Legion of Super-Heroes (animated feature, 2023) Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Supergirl, freshly arrived on Earth, is having trouble fitting in with the Justice League because she's not used to using superpowers and misses the high-tech life on Krypton. Superman has the bright idea of sending her to the future, which is also high-tech, and she can train at Legion Academy. This doesn't go really well but Supergirl and the other Academy students redeem themselves when the Dark Circle try to steal the Miracle Machine and only the students can stop them.

This fits into the continuity of DC's direct-to-video features in some way that seems important but I don't know anything about.

Review:

Not sure what the best way is to come at this review. This feature was not a great one for longtime LSH veteran fans. We know too much and have too many expectations that get thwarted. But it's much better for new fans, and that's obviously a good quality to have.

Look what we've got. First of all, we've got Supergirl. Everybody kind of knows Supergirl, and if they don't, they get a good introduction to her anyway. Then we find that she's going to be our key into the 31st century, just like Superboy was in the Silver Age comics. That's smart; she, as a contemporary character, is going to have similar questions to what we would if we visited the future.

Second we've got the Legion Academy. This allows us to meet Legion characters in small doses, and the classes give us a lot of useful exposition about what the Legion of Super-Heroes actually is and does. It also gives us a sense of how special it is to be a Legionnaire and what an accomplishment it is to become one.

We also get a lot of longtime Legion storytelling beats, sometimes in ways that don't feel right, but nothing that isn't fair play. For instance:

I know it seems weird to see longtime Legionnaires like Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid, Triplicate Girl, and Dawnstar as Academy students, bemoaning how their weak powers mean they'll never become Legionnaires. But angsting over one's weak powers has been a Legion trope for most of their history. Angsting over whether one will become a Legionnaire has been a Legion trope for most of their history.

There's a part where one character turns traitor, and it's not a character who we're used to seeing do that kind of thing, and I imagine there's a lot of fumfuring out there about it... but it was set up very well indeed, and having a Legionnaire turn traitor has been a Legion trope for most of their history.

Stealing the Miracle Machine? We've seen that before. Brainiac 5 being a prickly outsider who doesn't think he belongs on the team? We've seen that before. One-third of Triplicate Girl getting killed? Seen it before.

So this is all fine. It's a perfectly reasonable introduction story for the Legion, with some good moments for Supergirl and Brainiac 5, and a good final villain (whom, I'll say it first, I would be perfectly happy to have this be the canonical leader of the Dark Circle). If they want to do any more Legion features, which I hope they do, they've got a good foundation to build on.

But there is a thing I don't like here, and I'll tell you what it is:

There aren't a lot of just people in this feature.

When Kara is wandering the mall at the beginning, there are a few citizens also there, including the security guard and the other girls and the building owner. But the place looks pretty empty other than them. Then, in the 31st century, I don't think we meet anybody other than Legionnaires, Academy students, and villains. This is important! What are superheroes for if not to protect regular people? They're an important part of the story. If it's just superhumans versus superhumans... then that turns it into an entirely different genre, and not one that I'm much interested in.

I understand that this would make it a lot more work to animate. Fine. I don't care. Try. Do something. Otherwise we have the premise of superheroes without the fantasy of superheroes, and that's not a good combination. (See this article for more on this.)

Notes:

- is Shadow Lass ever going to be allowed to have her own powers in animation? I remember in JLU she had some kind of pink ray, and then in this she had grasping tendrils and some kind of teleportation (right?)

- new name for "Arms-Fall-Off Boy". Also, if his power works as seen here, that's actually a pretty good street-level power. It's not a joke. The joke is if his arm just falls off and then he has to pick it up and whang people with it

- Dawnstar has an enthusiastic friendly personality here, miles away from her 1970s aloofness. Which... I'm okay with that. The aloofness was kind of an ethnic stereotype in the first place

Art:

The art of this feature was generally very good. The style they're using didn't always work for me, as in the initial race between Kara and her mother on Krypton. (Another point about that opening sequence. Those are some Chuck-Jones-Bugs-Bunny-ass-looking clouds. Not a criticism.) But sometimes it was very attractive. Making Brainy bald was an interesting choice; in general I didn't like it, but they did a good job on his facial expressions, especially in the second half, and the bald worked well with that.

A note on the sound (something that never comes up when I'm reviewing a comic book!): the sound effect of Bouncing Boy bouncing was really good.

We should note, of course, that the designs of the individual Legionnaires tended to be recent designs: Ryan Sook costumes, where available.

Membership Notes:

Boy are there ever a lot of Legionnaires shown here! I'll let someone else count 'em up. Is that Lori Morning I saw there at the end in one of her H-Dial identities? The big question for me here is, does Arms-Fall-Off Boy now count as a full Legionnaire? I'm inclined to say no, because we haven't had a story yet where he *acts* as a Legionnaire, but it's an argument...

Smallville #8-11

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Hard to say. It's a Smallville episode and I don't usually watch Smallville. The three founders of the Legion come back to the present to stop the Persuader from killing Clark Kent on the day that he's supposed to defeat Brainiac for good. They do so, but then they have to stick around to help Clark deal with Brainiac, who has possessed Chloe. The Legionnaires think that killing her is the only solution, but Clark insists they find another way, and they do.

Review:

Stipulated, part one: It's nice to see the Legion on TV and in live action.

Stipulated, part two: It's amusing to recognize all the bits of Legion lore and other shoutouts that Geoff Johns included in the script.

But neither of those things makes this a good TV show.

Now that that's out of the way:

It wasn't bad; I enjoyed it. The whole history of Brainiac and Doomsday on this show didn't quite leave me behind, and the characters weren't as mopey as I was worried they were going to be. I'm not sure I'm going to watch Smallville again on the strength of this episode, but it wasn't an unpleasant experience.

Lightning Lad's characterization has kind of been skittering around across the last few Legion versions. It was the SW6 and reboot Garths that first took him away from the stalwart figure of the original Legion, possibly inspired by the 5YL notion that that was really Proty II acting like that. Then animated Garth (my favourite, after the original) was a lot like the original, but harder to get along with, threeboot Garth was kind of a space case, and retroboot Garth is kind of a thug. Smallville Garth is probably closest to the threeboot version.

I guess the most notable part of the episode was the conflict about what to do about Chloe. The Legionnaires advocated killing her, and Clark was having none of it. I've already seen a couple of responses to the episode by people who really didn't care for that aspect of the Legion's portrayal, but I liked it okay. First, let's give some credit to the Legion cartoon for being the first to develop the whole idea that the Legion is where Clark Kent learned to use his powers and become an effective superhero. There's another side to that, though, which is that the Legion learned something from Clark too. The cartoon only touched lightly on that, but in Smallville, we got it all spelled out for us. The Legion learns about... I'm not sure what to call it... goodness? Heroism? Nobility? I don't know. It's not like the Legion are lacking in these qualities, but it's Kal-El's example that helps them develop them fully. I thought it was entirely appropriate. There's certainly no shame in learning something from Superman.

The episode left a big door open for future Legion content on this show. I wonder if they're going to use it.

You know what would have been cool? It would have been cool if, after the episode, there was a commercial saying something like, if you liked meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes in this episode of Smallville, you can read about them every month in a comic book published by DC Comics, available in fine comic-book stores near you. Of course, that would require that a) DC and Time-Warner be interested in expanding their audiences, and b) DC actually have a Legion series with any kind of future. Oh well.

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.

