Sunday Splash Page #288

 

"Big Talk," in Justice League of America #252, by Gerry Conway (writer), Luke McDonnell (penciler), Bill Wray (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Albert De Guzman (letterer)

The only other issues of Justice League of America I own are the three issues for the Detroit League throwing down against Despero. I bought them mostly because I was curious about the specifics of the fight, since when Despero returned in Justice League International, he was hellbent on revenge against the Leaguers that took him down.

Beyond that, I pretty much knew this era from all the negative talk about it online. That it was a case of Gerry Conway trying too hard to make the Justice League like the X-Men, complete with giving them a sort of Danger Room for training. That the new characters didn't belong in the Justice League. I guess there's less of a feeling that the b-listers can have a place there than in the Avengers.

It doesn't help that it's a team pulled together by Aquaman, and then he left the book (for reasons I'm unaware of and indifferent to). When the ostensible mind behind it doesn't stick around, not a good look. And it leaves the roster with Martian Manhunter and then. . .well is Zatanna or Elongated Man the bigger name in 1986? 

(Although Batman is in this arc, but I don't have the impression that was a regular thing. Batman's like a cat. He decides he wants to be involved, so he jumps in your lap and insists on being included. It's weird to see him go on a date with Vixen as Bruce Wayne. Different era, I know, and Mari McCabe's a well-known model, so not weird for her to be around a billionaire playboy, but seeing Batman that casual with a teammate was unexpected.)

The story itself is alright. It doesn't seem like such a terrible defeat, but Conway establishes Despero shows up wanting revenge on the original League that defeated him, and decided killing the current version was good enough. So him coming back from this loss and doing essentially the same thing is at least consistent.

I don't think Luke McDonnell's really the best artist for a Justice League book. Despero looks alright, and some of the large establishing shot pages are good, but the action isn't very dynamic. The characters don't look impressive. Which, if this was supposed to be demonstrating that a Justice League comprised of more mortal and less gods (2nd-stringers instead of 1st-stringers) can still do the job, then I guess it's a good choice. But you could probably make the characters themselves look almost ordinary, but what they're doing look more explosive than comes across here.

Most of the new characters didn't have much staying power. Vibe got killed, although Geoff Johns tried making him a thing again in the New 52. Steel was basically dead, then john Henry Irons got the codename and was much cooler, and then Johns introduced a new character, "Commander Steel", around the time JSA All-Stars was going. Gypsy, got back in the League eventually, but in the '90s, Extreme Justice rosters. Not exactly a high point, but she also got to be in some Birds of Prey arcs, which is probably better.

Vixen had the most success, since she ended up as one of the heroes keeping the super-crooks on the Suicide Squad in line, and even survived to the end. She's gotten to rejoin the Justice League at least once, albeit I think when Brad Meltzer was writing.

Sunday Splash Page #287

 

"Splash Stealer," in Justice League of America #70, by Denny O'Neil (writer), Dick Dillin (penciler), Sid Greene (inker), colorist and letterer unknown

Another survivor of my dad's collection, the one issue of the early (relatively) Justice League of America. I think Gardner Fox liked to come up with threats that required the team to split up, similar to the Golden Age Justice Society, but for this one at least, O'Neil just uses a 4-man roster. Batman had recently teamed-up with the Creeper, and thinks the League should settle whether the guy is good or bad. He's already on the "good" side, so he leaves it to Superman, Green Lantern, Flash and the Atom to investigate (they've at least heard of the Creeper, and Atom references his defeat of Proteus from the end of his brief ongoing series.)

Well that should be straightforward, especially since the Creeper's on the trail of some hoods planning to rob an atomic energy plant. Except a bunch of aliens passed by and tried to establish telepathic contact with a local. They unfortunately found Mind-Grabber Kid (in his first appearance), who, in a fit of teenage pique over his exploits being ignored in favor of a broadcast of Superman and GL playing catch with a comet, tells the aliens Earth is under the iron grip of the brutal Justice League.

You would think as much planet hopping as Superman and Green Lantern did, the aliens would have heard of them. GL even recognizes what planet they're from, but oh well. The aliens of course have special headgear that lets them copy people's powers, so they dispatch the four heroes with ease. Except Superman, who has so many powers the cap of his opponent explodes. Some Silver Age "science" works around that, so it falls to the Creeper and a late to the party Mind-Grabber Kid to fix things up. The Kid learns a lesson, the League conclude the Creeper's OK and let him go on his way.

Since this is the only issue I've seen, I don't know if this is typical for O'Neil's time writing the team or not. It kind of makes the League look incompetent. I know Hal Jordan's an idiot, but shouldn't he be used to dealing with yellow power rings from fighting Sinestro, who actually knows how to use the thing? I like Dick Dillin's art though. Kind of halfway between Gil Kane and Neal Adams (who drew the cover for this issue, with the Creeper playing marionettes with the League), though Dillin doesn't have Adams' dynamism in the layouts. He doesn't opt for the odd postures Ditko would use to make the Creeper seem weirder, but he does have the Creeper move and hunch and leap in markedly different ways from everyone else.

Sunday Splash Page #279

 

"See the Fire in Its Eyes," in JLA: Incarnations #2, by John Ostrander (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Prentis Rollins (inker), John Kalisz and Heroic Age (colorists), Ken Lopez (letterer)

Released in 2001, this 7-issue mini-series was a series of snapshots of the Justice League at different points in its history. Not being any sort of expert on the Justice League, I assume it's trying to accommodate the team's history into what passed for DC's timeline at this, post-Zero Hour, pre-Infinite Crisis, moment. So they share an Earth with the JSA, who came first, and the first issue is the two teams butting heads, as the old guard thinks the newbies aren't up to snuff. 

The second issue revolves around Superman and Batman's respective entries onto the team. I'm assuming those two not being founding members was from Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and barry Kitson's JLA: Year One. John Ostrander and Val Semeiks spend the next two issues on first the rise, then the fall, of the Satellite Era. In the early issues, the passage of time is mostly demonstrated through Green Arrow, who starts in his clean-shaven, bright green outfit, but is on to the darker green and goatee look by issue 3, as he gets more political and frustrated with the things the League can't or won't do.

Issue 5 is the Detroit League + Crisis on the Infinite Earths. Issue 6 is JLI and the last issue looks at the Morrison League. Some of the later issues have back-up stories as well. Issue 5 focuses on Barry Allen's sacrifice in COIE (drawn by Norm Breyfogle). Issue 6's looks at the end of the "Extreme Justice" thing. It's interesting to me mostly that it ends with Batman contacting Superman to discuss how they're going to build the next Justice League. Odd that in a series where those two join last of the Big Seven, it has them decide they ought to be the arbiters this go-round.

