DC Comics Presents #80 (1985)
by Paul Kupperberg & Curt Swan
This was published the same month Crisis of Infinite Earths started, so this is basically the last pre-Crisis teamup between the Legion and Superman.
And Superman. And Superman. And Superman.
This is a direct follow-up from issue 8 (despite a caption wrongly crediting issue 5) in the sense that we’re still following the five Legionnaires who were lost in the other universe.
But other than that, it’s completely disconnected.
Instead of returning to the 30th century Earth as they expected,they materialized above a 20th century city… IN SPACE.
The Legionnaires are brought there by a tractor beam. Ultra Boy tries to smash the projector, but he’s intercepted by an unlikely adversary: Superman himself.
Superman even attacks the Legionnaires, who save themselves from his heat vision only thanks to a lead shield. If this was a 50s story or even an early 60s story I would give it a pass, since lead DID use to stop heat vision back when it was interchangeable with X-Ray vision… but in 1985 that’s inexcusable.
Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet and Chamaleon Boy can use their powers to escape this Superman, but he’s got backup.
The villain of the story turns out to be Brainiac, in his 80s fully robotic redesign. But even he has no idea why the Legion is here.
I rather like this design, but I’m sad to say Swan doesn’t give it full justice here. He’s drawn him spectacularly elsewhere, so maybe it’s the inks.
Meanwhile on the ACTUAL 20th century Earth, Superman receives a sonic signal. Which he can hear through space because, you know, Superman.
Meanwhile the Legion is making some progress against the Superman doubles once they figure out they’re robots.
Phantom Girl is the one to suggest this is a sort of testing ground.
So now we have five Legionnaires against, at the very least, several dozen Superman robots.
Which SOUNDS awesome, but it’s second-rate robots.
The floating city isn’t just in space, it’s in a different dimension… that Superman can apparently access on his own? I know he can travel through time without problem, but traveling to other dimensions seems a bit much even for him!
This is the same dimension where Superman exiled Brainiac in an earlier story. If it’s a place that Superman can reach on his own, shouldn’t he notice it’s the same place and at least consider the possibility that Brainiac is involved?
The way Superman falls for Brainiac’s trap is really stupid. He lets a bunch of Superman robots escort him towards the Legion, so that they’ll think HE is also one of the robots.
Not that the Legionnaires are particularly smarter. None of the robots can talk!
A rare fight between Ultra Boy and Superman. The latter is explicitly stronger, but I wouldn’t exactly consider Ultra Boy a lightweight.
A neat aspect of the story is that the Legionnaires are always shown doing something in the background, even when they’re not the focus. I especially liked Phantom Girl tricking two robots to punch each other.
I wonder if this was in the script or if Swan added it to shake things up.
Ultra Boy manages to knock out Superman thanks to the assist of Chameleon Boy; while this a very Legion moment… just how strong is the form Cham is taking!?
This is where Brainiac shows up, much to the Legion’s confusion since he looks NOTHING like they expected.
This is where the story completely loses me. Because apparently Brainiac has been influencing the Legionnaire telepathically? What!?
What do you mean they couldn’t hear his words? THIS WAS TWO PAGES AGO!!!
This is so baffling that I’m wondering if this was a change in the dialogue after the editor noticed some mistake. Like Brainiac explaining this mind control is the reason why the Legionnaires are not trying to fight him… it feels like a justification for a plot hole.
So, uhm, Brainiac has a device that can disintegrate Superman? WITHOUT using Kryptonite or red sun radiation!? SINCE WHEN is that how his invulnerability works!?
See what I mean about the mind control feeling like a later addition? It’s there ONLY to prevent the Legion from interrupting Brainiac as he kidnaps Superman, but the then… just forgets about it!?
If you think that was very stupid of Brainiac… you haven’t seen anything yet.
Rather than fight Superman, Brainiac blows up his own machine and uses the confusion to teleport away.
So why DID Brainiac lose? Because he was fooled by Element Lad into believing he was being damaged by his own beam.
And because he didn’t bother the check his sensors to see if he was being damaged.
And because he let his mind control slip.
And because he didn’t even try to restrain the powers of the guy who could’ve transmuted him into water if he wanted to.
And because he left the Legionnaires alive in the first place.
And because when you get down to it, this story is kind of dumb.
But it was a throwback to an simpler era.
Legion significance: 2/10
Bumped up slightly by being the last time the Legion has a team-up with pre-Crisis Superman. They do interact during the Crisis itself, but barely.
Silver Age-ness: 9/10
Costumes and Brainiac redesign aside, this could EASILY be a mid-60s story.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
The Curt Swan artwork is the saving grace, as always, but the story is all over the place.
The setting is wasted, the fight with the Superman army is a joke because the robots are way too weak, the fight with the real Superman is extremely contrived, and don’t even get me started on how dumb Brainiac is on this story.
They could’ve done SO much with this! Imagine the Legion in the middle of Brainiac’s arena for testing anti-Superman weapons! Imagine the robots being programmed with some knowledge of Superman’s past, enough to credibly fool the Legion one of them is the real deal!