Comics Archeology

Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #83 (1996)
written by Tom Peyer
pencils by Lee Moder & Mike Collins
cover by Alan Davis

Someone is not happy to have been out of the spotlight.

We last left the Legion and Workforce fighting Dr. Regulus, who has taken control of McCauley’s world-plant.

And he’s quite effective despite having been blinded in his first storyline.
Neat to see his “heat-vision” here, but those are some weird details on the Legionnaires.
Notice Chameleon is apparently much colder than humanoids.

Surprisingly considering this is Regulus, the biggest threat is not from the heat: it’s the extremely toxic liquid that McCauley uses in the plant.
(a quick research suggests “dichloraxin” is a made-up name)

If you’re wondering why the plant has so much super-toxic chemicals… do I need to remind you that McCauley is a trillionaire?

Good thing that Apparition’s ghost is around to act as Ultra Boy’s brain.

Nobody else can see Apparition at the moment, including Triad.
Who for reasons that will become apparent soon now has three completely different bodies for her three very distinct personalities.

This stuff is so dangerous that even a Transuit™ won’t save you.

Only Sun Boy and Inferno keep fighting, with everyone else retreating.

This is when we learn what’s happened to Triad: every Legionnaire is getting a wish.
Including Purple Triad’s wish to be her own person and be the strongest duplicate, Orange Triad’s wish to still be a kid, Cosmic Boy’s wish to be Saturn Girl’s boyfriend…

…which apparently doesn’t conflict with XS’s wish to be HIS girlfriend.

The one Legionnaire who doesn’t seem to have been affected is Leviathan, who is still haunted by the death of Kid Quantum to push himself to stop Sun Boy from being killed.

On the bright side, Sun Boy’s wish to be normal again is also granted.

The wishing effect has reached Legion HQ as well, with Gates finally finding people interested in his political speeches.

On a MUCH darker note, Element Lad is being tempted to kill himself.

Good thing that Saturn Girl is around to dissuade him.

And just in case it wasn’t obvious enough that SOMETHING is up, Live Wire suddenly has both arms again.

Regulus has absorbed so much energy from the planet that he turns into a giant (!!!), and he threatens to destroy the Legion Cruiser before the planet becomes completely uninhabitable.

Which naturally requires Leviathan.

After all that talk about the toxic chemical, it proves to be the one thing Regulus can’t defend himself against.

Unfortunately, Leviathan is just as vulnerable to it.

Violet rushes to help… keeping the rest of the Legion away.

Leviathan’s wish has been granted… at the cost of his life.

That’s the final straw for Shrinking Violet.

Or perhaps I should say… Empress Violet.

Sounds better than Violet Empress or Shrinking Empress.

Legion significance: 10/10
This will have HUGE repercussions on the entire Legion; Violet and Kinetix in particular, but it will also kick off the Emerald Violet storyline AND the whole reason why I’ve called this era Legion Divided.
It’s also the reason why I reviewed Showcase ’96 #8 right before this, due to Leviathan’s role.
That’s right: he’s going to actually stay dead for the rest of this continuity.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I wish the story had been less blatant about the wishes being granted, and spoiling the use of the Emerald Eye on the cover. But also the wish stuff means that nearly every Legionnaire in this is not him/herself.
At least Leviathan does get the chance to redeem himself and get a hero’s death.
Although, as noble as his sacrifice was… that was kind of a dumb way to attack Regulus, wasn’t it?
I’ll give him the benefit of being in a rush, but… he was BEHIND Regulus when he approached him with the acid pipe, couldn’t he have sprayed him from behind instead of wrestling over control of the pipe? As far as “die to save the whole team” scenes go, that was pretty lame as his last act.
Also, Regulus is going to stay dead just like him. I’m ambivalent about this… making Regulus survive would’ve cheapened the sacrifice, but the Legion doesn’t have a ton of recurring supervillains with that much tradition. Plus I don’t think that, in this, continuity, Regulus ever got the chance to shine. Pun intendd.

Who did it better?
Because Kid Quantum died kind of in vain, Leviathan is the first Legionnaire in the Reboot to die in order to save the day.
Which is a very unfortunate comparison for him, as this doesn’t hit nowhere near as hard as Ferro Lad’s death.
Well, at least in terms of reading this story. In terms of impacting the team, it’s close!

We are legion