It begins with Mon-El and Shadow Lass stumbling on a rogue planetoid while exploring the galaxy. On the planet, they are attacked by ancient defenses that pack quite a wallop, even against Mon-El! The machines fight against Mon-El, but flee from the darkness cast by Shadow Lass. But when they are summoned back to the Legion, they leave the strange planet behind- but not before awakening something back on the planet- something that has waited uncounted ages to re-emerge...
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Legion has been summoned to the site of a theft. A very strange theft, as someone or something has been stealing mystic artifacts from all across the globe. Now, the Legion is being called upon to preven the theft of another item, the Wand of Metachem- only to be attacked by a being seemingly composed of Darkness- which completely overwhelms them. Even Superboy is unable to stand against it, and it has a strangely Superboy-like emblem on its chest. However, it retrieves the wand and disappears through a strange warp-like gate.
Meanwhile, more Legionnaires are attempting to defend other mystic items, with the same lack of success against slightly different invaders who come out of darkness and seem perpetually wreathed in shadow- one has a strangely outsize head for its body, another is female, and the last has a roundish symbol between the eyes on its head. The Legion fails at keeping the items the creatures want out of their hands, but they do capture the female one, and discover the creatures are somewhat weakened by light attacka, and seem to fear, or at least respect, Shadow Lass's shadow-casting power
When they bring the female captive back to their Headquarters, they discover something even more disturbing- that Computo, their nemesis captured in the mind of a young girl named Danielle Foucart, is having what amounts to nightmares in the presence of the female captive. Furthermore, another freed captive, Mordru the Magician, is no match for the shadow-creatures, or their master they all speak of, although none will name him.
Meanwhile, other struggles within the Legion are also being dealt with. Chameleon Boy is being put on trial for rescuing his father, R. J. Brande, a Chameleon forever trapped in human form, from the Khunds, nearly causing a war with them. Not all of his Legion Comrades support his actions, which he took without the knowledge of the Legion. Also, the time to Elect a new leader is coming, and several Legionnaires, including Element Lad and Dream Girl, have put their names up for consideration. And Lightning Lad is still out, suffering strange mental lightning storms in his brain that keep him from using his powers, or doing anything, really.
But the Legion discovers that the strange female creature of darkness is a copy of Tasmia Mallor, Shadow Lass's ancestor and the first person on Mallor to discover and use her Darkness-casting power. But if this darkness creature is based on Tasmia Mallor, who are the others?
Dream Girl wins the Election and enlists the help of the Sorceror's World, and her sister, the White Witch. The Sorceror's world, despite being a stronghold for those with mystical powers, has not been attacked. Or perhaps, that should be "not Yet", for no sooner do members of the Legion arrive, than the darkness arrives and the large-headed Darkness creature attacks. Invisible Kid- Jacques Foucart attempts to follow the creature into the warp invisibly, but encounters its master, a creature with magenta-glowing eyes who attacks him with Eye-beams. He survives, but a strip of his hair turns pure white from the experience.
Back on earth, the female Darkness creature escapes, nearly killing Saturn Lass, but the attack on her finally pulls Lightning Lad out of his fever. Soon, he and the other original two Legionnaires, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy are hard at work on figuring out who these creatures might be. Using Lightning Lad's electrical powers, he supercharges the computer to figure out that one of the shadow creatures is modeled on Superman, the one with the Large Head is modeled on an Oan.
Meanwhile, on the Sorceror's world, the darkness creatures attack again, and Mon-El discovers the identity of their master when he charges him after Shadow Lass is hurt. However, the Master's attack knocks Mon-El out, so he's unable to pass on his knowledge to his teammates just yet. The other Legionnaires meet with the Council who rule the world, who are rather dismissive of the danger, but when they see their world is under attack, join with Dream Girl and the White Witch to work a spell to overcome these creatures.
The outcome is strange- instead of destroying the Darkness creatures, a baby appears, leaving them wondering how a baby is useful in this instance. But even as the other Legonnaires are defeated, the summoning of this baby slips through the notice of the Dark Lord- for now, even though it takes the lives of two members of the council to do so. On Earth, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy have summoned all the former and reserve Legionnaires for the battle against the servants and their master- and their master has appeared on Daxam, ahifting their planet with the rogue planet that was his own, trading them Daxamites red sun for his yellow one- giving them all powers equivalent to that of Mon-El or Superman- under his mental control!
As he sends them out to conquer the universe for him, the Legionnaires are discovering strange things about the Baby who appeared. For one thing, he doesn't cry. For another, he's aging at an accelerated rate. Growing up and older as they watch. Why this is happening and who the baby is, they don't know, but they attempt to keep him safe from the Master and his servant minions as they travel back to earth.
Meanwhile, the Daxamites complete their first task when they reshape their world to reflect the identity of their new master before taking off to conquer. Now their planet resembles a huge head hanging in space. That of Darkseid! But the turning of the entire planet of Daxam to evil embroils the entire galaxy in a war against the Darkness- one which they may end up losing. Even as they manage to destroy the Superman-servant by exposing it to Gold Kryptonite and letting Timber Wolf destroy the now-powerless duplicate with a single punch, Darkseid is plotting to conquer the entire galaxy- even the universe!
But how can the Legion defend the entire Galaxy against a horde of people who *all* have the powers of Superman and are immune to a Daxamite's one weakness- lead (thanks to Darkseid)? Is there any way to prevail, or will the universe become a place of Darkness, cold and evil? Who is the strange boy they received, and how can he help them defeat the great Darkseid? Is there any hope for the Galaxy at all?
The story is ended with two epilogues showing how Darkseid has his revenge on those who opposed him, and the second shows how the Legion prevents the resurrection of Mordru yet again.
This was probably one of the longest stories that ever ran in the Legion, and brought back Darkseid in a big way. He'd actually been almost forgotten in DC-Comics modern day stories before he appeared here, perhaps even considered "done" or "Passé". But this story brought him back in more ways than one. After this story, there was great interest in seeing him in modern-day comics. In effect, this story resurrected both Darkseid and interest in the character.
It's a huge story, and feels completely epic, which a fight against someone like Darkseid should. Most Legion villains can be overcome only by a small percentage of the Legion membership- maybe up to about half or 2/3s. But in this story, not only do they need every Legionnaire, current and past, they also call up some of their last-ditch weapons, like Rond Vidar and Miracle Kid. Even past friends and foes like Duplicate Boy, Dev-Em and other superheroes from countless worlds must join to fight with the Legion or be destroyed.
The story may start kind of slow, but the menace and danger ratchets up quickly. It's obvious that the Legion is overmatched by their foes, and wondering how they will prevail- or rather, *if* they will prevail, quickly becomes the overriding concern. Unlike most Legion stories, the menace and danger to the Legion felt real, and readers begin to think that maybe all of the Legion won't survive- not many of them can stand up to Superboy or Mon-El, after all, let alone an entire planet of them! Just for that feeling alone, this story stands out a country mile from other Legion stories.
This story has it all, and reading it is occasionally like running a marathon. So much happens, and the Danger seems to be everywhere, making your heart race and pound. It's hard to put it down or even look away from the page- and the true nature of the menace is kept fairly impenetrable throughout the story until the Daxamites carve their planet into the head of Darkseid- Darkseid lacks his usual cowl and armor, making the sexless and naked gray guy hard to identify. I can't recommend this story enough. If you are a fan of the Legion, this is one you can't afford to be missing from your shelf. You'll be kicking yourself if you pass up the chance to read it.
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