Retro Review: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes TPB.

This trade collects Action Comics #858-863 and is written by Geoff Johns.

-Here's the quick version of what was in this trade. Superman is brought to the future by Brainiac 5 in order to help the Legion of Super-Heroes deal with the rising feelings of xenophobia amongst the citizens of the planet Earth. Legion reject Earth-Man, along with others who were turned away from the Legion wound up joining forces to form the Justice League, and have claimed that they found evidence showing that Superman was actually an Earthling, and not from Krypton. These findings have caused Earth to withdraw from the United Planets conglomerate, and have also royally pissed off the other UP members.

-Upon arriving in the future, Supes discovers the Earth's sun has turned red thanks to Earth-Man, meaning his superpowers are gone. So, for the majority of this story, Supes only has his Legion flight ring to fix the mess. Ultimately, Supes reunites the Legion, defeats Earth-Man and his Justice League and prevent the furious UP from declaring war on the planet Earth, all before returning to the 21st century.

OK, now that the review is out of the way, here's my take on this TPB. I have to admit that I was mildly disappointed by this trade. After reading the Up, Up, and Away trade and the Lost Son storyline, I have to say this collection was definitely inferior. Even I was surprised by that fact, because I love the Legion, and everybody must know about my respect for the works of Geoff Johns by now. I just couldn't bring myself to rally behind Supes and the Legion in this trade... I kept finding myself rooting for Earth-Man and the JL, even though they were obviously supposed to be the villains of the story. I mean really, why couldn't Earth withdraw from the UP? So what if the people of Earth wanted to believe Supes was one of them. What right did the UP have to launch an attack on the Earth anyway? I have to say, Earth-Man and his crew(although crazy)were way more interesting than the bland and almost interchangeable Legionnaires. Nobody from the Legion really stood out to me, while the members of the Justice League all had distinct(and pretty funny)personalities.

Now, even with all those complaints, I still enjoyed this trade, and couldn't wait to discover how it would end. I guess that may sound kind of contradictory, but when I read something written by Geoff, I expect perfection. So, although this story was very good and quite enjoyable, it was not perfect. For a score, I'll give this trade a 9 out of 10. Like I said, I'd easily recommend this trade to anybody, but Geoff has definitely written better Superman stories than his work here. Plus there was no Lex Luthor! Geoff should be obligated to put Lex into every Superman comic he writes. Nobody does Lex better than Geoff!