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popculturebuffet · 6 months ago

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Supermay! Finale: Legion of Super Heroes Episodes 1-4 (Man of Tomorow, Timber Wolf, Legacy, Phantoms) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy legionarres and welcome to the grand finale of supermay, my monthlong tribute to the man of steel. Before we begin this final entry i'd like to thank all of you for reading this one: some reviews have done well, some not so much but your all appricated and i'd like to thank Kev, Emma, and Brotoman for their support. This event was enough of a success you can expect it back next year and please feel free to comment with things you'd like to see. Even a major cold wasn't enough to end this event on a down note.

In fact we're ending with , thanks to the schedule shakeups, one of my favorite pieces of superman lore and one I hope to revisit if this review does well, the Legion of Super Heroes!

For those less familiar a quick refresher: the Legion of Super Heroes were initially created as supporting characters for Superboy, at the time the man of steel when he was the boy of steel having adventures as a teen, and proved so successful they'd soon take over Superboy's stomping grounds of adventure comics once the boy of steel got his own book.

The Legion are a group of teenagers from a thousand years from now, idealistic teens inspired by the heroes of our present, paticuarlly superboy and later superman, all coming together from across dozens of planets. They were possibly the first teen superhero team and certainly the most succesful of their time. They've been rebooted four times, technically five, been through the wringer a lot and currently are twisting in the wind a bit, but the legion endures and I have faith they'll come back to promience eventually. They may not be one of DC's most prominent teams due to their unique setup, but their easily one of my faviorites and i'm happy I got to celebrate them this super may.

As for how it was easy: I choose the 2006 cartoon, one of the best versions of them and one of DC's best cartoons from my memory binging it over a decade ago, and i'm proud to say it held up beautifully.

The cartoon came about because, much like Superman the Animated series a decade prior.. Warner Bros wanted a tie in for it's latest superman movie.. which this time for better or worse, actually got finished: Superman Returns. Something good had to come out of that I suppose. So they wanted a series with a younger superman and luckily for us producer James Tucker was able to succesfully pitch a legion of superheroes series, which fit the criteria they wanted: focus on a younger superman fresh out of smallville, and that fit perfectly with the legion recruting a younger clark, updating that concept for a modern age as it hadn't been part of superman lore in a while and was just on it's way to being restored to continuity.

Intrestingly the cartoon was originally meant for Cartoon Network, where most other DC shows had gone at this point, but they passed for whatever reason.

But thankfully kids WB picked it up for two great seasons before it's sad collapse, and the result was one of my faviorite superhero teams got a cult classic tv show. Also just to be clear, as it's a rumor so prevelant James Tucker clearing it up shows up on the wikipedia page, while it's oft rumored the show was retooled from a DCAU version seemingly set up by a legion centric episode in Justice League Unlimited.. that was never the plan. The Kara episode was it's own thing, the timing was concidental, let's move on.

LOSH blends pieces from the first two legion of superhero continuites. The legion has FIVE diffrent continuties: the original which went away then was brought back, a soft reboot that was later deemed non canon, a full on reboot in the 90's that's wonderful and sadly stopped being collected by dc, a second reboot in the 2000's that was a bit more radical and finally a reboot a few years ago by Brian Michael Bendis

This one uses the idea of superman being recruited as a teen and being the inspiration for the group that was foundational to the original continuity, as well as the delightfully cheesy silver age names I adore, while using characterizations more in line with the more fleshed out 90's cast , as well as the more fleshed out versions of their home worlds. The result is a cartoon with silver age wonder, a well built world, and some really awesome redesigns I wish the comics would pick up, giving us a stylish well done cartoon that sadly was gone way too soon. You can see what I mean under the cut as we look at the first four episodes and see how Clark Kent Became superman.. again.

