FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #3 (OF 5)
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I must have taken dumb pills this morning. It happened in The Boys, and it happened in this issue. I am completely lost. With this mini series, Geoff Johns did a gutsy thing: he took a complicated set of superheroes that comprise a giant team…and then multiplied by three. What’s resulted, for me at least, is that there are so many characters with so many name variations from so many different parallel universes that I’m cross eyed. I had a hell of a time following what was going on, and while I was able to get a general idea of what the overall arc of the story was, I missed out on the all the nuance and details of the story. I can tell you that a they fought Superboy and some more Legion guys showed up and there’s something going on with Luthor and some Kid Flash came from the Speed Force. But the who’s, the why’s and how’s are lost on me.
Adding to my confusion is the art. While Perez’s pencils are in top form each of these panels are packed to the gills with stuff. From a storytelling perspective, this makes for a jarring experience as you spend a majority of the time trying to discern what’s going on in the panel and how that action is gelling with the words on the page. It’s just too much sensory overload, and though Perez is drawing some amazing things, these amazing things are lost on me.
I don’t know what the problem is with the issue. I’m hesitant to blame Johns because we all know he is a spectacluar writer, and I don’t want to say that its Perez because his art is fantastic. It could just be a matter of the creators biting off too much. But I think I’m going to side with my general disinterest and complete lack of knowledge of the Legion of Superheroes. Maybe with more background or setup, all this would be less confusing and matter more, but for me, this issue was not so great.
Art: 4 - Very Good
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If you’ve read DC comics for the last few years nothing in this issue should be confusing at all.
– Ion you should know well from Sinestro Corps War. Mon-El from any number of Superman stories.
– The Kid Flash at the end there was Bart Allen, the only man to ever kick Prime’s ass.
– Whatever’s happening with Luthor’s hair will be explained next issue or the one after that.
– As for the Legion proper, you really only need to know who the original Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Sun Boy and Lightning Ladd/Lass are.
The actual story is as simple and classic as superhero comics can get – Prime winds up in the 31st century, goes nuts and recruits all the villains of the universe to exact chaos on everything he doesn’t like. Knowing some of the villains adds to the experience, but it’s not necessary in the least. Just know that they’re BAD people. Prime’s the only one that matters. The good guys on the other hand recruit Superman from the present and Ion and Mon-El. As of now, they’re fighting for the future. That’s all there is to the story.
This is essentially a follow up to Johns’ Legion arc in Action Comics #858-863. If you read those you pretty much have all the necessary background to the Legion and a few of the villains that you need for this series.
The story is simple, but it’s needlessly complicated with TONS of continuity porn. MyManD notes a few basic things, but… I’m sorry, this book is filled with tiny little details that only a few folks know about. And that’s just kinda lame.
Don’t get me wrong: at various points, I’ve read all the incarnations of the Legion that are focused on here, so I get a lot of the little in-jokes and character bits. I’m technically one of the targets of a book like this. But you know what? That does NOT make it a good story. This is a simple, fairly boring story stuffed with tiny little details that are just laid in there for the uber-fans. Disappointing. I think your 2 stars for story are more than sufficient.
Hey, what’s wrong with a bit of continuity porn? It’s what Johns excels at. Plus, there isn’t so much there that it distracts. Afterall, if you don’t know it’s continuity porn, how can you be distracted by it?
Still, I think the crux of this arc is your personal mileage on Prime himself. However much you love/like/dislike/despise this series lies almost entirely on his shoulders. Sure, the Legions are there (plus in the title), but like Johns noted this is Prime’s story first and foremost. Personally, I am (seemingly in the minority) a big Prime fan. I like the fact that he’s essentially the uber DC nerd, given ultimate power and almost none of the moreal compass to steer him.
It’s because of that that a story about him leading the villains of the universe against three Legions and Superman = me being a very, very happy geek.
@MyManD~ The things you list are all things I have no clue about because I haven’t read any of those stories. I knew who Mon-El was because of Action Comics, but beyond that, I have no background with these aspects of the DCU.
I did read that Action Comics story, but that was a case where there were so many characters, I didn’t memorize who everyone was. I simply enjoyed the story because it wasn’t so overloaded. At the end of that arc, if you asked me to talk about the different Legion characters specifically, I couldn’t have done it.
" Afterall, if you don’t know it’s continuity porn, how can you be distracted by it?"
Because it does distract. It’s pointless if you don’t know what it is. There are tons of bits of interaction that are essentially meaningless bits on the page. Johns may excel at stringing together bits of continuity, but that’s not what makes him a good writer. It’s his ability to craft a good story that connects withthe reader.
