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