Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
DC’s recent company-wide crossover Final Crisis generated various series, most of them dispensable. This one’s a notch better. In the thirty-first century, Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes team up with two other parallel-universe versions of the Legion (the results of the company’s inconsistent narrative continuity over the decades) to battle Superboy-Prime (a parallel-universe Superman), the Legion of Super Villains, and the Time Trapper. If this sounds exhaustingly complicated and bordering on incomprehensible, it is. Parallel-universe sagas are labyrinthine enough without dragging in the paradoxes inherent to time travel. In light of its boggling complexities, the arc is fortunate to have George Pérez on board as illustrator. Known for his ability to handle vast casts of superheroes in such titles as The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths, the superstar artist brings a welcome clarity to the proceedings. Hard-core DC fans should be able to keep up with the convoluted goings-on, and the rest can just luxuriate in Pérez’s elegantly elaborate visuals. --Gordon Flagg