“Despair is fine.”
October 19th, 2009 by david brothers | Tags: Batman, grant morrison, howard porter, jla, martian manhunter, supermanRemember when JLA was a good comic book? Me too. Exhibit A:
words by grant morrison, art by howard porter
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I find it almost insulting how pathetic Robinson’s new line-up looks compared to what we had during Morrison’s run. Three replacements, one bromance, one atom, the lamer Dr. Light, the blander Guardian, and a walking joke about gorillas. Very compelling, I don’t think.
Oh, and two Titans, but then again…they’re Titans. Entering them into the JLA should be tantamount to painting targets on their chests and tying clay pigeons to their foreheads.
Which Doctor Light is the lame one?
The Japanese one. Say what you like about #1, he may have been a rapist/murderer/criminal/cad, but at least he wasn’t frikking boring. You read a scene with Kimiyo Hoshi in it and it’s as if time has slowed down. She’s basically got two settings, angry-bitchy and quiet-bitchy. I wish they’d just kill her off.
“Three replacements, one bromance, one atom, the lamer Dr. Light, the blander Guardian, and a walking joke about gorillas. Very compelling, I don’t think.”
Sounds akin to the line ups of the successful Giffen and Demattes JLA titles of the 80’s. Not seeing a huge problem here. You can still do the big action but you can also do more changes with the smaller characters. I’m going to wait to actually READ the book before passing judgment on it
The current JLA is an impregnable editorial toybox, impenetrable and alienating but not actually fun to read – the Morrison run was a big playbox of fun ideas that blended all the larger DCU continuity seamlessly to the point that even the big stuff (electric Superman, Genesis, death of Wonder Woman) seemed more like background color than “unmissable DCU event!”
It’s telling that ten years later, DC staffers are still stripmining Morrison’s work.
I’m going to agree with Probe October. The line-up is fine. I can remember people bitching how the Giffen/DeMatties version never had Superman in it. The problem is the writer. Cry For Justice is abysmal, maybe the worst non-Ultimatum superhero book of the past few years, and that doesn’t make me want to pick up the his JLA.
Er…
I can think of a number of good reasons why ‘anti sunlight’ would completely kill Superman. Morrison wrote it though, so I guess that automatically makes it ‘awesome’ instead of ‘stupid’?
@rizzo: No one has ever said that, but nice try.
Besides, anti-sunlight does a very good job of almost killing Superman when he takes all the sick horror of anti-sunlight into his body.
The weapon is called “Aztek.”
Pretty much the best way to send off a character that never caught on but gained a certain cult status.
God, I miss the Morrison/Porter JLA.
Aw, you didn’t have my favorite panel (besides the Flex Mentallo-like one with all the humans becoming super heroes), where Superman comes out with the literal heart of darkness. “Doomsday is canceled until further notice”. After that storyline(and the other two JLA arcs by Morrison: Ultramarines/Earth-2), every other JLA story after seems so…unnecessary. Kind like after his New X-men run. I make it a point to re-read it every year, especially with the new Deluxe hardcovers coming out once a year.
As I said last night, it’s a good post. I like the story and the intent, but I find Morrison’s dialogue often problematic and then littered with snappy catchphases. Not smooth and natural. Small complaint, but you know I got em.
@AlLoggins: That’s because it was background color. DC probably insisted he keep abreast of what was happening with the characters and keep up if he wanted to use the characters.