Analysis Notes

Cover	All the issues of Inferno will be done with mock magazine covers; this one hits the likes of Cosmopolitan.
1	These captions count as speaking for Inferno.
1:1	Lest we forget, Inferno was born in the 30th century, and was trapped in the 20th century with some of the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.  980 years, however, would be when Inferno was a little girl, not a teenager.
	It is early morning, before the sun is up.  Inferno has basically been flying since she left the Legionnaires the previous afternoon, probably scared to death of the night.
	This counts as an appearance for Inferno.
3:1	The darkness, of course, symbolizes the unknown and the unknowable (the future).  More than just being afraid of the dark, Inferno is afraid of not knowing her role in life.
3:3	The glance up at the moon acknowledges that her 30th century employer, Leland McCauley, has his base of operations on Luna.
3:4	Inferno’s thoughts here indicate that she has been so withdrawn (intentionally) that she has had no interest in finding out about her 20th century surroundings, merely waiting (impatiently) for Brainiac 5 to get them home.
4:1	The Emerald Eye here is the transformed satellite from Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #83 rather than the Eye itself.
4:2	“Good Humor” is a brand of ice cream.  It makes for an odd phrase for a 30th century native to say.
4:4	Inferno is referring to when she an Ultra Boy both served as part of Leland McCauley’s WorkForce team.
4:5	Is Brainiac 5 right about the risk to time?  Some time travel stories have indicated that activities in the past are okay because they are in the past and thus part of the past.  Other theories suggest divergent time streams and an inability to return to the original future if the streams diverge too much.
4:7	It’s no more clear to us why Ultra Boy let her go than it is to Inferno.  His speed would be more than ample to catch her.  Then again, Ultra Boy knows Inferno better than anyone else in the 20th century; he is the only one who might sympathize with her.
	This counts as an appearance for Inferno.
5:1-2	Inferno probably vastly overextended herself in her long flight, passing out in the parking lot this way.  Another possibility would be blood sugar problems or a manic-depressive personality, either of which might be held in check better in the 30th century due to standard food additives and such that are not available in the 20th century.  In fact, even allergies to things not present in the 30th century could be partly responsible here.
5:2-3	Seeing the number of people and cars around, it is puzzling why Inferno’s sleeping body was not seen and disturbed prior to this, as people have obviously been going in and out of the mall for a while already.  It must be the mental powers of the villain, doing low-level broad band control of the people in and around the mall, waiting for Inferno to wake up and bring herself into its web.
5:3	The security guard’s reference to a train indicates that there must be a commuter train station next to the mall.
6/7:1	Among the hanging advertising signs is one for “OK”, parodying the “CK” of Calvin Klein, and one for “Avacé,” parodying “Versacé.”  (Sadly, designer Gianni Versacé was murdered by Andrew Cunanan a couple months before this issue was released.)
6/7:2	The store behind Inferno is “Coffee Mountain”.  Folger’s bills itself as “Mountain Grown.”
6/7:6	“VE Day” and “VJ Day” as “Victory over Europe” and “Victory over Japan,” the anniversaries of the dates that Germany and Japan surrendered in World War II.
8:2	An odd concern about her lunch, since it was apparently in her backpack, while the collision was in front.  Perhaps this is a defense mechanism of Jilly’s.
8:4	Jilly presumably thinks that Inferno has a mini-flamethrower rather than a means of self-generating the flames.
8:5	This is a freight elevator.
9:1	If Inferno had stuck around, she would have met Robin.
	“Hot”.  Heh.  You’re talking to the original “hot babe,” Jilly.
10	See earlier comments about blood sugar level and the like.
11:1	We still don’t know Inferno’s real name.  “Sandy Anderson” is the best we’ve been given so far.
	Inferno is probably about 10 years old here.
11:5	The fact that Inferno’s parents are standing underneath the Titan sign may indicate that Inferno is a Titanian pyrokinetic — and thus something of an anomaly.  Not being telepathic, she would not be required to wear the Saturn badge.
12-14	This is all a dream sequence, of course.
13:1	And of course, Saturn Girl has recently been messing with everyone’s brain, so Inferno is a bit sensitized to such.
13:5-14:5	The cabin may be a metaphor for Inferno herself, or for the mall. If the latter, then the Panda may be a facet of the shadowy villain seen elsewhere in the issue.
14:1	Ailuropoda melanoleuca is the scientific name for the giant panda, obviously.
14:4	“Offer of yourself to swear by another” will presumably be the resolution of Inferno’s issues in this series, although it is not clear what that means at this point.  Perhaps it is simply a description of heroism: giving of yourself in the name of others.
15:1-2	Inferno must have been sleepwalking.
16:1	Inferno is apparently somewhat telekinetic in addition to her fire powers.  First, this allows her flight abilities, and second, it allows her to manipulate the separate falling shards of glass to force them to coalesce into the larger chunks.
16:2	The single chunks would seem capable of more damage than the individual shards, even if they wouldn’t cut.  Inferno needs to work on the “protection of innocents” part of her job.
17:1	Curious internal design, to not hide away the ugly air conditioning system like that.  “Industrial” is chic, but not usually in a general public setting like this.
18:2	Inferno can perhaps even make herself stronger and recover from the bump by doing this.
18:3	If what this guy is holding onto is a bend piece of the metal vent system, he has probably cut his fingers wide open, if not from sharpness then just from the pressure of having all his weight held by those fingers.
19:1	His t-shirt has a “Grey” alien on it.
19:5	The bombs were all in the ventilation system, so far as we saw.  Unless there was rubble that we didn’t see, the damage to the floor her is from the fused chunks of glass that Inferno created.
20:4	Keystone City is the home of the Golden Age Flash.  Mentioning it rather than Central City or Gotham City probably means she has friends or relatives there.
20:5	The silhouette is Helen Cage.
21:1	Helen is wearing an Adidas jacket over her “Ok” (Orville Klein?) shirt.
21:2	It must be an Omnicom that was stolen, presumably by Jilly Major while Inferno was asleep.  Note that this is exactly the thing Brainiac 5 would most fear that might cause timestream fluctuations and imperil the Legion’s return home.
22:2	It would appear that the shadowy villain was indeed behind Inferno’s dream, or was at least involved in it.