Episode 1.03: Legacy

Another good episode from Tucker & Co. This one was written by Scott Sonneborn and directed by Tim Maltby, the first by each in this series.

Interestingly, the very last scene in the episode showed Alexis in prison, tinkering with the head of her robot. Anyone who can read Interlac knows what the name on her prison outfit said. Does the fact that the logo on the side of the Aart Cloud satellite looked like a double L trigger anything in your memory? Or that here's a red-headed contemporary of Clark's who wanted to be friends with Superboy but something happened to push them towards evil, in the process causing them to lose their hair? Sound familiar? Maybe the name "Alexis" itself? I called it back when the episode descriptions first came out, though I figured it would just be a coincidence. Apparently you couldn't have a Superman without one of these family members. Nice job! You don't have to have seen the name, the episode works just fine without it, but it's a clever touch.

On the face of it - as written for the target 6-11 year old audience - it's about a spoiled rich kid who throws a hissy fit when she doesn't get what she wants. But for the rest of us (those of us over the age of 11), it's a surprisingly complex story interweaving the Legacy aspect of Superman, Alexis, and Brainiac 5. All of them have direct or ancestral ties to the present-day DC Universe, and each of them is affected in some way by the past. Superman has to live up to the reputation he'll acquire in his future but the Legion's past, Brainy has to live with the reputation his robotic ancestor created in the past, while Alexis apparently has no idea of her ancestral legacy while inadvertantly recreating the circumstances which led to that legacy.

Can you imagine Paris Hilton as a super-villain?

First things first: here's an Interlac translation table at Wikipedia. Looks like you might need it for future episodes! There is a link on the page to download freeware fonts.

More downloadables: the hi-def widescreen torrent and the normal fullscreen torrent.

Some video clips at LegionWorld.

Reviews:

• Rokk Krinn at Comic Book Revolutions
  

  This was another great episode! I am really digging this show. They have really done a great job with developing the personalities of the various Legionnaires. The chemistry between the Legionnaires is well done. We get plenty of excellent dialogue.

  
  
• Matthew at Legion Abstract
  

  The first thing you have to know is that this episode, perhaps the entire series, was created specifically to appeal to me personally. I don't know how the show people got to know me so well, or why they decided that I was the most important part of their audience, but I certainly don't quibble with their decision.

  
  
• Jeffrey Bridges at Superman Homepage
  

  Now we're talking.
  
  I still feel that the Timber Wolf episode was a bit of a misfire, but for all the ways that episode let me down this one made up for it.

  
  
• Luagha liveblogs the episode, the first of the series that she's watched.
  

  You know, while I liked the episode, and I got the messages and all of that... it requires a very young Superman who makes childish mistakes, and that is okay. Just like I often beg for characters to do something smart in movies, I was begging for Superman to invite Alexis along to fight the Scavengers. ...If you're complaining about having no friends, make some. Be inclusive. Or if you can't, explain why .

  
  
• David Alexander McDonald at wyldemusick thinks they've jumped the shark already with this episode.
  

  While it isn't what I'd consider an ideal version, I've been willing to allow Legion Of Superheroes a certain degree of leeway in the hopes that it will grow into something exceptional ... That series of thuds was an anvil dropping, hitting a teeter board, flipping the show up and over, and right across the snout of Bruce The Shark.

  
  
• Van at Van's Universe
  

  The third episode deals with responsibility and the legacies that 3 characters in the show carry. Superman will one day become the greatest superhero of all time... But he's really caught in a tug-of-war between Alexis and Brainiac 5 as a nod to the triangle between Superman, Lex Luthor, and Brainiac.

  
  
• The FortressKeeper at the Fortress of Fortitude
  

  The Keeper is adding his voice to those praising the new Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon.
  
  Like the late, lamented Teen Titans, the LoSH have been updated for a new generation yet retain the sense of fun - and much of the history, surprisingly - of the classic DC comics characters.

  
  
• PDG at Serenity
  

  You’d think that 1000 years later, Alexis would maybe know about her ancestor’s relationship to the Man of Steel, no?

  
  

Forum Reviews:
LegionWorld, ToonZone