The Legion #34 - Another Childhood's End

Released June 30, 2004
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Childhood's End

Keith Champagne - Writer
Steve Lightle - Art
Sno Cone - Colors
Bill Oakley - Letters
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

In the Anti-matter universe, the world Qward sits, burnt out and wasted by two factions, the Weaponers and the Thunderers.  Lord Thalon stands as the savior of Qward weilding an energy that makes him a god among them. In his palace, Thalon's son Vox wants to learn more, but Thalon is a harsh father and ruler, brutally torturing any who stand in his way.  

Thalon steals inside a genetically secure chamber and it is revealed that Thalon's secret is that he's captured Wildfire across universes and is somehow siphoning off his energy to rule the land.  Vox plays at being a conqueror when he stumbles upon the Legionnaire rescue party: Shikari, Umbra, Chameleon, Invisible Kid and Karate Kid.  Vox turns and runs for help, evading the Legionnaires "Stealth" Squad.

He then appeals to Thalon's guards to help, but they would rather see the Vox dead.  The Legionnaires intervene and stop the guards, but not before Vox, with the same genetic signature as Thalon, steals into the secret chamber. The ruckus has attrackted more guards and the Legion begins to fight for their lives.  Inside the chamber, Thalon attempts to kill Vox, but gains enough time for Thalon to take a look at what's going on outside. After Thalon leaves, Wildfire asks Vox for help.  

In the outside fight, Thalon takes out the Legionnaires easily.  Wildfire explains the situation to Vox: Thalon has been using Wildfire as a battery, and draining him. Thalon kills his remaining guards, so as to have no witnesses when he murders the Legionnaires.  Karate Kid, however, recovers and attacks Thalon.  Vox realizes that his father is a fake and hits him with a thunderbolt.  Wildfire escapes from his containment, showing himself as a radiant, angelic figure. Thalon attacks Wildfire with the power previously drained, which does nothing.  Vox murders Thalon.

Invisible Kid tries to pick up the peices as Shikari and Wildfire make eyes at each other. Invisible Kid tries to reason with Vox, but apparently morals are as opposite as energy in this universe, with him rejecting the Legionnaires in complete hatred and sending them on their way.  Later he mulls on the hatred he feels for the Legion for returning his world to darkness.

Back on Legion World, Brainiac 5 is analyzing Wildfire, who in the "real" universe is just an amorphous blob of energy.  Brainy gives Wildfire the bad news: Thalon's energy drain has been slowly sapping his total energy, and now any energy expenditure will bring Wildfire closer to death.

Commentary

So here we are in the first post-DnA issue, a one-shot.  Once I got past the first speed bump of the story taking place in an "anti-matter universe" I enjoyed the story for the most part, with a couple exceptions.  Anti-matter is always depicted in sci-fi as something that creates universal annihilation when both come in contact, so I had to fight with that one a bit.  But the story turns nicely with a nasty anatagonist in Thalon, and his clone child Vox, whom up until the end is shown to have the opportunity to be a heroic leader but in an anti-universe where hate is common currency opposite compassion, he is left as a potential future enemy of the Legion.  We are dropped in media res where Thalon has somehow, somewhen captured Wildfire across universes and has been bleeding him for an unknown period of time. The conflict for the most part is well done, with the red herring of Vox potentially being heroic at the end being drawn out - he's more of an anti-hero, willing to kill his 'father' for his own ends versus the greater good. Where I had an issue with the plot specifically was that I didn't understand, outside of the "crazy" excuse, why Thalon killed his guards after defeating the Legionnaires. It seemed as if that was all done so Thalon could monologue about him recognizing who they were and thus have no witnesses.  Don't we have thought ballons?  The end result - Wildfire in the real world is back to his amorphous self and setting a limit on Wildfire's power is an interesting move that sets up some provocative situations in the future, where he could literally drain himself out of existence.  Alas that was never to pan out. 

Steve Lightle's art is great here.  We've become used to Batista, but Lightle is a good option here with a lot of shade used in this dark world of Qward.  The only issue I had was Umbra's costume - in here the offset design in her bottoms is colored almost so that it looks like she has a hole in her pants.  Shikari and Drake making eyes at each other was cute - and I'm sorry, no one can tell me with a straight face that Shikari wasn't supposed to be Dawnstar in this universe.

Other notes

"Childhood's End" is, of course, the name of the Clarke classic, but was also used in DnA's first part of "Legion of the Damned" which was their second full regular Legion title, but now the first title without them as writers.  Here, it refers to both Vox's awakening of his father's vulnerabilities, but also Wildfire's realization that he has a time limit on life.

It's not stated specifically, but it is quite obvious that these people reproduce by some kind of cloning mechanism.  

Cham transforming into a Hykraian was a nice touch.  

Surprised they didn't go full espionage sqad here and bring Vi, Triad and Apparition. 

My only issue with the Wildfire resolution was that, as I understand it, Wildfire has been in his current state for millenia. Thalon must have been using a TON of energy to affect Wildfire in that much of an energy drain, but we aren't shown what a lot of that energy was used for other than to have Thalus blast a bunch of folks. Cold and dead Qward doesn't look much different than Wildfire powered Qward.  Its a tiny nit to pick, though, as I liked the tense situation where it left Wildfire.

Grade - A- Nice, well drawn, self contained story issue.