Legion Smallville cameos

The Legion of Super-Heroes has only one proper appearance in the Smallville TV series, which I’ve already covered.
But we’re still not done with that universe, since the comic book that continues the series will have a shocking amount of Legion. And before that, they have a couple cameos.
So without further ado, let’s have a look at them.

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Season 8, Episode 22
“Doomsday” (2009)
Written by Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson
Directed by James Marshall
Original release: May 14^th, 2009

This is the finale of the same season that introduced the Legion.
As such, the episode starts with all the insanity that had been introduced.
Starting with the fact that Clark Kent, who I remind you is not Superman yet, has already assemble a team of superhumans… who even have his friend Chloe acting as the girl in the chair.

And also Clark, who I really must emphasize is not Superman yet, has been spotted being a hero in Metropolis. Leaving behind a trail of red because, and I swear I’m not kidding, Clark always wears a red jacket.

So to recap: Clark Kent is a journalist working in Metropolis who runs around (NOT flying, for some reason that’s important) being a hero while switching identities at super-speed…

…and flirts with Lois Lane who really wants to know his secret identity.

So at this point Smallville, which started out as “the adventures of Clark Kent before he became Superman”… is just Superman if he didn’t wear his costume and didn’t fly.
Basically EVERYTHING ELSE from the Superman lore has already been established.
Even after all these years, I still can’t truly believe Smallville is a show that actually existed.

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After a recap, we begin with someone flying around Metropolis.
Not Clark of course, because for some reason it’s vital he never flies in this series.

It’s actually Cosmic Boy, who has called Clark for a meeting on a rooftop.

Continuing the long tradition of the Legion having to worry about being late once they time travel.

After the Legion episode, Brainiac… well Chloeniac really… is not a threat anymore.

The problem is that, after they saved Chloe’s life, she ended up making Doomsday invulnerable to what was supposed to kill him.

Cosmic Boy’s plan makes a lot if sense. Well, comic book sense anyway.
Since Clark can’t defeat Doomsday anymore, he can use one of the Flight Rings to send him into the future. After all, the Legion episode already established that’s a function of the ring in this universe.

Unfortunately this series doesn’t have anywhere NEAR the budget necessary for a fight between Doomsday and the Legion… they BARELY have enough for Doomsday alone!
So the series has to find any excuse, no matter how absurd, to have Clark refuse this plan.
I would’ve gone with him being worried about changing history or making Doomsday more powerful AGAIN, but the solution is that… he calls dibs.

Yeah that doesn’t make a ton of sense, Clark, considering you’ve been repeatedly told that you cannot defeat Doomsday alone.

And that’s the end of the intro. Don’t think too much about how the Legion still knows Clark will grow up to have a huge impact on the Galaxy if he’s destined to die before he can do anything.

And that’s the extent of the Cosmic Boy cameo, leading to the episode proper.
Somebody saaaaave meeeee

And that’s the extent of the Legion connection, besides Clark staring at the Flight Ring for dramatic effect.
I’m not gonna lie, I want a replica of that thing sooooo badly.

After refusing the Legion’s help, Clark instead hangs out with his superhero team.
Which includes awful adaptations of Black Canary, Green Arrow and Impulse.
Yes, not Flash, they went directly with Impulse.

After getting into a catfight with Tess… Lex Luthor’s half-sister who basically replaced his role in the series (WTF is this show!?)… Lois finds Clark’s Flight Ring and accidentally activates it.

Because of convoluted shenanigans, Doomsday is fully separated from his human host (don’t ask) and we finally get a good look at him.
Well, I wouldn’t call it GOOD, really.

Oh and Jimmy Olsen discovers Clark has powers. Again, WHAT IS THIS SHOW!?

We can’t have Clark having been Superboy before he was Superman.
But apparently we can have him as “The Red-Blue Blur”.
And yes, that IS how the media calls him in-universe.
Honestly, even Jimmy’s suggestion for “Super-Guy” would have been a better codename!!!

Shockingly, the Justice League From Wish.Com was unable to stop Doomsday on its own.

This is the most pathetic Doomsday I have ever seen.
Yes, even worse than the one from Batman V Superman.

Clark, who I remind you cannot fly in this series, tackles him so hard that he sends Doomsday away from the public and into the docks.

Either they used stock footage for the exploding docks, or they blew the budget of all 10 seasons into this single explosion.

That takes care of Doomsday (WHAT!?), but the former human host ends up killing Jimmy.
Yeah his fate was sealed the moment he learned Clark’s secret.

And if you’re wondering how can Jimmy die here but still be involved with Superman… he has a little brother. Also called Jimmy.
WTF is this show!?

Also Clark decides he’s going to be the Red-Blue Blur full time now.

I’m not familiar enough with the late seasons of Smallville to do the review completely on my own, so I had to consult several wikis for this.
One of the most hilarious bits of trivia I found, thanks to smallville.fandom.com, was this:

All of the main characters except Lois Lane know Clark’s secret.

And if you were hoping Lois activating the Flight Ring to time travel meant she went to the 30th century… no, she just skipped a few weeks and returned into the following episode.

With that out of the way, we have one final Legion cameo.

