Review : Action Comics #859 – “The only good alien..”
November 23, 2007
Action Comics #859 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank was released this week. This issue continues the “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” storyline, a tale of Superman and his childhood friends facing persecution and peril in the far future. In the 30th century, aliens are hunted and imprisoned, all in the name of Superman. The Legion and Superman need to rescue their team members and avoid being captured by this future’s version of the Justice League. This shouldn’t really be a big deal for Supes, except for the fact that the Earth’s Sun is RED, leaving him powerless.
Take the jump for the rest of the review.
The issue starts off in the Batcave, during the year 3008. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl (all aliens), are looking for proof that the planet Krypton existed. Krypton, of course, is the home planet of Superman. They argue about what to do about the people hunting them. Lightning Lad suggests just killing the Justice League to end their troubles. Saturn Girl disagrees, saying killing them would only make things worse, and asks the ubiquitous “What Would Superman Do?”
Apparently Earth-Man and his Justice League of Earth are destroying the Legion, and “destroying everything Superman stood for.” Before the argument can go any further, the Justice League comes crashing in through a wall, poses ready.
Mmm, Fishnets. 30th Century Fishnets.
After the fisticuffs, the Justice League takes the Legion of Superheroes to their headquarters in orbit around the Earth. The facility also doubles as a teaching center for children. Apparently, someone decided that having a super hero headquarters in the same building as a school was a good idea. The Justice League keeps the Legion locked up in tubes, just a hallway down from a classroom full of students.
A teacher asks the students about the origins of Superman. The students tell her (and us, the readers) about how Superman was born on Earth, granted powers by Mother Earth, and was the protector of Earth from extraterrestrial threats. This was discovered when Earth-Man found an ancient scripture telling of how Superman was from Earth, and hated aliens. Superman was such an influential part of the lives of those in the future, that people actually began to hate aliens because of this. Hate of aliens lead to imprisonment camps and much turmoil.
The Justice League, we find out, was comprised of humans rejected from the Legion. They took this rejection as a sign of elitism on behalf of the Legion, and with hostility.
The issue goes out with a whimper, as the cliffhanger is nothing special. Braniac 5, the leader of the Legion, is trapped in an alien prison camp. Superman and the Legion plan to rescue him. End of issue.
For a book about Superman, he barely appears in the book. Sure, his name is mentioned and he is talked about, but the actual character does not get a lot of page time. I really can’t be moved to care about the Legion from what I’ve read in this issue, and I don’t know if Geoff Johns can change that with another issue. On the upside, Gary Franks art is amazing, with very tightly rendered pencils providing detail and depth to a story that lacked it in the narrative. I’m normally a fan of Geoff Johns work, but his Superman is not impressing me.
Pick this up if you love the Legion and Geoff Johns. Otherwise, you could do without it.
EDIT: To invoke discussion, tell me why I should care about the Legion. What issues do you feel are essential to understanding and caring about these characters and why?
