Continuity Tracking: Cosmic Boy and Legends
January 19, 2000

 

     In the post-Crisis, preboot continuity, it was revealed that most if not all pre-Crisis occurrences of time travel in the Legion’s past had been redirected by the Time Trapper to go to the Pocket Universe instead of the “real” DC Universe.  This allowed Superboy to continue to exist as an inspiration and former member of the Legion despite the rebooted Superman continuity which revised Superboy out of existence.

     A few time travel incidents involving the preboot Legion occurred post-Crisis, however: the team of Legionnaires who met Superman and Superboy in the Pocket Universe, the team which met Booster Gold and stopped and assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Superman’s jaunts through time in “Time and Time Again,’ Ultra Boy’s trips to the past, the team which met Valor and Glorith, and Cosmic Boy and Night Girl’s vacation in the 20th century which coincided with Legends.

     Zero Hour and the resulting postboot continuity completely wiped prior Legion continuity.  Well, almost.  All of the 30th century adventures were wiped out, as were any which related strictly to the Pocket Universe and thus did not impact the mainline DC Universe.  The remaining post-Crisis, pre-Zero Hour time travel events are left in limbo: did they still occur in the recreated universe, and how?

     Cosmic Boy and Night Girl’s interaction with 20th century characters was reasonably brief.  He fought Brimstone alongside the Justice League and Firestorm, he spoke to Superman briefly (and found out that history as he knew it had gone awry), and the two of them interacted with an astronaut named Krinnski (apparently an ancestor of Cosmic Boy’s).  The result of this is that the preboot Cosmic Boy and Night Girl’s impact on the 20th century from this story is minimal.  His role against Brimstone can be revised away, his conversation with Superman can be ignored, and his and Night Girl’s impact on Krinnski can be deemed superficial and easily substituted.  The time travel event can be completely excised from the post-Zero Hour universe as non-necessary, and should be ignored when dealing with postboot Legion continuity.

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