DC comics book review: League

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Monday, May 23, 2011

Justice League of America #57 Review

Tagged with: Batman James Robinson Justice League of America Rise of Eclipso

Justice League of America #57

The “Rise of Eclipso” goes on (and on and on) in Justice League of America 57. After Starman Mikaal has random flashbacks of his young life back home on Talok III, the team gets together to plan and share notes with new ally Obsidian, who rescued them all last issue from Eclipso and the possessed characters, including about all the JLA reserves. They are also joined by Alan Scott, now healed of his paralysis (anyone want to take bets this never makes it into JSA?). Scott tells them Eclipso is even more powerful than before, because he’s absorbing Starheart energy, and Jesse shares with Donna she’s losing her powers (I have lost track of if this is again or still).

Eclipso, arguing with his mortal host Bruce Gordon, reveals his convoluted plan. Earth, you see, is God’s favorite in the DCU. He argues this is so because the Spectre, the Phantom Stranger, and the Rock of Eternity, and now the White Lantern, are all here. So he will destroy Earth, which will weaken God enough for Eclipso to kill Him. He uses the captured Zauriel to summon the Spectre via some weird angel distress call. Spectre shows up, his powers bleed off, and Eclipso cuts him in half. Seriously. The JLA launches their counter-attack, trying to cut Shade off from Eclipso, Batman having somehow worked out that Shade is the key to keeping all the captives in his sway. Eclipso decides cutting the Spectre in half wasn’t enough, and repeats the trick with the moon. Bits of moon go flying off in various directions as we wait for next issue for this to be continued.

What I liked and what I didn’t:

I love that Alan Scott has finally been healed from his non-sensical paralysis, even if I don’t believe for a moment it will last, or make it into the JSA book. Batman’s keen detective work has once again given the JLA a shot at winning, and I always like it when Grayson looks good.

Every Eclipso story goes the same way. He shows up full of malice and evil, he possesses several heroes, seems unstoppable, and then something beats him, usually involving light, magic, or a combination. This one has a few twists, but really isn’t grabbing me and seems very drawn out. Did we need a double splash page of the Spectre being bisected? I have never really liked Eclipso as a villain, and I’m unclear here whether he’s going after Spectre over “Dad liked you best” or “Hey, you took my job.” I know it’s just a stepping stone in his plan to kill God, but it seems to be just getting silly. And while Robinson in the past has been criticized for huge property damage in his stories (he seems to like destroying cities), now he’s taken out the moon. Gee, I bet that will last till… the end of this story. Which I kinda hope is soon.

A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATINGProsConsBatman has a plan, Alan healed finallyNone Rating100%

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Justice League of America #56 Reivew

Tagged with: Batman Eclipso James Robinson Justice League of America

Justice League of America #56

The Rise of Eclipso continues to take a toll on the Justice League of America in James Robinson’s current storyline. There’s a great deal of talking, broken up by various fights, in which Eclipso simply grabs more heroes for himself. They bring in a reserve team of Leaguers, and the vast majority of them fall with no apparent effort from Eclipso, or even dialogue. Animal Man, Cyborg, Dr. Light, Red Tornado, Bulleteer, and the recently resurrected Tasmanian Devil (yes he was, shush) all fall with no resistance whatever, and not even any dialogue. Congorilla resists long enough to join the “main team” and Zauriel gets beaten into the ground in a one on one duel with Eclipso. The issue ends with Eclipso commanding his slaves to take the League. Suddenly, Obsidian pops up from nowhere, says “As you command” and pulls Donna Troy, Batman, Starman, Congorilla, and the Blue Lantern St. Walker into one of his portals. Just before this happens, the ongoing narration box argument between Bruce Gordon, Eclipso’s preferred victim as host, and Eclipso himself, reveals the rather grandiose end in mind here- Eclipso plans to kill God.

Ok, I have a LOT of problems with this issue, so I’m abandoning my usual format here. Supergirl is still missing for the big Doomsday event, we get it, although it seems a bit callous of Dick to just sort of say “Well, hopefully she’ll be ok ’til we finish with this.” I don’t see the point of bringing in the reserves just to have them all fall like that. While we’re on the subject, two things about that part: 1) I am beginning to think Robinson has an issue with Animal Man. In his controversial Cry For Justice, Animal Man disappears just before the big fight with Prometheus, one of many things never explained from that book. Here, he shows up as cannon fodder. Animal Man never seems to do well with the League, barring the late Dwayne MacDuffie’s run. Back in his own book, when Animal Man was a founding member of the Justice League Europe, he even commented “I never seem to do anything when I’m with the Justice League.” 2) Dr. Light, with her powers that seem to be a really good counter to Eclipso’s darkness, who has been shown as an immensely powerful being, also goes down in a fight so brief we don’t even see it on panel? What was the point here again? Oh, right, Eclipso’s big and bad and dangerous. Got it.

