Justice League, Justice Society

JLA: Secret Society of Super-Heroes 1-2

An Elseworlds JLA Civil War by Howard Chaykin, David Tischman, and Mike McKone.  What if the JLA was an underground team instead of out in the open?  And what if half of them were corrupt?  Discuss.  Chaykin and Tischman do their usual fine work with DC Elseworlds.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Justice League: The Nail 1-3

This would be forgettable if it weren’t for Alan Davis’ beautiful art.  His characters are so wonderfully lithe and graceful.  And it’s impossible to miss his influence on Bryan Hitch.

Uncommonly brutal.

Davis' art

Bryan Hitch's art

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

DC Box 5 summary!

Time spent reading: 22 hours, 48 minutes

Issues read: 211

Issues cut: 57  (Over a quarter of what I read!  Most of it’s Morrison’s JLA and post-Blackest Night Green Lantern.)

Highlights (Good or better): Mark Waid’s Impulse, Darwyn Cooke’s Jonah Hex, JLA: Superpower, JLA: Pain of the Gods arc

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 28 days, 3 hours, 36 minutes

Issues read: 5724

Issues cut: 773

Justice League of America 11

A wonderful done-in-one by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha.  A building’s collapsed on Arsenal and Vixen, and they have to escape before they drown.  It’s a situation where all the powers in the world won’t help them, and their terror is palpable.  The very real possibility of death has time to sink into their psyches the way it doesn’t in the middle of a supervillain battle, and they’re constantly fighting off full blown panic.  Very well done.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Justice League 1-12

I still don’t know how DC’s New 52 continuity works.  There was some reboot, everything reset except for the things that didn’t, and Superman finally hooks up with Wonder Woman. 

In any case, it’s a chance for Jim Lee to draw the Justice League, and I’m in for that.  It’s not his best work by any stretch, and Geoff Johns phones it in with some lackluster writing (Darkseid bores the hell out of me (unless Tom King’s writing him), and I already can’t remember the name of the villain in the second arc), but it’s still a treat to look at.

A little awkward in the posing, but I love the vibrancy.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Justice League 1-3

I always think Scott Snyder is going to be better than he is.  My previous reviews of these issues when they first came out still hold true - Lovely art by Jim Cheung and Jorge Jimenez, writing that’s completely meh.  I left at the right time.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Justice League International 1-7

The beginning of the classic Bwah-hah-hah JLA run of the 80’s.  This is like first season Office or Parks and Recreation, where the creators (Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire) are still figuring out what they want to do, getting their feet wet.  It will eventually be great (just look at their reunion years later), but this isn’t close to good yet.

Still, “one punch.”  

And the endlessly homaged, classic cover to issue 1:

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring (Cutting)

All-Star Comics 1-2

National Comics 1

Smash Comics 1

Sensation Comics 1

Adventure Comics 1

Thrilling Comics 1

All-American Comics 1

Star Spangled Comics 1

James Robinson helms this tribute to the Justice Society of America tales of old - Main story leads to the team splitting up into smaller groups before reuniting in the last issue.  Sadly, it’s not that interesting of a story.  Something about a god of war who creates seven mini-bosses blah blah blah.  I’ve already forgotten what happens.  And yet, I’m still keeping it.  Couldn’t really tell you why.

What I can tell you is that I LOVE this page by Scott Benefiel:

And that we get a death by drugged-up-owl, courtesy of Tom Peyer and Stephen Sadowski:

Words fail me.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

New Comics, JLA

New comic!

Criminal Sanity 4

Still liking this “Silence of the Lambs by way of Gotham City” mashup.  The serial killer is suitably creepy, Harleen hasn’t gone off the deep end, and the art by Mico Suayan is dark and lovely, reminding me a lot of Lee Bermejo.  I have no idea if this is a miniseries or an ongoing, either one would be fine by me for now.

JLA: Foreign Bodies

Not as fun as I remember.  The JLA swap bodies with each other, and it’s a lot more run-of-the-mill than a prestige format issue should be.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

JLA: Superpower

This is more like it.  At first glance, it’s a standard hero-of-the-month issue - A new superhero shows up out of nowhere, somehow manages to join the team with their amazing competency, then dies because of some twist, invariably leaving the team to silently contemplate the life lesson they’ve been taught at the end of the issue.  (JLA 5 and the Pain of the Gods arc coming up later this entry, for two recent examples.)

But this story stands out above the rest.  Perhaps it’s due to the longer issue length - With more pages to work with, writer John Arcudi can devote more time to Mark Antaeus’ backstory and situation.  It makes him a more sympathetic character, so his fall from grace packs more emotional resonance.  

