The new animated Legion of Superheroes cartoon

[DavidTyler]

I saw the commercials for it. Anyone have any more info?

 

[Amalgamax]

It premieres Saturday, September 23, on the CW network, 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

 

[Venom71]

Anyone going to watch this today?

 

[Warhammer]

Wow, the theme sucks.

...and this Superman is obviously Post-Crisis Superman before he leaves for Metropolis.

 

[Warhammer]

...this show sucks already.

 

[3dman27]

it follows smallvile continuity at first [clark using his powers undercover] till the legionarries arrive to recruit his help against the fatal five. then he reclaim his superman costume from the superman museum andafter helping his new friends win he decides to stay in the 3irst century to both learn about his powers and be near contemporaries who also have powers

 

[Warhammer]

I am not looking really forward to anymore episodes.

Btw, when Superman finally returns to his timeline, will he come right back where he left, and eat those dumplings?

 

[3dman27]

i would

 

[DOG LIPS]

Is anyone else getting crappy quality on this? It keeps getting all ...digi-cuts. Know what I mean?

 

[Warhammer]

Yeah, I noticed that, too.

 

[DOG LIPS]

Yeah, I noticed that, too.

It's really, really, really annoying.

 

[griffolyon12]

I personally enjoyed it.What you have to remember first is this is a saturday morning cartoon whose primary audience is children,and it suceeded in that.Keeping that in mind and with my expectations so low because of the awful Teen Titans and Batman show I was shocked and liked it.I have to say I'm looking forward to see where this series goes.

 

[Mister J]

I liked the first show. Pretty much in line with what I expected for Kids' WB. It had its rough spots, but I didn't cringe nearly as many times as I did with the new Fantastic Four show.

 

[WildChild]

What a dissapointing show

 

[3dman27]

it COULD use better art i'd say

 

[hammerhedd11]

Is this made by bruce timm and those guys?

 

[Mister J]

I wish, then it would be infinitely kickass.

However the producer, James Tucker, did work on JLU, but it's not Timm, Dini or McDuffie.

 

[Dread]

Well, whatta ya know; they aired the pilot episode first!

I'm sorry, but after CN's drunken placement of FANTASTIC FOUR episodes, even the curtesy of airing episodes in the right order (or debuting in order at least) has now become something to not take for granted.

As for LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, after going in not too pleased at some of the designs and expecting the worst, it's actually not that bad. Following the trend of recent shows like THE BATMAN and TMNT: FAST FOWARD, it aspires to be action fluff without theatrical "maturity" or grimness, at least from the pilot. But the thing is, unlike for THE BATMAN, for LOSH, it works, because something like that SHOULD be sun-drenched, daylight heroics a lot of the time. And some of those designs actually look better in motion than on pics. It reminded me a little of the style for Disney's HERCULES, which also looked a little odd compared to some normal styles. The continuity for the show is naturally up in the air; the concept of having Superman (or at least a Superman young enough to be calling himself Superboy, but he's not for some reason) being a member of the LOSH hails from Golden Age comics. The fact that Ma Kent is his only parent present seems to suggest some elements from the Donner film, where his Pa died. And while the LOSH guest-starred in two episodes of the "Timmverse" ("New Kids On the Block" for S:TAS and "Far From Home" in JLU's last season), this show isn't a apart of that and seems to exist on it's own.

Clark Kent is our entry character here, as he's still a teenager and not yet a master of his full powers. The LOSH want to pluck him from time to help them beat the Fatal Five, who've all escaped and are dangerous. Clark, meanwhile, is on his way to Metropolis to work as a "copy boy" for the DAILY PLANET (WTF? Why isn't he staying until college like in most incarnations!?), but runs into Brainiac-5, Saturn Girl and Bouncing Boy at a local carnival. Long and short of it, they convince him to go to the future where he begrudgingly learns to accept his upcoming legacy, at least in time to help the team beat the Fatal Five. The Legionares shown this episode include the aforementioned ones as well as Lightening Lad, Phantom Girl, and Dulicate Girl.

What I liked was that a lot of people complain about Superman being too "stiff" or perfect or hard to relate too, and this version of Clark is the opposite. He's young, still learning about his powers (the bits where he has trouble flying were cute) and brash. It allows him to enter the series with the POV of the viewer and be a little more relatable. Everyone else sort of playes to archetype; Saturn the "empathic psychic", Bouncing Boy the "funny nerd", Lightening Lad the "arrogant jock", and Brainiac-5 is still talking about his "12th Level Intellect", although he has other andriodal bits like stretching limbs and turning into some large armored thingie. And the Fatal Five look good enough; I liked how Validus moved, sort of like an ape to show off the fact that he was a brute but also a savage. The fact that they lost, but escaped in the end is rather typical of pilots. Bouncing Boy, instead of being a fat guy in a sweater who jumps a lot, actually turns into a sort-of "ball" to hop around. Not sure I like that much, but he was always rather lame to me. There was a good reason he spent much of his time in limbo after Crisis. At least the Fatal Five seemed to put up more of a fight here than they did in JLU, where only Emerald Empress was worth a damn (and here she was their main member, too).

The designs took some getting used to, naturally this episode didn't have much originality and Lightening Lad was a bit irksome. But it was straightfoward superhero action, which works for LOSH. It was far better than the first 2 episodes of FF that CN aired and looked to be good superhero fun. Nothing earth-shattering but entertaining. For those who want to be moved, you may want to look elsewhere, but if you want some spandex fluff, this looks like it'll be for you.

And hey, Superman can bench 6,000 tons as a teenager! Not too shabby. That's already beyond half the Marvel Universe!

 

[3dman27]

I wish, then it would be infinitely kickass.

However the producer, James Tucker, did work on JLU, but it's not Timm, Dini or McDuffie.

i think using the kirbyesque "ben 10 style" would improve the artwork for this show

 

[Rowen]

i didn't get t see it, but i hope somebody uploads it on youtube.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

I never even saw previews for this,i may be optimistic.But ive heard nothing but bad news,im reading people`s posts on other forums betting that the Fantastic Four cartoon will outlast the Legion cartoon...

 

[RDK]

This was about a billion times better than the new FF cartoon. My girls loved it and watched in three times already.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

Did anyone notice Boster Gold on the show? He was there cleaning up!

 

[Knives122]

No, but I did see skeets flying by when clark was walking around.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

Boster was there when he was looking at his Superman outfit.