Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Klar Ken T5477’s Miscellanous Musings

Character Concept:

From Earth-C-minus:

Blok Lobster

Okay, I've had time to read through the entire thread, which reminds me that I have dozens of similar plot bunnies lying around in various word documents on my computer. Ideas for Legion fics I haven't written, ideas for new characters, lists of mythical gods that would make cool super-heroes (instead of the overused Thor and Hercules, such as Artemis or Skadi or Heimdall), etc., etc.

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I like the idea of the Gold Martians and their hidden world around a dwarf star. The sheer amount of power available to a Martian (of any color) has always turned me off a bit to them. It might be an intriguing mix-up to Martian continuity for them to have some sort of communal psychic power, so that John, as last of his race, contains the vast, vast quantities of psychic power of his dead race, and if the Martian population ever increased, his power would be distributed among them somehow. (Alternately, that might make an interesting tweak for Element Lad's origin. His people, individually, might only have been able to transmute small items for limited periods of time, but when they died in their thousands, all of their transmutative potential flowed to the one survivor, giving Jan abilities vastly greater than any single Tromnian. If he ever has children, his own power will be divided among them, and if Trom is ever repopulated, all will have only 'normal' Tromnian power levels, a mere fraction of the power that Jan currently holds in waiting for his race's rebirth).

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Malhaya sounds intriguing. A monument to villains! A shrine to evil? Who built it? Who maintains it? What secrets does it hold?

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Esper Lass vs. Brainy reminds me of how triflingly easy it would be for Brainy to perfectly emulate and ‘profile’ a lesser intellect, such as a human, containing every single thing he’s learned in a psychic model of that person, so that when he interacts with that person, he’s literally running a program version of them in his head, allowing him to anticipate their reactions and behaviors (and updating his ‘profile’ when they surprise him, so that it becomes more and more accurate over time, so that, after teaming with some of his fellow Legionnaires for a decade or so, he’s got mental simulacra of them running in his brain that are psychically indistinguishable from them, and, say, were there a Legion election to determine if he should be kicked out for killing Jaxon Rugarth, he’d be able to anticipate their votes *before they even decided*, because he’s got a ‘Shadow Lass program’ and a ‘Mon-El program’ and a ‘Saturn Girl’ program running in his head, and he can just run the simulation version of them and know with great certainty their decisions, and exactly why they made them, and what they were thinking, etc.

A telepath breaking into his mind might be surprised to find dozens of other people, as real and fully formed as an actual human, living in there, his mental simulacra, each serving as his social interactions database, allowing him to interact with and predict the otherwise baffling behaviors of these, to his mind, vastly smaller intellects.

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Legion Academy MMO could be fun! I wouldn’t limit the membership to pre-existing worlds, ‘though, or to powersets common on those worlds, although I would try to make sure that characters with ‘common’ Legionverse powersets are available (like cold and ice-generating characters, who may or may not be from Tharr, if that’s the backstory they choose). The way MMOs work, powers tend to accumulate pretty slowly, so it would be entirely feasible to allow a Daxamite character, but have them be in the middle of a long and involved process of being immunized against lead or something, explaining why they only start with a smidgen of super-strength and toughness, and have to go through ‘treatments’ (earn exp, like anyone else) before unlocking more of their Daxamite potential. The ‘lead immunization treatments’ or whatever would basically become the in-game excuse for why the PC from Daxam and the PC from Bismoll both start out on an even keel, and both progress at the same rate (although the Bismollan PC might choose to develop more skills or equipment based ‘powers,’ if he wants to stay true to the limited nature of the racial powers he chose, or just say that he’s a mutant Bismollan and develops fun new powers like fire breath or converting consumed matter into power-ups that give him super-strength or whatever).

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Karate Kid studying Tri-jitsu (and / or sparring with Lu, to practice fighting multiple opponents, or with Shady, to practice blind-fighting) could make for a neat mini-story.

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*Love* Cosmic Queen. What a great character idea, with a horrible awesome origin story! She's got crazy potential, too, able to create 'evil duplicates' of foes, etc.

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An Amazo with the powers of Tusker, Golden Boy, Storm Boy, Radiation Roy and Spider Girl sounds intriguing. Indestructible skeleton, golden body, deadly ‘midas touch,’ radiation emission, weather control and prehensile hair. Funky.

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Donating archives to libraries sounds like a great idea!

That's my point. Any serious Legion fan has dozens of ideas, large and small, written down or in mind. I have dropped a few others, in more developed condition, here and there around this board.

So why have we been treated, since the end of the threeboot, to such a festival of failure-of-imagination? Rewind history, and rewrite the Legion's first encounter with the Fatal Five? Legio vs. Superboy Prime? Kill Karate Kid and bring him back again for (what?) The fourth time? With no explanation / consequence / reason?

I can forgive bad writing. Actual good writing is hard, especially on a deadline. But an inability to come up with ideas is difficult to understand in a professional writer.


Incidentally, the fanfic I am most proud of is the Mog Yagor / Nimbok / Hate Face / Leeta-87 'Super-Hero Club' story I wrote a while ago.

It is inexplicable to me, as well.

*Dozens* of the Legionnaires remain veritable cyphers, with their homeworlds almost a total mystery.

We've seen Orando under threat, and been there several times, but really don't have much of an idea what the planet is all about, or how it interacts with the rest of the United Planets (which, in general, seem vastly ahead of them technologically, but less comfortable with the idea of magic and sorcery).

But what do we really know about Cargg? Or Braal? Or Imsk? Or Naltor? We've had the briefest of visits to these worlds, if at all, and some are from different continuities entirely. Other worlds, we've seen perhaps a tiny bit more of, such as Titan or Winath, but, unlike Talokk VIII, Orando and Sorcerer's World, we haven't had *adventures* on these worlds.

The exact nature of the United Planets itself is a bit of a mystery. Has every single inhabited world within a certain volume of space *unanimously* agreed to be part of the UP, or is it a messy patchwork, like the United States, encompassing entire regions of sovereign territory that belong to native people who *haven't* joined the UP, and mostly manage their own affairs? Are the gas giants of the UP often inhabited by races like the Hyrkraians, and do these races have *their own United Planets*, existing in every UP system, and more or less politely minding their own business, so long as 'rock-worlders' don't use their gas giant worlds as toxic waste dumping grounds or siphon off their hydrogen atmospheres for fuel or whatever? Similarly, are the stars inhabited? Is there a 'United Suns' that, again, is scattered throughout 'UP space,' more or less minding their own business and having little or nothing to do with the 'United Planets?'

