Justice League Adventures #21 (2003)
by John Ostrander & Min S. Ku
cover by Eric Wight
The DC Animated Universe was incredibly cohesive, but there were a couple of bumps on the road.
One of those was this series, which was intended to showcase characters that had not yet been introduced in any of the series (Batman, Superman and Justice League).
Many of them don’t really fit the animated continuity, and I’m therefore classifying them as apocrypha.
Before this one there was issue 10, which unmistakably stars the Reboot Legion. It’s basically indistinguishable from the Reboot itself and as such will be covered with it.
But then we have this issue, which while not showing the Legion of Super-Heroes does have a connection.
We begin with Green Lantern (specifically Jon Stewart) saving a woman who is being pursued by a hostile ship.
The villains are the Dominators, which in this version are telepaths.
They’re labeling the woman they’ve been hunting as a terrorist…
…but she has a name that should ring bells to any Legion fan.
This is basically an abridged version of the post-Crisis origin of many Legion planets, as we will soon see on the main retrospective, and she’s an ancestor of Saturn Girl.
So I’m guessing that’s the reason why these Dominators are telepaths.
Weirdly enough there is NO indication of a timeline here; she just talks about her “ancestors” having been subjects to experiments. So I’m guessing this universe’s version of Invasion took place way earlier than 1989.
It’s a neat premise: the Dominators are claiming that SHE is the villain, and calls out the Justice League of taking her side just because she doesn’t look like a monster.
If this was your first exposure to the Dominators, you might think they’re innocent!
Well, if you ignore the fact that THEY CALL THEMSELVES DOMINATORS…
…and they’re INCREDIBILY racist, not wanting to risk telepathic cooties from Martian Manhunter.
However there’s the complication that she doesn’t want to compromise her mind either.
And that’s the moral dilemma of the issue: should the Justice League grant asylum to the woman, or hand her back to the Dominators?
(Batman is on a screen because he’s in the Batcave doing Batman stuff)
Flash’s reaction is very Flash, considering this is Wally West.
I’m also not entirely surprised by Green Lantern, considering he’s used to follow authority… although I’m a bit surprised the Corps doesn’t know ANYTHING about the Dominators.
Wonder Woman takes her side because a person with breasts can’t be evil, and Hawgirl’s position is… honestly it’s not really clear to me, but she has little patience for Wondy.
Although this Hawgirl has little patience for anything.
Martian Manhunter is the most logical one, voting to just keep the girl until they know more.
I’m surprised by Superman acting VERY out of character and insisting they deliver the fugitive to the guys who keep talking about how they are superior to all other being and, again, who CALL THEMSELVES DOMINATORS.
This turns into, you guessed it, a big dumb fight.
Highlights include Superman being able to knock out Martian Manhunter even when he’s intangible, because who would be surprised by the idea that Superman can punch ghosts?
And Flash hitting on Saturn Girl’s ancestor.
If you were thinking that the Leaguers were acting out of character… THAT’S ON PURPOSE, because they’re being manipulated by the Dominators!
I’ve mentioned my distaste for the Bat-God a number of times, but I would never argue that Batman doesn’t deserve a spot in the Justice League. Precisely because of THIS.
Batman’s plan is to have the girl free the others from control of the Dominators, while sharing her knowledge with the heroes.
That’s the reason for the crazy cover, by the way: the Dominators plan to do all kind of weird experiments on the Justice League.
This turns into a telepathic beam struggle, for some reason.
The Dominators lose this battle, but decide they WILL declare war on Earth over this.
However that would screw up the cartoon’s canon, so the girl decides she’s not going to ask for asylum and instead take her people to a new planet.
And that’s the secret origin of the Legion in the DC Animated Universe.
Historical significance: 0/10
Completely ignored by the rest of the series AND the cartoon.
Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
The fact that the Legion planets where everyone have powers are populated by descendants of people experimented on by the Dominators was introduced WAY before this issue.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Saturn Girl has an ancestor living 1,000 years before her time that looks exactly like her… although that might be due to the art style. I’m more impressed by the fact that they STILL have the same last name (Saturn Girl is Imra Ardeen).
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Simplistic and straightforward, yes, but this would be a solid foundation for a proper story. The fact that the Justice League just lets the Dominators go and doesn’t seem all that concerned about alien racists having conducted experiments on humans for who knows how long IS weird, though.
Still, the dilemma on whether to trust the hot girl or the alien monsters, plus the different levels of manipulation on display, certainly elevate the story.
Justice League Adventures #11 (2002)
by Dan Slott & Min S. Ku
This doesn’t warrant a full review, but there’s a Legion cameo during a time travel story so I might as well mention it.
Especially since it shows Umbra (the Reboot Shadow Lass), who wasn’t present in the Superman episode so she gets added to the count!
We are Legion
14 active members
-Saturn Girl
-Cosmic Boy
-Chameleon Boy
-Ultra Boy
-Apparition
-Dream Girl
-Live Wire
-Sparks
-Brainiac 5
-Triad
-Bouncing Boy7
-Kid Quantum
-Andromeda
-Umbra