Tales From the $3.99 Bin! - Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds

Next up for the month is a more recent villain who was once a hero: Superboy-Prime. I’ve called this character by the name of “PRIME” here mostly because he ain’t worthy of the Superboy title and it gets tiring typing “Superboy-Prime” a lot. Plus, he’s actually pretty easy to make fun of. “I’ll Kill you to Death” was one phrase that was uttered from the poor, poor boy. The character first appeared in DC Comic Presents # 87 in 1985. He was from Earth-Prime which was supposed to be the “real” world of the DCU. He was a fanboy named Clark Kent who one day gained powers.

Afterwards, he went right into the action with Crisis on Infinite Earths where he, Alexander Luthor (Earth-3 version), and Superman (Earth-2 version) defeated the Anti-Monitor. He then went into limbo for 20 years only to be brought back as one of the villains for Infinite Crisis. After that, he appeared in the Sinestro Corps War as Superman-Prime since the name “Superboy” was being fought for in court. Finally, he appeared in Countdown to Final Crisis and the less said about that, the better. To make a long story short, it apparently sucked.

Today’s story is Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. It sort of ties into Final Crisis. If you wondered where Superman was while the forces of Apokalips reigned on Earth, here you go. This story was also the continuation of re-introducing the original Legion of Superheroes into current continuity. It even served as a way to acknowledge the other rebooted Legion teams. Now that is one, long story that I won’t get into here. I also remember this mini being especially late when it was released. Geoff Johns, the pusher of that storyline, is the writer. Legendary artist George Perez is on the pencils and Scott Kolbish handles the inks.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds

Writer: Geoff Johns

Pencils: George Perez

Inks: Scott Kolbish

Colors: Hi-Fi Design

Letters: Nick J. Napolitano

Editors: Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman

SYNOPSIS

The Time Trapper, one of the Legion’s villains, places a battered Superboy-Prime into the 31^st century. He comes upon Smallville and when he finds out that Superman’s name has lived on, he goes on a rampage to destroy Superman’s legacy and the Legion of Superheroes. Thanks to some information, he goes to a prison planet and releases the Legion of Super-Villains. He also recruits Mordru, a powerful magician and a few other Legion villains.

Meanwhile, the LSH is going through some changes. Ever since the storyline “Superman and the Legion of Superheroes,” they’ve been trying to get the band back together and have been dealing with politics.  The United Planets wants to disband the team. R.J. Brande, the Legion’s creator, tries to turn the crowd around, but an assassin kills him. Top all of that with PRIME and his folk causing damage and heading for Earth. The Legion call on Superman to come to the future. Superman suggests that they could try to redeem PRIME since he was once a hero.

Good luck with that, Superman.

Brainiac 5 also comes up with a plan that involves a few set pieces. He sends off members to gather pieces that will hurt PRIME. He sends Mon-El and Phantom Lass to recruit Sodam Yat, the last remaining Green Lantern. He also sends a few members back to the past to gather DNA from Lex Luthor. He even has Starman (a member who stayed in the 21st century) dig up someone from Metropolis. Then, he and other members go to the Justice League’s old headquarters to find a device that can bring two Legion teams from alternate universes to their universe. Apparently, these three teams had teamed up together in the past.

PRIME and the villains make it to Earth and attack Metropolis. Superman and what’s left of the Legion try to fend them off. Superman tries to talk some sense into PRIME but fails because PRIME is a “poo-poo head.” Luckily, they get reinforcements in the form of the two alternate Legion teams. Brainiac then sets his next plan into motion. He gets the Lightnings from each team and XS, a relative of Barry Allen, to use a Cosmic Treadmill to bring someone back from the Speed Force: Bart Allen. For those don’t know, Bart had died for a while. He quickly joins the fight against PRIME.

He's back? Okay. I did think his death wasn't that great.

Brainiac then executes the final part of his plan. He, his counterparts, and other members head to the Artic Circle to find Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. There, the body that Starman dug is found encased in the device that Superman used to come back from the dead. Unfortunately, PRIME figures out what they plan to do and hightails it to the Arctic. He almost takes the group out but other members (including Sodam Yat) show up to help. Wildfire and Dawnstar of the Legion activate the device and bring Conner Kent (Superboy) back to life. He joins the fight as well.

