Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion on Smallville

Surely this deserves its own thread, yes? (Though originally mentioned by Mystery Lad in the L3W thread.)

Legion on Smallville, Newsarama .

Legion on Smallville, CBR .

At best (for some) this will further cement the Legion as a cross-version, critical step in Clark's becoming Superman.

At the least it will be the first live action depiction of legionnaires. Who will play who?

Cool, I'm all for the Legion getting more exposure, expessially when it strengthens their ties to the Superman legend, something that has been missing from the comics far to long.

Thanks once again Geoff Johns

It'll be the live action debut of the real Legion...

But their unofficial live action debut was on the late 80's Superboy TV show. I haven't seen that show in a long time and the names weren't quite the same, nor were the appearances exactly like we are familiar with...but it was 2 guys and a girl from the future, and they were based on the Legion IMO.


Incidentally...that show also debuted an evil alternate Universe version of Superboy that wore sunglasses and a leather jacket...about 4 years before Connor Kent was even created.


That show was a great show...and it was similarly cursed the way that Superboy and the Legion have been...

It had extremely high ratings and was cancelled because TimeWarner wanted the rights to the character back.

Kinda like the cartoon was cancelled not because of ratings, but because the animation company shut down.

Kinda like the Legion was retconned, not because it was unpopular, but due to editorial edict.

Kinda like the Legion wasn't removed from Adventure because it was unpopular, but because of an editorial decision.


Sigh.

I hope they don't make an appearance.

Let's face it...Smallville's the proverbial "neighborhood gone to pot".

A show that had good potential, and peaked with the appearances of Green Arrow and Impulse, now gone awry. The show does not excite me anymore, and I hope they have the decency not to butcher the Legion for myself and any other Legion fan.

I'm sorry, but this news does nothing more than raise my concern for my so cherished super-team.

But who knows? I could be surprised. If that's the road they're taking...Kristen Bell for Saturn Girl, please!

CBR has a short video interview with Geoff Johns up about his Smallville Legion episode.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17465

I was never a fan of the show but this I will watch.

Superboy, can you provide linkage, wiki, or pictures of said occurance? I remember the show (vaguely) but am interested learning more?

Well, really, if anyone could find anything, that would be great.

As for Legion on Smallville, very cool. Very cool.

With anyone else, I might have some concern given that the Smallville teens have long sense had their third facelift. Johns is both loyal to Legion and to the Legion fan.

I believe he's thinking of an issue of the tie-in comic, rather than the show itself...

No...it happened in the show too. I can't remember if the comic was actually tying into the show at that point or not, I think it did, but there definitely was an episode of the TV show where two guys and a girl came from the future...

Here ya go:


Episode #21: Mutant

http://www.tv.com/the-adventures-of-superboy/show/5146/episode.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=tabssh&tag=tabs;episodes


IMDB Profile:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0713446/


The inspiration for Connor Kent?

Episode #57: The Roads Not Taken

http://www.tv.com/the-adventures-of-superboy/show/5146/episode_guide.html?season=3&tag=season_nav;next

IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0713463/


It was a great TV show...sucked that it got cancelled....and not due to ratings. I think it was better than Smallville.

BTW...I'm not worried about Johns adapting the Legion for TV...I think he'll do a better job of it than just about anyone else could.

Smallville is hit or miss these days, but this sounds entirely watchable.

From the way Johns was talking, I'm guessing the
Three Founders are gonna make an appearance, but also a few more, from the sound of it. Who do you guys think will show up?

Ferro Lad, so he can die saving Tom Welling? Mon-El, because of his connection to Spitcurl, Jr. ? Brainiac 5, because of his connection to a nemesis we've already seen in Smallville?


Other than the founders, who do you think is gonna show up?

All I can say is that if Braniac 5 shows up, he better be green - not Caucasian like Smallville's portrayal of the original Braniac.!

Since we're on the subject...

Unfortunately no member of the Legion team will be the first to make a live action debut for the Legion franchise...that (dis)honor belongs to Mordru:





http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131675/


Did you guys know Mordru water skis? Yeap...he does.


I think Mordru was the first to make into animation as well...seems like he was on the Superfriends once upon a time or something.

Geoff...adapt Adventure #369-370 to Smallville... Pleeeeasssseee.

Why are Hollywood and Television so afraid of the Legion anyway?

To me it has smash written all over it...you unite the 3 dominant subgenres of sci-fi, superheroes, time travel and space, into one concept. Hell Superman will sell it. It'll have more appeal than Supes VS Luthor for the 2 millionth time.

The large cast thing has never made sense to me...The Enterprise on Star Trek had 400 something crew members, wasn't a problem.

Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings Trilogies had huge casts...if anything, a large cast is a prerequisite for an all time top grossing film.


The Legion has win written all over it as a movie...

