Universo Project

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[edit] Universo Project

The Universo Project was a four-issue story arc which ran in the Legion of Superheroes v3 (need issue#s, in the 30s).

There had been hints in the issues leading up to the story arc that Universo was up to something involving the newly elected Earth president Desai, and was posing as his right-hand man Vid Gupta.

The story arc kicked off with Saturn Girl discovering she was suddenly on a prison planet with no memory of how she got there, and the other inmates were all super-heroes from throughout the galaxy, including three other Legionnaires, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy and Dream Girl. None of the prisoners seemed to think it odd they were at the prison, and all contentedly went about their chores.

The story arc follows Saturn Girl's attempts to first break out of the prison, then with the other four legionnaires make their way to earth to stop the man behind it, Universo. Among the memorable scenes are one in which Brainiac 5 manages to keep almost the entire mind-controlled legion at bay using devices he constructed in his lab.

Universo, it should be noted had previously managed to take control of the earth, twice, but in this, his third attempt he actually gained control of most of the Legion as well. The four on the prison planet were the only ones he was not able to directly control (or maintain control for long).

It was scripted by Paul Levitz, with art by Greg LaRoque and Mike DeCarlo.

Unlike the typical Levitz story-arc (Earthwar, Great Darkness Saga, etc), the identity of the villain was not kept secret from the readers at the start, indeed it was called the "Universo Project" right on the cover of the first issue.