s Superboy Emo?

Good series. Have to fill in my gaps.

Say wha'?

Oh, I get it...the title is finished in the post....you cut it off in the middle of a word??

Emo Superboy?

That's lame.

In the first issue he's all like, flipping out cause he never got to finish his game of Paragon (Daxamite Chess) with his father.

So, uh, what are we talking about in this thread, exactly?

This reminds me of those Chris Farley interview skits on SNL, where he'd interview someone famous.

"Uh, rememb, remember the time, when, uh, in Arachnophobia, you uh, there was this big spider and you killed it? Do you remember that?"
"Yeah..yeah, I remember that...what about it?"
"That was cool, huh?"
"Yeah...I guess it was pretty cool."
"Yeah..."

Lar Gand.

Spoiler space!

I hear he died before he was supposed to, causing a paradox that lead to Zero Hour or something.

I'm soooo

Lar Gand! Of course. You're making total sense now. Sorry about the confusion..

Uhm...I'll do what I can to jump in here but there's a reason everyone thought the hint for "convoluted history" meant Lar was going to be previewed this week.

Mon-el - we're starting out with the original name for a reason, so bear with a bit - was always a bit of a sourpuss if that's what you mean by "emo". There are actually a couple reasons for it. The first - and most pertinent - is being stuck in the Phantom Zone for a thousand years would probably ruin most people's moods. The second - and this is where things start to get confusing, so hold on - is that Lar's life force was not completely his own. There was a Legion story where Lar apparently died of lead poisoning but his cousin, Eltro, sacrificed himself to keep Lar "alive" until cured. The thing here is that Eltro's life force "melded" with Lar's and took a fairly active - albeit subconsciously - role in directing Lar's personality. Despite his sacrifice, Eltro was not the most heroic of beings and was given to fits of depression...things we started to see in Mon-el and which seemed a bit..surprising. Then things get really confusing as CoIE happened and the Legion writers scrambled to fix the Superboy-bits and the solution was the Time Trapper's pocket universe; part of that solution involved the Time Trapper (yes, the Last Legionnaire) killing off the Superboy we'd all known for decades (i.e. - the one who had appeared in all those Legion stories). Considering Kal had been like a brother to Lar, Lar was part of a secret group that got together with the intention of killing the Time Trapper (which, remember, was against Legion code). The group partially succeeded...they at least dispersed the Time Trapper's body enough that they felt they had killed him but in the process Mon-el was "slain" as well (more like a deep coma though there was so much damage to him even Brainiac-5 said, "No cure is forthcoming").

Confused yet? It gets better...because now we have the v4 "Legion history reboot" as mandated by John Byrne who said that even the pocket-universe Superboy was a no-no. The writing team did the best they could to rewrite why the Legion would have formed. Part of that story involved the Eltro/Lar minds and the resolution (Eltro's finally "dying" off and Lar's coming fully forward) and Glorith took over the power of the Time Trapper (who would be back, as we all know) to reboot the universe. This time, not only were the general heroes of Earth an inspiration to RJ - he was from that era it would turn out - but one hero in specific had passed down through history: Lar Gand.

During the Invasion mini-series, the Daxamites had originally sided with the Dominators. Lar's father - Kel - encountered Superman and was fighting him (and doing a darn good job for a "pacifist") when the inevitable lead poisoning took effect. It was Superman's personality and actions during that which led Kel to realize the Daxamites were on the wrong side and he sacrificed himself to both help Earth and to get the Daxamites to ally with Earth against the alien coalition.

Lar, needless to say, was a bit upset upon learning of his father's death (ergo the whole "I never got to finish my chess game with him" bit). He decided though that his father's sacrifice should be an example for him so he set off to be a hero. He was limited by the lead vulnerability, one which Vril Dox II - creator of L.E.G.I.O.N. - used to his advantage: so long as Lar worked for L.E.G.I.O.N. he got a steady supply of anti-lead serum. Eventually though Lar got fed up with the lack of morality in the group and left it, knowing that his time was "limited" due to a small supply of anti-lead serum and the chance of not gaining more. It was during that time period that the legend of Valor first began to really spread as Lar - spurred on by his weakness - went through some epic adventures. One of those involved freeing various races that had been held captive by the Dominators and helping them find suitabl planets to inhabit, leading to the legend of Valor, the World Seeder (and the reason he was so revered in the 30th century - many of the planets he helped people settle were the planets that would be key in the future, such as Braal and Cargg). Eventually Lar succumbed to lead poisoning, went into the Phantom Zone, came out and used the name Lar Gand or Valor while with the Legion (according to the post-Byrne-enforced-reboot). Post-Zero Hour much of that stayed the same except that it was Connor (Superboy) who sent Lar into the Zone and that when Lar came out (and was one of Cos' "secret weapons" to take down the corrupt UP) he was given the name Mon'el (Martian for "He Who Wanders") to keep his identity secret being he was fairly worshipped as a deity by the descendants of the Dominator prisoners.

So, was Mon-el/Valor/Mon'el fairly moody? Yep. Whether it was losing his father to the Invasion, knowing he was dying of lead poisoning, spending time in the Phantom Zone, being saddled with the responsibility of being viewed as a deity or the Eltro "personality override", he's had a few reasons to be "emo" over the year. Nontheless, he's also pushed it aside many a time to definitely show why he's been given such respect by both the 20th and 30th (or 21st/31st these days) centuries.

That help any at all?

Ahhhhhhhh.

but now, Lar Gand visited Superman when he was a teen and got sent to the Phantom Zone as per Action Annual #10 and the Legion of Superheroes, nulling and voiding a lot of Byrne's ####. Although the Pocket Universe was a decent idea, later to be re-used by Kelly to create a Krypton for Superman to "travel back in time" to meet his parents and reintroduce Krypto. Which of course was probaly wiped out due to IC. BTW what happened to the one shot issue in Superman with Krypto in it? Did I miss it somehow???

the dog ate it.

Nothing wrong with being emotional. Lar's a true hero, that's for sure. And I learned more about him than I ever did reading L.E.G.I.O.N. (the entire run).

Thanks, man.

Hey, uh, is Lar currently dead?