Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Champions Nov 11 eps *Spoilers*

True. Still, I thought the crowd remained remarkably calm considering.

Here's some clips , folks.

Also, I noticed something interesting...Ultra Boy (Jo Nah) is depicted in a red outfit in the promo for this episode, but he's in a yellow outfit in the show itself.

I really enjoyed the episode. There's always things that could have been done better, but generally I loved it.

Jo's wink during Winema's "other fish in the sea" speech at the end just made it for me.

And the Bismollian was pretty cool, too!

In Mekt's first appearance, there was no mention of Ayla, either. She wasn't even spoken of until her first appearance in Adventure #304. So, it's actually playing pretty close to continuity (not that it necessarily matters).

TV Winema does seem a lot nicer than the 2boot version, which makes TV Tinya look a lot less mature than any comicbook version I can think of (there appears to be no basis for TV Tinya's hostility towards her mother, beyond pure teenage contrariness on Tinya's part).
Though I did like the bit at the very end where Phanton Girl embodied an ancient cliche by actually sinking through the floor in embarassment over her mother's attention.

This was probably my favorite episode after 'Timber Wolf" and not for a moment did I miss Saturn Girl or AniBrainiac 5. Jo Nah and Kem the Bismollian more than made up for their absence. Loved the floating stadium, "Frank" and his co-host, the "Little Deepzorg" commercial and all the colorful Olympic trappings. The racing scene reminded me of 'The Phantom Menace' pod race (only not so long).

With all this stuff going on, I was pretty easy for me to ignore plot holes.

Though I was a tad let down at first when the publicized "Lightning Lord" failed to materialize, this episode does a very nice job giving Mekt a motive for turning to the dark side. What better way to upstage a "lad" than by becoming a "lord"? The Ranzz brothers as a pair of hypercompetitive jocks is a clever spin on the old fraternal jealousy angle that thankfully doesn't involve sicko feelings about one's own sister. As for no-show Ayla, maybe she was competing disguised as a boy.

Winath is pronounced WHY-nath? The little voice in my head has always said WIN-ath (and Val-EE-dus, too). TIN-ya is exactly right. Phantom Girl is quickly becoming a fave but I have trouble understanding all of her dialogue. The PG voice actress did hit all the right emotional beats, though, as did the Superman, Lighting Lad and Mekt voices.

I liked the Fatal Five disguises (especially Validus as the evil-looking elf) but after two appearances they're already looking a bit too "beatable". That's really my only complaint about an otherwise energetic, funny and colorful episode.

Next week: Eyeful Ethel's ugly (uglier?) brother!

Awesome, awesome episode--lots of history porn for long-time fans. Seeing Winema, Mekt, Jo, and Tenzil (?) was a real treat.

Random thoughts:

Somebody tell me: is this the first time we've heard people use the Legionnaires' real names (aside from Clark and Brin, anyway)? While I'm a fan of codenames for the teen-aged legion, I don't want them to refer to each other as -Boy, -Lad, or -Lass all the time.

While seeing Jo was awesome, I hope he eventually drops the power-calling. I understand it's use this episode--kids need to understand the "one power at a time" thing, and there was really no time to explain it in the episode--but I have a feeling it will eventually begin to grate.

While I liked that final Fatal Five Fight (alliteration=cool) I'm with those who wish they'd use another villain. Assasination just doesn't seem like something the Five would do--particularly not self-motivated assasination, as seems to be the case here (although I could be wrong, if this "kill Winema" thing becomes a recurring thing).

I hope the "Tinya is apparently the only one in her planet with super-powers" doesn't become a precedent for other races. One of the important things about the Legion, to me, was that it wasn't necessarily the powers that made you worthy of being a Legionnaire, but what you did with them.

Tinya is quickly becoming my favorite Legionnaire--she really kicked nass today.

And speaking of nass, when the sprock are we going to hear 30th century swearing?

Yeah, it would be nice if they called each other by thier real names once in a while. And WORD on the future swearing, the 30th century setting is a perfect oppurtunity to use fake curse words, like maybe they could say "florg" or something instead of the actual f-word(and fyi, I just made that word up)And maybe other 30th century slang like "What in 12 constellations is going on?" or something like that.

When can I get my very own Zzok the Sephian merchandise?

^^^That's a cool hat, I want one

Popping Planets!

My favorite episode, so far! There was just so much in it. Mekt ... Jo ... Tenz ... Winema ... the episode gets high marks just for the supporting characters it introduces.

I didn't even mind the fact that only three active Legionnaires were present. In fact, so much was done with Superman, Lightning Lad, and Phantom Girl that it was great to see them have room to develop. Tinya wins the best character of the episode award for her "Gosh shucks!" ribbing of Superman, all-too-real embarrassment over her mother's attention, and humorous attempts to distract the guards. Garth and Supes fell into line with how I expected them to be portrayed. No real surprises, but they kept pretty busy in this episode.

