Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes This "core 7" business...

So if what I've been reading online is true, and we all know that everything we read online IS true, then the LSH cartoon will feature a core group of 7 with 5-6 semi-regulars appearing (semi-regularly, of course).

Is this good? Do we really want our kids growing up believing the definition of "legion" is "7 plus 5-6 semi-regulars"?

I think not. What we really want is to overload their cute-as-puddin' little brains with so freakin' many characters that their parents will go bankrupt trying to buy all the action figures for Christmas. We want to hit 'em in the face every week with different characters that will leave them bouncing off the walls not unlike their new favorite "core 7" hero Bouncing Boy.

Kids like that kind of stuff.

It's all about the second season. Plenty of time to bring everyone in.

don't worry, I am sure that the next season will bring in more members like they did with the Titans and JLU. I cannot wait to see Bouncing Boy in action!

Kids knew every single Pokemon character, in all stages of their evolutions. They *had* to catch 'em *all* 'member?

So, I say bring on the core 50 Legionnaires! Kids'll love trying to figure out who's who and who can do what. I know that's how it was for me back in the 70's.

I always thought that LSH had the potential to do for superheroes what Pokemon did for, well, Pokemon. It's a shame that the high-ups at WB don't agree with us, huh?

True the Pokemon thing showed how much kids could absorb. But remember there are nearly 500 half hour episodes of Pokemon. There's no way the economics of North American animation can produce that volume of material.


THe Pokemon show was also a feedback loop in that it served as a tutorial for a video game series that rewarded repeated action with advancement. The more you watched, the more you knew about the gameplay, the further you advanced and the more you needed to watch the show to get tips.

So the secret is to make a Legion Battlefield trading card game, with the several hundred Legionnaires, Subs, Heroes of Lallor, Academy kids, Fatal Five, LSV-members, etc. all statted up and able to fight each other in spectacular battles in exotic locations (other worlds, deep space, etc.)?

Could be one way to introduce the densely populated crowd to a new generation. Each boot continuity could be its own expansion game. (I play Shikari and Monstress against your Chemical King and Comet Queen! Who? They're from the expansion pack.)

Caveat: Words cannot express how much I loathe trading card games. The above is meant facetiously.

I can't wait until the ArmsFallOff Boy action figure. Press the button on his back and his arms shoot off like rockets!

Heh....I want a Spellbinder figure.

Jamie

I'd be bigger than Barbie

Now? Or the original proportions?

Jamie

Lash,

You are right, as always. My 4-year old can already keep track of about half of the Legion's membership, and this from reading only a handful of Adventure-era reprints.

On the other hand, he thinks of Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy as the "core team" because of their roles as founders and their prominent appearances in the early Superboy stories.

My guess is they had to limit it to core set of characters, enough to seem like a Legion and cover the required range of personality types, but few enough so that a) the idiot network bigwigs don't get too confused and b) the animation serfs don't revolt. I am sure that, like JL/JLU, if the show is a success the range of characters will expand.

Hey just checking if y'all know, but have any non-core team members (besides Triplicate Girl) spoken yet? Gotta plan out future photomanips and such

Not yet!

Monkey Eater Lad, Ultra Boy from Champions spoke but you probably already knew that.

Anyway, I really do want to see more Legionaires cause I already know most of them just from studying the legionworld.net homepage. lol I'm only 13 so I didn't get a chance to experiance the comics, so I'm just gonna learn every fiber of it from the show...and hopefully you guys.

You forget though, that Pokemon's actual television show has a core cast and the numerous Pokemon are treated as disposable guest stars.

This is a TV show, and it can't tell the same kinds of stories comics can. If you're gonna make a serial series, you need a core cast, or people won't be able to identify with anyone or have a main vested interest.

*points* he's got a point.

I'm in agreement with Razorsaw... As much as I loved gen1 Transformers, damned if there weren't a lot of characters to keep track of at certain points in the various seasons. Beast Wars had a much more controlled cast and therefore the series was able to give each character a considerable amount of depth.

Nothing wrong with having Cosmic Boy, Matter-Eater Lad and some of the others come and go as Triplicate Girl did in the first episode... Well, I mean unless you're jonesing for development on a character not in the "core seven." ^_^;; This is just one of those things where I think it's going to have to be a lot of development on a select few, or hardly any development on anyone, but a huge cast in turn.

I think the last season(s) of the Justice League Unlimited and to a lesser extent the Teen Titans (the best seasons of both series IMHO) shows that you don't need to focus on just one small group in a larger group to tell stories/gain a fanbase/whatever. You can rotate a cast and develop more than just the same 7 or how many characters. It just takes a little more effort from the creative team involved.

In that case, that was done after several seasons of developing the original core members of the team as mainstays, to the point that they could afford telling stories like that. If they had jumped into that manner of storytelling from the start, they would have had a small disaster on their hands, in that there would have been a lack of overall focus for the viewer.

Maybe they could pull this off regularly like they did around season 3 or so, but not now.

if it really becomes popular, they will most likely take the Pokemon Chronicles method. In Pokemon Chronicles, I turn away from the adventures of the main cast people and focus on some of the minor characters that had appeared in the first season or whatever and do some character development for them. so...don't stop watching!