Legion of Super Heroes #2-12 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

While Imperiex prepares for a big attack, Brainiac 5 is trying to overcome the Brainiac 1 programming he invoked earlier in the series. It wants him to embrace power and make the universe nice and orderly. It turns out that Imperiex's attack is intended to push Brainy over this edge so that Brainy will become his ally, and it succeeds: Brainy joins with the Legion in fighting off Imperiex, but later, he fights his way free of the Legion (fatally injuring Superman) himself and joins Imperiex. Imperiex calls up the Legion to share this good news with them, but it turns out that he was a bit premature: Brainy kills Imperiex and Validus and heads for Colu to begin the process of conquering the universe his way. To be continued!

Review:

Well, the core of this episode is more... personal and psychological than that of the first season's finale, isn't it? And for some reason I'm always dubious about that. See, for any ongoing character such as you get in superhero comics, there are external stories and internal stories--that is, there are stories in which the conflict is with some external force, and there are stories in which the conflict is internal and involves the protagonist's own identity and nature in some way. I have always preferred external stories. I don't mind one every now and then, but too many in a row will tick me off.

It's also an odd way to end a series. I'm sure that when the writers mapped out the season they didn't know it would be the last, so what can you do, but I'd like the Legion's final villain to be someone other than my favourite superhero. Speaking of which, Imperiex was disposed of rather unceremoniously, wasn't he? Guy made the classic Bonehead mistake (see my review of S&LSH #28 for more on this notion): he released forces he could not control. Never release forces you can't control!

I guess we're not going to get any more on the whole Karate Kid/Nemesis Kid thing. Imagine that, Nemesis Kid ends up not betraying anybody. Oh well; the LSH31C comic still gets to take a shot at him.

While watching this episode, the obvious thing to think was that this was all part of a ploy by Brainy to fake Imperiex out, or something... but his fight with Superman sort of put an end to that notion. That was brutal, and I'm glad my son didn't happen to see this episode. This cartoon never shocked me in that way before. Superman ripping off Brainy's arms and legs? Not cool.

But I'm looking at what next episode is faced with resolving... Brainiac 5 is trying to conquer the universe, has the power to obliterate anyone or everyone around, and has killed Superman. For us to get our happy ending, we need Superman to be alive, Brainy to be redeemed, and, preferably, somehow, history to be intact to the extent that they can save Luornu's third body from Superman-X's future (forgot about her, huh?). And there aren't a lot of ways to get that done. I think Brainy's gone too far, and while there's always a way to bring Superman back if you want one, we already seem to be on a different time-track from the one that took us to the 41st century that we already saw. (I think.)

And there's another problem. Superman can't be dead.

By which I don't mean, the show would never go so far as to kill him. And I don't mean, Brainiac 5 doesn't have enough juice to kill him. I mean, if Superman dies in the future, that changes history, and the Legion's 31st century never happens. And if anybody knows that, it's Brainiac 5. So even if they were enemies, he'd never try to kill Superman; it couldn't possibly do anything other than interfere with his plans. And I don't know where that leaves us. Maybe this whole thing, including Superman's fake death, and faked footage from Imperiex's ship, is all a Mission Impossible-style put-on to decoy Nemesis Kid--?

I do suspect that time travel is going to be part of the Legion's solution to all this, though. Someone will have to go back and stop somebody from doing something, and Brainy won't turn evil, and they'll have to cope with Imperiex some other way, and the Time Bubble's glove compartment will pop open and Triplicate Girl-White will jump out. You heard it here first.

A good episode, and I'm certainly looking forward to the conclusion... but, like the rest of this season, not quite as good as I was hoping for.

Membership Notes:

The crowd scenes in this episodes were a treasure trove, as a trio of previously unseen Legion characters turn up: Chemical King, Dawnstar and XS, as well as more familiar faces-in-the-crowd Ultra Boy, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Polar Boy, Night Girl, and the current Subs team. (Many thanks to all the sharp-eyed posters at Legion World.) Since the Subs are there, there's no way to be sure who's a Legionnaire and who isn't, but hey: they made it to TV just under the wire.

Legion of Super-Heroes #40 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

As we saw suggested last issue, Brainy retrieves Shadow Lass from Talok; the two of them have to team up to fight another one of those burly monsters. Some things come to a head at a meeting later: Brainy reveals that the 'alien destroyers' are teleporting in from way out at the edge of the universe; he sends Legionnaires out to try to recover any of their bodies for analysis but they all self-destructed except for one, and the Science Police have that. Projectra's legal troubles continue, and may or may not have pushed her too far by the end of the issue. Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl get called on the carpet for misuse of their powers. We're still not done with Giselle.

Review:

I wonder if Francis Manapul was in a rush this issue.There were a few panels that made me wonder if Sharpe or DeKraker were back.

One of the complaints I've seen about the threeboot, as opposed to the reboot Legion it replaced, is that too many interesting details were lost. For instance, the reboot Legion used Threshold technology to teleport around. It was based on the Kwai's pathfinding power, and grew organically out of the Legion's relationship with Shikari and her people in Legion Lost. The threeboot Legion used standard boring 'transmatter gates'; ho hum. Well, now we've got a replacement for the transmatter gates: Brainy's new wormhole-conduit teleporter. It's amusing feature is that whenever you travel that way you throw up. Does that count as an 'interesting detail'?

One of the reasons why Saturn Girl is such a great character is that she really does go too far a lot of the time. She abuses her superpowers. Always has. And now, Timber Wolf and Lightning Lad (and others) have called her on it... but talk is cheap. I wonder where this is going to go. Because I really doubt she can resist the temptation...

The thing that ticks me off about this issue is that, once again, nothing ends. Nothing is resolved. Look, I don't mind having story elements that extend over a long time. And I agree that it's interesting to explore the implications of events rather than just let them lapse into the background. And there's some good characterization going on here, and the action is fine. But it feels like we aren't getting anywhere. Every wheel is spinning. Can't we stop one before we start another one? Stupid sixteen-issue mega-arc.

Also. The question about whether Legionnaires kill or not has been much debated in this version. I thought Bedard had finally put the issue to rest with his second Lallor issue during his minirun, but I guess not; Jim Shooter has the Legionnaires butchering these big brawny motorscooters all over the place. Now, I know that this is a science-fiction comic as well as being a superhero comic, so I'll cut the writers some slack on this point. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Unless it's specifically said that Legionnaires do kill at times, I'm going to assume that they don't. I'm going to assume that these monsters are just constructs and that cutting them in half is no worse than cutting mannequins in half. But it'd be nice, if they are constructs, for that to be established. Because I do prefer it that the superheroes I read about don't kill.

But sleeping around is okay. Especially in the future. I expect there to be some criticism of Light Lass's behaviour in this storyline: she goes to bed with Karate Kid, and then says afterward that it was great but they're just friends. This is of a piece with what we already know about her: she's had quite a few boyfriends among the Legionnaires. I've seen several references to Ayla being a slut because of all this. But I say that the critics can pack it, because a) contraception and disease prevention ought to be pretty reliable and unobtrusive by the 31st century, b) Ayla's behaviour is pretty consistent with that of many perfectly nice young women of today, never mind after a thousand more years of social progress, and c) what's wrong with it anyway? Light Lass has become one of my favourite characters in this version of the Legion, because of a couple of her personal qualities that both Waid and Shooter took care to portray: she's the warmest and most affectionate person on the team. This showed in her dealings with Supergirl, with Lightning Lad, in the lettercol that she and Star Boy hosted, and now it's showing in a different way, in her friendship with Karate Kid. Her depiction in this series has my full approval.

