Monday, June 13, 2011

Legion of Super Heroes: Child's Play

More Legion of Super-Heroes blogging, because you demanded it!

We were playing with Lily's Legion of Super-heroes toys on Saturday morning, and she didn't believe that Phantom Girl was really Phantom Girl. She wanted to know why she had a "P" and not an "F" on her costume.

Our collection of Legion toys is growing at a decent clip. We've got a Cosmic Boy somewhere but we couldn't find him for the picture.


Left to right, Glinda the Good Witch as their chaperone, Mon-El, Lightning Lad, a happy Meal Superboy, Brainiac 5, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy and Saturn Girl.

I like Child's Play because it showcases Phantom Girl, who is one of my favorites on the show. Earlier, I was watching Phantoms, the episode with Drax and his pets and something I really liked was a scene with Phantom Girl and Timber Wolf. He calls her "Princess", and she wants to know why he's taking that attitude with her and he says that it's because she acts like a princess. She says that she doesn't need anyone to protect her, and as she's saying that, we cut to the POV of one of Drax's monsters sneaking up behind her. It leaps...and she phases without even turning around and the thing passes through her and hits the ground hard. In another show, the snotty girl would get her comeuppance as soon as she dared assert her independence.





A little kid named Zyx appears in New Metropolis and starts creating Chaos with his magical powers. He reminded me of Mister Mxyzptlk, and whoever edited his entry on Wikipedia seems to think this is the case too. Superman tries to keep under wraps while Phantom Girl travels to his home planet to try to handle things through diplomatic channels.

Phantom Girl is always fun, and it was nice to have another episode with her mom. It was resolved in a semi-clever way too. Phantom Girl navigates a nightmare bureaucracy and finally has her case heard, and they agree to recall the boy. However, her presence there constitutes an act of war, and they'll only retrieve him after the war is over. Cut to massive fleet of warships.

There's a little more back and forth and Phantom Girl says, "As the representative of the United Planets, I officially surrender," which was cute. It's the kind of thing a reasonably intelligent person with her background would think of on the spur of the moment. If it were in the Justice League cartoon, only Batman would think of it, and it would be portrayed as 11th dimensional chess. I really think the show is better for lacking a Batman type character. Brainiac 5 has that famous 12th level intellect, but he's more of an engineer than a planner.


Not a great episode like the the Substitutes or Fear Factory, but pretty solid. I enjoyed the Easter Egg, when the kid was cycling through the magical talismans and we briefly see a Green Lantern Power Battery and Dr. Fate's helmet. 



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