Man of Tommorow:

Man of Tommorow opens mid action, with the Legion getting their asses kicked and one of them, Lightning Lad wondering "Wher'es superman when you need him"

We cut to hours before this, centuries before this in smallville, with a young Clark played by Ben 10 and Spider-Man himself Yuri Lowenthal, who does a fantastic job. Clark is at this point a shy nerd whose unsure of his place in the world and is getting ready to start his job at the daily planet as a copy boy. Sadly in this timeline he does not have a whimsical college roomate or feisty love intrest to help push him out of his comfort zone.

He does however have the local fair which he's going to... and which Ma reminds him to be careful at as "your not like other people"

I'll admit this characterization isn't nearly AS bad as say Man of Steel. Mostly because how could you possibly worse than "You should've let them die clark instead of possibly exposing yourself and i'll throw myself into a tornado to prove it", but I hate versions of the kents that make clark feel.. bad for being different. It's one thing to caution him to not overuse them, it's another to make him feel terrible for having them or constantly remind him "your not normal". He knows ma. He knows. The Kents work best to me when their totally loving and accepting, that they worry for their boy sure.. but they love him just the way he is.

After a bit of Clark almost hitting a thing only not to hit a thing at the county fair, we get introduced to our first Legionarres, a small party sent to go recruit clark: our initial trio are Braniac 5, played by former child star Adam Wylie who really shoudl do more voice work as he's terrific here, Saturn Girl, played by voice acting legend Kari Whalgreen and Bouncing Boy, played by voice actor and ocasinal actor Micheal Cornacchia who does great work here and I wish did more voice work.

This is a slight rework of how, traditionally, Clark's recurited to the legion in the comics, but it's one that works. In the original the three founders of the legion went: Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic boy, something Superman the Animated Series would do something similar to later as would Smallville. I ahven't seen smallville but you'd best belivie I know when the legion shows up in something.

Here it's reworked to better fit the cast: Cosmic Boy isn't a main character and is thus off on a mission and while Lightning Lad is, he's a bit of a bullying prick, so sending him on a recruitment mission, one he outright scoffs at later, would've been a terrible move. Instead they shift to a party that makes more sense: Brainy came up with the idea in this continuity, we'll get to the why later, and like in the original comics is the team's time travel expert and being one of the main cast and one of the most prominently used legionarres, it only makes sense to have him be one of the first to show up.

Bouncing Boy isn't as prominent, but still makes sense: He's friendly, personable, and like Brainy a tech expert, something we'll get more into in episode 2. It makes since to bring him on a recruitment mission, and on a mission where if something happens to Brainy they need someone to fix their little robot child.

Speaking of which Braniac 5 is changed a bit here, and I feel it works: instead of an alien like the original, he's robotic, ala the dcau braniac, with Colluians as a whole followint suit. This not only makes his issues with emotions a bit more literal, but also allows him to be a bit more dynamic in combat. In the original comics, he's not useless, having a powerful forcefield, but his brain is really his superpower. Here he has telescopic limbs to go with his genius, being essentially a robotic boy child reed richards.

The three head to the fair to find clark and soon find him trying to stop a faris wheel. While Clark is put off by three strangers who suddenly know his deepest secret, they prove invaulable in stopping it and we soon get a showcase of all their powers: Brainy we've covered, so let's move on to my boy, Bouncing Boy. Bouncing boy has a truly rediculous and truly wonderful power.. he turns into a giant bouncing ball. This power was seen as a tad goofy in the 90's and thus he was reduced to a non powered supporting character. The series splits the diffrence: he's still a pilot like he was in the reboot and an ace mechanic.. but he also still has his bouncing ball powers and is a reminder that said powers, as wonderfully goofy and unique as they are.. are also dangerous and useful. Here he uses them to prop up the hweel by inflating, but it's easy to forget that a gaint bouncing ball that's pretty invunerable is actually pretty damn threatning in the right circumstances. No one will call him the legion's power house, but put some respect on the name: bouncing boy can be dangerous and shows jojo levels of turning a seemingly inccous power into a threat.

