Brian Michael Bendis is a busy man. He’s currently hard at work writing his final issues of the Justice League main series, he’s still writing both the Justice League/League of Super-Heroes crossover and Naomi, and his and David Mack’s Eisner-nominated Cover is coming to HBO Max as an adult animated series. Apparently, Bendis’ script for the Cover pilot was really well-received, because now he’s doing a Legion of Super-Heroes TV series for the streaming service, too.
The writer made the announcement in a sprawling post on his substack newsletter, Jinxworld, after mentioning turning in his Cover pilot to HBO Max execs [sic]:
“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. 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 SUPER-HEROES 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,” Bendis continued, before adding: “Facts: it’s very early goings but I can tell you this will be an adaptation of the Legion of Super-Heroes that Ryan Sook and I have been working on the last few years. I think Legion of Super-Heroes is among the greatest franchises in the history of comics and I’m as honored to be curating them as I was Spider-Man.”
Bendis’ own Legion of Super-Heroes comic series, which ran for 12 issues, brought Superman’s son, Jon Kent, into the 31st century to join the team. It also pitted the Legion against General Zod and the Kryptonian-hating Rogol Zaar, introduced the joy-based Gold Lantern, and teased a “great darkness” for future issues (which will be resolved in the upcoming Justice League vs. Legion of Super-Heroes crossover Bendis is also working on). It will be interesting to see how the writer brings this esoteric series, which draws heavily from his prior run on Superman, and will eventually incorporate that work on Justice League, into a show that people who haven’t been reading his work can grok.
Bendis is announcing this incredibly early, so it’s very likely we won’t be seeing this Legion of Super-Heroes until 2023 or so, assuming HBO picks it up at all beyond the pilot order. But since it keeps renewing Titans and Doom Patrol, and there’s movies like Batgirl on the way, the streaming service seems keen enough on DC Comics content that it feels likely the Legion will have their chance, too.
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