Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #44 (1988)
by Paul Levitz & Greg LaRoque
cover by Steve Lightle
After so much time, we finally learn Quislet’s origin.
Quislet has disappeared, along with Wildfire, leaving only some kind of tiny portal in his room.
Brainiac 5 is so concentrated on the storyline that will culminate with issue 50 that he couldn’t possibly care less about this one.
That’s kind of in-character for Brainy, but I feel like Polar Boy should take this more seriously!
We’ll get back to Polar Boy later; let’s focus on the main plot first.
Which is set in Quislet’s home dimension, where everything is made of energy.
This dimension is supposed to be utterly alien, sure, but I find it a bit underwhelming.
Wildfire is then assaulted by Quislet’s fellow energy critters.
They also go after Quislet, forcing him out of his tiny ship.
This is definitely the most weird-looking Legion homeworld EVER.
Their universe is a fascinating sci-fi idea. A universe where energy is more stable than matter, and where a whole civilization arises from a mythological ancestor: an electron.
The energy beings are in a sort of hive mind, and they try to assimilate Wildfire into it.
So here’s Quislet’s origin: he’s an astronaut from an energy dimension who escaped the hive mind.
Then Wildfire manages to rebuild the awfully designed energy body.
And thanks to Quislet’s guidance, they find the portal that leads back to the Legion universe.
Not before Quislet gets his own badass moment!
He reveals he has upgraded his own ship to blow up if anyone else pilots it, and that’s what makes the other energy beings back off.
It’s a nice moment, but the badassery is a bit lowered when your main character’s sound effect goes “poop a doop”.
And the duo eventually returns to the matter universe.
In other plots, Atmos and his weird armpits are being auditioned to join the Legion.
Since having invisible armpits isn’t considered a useful superpower, matter manipulation works.
He’s quite the pompous braggart.
He also reconnects with Dream Girl, who he had a fling with during the Universo Project when they were both amnesiac.
Remember when Atmos was first introduced, I mentioned you would definitely end up hating him?
We’re not quite there yet, but you can probably see where this is going.
This backstory is fine, but come on, there is only one thing we MUST know about Atmos: what’s the deal with the invisible armpits???
Atmos may be insufferable, but he does have useful powers. So Polar Boy is seriously considering his application, while Dream Girl is being vague about him.
Since he’s in-between other plots, it will take a while before his membership is fully examined.
Especially because next issue is the Legion’s 30th anniversary.
Legion significance: 6/10
Weirdly enough, Atmos trying to join the Legion is going to be the important subplot: I don’t believe we EVER visit Quislet’s dimension again.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Quislet’s dimension is a bit too high concept for it.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
A fantastic premise, but I don’t think LaRoque was the best artist for this. Imagine Quislet’s dimension as drawn by someone with a more abstract style and we would’ve seen something really crazy! Instead it’s just these little blobs flying around. It makes sense in context, but it’s not terribly exciting. Especially since Wildfire has to be the narrator, because the energy beings don’t really talk and Quislet’s speech pattern would make things too confusing.
The concept behind the dimension is AMAZING, but I feel like something more should’ve been done with it. Imagine if those things had invaded the regular universe, or if a Legion villain managed to take control of the energy beings!
It’s not a BAD story, mind you, but it needed so much more to be told in a comic book: basically everything has to be done through Wildfire’s exposition. Even the action scenes have to be translated because everything is so alien. Which I guess was the idea, but this is a visual medium and not a book.
We are legion
24 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members
12 deceased members
Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing #60 was narrated by an alien who told of Swamp Thing’s passage through her world. John Totleben’s art was alien and unsettling and the entire issue was memorably creepy. Quislet’s world should have been similarly unsettling, but this issue didn’t really carry it. Still, it was a valiant attempt.
Atmos deliberately rode through a comet. That’s Comet Queen’s origin too! Is comet riding the new “bitten by a radioactive critter”? Why not send a critter through a comet and let it bite you after it’s been comet-ized?