The Future: Variant C
(Hypertimeline L3)
Herein, the history of what has become known as the “threeboot” Legion, launched by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson in 2005. This version has been almost entirely devoid of internal date references, but there are just enough clues to piece together a timeline.
This version of Legion history has been heavily implied in Legion of Three Worlds #4 <6.09> to belong to “Earth-Prime,” a generally super-hero-free reality, corresponding with ours, that was also the original home of Superboy-Prime. (This also dovetails with the presence of 20th-century DC Comics in this Legion’s universe, as seen in a couple of issues.) That universe is known not to have survived the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, however, so obviously some relevant details remain unexplained. For the moment it seems prudent to continue to treat its reality as an alternate timeline.
(Future history before and after these events is assumed to match the “primary” timeline unless shown otherwise in a specific story.)
| History | Notes and References |
|---|---|
| c. 28th Century | |
| During the “Singularity Wars,” the human race voluntarily enters a technological dark age in order to cleanse the galaxy of a corrupted race of artificially intelligent robots. | Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #19 <8.06>. Date approximate; cited only as “centuries ago.” This is the century most compatible with other known future history, but these events may well be specific to this timeline. |
| early 29th Century | |
| In the aftermath of a polar axis shift (making Australia the new south pole), Bizarro-Brainiac attacks and enlarges McMurdo City in the newly fertile Antarctica—making it Big City, a city of giants, and the future home of Colossal Boy. | LSH v5 #20 <9.06>. This is almost certainly only canonical in this particular version of future history. |
| 30th Century | |
| The U.P. signs a Non-Aggression Treaty with the Dominion. | LSH v5 #27 <4.07>, #29 <6.07>. Exact date uncertain; referred to only as “decades” before the Dominators’ invasion in the Legion’s era. |
| [c. 2994] Booster Gold, time-traveling from the past in a quest to save “52 worlds” (see 2009/Yr21), steals a Dominator weapon from the Dominion homeworld. | LSH v5 #29. Described as “12 cycles” before the Dominion’s 3006 invasion, assumed for the sake of convenience to be roughly equivalent to Terran years. After this point, believing the treaty to be broken, the Dominators develop a covert program of incursions into U.P. space, using hulking soldiers genetically engineered with metahuman DNA. |
| 31st Century… | |
| The new millennium dawns with only “security, stability, and order” for the third generation in a row… as a result of which society has grown complacent and conservative, valuing protocol and decorum over the free exchange of ideas and open personal interaction. In particular, many young people are “protected” until the age of 18 by constant adult monitoring via the gene-linked “Public Service.” | LSH v5 #1 <2.05>, #6 <7.05>, and numerous other references. (This is the canonical history of what I have dubbed Hypertimeline L3. How this retconned era of “stability” dovetails with the apparently tumultuous politics of the events chronicled surrounding Bart Allen’s origin, a single generation earlier, was explained with the clarification that Bart’s history belongs to a different reality, in Legion of Three Worlds #3 <4.09>. |
| 3003 | Legion Year One |
| Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn of Braal), Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen of Titan), and Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz of Winath) form the Legion of Super-Heroes, dedicated to voicing the concerns of the “underage” generation fed up with their too-staid society. The team is headquartered on Earth, and tenuously allied with the political forces backing the fledgling United Planets. They use a “transmatter” portal to teleport to other worlds. | LSH v5 #3 <4.05>, clarifying that the familiar three founders remain the same in this version, but offering no details of the team’s origin. Date based on Triplicate Girl’s statement in the story [set c. 3005; see below] that she joined “about two years ago.” Much of this Legion’s early history has thus far been chronicled only in very sketchy form, but all available details are compiled below. |
