Season 1, Episode 6: “Fear factory”
Written by John Esposito
Directed by Ben Jones
Original release: November 18th, 2006
Running time: 22 minutes
Air time: Saturday morning
We begin with the closest thing we are likely to get to a crossover between the Legion and the Alien franchise, as the Legionnaires are clearly watching the first movie.
Turns out that Bouncing Boy is a huge fan of horror movies. Brainiac 5, not so much.
The movie night is cut short when the Legion cruiser finds itself in the middle of a “cosmic storm” that it can’t navigate, and will be forced to wait in a nearby station… which might be haunted.
If it wasn’t for Bouncing Boy’s commentary this episode could probably be half its length.
Inside the station, they are first greeted by The Master’s servant, Boris.
Boris is, voiced, of all people, by Dan Castellaneta. Who is utterly unrecognizable because he uses a completely different voice for when he plays Homer Simpson.
Nothing suspect in this situation.
The station has an… interesting décor.
The Legion is invited to dinner by The Master (he does have a name but it’s not important), voiced by Richard McGonagle who has done AT TON of voice roles.
The station is called Quavermass 12. Which sure does sound like a reference to the historically influential TV series The Quatermass Experiment…
…but it’s actually just a reference to its creator, which I assume is named 12.
But that discussion can wait: it’s dinner time. Everyone is served their preferred dish, although I’m slightly bummed that only Superman’s is identified.
Because I’m guessing Bouncing Boy is really into Klingon cuisine.
Since the storm won’t stop for a while, the Legion has to spend the night here.
The room even comes with your own private pet!
Once the cat runs away, Bouncing Boy looks for her with something I don’t recall seeing anywhere else in Legion history… using the Flight Ring as a flashlight.
This looks AWESOME, can we please have it in the comics at some point?
We then follow Bouncing Boy through a series of portals that bring him through multiple horror movies.
Missed opportunity to throw a reference to Mantis Morlo here.
And of course, in case you couldn’t see this coming a light-year away:
Once Saturn Girl senses something is wrong, the Legionnaires go look for Bouncing Boy.
Thanks for checking under the bed Clark, that would have been my first pick too.
Turns out Bouncing Boy has been turned into one of those paintings.
YOU DON’T SAY, BRAINY.
Another room turns out to be an exact replica of Lightning Lad’s childhood bedroom.
A but of visual storytelling here: his twin sister has not been mentioned yet, but we see that he shares a room with a very “girly-coded” second bed.
Superman makes the right call of attempting to leave the station to return to the Legion Cruiser… but the station is of a different opinion.
While the automated defenses fight off the others, Lightning Lad has to deal with his worst nightmare… the Bierbaum retcons a clown puppet (also voiced by McGonagle)
We haven’t seen Lightning Lad’s origin yet, but the clown then transforms into a Lightning Beast.
Lightning Lad gets absorbed into the same kind of portal that took Bouncing Boy, and Brainiac 5 figures out the theme of the episode.
Brainiac 5’s brief pause here is one of the funniest moments of the whole series. It never fails to make me laugh.
Next on the line is Saturn Girl, and her fear is by far the most underwhelming of all.
Yes, even more than the doll, because she’s deathly afraid of… rollercoasters.
Not that rollercoasters can’t be scary… I also don’t get the appeal… but the idea that SATURN GIRL couldn’t be able to get past the illusion feels off to me.
Even Superman isn’t able to save her.
Before going into the last traps, Brainiac 5 gives something to Superman in case he doesn’t make it through.
Brainiac 5’s fear is facing off against other members of his species, which I remind you in this continuity are fully robotic.
I really like how coldly logical Brainiac 5 remains in a plot that is all about emotions.
The Coluans merge into a single unit (!!!) and even use Kryptonite against Superman. You may remember that at this point he doesn’t even know what Kryptonite even is.
Are the Coluans intended to have a hive mind in this continuity? It sure sounds like it.
Brainiac 5 uploads his consciousness into the station’s computer, disabling the illusions…
…and we learn that the Matrix didn’t have the dumbest energy source for an evil A.I.
Although this is the DC universe, so if this showed up in the comics it would 100% be linked to the whole emotional spectrum nonsense.
There’s a catch: Brainiac 5 is now fully integrated with the station, and the only way to free the prisoners is to destroy it… and effectively kill Brainy.
When the station tries to convince Superman to surrender, he has a thoroughly underwhelming response. The episode plays this as an epic moment, but it falls completely flat for me: it’s not like there was any suspense whether he’d let everyone stay in a permanent state of terror forever!
Also, I really don’t like when superheroes call THEMSELVES heroes… it’s too cheesy for me.
Even the Legionnaires don’t often refer to their own team by its full name!!!
The station’s last resort is to create a hologram of Ma Kent to convince him to surrender.
We’re just lucky it didn’t pick a different version of Ma Kent.
Destroying the ship’s computer frees everyone, but at the cost of Brainiac 5.
For about a minute.
Could this be a problem in the long run, making Brainiac 5 immortal if he’s smart enough?
Probably.
Is this awesome beyond words and a fantastic way to showcase just how alien he is to our worldview?
YOU BET!!!
In the final scene, after we are reassured that all prisoners are being taken home, Brainiac 5 confronts Superman about what happened.
And speaking of fear, the Legion is about to be subjected to something way more horrific than anything Bouncing Boy has shown them yet.
Animated significance: 0/10
The Coluans will show up again in the comic set in the same universe (where they will be NOTHING like this) and later in the second season… but not taking much of anything from this.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
I wasn’t kidding, I really want to see the Flight Ring used as a flashlight. If Batman and Spider-Man can have their own themed searchlight…
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Boris and The Master couldn’t possibly be more stereotypically evil, but it goes completely above the Legionnaires.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Kind of a run-of-the-mill episode. Not a bad one, but it hints at substance that isn’t there as much as it thinks it does.
Something that doesn’t come across from my review is that the pacing of the first half is excellent, going for the old-school horror atmosphere. It would have benefitted by toning down Bouncing Boy pointing out tropes and calling out fictional movies, though.
I found most of the episode kind of forgettable: outside of the hilarious pause before mentioning “Lightning Lad’s doll” and the final twist about Brainiac 5’s backup, I didn’t find much to be memorable.
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