Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #22

Legion of Super-Heroes vol.3 #22 (1986)
by Paul Levitz & Greg LaRoque

Bad covers are rare in this era of the Legion, but I think this one qualifies.

We begin with the return of Universo, who hypnotizes his latest goon.

The armor guy will be the main antagonist of the issue, but he’s just a pawn in a more complex plan.

More importantly, however, Universo is masquerading as a high-ranking member of the United Planets government. That’s a smart move on his part: he could just as easily impersonate the President, but that would make it riskier; instead he’s just controlling the President from the shadows.

We then move to one of my favorite concepts in the Legion universe: Labyrinth, a planet orbiting a binary star that draws all of its power from the smaller star in the system!

Even more impressively, that’s basically just reverse engineering Brainiac 5’s force field belt.

This confuses Sensor Girl because… honestly, even knowing the answer to her mystery (still three issues to go!), I struggle to understand why.

The Legion is here because Labyrinth is a prime candidate to replace Takron-Galtos as the next galactic superprison.

Would Light Lass be considered racist by 30th century standards for her attitude here?

This is a chance for some much-needed character development, and lots of interaction between LL and Shrinking Violet that Legion readers who know where this is going to lead were probably dying to see.

But the soap-opera stuff will have to wait, because something’s up with Labyrinth.

See, this is why your power shouldn’t be a secret TO YOUR TEAMMATES. Can you really blame them for not trusting her?

She does eventually lead them to a stowaway…

…Micro Lad, who is fittingly captured by Shrinking Violet.
This might be picked up from the Emerald Empress storyline, I honestly forgot.

That will have to wait, though: the main threat is Universo’s goon attacking Earth with Kirby Krackle™ technology.

Crucially, Rond Vidar is injured in the attack.

This guy is a nobody, but his armor is REALLY impressive.

But he makes a break for it with the old “distract the heroes by endangering civilians” routine.

This also creates an opportunity to check on Rond Vidar, and for the revelation that the 30th century might be a utopia but they STILL have to deal with bureaucracy.

Considering this is a Universo storyline, you probably guessed that Rond’s involvement wasn’t casual.

Also, this is why there have been several subplots involving people stealing technology all throughout the past dozen issues. You may have forgotten those subplots entirely, because I did.

This is all Brainiac 5 needs to figure out the armored guy is after a Fusion Powersphere™.

And sure enough, once he shows up to absorb the energy of the Fusion Powerspher™ in Metropolis, the Legion is there to stop him.

I’ve been very critical of Dawnstar lately, but credit where it’s due: she’s awesome here.

With his armor disabled, he doesn’t pose a threat anymore…

…but thanks to a failsafe provided by Universo, his mind self-destructs when Tellus tries to read it!

As a Legion veteran, Ultra Boy is all too familiar with plots left dangling forever… but this will be picked up soon.

In other plots, Mon-El keeps getting worse.

And depressing. ALMOST as depressing as realizing that Polar Boy joined the Legion in issue 14 and Levitz has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with him!!!

He will redeem himself in the latter part of the series, sure, but that’s unforgivable.

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Legion significance: 5/10
More groundwork for Universo, but more importantly the first step in the new evolution for Light Lass and Shrinking Violet.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
The Labyrinth plot, while fun, is a bit of a waste… it would’ve been better to join it with the Universo plot and make Labyrinth the target of his henchman.
Still, definitely more cohesive than the previous issue; we ARE going somewhere finally, just at a very slow pace. Again.

We are legion
24 active Legionnaires
7 reserve members
11 deceased members

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Interesting letters: I’m not the only one complaining about underutilized Legionnaires.

Also, the Supergirl Theory is BY FAR the most popular. It helps that it’s the only theory literally provided by one of the Legionnaires.

Someone writes that focusing on less heroes is a good thing.
I disagree: obviously every reader has favorites, but the great thing about the Legion is that everyone gets a chance to shine.

I think the letter writer is taking the changes in membership a little too personally.

Yeah to me this is putting too much into it, and quite frankly it feels like a toxic relationship between reader and story.

Also that’s a rather bleak vision of comics as a whole.

A well thought-out answer from Levitz. I can’t fathom how you could possibly read his Legion stories and think he has anything but boundless respect for the team’s history!
(well, in the original run anyway)