Analysis Notes
| Cover |
Where the idea to put eyes on this cover came from is
unknown. This is completely unrepresentative of the interior of
the Bgztlian touchstone. |
| 1-4 |
The scene in these first four pages does not necessarily
occur simultaneously with the ones on the pages immediately following
it. Most likely, this scene occurs during the rest of the team’s
trip to Hawai’i in Superboy v3 #45. |
| 1:2 |
Mother Box courtesy of Metron, specifically. |
| Veridium’s body is in the background. |
| 1:3 |
Brainy doesn’t acknowledge Koko’s intelligence. The
readers know otherwise. |
| Not just the projection of a head, but also a pipe and
smoke? Weird. |
| 2 |
Roll call images do not count as panel appearances. |
| 3:1 |
Koko is apparently just hiding by going into this cubbyhole,
given that he appears again in the next issue. Unfortunate; it
sure looked like there was a plot point in the works here. |
| 4:3 |
Veridium’s pipe is gone. |
| 5:1 |
The Legionnaires visited Superboy in Superboy v3
#45; Jo and Tinya got married in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #96. |
| Dialogue is from Ultra Boy. |
| 5:2 |
Maybe he’ll take you both to a cosmic Rave. |
| 5:3 |
Note Tinya’s lips phasing through Jo’s. |
| 6:1 |
Spark’s lightning makes her a powerhouse, a frontline
player; weight negation is a softer, defensive power. (Usually.) |
| 6:2 |
Ferro’s comments refer to Ayla’s preboot costumes
as Light Lass; as Gossamer, she had wings on her outfit. |
| 7:1 |
Let’s not even ponder how long it took Tom Peyer
to come up with that acronym. |
| 7:3-4 |
Made entirely in Brainy’s image. |
| 8:2 |
In the preboot, the adult Ultra Boy briefly encountered
L.E.G.I.O.N. when he travelled back in time and discovered that Phase
was Tinya’s identical cousin Patty Du…, er, Enya. In
the postboot, of course, that meeting never occurred, and Phase is an
alternate body of Tinya. |
| 8:3 |
The first inset is from L.E.G.I.O.N. ’87 #9;
the second is from Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #96. |
| Since Phase was separated from Tinya at birth, she never
grew up with a touchstone around. What apparently happened is that
when the Legionnaires were sent through time, Apparition’s half-Carggite
nature caused her touchstone to split — there is presumably a third
one somewhere, possibly in the 20th century or possibly with the third
Tinya — and one was found by Tommy the Swami. Once a touchstone
was present in the 20th century, Phase’s Bgztlian heritage caused
the feelings of importance which Taptree describes, and the ability to
sense and track the touchstone. |
| 9:3 |
Man, this really sucks. |
| 10:1 |
Shvaughn’s notes here confirm that she was present
behind the scenes throughout Genesis, not just in Legion of
Super-Heroes v4 #97. The computer notes here and in the next
panel count as dialogue for her. |
| How curious that she has three laptops lined together
like this; must be some jury-rigged method for increasing the computing
power. The advanced techniques Brainy uses are certainly enough
to stun most 20th century people, but the things just average 30th century
citizens take for granted and are able to whip up is also amazing. |
| 10:2 |
Don’t bother counting the keys on this laptop; there
are nowhere near enough. |
| Does anyone really refer to their journal or diary as
though it were another person like this? |
| Note that Shvaughn is wearing a Legion flight ring. She
shouldn’t be, since she lost hers on the trip through time. This
is presumably the one that Inferno abandoned. |
| 10:4-5 |
Nothing like seeing Brainy stunned. Even though
he said C.O.M.P.U.T.O. would be advanced, he really had no inkling what
that meant. (Not unlike how hard it is for us to conceive of what
Brainy can do.) |
| 12:4 |
Until this panel, Phase never knew her real name. Either
being sucked into the touchstone or Apparition’s presence has shocked
her memory in ways that Telepath could not do. |
| 14:1 |
The screen is part of C.O.M.P.U.T.O., so this image still
counts as a panel appearance. |
| 14:2 |
Presumably there is no risk of someone chancing on the
