Superman on Television

Justice League: Episode Reviews

Season 1 - Episodes 16-17: "Legends"

Reviewed by: Barry Freiman

"Legends" of the Super Heroes Better Served with the Real Deal Justice Society

OK so "Legends" starts off doing exactly what every one of those comic book team-ups between the Justice League and the Justice Society used to do - with few exceptions - and omits Superman and Batman from the Multiverse-hopping fun. As a Superman fan and someone who understood the parallel universe concept from his first introduction to Earth-2 - and never understood why it was always touted by DC's detractors as too complicated - I loved to see the doppelganger meets doppelganger team-ups best of all. Sure it was fun to meet Dr. Fate, Hourman, the Spectre, and all the other unique inhabitants of Earth-2 way back when, but what I really wanted to see was Superman and Superman, Batman and Batman, and so on.

As a kid, you look up to the DC heroes and imagine not so much that you are them but that you can aspire to be like them - for me, flying was something I'd have loved to do, but over all what my obsession with the "S" has given me is a never-ending aspiration to be a good person - and some idea for me what it means to be a good person. To me, being a DC fan meant you were someone who always thought about what you could become later - and I still believe that. With that in mind, the idea of watching a younger Superman interact with an older Superman and see the decisions that the older Superman has made on questions that haven't even arisen in the younger Superman's life yet is a very relatable problem (and opportunity) to readers.

Sans Superman and Batman, the "Legends" arc is about that to a degree with Green Lantern and Flash meeting the Green Guardsman (voiced by "The Greatest American Hero" himself) and the Streak (who pays homage to Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick's origin story by wearing a football helmet as part of his costume - Garrick was a college football playing scientist in the first Flash story). It's not the real Justice Society but it is an incredible simulation, I will give the animated team credit for that. Still, the arc's capper where we find this isn't really Earth-2-Minus after all but an incredible telepathic simulation makes it all the more tolerable. Still meeting the real Wildcat - which does take place in "JL" follow-up show, "JLU" - would be - and turns out to be - infinitely more satisfying than cavorting with Cat Man.

Ê On the SFMWNS, this scores a paltry one speeding bullet - Superman has to wait to meet the "Justice Lords" in subsequent seasons to get his chance for some Multiverse wackiness. Nonetheless, it is good, wholesome, clean fun - just like the Justice Guild would have liked it. Peace out.



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