(If you’ve read any of Brad Meltzer’s run on JLofA, you’ll see what I’m making fun of.)
Welcome back the Justice League Month. This time, I’m
stepping out of the 20th century and am entering the 2000’s with the
re-launched series, Justice League of America. This series came out around 2006/2007. My
comic buying was pretty sporadic at this time. The walk from campus to The
Outer Limits was a long one and I had other things to spend my money on. When I
heard they were re-launching the book, I decided I would try this series out. I
bought the zero issue and issue 1. I didn’t stick with it much though mostly
because of funds, but I did get some later issues from this series. Today’s
post will cover #1-7. I’ll also browse
over #0 (which isn't in the trade for some dumb reason) and a couple things you might need to know about this era
of the League.
On the outset, this might be my favorite version of the
League. You have the popular heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and
GL. You also have lesser known heroes like Black Lightning, Vixen, and Arsenal
aka Red Arrow. Yes, Black Lightning is on the JLA and it’s about time.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long because some idiot decided to ship him back
to the Outsiders for some dumb reason. Anyway, this version of the League
really reminds me of the League from the 1970’s.
The writer for the first 13 issues of the series is author
Brad Meltzer. Meltzer has written on books like Green Arrow and has even
written his own novels. He’s also well known for a 2004 miniseries called
Identity Crisis. I have no opinion on that series, but I’ve heard that it has a
mixed reception with fans. The penciller for the issues is Ed Benes. He’s been
drawn on books like Superman, Birds of Prey, Supergirl, and Captain Marvel. I
also know that he is mostly known for drawing fine women… I think I might like this. The
inker is Sandra Hope and she’s been an inker for a lot of DC’s comics. Well,
with that out of the way, let’s see how this new league was formed…
Previously,
Because of things that happened around the time of Infinite Crisis, the JLA disbanded. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were
pretty upset at one another for reasons I basically covered a few years ago.
They were able to work through their problems and decided to meet up in one
year. One Year Later (pun intended), the three heroes meet up at the Batcave to
re-band the Justice League.
Part 1
The story begins as the Trinity (S, B, and WW) sit in the
Batcave and go through photos of potential JLA candidates. They pretty much
spend the next three issues doing this… fun. We then move around and see the other
potential Leaguers are doing. Jefferson
Price (Black Lightning) is using his political influence to get information on
the disappearance of villains. For a while, he was an advisor on Ex-President
Lex Luthor’s council. At a gym, Roy Harper (Arsenal) and Green Lantern Hal
Jordon are catching up on old times. In Hub City, Mari McCabe (Vixen) is
apparently trying get the hook-up with the Question (weird...) when she is lured into a
trap by Plastique and the Electricutioner.
The main focus of the story, Red Tornado (John Smith or "Reddy"), is
struggling with the decision on inhabiting a human shell instead of his android
one. He wants to do this for his girlfriend, Kathy, and their adopted daughter, Traya.
With the help of the hero Deadman, John is able to permanently bond with a
souless human body. He’s even able to use his powers in this new body. After he
leaves the morgue, “Deadman” is revealed to be a disguised Felix Faust. He
tells his employer that Red Tornado’s android body is now theirs for the
taking. As John heads home to greet his family in his new body, Will Magnus’s
lab is attacked and the android body is taken by some villain named Mr.
Impossible.
Part 2
At the Rockies, Professor Ivo is trying to take apart the
android body and modify it. Word gets out on the abducted android body, so
Black Canary, GL, and Arsenal follow the villains’ traces to the Rocky
Mountains. Before they can question Ivo, they are attacked by multicolored versions
of Red Tornado. Meanwhile, Black Lightning is following leads he’s gotten from
former villains. He heads to a hideout in his civilian attire. Unfortunately,
he didn’t expect the Parasite to be there. The villain recognizes his energy signature
as Dr. Impossible and another villain called Trident teleport into the room. In
Hub City, Vixen is attacked by the two villains. Her totem, the device that she
uses in order to use the abilities of animals, is taken. The two villains
teleport out of the bar they’re at and the place explodes.
Yep, they do this for about three to four issues. At least the banter is funny.
