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Here's a little review of one the oddest LSH adventures ever printed.

"Life After Life After Life" from Legion of Super-Heroes #268 , Ocotber, 1980

Story: J. M. Dematteis

Art: Steve Ditko

Roll Call: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Dream Girl, Chameleon Boy, Karate Kid, Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, R. J. Brande

The story opens with Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl admiring the recently rebuilt Legion headquarters and pondering how proud they are of the progress the Legion has made in the months since the Earth War. An image of Cosmic Boy appears on a special monitor board. It is his log entry of the bizarre adventure some of the Legionnaires had while accompanying R. J. Brande on a mission to deliver one of his newly created stars to a customer. Inside the craft, Chameleon Boy and Karate Kid are relaxing on floating chairs while drinking Vxxniarade from floating cups. They are startled by a scream coming from Dream Girl's room. She reveals that she had a dream that she is going to be killed by a multi armed monster while Chameleon Boy and Kartate Kid are caught in the grip of a strange force. Other Legionnaires gather in the hallway, and are interrupted by an urgent call to meet Mr. Brande on the bridge. Mr. Brande explains that he is befuddled by what he has picked up on the ship's sensor scans. He points out a strange object floating in space on the monitor. Karate Kid identifies the object as a subway car from late twentieth century New York (to be precise). The six Legionnaires quickly don their space suits and go out to investigate. As they enter the subway car it is surrounded by a force field which separates the Legionnaires. Dream Girl, Karate Kid, and Chameleon Boy are trapped inside. Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, and Shrinking Violet cannot enter. The subway door slams shut, and the car rumbles and moves away through space.

The subway car is filled with strange artifacts from different cultures throughout time. Nura, Val, and Reep eventually encounter a strange man who greets them as old freinds, and introduces himself as DOCTOR MAYAVALE. He sits in a yellow chair, has a white hair and a handle bar mustache. He is wearing a cowboy hat, a blue jacket, an "I Like Ike" button", a pink belt, a white skirt, and purple boots. He has six extra arms coming out his sides. They are all elongated and green, and one is playing with a yo-yo.

Mayavale creates a Yeti beast and a creature called P'O'Likk, from the planet Khund, to attack the three. Karate Kid fights back. Chameleopn Boy convinces him tha violence is not the answer, and that they should talk to their host.

Mayavale explains that he from the planet Avatanda. The Avatandans devote themselves to "lucubration and meditation". After 150 years, Mayavale's meditations brought him to a point of dispair and mystic blocking. He journeyed to the "Chamber of Lives" where he inhaled the "Wheeling Mists", and his past fifty thousand lifetimes were revealed to him. It was also revealed that he had devoted his last 60 lifetimes to total good, and must devote his current life to total evil in order to achieve a balance in his karma before proceeding to the ultimate reality.

Mayavale reveals that he has shared many past lives with Chameleon Boy, Karate Kid and Dream Girl, and that each of them betrayed him in one of these lives. He creates a Native American reality where Chameleon Boy was a Cherokee warrior and Mayavale was his chief. Chameleon Boy had sold their location to the "white eyes". This time around, Mayavale binds Cham to the ground and leaves him to be killed by the white eyes.

Reality shifts to ancient Rome. Mayavale is Julius Ceaser. Karate Kid is Brutus. Mayavale rearranges things so that his armies are approaching Val with blades drawn...

Reality shifts again. Mayavale is a New York detective in 1969, and Nura is his sweetheart who betrays him to gangsters. This time, however, he throws her in front of the gangsters' bullets. She falls to the ground as reality shifts again.

Dream Girl awakens to find herself tied to a bed in a sexy purple outfit with Mayavale standing over her with a knife. This is the image from her earlier dream. Chameleon Boy and Karate Kid appear in the doorway in an attempt to save her, explaining how they used their powers to overcome their fates in the previous realities. Before they can act, though, Mayavale traps them in "inexpressable pain" in "cellular disrupter beams". Nura searches her soul and finds the strength to break her binds. She kicks Mayavale in the face, jumps off the bed, and punches him in the face. The action is accompanied by captions explaining how many see Dream Girl as a weak link in the Legion's armor, how she beleives this herself, and that this is a point of awakening for her. She frees Val and Reep. Mayavale escapes. His image appears saying that he is going to retire for study, but to rest assure that he will return. The world they are on vanishes leaving them stranded in airless space. Chameleon Boy wraps himself around the other two. Cosmic Boy emerges from a shuttle craft and rescues them. The final scene shifts to Cosmic Boy summing up the adventure in his transmission. He signs off with "Log Entry #2312.11 ednded..." Garth and Imra stare at each other with mouths open and eyes wide. Garth exclaims, "Ended"? Imra replies, "I don't think so".

Comics haven't been the same since LSD became passe'

All right! Another review thread!