Notes:
- "Legionnaires have been expelled for less." Really? I'd like to hear that story
- I wonder if Projectra was telling the truth about that bracelet having been hers before
- Remember when we thought Tony Bedard was setting stuff up for Shooter? Wrong again. I don't think Shooter has used a single one of his plot developments
- I like the way Shooter is setting this story in our solar system. It's not always necessary to make up exotic planets orbiting distant stars; there's some cool stuff much closer to home

Legion of Super Heroes #2-11 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Dark Circle is on a crime spree, and the Legion are using Dream Girl's visions to their best advantage to stop them. So the Circle figure this out, and get the notion of using Dream Girl against the Legion. So the Legion figure this out, and... you get the idea.

Review:

Well, that's more like it!

Some backstory for Dream Girl, woven in to the already-existing saga of the Ranzz family. Nicely done. Also, continuing the tradition of strong characterization for Lightning Lad, who (like he always does in this show) acts like a bit of a jerk but shows by the end of the episode that he's actually not that bad of a guy. Good action sequences, as always. Sensible plot. A chance for Brainy to show off how smart he is in a way that's both realistic and something that an ordinary smart person wouldn't be capable of. One of the better episodes of this series, I'd say.

Nothing to advance the season-long arc, again. I guess the two-part finale is going to have to take care of everything.

I continue to resent the portrayal of all these Legionnaires as, as Neal Stephenson would say, stupendous badasses. Especially Timber Wolf, who is now ridiculously feral. Lightning Lad and Brainy are almost as bad. I don't care if kids are supposed to like it; this is just not what the Legion was ever supposed to be all about. It's obnoxious is what it is. Oh, and: just one female character this episode. Again.

Was there a reason for the Dark Circle to be the villains in this story other than that the writers wanted to use the Dark Circle? As far as I can tell, they could have been just any crooks with gadgets. That's not a complaint, of course, but if there's some detail that came into the story that made the Circle particularly appropriate, I missed it.

Okay. Good! Looking forward to next week!

Notes:
- I presume that Dream Girl's past alias, 'Madame Mysterious', is a nod to her brief use of the 'Miss Terious' name when she first joined the Legion for keeps
- I also presume that Star Boy's prominent role in the episode was because of his and Dreamy's longtime relationship in the comics
- So... does Computo record everyone's dreams, then? Or just Dreamy's? Really I suppose it should record them all. I don't suppose there's been a random and meaningless dream in the whole history of the superhero genre
- This episode's bone tossed by the writers to those who think that 'references to Legion continuity' = 'quality': the use of Ontiir as the name of a Dark Circle member

Legion of Super Heroes #2-10 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Mordru was starting to throw his weight around on the magical planet of Zarok, so the Legion went and fought him.

Review:

Boy, that was lame. It was a generic fantasy-magic story with a few incidental Legion details. The main character was the annoying little kid from one of the weaker episodes of the first season. Superman-X saves the day by casting a magic spell, of all things. And the fantasy elements of the story were strictly off-the-rack.

There were characters named 'Mordru' and 'the White Witch'. But they weren't characterized... at all, really.

Some of the Legionnaires had some nice moves in the uninteresting fights they had against some magical cannon fodder. That was good, I guess.

I read one comment about the episode to the effect that the White Witch's appearance made the whole episode worth it. My thoughts on that notion are, like hell it did. The White Witch wasn't much more than the artificial female voice that guides you through a phonemail tree; they could have called her Wonder Woman without changing the story at all. As long as Legion fans have such undiscriminating standards--i.e., that they'll accept anything that reproduces a surface detail of the original Legion--then we'll keep having stuff like this episode, or the Lightning Saga, foisted on us.

I mean, my approach for this blog is to look for the good in whatever treatments of the Legion come along. Usually I can find it; sometimes not. But I hope that it takes more than a familiar name or nostalgic costume to win my approval. It was a worthwhile episode because one of the one-half-dimensional semicharacters was named the White Witch? Please.

This has been a good series and it's only got a few episodes left. Let's hope they're more like the rest of the series than they are like this one.

Legion of Super Heroes #2-9 Review, Plus Catching Up

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

Two episodes ago, Terra-Man came back from the 41st century to kill a little boy and prevent Imperiex's creation. Superman-X had some conflicts about whether to side with him or not, but eventually did what superheroes do and saved the kid. There were a lot of shifting alliances and stuff between Superman-X, the Legion, Terra-Man and Imperiex, and Star Boy got some good screen time. Not all that great an episode, really, and nobody seemed to have the idea of persuading the kid to go for an arts degree instead of science when he grew a little; that would have worked just as well as killing him.

One episode ago, Imperiex and Validus and some troops invaded the bottle city of Kandor in Superman's now-thousand-years-old Fortress of Solitude in pursuit of... aah, I forget; something useful or other. Anyway, red-sun rules apply in Kandor, so that made it tricky for Superman and the Legion to go in and fight them. The Superman-Brainy friendship came to a crisis, as Superman found out all the things that Brainy's been hiding from him, and it was very satisfying except that it wasn't stated that Brainy originally recruited inexperienced Clark Kent precisely because he'd never met Brainiac yet, which was my pet theory. Brainy accesses Brainiac's original programming to find a way to stop Imperiex, and ends up changing the sun to yellow so that all the Kandorians can have superpowers. Imperiex and Validus turn and run. Brainy and Superman patch things up, and Brainy uses Brainiac's knowledge to a) find what's left of Krypton, orbiting around its sun, b) reassemble the planet as much as possible, and c) deshrink Kandor and restore it to the planet's surface. (Although he has to wipe Superman's memory of this so he doesn't take it back to the 21st century.) A sinister little half-smile at the end of the episode suggests that a little knowledge isn't the only thing Brainy got from the Brainiac programming. Tremendous episode, if only because they had the audacity to do some truly huge things. Spill Brainy's can of worms and restore Krypton all in the same episode? Holy beans!

This episode, Grimbor and the Scavengers (which would be an excellent name for a rock band) crash a United Planets ceremony and kidnap R.J. Brande. A bunch of Legionnaires go in pursuit (including Saturn Girl, fresh from the hospital). On the way, Brainy finds the opportunity to tell Superman-X the story of the founding of the Legion. The Legion eventually rescues Brande and finds that the guy behind the kidnapping was Doyle, the same guy who was behind Brande's assassination attempt all those years ago.

Review:

It was okay. Nice to see the Legion origin on the small screen, but let's face it: we knew how it was going to turn out, and the framing plot was kind of an afterthought.

The season arc wasn't advanced by this episode. Not that it has to be! I'm just saying.

I'm not the only one to point it out, but it's interesting that in this portrayal of the Legion's founding, the three kids decide themselves to team up and become superheroes. It's not Brande's idea at all. I wonder if one could draw a connection between that and the fact that these Legionnaires are being written for/contemporary with a Hero generation in that age bracket. I also wonder what kind of origin story the threeboot Legion is going to end up having.

The abrasive relationship Garth, Rokk and Imra have in the cartoon is quite a departure from the close friendship they've always had in, well, just about every other version of the Legion. And I can't say I prefer it. But that's not to say it's a bad idea; quite the opposite. Don't let us get too comfortable!