Our world saw some serious 'distributed nation building' with the Sun Never Sets on the British Empire, but, in the far future, where members of the United Planets could have entire solar systems controlled by the New Vegan Unity, or the Thanagarian Star Empire, it's possible that 'borders' would be a thing of the past, as different worlds in the same solar system could be part of completely different interstellar alliances, with other governments existing across dozens of worlds that themselves are nominally part of different governments (similar to how adherents of Shaira law, or followers of Orthodox Judaism consider themselves subject to laws and allegiances in addition to those of whatever country they currently reside in).

A 'New Atlantean Empire,' for instance, could exist on Earth, in the oceans of Cargg, in the oceans of Winath, and in the oceans of six other Earth-colonies, and have their own laws, and be also signatory to the United Planets, even though, technically, they aren't a 'planet,' so much as a singular nation-state that encompasses parts of seven different worlds.

As an exercise in world-building, it's all just mental masturbation, but as fuel for storytelling, there's potential for Legionnaires having to deal with some attempt at provoking the New Atlanteans into conflict on the various worlds they inhabit, perhaps involving some sinister person (the Dark Man?) teleporting Devilfish around to New Atlantean colonies and having it ravage their cities and outposts, and leaving behind evidence that one of their rivals in the UP council is responsible, leading to strife and conflict. The Legion has to fight Devilfish (whom they find out has been cloned, and there are dozens of them!), protecting Atlantean colonies, while perhaps also fighting off over-zealous Atlantean colonists who have been convinced by a whisper campaign that the UP is sending the Legion to wipe them out, and then stage evidence that some 'Devilfish' myth is behind it! Diplomacy! Intrigue! Heroes mistakenly fighting heroes! (Assuming the Atlanteans have some of their own.) Combat in an alien environment, forcing the Legionnaires involved to adapt and overcome!

From a tiny bit of world-building, comes a storyline.

And, sixty years later, we still don't know if Bgtzl is a relatively small pocket dimension, like Marzal, an entire 'counter-Earth' in another dimension, or an entire alternate universe, with billions of worlds, it's own Legion of Super-Bgtzlns, Aqua Lantern Corps, Justice League of Bgtzl, Purple Martians, etc.

Is Imsk a 'Bottle World' originally shrunk by Brainiac? Does it orbit a black hole, having been compressed to microscopic size, yet inexplicably remaining intact, with a living population of microscopic Imskians hovering millimeters away from annihilation as they skate the edge of the singularity's event horizon like a bead of water skipping over the surface of a hot skillet? Who knows.

It's staggering how little we really know about Legionnaires (and their worlds) who have been around for five decades.

I think one of the most memorable things about the Great Darkness Saga is that it both delved into the past of the DCU, and yet also brought something new into the Legion verse. It wasn't a story about the Fatal Five, or the Time Trapper, or Mordru, or Universo. Darkseid may not have been 'new' to the DCU, but he was certainly new to the 30th century, and that livened up a franchise that, IMO, occasionally 'goes back to the well' a bit too much.

(Bringing in R'as al-Ghul as a villain in the Reboot was, IMO, attempting to recapture that lightning-in-a-bottle. R'as, like Vandal Savage, was an ideal choice for a villain who could show up 1000 years later, but, IMO, he wasn't a tenth the menace that Darkseid was, and trying to put him on that level was a poor choice.)

The Legion verse is more than big enough to handle a few new concepts. If in charge of a relaunch, I'd put a moratorium on the Fatal Five, Mordru, Universo and the Time Trapper (and Darkseid, or any 20th century villains) for the first few years. Build something new, preferably out of the incredibly rich tapestry already available.

I do like how Paul at least made an effort in that direction. Akka, Sun-Killer, Immortus, Questor and Alchemical Girl may not have turned out to be the most memorable characters (and Alchemical Girl lost her powers pretty much the same day we met her...), but at least they were new (and, in Immortus' case, hinted at having deeper DCU ties). Many of them, instead of just being totally new ideas, also tapped into pre-existing Legion lore. Questor was a Coluan, and hinted at some sort of adversarial familial past with the Dox clan. Akka was a Sklarian. Alchemical Girl derived her powers from a former Legionnaire! Even Sun-Killer, not connected so much to Legion continuity, had more of an origin story and a 'hook' than Sun Emperor or Beauty Blaze or Flare, who had similar powers, but no origin other than 'oh look, here's a new fire-powered character!'

Interesting potential, at least somewhat squandered.

To give credit where credit is due, Justice League Earth was brilliant, as was the re-imagining of the Reject’s powers. In fact, I was pretty well impressed with the whole (six-issue?) “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” story arc. IMHO, it was good Legion writing—although it was in Action Comics, and not LSH or Adventure.

Which is kind of funny, since I was completely unimpressed with “Lightning Saga”, which immediately preceded SATLOSH, I truly hated the “Batman and the Legion of Super-Heroes”, which immediately followed it, and was supposed to wrap things up, and I found the post-JLE storyline and dénouement of Absobancy Boy / Earth-Man completely confusing, logically speaking.

And I have also come to the conclusion that the horrid “Legion of Three Worlds” never happened, as Superboy-Prime’s destruction of his Time-Trapper self created a closed time-like loop now completely isolated from the rest of pre-Flashpoint continuity.

Why Mysa is now the Black Witch must have another explanation.

(Random thought: Can Superboy-Prime be redeemed in the Flashpoint Universe? If he never actually killed all those uncountable trillions of people… but I would never ask that Superboyman-Prime be brought back into the DC Universe.)

(And does ‘Earth-Prime’ exist any more? Could the 3boot Legion still be out there somewhere? Bizarro Brainiac… Giant City… possibly even a Supergirl-Prime? No, no, no, it’s just asking for trouble.)

This is how easily ideas come.

I recently learned a new word: gamboge.

I immediately realized that this is the name of the prime Yellow Lantern in the 31st century.

(Gamboge is a color: a sort of dark shade of yellow, a half-tone, something like gold, but not shiny.)

riffing on your post: Not only Bgztlr Aqua Lanterns (Will and Hope) but Bgztlr Chartreuse Lanterns, (Fear and Will)

I suppose *anyone* can be redeemed. The question becomes, why would you want to? What unique story can be told with this character, or what special appeal does he bring, that would not be possible with another character, either pre-existing, or created for the particular story?

His powers are nothing special. The DCU, heck, even the Marvel U, are crawling with people with the standard Kryptonian powerset, from Krypto folk to the half dozen other races that conveniently also have Krypto powers (Daxmites, Maximans, etc.) to the Martians to the Shazam-peeps to the various Superman knock-offs (Hyperion, Supreme, Apollo, etc.).

