Lightning Lad and Batman in Action Comics #864, a new Starman(boy) origin story in JSA Kingdom Come Special: Magog #1 & Superboy-Prime kills a lot of people in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #1

Action Comics #864

Thanks to Reddit user Patient-Reputation56 pointing out that there are Legion-related stories that I missed, I'm going to take a look at two issues before I jump into Legion of 3 Worlds. I've been told these provide some background before I get into Final Crisis so I'm hoping I'll figure out what's going on.

Also, I'm going to ignore anything that isn't Legion-related and skip over anything I don't really care about, so fingers crossed that makes this easier.

First, we get a Kevin Maguire cover... drawing Dawnstar, Wildfire, and Mon-El? And Earth-Man, but who cares about him... I would love to see Maguire draw some Legion comics...

This issue is written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Joe Prado, and inked by Jon Sibal.

We begin as Batman enters the Fortress of Solitude to see Lightning Lad and Superman reminiscing about the time Wildfire was magnetized and stuck to Cosmic Boy (I think, they actually don't make this part clear). Bruce wants to interrupt this "regressing with old friends" and talk to Superman alone.

Once Garth leaves, wondering why Batman wears a mask, Bruce gets to the point - Clark wasn't answering his communicator and Batman doesn't trust the Legion after what they did during the Lightning Saga.

Then Bruce talks about how he's met three different Legions. The first, this same one they're dealing with now, when they fought Mordru way back in Justice League of America #148. The second, the reboot Legion, during Final Night. And the third, the Threeboot Legion, during Brave and the Bold #5. (Wow - I've reviewed two of these...)

Bruce reveals why he's there and why he wants to talk to Lightning Lad. He figures the Garth knows what he found on the streets of Gotham: two bodies with Legion flight rings on them.

None of this makes sense - Bruce didn't know Lightning Lad stayed behind after bringing Superman home and didn't know he was in the 21st Century... unless I missed something in another issue.

Superman flies off to see them, the two bodies still lying on the streets, chalk outlines around them: Una and Karate Kid. Superman identifies them, hoping that this is only one of Luornu's bodies and the other is alive and well in the 31st Century. And Karate Kid? Clark scans and see that his organs have been eaten away by a virus.

Which is when a very angry Lightning Lad shows up, wanting to know who killed them. I have no idea how he heard what Batman and Superman were talking about, or how he tracked Superman, or why he'd think Una and Karate Kid were there. We get another Batman/Lightning Lad showdown, Bruce wanting him to return to his own time and Garth wanting to find out who killed his friends. Garth wants to bring the killers to justice.

Which is when the Legion distress signal sounds through the flight rings - it's gotta be Thom Kallor, the only other Legionnaire in the 21st Century.

They head to Opal City, where Thom's in a sanitarium due to his schizophrenia... which Superman has to explain to Garth because he doesn't know about it. Yep, somehow Lightning Lad didn't know about a medical condition of one of his teammates.

Why did Thom signal Superman? To tell him that Karate Kid didn't die in the alleyway, he died trying to find a cure for his illness. His body was placed in the alley by someone who doesn't like Batman - someone who's going to start the Legion war.

Lightning Lad takes the two bodies and they all end up back at the Fortress. Funny that the GCPD don't want to examine the bodies or investigate anything. He's going to take them back to the future and take them to Shanghalla. Before leaving, Garth apologizes to Batman for pissing him off - but doesn't apologize for getting upset.

Then Garth thanks Superman for teaching him, and the Legion, about what was right and what was wrong. And he says that Clark was more of a brother to him than Mekt. He gives Superman a new flight ring, one with a cloaking device so he can wear it all the time and the ability to drag Clark to the future in the case of an emergency.

Once he takes the Time Bubble back to the future, and Clark and Bruce chat a bit about the past, we finally get the big reveal about our issue's narrator.

The Time Trapper is back, and he's the one behind everything. He's how the bodies got to Gotham. He's the one who planted the artifact that helped Earth-Man convince the 31st Century that Superman was human. He's the one manipulating everything. And he's the one who's going to corrupt everything Superman stands for.

Cool... one of the Legion's oldest villains now only cares about Superman and the Legion, once again, looks like they're going to be ignored by their own rogues gallery.

