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Friday Flashbacks 02: Ghosts and Rivals

June 19th, 2009 by | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I guess I should put down some set-up first. This is from Avengers/JLA #4, written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Perez. It came out a little bit before Marvel and DC made some of their bigger modern changes. The team rosters were still more classic than in recent years, still before the days of Disassembled and Crisis of Conscience. Hal Jordan was still the Spectre.

I won’t go too deep into the story, but it involves Krona making a bet with the Grandmaster that puts the two super-teams on opposing sides. Not that that needs too much extra effort, though, as Captain America and Superman seem to have it in for each other. Superman sees mutant hatred, Dr. Doom, the Hulk and the Punisher running wild and considers the Avengers a bunch of failures. Captain America sees how the people in the DC world worship the Justice League to the point of museums and monuments and considers them little better than world conquerors. This leads into more than one throwdown, including a fight where Superman beats up Thor.

Fast-forward a bit. To save reality from Krona, the Grandmaster has been pushing the two worlds closer together. Reality rewrites itself again and again. The Avengers and Justice League go from being from two distant alternate realities to neighboring realities. Then they go from two teams that visit each other’s worlds on a regular basis to two teams that co-exist in the same world. Few are able to see through the lies.

Finally, the two teams find the Grandmaster, who wants the heroes to go stop Krona from destroying both their worlds. Due to reality being rewritten over and over, the teams are both down to their more base, classic rosters and identities and want to know exactly what they’re fighting for. Using the last of his powers, Grandmaster shows them a series of screens that broadcasts their histories. Despite all their victories, it focuses mainly on these heroes watching the losses that are meant to be. Tony Stark’s alcoholism, Aquaman’s loss of hand, Bane breaking Batman’s back, Doomsday killing Superman, Captain America losing his abilities and failing in his attempt to rely on armor tech, Odin’s death, Jason Todd’s death, and so on. The more important ones here are that Barry Allen sees that he’s going to die, Scarlet Witch and Vision see that their children will be creations from Wanda’s own madness, Giant Man sees the smack that he will never live down and Hal Jordan sees his descent into becoming Parallax.

And yet, in the end, the two sides decide that it is not up to them to judge the realities they are saving. They band together and plot against Krona. Superman suggests Captain America lead them, which he agrees to.

I swear, when I was intending to write this article, I thought these pages were more than two. Three, maybe four. They’re just so dense with dialogue that it’s bursting at the seams. That’s George Perez for you, I guess.

All five of those different conversations are aces, especially when you notice the segues. Notice how each conversation ends with another character in the shot. It took me forever to see Captain America in the background window. What I really loved about this scene is the stuff with Hal and Barry.

How messed up it has to be for these two. Barry knows that win or lose, he’s going to be dead within hours. It’s depressing, but not nearly as bad as what Hal has to be going through. Barry goes out honorably. Hal knows that not only is he going to die, but first he’s going to go crazy and take out a bunch of his friends before becoming the Darth Vader of the DC Universe. And he’s fighting to preserve that! It’s fucked.

Maybe it’s just me, but you can read the weight of it in Hal’s oath. The way he seems so less enthused compared to all the other times. Is it defeat? Sadness? Intent to do his best one last time? Shame? Bitterness? Is it that he realizes that the very oath he’s reciting has been proven to be nothing more than a lie?

But there they are, Hal and Barry, supporting each other. Just by the mutual reassurance, the two doomed friends are all but removed of that weight. It’s a nice, bittersweet scene, but sadly loses something thanks to their later resurrections.

I think I decided about including these pages for this installment because of all of that going on these days. Personally, I feel totally fine with Hal coming back (Green Lantern is more of a job position than identity, allowing Kyle to thrive on his own, though admittedly to a lesser extent). I can’t bring myself to care about Barry Allen’s return, outside of a couple choice moments in Final Crisis. Unless Steve Rogers stays away from the Captain America mantle and becomes the new leader of SHIELD/HAMMER for an extended period of time, I feel like his death could have lasted another three years. And Bart Allen… shit, I don’t know. That poor guy got messed up so much since Geoff Johns got his hands on him that I can’t say what’s best for him at this point.

Bottom line: I guess I feel like in scenes like this, the finality of one fictional character’s death strengthens the quality of life. But that’s me.

Back to the Avengers/JLA comic, there was one panel I’ve always loved for a stupid reason.

Look at Captain America. That’s the moment I realized that Steve Rogers has balls made of vibranium. He goes on to threaten Superman with such confidence that even now, my brain is trying to come up with ways for that outcome to be a possibility. I’ll get back to you on that. Cool as that is, that’s not why I bring it up.

I don’t know if this was a subtle way to intentionally foreshadow Avengers: Disassembled, but let’s see what happens when we remove the guys on the right.

Hey, now!

By the way, I still miss Hal’s kickass white hair tufts.

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8 comments to “Friday Flashbacks 02: Ghosts and Rivals”

  1. By the way, I still miss Hal’s kickass white hair tufts.

    You and me both. I think that was the dumbest and most pointless retcon of GL:Rebirth. I get them not wanting to make Hal a mass-murderer, but not wanting to let him age a little? Now you’re just being arbitrary!

    I think I love JLA/Avengers more every time I read it.


  2. A good chunk of Trinity had a similar vibe, with the rewritten heroes fighting to restore the status quo. One excellent chapter featured Triumph and Tomorrow Woman wondering what they were like in the other universe, since they hadn’t received the same insight others had into the “real” world.

    At the end, we find out that they already discovered they’re dead in the other reality, but don’t want others to know. It plays out a lot like the pages above, with a heavy sense of defeat hanging over the dialogue.


  3. that last edit got me to spit my water out 😛


  4. One of the best parts of that series is when Batman repeatedly tells them not to interfere – warning Superman off capturing the Hulk – until he encounters the Punisher. The Punisher, in a lot of ways, is a villainous Batman.


  5. What does Barry wish for before reality is rewritten? One More Day. . .


  6. Hey, me too! Now he’s just this boring generic guy with brown hair.


  7. Dear Kurt Busiek,

    Brevity is the soul of wit. Also the soul of not crowding a page beyond reason.

    Sincerely,
    Some Dude.


  8. @Jbird:

    Really, I always thought Batman was a mentally ill fetishist who got off on half assedly doing what Punisher does with the flimsy moral high ground of “I only smash their teeth out and get them sent to prison I NEVER KILL” so when they get out they cant get a job or a girlfriend so they return to crime so Batman can cream himself when he next beats them up.

    Punisher cuts out the middle man, delivers a lasting punishment and the streets are better off for it. But each to their own.

    This is why I love Millar’s “Goddam Batman” because they all but acknowledge that he is a arrogant head case.
    I also love the DCAU (and Bats from it) in case I come off as overly Anti-DC, I just don’t like anything I have ever read from whatever DC’s equivalent of 616 is.

    I hated the crossover DC made themselves come off better and every little victory they conceded marvel they were sarcastic about.

    Batman beats up Punisher for a solid fifteen minutes – a testament to an unprepared Punisher’s skill? Or the arrogance of Batman? (its not your universe you said yourself not to interfere you compulsive hypocrite.
    Superman beats Thor – Stupid
    Cap Leads the final battle – Cool, but oh wait bats still goes off and does his own thing.
    Hint Thor may win round two? – Cool, but oh wait Superman ends it WITH Thor and caps weapons.