Brian Michael Bendis Will Bring DC’s 31st Century ‘Legion of Superheroes’ To HBO Max
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Comic-Book superstar creator Brian Michael Bendis announced that he’s developing a Legion of Superheroes animated series for HBO Max.
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The AV Cub: It’s been a few years since DC Comics convinced longtime Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis to defect, but parent company Warner Bros. is clearly still invested in keeping the guy happy—so invested, apparently, that it went to Bendis and asked if there’s anything he’d like to make for HBO Max, seemingly giving him carte blanche to pitch literally anything.
His response, courtesy of his most recent newsletter: “I may have yelled the word LEGION louder than you want to in a normal adult person business meeting.”
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From his newsletter: So, miracle of miracles, HBO then asked what else I would want to do and if there’s any DC properties I thought would make an interesting show.
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I may have yelled the word LEGION louder than you want to in a normal adult person business meeting.
So yeah, the headline today is…
HBO Max has put me to work on a LEGION OF SUPERHEROES TV SHOW.
At the moment it is being developed as an adult animated show. Can you tell I am jumping up and down about this? I’ve been working on it for a while and last week I was sent to the next phase.
“Hey, bald dude! Didn’t you just last newsletter tell us that you were anti-bragging? That you had somehow matured out of bragging? How is this not bragging?”
That’s an excellent question, voice in my head. but I’m a die hard Legion fan! I know Legion news can be… infrequent. So many diehard Legion fans follow me so I asked special permission to update all of you on this project in development.
Facts: its very early goings but I can tell you This will be an adaptation of the Legion of superheroes that Ryan Sook and I have been working on the last few years.
And just like that series, on sale now, it will harken back to so many classics while at the same time doing what Legion does: pushing all.
I think Legion of superheroes is among the greatest franchises in the history of comics and I’m as honored to be curating them as I was Spider-man.
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Bendis is being feted for his Spider-Man run which much of the blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home is based on. Bendis also created his successor: Mile Morales.
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From DC Comics: The Legion of Super-Heroes is a 30th Century inter-galactic team of super-powered teenagers and young adults. Inspired by the legend of Superboy, they were founded by Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl under the funding of an eccentric millionaire they had saved named R.J. Brande. This cast expands to include dozens of members with a diverse array of powers and personalities.
Legion published by DC Comics was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino. They first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958).
Initially, the team was closely associated with the original Superboy character (Superman when he was a teenager), and was portrayed as a group of time travelers. Later, the Legion’s origin and back story were fleshed out, and the group was given its own monthly comic. Eventually, Superboy was removed from the team altogether and appeared only as an occasional guest star.
The team has undergone two major reboots during its run. The original version was replaced with a new rebooted version following the events of the “Zero Hour” storyline in 1994 and another rebooted team was introduced in 2004. A fourth version of the team, nearly identical to the original version, was introduced in 2007.
In 2019, DC announced a new series written by Bendis and drawn by Ryan Sook.
Bendis showed his love explaining that the Legion is “among the greatest franchises in the history of comics” and that he’s has honored to be working with them as he was when he was writing for Spider-Man.
His goal with this animated series, like the comics he’s writing, is to push “all the ideas of superheroes forward in every direction.”
The AV Club: This is all very early, with Bendis even noting that “animation takes a loooong time” and that “you may not hear anything about this for a while,” but it will reportedly be an “adult animated show” whenever it does happen.