 

I'm fairly certain that Johns didn't actually read Countdown and barely remembers what they did in the Lightning Saga. I'm also certain he doesn't have a clue how police work and, more importantly, science works.

Let me lay out the timeline in this comic:

1. Batman and the Gotham Police discover two bodies on the streets of Gotham wearing super-hero costumes and Legion flight rings.

2. Batman flies to the Fortress of Solitude to let Superman know that this occurred. And somehow he knew Lightning Lad was going to be there, even though he didn't, and he couldn't have, so the trip makes no sense. Also, I have no idea why he didn't just call...

3. They fly back to Gotham and the bodies are still there... in perfect condition. From what I remember of Countdown (and I did try to forget it pretty quickly), Karate Kid's body was destroyed by the virus, and Una's body was ripped apart by feral rats.

4. They fly back to the Fortress, put the bodies in coffins (no idea where those came from) and Lightning Lad takes them back to the future. So the mystery is solved and this is a closed case for the GCPD?

I'm also ignoring the the Lightning Saga happened a short while ago, Superman was in the future for a week, and who knows where Countdown fits into all of this.

 

But even though the story doesn't make any sense, I loved the moments with Garth and Clark. And Garth and Bruce. Johns wrote some great character moments here. He may have completely botched the main story, but there are some great single scenes.

I really get the sense that Johns was far more concerned with the single moments than the broader story, focused on those, and didn't worry too much if anything else made sense.

 

JSA Kingdom Come Special: Magog #1

So the main story is about Magog killing a lot of people. Wow... this is stunningly violent for a regular DC book, but I guess that was par for the course at this time.

What I care about is the back-up: The Secret Origin of Starman, written by Geoff Johns with art by Scott Kolins.

Thom Kallor is cured - when Gog walked across Africa, performing miracles, he cured Thom's schizophrenia. So now Starman can leave the Sunshine Sanitarium and go and save the 31st Century.

Thom thanks the doctor for taking care of him, and for the amazing food at the cafeteria, and then gives his origin story. For anyone who's read the Silver Age stories, or the excellent spotlight on Star Boy in Legion of Super-Heroes volume 2 #306, some of this has already been covered. We see him join the team, fall in love with Dream Girl, and get kicked out when he kills someone. We get the extra bits about his schizophrenia diagnosis and, for a reason I don't understand, they completely skip his other powers. For those who don't remember, Star Boy didn't join the Legion with his gravity powers - he joined them because he was kinda like Superboy.

Then, according to this new origin story, he didn't rejoin the Legion until he was called back during The Legion of Three Worlds adventure... which hasn't happened yet. Three Brainiac 5s give him his new star field costume which is a map to the multiverse. We also learn that Star Boy is far more powerful than we thought - he can open black holes and stargates.

So he rejoins the Legion with the new suit (how dare they ignore Sir Prise) and we learn that they sent the Legionnaires back to handle the Lightning Saga at the same time Earth-Man was leading the charge to get rid of all the aliens on Earth. I guess this is cleaning up the messes of the last two Superman-related Legion stories, but it just kinda seems like Johns never really thought this out.

Star Boy volunteers, gets sent back to the 21st Century, his schizophrenia returns because he can't take his pills anymore (you'd think they'd have a better treatment in the future, right?), and he tells the doctor he's got to do something he's not proud of. He's got to go against the Legion code again.

Then he asks the doctor for a letter of recommendation so he can get a job. And a shovel.

How does Star Boy (or I guess Man now) know any of this? How does he know what he needs to do when no one ever told him any of this? At what point would the doctor, after hearing this story, simply say, "Yeah, you're not cured yet. We need to keep you here and make sure you're not hallucinating missions." 

This leads into The Kingdom #1, which I doubt I'm going to read unless someone else tells me it's important to understand what's happening in the Legion.

 

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #1

This issue is written by Geoff Johns, with pencils by George Perez and inks by Scott Koblish. The last time Perez drew the Legion, in The Brave and the Bold, I enjoyed the artwork and was meh about the story. Let's hope this is a better experience.

We begin at the end of time. The Time Trapper is ranting about the Legion being cockroaches and that he's got to destroy them. Sorry, doesn't he want to destroy Superman? I can't help but wonder which Time Trapper is this... Cosmic Boy? A Dominator? Anyway, he talks about needing to use the boy, a "boy of broken dreams and blood and rage." Yeah, this doesn't look good.

