We've blogged them in no particular order, but this is the last of the
Legends of the Dead Earth annuals! And one of maybe two that was actually in regular DC Universe continuity at the time. Which, of course, means sprocking nothing nowadays...maybe. From 1996,
Legionnaires Annual #3, "The Long Road Home" Written by Roger Stern, pencils by Charles (Chuck) Wojtkiewicz, Dan Jurgens, and Tony Castillo; inks by John Lowe, Don Hillsman, Dexter Vines, and Ron Boyd. Cover by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer!
I'd have to think pretty hard to counter this, but
XS might be the last addition to the Legion of Super-Heroes that seemed to really stick? The Flash family legacy didn't hurt her, either: there aren't many Legionnaires that have appeared in
live-action! But, today Jenni is stuck in 1996, after a time-travel mishap, and while she enjoyed getting to see her cousin Impulse and her grandma Iris, she wanted to get home, so Jay Garrick and 27th century Flash John Fox help her out with the Cosmic Treadmill. Which, as it sometimes did, fails her; as she lands further in the past (or, at least we would've assumed it was the past, then...) by her grandpa, Barry Allen! Who had been working on the Treadmill, to try and get some records back from his college dorm, which might be the most humanizing sentence I've read for Barry in ages. While Barry is glad to meet her, they both know she can't hang out, and Jenni is sad that she'd probably never see him again, as he helps her build up speed for the trip back to the future.
Unfortunately, this time Jenni overshoots, landing in the 100th century! Which is the fairly standard dystopia with robot enforcers, although they take an interest in XS as "unlicensed." She manages to avoid being 'downsized,' shrunken by the robots, but is captured and thrown in the 'Tombs,' advanced cells for earth's remaining super-powered individuals. The powerless heroes explain, the current overlord Nevlor had gotten rich selling "image enhancements," then got powerful enough to force those with powers to be licensed, or downsized, then replaced with younger knockoffs. There's some commentary here, it's subtle...As are the future heroes, who are variations on the Avengers, led by
Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man! (Assume I said "not that one" here...) That's a callback to
All-American Comics #8 from 1939! Gary had been a scientist, put in suspended animation in 1950, woke up in 2174, back in suspended animation here. Jenni is less freaked out about any of that, than the fact she was no longer on earth, but Almeer-5; and that earth (and the United Planets!) had been gone for centuries. (And, an aside: when I said it was subtle, I wasn't kidding: I thought it was just a jab at Image creators Lee and Liefeld on Marvel's
Heroes Reborn, but 'Nevlor' is an anagram of Revlon, which owned Marvel for a bit! 'Almeer-V' is close-enough for 'Marvel' as well.)
At super-speed, Jenni is able to disable the bomb-collar on the Hulk-alike Behemoth, and then breaks out to buy time for Metallica and Avatar (again, not that...oh, nevermind) to get their respective gear, and Ultra-Man. The heroes have to fight their horrible replacements, and ask Jenni to stay and help form a new Legion, but she still wants to get home. Avatar lends her the Spear of Destiny (actually, yeah,
that one!) to try and guide her through time: Jenni runs with it, to get going in the right direction, then lets it return to Avatar. But again, she finds herself even further in the future, at Vanishing Point, home of the Linear Men! Here, no one else can see her, even when her uncle Jay appears--mid-
Zero Hour! Not a great day for Jay, as we see one of his JSA pals zorched in the background. The only one that can see Jenni, is a strange hooded figure, who describes himself as
"Trapped" in
"Time". Either Jenni slept through villain-identification at the Legion, or they hadn't run into the Time Trapper in post-
Zero Hour continuity--if this was the same Trapper, or not, who could say? The Trapper does advise that time is not an absolute for ones like them, and also, the Linear Men suck: they tended to see things in black-and-white and probably would look down at her bouncing around time. The Trapper further reveals, he was responsible for Jenni's whole trip, to teach her something, which she won't be allowed to remember right now. Feels like that defeats the purpose, but sure. Jenni is returned to the 30th century, just a few weeks after she left, none the worse for wear.
I forget if this is still in continuity--probably not?--but pre-
Flashpoint/New 52 Iris West was born in the 30th century but raised in the 20th. She would be killed by Reverse-Flash but brought back in a new body in the future, where she would have kids with Barry before he left to die in the original
Crisis on Infinite Earths. (Said kids would be killed ignobly by the Dominators, in a brief back-up in the
Five Years Later era.) Her grandson, Bart, was born with superspeed and aging super-fast, so she took him back to the 20th century to get help from the current Flash, Wally West. Jenni knew Bart: she had probably visited him in the virtual reality he lived in, in the 30th century. (Oddly,
Brainiac 5 also knew Bart from the virtual reality, although was far less fond of him.) It's a lot of little dominoes to stack up to get to Impulse, who presumably existed around the time of the Legion; and he's back in current continuity more-or-less as his old self. I know every writer wants to do their own thing, put their own spin on it, but I'd keep XS in the Legion every reboot! I suggest just having her pop! out of the timesteam, and wonder what the grife happened there. Bonus points if she's still drawn in the cheery Jeffrey Moy style!
Oh, and going through the tags again: the
Starman Annual might have been in continuity, if the Shade is a reliable narrator; but I was thinking of the
Power of Shazam one, since Thunder went back in time to join the Legion of Super-Heroes! And honestly, the
Justice League America Annual could be in continuity as well, because that does seem like the other thing that routinely happens to Captain Atom. (Popping into the room, Captain Atom: "I made it! I'm back from the future!" J'onn, not looking up from his Chocos: "Uh-huh. And who was the bad guy this time?" CA, sheepishly: "...Booster." J'onn: "Uh-huh.")
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