Legionnaires Annual #3 (1996)
written by Roger Stern
pencils by Anthony Castrillo, Chuck Wojtkiewicz & Dan Jurgens
cover by Alan Davis
XS’s journey through time concludes with the first Legion story written by Roger Stern, who will become quite important for the Reboot.
We pick up where we left Jenni, being helped by the Flash of the 27th century.
You’re not wrong, Jenni. Although for some reason you’re probably the member of the Flash family who has done the LEAST amount of time travel.
And so she runs off again…
…and we do get the confirmation that the timestream really DOES look like that, it’s not just an effect for the reader.
She arrives at her destination faster than she expected…
…because while she DOES arrive in the 30th century, it’s before she was born.
This is her occasion to actually meet her grandfather!
This is the only occasion that I can think of, in the entirety of XS’s existence as a character, that I have ever seen any character acknowledging that she’s not white like the rest of the Allen family.
The reason why Jenni ended up here is that Barry was rebuilding his time machine, the classic Cosmic Threadmill™.
The fact that he was doing this to recover his old records is truly 100% Barry.
Not that he actually NEEDS a time machine to send her back home.
Barry wants her to give him some spoilers, so now she realizes how hard it is to keep secrets.
She doesn’t LIE to him though. Everything she says is completely true.
Another bittersweet goodbye for the character. Sure it would suck for a future writer to resurrect Barry and take away the gravitas of the moment.
The next stop in the timestream is not as bright.
Yeah we stumbled into a dark future where superhumans are hunted by giant killer robots.
These guys clearly were not prepared for a Legionnaire…
…but she’s eventually overwhelmed.
Not the last time XS will need to fight a whole planet of evil robots!
She’s put in the same jail of the other superheroes of this time.
These are all original characters, but interestingly Avatar wields the Spear of Destiny.
Which is a thing in the DC Universe that is CANONICALLY the same one you’re probably thinking about… but I wonder if this is a different one, because the usual one definitely isn’t linked to a goddess with a Kirby design.
Although… knowing Kirby, that is exactly the kind of awesome nonsense he would’ve done.
We also have Iron Woman and the Incredible Ripoff.
And if you’re thinking that these sound suspiciously like Thor, Iron Man and Hulk… they also have their own Captain America.
In more ways than one, as we’ll discuss later.
Honestly the details of this future aren’t THAT important. If you’ve seen one dystopic future where superheroes are hunted, you’re basically up to speed.
It’s also ANOTHER Legion story where the Earth has been destroyed!
The reason why Ultra-Man is a Captain America analogue is that he ALSO arrived into his future through suspended animation. And there’s a second reason I’ll discuss later.
This is where we learn when we are: it’s the 100th century!!!
And given the reaction from the other heroes… for how many centuries has there BEEN a Legion, since they are still aware of the name?
Jenni proves she’s the real deal by disabling the Incredible Ripoff’s power dampener.
The four heroes stage a revolt, and you can see why the giant robots were necessary.
This is also where Ultra-Man is freed, and he looks… well he looks like THIS.
Okay, a necessary tangent here.
The final reason why Ultra-Man is a Captain America equivalent is he’s ALSO a Golden Age character!
In fact, he even pre-dates Captain America because he debuted in 1939, aaaaall the way back to All-American Comics #8.
Ultra-Man is SO obscure that even I had no idea this character existed!!!
And his story is absolutely WILD.
Gary Concord was born in the early 20th century and, by the time he was 21, he was considered the greatest military mind ever.
His pursuit of peace (???) made him a target, so he decided to hide away and create a new power source. Because of course he was both a military AND a scientific genius, it’s the Golden Age.
All-American Comics #8 might contain the most tragically hilarious failed prediction.
It has a cover date of November 1939, and it predicts that World War II would begin… in 1950.
Too bad because he had JUST discovered what could end all wars… math!!!
Being exposed to the vapors of his own experiments gave him superpowers and put him in suspended animation until the 22nd century.
And in the second Ultra-Man story, he defeats the dictator who had taken over Earth.
And that is the story of Ultra-Man…’s father. That’s right, we followed the main hero’s FATHER for the first two issues!!!
