Legion of Super Heroes #2-13 Review
What Happened That You Have To Know About:
Superman-X gets a psychic signal from Superman that he's not really dead, so they go and fish him out of the sun before his 'corpse' is broken down. The Legion goes after Brainiac 5 to stop him from digitizing the universe, and Superman and Superman-X go into Brainy's mind to try and help him throw off the Brainiac programming while the rest of the Legion slows him down in real life. It eventually works, and everything Brainy reduced to information is restored (note: not Imperiex). Also Brainy seems to have become humanoid, somehow. Brainy, feeling guilty about all this, quits the Legion as Superman-X finally joins officially and goes home, and Triplicate Girl-White strolls out of a time warp and is reunited with her other two-thirds.
Review:
Well, it was fine. But certainly no way to end a series. The good news is, the LSH31C writers have plenty of plot threads to pick up on: Brainiac 5 rejoining, Brainiac surviving, Nemesis Kid...
Superman-X made a quick turnaround, didn't he? Or maybe not. He went from, "I'm mad at Brainiac 5 for taking away my chance to kill Imperiex!" to "Brainiac 5's my hero!" Maybe Brainy's just his hero because he killed Imperiex. There aren't a whole lot of Legionnaires I'd consider dumb... Timber Wolf has been a bit thick at times, Ferro was definitely a bit slow in the reboot, and various others have had occasional lapses... but Kell-El has never struck me as the brightest light on the marquee. I wonder if LSH31C is going to use him... if not, I won't miss him.
You know why I don't have a lot to say about this episode? Because, as I was watching it, I knew that about two-thirds of it didn't really matter at all. The big fight with all the Legionnaires versus Brainy and his Coluans? Come on. There was no way that any of that stuff was going to be permanent. It was going in one eyeball and out the other. But that's this show for you: you have to have a lot of fight scenes. It has always been thus.
Anyway, that's the series. It wasn't perfect, but I think we can justifiably call it a success. They left us wanting more. 26 episodes, that's more than a lot of good shows get. And, you heard it here first, we haven't seen the last of the Legion in animation. I haven't heard anything, but forever is a long time.
Membership Notes:
Brainiac 5 quits, and Superman-X joins officially. I had him down as joining sometime before the Timber Wolf episode, and I still think that's a better place to mark the start of his effective Legion tenure.
I don't think there were any more 'new' Legionnaires shown in all the fight scenes. I thought there was one new red-haired girl at one point but I suspect it was just Nemesis Kid.
Labels: Episode Reviews, Legion of Super-Heroes
posted by Matthew E @ 11:35 PM
7 Comments:
Going by the recent interviews, people have had more excitement over the season 3 that was not to be then this season. Pity it ended when it did, to be replaced by yet ANOTHER Batman cartoon (and looking like one of those "Throw Away" episode shows at that), now everything is leaning on the 31st century comics. Lets see... It takes 15 issues to transend over from one season to the next. Maybe if we're lucky is will last until 30 issues by that then. Mind you, Teen Titians the the JLU comics both lasted into their 40s. Who knows. But they were allowed to last long enough to become big enough for that.
Actually I kinda like what I see about the Batman cartoon.
As for the Legion, we may not know the true impact of this cartoon and its satellite comic for another few decades. Who will it turn out to have influenced, and how?
There is but one thing that can come out of a cliffhanger ending episode:
fanficion!
I've managed to find a couple nicely written ones, actually.
Mostly, though, I am very sad this series ended.
And so,he became a real boy at last...With a wave of his hand(well,fist),all was as it was...the season finale plays out like the end of a fairy tale. Clarke's observation about the line between higher technology and magic got pushed to the max here.
It was a satisfying end to the season,if not to the series.Left me wanting more.
A pair of callbacks here;Brin and Kell-el's chat paralleled a similar talk they had in the third episode,and Brainy holding the Superguys in his arms mirrored the training hologram from the first episode.Also contrast the Coluans merging into one giant body to Kal and Kell doing the same...clearly the writers had symmetry on their minds.
The writers also chose a more direct way to revive Superman than you had theorized.Another difference between writers of comics and TV shows;TV writers are less taken with the curliques of plotting that comic book writers can't resist.But your prediction about Triplicate Girl-White was not far off the mark.
The Superman-X/Imperiex worked out pretty well.Took up all the screen time it needed to take.Liked that Kell-El was made a Legionnaire.Not that he needed to hang around for a third season,but it made for a nice resolution to his storyarc. Hated that final bit with Brainiac rebuilding itself.Why couldn't the Legion enjoy a clean win?
Won't complain about not getting a third season.Still amazed that we got a Legion TV show at all.Would be more amazed if we got the complete series,or even just the second season,on DVD.
Would be more amazed if we got the complete series,or even just the second season,on DVD.
Well, again, never is a long time. I'm sure it'll happen eventually. (Also: Season 3 of The Tick! Please?)
Finished a marathon of this show. Terrific cartoon..Wish it had ran longer.The LSH comics of recent years could've learned from this show.Maybe we still would have LSH comics now.
Here's my top 10 episodes of the show,identified by episode code...
1)#1-12/13
2)#2-8
3)#1-9
4)#2-6
5)#1-7
6)#2-12/13
7)#2-11
8)#2-9
9)#1-11
10)#1-5
Submitted for your approval.
That's a pretty good list. When I first looked at it, I thought there was too much Season 2 in it, but then when I considered the individual episodes, I couldn't really disagree. It's been a while since I watched my way through this series; maybe it's time to do it again.
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