Seems like the Legion of Super-Heroes may be headed to HBO Max under Greg Berlanti.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-h2Coy3E60&feature=youtu.be&t=213

Crazy! I'm not sure I would have ever expected *that* version of the Legion to be adapted!

Is it a cartoon?

seem to be live action.

Oh.

You sound disappointed, Sarky...?

I'll believe it when I see it ... but then again if someone had told me a decade ago that these days there would be multiple super-hero TV series and multiple blockbuster super-hero movies made every year I doubt I would have believed that either.

Meh.

I'd rather see an 80s throwback style cartoon based on the Baxter Era.

Just another sign that modern pop culture just isn't my jam (as the kids used to say 15 minutes ago.)

Pretty much all live action superhero shows made after the 90s annoy the hell out of me because of how pretentious they are, especially the Arrowverse ones

I'd have preferred another cartoon

Up until just now, I had long been convinced that no one other than me held that opinion!

Thank you.

I love the Baxter Era! That would be a great basis for a cartoon. I'm not too sure what volume 4 is (I think my father's collection ended in the early 90s), but if they do a handful of introduction episodes and then skip to epic arcs it could do well. At least HBO has proven that is can juggle shows with large casts.

Volume 4 started in 1989 with the 5 Years Later era and later morphed into the Reboot era in 1994. The commentary suggests 1989 is the key date meaning it is talking about the 5YL version, which is a bit weird since it seems to be the version most ignored in ongoing DC continuity (didn't fit once the Retroboot was created) but this is TV so they could take inspiration from anywhere and write it their own way.

The 5YL Legion was so dense and impenetrable to so many, it seems an odd choice for a live action TV show.

I suppose it could work if they focused on the core concepts that made that era a favorite for some (myself included). The subject of transitioning from late young-adulthood to early middle-age, and all the looking back on life with a mix of regret and nostalgia that goes with it, is a theme that would definitely resonate with many. Being able to recapture some of the naive idealism of youth was a powerful theme.

Take out some of the more esoteric elements of the era (The whole Superboy/Mordru/Glorith reboot thing or the batch SW6 kids, for example) and you could use the first couple years of the 1989 series as a template. Begin the show five years after the Legion disbanded and focus of a manageable sized group of former legionnaires slowly realizing the galaxy needs a Legion again. It could work.

With all of that said, the fact that it is apparently being developed by the same guy who does the current Supergirl and Flash stuff does not give me much confidence. I’ve never been able to sit through a single episode of those shows

Yeah, I think you could do a really interesting show that takes 5YL as an inspiration but doesn't do a literal adaptation of it. Avoiding the "editorial interference" stuff that sidetracked the run early on would really help.

Maybe you could even combine elements of 5YL, the Adult Legion, and Retroboot?

I don't know. The more I think about the more I feel like *I* could make the show really cool, but I'm not too confident in DC doing it right.

The 5YL story about overcoming Dominator-controlled Earthgov, along with the SW6 clone question, would probably play well. Working in the Adult Legion/Retroboot would be a natural extension.

The live action shows, despite their improved special effects, still look sort of clunky to me, but I wonder if they inevitably get a wider audience than an animated version would.

The Guardian newspaper proposes an actress to play Princess Projectra.

(It's actually the other way around, they look at which superhero roles Meghan Markle could play - I was suprised to see Projectra listed as the first.)