Semeiks and Rollins's art falls mostly in line with a Sal Buscema style. Superman's jaw is impressively square and the linework and postures are a bit stiff, but the action is clear and carries a sense of impact. When Semeiks loosens up a bit, such as Martian Manhunter starting to melt as Grodd attack his mind with thoughts of fire, it works.

They don't really change the style across the series. Semeiks doesn't try to ape George Perez in issue 5, or go with higher panel-counts on the pages in the issues that would have been in Golden or Silver Age. Which makes sense given the compressed timeline (the internet apparently already exists in issue 2). These stories aren't taking place a decade apart like the eras they're meant to represent did for us. It maintains a sense of continuity, helping carry that it's the same mission across years and years, even if some of the faces (and sometimes a lot of the faces) change.

There's also a reporter character, Tully Reed, whose career we watch in parallel with the League. He starts as a guy with a cable access show, eventually starts covering superheroes for a Luthor-owned news channel, and eventually starts his own magazine about them. As things shift darker, he loses faith for a while. Falls under Glorious Godfrey's sway during, Legends, I think. Swings back around at the end, where he indirectly helps save the world.

Sunday Splash Page #278

 

"Tourist," in JLA/Hitman #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), David Baron (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

Released in late 2007, over 6 years after Hitman concluded, this was a two-issue mini-series about a heretofore untold adventure Tommy Monaghan had with the Morrison-era JLA. Clark Kent, claiming to tell a story Superman can't, reveals a time where Monaghan saved the Justice League. By killing a bunch of people.

While this conversation is taking place some undetermined time after the end of Tommy's book, the incident had to take place after Hitman #34, as Peter Kirby was prompted to go digging after heading to Noonan's for research on a story and seeing the autographed magazine cover Superman gave Tommy at the conclusion of that issue. Beyond that, it has to take place before issue #42 because of the presence of Ringo Chen. My guess is it happens shortly after issue 34, because the story after that was when Tommy learns about his parents and goes to Ireland, which put him in a real funk for awhile, not in evidence here. Plus, the space shuttle disaster that troubled Superman to the point he and Tommy talked is still fresh in his mind, so it's probably close to that.

Anyway. The League encounter a problem related to the same aliens from Bloodlines, and need the assistance (or blood) of one of the survivors. Batman fetches Tommy, intending to haul him off to jail after all this. Plus, as Flash and Green Lantern opine, all the other actual Bloodlines heroes are lame. Like, really lame.

The aliens have figured out how to grant superpowers without losing control of the people, and one switches off the JLA's powers until they can take them as hosts. Which, as mentioned above, leads to Tommy killing a bunch of possessed astronauts to save the JLA from being nuked by terrified world governments. Because it's Ennis writing superheroes, so they're not going to be too competent.

Green Lantern's there mostly to be the butt of jokes, after his less-than-dignified team-up with Tommy, and Ennis completely misses the mark on Wonder Woman, which does not surprise me in the slightest. The idea she would be so reductive as to dismiss Tommy as an assassin, nothing more, or tell Superman his empathy with Tommy doesn't reflect well on him, just seems bizarre to me. Unless Ennis was working off the Frank Miller model, which seems entirely likely.

I did laugh when, after Batman's chewed out GL for working with Tommy - and stated he's disgracing that ring, like Hal Jordan didn't try to erase the entire universe at one point, or John Stewart didn't get a fucking planet blown up - Superman shows up and shakes Tommy's hand, and we get a tiny panel of Kyle smirking at Batman. Plus the bit where, having learned Tommy's a hired killer, Superman asks what he was doing on that rooftop. Cue panel of Tommy standing there looking stupid while Batman holds up his guns in the background.

McCrea's very good at that sort of quiet humor, or offbeat stuff. The remaining Leaguers preparing for an assault, while Tommy's behind them, casually whistling as he picks up his guns. Tommy's repulsed look when he overhears Natt the Hat's dirty talk with his girlfriend, who suffered an unfortunate accident at the Injun Peak Research facility. McCrea's work is rougher than it was on Hitman. The shadows aren't as smooth or as solid, his linework is busier and thinner. It looks like he did this on a tighter deadline, but it might just be the direction his style was moving.

Superman and Tommy do have a chat late in the proceedings, because that's really what this story is about, Superman trying to understand Tommy. He seems lost at the notion Tommy could say all the things he did on that rooftop, believe in what Superman tries to stand for, yet still be a killer. Why is Superman, who believes Lex Luthor has the capacity for good, confused at something like that?

So maybe the point is that's not the kind of story superheroes are built for. Ennis tap dances around it in the first issue, when GL gets queasy about Tommy shooting pieces off the aliens - aka, torture - to get information. Then goes head-on in the conclusion, when Clark and Peter Kirby discuss Tommy's decision to kill a bunch of possessed astronauts to save the JLA in comparison to Truman dropping A-bombs on Japan, and how that's not a decision Superman is equipped to make.

Of course, it's all filtered through Ennis, so when GL discusses torture, he describes how soldiers will use it just to learn the time of day and everyone's OK with that, but the heroes get squeamish if they even hurt someone too much. I'm not sure everyone is as hunky-dory with torture as all that, but this was published in 2007, when 24 was still big on TV. People sure loved watching Jack Bauer do illegal crap to save the President, so maybe I'm not assessing it fairly.

Sunday Splash Page #277

 

"Justice League Afterlife," in JLA #75, by Joe Kelly (writer), Doug Mahnke, Yvel Guichet, Darryl Banks and Dietrich Smith (pencilers), Tom Nguyen, Mark Propst, Wayne Faucher and Sean Parsons (inkers), David Baron (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)

The Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League found a lot of success with a roster of mostly second or third-string characters. But that seemed tied to a particular tone, and as the books drifted away from that in the '90s, they were less successful. Do people really buy Booster Gold and Blue Beetle as part of "Extreme" Justice?

So Grant Morrison took the concept back to basics. Seven character roster, at least to start, composed of the icons, the big names. Even if the Flash and Green Lantern weren't the same ones that beat Starro with the aid of Snapper Carr back in the day, they're still the Flash and Green Lantern. The name counts for something.

And then Morrison and series artist Howard Porter went BIG. An entire army of Martians, with J'onn J'onzz powers but none of his compassion, bent on conquest. Heaven invades Earth. Some other stuff I'm forgetting because I didn't actually get around to buying the book until Mark Waid was writing it. More specifically, after Wizard Magazine started foaming at the mouth over Batman having detailed plans to kill - in extremely cruel ways, I mean, making Aquaman afraid of water so he suffocates? Batsy's more than a bit of a sadist - all of his teammates.

