 65 |
Frankly, the teeming multitude of Daxamites entering the fray was done better in the Legion’s “Great Darkness Saga, ” also drawn by Giffen. |
| 67:3 |
While the costume would indicate Red Star, the tornado-like effect is clearly that of a super-speedster, marking this as one of the members of Red Trinity. The other characters in the background are Rocket Reds. |
| 69:5 |
Don’t blame us! We were only the leaders! |
| 70:1 |
Note the aura: Deadman is in control of this Dominator. |
| 71:1 |
Coloring error: the Dominator ship in the foreground should be brown. |
| 72:5 |
Again, despite looking like Interlac characters, these are not Interlac as we are familiar with it in the 30th century milieu. However, in conjunction with comments made by Phase when she first appears in the 20th century, these may be an archaic, earlier form of the language, identifiable yet hard to decipher. |
| 74:4 |
It is usually a given in comics that superheroes do not kill. On the other hand, this is a situation of war, and Deadman is undoubtedly not the only one who has done some killing in this conflict. As well, Deadman is already dead, so maybe he doesn’t consider the transition between “life” and “death” states in the same way other characters would. |
| 76:6 |
This counts as an appearance for a Dominator. |
| 77:6 |
Despite the telltale capes, these are not Khunds next to the Gil’Dan. They are probably Daxamites. |
| 77:7 |
No idea who the caped figure behind Robotman is. |
| 78:2 |
Maxwell Lord is behind Captain Atom. |
| 80:8 |
Bialya is a small Middle East nation sometimes ruled by the Queen Bee. Another of its neighbors is Qurac. |
| Back Cover |
This is the cover art for Invasion Book
Three. Art is by Todd McFarlane and possibly an uncredited
inker. |