Is it just me, or do they keep changing the visual effects on the various superpowers? I think Lightning Lad's lightning looks different.

(Of course, they act different, too. Just what was that Saturn Girl was doing to kill all those satellites at the end? Pretty wimpy satellites if you can wreck 'em with telepathy. My four-year-old son asked me what the deal was with that and I had no answer for him.)

Notes:
- R.J. Brande with a southern accent? That's gonna take some getting used to
- I like how they just had Cham be Brande's son without bothering to explain it
- Somebody please explain to me how Cosmic Boy can be so hopeless against the metal-chain-using Grimbor
- Nice to see Saturn Girl sitting up and taking nourishment

Membership Notes:

That's Ultra Boy in the group shot there at the end! But no Timber Wolf, Karate Kid or Nemesis Kid. Or, for that matter, Superman or Superman-X. Unless I missed them?

Legion of Super Heroes #2-8 Review. Not

As before. Too bad, too; there were lots of interesting things to be said about this episode.

Legion of Super Heroes #2-7 Review. Not

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Writer's Guild of America went on strike. The main issue of the strike is whether or not writers for movies and TV should be paid residuals when their work is shown on the internet. (Answer: Yes, they should.) The writers figure that, like the Legion of Super-Heroes, they're going to be spending the rest of their lives in the future, and in the future there's going to be more and more going on on the internet. Therefore it's going to be more and more important to have a piece of that pie. The studios, on the other hand, would rather keep all that money for themselves, and so we have a strike.

I am not a member of the WGA. I can legitimately call myself a writer (in the sense that I have written something that has been published, and I have been paid for it) but I am not (yet?) the writer I sometimes dream of being. Nevertheless I do support the WGA. Now, Legion of Super Heroes, the cartoon, is not (to the best of my knowledge) a WGA show. It does, though, run on a network, and the characters are owned, ultimately, by Time-Warner, which is a member of the AMPTP, the organization the WGA is striking against.

I have some options for just how I could show my support for the WGA. (This guy has some ideas for just such options.) Some of 'em I know I'm going to be exercising. For instance, I'm not asking for DVDs for Christmas, like I normally would, and I'm not going to buy any for anybody else either. I haven’t decided what else. (Note: the most important thing about gestures of this kind is that you tell the people you're boycotting that that's what you're doing, and why! Do not omit this step! Letter mail, written in a civil tone, is best.)

Now, Time-Warner owns DC Comics. I considered not buying DC comics for the duration of the strike, and also not watching the cartoon. For the moment I have decided not to take those steps. But we’ll see.

This blog is, has always been, primarily about superheroism. Now, I'm no superhero. I think that the life lessons and moral teachings one can usefully absorb from the superhero genre are somewhat limited. But I would be disappointed in myself if I couldn't do the right thing even if it was difficult, inconvenient, or unpleasant. I think I can live up to the example of the characters I blog about to that extent. I am prepared to stop buying DC Comics, if I decide that's what I should do.

This much I can say, at this stage: I'm not going to write a word about a single episode of the cartoon until the strike's resolved. When it's over, maybe I'll find a way of coming back and filling in the gaps.

And if there's anybody out there who's disappointed in this, who wants me to get back to reviewing this cartoon... take it up with the AMPTP.

Legion of Super Heroes #2-6 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Legion had the bright notion to fake a Persuader escape from Takron-Galtos and send Chameleon Boy to infiltrate Imperiex's forces disguised as Persuader. Part of the disguise involves some mental programming so that Cham would believe himself to be the Persuader and so play the part right. It goes okay, everyone figures, until the real Persuader escapes and goes after his replacement. The Legion rescues Cham but it's difficult to bring him back to himself. In the process of doing so, it's revealed that Superman is really Ron-Karr, disguised as Superman the same way Cham was disguised as the Persuader. Ron-Karr tells them that Imperiex is about to attack Durla with his new super-weapon. The Legion goes to stop him but are only able to do so because Ron-Karr betrays Imperiex in the middle of the fight, either because of his own conscience or from some remnant of his Superman programming.

Review:

This episode seemed to be mostly about some be-true-to-yourself, be-all-that-you-can-be kind of theme that I didn't feel like thinking about too hard because this isn't an after-school special. I mean, I'm sure it's appropriate in a show for kids; it just didn't capture my imagination. Although it did serve the plot in this sense: when Brainy said, "That would mean that the potential for evil is within all of us," that of course is a reference to Superman-X's revelation that Brainiac 5 is due to betray everybody at some point in the future (which I had just about forgotten about).

When Cham said, "Let's bring out the bad boy in me!" my reaction was basically, "You know what? Let's not." Because there's been too much of that this year. I don't like the trends with the characters. First, this is the second episode in a row with no female characters, which I don't care for at all. Second, there's been an increased focus on the male Legionnaires who have been made extra fighty this year: Superman (older, more confident himself, plus there's his battlehungry Superman-X counterpart), Lightning Lad (with his scary beard and megablasty robot arm), Brainiac 5 (instead of a young-adolescent robot with a mecha form, now he's a bigger robot with a souped-up mecha form) and Timber Wolf (bigger, more savage). This is not a nice direction. I hope somebody likes it, but I don't.

Much was made in the early part of the episode about Imperiex's new super-weapon and how it would revolutionize warfare. I thought it seemed pretty lame. It was basically just a big missile with a bunch of little missiles inside it. What's so revolutionary about that? For that matter, what Ron-Karr did to stop it didn't seem so elaborate to do: he basically picked out the lead missile and opened it up along the side, and they all blew up. Seems like a design flaw to me. And they all blew because that one missile was sending the other ones 'data'? Why do missiles have to be IMing each other? And what messages are they sending? "Don't blow up," I guess, in this case. The Hey Empire had a better superweapon.

I don't want to sound too negative about the episode. For instance, the plot twist, that Superman wasn't really Superman, caught me completely by surprise. I didn't know what was going on for a second there. Nicely done.

That scene where Superman grabs Brainy and says, "What have you done?!" is one of those things that gets you thinking. First, of course: it was out of character for Superman. Which makes a bit of sense, as that was really Ron-Karr disguised as Superman. So was that his natural villainous aggression showing through? Or was he identifying with his fellow mind-altered shapeshifter? Or is this something Superman actually would do? After all, Cham is one of the few Legionnaires whose heroic career Superman's significantly predates (real-time); Superman may feel protective over him in a way that he wouldn't for a more long-serving Legionnaire. Or--and this is just me beating my pet idea to death with a rock--does Superman see Cham as another victim of Brainy's manipulations, just like himself?

(By the way, why was Ron-Karr ever evil in the comics? One moment, he wants to be a Legionnaire, then he ends up sitting beside the Silver Slasher vowing to kill a Legionnaire. Dude, you're not a supervillain; you're a poor schnook with a grievance and a minor superpower; you're not going to be killing Mon-El anytime soon.)

Nice touches:
- the expression on Cham's face after being asked, "Are you ready to become one of our worst enemies?" He was obviously intrigued
- Super Death Star!
- "Destroy them both." Well, of course. Imperiex had to be told that?
- So that's Durla, huh?
- that whole scene with Cham and Ron-Karr and the mirror was really cool

So it wasn't done badly. It just looks like it's in the middle of turning into something I don't want to see. Not too late to change course!

