Legion of 3 Worlds: Prime Evil

For this extra-special podcast episode #700, we thought it would be nice to celebrate the work of George Perez, so we went back to re-review the 5-issue Legion of 3 Worlds series he did with Geoff Johns and Scott Koblish. The Subs covered each issue when it originally came out (episodes 4, 18, 30, and 42 in 2008-09) so now we’re going to look at it with the benefit of hindsight. We will revisit the life and career of George Perez in a future episode, hopefully later than sooner.

Perez did an interview back in 2019 in which he discussed pencilling L3W with Johns as writer.

Well, the irony is that the Legion, when I was growing up, was one of my favorite comics. I mean even over The Avengers because I loved all of the characters, all of the costumes, all the color.

I thought, one of the first comics I would ever do if I got the chance — other than well, I knew I wanted JLA, I knew I wanted The Avengers — but I really wanted the Legion of Super-Heroes. And then it took so long in my career to finally do a Legion of Super-Heroes story. I did a few covers, I did a few little pinups… but I’d never worked on a Legion story. They appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but then again, who didn’t?

So I was working on Brave and the Bold, and (writer) Geoff Johns was saying he wanted to do a Legion of Super-Heroes story. I did not know it was going to be a part of Final Crisis. … I really didn’t like it being part of Final Crisis but that’s the company’s decision.

This page from DC Universe #0, which came out the week after Countdown #1

But it's been so long since the story came out, I needed a Wikipedia-based refresher on what happened leading up to L3W. And boy, did THAT lead me down the rabbit hole of DC continuity! So here's what I came up with. Thanks, Wikipedia editors! (Some of the links below are to Wikipedia, others to my original Omnicom blog posts from the time.)

Some important precursor events:

• Back in 1994, Bart Allen was introduced as Impulse right before Zero Hour (July 1994 cover-date, same month as Legionnaires #16 and LSH v4 #59, just a couple months from the issues we're doing right now. So at the time he would have been considered a pre-Zero Hour character, at least until they brought in XS. 
• Also in 1994, at the conclusion of Zero Hour, we see the new Time Trapper. Dan Jurgens said that it was intended to be the new Batgirl who had been introduced there, but that was never followed up on.
• Meanwhile, in 2005-06, Superboy-Prime has killed Superboy (Conner Kent aka Kon-El) during Infinite Crisis. Prime is imprisoned by the Guardians of the Universe, but freed later during the Sinestro Corps War (now calling himself Superman-Prime).

Wikipedia describes the beginning of the Retroboot era as “DC’s three-year reinvention of the Legion”, starting with the Lightning Saga (2007), then Superman & The Legion (2007-08), and finally Legion of 3 Worlds (2008-09). But Countdown (2007-08) is important, too.

In the Lightning Saga (2007), several Legionnaires from more-or-less the original pre-Zero Hour timeline (soon to be known as the Retroboot) are discovered by the JLA and JSA to be in the 21st century (including Karate Kid, who has somehow returned to life – this was never explained, but we can probably chalk it up to continuity punches in Infinite Crisis). In the end, they manage to retrieve Wally West from the Speed Force, where he was left in Infinite Crisis. The Legionnaires return to the future, leaving behind Karate Kid and Una to go Counting Down, and Starman. Brainy says that the return of Wally was just a side effect, they got what they really wanted (someone trapped inside a lightning rod – and we won’t find out who that is until L3W). During this story arc, Superman used the term “Legion of 3 Worlds” to describe "one of the Legion's greatest adventures". He stated that the full story of this event went undocumented because none of the Legionnaires remembered exactly what had occurred.

After that, in the pages of Countdown (2007-08):

• Karate Kid and one of Luornu’s bodies, calling herself Una, meet various heroes and villains and eventually end up on Apokolips with some other heroes. Val is dying of an alien virus.
• Superman-Prime has survived the Sinestro Corps War and is traveling the multiverse in search of the perfect universe for him. He eventually finds his way to a war on Earth-51, and in a fight he destroys Monarch’s (Captain Atom’s) containment suit which sets off a chain reaction that destroys that universe. He becomes lost in time… and lost in space.
• The Monitor Nix Uotan creates a new Earth-51 in its place, and the Earth-8 Monitor Solomon sends Val and Una from Apokolips to this Earth, but Val finally dies and releases the Morticoccus virus, infecting everyone and creating a new version of Kamandi’s Earth. Una dies saving Buddy Blank and his grandson Tommy from a swarm of rats.
• And in a related miniseries, Bart Allen is killed.

While all of this is going on, in the Superman & The Legion story arc (2007-08), Superman goes back to the 31st century for the first time since Crisis on Infinite Earths because the Legion needs his help – Earth-Man (formerly Absorbency Boy) has convinced Earth that Superman was born there and that all aliens are bad. Earth-Man and his Justice League of Earth hunt the Legion down until the good guys win. Hooray!

