Once the Legion managed to force the dread lord Darkseid, it was time for the story to take a beat and for most of the Legionnaires to take a little rest and relaxation.

The first story concerns the imminent break up of Light Lass and Timber Wolf, in which Legionnaire Blok insists that Timber Wolf sit with him and watch an old hologram tape of the Legion’s first encounter with the Green Lantern Corps.

In this story, “The Origin of the Universe” file we discover a little precursor of a big story to be happening later in the DCU.  We visit the early Legion with Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Triplicate Girl, and Colossal Boy as tehy come upon the Time Institute which is on fire.

Circadia Senius, the chief scientist at the Time Institute explains it all,

“Our time viewer was ready for the ULTIMATE K-K-KLIK— TEST… TURNED TO K-K-CALL up the BEGINNING OF THE UNIVERSE ITSELF.  We saw it– a massive hand, K-K-CRADLING our galaxy– And so we went back FURTHER— and K-K-KLIK, then it HAPPENED.  A BOLT–K-K-KLIK LIKE LIGHTNING FROM NOWHERE– SHATTERING OUR WORK!  K-K-KLIK—AS THOUGH WE WERE NOT PERMITTED TO SEE MORE!”

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen is the origin of the DCUniverse in just a nutshell, and we will be coming back to this moment again and again.  Here it is, so innocuous, and in a flashback story.

As the Legion helps Circadia Senius repair the damage and they prepare the experiment again they are interrupted by the Guardians of the Universe as they take the Time Institute off planet through the power of three Green Lanterns.  The Legion remarks that they have not seen a Green Lantern on Earth in years.  The Green Lanterns confirm that it has been centuries (so at least 2785) that a GL has been on Earth.

Of special note is one of the Green Lanterns is named Vidar.  Those of you following the Legion posts know that there is an Honorary Legoinnaire named Rond Vidar, whose father is the Legion villain Universo.  Yes, this Green Lantern is that very same Universo, just earlier in his career.

As the more headstrong Legionnaires fight the Green Lanterns, Saturn Girl contacts the Guardians telepathically for an audience.  The Guardians explain the reason for their interference.

One of their number, Krona, had violated the one taboo, looking back at the beginning of time… this unleashed a great evil upon a once peaceful universe.  This is what created the Guardians of the Universe, taking responsibility for one of their number’s transgressions, they built the Green Lantern Corps, and vowed to prevent anyone from discovering the secrets of the universe.

The Guardians return the Time Institute, with the promise that the United Planets never again try to discover the origins of the universe and the Green Lanterns will leave the United Planets alone.  Except the Legion comes across Vidar discovering the secrets of the Universe, which of course, they stop.  Vidar becomes a disgraced Lantern.  All is right with the Universe, for now.

During the flashback there have been vignettes between Timber Wolf, Light Lass, and Blok.  Mostly, these set up the eventually stage for Timber Wolf saying to Light Lass that the Legion is his home and he doesn’t want to leave.  Light Lass says she does want to leave, and she does so.  Alone.

In the next issue, What Do You Do On The Day After Doomsday, is a “lets catch up with our heroes some”

  • Page 1 & 2 – Mon-El and Shadow Lass continue their interrupted vacation time.  Mon-El appears to have recovered from his Great Darkness injuries and is taking Shady to a secluded section of the Universe called Asteroid Archipelago.
  • Page 3 – Blok is showing White Witch around the headquarters.
  • Page 4 – A party scene where we see Element Lad, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Sun Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Light Lass, Shrinking Violet, and Colossal Boy who are joined by Blok and the White Witch.   Lightning Lad has fully recovered from that strange electric fever, Sun Boy informs Phantom Girl of his hobby (women), to which Phantom Girl dumps her glass on top of his head.  Dream Girl interrupts the festivities with an emergency call.
  • Page 5 – 7 – The Legion is called to the site of a mini nuclear bomb, a firebombing, that has occurred.  While they Legion tries to help, the massive casualty count of the people affects Phantom Girl.  Then someone says “D…Dirk?”  Sun Boy recognizes the burnt boy, as Pol, Cosmic Boy’s little brother who will soon become Magnetic Kid.
  • Page 8 – Light Lass and Saturn Girl have a parting of the ways, clearing up the air about the asteroid incident.
  • Page 9 – As Light Lass departs, Timber Wolf enters.  His personality has become gruffer since the break up.  Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet’s romance heats up as Duplicate Boy of the Heroes of Lallor watches from afar via Superboy’s telescopic vision.
  • Page 10 – 12 – The Legion pursue the firebombers and capture most of them.
  • Page 13 – Queen Projectra and Karae Kid are on Earth doing royal business.  Karate Kid proposes marriage to his Queen.
  • Page 14 – Brainiac Five and Invisible Kid II are working to help save Matter-Eater Lad’s sanity, when Invisible Kid II is called away for a mission.
  • Page 15 – Wildfire, Dawnstar, Blok, Invisible Kid II, and White Witch are the newest Legionnaires and are going on a mission to the Asteroid Archipelago (see Page 1-2)
  • Page 16 – 17 – The Legion’s investigation of the firebomber’s continues.
  • Page 18 – Chameleon Boy is released from Takron-Galtos for helping contain the madness on the prison planet during the Great Darkness Saga.  However, he finds his powers no longer working.
  • Page 19 – 21 – The Legion round up the last of the Firebombers.
  • Page 22 – Cosmic Boy and Night Girl are returning from helping the people of Daxam re-terraform their planet after Darkseid made them all remake it in his image.
  • Page 23 – Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet are dancing the night away, while far off, Duplicate Boy seethes.

The next issue features a spotlight, the first one since Wildfire’s, and this one is Cosmic Boy.  Usually the calmest, the “Rock/Rokk” of the Legion if you will, he has gone quite angry seeing his neighborhood bombed.  The Legion and Night Girl are forced to subdue him before he kills the firebombers.

We see how Rokk was actually born on Earth, not Braal, but his parents moved back to Braal once his dad’s job ended on Earth.  We see his younger brother Pol come along and at 14 Rokk left Braal to pursue his destiny as a man.  Along the way he founded and became the first leader of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Night Girl tells of how she fell in love with him from afar and pursued Rokk to no end, including having her father give her superpowers all her own and joining the Legion of Substitute Heroes to be close to him.    Rokk grows tired of waiting and breaks into the hospital records.. he discovers that his father and brother are doing fairly well given the circumstances, but his mother has died.

Rokk asks Night Girl to forgive him, as he knocks her out with a sudden attack of metal hitting her head.  Cosmic Boy ifnores his flight ring and instead flies on the magnetic current of the Earth itself, moving faster than he has ever done before.  He finds the firebombers in the midst of transport and begins to turn the iron in their blood against them.  As the criminals scream in agony, Rokk’s mother appears as an image in her son’s consciousness and tells him “NO!”

Rokk stops his assault and leaves.  Sadder, but still with integrity.

Next Up:  A romantic triangle explodes, a dead Legionnaire comes back, and a Legionnaire destined to die.. just might.  More Legion in a few!