Episode 3: “Legacy”

Season 1, Episode 3: “Legacy”
Written by Scott Sonneborn
Directed by Tim Maltby
Original release: October 7^th, 2006
Running time: 22 minutes
Air time: Saturday morning

Now that the first two episodes have introduced the main cast, we can start to see what the series itself is going to be like.
The episode is written by Scott Sonneborn; I don’t think I’ve seen anything else he’s written, besides another episode of this series (which is going to be one of my favorites!).
According to imdb.com Keith Giffen was among the writers, but he’s not in the episode’s credits.

We begin in the 31st century, where a girl is jumping off a building wearing a power suit despite the protests from her robot butler.

Superman saves her before she crashes after a malfunction, and he’s clearly smitten by her.
He doesn’t know it yet but this is Alexis; she’s voiced by Tara Strong, who has voiced approximately six million characters in her career.

After the intro, Superman returns to the HQ where the Legionnaires are hanging out… or rather staring at their screens. So basically nothing changed in the past thousand years.

I feel like this is one of the Legion incarnations that relies the most on them being teenagers.
Although Phantom Girl being the gossip of the team DOES have lots of precedents in comics.

Superman didn’t even learn the girl’s name, but conveniently Phantom Girl was JUST reading about her!
Neat Interlac easter egg: Alexis’s name is on the bottom right.
It took me a LONG time to figure out what’s written in red on top, but I finally figured out that’s spelling “Tattler” in Interlac… which makes sense, Phantom Girl is reading a gossip magazine.
What DOESN’T make sense is why the Interlac letters for L and H are SO similar, which was making it translating this way harder than it should have been.
Seriously why are  and  so similar ???

Superman is basically the only teenager of the century who doesn’t know who Alexis is.

This is a nice bit of subtle characterization. We haven’t really known Phantom Girl yet… she’s had like three lines so far… but we just need this comment to get her.

Also a VERY rare occasion for Saturn Girl to act her age a bit.

Because of its target demographic this series doesn’t really do romance, but this is the closest we’ll get to a romantic comedy.

Especially when he gets a date with her…

…when he already has a date with Brainiac 5.

Lightning Lad is such a good friend that he offers to take his place.

Jokes aside… and the series will make PLENTY of those for me… this wasn’t a real date but an actual mission, because the Legion is going after the Scavengers.

Well SOMEONE is after the Scavengers.

Big Reboot Brainiac 5 moment here.

To be fair to the Legionnaires… brevity isn’t Brainy’s specialty.

Brainiac 5 was REALLY looking forward to do the mission with Superman, but he lets him go on his date with Alexis.

The next season will go so overboard with Brainy worshipping Superman that it’s basically considered as canon by the fandom that he has a crush on him, going as far as the writers confirming it after the series ended.
While there’s undeniably some subtext there in Season Two, to me Season One Brainy feels like the younger kid being jealous of the attention of his big brother.

At the actual party we get one of my favorite gags of the series: Brainiac 5 providing updates on the mission… even when he has nothing to say.

Emeral Empress joked on capes being 21st century in the first episode, and now we have this gag… but I don’t see anything else in the series indicating that capes are out of place in the 31st century.

Alexis clearly doesn’t care about this party, immediately leaving with Superman.

I’m taking the opportunity to point out that Alexis’s butler Wodehouse (obviously named after the creator of Jeeves) is voiced by none other than John DiMaggio.
Which might be a bit of stunt casting considering one of his most famous roles is voicing a VERY different robot.

But Alexis is clearly an adrenaline junkie, so she gets her kicks by stealing Lobo’s bike.

Superman does see Wodehouse pay the biker, but it’s weird to see how he completely ignores having seen Alexis commit a crime; even following her as she sneaks into a building!

Yeah that’s HER building, sure, but that wasn’t her bike.

So the date proceeds to her office… which might be bigger than Legion HQ.

Well it’s SUPPOSED to be an office, but it’s actually a glorified game room.

Up to this point you might have wondered what Superman could possibly see in Alexis, other than she’s cute. But they do connect in a surprisingly deep way: the stress of having too many expectations placed on teenagers.

That’s a weird statement considering the first scene of the Legion in this episode was about them literally doing nothing.

Well that’s just being a superhero, Supes.

Meanwhile, the Legion is protecting the weapons depot from an attack from the Scavengers.

Sassy Brainiac 5 is the best Brainiac 5.