| Drake Burroughs (converted to an anti-energy being, and dubbing himself E.R.G.-1) applies to join the Legion. He helps the three founders defeat a faminebot threatening Earth’s crops, but is dispersed when his containment suit ruptures. | LSH v5 #34 <11.07>. The founders are the only other members seen, suggesting that this occurs very early in the team’s history, and Drake himself describes it as “three years ago” in the story. The acronym stands for “Energy Release Generator.” |
| Triplicate Girl (Luornu Durgo of Cargg), sole (yet multiple) occupant of her mysteriously depopulated home planet, joins the Legion when a U.P. exploratory vessel contacts her world. | LSH v5 #3. It is implied but not stated that Luornu was the first additional member, as the three founders are the only other Legionnaires shown in the flashback. |
| Other young meta-powered individualists join the LSH, including Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox of Colu) and Star Boy (Thom Kallor of Xanthu). Brainy invents flight rings for his teammates, expensive but indispensable tools that provide (in additional to flight) environmental protection, instant communication, and shielding from the Public Service. | LSH v5 #3. These are no doubt not the only “early” Legionnnaires, but they are the only other ones shown in flashback during Lu’s first year. LSH v5 #6 <7.05> attributes the invention of the rings to Brainy alone, but #41 <6.08> states that he invented an alloy of Nth Metal called Valorium, which Invisible Kid then crafted into the rings. However, this seems inconsistent with the account of Lyle’s relatively late joining, below. |
| 3004 | Legion Year Two |
| The Legion grows quickly, and attracts a following among young people on many worlds. The first wave of new members includes Colossal Boy (Gym Allon of Earth), Chameleon (Reep Daggle of Durla), Light Lass (Ayla Ranzz of Winath, Garth’s sister), Phantom Girl (Tinya Wazzo of Bgztl), and a member seldom seen (or believed) by later inductees, Shrinking Violet/“Atom Girl” (Salu Digby of Imsk). By late this year the roster also includes Dream Girl (Nura Nal of Naltor), Element Lad (Jan Arrah of Trom), Karate Kid (Val Armorr of Earth), Princess Projectra (Wilimena Morgana Daergina Annaxandra Projectra Velorya Vauxhall of Orando), Shadow Lass (Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII), Sun Boy (Dirk Morgna of Earth), and Ultra Boy (Jo Nah of Rimbor). Projectra finances the Legion from her personal wealth. Nonmember Brin Londo of Zoon also works alongside the team, and dates Ayla for a time. Cosmic Boy serves as team leader, with Sun Boy as field leader. | LSH v5 #1-6 <2-7.05> introduces all of these, but the order of joining remains unclear. However, only the characters seen with Salu in Teen Titans/Legion Special #1 <11.04> appear to be aware of her, and can thus be presumed to have joined before she went undercover (per issue #14 <3.06>). Not all civilian names have been used in print yet, but I am assuming them to be the same as in past incarnations unless revealed otherwise (as, e.g, with Projectra in issue #6). Brin and Ayla’s past relationship is mentioned in #5 (and Val and Tasmia are also shown in flashback to have had a relationship, in #22 <11.06>). Leadership roles established in #1, #8 <9.05>. Although they are presented as “underagers,” specific ages for these characters are never provided in-story. This is most likely the general time period from which this Legion was drawn to the “forgotten” first meeting of the Legions of Three Worlds [see 2980], as described in L3W #3 <4.09>. The roster shown in that issue’s recap features only nine members of this team—the founders, along with Brainy, Thom, Reep, Nura, Ayla, and Projectra. |
| After a year with the Legion, Luornu makes a return visit to her homeworld… but finds herself rejected by her “other selves.” | LSH v5 #3 |
| The Legionnaires attract positive attention when they save the U.P. Council from an “intraterrorist attack.” | TT/L Special #1. Date is speculative; this event is only mentioned in passing. |
| [Midyear] The paramilitary Science Police, fed up with the growing Legion movement, attempt to raze LSH Headquarters Plaza, but are stopped by the throngs of young supporters who block their machines. | LSH v5 #1; referred to as “six months ago” at that point. Note that the S.P. “has been protecting sentient civilization for generations,” per General Toling4rd in issue #5; they work alongside but “do not answer to” the newer U.P. government. |
| The Legion resolves the “fusionstrike case.” | LSH v5 #1. Date is speculative; this event is only mentioned in passing. |
| The Legion saves most of IndoJapan from a Psi-Plague. | TT/L Special #1; referred to as “last month” as of that story, below. |
