Not too long ago I talked about a lesser known superhero named Bouncing Boy. And while I never got around to making a Bouncing Boy costume (yet) or really talking about him at length, I found one of the coolest things about the character is the equally cool character he married! Today's Z-Lister is Triplicate Girl from DC Comics!
Created by Jerry Siegal and Jim Mooney in "Action Comics #276" in 1961, Triplicate Girl was one of the many members of The Legion of Superheroes, a team of heroes from the 30th Century. Now The Legion of Superheroes is one of the first DC Comic's properties to suffer from "the Threeboot" which is to say the history of the team has been rebooted twice, resulting in three origins for Triplicate Girl. Ironically. So we'll be going through each version.
The first version (1961) was a woman named Luornu Durgo from Planet Cargg. Like all Craggites, Luornu was able to divide herself into three separate bodies all with different personalities. It was mentioned offhandedly that Craggites had this ability because their planet had three Suns. If dividing into three attractive women wasn't enough she was also a user of Tri-Jitsu, a form of martial arts using three bodies in sync. Despite her relation with the number three, Luornu would be the fourth member of The Legion of Superheroes which meant she followed the three founders Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl. In one story, fellow Legionnaire Brainiac 5 accidentally created a robot named Computo that killed one of Luornu's duplicates. This was a very crucial point for the character because when any of the three bodies join back together the memories and experiences of each of the bodies meld into one. If there are two of her who see different movies and then join back into one body, she will have experienced seeing both movies. So when her third body died and fused back into her, Luornu felt the experience of death. From that point on she became known as Duplicate Damsel, only able to use two bodies. Luornu would go on to marry Bouncing Boy and become a trainer for rookie Legionnaires.
In 1994, the character's new history was that she was born defective. On this new Planet Cragg the three bodies of every Craggite were identical in personality, but Luornu's duplicates had different personalities from her. Out of shame, her father left the family and her mother became an alcoholic and killed herself. Luornu was raised by her grandmother, but after she died Luornu was treated in a mental institution until running away and finding a man named R.J. Brande in a crashed spaceship. With her help, R.J. was able to travel back to Earth. R.J. was a business man who-as reward to Luornu-gave her a job at his offices and became her legal guardian. R.J. would be the man to fund The Legion of Superheroes and encourage Luornu to join the team as Triad.
In 2005, the next origin stated Luornu was a girl with amnesia who woke up on the empty planet of Cragg. When she discovered she could duplicate herself, she kept making making duplicates until reaching her limit. By then the entire planet was populated by copies of her. Three of these copies traveled to other worlds to build relationships between Cragg and other planets, but when they returned they were disliked by the other copies because each of them had experiences and memories the rest of the planet did not share. So, these three copies decided to become one person and serve on The Legion as Triplicate Girl.
It seems The Legion of Superheroes will be making a big return in DC Rebirth and I'm really excited to see what happens. The Legion of Superheroes is kind of like Star Trek mixed with The X-Men. In the case of Triplicate Girl and her triplicate origins I'm not really opposed to any of the three. The first was simple, but that version also featured the killing of one of the bodies and making it a emotional shift in the character. Really it's a turning point you don't see in many characters, to experience death, but still be alive. Her second origin is pretty dark, but it was the 90's. Plus, I think it says a lot about the societies of other planets. Just like with her third origin which seems to be a "unity vs individuality" theme. She is from a planet where everyone is the same, but she (or they) are different from the rest. The same could be said about being on The Legion, as being on a team means you're all on the same page, but you are still an individual. There's a lot of discussion worth having about a character like Triplicate Girl and it's a shame she's too underrated for anyone to be asking about her. Seeing the Legion on TV or in a film could open the floodgates for characters like her, but until then all we can do is look forward to what DC Comics does with her next.
Thanks for reading!
Would you live on a planet populated by Triplicate Girls? I know I would. Or maybe I wouldn't. Comment below!
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