Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Review

Life in the 31st century has gotten oddly grim – the Justice League has decided that Earth is for humans only and to deport all aliens because of some warped idea that Superman was human. So the Legion of Super-Heroes travels to the past to bring the real Superman back with them and prove that he was an alien. Apparently wikis don’t exist in the future!

I’ve never really liked the Legion of Super-Heroes - they always seemed like the scout troop to Superman’s scoutmaster. Buncha boring, naff… anyway! Geoff Johns has written a surprisingly readable book with this crowd.

The first act is superb. Johns manages to show Superman and the Legion’s origins, the current state of things in the Legion’s world and place Superman within it all effortlessly. It’s concise, sharp writing without any fat. And, though I can’t recall any of their names, I was definitely interested in the Legion characters introduced at that point. The story is dramatic, exciting and immediately gripping.

And then it starts to fall apart – doh! Johns’ setup never develops beyond the simplistic – the “Justice League” are Nazi stand-ins with their ethnic cleansing goals that are villainous clichés. It’s never explained why aliens are so hated or why everyone in the world is going along with it so it’s never convincing for a moment and feels cartoonishly silly. The “turning the sun from yellow to red” contrivance was written so stupidly too and, while the story started promisingly, it devolves into the standard good guys punching bad guys finale - yawn.

Then there’s the Legion – they’re so damned generic! It seemed like new characters were being introduced with every few pages and they all have immediately forgettable designs, powers and names – Something-Man/Boy and Something-Woman/Girl. Ditto the villains. Brainiac-5 is the only one I remember! I can easily see why I was never interested in this title when it’s full of bland characters having unimaginatively derivative adventures.

Gary Frank delivers up a fine-looking comic as always. And he’s drawing Superman so you know what that means: Christopher Reeve lives again on the page! That’s not a criticism either, I love seeing Chris Reeves Superman.

Geoff Johns takes this assortment of cheeseball characters and somehow makes them interesting enough for this book to be a decent read - a laudable feat in itself! It’s let down by an uninspired second half but Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes wasn’t bad – it’s a mildly fun superhero story with Superman as a supporting character and quality artwork.