Waiting for the Trade - JLA New 52

Waiting for the Trade

 

by Bill Miller

Justice League vol. 1: Origin

by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Scott Williams
collects Justice League 1-6.
 

Why I Bought This: Even though I’m primarily a Marvel reader, like most of the comic-buying public I was pretty intrigued when DC launched its New 52. This being the flagship title is the obvious one to sample. Plus Jim Lee’s art in the preview pages looked fantastic. On Cyber Monday, Midtown Comics put all the volume 1 New 52 trades on sale at 40-percent off so I finally picked this up (along with Aquaman and JLI).

The Plot: The Justice League comes together for the first time to deal with the threat of Darkseid. Your heroes are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash and Cyborg.

Chapter 1 – Gotham Police are chasing down Batman with a helicopter as he runs across rooftops in pursuit of an unknown foe. Batman catches it and finds a non-human cyborg. Batman is on the defensive when Green Lantern arrives and he and Batman meet for the first time. Police open fire on the heroes; and while GL’s force field keeps them safe it gives the cyborg time to counterattack by breathing fire. This results in the heroes having to save the cops while the cyborg escapes. GL informs Batman the foe is definitely extraterrestrial as well as filling him in on the whole GL Corps shtick. GL is also agog when he learns Batman has no powers. They trace their foe to the sewers where it seems to be planting a bomb. When GL tries to intercede it blows itself up, shouting “For Darkseid” as it does so. They discover the bomb is actually a Mother Box, which Batman deduces is an alien computer. This causes GL to suspect Superman, whom neither he nor Batman has met yet. While Batman advises caution given Superman’s power levels, GL flies them both to Metropolis. Cut to an interlude where African-American teen Vic Stone wins a high school football game while college scouts are watching, but mopes because his dad doesn’t attend. GL and Bats arrives in Metropolis where Superman has just finished a battle. GL cockily confronts Supes only to be easily knocked across the city; leaving Supes and Bats staring each other down.

Chapter 2 – In Central City, Flash is working at his day job doing CSI stuff while other police officers talk about the need for an anti-Flash taskforce. In Metropolis Batman is exhausting his utility belt on Supes to no effect, as we learn Supes off-camera also battled one of the Mother Box planting aliens. GL recovers and tries to contain Supes with his ring but Superman is too strong. GL is desperately on the defensive so he uses his ring to radio Flash for help, as apparently they’ve met, worked together before and even shared secret identities. Flash arrives instantly and uses his speed to confuse Superman for a bit, but ultimately Supes is able to move fast enough to hit Flash with one finger and take the fight out of him. Batman then uses that interlude to talk sense into everyone, and the heroes band together to investigate the Mother Boxes. Cut to STAR Labs where they too have a Mother Box and are trying to decipher what it does. Heading up the project is Vic Stone’s father. Vic arrives and his dad blows him off, feeling human athletic prowess is no longer relevant in a world of super-humans. Back with the heroes, who even with Superman’s X-ray vision and Barry’s CSI background are finding it difficult to get evidence from the Mother Box. Suddenly all the boxes activate, opening Boom-tubes to let the Parademon (aka the fire-breathing cyborg alien) army invade the Earth. At STAR Labs Vic Stone takes a bunch of shrapnel when the portal opens.

Chapter 3 – in Washington DC Col. Steve Trevor is being debriefed about his first meeting with Wonder Woman and the Amazons of Paradise Island, while Wonder Woman explores DC and has ice cream for the first time. This new interpretation of Wonder Woman carries a sword at all times (on her belt, opposite her magic lasso) and also seems to be extra-eager for combat. When Parademons explode over DC she is happy to engage them in battle. Back at STAR Labs Dr. Stone reveals he already lost Vic’s mom, he won’t lose Victor too even though the shrapnel in the youth is emitting weird energy. In Metropolis, Bats, GL and Flash are holding their own, while Superman is taking entire squadrons of the Parademon army down with ease. Back at STAR Labs Dr. Stone gets his son in their safe room where the other sci-fi tech gizmos are stored and performs emergency surgery with them to save his son. As more demons pour into Metropolis, Wonder Woman arrives to give Superman a hand. The heroes drive the demons back as Vic Stone comes online as Cyborg and is somehow patched into whatever background noise/orders the Mother Boxes are giving the demons. The demons erect a tower in the ocean (but within sight of the Metropolis docks/shoreline), which causes Aquaman to arrive on the scene as well.

