Legion of Three Worlds - Big Finale
Jul. 22nd, 2009 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteIt seems almost appropriate that a comic soaked in time travel would be as perpetually late as this one. But it was totally worth the wait.
Oh, it's not perfect. It turns out in the end that when confronted with his future self (Time Trapper), Superboy-Prime, being a total jerk, punches away. And somehow magically undoes both versions of himself and ends up trapped on Earth-Prime. That is, our world, where he is last seen reading this comic and posting to DC's message boards. Really. One more metacanonical punch of the fourth wall. In some ways a copout and dopey, in others rather fitting for a character who seems beyond being useful and rather nervy of a writer who seems to be having fun with three Legions, one Superman, two Superboys, and Bart Allen. It's not perfect, but it works well enough. And how can you hate a comic where Brainaic 5 himself calls something a giant cosmic reset button?
And the rest? Is kind of amazing. We learn that the most recent Legion - the one that we saw reading 1,000 year old comic books? - is from Earth-Prime. We get to hear three Legions yell "long live the Legion," and watch Kon-El and Bart declare "Titans together." We see the rebirth of the Green Lantern Corps in the 31st century. We see Brainy, Brainy and Brainy one more time. We see the former Triplicate Girl's life come together, and see Dawnstar and Wildfire together at last. We see two lost heroes come home.
And there is an amazing two page spread by George Perez that probably took him six weeks. In this spread, we see all the versions of the Legion not in play till now. LEGION. Dead Legionnaires drawn from other times. Younger Legionnaires, marveling that RJ Brande's dream becomes real. And a few lost but familiar faces from the "Five Year Gap Legion"...Kono and Kent Shakespeare are the ones I spotted so far. This is the version of the Legion I liked the most, and the one we thought we'd never see again. But apparently, they are still out there, too.
Was this the greatest comic ever? No. Occasionally Geoff gave in to his impulse to go dark and violent. As noted, not all of it makes sense. And part of me is not thrilled that the dominant Legion will be the oldest version despite two fairly good (if under-popular) reboots. But all the things that I loved about the Legion are here. The future might be rough sometimes, but the optimism that was there from the start in 1958 is still with us. And I am looking forward to seeing what comes next for the Legion. Again.
But then I never really did fall out of love with the Legion. Through the Five Year Gap, through The Quiet Darkness and Batch SW6, through two reboots and wars and Crises, I was always waiting. And maybe, once again, it was worth the wait.
We will see next month, as Adventure Comics presents new tales of the original Legion (as well as the return of Kon-El). Till then...LONG LIVE THE LEGION!
Oh, it's not perfect. It turns out in the end that when confronted with his future self (Time Trapper), Superboy-Prime, being a total jerk, punches away. And somehow magically undoes both versions of himself and ends up trapped on Earth-Prime. That is, our world, where he is last seen reading this comic and posting to DC's message boards. Really. One more metacanonical punch of the fourth wall. In some ways a copout and dopey, in others rather fitting for a character who seems beyond being useful and rather nervy of a writer who seems to be having fun with three Legions, one Superman, two Superboys, and Bart Allen. It's not perfect, but it works well enough. And how can you hate a comic where Brainaic 5 himself calls something a giant cosmic reset button?
And the rest? Is kind of amazing. We learn that the most recent Legion - the one that we saw reading 1,000 year old comic books? - is from Earth-Prime. We get to hear three Legions yell "long live the Legion," and watch Kon-El and Bart declare "Titans together." We see the rebirth of the Green Lantern Corps in the 31st century. We see Brainy, Brainy and Brainy one more time. We see the former Triplicate Girl's life come together, and see Dawnstar and Wildfire together at last. We see two lost heroes come home.
And there is an amazing two page spread by George Perez that probably took him six weeks. In this spread, we see all the versions of the Legion not in play till now. LEGION. Dead Legionnaires drawn from other times. Younger Legionnaires, marveling that RJ Brande's dream becomes real. And a few lost but familiar faces from the "Five Year Gap Legion"...Kono and Kent Shakespeare are the ones I spotted so far. This is the version of the Legion I liked the most, and the one we thought we'd never see again. But apparently, they are still out there, too.
Was this the greatest comic ever? No. Occasionally Geoff gave in to his impulse to go dark and violent. As noted, not all of it makes sense. And part of me is not thrilled that the dominant Legion will be the oldest version despite two fairly good (if under-popular) reboots. But all the things that I loved about the Legion are here. The future might be rough sometimes, but the optimism that was there from the start in 1958 is still with us. And I am looking forward to seeing what comes next for the Legion. Again.
But then I never really did fall out of love with the Legion. Through the Five Year Gap, through The Quiet Darkness and Batch SW6, through two reboots and wars and Crises, I was always waiting. And maybe, once again, it was worth the wait.
We will see next month, as Adventure Comics presents new tales of the original Legion (as well as the return of Kon-El). Till then...LONG LIVE THE LEGION!