| [Late 3004] Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg of Earth) is recruited by Brainiac 5 to be the Legion’s latest member. On the same day, his teammates-to-be defeat a rogue Macrobot; the Legion is outlawed on Daxam; and the team defies the U.P. Council to stop an armed adult counter-rebellion on Lallor (a non-U.P. world). | LSH v5 #1. Although no age is stated, Lyle appears to be somewhat younger than most of his teammates, above. |
| After a fight with his authoritarian father, Lyle leaves home for good to live with the Legion. Meanwhile, Shikari (from the Legion of Htl. L2; see 3001) finds herself “relocated” into this reality. | TT/L Special #1. This story (introducing the “new” 31st Century) must actually follow LSH v5 #1, in which many other members (seen here) have not yet met Lyle. Shikari apparently returns to limbo at some later point, as she is seeking her L2 teammates there in Infinite Crisis and L3W. |
| The Legion rescues the U.P. Council from a covert assassin. One week later, they stop the authorities on Naltor from blocking underagers’ precognitive dreams via the Public Service, and Dream Girl foresees a looming interstellar war. | LSH v5 #2 <3.05>. In this issue Brainy quotes a remark by Val as “Karate Kid, 3004,” thus dating not only this but a whole range of earlier events. (Dates were few in the run of this series, but it largely continued to honor internal chronological consistency, rather than a spurious connection to publication date.) |
| 3005 | Legion Year Three |
| Triplicate Girl stops the arsonist Phaxred. She then goes on simultaneous dates with Jan, Dirk, and Jo, reflecting on her own history with the team… and secretly scoping out each one for information to pass along to Cosmic Boy. | LSH v5 #3. This is the likeliest place (although unconfirmed) for the break between years, as team members are shown herein investigating Rimworld 19, leading into issue #5 [below] and a fairly rapid succession of events thereafter. |
| The S.P. attempts to outlaw flight rings and arrest the Legion, but backs off when Lyle strikes a deal with his father, head of the Northam S.P. The blood sample Lyle provides soon winds up in the hands of the mysterious Praetor Lemnos, but also allows Brainy to sneak a informational bug into the U.P. systemworks. | LSH v5 #4 <5.05> |
| [May 2] On the mostly evacuated Rimworld 19, Garth, Imra, and Brin encounter the culprits responsible for the planet’s devastation: the “Terror Firma” team, led by one Elysion. Brin pursues them back to their base in “Otherspace.” | LSH v5 #5 <6.05>; the story provides a “datestamp 5.2.3005.” |
| The Legion closes a dimensional rift on the planet Rokyn. | LSH v5 #6, referred to as “last week” in the main story. How this rift connects with the presence of (a version of) Kandor on Rokyn, as revealed in issue #23, is open to speculation. |
| Terror Firma launch a surprise attack on Orando, the economic hub of the U.P., and kill Projectra’s father King Voxv. Soon after, Praetor Lemnos reveals himself to Brainiac 5, explaining that he is using Terror Firma to foment a war because “peace… has paralyzed societal progress”… but he uses his memory-evading power to make Brainy forget the encounter. | LSH v5 #6 |
| Brainy discovers “Colu is next”; he and a group of teammates arrive too late to stop his homeworld from being intellectually regressed to barbarity, but they do encounter (and remember) Praetor Lemnos. Meanwhile, Cosmic Boy, feeling his leadership challenged, covertly searches Brainy’s lab. | LSH v5 #7 <8.05> |
| Sun Boy tries to quit the Legion, leading to an open schism on the team between those loyal to Cosmic Boy and a faction supporting Brainy as leader. Meanwhile, Braal decides to secede from the U.P. | LSH v5 #8 <9.05>. Several other seceding worlds are mentioned, but only Thanagar is named. |
| The Legion confronts Terra Firma on the planet Helegyn. | LSH v5 #9 <10.05>. Imra’s mother is revealed to work at U.P. headquarters on Earth. |
| With Elysion captured, Rokk and Brainy mend fences and try to rally the troops for the threat ahead. They determine Earth is one of three strategically key planets, and send squads to the others, Dormir and Ttrxl. When suicide bombers attack Legion Plaza, though, Elysion escapes, destroying the team’s headquarters… and killing Dream Girl. | LSH v5 #10 <11.05> |