Chapter 4 – Cyborg is in a lot of pain, and is trying to come to terms with what his father did to save his life when the demons break down the wall to the safe room causing Cyborg’s arm to reform into a laser gun which vaporizes the demons. (His powers in general seem to be like the villain in Terminator 3 here). With the threat at STAR Labs defeated Cyborg runs off into the night feeling his father made him into a monster. In Metropolis Aquaman meets all the heroes for the first time, and tries to take the leadership role claiming his experience as King of Atlantis. GL mocks Aquaman and his powers just as the Parademons mount a new attack from the ocean and Aquaman has an army of sharks jump out of the ocean and eat the entire Parademon army, except for one whom Aquaman kills with his tridents thus shutting GL up. The military arrives and fires on the heroes but Wonder Woman uses her bracelets to protect everyone. Cut to Cyborg who is getting flashes of Apokolips in his head. He takes out a few demons and manages to activate one of their Boom Tubes to teleport to the other heroes in Metropolis. He warns them of what is coming but it is too late as Darkseid arrives via Boom Tube.

Chapter 5 – Darkseid takes out the military fighter jets with one shot of his Omega Beams. Flash and Superman get his attention so he shoots Omega Beams at them. The beams actually split as the heroes do and keep pace with their speeds. Flash is able to avoid the beams by getting them to hit some Parademons but Superman is overtaken, knocked unconscious and kidnapped by the Parademons into their ocean tower. As the next most powerful hero (and rashest) GL tries to fight Darkseid one-on-one next. Darkseid keeps breaking his constructs and eventually grabs GL and breaks his ring hand. To his credit GL attempts to keep fighting but Batman talks him down by unmasking and telling him his origin. Batman tells GL to come up with a team-based attack using the combined superpowers at hand to keep Darkseid busy long enough for Bats to sneak into the tower and free Superman. Once Bats gets there he realizes it is going to be tougher than he thought since the inside of the tower is a portal to Apokolips.

Chapter 6 – Darkseid is incinerating civilians until the JLA hits him with everything at once. Wonder Woman tries to use her lasso to get info on why Darkseid is here on Earth, to which he just says “For her,” and before WW can get him to clarify he decks her. Back on Apokolips Batman finds Dessad torturing Superman, presumably as part of some brain-washing process. On Earth Darkseid tries his Omega Beams but her bracelets deflect them and she counters by stabbing him in the eye with her sword. As he reels from that Aquaman stabs him in his other eye with his trident. The heroes are dismayed to see Darkseid is still standing. Cyborg decides to try overriding the Mother Boxes again to Boom Tube Darkseid back to Apokolips. The Boom Tubes powering up gets Dessad’s attention on Apokolips thus giving Batman an opportunity to free Superman. Superman returns to fight Darkseid, but Darkseid proves stronger than him. The heroes combine to push Darkseid back into the Boom Tube as Cyborg uses it to teleport Darkseid and his army away. In the aftermath the humans of Metropolis/the world love the heroes. They then get invited to meet with the President, who publically embraces them for saving the world, assuming they are a team. The JLA go along with it for the greater good of human/super-human relations. They receive their name from a reporter during a second mission, which we see only in passing press coverage as they fight with Starro recreating the famous cover of the original first JLA story. Finally we get two epilogues: first in London shadowy figures discuss the arrival of superheroes in the world and embrace the super villain moniker; second Pandora of Greek myth fights with Phantom Stranger before blackmailing him into leaving her alone while announcing plans to use the JLA to end her curse.

Critical Thoughts: Let’s start with the positives, which is the art is absolutely jump off the page amazing. This is Jim Lee at his very best; reminiscent of the stuff he and Liefeld were doing when they hit it big in the 90s on the X-books. Every hero gets a stunning pin-up when they arrive in the story for the first time. I really like Wonder Woman’s new costume. As an Aquaman fan I have to say he has never looked cooler, or in the scene where shark army jumps out of the water more badass, than he does in this book. Furthermore the art works beyond the pin-up cool to enhance the story. For example, in the first meeting between Batman and Green Lantern the art visually reinforces that these are two different types of heroes. The Superman debut fight is rendered (and written) in such a way to make Superman and his power levels feel fresh and new, which is no easy feet considering how well we all know Superman. It’s really one of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in some time, especially once Flash arrives. The sequence where Superman and Flash try to outrace the Omega Beams is also drawn to really give a sense momentum and wonder to the action.

In terms of plot and story elements there is both good and bad here. The dynamic of the heroes’ first meetings and reactions to each other is handled very well. It’s also interesting to see the heroes of the DC Universe not being trusted by the public and law enforcement. While I don’t read as much DC as Marvel, I’ve never seen that before in their universe—usually each hero has their fictional city they watch over like a guardian angel and everyone there loves them for it. Of course by the end of the story the heroes have turned the corner to that more beloved status quo, so I guess it’s not something they’re going to explore any further.