1014 on the Enterprise-D (Next Gen Enterprise), apparently. However, you have to consider that near-enough 1004 of them were one-shot characters, extras or plain never seen on screen (they started with ten regulars, and finished with eight. Even DS9, which had a LOT of recurring characters, still only had nine regulars at its' peak)

I don't think the episode will mirror Adventure Comics #247 too closely. After all, taking Tom to the 31st century is probably a bit beyond the show's budget.

Instead, I suspect the show will more closely mimic Superboy #98, with a boy trying to discover Superman's secret identity while some of his pal's look on. Let's say this Ultra Boy is kind of a delinquent, so he hasn't studied his history. As his initiation to the Legion, he has to prove that he's smart enough, and resourceful enough, to uncover the secret on his own.

So, I'd say "Legion" will feature Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl. If we're lucky, we might get a brief scene in which we realize that one of Lightning Lad's arms is cybernetic.

And, if we're REALLY lucky, in addition to the promised flight rings, we'll also see a time bubble. I imagine that we'll hear Brainiac 5 on a speaker in the bubble confirming coordinates, and maybe briefly bemoaning the fact that he can't join in the mission because *gulp* he's a descendant of Superman's greatest villain.

Now, if we are really, really, REALLY lucky, the time bubble arrival scene will feature the Legionnaires in bronze age costumes . . . well, except for Rokk, I doubt his'd "translate."

We may even get a quick glance on a timescope viewer of some other Legionnaires. Maybe Ayla wishing her brother luck, with Lu, Gim, Reep, Lyle, Dirk, Salu and Chuck seen in the background.

How knows, this is supposed to be the last season of Smallville, I believe. However, there's no reason it has to be the last season of Tom Welling playing Clark Kent. If "Legion" is well-received, Smallville might spin off two new series:

In one, Clark Kent would travel to the 31st century to train with the Legion. Essentially, this would be "Superman: The College Years." The CW would probably play it at "90210 in Space," which is not necessarily a bad thing. It'd put a whole new spin on the demographic the network like to hit, which is pretty well played out on the typical teen-angst show.

The second series, if I had my way, would send Chloe off packing to play Girl Friday to the Martian Manhunter in his paranormal detective agency. Sort of "X-Files" meets "Moonlighting"

Now, that would be awesome! Great idea Superboy but Lana needs to get her insect ring from a friendly alien first!

True...and I'd think you could do the exact same thing with the Legion. Pretty similar to what they did with the X-men. Actually it's pretty similar to the early years of the Legion and cartoon now that I think about it. Those other characters only serve to add to the intrigue...and they are there for the odd special effects moment if needed. Further development can come in sequels.

I don't think it's essential that all the Legionaires have to be recognizable to the audience either. I think Superman will serve the recognition factor and the others serve the curiosity factor...and the Legion has some visually striking characters...that IMO surpass those in the X-men.

Besides...thanks to the cartoon, we do now have a younger generation of fans that are pretty familiar with the Legion and most of it's members...

Wouldn't it though?

Have they introduced Mon-El on that show? IF not they need to do that too.

I have to admit, I'm one of those who got interested in Smallville about year 3, and have since collected the whole series (waits for groan), and it has indeed gone downhill in recent years. But, I have waited and waited and waited for the Legion to come to the screen. The appearance on animated Superman was ok, but not faithful enough. I'd have to say my favorite was probably the JLU episode.
This announcement, however, made both arms and my tongue fall off when my jaw dropped open. For those of you who haven't seen the CBR interview, he really seems to share a respect for the Legion (and in a different interview) Superman and Supergirl. I only wonder if we'll have a second DC implosion if he decides to leave. He writes SO MUCH for DC, and most is REALLY good.
If anyone knows the best board to reach him on, we've gotta make some suggestions (although I think Adv.369-70 is excellent!)and thank him for trying to bring the Legion back to more than so-so.

The news of the Legion on Smallvile gave me a very big happy!
I was worried this would be it's last year and it wouldn't happen and that would just be sad.

I hope they don't screw it up like the Doomsday/Mxyzptlk fiascos.

Can't wait!

i'm SO glad johns is writing it, he seems to really like the brainiacs so hopefully he'll have b5 in there. smallville is one of the worst shows i've ever seen, hahaha ;___; so i'm a little bit terrified of how horrendous it'll be, but having johns gives me a little hope. he has a crazy encyclopedic knowledge of the legion.

if it was just the regular smallville people writing it, i know exactly what would happen:

clark and lana have a talk in clark's dumb barn where lana gets mad at clark for some reason and storms off. clark takes off his shirt and bales hay or something.

clark goes and visits lex, lex is drinking. they stand VERY close to one another.

there is an explosion of some sort where lana gets knocked out. this explosion also knocks out lois.

clark and lex stand very close to one another again and blame each other for the explosion, while in slow motion, legionnaires walk from the explosion. no one really notices. lightning lad replaced with lovable comedic relief robot.

supergirl fights them for no reason, gets confused and flies away.

clark talks to the legion in his dumb barn, shirtless for no reason. he stands very close to the boys. all girl team members get angry at boy team members for no reason and storm out.

I like the barn.