time warp from the other end and falling through high above Metropolis? (Note
that the warp seems to be at ground level in the 30th century; that would
seem to pose a risk.) In Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #100,
Superboy will be stationed by the time warp to prevent such problems. |
| 14:3 |
Coloring error: C.O.M.P.U.T.O.’s dialogue balloon
should have a yellow tint. |
| 14:4 |
Actually, no, that was not the deal. The
deal was that Brainy would evolve Veridium into a super-advanced computer
form. That is what has happened, but C.O.M.P.U.T.O. is so powerful
as to overwhelm all traces of Dr. Magnus. |
| 15:4 |
All the items Gates is packing pertain to his anti-establishment
leanings. |
| The printed books are apt to be incredibly rare and valuable
in the far future. (Not that Gates would place value on physical
objects. That would be in opposition to the ideals he puts forward
from these various writings.) |
| Mothra (1962) from Toho Studios (released in Japan
in 1961 as Mosura) is a “giant monster” movie, featuring
a giant moth. In later films, Mothra met Gojira and King Ghidorah. |
| Das Kapital is one of Karl Marx two best known
works (the other being The Communist Manifesto). |
| The Clash and Rage Against the Machine
are politically-driven rock bands. The former is an early 1980s
punk band best known for songs like “London Calling,” “Rock
the Casbah,” and “This is Radio Clash.” The latter
is a late 1990s band, best known for < >. |
| Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky (1971): Amazon.com
describes it as “This primer tells the ‘have-nots’ how
they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of
true democracy.” Its sister book is Reveille for Radicals (1945). |
| The Nation is a weekly journal of American politics
and culture, started in 1865. |
| The image on the t-shirt is Che Guevara, based on the
famous photo by Alberto Diaz Gutierrez. Guevara is something of
an icon for revolution. |
| The brown item in Gates’ bag is a Public Enemy CD. Yet
another political band, dating from between The Clash and Rage Against
the Machine, Public Enemy’s best known album is “Fear of a
Black Planet.” |
| 16:3 |
A little superspeed, followed by a quick switch to invulnerability. |
| 17:1-2 |
The sounds is making Rokk’s ears bleed. |
| 17:3 |
Rokk is using his powers to propel the ring away from
him. |
| 17:4 |
Notice that C.O.M.P.U.T.O.’s use of words like “I” and “me” indicate
an advanced sense of self, beyond that usually seen in most AI’s. However,
C.O.M.P.U.T.O. is based on a responsometer and incorporates Veridium,
so this should be no surprise. |
| 19-22 |
All the gray bits of C.O.M.P.U.T.O. are Iron; the silver/white
bits are Platinum. |
| 19:1 |
Ferro did emancipate himself, sort of: he left
Dr. 30’s compound and survived on the streets of Metropolis. He
took responsibility for his own actions. |
| 19:2 |
No, Ferro is the tin man: he needs a heart, not a brain! |
| 19:3 |
Ferro apparently turns back to flesh when knocked unconscious. (That
doesn’t sound like a great power effect: get smashed into a wall,
turn back to flesh, wall collapses, you die. Maybe this should
be considered a coloring error?) |
| 19:4 |
If Imra can’t detect anything like a thought pattern,
maybe it’s not alien; maybe it’s simply dead. (Actually,
this does raise the issue of whether she detects thought patterns in
Iron and Platinum. Brainy had difficulty dealing with them as sentient;
Saturn Girl should have had similar issues.) |
| 20:3 |
Oh, now that’s smart: knock out the person
who created it and the only one who might have a chance of understanding
how to disable it. |
| 21:1 |
Haven’t the Legionnaires figure out by now that C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
knows a heck of a lot about them? Heck, can’t they see the
Omnicoms, responsometer, and Mother Box on its chest? |
| 21:3 |
Note the peculiar formation of Platinum snaking down Triad-Neutral’s
leg: did the script perchance call for Platinum to cover her like a “film”? |
| In the preboot, Computo killed one of Triplicate Girl’s
selves. History repeats itself, but in new and quirky ways. |
