Analysis Notes
| General |
The 1996 DC Comics annuals were united under the theme of “Legends of the Dead Earth,” all leading with a page reading: “Earth is dead. Those who once might have called it home are long scattered to the endless stars. But in that scattering, on a thousand different worlds, by a thousand different ways Earth’s greatest legends live on. These are Legends of the Dead Earth.” The intent of the annual theme was to produce far-future versions of established DC characters, with the characters “inspired” by the legends of the past; these would generally be “out of continuity,” something between potential futures and Elseworlds stories.
A few of the annuals were explicitly in-continuity from the get go - Legionnaires Annual, for example - and others have become part of official continuity since then, including Legion of Super-Heroes Annual and The Power of Shazam! Annual. Most of the rest have had their potential continuity connections strengthened by the 1998 DC One Million series’ promotion of the superhero “legacy” concept. |
| This annual apparently came out the same month as Power of Shazam! #19, which would place it at October 1996. |
| Cover |
Coloring error: Dash Noir’s hair should be reddish-blond, not black. |
| 1 |
Binderaan is named for Otto Binder, one of the creators of Captain Marvel. |
| Beck is named for C.C. Beck, the most noted artist of Captain Marvel. |
| Beck’s outfit is reminiscent of the Valor-inspired one worn by Andromeda in flashbacks to her early Legion career, from the preboot continuity. |
| N-Force is presumably the police force on Binderaan. |
| “Moley” echoes the “Holy moley!” catchphrase of Billy Batson, the young alter ego of Captain Marvel. |
| Given that other boxes are labelled “Syntho Fruit” (synthetic fruit) and “Deyhdro Beef” (dehydrated beef), we’ll assume that the one labelled “Fresh Seal” is actually referring to a “seal of freshness” rather than the animal. |
| The Binderaanians apparently have extreme faith in the ability of their police forces. |
| 2:1 |
No apparent external meaning for “68683”. It is not in use as a zip code. |
| This is presumably an N-Force police robot. We’ll refer to it as an “officer,” since that it its apparent task. |
| 2:1, 3:1 |
“Pater” and “Mater” are terms for “father” and “mother,” stemming from Latin. |
| 2:3 |
Notice that the net is apparently electrified. Based on 3-2, it is intended to disable machinery rather than stun criminals. |
| 3:1 |
Although it isn’t clearly evident, observe that the bottom part of the police robot is missing, seemingly vaporized. |
| 3:2 |
It’s not clear just how the electronet has been neutralized. Perhaps by lifting the weighted balls, the net isn’t grounded any more. |
| 4:1 |
Whether a “monmouth” is anything like a Terran bat is unknown. |
| 4:2 |
What loyal rebels, deserting their comrade. |
| 4:4 |
There are three types of police robots here, which we’ll term “manager” (the one pointing), “worker” (the three midground figures), and “heavy worker” (the one in the back, apparently a more solid build and thus dealing with the remnants of the large “officer” robot). |
| The draped levitating stretchers contains the bodies of Beck’s parents. |
| 5:3 |
If he could tell you how it works, it wouldn’t be magick, would it? |
| 5:5 |
Not that science isn’t loaded with non-absolutes, especially on a quantum level. |
| “Government prescribed daily vitamins,” aka drugs intended to keep the populace happy and numbed into a non-questioning state. More or less confirmed by Dash’s comments in 5:7 and 23:5. |
| 5:6-7 |
The white smear under Dash Noir’s eye is apparently an injury received during the explosion in 4:2. It was not seen on his face before this panel, and appears only intermittently through the rest of the story, but is clear on page 29. |
| 6:1 |
Superintendent Javert: Javert is the name of the dogmatic police officer who pursues Jean Valjean through the years in Les Miserables. |
| This Council echoes the one made of holographic faces in Superman: The Movie, and seems to be just as unlikable. One of the humans behind the faces will be seen on page 28. |
| 6:2 |
And what man cannot dissect, understand, and duplicate, man suppresses and destroys. |
| 6:2-3 |
And how like a superior-to-thou Science Council to presume that their lead enforcement officer needs reminding of his job description. Don’t you just love them? |
| 6:4 |
This would seem to be the application of the observation that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” If the weapon can be understood and duplicated, then the technology is no longer advanced, and the device ceases to be “magic.” (Note that Brainiac 5 accepted a parallel to this in Supergirl Annual #2: “Magic does exist, and as such is not worth pursuing in an effort to duplicate it, since if one could, it would not be magic.”) |
| 6:5 |
In short, the Council’s fear is already coming true: the very existence of the magick weapon is already causing doubt in the absoluteness of science. |
| 7:4 |
We’ll assume Freehold was the city where Beck was transported from, although it could have been a larger area. |
| As will be seen later, Beck is at the Rock of Eternity; she is no longer on Binderaan. |
| 7:5 |
None of these items seem to be identifiable as anything we should recognize. |
| 7:7 |
<What is the Fawcett-era reference for “Iola”?> Iola is also the city where Comics Buyer’s Guide is published. |
