Review: Legion of Super-Heroes

At this point, we’re in a holding pattern with DC’s animated movies. Recently, there has been a lot of news with James Gunn coming on board with DC, and becoming their Kevin Feige. There’s a lot of possibilities with this, mainly with the animated shows and movies actually mattering in the long term. Television, movies, and the animation arm headed up by Gunn and will all share one universe. Or, it will fit into the Elseworlds brand.

Why do I mention this? Well, there’s that holding pattern I mentioned earlier. Now that we have this shared universe coming, why do we care about any of these projects coming out from the DCAU? It feels like this is the wind down until Gunn gets his ducks in a row and gets his vision going.

That said, how does Legion of Super-Heroes compare to its recent predecessors?

Legion of Super-Heroes is a story that’s basically a “fish out of water” tale. Superman’s cousin, Kara, found her way to Earth decades after she was supposed to, and she doesn’t know where she fits in. She lost her home, Batman deemed her a threat, and she doesn’t know where she belongs or where she can fit in.

That all changes when Superman brings her to the Legion of Super-Heroes. He brings Kara to the 31st century, to train with the super heroes of…tomorrow’s tomorrow? Anyway, Batman’s hunch brings him to Star Labs, and he’s kicking the ass of grunts of the group called The Circle. Why was he hiding behind the door when two security guards and a scientist got dusted when he could have saved three lives? Lazy heroing, Bruce.

We get an explanation of how Superman can travel to the Legion HQ in the 31st century, next. Luckily, it isn’t some bullshit “timey wimey” explanation like we’d get in Doctor Who. He’s able to use time bubbles to travel to two different fixed points in time, to probably converse with Saturn Girl. The great part about this is the fight with Braniac V. The fight takes the general fight between the two, and add a dynamic you don’t see. Brainiac V is almost full defense, with a force field that only gets stronger with the force its hit. It’s a perfect match for the Super-family.

Building on that, I did enjoy the scholastic rival vibe we got between the two. There was a great montage where Brainiac V and Supergirl were both trying to get a robot working properly. It ended where they finally were able to work together and take down the malfunctioning bot. However, this is where the two stories finally converge, because one of the other students died. Remember, Triplicate Girl died for Supergirl’s crush. Brainiac V got framed for her death, and the only person who was there who isn’t buying the official story is Supergirl.

The crescendo of the story is that Mon-El is a part of the Dark Circle, as well as who the leader of the Dark Circle is. The ending is what makes this movie. Supergirl and Brainiac V carry this movie. The fact that the original Brainiac comes back after a thousand years is crazy. However, the fight with Brainiac didn’t end with the usual punchy fight. Instead, Brainiac was undone with his own ambition. Well, his ambition and the three other clones that his new body was made up of.

Overall, once the plot gets out of the 21st century and gets moving, I started to really enjoy Legion of Super Heroes. Once the regular heroes got out of the way and let the new heroes get involved, I had a blast. Legion of Super-Heroes was, far and away, better than Green Lantern: Beware my Power. The plot was awesome. It was such a departure from DC’s normal in regards to the regular Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman mix and match.

It took me a while to decide where I stood on the art direction. The characters had a really thick outline for each character. The designs were like they were ripped from the comics. At first, I was put off, because I was still used to the Paul Dini era shows and movies. The further along into Legion of Super-Heroes I got, the more I was okay with it. Honestly, it was like the designs were ripped from the comic, and animated.

However, there is one thing that did not hit for me. The beginning of the story, when Batman and Superman were talking, you can tell Darren Criss was struggling with his lines. He was straining to meet the gruff that Jensen Ackles was giving to his Batman. This came off as more of an adolescent boy than the Man of Steel. The voice work needs a lot of work, especially since the stalwarts are either retiring from the characters, or passing on.

All in all, this was a pleasant surprise. Legion of Super-Heroes is the beginning of the end I think we need. The Gunniverse is coming, and I think that is going to be what we need to give DC and Warner Bros a chance to compete in force with Marvel. The one thing that Gunn is has that Marvel doesn’t, is a full plan with his TV, movies, as well as the animated shows and movies. The animated stuff is an avenue that is pretty undiscovered that Marvel only dipped into. I am excited, and this is going to be a ride, for sure.