Legion of Suuper-Heroes #12 - Evidentiary Value?

[perletwo]

2 pages from the new issue.

So as you'll recall, Brainiac 5 and Dream Girl have been kidnapped by the Dominators. Everybody and their brother knows it's the Dominators. But thanks to POLITICS!!! the Legion has been forbidden to rescue them unless they present proof to the Council that it's the Dominators.

Still bickering, Cosmic Boy suggests Mon-El try magic - either via Glorith (remember her?) or a call to the Black Witch (remember her?). He declines, but it does remind him someone else still exists. So back to the Council they go...









So basically they're just staking it all on that character's clout? Okaaaay.

Comments

[q99]

Well, the guy's obviously being played as the normal obstructionist senator type, but yea, he has testimony from one person. Sure, it's shown in a highly realistic way... but that doesn't make it any more proven than a spoken one.

[crinos]

Yeah, I mean she's an illusionist. She could make Brainy and Dream Girl singing showtunes on a tight rope covered in caviar and it would like like the real thing.

....


DON'T JUDGE ME.

[icon_uk]

Or as Brainy likes to think of it "My average Tuesday night in the Lab"

[atom_punk]

OK I know that we're supposed to root for the LoSH and how they bravely defy authority and flout the rules and oppressive government bureaucrats to rescue their friends, et cetera, et cetera. But still, come on. Launching a poorly planned rescue mission into hostile territory with the potential to trigger a war with the Dominators cannot be the best option here.

And using Princess Projectra's sensory manipulating abilities on the leaders of your government as "evidence"? That's kind of fishy as well. I mean, if she's ALREADY manipulating the senses of the Council members so they can ostensibly see what's happening to Brainiac 5 and Dream Girl, then how the heck do you expect the Council to be able to verify it as truth when she has to mess with their brains just to show her evidence?

[q99]

It's basically just like a verbal statement, only way more detailed, unless it contains information that she couldn't have unless the two were actually captured.

[icon_uk]

But verbal statements weren't enough to change the Council's mind (When the kids who have saved the Universe any number of times say something is so, you'd think SOMEONE would give them the benefit of the doubt when they make an assertion)

[atom_punk]

Have the Legion actually saved the universe? Or are they still untried heroes in the new continuity, and thus don't have much credibility? The LoSH have always been particularly confusing continuity-wise for me.

Also it would appear the council wants to avoid open war with the Dominators at all costs. And to that end, barring something like rioting in the streets in support of the Legion, no amount of evidence or testimony will persuade the council to launch an officially sanctioned rescue.

Again, given that the council wants to avoid a war with a hostile alien power, this sounds totally reasonable on their part. Although it may be callous to abandon two lives to the Dominators to prevent a conflict that will kill perhaps millions more (given how powerful Dominators as an empire usually are in the DCU) I find it hard to justify the Legion's thinking here.

Now if the Dominators were already attacking planets on the outer rim of United Planets territory and there were innocents at risk but the Council turned a blind eye to the attacks for the sake of appeasing the Dominators and clinging to "peace" and the capture of two Legion members was simply the last straw that pushed the rest of the Legion to action, that I think would have made for a more interesting story.

It would be more ambiguous who is right in this situation. The UP council sacrificing less populated planets with say hundreds of thousands of lives to prevent a war that will kill billions. Or the Legion for fighting to save every life they can but potentially triggering an even greater conflict.

[icon_uk]

In this iteration, I believe that all the events of the 60's 70's and 80's still happened (pretty much right up to the 5YL stories onwards), so the Great Darkness Saga would still be canon (and that's as close to Universe ending as I think it gets), as would Earthwar, Mordru's invasion etc...

[cainofdreaming]

Well, the person giving the testimony in this case isn't just anyone, or even just any member of an organization that has saved the universe, she's a ruler of a member world. Political clout might cause the bureaucrats to have to consider it more.

[icon_uk]

Fair point, but IIRC Orando withdrew from the UP when it vanished into another dimension and AFAIK never returned (Though that might have all changed by this point in this iteration of Legion history)

Jecky was exiled from the planet, and her position as Queen, by the Orando powers-that-be because they blamed their problems with the Legion of Super Villains on her determination to have them join the UP in the first place.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, I had the feeling that Levitz's intent was convincing the UP that they should go to war with the Dominators, but considering who Sensor Girl is, I would think that it would seem more likely to them that she was making shit up.

[icon_uk]

Add me to "Using an illusionist and sensory manipulator to try and prove your case is NOT a particularly impressive idea" queue.

[kenn_el]

I haven't been keeping up, but wasn't part of the reason Jeckie stayed 'Sensor Girl' and masked to hide the fact that she was Projectra, and therefore foes (and others) would be aware of just what she could do?

[icon_uk]

Possibly she made her identity known to the UP Council?

[theflames]

Seems legit.

[shadowpsykie]

oh she's still the Black Witch?

[icon_uk]

No reason she shouldn't be I suppose, the Legion future was pretty much unaffected by Flashpoint, so if she was BW before, she'd be BW now.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm, thats kinda cool. i kinda liked that development with her...

[perletwo]

Last time we saw Mysa was issue #5 of this run (the Walt Simonson art'ed 'day in the life' issue) and she was the Black Witch then. I believe that's also the last time we saw Glorith, incidentally.

[glprime]

And see, if there was an Always Evil race my team has to fight time and again, I'd be the hot-headed Earthling just itching to wipe them from the galaxy.

"War? Excellent. Time to do some cosmic culling."
[Lantern-Prime, your powers are imbued with the hope they will be used at non-lethal levels for the greater prosperity of-]
"Shut up, Battery."