Animated LSH news 59: casting and comics

Today's Comics Continuum has a metric butt-load of new information about the animated Legion show -- and one piece of info that's six months old already.

• It's Porcupine Pete! That means Double-Header and Infectious Lass aren't far behind.
  

  James Arnold Taylor, who voices the lead role in Kids' WB!'s Johnny Test, is providing a guest voice in the Legion of Super Heroes animated series.
  
  Taylor is playing Porcupine Pete in the upcoming "Substitutes" episode, which springs out of the classic Keith Giffen comics story.

  
  
  Taylor is also does the voices of Mekt "Lightning Lord" Ranzz and Jo "Not Ultra Boy Yet" Nah, both from the "Champions" episode.
  
  It's odd that CC says that this Subs episode (episode 10, sometime later this year) "springs" from a Giffen story. As far as I can remember, the only Subs stories Giffen worked on were the Superman/Ambush Bug/Subs issue of DC Comics Presents and the Subs Special, both written by Paul Levitz.
  
  The episode description below recalls the very first appearance of the traditional Legion of Substitute Heroes from Adventure Comics 306, not the Levitz/Giffen story:
  

  It's that time of year again -- Legion Auditions! This year's crop is hardly promising, with most hopefuls turning out to be comic duds. But when the Legion is overwhelmed fighting a mysterious foe in Earth's upper atmosphere, a group of rejects takes it upon themselves to save the world below... with outrageous results.

  
  
• Anyway, two other voice actors are noted: Tara Strong, who we heard previously as Alexis Luthor in episode 1.03 "Legacy", will be the voice of Esper in episode 1.08 "Lightning Storm" (the Legion of Super-Villains episode). And Taylor Negron, who you'll remember as the Pizza Dude from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", is the voice of Starfinger. Go back and re-read my announcement of Negron's work back in July of last year, that's the one that first appeared on director Ben Jones' site and then quickly made it here in July 2006.
  
  
• Next, they report that Stan Berkowitz wrote the "Lightning Storm" episode. According to an interview with WorldsFinestOnline that he gave in June 2006 (as recounted here):
  

  Earlier this year, I worked on an episode of "The Batman" dealing with The Riddler's backstory, and an episode of "Legion Superheroes" about the conflict between profit and altruism. I had a great time working on both of them, and look forward to seeing the finished versions in September of this year.

  
  Of the six episodes we've seen so far, Berkowitz's isn't one of them. I don't know if this is his only Legion episode, but viewers of the Justice League cartoons will remember some of his episodes (like "Tabula Rasa", "A Better World", "Secret Society", and "Wild Card"). Heck, at the rate they're showing new episodes, it might be September 2007 before we get to see his episode.
  
  
• Finally, we've got a title and a creative team for the first issue of the comic based on the animated series.
  

  The comic based on the TV show will be called The Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century and will launch in April. The first issue will be written by J. Torres, with art by Chynna Clugston-Flores.

  
  Chynna's LJ is here, while Torres's message board is here (see earlier posts about Torres here and here).