It's 3008 A.D. and Johns wraps up everything from the recent Action Comics story. Earth-Man has been found guilty of numerous crimes, violence between humans and aliens is getting worse, and a farmer in Smallville thinks it's his right to "shoot and bury stragglers in a field. Like we've done on our farm." Yep, murder is an Earthling right, I guess. I'd love to pretend that Johns is making a social comment on things like "Castle Doctrine" laws, but I don't think this is that deep.

A blazing comet flashes from the future and slams down into the farmer's acreage. The man comes out, guns blazing, shooting first. But he doesn't get an alien. He gets Superboy... who we know better as Superboy-Prime. After he kills the farmers, he declares that he's actually Superman and discovers that he's in the future.

Superboy-Prime walks into the Superman museum and is stunned by what he sees. I'm a little stunned, too. I had no idea Jonathan Kent, Superman's dad, had changed from an elderly store owner into a burly farmer.

Superboy-Prime enters the museum and is led by a holographic Jimmy Olsen acting as the tour guide. They enter the Hall of 1,000 Olsens, learn about the bottle city of Kandor, and then we finally get Superman's origin story.

I know we've got a five-issue mini-series, and I admit I'm not Olsen's biggest fan, but this isn't doing much for me so far. The only thing I'm really loving is the hall of Superman costumes with the original artists credited underneath them. We get Shuster, Boring, Swan, Garcia-Lopez, Byrne, and others. The biggest one: Perez, of course.

Then we get the introduction to the Legion of Super-Heroes. On page 10. Olsen explains who they are, what they stand for, and how they were formed. We also get the classic team pose, kinda like the statues we saw during the Lightning Saga. The holovid changes, showing different Legionnaires, so we get to see all the different members of the Legion.

The only real surprises for me? Night Girl and Chameleon Girl are members - I wasn't sure if Yera was actually a member or just helping Brainiac 5. And Tellus and Quislet are there. Oh, and Sun Boy is still in his old costume. It wasn't a mistake. He never upgraded his look. Of all the Legionnaires, you would think Dirk, being the vainest male Legionnaire, would have changed his costume multiple times.

Superboy-Prime realizes that something is wrong - he speeds off to the villains section of the museum and discovers that he's buried in the back. Olsen says that he's not that important of a Superman villain and probably shouldn't even be displayed. We get a nice recap of Superboy-Prime's past battles and then he goes berserk, destroying the Legion and swearing that he's the most important villain ever.

The Science Police show up and are quickly killed by Superboy-Prime, who swears that everyone is going to remember him now. He's going to destroy the Legion, destroy the United Planets, and destroy everything that Superman inspired. When he finds out that there's a Legion of Super-Villains, he has an idea.

Awesome. So a book about the Legion has a villain that doesn't really care about them at all, but is just going to kill them because he hates Superman. We already had the Time Trapper saying, in Action Comics, that his goal is to destroy Superman. Do we need to have the Legion serve as pawns in a battle that Superman should be fighting? Can the Legion have any importance in their own book?

We move to the U.P. Council, where Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl are being told that the universe no longer has any use for the Legion. Point #77 that this isn't the OG Legion - Lightning Lad has gone from respectable father to grunge band bass player. I didn't comment on his tattoo and long hair in Action Comics but I will now. He'd be a perfect fit in Seattle in 1997.

The UP continues to criticize the Legion, saying that they're a childish concept that doesn't work any more. They know it's childish because the Legionnaires still refers to themselves as Boy and Girl when they're all adults. The diplomats don't believe there's any way to get rid of xenophobia and that maybe it's best if the Earth leaves the U.P. and the Legion is disbanded. Finally, the diplomat from Titan thanks Saturn Girl for her service but wonders if it's time for them to grow up.

Garth, whose personality has reverted to what he was back in the 60s, loses his temper and lashes out at the diplomats.

In the Phantom Zone, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lass, and Shadow Lass have to fight off the other prisoners to rescue Mon-El. Brainiac 5 starts yelling at them to hurry up and his personality has suddenly shifted to what we saw in the reboot. They grab Mon-El, get him back into the real world, and accidentally drag someone else with them.

Who Ayla zaps and sends back through the projector, destroying it. Brainy quickly administers the anti-lead serum to save Mon-El's life and Ayla wonders why Sun Boy can't help Mon-El by filling him with yellow sun rays.

