DC’s
Legion of Super-Heroes had become a continuity quagmire after eight years of rampant retcons and editorial in-fighting. Much of it stemmed from the decision to reboot Superman in 1986, which eliminated the Man of Steel’s career as Superboy and thus eliminated the inspiration for the team and made Mon-El’s existence paradoxical. Paul Levitz created a “continuity patch” with the Pocket Universe saga that created a copy of the Silver Age Superboy, but Superman editor Mike Carlin wanted all references to Man of Steel removed from the Legion. The final straw came with the appearance of the SW6 Legionnaires--teenage “clones” of the Adventure Comics-era Legion, who may or may not have been the real Legion.
After thirty-six years of continuity, DC Comics decided to pull the plug on the 30th century. With the company’s 60th anniversary looming, the company decided to make the demise of the Legion an event to tie into their big crossover for 1995. Thus the editorial offices of Legion, Superman, and The Flash would coordinate to bring out what would be called “End of an Era” overseen by writer, Mark Waid.
It began in
Valor where the time manipulator Glorith unintentionally killed the titular character after he refused her advances. This caused a fatal paradox as Valor (formerly Mon-El) became the Legion’s inspiration in Superboy’s place, which caused the fabric of time to slowly unravel. Characters slowly began to fade into oblivion only for matters to get worse as Glorith and Mordru seize upon the temporal chaos in a bid to combine their powers and control of time.
Superman gets drawn into the conflict as their manipulations reach into the 20th Century and paradoxes appear in Metropolis--most notably the arrival of the Pre-Crisis Superboy. After a brief battle between the two Superboys, the Man of Steel surmises that something corrupted that timestream. An assumption Waverider and the Linear Men confirm when they arrive to take Superman and the Pre-Crisis Superboy to the source of the disruption.
Meanwhile, the disruptions continue in
Flash #94 with Barry Allen pulled out of his “last race” from
Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 to come face to face with his successor, Wally West, and grandson, Bart Allen. Naturally, Wally is skeptical as Eobard Thawne impersonated Barry in “The Return of Barry Allen,” but must put them aside when the temporal upheaval pulls the three into the conflict raging in the 30th century.
The alliance between Mordru and Glorith ultimately proves too much for both Legions, Superman, and the Flash family to defeat. After their failure to unleash the Infinite Man on them, both Brainiac Fives grimly come to the conclusion that it’s too late to save the 30th century and that they must stop Mordru and Glorith from corrupting all of time and space. To this end, they build an “entropy bomb” that will completely collapse all of spacetime and thus stop the villains.
Though Pre-Crisis Superboy and Barry Allen volunteer to deliver to Entropy Bomb, the Linear Men whisk the 20th century heroes away as they will be needed for the battle ahead. So it comes down to the three founding members of the Legion (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad) and their SW6 counterparts after the rest of the Legion fades away. After a tearful good-bye, they plunge into the rift and detonate the Entropy Bomb that collapses the 30th century and end the threat of Mordru and Glorith forever. Or so it seems…
The epilogue of the arc reveals that the event was orchestrated by Monarch [1], who manipulated Glorith into killing Valor and allying with Mordru. Their destabilization of the timeline was only the first step in a plan to to reshape reality as he sees fit to which he says,
“There shall come a reckoning, A CRISIS.”
Indeed as DC would begin their promotion of
Countdown: A Crisis in Time beginning in 1995.
[1]Formerly the hero, Captain Atom, who curiously takes on an appearance similar to Doctor Manhattan.