The animators were fond enough of the fight scene that follows to include several shots into the season’s intro, including a shot from a Scavenger perspective of Saturn Girl kicking him in the face.

It’s also a surprisingly rare occasion of animated Brainy using his force field.

The Scavengers aren’t a huge threat, but they’re so relentless that some help is needed.

Too bad that, given how annoying his updates were earlier, Superman ignores Brainy’s signal.

Brainiac 5 is so bummed by this that he lowers his guard, allowing one of the Scavengers to completely break his arm in a scene where the animators REALLY kick it up a notch.

So weird that we have our first lost arm and it’s NOT from Lightning Lad.

The Scavengers retreat when the Legion has to save Brainiac 5; how will losing an arm affect his life?

It won’t. Since he’s a robot in this series, Brainy can just get a new one.

Yeah I think Superman does have point here.

The first date went so well that Superman already has a second one.

Well he WOULD get a second date if there wasn’t Legion business.

Unfortunately Alexis is not used to be told “no”.

Her request is not completely unreasonable… Superman SHOULD be able to find SOME free time, so they do get another date.

Which goes longer than expected, letting down Brainiac 5 AGAIN.

The other Legionnaires picked up Superman’s slack, but it knocked Brainiac 5 out of his hero worship.

But he’s not unreasonable: when the Legion is told that Alexis needs help, he doesn’t object.

Superman does save Alexis from a robot attacker…

…who turns out to be Wodehouse in disguise.

Yeah that was just a stunt to get attention.

Alexis is a sympathetic character… but she IS a trillionaire.

Because she’s jealous of the Legion taking Superman away from her, Alexis arms the Scavengers to take out the Legion out of the equation.

She then lures Superman into space with a fake emergency and leads the Scavengers to invade Legion HQ with their upgraded tech.

Hey it’s MY job to say this, Phantom Girl.

We get another action scene, where Phantom Girl uses the trick that any character with phasing powers eventually learns.

The emergency Superman went after is a Legion distress beacon, but when he gets there he discovers it has the logo of Alexis’s company.
Props for showcasing the logo throughout the entire episode without pointing it out in the dialogue: we’ve seen it so much that it’s familiar.
And of course, in case you SOMEHOW missed who Alexis is supposed to be, the logo is made from two Ls.

Alexis has finally found her true calling… being a supervillain.

I am shocked that Superman doesn’t appreciate her arming his enemies and beating up his friends.
Seriously, what’s wrong with today’s youth?

Phantom Girl is quickly becoming one of my favorites in this series.

If Superman won’t be with Alexis, what’s he good for?
Provide an origin story, once her mech blows up!

And so we close the episode on the prison planet Takron-Galtos (we’ll see it again), where she repairs Wodehouse and vows revenge.

And in case you SOMEHOW still didn’t get it… her prison uniform has the word “LUTHOR” in Interlac.

---

Animated significance: 2/10
Alexis has two other cameos in the series, the second one is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one.
But the episode does establish the relationship between Superman and Brainiac 5, plus we will see the Scavengers again.

Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
There have been multiple characters named “Alexis Luthor” throughout the decades: since it’s a unisex name, it was also the official full name of Earth-One Lex Luthor.
But I don’t think we ever had a direct descendant of Lex interact with the Legion… if you forget that Lex Luthor Junior from Adventure Comics #355 exists.
Which is honestly something everyone SHOULD forget.

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
All things considered, pretty tame from a Silver Age perspective. By far the least believable thing is that a spoiled trillionaire would get sent to prison.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Not exactly a masterpiece, but it does its job very well. I was particularly impressed by how sympathetic Alexis manages to come across before she goes nuts at the end… which is a bit of a shame perhaps, but this IS a children’s show.
It also humanizes Superman a bit: this is a teenager who has been told he will grow up to be the greatest hero who ever lived, OF COURSE he would connect to another teenager who has been put under tremendous pressure. Perhaps he shows a bit TOO much leniency towards Alexis, but this is Superman we’re talking about… of course he thinks the best of her before she shows otherwise.
I also appreciate that Brainiac 5 is not unreasonable in how he reacts to Superman “betraying” their friendship. It’s pretty clear that, while he still admires him, by the end of the episode he’s not putting him on a pedestal like he used to be.
At least not until Season Two, but that’s a topic for another time.
Really my only complain is that the episode makes the Legion TOO dependent on Superman… I never really got the impression that the Scavengers should be impressive enough to give the team such a hard time, even after their upgrades.

We are Legion
16 active members (that we know of)