Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Duplicate Damsel(s)

It wasn't really revealed how Luornu got her upgrade, was it?

I'm curious about it. I don't remember- did we see her interact with New Wanderer Triad or Prime Legion Triplicate Girl?

I know I wanted to see a scene where all the Luornus merged-- or at least tried to.

Either might result in Duplicate Damsel's ability to create so many dupes, either from learning it from Trips or from gaining the power after separating after a successful merge.

Triad, however, would have a completely different reaction to such a merge. The way her triplicating works, she'd have to have a truly fractured psyche for all those 'selves' to have unique personalities. I think she'd be spooked by the possibility. Could make for a good 'Legionnaire goes crazy' kind of story, I suppose.

Anyway, the thing I wish *could* come about from a theoretical 'super-merge', is an enduring bond between the Luornus of Three Worlds. Limited communication between the three legions would be a good thing. IMO.

The three Trips being able to coordinate between the Legions of Three Worlds would make perfect sense. I remember it being mentioned back in the day on some thread or another, and I'm disappointed that the writers didn't seem to think of doing something like that.

I don't really remember if we got to see the Lu's interact with each other, but given how little individual space there was to deal with the various Legionnaires, what with so many pages devoted to Sodam Yat, Bart's return, Conner's return, etc. I don't remember any of the Legionnaires other than the three Brainy's getting to interact much with each other...

On a somewhat related topic... I always thought the 5YL Lu should gain the ability to split into five bodies after merging with her SW6 counterpart.

Quintessa!

I was thinking "Quintessence Queen"!

Cinco de Luornu!

Minor royalty, sovereign and a holiday! We're thinking big for Lu, aren't we?

Making up for poor Una's fate, perhaps?

I like the idea of the powered-up Lu, and I'm curious to see how Levitz deals with the change; even wondering if he means to make it permanent.

Not really into the separate personalities biz, though. I guess it could be done well, but I'm weary of the Dark Phoenix Syndrome: in which it's apparently impossible for a woman to get enhanced powers without somehow going off the rails.

Ditto with cleome on the multiple personalities issue. I think that Peter David has already tapped that well with Jamie Madrox, and would prefer if Lu's powers 'just worked.'

Well, I only meant that New Wanderer Triad would have the m.p. issues if she had a similar powerup. *Not* the Legionnaire married to Bouncing Boy.

Hee. Sounds like the artist formerly known as prince.

I am gonna just say...I hate this stupid "upgrade" of Luornu's power, which is really just a way of making her utterly generic.

There is easily room for it to become a decent development, but the way it was just thrown in at the end of the story with absolutely zero explanation or relevance just makes me think it was a lazy way of making her more powerful for a writer who didn't want to have to think creatively about how to use her existing strengths.

I mean honestly, if the three Legions with umpteen characters present of Daxamite levels couldn't put a dent in the LSV, what difference would a bunch of additional ordinary women make?

I can see the appeal in giving Luornu back some version of her original powerset, but the way it was done has just made an otherwise interesting character utterly generic.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, Razsolo, especially the way they just mentioned it so briefly in practically a footnote that "something weird happened" and now she can make hundreds of duplicates.

BUT I do think she needed some kind of upgrade to be a more useful member, especially after they killed off her 2nd body in that awful crossover event, whatever it was called. Since when does a Legionnaire get eaten by rats? Ick! Legionnaires are supposed to die valiantly, heroically and be mourned across the galaxy. To kill her off in such a way was just insulting to Legion fans.

If they hadn't beefed up her power or given her a new one, she'd be off the stage completely, so I'm hopeful that they can find interesting ways to use her new power.

I do hope they do something cool with it.....Levitz always seemed to like having Chuck and Luornu around in some capacity or other, and now that Blok and Mysa have left maybe we'll see Luornu rejoin the active roster? The only way I think this will become a worthwhile development is if it's actually explored....otherwise it just becomes a weird not-very-well-thought-out footnote in her history.

I think its great that Luornu gets an amped up power after all the heartache she's experienced over the decades.
I just hope they don't make her omnipotent with the whole unlimited duplicates thing. That would frustrate the writer and ultimately push her to the sidelines as a "too-easy-solution" with use of this new power.

I do worry that they'll use her bodies as cannon fodder and if so I hope she doesn't just bounce back like it was nothing to lose a body like she did the first time she lost one.

I'd like to see her use her powers as a sort of teleport hopping ability. By splitting and remerging her bodies at a distance she could be sort of like Nightcrawler when he teleports in hops. She could literally be everywhere at once.

She could also simulate super speed by summoning multiple duplicates in a straight line to cover distances quickly. She could send duplicates on multiple missions and keep in touch with each away team through a mental bond, alleviating the need to put SATURN HUSSY on every mission.

Maybe she should be used as cannon fodder so she could have a cool death scene in every single issue until she's back down to three bodies.
It could be like they do with Kenny on South Park.
"Oh no!! You killed Luornu!! You bastards!!"

I've actually thought she would be interesting with a limited number of bodies (say three), but where the bodies were infinitely expendable. So, for example, if one of them got killed, the others could generate another body, but with a maximum limit of three at a time. So, she could take risks that others might not take, because as long as she still had one body left, she wouldn't really die.

With five bodies they should call her Knuckle Sandwich 'cos she'd collectively be like the knuckles of one big fist that can lay on one heck'uv'a beating!

In addition to the idea of Lu being able to coordinate the Legions of Three Worlds, it would be neat if she somehow went all quantum Lu and was able to contact the Luornu's of other parallel realities. She would avoid contact with the Luornu of the 30th century Crime Syndicate universe, since that Lu isn't very nice (and her 'Legion' is even less nice), but the Lu's of a dozen other realities could be interesting, particularly if some of them might be significantly different, turning Lu into a sort of 'Dial H for Hero' character at times, able to call up quantum variations on herself (or perhaps even accessing Hypertime), with different skill-sets or abilities.


And, if she could re-absorb herself at range, she could email herself halfway around the world, by 'putting one Lu in front of the other,' and re-absorbing the Lu behind her as she goes.

That would be an awesome extension of her powers, allowing her to be team coordinator.

She could be like Wolverine, with the Legion divided up into a half-dozen squads, and a Lu on each squad, providing tactical coordination!

Gas Girl - "Wait, why is Copy Chick on *our* team, again? She's not even from Lallor..."

Evolvo Lad - "New orders from the UP, every sanctioned hero team has to have at least one Duplicate Damsel for threat-response and tactical coordination."

Elsewhere, the Persuader - "We're the Fatal Five, not the Suspicious Six! Tell Split Lass to, uh, split!"

Tharok - "No, this isn't Duplicate Damsel, it's really her bisexual pheremone-producing psychotic assassin daughter that you've never heard of, Dakornu."

Validus - "Ruh?"

Emerald Empress, pointing at Validus - "What he said."

I think this is a much more interesting idea than just giving her unlimited duplication abilities.

I agree with razsolo. I don't care for any character's powers having no limits, but especially in a team group like the Legion. That has been a potential problem before ("Let's hang out here and smoke cigars while Superboy takes care of the problem. Unless it requires thinking and then we can all hang out here while Brainiac 5 takes care of the problem."). If Lu is going to have this power then I wouldn't mind having some Lu's refuse to recombine, opting for individuality.