Action Comics #863

Action Comics #863
Title: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 6 of 6 - Sun Rise
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Nachie Castro and Matt Idelson
Executive Editor: Gary Frank
Reviewer: Jude Deluca a.k.a. Sarcasm Kid

PREVIOUSLY: With the universe on the brink of war and the Legion scrambling to stop the Justice League of Earth, the Legion of Substitute Heroes are finally called into action as the Legion's wild card. While the Subs invade the JLE's satellite looking to avenge their fallen comrades, Superman and the Legionnaires finally discover most of their missing team-mates held in Earth-Man's stasis chambers. Brainiac 5 tries to free Sun Boy, but Earth-Man gets the drop on Colossal Boy and Superman. It finally comes down to Superman and Earth-Man for the fate of the Legion, the Earth, the universe, and the 31st Century.

And so we finally reach the end of this arc. We finally get the big showdown between Superman and the wannabe Nazi who has usurped his symbol for a petty grudge against the Legionnaires.

Superman and Earth-Man are hurtling towards Earth, the Legionnaires and the Subs are subduing the rest of the Justice League of Earth, and the United Planets' Strike Force is within range to launch their attack on the planet.

So that's a lot going on in just one page.

Clark and Kirt have left space and are now in the sky above Metropolis. Since the sun's still red and Clark remains powerless, Kirt destroys Clark's flight ring and throws him down towards the city.

The crux of turning the tide rests on Brainiac 5 and Colossal Boy. Gim frees Chameleon Girl while Brainy fiddles with the solar generator Sun Boy's been hooked into. Even after Dirk's freed from the machine, Earth's sun remains red. Brainy comes up with an unorthodox idea and tells Yera to kiss Dirk to wake him. Gim and Yera are incredulous at this "Sleeping Beauty" approach but Brainy asks if they have a better idea. To add insult to injury, Brainy reminds Yera that Dirk prefers brunettes. A Gigi Cusimano reference?

Yera reluctantly kisses Dirk, and within seconds he wakes up. The sun explodes in golden light.

(Note here the only time Dr. Zoidberg was ever included in a group activity.)

Superman's hurtling towards Metropolis faster and faster, while on the ground a group of Science Police officers are rounding up more illegal aliens. The crowd of citizens and police look up and see... is it a bird? is it a plane? It's...

Basking in the yellow sunlight, Clark gets his powers back, to the shock of everyone around him. He immediately frees the detained alien citizens. One S.P. officer open fires on Clark, screaming that the real Superman supports Human Rights. Clark blocks the laser with his bare hand, calmly stating that he supports the rights of all beings, human and alien.

Kirt crashes back into Metropolis, ready to finish the fight regardless of Clark's powers. As they duke it out, Kirt brags about all the powers he's stolen from the Legionnaires, making him a one-man Legion.

Clark, of course, isn't content to settle for a knock-off when he has the real deal.

Kirt you really walked into that one.

The Legionnaires administer a well deserved and LONG overdue beat down on Kirt while he typically delivers a standard villain rant about everything he did.

Kirt  screams that the rest of the JLE never mattered to him, nor does he care that his actions have almost plunged the universe into war. The Legion is disgusted while Kirt pathetically babbles about being treated like crap. No one cares.

Kirt's so pissed off that he unleashes one final blast of energy that blows away the surrounding Legionnaires....which makes sense,  since most of them have spent days, if not weeks or months, trapped in containers. Whining about how no one understands him, Kirt runs towards Clark to attack him again.

Clark's retort is simple, but gets the point across.

...Because the only things Nazis are good for are getting punched in the face.

With Kirt down and out, the other Legionnaires get to their feet. Lightning Lad actually glomps Clark.

You adorable ginger NERD.

Brainy reminds everyone that there are other problems to deal with. The Legion quickly heads into space and confront the fleet of war ships. Clark takes the front, telling the respective soldiers that there won't be a war.

A day later, the Legionnaires have regained their HQ and review what's next on their agenda. They have to deal with the U.P., Earthgov, and locate their missing teammates. Oh, and as an aside the Subs claimed the JLE's satellite for their new HQ.

Saturn Girl tells Clark he doesn't need to help them, acknowledging that he's got his own life in the 21st Century. Clark reminds everyone that it doesn't matter what they're facing, they can always count on him to lend a hand if they need him. Brainy assures Clark the Legion won't forget him again.