Waid didn't go quite as big, seemed to focus more on fracturing the team. Batman's betrayal splits them on whether it was right to vote him off. If you don't trust him, because he's a dick, then yes, obviously. 6th-dimensional creatures make what is essentially a genie who splits the team into the superheroic and civilian identities. It was generally enjoyable, Bryan Hitch drew a lot of it, if that interests you.

Then it was Joe Kelly's turn. His biggest attempt to go big was Obsidian Age, which seemed to run forever, but I guess was basically issues 66 through 76. Aquaman's missing, Atlantis is suddenly above water, the League goes back in time thousands of years to find a Justice League of Ancients waiting, and they die. Meanwhile a Substitute League - that Batman had mapped out as a contingency, naturally - is trying to piece things together in the present.

I remember it having enough forward momentum at the time to carry me through. Plus, Kelly gave Kyle Rayner some big moments, and Kyle was the closest thing to a favorite character I had in JLA. Doug Mahnke was the artist for a lot of Kelly's run, and he could do BIG stuff, but where Hitch's strength seemed to be beautiful widescreen action, Mahnke excelled more at visceral aspects. Violence is sort of clean in Hitch's work, but Mahnke's would have a character with their legs torn off at the knees in uneven stumps. It worked for the story Kelly wanted to tell, with League holding to their codes against enemies from an earlier time that absolutely did not.

Kelly stuck around for another 15 issues after that, some with Mahnke, some not. The two stories I remember were J'onn overcoming his weakness to fire, with disastrous consequences, and Batman and Wonder Woman concluding that no, a relationship probably wouldn't work (as Kelly had been nodding towards that throughout, probably because the Justice League cartoon was doing it).

After that, the book fell into rotating creative teams, which, in retrospect, is when I should have pulled the ripcord. Denny O'Neil and Tan Eng Huat, John Byrne and Chris Claremont, Chuck Austen and Ron Garney. I dropped it at some point during Kurt Busiek and Ron Garney's Crime Syndicate/Earth-2 story where I felt like I didn't understand anything that was happening, and didn't particularly care.

Random Back Issues #79 - JLA #65

Too bad all Batman's cases aren't this easy.

I remembered this as Joe Kelly's first issue on JLA, but I'd forgotten all about the story where Wonder Woman's lasso breaks because it can't handle the concept of two things that are diametrically opposed both being true. I guess it needed a system update.

This issue has just two Justice Leaguers, though. Batman's stakeout of a weapons buy run gets crashed by Plastic Man looking for a favor. Batman is as pleasant as you would expect early-2000s Asshole Batman to be. Apparently there are official protocols everyone in the League is supposed to follow if they want to contact him. Cripes, pull your cowl out of your ass, Batman.

On a separate note, Mahnke kills it in this issue, and this run in general. Plas is changing shape in almost every panel.

Still, the problem. An exotic dancer friend of Plas' has a son that's possibly fallen in with a gang, and he needs help, but doesn't want the rest of the League to know, because he's not proud of anything that reminds him of his criminal past. He figures Batman doesn't care about that. Plus, it gives Batman the chance to scare a child!

I feel Plastic Man badly misunderstands Batman. Also, that joke about Beyonce being worthless without a partner was a pretty big swing and a miss by Kelly.

"Angel" faints when she sees Batman, who quickly finds three knives hidden in Luke's room. Plas and Angel start sniping at each other when he incorrectly guesses Luke's age. But why would O'Brian know, since Luke is just 'some kid'? Some kid that can change his shape into a Triceratops and is rampaging down the street with his gang pals on his back. There's a great bit where Luke pops his eyes out on stalks so he can see Batman landing on his back.

Plastic Man doesn't follow Batman's suggestion/order to contain them in a bubble so he can hit them with knockout gas, Instead, he impersonates the Flash, ordering them to surrender or face a 'whirlwind of whup-'

O'Brian admits he pulled a Scott Summers and abandoned his child and their mother, for any of a variety of reasons. He expects Batman will leave, and there's no way in hell Batman's letting a kid with better control of Plas' power join a gang. O'Brian takes offense and Batman counters, 'Dynamic density control. Spikes to rubber instantly. Increased attention to detail - and can you change color?'

Bats tries to nudge O'Brian to step up, because being scared straight by Batman is not a great experience. Unsurprisingly, Plastic Man has a backbone of jello and wusses out, so after Bats admits he's disappointed because he believed O'Brian would be the best parent of the League by always making his children laugh and feel loved, it's off to traumatize a kid!

(The way he phrases it, I assume Clark is his #2 choice for best parent. Still weird to see him casually use Superman's first name in public, even if it's with another JLAer.)

Luke is trying to psych himself up to complete his gang initiation with a little murder. He steps out of the bathroom and finds the others cringing and shell-shocked. Bats lays into him, tells him the others would turn him into their dog. That's when Luke reveals he knows full well who his dad is, and does Batman know Plastic Man? In fact, Plas is cosplaying as the utility belt, but won't break character for a Hallmark moment with his kid. So Bats tells Luke something no doubt terrifying about exactly what will happen if he ever even looks at those other gang members. Up in the Watchtower, Batman tells Plas not to ask for any more favors, and Plas responds by turning his nose blue. See, he can change color, too (with great difficulty)! Batman hits him with, 'Maybe you can. . .Maybe someday. . .You will.'

And he does! It takes being shattered and fragmented during the Obsidian Age, then spending 10,000 years going insane as a bunch of sentient discorporated particles at the bottom of the ocean, but he does it!

[6th longbox, 37th comic. JLA #65, by Joe Kelly (writer), Doug Mahnke (penciler), Tom Nguyen (inker), David Baron (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)]

Theatricality and Cruelty

I was thinking about Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel" story in JLA on Monday for some reason. The one where Ra's al Ghul steals Batman's top-secret "defeat the Justice League" plans and uses them to try and clear the way for his latest plot to improve the planet by killing a bunch of humans.

The League, of course, survives and saves the world, then votes Batman out. Or more accurately, Batman leaves before Superman can cast the deciding vote in favor of giving Bats the boot. So at least it makes sense where Damien got his "you can't fire me, I quit" mindset. 

If I remember right, Superman's main issue is that he was the only one who knew Batman had a plan to take him down, just in case, and that it's just one more example of Batman not being a team player by keeping secrets. I'm not sure it would make a difference if the League knew, since they wouldn't know the specifics of the plans or that Ra's was using them unless Batman told them. And Bats was distracted by Ra's stealing his parents' corpses (done for precisely that reason, solid strategy).