Nitpick: Not a fan of how Green Lantern is reduced to the wisecracking role of court jester/malcontent who turns out to be right.  It doesn’t fit his personality.

This comic is a lot like the Arsenal Special - A competent creative team that manages to punch above their weight class to create something that really stands out.  Kudos to Arcudi, artist Scot Eaton, and the rest.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

JLA: Earth 2

Grant Morrison does his best work with Frank Quitely - All-Star Superman, Multiversity, WE3, X-Men, and this.  Or is it that Quitely’s art is so darn good that it hides the fact that Morrison isn’t nearly as good as advertised?  Is Morrison merely riding some beautifully illustrated coattails?  

He’s somewhere in between, I think.  Talented artists are required to properly convey Morrison’s crazy ideas.  They bring some semblance of order to plots that can bounce all over the place.  Porter couldn’t do it in JLA.  Quitely does a much better job of it here.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

JLA 42

Dan Curtis Johnson writes a fun inventory issue about the bacterial civilizations that live inside the human body.  Wonderfully drawn by Mark Pajarillo (my love for his work is really unreasonable), this story throws in a Superman origin parallel that succeeds beyond what I would have thought possible.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

JLA 43-46

Mark Waid starts as the regular writer with the famous (at least, I think it’s famous) Tower of Babel arc.  This is the one where Ra’s al Ghul uses Batman’s contingency plans against the JLA.  JLA gets pissed off that Batman had been dreaming up ways to defeat them without their knowledge, and kick him off the team.  

It’s a great idea that I’m surprised no one thought of before, but come on - Has the JLA not met Batman?  Did they really not think he’d have “Break glass in case of emergency” fire axes for all of them?

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

JLA 47-58

The rest of Waid’s run.  Bryan Hitch hilariously comes on as the “regular” penciller, and lasts all of one issue before the backup artist reinforcements show up.  I don’t think he draws more than six issues before departing.

Waid’s stories are unmemorabley entertaining.  He does pull of one ballsy, only-in-comics moment that had me lolling: In a last ditch effort to defeat the White Martians, the JLA trap them on the moon and then DRAG THE MOON INTO EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE.  It’s effing insane and should be eye-rollingly bad.  But Waid and artist Mike S Miller totally sell it in glorious fashion.

Waaatt.

Nice try by Waid to explain away the physics.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

JLA 59

A Last Laugh tie in.  Sucks.

Regret buying:Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring (Cutting)

JLA 60

Plastic Man tells the story of how Santa Claus is a member of the JLA.  Not the trainwreck I thought it would be when I started reading it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Didn’t suck

JLA 61

Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke take over.  This is where I stopped getting JLA regularly, though it’s not like they do a bad job.  

Really like the dress in panel 7.  Simple and elegant.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

JLA 90

Bruce Wayne and Diana explore whether or not they would work as a couple.  I think Joe Kelly had been building up to this for a while.  It’s not as far fetched as it seems on first glance, and the alternate futures Kelly posits here make me want to see it happen.  

Of course, it doesn’t.  But I liked the deep dive.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

JLA 101-106

For all the crap Chuck Austen takes for his writing, I really like this six issue arc he did for JLA.  Basically, each issue focuses on a JLA member dealing with failure in a more human way than usual - each one is actually traumatized by tragic events that they would normally shrug off in other stories.  

It’s surprisingly well done, and Ron Garney does a wonderful job of accentuating the isolation and pain these usually god-like heroes feel.

Garney nails the splash pages.

Great contrast between Wonder Woman and the mundanity of sitting exhausted in the kitchen after a rough day.

Slight deduction on the dismount, as each of the issues end on some variation of, “Suck it up, eventually it’ll stop hurting so much.  In the meantime, your friends are here to get you through it.”  A little more variety and nuance would have been nice.

Still, it’s an arc that I’ve never forgotten (for positive reasons), which is a lot more than I can say for the majority of this JLA run.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

JLA 107-108

Kurt Busiek starts a Crime Syndicate of America arc with Ron Garney.  I tried a couple issues because of Busiek’s name, but past and present me both got bored with it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

JLA Classified 1-3

Grant Morrision returns to the JLA with an okay story that’s boosted up by Ed McGuinness’ excellent art.

Haha, her braid needs its own harness.

Fearsome Batman shot, obviously reminding me of...

...Classic.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

JLA Classified 8

A continuation of Formerly Known As the Justice League.  Still lots of fun, but I only have one issue of the 6-part arc.  (I probably got it for free at some point.)  Perhaps I’ll pick up the others, this is a hoot.

Love love love the joy Kevin Maguire imbues in that pose.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

New Comics, Injustice, JLA

New comics!

