Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion of Superheroes HBO TV show

Hi Legionnaires!

Just read the Bendis has been approached by HBO to pitch a Legion of Superheroes TV show.
At present, it is supposedly an adult animated series.
Really pumped about this.
Any LSH series is better than none.

Really happy there is still interest in the Legion out there!

I agree, Ibby. I think at the end of the day, I'm gonna take a "wait and see" on this. If this is going to pre-production, in the end it will be a good thing to get the Legion out there, so Kudos to Bendis for saying of all the Legion properties he'd like to see done, the Legion should be it. That's definitely a good thing.

Second, I wonder if he'll be writing or just be a producer/showrunner setting up the universe, but then handing it over to others for the day-to-day.

I'm also a little nervous about the term "adult" thrown in with the Legion.

So it's kind of a mixed bag for me right now, but I'll definitely wait to see what we get!

I don't mind the term "adult" here. I've enjoyed HBO Max's other DC property as an "adult" animated series, Harley Quinn. If they can do Legion just as well as Harley Quinn, then I'll be happy.

I hope they do something like the Legion toon a while back - focus on a smaller cast, with cameos from other Legionnaires to give a sense of scale and size. Having 34 main characters won't work as well on the TV as it will in print. (And it was a struggle in print too!)

I *just* got the 2nd season DVD set a few days ago... and then this happens.

I am manifesting all the wrong crap and I'm not happy about it.

My initial quibble is that HBO might looking at the success of high-body-count 'super' shows like The Boys or Invincible or even Hit-Monkey, and casting about for a team that 'nobody really cares about anymore' that they can gorily dismember in all sorts of sensational ways.

But Bendis, for all my distaste for him, is no Mark Millar, so perhaps he'd be less inclined to embrace that sort of thing.

Yeah, if its a body count thing like Invincible, I have no interest in seeing the Legion go there. I'm also not a big fan of them cursing, but it likely wouldn't make sense in the 31st C.

Titans has a particular vibe to it, but it hasn't been great for the last two seasons, and that's a Geoff Johns joint.

I'm guessing "adult" here is going to mean explicitly implied sex, which has been done for forever in the Legion.

Bendis said this on Twitter:

"thanks everyone! for your records, 'animation for adults' doesn't mean porn. I mean, sure it could BUT in this case I promise you it means sci fi with mature themes and content. for example, to me, 5 years later/ the great darkness saga are both in that category."

Link: https://twitter.com/BRIANMBENDIS/status/1473172736788688897

LOL - Thanks Alexander - I mean obviously they aren't going to do porn, but I was thinking more like how they portrayed the Dick/Kory or Dick/Dawn or Dick/Barbara relationships in Titans. Definitely more adult in theme.

5YL I'd say is probably more adult in theme, but I'm not sure about GDS. That's more of an epic versus an "adult theme" story, IMO

I have a lot of mixed feelings, most of them not positive. But I will say that hopefully this will renew the general public's interest in the Legion...

As much as I really REALLY dislike Bendis's writing in general, I have to admit I think he might actually do way better at a tv show than a comic...a big part of the problem I have with his writing is that it's 90% talking heads with indistinguishable dialogue and repeated panels ad nauseum and I feel like that kind of style is way more suited to TV than a page of static illustrations. Also would he literally be writing each episode or is he just the showrunner? I think that makes a difference as well.

I'm not super positive about this, but I am willing to give it a go...if he can capture something along the lines of 5YL or the Aeon Flux series in tone and if it has a really distinctive animation style it could actually be amazing! And DC's animated works have been pretty stellar in general, I feel like the animated side of things gets a lot more love than their live action.

That's a lot of what I was thinking, too, raz. The snippet-like dialogue works better as each character will literally have their own voice, so on TV it makes more of an impact and you can get away with that kind of thing (I'm thinking here about Sorkin's West Wing).

If they're able to pull it off like Young Justice, I'll be generally happy. Titans less so. .

That's probably the best summary of how I feel as well tbh...YJ isn't perfect, but I love it because it seems to be made with respect for every character and the long-term story arcs are always well served while giving fun individual episodes at the same time. I mean who the f would ever have thought SPORTSMASTER would be an awesome bad guy??

Titans, I adore the effort put into the costumes but I barely even made it through the first episode and everything I've read about it since then just makes me happy I didn't try to watch any more

I am anxious to see this new cartoon take flight ( pun intended for the flight rings! ) .... The exposure will be great for a new generation of soon-to-be fans of the great Legion !
I can't wait!

Exactly - on both!


That about sums it up with Titans. "We tried. But hey, we look great!"

Dick/Kory, Dick/Dawn, Dick/Barbara? I'm sensing a theme. Everybody be gettin' some Dick.


Yeah, GDS was much more 'superhero fare' in that the story could get grim and feel like it had high stakes, but still ended on a high note with a hopeful future.

5YL was just a relentless series of new crap tearing down old characters and institutions, and got progressively bleaker and less hopeful, until, if I recall correctly, they blew up the planet anyway.

If he wants to create a version of GDS, an actual *superhero story* with a team of vaguely Legion-ish characters, I'd be cautiously optimistic.

If he wants to create a 5YL tale about the downfall of such a team, with them falling to betrayal and suicide and whatever over the years, and eventually losing, nah, I'm out. That's not what I read comics for.

The man is very "active" in that Titans, what can I say?


Yeah, grim n gritty Legion for too long always produces a backlash. It's just not what the team is about.

Deconstruction, as a technique, is cool when the end result is to build the individual (or group) back up, tempered by their trials, forged into something even more on-purpose and effective and self-confident. Breaking them down, to build them back up stronger than ever, as was done well, for instance, in a Daredevil arc.

Too often, IMO, the deconstructors lose interest halfway through and just wreck shit without getting around to the 'build it back up' stage, and we are left with shattered torn-down pieces of once-great properties that they've demolished and then abandoned. (It's not always fickle creators, sometimes the audience just isn't there for it, and grows discouraged, and the book gets cancelled in mid-deconstruction, leaving, again, a pile of rubbish where a successful IP once stood.)

As a result, I'm pretty 'over' deconstruction as a technique, since not enough writers / publishers seem to have the stamina to finish the job, and just end up making a mess of somebody else's IP and then wandering off like a bored toddler.

The only thing I've watched on HBO since it started streaming was Watchmen. So, the first thing that popped into my mind was NUDIE LEGIONNAIRES!

Not to be confused with the Legion show on Country Music Television, which features Legionnaires in Nudie Suits.

Yeah, and we've seen that what, at least twice now with the Legion as a team? Three times if you count Future State? Yeah I'm done with that.

If they manage to pull off an animated Legion series that is as compelling as Watchmen, I'll be a very happy camper.

Starring Porter Wagoner as Garish Boy!

Well, I don't have HBO but I'll keep my fingers crossed for you all anyway.