Now, this moment definitely deserves a "Avatar Fainting Dude" link. Yoo Hoo!

Things seem to going well when the Time Trapper grabs Superman and the three founding Legion Members and brings them to the end of time. It’s then revealed that the Time Trapper is actually an older, less-whiney version of PRIME. In order to defeat the Trapper, Saturn Girl uses her telepathy to get even more Legion teams from other time periods to show up and beat the Trapper. Superman and the three take the Time Trapper to the 31st Century where a beaten PRIME meets his older self. Instead of teaming up with him, PRIME attacks him and that causes them both to disappear from existence.

After all the other villains are captured, the teams rebuild and come together to honor the ones that fell in battle. The alternate Legions are then sent back to their respective universes and Superman takes Bart and Conner back to the 21st century. Then we get to PRIME who has finally popped up on his world, Earth-Prime, powerless. He may be glad to be back but his parents and girlfriend aren’t. They know about his horrible actions from reading the comics. Unfortunately, that does little since PRIME moves into his fearful parents’ basement, uses them as slaves, and decides to become a troll on DC Comics Message Boards...  Well, that about ends this one, folks!

This was kind of funny. Also, no wonder the message boards got taken down! Screw you, PRIME!!!

OPINION

So, what did I think when re-reading this? While it was a bit crowded, this was pretty good. It definitely felt like a throwback in some ways. Heck, having the original Legion be the main stars plays into that. Even though I’m not a big fan of the Legion, the stuff involving them was pretty good. While Superman is around, they get the main focus. Since this was Johns’ last hurrah (I think) with the team, he probably wanted it to be big. It’s probably why he also brought two other heroes back from the dead as well.

I don't know who any of these people are, but I'm invested. That's what good writing does.

 So, those resurrections… they weren’t bad. While “pulling the Lazarus card” can be tricky, it did work here with Bart and Conner. You can debate on whether they should have been brought back at all, but their returns were definitely written well. Then we get to the main villain of the piece, Superboy-Prime, aka PRIME. I did like him at points. When he was going around smashing stuff, it was fun. I’ll get to the other stuff later. The other villains are pretty much canon fodder since I don’t know anything about them. I didn’t mind that since the book was already pretty crowded.

Next, we get to the artwork. Do I need to say that it was really good? This is George Perez, after all. While this isn’t his best work on a series, it is still pretty dang good. The action and smaller moments was cool.  He made everyone look unique. You had three Legion teams running around and he still made them look different from each other. The colorist also gave the artwork a nice, vibrant look.

There aren’t a lot of things I don’t like about the mini. One of them is definitely PRIME’s character. He felt a like a caricature of himself. He definitely felt more wacky here than in some of his previous outings. It did get a little grating after a while especially when we get his ending. By the way, that was a weird one. Also, there were some points where it was a little too crowded. We actually got a previous meeting of the 3 Legions thrown at us in a couple of pages. Talk about whiplash!

Some of the Legion deaths here didn’t have much impact for me. It’s probably because I’m not a Legion fan, but even then, I don’t think any of the main Legion team dies. It’s most of the alternates that I don’t even know that die. Lastly, while the artwork was spectacular, there were some points where it didn’t look as good. It wasn’t bad but it did seem a little unpolished especially towards the end. This mini was running late at the time, after all.

In the end, this was a nice wrap-up to Johns work with the Legion. While it is heavy with Legion lore, it can be picked up and enjoyed by a casual comic fan. While this doesn’t make me want to make me check out the Legion (I got enough stuff on the plate), I could change my mind after some time.

As for PRIME, he does return for a couple o f appearances. I guess y’all can tell that he’s not one of my favorites. His turn to the dark side was one of the moments from Infinite Crisis that in retrospect felt a bit off. Also throw his constant whining about wanting his way and you get a somewhat annoying character. Still, he does have moments where he’s not that bad. Well, it’s time to look a villain that is probably cooler than PRIME. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and watch out for the Superboy-Primes in your life. They’re out there.