I am such an idiot. I can't believe Brad fooled me like this! And please forgive me if you figured this out already yourself.
But I didn't figure it out until this morning.
The Legionnaires aren't in the present to resurrect Lightning Lad.
They are here to someone else entirely, using lightning.
Someone who helps New Earth discover Earth One (the Bronze Age version of Earth); someone who will in the near future make it possible for New Earth and Earth One to team up to (somehow) preserve the version of the 31st Century that these Legionnaires call home. That's why they had to come to the past.
In fact, Lightning Lad is surely the final member of their team and should arrive any issue now; he's probably the source of the lightning they use in their resurrection scheme, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he loses his arm in the process.
It's the only thing answer that puts all the puzzle pieces into place, including why retailers have been encouraged to double their orders on an upcoming issue of a particular comic.
Nice one, Brad; very, very nice. I owe you one.
I think your take is the most likely outcome, but there are a couple of other candidates for resurrection. I have in mind a certain golden-age kryptonian and kryptonian clone. This is the Legion after all and they might want to give back to the legacy that inspired them.
ReplyDeleteI kinda doubt it's Barry Allen. But an apparently resurrected Kal-L is seen the JSA previews. Well, just so long as Elastic Lad is restored to his proper place on the Legion.
ReplyDeleteThey're going to resurrect the Wizard Shazam? :-)
ReplyDeletej/k..Brilliant scip! I hope that is indeed what they pull off!
Bravo if true, this makes a heck of a lot of sense. I don't totally understand how lightning can actually bring back Barry, but it is comics after all.
ReplyDeleteDidn't lightning figure prominently into Barry Allen's origin? There is therefore appealing symmetry to bringing him back in the same manner.
ReplyDeleteDidn't lightning figure prominently into Barry Allen's origin? There is therefore appealing symmetry to bringing him back in the same manner.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah: it was a bolt of lightning that hit a bunch of chemicals that fell on Barry and caused the chemicals to react in such a way that would give him super-speed.
That's a pretty intriguing theory, Scipio: in fact, I'm almost sure that's what's going to happen. Does kind of rob the irony of Hal's, "I predict the two of us are gonna live to a ripe, old age" line in JLA: Year One, but so did Hal's return, so oh well.
Good theory! However, would DC really bring back Barry in a book other than his own? (at least in name?)
ReplyDeleteInteresting theory, which makes more sense the more I think about it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right.
If it's about giving the Legion their inspiration, it can't be Kal-L or Kon-El; neither of them was it.
ReplyDeleteIt was Kal-El, as Superboy.
It's not about inspiring the creation of this Legion; it's about preserving Earth-1, which is where they are from.
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced, and giggling with glee!!!!
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that the Titans can get Bart back? Please?!?!
If it's about preserving Earth-1, then I stand by what I said; Kal-L and Kon-El have nothing to do with Earth-1.
ReplyDeleteKal-L is from Earth-2, and Kon-El is from post-Crisis Earth, which is not Earth-1, but a fusion of that Earth and others, like Earth-2, S, etc.
In one of the filler issues of Waid's run on the current Legion title, there was a storyteller type telling legends of the Legion - didn't one of those stories involve a cameo of Legionnaires in Barry's final moments, preventing his death in the Crisis? I had taken it as apocryphal..
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of clues: One of the characters in an early issue of the current JLA observed that there is a particular hero conspicuously missing from the lineup. (Well, there are two, but J'onn never did get any respect.)
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't get, though, is what lightning has to do with the Elongated Man.
Very, very cool.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I wasn't too keen on the return of multiple earths. But if they use it to come up with great stories like this (and the best resurrection concept ever, if Scip's right - and he probably is), then I have to stand corrected!
Whoops, sorry Scip, that last comment was me.
ReplyDeleteBut there's no body, and correct me if I'm wrong, wouldn't they need the body to bring Barry back using that method?
ReplyDeleteCouldn't Barry just come back from the future, where he has reappeared from time to time?
ReplyDeleteWell...I am quite twitterpated with delight at this idea. And I don't care if it is Barry or Wally, because I like them both, but Barry WOULD be the logical choice. Then maybe Bart can go back to being Impulse.
ReplyDeleteI don't totally understand how lightning can actually bring back Barry, but it is comics after all.
ReplyDeleteWasn't it implied a few times post-Crisis that Barry was actually some kind of "lightning elemental"? That he was able to do all the things he could do because the accident with the lightning and chemicals actually changed him into some kind of being of living electricity, or some such delightful comic-booky physics like that?
Couldn't Barry just come back from the future, where he has reappeared from time to time?
ReplyDeleteRight, but only on a short term basis. Plus, if he were to somehow be killed, wouldn't it really muck up time? Anti-Monitor ends up destroying the universe, right?
Wasn't it implied a few times post-Crisis that Barry was actually some kind of "lightning elemental"?
I'm not sure of that, but I do know that after Barry died he became the lightning bolt that gave crashed through his window all those years ago.
Garth has to be central to the Lightning Saga somehow, though. The magic word that's been waking up the Legionnaires is clearly "LIGHTNING LAD" spelled out in some alien-looking alphabet (Interlac?).
ReplyDeleteThis is wildly off-topic, but have you heard Kim Fowley's "Animal Man"? It seems like a worthy candidate for Superhero Radio or a podcast. Listen to this slice of insanity, definitely NOT about Buddy Baker, here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bubblegum-machine.com/animalman12.mp3
Well, the last issue in the crossover had one of the Legionnaires specifically saying that Lightning Lad hadn't gone to the past with them; in fact, they'd left without any of the Legion's founders knowing anything about it. So I think that lets out LL being the seventh Legionnaire.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think your theory about Barry Allen being involved is great. I'd bet it's still the resurrection of Kal-L that we'll see, but I'd rather it be Barry...
Elongated Lad? When was he mentioned? Elastic Lad, one Jimmy Olsen's pre-Crisis super-alter egos was mentioned; he was an honorary member of the LSH.
ReplyDeletePost-Crisis Jimmy had the power for a few issues in the Byrne-era, but lost it; and has now exhibited it again in Countdown.
Anonymous, thanks for the song, I have a comic-related podcast, and I'll definitely use that one one day.
It's totally Barry Allan. We were talking about this the other day in the shop. It was all suddenly so very obvious.
ReplyDeleteAlso factor in Dan Didio's slip of the tongue at the convention panel where he called the Flash in the Countdown drawing "Barry Allen".
ReplyDelete