Saturday, February 24, 2007

Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes #1-10 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

A kid with magical powers starts causing trouble in Metropolis. The Legion tries to keep him under control, and as they do, it's revealed that Superman has a particular vulnerability to magic. Phantom Girl eventually saves the day by traveling to the kid's magical home planet and asking for help. They make her jump through a lot of hoops but eventually show up to collect the little creep.

Review:

It's hard for me to review the episodes that are just trifles, like this one. This series has little that resembles an ongoing storyline, and its episode plots are straightforward and simple. Sometimes the characterization is complex enough to provoke discussion, as in the cases of Brainiac 5 and Lightning Lad, but more often it's not. Sometimes the episodes feature the kind of Legion lore that demands notice from longtime fans, but not always. And when we get episodes like this, I just have to remember that it's a show for little kids, not for me, and it doesn't have to be anything other than enjoyable and Legionesque, and it is both those things.

So here are a few points I noticed.

- the Winema Wazzo / Phantom Girl relationship wasn't as annoying in this episode as it was in the Space Olympics episode.
- Muffins! Yum!
- we saw the planet Zerox, here called... how did they pronounce it? Zarok, something like that? In this case it's obvious why they made the change. I thought we might see the White Witch, or at least some of the senior wizards from the original-Legion Zerox, but no. Oh well.
- I'm glad to see that they followed up on Drax's hellhounds, and just what happened to them.
- Superman's vulnerability to magic: ordinarily, this show makes it clear that Brainiac 5 already knows about things like this, and makes it a point of tension between Brainy and Superman. In this episode, though, Brainy's basic perspective is that he doesn't believe in magic, so even if he did know that about Superman, he would have immediately discounted it.

Three more to go...

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8 Comments:

Blogger Michael said...

Do you mean to tell me that you didn't recognize Mordru on the board of wizards? Even with his purple shirt and green winged hat? He's listed in the credits only as "Evil Wizard".

10:23 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Wasn't really looking for him. I did notice Fate's helmet and the Emerald Eye among the series of objects that showed up at the beginning, though...

10:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

...and a Green Lantern power battery, too. Frankly, these Easter eggs were the highlight of the show for me. This one was too much for the kids.

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Michael,

That COULDN'T have been Mordru on the board of wizards because the REAL Mordru was encased at the end of the "Trials" episode while your *evil wizard* was still shown as a legitimate boardmember at the end of the "Trials" episode... just try and EXPLAIN THAT ONE!

Source: http://legionabstract.blogspot.com/2008/03/legion-of-super-heroes-2-10-review.html

4:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The kid,Zyx,is powerful;the two episodes he was in were the worst episodes this show had.If only he could use that power for good...

11:42 AM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

I honestly don't know what the writers were thinking.

11:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fun fact:Zyx was voiced by a woman,Lauren Tom.She was also the voice of Gizmo on the Teen Titans cartoon.That character was fun,but Zyx...to repeat myself,if Zyx had used his power for good,maybe we could've had more seasons of the LSH cartoon.

11:20 AM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Oh, that was her? Cool. I mostly remember her from Friends and Homicide: Life on the Street and Futurama.

11:34 AM  

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