Finally we have Saturn Girl, whose people are telepathic, and is thus a super taleneted telepath. The series finds clever uses for this but here she's mostly useful for tracking Clark and for crowd control. The heroes save the day but clark runs off in fear. Irma tells them not to follow as she gets Clark KNOWS he has a responsiblity and will listen to their offer more later. I love the show's version of Saturn Girl/Irma, as she's a telepath.. but rather than be closed off because of it uses it to be empathetic and kind, being the heart of the team while still being stoic on the surface.

The trio stalk clark to his house, and make their pitch: The future needs him, clark is better than he knows, and they can use him. Why they choose him at this point in his life is vauge, but I assume Brainy knew they both had a better chance of recruting him and they could HELP him become the superman he's destined to be. Stable time loop and all that.

Clark reluctantly agrees, aassured he'll be back in time for chicken and dumplings. With that our heroes go to the future where the rest of the legion are waiting.. or our main cast anyway. A nice touch I like from the series is much like the comics, they already have a pretty sizeable roster: Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy are all mentioned later and we see Element Lad, Blok and Tyroc in the next episode along with them. The legion in the comics usually has around 25 people max. The reason for this size orignally was simply silver age writers kept introducing more legionarres so the team kept growing and given the characters were interchangable personality wise, there was no real need to whittle it down.

They later found a clever workaround that later comics picked up on: since the team's in the future, the bulk hailing from various indvidual worlds which gave them their powers (though a few did get theirs by accident as per superhero standard), and were later confirmed to be duly deputized by the united planets, the future's highest governing body, it made sense the legion was spread out galactically. As such characters could be said to be "on mission" somewhere else in the galaxy, and thus whittle the team down to whoever was needed for a story. If the whole of the legion was involved, it was for bigger stories that were dire as hell. Stories often used squads of whoever the writer wanted to use at that moment for missions which makes sense.

The series uses this well: the team has other members, showing off it's scope and how many worlds bought into the concept, but focuses on a core cast on earth at Legion HQ: Superman, Braniac 5, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, Bouncing Boy and one more we'll meet next episode. They still go across the galaxy, the adventures are still cosmic in scope, but it helps narrow focus so we can flesh out who we have.

So speaking of which our other three members. First up is Lightning Lad, a founding member as mentioned, and in this continity an egotistical hot headed asshole. He's good at what he does, being great with his powers and easily the second strongest member of the core cast, but has a MASSIVE chip on his shoulder. This is a slightly exagerated version of his reboot version, who was also a bit of a hot head but not quite the ass. It still works as he makes a good contrast to the more humble and kind clark, whose friendly to the guy despite waving his dick around constantly. Garth is voiced by Andy Milder, a voice actor and recurring actor who also voiced Jay Garrick Flash in Batman Brave and the Bold. Good for him. Like the rest of the cast he's fantastic.

Next is Phantom Girl. Phantom Girl here is the sassy one of the group, quick with a sarcastic remark, but also understanding, quickly bonding with clark in episodes after this. She may joke but it's clear she cares for the team even if she busts chops constantly and we love her for it. Easily one of the highlights of the show. She's from the planet Btzl, a phantom planet parallel with earth. As such she can phase in and out of our plane and into hers, allowing her to phase through objects, people and disappear and reappear. She's played by Heather Hogan. Hogan mostly does video game work, and I haven't seen her in much personally though she was great as Clorica in Rune Factory 4.

Finally we have Triplicate Girl, one of my faviorite legionarres as the comics have found intresting thigns to do with the idea of a person who can split in three in the reboots: the 90's one had her have a distinct personality for each, and be considered abnormal because of it, with RJ BRande, the legion's backer formally adopting her as a result, and the 2000's one had her able to clone indefintely but down to the trio as three of them left the planet.. and found the others didn't accept them when they went back. Here.. she's just .. there in a go go outfit. The design, like all of these is clever, with her having tri colored hair and when split each duplicate takes on a diffrent shade (or two shades when just doing two0, and having martial arts based on their cloning technique.. but otherwise they don't... do much with her this season. Next season gets a pass as the execs told them to focus more on stuff boys would like and less on the girl characters

But here she's just... in the background. They didn't really know what to do with her. Outside of Chain of Command she dosen't get to do much plot wise and it's a shame.