Legion of Super Heroes #2-5 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

Grimbor the Chainsman is going on a bit of a crime spree and stealing a bunch of technology. The Legion tries to apprehend him, but Chameleon Boy makes a rookie mistake and lets him get away. The Legion decides they need some new members and bring in Nemesis Kid (who has previously been working with the Science Police on nabbing Grimbor) and Karate Kid. Grimbor then rigs an encounter with the Legion (during which Cham and Karate Kid don't show themselves to best advantage) that's only intended to plant a false lead of what Grimbor's going to be doing next. The Legion falls for it, and walk right into his trap, only to be rescued by Cham and Karate Kid, who figured out the trap and showed up to save the main team. It's revealed that Grimbor's been working for Imperiex.

Review:

Very nice, very nice... Grimbor looked cool, Nemesis Kid with more-easily-explained powers, Karate Kid turned out to be the Calvin Fihzgart of the 31st century... it's all fine. But unfortunately the thing that struck me the most about this episode was the scene where they made Karate Kid do laundry. It was not the most racially sensitive thing I've ever seen. Now, I'm not accusing anyone of anything, and I know there was the other scene at the end where Nemesis Kid made nice, but... are we really sure that this scene was such a hot idea?

I'm kind of getting sick of this characterization of Cosmic Boy. Maybe it's useful in the story, but it's not what the character's like. And I don't mean it's not what he's like in the comic books--he wasn't like this in Season 1 either. On the other hand, we're seeing more of Superman's greater experience: he's now showing Legionnaires what being a superhero is all about.

By the way, just how does Superman know about Asteroid K-19? And I certainly hope that his plan for picking a potential Legionnaire out of that crowd was more nuanced than just, "Let's see if anyone here can beat me up!" The way the fight worked, though, was a nice update of Karate Kid's first appearance in the comics: Karate Kid actually beats Superman this time, but in a perfectly believable way.

Nice touches:
- "That's an interesting way to go, Superman." Is that the calmest Lightning Lad has ever been?
- It seemed obvious to me that Grimbor's thefts were of technology that was designed to counter or affect the powers of various Legionnaires. Anyone else? I wonder if that plot element is going anywhere.
- "I'm about to get a reputation for not following orders."

Membership Notes:

Karate Kid becomes a member this episode.

So does Nemesis Kid, and here we have a bit of a decision to make.

See, I haven't been counting Nemesis Kid as ever having been a Legionnaire, because in the comics, the story in which he joined is also the story in which it was revealed that he was a villain. To me, he was never a valid Legionnaire in the comics. But in this show, his first story ended without any betrayal or anything like that. In fact, he seemed like kind of a nice guy at the end there. Now, I'm sure that he's going to show his true colours and shaft the Legion eventually, but it looks like that's going to be a separate story from this one. So I think we have to call him a Legionnaire now. Congratulations, Nemesis Kid; welcome to the Legion. It's a good life. Let's hope you don't mess it up the way you did last time.

I'll put Nemesis Kid on the all-time roster list, and in the chronological roster, but as with Superman-X I reserve the right to change it in light of future episodes, depending on what happens and how.

I tried to pick faces out of the crowd during the membership-audition scene, but it's rough on a VCR. Somebody said that they saw Comet Queen? I dunno. Who was there that we haven't seen before? Similarly, there were a few interesting symbols on the display when Superman was explaining how short-staffed the Legion was: Wildfire, Ultra Boy... But I think the symbols are just there to look good and don't really mean anything. Oh well.

Legion of Super Heroes #2-4 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

We first get the famous Lightning Beasts of Korbal scene, as Lightning Lad dreams of how he and Mekt got their powers... and their sister Ayla mysteriously disappeared, apparently vapourized by the lightning that hit them as they were trying to recharge their spaceship years ago. Lightning Lad has been dreaming of this a lot recently, for some reason... meanwhile the Legion is trying to stop the Dominators from using a strange space-energy-field to power up their tachyon cannon. They soon discover that the Dominators are working with Imperiex, Validus and Mekt, and there's a fight, in which Lightning Lad loses an arm and has to get a cybernetic replacement. The Legion eventually discovers that this energy field is actually a disembodied Ayla, and comes up with a Mekt-centric plan to save her. Mekt resists involvement while Imperiex has his eye on them, but turns his coat as soon as he gets the chance. The tachyon cannon is destroyed and Ayla is restored to existence, still the little girl she was when she was disintegrated on Korbal. And Mekt turns himself in.

Review:

This was a mostly satisfactory episode that wraps up the Ranzz family's loose ends pretty nicely: Mekt seems to have resolved his issues and isn't wandering around loose anymore, and we've met Ayla and know that she isn't going to join the Legion anytime soon. Which we knew: they're not going to have two Legionnaires with lightning powers, and the Light Lass powers won't do either because Star Boy has them. So keeping her as a little girl is as good a way as any of keeping her offstage.

Mixed results on characterization. Shrinking Violet gets her first full speaking part in this episode, and is a breath of fresh air... but Lightning Lad adjusts to his new arm a little too quickly, and the writers seem to have taken their hands off the steering wheel when it comes to Superman-X's personality. In the first two episodes, he was all business, with no time for friendship or civility or even for simple tactics: it was all stuff that interfered with his Imperiex-fighting time. Since then, he's been callous when it's convenient for the plot that he's callous, and sympathetic when it's convenient for the plot that he be sympathetic. I was expecting Superman-X's emotional education as a hero to be the main arc of this season, but so far it's all been circumstantially driven.

When the Legion was in the energy field, and Lightning Lad and Mekt were having nightmares, and Ayla was trying to get their attention... Watching all this, I kept thinking that this is a job for Saturn Girl. I wonder if that's one reason the writers shuffled her off into a hospital bed?

Brainiac 5's interaction with Shrinking Violet was interesting for a couple of reasons. First, of course, it echoes their current relationship in the threeboot version of the Legion (although this Vi is much nicer than that Vi). Second... he didn't seem to know her very well. Now, she's been a Legionnaire since before the series started, and now it seems that not only haven't we seen much of her, it turns out that Brainy hasn't either. I'd kind of like some exploration of why this Legion is so diffuse. I mean, I can figure out the reasons for it as well as anyone can; I just want the series to look at it, because it's never been a feature of the Legion before.

Now, to Lightning Lad. On the one hand, he's got both Ayla and Mekt back now, which could soften his character. On the other hand, Saturn Girl's still on the DL and he's had his arm roasted off (considerate how they never actually showed us his wound, isn't it?), which might have the opposite effect. I wonder if we'll notice any difference? I was a bit put out at how enthusiastic he was about his new robot arm. Dude, you just had your freaking arm singed off. Don't you miss it a little bit? Nor am I enthusiastic about how he can now use it to shoot lasers and explosions and stuff: for one thing, that's what we've got robo-Brainiac-5 for; for another, you could already shoot lightning; for yet another, stop trying to impress me with pyrotechnics. (For those who don't know, Lightning Lad once lost his arm in the comic books too. It wasn't to any kind of Imperiex-like figure; it was while he was going after the Super Moby-Dick of Space. Come to think of it, that does sound like Imperiex, if you take out the 'Moby' part.)

