Final Crisis Legion Of Three Worlds #3 (OF 5)

This has been called "continuity porn," and it is that.  It's also a war book and a traditional super-hero comic.  The structure is the same as "Secret Invasion" or "Crisis on Infinite Earths": at the beginning the villain has the upper hand, and that slowly shifts until the hero wins in the end.  Prime has a big army, so the Legion calls a bigger one.  Prime has legendary status, so the Legion needs bigger legends.  The last Green Lantern, the greatest Flash, the original Superman, and so on.

There are basically four scenes: For three pages, Mon-El and Shadow Lass gather a key fighter, someone who has history with Superboy (thank gods we can use that name, now).  The fifteen-page fight scene is like any other major war scene: some of the key players get moments to shine, including Ferro, Night Girl, Neutrax and Karate Kid, with extra characters moments from Phantom Girl and Mordru and others.  A Sunboy dies, to spur the "real" one into action.  The key moment, though, is the physical confrontation between Superman and Superboy.

Superboy is a fascinating character, here.  As someone else said, he's the ultimate continuity nerd, crying "this isn't the way it's supposed to be," whenever he doesn't like something.  His battle cry might as well be "it's not fair."  He reminds me of Hal Jordan fans, ten years ago.  The way to beat him, apparently, is with more continuity (kind of like the way the Justie League beat Libra, when he first appeared).  The idea of Superboy as an anti-Superman, an icon for villains throughout time, is fantastic.  If he were just a little less whiny, it would be more believable, but then the metaphor would fall apart.

Over in Action Comics, Johns has been asking "what makes Superman special?"  Other Kryptonians are not Superman, because they didn't have his parents and upbringing.  He's asking the same question here, but in a different way: what if Superman had watched that family die, at a formative age?  Would be still be a hero?  Where is the tipping point?  Superboy represents the quest for selfish desires, for self-gratification, for immediate needs, whereas Superman represents (bringing in Final Crisis, since it is on the cover) trust in the story.  Superman always believes that there will be a happy ending.  Superboy whines and wants the ending his own way.  As readers, I think we have to ask ourselves: who do we want to be?

In the last ten pages, we return to the war, but more importantly we get a history of XS and the return of Bart Allen.  As everyone knows, Flashes don't die; they join the Speed Force.

What put this issue over the top, for me, was the both mixing of the forms and the use of the Legion.  The Legion is used best when some members are the focus and others get one or two lines to shine, which is exactly what happens here.  This story couldn't be told with any other team, or any other characters.