Saturday, February 10, 2007

Animated LSH season 2 press release: questions

In case you hadn't seen it yet, the Legion cartoon's been renewed for a second season. There are some new people behind the scenes, too. Here are the relevant parts of the press release (via the Futon Critic):

WARNER BROS. ANIMATION, KIDS' WB! ON THE CW ANNOUNCE PRODUCTION ON FOUR RETURNING SERIES FOR FALL 2007 SEASON

Released by The CW

BURBANK, CA (FEBRUARY 8, 2007) - Warner Bros. Animation has begun production on new seasons of four returning series, all for air on Kids' WB! on The CW, the No.1 rated Saturday morning kids broadcast slate, it was announced today by Warner Bros. Animation President Sander Schwartz and Kids' WB! Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen.

...Also returning for its second season is "Legion of Super Heroes," recently named Wizard magazine's "Best Animated Series" of 2006. ...

Huh. Missed that one from the January 2007 issue.
The second season of "Legion of Super Heroes" finds the group fulfilling their collective destiny, each member elevating his skills to new levels ... just in time to face even greater challenges. A daunting new villain - a destroyer of galaxies from the rich annals of DC Comics - puts the Legion into action alongside new team members. Superman returns from the 21st century with greater development of both his physical prowess and far better utilization of his powers to help the Legion toward victory in the 31st century and beyond. Moreover, the Legion finds a surprising, new ally from across the space-time continuum to assist in its efforts to rid the universe of this powerful foe.

All four returning series are produced by Warner Bros. Animation with Sander Schwartz as executive producer. [snip] In his second season as producer of "Legion of Super Heroes," James Tucker is joined by Associate Producer Amy McKenna and Story Editor Michael Jelenic.

Behind the scenes, it looks like first season Story Editor Rob Hoegee, Associate Producer A. J. Vargas, and co-Producer Linda Steiner are out.

As for the new villain, maybe Comics Continuum was right after all back in October when it suggested Darkseid would be appearing. At the time, Story Editor Rob Hoegee said No Darkseid in season 2. Sorry to spoil your speculation fun, but things may have changed.

Three questions to ponder...
  1. Who is "destroyer of galaxies from the rich annals of DC Comics"? What other cosmic-level bad guys does DC have if not Darkseid, maybe Mongul? The Anti-Monitor?

  2. "Superman returns from the 21st century"... guess he leaves at the end of the season, just in case the series wasn't picked up for a second season, they didn't want to leave him trapped in the 31st century. What's the in-series reason, and how long does he spend back home?

  3. "The Legion finds a surprising, new ally from across the space-time continuum"... Maybe someone from the 21st century that Superman brings back with him. Krypto, perhaps, who brings Streaky and Ace to the future where they organize the Legion of Super-Pets? Probably not since he's on Cartoon Network and not KidsWB. Supergirl? Maybe, but then it would be Superman and Supergirl and oh yeah, those other kids have powers too. Who else from the present is associated with the Legion? Mon-el from the Phantom Zone? Lana Lang as Insect Queen? She's from the Smallville time that Clark was originally picked up in.

One other minor change, as reported by Comics Continuum, will be to the logo, which changes from a red Superman S-shield to a cutout where you can see the blue sky and stars through it. The words "Super Heroes" are also now in italic.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A daunting new villain - a destroyer of galaxies from the rich annals of DC Comics - puts the Legion into action alongside new team members.

Who in the DCU destroys galaxies? Has ties to the legion? Who is on that power level? I doubt they'll use Darkseid, it doesn't seem to fit. Time Trapper doesn't destroy galaxies necessarily. Can't be a sun-eater if thats showing up in the first season,
Unlikely to be Mordru, or any GL related characters.. I doubt Brainiac (the original) would require an insane amount of effort to defeat.. I'm stumped.

Moreover, the Legion finds a surprising, new ally from across the space-time continuum to assist in its efforts to rid the universe of this powerful foe.

M'On-el? I'd like to see XS show up at some point too. Ally from across the space-time continuum.. Maybe Skeets is the big galaxy destroyer and Booster Gold is the ally. Hah.

As for the changed writing team, might not be a bad thing, if you think of the first season as a stepping stone to greater things just as the original adventure comics were. A slightly less kiddy-ish take would only improve the show. Geez I'm stumped on the villain thing, I hope its just Mordru and Mon-el is the new ally.

Anonymous said...

And my first guess about the ally across the space time continuum would be Supergirl...that would probably increase the ratings. I guess we'll eventually find out.