Fire Power: Prelude

Fire Power 1

Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee headlining a martial arts comic is definitely enough to pique my interest, and they do not disappoint.  I’m all in on this gorgeously drawn tale populated by a cast of memorable characters.  Unorthodox but smart decision to start with a prequel TPB to set up the Free Comic Book Day first issue.  The hefty trade gives Kirkman and Samnee the space to draw out the time Owen spends training in the monastery, and it’s time well spent.  It develops the relationships between the characters and immerses the reader into the rich mythology that the creators have built.  Can’t wait to read more.

Immortal Hulk 1-5

I bought the first trade after seeing this on a number of best-of-the-year lists.  Meh.  I read a lot about how writer Al Ewing ramped up the horror aspect of the character, but all I get is another take on the duality of Banner and the Hulk, with some mystical Green Door retcon to link all of Banner’s deaths over the years.  Cutting before I even do a reread.

Injustice 3-12

Injustice Annual 1

Finally got the first collection after I reread the first two issues a couple of weeks ago.  The continuation doesn’t disappoint, as expected.  As he demonstrates later with DCeased, Tom Taylor really knows how to write an Elseworlds with stakes that pack an emotional punch.  

At the same time, this is enough to whet my appetite on this title; I’m not really feeling the motivation to read any more of this right now, at least at full price.  But if I ever see this on sale, I’ll most likely pick it up.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty Good

Prometheus 1

JLA 16-20, 22-41

I’ve finished reading the Grant Morrison JLA, and it really doesn’t hold up well.  A quick recap of the issues that he wrote:

1-4: The White Martian arc.  Still lots of fun, a solid story with a single focal point.  (Nice.  Keeping)

5: Filler story w/ Tomorrow Woman.  (Fine, keeping)

6-7: Intro of Zauriel.  (Fine, keeping)

8-9: Connor Hawke vs the Key.  Awesome Oscar Jimenez art.  (Nice, keeping)

10-15: Rock of Ages.  Horrible, no good, very bad.  (Hated, cutting)

16, 17, Prometheus 1: I really like the character of Prometheus, Morrison writes a nifty origin story about this dark mirror to Bruce Wayne.  And I dig the costume.  (Nice, keeping)

20: Loathsome part one about an insane Adam Strange.  Past me didn’t even get part two.  (Hated, cutting)

22-23: Starro and the Sandman.  I can’t believe Vertigo let DC have Daniel for this piece of trash.  (Stupid, cutting)

24-26: The Ultramarines.  Morrison’s last good arc.  It helps that Mark Pajarillo shows up for the last issue.  He’s so much better than Howard Porter, and pulls off some legit goosebumpy scenes.  (Pretty good, keeping)

Says so much about both Superman and how people see him.

28-31: Crisis Times Five.  Genie nonsense.  Morrison keeps trying to pull off these mystical/cosmic storylines and utterly fails.  He’s got Warren Ellis’ penchant for out-there ideas, but lacks his ability to weave them into coherent stories.  (Stupid, cutting)

34, 36-41: World War III.  A follow up to Rock of Ages, and just as bad.  Half of the League deals w/ Luthor and his Injustice Gang, while the rest are off on some bullshit cosmic misadventure.  It ends with a gag-worthy “the whole world gets powers and fights alongside the JLA” treacly climax.  (Stupid, cutting)

Recap of the guest-written issues:

18-19: Mark Waid plays fast and loose with the theories of quantum entanglement, but it makes for a fun story.  (Nice, keeping)

27: Mark Millar with a cute Amazo story that contains a nifty little twist that makes no sense but is fun and clever enough that I’ll allow it.  (Pretty good, keeping)

32: Devin Grayson tries to explain why the JLA’s unable to do more to help Gotham during No Man’s Land.  It’s a stretch that barely works, but I appreciate the effort.  A nice emotional moment at the end as well.  (Nice, keeping)

33: Waid returns for another issue, and Mark Pajarillo continues to make me wonder why he’s the fill in artist and not the main one.  It looks like he left comics to join the video game industry.  Fair enough, but I still wish he’d done more stuff. (Nice, keeping)

There's some Charest and Lee in there, but it's uniquely Pajarillo.

35: Not even Pajarillo can save this Day of Judgment (does anyone remember that event?  I’d completely forgotten it.) tie in, written by JM DeMatteis.  (Boring, cutting)

So to summarize:

Morrison issues: Keeping 15, cutting 20.

Guest written issues: Keeping 5, cutting 1.

Why did I remember Morrison’s run as a good one again?

By the way, my ranking scale of bad to worse, since I used it so much here:

Didn’t suck, Boring, Stupid, Disliked, Hated, Trainwreck Bad.

It’s not a strict scale.