Legion of Super-Heroes: The Lesser Heroes

Kara Zor-El (Meg Donnelly), a Kryptonian teen, is sent to Earth by her mother at the same time Kal El (Darren Criss) but is knocked off course and arrives after Kal has become Clark Kent / Superman.  She has a hard time adjusting to 21^st Century Earth as she remembers her home world that is vastly more advanced than her new home.  She becomes Supergirl with Superman trying to guide her, but he quickly realizes that maybe he isn’t the one to train her and takes her through time to the 33^rd century and the Legion of Superheroes where she becomes a recruit. She isn’t sure she will stay at first, but after meeting Mon El (Yuri Lowenthal) decides to remain. She meets her teachers and her fellow recruits, and then immediately gets into a fight with Brainiac 5 (Harry Shum Jr.) who she mistakes for the original Brainiac but is actually a recruit like her.  Unbeknownst to the students, something is wrong, and the majority of the Legion has gone missing and those that remain believe Brainiac 5 has something to do with it.  As the story progresses, Supergirl and the rest of the recruits must save the Legion and the entirety of the universe from the Dark Circle, a shadow organization that is after a very powerful weapon locked in the Legion’s vault. Who can Supergirl trust, and can the Legion recruits save the day? Watch and find out.

I enjoy stories that utilize lesser-known characters, and the Legion has some of the least known characters that are honestly quite absurd.  That is what makes them so much fun.  There is a kind of humor and utter simplicity to them and their codenames.  The names of the characters, which mainly end in “boy”, “girl”, “lad”, or “lass” harkens back to the Legion’s origin in the 1950s, when most hero character names ended in “man” or “woman”. There are some cool characters highlighted in this film like Phantom Girl (Gideon Adlon), who can phase through matter, but is terribly shy, as well as Dawnstar (Cynthia Hamidi) with her psionic tracking and wings that allow her to fly.  We also get to see some of the ridiculous characters in action, like Bouncing Boy (Ely Henry) and Arms Fall Off Boy (Ben Diskin).  Yes!  That is a real character who can detach his limbs, control them while detached and use them as weapons.  The leads, of course, are Supergirl, Brainiac 5 and Mon El.  The movie does a really good job of displaying how even the most bizarre characters that most people think are stupid or worthless can hold their own against the toughest enemy.

I love the DC Animated Universe, and this is a good addition to the collection.  There was plenty of humor mixed with action, romance, and drama. The animation is good with nice use of color, light and shadow. The one complaint I would have is that Kara is a bit of a mean girl in the beginning and not very likeable.  She feels she is superior to almost everyone, refuses to listen or take advice and judges everyone on appearances. This of course highlights the character’s journey as the film progresses and she learns how to be a better person. Her change is a bit too abrupt though and I feel they could have made the character a bit more sympathetic in the beginning and taken more time to show her change.  This is a very small and subtle issue though and really did not affect my enjoyment of the film. I can also see some people being turned off by the absurdity of some of the characters and their names, but I found it fun and have a whole new respect for these characters.