Various other heroes have been redeemed after killing other heroes (Tony Stark, Hal Jordan, Wolverine, etc.), and, it seems, those 'redemptions' tend to get retconned out of ever having happened anyway via universe-reboots, if necessary, so, that's a story that's not only been told, but almost invariably been swept under the rug and forgotten tout suite.

Superboy Prime's entire theme was 'what if someone with the power of Superman went bad,' and it's a tale we've seen a hundred times since the Silver Age of comics, thanks to Red Kryptonite and Bizarros and Zod and Invincible/Irredeemable and Supreme Power and ad nauseum.

Some tellings have been better than others, but Superboy Prime was definitely one of the 'others.'



That's a good question. I have no idea what the status of the 'multiverse' or the '52' is in the new DCU.

Obviously there's an 'Earth 2,' but it's not the old Earth 2, and it's existence doesn't necessitate that there's an 'Earth 3' or an 'Earth Prime.'

I guess there's still a Bgtzl, even if we've never known whether it was an alternate Earth, pocket dimension the size of Paradise Island or an entire alternate universe...

This is what I know about the Legion Worlds. Don’t ask me to quote chaper and verse. Some of it may be false memories from my own frenzied imagination, but all-in-all, I think that some digging will show that this was referenced somewhere in Legion mythology, either in-story, on the letter pages, or in the role-playing guide.

There is probably more information about these worlds than what I have listed here.

Each world is listed with one of the Legionnaires who call it home.

I skipped Earth and Krypton, as they have been represented in ways too myriad and contradictory to be dealt with here.

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Aarok (XS) is a Terran colony in the Earth-247 universe. Little else is known about it.

Aleph (Kinetix) is a Terran colony in the Earth-247 universe. Little else is known about it.

Antares II (Proty II) is the home of the Antarean Proteans. Its rich history is well-described in the Legion mythos. How it relates to the other DC worlds supposedly orbiting Antares is unknown.
(e.g. Dhor, Llar, Mosteel, Alstair)
In our universe, Antares is an immense red giant.

Bgztl (Phantom Girl) is an other-dimensional planet which occupies the same space as Earth. It has a technology generally equivalent to 21st-century Earth, with a couple of exceptions. Lighter-than-air flight has been developed to a very advanced level, rather than the jet airplanes we are used to. Also, all the inhabitants are able to travel between dimensions, accessing Earth, the Phantom Zone, and by implication other universes. They have this power naturally, and can enhance it with mechanical devices. Very active in the United Planets, it is easy to infer that they are an important political force in other dimensions as well—possibly the reason they have eschewed space travel.

In the Threeboot, only Tinya Wazzo had dimension-hopping powers, and existed, to a certain extent, both in Bgztl and Earth simultaneously. Bgztl was represented as being on a technologically equivalent footing with 31st-century Earth, about 1,000 ahead of the classic Bgztl.

Binderaan (Thunder) is a world which exists several millennia in the future. Computers control almost every aspect of life on this world.

Bismoll (Matter-Eater Lad Jr.) is a well-developed world, checkered with both modern urban centers and well-managed forest areas. Their political system is conscriptatory—citizens are ‘drafted’ into government service. At one point, an attempt was made to create a centralized planetary computer control system, but the project met with failure due to the intervention of Pulsar Stargrave. It is not known if this was ever attempted again.

Braal (Cosmic Boy) is represented as an impoverished world, and an early Terran colony. Despite its long history of colonization, and, presumably, industrialization, there are still broad stretches of wilderness on the planet, where the native iron-carapaced fauna may be found. An important part of Braalien social life is the sport ‘Magnoball’, which appears to draw crowds and interest as large as football (soccer) does on Earth.

Carggg (Triplicate Girl) a planet which orbits three yellow stellar primaries, Cargggan social life is built around the triplicating abilities of its inhabitants. Numerous social conventions and taboos exist regarding the use of the inhabitant’s native powers.

In the Reboot, Lluornu Durgo was an anomaly whose three ‘selves’ had three distinct personalities, apparently the norm on Carggg.

In the Threeboot, Lluornu Durgo was the only inhabitant of Carggg, three of millions or billions of duplicates. A complex social pattern of merging and re-merging in order to transmit information and keep the ‘hive’ homogenous was hinted at.

Colu (Brainiac 5) is a planet which houses a hyper-advanced technological civilization of superintelligent humanoid aliens. Its stellar primary is a small green sun called Yod. (Superman therefore has no powers there) By the 31st century, it apparently has been overbuilt so completely as to be entirely artificial—that is, manufactured. Computerized systems link the inhabitants to vast databases, and, presumably, social networks. In the Retroboot, it was revealed that there is a subclass of Coluan ‘data zombies’ whose entire focus is the collection of data to ‘feed’ the worldwide computer database.

Daxam (Mon-El) is an immense world orbiting a red giant stellar primary, presumably named ‘Rickleff’. Its technology is at least on a par with 31st-century Earth; it is known for both superior medical technology, as well as native xenophobia, agoraphobia, and an almost sheep-like gregariousness. There are, of course, individual exceptions, such as Lar Gand, Ol-Vir, and Res-Vir. Daxam is a colony world, whose original inhabitants are said to have come from ancient Krypton. Krypton was also originally a colony world, and since Kryptonese and Daxamites are both genetically compatible with Terran humans (that is, of the same species) it is reasonable to postulate that Krypton was originally colonized by Terrans. Perhaps the Atlanteans of Arion, or even the pre-Atlanteans, developed spaceflight at one point.

Dryad (Blok), also known as Korlon, is a world colonized by Terrans, but which for at least hundreds of years hosted the stone-like race of Dryads. There is, or was, some intimate connection between the Dryads and the ecosystem of the planet Korlon, but that has only been hinted at. Representations of the human colonists show a near-Edenic paradise, with the people living in open meadows, surrounded by fruit trees, in what is apparently unchangeably pleasant weather. The surface of Korlon was reduced to a smoking cinder when its stellar primary went nova.

Durla (Chameleon Girl), the world of shape-shifters, appears to be a barren wasteland where only the hardiest life-forms can survive, and those in small numbers. It appears to be ruled by a political and religious aristocracy.

Gryxor (Antennae Boy (5-year Gap Legionnaire): apparently, the people of this world have very large ears. Whether they are of Terran stock or not is unknown.

Hajor (Kid Psycho), like Krypton, was destroyed by a planetary disaster. I appeared to house an advanced, humanoid civilization.

Hykraius (Tellus) is an immense water-world, and therefore presumably has a ‘hot-ice’ core. The waters of Hykraius are also rich in both oxygen and methane, an unstable equilibrium that can only be the result of the life-forms which reside there. Apparently, it is also a necessary environment for the life-forms that reside there. (This is not unusual: Earth’s ecosystem is the same, created of Earthlife, by Earthlife, and for Earthlife.)
The Gil’Dishpan have a strong political influence on Hykraius. Its technology, or at least, its architecture, is alien: their undersea buildings resemble upright coral reefs, and may in fact have been built by coral-like alien entities.

