posted
The only thing that I think would have made this season better (and it was very good!) would have been to have Ferro Lad join instead of Star Boy (they could have had Thom be an established Legionnaire like Colossal Boy, Sun Boy, etc.) in the Subs episode. Having him be forced upon the team by Cosmic Boy at the last minute was needlessly distracting.
Great two-parter. Nice way to showcase a large group of heroes. Let's hope thing progress from here and not regress back to the earlier episodes.
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Malvolio: I don't know about that Projectra bit. I don't think her powers have ever been able to work on an artificial intelligence.
It didn't in the original story.
She had tried to project an illusion of sunlight all around her portion of the Suneater and have it pull itself apart trying to go in all directions at once.
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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Shrinking Violet in action (twice even) Matter-eater Lad in action Jo Nah in costume Ferro Lad saying "Long live the Legion!" Superboy's eulogy
It would be cool if next season Superboy was just a guest star.
I think that part at the end showing Ferro Lad on the asteroid was a concession to the "you can't show reality like death on a cartoon that kids watch" crowd.
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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I loved Takron Galtos. I loved the stealth operation they pulled springing the Fatal Five. While Shrinking Violet's look has taken some getting used to, I like how they put a violet trace to her power. Seeing Alexis was a nice nod to the show's own continuity too.
Loved the Legion-Fatal Five face-off before they started working together.
I love that there's an underlying tension--where the legion knows that they have to protect Superman & get him out of the way of dangerous missions. I actually expected that to play a bigger part in his leaving at the end of the season, but that drama can always be saved for later.
The whole controller scheme was okay--a nice nod to history, plus a nice set up for a major legion villain (imagine, a villain instead of a vague political movement).
It was nice to see Phantom Girl and Jo Nah still a potential couple even though I've never particular cared for them in any previous depiction.
I really liked how they played up Ferro Lad's "conductive" abilities. That's never the first thing I think about for his powers, and I wondered what they were doing when they had him be the focus for the Lightning Lad-Cosmic Boy attack, but it worked out pretty well. I think the ending left enough potential for him to be reintroduced.
I'm not inclined to compare episodes or review the whole season, but I must say that keeping the focus on just a few legionnaires worked out much better then I expected. Thankfully the other legionnaires are still around. Even more thankfully, they play parts in actual episodes instead of simply having been "on assignment" elsewhere. Focusing on a core group let me get to appreciate them while building curiosity about the others.
Can't wait for next season!
From: Portland, Oregon | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Y'know, another great thing I liked in this episode was the whole Legion working together to build some huge machine. I always enjoyed the comics where they did that -- it seemed something only THEY could do. There was that GREAT (to me) giant size Legion in the late middle 1970s where the Fatal 5 were going to make a sun go nova, and the team had to evacuate an entire planet. I remember the Legion building the space arks and other stuff.
-------------------- ...but you don't have a moment where you're sitting there staring at a table full of twenty-five characters with little name signs that say, "Hi, my superpower is confusing you!"
From: Chicago, IL | Registered: Jul 2004
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
It was a pretty amazing episode.
I actually thought the whole "breaking the Fatal Five" scene out was a bit odd. I'd rather have had the U.P. grant them pardons as in the original. But I loved the brief bit with Alexis.
But the whole battle with the Suneater was pretty fantastic, and, while the RotJ homage was a little disconcerting (I kept expecting the "Your friends are walking into a trap" line), it was nonetheless pretty cool.
I loved the use of Matter-Eater Lad and Shrinking Violet!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
The all-black suits the Legionnaires wore when they broke into Takron-Galtos reminded me of the ones a few team members wore when they broke into the HQ in S&LSH 203 (the death of Invisible Kid). All they needed were Roman numerals on their chests.
The giant chains a couple of the Legionnaires constructed reminded me of Grimbor.
Although it's less of a distinct echo than the first instance I cited, I 'caught a whiff' of S&LSH #205 from the building-the-weapon scenes. That was the one where the one-time villain, The Master, mentally controlled the Legionnaires into building a space-ark.
There was at least one other line that really reminded me of something from old stories, but dangit, I can't remember it. Guess I'll have to wait for the repeat...
Loved the iron-as-conductor bit. I always liked it when 'real' science played a part in LSH stories.
What'd you think of Sun Boy's flame-hair?
Clark's speech was moving, but what *really* got me was his ferocity when he found out about Ferro Lad's sacrifice. That snarl and the clenched fist. A Superman is born.
Ferro Lad's 'Long Live the Legion' made me cry a little.
The only thing that would've made this better would've been a spotlight episode on Ferro Lad between his joining and this two-parter.
I would've liked to see Element Lad's powers figure into fighting the Sun-Eater. He had a moment where he was turning the drones into gas, I think.
Shrinking Violet! That was a delight-- her 'voice' was one of the 'regulars', wasn't it? I sort of wish she had her own distinct vocal representation.
Y'know who'd really be effective against the Sun-Eater? Chemical King. Too bad *he* isn't a member-- or a sub-- or on the radar.
