Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds ( DC / Johns / Perez )
“From the moment Kal-El landed on earth until the end of time, the Time Trapper has sought to erase Superman’s impact on the universe. But the Legion of Super-Heroes have always been there to stop him. This time, though, even the Legion won’t be enough. The Time Trapper has found the ultimate weapon to carry out his plan – a twisted mirror image of the boy of steel from a parallel Earth long dead: Superboy-Prime! Who will answer the Legion’s call for help? Find out here as the Crisis of the 31st century begins!”
I’ve never been that happy with how DC has handled Superboy-Prime. I feel he deserves better than being a villain who is bounced around to various books trying to find where he fit. He became DC’s whiner-baby bad guy in Infinite Crisis, and even more of a whiner-baby in the Sinestro Corps war. Constantly searching for his “perfect” Earth, and doing nothing but complain that nothing is fair and he was somehow cheated. Get over it kid, move on.
The first pages of Legion of Three World shows us an old time Legion villain, of which I have no familiarity with because I’ve never read Legion, and he/she is the one responsible for grabbing Superboy-Prime from the either and hurling him to the 31st century, home to the all grown up Legion.
Things are not going well for the Legion either. The Earth is planet full of xenophobic racists who would rather shoot an alien then look at them. If your wondering how this happened, check out the recent Geoff Johns/Gary Frank Legion arc in Action Comics. Xenophobia isn’t the least of Earths problems, they are on the edge to leaving, or getting kicked out, of the United Planets. The U.P. is also trying to disband the Legion as they no longer see a use for them. Things get worse for the Legion when their original benefactor shows up (briefly) and more bad stuff happens.
Could things get worse? Why yes, they can!!
While the Legion is fighting for their existence, Superboy-Prime is throwing a teenage tantrum in the Superman museum. There he learns about the legacy of Superman (and Jimmy Olsen!) and of his journey to the future with the Legion. It’s there the Superboy-Prime hatches his master plan.
It’s at this time that the Legion contacts Superman for help. He educates the Legion on the terrors that Superboy-Prime has committed, but also of Superboy-Prime’s incredible acts of heroism and sacrifice during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Superman knows that there is probably no way to imprison/kill Superboy-Prime, so he decides that the only way to stop Superboy-Prime’s reign of terror is to make him remember that he’s a hero, and redeem him.
This is a great approach to a character that I feel was becoming boring. Johns will have to pull out a few tricks from his writer’s hat to make this redemption work in just two issues. The art by George Perez always excellent, and this is no exception.
While I’m not sure how this will ever tie into Final Crisis, it looks to be a great story.
Grade: B+
