posted
They may have been behind us in getting the episodes but they get the season finale first. The UK version of Cartoon Network has been showing the episodes in sequence from start to finish and today they aired part one of Sundown.
ShadowStar over at Toon Zone's DC Animation Forum has posted a synopsis of the episode.
So, if you want to be spoiled (the episode is scheduled for April 28 in the States) click here.
Click Here For A Spoiler Apparently, Ferro Lad does indeed sacrifice himself.
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
OK I just sat through one of the best hours of my TV watching life. Parts one and two are absolute old school brilliance. This is a non stop roller coaster ride involving large numbers of the Legion, the Subs and the Fatal Five. I hardly know where to start.
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
I think I need to put a big warning in here though. I intend to discuss my thoughts on both these episodes and that means there will be loads of spoilers so people who want to see all this for the first time, and I can really recommend that experience believe me its worth the wait, should not read any further.
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
Click Here For A Spoiler
So we start with a battle with the Fatal Five and pretty soon we see a death. Bouncing boy is in the command deck trying to control things. First we get superman slugging it out with Validus, but then things go wrong and we see a death. Gasp, maybe this is the death we were worrying about? But it gets worse and one by one ALL the legionnaires are killed.
Of course we soon find out that this is nothing more that a Holographic training simulation.
I love how chuck is shown as worrying about his leadership capabilities and is shown as being scared that he is going to get his friends killed. Some nice interaction between Trip and Chuck which is hinting at a potential romance. I only noticed today that when Trip separates into white Orange and Purple her eyes also turn completely that colour as well. After a bit of Banter between Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy over how long it took them to get through the Daxam simulation we get an emergency message and the Legion is off on one of its most dangerous missions yet.
We head out to a secure storage facility for weapons left over from the “Great Crisis” As this is on a planet orbiting a red star Superman has to wear a battle suit. (Another add on for the toy manufacturer’s there I think) There is a great line when BB is stopped from entering the facility by droid guards and asks Brainy to help saying “you speak robot”
A small circular machine is cutting its way out the facility and Brainy recognises that it is a sun eater. This is a machine created by the inter dimensional race known as the Controllers. Used twice (a possible reference to the Atom Bomb?) during the great crises then deactivated and stored. Of course the Legion can not stop the machine getting into space where it transforms into the cloud we know and love.
And from here on in we get the whole legion facing down the sun eater.
I am sure at this stage they are following the broad brush story of the Sun Eater we all know and love but can quite believe they are going to kill Ferro Lad off.
Saturn Girl is linked to Brainy and uses her power to “cloak” the Star the Sun Eater is heading for. (we have seen her doing this to other AI brains in the past haven’t we?) Then Sun Boy and Star Boy (and its Barry Kitsons design used here) combine powers to draw off the Sun Eater.
We see Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy channelling their power through Ferro Lad to fire a huge energy blast to destroy the core. But he misses and promises “never to let them down again”
And now the sun eater is heading for Earth.
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
Never mind I figgered out what to do, :Doh:
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
Click Here For A Spoiler
And now we get to the fun parts. We see the legion break into Takron Galtos and free the Fatal Five with a little help from Shrinking Violet. I loved the black suits Superman, Phantom Girl and Saturn Girl use for the jail break. PG has a great line where she thrusts her hand through the Persuaders chest and heart and warns him if he steps out of line they will end up back in jail.
Superboy is sent out to find the Controller who is, well controlling, the sun eater. This guy is definitely a Controller, pink skin, skinny, with the traditional Controller shoulder pad thingies. However, he fits himself into a super Robot battle suit and proceed to wipe the floor with Superboy. During the usually exposition we find out he is a rouge Controller who believes progress and beauty can only come forth from chaos. Thus he will destroy the UP and a new improved universe will rise from the ashes. This is very much a Vorlon/Shadows type set up, for those of you who know the Babylon 5 universe.
We have the big fight and we get to see Blok, Element Lad, Dream Girl, the subs and the Fatal Five all lined up ready to take on the Beast.
