Legion of Three Worlds: How does it hold up?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I recently re-read Geoff Johns & George Perez's Legion of Three World--excuse me, I mean FINAL CRISIS: Legion of Three Worlds (Why Didio? Why?)

While I have never been a major Legion fan, despite multiple attempts at getting into the labyrinthine and convoluted franchise, I thought this story did a pretty good job of laying out who the team was, what their relationships were while also incorporating all the various reboots, and false starts that plagued it since Levitz, then Giffen left the book decades ago.

Granted, it probably helps that I find Superboy-Prime a delight. He's every stupid, ignorant, entitled fanboy meta-joke wrapped up with the terrifying power of the Pre-Crisis Superman's power levels. If you don't enjoy Johns's gleeful ribbing of the worst excesses of fanboy culture that Superboy-Prime represents, I can totally get why this story might rub you the wrong way.

As to the various Legionaires themselves--and there are dozens upon dozens of them featured in this story--I think Johns did a pretty good job of introducing me to them all, some of whom I had only a passing familiarity to. A lot of them get killed off, but no one's death felt like a character was being short-changed to me. They all got heroic send-offs and even the alternate versions of the Legions were given the proper respect before being sent off to limbo, likely to never be seen again.

It was also nice seeing a Superman with all his history intact, this was during the brief time before Flashpoint when the the Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis parts of the DCU had finally come together and were both being given their due.

George Perez was in fine form, as always. Nobody does giant, character-dense crossover event battle scenes like Perez. He also managed to make all the various alternate versions of the Legionaires distinct from each other beyond the costumes, which is a truly remarkable feat. Meanwhile, Geoff Johns was having the time of his life playing with all these different toys, with his black humor keeping the whole thing from ever taking itself too seriously.

What did you guys think? Keep in mind, I am a casual LSH fan at best. How do the more hardcore LSH fans feel about this story?

[Flash Gordon]

I'm a big fan of the Legion but I can't say I enjoyed it at all. I loved Johns SUPERMAN AND THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES so it was an unfortunate let down.

Not a good showing for Johns.

[Assam]

The Legion is my favorite team in comics and I'm not a fan of this story. There's some really good bits spread throughout (The three Brainies bickering, RebootGarth getting his original appearance back and Shikari meeting back up with her Legion, the revival of Kon and Bart, both having their best characterizations post-2003, Bart and Jenni's interactions and some other good character moments) but on the whole the story just reeks of Johns' cliches, especially the pointless character deaths, and isn't a strong send-off for the Reboot and Threeboot teams.

This is without getting into the fact that I feel Johns should have been banned from ever touching the Legion, its characters and its world after he blew up the Reboot Legion's universe for no reason.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Perez's art aside, it really didn't do much for me. I've only ever really read bits and pieces of the Legion of Superheroes, so maybe that was the problem, but I thought the whole thing was a total mess that was more about continuity porn than an interesting story or compelling characters. But, alas, that is Geoff Johns at his worst.

[WillieMorgan]

I'm also not particularly impressed. I love the Legion, and I love Geoff Johns' work in the main, but this is one of his weaker entries.

I had cause to reread this not too long ago. I moved house around three years ago and this graphic novel was one that got mislaid during the move. When I finally got around to buying it again I reread it. The deaths leave me cold for a start.

I also loathe Superboy Prime. He is unquestionably my least favourite DC character of all time. I get the meta commentary that Johns' was looking to make there but dislike the character in the same way that I dislike that element of fandom. If I wanted to hear the self-entitled ramblings of a deluded fanboy then I could have just accessed sites like this back then. I didn't need that sort of thing in the comics themselves. It was an insider joke that I got but found as intolerable as the fans themselves. I also hate his presence in Sinestro Corps War.

