Generic blogpost
It's been a while since I've posted. How are you?
I've been keeping an eye on Legion-related developments, but, uh, I'm not really intrigued yet. Like, here's what we know so far about the post-Rebirth Legion:
- Saturn Girl exists
- Brainiac 5 exists and seems young
- the Emerald Empress exists
I haven't actually acquired any of the comics that have their little cameo appearances so far. Just seen the panels online. That's all I need, right? I'll probably get this Batgirl, Supergirl stuff that's coming up. But... is this really going to be yet another soft Legion reset that pretends that there have been no Legion stories thought up since the mid-'80s? Come on. Just because we've got no future doesn't mean that the DC Universe has to have no future. But this is what you get with Geoff Johns. Feh.
Also some hints of a Legion storyline on the Supergirl TV show. This also does not excite me, and I will explain why. First, they can do whatever they want on their show of course, but this Mon-El isn't a lot like any Mon-El I've ever read about. I don't dislike him, but I'm also not pretending that they're giving me what I want. Second, the Legion is too big of a subject to do properly as a one-shot on somebody else's show. What's the point of Supergirl doing the same thing that Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, and Smallville did? Hey, look, it's the Legion of Super-Heroes! Wave at them, quick, before they're gone! There was nothing wrong with those episodes, but as a Legion of Super-Heroes fan, what I want is some Legion of Super-Heroes stories. I like Supergirl stories and Justice League stories and Superman stories, and I don't mind one more of them that happens to feature the Legion, but I already have plenty of Supergirl stories and Justice League stories and Superman stories around. What I'm running short on is new Legion stories.
And those can only be properly delivered, on TV, in their own series. And it has to be an animated series. This is for two reasons. First, budget. You can animate the 31st century and its superpowered denizens a lot more easily than you can render it in live action. If you try it in live action, it'll look cheesy. Second, cast. The Legion has a large cast with a lot of important characters, and not all of those characters can get a satisfactory amount of screen time in every episode. This is a problem in live action, because your main cast contracts for a certain number of episodes, and so on. Voice actors, easier to move in and out, or even double up on. Not that anything like this looks like it's on the horizon.
The Major Spoilers people have started a Legion podcast, called "The Legion Clubhouse", that's pretty good so far. The RSS feed is probably "http://majorspoilers.com/media/legionclubhouse.xml", if you want to give it a spin.
To sum up. Nostalgia still bad. Legion on Supergirl, who cares. Legion in their own comic-book series or animated TV series, good. Legion Clubhouse podcast, pretty good. LLL.
Labels: Legion of Super-Heroes
posted by Matthew E @ 6:42 PM
6 Comments:
It certainly does seem like a glacial slow burn to SOMETHING Legion related from DC. One does hope it leads to a satisfying revival. Though it does feel like they might be trying to deage the Legion once again. Which, unless Clark Kent SuperBoy is also involved, its hard to really want that. Maybe the Legion will have age diversity? And Brainy's just one of the younger ones? That could work.
On the animation front, I totally agree that cameos and references are great. But a one-off or two parter could never do THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES justice.
That said, I'd totally be down for a DC Animated Legion film. I've always thought an adaptation of Legion Lost could work wonders. Open with a crisis is near Earth orbit, with most of the Legion cast in action, climax to a catastrophe where your more reasonably sized movie cast 'sacrifices' themselves to save the world, then tell a paired down story in the alternate universe, and ending with a show down with a mad Element Lad. You can probably tell something satisfying in 90 minutes that really introduces the Legion concept in a palpable way.
Yeah, that sounds good. The Legion has any number of stories that could be adapted that way.
Early on, The Great Darkness was supposed to be one of the early direct-to-DVD films, but that hasn't been mentioned in years.
I don't think it makes sense to tie the next Legion rendition to anything but what Levitz was working on. Reboot, Threeboot, and Lightning Saga are all too long ago and pre-Flashpoint. And the idea that a fourboot would improve anything probably isn't in the air any more.
My preference would be a "Five Year Gap" thing. It's been X years since we last saw the Legion. Stuff has happened; we may never tell you much about it. Here are faces you thought were gone, like Tinya and Thom and Dirk; here are faces new to this continuity, like Kono and Kid Quantum and Pai Gow Poker King; here are some surprises, like Universo helping the Legion and the rteurn of the Dark Man. Now let's roll forward, do try to keep up. (That's one of the big things the 5YG gave us before, everyone was at ground level but past experience helped you grasp things better.)
Could be, sure. Even things like the death of Lightning Lad, or the Sun-Eater story, would be good. Later versions of the Legion... that's a whole other story.
As an update, the Brainy in the current JL story arc appears to be pre-Legion. He's working on what will become the flight ring (and, in fact, gets some inspiration from Cyborg in that regard), but there's definitely not a Legion yet.
Huh. Well, time travel; can't necessarily tell anything from it.
Thanks!
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