Part 3
When John learned his android body was taken, he suited up
and left home. He heads to the gravesite of Boston Brand (Deadman) and tries to
get some answers from the dead hero. Instead, The Phantom Stranger shows up and
tells Red Tornado to find himself… yeah, the Phantom Stranger’s weird like
that. Red Tornado uses a beacon from Magnus’s lab to find his android body. At
the Rockies, BC, GL, and Arsenal tangle with the duplicate androids. They’re
able to win the battle by finding the duplicates’ fail-safe button. In Hub
City, Vixen was able to get herself out of the rubble. Unfortunately, her
powers start to go out of control without her Totem.
In St. Roch, Dr. Impossible and Trident attack and freeze
Parasite. Black Lightning tries to intervene, but he gets into a fight with
Trident and Dr. Impossible. He’s able to knock out Trident, but Dr. Impossible
teleports to the Rockies with the frozen Parasite. Black Lightning then gets
some help from Hawkgirl who happens to be in her neighborhood. While searching
the villain, the two heroes find a small Starro device and decide that it’s
time to get Batman involved. They head over to the Batcave. In Ivo’s lab, Ivo
uses the totem, a piece of Parasite, and the android body in order to rebuild
the power-stealing android, AMAZO.
Part 4
At the Cave, they try to remove the Starro star from
Trident’s neck. They end up finding out that it’s actually a piece of machinery
instead of being organic. Batman realizes that they’ll need to reactivate the
device in order to find the headquarters. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Black
Lightning and Hawkgirl get ready to head out. We then see Vixen flying with
birds and it looks like she’s pretty much screwed without the totem. We then
catch up with Red Tornado traveling to the Rockies while talking to Kathy. She’s
worried that she’ll lose Reddy forever since he’s now a man. Elsewhere, Brion Markov's (Geo-Force) is apparently attacked by some one. Luckily, he survives.
Man, even Black Lightning is looking awesome in his suit.
At the Rockies, GL, BC, and Arsenal attack are able to
attack Electricutioner, Plastique, Dr. I, and Professor Ivo. The heroes find
out that most of the villains are being controlled by Starro devices, so
they’re able to take them out easily. Ivo reveals that he wanted Reddy’s body
so he could upgrade AMAZO. The heroes try to stop AMAZO from activating, but
they’re too late. AMAZO (with the help of Vixen’s totem and Parasite’s… arm)
uses the powers of the Justice League toe race out of there. Red Tornado makes
it to the base as AMAZO leaves. Reddy starts to ask for questions when he is
punched hard by the mastermind of this plot: a smart Solomon Grundy.
Part 5
It’s revealed to Hal, Dinah, and Roy, and a hurting Reddy
that Solomon Grundy’s back and talking normally. He tells them that he planned
all of this in order to transfer his mind into AMAZO’s body. Every time he
returns from the dead, his personality is different, so he wants to stay
immortal and keep his intelligence. The
heroes are reluctant to help him but they realize that AMAZO is a greater
threat. Elsewhere, AMAZO’s memories get mixed with Reddy’s memories and it
starts to think that it is Reddy. It starts to fly to Kathy’s home. In
Markovia, we catch up with Brion getting tested on.
Young boy: Wow, some hot chick just fell out of the sky and is talking to me! This is awesome!
Elsewhere, Vixen is has given into being a bird. Luckily,
she’s able to remember what happened to her. She’s able to get control of
herself by latching onto the human animal instead of other animals. When she’s
back to her senses, she sets out to find the totem. At the Rockies, everybody
(minus Vixen) meets up and plans to deal with AMAZO. Roy takes a look at
Hawkgirl and is smitten. When it is revealed that AMAZO may have Reddy’s
memories, they know that he is probably heading to Kathy’s house.
Part 6
Ivo points them towards a transporter and the League
teleports to Kathy’s house as AMAZO makes it to the house. Luckily, Kathy isn’t
stupid and deals with AMAZO in a cool way: Big Barda’s Mega Rod. Reddy is about
to head through the portal when Grundy stops him from going through it. Grundy
wants to make sure that Reddy doesn’t get his body back by killing him.
As Grundy and Reddy start to fight at the Rockies, the
heroes take on AMAZO in Kathy’s yard. Knowing that AMAZO can take them out, the
Soon-to-be-League try to efficiently take out AMAZO. Reddy’s not too lucky
because while he has powers, he is still frail. He tries to use his powers, but
they are beginning to fail on him. Elsewhere, Vixen finally has a scent on her
totem and heads to it. In Markovia, Brion decides to head to Gotham City
because he’s beginning to lose it mentally.
Yep, Amazo still looks ridiculous even with this good artwork.