Ultra-Man appeared in 13 issues of All-American Comics and one issue of All-Star Comics, with his last appearance having a cover date of October 1940.
So pardon me for not including him in the Hero Origins retrospective: aside from his Legion connection he doesn’t seem to be more interesting than the other thousand Flash Gordon ripoffs running around at the time.
What was I talking about? Oh, right, the 100th century.
Where the ripoff heroes discover that they have their OWN ripoffs.
I don’t know if the ripoffs of the ripoffs are supposed to be a parody of edgier 90s heroes from Image and such.
The tide is turned when both More Phallic Weapon Thor and Hotter Iron Man regain their weapons.
I looked at the Golden Age Ultra-Man stories and I am incredibly sad to report that his nemesis, Star Crotch, does not appear anywhere there.
It really says something ABOUT Roger Stern’s ability as a writer that I already care about this team despite their incredible genericness.
In fact, it’s a pity that we never meet the Legion of the 100th century ever again.
Too bad that the 100th century technology seems to be LESS advanced than the 30th century’s, because those guys don’t have a time machine.
Not that it matters thanks to the Lance of Plot Convenience.
But even the lance can only take her so far.
She’s now stuck with the Linear Men, who can’t even see her.
Even worse, she’s stuck in the middle of Zero Hour.
Someone CAN hear her, though. It’s the first official appearance of the Time Trapper in this continuity.
Is the implication that Time Trapper been, well, trapped inside Zero Hour all this time?
He could be lying or speaking metaphorically though… it IS the Time Trapper.
I have absolutely no doubt that the Linear Men would do nothing to prevent the destruction of Earth… because during 5YL we saw EXACTLY that!!!
It is possible that this was meant to tease the possibility that Earth would be destroyed again in the Reboot continuity.
Remember that when XS disappeared during the first time travel story I said that I had my own theory for why she was affected differently from everyone else?
I said that because I remembered she would meet the Time Trapper in this storyline, so I theorized that HE was the reason why she jumped around time.
If only I re-read this story earlier, because Time Trapper straight up says he’s the reason!
The Time Trapper did this because apparently it’s Jenni’s destiny to change history.She w
orries that the Linear Men will oppose this, but… girl, it’s the Linear Men, these guys NEVER succeed at anything, you can sleep easy.
And with this, XS’s time travel adventure truly ends.
We will see the Time Trapper again, but don’t expect a clear explanation for exactly why doing this was important.
In fact, it’s a good rule in general to NEVER expect ANY explanation for the Time Trapper.
Legion significance: 2/10
There is SOME significance for the Time Trapper, but barely anything would change without this story.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Time travel isn’t anywhere near as easy as it used to be, and the future is a bit too dark, but there is a bit of Silver Age for just how old school the 100th century Legion feels.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I think the reason I forgot the Time Trapper’s explanation is that I barely remembered this story.
But on second reading, it’s MUCH better than I remembered.
It’s a surprisingly fast read considering it’s 38 pages that jump between four or five time periods and has to introduce a whole new setting, but it never drags and never feels like it’s skipping anything important.
Jenni is a fantastic protagonist, and having her provide the narration fits the mood of the story. I particularly appreciated the parallels of her needing to hide to Barry the truth about his future, and the 100th century heroes hiding details about their future to Jenni.
Speaking of Barry, his meeting with Jenni is short but incredibly wholesome and cute.
The biggest surprise was how much I enjoyed the 100th century. While it is as generic as I remembered, the chemistry between heroes and between them and Jenni really sold me the dynamic.
Plus having Ultra-Man as the Captain America analogue is a stroke of genius. The story doesn’t mention he’s a pre-existing character, and like I said he’s SO obscure that the only reason I discovered the connection is that it’s mentioned in a couple of wikis.
It’s a real pity we never see the 100th century Legion again. It’s not the first or last time that the concept of a team from the Legion’s future shows up, but I think this was the one with the greatest potential to be used again.
The Adult Legion was too close to avoid holding back new stories. There will be another future Legion team linked to the DC One Million crossover, but A) despite really liking the crossover, I don’t like that team at all B) the characters from that time are way too powerful to really work elsewhere.
But come on, the 100th century Legion SHOULD have made at least another appearance!