Book Five
Geoff Johns – Writer
George Pérez – Pencils
Scott Koblish – Inker
Hi-Fi – Colorist
Nick Napolitano – Letters
Adam Schlagman – Assoc. Editor
Eddie Berganza – Editor
Cover: George Pérez & Nei Ruffino
Sliver Cover: George Pérez & Ruffino
Our main cover features Dawnstar, which I find to be an unusual choice for the finale of this miniseries. Not to discount Dawnstar, but I don't consider her to be as essential to the Legion as Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5. Regardless, it is a very pretty cover.
Confession time: This whole series I thought this was called the "Silver Cover," which never made any sense. Today I finally realized it's the "Sliver Cover," which makes a whole lot more sense. I could go back and fix my mistake on the past reviews, but I'll leave them up as a monument to my stupidity. Anyway, this sliver cover puts the spotlight on Superboy, recently revived from the dead. I'm glad Kon's getting some love, but this image is a bit underwhelming. I'd like something brighter, something happier.
Our story begins at the end of time, where the Time Trapper is still attacking Superman, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. Meanwhile, in the 31st Century, Time Trapper's younger self, Superboy-Prime, is trying to kill Conner with a big chunk of ice. Conner makes fun of Prime for his weak attempt at a "death blow," which makes Prime start stuttering about how he was going to do something way cooler. Conner says he doesn't know how or why he's here, but he does remember dying in Wonder Girl's arms. So Conner now wants revenge against the one who forced Cassie to watch her boyfriend die.
Conner worries that Prime had hurt Cassie, but Prime cowardly confesses he didn't. He quickly catches himself, though, and tries to threaten that he will fly back in time to punch Cassie in the face, lamely adding that a punch to her ugly face would be an improvement. As Prime takes way too long to explain his stupid joke, Sodam Yat hits him from behind with the full force of the Green Lantern Corps. Bart and Jenni are right behind him, and Bart can't help but ask Conner how sweet this reunion is. Conner asks if Bart wants to say their old battle cry, and Bart admits he's been dying to. And as they hit Prime again, Bart shouts, "Titans together!"
Prime angrily starts to fly away, complaining that Conner isn't Superboy, but Super Annoying. Demanding to know who found the clone, Prime eventually spots Dawnstar and blames her for using her tracking powers to bring everyone here (he's not entirely wrong). Dawnstar's boyfriend, Wildfire, flies in front of Prime, absorbing the full blow of his attack, creating a large explosion. As Dawnstar and Wildfire's counterpart from another world repair his containment suit, Conner quickly begins punching Prime again. This time, Prime promises to actually go back in time and break Cassie, just like he broke Conner.
Conner says he wants to rip that smirk off Prime's face, but he realizes Prime isn't worth hating, and he even admits he feels sorry for Prime. But Conner does insist that Prime stop wearing the "S" and he uses his heat vision to blast a line across Prime's "S" scar. Prime cries that his logo has been ruined, but this has far more important repercussions in the future. At the end of time, Time Trapper's scar suddenly gains the Conner-inflicted mark. Saturn Girl manages to contact the Adult Brainiac 5, asking him what this means. Adult Brainy hypothesizes that Time Trapper may have seen one potential future where the Legion lost today, but he must have seen a dozen others where the Legion won, and he can't possibly differentiate between them all. In fact, Adult Brainy, theorizes, the Time Trapper has probably always merely been a sentient alternate timeline rebelling against theirs, as his own history and even his identity changes as the true timeline marches on. Adult Brainiac 5 then formulates a plan and asks Saturn Girl to weaken Time Trapper as much as they can.
So Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy combine their powers to send out one massive distress call to the end of time. If there were any Legionnaires who were absent in this story so far, they're here now, as dozens of heroes answer the call. Everybody who has ever been a Legionnaire, honorary or otherwise, is here now. Even Supergirl and the Super Pets. Meanwhile, the White Witch finally defeats Mordru by absorbing all his magic powers, but this causes her to become the Black Witch. Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel make an appearance, but now she can make an unlimited number of copies of herself, and is calling herself Duplicate Damsel.
Finally, the Time Trapper is knocked unconscious, so Adult Brainiac 5 has Gates open a portal to bring him back to the 31st Century. Just as the Time Trapper wakes up, he finds himself face-to-face with his younger self. Prime doesn't believe that Trapper is himself, saying he'll never get old and wrinkly and grow a beard. Trapper tells Prime to shut up and listen to him, since he's smarter, but Prime refuses to take orders from this "grandpa." As they argue, Adult Brainiac 5 advises everyone to keep their distance.
Trapper is shocked to see how stupid his younger self is, and Prime prepares to punch Trapper's dentures through the back of his skull. Trapper tries to warn Prime to stay away, but Prime doesn't listen. As he punches his older self, he creates a weird, blue, reality-alternating blast. Everyone can only stand by horrified (except for the Other Brainiac 5, who calls him an idiot), as the Time Trapper and Superboy-Prime fade away from existence. Prime calls out for help, but no one can do anything. Soon, all that's left is the Time Trapper's ragged purple cloak.
Now that the battle is finally over, Superman gets a chance to embrace Conner, who jokes about having a stiff neck after being in that chrysalis for a thousand years. Clark says Ma Kent is going to be thrilled, and Conner looks at Bart, saying a lot of people will be. Bart, meanwhile, is trying to convince Jenni to come back to the past with him, saying he feels something different, which he thinks means Max Mercury is back. (Sadly, because of publication delays, we know Bart was feeling the return of his grandfather, Barry Allen, and not Max.)
Some Legionnaires are understandably worried that they broke their most important code and killed Superboy-Prime. But the Brainiacs explain that when Time Trapper interfaced with himself, he altered the history of him becoming the Time Trapper in the first place and ceased to exist. Adult Brainy describes this event as "hitting a giant cosmic reset button," which he believes caused enough trauma to Prime's body to leave him powerless. And for now, he's essentially under "house arrest."
