Those Emerald Eyes are Shining is a Legion of Super-Heroes storyline published in Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 2) #301-303 (July-September, 1983), authored by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen.
Current Legion leader Dream Girl departs for Daxam to deal with the damage caused by Darkseid's war, leaving Brainiac 5 in charge. Since Chameleon Boy had left recently to return to his homeworld and get his powers back, Brainiac decides to travel to Durla to support him, taking Sun Boy, Supergirl, Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet with him.
However, the team is intercepted halfway through their journey by a squad of the Science Police. The Legionnaires have just beaten their attackers up when Ontiir shows up, apologizing for his men's actions as revealing he has just been promoted to Science Police Commander for Weber's World, an artificial planet which works as the United Planets' administrative headquarters. In order to demonstrate to their satisfaction that this skirmish has been caused by a horrible misunderstanding, Ontiir invites the Legion to Weber's World. Brainiac 5 takes up his offer and the team travels to the planetoid, but right when they are feeling more confident, they are ambushed by former Fatal Five member Emerald Empress, who has taken over Weber's World and intends to use it to destroy the United Planets and conquer the galaxy.
Meanwhile, the Legionnaires who remain in the base are assaulted by Lightning Lord, Lightning Lad and Light Lass' evil brother who, upon finding out that Ayla has left the Legion, believes he can talk her into joining him. Lightning Lord starts tearing down the team's headquarters, demanding his brother Garth comes out so he can beat Ayla's location out of him.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: After knocking Lightning Lord out, Lightning Lad reveals that his brother Mekt was wasting his time in trying to blast Light Lass' location out of everybody. Ayla did not tell anybody -not even her own twin brother- where she was going to. And Garth did not ask her either out of respect for her privacy.
- Art Imitates Art: The cover of issue #301 is a homage to the cover of Adventure Comics #300, wherein the magazine became the Legion's official "home".
- Designated Girl Fight: The final battle has Supergirl and Shrinking Violet engaging Emerald Empress as their male teammates take care of her male minions.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Brainiac 5 spends most of the story distracted and making silly mistakes due to Supergirl being around him and wearing tight short pants.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Ontiir claims to have transferred his loyalties from the Dark Circle to the Emerald Empress, but in reality, he handed over the Weber's World to the Empress to further another of Dark Circle's schemes.
- Evil All Along: It is revealed that Ontiir, who was suspected from attempting to sabotage peace talks during The Earthwar Saga before being cleared of charges, was working for the Dark Circle all along.
- Evil Gloating: Emerald Empress's successful ambush knocks the Legion out. Rather than take advantage of their unconscious state and kill them on the spot, she gets them brought to the Weber World's bridge, waits until they wake up in order to gloat and indulge in some petty bullying, orders her minion to execute them and then leaves.
- Evil Is Hammy: When the team takes Emerald Empress down, Brainiac 5 mocks her verbosity:Emerald Empress: "Curse your force shield, Brainiac Five!"
Brainiac 5: "Isn't that a bit melodramatic, Your Highness?" - Evil Is Petty: Emerald Empress has managed to capture and put five Legionnaires in a static field. Rather than killing quickly her worst and most dangerous enemies, she proceeds to slap them one after another just because it amuses her.
- Exty Years from Publication: The story was published in 1983 and is set in 2983.
- Fearful Symmetry: Lightning Lad and Lightning Lord engage each other using the same powers and tactics, enshrouded in twin electrical battle auras.
- Foreshadowing: Shrinking Violet uses a Durlan nerve-cruncher on Emerald Empress, foreshadowing that she is really a Durlan mole impersonating the size-changing Legionnaire.
- Hollywood Darkness: The Legion is walking down a passageway when the lights suddenly go off. However, the background is colored in a lighter shade of grey, so the Legionnaires' black-colored bodies stand out.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: After capturing several Legionnaires, Emerald Empress orders Ontiir to execute them to prove his loyalties lie with her instead of the Dark Circle.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Emerald Empress somehow found and kept on hand a piece of Kryptonite just in case that she ran into Superboy.