The real surprises were with Winema and Mekt. Winema, as others have noted, appears to be a more balanced and positive character than she's generally been portrayed in comics. It was nice to see her give the Legion and Tinya her blessing so early on in the run, rather than introduce a protracted feud. (By the way, I'm not too worried about her failure to phase; as a politician, not a fighter, Madam President probably was taken unawares by the Emerald Empress and didn't have time to react.)

It was probably a wise creative choice to have Mekt forego lightning powers. It would have left viewers wondering how he and Garth got identical powers, and there was no room to explain their origin. But Mekt is firmly established as a selfish, amoral cheat who no doubt will return to be a thorn in his brother's side.

The story was well paced. The twin subplots of Garth versus Mekt and Superman and Phantom Girl encountering the Fatal Five were tied together nicely. I would have been satisfied with the story alone, but the surprise additions of Jo and Tenz made it a "true" Legion adventure ... that extra mile that keeps fans coming back for more.

(I also thought it was clever how they introduced the one-power-at-a-time set up by having Jo call out his abilities. I agree that this may grate on viewers' nerves after awhile, but let's wait until he joins the Legion and becomes a regular character to see how it plays out.)

Downside? Well, there really wasn't any. The plot holes have been mentioned by others, but I was so happy with everything else that I probably wouldn't have even noticed otherwise.

Grade: A+

"Light-ning LAD!"

"Light-ning LAD!"

I liked this episode well enough. It was nice to see a couple of new characters make an appearance.

To be honest, if the series gets picked up for a second season, I would love for them to get away from the core team and show more of the unseen Legionnaires. I can understand having Superyoungman appearing in every episode, but the rotation of cast is what always made the Legion compelling. There was no status quo since you got to see so many different team pairings on the various missions.

*looks around, puzzled*

Uh... Light-ning LAD! Light-ning LAD!

Those are SOOOO freakin' kewl! GO, Tenzil!!!

Best episode yet! The animation was more fluid & complex than in the others. It really had the feel of an issue of Adventure comics! When the announcer said " Tenzil the Bismollian" I swear I teared up!
Jo Nah looked FABOO!!

I wondered when Lashie would notice this thread. Did you get to see Tenzil in action yet?

I'm extremely pleased that in his first appearence he's shown to be a world class...umm...GALAXY class athlete and competes on an equal footing with the best the future has to offer.
Nice.
I MUCH prefer an athletic MEL to the 2boot Chef Tenzil.

I had to stop the tape and rewind to try to catch the name but for some reason It didn't quite sound right. I thought it said "Tanj of Bizmolia" and thought "close enough" but then when they announced his name a bit more clearly in the last moments of the show I was ecstatic.

I LOVE seeing the "classic" Legionnaires being added to the group as we go along...but I totally missed ther Drake Burroughs reference. Nice catch.

I wonder if Drake was the guy with black hair and purple outfit? He's the only other human I noticed (assuming Drake's human at all).

We need a graemlin of Phantom Girl saying this. It's meaning would be "trying to distract posters by changing the subject."

I agree. The X-Men and Justice League cartoons got old for me very quickly because it was predictable who was going to show up each episode. Having a core cast has its advantages, but it should also be flexible. The Legion is the perfect vehicle for this.

I think the animated series so far has made better combat use of Tinya's powers than any portrayal of the legion I've read in the last 30 years. I was a little unsure when they had her able to phase other objects, not just herself, but I can live with it if the animators make such brilliant use of her powers.

A thought on Jo's "power calling": granted it was to explain the 'one power at a time' concept to the kiddies, could it also be to warn the Legionnaires what he was going to do next, given that this would appear to be their first meeting?

Wasn't Phase from L.E.G.I.O.N. Tinya (or, arguably, a random cousin, I'm not sure where it ended up, but they both has phasing powers).

I recently ordered the series from eBay, and in one issue Phase...well, phased another object, stating that it would remain phased only as long as she held onto it.

So...in theory, I guess it's not that crazy.

I'm not sure I can unravel the convoluted story of Phase, and someone will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but since I have time to kill, here goes:

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Phase was introduced as an amnesiac woman with Phantom Girl abilities who just mysteriously showed up in L.E.G.I.O.N. in the place of the Durlan. It was strongly hinted that Phase was Phantom Girl (who, we found out, had supposedly died in vehicle accident during the Legion's Five Year Gap).</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">After stringing us along for many years about Phase's identity, the Powers That Be pulled a bait and switch on fans by revealing her to be Phantom Girl's cousin (Enya, if memory serves).</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">However, the reboot changed all this again by revealing that Phantom Girl was half Carggite and that one-third of her bodies was sent into the past (by the Time Trapper or Glorith, if memory serves) to become Phase, whereas the second body remained in the 30th century to become Phantom Girl. After Phantom Girl's body was immolated by the White Triangle, her spirit accompanied several Legionnaires when they became stranded in the 20th century. There. the two Tinyas met and merged, becoming Phantom Girl once more.</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">The whereabouts of Tinya's third Carggite body were never revealed.</span></span>