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Season 10, Episode 4
“Homecoming” (2010)
Written by Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Original release: October 15^th, 2010

In the recap, we see that Supergirl actually debuted as a hero before Superman.
I’ve long stopped asking myself questions about Smallville.

Also, by this time Green Arrow has gone public.

Clark Kent, who for the millionth time I have to remind you IS NOT SUPERMAN YET, has already been seen so many times that the Superman symbol is public knowledge. AND he’s revered as a hero… just nobody knows his name.

As the title of the episode implies, this is a reunion from the high school days of Smallville (meaning the first seasons).
Lois Lane also attends because she literally attended Clark’s school for five days.
No, I’m serious, that’s a point they address in the episode.

My understanding is that this episode is loved by Smallville fans since it has a ton of references to the earliest seasons.
But since those are the only ones I watched and I forgot most of them, I don’t have a lot to say about them… plus this is already a long review for some cameos, so I’ll just skip ahead to when Clark and Lois are made homecoming king and queen.

Time stops during the celebrations, and for once it’s not Clark using super-speed but Smallville Brainiac showing up.
And yes, in this universe Brainiac takes the form of a regular guy.

He then teleports Clark away, being grateful for having been stopped in the Legion episode.

Brainac has changed so much that he has joined the Legion.

This is in fact supposed to be Brainiac 5.

He also claims to have been the one who created the Flight Rings and gave them the ability to time travel… which doesn’t make a lot of sense, because the rings were the only reason the Legion took the original Brainiac into the future to evolve him into Brainiac 5.

Boasting about bringing the Legion to a new level is the only Brainiac 5 thing this guy does.

It should be noted that like in Superman: The Animated Series, this Brainiac is also a Kryptonian artificial intelligence.
Unlike THAT Brainiac, who was awesome, this one is as boring as possible.

Brainiac 5 spends most of the episode bringing Clark to witness events of previous seasons, with some character development about Clark accepting that he’s not responsible for various tragedies that happened. Good stuff, but not relevant to the Legion and not easily reviewable.

I could do without this show philosophizing about the darkness within everyone EVERY FIVE FREAKING MINUTES, though.
They do it so often that the word “darkness” has lost all meaning.
I see that what I found frustrating in the early seasons is still there in the final one: even when Smallville manages to have good scenes, they must follow them with ten minutes of pointless navel-gazing.

The highlight of the episode is a funny flash-forward with Clark being at the Daily Planet with Lois, even getting to wear the glasses.

This section of the story is set in the far-off future of 2017.
Impressive that they managed to air this episode exactly on October 15th.

This is a very funny setup, considering that at this point in the series Lois is basically the only character that doesn’t know Clark’s secret… and his reaction to her future self knowing everything is great.

Lois is played by Erica Durance, and she joined the cast after I had stopped following the series so everything I knew about her addition felt really forced to me.
But honestly, when she’s given decent material she plays Lois perfectly.

But young Clark also meets his older version in the elevator. Who of course has been waiting for him.

Young Clark is more impressed with future Lois than with his future self.

I said it last time, but it’s a pity Tom Welling wasn’t given better material for this show. He’s a good actor, and he manages to play both versions of Clark as distinct while ALSO giving the older one a slight Superman-y tone.

Smallville can be hilarious when they don’t have the budget for… well anything… and yet they insist of having a scene with Superman stopping a nuclear explosion.
Even in 2010 and on a TV budget, this looked reeeally cheap.

Young Clark also saves Lois’s helicopter from crashing. The Daily Planet having its own helicopter is a tradition from the comics, of course, but it’s a little jarring to see it in the present.

Oh for crying out loud WILL YOU STOP BLABBERING ABOUT DARKNESS???

Brainiac 5 returns to the future, and that’s it.

I am shocked that this is not the series finale because it really, REALLY feels like it’s wrapping up.

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Historical significance: 0/10
As far as the Legion goes, it’s nothing. For the Smallville continuity I understand the Season 8 finale is kind of important, and the Season 10 episode’s flash-forward anticipates the series finale.

Does any of this show up in regular continuity?
Clark Kent does eventually work at the Daily Planet and… oh you mean for the Legion? Nope!

Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Everyone under the sun knows Clark has powers, except Lois. Plus Doomsday, despite being hyped as this end-of-the-world threat, goes down with ridiculous ease.

 Does it stand the test of time?
“Doomsday”: 4/10
Unfocused. I didn’t even talk about the subplots about Green Arrow because they didn’t feel like they belonged to this series, plus as mentioned Doomsday is VERY underwhelming.
“Homecoming”: 8/10
If Smallville was like this when I stopped watching, I would have stuck to the series. It’s by no means a masterpiece… the philosophical discussions don’t go anywhere… but there’s an earnest appreciation for the history of the series, including its contradictions, and a love letter to classic Superman.

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We are Legion
4 active members confirmed
-Cosmic Boy
-Saturn Girl
-Lightning Lad
-Brainiac 5

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This is the last live action review scheduled for the Legion. While they do appear in the CW Supergirl show, there’s so many appearances there that I don’t plan to cover them.

But as anticipated, I will review the Legion appearances in the spin-off comic book… because when it doesn’t have to worry about budget, Smallville goes all out.