Thursday, December 27, 2018

Profile: Saturn Girl

Saturn Girl

First appearance: Adventure Comics #247, April 1958
Real name: Imra Ardeen

History: the first lady to found the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Silver Age, her powers were mainly telepathy, and she hailed from the planet Titan, which was comprised of a race of telepaths. She traveled to Earth, and along the way, had to rescue their benefactor, billionaire R.J. Brande, from an assassination attempt, which led to their formation as a team.

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: when the Legion was rebooted in 2005, at the time when DC was really going downhill, she had her vocal powers removed, and "spoke" through telepathy only. She became emotionally isolated, much colder in personality than before, and more introverted.

What's wrong with how this was done? IMO, it reflected some of the worst ideas from when Dan DiDio forced darkness on the DCU post-Identity Crisis, right down to lacking a sense of humor in what followed. That kind of approach does not have wide appeal. And it's unlikely to have improved at a time when Heroes in Crisis has once again brought back the worst of these notions.

The cast of the modern day DCU suffered badly from DiDio's mandates, but so too did the future inhabitants, and Imra's one example.