Before CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (1985-1986), a group young heroes from the 31st century are so inspired by the actions of Superboy that they go on to form the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team dedicated to heroic acts in the future.
However, the post-Crisis version of Superman was never ‘Superboy’ and yet the Legion of Super-Heroes still existed in a DC Universe that now only had one singular timeline. The Time Trapper’s tinkering led to the creation of a Pocket Universe with a Superboy who became the Legion’s inspiration (as seen in A TWIST IN TIME, 1987). Later, the Daxamite Legion member Mon-El (Lar Gand) killed the Time Trapper to prevent him from doing more damage to the timeline which, ironically, wiped out the existence of the Pocket Universe and altered the timeline. The Time Trapper’s underling Glorith fixed the issue by making the young Mon-El the inspiration for the Legion with his actions in the 20th Century hero Valor inspiring the Legion of Super-Heroes!
As Valor, Lar Gand would cripple the Dominion, free thousands of their captives and single-handedly terraform a number of worlds for the freed aliens to live on. Many of these worlds would go on to be the birthplace of future members of the Legion. He’d also find himself trapped in the Twilight Dimension by Glorith for 10,000 years, only to be freed by the Legion and becoming a member of the team.
But there’s a problem: The young Valor of the 20th Century has carried out some heroic acts, so far, but he’s about to find out that his powers are killing him. If he dies, who’ll save the Dominion’s prisoners and inspire the Legion of Super-Heroes into being?
And all of this is leading to ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME! (1994)!
Crossover: This ‘Valor’ storyline briefly crosses over into ‘Legionnaires’, which may seem like an inconsequential tie-in but it all builds to the next Legion of Super-Heroes event and Zero Hour: Crisis in Time; extending the arc to include the prologue and epilogue stories allows the Legionnaires issue to be correctly placed.
Must-Reads: In the Fallout section, issues/story arcs marked with a ✔ are essential reading.
Spoilers: The issue descriptions and fallout section contain spoilers, so be warned!
Previous events that directly impact this story:
- INVASION! (1988-1988) – Valor’s father dies while invading Earth
- ECLIPSO: THE DARKNESS WITHIN (1992) – Valor first meets Vril Dox & Kilowog
Want to keep it simple? Here’s the chronological reading order without story descriptions, or spoilers:
- Valor #11 (tie-in)
- Valor #12-18
- Valor #19 (tie-in)
- Legionnaires #16 (tie-in)
| Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| Valor #11 (tie-in) In the 31st Century, Triad of the Legionnaires worries that she’ll never see Mon-El (Lar Gand) again. In the 20th Century, Valor (the younger incarnation of Lar Gand) flies his ship Pilgrim One towards John Stewart’s signal from the Mosaic on Oa as he takes the injured Green Lantern called Alia to be healed. But his glitching powers are mistaken by the Green Lantern Corps as an attack. Pilgrim One almost crashes as Valor proves his heroism to the Corps. Kilowog rebuilds the ship as the much-sleeker Pilgrim Two and directs Valor to planet Cairn where Vril Dox should be able to help him with his out-of-control powers. Though Valor’s unaware he’s being observed by a cackling Time Trapper, surrounded by crystals framing Valor’s future deeds! Also see THE SLEEP OF MONSTERS PRODUCES REASON Identity revealed: Green Lantern/Alia (named) New identity: Pilgrim One as Pilgrim Two, [redacted] as Time Trapper |
| Valor #12 Valor arrives on Cairn and punches Lobo off the planet! While LEGION leader Vril Dox performs tests, Valor saves a young woman called Lori from Dino-Beasts and they become instantly attracted. Dox reveals the serum he previously gave Valor to protect him from lead poisoning has been burning out, causing his powers to flux. He has one month to live. New identity: [redacted] as Lori |
| Valor #13 The next day, Lori accompanies Valor on his trip to his home planet Daxam (Vril Dox’s serum allows Valor to keep his powers under the planet’s red sun). Daxam has been hit with a plague the Daxamites think is caused by an infected alien, but Valor knows it’s a lead-based plague. Lead from the alien’s ship is responsible, however, so he wraps it in metal and hurls it into the sun. Valor has saved his world, but can only hold his mother’s hand as she dies of lead poisoning. In the future, Brainiac 5 and Triad witness a glitch in the Legionnaires’ computer system when it claims Valor was never a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes! |
