"We Are The Legion"

Posted by Justin Bournes on 11:33 PM

Smallville "Legion"



I'm a huge fan of "Smallville," there's no doubt about it. I didn't watched the series from the pilot episode, but I did catch up around the middle of the 4th season. When I first saw commercials for the premiere of the show, I thought that it was the dumbest idea that former broadcasting corporation, The WB, ever came up with. The story of how I came to enjoy the prime time hit is a rather ironic one. I remember when the promotional commercials for the show premiered when I was into "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," my first reaction to the show was that I thought that it was the must unrealistic and idiotic premise for a show, the life of the "Man of Steel" during his adolescent years and all the drama that goes along with it. With that in mind, I didn't even give it a chance.

About 4 years ago, I was really bored one and ABC Family decided to air all of the episodes from the previous seasons of for a "Smallville" Marathon. With nothing else better on and with the Disney Channel vs. Nickelodeon rivalry of who could put on a crappy cartoon show, I felt it was the only way to suppress my boredom. After two minutes of watching the pilot episode, I was immediately hooked. It got to the point where I just sat there for hours watching the show and watching the Clark Kent go about his days as a teen. It was unbelievable as to how they could take this Heroic and influential Superhero, and analyze recreate events during his childhood that shaped the way that he became one of the world's greatest and most powerful superheroes. As much as I would love to go on about how great it is, I won't, because that's not the point of this blog, I'm going to talk about what I think was one of the best episodes right next to the episode "Justice."
Smallville has entered it's eighth season, and the story of the show has started to delve more into his hero origins. The show likes to throw Superman colors as Clark's wardrobe (a lot of red and blue combination outfits), and people in the city of Metropolis have been rescued by this mysterious Red-Blue Blur. The writers are starting to throw more Superman Mythology into the show, they've done various episodes where Clark has encountered other superheroes and supervillains in their teen prime as well (The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Black Canary, and The Green Arrow) and villains such as Brainiac and Doomsday (the monster that almost destroys Superman). There was even an episode where Clark teamed up with the Justice League during the 6th Season. So, let's just say that the show has intensified.
The eighth mid-season finale with the best friend of Clark, Chloe Sullivan, being kidnapped by the Doomsday monster of the day of her wedding to photographer Jimmy Olson as he is injured and taken to Star City Hospital under critical condition. However, the season picks back up write where it left off, as Clark examines the aftermath of the destruction at Chloe's wedding, a 31st Century terrorist known as the Persuader takes an axe and takes a chunk out of the Man of Steel. All of a sudden, superheroes from the 31st century, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, comes to Clark's rescue. Then they inform him that their mission is to destroy Brainiac, who has infected Chloe, before he destroys the world on that very day. The heroes are known as the Legion of Superheroes.
The Legion of Superheroes are the future version Justice Leagues where their foundations are established they way "Superman" would. The Legion is consisted of superheroes teenagers, however their names always ends in either -boy, -girl, -lad, or -lass. For example, the Founding Legionnaires are Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad, there's also Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Bouncy Boy, Triplicate Girl, and may others. Though their names are pretty lame, they're pretty cool in my book (which isn't really saying a lot).

Cosmic Boy.Click to view full size image
Cosmic Boy is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the DC Comics universe from Legion of Super-Heroes. He has the superhuman ability to control electromagnetic fields. He is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, along with Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl.


Saturn Girl.Click to view full size image
Saturn Girl (original) is a powerful telepath who can cast illusions, cause sedation, stun or kill people mentally with powerful mind bolts, cause physical damage with psionic objects, and even cause paralysis or cause someone to be in a catatonic state. She could block mental intrusions, and manipulate someone into doing her will, just by sheer willpower.

Lightning Lad.Click to view full size image
Lightning Lad has the ability to generate electricity and direct bolts of electricity accurately. He is also able to generate and manipulate electricity, he can also apply the electricity internally to his own body and muscles, allowing himself to move at a top speed of one third the speed of light (the speed of lightning) and range anywhere in between that and normal human speed. Lightning Lad can use his power destructively, such as to short-circuit electrical items, split boulders, burn objects with precision or shatter walls.
The episode was amazing, the casting for the roles of the legionnaires were incredible, it's amazing that they were able to hire actors and actresses to fulfill the roles of the legionnaires. Their acting was incredible to the point where they were able to bring to life the personalities of the characters from the comic books. The costumes were "Smallville-ed" and they were amazing (Smallville likes to make their own versions of costumes). They also had the Legion flight rings as well. The action in the show was up to par, there was nothing but mind-bending electro-magnetic pulses surging throughout the show. Even if you missed one electro-magnetic pulse when you blinked, it was guaranteed that another was soon come about the episode at some other point later on in the show. However, the show was not only action-packed, yet it was hilarious as well. The biggest thing in the DC Comic mythology is that every time a superhero from the future goes to the past (or present to the future or past) they are instructed not to inform them of any information that occurs at their time in order to prevent a time paradox. So, the entire episode consisted of Cosmic Boy trying to prevent Lightning Lad from spilling secrets about Superman in future. Throughout the show, Lightning Lad said comments like, "Kal...where's your cape at dude?," or "Why aren't we having this conversation up in the sky?" I laughed until I peed my pants. I would have to say that the only think that I didn't like about about the show was Lana Lang....why did they bring her back? If I were to rate the episode, I would give it 4.5 Legion Flight Rings out of Five. For now enjoy the fight clips from the show. "Long Live the Legion!"







Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

0 comments: