Okay, now I really have to pick up my snail's pace.Originally Posted by cayo
Results 91 to 93 of 93
-
05-25-2013, 05:34 PM #91I love the 80s!
- Join Date
- May 2004
- Location
- New Jersey
- Posts
- 2,014
"I don't care if they have definite connections to the boy scouts. They have Weapon X - I want him back. We spent a lot of money and resources developing and training him - not to mention your group as well - I won't see it thrown away."
- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, April 1979
Unfortunately, Wolverine escaped to the U.S. with the X-Men. Soon after this stunning debacle, Trudeau's Liberal Party would go down to defeat in the May 1979 election.
-
06-07-2013, 09:12 PM #92I love the 80s!
- Join Date
- May 2004
- Location
- New Jersey
- Posts
- 2,014
Adventure Comics #317
“The Menace of Dream Girl”
By Edmond Hamilton & John Forte
February 1964
Reprint: Read the b&w reprint in Showcase Presents LOSH vol. 1 and digest color reprint in Adventure Comics #502.
Plot: Saturn Girl asks the Legionnaires who are out on missions to return to form a quorum for a meeting. This includes Superboy and Mon-El, who are trying to break through the Iron Curtain of Time that the Time Trapper has set up to block travel beyond 30 days in the future. At the meeting, it is noted that Star Boy draws power from stars to make any object heavy.
Also, at the meeting, Dream Girl of the planet Naltor applies. The guys are all smitten by her, but the girls are skeptical about her power to dream of the future. Dream Girl dreams of monsters hatching for eggs in a southwestern desert and a rocket fuel tank exploding near Metropolis. Star Boy recounts how he gained the power to draw mass from stars due to the effects of stellar radiation. He stops the hatching monsters by weighing them down. Superboy stops the fuel tank explosion.
The Legion meets again to vote on Dream Girl. All the guys vote yes and the girls vote no, but she has enough votes for induction. Dream Girl decides to study up on the Legion Constitution. Meanwhile, Saturn Girl (in a time bubble) and Mon-El try to breach the “iron curtain of time”. After they fail, they ask Dream Girl to look past the barrier. However, she can only see a few days ahead.
Dream Girl and Lightning Lass are sent to check on an experimental generator. Lightning Lass is shocked and loses her power. Dream Girl tells the Legion that Lightning Lass is required to resign due to her loss of power. When Triplicate Girl accuses Dream Girl of rigging the generator accident, Dream Girl has Triplicate Girl court-martialed. Star Boy tries to reason with Dream Girl, but he is rebuffed.
Braniac 5 tells Matter Eater Lad that it appears Dream Girl is deliberate trying to have certain Legionnaires expelled. Brainy advises Matter Eater Lad to watch Dream Girl in case she is being coerced. At a Legion meeting, Matter Eater Lad notices Dream Girl almost sits in Chameleon Boy’s seat before going to her correct seat.
Dream Girl dreams that an aurora on the planet Vondra could be harmful. She is sent to investigate Vondra and chooses to bring Lightning Lad, Ultra Boy, Shrinking Violet, and Bouncing Boy along. On the planet, the aurora turns the other Legionnaires into children. Dream Girl, who knew of this effect, took an antidote beforehand. Dream Girl notes that the Legion Constitution mandates the hospitalization of the child Legionnaires.
Back on Earth, Matter Eater Lad checks the log at the space-port. He discovers that Dream Girl started to sign as Chameleon Boy before crossing out the name and signing as Dream Girl. He accuses her of secretly being Cham. Star Boy says that Cham is on another mission. After the Legion contacts Cham by video, Dream Girl has Matter Eater Lad suspended for a false accusation.
Star Boy finds Dream Girl crying in the clubhouse. He asks her why she’s pretending to so nasty. She reveals that weeks ago, she had a vision that seven Legionnaires would be killed in a spacecraft. She joined the Legion and had the seven incapacitated so that they could be sent on missions and wouldn’t be killed. Star Boy realizes that Dream Girl’s vision is test mission in which seven androids in the form of the Legionnaires will be destroyed. He shows the test to Dream Girl.
The infancy effect of the aurora wears off. Dream Girl reveals that she used Naltorian science to change Lightning Lass’s powers so that she can object lighter in weight. She rechristens her “Light Lass”. Because she has tricked the Legion, Dream Girl decides to resign. However, she suggests she may reapply if she can master her powers.
Comments: This story is significant in Legion history for a few reasons. Obviously it’s the first appearance of Dream Girl. She’s rare among the Legionnaires so far in that her home planet is named. Additonally, I think she’s the first member to resign in a story and remained resigned at the end of the story (as opposed to being readmitted in the same story).
This also marks the first mention of the Time Trapper. He doesn’t actually appear. It’s an odd introduction, like one of the early stories in which a sun-eater appears but isn’t the focus of the issue.
This issue is also part of a power-shuffle. Ultra Boy was just turned into a Superboy analog, in terms of his power, in the last issue. Now that’s been balanced by turning Star Boy from a Superboy analog to someone who just has the power to make objects heavier. The change in powers from Lightning Lass to Light Lass gets rid of the duplication of powers she had with her brother. But strangely, a new duplication of powers is set up. The new powers of Light Lass and Star Boy are opposites.
The story is another of the fairly common “Legion traitor” plots. More specifically, it repeats many elements of Adventure #304 when Saturn Girl got various Legionnaires expelled or suspended in an effort to save their lives. In spite of that, it’s a pretty good story. A big part of that is because Dream Girl is an interesting character. She has a more defined personality that just about any Legionnaire at this point. They have fairly generic personalities right now.
During the application process, Superboy notes that the examination sometimes takes more than an hour and carries over a sofa for Dream Girl to lay on. Whether it’s intentional or not, it seems like a sly casting couch joke.
Matter Eater Lad and Star Boy both play prominent roles in this story, despite having rarely appeared recently. Star Boy had barely been seen since his introduction."I don't care if they have definite connections to the boy scouts. They have Weapon X - I want him back. We spent a lot of money and resources developing and training him - not to mention your group as well - I won't see it thrown away."
- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, April 1979
Unfortunately, Wolverine escaped to the U.S. with the X-Men. Soon after this stunning debacle, Trudeau's Liberal Party would go down to defeat in the May 1979 election.
-
06-07-2013, 09:14 PM #93I love the 80s!
- Join Date
- May 2004
- Location
- New Jersey
- Posts
- 2,014
And a bonus - here's the cover of Adventure #502, reprinting the Dream Girl story:
"I don't care if they have definite connections to the boy scouts. They have Weapon X - I want him back. We spent a lot of money and resources developing and training him - not to mention your group as well - I won't see it thrown away."
- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, April 1979
Unfortunately, Wolverine escaped to the U.S. with the X-Men. Soon after this stunning debacle, Trudeau's Liberal Party would go down to defeat in the May 1979 election.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks