Legacy
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Contents
Story Synopsis
TV listing
Superman unknowingly saves the life of Alexis, one of the wealthiest people in the galaxy. Alexis and Superman become fast friends, but when Superman's Legion responsibilities get in the way of their friendship, Alexis decides to do something about it...
Expanded synopsis
A large robot (with a female voice) climbs up the side of a building and jumps off, soaring through the traffic below. The girl in the robot suit, Alexis, tries to eject from the suit before it crashes but Superman saves her before she hits the ground. She thanks him and haughtily flies off in her car with her robot butler Wodehouse. Back at the Legion Clubhouse, Superman tells the Legion he met "this girl" today, and sees her picture on the "Tattler" screen that Phantom Girl is watching. The Legionnaires tell him that she's the richest girl in the galaxy, and just as spoiled. After telling him that she's way out of his league, Wodehouse shows up at the Clubhouse and gives Superman an invitation to a charity event. The Legionnaires look in stunned silence, but Brainiac 5 tells him that he can't go since he's schedule for patrol instead - it's the optimum time to look for the Scavengers. Superman offers the next two nights patrol with Brainiac instead. At the party, the spoiled guests make fun of Superman, but Alexis dismisses them and she decides to leave instead. When Superman suggests that's the end of the evening, she steals a motorcycle (Wodehouse pays the owner for it) and sets out racing Superman around New Metropolis to the Metro Internet building. As the largest shareholder, she has an office there, so they play video games and bond over common themes in their lives: hard to make friends, high expectations set for them for adulthood, etc. Meanwhile, the rest of the Legion has found the Scavengers and are in a battle at a weapons depot, and call Superman for support - but he's busy playing a game with Alexis and turns his communicator off. Brainiac 5 gets his arm blown off and collapses.
Back at the clubhouse, Superman realizes that he disregarded the communicator for the wrong reason, he thought it was another of Brainy's pointless updates. Alexis invites Superman out again, but the Legion needs him to help look for the Scavengers. He tries to turn her down, but she convinces him to spend an hour with her - which turns into all night, causing him to miss his patrol shift with Brainy, who is understandably upset. They get an alert from Wodehouse that Alexis is in trouble, and Superman goes to save her. Superman rushes to the Metro Internet building and fights a giant robot attacking her - but it turns out to be Wodehouse in disguise, she just wanted him to visit her again. She's upset that he chooses to be with the Legion, who needs him, rather than with her, who wants him, and vows to do something about the competition. Back at the Scavengers HQ, it's taking all of their tech to avoid the Legion's and Saturn Girl's scans. Suddenly, Alexis shows up with a cache of weapons, asking for their help.
The Legion recieves a distress call from the Aalt Cloud, a region so radioactive that only Superman can survive. After he leaves, the Scavengers (in new armor) invade the Legion clubhouse, led by Alexis. The battle rages through the building. Superman finds a beacon out in the Aalt Cloud with Alexis' company logo, and races back to Earth. Alexis defeats all four Legionnaires, and is surprised when Superman comes back and still chooses to side with his downed teammates. He defeats and destroys Wodehouse. She tries to blow him up again, but her suit malfunctions and explodes. Superman rescues her, but in the aftermath, her long red hair has fallen out, leaving her bald. A short time later, in prison, Alexis (whose hair has started to grown back) tinkers with the Wodehouse's head to bring him around. She's grateful to the Legion for helping her figure out what she wants to do with her life - as she stabs a screwdriver into the Legion logo. On her prison uniform, in Interlac, is her last name: Luthor.
Cast
Legionnaires
The following appear in the episode:
The following are mentioned or depicted but do not appear:
Villains
- Scavengers, a gang of technology thieves
- Alexis Luthor, a socialiate turned sociopath (last name revealed only in Interlac writing)
Other Characters
Miscellaneous
- Transmatter Gate
- The Tattler, a celebrity gossip tabloid
- Jovian Power Charms, something collected by Alexis
- stuffed Lorg, a possible outfit at a costume party
- Polthorn races
Locations
- Makathor, Alexis' private planet (mentioned but not shown)
- Boston sector, a part of New Metropolis (mentioned but not shown)
- The Metro Internet building
- Titan (mentioned but not shown)
- Rimbor (mentioned but not shown)
- The Aalt Cloud, where the radiation levels are too high for humans (spelling taken from closed-captioning text)
Trivia about the episode
- Lightning Lad asks Superman if he went through "another" transmatter gate to Mars, suggesting that he had done so before. Some unrecorded events have taken place since Superman mentions to Alexis that he's busy on patrol and has not seen much of the city.
- When Superman sees Alexis' picture, the logo for the Tattler and the word "Alexis" are spelled correctly in Interlac. At the end of the episode, Alexis' last name "Luthor" is printed on her prison outfit in Interlac as well.
- The city's name is mentioned as New Metropolis.
- Timber Wolf is away on Rimbor.
- Phantom Girl has the power to disrupt electronics as she phases through it
- Alexis' robot butler Wodehouse was named after British author P. G. Wodehouse, whose most famous character is a British butler named Jeeves.
- While playing outer-space baseball with Alexis, Superman hits a fly ball that bounces off a satellite that strongly resembles the Justice League Watchtower (from the DCAU Justice League series).
- Alexis steals a motorcycle from a man who resembles and speaks like Lobo.
- Alexis' last name, Luthor, is never revealed in this episode, unless the viewer can read Interlac.
Quotes
- Brainiac 5, to Superman: "There's no 'Alexis' in 'Team'."
- Phantom Girl, about Brainiac 5: "Ooh, someone needs a grouchy chip removed!"
Adaptations
The story of Alexis's path from socialite to super-villain is derived from the Silver Age origin of Lex Luthor, from Adventure Comics #271. Lex lived in Smallville and was a big fan of Superboy. One day when experimenting in his lab, a fire broke out, and Superboy used his super-breath to blow out the fire. Unfortunately, the fumes destroyed his experiments and caused his hair to fall out. Luthor vowed revenge on Superboy, who he thought was jealous of Luthor's achievements. In the Silver Age, the teenage and adult Lex Luthor tried to destroy the Legion several times.
In this episode, Alexis's hair fell out as a result of Superboy snubbing her for the Legion, causing her to want to destroy the Legion in revenge.