The three welcome their new teammate.. and Lightning Lad and Phantom Girl are less than impressed though to her credit Phantom Girl's just a tad confused. Lightning Lad's a full on asshole doubting brainy got it right and generally being a dick.

Naturally being a dick he puts clark to the test with a bit of testing machinery to test clark's strength. Clark eventually fails and runs off upset and Saturn Girl berates Garth for being at a 10 on the douchemeter when they need a 2 and poitns out clark was lifting 500 tons.

So Saturn Girl goes to fetch Clark who while running away as fast as he can found the Superman Museum. The Museum is taken straight form the comics but adds the nice touch of using some silver age style panels to represent supes. Clark's finally found out WHY they choose him at all and what h'es destined to be, with Irma encouraging him he can become this and has it in him. She also explains when prompted why they need him so bad, something Phantom Girl covered earlier when Lightning Lad insisted they didn't need help: The Fatal Five.

The Fatal Five are on of the legions greatest threats, a group of the five deadliest criminals in the galaxy. In the comics they were brought together for a desperate mission and decided they were deadlier as a unit. Here

They are Mano, a skelington in a bubble helemet whose touch equals death, Tharok, a genius cyborg, Validus, a hulking monstrosity, Emerald Empress, a sorceress weidling the powerful emerald eye of ekron, an artifact similar to what the green lanterns use but powerful, evil and able to brainwash people and Persauder.. .he's an axe man, oh my god he's an axe man. The five are just sort of a vaugely ominous force here, still VISUALLY intresting but mostly there to provide a threat big enough to warrant clark. I haven't rewatched their other apperances to see if they get fleshed out better and in the comics I haven't read a ton of their apperances period.

So Clark heads back though Lightining Lad is reluctant to use him. Not out of jackassery for a change, but because he's genuinely concerned: Clark HAS seen action but "not like this".. and he's not wrong. Earlier it was clear clark did anonomus rescues before becoming superman, a trait i've always liked when he's not outright superboy: it fits the character and is something he should be doing. But this.. is outright combat.

Seconds into the fight Clark bounces out, seemingly abandoing the team to get smacked around. While they beat the fatal five the last time... that was with the full roster and BARELY. This time they TRIED to get reinforcements but Shrinking Violet was undercover, they seemingly coudln't reach the others, and Cosmic Boy could be there, but was far away enough he woudln't make it.

The legion seems beat.. Luckily clark was instead warming up. Granted he might of thought of doing this BEFORE but it's a fair fear response: it's one thing to say you can fight supervillians, it's another to see them. So he heads off going up up and... very slowly and awkwardly before getting his barrings, a joke I love.

He can fly though and confronts the fatal five and his sheer power gives them a chance with Saturn Girl, one of the only two still not brain zapped by emerald empress (The other being lightning lad who, douche canoe he may be DID prove himself by being the final one to go down), and encourages them to fight.

And fight they do as the ensuing fight is a gorgeous shocwase of what everyone can do, from Phantom girl nabbing persuader's axe to allow Triplicate girl to kick him in the face, to Lightning Lad teaching clark about his freezing breath, to Saturn Girl hyjacking Validus. It's an awesome fight, and ends with the five defeated. In paticualr superboy held off empress. They escape, of course, but they still won the fight and made it so they won't try that shit again. Brainy offers to take clark back but he decides to stick around... he realizes the legion can help him grow as a person and as a hero, and well. they CAN return him right where he left, so he's not exactly in a hurry. Clark adds the legion crest to his belt and gets his flight ring.

The Flight Rings are one of my faviorite legion things and weirdly I don't have a replica yet, simple golden rings that allow the user to well.. fly, and serve as proof of legion status. It means anyone in the legion can fly though some like superman CAN fly on their own. Also he's man instead of boy here, rights issues.

