Before VR or holodecks, you had to go big or go home.

Like hijacking an entire planet, as in today's book! From 1979, Legion of Super-Heroes #256, "This is Your Life--and Death, Brainiac 5!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Joe Staton, inks by Dave Hunt.

I forget exactly why Brainiac 5 was insane at the start of this one; it may have involved the reality-altering Miracle Machine. Matter-Eater Lad was also currently insane, after eating said Machine to dispose of it; but Superboy and original Legionnaires Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy were trying to help Brainy here. (Arguably Brainy is more useful, but M-E Lad is more fun at parties.) To try and get through the crazy, they ask nicely first, get denied, then commandeer theme-park planet Cosmic World, clearing out the paying customers and ditching the manager! ("Cosmic World" may be a bit of a misnomer or poetic license, it was more like a big floating island.) While Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad try to use telepathy and the park's holograms to work through some of Brainy's childhood traumas; Cosmic Boy and Superboy have to fight off the Science Police.

In a bad day for space capitalism all around, long-time Legion backer R.J. Brande was circling the drain towards bankruptcy. The Legion's Espionage Squad, backed with Mon-El and Shadow Lass, were investigating; but Brande is at first bellicose towards his unseen enemies and competitors, then despondent at the thought of having to rebuild his life at his age. In his defense, Brande may have been even older than he looked; and I think he would pull himself together enough to gain and lose a few more fortunes before the reboots.

Brainy is eventually cured, somehow: he realizes it's a simulation, when Saturn Girl tries to alter a childhood alienation to put a happier spin on things. (In fact, glimpses of B-5's childhood seem reminiscent of Spock's!) Great, but the Sci-Po-Po are going to throw the lot of them into Science Jail! His cure makes, I suspect, about as much sense as his insanity did. LL even mentions the illusion-casting power of Princess Projectra, but claims the holograms did an even better job. I'm just surprised we didn't see any crying little kids leaving the park; maybe kids are more emotionally stable in the 30th century. Non-Legionnaire kids, anyway...