For Christmas I received the first two volumes of Grant
Morrison's run on JLA from the late 90's. I love it. It features the biggest
heroes in the DC universe in larger than life storylines against epic villains,
such as defending the Earth from an invasion of White Martians guised as heroes
or fighting off an invading army of angels from destroying the Earth or the
epic Rock of Ages storyline. This is what I wanted when, at the birth of the
New 52 reboot, I subscribed to Justice League. I just don't feel like it
delivered anywhere near as well as JLA did. So sorry, this is yet another bitch
session about the New 52.
I really just wanted that super team book with big names and
great storylines. New 52 gave us big names, but the stories have largely
sucked. The first arc where they come together to fight Darkseid felt rushed
and was the first big taste of how DC was making its timeless characters more
"edgy." They made them into assholes. Green Lantern and Batman snipe
at each other like kids on a playground. Their new interpretation of Superman
would rather beat the living hell out of someone, causing massive collateral
damage in the process, than... oh, I don't know... talk to them? Reason with
them? Find out what's going on? You know, those traits that made Superman one
of the most revered heroes ever. No, even though he is knowingly capable of
killing almost anyone and can level cities, he would rather just kick someone's
ass.
From there was the lousy 'Graves'
storyline, where the guy who wrote about the Justice League became a bad guy
with psychic powers to mess with the heroes... you know, like Despero, The Key,
Dr. Destiny, Gorilla Grodd, Dr. Psycho and the litany of other psychic villains
that are part of the League's rogues gallery. Like I said, the story was boring
and crappy.
Then we got the Throne of Atlantis arc. This could have been
good except for two problems. The first was that the Justice League book
suddenly became the launching point for readers to have to buy a bunch of other
titles to know what was going on in the storyline. JLA could tell a story
within that actual book, but the New 52 Justice League has to spread its story
out to other books. Granted, the only other book to buy here was Aquaman, but
this leads me to the second problem... I just didn't care. You see, the whole
Atlantis invading the land and using tidal waves to destroy cities and Aquaman
having to come to terms with being the King of the Oceans and a hero and a
part-time land-dweller... it's all been done before. This is a frequent
complaint I have with the New 52. So the Teen Titans have to face Trigon for
the first time... again? Oh no, you mean there are evil counterparts to the
Justice League from another dimension? That's news to me! (More on this later).
The Trinity War followed. What a waste of time. We were led
to believe that the Justice League would be fighting the US government founded Justice League of America (and
for some reason Justice League Dark). It was an interesting set-up harkening
back to the Justice League Unlimited plotline of the USA being distrusting of the
god-like heroes who claim they were protecting them. The inevitable conflict
that would arise from their confrontation would have made for a great read...
and we almost got that for one part of the seven part series. The rest was a
damn wild goose chase, a red herring to the advent of Forever Evil. I honestly
feel lied to. Remember that Free Comic Book Day comic about the Trinity War
where we saw several heroes fighting in the streets? That never happened. What
about the advertisements that showed members of all three teams in a massive
free-for-all? Nope, just bullshit.
I will admit, the introduction of the Crime Syndicate was
cool. But the Forever Evil event... and I say event because it is a
universe-wide storyline, except for several books that I guess can't be
bothered (Stormwatch, the super-team tasked with the planet's protection from
outside forces apparently have better things to do)... the Forever Evil event
is just dragging on and on. This is turning into a year long arc that is
rapidly losing steam. I was collecting it, but now I think I will just wait for
a trade paperback collection... if it ends well. And to get back to my main
point, this entire long storyline has left almost all the League members
indisposed, so it really isn't a great Justice League story either. In fact,
the book seems to just be this weird means to re-introduce other, seemingly
forgotten DC properties such as Doom Patrol and The Metal Men.
You know, I want to point out that there are a hell of a lot
of DC characters that could actually fight the Crime Syndicate and probably
win, but for whatever reason have been dismissed. What about Apollo,
Midnighter, Power Girl, Huntress, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Starfire, Red
Hood, Arsenal, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Static and virtually everyone from that
Justice League International book that was cancelled? They alone would be one
hell of an army! Where are all the other DC heroes? Or did Johnny Quick somehow
create a time vortex that they got sucked into like the Teen Titans? (Lame.)
Now to follow with another common argument I make when
bitching about the New 52... how great the Marvel Now material has been by
contrast! I started reading Uncanny Avengers from the first issue because it
seemed interesting and it had Havok, one of my favorite Marvel characters,
leading the team. Now this book is what I was looking for from Justice
League! You have heavy hitter characters like Thor, Captain America and
Wolverine mixed with various (and sometimes underrated) X-book names like Havok,
Rogue and Sunfire. And they have awesome storylines, kept within their book so
I don't have to buy a bunch of side issues to follow the action! They have
fought the Red Skull who, with the super telepathic brain of Charles Xavier
grafted to his own, mentally suggests to the humans of the world to kill the
newly revived mutant population. Currently, there is this insane storyline
about the Apocalypse Twins that I can't even to begin to explain how awesome it
is. Let's just say they had their own "Four Horsemen of Death"
comprised of Banshee, Grim Reaper, Daken and the Sentry! That alone is cooler
than anything I've read in that Justice League book. The Uncanny Avengers is one
of those comics that reminds me why I love comics!
I will probably stick with Justice League for at least a
while after the Forever Evil story concludes. The new Justice League
incarnation set to follow with Lex Luthor in charge seems promising. (Though I
should point out that showing us advertisements for the team featuring
characters currently "fighting for their lives" kind of lets a lot of
the air out of the suspenseful nature of that big story arc.) I just wish that
they would get back to good storytelling like from that other universe whose
years of continuity were thrown away for a gimmick and some quick sales. But
hey, now our heroes are edgy assholes, so that's something... right?
No comments:
Post a Comment