Brainy points out that Sun Boy is in no condition to help anyone.

Just a reminder for everyone here - Earth-Man was somehow able to throw Mon-El into the Phantom Zone when he started attacking the Legion. I'll just assume he used Sun Boy's powers to do it, since they're not explaining anything here. Again. Not sure why he didn't just kill a weakened Mon-El, but trying to figure out any logical choices in these stories is a waste of time.

Where is Sun Boy? Sulking in his darkened room, not wanting to put on the Legion ring again. Not even Polar Boy can get him motivated again - not sure why he'd be the one to do it, but why attempt any logic or use characters that were friends in the past, right? Oh, and Polar Boy hasn't gotten his right arm regrown so it's still made of ice.

Furthering Sun Boy's descent as a character, we get this monologue:

I used to use (the flight ring) to get girls, Brek. And it worked. It worked really well. I was white hot for a long time. But my passion is gone. My powers are gone. I'm burnt out.

Am I the only one who remembers when Sun Boy was actually a hero? When he was both someone who dated a lot of different women and also stood with his friends and did what was right? Can they not imagine someone can be both? Can a Legionnaire have more depth than a wading pool?

Back at the U.P. Council, the different planets are recommending shutting down the Legion. Myg, the second Karate Kid, testifies against them, pointing out the animosity between members. For my first art complaint, I'm fairly certain Perez didn't look at a single picture of Myg before drawing these panels.

Here's another continuity question - why did Myg join the Legion if Val came back to life? I mean, if Val's there, why have a second Karate Kid?

Lightning Lad looks like he's going to explode, showing off his famous quick temper (and erasing more of the character development he had in the 80s), when R.J. Brande arrives to address the council. He tells the council that the Legion must always exist and, for some unknown reasons, they agree to listen.

I was thinking that this would be the time Brande was revealed to be a Martian with telepathic powers, maybe even J'onn J'onnz, because the Council suddenly changing their mind doesn't many any sense without it.

We flash back to the Superman museum. Thankfully there are no emergency calls on Earth or some Legionnaires would've shown up to investigate a super-powered being killing S.P. officers. Superboy-Prime finds out about Takron-Galtos and the Jimmy Olsen hologram shows him all the members of the LSV.

While they're talking, and Superboy-Prime is learning, the story jumps back and forth to show a prison break on Takron-Galtos. The guards can do nothing as Superboy-Prime attacks, looking to break out his new army.

We also learn, according to Olsen, that three of the LSV members are deadlier than all the others.

I'd also like to point out that Spider-Girl and Radiation Roy, members of the Justice League, are still part of the LSV exhibit.

The three who Superboy-Prime breaks out: Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, and Cosmic King. They're the most dangerous? When they finally meet, the trio know exactly who Superboy-Prime is and they've been waiting for him to lead them to final victory. How?

Who else will Superboy-Prime lead? Every prisoner on Takron Galtos.

At the U.P. Council, Brande gives an eloquent speech about how the Legion must exist because they're the people who teach Superman about truth, justice, and the American way.

Saturn Girl taught him to always search for the truth. Lightning Lad taught him to never stop fighting for justice. And Cosmic Boy taught... sorry, I have to quote this:

And Cosmic Boy taught Superman to live the American way, to embrace all cultures as he would his own... and to help anyone who needed it.

I don't want to offend anyone here, and there are so many comments I could make, so I'm simply going to say this... I wish that was the American way, especially now.

I would also like to figure out why you'd link a Braalian with the American way. Or why they'd still refer to the American way in the 31st Century. I would hope it would be the way of the Earth in the future.

Because we can't go too long without a shock, a gunman appears in the crowd and shoots R.J. Brande with non-metallic bullets. The assassin? Leland McCauley.

As Brande fades away, telling everyone to never quit, we discover that his blood is green and he's actually a Durlan. He dies, revealed as his true self. Which, again, goes against OG continuity because he was trapped in his human body due to an illness he caught when he was younger. Since Johns needs another moment to rally humans against aliens, he ignored that and here we go.

While McCauley rants and raves, the S.P.s show up to arrest the Legionnaires, demanding their flight rings. Why arrest them? Who cares... Thankfully, Cosmic Boy refuses and uses his powers on the officers.