The thing that struck me, isn't that Batman had these plans, but how cruel they seemed to be. Like, it's not enough to just kill them, he's got to hurt them. Aquaman gets dosed with fear gas so he's afraid to go in the water, and will eventually die of dehydration. He plans to blind Green Lantern*. Flash gets hit with a bullet that causes him to basically seizure while vibrating at near-lightspeed. Plastic Man gets frozen and shattered (which Joe Kelly's Obsidian Age story suggests wouldn't have killed him, but would leave him aware of what's happening for however long he remained frozen).

I suppose Batman could argue they weren't intended to kill, only to thoroughly incapacitate until the Justice Leaguer in question could be helped or imprisoned. But man, having nanites infect the Martian Manhunter so his entire body is on fire when he's in contact with oxygen, would seem a little much. How are you going to help him if he's on fire? Plus, I'm pretty sure the captions in one issue mention the nanites and that layer of skin eventually burn off and fall away, but the plan didn't call for J'onn to still be alive by then.

It all just seems excessive for a vigilante whose normal shtick is to scare criminals by making them think he'll do stuff he'd never do. Like how we know he's not going to let that crook he dropped off the roof go splat, but the crook clearly thinks otherwise. There are lines, but apparently not when it comes to his teammates.

* I feel as though Kalinara and Ragnell both pointed out Kyle's used his ring while asleep before, so being blind really shouldn't have slowed him down that much. Maybe it was a leftover Hal Jordan plan, although you'd think that would just be the plan Zemo used on Hercules in the "Under Siege" story. Send a leggy blonde at him and get him too drunk to function.

The Last Thing Through Lex' Mind, Other Than Heat Vision

For some reason, I was thinking about "Divided We Fall", the episode in the second season of Justice League Unlimited when the Flash takes down the weird Luthor/Brainiac fusion. Flash runs really fast, separates the two by vibrating, then temporarily fades out of existence, as Flashes do.

While the rest of League is busy being sad, Luthor has a chuckle about how he did manage to kill the Flash after all. At which point Superman grabs him by the throat and his eyes start glowing red. Supes doesn't end up killing Luthor as Lex expects (and as the Question feared), but I wonder what Luthor was thinking in those few seconds.

Part of me thinks Lex would be pleased in a way. He's always contended Superman's do-gooder routine is an act. Does he think that his being murdered like this will finally prove it to everyone else?

But that really feels like more of a Joker thing, to claim your death as the ultimate win because you got the hero to break his principles. Plus, that version of the DCU already lost faith in Superman once, when he was bent to Darkseid's will and spearheaded an invasion of Earth. I'm not sure how much the average person's perception of him would change at that point.

Actually, it's difficult for me to picture Luthor accepting that he's about to die. Even if he did remark, 'I think this is the part where you kill me.' in a calm and resigned voice right before Supes grabbed him. Even when none of the Justice Leaguers are stepping in to stop this (Wonder Woman starts to, but let's face it, Batman putting an arm in her way doesn't stop her unless she lets it). Even though he not only doesn't have a weapon of any sort, he doesn't even have pants at the moment.

I feel like he's got to be trying to figure something out. He's Lex Luthor, he can't let this alien get the best of him. There's only one of them going to be standing at the very end, and he'd be determined to make sure it was him. I guess there's always the possibility he doesn't think Superman will go through with it, even though he knows it's happened before, in an alternate timeline, or possible future, or whatever the Justice Lords were. But again, I can't see Luthor admitting, even in the privacy of his own mind, that he's reliant on someone else to save him. Especially Superman.

It's the Place to Dump Snapper if You Want to Ignore Him

One of the odder parts of Dial H for Hero #4 was that Snapper Carr had been allowed to take up residence in the Justice League Detroit Headquarters. He says he's there as sort of a caretaker, but Batman built all those creepy robots that do all the work, so what's Snapper there for? No indication the place has been turned into a museum where you might want a human tour guide. And even if it had been, Snapper wasn't associated with the Detroit era. Wouldn't he be at the old Happy Harbor location*?

Which does raise the question of how many of the Justice League's old bases are still intact, and what they do with them. I feel like the original Satellite got destroyed at one point, and I know the one they were using prior to Morrison' JLA run burned up on reentry after the Martians trashed it. I feel like the various JLI/JLE spots are still in place, since I see characters using the old teleporters from time-to-time.

But still, the question of Snapper in Detroit. And what's odder, he says Green Arrow is the one who hooked him up with the gig. It's not hard for me to see Oliver Queen trying to look after Snapper. He certainly wouldn't want another teen (even though I assume Snapper's at least in his mid-20s in the comic) to fall onto the wrong path, possibly get hooked on the smack. Plus, I could see Green Arrow not holding a grudge about that time the Joker tricked Snapper into betraying the League. Oliver is absolutely the sort of guy who would yell about how it was the wake-up call the team needed, and blah, blah, someone punches him in the kisser. Probably Hal, before Canary or one of the team with super-strength does it. Hal's a good friend like.

Of course Ollie, so far as I know, also had no contact with the Detroit years. He was in the middle of his Mike Grell "wearing an actual hood and just using regular pointy arrows" phase at that time, wasn't he? So I wouldn't expect he'd get to have a say in it, other than Green Arrow probably insists of giving his two cents on everything.

I could see Arrow going to one of the team with actual connections to that era and just haranguing them until they agree, just to shut him up. It would have to be Aquaman, wouldn't it? Steel's dead, Vibe's dead, I don't know where Gypsy or Vixen are. or Elongated Man. Zatanna's probably running around with Justice League Dark. If Ollie shows up there running his yap, he's not likely to survive. J'onn is a possibility, assuming the Detroit era is still part of his continuity. I have less idea what's in and what isn't for various DC characters these days than I do for Marvel. I could see J'onn patiently letting Ollie bluster, because he already knows what he wants and why, and then calmly agreeing and offering to help set things up so Snapper can't accidentally cause too much trouble. He's a reasonable fellow like that.

*It's a little odd to me when I think about it that the Justice League's original HQ was a cave. Maybe with Batman involved that makes sense. Easier to go along with his aesthetic demands than fight them, and the coastline location made it easier for Aquaman. But a cave still feels more like a Doom Patrol thing.

Justice League

It was better than I thought it would be. Keep in mind that's a low bar to clear. I'm not saying it was good, just not a complete disaster. The movie didn't hold together for me. There were parts that would keep my interest, then long stretches that didn't. The scenes with Clark being reunited with Lois and his mother probably should have been a big deal, but I wasn't watching it for that, and I didn't really care. It makes perfect sense to do; Clark would absolutely want to see both of them after returning from the dead, but it made no impression on me.