Imsk (Shrinking Violet) is a colony world of the Krill, and ancient spacefaring race whose homeworld is either unknown or extinct. Its primary is a white dwarf star called Irulan, it has a sister world, also colonized by the Krill, called Orzde.
Irulan is a variable star, and at regular intervals emits radiation which causes its planets to shrink. Imskians and Orzdeans found a way to ‘harvest’ some sort of stored energy in the asteroid belt which allows them to be affected by Irulan’s natural ‘shrinking ray’, as well as giving them their famous size-changing abilities. There are parallels between Imskian shrinking technology and the experimental work done by Dr. Ray Palmer in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the Threeboot, Imsk was located in a bottle which sat on Brainiac 5’s desk.

Janus is the homeworld of the late, lamented Double-Header, a 5-year-gap Legionnaire. Virtually nothing is known about this world or its strange amoebic inhabitants.

Jaquaa (Variable Lad) is inhabited by cute little purple bipedal aliens with either three or four arms. It is possible that the number of their arms varies with their mood. Little else is known about the planet.

Why Kathoon (Night Girl) is in perpetual darkness is a mystery: does some giant world permanently block out the sun, or does it have a second side turned perpetually towards the light?
It seems reasonable that if it is a gravitationally frozen moon, its stellar primary must be a brilliant O-type star, far distant, and therefore easily eclipsed, while still providing adequate warmth and energy even within the deep shadow of the Kathooni moon.

Khundia (BloodClaw) once provided Legionnaires, but whether there is a single Khundish ‘homeworld’, or merely an extended Khundish Empire, is unclear. Flederweb is an example of a race ‘conquered’ by the Khunds.

Kwai (Shikari Lonestar) is a world, or possibly worlds, or possibly cluster of asteroids, located in the “Progenitorverse” which was accessible from Earth-247 space. Whether this alternate dimension is accessible from the new post-Flashpoint universe has never been addressed. As Shikari theoretically had the powers of Seipnurr, it would seem reasonable to believe that she could find her way to the current DC continuity.
The Kwai are dragonfly-like humanoids which have evolved naturally, and not from the interference of the Progenitor. There has been minimal discussion of their culture, planet, or social interactions.

Lallor (Duplicate Boy, Gas Girl, Beast Boy, Life Lass, Evolvo Lad, and occasionally Floyd Belkin were not truly Legionnaires, but hey, cut me a break) is a world perpetually at war, or at least in a cold war of some kind. At one point the conflict escalated into a massive nuclear exchange, but the planet appears to be recovering. Whether the ultimate source of conflict is political, economic, racial, tribal, religious, or of some other cause is unknown. Even the number of opposing sides is in question.

Linsar (Gear (I.Z.O.R.)) was a hyper-technologically advanced world in the Earth-247 United Planets, populated primarily by cyborgs, whose mechanical and biological components are seamlessly integrated. Despite their superior technology, Linsarians seem to have been enslaved by other races to serve their own needs. On the other hand, it is possible that there is a central independent government which occasionally sells its citizens into slavery in order to support its financial needs.

Lupra (Color Kid) is pretty much a cipher, although we know that at least one scientist there was studying interdimensional electromagnetic radiation

Mardru, the homeworld of Chlorophyll Kid, apparently has a thriving agricultural sector, although little else is known.

Murrians are a pack of thieving rogues, who once built a supercomputer with the ability to effect a vast array of biological changes in the inhabitants. After triple-crossing the Murrian spies , the Legion destroyed said machine, as well as the plans for it, and Murria has not been able to rebuild.

Little is known of Myar, the Alchemist’s World, except that it was ostensibly the homeworld of Nemesis Kid.

Naltor (Dream Girl) is ruled by the High Seer, and his/her council. Inability to forsee the future is considered a disability similar to blindness. There must be a great many near-sighted Naltorans, if Nura Nal is the best of them. Our experiences of Naltor have been primarily near the High Seer’s demesnes, and they have been opulent.
There is a colony of Titans currently being integrated into the Naltoran population, since the destruction of their homeworld.

Orando (Projectra) is a feudal, medieval society, with a powerful monarchic tradition, and is ruled as well as the mystical, council of Orakills, who serve and advise the monarch. While theoretically absolute, the monarchy is bound by rite and tradition, which appear to be somewhat interpreted and enforced by the council of Orakills. The Orakills are magicians and necromancers, and may, in fact, also be something of a priestly order.
Orandans are not Terran-descended, or if they are, have substantially diverged genetically from the ordinary modern population, having a very different physiology, as evidenced by the fact that they have two hearts, like Gallifreyans.
That Queen Projectra was so easily able to execute Nemesis Kid is not surprising to me, considering his weaknesses: (1) he was a coward, and (2) his powers were ineffective when facing more than one individual. Projectra is herself an Orakill, able to channel the minds and souls of her royal ancestors. This is what Nemesis Kid was facing. In addition, as Queen Regnent of Orando, Projectra embodies in her person the will and presence of whole of the population of Orando, her subjects, just as Queen Elizabeth II is, in a sense, England herself. On a magical world such as Orando, the line between metaphor and actuality is somewhat blurred. Nemesis Kid therefore found himself, in the eyes of Projectra, facing not only generations of the dead, but the whole of the population of the living planet.
In the Reboot, Orando was populated by giant snake-like aliens, as well as some sort of sapient procyons, who served as either slaves, servants, or symbiotes to the ruling serpent race.

We have learned more about Phlon since the introduction of Chemical Kid only a couple of years ago than in the prior fifty years. And it still is not much.

Rimbor, the Mos Eisley of the Legion universe, and birthplace of Ultra Boy. There seems to be some sort of a legitimate economy, but it is dwarfed by the various black markets and underworld criminal organizations which abound there.
Humans make up a substantial portion of the Rimboran population, but there are plenty of other alien races as well.

Schwar. Is Fire Lad human, or humanoid? Does he even have a nose? It is both a conundrum and a contradiction.

Sklar (Kono) is a low-tech planet, and a political matriarchy, similar in some ways to Femnaz. Not actually a member of the United Planets, Sklarian ‘pirates’ are known to attempt to plunder technology from member worlds. They are at least capable of spaceflight, although perhaps only technologically capable of maintaining stolen starships.

