La Légende des super-héros

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.

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.

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 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.

Legion of Super Heroes has never been all that interesting of a concept to me, and this is coming from a long time hard core DC fan. It always seemed like a bunch of random superheroes that didn't have any character behind them so I was never begging to see a show about them. But in my quest to watch everything DC has made, this show was on my list, and I'm glad to say that after I watched it, I like the Legion of Super Heroes now.

I want to start by saying that adding Superman to the cast here was a genius move, both for this show and the lore of the Legion. The Legion cast here are all teenagers, and the Legion historically looks to the memory of Superman to guide their morals and beliefs as heroes. It makes all the sense to add Superman to the main cast with the Legion before he even becomes Superman, because now they can each learn from each other and that makes for a compelling watch. For the viewers, adding Superman to a cast of nobodies immediately grants a foothold into this show and allows casual DC fans a place to get started.

The tone of this show is very similar to Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. This show feels more aimed towards kids, but it isn't written in a dumbed down way. As an adult I had no issues with the tone, and was even surprised by some more mature things that take place, especially with some characters. The characters are a mixed bag, mostly due to a handful getting more time and characterization than others. Overall I was satisfied with the ones I really cared about, but characters like Cosmic Boy end up disappointing. My favorite by far was Brainiac 5, as I could tell there was a lot to that character and it was all fascinating to me.

Something that was strange to me was the pacing of the 2 seasons as they relate to one another. Without spoiling specifics, season 1 has all the characters as teenagers. Season 2 has a slight time jump a few years and now everyone looks like they're a young adult. I thought this was a fine change, as I thought they really had a good story to tell with these characters and wanted to get to that before they got cancelled. But then season 2 ends with a sort of cliffhanger, teasing what is coming next. I thought that was a very odd choice, as there was no way they assumed they were getting a season 3. This reminded me a lot of Young Justice, as they would constantly do the same thing. I wish shows would stop doing this, and just treat each season as if it were their last.

Overall Legion of Super Heroes was a pleasant surprise and I ultimately enjoyed it. I would recommend it to DC fans to check out, but it isn't the easiest thing to find at the moment. Even still it is a welcome addition to the roster of DC animated shows.