Save me, Space Cabbie!

It's "The End," but not the last issue, if you follow. From 1992, Legion of Super-Heroes #38, "Requiem" Plot and breakdowns by Keith Giffen, dialogue and story assist by Tom and Mary Bierbaum, pencils and story assist by Jason Pearson, inks by Karl Story.

A little over halfway through the run of the "Five Years Later" Legion, and earth was in pretty bad shape: the Dominators had infiltrated and taken over the government, and were only recently defeated after a long and bloody struggle. They had detonated hundreds of "power-spheres," killing thousands and leaving the rest without power; and the moon had previously been destroyed in a crossover with Superman. (Incidentally, not unlike when I posted that one, there is a ton of snow here now!) But there was a new, old factor: 24th century earth science had created tons of a toxic waste called "proton jelly," which had been sealed up and buried for centuries, until the Dominators used them to keep their genetic experiments. When a "renegade resistance fighter" sets off the chambers self-destruct, it dumps the proton jelly into the earth, dooming it.

I always forget the resistance fighter bit: I think that and the proton jelly were to put the blame for earth's demise on earth, not the Doms. Even two Brainiac 5's can't solve the problem: there was the supposed original, and the younger version from the Dominators' SW6 batch. And that's about all the Legion gets to do for the rest of this one, as 102 cities are launched to safety. 95 would make it to link up to form the artificial New Earth, and take refuge in the "Bgztl Buffer Region," home of Phantom Girl, who would be MIA for almost all of this series. (Both PG's fate and the SW6 question would be wrapped up in the "End of an Era" crossover, just before the Zero Hour reboot.)

This issue might get a bit of a bump in the price guides, since it features a cameo from Death; as upwards of two billion die when earth explodes. Is this the darkest moment in the "Five Years Later" Legion? By quantity, maybe. The tie-in/spin-off book Legionnaires was just a couple of months away, focusing mostly on the younger team; and I think both books would be somewhat more upbeat going forward. And this was Keith Giffen's last issue as "creative director," although he still penciled the next one!