Somathur is apparently a ‘secret’ member of the United Planets. The biological singularity of its inhabitants seems to be so revolutionary as to be classified, top-secret information. UPGov was no doubt relieved when Infectious Lass became ‘lost in time’.
In the Reboot Legion Lost, Monstress’ family appeared to be Somathurans living on Xanthu.

StarHaven (Dawnstar, daughter of Moonwalker) is a very earth-like planet, and its inhabitants have been very diligent in protecting, maintaining and integrating with its ecosystem. On the other hand, they seem to practice a sort of eugenics or genetic manipulation of their own people in an effort to improve the race..

Talok VIII (Shadow Lass) is a relatively primitive world, divided into at least two nation-states, ruled by the competing political factions of the Shadow Champions and Lords of Memory. Its technology is somewhere between 21st and 31st century Earth’s.

Quislet’s Teall is an extradimensional world which we know very little about; its inhabitants are a hive-mind, and the laws of physics differ substantially from those in our own dimension.

Thaar (Polar Boy) is an incredibly hot world, a Terran colony exists underground. A subset of the population has psychoglaciation powers, and they keep the temperature in the caves one or two degrees Celsius below the boiling point of water: a temperature at which ordinary terrans could not long survive. The Terran-descended population generally must therefore be substantially variant in its physiology.

Trom (Element Lad) ought to be uninhabitable, at least by Terran-descended colonists. The entire surface of the planet is highly radioactive, and immediately lethal, except for a small city-sized portion carved out by the element-transmuting Trommite colonists.
This habitable area could have been no larger than San Francisco or New York, and the Trommite population between one and ten million. As is well known, all Trommites are now extinct, due to the machinations of the pirate Roxxas, save one.
Or, in 5YL, two.
In the classic Legion continuity, 5YL, and the Reboot, Trom is a vast radioactive wasteland, with the tiny habitable area a ruined ghost town. Tsarin crystals dot the ground, marking the graves of the fallen. It is a very creepy place.
Outside of the Trommite settlement, it is likely that not even Mon-El, Superboy, or Ultra Boy could survive, due to the intensity and variety of radiation on the surface.
In the Threeboot, none of the above applies. The Trommites are a flourishing race with the ability to only temporarily transmute the elements, which heavily influences their semi-religious philosophy.

Ventura, the Gambler’s Planet, and home the 5YG Legionnaire Calamity King, is Las Vegas carried to celestial extremes. According to Bouncing Boy, however, it does still have some wild areas.

Vryga (Gates) is a planet in the Reboot universe of naturally politically communist insectoids. While we have seen the planet, little is known of its geography.

Winath (Lightning Lad) is primarily an agricultural world, and a very productive one, and presumably sparsely populated.
(If every inhabitant of Earth was allowed forty acres of land, it would have a population of only about 800 million.)
As “bread basket” of the U.P., it is a vastly wealthy world.
The fact that nearly all Winathans are twins is fundamental to its social structure.
In 5YL, it was clear that public nudity, or near-nudity, is without stigma on Winath.
Its stellar primary appears to be called Amarta, and the Lightning-World Korbal is located somewhere within its stellar system.

Xanthu (Kid Quantum II) is probably the most diverse and detailed world we have encountered in the Legion universe, with the exception of Earth and Krypton only. Displaying a wide variety of environments and climate zones, cities large and small, protected wild areas with alien flora and fauna (including the much-maligned paracat, possibly the dominant species on Xanthu before human colonization) Its political organization, government, social structure and technology seem much like 31st-century Earth, and it seems to have something of a competitive spirit with that world.
In the Reboot, Xanthu was very interested in producing a super-hero group to rival Earth’s Legion of Super-Heroes; a dozen or so members flowed through the Uncanny Amazers. Near the end of the Reboot run, Xanthu was entirely destroyed, and the population fled to other U.P. worlds.

Zoon (Timber Wolf) is another world with a triple-sun stellar primary, but in this case, the suns seem to orbit the planet.
(Rather, Zoon does not orbit any of the three suns, but is located at a stable Lagrange triple-point nearly equidistant from all three.)
The three stars, although seemingly of similar size and mass, are tri-colored: one red, one yellow, and one green. This divided the day into three near-equal portions:
(1) Red Daylight, when the red sun alone is visible,
(2) Orange Daylight, when both the red and yellow suns are visible,
(3) Yellow Daylight, when only the yellow sun is visible,
(4) Chartreuse Daylight, when both the yellow and green suns are visible
(5) Green Daylight, when only the green sun is visible, and
(6) False Yellow Daylight, when both the green and red suns are visible.
We can assume that due to their physiology, Kryptonians would only be super-powered during the Yellow Daylight portion of the day.
The native fauna have the appearance of giant fungi.
Mining is an important part of the Zoonite economy, and is performed by humanoid robots. The manufacture of robots and androids therefore also forms an essential part of the economy, as must interplanetary shipping. Rare minerals, such as zuunium, are available in quantities on Zoon not found in the rest of the U.P.
The Zoonite mining concern might be socialist in nature, as the petroleum mining operations in Alaska.
In the animated series, Zoon is a rough-and-tumble world with a strong criminal element, or possibly has an anarchic political system which tolerates behavior which would be considered criminal on other worlds. No mention of its three suns was made, but Superboy was powerless there for several hours.

Zwen is another super-hot world, as its highly eccentric orbit brings it too near its stellar primary for at least half the year. Rather than Thaarian adaptations, Zwenites enter a state of hibernation as petrified stone. The hibernation chambers appear integrated into the otherwise undeveloped landscape, which resembles the Utah National Monument with its tall stone pillars. Orbital mechanics tells us that Zoon must have miserable winters, at least on par with northern Russia, and two brief growing seasons in between the unendurable summers and frigid winters.
Stone Boy appears to have worn his pajamas as his super-hero costume, a choice not without precedent.

Wow, that's some neat information!

My thoughts on Zuun, which I was about to use for a fanfic, were colored by its appearance in the Legion cartoon (lush jungle world full of dangerous beasts), and I had no idea that it was supposed to have three suns or be kind of a mined out devastated ecology!

Interesting bits about Bgtzl being technologically behind. I think I'd rather it only be a parallel earth, and not have an entire parallel universe of Bgtzl-Khunds and Bgtzl-Daxamites and whatever...

Back to the random ideas.

An All-New Fatal Five, just for JLA3K
(1) Lelak, another Dark Servant Superman Anti-Clone, as seen in the Legion’s Darkseid Saga;
(2) A 31st-century hypertechnological version of ‘The Wrath’;
(3) An adult Thaddeus Thawne, previously known as Kid Zoom, Reverse-Impulse or Inertia;
(4) Gamboge, an all-new, (female, alien) premiere Yellow Lantern of the 31st century;
(5) A self-styled ‘Goddess of War’, possibly from Sklar or Femnaz, super-strong, super-fast, with various mystical weapons (sword, torch, and so forth) taking on the name and appearance of the ancient Earth war-goddess Columbia.

