Product Description

Nearly Awesome Book Marred by Plot Holes, Tuesday, March 09, 2010

`Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes' begins with a very powerful opening and I was instantly reminded why I should never underestimate Geoff Johns skills as a writer. For most of the book Johns manages to keep up the same high level of writing but stumbles in the conclusion. More on that later. As for the visuals, Gary Frank is an excellent but sometimes inconsistent artist. My biggest complaint is that he often draws characters with these insane bulging eyes. There is one image of Saturn Girl where she has this look that resembles the hilariously unflattering picture of Sarah Palin that often gets used where she looks like a doltish lunatic. Frank has an unfortunate tendency to draw characters with pupils surrounded by whites and contorted mouths. I'm not sure why Gary Frank thinks that these look good since by and large he's a talented artist.

The collected comics here are the lead-in to `The Legion of Three Worlds'. I was a fan of Three Worlds but I couldn't give it anything higher than four stars and I find myself in the same situation here. Human-Man, a former legion reject, along with a collection of other rejects manage to convince people in the 30th century that the Legion of Superheroes has created a huge lie about Superman, that he was an alien from Krypton, in order to foster acceptance of alien lifeforms. Human-Man presents supposed proof that Superman was actually a human who hated and fought to protect human's from alien invaders. This prompts an explosion of xenophobia that sweeps across the Earth as aliens are rounded up and put into internment camps.

What bothered my the most (besides the ending) was how unconvinced I was that Earthlings would suddenly start rounding up aliens particularly since the LoSH comics always featured close interaction between aliens and human's. There also wasn't any kind of 9/11 situation to create this hatred and wouldn't Superman's history be pretty well documented. If a group today suddenly started pushing the idea that Lincoln hated blacks I find it hard to believe that the idea would suddenly take off and Superman's life would surely be far more documented than Lincolns. Another thing that bothered me was the character of Human-Man. There was an explanation as to how such a powerful character could be rejected but, My God, his powers are off the chart. He is capable of absorbing/duplicating the powers of any super being in his vicinity for 12 hours and ends up pulling an Amazo by combining the powers of most of the members of the Legion. Is there any limit to his power? What if Mordru or Darkseid were around? Finally, there were a lot of plot points that were not cleared up by the end of the story. I'll have to reread the Legion of Three Worlds to see if that story resolved them and I just forgot. I'm a big Geoff Johns fan but sometimes he pushes so hard to get his wonderful ideas into his stories that he sacrifices a coherent plot and believe me, the plot holes listed above are not the only ones.

My biggest issue and the one that forces me to deduct a star was the ending which was a very disappointing way to conclude an excellent story. It had the feel of Johns over pandering to the reader and the weakness of the ending was magnified by the strength of the rest of the story. There is a lot to like in this collection but it isn't one for the ages. Still, it exceeded my expectations and showed again why Johns is one of the best big idea writers in the business.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Redefining a Legion, Wednesday, January 27, 2010

An amazing adventure that redfined a classic group such as the Legion. I love it. Recommended

Rating: 5 out of 5

Love the Legion!, Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Legion of Superheroes was one of my favorite superhero groups when I was growing up. One of the great things about the LOS was that none of the characters (save the boring Big Red S) had any history to bog them down. This graphic novel is a compelling look at an alternative future that the LOS finds themselves in, and what happens when the Superman story is retold through revisionist history. It's a fun read, and makes me want to go out and grab a whole lot of other Legion graphic novels.

Rating: 5 out of 5