Legion of Super Heroes

Being a long time Legion fan I was truly "worried" about how this would pan out. Well after viewing the first season I can say that ALL my fears were baseless. The producers have taken great care to portrait the Legion properly. I was worried about the team mix as well (Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Braniac 5, Timber Wolf, Phantom Girl and Bouncing Boy ) but it worked and it was mixed enough with other Legion standards that there only seemed to be a static team in press releases only. The producers have done an amazing job at mixing and blending different era's of Legion lore into an extremely cohesive bond and there is enough small touches that long time legion fans can truly appreciate (such as the use of Interlac on display screens). My only real gripe is with Braniac 5 and his robot-like body....It's more suited towards Gears of the DnA era of the Legions history. But in the series it works. And with the season finale of Sundown and seeing all the members of the Legion I can't wait until next season.

I am a big fan of the Legion of Superheroes TV series and I watched ever episode that they aired on Saturday morning. I like the first 2 seasons and I was expecting more of the conclusion of season 2, since it ended completely with a cliffhanger. I was really disappointed with that. There was suppose to be a season 3 where it would deal with newer characters such as Ferro lad's twin brother would appear, An older Superman, new legionaries such as Blok, Dawnstar, Wildfire, Shadowlass etc, would have active roles in the third season of the show. It would also deal the new reformed Braniac 5.1 who is now organic and how he would be convinced to rejoin the legion again. Another thing was also the appearance of the new evil braniac where he said "evil does not die, it evolves" was also suppose to battle with the reformed braniac and the legion. I was actually expecting those stories to appear for the 3rd season, but it got canceled abruptly.

I don't know what times this show airs (I've watched episodes online), but man, it feels like the older Saturday-Morning Cartoons. Right from the flashy, Incredibles-ish theme music, to the often times corny Superhero dialogue.

And I love every second of it!

After Teen Titans went off, I'd hoped to find another really good superhero show. This is it! If you are expecting Teen Titans, though, this is not it. A different animation style, different feel, basically everything is different. But different is not a bad thing. Whereas Teen Titans had both its very dark story lines (at times) and its uber-comedic moments, Legion sticks to a straight-forward classic superhero feel. Save the world (or rather, the galaxy).

Throw into this whole scenario of nostalgia, a bunch of easter eggs/homages for fans of all things DC (especially Superman). Very rich girl named A-LEX-is, who has a special interest in Superman, and later gets her whole head of hair burnt off (not permanently, mind). Hmm...wonder who that could be. On an episode where a being called Drax gets out of the Phantom Zone, he pulls out some unexplained weakness of Clark's (a green rock of some kind) and answers to some supreme being that appears to want out of the Phantom Zone. Could it be...nah....

I had my doubts at the first episode, I will admit, although I stuck through. First episodes usually leave me in doubt. I don't think I've met a cartoon yet that I've loved since Episode I. But most cartoons that I've actually wanted to check out, I've been happy after the first episode. Legion is no exception. LONG LIVE THE LEGION!

(Oh, by the way, the first season finale was AWESOME, and season 2 looks like it could be just as much a winner.)

Although fans will still be able to get their fix for animation from the DC universe, this show has truly fallen short of expectations.

There's too many inconsistencies with original story lines... even from the recent episode from Justice League on this team just less than a year ago. One MAJOR one is that Braniac 5 is supposed to be the futuristic organic descendant of Brainiac, and instead he's cybernetic like his predecessor! Aside for the new style, the loss of Legion of Superheros consistencies and the ridiculous amount of reruns so soon in the season, at least we have something we have something from the DC universe we can watch.

Additionally, the story lines are silly and child-like focusing on reincarnations of old DC characters, like "Alexa" a female teenage version of Lex Luthor in the future.

Bah, bring back Unlimited!

I could never understand it, what went wrong? What did Batman: TAS and Justice League/unlimited both have in common? A respective display of teamwork, good dialogue and visual display of characters that made the show look it was aiming to reach more than just children. Both of the two shows excelled in art and a respectable script. The legion of super heroes is a blatant attempt to cash in on the teen Titans. And I only liked that show because at the start of the season its episodes were telling but it went downhill, all too willing to settle for melodramatic one shot story episodes in later seasons. It was still good though, Slade helped add the serious tone and each character actually had character development.

The legion of superheroes falls flat for two key reasons: The first is that the legion was poorly depicted in JLU anyway and that many like me expected supergirl to appear in the legion series as to continue from the JLU.

The second, that with other then the name of bouncing boy being really lame, it's not really about the legion but a shameless hero worship and let's all relay on superman/teen or whatever. There is no real foe or a villain worthy enough to be superman's rival, given superman: TAS and JLU gave us darkseid, one can only imagine who could fill the next big villain boots. Answer? No one.

The animation is awful, whatever happened to shows that made decent attempts in detailed drawings? Surely the legion has more talented heroes then the names already given, a lot of the characters are very generic, no defining element? Thin bodied and all big heads? That's the art style as a whole with powers and such that you would have already seen it all before and kids would have as well. Again it doesn't help when it's all about superman, if DC wants to expand with their media then they have to do more, not just focus on lesser characters but give those the characters the decent animation drawings, plot and script they need.