[Nomads1]

Not really what I expected of a meeting of two giant creators with three Legions at their back and call. Basically the Legion feels like supporting characters of a Superman tale to bring back Conner Kent and Bart Allen into the DCU. And quite a weak tale at that, I might add. The Reboot and the Threeboot Legions are basically there to add to the body count. It was a poor send-off to both teams. Perez even let's the ball driop on the art in the later issues (I think he suffered a hand injury or something at the time, and it shows). It's not like the WORST thing I've ever read (really, by far, it's not), but I did find it very disappinting.

This is without getting into the fact that I feel Johns should have been banned from ever touching the Legion, its characters and its world after he blew up the Reboot Legion's universe for no reason.

I agree 100%. The Reboot/post-Zero Hour/ DnA Legion was the team I found had most potential, and that (plus making them the Wanderers to never be seen again) signed the death certificate of a propriety that still had a lot to give us. A shame.

Peace

[TruthAndJustice]

I'm not that big a Legion fan, and I was afraid this story would be pure "insider baseball," but I thought it was a lot of fun.

Then again, with George Perez drawing a Superman story, I can't complain too much, regardless of the writer.

[WonderScott]

I'm casual Legion fan as well and I remember enjoying it for the spectacle of it all. I know most of the characters from reading about them and from reading Waid's Threeboot Legion. ::ducks for cover on the latter as I know a lot of people hate it::

It was fun for me to sort all the character iterations from each reality in a Who's Who sort of way and I love a good multiversal conflagration of characters.

[SJNeal]

I wish this had been it's own thing, with nothing to do with Final Crisis. I think that would've removed the elements I didn't care for, and allowed Perez and Johns to tell a dedicated LoSH story.

[Sacred Knight]

Bart and Conner's return are awesome. Other than that I'd rate it as okay.

[Captain Britain of Earth 20]

Great read that brought Superboy & Kid Flash back. If you are a Legion fan you will love it

[DavidRA]

The artwork was great, but the story was only average.

[astro@work]

It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe it was the Perez artwork that took it over the top for me. His art always ups the ante on a big story.

I do remember thinking at the time that as much as I wanted Conner and Bart back, they really had little to do with the Legion.
Having followed all 3 Legions, it was also fun to see them all interacting. At that point I had already figured out the Reboot and Threeboot were going away, so I was just glad to see them getting an established corner in continuity. I felt like "well, at least I know they're still out there somewhere".

[Midnighter]

Saddens me to hear the overall lack of interest in the Legion. Man ,such fun stories in the bronze age and then in the 80's it really became something truly special. I don't understand why people think it's convoluted except for the rebooting aspect.

It's tied so deeply into ,not only Superman lore, but DCU lore as a whole. As a matter of fact I can't think of a single property besides Superman that best represents the DCU.

The Legion should be one of the DCU's pillar franchises. It just needs someone with vision that doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water.

[Sutekh]

It was neat to see the Legion(s) at all, and the art was fantastic. I was glad to see Conner back, because I really liked him, both in his own book, back in the day, and in PAD's Young Justice run, and even in John's later Teen Titans mess.

But some of the characterization was just painfully bad, and there was far too much focus on Superboy-Prime, who is darn close to my least favorite character in all of DC's catalog. As a fan of characters like Saturn Queen, who had, at that time, fairly recently had a storyline in which she used time travel shenanigans to raise Kal-El as her child and turn Superman into her own personal super-slave, but then in Legion of 3 Worlds, she's portrayed as a wide-eyed fangirl of Superboy-Prime, instead of the supremely confident masterful manipulator she had been so recently characterized as, so, along with various others following like sheep (the brash and imperious Lightning Lord, for instance), it was kind of annoying.

And while I'm not a rabid Threeboot fan (are there any?), the deaths of that team's Sun Boy and Element Lad felt egregious. The death of classic continuity characters like Rond Vidar annoyed me at least as much, and led to an appearance by *another* of my least favorite DC characters, Sodam Yat, the universes oldest and most powerful whiny bag of useless.

Seeing three Brainys bickering, three Ultra Boys cheering, three Lightning Lads disagreeing about how to pronounce 'Winath,' etc. made me want to see more of Legionnaires who don't have otherworldly dopplegangers, like Tyroc and Tellus.