The Lightning Saga

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"The Lightning Saga"
Incentive variant cover of Justice League of America, vol. 2, #8 (July 2007), art by Phil Jimenez.
PublisherDC Comics
Publication dateApril – June 2007
Genre
Title(s)Justice League of America vol. 2, #8–10
Justice Society of America vol. 3, #5–6
Main character(s)
ISBN 1-4012-1652-8

"The Lightning Saga" is a

crossover story arc that took place in DC Comics' two flagship team books: Justice League of America and Justice Society of America. It was written by Brad Meltzer and Geoff Johns, and illustrated by Ed Benes, Dale Eaglesham, and Shane Davis.[1] It is notable for re-introducing the Legion of Super-Heroes in the post-Infinite Crisis
era.

This crossover would also be the beginning of DC's three year reinvention of the Legion, with the next part occurring in the

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
.

Story

A captured villain,

Karate Kid of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Karate Kid awakens, and fights Batman, almost defeating him, until Black Lightning steps in. Meanwhile, Starman
reveals to the JSA that he is also from the future.

Batman, Sandman and Geo-Force are called to

Interlac
. Dream Girl then reveals that there are other Legionnaires in the present. The JSA and JLA decide to team up and search for the time-displaced Legion members.

Superman, Stargirl, Cyclone, and Red Tornado go to the Fortress of Solitude where they discover Wildfire, frozen among statues of various Legion members (Superman has the statues because, for the first time since John Byrne's The Man of Steel (1986) reboot of the Superman mythos, he is described as a member of the Legion since his youth). When Superman says "Lightning Lad", Wildfire unfreezes and disgorges what looks like Batman's Utility Belt from within his body. At the Batcave, Batman, Starman and Black Lightning talk to Karate Kid, who is insisting that he is a member of the Trident Guild, until Starman says "The Magic Words" and his memory is restored.

Red Arrow, Power Girl, Hawkman and Hawkgirl head for Thanagar in search of Dawnstar
only to find that she has already left for Earth. The rest of the Legion members remove miniature lightning rods from the utility belt and proclaim "One of us has to die". Superman finds one of the rods and realizes they are planning a "Russian Roulette", just as they once did to restore Lightning Lad to life, though at the expense of one of their own lives.

The JSA and JLA converge at the old

Sensor Girl
. Before anyone can do anything she is rescued by her fellow Legion members and they fly off into a lightning cloud.

While the Society races to stop the Legionnaires, intercepting each of their positions, Batman and Hal Jordan recognize them as the place

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds), and Karate Kid, who is joined in the present by one of Triplicate Girl's 3 bodies. In the 31st century, Brainiac 5 dismisses Wally's return as a side effect, stating that they got who they wanted. A close-up of the lightning rod Karate Kid was using shows it to have someone
trapped inside.

Aftermath

This story also contains a subplot in which the Ultra-Humanite's brain is removed from the body of Delores Winters and taken to the future by Per Degaton and Despero, where the brain is placed into a new albino ape body somewhere within Gorilla City. These events later resume in The All-New Booster Gold (vol. 2) series, where the three of them are plotting to erase the heroes of the present by tampering with the timeline of the past via time travel technology.

As illustrated in the special All-Flash #1 issue (one-shot), at nearly the exact moment lightning struck the rod and

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3).[3]

A follow-up storyline, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Action Comics #858–863), ties up some of the loose ends presented in this storyline, such as why the Legion never visited Superman again after the original first Crisis.

The "Lightning Saga" ramifications reach its penultimate chapter in

Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl's further 21st century adventures are detailed in the Countdown to Final Crisis
series.

Collected editions

The Lightning Saga, as well as three additional issues of Justice League of America (#0, 11–12) were collected in the hardcover volume Justice League of America Volume 2: The Lightning Saga (

ISBN 1-4012-1652-8), which was released in 2008. The collection features a written introduction by actor and comedian Patton Oswalt.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Shane Davis, the JLA and the JSA". Newsarama. April 18, 2007. Archived from the original on May 22, 2007.
  2. OCLC 213309017
    .
  3. ^ Johns, Geoff (w). Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, no. 3 (February 2009). DC Comics.
  4. ^ "The Lightning Saga trade details". DC Comics.com. 9 March 2012.

External links

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