Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
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| Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes | |
 Cover art to Action Comics #858, the first issue of the arc. Cover Art by Gary Frank. |
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| Publisher | DC Comics |
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| Schedule | Monthly |
| Publication date | October 2007 - March 2008 |
| Number of issues | 6 (Action Comics #858-863) |
| Main character(s) | Superman Legion of Super-Heroes Justice League of Earth |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Geoff Johns |
| Artist(s) | Gary Frank |
Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes is a comic book story arc from DC Comics by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, featuring the Superman character and the return of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion of Super-Heroes. This arc marked Geoff Johns' debut as a solo writer on Action Comics, having previously written alongside Kurt Busiek and Richard Donner.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Perry White discusses how Clark Kent needs to better his social life when he hears cries for help with his super-hearing. Finding a way out of the conversation, he changes into Superman and races to provide help. He finds a Brainiac robot attacking Metropolis, and after defeating the machine, the face opens to reveal a monitor with the face of Legionnaire Brainiac 5.
Brainiac 5 tells him that the Legion needs his assistance. Sending him to the 31st century, Superman finds that the Legion are now outlaws. Legionnaires Dawnstar, Colossal Boy, and Wildfire give him a Legion Flight Ring. The authorities then arrive and as Superman attempts to catch a shot meant for his friends, the shot instead goes through his hand. Fleeing with the Legion, they inform Superman that Earth's sun is now red, leaving him powerless without his Flight Ring. Superman asks what has happened, and Dawnstar explains that Legion rejects led by Earth-Man helped in dishonoring Superman's name by convincing Earth that he was not an alien, but in fact a human protector from all forms of alien life. In the process, Earth's people believes Superman's true origins are a lie perpetrated by the Legion.
The Legion is being hunted by the Justice League of Earth, led by Earth-Man. After telling the Legionnaires that Brainiac 5 sent him here, Superman, Dawnstar, Colossal Boy and Wildfire head to his likely location: an alien holding camp. Superman and crew encounter two more Legionnaires: Night Girl and Shadow Lass, who lead them to an improvised underground headquarters from which over ten thousand extraterrestrials have escaped to their home planets. Timber Wolf and Lightning Lass are revealed to be running the interstellar "underground railroad."
After a short reunion, Superman and his Legionnaire friends are discovered by Earth-Man and are attacked by the Justice League of Earth. Wildfire, Dawnstar, Colossal Boy, and Superman manage to escape through a warp-gate to Colu, where they crash land, and are attacked by the seemingly brainwashed residents. After blacking out, Superman awakens and is confronted by Brainiac 5, who reveals that his dictatorship of the planet is fabricated as a way to keep Colu, which is the strategic beachhead of a proposed United Planets attack on Earth, from completing their plans.
On Earth, Chameleon Girl sneaks into the Justice League's headquarters, and discovers that they captured Sun Boy and placed him into a machine that uses his powers to tint the sun red. Superman, Brainiac 5, and Colossal Boy find the other Legionnaires and the crystal data tablet containing the false claims regarding Superman's origins.
Earth-Man reveals himself and steals Colossal Boy's power, and proceeds to attack Superman, gloating how he has forever ruined his name, but Superman takes the fight outside the station, and pushes Earth-Man into outer space. Meanwhile, the attack force of the United Planets wait for the signal to attack Earth.
Brainiac 5 manages to free Sun Boy from the machine. With the sun back to normal, Superman's powers are restored and he is able to face Earth Man on equal footing, convincing Earth's people the truth of his origins in the process. With the Legion's help, Superman is able to subdue Earth Man. With the Justice League of Earth defeated, the Legion set about rebuilding, and making plans to find their lost teammates. Before leaving for his era, Superman tells the Legion to let him know when they need his help.In the present, Superman returns to the spot where he made his first trip to the future, and places his hand on a tree Lightning Lad marked with an "L", to remind him where to wait for the Legion to return.
[edit] Legacy
DC commissioned past artists of the Legion to create variant incentive covers for certain issues in this story. Steve Lightle, Mike Grell, and Keith Giffen, all artists on a Legion title at some point in their careers, contributed covers to three issues in a 1:10 ratio.
[edit] Continuity questions
The Legion as presented in this story (as well as the "The Lightning Saga" crossover in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America) shares the history of the original, pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion.[1] This version of the team is clearly distinct from the one presented in the Legion's regular monthly title; their appearance is a result of the Infinite Crisis and 52 limited series, and the revelation that there are 52 parallel universes in the DC multiverse. This version of the Legion is scheduled to appear in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds alongside Superman and the 'Reboot' and 'Threeboot' versions of the team.
[edit] References
- ^ Dan Phillips (October 18, 2007). Superman/Green Lantern. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. “Johns: The good thing is that you can pick up Adventure Comics #300 and that happened. You can pick up any Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes story and that happened. You can pick up the new trade coming out that Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen did, and that happened. All those are back-stories, so if you want to read them, the stories are there. Really, we're sticking with everything that happened up through Crisis on Infinite Earths.”
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