Analysis Notes
| 1:Credits |
Jeffrey and Philip Moy are brothers. |
| 1:2 |
While the land masses seen on the planet would appear to be North America and Greenland, that is impossible from the placement of the day/night terminator; it must be eastern Asia and Australia, with north being on the left side of the planet. |
| 2:1 |
Mano’s power works more as a web of energy than a force bolt shooting out of his hand, hence the cracked/shattered moon dome rather than a simple hole blown through it. The shattering of the moondome is probably limited to an area near where Mano and the Legionnaires are — a hundred foot radius, perhaps — with cracks radiating out through the rest of the moondome. |
| 2:2 |
Based on the scenes of Angtu from before Mano destroyed it, Mano’s uniform is not a spacesuit. Mano already knows that he can survive in open space, so the destruction of the moondome is little problem for him. |
| The Legion should have been wearing transuits. |
| 2:3 |
Note the thickness of the dome fragments: several centimeters. Thicknesses like this of semi-rigid materials are needed to prevent explosive decompression caused by the pressure differentials in a vacuum. |
| With the moondome destroyed, there could have many numerous McCauley Industries employees caught in the vacuum and thus killed by Mano. Since 10:2 indicates no known casualties, McCauley’s people undoubtedly long ago called all personnel in to the main buildings to better protect them against Mano. (McCauley may not be especially nice, but he knows the costs of dead employees.) |
| 3:2 |
Cosmic Boy: the heart and soul of the Legion? |
| 4:2 |
Coloring error: the gap between Garth’s arm and his body. |
| 5:6, 6:3 |
It has never been quite clear what the limits of a Durlan’s shapechanging powers are; they have at times been shown to be able to become phantoms and even hyperdrive spaceships! Chameleon seems to be able to change into something here which is at least more resistant to the affects of Luna’s minimal atmosphere (not quite hard vaccuum), if not completely immune to it, as well as capturing residual air and transporting his teammates. And later, the form is able to seemingly burrow through an inches-thick airlock door, presumably metal, although he may have instead entered a crack and expanded to cause the door to burst. |
| 5:6 |
The leg at the bottom of the panel is Live Wire’s. |
| 6:1 |
Nicely subtle coloring on Chameleon’s amoeba form. |
| 6:5-6 |
The Legionnaires recover admirably quickly from their experience with what was akin to explosive decompression. The rescue which occupied several panels here must really have occurred in just seconds, or there would have been serious problems with oxygen deprivation, burst blood vessels, and the like. |
| 6:6 |
Invisible Kid and Chameleon’s dialogue is apparently “Good job!” and “Thanks.” |
| Assuming that XS was right on 4:4, that the corridor would not stay elevated without continued application of Cosmic Boy’s powers, then he must have been continuing to use them as Chameleon transported the team. While he repairs the airlock door, he is probably also restoring the corridor to its original location. |
| Apparition is used to being desolid; being semi-conscious and trapped within Chameleon’s body like that would have been a claustrophobic situation. (Note that she will later be trapped in a similar but much more severe situation after being apparently killed by a Daxamite in Legionnaires Annual #2.) |
| 7:1 |
If McCauley’s employees have to wear that sort of protective gear, whatever McCauley is producing on the moon is probably quite nasty. Luna may have been the source of the chemical weapons that wiped out the population of Angtu. |
| The “31” refers to the section of the lunar research base, rather than a “level” or “floor” (since Cosmic Boy pulling a corridor up through 31 levels of lunar surface stretches credulity). |
| 7:2 |
While Rokk intends to bolster Jenni’s confidence, he also feeds her growing crush. |
| 7:5 |
Leviathan probably hits his head not because he is normally taller than other humans but because he is making a low-level use of his powers. It would not be unusual for Gim to subconsciously use his power to increase his height by just a few inches at all times, giving him a perceived small edge in dealing with other people; he might not even realizing that he does this. |
| 7:6 |
Chameleon is clearly having fun at Leviathan’s expense. |
| 7:6,
8:1 |
The water in the tunnel was deeper where they entered it, so the team has probably gone uphill. |
| 8:2 |
The same type of camera as used in Legionnaires #19, 8:5. |
| 8:5 |
Note that the flat holo projection is viewable from both sides. |
| 9:1 |
McCauley’s tanks of “toxic” chemicals are leaking. Definitely not a safe workplace. |