- Love Makes You Dumb: By his own admission, Brainiac falls for a painfully obvious trap because he cannot think clearly when Supergirl is around.
- Lured into a Trap: After being attacked by a security patrol -allegedly- gone awry, the Legion of Super-Heroes are invited by the newly appointed Science Police commander Ontiir to return to Weber's World with him so he can reassure them that it was all a mistake. The team accepts his invite and heads towards the artificial planetoid, unaware that it has been taken over by their old enemy, the Emerald Empress, who Ontiir is working for.
- No-Sell: When one fighter space-jet is coming right at Brainiac 5, Querl Dox simply stands still and lets the Blitzer ship crash into his indestructible force field and explode harmlessly.
- Planet Destroyer: Supergirl can -and indeed does- headbutt a moon-sized space station out of course.
- Powers Do the Fighting: When a spaceship tries to ram into Brainiac 5, Brainy makes no attempt to dodge it. He merely switches on his force field and stands still as the ship explodes upon impact.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When one Blitzer is attacking them, Brainiac 5 tells Shrinking Violet stay put. When Violet points out the ship is about to crash into them, Brainiac replies it is not their problem. One second later, the ship detonates upon colliding with Brainy's impervious force-field.Brainiac 5: "Stay close, Violet."
Shrinking Violet: "B-but he's coming right at us, Brainiac?"
Brainiac 5: "That's his problem." - Pressure Point: Shrinking Violet uses a "Durlan nerve-cruncher" to knock Emerald Empress out.
- Ramming Always Works: Supergirl stops Weber's World from colliding with United Planets' main fleet base by ramming herself against it at enormous speed, knocking the artificial planetoid right off its collision course.
- Relative Button: When Lightning Lord blasts away and insults Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad declares he is done with holding himself back to not hurt his brother.
- Required Secondary Powers: Played with when Supergirl is trying to move Weber's World. She has the strength, but attempting to do so just ends up digging a hole through the planet because she can't move it as a single object by touching a small part of it. However, the "solution" used is to have her bounce into the planet, which really should fail for the same reason.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Emerald Empress is defeated, Ontiir tries to sneak out of there to inform the Dark Circle, but he runs into Mon-El's fist when he steps out of an airlock.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Chameleon Boy got stuck in his usual form and undertaking a dangerous journey on Durla to a place that would restore his shapechanging abilities. His father, who had long ago been locked into human form by a disease, came with him, but only to provide support; he had adjusted to having a permanent form and didn't want his abilities back.
- Spanner in the Works: Emerald Empress' ploy to destroy the United Planets and the Legion fails due to the interference of Supergirl, a Legionnaire who the Empress was not expecting to run into because she did not even know of Kara's existence.
- Sssssnake Talk: Ontiir, the -notoriously slippery and treacherous- reptilian Science Police commander for Weber's World talks with a very noticeable hiss.Ontiir: "Most asssuredly ssso, Ssssun Boy."
- Underestimating Badassery: One Legion Cruiser is being attacked by three Blitzers (unipersonal combat ships). One Blitzer eludes Supergirl and Sun Boy -who are frying their partner- and heads towards Colossal Boy, who looks an easier, helpless target. Colossal Boy goads the ship into attacking him, and then grows to a humongous size and crushes the Blitzer with one single punch.Colossal Boy: "Come on, pal— Don't I look nice and small and harmless? Good— A little closer— And you can find out you've made a big mistake! What's the matter? Don't like five-foot-wide knuckles?"
- You Are in Command Now: Dream Girl must leave to deal with a situation in Daxam, leaving Brainiac 5 as temporary leader while she is gone. Brainy is quite shocked because Nura is ignoring the team's rules, and Timber Wolf agrees with him, since he is the is deputy leader who should take over and he is not being happy about being skipped over.