The Man From Tommorow is a decent episode... but is hampered by it's run time. It really needed more than the standard 20 some minutes as it had a LOT of ground to cover, and as such feels rushed: Clark grows comfortable with himself fast, the team goes down and recovers fast, and the episode could've badly used a second part to help slow it down, flesh out the rest of the legion and the story. It's still a decent opener, getting across the legion as a concept, clark's characterization for the series as an unsure rookie, and most of th elegions personaliteis to a degree, but it needed more time in the oven to truly be a great story. Thankfully the series only picks up from here and with this one doing most of the table setting, the rest of the season just leaps into the concept full speed case in point...

Timber Wolf:

The first episode was decent but the second. .is the show I remembered, with well done characters, intresting stories and balls to the walls action way ahead of it's time for this kind of show. The last part was present in the first ep but this one really let's us get to know the cast.. and adds one last member to our main roster.

The legion is on a space mission, standard stuff, with some fun banter as Superman dosen't clear it up right away because Lightning Lad wanted to "teach him something" , showing this clark has a sense of humor and a small but fun michevious streak. The team for this mission is Supes, LL, Brainy, Bouncing Boy, and Saturn Girl.

We also get to know Bouncing Boy better and get a fun b-plot with him and brainy as the two bicker: Brainy wants Bouncing Boy to use the compensators he installed and BB would prefer to fly himself. It's a nice clash of styles: Brainy is stuck to logic and routine and BB prefers human intution. Classic sci fi stuff that works great here and dosen't feel too stale as it feels rooted in character.

The Legion gets a distress call from a disant planet: Dr. Londo needs their help as a creature has gotten loose and our heroes naturally toucfh down on a spooky planet to deal with it. The doctor explains he does biological research and the creature got loose and killed his son and he needs it recaptured.

This episode is nicely horror coded, with a nice atmosphere that helps boost the story.

As you could probably guess from a mile off... the Doctor isn't being completely honest. The fact he told B and B to stick to the hangar is a clue and Bouncy learns the hard way when he eventually storms off after getting tired of Brainy micromanaging him and not trusting his ability to improvise. I also can't help but love the possibly unintetional autisim coding brainy gets, ala spock: Brainy is obnoxious in his need to order.. but genuinely dosen't get WHY he pissed his friend off when he's, in his mind right. On the spectrum myself i've been in that position before, if not to this degree and it's honestly more accurate than some attempts to tackle autisim outright i've seen.

Bouncing Boy gets mobbed by robots just for going off course, an entirely responable and not stupid security thing. Brainy rescues him as, while Bouncing Boy isn't helpless he is outnumbered, the two make up and decide to go snooping as something is clearly very wrong. Villian Pro Tip: NEVER overdo your security when your trying to keep heroic guests away from your creepy shit. Villian Pro Tip 2: Maybe don't call down super heroes to grab your son and expect it to end well for you.

And yup, while it's not the biggest twisty twist, that's what the creature is. We find out after said creature skirts saturn girl away.. but turns out, in classic monster movie fashion, he's sapient and allows Irma to pick his brain. Naturally lightning lad fucks it up, attacking him and accidnetly knocking her out leading to LL and Superboy caputting him. Thankfully by this point the brainy subplot has reached the snooping stage, and I love the gag of Bouncing Boy just.. shouting for them to join the party.

Irma has them free the monster, explaning they were idiots and with his consent getting the full story.. and helping Brynn Londo, the doctor's not dead at all son, assume a more humanoid form and maintain it and his ablility to speak.

The bad doctor shows up wanting his property back, the legion say fuck no to that and they stop him, with Brynn chasing his dad. They win the day, helped by the fact the various monsters unleshed on our heroes.. are not very fond of the bad doctor.