McCauley starts aging at a rapid pace, claiming that he was supposed to be young again. He decays into muck while the Time Trapper watches. I honestly think Johns is trying to show the Trapper as some chess master, carefully moving his pieces around the board to destroy his unwitting enemies but all of these moves are illogical. The Trapper isn't playing chess - he's playing Chutes and Ladders. Or Snakes and Ladders. Whichever one you grew up with...

Across the universe, the effects of Brande's assassination reverberate. Durla riots and the planet is accused of espionage against Earth. Rumors of Brande being Chameleon Boy's father start to circulate. Unfortunately, Reep is no where to be found.

Night Girl, Shrinking Violet, and Invisible Kid are asked to leave Naltor and since no one knows where Dream Girl is, no one knows what's going to happen.

Timber Wolf and Ultra Boy have been fighting the Khunds but are ready to come back and rejoin their team. Why are they fighting the Khunds? Do we really need a reason?

Element Lad is still missing and Rokk keeps calling all the other Legionnaires to return.

The Legionnaires on Earth talk about what they're going to do next. Lightning Lad wants to quit, once again showing that Johns has no clue what to do with him. Brainy figures that everything they're doing is a waste of time and the only way they can convince him to fight back is when Ayla tells him that he can prove everyone wrong. Okay, so Garth has become Wildfire and Brainy is an arrogant sociopath?

Who do they call for help? Who else? Superman. They pull him from the past into their future (yep, that special power of his flight ring is used up immediately) and the first thing he sees is that Takron Galtos has been destroyed and the Superman logo has been burned into the surface. Oh, and over 20,000 guards and staff were killed during the jailbreak.

Superman sees the image of the attacker in Smallville and knows that it's Superboy-Prime.

Brainiac 5 presents the most obvious solution: to pull the Legions from two other universes in to help - the reboot Legion and the threeboot Legion. Yes, that makes far more sense than, say, calling every Daxamite to face off against Superboy-Prime under a yellow sun.

I'm going to resist the urge to point out all the continuity mistakes in the drawings of each team and wait until next issue to see if they've figured this out. 

Superman also presents their other goal: to reach out to Superboy-Prime and somehow redeem him to the person he was during Crisis on Infinite Earths... sorry, the first Crisis. Ummm... he just killed over 20,000 beings. I don't think he needs a hug.

 

On one hand, this is the way you set up a first issue. Here's the villain, or villains, here are the threats, and here's what our heroes are up against. There's everything here to make you want to pick up the next issue.

I'd also say that this story is frightening prescient and hits even harder in 2025. 

Perez's art is, to no surprise, amazing to see. I really wish he had been the one to handle the redesigns instead of Gary Frank but I can't complain too much.

On the other hand, every page shows that Johns understands enough about the Legion to tell this story but that he's willing to ignore basic things to get the story he wants, not the story that works with these characters.

Here are just a few questions that I didn't address as I was reading the book:

• Where are Garth and Imra's kids?
• Is it possible to explain how much I hate it when Garth's dialogue is censored, showing that he's cursing?
• Since this happens so soon after the defeat of Earth-Man, why have Wildfire and Dawnstar disappeared? And how could any Legionnaire be that hard to track down?
• Of all the places for Colossal Boy and Chameleon Girl to go to recover after her beating at the hands of Earth-Man, why would they go to Durla?
• Why wouldn't every alien Legionnaire be on their home planets? Why would they rush anywhere else after the events in Action Comics?
• Why would Dr. Gym'll be at the U.P. Council?
• Why would McCauley perform the assassination himself? Isn't he rich enough to hire someone?
• When are we going to see Luornu and the fallout since one of her bodies went back to the past to be with Karate Kid, who she's always had a crush on?

I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to explain how this book "feels" to me. The best comparison I can make is this: This still isn't my Legion. This isn't the OG Legion. It's close. And Johns wants it to be. But there are just too many mistakes, too many holes, too many bad choices.

So even though I actually kinda enjoyed this (and enjoyed it much more than the other two books I read this week), it's still kinda like reading the reboot or the threeboot. It's not the Legion I love the most.

On a more positive note, the latest episode of the Long Live the Legion podcast has just been released. We have a great interview with amazing Legion artist Jeff Moy and talk about what it was like to work on the characters, his inspiration for XS, and what it's like being an art monkey. If you'd rather watch a video, check it out on YouTube!