Analysis Notes
| General |
Boyd and Delaney have done previous installments of “The Brainiac Adventures” using Vril Dox in the pages of < > and < >. |
| As is hopefully obvious, this story is a riff on the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, where the lead character (played by Jimmy Stewart) is shown how the world would have been different if he had not existed. In the end, Stewart’s character decides he wants to live after all. |
| 72:1-2 |
We can only guess at what sort of an experiment Brainy was working on here. If the object was at all dangerous — radioactive, for example — he probably had his force-field active to protect him and Koko. |
| 72:5 |
Violet is behind Brainy’s head. |
| We will attribute the dialogue balloons left to right to the displayed characters, with the exception of “Can you do…” Since Live Wire’s mouth is not open, attribute it to Violet. |
| 72:9 |
You may call him “Clarence”, but we know better. (“Clarence” was the name of the guardian angel in It’s a Wonderful Life.) |
| 72:10 |
In a world without Brainiac 5, the flight rings would not have been invented. (Well, that’s not necessarily true: in the preboot, Mon-El was responsible for them, or at least for the metal they were made of.) |
| 73:4 |
The building in the moon globe in the foreground appears to be the Astro City city hall. Curious. |
| 73:6 |
The local version of Light Lass (based on the skirt color matching Lightning Lad’s short pants) is partially hidden by Brainiac 5. Based on Duo Damsel sitting on Bouncing Boy’s lap — something which occurred only after Computo killed one of her bodies in the preboot continuity — this would be Light Lass rather than the earlier Lightning Lass. |
| The Legionnaires all appear to be kids, even younger than the teens they would normally be. While this is a direct play on Brainy’s comments in 72:7, might it also indicate some encounter (perhaps with Glorith) which Brainy would have been able to resolve and restore them to their correct ages? |
| Attribute the Legionnaires’ dialogue left to right, to Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Light Lass, and Duo Damsel. |
| 74:1 |
It is certainly possible that the inclusion of Brainiac 5 in the Legion injected a friction into the Legion which would have prevented this sort of a kid’s club atmosphere. It’s even more possible that Brainy believes such. |
| 74:2 |
That would be the Nine Worlds Ice Cream Parlor. |
| 74:3 |
Attribute the dialogue to Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Duo Damsel, and Cosmic Boy. |
| 74:4-5 |
Ah, the Legion of Super-Pets. But including Cheezy the Super-Gerbil? |
| 74:5 |
Those solid blue eyes on Lightning Lad: now he’s from Arrakis, not Winath? |
| Since Streaky had a lightning bolt on his side, that dialogue should be attached to Lightning Lad, which leaves Cosmic Boy with a magnogerbil, presumably. |
| 75:2 |
The Time Trapper, er, “Clarence” is holding open his cloak to use it as a screen of sorts. The image of the Trapper and Koko counts as a single panel. |
| Barring future indications otherwise, this fits with the known facts about Koko — well, except for the band of white monkeys in Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #94 — and will be considered as an accurate origin for him. |
| 75:4 |
Koko O’Brien, maybe? |
| 75:5 |
Brainy picked up one thing from 20th century television, it seems. |
| 76:2-5 |
These panels were apparently drawn by Adam Hughes and inked by Ron Boyd. |
| 76:5 |
So, did Brainy really experience his meeting with “Clarence”, or was it a dream caused by drinking Tenzil’s concoction? Although the option is there that this was just a dream — as withIt’s a Wonderful Life — the presence of the Time Trapper marks this as probably an authentic “timeslip”, parallel to those in < >, < >, and < >/< >. |