I thought Green Lantern’s reaction to Batman’s lack of powers was just great. GL’s portrayal in general is interesting, as he’s arrogant and rash but we still get to see the determination that powers his ring and makes him a hero when he fights Darkseid. There’s a funny moment where he brushes up against Wonder Woman’s lasso and reveals he’s going to be the one save day because he likes to impress people. All that said I didn’t really buy the scene where Batman supposedly turns it around for GL to be more of a team player by unmasking. I think it’s something done more to be dramatic for the reader than the characters. By which I means as readers we know Batman’s secret identity is important so seeing him unmask is a big deal. But within the logic of the story it feels out of characters for Batman to unmask to someone he just met. More importantly why should GL care, who Batman is? It’s not like they’ve been fighting alongside each for years and suddenly Batman trusts him with this big thing. It’s more like, “So uh yea my parents were killed by a mugger when I was a kid so we better stop this alien invasion, kay?” I think there are easier ways within the story’s own logic to get to “We need to work as a team for this one” than jumping to Batman unmasking.

Among the other heroes, I can’t say I like the new Wonder Woman interpretation. I seem to recall her classical interpretation being that she’s the emissary of peace into Man’s World. Now she’s the exact opposite of that as this blood thirsty battle seeking sword wielding demigod. Hell, even though I didn’t read it, I know I read online that there was a DC event story a few years ago where the big three’s relationship fractured because Wonder Woman used a sword to kill Maxwell Lord when he possessed Superman. It sounds like the whole point of that story was Wonder Woman went too far, and that even she knew stabbing someone is a big deal with consequences; and yet now we’re going to make it that she casually stabs people all the time.

Which leads to my next point, I found the scene with Wonder Woman and Aquaman stabbing Darkseid in eyes far more viscous than I prefer a mainstream superhero comic to be. Admittedly it is good strategy giving Darkseid’s eyes are his power source, but I think A-list heroes who appeal to kids should be presented as morally above such tactics. Actually the eye stabbing scene is another way this book reminds me of a 90s comic, as I remember when X-Force launched they had Shatterstar stabbing people in the eyes to show how grim and gritty they were. Objectively I can see that both Wonder Woman and Aquaman have roots in Greek myth where viscous things, including blindings, befall people all the time. So yes, an artistic argument can be made to portray those two characters in this way; however, I’m not sure personally it’s what I want to see. I had decided if I liked these first three New 52 trades I probably sample Wonder Woman and Batgirl next and this interpretation makes me less likely to buy Wonder Woman’s solo title.

This brings up the next question I can see both sides too, which is what is Cyborg doing in this book? You have DC’s six most important well known A-list heroes and then this random C-lister better associated with the Teen Titans hanging out with them. It doesn’t help that his origin scenes are probably the least interesting parts of this trade. That said if you are rebooting your entire universe for the 21^st century I can absolutely see and respect the need include an African-American hero in your A-list flagship title that younger readers are most likely to read. When you throw in that this relaunch is also meant to reach out to lapsed comic fans, Cyborg is probably a better choice than most other African-American heroes to fill thus role since he was part of the final season of Super Friends that also heavily featured Darkseid. (And this story even manages to work the “Super Friends” name into the final chapter when the President introduces the heroes to the public). Then again if the goal is to make Cyborg an equal of these other heroes, why is he a teenager just getting his power when everyone else on the team are fully power adults? As I understand it the next trade jumps ahead five years so by then Cyborg should be about 23 years-old and on more equal footing with his teammates, so hopefully that criticism works itself out.

My final criticism, and it’s a big one, is the ending of the Darkseid fight both makes very little sense and falls flat on a dramatic level. On the doesn’t make sense front, Cyborg uses the Boom Tubes to teleport Darkseid back home. So why can’t Darkseid return again, if not immediately then certainly in a couple of days at most if he wanted to? Didn’t he build these things to begin with? He can’t fix and repair them on Apokolips, which is galaxies away from whatever signal Cyborg is generating. It seems the heroes were not terribly effective against him physically so there’s does not seem to be a logical reason he wouldn’t return fairly soon once he got tech support on the phone to fix his Mother Box problem. Fanboy logic nitpicks aside, on narrative level it’s not a satisfying solution to the fight either, which is a much bigger problem when your climax doesn’t work. The heroes entire plan is keep Darkseid busy so Batman can free Superman so that Superman can then kick some ass, but when Superman is free we don’t get to see any ass-kicking and after two chapters of working towards that goal, it’s a letdown that Supes doesn’t get the big cut loose moment at the end.

Grade: The art is an A+; the story is a B-. Story means more to me than art so let’s call it a B+.