| 8 |
Coloring error: Beck’s hair color fades in and out throughout this page. |
| 8:5 |
It’s unclear why Beck falls through the wall. Perhaps residual magick enabled her wish to come true? |
| 10:4-5 |
With nothing to light the brazier with, again perhaps residual magick enabled her spoken thoughts? |
| 10:7 |
A young girl sitting across the lap of a guy in a red suit with a long white beard, seated on a big throne. Smells like Christmas to me! |
| 10:8 |
How did he move so fast? The speed of Mercury. |
| Time will tell if Beck continues to think aloud once she joins the Legion. |
| 11:1 |
Woolfolk’s Rock is named for William Woolfolk, who wrote Captain Marvel, Jr. and other Fawcett titles. |
| If the Inspectorate really wanted to track down the Aberrants, they would only need to watch for the cooking fires. But because they are so focussed on Science, maybe they are unable to conceive of people living near to nature as the Aberrants do, and thus it doesn’t occur to them to look for such. |
| 12:2 |
Recall that a branyat is a kind of lizard. |
| 12:3 |
This rock must be a piece of Eternium, probably from the explosion which will eventually strand Thunder in the 30th century. |
| 13:2-4 |
There must be a delayed reaction for the explosion, because by the time 13:3 occurs, the friction spoken of in 12:6 is no longer occurring. |
| 14:2 |
This implies that Captain Marvel left Earth prior to the 30th century. |
| 15 |
From Beck’s description, it sounds like this asteroid crash occurred within the last generation or two, no more than 50 years ago. |
| 15-16 |
Pink dialogue captions are from Beck; yellow ones are from Captain Marvel. |
| 16:3 |
Note that Captain Marvel didn’t change back to a Billy Batson form when he said his name; if he said “Shazam,” though, that would perhaps occur. |
| 18:1 |
It appears that any contact with the explosive Eternium dust transports those it touches to the Rock of Eternity. |
| 18:2 |
If Captain Marvel is now the wizard, does that mean that Thunder’s powers now stem from gods whose names start with C-A-P-T-A-I-N-M-A-R-V-E-L? (That’s a lot of gods!) |
| 21:2 |
This explains how Chatty and Old Crow got to the Rock of Eternity. |
| Coloring error: Old Crow’s sleeve should be brown, not yellow. |
| 21:3 |
The dialogue balloon should be from the Aberrant Thunder is holding aloft, not the bystander. |
| 21:4 |
Coloring error: the white area below Javert is Thunder’s arm; it should be red. |
| 21:5 |
Coloring error: the white area below Thunder’s chin is background sky; it should be pink. |
| 22:1-2 |
Coloring error: Old Crow’s outfit should be brown, not blue. |
| 22:2 |
Billy Batson’s parents were killed by Dr. Sivana. |
| Coloring error: from here forward, Old Crow’s hair is colored white instead of orange, like before. |
| 22:3 |
“Old Wooly” being Woolfolk’s Rock. |
| Notice Javert crying out in pain. He is aware that this is magic he is being affected by, so he is convinced it must hurt. |
| 22:5 |
that spot a “nexus” is an interesting turn of phrase. Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s character Nexus has powers granted to him by a mysterious stranger and wears a lightning bolt on his chest. |
| 23:2 |
Coloring error: now Old Crow has lost his beard altogether. |
| 23:3 |
As will be seen in 26:1, while it seems that only hours has passed for Beck, it has actually been days on Binderaan. |
| The “magick” isn’t in how the dust is made, but in the effect the dust has. |
| 23:4 |
Coloring error: Dash Noir’s hair was reddish-blond earlier in the book, now it is white, and later it will be blond. |
| 27:1 |
It has been said that Captain Marvel is the empowered adult body of Billy Batson, rather than being some separate form. Javert’s comment here is in line with that. |
| 28:4 |
Dash Noir has become a far-future version of Black Adam. (“Noir” means “black”.) Black Adam was an ancient Egyptian version of Captain Marvel who turned evil and became an arch foe. |
| 30:1-2 |
Thunder has yet to display either this density control or the ability to change into a human lightning bolt. These powers may stem from Noir’s empowering by the Three Faces of Evil. |
| 31:2 |
Noir’s comment implies that he had heard the Three Faces of Evil calling to him before 24:5. |
| 34:1 |
It never really came across before that Matriarch is so short. |
| 35:4 |
They are passing through the nexus to the Rock of Eternity here. |
| 36:1 |
Presumably Beck’s non-Marvel self can only move through the Rock of Eternity, not just any wall of stone. Why she can at all is unclear. |
| 36:5 |
The magic lightning must act as a toggle for any powered being, flipping their “density switch”. |
| 36:6 |
It seems to take a second or two for the effects to settle. |
| 37:2 |
Hmm. If the Rock of Eternity exploded, stranding Thunder in the 30th century, then Dash Noir is presumably free, and may even be lurking in the 30th century somewhere, waiting to find her. |
| 37:3 |
Now Old Crow has lost his ponytail. |
| 37:5 |
The Aberrants discarded them? No, Dash Noir used them as guinea pigs for his weapon; Chatty and Old Crow are projecting Noir’s behavior onto the others. |
| 38:2 |
The middle doll of Beck’s appears to be a Raggedy Ann. The third one is a stuffed Omuta; it is perhaps the same one she dropped in 3:1. |
| 38:3 |
It isn’t stated, but this is Inspector Javert and his wife. |
