In terms of geeking out, you couldn’t possibly get more geeked-out than during the Season 8 episode of Smallville entitled Legion penned by the comics god himself, Geoff johns! I’ve spaced out in the recent Smallville seasons what with all the crystals and annoying Jor-El misrepresentations going around, but who could possibly resurrect my interest in the show but Geoff himself. In the episode we see for the first time live action versions of Saturn Girl Imra Ardeen from the planet Saturn, Lightning Lad Garth Ranzz from the planet Winath, and Cosmic Boy Rokk Krinn from the planet Braal!!! I had, of course, some minor misgivings such as Cosmic Boy wearing black instead of pink, and Lightning Lad being characterized more like Polar Boy, but the strength of Geoff Johns’ writing comes in his ability to go straight to one’s beating geek heart.

There are tons of geek moments that my years of devotion to the Legion of Superheroes managed to catch, but my favorite bit is not some minor reference to some old, old Adventure Comics’ issue, but rather an idea that should have always been there but never truly explicitly stated, which was wonderfully elucidated on by Johns in this wonderful episode. I am talking about the Legion Code to never ever take a life (eh, Star Boy?). I was originally annoyed when the three Legionnaires originally wanted Chloe dead, until it was recently fleshed out towards the end that they have formed the Legion Code never to take a life at all cost from this seminal meeting in the past with Superboy Clark Kent!!! As Cosmic Boy explained it I started to get all misty and tried, but failed, not to bawl out in total geekhoodgasmness. And then they all raised their Legion flight rings to scream, all together now, “Long live the Legion!!!”—by this time I was a total mess. Indeed, long live the Legion!!!! Bring them back from the abyss that was the 2003 Mark Waid reboot!!! Long live the Legion!!!

Addendum: And as it always happens, since I’m loving the series again, what with a lot of geek-out moments and some fun original ideas, and some actual good writing even, I’m sure the series will be cancelled soon.
Addendum 2: I’ve showed this episode to my dad who is ten times more a Legion fan than I am, and he had only one comment: where the heck is that Legion time bubble?

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