BB gives the orders and is shown to be a real leader here, as various battle teams go to work. And who is given the task of getting inside the Sun Eater and landing on the machine in the centre? Alongside the Persuader and Tharok we see Matter Eater Lad chomping down on the metal.
The look of fear/awe or maybe just disgust on Tharoks face as Tenz takes a bite was priceless and I loved the thumbs up from him at the end.
Chucks plan was to create a doomsday bomb to take out the Sun eater and it is made ready only with everyone working together. It is launched and we see the tension as it enters the Sun Eater cloud and hits. With no effect.
Timer Wolfs, “Funny though it would have made a bigger bang than that” was funny.
Then we find out the bomb has short circuited and cant detonate. That’s it they are defeated and sit quiet awaiting the end.
But no look out side its Ferro Lad. If the device needs something to close the circuit then it will get that. He fights his way past the robot defenders of the Sun Eater to the core and with a long live the legion grasps the connections in both hands.
And that’s it. The Sun Eater goes boom, the Controller leaves and Ferro Lad is dead.
We see the Statue of Ferro and we listen to the speech about Heroes. And, most importantly, we see the body. Ferro is clearly shown as a charred body, lying on an asteroid in space. Is he coming back? I don’t think so. You know this must be how legion fans felt seeing this in the comic. It was shocking (even though we legion fans know the ending) and I was actually moved by his death. It was, if death can be, a noble death and a one that has meaning. I now hope they actually keep Ferro dead and make his sacrifice mean something.
And then Superman goes home. And we end a series that has been much much better than I had hoped. I am looking forward to the boxed set of DVD’s and more importantly series 2.
So much happens in these two episode I have missed so much, especially in terms of visual and audio. I will carry on posting as things pop into my mind. And is anyone has a question just let me know and I’ll watch it again and let you know.
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I wonder how this will affect Brainy--as shown in Fear Factory--he could have done what Ferro Lad did and simply downloaded into another body (--in fact I was sort of hoping for that twist with Brainy gaining a biological form for the next season). It was his plan and he could have left the ship on the suicide mission after giving his life-chip to Bouncing Boy. I suppose every Legionnaire will feel guilt but Brainy and Chuck will probably feel the most. Any bets on whether the rogue Controller will return as "The Ghost of Ferro Lad?"
-------------------- "I am the LEGION--you colossal Jerk!"--Garth Ranzz LEGION #63
Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Ah, Destiny is fulfilled and all is right with the (animated) universe.
Thanks for the spoilers! I was wondering how I was going to make it through the next month without going nuts.
From: Reimagined Trom | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Thanks Darden! I can't wait to see this myself.
Once they got over that only-the-same-seven-rotated-at-a-time crap, the series proved to be a winner and pretty close to what I would have wanted in an animated series.
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
OK now i have the weekend to digest the episodes some more thoughts, starting with episode one.
Click Here For A Spoiler Some more thoughts on episode one. (in no particular order)
I liked the various pair ups between the Legion and the Fatal Five, especially Braininac 5 and Tharok. In particular the way in which the arm weapons of both take on a similar look. From this alone its seems as if Tharok is almost as bright as our Brainy?
I like the way it took the combined power of the Eye and Tharok’s weaponry to take out Superman, something even Validus could not do on his own.
There are some great little one liners in this episode and I think of them I’ll throw them out, for no other reason than they made me smile.
Phantom Girl on being told they were going to re run the simulation “ There’s a limit to the number of times I can face my own death you know”
I am starting to like this version of Cosmic Boy as well. He is coming across as a Hero with a capital H, someone who is a natural leader and who is used to others doing what he says, yet he is more than willing and able to accept the vote, and will support Bouncing Boy wholeheartedly because, well because he is first and foremost a Legionnaire and that’s what Legionnaires do. His support of chuck telling him that Cos failed a sim 9 times and his niggling of Garth getting him to admit to failing the Daxam sim 11 times was part of this I think. I also noticed that Daxam seems to be part of this universe, so there is hope for a Mon El appearance.