Another All-New Fatal Five, just for JLA3K
(1) The Time Trapper
(2) Another Time Trapper (from an alternate End of Time)
(3) Glorith (technically, yet another Time Trapper)
(4) Jaxon Rugarth, The Infinite Man
(5) Darkseid

A group of extraterrestrials who resemble Terran animals apply for Legion membership, and are rejected, mostly because their powers duplicate those of current Legionnaires:

(1) Sundog of Sirius III: a caninoid who can control a wide range of electromagnetic radiation
(2) Starling: a small bird-like alien who has a wide range of vision-powers: both super-senses and heat, cold, shrinking, lightning, and invisibility projection, as well as others.
(3) Chameleon Cat: a descendant of the original 20th-century shapeshifter, from a planet orbiting a star somewhere in the constellation Canis Major.
(4) The Elephant in the Room: more like a small, bipedal wooly mammoth, she is from a high-gravity world, standing something over twelve feet tall (4 meters), massing around three tonne, she can lift (press) ten times her weight. She has the power of teleportation.
(5) Gravity Grizzly: he can alter the strength and direction of gravity
(6) Pigfire, a porcine pyrokinetic
(7) Speedtest, a super-fast lagomorph
(8) Tortugamera: Tortoise-like alien; a crack shot with his hand-held anti-matter cannons (with sonic disruptor attachment for less devastating destruction)
(9) The Gingerbread Hamster, a student from the Sorcerer’s world, she has the ability to conjure pastries out of thin air, or even empty vacuum. Don’t underestimate her power: go see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 1.
(10) Whirling Squirrel of H’Lven, a 3-foot-tall martial artist
(11) Behe-Moth: a tiny, moth-like alien (2 inches tall, humanoid, four arms, moth’s-head, wings) who can grow to immense sizes
(12) The Mindfish: a reverse mermaid (fish on the top, humanoid on the bottom) with telepathy, telekinesis, and super-intelligence

They decide to form their own super-group, to take on small assignments that the Legion is too busy to handle, and to possibly earn passage back to their homeworlds, as they all had purchased one-way tickets.
Stranded on Earth, they are looked upon first as “talking animals”, as evidenced by their choices of code-names.
The Super-Animals? The Super-Beasts? At last they decide on “The Legion of Super-Pets” as friendlier.

They take up residence in the cave originally used by the Legion of Substitute Heroes—but unknown to anyone in the 3Ist century, it was also the original base of the 2Oth-century Justice League of America! That’s right! The very same cave!
Behind hidden panels in the stone walls are rooms full of forgotten ‘souvenirs’ and ‘trophies’ of the most dangerous kind!

(In a later story, they team up with L’Onng N’Ozz, the Aardmartian Anteater of Earth-C-minus, the 1,100-year-old last survivor of his universe.)

That made me chuckle Klar. I love this thread. Your thoughts are sometimes genius, sometime funny, often both and always interesting.

Whoa! That is an extremely powerful grouping and would definitely make for an interesting story.

Harbinger: Thanks, I am sure that all Legion fans have just as many interesting ideas knocking around in their heads. And I believe comic books should have some humor in them.
(Look at Avengers, or Iron Man 3. Then look at Man of Steel. Then look at box office receipts.)

Invisible Brainiac: No, the 2nd "New Fatal Five" would not make for an interesting story. They would chew up JL3K and spit them out.


[size:14pt][font:Arial Black][b]NOW DOESN'T THAT LOOK LIKE FUN?[/b][/font][/size]

What's so refreshing about this thread Klar is you post your ideas and leave them at that. I wish I had that level of self control as when I'm struck by an idea it invariably ends up leading me to write a story for the next six months - in the case of the Legion 35C series over two years on it.

And I have to agree with you that humour is necessary to keep a story interesting. It seems that the onset of successful films has reinvigorated the comic franchise a little in this regard as the 90's (except the Bwah ha ha JLA) and early 00's were a minefield of desperate angsty plot driven books.

Love your list of planets - I'll be using that for a reference guide Though I thought Kathoon had been establish to be free floating in space away from a star and that's why it is in perpetual darkness? Wasn't that in the miniseries that established Brande as Cham's father (secret origins??)? I may be totally wrong though so don't take that as canon.

Harbinger:
It is just the opposite with me. If I had a few hours every day to work on these, I would generate innumerable fanfix. But it takes a lot of time to craft a story from an idea...

Dunno about Kathoon. Could be. If it's free-floating, it must have a heck of a geothermal core temperature to make it habitable.


Chlorophyll Kid's powers are creepy.

I kind of get where Harbinger is going though. I have a ton of smaller ideas, that quickly grow all out of control. I wanted to do a short story called 'the Legion of Lightning Lords,' for instance, but it's grown to the point where it has at least three *large* chapters, each of which might rival my 'Emerald Legion' fic in scope, if I'm not *ruthless* about trimming them down. Even the smallest joke idea for a 'Legion reveals' thread, like 'Sun Boy has been infecting one-night stands with solar powers' can turn into a deeper story.

The harder part is pruning down my plot bunnies, at least half of which are utter drek.



For my Emerald Legion fic, I went with Kathoon having a companion moon that shielded a section of the tidally-locked planet from the light of their sun. That's hugely improbable, and, in retrospect, it would have been way simpler to just have Kathoon's star be a brown dwarf or something that gives off minimal light along the visible spectrum, but plenty of UV, so that it can still warm a planet and provide energy to living creatures, while still appearing 'dark' to humans that see primarily along the visible spectrum.

Like so many oddities of the Legion universe, it's ripe to not just be explained, but to actually become a story element. It doesn't matter so much whether Imsk is a 'bottle world' shrunk by Brainiac, or exists along the edge of a singularity, so much as whatever the deal is, it makes for some good potential storytelling.

The old Brainiac tech is unstable, and only Brainiac 5 has the knowledge needed to fix it before Imsk shrinks out of existence, or catastrophically grows to full planetary size with so much force that it explodes! But to figure out this Brainiac tech, Brainy must interface with it, and runs the risk of being infiltrated by dangerous cyberviruses planted within the original tech, by Brainiac itself, that will attempt to co-opt Brainy's brain to allow his evil ancestor to be reborn within his 'descendent!'

And so we've got a reason to send some Legionnaires to Imsk, where they will have to fight runaway machinery, possibly deal with rioting Imskians whose planet seems on the verge of flying apart, and keep Brainiac 5 from getting an involuntary 'reboot' / system downgrade to 'Brainiac 1.0.'