| Legionnaires #16 (pp.1-8) Star Boy ‘returns’ to the Legionnaires, despite never having been members of this youthful incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Only the original members notice something’s wrong… 1st appearance: Star Boy/Thom Kallor |
| Legionnaires #16 (pp.9-10) / Valor #14 (p.1-3) Brainiac 5 and Triad can’t stop the files referencing Mon-El from disappearing and can only find information on his presence on Earth in the 1990s, including his death in 1994. With that, the Legionnaires travel back in time to find their friend… |
| Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| Valor #14 (pp.4-22) Three weeks after the visit to Daxam, Valor helps the Justice League fend off an attacking army who may be aliens or from the future! He loses consciousness claiming just as he destroys their ship, then the aliens suddenly vanish! The League can’t help with Valor’s illness, so he decides to turn to Lex Luthor for help until Superman talks him around. Despite the Man of Steel’s own recent death and resurrection (during REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN, 1993), he can’t help, either. With nothing left to lose, Valor lets Lori pick the worst planet she can think of so he can help set it right before he dies. |
| Valor #15 Despite knowing he’s burning out, Valor ends the Thousand-Years War on Baaldur in a day. The Legionnaires travel through the timestream to find young Lar Gand, while also wondering where the future Lar Gand from the 31st Century disappeared to after the older Brainiac 5 sent him on a mission to the past. However, the team’s Time Bubble explodes when it hits a wall! The next day, Valor destroys all the weapons on Baaldur. The day after, Valor stops the armies, redistributes their food to the starving, replaces their propaganda with messages of peace and dethrones the warring world leaders! He heads to space and encourage the warlords to fire their nuclear missiles at him, then catches them and hurls them into the sun. But one takes him unawares andValor barely survives. Despite this, the people of Balduur want him to rule, with Lori by his side! |
| Valor #16 The next morning, Valor wakes with a ravaged, withered body. He sees Lori heading into a portal and follows her, only to discover she’s been manipulating him as the ‘Time Trapper’! The Legionnaires suddenly appear and Valor fights them off, not knowing who they are and mistaking Brainiac 5 as an ally of Vril Dox! Lori then reveals her true identity… she’s actually the Legion’s foe, Glorith, who apostle ages the Legionnaires and offers to heal Valor in exchange for absolute fealty to her! Identity revealed: Glorith is both Lori and the Time Trapper |
| Valor #17 It was Glorith who immediately messed with the serum Vril Dox of the LEGION created that protected Valor from lead poisoning. She also plucked almost all of his recent enemies from time. But she didn’t expect to start falling for him. Now, she deflects the Legionnaires’ attacks – deaging many of them – while trying to convince Valor to join her in conquering the universe in exchange for a cure for his lead poisoning! Valor flies back to Baaldur with Glorith as the Legionnaires are restored to normal. Brainiac believes Valor can’t die as time is immutable. Valor flips the deal and asks Glorith to change her ways in return for letting her heal him, but she can’t. Valor dies. Time threatens to unravel as Legionnaires start disappearing. Just then, the Valor of the 31st Century emerges from the timestream! |
| Valor #18 The Legion of Super-Heroes have barely begun to mourn the death of Valor when the future incarnation of Lar Gand arrives, seeing the corpse of his younger self and confronting Glorith who previously trapped him in the Twilight Dimension for 1000 years! Valor’s paradox causes time quakes. The only way Mon-El can stop time from unravelling is if he relives his own life and achieves his past goals, defeating the Dominion and being trapped in the Twilight Dimension again! Unable to deal with the thought of reliving the worst 1000 years of his life – in which he almost went mad – Valor flees, only to be captured by Lord Khardan of the Khunds. From the Vanishing Point – a metaphysical dimension outside of normal time – the Linear Men observe Valor’s plight! |
| Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| Valor #19 (pp.1-18) While already dealing with a colossal threat to time and reality (in the opening tales from ZERO HOUR, 1994), the Linear Men experience another time quake caused by young Valor’s death. They fear the situation has reached such a critical stage that the older Lar Gand filling his younger self’s place will no longer be impossible. Especially now that he’s a captive of Lord Khardan. Mon-El breaks free of Lord Khardan, who armours up and forces him to retreat! The Legionnaires and Waverider of the Liner Men again try to convince Mon-El to relive his past self’s life. With that, Valor shatters his link to the Legion… |
| Legionnaires #16 (p.11) / Valor #19 (pp.19-20) The Legionnaires are returned to their own time, with no memory of their adventure to the past and the files on Valor even being missing, though he still serves as a member of the Legion… |
| Valor #19 (p.21) Glorith mourns the loss of her beloved Valor… |
| Legionnaires #16 (pp.13-21) Dream Girl is now among the Legionnaires, though the ‘original’ Legionnaires don’t understand how this is possible. Ferro is replaced by Bouncing Boy and most of the Legion don’t seem to notice! Invisible Kid and Rond Vidar have a theory on why time appears to be glitching, but don’t tell anyone. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl secretly take a time bubble and head into the past to learn more, but Rond Vidar knows that the glitches in time will remove the three of them from reality! Andromeda and Apparition have conflicting memories on Ferro dying in batlte against the Sun-Eater! 1st appearance: Bouncing Boy/Chuck Taine, Dream Girl/Nura Nal |
| Valor #19 (p.22-23) In the present, Valor lists the jobs he needs to do before being trapped in the Twilight Dimension for 10,000 years. He needs to cripple the Dominion, free thousands of captives and terraform a number of worlds. Waverider tells him he only has 48 hours! |
| Must Read | Issue & Fallout | Event / Crossover |
| Green Lantern #48 (1994) Hal Jordan‘s arm comes out of its cast. | EMERALD TWILIGHT | |
| ✔ | Valor #20-21 (1994) Legion of Super-Heroes #59 (1994) Despite incredible odds and the Linear Men’s efforts to force him to enter the Twilight Dimension, Mon-El finds a way to complete Valor’s destiny; Mon-El’s continued presence in the past and the early completion of Valor’s tasks only adds to the damage done to the timeline; the mystery villain above the Atlantis Dome is Polestar. | ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME! |
| ✔ | Legionnaires #17 (1994) Valor #23 (1994) Legion of Super-Heroes #61 (1994) The Legionnaires and Legion of Super-Heroes investigate the time-glitches; Valor loses Shadow Lass before he himself is removed from the timeline; Polestar is revealed to be Rokk Krinn (the former Cosmic Boy); the Legion’s timeline ends. | END OF AN ERA ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME! |
| ✔ | Legion of Super-Heroes #0 (1994) Legionnaires #0 (1994) A new incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes is introduced in the Post-Zero Hour timeline; the actions of Cosmic Boy, Live Wire and Saturn Girl inspire the formation of the Legion and help restore faith in the United Planets. | THE BEGINNING OF TOMORROW ZERO MONTH |
| ✔ | Superboy #17-19 (1995) The young Valor (or a variation of him) is revealed to be alive! | THE WHITE TRIANGLE |
| ✔ | Legion of Super-Heroes #74 (1995) Legionnaires #31 (1995) Having travelled to the 31st Century, Superboy (Connor Kent) unites the Legion of Super-Heroes with Valor; Superboy becomes an honorary member of the Legion. | FUTURE TENSE |
| Supermen of America #5-6 (2000) Despite Valor’s efforts, the Unimaginable returns and is captured and contained by LexCorp; the Unimaginable escapes and, after taking Maximum of the Supermen of America as its host, he’s dispersed and not seen again. | ||
| JSA: Our Worlds at War #1 (2001) Thousands more Daxamites are slaughtered during the Imperiex War. | OUR WORLDS AT WAR | |
| Green Lantern Corps #33-37 (2009) Sinestro Corps leader Mongul takes over the planet Daxam as his Corps’ new base of operations; Green Lanterns Sodam Yat (a Daxamite) and Arisia Rrab use the power of Ion to turn the red Daxamite sun into a yellow sun, granting the Daxamites powers to use against Mongul. | PRELUDE TO BLACKEST NIGHT |
| Collected Edition Title | Includes… |
| Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus Vol.2 | Legionnaires #16 |
Reading Order © Omniverse Comics Guide 2026
Leave a Reply