Nice touches:
- the piano music in the closing scene with Mekt in prison
- the animation on the lightning effects and the 'drop landing' on Korbal
- did anybody else think that the Lightning Beasts looked a little bit like umber hulks?
- we finally found out how Lightning Lad got his scar. Not that it was a huge surprise
- the famous Winathian Twin Thing doesn't seem to be a part of this Legionverse; Garth and Ayla's bond doesn't seem to be any deeper than any other sibling relationship, and Mekt was messed up for other reasons entirely

Legion of Super Heroes #2-3 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

Dr. Londo, while speaking at a scientific conference about his new nanotech-powered supersoldiers, is confronted and attacked (fatally?) by Timber Wolf. Timber Wolf is put on trial for this by the Legion, and found guilty, but escapes to clear his name. He finds that he really did do it, somehow (he's been suffering from headaches and blackouts), and retreats to Rahl so he won't hurt anybody. But once he's there he finds that his dad's alive and used his mind-control nanotech to set Timber Wolf up, because he wants Timber Wolf as a bestial general for his monstrous nanodrone army. The Legion shows up, and there's a fight, during which Timber Wolf asserts his individuality and allegiance, but Dr. Londo gets away.

We do get a couple of hints about the overall arc of this season. The Legionnaires trying to keep the lid on Timber Wolf include Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, Sun Boy, Tyroc, Superman X, Phantom Girl and Chameleon Boy, because others like Brainiac 5, Bouncing Boy and Lightning Lad are off fighting Dominators. Also, Dr. Londo announces that he's 'formed an alliance with men who share [his] vision of what this galaxy can be,' which I presume refers to Imperiex and the Dominators.

Review:

It was an all right episode. There were continuity bits for people who like that stuff, there was atmosphere, there was action, there was a serviceable story with some character moments... the problem for me is that I don't care for the subject matter. I don't like this feral Timber Wolf. I don't think he should be an animalistic character; I'm just not interested in that angle. To me, the difference between Basic Original Timber Wolf and Extreme Feral Timber Wolf is like the difference between Batman and Man-Bat. And, "Now I do what I do best"? That little reference was neither necessary nor desireable. I think Blok said it best when he said, "Plaugh."

Phantom Girl, as a character, is coming along nicely. It's the second episode out of three this season in which she has to be the one to try to talk an overenthusiastic male Legionnaire down off the water tower. Sort of a stereotypical role, but that's not all she does: she also has an admirably haughty attitude. I particularly like the way she absently brushed Chameleon Boy out of her face in one scene this week. I wonder if they're going to try to develop a Timber Wolf/Phantom Girl relationship as was hinted at in the DnA Legion comics... the Drax episode last season also suggests it. And she showed off a new power stunt in the opening scenes, phasing a section of floor quite far from where she was to allow Timber Wolf to escape.

Other nice touches:
- Phantom Girl, Timber Wolf and Chameleon Boy working together naturally suggests the Espionage Squad. Too bad Shrinking Violet wasn't along, and of course Invisible Kid isn't part of the Legion at the moment.
- the scientific conference took place on the planet Heisenberg 7. I guess all the scientists who were there must have been unaware of how fast the planet was going.

Membership Notes:

We haven't seen Superman-X officially inducted into the Legion, but he was certainly acting like a Legionnaire in this episode. In particular, he was one of the members of the tribunal who judged Timber Wolf, and you can't tell me that Cosmic Boy, who after all is portrayed as quite the stickler for protocol in this episode, would allow a non-Legionnaire to participate in something so official and important. So I say he's a Legionnaire. (At least until I hear something else definitive.)

Legion of Super-Heroes #2-2 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Legion's recon of their smashed-up HQ leads to a fight with the Fatal Five and Legion of Super-Villains, who Imperiex released from Takron-Galtos. It's a costly battle for the Legion and the villains get away. In the wake of the battle, the Legion brings Superman back to the future from the 21st century, and there's an argument with Superman-X about whether the Legion should go right after Imperiex or rescue their trapped comrades on Takron-Galtos. Eventually they decide to save the other Legionnaires, and get the Fatal Five and LSV back into cells where they belong. In the meantime, though, Imperiex plunders the Legion's data banks (Computo, basically) and forms an alliance with the Dominion.

Review:

It seems that some of my qualms about how much screen time the female characters would get have been allayed; both Duo Damsel and Phantom Girl were quite prominent in this episode and Saturn Girl was certainly present. In fact, the whole roster was there. So that aspect of things looks okay so far.

Another good episode, anyway. It doesn't present a complete story, because after all we need to have Imperiex still at large to drive the rest of the season. But the introductory phase of the season has definitely come to an end. One thing that's definitely changed is the basic character point at the core of the stories: last year, it was Superman learning the ins and outs of being a superhero. This year, Superman is much more confident and comfortable in himself (secret handshake!), but Superman-X has to learn to be a person and teammate and not just a war machine.

I wonder if there's something about the process of writing for television that forces the writers more rigourously to build or portray scenes which should logically happen, in a way that comic books can get away with not doing. Comic books, for instance, never gave us anything like the Brainiac-Superman friendship that exists in this series, despite that many of its ingredients were always there to be used. This episode's example: Matter-Eater Lad chomping into the Emerald Eye like it's a big cocktail onion. Why did that never happen in the comic book? It's perfect!

One thing I did not like. This whole subplot with Lightning Lad going all Charles Bronson on Esper because she put Saturn Girl in the hospital? Trite. We have seen this a thousand times before. And it always ends the same way. "If you kill her, you'll be as bad as they are!" Except, in this case, Phantom Girl's exact words were, "She wouldn't want you to go down this path." What, are we lost in the woods here? Eesh. I could have done without that whole thing. We need a moratorium on this particular plot element.

Other points:
- does this older Superman know who Brainiac is yet? It's an important point!
- in the last fight on Takron-Galtos, why did none of the Legionnaires start letting their teammates out of the cells? It's obviously the best tactical thing to do, and none of 'em even tried it.
- when did Light Speed Vanguard start calling themselves the Legion of Super-Villains?
- Cham's rich dad! I was wondering if he'd show up.
- unlike most people, I'm no expert on the exact mechanics of time travel. But I wonder about Bouncing Boy's notion that Triplicate Girl's third body is recoverable once Imperiex's 31st-century tampering is fixed. I think it's gone forever, unless it was somehow secretly saved before being antimattered out.
- it took me a few seconds to realize that Superman was comparing Superman-X to Batman. He really has learned a thing or two between seasons.
- one nice touch was the rescue of Phantom Girl at the start of the episode. Being trapped under rubble with a girder phased through your arms? Doesn't sound comfortable at all.
- an even nicer touch was the scene where Luornu tries to recreate the feel of being three people by standing angled in front of a mirror. This show is wasted on eight-year-old boys.

Keep 'em coming!

Membership Notes:

Superman rejoins this episode. I was hoping that Superman-X would join, because he'd be the only Legionnaire who had never been a Legionnaire in the comics. But he very specifically didn't join the Legion. Oh well; maybe later.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2-1 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

Obviously, much time has passed since Season 1 (Lightning Lad and Brainiac 5, at least, look a lot older), and Superman still hasn't returned to the future. Tidbit that I think will pay off later: Brainy mentions 'the Dominator threat'.

Suddenly a time warp opens out, and some guy who looks kinda like Superman but not really steps out and recruits Lightning Lad, Timber Wolf, Chameleon Boy, Triplicate Girl and Brainiac 5 to come to the 41st century and help him fight a galactic conqueror named Imperiex. The 41st century is kind of a hole, and they definitely need the Legion's help. Superman-X and the Legionnaires fight off one squad of Imperiex's robots, and Brainy comes up with a plan for how to take out Imperiex when he and his army attacks the resistance base.

