If the timeline is so bent out of shape you're starting to notice...you might be a Legionnaire.

This issue is the first of a six-part crossover, but it's mislabeled as "End of an Era: Conclusion" on the cover. But, that'll be the least confusing part of it! From 1994, Legionnaires #17, "End of an Era, part one: History Lesson" Written by Mark Waid, pencils by Chris Gardner, inks by Dennis Cramer.

If you're not up on your Legion history, this would be a dive into the deep end; as it was the start of the crossover with the main Legion of Super-Heroes title and Valor, that would wrap up about five years of the "Five Years Later" storyline begun by Keith Giffen, as well as about 36 years of continuity as they headed into their first reboot. By this point, there were two versions of much of the 30th century team: the somewhat bleak older versions, and the "SW6 Batch" younger heroes that had been found when they escaped from the Dominators during their occupation of earth. (Which had since been blown up! The moon too.) There weren't still two versions of everybody, though: after three Legionnaires capture a deranged Rokk "Cosmic Boy" Krinn trying to rebuild earth, most of both teams had gathered on the funeral asteroid Shanghalla, to mourn the loss of the younger Laurel Gand. (Who was a post-Crisis continuity patch replacement for Supergirl!) Unfortunately, the mourning period is stepped on by the arrival of both Brainiac 5's and Invisible Kid. (One Brainy looked much, much older; after a battle with time-travelling baddie Glorith.) They've got some bad news, about the end of the universe...

Put simply, both in-story and in publication, the Legion's timeline was completely flarked; and they appeared to be turning into the skid here pre-Zero Hour. Long-time supporting character and time-travel researcher (and secret GL!) Rond Vidar points out recent changes, like the sudden and unexplained arrival of young versions of Star Boy and Dream Girl: everyone had been acting like they had been there the whole time, but if they really thought about, they maybe just showed up last week? And another more recent supporting character, former P.I. Celeste McCauley had Green Lantern energy powers previously, now she was a Darkstar? (She's drawn to resemble a female version of the bald, reddish-skinned one from the Travis Charest ads for that brief series; even more than just having the elaborate costume!) The Legionnaires aren't really shaken by this yet, feeling that "the heart of the Legion still holds!" Until, the older Brainy leads them to a funeral marker, for Superboy, whom half of them don't seem to remember. (That wasn't across old/new lines, either, just some did and some didn't.)

The Brainy's explain, the timeline keeps shifting, but since they keep shifting with it, they aren't necessarily aware of it. To illustrate his point, the marker for Chemical King is briefly replaced by Chameleon Boy, as Chemical King switches with him for a moment. The timeline problems had started--allegedly, we know they'd been around longer--when the SW6 entered stasis; which brings up a sore point: so far, it had never been firmly determined what the SW6 was. The obvious answer would have been some kind of clones or duplicates created by the Dominators, but they weren't. There was even some proof that pointed at the younger versions being "real" and the older versions "knock-offs," as Leviathan indelicately puts it.

Before a fight can break out between the two versions, some actual villains appear from nowhere, and a pretty powerful lot: Satan Girl, Urthlo, and the adult Legion of Super-Villains Cosmic King, Lightning Lord, and Saturn Queen! (Sun Boy--the younger Sun Boy, who might have been using the name Inferno? He gets popped in the mouth before he can point out 'Satan Girl' was a duplicate of Supergirl--who, in the updated continuity, would've been Laurel Gand, but that wouldn't work without a lot of rejiggering: Satan Girl was created by Supergirl being affected by Red Kryptonite, and the Daxamites didn't have an analog to that...ah, continuity.) The adult LSV from Superman #147 might even be one of the first Legion continuity problems, as they had attacked an adult Superman, but were stopped by adult versions of the original three Legionnaires. By the way, big shout out to DC's old digests like Adventure Comics and Best of DC Blue Ribbon, since that's where I read reprints of a lot of the classic Legion stories referenced!

The brief fight is just a distraction, as the new power couple Mordru and Glorith have captured Rokk Krinn, and disappear. Luckily, the Legion had Dawnstar--minus her glorious wings, but she still had her tracking power! She could find Rokk anywhere in the universe...except she just disappeared mid-sentence. Super. There's a slight bit of logic to Dawnstar disappearing, beyond "narrative convenience," but get ready for way more of that as the story continues! Some characters will get final moments or big goodbyes, and others will just poof! Be gone, off-panel, when you weren't looking. Which maybe feels like a metaphor for the Legion, somehow.