Legion of Three Worlds - Big Finale

[sdelmonte]

It 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!

Comments

[badninja.livejournal.com]

I haven't read this yet. I'm scared to, even though it has Bart and Kon, because I dont know what they did to Jenni, or if they even showed her. I'm tired of people not showing her. They made her one of the most important characters in 4.5, and yet nobody remembers her.

What legion are we going to be left with, now?

Also I love the meta of superboy prime punching himself. Also Brainiac 5 lolololol i need to icon that now.

This makes me want to play DC in the bar again. It makes me eye the fact I have 5 character slots left. Oh lord.

[sdelmonte]

The Legion that DC seems to be using now is the pre-Crisis version as reimagined by Johns last year. The door is wide open to the others coming back, though.

And I think you will be happy with what they do with Jenni.

Personally, if I didn't feel like I had enough pups (with cartoonCyborg in the wings), I might try my hand at a Brainy.

[badninja.livejournal.com]

I'd hoped it be 4.5, but in a way if they've been given a proper sendoff, then I'm happy. Is it true that Kon is going to be in the legion? What are they doing with Bart?

Cybooorggggg. :D

Oh, awesome. I'll make sure to get ahold of it now, since I always trust your word on comics. <3

I know my brother wants to try his hand at a Robin if any got cleared off the cast list. If he does that, I'm definitely bringing Kon back.

[sdelmonte]

Kon is returning to the present and getting his own series. I was hoping he'd stay in the future, but I think that it's likely he will interact with the Legion again at some point given that the second feature in his book will be the LSH.

Bart is featured in the (hit and miss) Flash: Rebirth comic, but his ultimate role is still up in the air.

If you read just one comic with "Final Crisis" stamped on the cover, it should be this one. Especially since it has nothing to do with it. Might as well say "Secret Invasion" or "Transformers."

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

How did I not know you are an LSH fan?

I've been out of the loop for about two decades, though. If you have the books, I would love to arrange with you to get caught up, somehow....

We'll talk at the housefilk, no doubt.

[the_croupier]

Put me down as another Jenni fan, and I agree, Johns handled her well. We even got an Andromeda sighting. I was content.

But I have to say, while I've enjoyed all three Legions (three plus, really), the reboot Legion remains my favorite. Plus, coming after the return of Hal and Barry, you have to wonder when the continuity rollback at DC is actually going to stop.

[sdelmonte]

My fave is still the Five Years Later team, even though that series was as dark and violent as anything Johns has done. It was as close as real SF as any superhero comic came.

I think the rollbacks will end only when one tanks badly. Any bets on the next Flash series?

[the_croupier]

I really don't know how to call that one. By the second issue of Hal's rebirth miniseries I was completely hooked.

The Flash miniseries hasn't done much for me yet, though I'm very happy to see the generations Waid set up being brought back into continuity (where's Max, though?). If Johns does just that, I'll be happy, but I don't think he's come up with enough yet to carry a strong new Barry-centric series. Plus, there's the point you've made that a broody, dark Barry isn't really Barry.

Then again, I might just be hard to please. I really wanted to see Hal back, but 'my' Flash is Wally, not Barry, so I probably need to be sold a little more this time around.

[sdelmonte]

The funny thing is that while I obviously love Barry, Wally far exceeded him as a character and a concept. Problem is, I think that Wally's story ended with the birth of the twins. Just as Barry's ended with his death. And it's too soon for Bart to be the Flash.

So what would please me - and what will not happen when neither Marvel or DC are interested in anything new - is a complete reworking of the Flash idea that doesn't have any of the previous Flashes involved directly.

[the_croupier]

Ow. There's one of those ideas that makes a lot of sense and probably is the only thing that would work at this point--but it would break my heart because I'm still too invested in the characters.

Though even I have to admit, Waid's recent flame-out took away any real chance of going back to the Flash of the '90s.

The shame is, if they'd taken their time and put a good writer on it, Bart might have made a more convincing Flash than he did. But they tried to do a rush job and now it's going to take longer for him to grow into the role a second time.

And maybe in the end what we need to see are the first steps toward the twins becoming the focus of the story.