Glorithverse

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Overview

The "Glorithverse" era of the Legion of Super-Heroes was published between 1989 and 1994. The stories that encompass this era were published in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #1 through Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #61, in Legionnaires #1 through Legionnaires #18, and in various other titles.

As a shorthand, some fans call this era "Volume 4" or "v4" even though volume 4 of Legion of Super-Heroes continued from Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #0 and Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #62 through Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #125. The first half of this era is known by some by the initials "TMK", named for its initial creators, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum, and Keith Giffen.

Technically, the first four issues of Legion of Super-Heroes volume 4 fall under the Post-Crisis continuity. However, a continuity reset that occurs in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #5 does not negate most of what appears in those first four issues. Additionally, a five-year time jump that occurs before Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #1 creates a substantial break from the previous volume. Therefore, those first four issues are included under the "Glorithverse" category. For more information about the continuity reset and the time jump, see the next section.

Big changes

The "Glorithverse" Legion of Super-Heroes diverges from the previous incarnation of the team in two profound ways:

A new history

A limited timeline of this new Legion history is reprinted in 2995: The Legion of Super-Heroes Sourcebook, and fans have had to fill in the gaps. In addition to creating a new member of the early team whole cloth (Kid Quantum), the creative team made other tweaks to existing storylines in an attempt to clear up some inconsistencies over the previous 30-plus years of published Legion comics. For purposes of a timeline, the writers set the Magic Wars story in Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #60 to Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #63 in 2989, 1,000 years after the stories were published, and extrapolated years from there. Articles mentioned in this category use these years.

The following is a partial year-by-year timeline of Legion history:

Before 2973

  • The Durlan from L.E.G.I.O.N. is sent through time from the 20th century to the 30th century. He eventually becomes R.J. Brande.

2973: Year One

2974: Year Two

2975: Year Three

2976: Year Four

2977: Year Five

2978: Year Six

2979: Year Seven

2980: Year Eight

  • Valor is leader for the first half of the year, Ultra Boy the second. Element Lad is deputy under Valor. Ultra Boy appoints rotating deputies.
  • Timber Wolf is presumed dead in the explosion of Asteroid X-52.

2981: Year Nine

2982: Year 10

2983: Year 11

2984: Year 12

2985: Year 13

2986: Year 14

2987: Year 15

  • Leadership elections are delayed as Universo takes control of Earth and the Legion itself. Universo is defeated, and Saturn Girl returns to active status.
  • Polar Boy is elected leader for an extended term with Element Lad as deputy.
  • The Legion travels to the 20th century to seek out Superboy. During the adventure, they admit Superboy into the Legion and discover that the Time Trapper has created a Pocket Universe. In the end, Superboy sacrifices his life.

2988: Year 16

2989: Year 17

2990 through late 2994

This period is known as the Five Year Gap. The Legion eventually disbands, its members spread about the galaxy. It ends when Reep Daggle (the former Chameleon Boy) approaches a depowered Rokk Krinn (Cosmic Boy) on Braal and proposes a new Legion.

A new start

A new Legion team was formed in late 2994, and their adventures continue through the End of an Era storyline until Zero Hour. With some exceptions, this era features no super-heroic code names.

Members

For a list of members of this new Legion, go here.

The temporal duplicates of the Legion created in 2977 eventually surface and form their own team. For more information, see SW6 Batch. For a list of members, go here.

Storylines

Major storylines and events include the following:

See also and Category:Glorithverse storylines.

Major retcons

As a result of the continuity restart in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #5, a number of changes were made to Legion history retroactively to "fix" stories that no longer made sense. The creators also made some changes based on their own theories and story ideas. The following changes fit into both categories:

  • After the Pocket Universe storyline in Legion of Super-Heroes' v3 #37 and Legion of Super-Heroes' v3 #38, Superboy was largely written out of the Legion timeline. By the early days of volume 4, the existence of Mon-El (specifically, the "-El" name) became a problem. An editorial mandate forced the creators to find a solution. This solution became the Mordruverse reboot and the creation of the Valor character. The inclusion of Valor, and the character of Laurel Gand to take the place of Supergirl, made necessary other changes to Legion history. Specifically, any story with Superboy in it set before Mon-El's release from the Bgztl Buffer Zone did not include Superboy at all. Any story after that replaced Superboy with Valor or Mon-El with Valor. Any story with Supergirl now included Laurel Gand in her place. As for stories that included both Mon-El and Superboy or stories that featured visits to the 20th century, it's a little less clear how the new stories worked.
  • The basic Pocket Universe storyline remains as-is. The Legion does travel to the past to find Superboy. They find out that the Time Trapper created the Pocket Universe. Superboy sacrifices his life to save the universe. Eventually, the Pocket Universe ceases to be. This story remains most likely because the Pocket Universe was essential to Superman continuity (the origin of the Matrix Supergirl and the execution of the Kryptonian criminals).
  • Many of the United Planets worlds were "seeded" by Valor before he went into the Bgztl Buffer Zone for 1,000 years. Additionally, Valor was in the Bgztl Buffer Zone and not the Phantom Zone.
  • Kid Quantum retroactively became one of the Legion's first members and its first member to die. (More than 20 years later, his death was revealed to be faked.) His death spurs the Legion to refuse membership to heroes who must rely on devices for their powers.
  • Ultra Boy is a lot smarter than he looks. This may have already been true, but it became a major plot point in the Glorithverse era. During his initiation into the Legion, Ultra Boy stumbles upon proof of Glorith's machinations. As a result, he acts dumb while helping prevent Glorith from gaining total power. For example, he secretly goads Mordru and Glorith into fighting each other, a battle that severely weakened both. When Glorith learned of Ultra Boy's knowledge, she faked the death of his beloved Phantom Girl, sending her instead to 2996 and sending Phantom Girl's cousin, Enya, to the 20th century.
  • The "conspiracy" storyline, which was originally predicated on the death of Superboy, became instead a revenge plot after Glorith destroys Daxam.
  • When members of the Legion, along with Proty I, Chameleon Boy's Antaran "pet," performed a ceremony to restore the life of Lightning Lad, Lightning Lad was not actually revived to his old self. Instead, Proty I's life essence was transferred to Lightning Lad's body. The SW6 version of Lightning Lad, later known as Live Wire, appears to be more impulsive than the Proty Lightning Lad that lived during that time, implying perhaps that the original Lightning Lad's personality was a lot more aggressive than the Proty I personality.
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