And there’s really nothing terribly great in this story.
And yeah, I would agree about Superboy Prime. I personally find him to be a completely annoying character, so it’s gonna be a harder sell when you build the story around him. Although: I don’t know if I can really lay the blame on his shoulders here — I mean his function in this issue was one of mindless rage. He essentially served the purpose of a mindless Hulk, rampaging through the future. Therefore, Johns needs to make us care about the Legion and what they’re doing in the face of this threat. And that just didn’t come through for me.
What Geoff Johns does very well is take large groups of characters and make the stories work for their fans.
JSA – thiry members at peak….and talk about continuity issues. Green Latern – rainbows of characters with rings (married skittles corp). Now the Legion…legion fans are rejoicing.
Also, the Legion is the easiest of all groups to understand. Lightning Lad – has lighting bolts on his costume – shoots lighting. Sun boy – has a sun on his chest – sun powers. Phantom Girl – becomes a phantom. Polar Boy – icicles on his costume – controls cold. Half the team can be identified quickly by name or costume. I understand if you are having problems…but seriously, what did you expect with the title of Legion of Three Worlds (with three sets of Legion characters previously introduced) and Perez’s desire to draw every legion character.
Relax…take a breath…and go with the flow. If you get lost…Wikipedia.
"If you’ve read DC comics for the last few years nothing in this issue should be confusing at all."
Ha! I’ve been reading DC for the better part of a decade, and have read hundreds of Legion issues, and there were still places I was lost
XsandOhs~ I guess I expected more elegance, more tightness to the storytelling. I get that there are going to be a lot of characters in this, but more background would have been nice. Or if that would have made it too difficult, maybe writing the story so that I wasn’t leaping from character to character every word balloon. Johns just hasn’t given me anything to latch onto or a character that I relate with. I’m not learning anything about the Legion, and since he had done such an amazing job with the Legion in his Action Comics storyline, I thought this would be better.
Neb, I’m right there with you. This reliance on Wikipedia notion that people give is kinda BS, in my opinion. Stories are about FEELING something, not cataloguing characters and events. Look, I’ll admit it: I KNOW about every incarnation of the Legion. I’ve been reading DC for a loong time. I knew what was going on here, but you know what…? The story was NOT that impressive. It’s a whiny guy tearing up the future, and it’s a bunch of characters fighting over how to stop him. It wasn’t really all that clever. The only clever bits came from Johns going in and showing how all these different Legions fit together — and really, that’s sort of dry and academic. It’s not really what makes a good story.
No, the story isn’t impressive, but then again when does a story need to be original or provoking to be great? Star Wars had a very basic story but was still awesome, as did LotRs. Johns didn’t set out to make this some confusing metaphysical romp like Morrison. He simply wanted two HUGE forces duking it out, with Prime’s hopeful redemption at the end. And, for what he strived to do, he’s accomplished it far better than Morrison did with Final Crisis and Bendis with Secret Invasion.
Sometimes, I don’t go into something wanting "clever." Despite not getting the billing as such, this really is an event series disguised as a second tier title. And really, can you really expect anymore from an event series beyond competency and interest?
Unless, of course, you found something more interesting in Final Crisis or Secret Invasion that somehow eluded me. Because I’d rather have a solidly produced, but dry and academic, series than a confusing mindfuck or something profoundly underwhelming (you can guess what two series I’m referring to).
@MyManD~ I can’t speak for Dave, but what bothers me about the series not its inherent lack of "cleverness." It’s a lack of cohesive storytelling. Johns is definitely writing a story that’s all about two gigantic teams duking it out, and yes, stories like that have been written before. But there are also stories where those things have happened that made sense, that had a sense of cohesiveness, and more importantly had character development that readers could hold onto. Johns should be writing the book to cater to people like myself who don’t know anything about Legion. I should be excited about them and their story. I should be interested. But frankly, this whole thing is so muddled with the narrative changes and several thousand characters that I’m more overwhelmed and confused.
@MyManD – I didn’t care for Final Crisis, either. This isn’t an either/or thing. I’m just judging this book on its OWN merits, not in comparison to another book.
A story can be simple, but it still has to connect with the audience on an emotional level. Great, simple plots can still have great character moments that reveal some kind of emotional truth.
My point with this book is that it simply doesn’t have anything like that for me. It spends it’s time connecting little academic dots, tying together little bits of continuity, and not using the space on the page to make that simple plot into a great character story that really connects with the audience.