| 9:2 |
The shadowed figure is Apparition. |
| 9:3 |
Brainiac 5’s lab is in the upper portion of the “top” wing of Legion headquarters. |
| 9:4 |
It is unclear exactly what Brainiac 5 was attempting to produce with this experiment. Given that different molecular arrangements for carbon produce anything from graphite to diamond, and aligned molecules in iron produce ferromagnetism, perhaps the result would have something like transparent aluminum or magnetic gold. The results of this interruption, however, will be the anti-gravity material which gets turned into the Legion’s flight rings. |
| 9:5 |
Brainiac 5 should know better than to work on sensitive experiments without first shutting off external communications. |
| 10:1 |
McCauley is suspicious of everyone. As someone who tries to do cheap knock-offs of all of Brande’s creations, this isn’t really surprising: if he spies on everyone else, it’s only because everyone else is undoubtedly spying on him. |
| 10:2 |
If, as theorized in 2:1, the actual hole in the moondome is of limited size, the moondome being “gone” would be shorthand for “a total loss.” |
| Note: no known casualties. |
| 10:3 |
Despite McCauley’s claim that he doesn’t care about casualties, he does occasionally show a minimum of concern, if only to the degree that he may be legally responsible to some degree for casualties occurring to persons in his employ and thus wishes to avoid lawsuits and penalties. |
| 10:5 |
McCauley’s oath that he’ll never put himself in Brande’s hands again foreshadows his creation of the Workforce, gathering together the super-powered teens he has a handle on to create a cheap knock-off of the Legion. |
| 11:1 |
McCauley fosters a form of indentured servitude with his work contracts. As seen from the comments of the workers in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #63, McCauley does not pay overtime; he may not even offer more than the absolute minimum required sick leave and the like. This worker is probably pulling double shifts either to get ahead on his contract and get out sooner, or else he is trying to make up time from exceeding his sick leave allocation. |
| The numbering of the compartments is by odd numbers. As with American house and room numbering, the even numbers are undoubtedly on the compartments that face these. |
| 11:2 |
That’s quite the malfunction: a fist-sized hole burned through the lock panel. |
| 11:4 |
Mano sees his mission as one in which there will be casualties, and he thus takes no responsibility for anyone who dies on the path to McCauley, be they by his own hand or otherwise. This is not atypical of religious zealots, although Mano shows few religious tendencies. |
| 11:5 |
The thoughts generated by a sudden death are apparently quite strong if Saturn Girl picks them up without scanning for them. Possibly, however, Saturn Girl was scanning for Mano and the dying worker caught a glimpse of his killer as he died, and Saturn Girl picked that up. |
| 12:1 |
It may be a facet of Mano’s other telepathic oddities that cause his rage to act not just as a block for mental reading but also as a shield against detection. |
| 12:2 |
This is just the start of Brainiac 5’s attitude toward his peers, whom he sees as childlike and inferior. |
| The shadowed figures are Leviathan and Triad |
| 12:5 |
Brainiac 5 must have data from the testing of the fragments of Angtu in order to make such an estimation. |
| The shadowed figure is Brainiac 5 |
| 12:6 |
Brainiac 5 doesn’t know about the melted door panel, so his calculation is probably low. |
| 13:1 |
Despite the similar tunnel and pipes, the different labels on the tanks indicate that the Legion has moved from where they were in 9:1. |
| The tanks are labelled “NG+40,” but it is unknown what this might mean. Perhaps simply “Noxious Gas,” stored at 40 atmospheres of pressure? |
| 13:2 |
“Let’s Go, Legionnaires!” as a rallying cry? It’s no worse than “Avengers Assemble!” or “Titans, Go For It!” |
| 13:3 |
Tinya’s attempt to be friendly with the most alien member of the team is probably a reflection of her mother’s ambassadorial skills. |
| 13:3-4 |
Chameleon has changed the pronunciation of his “hate” word, from “heet” to “hett.” He is also fiddling around with word stress; as a non-native speaker of Interlac, appropriate word stress is apt to be something that he truly is not overly familiar with, regardless of how well he can currently use Interlac syntax. |
| 14:1-2 |
Perhaps when they’re all more experienced with their powers, XS and Apparition can work together, with Apparition phasing XS as she runs. Alternately, given that XS’ grandfather (Flash II [Barry Allen]) and cousin (Impulse) could both vibrate through walls, one would expect that XS will be able to eventually, also. |
| 14:4 |