Steppenwolf didn't make much of an impression as a villain. I was watching with Alex and he couldn't understand why anyone would want to purposefully make a planet look like that. I don't think my explanation of Darkseid and his goals clarified things any, but the Fourth World has never really been my bag.

The actual Justice Leaguers weren't bad. Watching Batman try to make up for his screw-ups in Batman v. Superman in his typically over-the-top, obsessive manner was OK. He actually sort of seemed to be trying to make friends? I kept calling Jason Momoa "Aquabro", but he did fine with the approach he took with the character. It's a little odd to see a Wonder Woman who needs encouraging from Batman of all people to get out there and be a symbol, but again, that's the hand the movies have dealt, and Gal Gadot makes it work.

Cyborg might have needed more fleshing out; Ray Fisher isn't really making much of an impression in my memory, outside of images of him brooding from under a hoodie (which is an activity I can identify with). The CGI for his mechanical parts was a little awkward, one of those things where it just doesn't look right where it meets his actual face. Although I wasn't terribly impressed with CGI in general.

If Alex hadn't had a copy of it available, I wouldn't have bothered, but it was something to have on at 2 in the morning while we talked. But you could easily have something better for that purpose.

Justice League 3000 Volume 1 - Yesterday Lives

Justice League 3000 started near the end of the New 52 era, and the follow-up series, Justice League 3001 actually carried over into that DCYou thing they did in 2015. It seems like DC was thinking two things: One, that they wanted to do a book in the future, but they couldn't get the Legion of Superheroes to sell, so slap "Justice League" on there instead. And two, that they'd try to serve that
portion of the fanbase that loved the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI.

So you get this, a "resurrected" Justice League trying to free the galaxy from the control of a group called "The Five", who have one member called "Persuader", but otherwise no real resemblance to the Fatal Five I can see. The process was imperfect, and so are the heroes, so they bicker and squabble, and behave stupidly, and die, and get brought back again. One of them does, at least.

There are a few jokes or gags that get run into the ground. Superman forgetting he can't fly, characters acting incredulously when someone refers to Ariel Masters as the team's "mother". That second one is made especially annoying because whenever it happens, no ever bothers to just explain it then, because that would possibly stop them from using it again 10 pages later.

There was potential to the idea. An inexperienced, wobbly Justice League trying to overthrow a powerful, entrenched dictatorship in a time they don't really understand. By the end of issue 7, which is the last one in this trade, you can see the team making halting steps in the direction of their old selves. They aren't their original selves - they still lack pieces, notably when it comes to strategy - but there's a hint they could form into an effective group.

But they still aren't a group you care much about. Beyond the fact it's established they can just be brought back if they die, and the question of whether they should even exist at all, they're an annoying group. A Superman who won't stop announcing it, no matter how many times nobody is impressed, his skull apparently only invulnerable to insight. Flash keeps dying, but pointlessly - such a poor copy he can't even get the only thing Barry Allen does well right. On and on. It might be funny if they didn't belabor the point.

One thing that's influencing my outlook is I found two-thirds of JL 3001 in some dollar bins right before this tpb showed up in the mail. I know the rushed, inconclusive ending this book ultimately gets. I was looking forward to seeing Blue & Gold running amok in this dystopia, but, knowing they're going to vanish early in the next series, without enough time for them to make a dramatic last-minute (possibly accidental) rescue takes a lot of wind from those sails. 

Howard Porter's art doesn't help. It has more energy to it than his work on those Superman Beyond stories that ran in Batman Beyond Unlimited did - or maybe just more effects to show movement or action. And the Batman costume isn't bad, and I quite like the Green Lantern one (pity he mostly stops wearing the cloak three issues in). But his work is still overly busy, lots of lines trying to create depth or detail, but often just muddling or confusing things. That guy in the panels above, possessed by one of the Five, in a couple of the panels you might think he had some sort of rectangular facial markings, but no, they aren't there in other panels. Porter just felt he needed those lines there for some reason.

Keith Giffen handles the breakdowns and manages to avoid reverting to 9-panel grids all the time. Porter's work needs more space than that. A lot of 5-panel pages, usually with one panel stretching across the page at the top or bottom, and then two pairs. That part works fairly well.

That's the book overall. Some good pieces, but it doesn't come together into much of anything.

What I Bought 2/8/2017 - Part 1

It was going to be a big week in theory, six comics, but I was only able to find three of them. Might as well start with the two first issues of the bunch, although spoiler, neither one knocked my socks off.

Justice League of America #1, by Steve Orlando (writer), Ivan Reis (penciler), Joe Prado and Oclair Albert (inkers), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - If Batman has figured out how to transport people around inside his cape, that would be really handy. Although I weep for the rest of the team being trapped in there with Lobo. The smell cannot be pleasant.

It's a getting the team together issue. One at a time, we see Batman recruit the people he wants, often bringing along the last person he signed up to help convince the next person. Except he sends Black Canary alone (to get Lobo), and Ryan Choi alone (to get the Ray). Curious if that means something. I could see him not going to get Lobo because he figures their personalities will clash, although why recruit someone you know is going to be a problem? But sending someone Ray has never heard of to tell him Batman wants him on a team seems like a bad idea. A suspicious person would suspect a trap. Fortunately, Ray isn't any brighter (heh) in this universe than he was pre-Flashpoint.

There are things here I could see being interesting. The last page preview of what's to come - and what are the odds we ever see that stuff? Those preview pages rarely pay off - suggests Ray and Lobo are continuing their conflict from the earlier universe. But it seems like same old Batman. I feel there's a disconnect between telling Canary he wants someone who speaks her mind to keep them honest, and two panels previous where he dismisses her concerns about Killer Frost with, 'I trust her. That's all you need to know.' What if that isn't all Canary feels she needs to know? Is Batsy going to offer more, or be his usual closed off asshole self? Although he let Lobo put Choi on the team, so I don't know. Mixed signals.

Batman does seem to spend most of the issue scowling and looking unfriendly (except with Vixen), which isn't much of a recruiting pitch. I was hoping, given he's picking his roster, he'd be a little happier about it. Don't love the redesign on Ray's costume. The helmet not going below the tops of the ears around the back, so the white collar of the shirt/tights goes up the back of his head to meet it. Awful. Maybe that call was made independent of Reis, don't know. I tend to like Reis' work fine, and Ray's costume aside, there's nothing wrong with it here, other than his Batman is reminding me of David Finch's artwork, which is not a good thing. I feel like Maiolo could brighten the colors a bit, perhaps, but that's a nitpick. It's pretty easy to follow what's going on in the book, so no complaints there.

