Analysis Notes
| General |
The scenes of the Legionnaires working
do not necessarily take place immediately after the one in 48:1-2,
nor in the order presented, but could occur scattered throughout
the remainder of Team 20’s stay in the 20th century. For
the sake of tracking, we will assume they all occur at basically
the same time, with the exception of Ferro’s, which is
easily placeable. They most likely occur after Cosmic Boy
wakes up in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #96, since Saturn
Girl isn’t
there to control him, and thus probably occur prior to the events
of Genesis, Unlimited Access, and the battle
with C.O.M.P.U.T.O. We will place them before Supergirl
Annual v3 #2 as well, for
the characters who appear there. |
| 48:1-2 |
This scene occurs prior to the start of Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #89, when the Legionnaires have just arrived at their new headquarters in Happy Harbor. |
| 48:1 |
This is the old cave headquarters of the Justice League, located near Happy Harbor, Rhode Island (seen in the background). The Legion moved in there for the duration of their stay in the 20th century in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #89, after leaving their Metropolis base at S.T.A.R. Labs. |
| The shoplifting was seen in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #<88>. |
| 48:2 |
Brainiac 5’s moral ambiguity is curious. His treatment of 20th century humans as savages beneath contempt — and he would probably approve of and even use them as test subjects, if needed — becomes even more interesting given his adoption by the experimental lab monkey, Koko (who is curiously absent from Brainiac 5’s shoulder in this scene). |
| 48:3 |
EPS is obviously a take-off on UPS, the United Parcel Service. Based on the green logo using a lowercase “e,” it is tempting to refer to EPS as “Enterprise Parcel Service.” |
| 48:3, 6 |
Gates’ use of his powers to perform package delivery is not a new concept in comics, having previously been done by Kapitalist Kourier in issues of The Flash in the early 1990’s, and in Syphons (published by Now) in the late 1980’s. |
| 48:4 |
Presumably Superman also helped the Legionnaires to acquire green cards and other paperwork that anyone would require to legally hire them. He was also undoubtedly instrumental in obtaining Saturn Girl’s position with the United Nations. |
| 48:5 |
The jumbled boxes are a wry commentary on the “care” that parcel delivery services sometimes seem to take with our valuable materials. |
| One of the boxes is labeled “MST3K,” a reference to the television show Mystery Science Theatre 3000. |
| 49:1-2 |
United Parcel Service underwent a major strike in August, 1997. This comic was released in October, 1997, and the story would have been completed sometime in the weeks prior to that. |
| 49:3 |
This has echoes of the 1980’s television show Salvage. |
| 49:4 |
Raise the Titanic is a novel by Clive Cussler. |
| One can only imagine what an action like this would have done to the movie ticket sales for James Cameron’s Titanic, released in December, 1997. Probably would have boosted them even higher. |
| 50:1 |
The band here is Scare Tactics, who also starred in their own comic book. Being a rock band wearing horror costumes was their gimmick/cover, but of course the costumes were real. Left-to-right, they are Slither, Grossout, Scream Queen, and Fang. |
| 50:3 |
Saturn Girl’s thoughts here echo the coming crisis with the Associated Planets in the 30th century. They also nudge to the fact that the United Planets was undoubtedly founded and named because of historical references to the United Nations. |
| 50:4-5 |
The Legionnaires trapped in the 20th century were extremely cautious about revealing where they were from, claiming to be from another planet rather than from the future. While Saturn Girl knows details which could promote a “Golden Age,” such could easily alter the future that she comes from, or could even be misused and cause a great disaster instead. |
| 50:6 |
This scene could occur just about any time, but given Ferro’s eagerness to help, he probably went out right after Cosmic Boy’s little proclamation, placing this during Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #89 (after page 10). |
| While it is kind of depressing that Ferro’s “job” is gathering aluminum cans, it is also worth remembering that he had been living on the streets as a homeless teenager prior to connecting with the Legion. This is one of the few ways of making money that he knows. |