Ooh, very cool. A time-lapse image of some vines crawling up a building, or even a tree splitting a rock, would be awesome to showcase his power.

Exactly! One idea leads to another, one plot development to another, one character interaction implies many other character interactions. Next thing I know, I am wanting to write pages and pages of Legion adventures; more than could fit in several years’ worth of comic books.
Why do professional writers not seem to have this problem? (Neil Gaiman excluded)
Why do we get retreads of the same old stories, themes, and memes in the Legion of Super-Heroes?

e.g.: The UP appears to be constantly at war with the Khund and the Dominion. We have had at least a couple of rounds of “Daxam vs. the UP” and “Durla vs the UP”. Why have we never seen “Bgztl vs. the UP”, or even “Bgztl Invades Earth”?
I enjoyed the “Braal-Imsk War” arc and the “Khundish Legionnaires” in 5YL for the originality, and reasonable ness, of the concepts. (Of course, I am lonely in my appreciation for 5YL. Is this part of the reason creativity is so restrained?)

Even the “ground-breaking:” Man of Steel film was essentially a rewrite of the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films, retold within the modern 2Ist-century, terrorism-phobic, ultra-violent conventions. And Man of Steel II has been announced as “Superman vs. Batman” which may feed the fanboys, but is so tired a concept now that “Superman and Batman, World’s Finest Heroes” seems almost new in comparison.

Meditation:

Earth-Two Today

The Golden Age Superman was born February 29th, 1916, making him 21 years old when we are first introduced to him in Action Comics #1.

He would be 97 years old today.

There is plenty of time for a third generation of Kents (or ‘-Ls) to have grown to adulthood. Other super-heroes of his generation could be similarly represented

Of course, this concept has been explored to a great extent in the Elseworlds “Generations”, “Dark Knight”, “Batman Beyond”, and “Kingdom Come”, with varying degrees of satisfaction.

Earth-One Today

The Silver-Age Superman, as well as the Earth-One JLA were originally supposed to be just twenty years older than their Earth-Two counterparts, making his birthday February 29th, 1936. Today he would be seventy-seven.

This would set an Earth-One ‘Batman Beyond’ in the present day.

Earth-Prime Today

Clark (Superboy-Prime) Kent was introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. He was supposed to be about sixteen at the time of those events, which means he was born February 29th, 1968.

If comics’ time flowed normally (rather than sideways, upside-down, freezing, accelerating, rebooting and retconning) the Earth-Prime Clark would be 45 years old today, essentially the age of the Earth-Two Superman when Barry Allen and Jay Garret first met in “Flash of Two Worlds”.

The John Byrne Superman Today

Byrne came up with some interesting takes on Superman, heavily de-powering him, for example, but a lot of that was lost after the first couple of dozen issues. The idea of the Byrne Superman’s “heat vision” being pyrokinesis, for example, was lost quite early on.

Later, he was tossing ocean-liner-sized rocks out into the asteroid belt, but still unable to squeeze coal into diamond.

(The feat of squeezing coal into diamond in a few seconds is ‘only’ comparable to balancing the Eiffel Tower on upside-down on one hand. Even the Hulk can do that.)

The Byrne Superman debuted in 1986, but he was an adult by that time, making him five or ten years or so older than Superboy-Prime. I am not sure that the ‘February 29th’ birthdate convention still holds for this version; otherwise I would state more definitely that he was born in 1960 or 1964.

This makes the Byrne Superman just entering his early fifties in 2014.

Confession:

If I had Superman’s powers I would be pretty useless. I cannot see myself risking my neck for wet-tissue-paper human beings. In fact, there are only two things of Superman’s that I would covet: his invulnerability, particularly Silver-Age-class invulnerability, and his Fortress of Solitude.

One problem with 'if I had' musings is that it assumes that the reader has the powers or resources of character X in a complete vacuum.

It might be nice to have Superman's powers, if absolutely nothing else from his continuity or derived from his character, existed, such as magic, to whom he has en explicit vulnerability, and for that to exist, magic would then have to exist as well. Ditto Kryptonite, which is *ridiculously* common, it seems, on Earth, let alone who knows how much is just floating around in space, or sitting at the bottom of the ocean, just waiting to murder any curious Kryptonian who decided to check out Mars, or explore the bottom of the ocean, or whatever.

And there's all that other Superman-adjacent stuff, like a Phantom Zone full of ruthless war-criminals with the exact same powers, or whatnot...

Plus, being alone with all that power, even in the comic books, seems to be a recipe for disaster. See Superboy Prime, who never had a 'Legion' of friends to relate to, or Reboot Alchemist, who thought he was alone. (On the other hand, see also Mon-El, who was pretty much alone for 1000 years, and didn't turn into a prat...)

Ha! Set! This is just what I mean! If I were the Silver-Age Superman (living in the Silver-Age Superman universe) why would I risk my neck fighting Zod or Mordru? I mean, I could get killed.

And the invulnerability? Sure, kryptonite and magic would be a problem. But if I never take off the Clark Kent glasses… and maybe I would get a job less dangerous than Foreign Wars Correspondent. Like accountancy. But never sick. Never sick every single day of my life since 2001. Don’t have to take half-a-dozen pills a day every day for the last ten years. Don’t get the flu every winter. Don’t need to watch my weight. Don’t need to worry about heart attack or stroke or pneumonia. Don’t need to sleep more than a couple hours every few days. Can’t burn my hand on a hot iron or a hot frying pan; can’t slice a finger chopping up tomatoes. Not tired all the **** time. Invulnerability. Yeah.

And besides, aren’t there so many super-heroes willing to risk their lives defending the Earth that they would darken the skies like locusts?

Salu Digby tore open the package with unconcealed enthusiasm.

“What have you got there?” asked Ayla.

“It’s an Imskian Environmental Suit. I had to save up years’ worth of credits to buy it. Then it has to be fitted your specific genetic code and physiology. I’ve been waiting a long time for this!”

“But what is it for?”

“It’s for extended periods of time in hostile microversal environments. With this, I can go where no one has gone before.”

Ayla seemed puzzled. “You have a transuit, Vi. It shrinks to fit you, right?”

“Even transuits can’t handle every environment. And I have one place I am very anxious to go.”

• * * *

Quislet’s ship was smaller inside than Shrinking Violet had imagined. Most of the bulkhead was taken up by a huge engine.

“Quislet’s has a hyperspace drive built in,” the tiny Legionnaire explained. “Mostly, it runs on impulse engines, but the ship can go anywhere a Legion cruiser can, and maybe even faster.”

