Legion of Super Heroes- ‘Whom Am I?’
As mentioned before, I really like Chameleon Boy. He embodies the youth and exuberance of this group of teenage super heroes perfectly. As such, I was pleased as punch to see that this week’s episode revolved around him.
In an effort to uncover the evil plans of the series heavy, Imperiex, Chameleon Boy is chosen to masquerade as one of the super villains, the axe bearing Persuader. However, even though Cham looks the part, he is sadly lacking in the evil department. So Brainiac develops a device that will impart Persuader’s person directly into Cham’s psyche. For anyone with keen eyes during the opening credits, they would have seen the name J.M. DeMatteis listed as writer.Given the lengthy and impressive comic book credentials of this writer, I was certainly paying more attention than usual and it paid off.
The story at times seemed to be going into the direction that evil was evil and good was good as Cham was turned into a bad guy and later had trouble reverting to his ‘true’ persona until using a holographic device, Superman showed Cham a memory in which they expressed mutual admiration for each other.
But hold on… Superman was not Superman. It seems that Imperiex had the same idea as Brainiac and inserted his own agent, the shape shifting Ron-Karr into the Legion’s midst.
As Ron-Karr watches the memory. he becomes confused since he doesn’t remember having that conversation with Cham that meant so much to the young Legionnaire. He twists and turns from wanting to help or halt the Legion from stopping his leader’s plot to destroy Cham’s home world up until the final moment, when he finally decides to stop the death of an entire planet.
We’re told a few times that this us due to the fact that like Chameleon Boy, Ron-Karr had Superman’s persona imprinted upon him to infiltrate the Legion and it must be having a lasting effect. But in the end, that theory is dropped for the far truer thought that evil and good lies within each of us, it’s the power of choice that makes us what we are.
All before my coffee got cold.
Are kids watching this amazing material?
The Batman- ‘A Mirror Darkly’
I have to admit that I was very excited about the new Batman cartoon introducing the Flash.
While I do enjoy the ‘wacky and off the wall’ Flash from the Justice League cartoon, I was eager to see the police scientist version of the character that I loved from the monthly comic books. The rumor was that this version of the Flash in the Batman cartoon was Barry Allen, the second version of the character from the late 1950’s. This version was much more serious and more of a ’super hero’ than the character that we saw in the Justice League who more or less resembled a clown. I was all set for a Flash who would figure out solutions to problems with a superior mind and a firm grasp of his super speed powers rather than stumble through a problem making smart ass remarks.
Well… I was disappointed.
It was the exact same ‘wacky Wally.’ Given that this was the case, it was still a good episode. The story featured a classic Flash villain, the Mirror Master, who was busy creating mirror doubles of Batman and the Flash in order to steal components to build a super weapon that would trap the 100 wealthiest people in the world in a strange mirror dimension. While the Flash was a bit off the wall and played for laughs, he did use some signature speedster tricks including vibrating through solid objects which was neat.
All in all, a solid episode… when is the Hawkman story coming?