We see that Superboy-Prime has awoken on Earth-Prime. Once again, he's entirely naked except for a thin rag conveniently keeping him modest. And to his astonishment, Prime came to right in front of his house. He gleefully runs back in to see his parents and girlfriend, whom he thought died a long time ago. But his girlfriend, Lori, runs away from Prime in terror, fleeing out the back door. Prime's dad darkly shows his son that they've been reading this very comic series, including the Sinestro Corps War and Infinite Crisis. Prime's family knows exactly what he's done, and they are both disgusted and horrified by him.
Back in the 31st Century, all the heroes stick around for a week to clean up the damage their battle caused and rebuild the prison planet. They hold a memorial for all the heroes killed in the fight, and Sodam Yat begins sending the Green Lantern rings across the universe to find new members of the Corps. And the Brainiacs set to work on sending everyone home. Superman asks the Adult Brainy how Prime was sent back to his Earth if it was destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Adult Brainy explains that Earth-Prime was reborn during Infinite Crisis. He says this became obvious when the Element Lad of the "Other Legion" was able to make kryptonite that affected Prime. The "Other Legion" is from Earth-Prime. "Our Legion" (the Legion we've interacted with the most on this blog) is from Earth-247, which was not reborn during Infinite Crisis.
So the Legion of Earth-Prime prepares to head back home, given strict instructions to keep an eye on Superboy-Prime. And the Legion of Earth-247 decides to venture out into the Multiverse to look for other people like themselves who are stranded without a world. Bart again asks Jenni to come with him to see Wally and their grandma Iris, but Jenni decides to stay behind. Even though her parents (and Bart's) left this world because of the Reverse-Flash, Jenni wants to look for any remaining relatives here.
With everyone's fate decided, the three Brainiacs build two Cosmic Treadmills attached to large platforms for each Legion (although the Brainiacs do have to have one last argument about who deserves the most credit for this). With Jenni powering one treadmill and Bart powering the other, everyone cries out, "Long live the Legion!" as they disappear in a flash of light. Now that everything is finally back to normal, Adult Brainiac 5 takes off for a long overdo haircut.
In the present day, in the Teen Titans Tower in San Francisco, we see Nightwing, Raven, Robin, Supergirl, Wonder Girl, Donna Troy, Roy Harper, Beast Boy, Starfire, Cyborg and Wally West. Apparently Superman had asked them all to meet there, but didn't tell them why. Before too long, Superman makes his dramatic entrance, presenting the revived Conner and Bart. Wally says, "Ohmygod." Conner casually greets the stunned faces with, "'Sup?" Bart cheerfully adds, "Hi, guys!" Cassie, in disbelief, asks Conner if he's really back, and with a massive grin, he says, "Isn't it cool?" Conner and Cassie quickly embrace, and Wally is the first to hug Bart.
We then leave that happy scene to return to Earth-Prime. Unfortunately, Prime has decided to use his parents' fear of him to bully them into acting as his personal servants — ironing his Superman T-shirts and preparing him grilled cheese sandwiches. But no tomato soup, since he hates vegetables. Prime also ominously hints at some horrible fate that befell Lori. Prime spends his time reading comics in the basement, and complaining about how stupid they are. As he reaches the end of this issue, he turns and yells at the reader, saying he was supposed to be the real Superboy and that he's not going away. He then logs on to the internet to continue his war against stories he hates. But while he types out his trolling comments of disgust, his eyes begin to glow red, indicating that his powers have returned.
What a phenomenal series. And I'm not even a huge Legion fan! But it was incredible seeing all these characters come together for one massive battle. Everyone's here, and everyone has something to do. And even though we had to wait quite a while for Pérez to finish his work, at the end of the day, the story is so much stronger to have the same penciller and the same inker on each and every page. This is truly one of the most impressive achievements we've seen on this blog.
It probably isn't the most natural thing to have Bart and Kon be revived in a Legion story, but they both have had their fair share of adventures with the Legionnaires. But more importantly than that, this is the story of Superboy-Prime's defeat, and such a story could not be told without the two heroes he hates and fears the most. Fittingly, Prime was the one who actually defeated himself, but that wouldn't have been possible without the psychological trauma of Kid Flash and Superboy haunting him from beyond the grave.
And what a poetic ending for Prime. He's finally given everything he ever wanted. He gets to go back home and be the world's only superhero. But his past actions have tainted his arrival, and his mind is too warped to progress past the whiny brat that won't eat his vegetables. Despite this opportunity to start with a clean slate, Prime chooses to remain embittered and lash out against the universe that rejected him in his own impotent way. Like so many internet trolls, Prime is unable to understand that change is a constant in the world of comics. And just because things change, that doesn't negate or diminish any of the old stories. And if you don't like the new stuff? So what? Don't be a jerk about it online.
So now Bart is finally, truly back! Granted, he's still Kid Flash, and we'll have to wait another 10 years before he gets to be Impulse again, but we'll still try to have fun with his second run in the yellow suit. For the meantime, let's check out the new ads:
The Soul. A new way to roll. Kia.
Paying for college has never been this much fun. Navy.
MattyCollector.com. Exclusive toys, news and more!
Splat. Rebellious colors. Long lasting, semi permanent hair paint.
The DC Nation page is Dan DiDio talking about how Orange County, Florida, recognized George Pérez for his accomplishments in the field of comics and with the Heroes Initiative charity.
We have a five-page preview of Adventure Comics #1, which we will review in due time, as Kid Flash does make a cameo in it.
Knowing and Push on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II on DVD.
Next time, we'll return to The Flash: Rebirth #4.
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