Actually, I can imagine Color Kid being useful, too. Maybe. Or Infectious Lass?
So that *was* Ferro Lad they showed during Supes' speech-- on an asteroid or something? I wasn't entirely sure, as reception of this station isn't terrific in my neck of the woods.
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
So, where I live they pre-empt the Saturday showing until Sunday a.m., so I just saw it today, and...and...
Oh MY GOD , I CAN'T CONTAIN MYSELF...AWESOME!!!! INCREDIBLE!!!
It was like an impossible dream I've had for 30 years suddenly came true!!!
Flawless!!!
Of course, I personally would have liked to have seen Element Lad take out a larger contingent of robots, but that's just 'cause I'm an E-lad fan, so that's not fair to call it a 'flaw', and in fact it was treat that they bothered to show at all!!!
In fact, I agree with the previous poster who said he thought this was a gift to long time fans...it really felt like they were going the extra mile to please us all, rather than the more common feeling I've gotten in the comics books lately, that they are more concerned with their right to tell a "new" story, and longtime fans should just get over it.
So, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone responsible for the content of these episodes!
-------------------- "I like stuff that doesn't exist."
From: Old Lyme, CT | Registered: Jul 2004
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-Nice action-debut for Violet; she was both gorgeous and useful. I would like to know *how* she disabled the Emerald Eye, though.
-It did strike me as odd that the Legion broke into Takron-Galtos to recruit the Fatal Five, instead of having Tinya call her Mom to get them released into the Legion's custody. I suppose it was more dramatic that way, though.
-I also found it odd that, having successfully reached the Sun Eater core device, Matter-Eater Lad, Tharok, and the Persuader did not appear to attempt to do more damage to it.
-Interesting detail 1: the Empress hugging the Emerald Eye when they were reunited.
-Interesting detail 2: I thought I heard Bouncing Boy send Mano on a mission to collect antimatter to power the Sun Eater-destroying weapon -- and Mano held it in his hand?!
-Interesting detail 3: Brainy trying to sideline Superman from a *really* dangerous mission, to prevent a temporal anomaly (Clark getting killed before his career as Superman in his own time even began); but we may still have a minor temporal anomaly, if the Superman costume Clark was wearing when he returned to Smallvile was the same one he got from the Superman Museum. Can you say "chronal loop", boys and girls? Nice try.
-------------------- "Gee, Brainy, what do you want to do tonight?" "The same thing we do every night, Bouncing Boy: try to take over the United Planets!!" They're B.B. and The Brain ...
From: Monty Python's Flying Circus | Registered: Aug 2003
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
quote: -Interesting detail 2: I thought I heard Bouncing Boy send Mano on a mission to collect antimatter to power the Sun Eater-destroying weapon -- and Mano held it in his hand?!
I noticed that too, suggesting that Mano's hand is indeed anti-matter as well...
Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Mystery Lad: The all-black suits the Legionnaires wore when they broke into Takron-Galtos reminded me of the ones a few team members wore when they broke into the HQ in S&LSH 203 (the death of Invisible Kid). All they needed were Roman numerals on their chests.
I definitely got that vibe, too. The mission pairing of Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Validus made me smile, also.
posted
The shot of Ferro Lad on the asteroid was a little too "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" for me -- except that instead of seeing Spock's intact coffin, we see Andrew's intact body. Can you say, "Leaving the door wide open," boys and girls?
Even so, it was a wonderful episode for all the reasons mentioned above -- Violet's action debut, the interaction between the Five and the Legion, Superman's solo bout with the Controller, the cameos of so many other Legionnaires, the cameo of Alexis, and so on.
I had a lot of reservations that the story would be too close to the original, and in the most important ways it was (The Fatal Five's involvement and Andrew's sacrifice), but that only seems to reinforce my theory, posted elsewhere on these boards, that the Legion's overall story arc can only go a certain way. The Sun-Eater/Ferro Lad story is just so integral to the Legion's mythos that it reappears more or less intact here.
This version is, to me, far superior to the reboot version, in which the Sun-Eater was reduced to a hoax and Ferro does not even appear as a Legionnaire until much later. But it's also curious that Ferro Lad dies so soon after joining the Legion in this version as well as the original. In the reboot, this dubious honor fell to Kid Quantum I, albeit under very different circumstances.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I wish there' d been a few minutes less of Superman duking it out with the Controller (with predictable results) and a few minutes more of rarely glimpsed Legionnaires like Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Element Lad and Dream Girl. That's my only criticism of an otherwise perfect finale.
To quote the Controller "Well done."
Of course, if the Legion really thought so highly of Andy, they'd go out looking for his remains rather than just assuming he was blown to atoms. I wonder if Douglas is waiting in the wings to wreck his wrong-headed brotherly vengeance. They could make a good episode out of that.
13 episodes aren't enough. Now September feels like it's 1000 years away.
From: Reimagined Trom | Registered: Jul 2003
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Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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![[Drool]](graemlins/drool.gif)
and useful. I would like to know *how* she disabled the Emerald Eye, though.