But I still don't think I want to read them fighting the Extremists.

Steven Universe #1, by Melanie Gillman (writer), Katy Farina (illustrator), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Mike Fiorentino (letterer) - Oh Steven, are you floating in the depths of space inside a bubble again? Did last time's near-death experience teach you nothing?

Steven's at the barn, showing off some new game on his phone, when they find a baby bird that has fallen from its nest. A nest they can't find. Steven tries following the advice of a doctor at a wildlife rehab center, but despairs of leaving the bird outside in bad weather. So he, Lapis, and Peridot take care of the bird themselves. Eventually it grows big enough, and they release it to find others of its species.

First obvious point: The book is aimed at a much younger audience than my old butt. That's fine, just should have considered that possibility from the start, rather than being all, "Whee, more Steven Universe!". I didn't say "whee", but you get the idea. There's a fair amount of things in here I enjoyed. Lapis being willing to help Steven, both because she considers him a friend, and because he helped her when she was lost and alone. Peridot only really getting into the idea once she realized some baby birds grow up to be big, powerful birds, like eagles. But not realizing that not all baby birds do that. Because gems do work that way. In theory, if you are a Peridot, you look basically like this one. Rubies look mostly alike, Amethysts, and so on. So she figures Birds also work like that.

And there was Steven's moment of terror when he worried they broke the law by deciding to care for the baby themselves. I might honestly expect that more from Connie, but she'd be more worried about germs.

I will say, if you didn't know anything about Steven Universe prior to reading this, I'm not sure you would have any more idea of what it is after. I mean, you can get a fair idea of the three characters' personalities from this, Lapis being a mixture of easygoing and straightforward, Peridot being more manic, but I don't think you'd have any idea what they are, or why they're hanging around this seemingly ordinary young boy. I don't know if that would be a problem if you were considering buying this for yourself or someone else, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Cogar's colors are very bright, which matches the show, and creates a mostly warm, pleasant feel. Even the scene at night, when Steven is worried about the bird out in the storm, the colors aren't that dark. But they aren't going to leave it out there to fend for itself, so that makes sense. Farina keeps the characters on model, and getting to look at the barn in still images, I got to notice some of the modifications Peridot and Lapis made I never had before. Which isn't a huge deal, but was still nice. The montage of them caring for the bird, showcasing their different methods was a cute sequence.

I think the book did what it set out to do, but it may simply be a case of I'm not the target audience. But I'm game to give it a little longer before I decide. I've given much worse books a much longer leash.

What I Bought 12/17/2012 - Part 2

Most of the comics in the latest shipment were from titles that have shipped twice since the last one. There are 6 that weren't, though. We covered 2 yesterday, and I thought about just splitting the other 4, but I figured I'd do the DC one today, and cover the 3 Marvel titles tomorrow.

Batman Beyond Unlimited #10, by Dustin Nguyen (writer & pencils), Derek Fridolfs (writer & inks), Randy Mayor (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letters) for "Konstriction Chapter 10: The Mortal Coil"; Adam Beechen (writer), Norm Breyfogle (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) for "10,000 Clowns: Lights of Gotham"; J.T. Krul (writer), Howard Porter (pencils), Livesay (inks), Carrie Strachan (colors), Saida Temofonte (letters) for uh, I don't know what that title is - Everyone in Future DCU is so judgmental? They're all giving me the eye! Don't blame me for the nu52! You could have done something, Old Superman!

Justice League: Etrigan's out, and attacking everyone. Superman, the Hawks, and fortunately the Serpent. It just so happens the Serpent is vulnerable to fire, as deduced by Bruce Wayne based of what he heard of what happened on Apokolips. Marina gets Micron out from under Spellbinder's control, and the two of them plus Barda deal with the head of Kobra. Then there's a lot of follow up, with the League deciding to expand, Mr. Miracle reuniting with Barda, and Jimmy Olsen's funeral. I'm surprisingly sad about that, but better him than the Wall.

This story had a pacing problem. I feel like things moved too slowly through all those 10-page installments, and now things had to move at light speed. So Etrigan shows up and dispatches the Serpent, and then pick up the pieces. It hurts the sense of scale of the story because the story just ends because it has to end right now. That said, I did love the emotion of the story. Barda and Scott's reunion was lovely (and it's great that Nguyen remembers Barda is much taller), Superman's sorrow at Jimmy's death, Bruce's concern for Terry, contrasted with his willingness to risk Terry's neck (and possibly his soul).

This may be a result of reading too many comics Ennis wrote with Etrigan, but Nguyen and Fridolfs need to up their game on the rhymes.  The ones they had were this combination of simple, awkward, and stilted. Ennis wrote them in a way that the cadence of the sentences suggested Etrigan's personality, but these are sort of there. He's speaking in rhymes because that's what he does. It's the sort of rhyme I'd write, in other words.

Batman: Dana's brother explains to his pal what the Joker got wrong, and sets off to kill Dana and the rest of his family. Tim heads into the cave. Bruce refuses to be evacuated until Dana's father is, staying with her. The heroes (Terry, Catwoman, Grayson, Vigilante) get together just as a power plant explodes, but Terry has a plan cooking, something to do with that explosives trigger he got away from Mad Stan. Meanwhile, the only thing standing between the Joker King and his family is one sickly old man. A sickly old man very excited at the prospect of getting to pummel one last Joker.

Breyfogle's kicking butt as usual. The way he draws Bruce combines perfectly with Andrew Elder's colors to suggest how sick the guy is. The colors, especially, as Bruce is this sort of gray-green that clashes with the colors of everyone and everything else. Combine that with the look on his face in the first panel of the last page, and he's kind of terrifying. Some dying otherworldly horror, determined to get the last laugh.

Also, I like the fact that even as he's gotten older, Dick Grayson apparently still has great hind end. At least, if Catwoman's comment is anything to go by. It amuses for some reason.

Superman: I seriously have no idea what that title is. I think it might just be his Superman emblem, but they've cut off the bottom of it with a panel, which makes it looks like "N7", or "ND" or something. Nice work, people.

Clark's doing the fireman thing, then ducking out when Superman's needed to save one of his coworkers. Bennett doesn't think he needed any help. Afterward, the firemen have a discussion about whether they should just let Superman handle all this stuff, with Bennett saying no, they can't always expect someone else to handle things, they have to do it themselves. Clark, sorry "Kal" agrees, but thinks there's nothing wrong with accepting help when you need it. This will certainly not be a key aspect of this story arc, I'm sure. Also, there are some aliens called Trillians here for Superman because he destroyed their world. Hmm, well, that's ominous.