“I appreciate your inviting me into your home like this,” Violet offered. “Does your ship have a name? Or do your people name inanimate objects?”

“Quislet’s ship is not inanimate. It is alive—sort of. But not like Quislet is alive. Or like Ayla is alive. It is life-not-as-we-know-it. It’s name is,” he declared, pride ringing in his voice, “The Effluvia of Teall.”

Salu was nonplussed.

“Maybe it loses something in the translation,” Quislet admitted. An impish, almost humanoid face seemed to flicker across the surface of the pink ball of crackling energy.

A small ellipsoid with a profusion of tiny, hairy tentacles rubbed up against Salu’s ankle. She jumped back in alarm, then caught herself. Who knew what—or who—lived on Quislet’s ship with him.

“He likes you,” Quislet explained. “Don’t be nervous. It’s just Quislet’s pet, Paramecium Pete!”

To Be Continued?

Ha, I had a short scene with Violet having to hide from a wall of anti-matter inside Quislet's ship (one of the few things nearby that could survive said wall of anti-matter...), only to discover there were thirty or forty tiny alien people crewing the 'Quislet,' which was the name of the ship, and the 'energy being' that everyone thought of as Quislet was actually a ship's weapon...



So true. DC's Metropolis and Marvel's New York seem to be *teeming* with super-heroes!

PROBLEMS (EARTH-PRIME)

Laurie Lemmon could see that Clark was in one of his moods. One of his very bad moods.

“It should work!” he complained. “The principle is so simple!”

He held up what appeared to be a smoked-glass light bulb.

“The glass is a unique crystalline form of moissanite,” he explained. “It’s a pain to work with- it doesn’t melt, it only softens. It took me months to get the matrix right. The filament is a quark-doped alloy of tungsten and radium—I’ve been buying old radium watches off the internet; fortunately I didn’t need very much. But look!”

Clark replaced the bulb in a desk lamp and positioned it over a caged rabbit. He turned the lamp on, and a soft violet light suffused the desktop. The other lights in the rooms dimmed briefly: the bulb was drawing a lot of power. The cage and rabbit shrank; the rabbit was now the size of a large ant.

“Clark, that’s amazing!” cried Laurie. “How in the world…?”

“It’s a piece of trash,” Clark interrupted. He turned off the lamp. The cage and rabbit returned to normal size. “It only works while the light is on. There’s no permanent shrinking effect. And it doesn’t work on aluminum; reflects right off. That’s how I can cover the desktop with aluminum foil, and the desk the cage sits on is unaffected.”

“That’s not the worst of it,” Clark continued. “Look at that.” He gestured toward the wall behind Laurie.

Laurie let out a gasp. Sitting behind the door sat what appeared to be the rough, clay-like figure of a man, life-sized, and dressed in a ragged “Superman” costume. The red and blue of the costume had been reversed. Then Laurie realized: the thing was breathing.

“What is it?” she cried.

“It’s supposed to be a bizarro,” Clark explained. “But look—instead of white, chalky flesh, the thing is an obscene yellowish-grey; soft, and doughy. It breathes, it will even eat if you offer it food, but it has no mind. It doesn’t think it just sits there all day, doing nothing.”

“But… where did it come from?” Laurie asked. “Did you… make it?”

Clark picked up a device about the size and shape of a machine gun. He pointed it at Laurie. She screamed, fearing the worst.

There was a brilliant flash of light. Standing beside Laurie was one of the squashy bizarro-things, this one dressed in a pale, ragged copy of her own clothing. It seemed to oddly resemble her, just as the thing in the corner somehow resembled Clark.

“Completely worthless,” Clark grumbled. The Laurie-thing stood motionless, shoulders slumped, breath moist and noisy. Clark picked up a third device, which resembled a hand-held price scanner more than anything else. There was a click of a trigger, and the Laurie-thing disappeared, leaving a pile of clothes behind. Clark pointed it into the corner, and the Clark-bizarro also soundlessly vanished. A pile of red-and-blue rags lay piled on the floor.

“Did you… kill them?” Laurie asked.

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Clark replied. “They’re sort of… already undead. This is supposed to be a Phantom Zone Ray Projector, but it only works on organic materials. And the other dimension it sends them too… well, look at this.”

He handed Laurie what looked like night-vision goggles. She put them on. Suddenly, a new world sprang into view. She was in the middle of a wooded area. The trees looked like they were made out of mercury. She could see patches of silvery ferns and grasses, but the landscape was not completely colorless. The trees had fruit of several varieties. Here and there, brilliantly colored wildflowers stood out. There seemed to be insects equally brilliant in color, possibly similar to dragonflies and butterflies. They were moving too fast for her to examine closely, but she got an odd impression there was something unearthly about them. The sky was a pale golden hue, the sun was a small, crystal blue disk.

To her left stood the Laurie-thing, naked, slumped, and motionless. The equally naked Clark-thing sat like a lump on the ground. There were several rabbit-shaped bizarro-things scattered around the woods. One of them was moving, slowly oozing along. She thought she saw a Clark-bizarro in the distance; it seemed to be slowly moving away.

“Maybe they wake up after awhile,” she thought to herself. “Maybe when they’re hungry, they forage… “

“It’s a complete failure as well,” Clark complained. “It’s clearly another material world, not a Phantom Dimension at all. I call it the “Compost Zone”. I can send any organic material there, but I can’t bring anything back. I’ve worked on these projects for over two years, trying to make something useful. It’s all been a waste of time.”

“But Clark, don’t you see,” Laurie took off the Zone-viewing goggles, “All of this: the Shrink-Ray, the Bizarros, that other Dimension—it’s completely brilliant! It re-writes science as we know it! You have to… you have to show it to someone!”

“No one sees it!” Clark insisted. “It’s dreck. A total waste. It makes me look like a fool! If I still had heat vision, I would burn it all to slag.” He gathered the four devices, and tossed them into a large black garbage bag.

“Throw this away when you leave,” he snapped. “You can take the rabbit with you, too, if you want it.” Clark joggled a mouse, and his desktop computer screen sprang to life. He plopped down in a chair, turning his attention to the screen, pointedly ignoring Laurie.

“Can I call you tomorrow?” she asked.

“Sure,” Clark answered. “Maybe I’ll be better company then.”

After giving Mr. and Mrs. Kent a hug upstairs, Laurie went out to her car. She put the rabbit cage on the front seat. “I think I’ll call you Hoppy,” she told the rabbit.

She took the garbage bag and put it in the trunk of her car. She would sort out the rubbish later, but she had just the place for Clark’s amazing inventions. She would put them in her room: not in an obvious place, where no visitor- Clark, for example- would see them. Somewhere she could get at them quickly if she needed to. She drove off into the night.