Legion of Super-Heroes vol.3 #34 (1987)
by Paul Levitz & Greg LaRoque
cover by Steve Lighle
Dream Girl isn’t in the same scene with the Legionnaires thrashed by Universo, but hilariously you can see the cover as her completely ignoring them in order to pose for the camera.
With Earth under Universo’s control, the Legionnaires who managed to escape decide to look for help on Dream Girl’s planet.
Which is kind of weird; the Legion doesn’t go there often, and they don’t sound like the could offer much protection. I wonder why they don’t go to the homeworld of another Legionnaire.
I can see why they don’t go to Titan (it’s so close to Earth that it’s probably dangerous) or Durla (as only Chameleon Boy would survive there), but wouldn’t Brainiac 5’s native Colu be a better choice?
Turns out that Universo took power weeks ago. Notice Saturn Girl expecting Brainiac 5 to figure it out just “from his body”. What exactly should he have noticed that SHE did?
Their time on the mind-controlled commute didn’t seem to have a visible negative impact, so what is she talking about?
The High Seer of Naltor shows them that Universo has taken over Earth, something that Saturn Girl takes the worst.
Dream Girl is also uncharacteristically paranoid about Element Lad, even insinuating that he’s okay with Universo’s plan.
Girl, I know he was your opponent in the election, but come on!!!
The High Seer even suggests rallying other planets to rescue Earth, something extraordinary since Naltor tends to stay out of the spotlight.
The Legion, however, has a badass response.
So the four Legionnaires will have to travel back to Earth incognito.
Which for Saturn Girl and Dream Girl means putting on no disguise at all, and for Brainiac 5 means wearing the worst clothes ever designed.
Then again, it might be a brilliant disguise. Would you ever think THIS guy is the smartest person in the universe?
Dream Girl… you’re just physically incapable of NOT attracting attention, isn’t it?
And she might be contagious, because Brainiac 5 is suddenly very interested in Discount C3PO here.
I mean things are bad when DREAM GIRL has to bail out your low profile!!!
It’s abundantly clear that Dream Girl isn’t as okay as she pretended to be, now that Star Boy has left her and the Legion.
You’d think Chameleon Boy would be the one who doesn’t get his cover blown. But since they’re on a ship from the planet where EVERYONE has precognitive powers, it’s a miracle ANY cover worked at all.
On the other hand, even if you know it’s Chameleon Boy… what are you going to DO with him?
As suggested by the cover, Dream Girl is the Legionnaire with the most focus in this issue.
But in a different way than how Saturn Girl or Chameleon Boy got the spotlight: it’s more of an exploration of rarely seen aspects of her character.
It’s also an interesting contrast with Saturn Girl, because in many ways they’re polar opposites… the ice queen and the flirty bimbo, the family woman and the eternal tease, the smart blonde and the dumb blonde (at least as for how they portray themselves).
But thanks to their powers, they actually do have more in common than you’d think.
Speaking of characters that should be her polar opposite, she also has a nice chat with Brainiac 5.
This is when Chameleon Boy reveals his theory for why exactly Universo chose those four Legionnaires. Because they’re the smartest ones.
For what it’s worth Brainiac 5 agrees. While it’s not entirely spelled out, the other parts of the Universo Project seem to clarify that the idea is that he selected those four because they’re the hardest to mind-control.
The Legion fandom debates TO THIS DAY whether it’s true or not!
For those four it does make sense… Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy’s minds should be different from most other people, and both Saturn Girl and Dream Girl are always keeping their powers in check.
There’s endless debate on whether other Legionnaires should’ve proven more of a challenge for mind-control, but for these four I’m fine with it.
Once the ship lands, there’s a new problem: the authorities know there’s an unauthorized shapeshifter on board.
But since they’re already on Titan (I assume), who cares?
So they steal a ship headed for Earth.
Brainiac 5’s idea of a safe landing, everybody!
This means that the last free Legionnaires are now hunted by the entire planet.
And that’s how they figure out Universo is behind this: continuity!
As for the other Legionnaires, Tellus manages to break free from his prison…
…but since he’s been teleported to a desert planet without his breathing apparatus, he’s going to drown in air.
White Witch is also suffering the extreme heat from this planet. Maybe use those gigantic sleeves of yours to make some shade!
Or a magic bubble, whatever works.
Quislet’s last scene in the previous issue showed he hadn’t been teleported by Zymyr. I think the idea is that he somehow found a way to redirect the teleportation.
He possesses the robot that tore Wildfire to pieces.
However the robot can’t hold Wildfire’s energy for long, so he follows Quislet in a new portal.
The idea that Universo has taken over weeks ago works for the main plot and it KIND OF works for the ones on Tellus’ planet, although that one is stretching it.
But you mean to tell me it’s also true for Mon-El, Ultra Boy and Blok?
What, they’ve been fired at for weeks? Even if they took weeks to get there, they were fired upon last issue… have they been there the entire time the four Legionnaires were escaping?
Yeah I’m also a bit confused, Blok. Unfortunately your part of the story is the one with the least time to breathe.
It does include a nice tidbit, however, about how Ultra Boy feels about his powers.
Although honestly I call bulls##t on the idea that he doesn’t wish he could use all of his powers together, like Mon-El or Superboy.
I can believe he wouldn’t RESENT having the limitation, but come on!!!
Also: Mon-El was born with the potential to have these powers, but he didn’t have them until he left his home planet.
Zymyr is officially revealed to be working with Universo.
And finally we catch up with Earth, where “the impossible is likely”.
Wait wait wait. You mean to tell me that, in the 30th century, pizza is considered “exotic”? AND they call it a dessert?
That’s it. The Legion’s future is not a utopia, it’s a nightmare that must be prevented at all costs.
Looks like brainwashing worked particularly well on Element Lad.
Must be the haircut.
Legion significance: 7/10
Same as most of the other parts.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
I’m running out of good things to say. This one stands out slightly less than the others because there’s fewer outstanding scenes, but it remains a solid part of the story.
We are legion
23 active Legionnaires
8 reserve members
11 deceased members
I always thought Saturn Girl’s comment about being able to tell time with her body referred to her menstrual cycle. If so, it’s a stupid thing to say to a man. The only other way I can think for a man to use his body as a crude calendar is to track the growth of facial hair, and I don’t know if Coluans have any.
The “disguises” that the team took on were about as effective as a false nose/glasses/mustache combo. Nura travelled under her real name, Reep could have been something too small to discover and Querl is a blond Coluan. Not exactly blending into the background, any of them.
Perhaps Brainy’s disguise is showing off his thighs with those awful clothes.
Another thing I like about the Universo Project is that it’s the most extended period we’ve had that I can think of in which the Legionnaires were operating out of costume. It was an unconventional approach in a superhero comic, but it forced us to really focus on the personalities and interactions Levitz had carefully built throughout his tenure and not on the costumes.
And then Keith Giffen comes in and everyone’s constantly in plain clothes, and the Volune 4 comes and some characters literally never suit up. Quite the contrast.
My assumption was that if they’d only been enslaved for days, their bodies would be aching from the unaccustomed manual labor—Brainy especially! Since they weren’t aching, their bodies were proof that they’d been enslaved for weeks, long enough to become accustomed to the work.
The issue after the Universo Project provides a different reason for why these four legionnaires were taken, and given Universo’s backstory as a former Green Lantern, that post-saga reasoning makes more sense than Universo choosing them because they’re the smartest, especially with a dope like Atmos being chosen too.