| With the help of Lyle and the previously hidden Atom Girl, Brainy takes out Elysion. Meanwhile Rokk convinces the Dormirans to lend their communications infrastructure, and converts the “Public Service” into Legion Channel One… rallying underagers across the galaxy. With the Ttrxl team cutting off the Transmatter network, a third Legion team takes the battle to the warmongering Lemnos on his baseworld—narrowly saving the entire United Planets. | LSH v5 #11-13 <12.05-2.06> |
| At the urging of Ambassador Sydne Ardeen, Imra’s mother, the U.P. officially sanctions the Legion as an autonomous law-enforcement organization, equal in status to the Science Police. | LSH v5 #14 <3.06> |
| 3006 | Legion Year Four |
| The team tries to stop an abandoned Dominator weapon hurtling toward Earth, only to have it destroyed at the last moment by Supergirl, who has mysteriously appeared from the past (see 2008/Yr20). She soon helps defeat a dangerous emergent A.I., as well, and the founders offer her membership. (Brin has also joined, in the aftermath of the recent crisis, as Timber Wolf.) | LSH v5 #16-17 <5-6.06> [retitled Supergirl and- through issue #36 <1.08>]. Supergirl has arrived in the future as a side-effect of Infinite Crisis. The transition to 3006 is speculative, but this seems to be an opportune moment for it, given the correspondence to the “One Year Later” event in the mainstream DCU titles at this time. It is certainly the case by issue #34, below. |
| Supergirl helps the team avert an underground robot rebellion, while Naltor sends Dream Boy (Rol Purtha) as a replacement for the deceased Dream Girl—whose consciousness Brainy is still trying to preserve. | LSH v5 #18-19 <7-8.06> |
| As EarthGov unveils the new Legion HQ, the team takes on a group of supersized teens from Big City (see 29th C.) attacking cities around Earth—while Brainy fails at reviving Dream Girl, but successfully grants her soul access to his own unconscious. | LSH v5 #20-21 <9-10.06> |
| The Legion takes Supergirl to the planet Rokyn, where Kandor was enlarged, to meet fellow Kryptonians—but her main reaction is culture shock. Meanwhile, her teammates are attacked by the Wanderers (attacking in the open for the first time, although they have been behind other recent events). Back on Earth, the team discovers Mon-El and frees him from the Zone, while the Wanderers (led by Mekt Ranzz) attack Legion HQ. This confrontation is interrupted, however, when a Dominator techno-virus disables all technology on Earth, paving the way for a devastating invasion. The Legion and Wanderers, working together, fend it off by counter-attacking the Dominion homeworld via a transmatter gate, and sending the entire planet (and Mon-El, once again) into the Phantom Zone. | LSH v5 #22-30 <11.06-7.07>. The Wanderers are actually a U.P. covert ops team, sent to investigate suspected Dominator incursions. The techno-virus was seeded by the “rogue” weapon Supergirl stopped, above. It is not clear what reality or timeline this version of Mon-El comes from: he’s semi-amnesiac, but remembers being sent into the Zone by “someone with an ‘S’ on his or her chest” [thus seemingly precluding the L4 version presented in Action Annual #10 <2007>, with a noncostumed Clark Kent—see 1979], but who also “called [him] Mon-El” [thus likewise precluding the L2 version presented post-Zero Hour but pre-IC, in Superboy v4 #19 <9.95>, in which he was called Valor—see 2002 in Htl. L2]. Nor can he be the L1 version, whose history is entirely accounted for. His backstory actually seems closest to the version from the pre-Crisis reality (as told in Superboy v1 #89 <6.61>)—which no longer exists, and which had a Legion very different from this one. Only two incarnations of Lar Gand appear in L3W, the L2 and L4 versions, so no clarity can be found there. (It is also not clear whether the Phantom Zone is a single limbo dimension that links multiple parallel realities/timelines, or whether each version of the Legion has its own separate Zone.) |
| Brainy invents a “Chronexus,” allowing Supergirl to view her cousin in the 21st Century of “New Earth” (and parallel-world variations thereof). | Action #850 <7.07> |
| The Legion holds its first open leadership election, and Supergirl wins by a landslide. Meanwhile, Cosmic Boy is summoned to the future (see 41st Century) by the mysterious Knights Tempus. | LSH v5 #30 [epilogue]. Nothing is as yet known about the Knights Tempus. |
