Broken Frontier

A quieter week in terms of releases this time around. But those books that did hit the shelves were chock full of major developments, continuity conundrums and teasers for the future. In fact so much so that the first part of this week’s coverage focuses exclusively on the two Legion-related books. So, especially if you’re waiting for the trade of Legion of 3 Worlds, take extra special notice of our Spoiler Warning: Read no further if you’ve not had your DC fix this week and don’t want to read about key story elements.

Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes

There are plenty of reprints of classic Legion material out there whether you want to read them in the linear form of the DC Archives or dip in and out of the team’s long history  in a number of trade collections. However, if you’ve never read the team’s original appearance from Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) then this week’s reprint of that issue in Adventure Comics #0 is an affordable primer at just $1.00 and a timely reminder of the team’s beginnings.

I suspect many of those picking up this issue, though, will have read that ‘50s classic many times before and will be more interested in the new "Origins and Omens" six-page backup. This opening entry focuses on Lex Luthor, currently conscripted as part of General Lane's anti-Superman conspiracy. What is instantly noticeable here is the pulling together of plot threads from Geoff Johns’ runs on Action Comics and Green Lantern. With the JSA’s Starman confirmed as one of the stars of the new Adventure Comics series, the upcoming book looks to be the focal point of much of Geoff’s DC plotlines over the last few years.

The narrator for this mini-event is none other than Scar, the female Guardian of the Universe disfigured in battle with the Anti-Monitor back in the war with the Sinestro Corps . Those who remember Luthor/Braniac team-ups from decades past take note – this issue marks the beginning of the first "official" pairing of that partnership since before Crisis On Infinite Earths. Attempting to prise himself from General Lane’s control Luthor uses the captured Brainiac’s tech to make his escape, only to discover the computer-villain has other ideas. Brainiac is quite happy for them both to stay put for the time being and work together to see out his own agenda.

The first of two potential resurrections this week is also foreshadowed in these pages when we learn that Scar’s Book of the Black predicts that the deceased Connor Kent will somehow "save" Luthor in the future. Is Superboy coming back for good I wonder or just as an undead member of Scar’s Black Lantern Corps?

Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes

This week’s biggest release is the long awaited Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #3 as Superboy-Prime's campaign against Superman and the Legion (all three of them!) gathers pace. Almost instantly in this issue we see nods back to events in the current Green Lantern books. Blackest Night enthusiasts should note that Sodam Yat, the new Ion in our timeline, sets the reformation of the Green Lantern Corps in motion after the death of the 31st Century’s last GL, Rond Vidar, last issue. Two points worth noting here: firstly Sodam Yat speaks of Kyle Rayner’s death. Secondly, just look at the Green Lantern Corps’ oath in the far future and what it says about the outcome of the potential upcoming war between the various Corps in our timeline, as well as more possible changes in the Book of Oa (my emphasis on key phrases here):

In brightest day through blackest night/ No other Corps shall spread its light/ Let those who try to stop what’s right/ Burn like my power Green Lantern’s might.

A few weeks ago I wondered about the Legion of Earth-22, shown at the end of the Gog arc in Justice Society of America, and wondered if they could have been one of the three Legions of this series. It would appear not from #3 and, rather than clarify matters, the revelations here about the homeworlds of the Legions are quite dizzyingly confusing in Multiversal terms.

Braniac 5 is our guide for joining the dots between Legionnaires and their respective worlds of origin. The "classic" Legion are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Legion of New Earth/Earth-0, which explains Superman’s interaction with them as elaborated on in recent issues of Action Comics . Here’s where it gets tricky though.... the post-Zero Hour Legion are, as revealed in Infinite Crisis, from the destroyed Earth-247. This one’s a little bit of a mindbender as Earth-247 is an Earth from a previous iteration of the Multiverse. This implies to me the possibility of travel between the worlds of the 52 and former versions of DC’s Multiversal reality.

Indeed, we further discover that Bart Allen’s cousin XS, despite being a member of the Legion of Earth-247, actually came from New Earth. Fleeing from Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen’s children the Tornado Twins and their families (including the infant XS) fled to a parallel world. But Zoom had sabotaged their cosmic treadmill, tearing open the Multiverse and pulling together all three versions of the Legion. The threefold Legionnaires subsequently worked together to stop the evil speedster and his troops in what was the original adventure of the Legion of 3 Worlds.

At battle's end the Legions were trapped on an unknown Earth where the Brainiacs redesigned the uniform of the "classic" Starman into a map of the Multiverse (as seen in recent issues of Justice Society of America) and used his gravity powers to open up the requisite black holes to get them all home. The exceptions were the Tornado Twins who stayed hidden on Earth-247 where XS lived on and from where her cousin Bart Allen/Impulse was eventually reunited with his grandmother Iris West.

Got all that? Well there’s still the question of how the Supergirl of New Earth interacted with the Threeboot Legion in the pages of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. It turns out that time travel in the DCU often results in movement across the Multiverse and the Threeboot Legion have been interacting with New Earth’s history. Presumably this also explains the New Earth Batman meeting the Threeboot Legion  in The Brave and the Bold #5 a couple of years back.

I’m not sure where, exactly, the Conner Kent Superboy’s time as a member of the post-Zero Hour Legion, beginning in The Legion #25 (Dec 03), fits in though. Nor does it explain why, when Kara Zor-El met the "classic" Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl in Supergirl #s 21-22's Countdown crossover, she saw them as the Threeboot versions (see right).

So where does this leave the Threeboot Legion then? No word as yet on where they come from but "classic" Brainiac 5 tells Threeboot Brainiac 5 that their Earth is one that is vital to the war with Superboy-Prime. Hmmm... classic misdirection or a tie-in to Superboy-Prime’s seemingly neverending quest to find his lost Earth?

Other plot points we shouldn’t forget as the battle against Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains rages: Mordru summons the Anti-Monitor’s Shadow Demons from Crisis On Infinite Earths... the second Karate Kid of the "classic" Legion (Myg of Lythyl) meets his maker but "at least" two other Val Armorrs still exist... the Threeboot Sun Boy is killed by Superboy-Prime and as he dies the "classic" Sun Boy collapses in pain, revealing a tangible link between the counterparts... a small team of Legionnaires head back to New Earth’s Smallville and the time when a teenage Lex Luthor started losing his hair.

And, finally, Impulse fans will be delighted to discover the identity of the character caught in that Lightning Rod,what seems like a lifetime ago now, during the Lightning Saga  crossover between Justice League of America and Justice Society of America. It was none other than Bart Allen who is returned to life by Brainiac 5 in his youthful Kid Flash incarnation at issue’s end. Bart has his own role to play in the war against Superboy-Prime but we'll have to wait until next issue for the full answers about his return...

Whew! After all that Legion-centric speculation and discussion we’ll be returning to the present in part two of this week’s roundup. Join us tomorrow when we finish off looking at the current releases including DC’s Western heroes, shocking developments in Secret Six and more from the Dark Side Club.