The Doctor brags, pointing out this isn't United Planets Space, so our heroes can't touch him. Also hammer can't sue. But his son gets the last laugh, not only pointing out what a monster his dad is but then destroying his equipment so he can't do this shit to someone else. While his dad TRIES to bait him with "how long wil you keep this form up"... it backfires as Irma vows to help and the Legion welcomes a new member. He gets a spiffy outfit I absolutely love and in a very nice touch recites the legion oath, with cameos from the other legionarres. I like getting to see my boy blok.

We stand Blok in this mojo dojo casa house.

Timber Wolf is a sharp improvement to what wasn't a bad episode, but badly needed mor echaracter. The rest of the legion gets fleshed out, the atmosphere is great and the twist, while obvious is still unsettling and provides a nice setup for Timber Wolf to join the team.

Legacy

Legacy features an intresting spin on an old foe of Supermans: Lex Luthor. It asks the bold question: What if Lex and Clark were into one another. A riddle for the ages. This being the 2000's it uses lex's female descendant but the question still stands and the episode still slaps.

While out flying around Clark rescues Alexis, a red headed thrill seeker. When he gets back to the gang their all happy he met someone. Even Brainy, which good for him not being jealous.. yet. More on that in a moment. They all soon find out he rescued Alexis, the richest girl to ever rich girl and the biggest celebrity in new metropolis apparently. Phantom Girl says she outs mopey rich girls her, which is saying something. Lightning Lad says he could never, Brainy says Superman cat get it, and Clark is convicned he won't see her again.. only to be proven wrong when she asks him out that night.

Brainy is a bit nettled though as that was their patrol night and thus

Yeah we really can't talk the legion of superheroes cartoon, this episode or brainy without addressing the elephant in the room: Brainy has a MASSIVE crush on superman. He's possibly not aware of it, emotional awareness and social awareness are not things the boy is good at and I can relate, but it's there. The producer admitted as much during an anniversary panel, citing that "some things" had to be gotten past the censors while Brainy's voice actor Adam Wylie at least flat out thinks Brainy was in love with him. Even back then when I was bad at picking up on gay subtext in cartoons, I could tell.

It's also ahead of it's time to have this so blatant.. .it's not super emphasized because network jackassery, but the fact one of the main characters is attracted to men and i'ts not hidden at all is amazing to me.

Brainy is sore because he and clark were supposed to patrol, and while part of it is again, he wants to stare at his crush for several hours, being brainy he also set out a logical pattern of patrols as the Scavengers are out there. The legion asks what we're thinking

Brainy DID send them a briefing.. but being Brainy made it 134 pages so no one , even Clark, read it. And when you can't get future journalist clark kent to read your whole ass document, you done messed up. I also like this detail with brainy: that he IS a strategic genius.. but he also over does it so much. It's better than 80 "in english poindexter" jokes". We get a few of those, it's only fair, but I like having a variety to how much Brainy overthinks things with his 12th level intellgence.

He explains: the scavengers are techno pirates, sadly not with matching costumes, and he wants to be on the lookout. However he can't resist a sad boy so he agrees to let Clark go on his super date, provided he keeps the coms on, and Clark promises to do two patrols in a row to make it up to him.

Unfortuantley Brainy once again messes up as he keeps calling every two minutes. Might want to take about ten percent off there Squirrely-ac five. His report.. is there's nothing to report so Clark eventually mutes him. The Legion Communicators PROBABLY shoudln't have a mute button, but they probably only due because of this.

Clark feels out of place with all the judgy rich people but Alexis arrives and really just wanted to put in an apperance and hang out with her boy. The two sneak into her lab at Luthor International. I like to think Maxwell Lord made a deal with Luthor's daughter and the companies merged.