Oh and I wonder if Bouncing Boys cries of “Stupid Stupid” where a veiled reference to a certain Legion World favourite spoiled little rich boy.
I think this was the first time we get to see Triplicate girls merging and being shown as a black inky cloud whilst she does so. Not sure if I like this but in the absence of anything else it will have to do. At least it makes it really really clear that this is one person split into three.
We also find out that in the toonverse there has been a “great Crisis” another reference to DC continuity which acknowledges but doesn’t hamstring the writers. And it gives us another great line when Brainy introduces Super man to his red sun battle suit, calling it “Sunscreen , but with laser cannons”
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
OK and now the second half of the episode.
Click Here For A Spoiler
I thought it was a new and good use of Lightning lads powers to show him lighting up a darkened corridor, I cant remember him doing that in the comic?? And Cosmic Boy ripping up the corridor walls and floors to form a barricade was awesome. I had often wondered how they could show magnetic powers effectively but this was most certainly effective. Not too sure about the purple colour effect they give him though.
I am definitely starting to dislike Brainy Battle Bot though, not so much the transforming arms and such but the whole, lets get twice the size and armour up thing. Still I guess it will make for some interesting toys if and when we get them.
When all the Legion have been taken out by the Sun Eater, it falls to Bouncing Boy to try to stop it reaching space. So what does he do, attract its attention and then says, as he goes bouncing off the walls, “follow the Bouncing Ball” I am fast becoming a Chuck fan and want my inflatable Bouncing Boy toy.
Anyhow they fail to stop the Sun Eater getting into space and we have the pretty much expected attempts to stop it reaching the nearest sun.
The energy cloud the machine surrounds itself with is perhaps the least impressive think in the whole episode. I think they are trying to copy the look of it from the Adventure issues and for much of the episode the cloud looks false, and not very threatening. I mean its supposed to be a raging energy storm that protects the doomsday machine itself and prevents the Legion getting into the core. But to look at you would just think Huh? The only sense of danger and doom we get is from the description Brainy gives of it. This is a weapon supposed to be frightening enough to stop wars. A weapon so powerful that even the race that created it became frightened of it. It was used twice and then locked away so it could never be used in anger again. I mean could the parallels with the Atomic Bomb be any clearer?. And now we have a “terrorist” who has got access to the bomb and intend to use it on the UP. Talk about imposing out own 21st century fears on the 31st century.
Again BB takes control and in a moment of crisis forgets his own self doubts and fears and starts to bark orders. The look on the other legionnaires faces is priceless as they take a few seconds to register surprise and admiration for Chuck then they are gone and battle commences.
I like the idea that a weapon, being controlled, would have more than one line of defence, and we see a robot cordon which has to be taken on by the whole legion in order to get Phantom Girl to the core. Then we see Ferro Lad aiming to transmit Garths and Rokk’s powers to the machine in the core and destroy it. But he wavers, the power is too much for him and the shot misses, the sun Eater emits a shock wave than disables the Legion and moves on to devour the red sun.
After his miss Ferro makes and under the breath promise. “I wont fail again” sort of thing and us long term fans start to hear ominous music and the dreaded figure of foreshadowing. But maybe, just maybe they wont follow the comic story that closely? Or will they?
Some real classic Adventure stuff that also takes place this episode is the few seconds on screen time of every Legionnaire we have so far seen, plus a few.
We see Sun Boy and the WaK Star Boy trying to distract the Sun Eater but with them is Colossal Boy. Why he is there and what good a giant can be against the Sun Eater is not even addressed. I see Sun Boy producing the light and heat of a sun and Thom producing the gravitational pull but why CB2? Later we see Timber Wolf piloting a small attack craft (and a pretty good pilot he makes) In both of these cases I think these two characters were simply added to the mix to give the viewer a sense that this was indeed a Legion and so that everyone’s favourite character got a bit of screen time. It did not detract in any way from the main events but certainly give a sense of the expansive nature of the Legion in just a few short seconds of Screen time.
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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