I can appreciate that Krul's trying to address some of the aspects of Superman and how people would perceive him, but he's being a little too obvious about it. Maybe demonstrate it more through Superman's actions, less through pointed conversations with a specific character in each arc. Bennett in this one, that cop Walker in the previous arc.

So Justice League was good in theory, a little spotty in execution. I loved the art on the Batman part, and Superman's jut sort of there. Business as usual, then. Tomorrow, Captain Marvel, Defenders, Secret Avengers! I'm more disappointed than you might think that Diamond ended up getting Jack his copies of Defenders.

Behind The Curtain, Another Curtain

I was rewatching Dark City this week, and it made me think of JLA #50, of all things. Well, a specific comment in that comic that Batman made about water representing discovery, or knowledge in dreams. And at first glance, I though that fit pretty well with the movie. Shell Beach representing sort of the key to John's past, the way he, Bumstead, and Schreber take the river to get to "Shell Beach", and discover at least part of the truth of their situation there. The aversion the strangers, or whatever we should call them, have to water, which would fit if we consider that John discovering the truth can help him to destroy them and their little experiment. And the comparison to a dream, where its always night, where things change, people change, and yet nobody notices. Everything seems perfectly natural in that way it can in dreams, where I find it perfectly reasonable that I can teleport, or that I'm Edward Norton, or whatever.

So in that sense, it seems like John finds the truth, oddly enough not at Shell beach, but in that little vial of watery fluid Schreber injects into his brain. He banishes the strangers, creates the Shell Beach he's supposed to remember, brings out the sun. . . but it's still an illusion, isn't it? People are still dreaming, sort of, since they don't have any idea of the truth about their world, they don't know who they were before they were taken. I suppose it's different in that John Murdoch won't be constantly messing with them, so they'll actually be able to settle into the personality and life they currently have and go forward with it, but it's still sort of a trick. Now there's just the one person behind the scenes, and he's much less invasive. I wonder what will happen if someone decides they want to leave the city and go further than just Shell Beach. Surely someone has wanderlust in that city, and won't be content to only travel as far as everyone else.

Maybe at that point John Murdoch emerges and tells everyone the truth, I don't know. It says something I guess about how narrow some people's lives are, and how little we might really understand about the world we inhabit. I mean, I think I understand that I live on Earth, which orbits the Sun, in the Milky Way, etc., but that might be completely wrong. Illusory. If our world were like that of the film, I wouldn't be any more aware of it than most of those people were.

Apologies For The Absence

I'd like to blame it on work, and that is sort of the cause. I simply couldn't get to the Internet on Monday, and that kind of settled that. On the other hand, I was running low on ideas, so I might not have had anything for the next couple days, anyway.

I'm back now, though, but I'm going to ease into it by touching on some things related to past posts.

- I asked once before if anyone wore their watch on their dominant arm, since I've been told it's strange I do. I had two more people tell me last week they'd never seen that before. Add them to the list.

- From the Department of Failures in Reading Comprehension, we step back to Batman Beyond Unlimited. I said that while I thought the bit with killing Vixen to get John Stewart and Shayera together was a poor decision, I was curious to see what it was that caused the Guardians to rescind their ban on Earth and hand out another ring. Then I reread the story and the last line the blue twit has says they'll keep an eye out for an Earthling who has achieved unity of mind, body, and soul. Which answers that question, I guess. It doesn't kill my interest in seeing how the kid got the ring, but it takes out its kneecaps with a shotgun (what I call a "GrimJack Special").

- From the Department of "I Flipped the Switch, but the Bulb Blew", I watched Duck You Sucker with the commentary on. While there were interesting bits, it didn't help to explain the slow motion ending with James Coburn, his Irish buddy, and their mutual lady friend. Well, it didn't convince me my theory about the lady being metaphorical is off-base, but that didn't come as any surprise. It does seem to be expected there was some level of a love triangle between the three of them, though one guy suggested there was a lot of jealousy on John's part towards his friend. He even suggested John informed on his buddy to the Brits, then killed him when they did not, which I don't think the film supports. John sees too many parallels between Dr. Viegga and Sean, and nobody ratted out the doctor. He was tortured, he talked, other people died. It's the fact John killed his best friend for that act which haunts him, and is why he gives the doctor a chance to either redeem himself, or prove he's a coward, depending on how you look at it. One fellow did use the phrase menage a trois, though I wonder if he means it the way I think he does. That would explain at least part of why killing Sean hit him so hard, but I don't know.

How Do You Get Past The Little Blue Bouncers After They Kick You Out?

All yesterday's post's griping about the pointless killing of Vixen to get John Stewart and Shayera together aside, the story did have the possibly planned for effect of making me curious to see the origin for the future Justice League's Green Lantern.
If you have read the story, John kills Shadow Thief with a bullet made from Nth metal, fired from a gun. Quite where he got the bullet, I'm not sure. He already had the gun out before Shayera came to offer her assistance, but I suppose it could have been an earlier gift. Anyway, the end result is the Guardians take his ring - unimpressed with his argument that he didn't break the rules because he didn't use the ring to kill anyone - and basically turn their back on that entire sector, until such time as they think Earthlings have grown up a little bit. Which is the sort of massive overreaction I'd expect from the Guardians. They're a bunch of dipsticks regardless of the universe.

Aren't there other inhabited worlds in the sector besides Earth? What are they supposed to do? And what about Kyle Rayner? Kyle got a ring in that universe, during the Superman cartoon. And Katma mentioned him in a Justice League episode where she was busting John's butt about how poorly he was using his ring. To be fair, she wasn't really complimenting Kyle, expect by saying John was doing even worse. So maybe Kyle washed out. Or perhaps the Guardians abruptly snatched away his ring, and when he asked, they said, "Talk to John Stewart."

Be honest, we can all see the Guardians doing that. I could see them doing it while Kyle was traveling between star systems and leaving him to die out there. OK, maybe they wouldn't leave him to die, but I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped him on whatever world happened to be handy. Knowing Kyle's luck, it'd be Czarnia, or Kanjar Ro's home.

All that being said, I'd like to know what it was about the young kid that's wearing the ring in the future that convinced the Guardians to give him a ring. I have a hard time looking at the state of that world, given how Gotham was before Terry McGinnis became Batman, or how Metropolis probably went in Superman's absence, and concluding Earthlings demonstrated how, as a whole, they were ready to be let back into the club.

The kid could be an alien, I suppose. No reason he has to be from Earth, just because he looks like an Earthling.

If The Universe Has a Sick Sense Of Humor, What's That Say About Its Creator?