AT any rate Alexis does relate to clark, as she's not sure what she wants to do with her life and like clark has a lot of pressure to be great NOW. While Clark's romancin and relatin, the rest of the legion gets slammed by the scanvengers. They do fine AT FIRST.. but eventually are overwhelmed and clark dosen't answer and OH NO BRAINY'S ARM GOT SHOT OFF

and... OH NO.... it's.. fine the next scene as he easily repairs it. The Legion's a bit miffed, ESPECIALLY Brainy.. but Clark genuinely apologizes and explains... and they all instantly forgive him aside from Brainy. Turns out even when Brainy dosen't have a crush on you he dosen't know how not to overmessage. Again can relate. But I like this nuance. That it wasn't "oh they can go without you one night" from alexis or clark making a mistake: Clark had a reson to turn his badge on silent and shoudln't have, but Brainy did abuse the coms and overthink it in a way he apparently does a LOT. Clark is genuinely sorry and cancels plans for tommorow.

Alexis is able to talk him into an hour of fun, but Clark is upset he's late and has to go. He misses patrol, brainy's upset, but Clark's gneuinely contrite.

Alexis.. then takes things a step too far as she fakes an attack to get Clark's attention. To his credit. while Clark DOES try to just let the sp handle it to not annoy brainy.. brainy tell shim to go save her. It's what superman would do. But Clark is rightfully pissed: the legion NEEDS him and while he would like to hang for days he simply can't and Alexis is too lonely and isolated and to a degree selfish to get that saving the world comes first. So she decides fine if he has to pick one.. she'll take away the other option. It's like super great grandpap always said from his perserved brain in the basement always said: if they love something else, kill it , kill everything else they love so they only have you.

So Alexis teams up with the scavengers, gives them an upgrade, and lures clark away so she can siege the legion's clubhouse. Unfortuantely for her, Brainy is not only as smart as her, but the legion aren't pushovers and while she does get them on the ropes , Clark arrives having figured out the ruse and a fight breaks out, cumilating in Alexis deciding "if I can't have you i'll just kill you" just like super great grandpap would, and ending up bald like him.

In Jail Alexis reassembles Woodhouse.. because of course her robot is named woodhouse, and plots revenge... then we never see her again because the execs decided the show needed more BOYSSSS SAND TO APPEAL TO BOYS AND APPEAL TO ALL THE BOYSSSSS. God I wish Warner Bros execs werne't grown in a lab somewhere.. and that they let David Zaslav finish baking.

Legacies is an excellent episode, tapping into clark's need for normalcy, giving us a truly standout villian, and having some great jokes. The last part isn't important to an action show like this but I do like it. Tara Strong gives a stand out performance as Alexis and it's a damn shame we didn't get to see her again. Speaking of Cool Villians we never saw again..

Phantoms:

Our final episode for the day and this one's a bit intresting as it's actually 6th in production order, the 4th is the 6th aired episode fear factory. I would've kept it there but this is another superman centric one and it IS superman month, so it made sense. if this review does well, I might do the next batch including fear factory in october.

Clark has been visting the superman museum a lot, trying to find some clues about who he'll be. It's.. not super healthy. Also at the Museum is someone I forgot to mention during the first museum scene in the pilot, Booster Gold. Yes in a nice Cameo Booster is there... probably going to steal that legion ring eventually. That's how he flies. We also get a cameo from either lobo's descdeant or the main man himself in the previous episode as Alexis steals his bike.

Clark finds something and figures if it's his museum he can touch things: the Phantom Zone projector.. and accidently unleashes a prisoner.

It's here we meet Drax, vocied amazingly by character actor Greg Ellis, and his two pets, Eeny and Meany. Drax trashes the place with the awesome line "I see the altar but where's the god" and escapes. Lightning Lad is naturally the one to berate clark , but the rest of the legion is kind enough not to rub it in. The bigger issue is another kryptonian is now loose and he's bad.

Drax is an intresting character, in part because of what we know about him: he was created by Zod, something heavily implied by the z on his suit and the fact Zod is a terrible father every damn time, so it's no suprise he genetically eneeered a son just to murder superman, constantly has thoughts pumped into his head that he's evil and always has been always will be and said thoughts pump in with sharp pain if he gets off course trying to kill superman. You can see WHY the guy is such a monster when he hasn't really been given the choice not to be. He instead doubles down. He also has a swagger that's just.. unedeinable. I don't know what it is abotu Superman and british villians but it just works.