AMAZO starts to recover from its injuries and starts to take
on the whole League. Since he can absorb their powers, he’s definitely a match
for them. Luckily, Roy is able to damage the android by hitting the totem.
Vixen feels the hit and is able to find her totem and take out AMAZO in awesome
fashion. At the Rockies, Reddy gets pretty messed up by Grundy. Grundy rips off
one of Reddy’s arms… I’ll save my opinion on that for later. While the portal
from Kathy’s house is open, the League can’t go through and Kathy watches as
Grundy almost kills Reddy. Luckily, Reddy powers come back and he’s able to
kill Grundy. The League are able to crack open the portal and get to a
near-death Reddy. Reddy tells them to put him back into his android body.
Part 7: Epilogue
This is pretty much the wrap-up to the overall arc. Every
hero who participated in the fight with Grundy and AMAZO is invited to join the
Justice League of America. All of them accept the offer. Roy is given a suit by
Hal (it actually came from Ollie) and he decides to go by the name Red Arrow.
We also get a tour of the new Hall of Justice (just called the Hall) and the
new Watchtower. In Gotham City, Brion talks to Jefferson about the attack.
Brion also reveals to Jeff that he may caused the attack and he is beginning to develop his dead sister’s
(Terra) abilities.
Now that is a room I really, really want!
In the end, they all meet on the Watchtower. Roy and
Hawkgirl start to flirt with each other. They all gather for a quick photo.
Afterwards, we see Batman and Black Lightning in the Batcave. They are trying
to find out the identity of Trident. In a pretty big WTC moment, it’s revealed
to be… The Karate Kid!!! And no, I’m not talking about the Ralph Macchio or the
Jaden Smith varieties either.
……………………………………………………………………..
This is a pretty good arc. Is it perfect? No, but the flaws
are few and far between. The story is pretty good. It’s basically another
restoration of the League. Luckily, it does have more than that. The main
heroes like Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern take a back seat. It’s the
subplots that involve Black Lightning, Vixen, and Red Tornado that are in the
front especially Red Tornado’s. Reddy's story is basically Pinocchio with a pretty
dark and sad end. It sucks because when he is finally able to be a man for
Kathy and their adopted daughter, it gets taken away from him pretty quickly.
All of the Leaguers were in character and I liked the banter between all of
them.
The villains were pretty good. What really stole the show
was Solomon Grundy. His reasons for this whole plan actually make sense. It’s a
twist you really don’t see until he shows up and it's a new take on the villain. For those who don’t know, when
ever he comes back from the dead, his personality changes. We even get a
reference of his pretty child-like self from Starman. The other villains were
okay, but I thought AMAZO was handled well. You kind of get worried there when
he starts to access Red Tornado’s memories and personality. His fight with the League was pretty awesome.
The artwork was really well done. The action scenes were
epic and everyone looked right. One thing Benes is good at is action. The inks
and colors are also well done. I especially love the layouts to the issues. If
I had one issue with the art, it would be some of the violence. Most of it's not too bad, but the scene that grates me is the “disarming” of Red Tornado. I
just thought it was too gruesome. I mean, you see the bone and everything. I’m
like “Eugh” with that panel.
Then, there are his women. You knew this was coming. Just
look at the art! The women looked… HOT! There are also the occasion cheesecake
shots you see every once in a while. It’s almost like a Michael Bay movie. The
immature man in me says “Oh Yeah!” while the more mature, civilized man says “Hmm... that’s
a bit much.” There’s also the fact that his women tend to come in the same body
shape and face shape. It’s like they were manufactured by Mattel (TM) or
something. Now, as I said, I do like the art work here. These things here are
just nitpicks.
In the end, it’s a nice arc from Meltzer's pretty short run. Since his run was so short, I’m definitely going to look at the rest
of his 12/13-issue run on the book now that I have all of those issues. After
his run ended, the late Dwayne McDuffie came on for a considerable amount of
time. I have some of those issues. After he “left” (he was actually kicked off, I
believe), Len Wein did a few issues. James Robinson then stepped in and stayed
on until the book’s end. I may take a look at the rest of these post-Meltzer
stories one day.
Well, it looks like I now have to either step into the
TARDIS or wait for my Alternate Reality TV Remote to charge up because we are
going into a completely new continuity. Next time, it’s the origin of the
Justice League from DC’s New 52 phase… God, help us all.
NEXT TIME: REBOOT... NO, I’M NOT TALKING
ABOUT THAT AWESOME SHOW FROM THE 1990's!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment