The Legion of Three Worlds

Holy crap. I'm glad they released this info today and not yesterday, otherwise I might have thought it was an April Fool's joke. I think I might spontaneously combust. Newarama has the previews and interview with Geoff Johns his upcoming Legion miniseries with George Perez: "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds". Part 2 of the interview is tomorrow. Coming in August: the first of five oversized issues. After reading this, I am stunned at the scope of this project. I'm in awe at what can be accomplished here and I'm amazed at the A-list talent that's on it. A top writer and top artist? The Legion, a tentpole book? Be still my heart. (I do feel sorry for those who are big fans of the v4-era, though. It looks like they'll get the shaft in how "their" Legion history is treated.) Preview image 1: Superman and the Lightning Saga Legion vs Superman-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains. Not just the classic LSV, this one includes Mordru, Grimbor, Dr. Regulus, and the Fatal Five. Preview image 2: The same two groups as above... plus Luthor, the Time Trapper, and XS!

One of the two promised DC mini-series that will tie directly into Final Crisis, the Legion of 3 Worlds story will pull together the characters from three teams that have called themselves Legion of Super-Heroes during DC’s publishing history. And if we go by the teaser image, a slew of Perez-drawn Legion members will be fighting alongside Superman against a villainous threat in the future that will include a couple threats from the present as well – Superman-Prime and... is that Lex Luthor?

But three Legions? All together and all part of the DCU? What happened to the reboots where one Legion replaced the other? And for those readers who’ve never read any Legion stories, what do they have to know to understand this series? And what is Lex Luthor doing in that picture? Newsarama talked to Geoff Johns in a two-part interview to find out the answers to these questions and more...

NRAMA: Can you tell us the idea behind the story?

GJ: Again, it's Superboy-Prime teamed up with the Legion of Super-Villains, and he sets out to destroy Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes. But this is not just a Legion of Super-Heroes story. This is the DC Universe in the 31st century. This is the Crisis of the 31st Century. George and I are doing a huge DC epic from the point of view of the 31st century. All the main heroes throughout the DC Universe in the 31st century are there.

NRAMA: [laughs] So let's go back to the beginning of this idea of three Legions together. Has this been in the works for awhile? Even before you did The Lightning Saga, was the eventual goal for you to write a story about all three Legions?

GJ: The project came out of that. I really love Legion and I had planned to do something with them in Action Comics after The Lightning Saga to get them back into Superman's lore, because I think that's where they're strongest. And from that, Legion of 3 Worlds sparked. The story grew out of that, and at the same time, George was telling Dan that he wanted to do a Legion story, so it all just came together. And with what Grant was doing in Final Crisis, it all just clicked.

NRAMA: So, nothing's been wiped away by any crisis or time-altering event?

GJ: We find out really where all those "wiping aways" and the various plans throughout the universe and history were orchestrated – like when Superboy was found to be an imposter right after the first Crisis, and then when they were wiped away in Zero Hour – there’s a connection to all that stuff. Someone's been screwing with the Legion for a very long time.

This story is epic in its scope. It goes across the universe, all across Earth, across time and space. This is definitely one of the hardest stories I've tackled yet, but I'm ready for it.

NRAMA: Why hard? Do you think it's even harder than writing Infinite Crisis?

GJ: In a different way. With Crisis there was so much coordination and things that you had to set up for other books and carry through from other books, so it was difficult.

But this is difficult because it's the Legion. It's not Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It's the Legion of Super-Heroes. So my goal is to have people cheering for these characters. Some people don't know the Legion yet. Some people don't see the value in the Legion yet. My goal is to have them cheering for them by the end of this. And if you already do know the Legion, you're going to cheer louder.

Go read it now, including the comments at the bottom. As wrong as the Newsarama posters got it on the Superman copyright lawsuit, they love this.