| Brainy coaxes Supergirl into launching a “Quest for Cosmic Boy,” sending out three missions: one in which Mekt Ranzz helps defeat the Validus Cult on his homeworld of Ranzz (while luring Sun Boy back into active duty), one that frees Drake Burroughs (formerly E.R.G.-1, now Wildfire) from the corrupt influence of his brother Randall, an anti-U.P. rebel on Lallor; and one that sends Supergirl home (see 2009/Yr21) via a Chronexus portal perfected by Evolvo-Lad (Sev Tcheru). In the process, he also clears Rokk’s name of war crimes charges brought by EarthGov prosecutor Tenzil Kem of Bismoll. Rokk, however, remains missing. | LSH v5 #31-36 <8.07-1.08>. Tenzil has his familiar matter-eating powers, but does not take any role in the Legion itself. In #34 <11.07> Drake describes his first attempt to join the early Legion as “three years ago” [see 3003], confirming that this story definitely takes place in 3006. |
| The Legion encounters a time-displaced Batman from the 21st century (see 2010/Yr22), and helps him keep a cosmic weapon called a Haruspex free from the control of the Luck Lords and the Fatal Five. | Brave & Bold v4 #3-6 <6-10.07>, referenced also by Batman in Action #864 <6.08> as one of three versions of the Legion he has met. |
| The Legion confronts a widespread series of attacks by mysterious techno-organic monsters from outside the galaxy, fighting desperate battles from the edge of the Solar System, to Neptune’s moon Triton, to Talok VIII, to Rimbor. Meanwhile, new factions in control of EarthGov in the wake of the Dominator war use their influence against the Legion, blocking its funding, disposessing Projectra of her family fortune, and creating a new team of “U.P. Young Heroes” recruited from rejected Legion applicants. A young genius called M’Rissey steps in, however, to help the team solve its political problems (and gets them new uniforms in the process), earning an appointments as the Legion’s business manager. | LSH v5 #37- 44<2.08-9.08>. This marks the beginning of Jim Shooter’s contemporary run on the title, and his story arc to this point covers a grand total of only three days in story time. The M’rissey character is a tribute to dedicated comics fan Rich Morrissey. |
| Brainiac 5 and selected teammates defend the solar system from the gravitational effects of a mysterious rogue planet, which he connects to the “alien destroyers” they’ve been fighting—discovering that both are merely physical “avatars” of beings who actually live a virtual existence in cyberspace, courtesy of a universal-scale “Infinity Net.” Seeking new recruits, the Legion admits Gazelle (Giselle Smith of Triton) and formally readmits Sun Boy, while accepting Night Girl (Lydda Jath of Kathoon), Sizzle (Teela Spuunvll of Abaddonus), and Turtle (Bogdan Tarpa of Doopa) only as reservists. Meanwhile Projectra, increasingly alienated, hatches a plan to get revenge on the Legion and the U.P. for the destruction of her homeworld, attacking Phantom Girl when she is discovered and disappearing, with Timber Wolf on her trail. When the virtual aliens launch a large-scale attack, Brainy digitizes a team to take the attack to their home realm, using code tweaks by Invisible Kid to take control of the Infinity Net and defuse the attack. He restores the virtual team—and also builds a new body for Dream Girl, who had survived in the dream realm linked to his mind, and they announce their plans to marry. | LSH v5 #45-50 <10.08-3.09>. Jim Shooter’s entire run on the series covers a span of only about three weeks. He had planned a longer story arc running through issue 54, but the series was cancelled out from under him. The abrupt final issue was done by an anonymous writer (“Justin Thyme”) and a substitute artist. In the words of Dan DiDio when asked what happened, “Well, first of all, that is a pseudonym, it's done by request of the author and we really don't talk about it. We finished and cancelled and put the book out the door.” |
| Additional Legion adventures remain unchronicled. | The final issue left several loose ends dangling. In particular, it’s not at all clear what happened with Projectra, although she apparently reconciled with her teammates somehow. Cosmic Boy also remains lost in the 41st century, unbeknownst to his fellow Legionnaires (except presumably Luornu and Val, who likewise disappeared into time in #43). Garth and Imra’s relationship was also left on the rocks. |
| The Legion is pulled into the New Earth reality, alongside the L2 team, to help the L4 team combat a combined assault from a revived Legion of Super-Villains, Superboy-Prime, and the Time Trapper. In the process several members die, but they successfully revive Bart (Kid Flash) Allen and Conner (Superboy) Kent. | Legion of Three Worlds #1-5 <10.08-8.09>. The roster that appears includes Projectra and Sun Boy, but does not include Gazelle, Dream Girl, or the seldom-seen Dream Boy. It also omits Cosmic Boy, but curiously includes Triplicate Girl and Karate Kid. |