Nov 10 2008
Final Crisis - Legion of 3 Worlds #1
Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Monday, November 10th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!
Warning:
This is a new disclaimer I’m going to be including for the next two weeks during my Final Crisis reviews. Everything I know about the DC Universe I learned from watching Justice League Unlimited. Thusly, I am most definitely a DC neophyte, and I’m sure that has tainted my perspective of this enormous DC crossover event. Namely, I found that I did not understand a lot of what was going on. I sort of have a feel for things now that I’ve read EVERY Final Crisis book. But in order to save you from having to do the same, I’m going to be including a bit more summary than usual - which some might claim teeters on the edge of spoilers. So if you already plan on reading EVERY Final Crisis title, I recommend you skip this blog for now. Otherwise, enjoy the next two weeks of CRISIS!
Today’s Issue:
Final Crisis - Legion of 3 Worlds #1 is (once again) the first of a five issue mini-series that ties in to Final Crisis. This series focuses on The Legion of Super-Heroes, a group of heroes operating in the 31st century. This first issue, published August, 2008, was written by Geoff Johns (Flash, Infinite Crisis) with pencils by George Perez (Avengers, Crisis on Infinite Earths).
Premise/ Summary [SPOILER ALERT!]:
Someone from the end of time brought Super Boy Prime (the big bad guy who apparently was responsible for the first Crisis) into the year 3008. Here, he finds a museum dedicated to Superman, which pisses him off. When he finds out that in the future he isn’t considered one of the important villains, he decides that this needs to be rectified. He goes and frees a whole bunch of big baddies and they team up to take down The Legion. Meanwhile, some sort of intergalactic council decides to disband the Legion of Super-Heroes because of all sorts of Xenophobia (prejudice against aliens). So the Legion - refusing to be put down - call on Superman (yes - they summon him from the past as easily as one would hail a cab) to help deal with THEIR current crisis. They decide their only hope is to join forces with the power of two other alternate universes’ Legions - but Superman insists that the only way to beat Super Boy Prime is to REASON with him.
Awesome Parts:
This book has some of the greates panel layouts I have ever witnessed. It was not uncommon for there to be 10 panels in a page - sometimes as many as 14 - yet the pages never felt cluttered. This book has even more crammed into it than most of these Final Crisis books. Super Boy Prime also has a great line when he first realizes where he is. “Oh great. I’m in the stupid future.” That instantly captured for me who this character is - he’s angry about everything, but crazy adventures don’t even phase him. Also, the Superman museum was a great way of getting across some much needed exposition not just to us - the audience - but to Super Boy Prime as well. The fact that the museum was curated by a hologram of Jimmy Olsen just added to the hilarity.
Un-Awesome Parts:
First off - what does ANY of this have to do with Final Crisis? That being said, a lot of my problems with this issue have nothing to do with the writing of this particular issue but with problems in the underlying structure of the DC Universe. If this story takes place in a future that Superman apparently visits on a semi-regular basis… then Final Crisis can’t really have any long-lasting impact, can it? And if interdimensional travel between the 52 universes is so easy, then the basic premise of everything is flawed. They touched on this in Trinity (see my review on September 3rd, 2008.) Basically, Superman would never rest. Based upon his character and his ability to constantly be helping some of the more downtrodden universes, and given the apparent ease of traveling between them, Superman would never stop helping people. He would ALWAYS have something to do in one universe or another. Same with Wonder Woman. Maybe not Batman, maybe not Green Lantern. But I’m sure there are other heroes, too, who - given their characters - and given the apparent ease of traveling between dimensions - would never rest, and would never stay put, content in their relatively peaceful universe. But again - that’s just a flaw of one of the basic premises of the structure of the DC Universe. It has nothing to do with this particular issue.
My Recommendation:
I recommend you pick up Legion of 3 Worlds #1 just to admire the panel work. This is a true work of comic book art. The story itself I didn’t care for too much. The Super Boy Prime plot looks promising - but all that talk about Xenophobia involved characters I just didn’t care one bit about. And all those problems with the basic structure of the DC Universe are going to haunt me all night! But the book IS worth picking up.
That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold
