From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Re: Send in the clones: Legion Problems
Keywords: Don't Forget the Chaos...
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 00:35:09 GMT

ctatro@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Christopher D Tatro for Stefan Krzywicki):
>...how do you clone two invulnerable people without their knowledge?

Are you assuming that cloning was a matter of cutting out a piece of
flesh and culturing it?  All you *definitely* need is the appropriate
genetic *information*, and information can often be copied non-destructively.

>Also, Matter Eater Lad (Bwah-hah-hah-ahah) can digest anything and the
>best area from which undifferenciated cells can be obtained is the stomach
>lining or stomach fluid.  I'll leave it to you to figure it out.

Same objection.  Besides, MEL's power is more complex than having a
super-stomach.  For instance, he can chew iron bars without breaking
his teeth or his jaw.  I suspect it's more likely that most of the
mechanical work is done in his mouth than that his stomach contains
some universal solvent.

>Where the hell did the proper memories come from that both SW6 and the
>"Old Fogies" apparently share?  I'm sorry but they used any cloning materials
>for spare parts, why would they have brain scans lying around?  

If the Dominators' techniques had anything in common with those that
would have been developed (had events turned out differently) under
Mordru, the memories are RNA-based.  

Theory of the week:  Both teams are clones -- the originals having
been liquidated (or at least liquified) for their RNA and DNA.  This
would imply that the Dominators already had rapid-clone technology,
but needed a couple of decades to perfect their mind-wipe techniques.

>     Now, perhaps the biggest problem of them all...Superboy!!!

Who?  Never heard of him.  I realize that many fictions have been
published over the centuries whose premise was that Superman had
super powers while he was still a boy, but what has that to do with
real life in the thirtieth century?

>Inside sources at DC say Kent is really
>Superboy from a renewed pocket universe with a mindblock...

Inside sources say a lot of conflicting things.  According to Al Gordon,
if Timber Wolf is a success (please no), Kent Shakespeare will be moved
to the twentieth century, and the artwork will be changed to tone down
his previously-deliberate resemblance to Superman.  Note, btw, that this
will involve a retcon, as his fight with the Persuader showed him as
having a super-healing factor rather than invulnerability.

>OK, the real biggest problem: Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel/Mono Maid.
>If SW6 was cloned, why is she only a Duo?

We don't know that she's a Duo.  In fact, they may be building up to
a scene wherein she tries to duplicate and finds that she's a triple again.
Of course, the Dominators could have killed one of her bodies for
verisimilitude, but since they wanted the SW6 batch to fight for them,
why would they do that?

>remember Niven's "Woman of Tissue"...

The simple truth is that Niven's analysis has little application
to the post-Crisis DC universe.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

   God helpe the man so wrapt in Errours endless traine  -- Edmund Spenser