This works, kind of, but Imperiex recovers and steals Superman-X's time machine. He immediately takes off for the 31st century, stranding the Legionnaires. Then the Crisis-on-Infinite-Earths-like red antimatter bubbles start appearing, eating up this future that won't exist now that Imperiex is back changing the past. Our heroes make an emergency assault on Imperiex's cruiser, which is the only power source handy that can produce a time warp to bring the Legionnaires home and try to stop Imperiex back in the 31st. One of Triplicate Girl's bodies is killed during the raid, but the Legion does make it home, with Superman-X, only to find that Legion HQ has been thoroughly trashed.

To be continued!

Review:

Why another Superman? I just don't get why this is something that they want to do. I mean, I know that the real Superman is going to show up at some point, but I don't get what they want Superman-X around for. I don't get why this is something they want to explore. We've had the naive inexperienced Superman, now... a pragmatic warrior Superman? Perhaps it will become clearer later.

Imperiex has, of course, some history in DC Comics as a major space tyrant kind of villain. I've never read any of those comics, but my understanding was that the show creators wanted someone who was a sufficiently non-prominent character that they could do whatever they wanted with him. I wonder what he thinks he's going to do back in the 31st century without his armies to help him out? Guy didn't even bring a towel with him.

The quality of animation on this show has definitely not suffered. Everything looks great. Not just Superman-X's new energy and Crystal-Kid-like powers, but also the subtle things--check out Brainy's eyes as he's focusing them to analyze something far away in one scene.

When Superman-X and Brainy take Imperiex out, his robots all stop fighting and retreat. Why? Why would you build your robots that way? Doesn't make sense.

Interestingly, this is the second recent appearance of the 41st century in Legion lore, the first being Cosmic Boy's recruitment by the Knights Tempus in the main comic book. Yet I don't recall that ever coming up before. Curious.

But the main thing here is another chapter in the Superman/Brainy friendship. First, it's clear from the first scene just how important Superman is to Brainy; that's been hinted at before but never this strongly. Second, Superman-X hints at some dark things to come in Brainy's future. Third, both of these things are interfering with Brainy and Superman-X working together. I don't have any thoughts yet on how this is playing out, but it continues to be one of the key knots of idea at the heart of this series.

It all adds up to quite an intriguing and energetic season premiere. It's all very well done, but I'm unsure about the overall direction. Some of these new developments seem a little too extreme and proactive and totally in my face. We'll see.

Nice touches:
- K3NT
- Timber Wolf, voice of reason
- "Can I suggest something that involves less scowling?"
- the cool Cylon voice on Imperiex's troops when they say, "Long live Imperiex"
- the new visual effect for Luornu's power; similar to how they were rendering Phantom Girl's power toward the end of last season

Membership Notes:

Chameleon Boy's a member now, for one thing. Superman-X joins the cast but hasn't become a Legionnaire (yet). I presume Triplicate Girl is going to become Duo Damsel?

Promo images, the opening sequence, and the cast of this episode suggest that Bouncing Boy, Phantom Girl and especially Saturn Girl are going to play a reduced role this season. This sort of goes along with that thing I read, I assume on the Legion Omnicom, about how a focus group of eight-year-old boys advised the show's creators that there were too many female characters. To which I say, shove it, eight-year-old boys; Saturn Girl's awesome.

Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes #1-13 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Legion regroups for one last shot against the Sun-Eater. They bust the Fatal Five out of jail to help build the machine (I think they called it a Plot Device) they need to blow the Sun-Eater up. While the Legionnaires and Fatal Five are working like crazy, Bouncing Boy and Brainy send Superman to find the Controller who's directing the Sun-Eater. The Legion gets the Device built and start to deploy it, and that goes as planned; the Fatal Five try to doublecross the Legion partway through the process but the Legionnaires are ready for them and teleport them back to Takron-Galtos. But when they go to detonate the Device, it malfunctions and doesn't go off. Ferro Lad, to atone for his missed shot in the previous episode, goes in himself and detonates it by hand, sacrificing his life. Meanwhile, Superman beats the Controller and smashes up all his stuff, but allows him to teleport away. Superman presides over the memorial to Ferro Lad, and then says goodbye and returns to the present-day.

Review:

Very strong episode, good wrap-up to the season. But…

...I hope they don't bring Ferro Lad back. I mean, I know that death is a pretty heavy thing to put in a kids show like this, but it always seems like such a copout to me when characters come back to life.

There’s not much character stuff in this episode, but we do get another entry in the continuing saga of Brainy’s Engineered Friendship With Superman. Brainy provides Superman with a time-travel escape hatch to the present-day, just in case the Sun-Eater chows down on Sol. On the one hand, that’s a considerate thing for one friend to do for another; on the other hand, Brainy’s being a responsible chronal scientist: no telling what might happen to history if Superman doesn’t make it back from the 31st century.

Ferro Lad is kind of a cipher. I mean, he’s a character who had always been created to die, so they never spent much time developing his personality. But still. In this episode, we hardly even see him before he decides to run the ball to the goal line himself. And he’s the key character of the episode!

Except he’s not, really; the key character of every episode is really Superman. Superman is our protagonist, for several reasons: he’s one of our contemporaries, he’s the best-known character, and he’s the inspiration for the Legion in the first place.

I wasn’t really crazy about the scene where the Controller is beating Superman up, until they see Ferro Lad give his life to stop the Sun-Eater on the video screen, and the Controller taunts Superman about it, which gives Superman the strength to beat the Controller, because Now It’s Personal. But there’s another way to look at it.

The story of this first season of Legion of Super Heroes (which I’ve been calling Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes, under the impression that that’s what the name was going to be) has been Clark Kent learning how to be a superhero. He’s already qualified for the job by his powers, of course, and by his innate strength of character. The only things he lacked were experience and perspective, and in this episode, Ferro Lad gave him his final lesson. Now that he really understands what’s at stake for superheroes, what may be demanded of him, and what it means for that price to be paid, he can, for the first time, be Superman, and now that he’s Superman, the Controller has no chance at all.

(Typically, Superman lets him get away at the end. Why? I mean, okay, I know Brainy said he couldn’t arrest him, but there must be some options other than sending him home to brood and plot.

Why’s he called a Controller, anyway? With this pro-chaos philosophy of his, you’d think he would have renounced the title and started calling himself an Uncontroller, or something.)

Notes: we see Alexis for a second when the Legion walks past her cell on Takron-Galtos.

- Nice little touch, when the Legion busts the Fatal Five out of their cells and the Emerald Empress is reunited with the Eye, and she cuddles it for a second. Awwwww.

- The onscreen countdown until the Device detonated was shown in Interlac. Attention to detail!

Membership Notes:

Ferro Lad dies this episode, although there is a suggestion that he may get better. Superman goes back to the present-day, but retains his flight ring and membership. And Jo Nah is there wearing an Ultra Boy costume, but doesn't join. We see Shrinking Violet (and this show seems to agree with the Waid-and-Kitson Legion that the best way to introduce Shrinking Violet is by putting a couple of long ears on her and pulling her out of a hat at a key moment) and Dream Girl in the flesh, but Dreamy doesn't actually do anything.

Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes #1-12 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

First, there's a training simulation in which new leader Bouncing Boy tries to coordinate a battle with the Fatal Five. It doesn't go well, and Bouncing Boy has doubts about his ability to lead the Legion.

