Welcome to the 31st Century

[athelind]

Courtesy of the Superman Homepage.

There's a lot of whining on the forums, of course -- "It doesn't look like Timm! It looks too cartoony! What was wrong with the '90s X-Men cartoons? It's new and scary and different!" **Addendum!

Thankfully, they're far enough along in production that this won't turn into another Loonatics.

I think it looks great. It reminds me more of Star Wars: Clone Wars than anything else, and if Clone Wars taught us anything, it was that George Lucas shouldn't be allowed near his creations extremely stylized, "cartoony" design works just fine for "serious" action-adventure.*

Elements that particularly stand out, from left to right:

• Phantom Girl's khol eyeliner: just enough to be a little "spooky", without going full "I room with Raven and write bad poetry" goth.
  
• PG's little ghost-face chest logo. A vast improvement over the great big "P" she wore in the '60s, or the Interlac equivalent she wore in the '80s.
  
• Brainiac 5's purple eyes, and the Diniverse Brainiac Pawnshop Discs on his head and chest.
  
• Brainy's general design and demeanor. He's smaller than anyone else, and possibly younger, but carries himself with a cool confidence. If that 'tude carries over to the script, we may finally see a "boy genius" character in animation who's not a pathetic loser outcast.
  
• Saturn Girl's arched eyebrows and high forehead. Combined with her general demeanor, she looks like a telepath.
  
• SG's shoulder pads, hinting that her costume may be lightly armored. Yes! Armor the ego pansy! The Champions player in me approves.
  
• That kid in the middle. He looks right. Like he's exactly where he belongs. He actually conveys more of the character's iconic charisma than the Timm design of his adult self. There's a quiet confidence to him, but -- maybe it's just me -- there's a hint of barely-suppressed "This is so cool! I'm in the future! Having adventures in space!" just under the surface.
  
• Adding the Legion Belt Buckle to that classic costume works.
  
• Garth? Anakin and Harry called. They want their scar back.
  
• Seriously, though. Lightning Lad looks solid. The guy you want at your back. The Trusted Lieutenant.
  
• Timber Wolf... well, he looks a little confused and lost.

Over all, I'm looking forward to it. It should keep me at least as happy as the uneven first season of Justice League.

*(Honestly, that's a lesson that real animation fans learned more than half a century ago: stylized characters look more "real" when animated than realistically-proportioned ones do. Welcome to Uncanny Valley.)

**Note to Self: Oh, my LiveJournal is a "forum", too, isn't it? Eesh.

Comments

Perhaps it's just me, but...

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

...My first impression on looking at that picture was, "Oh. Fan-art." I think it's because of how long the necks are. What are they - flamingos?

Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Okay.

I didn't really notice the necks until you said that.

NOW I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE! AAAAAUUUUUGH!!!

Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That is kind of disturbing.

And another thing!

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

Look at the placement of those buckles! What, do they pee out of those? Are those the Happy Fun Buttons?

At this point, I just don't like the picture, so I'm going out of my way to find things to snark about.

Re: Perhaps it's just me, but...

[tephra]

I got stuck on the calves thicker than the waist thing. Easiest way to disable these guys is kick 'em in the knee.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Looks okay, but ehhh... I don't think they look cartoony enough, to be honest. Not enough geometric forms, and they look really similar.

I can't think of any that would be fun to animate. By comparison I look at Teen Titans, and those designs look like fun to animate (not that anyone gets to animate on that show who isn't working for a Korean sweatshop, but hey).

[shdragon.livejournal.com]

One of the first things I noticed was Timber Wol'f head. He looks like he's had one too many anvils dropped on him.

And I agree with your assesment of the kid in the middle. He does look like he's having so much fun he can barely contain himself. Which is awesome if that's actually part of the character.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Well, the premise is that the Legion needed help, went back in time to get The Greatest Hero Of All Time -- and overshot by a decade or so.

I think it would be really cool if they go with the current backstory -- and instead of The Kid In The Middle having implausible costumed adventures in his tiny hometown, he's just a farmboy who's not quite sure what to do with his Special Talents.

That adds a whole new level to that ever-so-sublte hint of bubbling excitement and enthusiasm.

[shdragon.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, when was the last time you went back in time over a thousand years and got it exactly right? ... I thought so. ;)

And I agree with the backstory. That would be so cool to show him in a light other then perfectness. Even he was a teenager once you know.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

My childhood memories just cried out in terror, and fell silent.

Where are the heroes I remember from Adventure comics? (#305 in particular?)

And that eye scar? Drip in the JACK comic has two and he's no hero....

[silkspider.livejournal.com]

And that eye scar? Drip in the JACK comic has two and he's no hero....

Thanks for pointing that out; now that I know that people with facial scars are likely to be violent, murdering, sadistic rapists, I can shun them, or even stare openly at their hideously maimed visages. Now I don't have to practice Not Staring at that lady with the birthmark I keep running into in the laundromat.

I hear all dragons are cruel, marauding monsters, too.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee. When I read Arcaton's comment, my first reaction was a bunch legion of "heroes" all whining, "Not in the FACE! Not in the FACE!"

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Foo. I LEARNED TO READ on those old Legion issues of Adventure, and to me, these guys LOOK like those Future Kids from the Silver Age.

They just don't all share the same physical model anymore, unlike their Swan/Schaffenburger-drawn progenitors -- or, in fact, the Bruce Timm-designed protagonists of JLU. Personally, I like the fact that the physical design of each of them says so much about their personality. Brainiac 5, for example LOOKS the way Brainy always has ACTED.

Timber Wolf's design, alas, suggests that poor Brin may not be the brightest LED on the chip -- but, then, was he ever?

[twentythoughts.livejournal.com]

I kinda like it. The only neck that really looks -wrong- is Brainiac's... I mean, dude. He looks like he's from Lollipopistan.

Timber Wolf's head, though? Eh? I mean, sure, he's an alien, and they're not always supposed to be visually appealing, but... Eh?

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

Admittedly? I don't know that to think. This is the first I've heard of this, and yes, it does look a great deal like the Clone Wars cartoon series, which may indeed be a good thing. Is Tartakovsky heading this? Superman and the two flanking him do look like they've got the leadership thing going, but the others are a bit...eh, I don't know. I will have to see this to really think anything about it, but something that keeps the comic-book cartoons going is a good idea in my book.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Tartakovsky isn't involved in this at all, to my knowledge, but the project includes several alumni of both the JLU and Teen Titans teams.