We then cut to a look back on when the founders brought Clark home after their first adventure together, and they made plans to meet up again the next day. A young Garth fires a bolt at a tree, carving an "L" in the trunk to signify their meeting place.

The tree and its symbol are still there, in Clark's present.

--

The part about Brainy saying that the Legion won't forget Clark again is extremely difficult for me to read now, as a result of Doomsday Clock #11 where Saturn Girl basically fades out of existence (and dies?) once she admits Superman doesn't remember HER or the Legion anymore.

I think I honestly kind of hate Superman because he's so integral to the Legion that, without him, their history became a total disaster. So much of trying to fix them had to revolve around explaining Superman's connection to them. Every time his origin gets changed, they get screwed over more. It's like what happened to Donna Troy, or how Roy Harper is continuously screwed over every time DC decides to overhaul Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Reviewing this series took far too long to complete and I apologize for that. It has been genuinely difficult for me to focus on the Legion in a positive way the last couple of years, with Doomsday Clock and my fears regarding the Legion's return due to DC's rampant incompetence.

Overall, here are what I consider the pros and cons of this arc:

THE PROS:

1. Superman's finally been reunited with the Legionnaires of his youth after DC spent years downplaying their connection because of that stupid mandate on their Kryptonian characters.
2. Johns lays the groundwork to explain the existence of some of the other Legions, adding the implication that Superman and the Legion lost touch with one another because of an outside party's interference and acknowledging how screwed up the history became.
3. The convoluted aspects of Legion continuity, like how tangled the FYL era became, are sidestepped for the moment.
4. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are back to being an officially married couple, after the messiness of the Reboot's version (due to Garth being reborn in Jan's body) and whatever the Hell was done to the Threeboot version (Imra cheating on Garth with Jo and that whole thing with the Earth President we don't talk about because EW......!).
5. Night Girl has become an official Legionnaire after hanging on the edges of the Legion since the end of the FYL era.
6. Johns utilized the Silver Age to re-imagine several forgotten bit characters and making them into viable heroes and villains.
7. RAINBOW GIRL!
8. The seeming prediction of the rise of the Alt Right through the use of the Justice League of Earth taking control of society through lies, spreading racism, and manipulating the stupidity of the average citizen. 

THE CONS:

1. Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad's personalities being gutted from the inside, Imra having lost her fierceness and Garth becoming an ass who could barely go five minutes without screaming at someone
2. Johns' gross attempt to covertly put Lightning Lass and Timber Wolf back together, completely ignoring Shrinking Violet and trying to erase Ayla and Vi's queerness. What is especially frustrating on this is how people would argue about what era Johns was using as a starting point and then saying "But Vi and Ayla weren't together then," despite the fact that this Legion clearly had Karate Kid alive again and Sensor Girl together with Val's death as a plot point.
3. Wildfire especially comes across as an ass and he seems to perpetually hang off Dawnstar. For that matter, Johns seems to believe the two are joined at the hip. If this is actually consistent with Drake's personality in the original stories, I have a hard time understanding why he ever became so popular.
4. The White Witch casually getting fridged when it's mentioned she was given to Mordru the Merciless by the JLE to keep him away from Earth, only compounded when we later see Mordru has traumatized and tortured Mysa to make her love him.
5. Johns killing off Double-Header and blinding Color Kid before the story begins, in what feels like a particularly nasty blow from him.
6. The glaring plot hole around the way the JLE's plan worked regarding the "Crystal Tablet." It was already mentioned that not everyone immediately believed their claims, but Brainy analyzes the tablet and discovers it really is an artifact from the past. The question is, though, how exactly did the JLE know that the tablet was a fake? If Brainy was right and a lot of effort was put into making the tablet look genuine, you'd expect Kirt and the rest would have  believed it was for real as well. Except that we see that they know it's bogus and they know Superman is really from Krypton. The Time Trapper's discussion about this in Action #864 implies that he never had direct contact with the JLE, so he didn't just give it to them. So the JLE's motivations don't make sense, and would have probably worked if they had truly believed the Legion lied about Superman's origins.

Overall, some aspects of this story aged better than others did and I realized my earlier enjoyment of the story was due to not being entirely familiar with the older Legion stories, so the changes Johns made to the personalities flew over my head.

If I had to grade it I'd give it a B-.