Then the mission starts: a priority distress call from a moon of Cheyenne Delta (or that's what it sounds like, anyway). That's where there's a weapons cache left over from the Great Crisis, and one of the weapons has just woken up and is roaming the facility, trying to break out. The star Cheyenne Prime is a red sun, so Brainiac 5 provides Superman with a battlesuit that mostly shields him from its effects. The Legion searches the facility and findsthe weapon; at this point it's just a floating metal sphere with a few screens and ports on it. But it blasts its way past the Legion, shrugs off all their attacks, and makes it into space. Brainy recognizes it as a Sun-Eater.

The Legion chases it down and attacks again; now it's a big cloud of fiery gas with the metal sphere at its core. The Legion's efforts fall short again, partly because the Legion cruiser breaks down at a key moment. The Sun-Eater heads for Cheyenne Prime, and the Legion regroups to fix the spaceship. While Superman is working on the repairs, he's attacked by an invisible robot; presumably, the robot was doing some sabotage. Brainy decides that the robot was sent by a Controller, one of the enigmatic race who built the Sun-Eater in the first place.

The Legionnaires head off the Sun-Eater before it reaches Cheyenne Prime, and unleash their final attack; this one's much better conceived and coordinated. It almost works, except that Ferro Lad misses his target when he takes the key shot. The Sun-Eater eats Cheyenne Prime, sweeps away the Legion, and heads for Earth. To be continued.

Review:

Best episode yet, and that's saying something (especially considering it didn't have an ending). The cast of the series seems to have been expanded in the last few episodes, and the tone has become more serious; both of those things contribute to the impression that this is an important episode.

A few notes first: they've changed the animation effects a little bit; Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl now have some kind of black field effect that accompanies their powers. And at one point during the final fight scene, the animation skipped a bit. Don't know if that was because of the animation or the broadcast.

The only characterization in this episode was Bouncing Boy's struggle with leadership. He lacks self-confidence. He gets more used to it as the episode goes along, though, and the Legion's strategy gets accordingly more sophisticated. Their final plan to stop the Sun-Eater was actually pretty smart, and not only that, it used many of the Legionnaires' powers appropriately. I'm almost convinced that you can't fight a Sun-Eater effectively without Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Sun Boy or Phantom Girl.

Here's an example of how this show gets its storytelling done. Now, most of the scenes are action scenes: the simulated battle against the Fatal Five, the facedown with the guard robots, the weapons cache search, chasing the Sun-Eater, Superman's scuffle with the saboteur robot and the last stand around Cheyenne Prime. But there's still a story connecting them all, and the least important scene for the plot is actually doing the most work of all of them: the Fatal Five wargame. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who isn't familiar with Legion history, but that scene does a lot of important things: it portrays Bouncing Boy's insecurity, it gives us some exposure to the Legion cruiser's weapons and vulnerabilities (both of which come into play in this episode), introduces some key Legionnaires and their powers to new viewers, reminds us who the Fatal Five are and how powerful they are, and gets us used to the sight of Legionnaires dying. That's efficient.

This is a TV show that has taken to heart the advice of Austin the Mystery Lifeguard: "You've got to have all the rad moves if you want to surf Tiki Beach."

Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes #1-11 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

Winath is experiencing severe weather that blows out their planetary weather control/energy generation system, so the Legion sends a team to help (Superman, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Bouncing Boy, Triplicate Girl, Colossal Boy). Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl stay up in the Legion cruiser while the rest of them go down to help out on the surface, where they meet Cosmic Boy and Ferro Lad. The Legion tries to keep the lid on the situation, but the team keeps working at cross purposes, and only when they can effectively use teamwork can they defeat the emergency. Once that's over, they hold an impromptu election, and Bouncing Boy (who came up with the key plan) wins, becoming the new team leader. The last image of the episode is of a mysterious spaceship, piloted by a menacing, helmeted figure, appearing out of a space gate.

Review:

Dashed good episode. There's no villain this time, and that's okay, because a villain would just get in the way of all the conflict. The episode title is 'Chain of Command', and appropriately so: while the Legionnaires are outwardly trying to cope with Winath's Perfect Storm, inwardly they're trying to cope with a team dynamic that's breaking down along a couple of different lines. On the one hand, Cosmic Boy shows up and expects to continue leading the team like he did before, without taking into account the changed nature of the team, and that people like Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl have been running the Legion just fine in his absence. On the other hand, Lightning Lad is fighting for his home planet, and that's not helping him see the big picture.

The episode is full of Legionnaires not doing what they're told. Superboy won't stay on the cruiser and rest up, Bouncing Boy won't sit quietly and wait, Saturn Girl won't come in out of the rain, Colossal Boy gives some backchat when he's told to let water out of a dam... Some people are listening to Cosmic Boy and some to Lightning Lad and some are just doing their own thing. Only when Bouncing Boy comes up with a plan and gets everyone to listen and obey does the Legion get control of things, and that's why he gets elected leader in the end. Teamwork has always been a theme not only of the Legion but of Saturday morning cartoons in general and it's not surprising to see it show up as an episode theme.

When Cosmic Boy and Colossal Boy greet each other, it's with, "Hey, CB1!" "Hey, CB2!". Lame. But not out of place.

It's unusual that this episode would end with a teaser for the next episode. (At least I presume that's what it is.) Up until now they've been keeping the episodes self-contained. Looks like a big finish ahead.

I wish they'd give Triplicate Girl more to do than get coffee for Bouncing Boy. We saw in the pilot how cool her powers could be in a fight, but she hasn't had an opportunity to strut her stuff since then.

I was watching a few episodes of the old '70s cartoon Challenge of the Super Friends this week. First time I've seen it in almost thirty years. And it's dated in many ways. The animation is nothing like we have now, the storytelling is clunkier and has more holes in it, and the characterization is strictly from hunger. But one thing Challenge did do was pack a lot into every episode. I compared it in my mind to this show, and asked myself, "What is Legion doing instead of doing all the storytelling that Challenge had?" It's not the size of the team that's taking up all of Legion's time; Challenge had thirteen heroes and thirteen villains and used all of them. Then I figured it out: action. Legion has long, extended action sequences, and Challenge didn't, for what I figure is two reasons. First, they weren't allowed to have any fighting on the show (Seriously. I watched four episodes and not a single punch was thrown. I wouldn't have thought that was possible, for a conflict between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom), for various societal reasons surrounding kids shows in the '70s. Second, the animation probably just wasn't up to the job.

And I think that's a fair trade. Legion plots are very streamlined, but they're more than rudimentary, and there's still enough room to get some decent character work done. And I enjoy the action sequences. What's the point of characters with superpowers if they don't get to cut loose with them once in a while?

Now I'm looking forward to the last two episodes.

Membership Notes:

We get our first look at Cosmic Boy this episode, and Ferro Lad joins the team. I think that's nineteen Legionnaires we've seen so far:

Brainiac 5
Bouncing Boy
Saturn Girl
Lightning Lad
Phantom Girl
Triplicate Girl
Superman
Timber Wolf
Cosmic Boy
Colossal Boy
Blok
Dream Girl
Shrinking Violet
Element Lad
Sun Boy
Tyroc
Star Boy
Matter-Eater Lad
Ferro Lad

(plus all the other characters, like Jo Nah and the Subs, who have been Legionnaires in the comics but aren't on the team in the show).

But we don't see Ayla, except in a Ranzz family photograph. Why not? Where is she? There's a story in there somewhere, but we'll probably have to wait until Season 2 for it.

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...