The collection of this mini-series just came out so I'm just reading it for the first time. It's written by Geoff Johns with art by George Perez. And while it's called "Final Crisis" it doesn't have a single damn thing to do with Final Crisis and the events of FC don't get referenced in the slightest bit. But that's good! Because I didn't like Final Crisis very much. But I enjoyed this mini a great deal. In fact it's a better *event* story than Final Crisis, with a great deal more ties to Infinite Crisis and recent storylines of the DCU. While this story stars three different continuities of the Legion of Super-Heroes, you don't have to be familiar with them. I don't know much about the Legion and I don't particularly like the concept of their story, but I still thought this was an excellent story. In fact this story exemplifies to me what makes Geoff Johns such a wonderful writer. Sure he's not high-art the way Morrison or Moore are, but he just tells damn good entertaining stories you can really get into. All the bad guys in the future team up together led by Superboy Prime (who's an extremely amusing villain while at the same time being a deadly threat that makes you fear for the characters). Johns does an superb job of making the heroes' plight progressively more hopeless... only at the last moment to have a wonderful turn around featuring the resurrection of two beloved characters who have been dead for awhile. Now normally I don't like comic book death/resurrection but Johns handles it so well in the story, mining past continuity for a plausible explanation and making such a wonderful victory of the heroes. And god bless him for not pretending the 90s comics didn't happen like most modern writers. So for anybody who likes DC Comics, whether you give a rat's ass about the Legion or not, this is a great book! Don't let the stigma of Final Crisis keep you away. Look at it as a follow up to Infinite Crisis, not a tie-in to Final Crisis. And George Perez drawing dozens, nay, hundreds, of super heroes and villains? Need I say more?
Being a huge Legion fan (no! Really?) I quite enjoyed Lo3W. As it is a major part of the ongoing process of bringing back the 'original' Legion (or at least a reasonable approximation thereof) to its proper place in the DC Universe, I had a lot of fun reading it. There were moments that literally had me clapping and giggling with sheer delight... which is a rare enough thing for comics any more. I was actually a little bit disappointed that it didn't tie into Final Crisis a little more closely... I expected the end to dovetail more neatly with Superman and Brainiac 5's confab re: the Miracle Machine in FC. In fact, I was actually kind of hoping that there'd be some explanation of how the damned Miracle Machine was around at all, since Matter-Eater Lad munched that contraption years ago.... --g
How has George Perez not succumbed to some sort of terminal carpal-tunnel affliction? The guy is just amazing. The way he worls so much detail in to every panel pagae after page, book after book never ceases to amaze me.
If I had one disappointment, it was that the truly original, Pre-Crisis Superboy didn't show up and own Prime's psychotic ass. I know he was more scared of you-know-who and more resentful of you-know-who-else, but just to see him thwarted the way he casually thwarts all comers usually would have ruled.
As someone who considers the "Five Years Later" Legion "his" Legion era, I was disappointed in Legion of Three Worlds because "my" Legion wasn't represented. I didn't hate the story, there were some touches that I really liked (like the way Connor was brought back), but overall I had the feeling of "What's the point, except to solidify Geoff Johns' Legion into continuity?"
Yeah it's astonishing how *not* confusing the story was, given that it dealt with three conflicting continuities of the Legion I was unfamiliar with. Of course the story basically stars Superboy Prime and Superman, the Legion characters are pretty much in a supporting role.