I'll have to re-read this story before commenting on it fully. My major memory of it is that I was glad it was never revisited. Dr. Mayavale was just too wacky to be taken seriously. (Of course, that may have been the intent: to create some levity in an otherwise dour period of Legion stories.)

I also could never buy the idea of Nura, Reep, and Val being betrayers in past lives. If I must accept the idea of reincarnation for story purposes, then I prefer to believe that their souls were always noble. (The idea of devoting oneself to evil to balance out karma just seems like pseudo-mystical rationalization to me.)

All in all, the story left me wondering what was in those "Wheeling Mists" that Mayavale (and possibly DeMatteis) was smoking.

I know absolutely nothing about J. M. DeMatties. I've always speculated, however, that this is the story in Legion history that is most likely to have been written under the influence of drugs. Who knows, maybe he just had a really free wheeling imagination? Maybe it was the influence of Ditko's art?

It turns out to be a really run read because of the silliness, instead of "in spite" of the silliness. I sometimes have to read Adventure era stories with a sense of high camp, and apply the same mind set when reading this later story. It differs from those earlier stories, though, because the campiness seems intentional. The details are just incredible. It always takes me longer to read this story than it does most of the other stories from this era. I seem to find something new each time I read it. A nice little growth spurt for Nura that ends up being timed well because she will be elected leader within a couple of years.

I can never figure out what posessed Jack C. Harris to bring Steve Ditko in as back up artist for Jimmy Janes. His style never felt quite right, and I admit to being really turned off by it at the time. The style seemed all wrong, and some of the Legionnaires were just unrecognizable. For example, this issue has a drawing of Colossal Boy in a blue robe. I would never have guessed it was Gim without the dialouge. Dream Girl and Shrinking Violet both look like guys when they put on their space suits. Come on, now. If Dream Girl looks like a guy, you know something is amiss. I have learned to appreciate Ditko's Legion work more with the passage of time. This strange story seems to fit his style, though, and is my favorite Ditko illustated Legion story. Garth and Imra's reaction in the final panel is priceless, and I am still eagerly awaiting the return of Doctor Mayavale.

DeMatteis had been a writer for Rolling Stone Magazine before turning to comics. Some of his earliest comics work was in Defenders, for which he wrote the Six-Fingered Hand story and others which restored the emphasis on demons and mysticism, which had been absent almost since the comic's earliest days.

In the 1980s, DeMatteis wrote the 12-issue series Moonshadow. Like much of his work, it has a '60s countercultural feel.

Thanks for the info on DeMatteis, HWW. I'm curious to hear your opinion on Ditko and the Legion.

The Subway is way too dangerous...

I reccomend this method instead.

Or if you prefer a more retro look .


OB himself being involved makes it a great fit too...

Mayavale needed a TIME-space cabby.

I thought the art in this issue was awful. A lot of the bodies were all out of proportion. It put me off the story for a while.

This certainly was one of the sillier, druggier Legion stories. Still, I think Mayavale is quite interesting as a character - a re-incarnating villain who was too good in a past life - it's an anti-redemption story.

Legionnaires as betrayers in past life: I don't have a problem with this myself; they are overcoming that bad karma with the good they're doing in their present life. That's how they got here. I do find the idea that after multiple lifetimes of doing good you have to be evil much less compelling. It goes against the progress of the soul.

I'd like to see Mayavale brought back and dealt with seriously. You wouldn't have to believe in reincarnation; he could be a superb con man, duping the legionnaires into thinking they had past lives. Or he could return as reborn into goodness, having fulfilled his "evil" balance requirement.

One interesting tidbit in this story is the bit of Durlan language used at the beginning.

It's in space, but not of space, you know?

Oh, yes. It is definitely in space, and not of space.

I've never been a fan of Ditko, but his noirish artwork seems appropriate for this odd story.

I just re-read the story, and I actually like where DeMatteis was going with it. He wanted to make us think, to question (as Cham does) whether its possible that Mayavale was right, and that reincarnation is part of the overall scheme of things. Even if it isn't, the story suggests that even noble Legionnaires are capable of evil (as we all are).

Since this story was never followed up on, it provides us with only a tantalizing glimpse of some great mystery DeMatteis may have had in store. It leaves us with the unresolved idea that Mayavale was a) telling the truth, b) insane, or c) some combination of the two. Unfortunately, this open ending is not satisfying. I prefer it when stories actually make a point about something. But DeMatteis, to his credit, wanted to leave us with something to think about, and that he does quite effectively.

Ah, one of my favorite really awful LSH tales... lovingly re-interpreted by me HERE (scroll down to bottom of page 6)

I do think the tale is important for Dream Girl... it's the first instance of her actually kicking some ass. Also notable for being the appearance of her most matronly of negligees.

I have to say, I don't think Ditko was ever a good artist for the Legion.

Great smiley theatre, Lash. Looks like you are about a year overdue for the next installment. Get to typing...