It's been a while since I've sat down and knocked out a hub about comic books for a variety of reasons, none of them pertinent in what should ostensibly be an essay in hub form, but I'll tell you this, writing thirty hubs in thirty days was hard.  I thought I had run out of things to say about comic books but that is a problem much like running out of comic books: in this day and age if you count all the old comics waiting to be bought along with the incredible new issues coming out every week it's becoming a comic book universe, (much to the chagrin of Superboy Prime the villain of this epic).

I just finished reading the five issues of the Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds and I completely and totally loved every moment of it.  Geoff Johns and George Perez are now my favorite comic book creators respectively because their story had everything I love. Never mind the false advertising of calling a story arc "Final Crisis," that probably wasn't their fault or idea, as they opened up more directions that the Legion can go in than they closed and in doing so created one of the finest pieces of speculative fiction to come along in many years.

This one had it all: a pissed off Superboy Prime who decides to destroy every trace of Superman and the Legion of Superheroes who he inspired and helped create; the death of a final Green Lantern and the discovery of a new Green Lantern Corps; three differnent legions of superheroes (which meant three Brainiacs with classic grumpy banter); and our Superman selflessly flying away from the Final Crisis story in our time to help the heroes of the 31st century.

The story was perfect: a disaffected Federation of Worlds wants to dissolve the Legion, calling them out for causing more problems than they solved.  This was a simple symbolic nod to how the US is getting pushed around in the United Nations of this world, and it was great when the Legion earned back all the respect, solidifying galactic ties in an effort to end xenophobia.  And when they say aliens, they mean aliens.

I have never been a Legion fan until now.  Growing up I tried a couple incarnations of the group and I found them too light, or too simple.  No one had real superpowers, just the natural powers of their people that appear superhuman on Earth.  Then there was a lot of clever use of the word Legion alluding to Legion in the Bible and that always made me feel a little uneasy both metaphysically and artistically.

Now I am hooked.  Whatever grows out of this Final Crisis story, (that took 12 months to create 5 issues, but who is counting?), I am ready to start collecting as Johns maintained the most likable and edgy Legion I have ever read, while creating a story about ideals and the victory of good over evil.  John's encyclopedic knowledge of all things Legion was obvious on every page.  Either he grew up with these books or the DC Comics database is the epitome of perfection.  He also told a story about Superman with very little input from the actual Superman, utilizing Earth Prime's Superboy to tell a story of just how wrong things could go if the wrong person is granted incredible power.

What can be said about Gerge Perez's artwork other than I wish every comic book looked like this.  He honestly fits twice as much art into each page, more than any other comic book artist, yet it looks so crisp and clean it begins to represent a better world, a universe so colorful and exciting that it just has to be better than any other artistic vision.

Without discussing the conclusion I will say there was one particularly amazing schizophrenic moment, where a character returns to his universe and his adventures have all been captured in comic books.  This doubling of artifice always shakes me up when I read it as I wait to be pulled through the frame and into the next world where all things superhero are possible.

When I picked up the last issue of Final Crisis: Legion, I thought my latest spat of collecting was over. Now I'm not so sure.  While I am incredibly discouraged by the price increases both at Marvel and DC, I have to say that the work is just that good right now.  Certainly I'm biased as a life long fan but comics are better now than television and movies put together.  Like many fanboys the only movies I see are based on comics.

So give me a Legionairre's Flight RIng and report me ready for active duty - I have the power to spend green energy to collect the secrets of the multiverse - bestowed with such power how can I do anything less?