Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds

Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds #1 of 5
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by George Perez and Scott Koblish
Covers by George Perez

by The Scarlet Avenger

So, let me begin this article by saying that I was never a guy who really read Legion Of Super-Heroes comic books, and one of the reasons I am reading this series is because of the great George Perez. To see him draw all of these Legionaires in one series harkens back to his work on Crisis On Infinite Earths. Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like the Legion, (I did actually find myself reading the current vol. of Legion Of Super-heroes) on the contrary, the group was always one of my favorite teams. The problem was two-fold…I could never really get a grasp on the continuity with the amount of Legion books (I think there are currently 5 volumes of books and obviously 3 current teams)… two, I hate time travel story lines, and the reason I hate them, or dislike might be a better word, is that no one can ever get a time travel story correct, because the story deals with time, and when it comes to time, there is no absolute, no certainty of the stories outcome, regardless of the outcome… and no resolution, I could go on and on.
Well, back to Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds #1, The story
begins with the Time Trapper (an old enemy of The Legion) gazing
into space reflecting on his hatred for The Legion. He then plucks
a body, who turns out to be Superboy Prime from the depths of
time and space and slings him to the 31^st century, where he lands
in Metropolis and begins to spread some carnage. Prime then
heads to the Superman Museum and is confronted by a Jimmy
Olsen virtual tour guide who begins to school Prime on the history
of Superman, the Legion, and villains from Supermans history.
Prime then spots, in the villain chamber of the museum a faint
glimpse, in a back storage area, a statue of himself,
“Superboy Prime”. Virtual Jimmy goes on to tell Prime that
“Superboy Prime” was more of an ”annoyance” than a threat
to Superman as one of his “villains”. At the same time, the
Legion is being interrogated at a meeting with the United Planets
and the UE are debating the fate and worth of “The Legion” as a force for good. The human population on earth seems to be going through a backlash of alien beings on the planet, called xenophobia.Thus the appearance of a long least scene character very instrumental in the lives of the legion appears at the meeting, and stuns the Legion and the United Planets council alike. Back to Superboy Prime, he gets information, yet again from virtual Jimmy about the evil Legion of Super -Villians, and proceeds to free all of them (including the three most powerful members, Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen and Cosmic King) from the prison planet Takron - Galtos. He is then chosen as the leader of the new LOSV. Superman is then summoned to the future by the Legion to help with the capture of Prime, and the summoning of two other Legion groups is also required…thus “The Legion Of Three Worlds”. Now there are other aspects of the story going on as well (I’m not letting everything out). Geoff Johns has his hands full with this story, not to mention that writing a Legion book is hard enough, but throw in two other Legion teams, and he just might go mad on his laptop!!! This story looks like it will intertwine with several other stories involving the three Legion teams, including the Earth-Man storyline recently played out in Action Comics. For those who don’t have a masters degree in “Legion 101” I would suggest either 2 things…research as much of the Legion as your brain can handle, or just pick up this issue and enjoy the superb art by Gerge Perez and inks by Scott Koblish. Keep an open mind when reading this issue, knowing that Mr. Johns will take you for a very cool ride and straighten it all out by the end of the series.
Of all the Final Crisis tie ins, this series seems to be the most exciting. With Superboy Prime involved, we can expect a heavy body count, (not that I am a fan of that) but the battle scenes in the next several issues should be a doozy. Mr. Perez is at his best here, with Koblish's inking fitting right in. Mr. Perez must be salavating at the chance to draw so many characters at once.
So it's safe to say that if a non-Legion reader like me can read this, then so can you.