The employee was probably engaged in “self-stimulatory activities.” |
| 14:5 |
Apparition is using Chameleon’s original pronunciation: “heet.” |
| 15:2 |
The legs at the top of the panel are Triad, Saturn Girl, Live Wire, XS, Invisible Kid, and Chameleon. |
| 15:4 |
Cosmic Boy’s magnetism helps retain the structural integrity of the roof as Leviathan peels it off. |
| 15:5 |
The employee in the lower right corner is the same one as in 14:4. |
| 16:1 |
The Legionnaires have police powers; hence Leviathan’s speech. |
| The wrapping on the hilt of Mano’s sword keeps changing color; here it is white, but it was gray in 1:3, gold in 2:1, and khaki in 11:6. |
| Mano uses a gun in order to preserve the charge built up in his hand. (And he also didn’t have time to remove his glove.) |
| Mano could have simply shot Leviathan. That he did not indicates a degree of non-malevolence in him. |
| 16:4 |
McCauley should have started evacuating the moon as soon as Brande notified him that Mano had the ability to blow it up. It would be surprising if he hadn’t removed at least himself after 10:5. |
| 16:5 |
Mano would seem to have a maximum charge he is able to build up — planet-shattering level — and he can sense when that level has been reached. He would presumably act like a capacitor if his maximum charge was reached but not used, bleeding the charge semi-harmlessly into the atmosphere, reducing him to a reasonable level. The alternatives would be for the power to continue to build until it killed him, or for the maximum charge to be reached and maintained until used, but then the sensation of the power would probably be detrimental to Mano’s concentration. |
| 17:1,
17:3 |
Note the little insect flying past Mano. This is Chameleon in disguise. Invisible Kid is undoubtedly following Mano’s tunnel, as well. |
| 17:3 |
These employees had different shaped ID badges than the sewer workers had; this would indicate a different role in the company. |
| 17:6 |
Presumably killing McCauley would siphon off some of Mano’s charge and delay his destruction of Luna by up to several minutes. |
| 18:1 |
The real McCauley’s answer would certainly be “Who wouldn’t?”… |
| 18:2 |
…although “Ah-heet-dett-pless” would be reasonable, too. |
| 18:4 |
Why? Because it’s the Legion’s job. |
| 18:6 |
This is probably a dislocated shoulder rather than a snapped bone. |
| 19:1 |
Lyle’s dialogue is probably “Hit him, Reep!” |
| 19:2 |
The different spelling of one word in Reep’s repetition of Lyle’s Durlan phrase has one of two probable meanings: (1) Lyle’s Durlan skills are know to be imperfect, so “splidd” may be a correction of “slidd,” or (2) the changed consonant sound may have an intensifying effect in Durlan, with Reep saying “Hit him very, very hard!” |
| 19:3 |
The shadowed figure is Chameleon. |
| 19:4 |
Minor coloring error: the purple halo around Mano’s hand should have been in front of Invisible Kid’s face and shoulder, not behind. |
| 19:5 |
Art error: a crescent shape only occurs on a rotating planet in the stages between “half” and “new,” which Earth isn’t at this point. (Compare to 1:2, where the Earth is drawn correctly.) The shadow seen here would indicate an eclipse, except that the moon is not large enough to cause such a planetary scale eclipse. |
| 19:6 |
Coloring error: Jenni should be black, not Caucasian. |
| The metal cylinder encasing Mano’s arm has a dual purpose: primarily, it acts as a cast to mend his arm, but it also securely keeps Mano’s glove on his hand. |
| The grid over which Mano is suspended is apparently an anti-gravity immobilization device. |
| Note the hose wrapped around Mano’s waist. Based on 20:5’s indication of the hose at his neck providing oxygen and perhaps nutrients, the second hose is probably intended for waste removal. |
| 20:4 |
Garth is remembering that part of his initial motivation was related to fame and money, but he is past that now. |
| 20:5 |
For McCauley, money is the root of all. Period. Evil need not be involved in the equation. |
| Unless the waste removal hose wraps around Mano’s waist and attaches to the back of his pants — which is remotely possible from 19:6, but which doesn’t make much practical sense — it is an art error that the hose merely wraps around the waist rather than being connected to Mano’s uniform. |
| 20:6 |
Despite the lack of pupils — which Durlans don’t need, of course — Chameleon is not possessed here. |
| 21:3 |
It is highly doubtful that Winath was unaware of or unhappy with Garth’s presence in the Legion. President Chu has obviously been doing some politicking, trying to ensure that the Legion stays securely under her thumb. |
| Reprints |
This issue was reprinted in the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Beginning of Tomorrow trade paperback collection. |