The epilogue for the S&LSH story is in Action 864, the issue after the S&LSH story concludes, but this issue is NOT collected in the S&LSH collection (though it should be). Lightning Lad brings Superman back to the 21st century and they hang around the Fortress reminiscing until Batman shows up. Batman tells Superman that he remembers meeting three different versions of the Legion (pre-Crisis in JLA 147-148, Reboot in Final Night, and Threeboot in Brave & Bold vol 3 #5), and they've found the bodies of Karate Kid and Luornu (how did they get here from where we know they died on Earth-51?). They find the schizophrenic Starman (who's been hanging out with the JSA) who gives them some cryptic clues, and after Garth gives Superman a new flight ring that contains a one-way shortcut to the 31st century, he leaves with the two bodies. Then we see that the Time Trapper is involved, he’s the one who brought the bodies from Earth-51. On the last page, it says “to be continued in Legion of 3 Worlds”. 

DC Universe #0 also came out that week, and it has a tease for L3W as well as the other Final Crisis tie-ins, as it came the week after Countdown #1 (and was originally going to be Countdown #0). That's where this post's main picture up top came from.

So then Legion of 3 Worlds #1 came out in August 2008 and promptly broke the internet.

(Here's where you pause to go read the miniseries!)

After issue #2: Geoff Johns said this isn't just a Legion story, it contains elements of all the books he's worked on, whether it's just cameos (the Teen Titans in the Superman Museum, the Rip Hunter/Booster Gold images) or major characters (Superman, from Action Comics) or storylines (the Green Lantern legacy and the Sinestro Corps War). At this point, Sodam Yat is over 1000 years old, having been introduced in the Sinestro Corps storyline, where he was destined to be one of the greatest Green Lanterns. He was last known in the 21st century as Ion. He was first mentioned, and shown in a panel or two, as part of a prophecy told to Abin Sur by demons in an Alan Moore written Tale of the Green Lantern Corps back in the '80s.

During L3W, the books were significantly delayed (issues came out at 2-4 month intervals between August 2008 and July 2009 instead of monthly), such that the finale of Final Crisis actually appeared in between issues 2-3 of L3W, with L3W #3-5 still left to go: the finale in L3W #5 was supposed to come out before Final Crisis #6. Of course, what we didn't know at the time was that the delays were caused by problems with Perez's eyesight, which wasn't really something that DC could (or should) tell the public. But to their credit, they did stick with Perez on pencils despite the fact they could have gotten someone else to finish in Perez's stead.

• Dan DiDio in Nov 2008 (between issues 2-3): “...It’s essential for us to have the last issue of Final Crisis come out in the month of January. Therefore, we are moving heaven and earth to make the book come out in the month of January, because so much follows. Legion of 3 Worlds has an impact on our line because of the bits that take place at the conclusion of the series, but that impact does not occur until later in the year. So we are less aggressive to holding that particular book’s schedule than we were the lead book in Final Crisis. So therefore, you’re going to see Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds with months skipping in order to complete the story, but Final Crisis will be pushed to make sure it hits as close to its schedule as possible.”

In Final Crisis #6, we find Superman after coming from the Superman Beyond 3D special, and that this takes place after the conclusion of L3W. Brainiac 5 tells Superman to look at the Miracle Machine (which has somehow returned from being eaten) and to memorize its circuitry. One reviewer wrote that “The point of this highly expository sequence appears to be to (re)introduce the Miracle Machine, exactly the sort of deus-ex-machina device that’s like catnip to Morrison.” Of course, a machine that can rewrite continuity can probably rewrite its own history too.

In Final Crisis #7, we get a couple of panels of Starman and a page or two of the new Miracle Machine (which looks steampunk, and not like any version of the Miracle Machine we had seen before). Grant Morrison, who wrote Final Crisis, put L3W into chronological perspective: 

• GM: The Monitrix Zillo Valla recruits Superman’s help in Final Crisis #3 which leads into Superman Beyond #1 and 2, both of which happen in the space between Lois’ final heartbeats. He returns to save her in Beyond #2, only to be contacted by the Legion of Super-Heroes to deal with an emergency in the 31st Century – as seen in Legion of 3 Worlds #1. Normally, the Legion is able to return him to his own time an instant after he left, so naturally he feels secure quitting Earth after saving Lois. After his encounter with Superboy Prime in L3W, however, he returns late to Final Crisis #6, to find time has crashed, Darkseid rules the world and Batman is dead. Oops. Fortunately, he brings with him the means to save us all.
• Basically, Morrison needed a reason for Superman to be gone for a while so things could fall apart while he was gone, so L3W was that reason. Johns said that Morrison was in charge of the main Final Crisis series, and anything Morrison needed for that, Johns was happy to provide.

After the series:

There are a number of Legionnaires missing in this story. They’re all in the 21st century. Following L3W, we see the aftermath of Superboy (Conner)’s return from the dead in Adventure Comics, leading into the Legion being involved with the Last Stand of New Krypton story. 

Superboy Prime later appears in several story arcs:

• He is recruited by Black Lantern during Blackest Night (Adventure Comics 4-5), but he is apparently redeemed. (2009)
• He is accidentally returned to the DCU in a battle with the Teen Titans and creates his own Legion of Doom, but is defeated and imprisoned in the Source Wall. (2011)
• Somehow during Rebirth he escapes and is found in the Dungeon of Eternity in Shazam 10-14, battling the Shazam Family. (2020)
• Finally, in Dark Knights: Death Metal he defeats the Darkest Knight and is killed, ending up back home where he really wanted to be. (2020)

Just want to end with a really great piece of artwork that eventually became the cover of the collected edition of L3W.