I understand not everybody can get someone to look after their kid, and so maybe it's unavoidable you have to bring the little one to work. But a library is not the place to bring a squalling, hyperactive toddler! I'm about ready to clothesline the kid next time he runs by.
In other angry news, I still hate the direction Nguyen and Fridolfs went for Warhawk's origin in Batman Beyond Unlimited. Part of that is that killing Vixen was so unnecessary. People have relationships end for reasons other than death. Their priorities change, they change, they decide aren't a good match long-term. It happens.

But the other thing that bugs me is the whole predeterministic aspect of it. Remember that issue of Brave and the Bold JMS wrote? Where Zatanna has the premonition of Barbara Gordon being shot, and rather than do anything about it, she and Wonder Woman take Babara out for a night on the town? The attitude seems to be it's supposed to happen, so it can't be changed. Zatanna's one, half-assed attempt to do so, actually helps it come about because she suggests Barbara should stay home from crimefighting to have dinner with her father more often. And of course, Barbara got shot while having dinner with Jim Gordon.

Yeesh, that was such a dumb story.

Now, here we are with John Stewart, back from the future. He's met his son, the one he had with Shayera (Hawkgirl). He's even told Hawkgirl about it. But John's not going to be led around by the nose, by fate. He's still with Mari (Vixen), he loves her, he's going to stay with her and see how things play out. And that's why they're having dinner at a cafe when Shadow Thief shows up and kills Vixen to get revenge on John. Fate apparently counted on John Stewart being a stubborn fellow.

If he'd only broken things off with Mari, it would have been Shayera getting killed. Which wouldn't have been any better, though it would have made more sense for Shadow Thief to strike at someone he might actually hate. And it would have been a case of someone bowing to what appears to be destiny, only for that to keep it from ever coming about. That seems a little different, the protagonist throwing a wrench into the works by going along with the larger plan.

Surviving Digestion Isn't Much Trouble For Mr. Miracle

I don't know how some people post more than once a day. I'm typing this Sunday and my brain's melting. I mentioned I'd be without regular Internet access soon. Well, that starts tomorrow. So I've been trying to get things lined out ahead of time. I did 4 Burn Notice posts last Sunday, 4 more yesterday, plus the DC and Marvel comic review posts. This is the second post this morning. Yeesh.

Anyway, I figured it would be too late for this, but then they skipped the Justice League story in Batman Beyond Unlimited this month, so I still have time. So, I expect Mister Miracle to reappear by the end of the story. We were told (and shown) he strapped himself to a missile and launched himself at the Serpent, only to be swallowed by it. Now, does anyone really think Mr. Miracle can't escape that? Escaping death is what he does.

Making this the one time he can't escape would certainly be one way to emphasize how badly things are going, but still, the fact the combined forces of Apokolips and New Genesis couldn't stop it would cover that base. I expect Scott Free will make some sort of triumphant appearance at a critical moment, as it turns out he's been working away at the Serpent from within this whole time.

Of course, it could simply be a case where nothing is as it seems. I mean, Highfather appears to be Darkseid now, and Darkseid is dressed as Orion, so clearly something has gone wonky since they used the Anti-Life Equation. And it was Darkseid who told us Mr. Miracle was dead, so we have to at least question the source of the information.

What If The World Destroying Cult Is Just The Start?

Theory with regards to the Justice League story in Batman Beyond Unlimited: Kobra is being manipulated by Apokolips.

While no one has directly mentioned Apokolips, there was mention of a "Genesis War" but not description of the fallout. Even if Apokolips was destroyed (and we don't know that it was), Beechen seemed to hint that at least some of the old baddies are still around in the pre-relaunch Batman Beyond ongoing. There was the man hired as the new worker's spokesman for Wayne's striking workers, who had some hinted connection with Glorious Godfrey. Beechen could have been running with the idea of the New Gods sustaining themselves inside human bodies, ala Final Crisis.

It could be Nguyen and Fridolfs are running with that. Apokolips lost that war, perhaps even lost their home, but they haven't given up, they've merely gone underground. It's hardly beyond their capabilities to get Kobra a text that makes a convincing argument destroying New Genesis is the key to restarting creation. And this way it looks like it's just Kobra being their usual world-ending selves, no hint of any force urging them on.

I suppose I'm just suspicious that the plan only involves destroying New Genesis and not Apokolips, since I sort of understood it that they were a matched set. Good and evil, in opposition, but also in balance. Though I suppose by obliterating one, you could throw the balance off, and things might then naturally spiral towards an end. Total and complete order, or absolute chaos.

It'll Take The Serpent Awhile To Eat All Those Characters

Reading the Justice League portion of Batman Beyond Unlimited #3, I thought it was kind of interesting that during Waller's description of how Kobra plans to use the serpent, as she mentions using the Mother Box to send it to other realities and eventually New Genesis, all the worlds we see were Jack Kirby creations.

It starts with Kamandi and the Serpent coiling its way around what's left of the Statue of Liberty, then Atlas being encircled by it, then OMAC watching it rise from the sea before him, and finally with the Forever People being chased by it.

The Forever People make sense, as that's the panel when Waller mentions the Serpent destroying New Genesis to restart the creation**. Still, it's probably not a coincidence all the others are Kirby creations as well. I mean, it's not as though DC is hurting for other timelines or realities to use. Earth-2, Gotham by Gaslight, Red Son, Kingdom Come, etc.

Waller says the serpent is the Ouroboros, which as you may know, eats its own tail. DC (and Marvel) have a track record of relying on the same old characters without managing to successfully push new ones. And Kirby's characters and ideas are some of the ones that get used the most often, sometimes in ways which don't really do credit to them (Countdown and Death of the New Gods spring to mind as less than spectacular endeavors with the characters). So they get chewed up and spit out in slightly different ways, over and over, and it gets you nowhere. Although that suggests all those characters need to be destroyed, because otherwise no one will ever make anything new.

Or it could be a comment on creators' right. DC (and Marvel) don't have a great track record there, either. Their practices give them the majority of the control (and profits) related to characters, but also create an atmosphere that discourages people from adding their best ideas to the DCU or Marvel Universe. Which is how you wind up with everyone just dragging out the same old characters over and over again, while saving their own for some time or publisher where they can get what they feel is their fair share of the pie for what is their work. Maybe that's more "cutting off the nose to spite the face" than "eating your own tail".

* Side note: I like that in each panel we're the Serpent is closer to us, which lets us see less of it until the last panel, where we see its fangs and gaping maw chasing the Forever People. The bit of its body we see actually lines up perfectly with a section of it that's twisting out of the ocean in front of OMAC in the prior panel.

** Which makes sense considering the 4th World emerged from the ashes of the 3rd, so naturally the 4th would have to go if you want to bring about the 5th, right?