Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #12

Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #12 (1985)
by Paul Levitz & Steve Lightle
cover by Steve Lightle
“The more things change”

This is the last chance Superboy gets to interact with the Legion in his pre-Crisis incarnation… kind of. With the Legion, it’s a bit complicated.

I guess this was on purpose, because we jump right into the team-up against some space pirates.

Interestingly, Superboy says he doesn’t get much of a challenge out of the 20th century.
He’s probably towards the end of his Superboy career and near his Superman debut, so it’s probably because a lot of supervillains are not around yet.

Brainiac 5 is tempted to invite him to rejoin the team, but history says otherwise. The fact that the Legionnaires know the fate of the 20th century heroes is going to be a huge deal with Crisis.

There’s something weird going on with these space pirates, because they manage to disappear without leaving a trace. Even to Dawnstar.

Also: I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the character, but holy cow does Lightle draw a gorgeous Dawnstar or what?

At least Dawnstar is beginning to see that her powers end up being useless more and more.

And she immediately blames Brainiac 5 for no reason!!! Dawnstar… why do you always have to make me regret saying anything nice about you!?

I’m just saying: you have a team member whose entire deal is tracking things. I can accept variety, but use her for something other than drama and fanservice!!!

Not long after that, Dawnstar does manage to find the next target of the space pirates.
Well maybe she should’ve tested her powers on a different target instead of immediately jumping to accusations against Brainiac 5.

That being said, the idea behind Phantom Girl being the one to provide the final clues is great.

“Be patient” and “Wildfire” are rarely a feasible combination.

The reason why the pirates were able to disappear wasn’t by teleportation, but an extension of the powers of a guy from the same planet of Phantom Girl. Neat use of powers!!!

In other plots: Timber Wolf has a new costume. Pretty neat! I like incorporating the logo into the costume in a creative way.

More importantly, we have a Legion election coming up! Pretty bold of Brainiac 5 to run, considering the last time he lost an election he ended up going nuts and creating a monster that almost destroyed all life in the universe!!!

Dream Girl definitely has more fun with this election than Brainy, and she’s not even running!

And all the founding members officially resign.

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“The more they stay the same”
by Paul Levitz & Ernie Colon

 Normally I would separate the second part, since it’s technically another story, but it’s practically the continuation.
This is about the election, and interestingly we see how analysts for the United Planets react.

Weird choice having the founders vote and then resign immediately after.

The Legion Academy is also interested, because for the first time in a while more than one member will participate in the upcoming auditions.

The Legion status as galactic celebrities is brought up fairly often, but we rarely get to see the perspective of the general public.

I was about to count the founders under “Resigned” members, because that’s what they said.
But considering they can still be called as reserves… I’ll keep counting them as such, because it would make little sense to distinguish between “reserves” and “rotating permanent advisor who is a reserve for all intents and purposes but wants a special name”.

Saturn Girl bringing up her relationship with Element Lad’s tenure as leader is going to be surprisingly important later.

The votes are in, and Element Lad wins re-election.

Well of course, how could you not vote for this man?

More on the election results down below.

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Legion significance: 6/10
The leadership remains unchanged, but slightly significant because the founders resigning will lead so some very important additions to the team.
Bumped by Superboy’s last hurrah, even though he didn’t get to do much.

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
So how does the trick of phasing the entire ship work, and why is it never attempted again?

Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
A solid team-up followed by an interesting view of how the public views the Legion. Too bad the second part is tainted by some truly awful artwork, otherwise I would’ve added at least a full point.

We are legion
19 active Legionnaires
8 reserve members (including the three founders)
10 deceased members
3 resigned members (Command Kid, Tyroc, Princess Projectra)
1 honorary member
41 people have been members
41 people have been rejected

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As always, whenever we get the full voting records, let’s break down this election.

First of all: Superboy got to vote, and I’m not sure why. Isn’t he a reserve at this point!?

Element Lad received 12 votes, meaning he won 55% of the votes.
Brainiac 5 received 10 votes.
If Superboy had not voted, Element Lad would’ve still won woth 57% of the votes.
If the founders had not voted, Brainiac 5 would have won with 53% of the votes.
If both Superboy and the founders had not voted, it would have been a tie.

If we’re talking reader votes, then Element Lad won with 11.2% of the vote and Brainiac 5 reached 10.7%. That was WAY close!!!
The most incredible result is Timber Wolf with 8.7%! Now THAT would’ve been a leadership run worth exploring. I also would’ve been fine with Shadow Lass, who reached 8.6%.

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Next let’s analyze the votes to see if we can see some patterns.

Both Brainiac 5 and Element Lad voted for the other candidate. Classy.

BRAINIAC 5 VOTES

• Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet. They voted for Element Lad in the previous election because of his handling of Violet’s kidnapping, so I guess that bump in popularity faded.
• White Witch. She’s interacted with him a little more than with Element Lad.
• Blok. In my headcanon, exclusively because that’s how White Witch voted.
• Wildfire. Possibly because, unlike Dawnstar, he did appreciate how Brainy handled things. Or possibly because he’s the eternal contrarian and voted for a change in leadership.
• Dream Girl. Not exaclty a surprise, she wasn’t super fond of Element Lad’s style. I wonder if she knew Element Lad would win before she voted?
• Superboy. He hasn’t seen much of Element Lad’s leadeship, so he might have voted for the older friend. I’m still surprised he got to vote.
• Mon-El. Could’ve voted either way, really, but I do appreciate he didn’t vote as a couple with Shadow Lass.
• Invisible Kid II. No shocker here, he’s definitely closer to Brainy.

ELEMENT LAD VOTES

• Chameleon Boy, Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy. Part of the team lost in another dimension with Element Lad, so I guess they were impressed. Then again Shrinking Violet was also part of that team, but she voted for Brainiac 5. Ultra Boy had a bit of an incentive to vote against Brainiac 5, considering the absurdity revolving his earlier run.
• Dawnstar. The one consistent thing she does, considering she kept crapping on Brainy.
• Star Boy. He really didn’t get to do much of anything lately, so it might still be the results of the great chat he had with Element Lad right before the previous election.
• Timber Wolf. I have no clue what goes on inside his head lately. Honestly he might have not cared all that much about the election and simply voted to keep things as they are.
• Sun Boy. Another Legionnaire who didn’t get to do much; I think he does care about the election, even if he pretends not to. Probably just thought Element Lad was doing fine.
• Shadow Lass. Possibly another for the “things are fine, no need to change” category.
• Lightning Lass. Doesn’t seem to have a particular relationship with either candidate. She might be the only Legionnaire swayed by how the founders voted. Speaking of which…
• The three founders. It’s possible this was more of a vote against Brainiac 5: they all know too well the weight of leadership, and suspected Brainy might lose his head again.

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Interesting letters: the series itself is definitely siding with Lightning Lass, but I agree more with Carlos.