The episode is mostly the team tracking Drax down, but the cat and mouse works as their chasing someone as strong as superman, with no morals and two pet monsters. The ep is largely a showcase for the series great fight coreography

It does have some godo character stuff as we get the start of the sorta romance between Phantom Girl and Timber Wolf. They never offically hook up, but the tension is there as he spends the episode trying to protect her and she proves she can handle herself, but also has to learn in a team it's okay to have someone watch your back... just in moderation. The two weren't a thing in the comics.. but it works really well here, his blunt nature matching hers and his less than happy background nicely contrasting her being richer than god and her mom being president of the united planets.

The other notable runner in the episode is the science police: their the police but you know, science, present in every legion incarnation..a nd here their just the plain worse. Which tracks for police but begs the question why we still have them. THey don't like the legion which isn't a new take: the 90's version didn't exactly care for them either, and even preboot there was some friction, it just slowly lessened as some of the legion dated some of the science police. As you do. Here.. THEY FIRE ON THE LEGION WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT to try and kill the monsters

But wait this is somehow dumber! Not only are they firing on teenagers, if implied to be older teens mostly.. but as this episode mentions, Phantom Girl... is the president's daughter. If that wasn't enough, while it's not mentioned directly in this episode, the legion is formally sponsored by the united planets here, as they are in most versions, and unlike the UN the UP is more of a galactic senate and thus has a LOT of power. So their not just shooting at teens.. but teens who shooting at could cause a dipolmatic incident, and teens who outrank them!

Good lord. Anyways eventually Drax out manuvers them, using his monsters as a distraction.. while he goes for the Headquaters with only brainy left behind. It's here we find out something intresting: Brainy has a bit of kryptonite. He tries using it on Drax.. but Zod was smart enough to make sure that woudln't work, and Drax.. actually makes a point: That Clark DOSEN'T know about this, and ponders why brainy has this and dosen't tell him. It's understandble to have a fail safe.. much less to not tell him and hints to a darker side to our boy, a more pragmatic one we'll see more of in season 2.

For now the legion arrives.. and Drax finds the projector, using it to send them away. Clark explodes, utterly laying into Drax in a truly awesome fight, slamming the guy down bellow and even grabbing guns. Clark demands answers.. but Drax laughs, realizing Superman REALLY dosen't know and he won't tell him because well dick.

Thankfully while the fight is even the Legion narrowly escape, and in an awesome way as their stranded in the phantom zone at first, where the phantoms can hurt them.. but they can't touch them. Phantom Girl shows her awesomeness as she CAN and judo kicks a bunc hbefore brainy gets them to saftey and they find a hail mary: Brainy uses his shield generator , with a power boost from Lightning Lad, to punch their way home, and Phantom Girl phases them all. This comes with the massive risk of her possibly not being able to phase back.. but they have no other option and she bravely completes the circuit. Drax goes back, the kryptonite thing goes with him and Clark is left unaware... Brainy's happy to be rid of the ball and Clark's happy to find out the answers the fun way.. but there's still the unease that he didn't TELL clark what it was or why Drax was about to use it. That even as much as he loves clark.. Brainy can't ultimately be honest.

Phantoms is a solid episode. It's mostly a LOT of action, but it's fun well paced action and the climax's knock down drag out fight and darring escape is amazing. It's a well done episode with a great villian we sadly don't see again, though in this case it was likely the show getting cut short rather than executives being stupid pod persons.

And with that supermay is done. IT was a fun ride and the bigger likes than usual tells me ya'll would love to see this again next year, so you shall. Until then keep hope for a better world, look up too the sky, and thanks for reading.

#superman #legion of super heroes #kids wb #warner bros #dc comics #clark kent #braniac 5 #lightning lad #phantom girl #saturn girl #timber wolf #bouncing boy #triplicate girl #luthor #comics #animation

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