Superman on Television

Legion of Super Heroes: Episode Reviews

Season 2 - Episode 2: "The Man From the Edge of Tomorrow - Part 2"

Rating - 3 (out of 5): This show is still a lot of fun to watch, but I find so many things lacking and the deus ex machina is used too often if it shows up once, and here it happens several times, so much so that I'm left quite disappointed.

Again, perhaps I'm expecting too much of a cartoon, I don't know. Imperiex still has absolutely no motivation. Oh sure, he wants to destroy the Legion, but... why? He has no reason to. What's his goal? Who knows?

Why is he siding with the Dominators in order to finish off the Legion, when the Legion has so far been absolutely zero threat to him? He doesn't need the help at this point, and what kind of help is it?

Brainy was "preparing for the threat of the Dominators" in the last episode, but that was it. They've never been seen or heard from before in the span of this show. If they became a large threat in the two-year or so time gap since season one, that should have been covered or mentioned or something... at least one line. Right now the audience knows absolutely nothing about them or why they should be feared, so Imperiex aligning himself with them means nothing no matter which angle you approach things from.

Computo? Where did Computo come from? I'm pretty sure that was never mentioned before, but they apparently needed something for Imperiex to get information on the Legion from. You know, this was a two-part episode. Computo could at least have been mentioned in the previous episode so that it wasn't so completely out of the blue when Imperiex finds it, hacks into it and learns everything he needs to know. This was deus ex number 1, which led directly to...

The Legion cruiser being destroyed with the information Imperiex took from Computo. Why? Because they wanted a new ship for the toy line is my guess. From what we've seen Imperiex could have trashed the Legion cruiser with his bare hands, and that would have been far cooler. Instead, he remotely engages the self-destruct, the ship is destroyed but... don't worry, apparently Chameleon Boy's parents are filthy rich and just immediately gave him a ship and ta da! Here's the rest of the Legion in deus ex number 2.

The tacked-on Lightning Lad's revenge subplot was forced and pointless and, much as I surmised after the last episode, it seems they're already telegraphing the fact that Duo Damsel will be back to Triplicate Girl by the end of the season. Although I do like the possibility of the developing relationship between Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl, which felt natural and in-character as opposed to Lightning Lad suddenly doting over Saturn Girl.

The reference to Batman was nicely done, and the older, wiser, more experienced Superman was very nicely executed as well (although for being more experienced, he sure went down quick in the fight on the prison planet). There's a lot of charm and good here, but it's being buried under lazy writing that could be serving the adults as well as the kids with a little effort at cleaning up the giant plot holes and deus ex everythings. The Batman reference and the stellar action scenes bring up what was otherwise a sub-par writing effort. The action has ALWAYS been good, so if they'd just polish the writing up some this show could turn into something really phenomenal.

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