| General | Throughout this story, the only personality that Triad displays is that of the aggressive Triad-Purple. Further, she never displays her powers in this story. As a result, we shall consider this to be Triad-Purple (and the costume coloring is thus an error); Triad-Neutral and Triad-Orange are presumably still in Happy Harbor with Brainiac 5, Gates, Shvaughn Erin, and the Metal Men. This assumption, however, raises the question of why Triad-Purple would (and would be allowed) to come by herself, especially given the stresses that extended separation puts on the individual bodies, as seen in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #99 (however, the preboot Duo Damsel maintained separation even over interstellar and intertemporal distances, so the stresses may be more the result of C.O.M.P.U.T.O. than the separation itself). This leads to positing an untold scene where Triad-Purple, over the objections of the other two, stows away on the Legion airship, and she is discovered only as the Legionnaires are nearing Hawai’i, when it is inconvenient to take her back to Happy Harbor. |
| 1-2:1 | The Legion found out that Superboy had given his flight ring to Roxy in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #94, and they weren’t happy. Roxy has been expecting this for some time. |
| 2:3 | This is Triad-Purple and Cosmic Boy. |
| 3:3 | Note the artfully placed palm frond used to obscure the naughty b…, um, the Legion logo. |
| 3:5 | This is Spark, Cosmic Boy, and Triad-Purple. |
| 3:5-4, 5:3 | It is especially troubling that Superboy didn’t recognize the Legion ship, given that they have been in the 20th century long enough to participate in two major events with him (The Final Night and Genesis). A certain amount of blame belongs with the Legion, however, as they should have sought him out as an ally very soon after becoming trapped in the 20th century; instead, they kept to themselves in fear of damaging the timestream. Superboy probably thought they had forgotten him (or worse, snubbed him!). |
| 4 | Note the absence of Brainy, Gates, and Shvaughn. Brainy probably had no interest in visiting Superboy, especially not when he could be spending his time building C.O.M.P.U.T.O. — “Doing something of value,” he would probably say. And with Superboy’s brash personality and love of the spotlight, he clashes with Gates’ proletarian views, too. |
| 6:4 | “Everything” includes Genesis, kind of a significant thing, universe-wide, plus the time Superboy had been spending with the Ravers (which closely overlaps the period the Team 20 Legionnaires were trapped in the 20th century). |
| 7 | Cosmic Boy seems a little extreme, here. He is probably still processing the implications of Saturn Girl’s manipulation of him, and he is taking out his frustrations on Superboy (and maybe on others, as well as amply beating himself up in the process). Triad’s comments in 8:3 support this. |
| 9:1 | This costume was seen briefly in Kingdom Come, being worn by Superboy after he abandoned the present to be with the Legion full time. The Kingdom Come Superboy also appeared on a special trading card and in the Revelations supplement. |
| 9:3 | “Kind of sensitive” in that his feelings get hurt, or “kind of sensitive” as a euphemism for gay? Ferro sews and does fashion design, too, so the signs are there. |
| 10:3 | This would seem to confirm that this was intended to be only Triad-Purple. |
| 11:2 | Saturn Girl’s comment “Wait, it’s…” would seem to indicate that she got conflicting information. Did she cast her powers too far by accident, or does this imply something about Inspector Makoa? |
| 11:4-5 | And in the process, use this to reevaluate Superboy’s status. |
| 11:5 | That is Saturn Girl in the background, not Roxy. |
| 12:3 | Sam Makoa works for the Honolulu S.C.U. (Special Crimes Unit), police who deal with supervillains and superheroes. |
| 13:5 | Ferro’s favorite Harlan Ellison story? From this panel, perhaps “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”? |
| 14:1 | Note the damaged shrubbery and the cracked flooring. Why would Silver Sword be intentionally damaging the museum this way in the process of obtaining the spear? (No answer is forthcoming.) |
| Superboy and Saturn Girl are in yellow. The others are (right-to-left) Cosmic Boy, Ultra Boy, Ferro, Apparition, Spark, and Triad-Purple. | |
| 14:6 | Recall that Apparition and Ultra Boy are recently married. Their honeymoon commences (and gets aborted) immediately after this story. |
| 14:7 | Cosmic Boy continues to pair himself with Saturn Girl, despite her recent mental domination of him. Is this lingering aftereffects, self-recrimination, or a means of protecting the other Legionnaires? |
| 15:1 | Scream is a 1996 slasher film in which the characters openly quoted and flaunted the “rules” of slasher films, things like “Don’t go off by yourself,” “Stay a virgin,” and “Don’t turn around.” The Legionnaires have just split up in pairs and headed off into the dark with a supervillain lurking who-knows-where. |
| 15:2 | At this point, Ferro is still a provisionary Legionnaire. Although he is treated as a member of the team, neither he nor they have given much thought to him accompanying them back to the future. |
| 16:5 | This use of Silver Sword’s animetal is oddly similar to the attacks C.O.M.P.U.T.O. will use Platinum for just a month later, in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #99. |
| 17:1 | Note the skylight: foreshadowing at its best. |
| 17:2 | The hole in the spear is where the mystic gem Superboy referred to is supposed to go. |
| 17:3 | Triad is using her flight ring to contact the others, of course. |
| 17:4 | Silver Sword probably knocked them out by squeezing their air out with the animetal. |
| 18:1 | Who’s talking “risk”, Apparition? All Jo needs to do is shift to ultra-speed, and the battle will be over. |
| 18:3-4 | Given Silver Sword’s connection to the Hawai’ian Islands, and the Spear of Lono’s mystic gem being lost in a volcano, “she” is presumably Pele, the Hawai’ian volcano goddess (or a human avatar of her). |
| 18:5 | The ones behind Superboy, based on their positions in 18:1, are Ultra Boy, Apparition, Spark, and Triad-Purple. |
| 19:3 | And while everyone else jumps to save each other, Triad-Purple hangs in the background, realizing that she doesn’t even have her full tri-jitsu skills to draw on at the moment, since her other two selves are half a world away. |
| 19:4 | Don’t worry, Tinya. Ferro’s okay, despite the fact that the colorist didn’t turn him to iron. |
| 20:3 | So, um, why couldn’t Silver Sword have fled through the skylight between when the police surrounded the museum and Superboy and the Legion arrived? |
| 22:5 | And the Legion will need him in just one month. How convenient. |
