YMMV / Legion of Super Heroes (2006)

• Accidental Innuendo: At one point, the Empress wraps Superman in tentacles, coming from the Eye of Ekron.
• Angst? What Angst?: Lightning Lad loses his arm. He just carries on as if it's just a flesh wound.
• Anti-Climax Boss: After all the time spent building Imperiex up as the main threat of the second season, he's easily dispatched in the first half of the season finale by Brainiac, who ends up becoming the true ultimate threat. Superman X is left furious that he didn't get to fulfill his life's purpose.
• Complete Monster:
  • "Sundown" two-parter: The Controller, defying the other Controllers' wishes for peace with the rest of the universe, breaks out one of their ancient weapons, the "Sun-Eater". The Controller intends to use the Sun-Eater to go on a rampage, desolating first an unpopulated solar system to illustrate what he plans to do to Earth's solar system and all the trillions of lives in it. The Controller seeks to destroy the United Planets solely to bask in the silent "perfection" of the aftermath, and it takes Ferro-Lad sacrificing himself to stop the Sun-Eater.
  • Season 2:
    • Imperiex is a warlord from the 41st century who seeks nothing less than total domination over the galaxy through sheer terror and pain. A former slave who fought his way to become a gladiator, Imperiex overthrew his oppressors and immediately turned his attentions on the rest of the galaxy, seeking to crush 44 trillion lives under his boot of dictatorship. Imperiex was thwarted by the Legion from his initial conquest, but stole one of their time travel devices and went into the past where he erased the current timeline and all life in it with Antimatter. Becoming a regular thorn in the Legion's side in the 31st century, Imperiex maims Lightning Lad while trying to kill his siblings; attempts to firebomb Cham's homeworld out of spite; and threatens to massacre the only survivors of Superman's home, Kandor. Unleashing Brainiac 1.0 onto the galaxy, Imperiex hopes to use him to bring destruction and suffering to all that live, serving as a contrast to Brainiac's desire for "order" with his own desire for pure chaos.
    • "Message in a Bottle" & "Dark Victory" two-part finale: Brainiac 1.0 was a menace from the past who quickly became one of the most dangerous foes the Legion has ever faced. Brainiac 1.0 was introduced in a flashback, where he shrinks and steals the city of Kandor from Krypton. Within Kandor was a power source that was stabilizing Krypton, but with this power source gone Krypton was soon destroyed. Brainiac 1.0 himself was destroyed long ago, but his programming resided within Brainiac 5, cut off from the other systems, waiting for a chance to be released. This chance came when Brainiac 5 accessed Brainiac 1.0's programming to gain knowledge to defeat Imperiex. Though Brainiac 1.0's knowledge was useful in defeating Imperiex, every time he used it Brainiac 1.0 was able to gain more control. Brainiac 1.0 slowly corrupted Brainiac 5, until eventually he took control of Brainiac 5's body. Then Brainiac quickly betrays Imperiex—who had helped Brainiac 1.0 take over Brainiac 5's body—killing him because he was no longer useful to him. Brainiac then proceeds with his plan to bring the entire universe under his control, by transforming all living beings in the universe into streams of data. After digitizing some planets, Brainiac returns to his home planet Colu and reprograms all the inhabitants there to serve as his army and aid in his quest to digitize the universe.
• Cult Classic: It was far from being a juggernaut like Justice League, Teen Titans (2003) or Ben 10 were, but it is still a fondly remembered cartoon with an unique take on Superman.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Some Timber Wolf fangirls hate Ultra Boy because he's Phantom Girl's boyfriend in the comics.
  • Also, some fanfic authors can't stand Shrinking Violet because Brainiac seems to like her.
  • Cosmic Boy for Lightning Lad x Saturn Girl shippers, not that it was difficult to hate him.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Alexis only got one episode and a cameo due to Executive Meddling, but she remains notably popular among fans due to the novelty of a Distaff Counterpart to Lex Luthor. Being voiced by Tara Strong also helps.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Timber Wolf x Phantom Girl have surprising chemistry and an interesting relationship in this adaptation, becoming a very popular pairing as a result, even though Ultra-Boy (Phantom Girl's usual love interest) is also present in at least one episode and she happens to show attraction to him as well.
  • Superman x Brainiac 5 of course. It helps that Lois Lane is nowhere to be seen and Superman's closest thing to a female love interest (Alexis) in this continuity also wants to kill him.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Imperiex is supposed to be the Big Bad of the show's Darker and Edgier season... and he has a silver ponytail that doesn't quite match with the rest of his ensemble.
• Faux Symbolism: The crown of Kryptonite.
• Foe Romance Subtext:
  • Drax's final scene in his episode has him a little too physically close to Superman for comfort.
  • Alexis Luthor becomes extremely possessive of Superman. She even attempts to destroy the Legion if it means having Superman all for herself.
• Fridge Horror: It took several hundred years for the Bottled City of Kandor to be released back into the universe as its own planet. Along with Superman's memory being wiped about him finally saving them, this means that Superman probably died thinking he was unable to keep his promise in the present time.
  • Timber Wolf was living in the forests in the form of a beast, Saturn Girl mentions that there were "hundreds of voices calling out for help." Given the fact that Timber Wolf had little semblance of humanity at the time, who's to say that he hasn't been eating his father's experiments in order to survive?
    • Connecting to the "hundreds of voices" thing on Rawl, chances are these were innocent people who were most likely shipwrecked on the planet, wandered around for a bit and found a lone scientist in the forest who was willing to give them shelter and protection from the predators that dwell there, once their guard was down Londo experimented on them and turned them into animals. The worst part? From what we've seen they weren't returned to normal and are stuck living in the wild as animals.
  • Knowing Lightning Lad's sister Ayla was thought to have been killed by the lightning beasts, this means before leaving Winath that Garth spent most of his childhood growing up without his twin, meaning he was probably subjected to the same prejudices against "solos" in Winathian society as Mekt was all of his life.
• Ho Yay: Brainiac 5's fanboy man-crush on Superman. Given an honest-to-gods Lampshade Hanging by Timber Wolf in the second season premiere
• Moe: Brainy. YouTube commenters can stop talking about how "freakin' adorable!" he is.
• Nightmare Fuel: "Trials."
  • In "Fear Factory," Lightning Lad is confronted by his childhood fear of a clown doll called Captain Howdy, which his brother told him would only come out during thunder storms. Seems silly at first (until you realize its name is a reference to The Exorcist), but then a gigantic, electricity spewing beast bursts out of the doll's mouth and as the second season would reveal, this was one of the lightning beasts that gave Garth and his brother their powers... and also seemingly killed their sister Ayla. So yeah, Garth had very good reason to be scared shitless.
• The Scrappy: Cosmic Boy, because he is portrayed as Good Is Not Nice, especially in the second season where he appeared more frequently with Jerkass tendencies.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Alexis Luthor, thanks to Executive Meddling. She sadly appears only twice, while being Big Bad meterial.
• Tough Act to Follow: This series was greenlit along with Ben 10 to replace Teen Titans (2003), right down to having Derrick Wyatt as the head character designer. There's no way it'd be able to avoid comparisons!
• Vindicated by History: Though the series was short-lived, its status as a Cult Classic has only further intensified over the years with new viewers recognizing the things it did right with the Legion, especially compared to the weak reception of the Legion's second animated adaption, Legion of Super-Heroes (2023).

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