So, Geoff Johns is a big name writer in mainstream comic books right now. He's currently writing Action Comics (one of the two Superman books, if you didn't know) which is usually good but which I don't normally buy. He recently wrapped up a storyline called Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, which I didn't get interested in until the last issue came out, so I decided I'd get the trade when it came out.

The hardcover of Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes came out yesterday, so I bought it, and read it today. I really enjoyed the hell out of it, to the point that I'm posting on here to share the love. I highly recommend checking it out

Here's the thing about the Legion of Super-Heroes. The concept has been around for awhile--I can't remember how long, but it's 40 or 50 years--and the comics have accumulated a lot of baggage. If you don't know much about the Legion, and you picked up an issue, you probably wouldn't be able to follow it, or to see why you should care.

What Geoff Johns does really well is distill the essence of the concept and present it in a clear and exciting manner. If you've never read anything with the Legion in it, I think you could read and enjoy this book. It's got plenty of references and touches for old-school fans, but it carefully introduces all the characters and concepts in a clear way.

If you don't know anything about the Legion of Super-Heroes, but want to know why the characters have been around so long, this is the best single book you could read.

I think I'll write a little bit more about the Legion. The basic premise is simple: teenage super-heroes in the future. The Legionnaires were originally supporting characters in Superboy comics. They were teenage super-heroes in the future, so they went back in time and recruited the original teenage super-hero to join their club. Simple, right? Superboy's series was even re-titled Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Eventually the Powers That Be decided that the Legion needed to stand on its own. Superboy and the Legion split into two separate series. That was sometime in the 70's, I think. From then on, Superman and the Legion didn't have much to do with each other.

All these years later, however, Geoff Johns has decided that the Legion work really well as supporting characters in Superman comics, and has reestablished that connection. So teaming up Superman and the Legion is firmly rooted in comic book history, but still seems fresh.

I was a big Legion fan back in the 90's. Then the series got excruciatingly mediocre, and my passion faded, and I forgot why I liked them in the first place. This book reminded me.

I never rad any of the legion books. Until Johns's Action Comics run, my biggest exposure to the Legion was in Metzler's lackluster "Lightning Strikes" story line in JLA.

With that in mind, I loved Geoff Johns's "Superman and the Legion of Superheroes" story arc. It embraced a lot of the Silver Age fun while still making it ork for Modern Age tastes.

When I said "If you've never read any Legion comics, this is the one you should read," you were one of the people I was thinking of. Glad you read it! I agree that he made the Silver Age fun work in a modern style. Geoff Johns really seems to have a gift for getting what's appealing about a character or concept and stripping away all the accumulated crap.