Oh, by the way, last issue, Jesse Quick raced off with Alan Scott to keep him safe. Now, they’re trapped on the moon, which doesn’t have but so many places to hide where you can breathe and all. So, where are they this issue? No clue. Maybe Alan recovered enough to fly them off somewhere, but in that case, why hasn’t he summoned his team to help?

They keep trying to make Eclipso a major threat, and it keeps not working. Does anyone remember the massacre of the Shadow Fighters back in Eclipso’s own book? He finally managed to kill a bunch of heroes, and most of them came back anyway, but that’s another article I’ll be doing another time. He gets defeated, temporarily, by light, or purity of spirit, or both. Heck, Will Payton Starman ended his life to beat Eclipso last big go around, and then Robinson decided Will Payton didn’t really exist.

I also seem to recall Eclipso used to have to work at it to take people over. They usually needed to be showing some really negative emotion, rage, vengeance, what have you. Now, I can sorta see Eclipso taking the people already powered by darkness relatively easily, although I still think Shade went down way too easily. Here, heroes just show up and they get snared. Red Tornado was taken just by flying though some patch of Eclipso’s darkness, and he was shown to be pretty much without sin in the recent JLA 80 Page giant. Dr. Light certainly has light based powers, and she didn’t even get an on panel take down. So, purity of spirit and/or light haven’t helped a bit this time.

There have been a lot of negative comments about Robinson’s more recent work. Let me say again, for the simple minded who seem to feel that disliking some work makes you a “hater,” I have enjoyed much of Robinson’s earlier work. Starman and Golden Age were fantastic. He’s been sliding downhill since then, IMHO. Cry For Justice was horrid, riddled with errors and out of character moments. His Blackest Night specials showed a flaw he’s repeated since in his JLA run, calling characters by the wrong names. I don’t dislike the JLA for the line up, I don’t think it needs to be the “Big 7″ all the time. But I do have an issue with Robinson’s out of character writing, and generally falling quality. He was getting better the last few issues, but this one reversed the trend in a serious way.

Some predictions: Obsidian is not under Eclipso’s sway, and he just saved the team. Eclipso’s inevitable defeat will combine a masterful plan from Batman, Saint Walker’s light power which is based on hope, and freeing Jade will likely be essential to the plot. At some point, someone will most likely exclaim once again “This IS the Justice League.” Is it?

A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATINGProsConsWell.... umm... the whole team’s not beaten yet...a whole lot as detailed above Rating40% You might also like...

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By BlogsdnaTagged with: Batman Eclipso James Robinson Justice League of AmericaLeave a ReplyClick here to cancel reply

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This post was added on 20 Apr 2011, 22:59 by Wayland who has contributed 291 posts to this blog.

InformationPosted in DC Comics, JLA ComicsThis post has no comments yet. Write your own comment.197 views on this postSubscription

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Justice League of America #55 Review

Tagged with: Batman Doomsday Eclipso James Robinson Justice League of America

Justice League of America #55

Justice League of America 55 is a pretty good distillation of a lot of what I don’t like about comics today. Personally, I read a particular comic for that comic. I like continuity, and the whole “shared universe” concept, but since the folks at DC are showing on a regular basis they don’t really care about continuity, it makes it harder and harder for me to really care about what’s happening in the DCU as a whole. So, let’s take a look at what goes on in JLA 55.

We start off at the “Emerald City” that Alan Scott established in “The Dark Things.” Alan is in bed, paralyzed. Why? Well, you need to read Justice Society for that. Eclipso and his stooges show up to attack, interrupting Jade at her father’s bedside, and Jesse Quick, who’s hanging around in the background looking pathetic, unsure about her life. She wants to talk to Alan about her problems, but senses this isn’t a good time. Why isn’t she talking to her husband? No idea, he’s not in this book, I guess. We also learn her powers are fading. Why? Because that’s what you do to heroes these days, you either screw with their powers or make them absolutely miserable- Jesse is getting both, apparently. Jesse evidently regards Alan as a substitute father since her own died, and has ever since… well, this is the first I’ve heard of it, actually.

Eclipso and company gain control of the moon, defeating hordes of fairy creatures while Jade gets possessed and Jesse takes Alan and runs away. Elsewhere, Batman is trying to help Supergirl deal with the loss of New Krypton (another issue from another event in another book). They, in turn, are interrupted by first Boodika the Alpha Lantern, and then Doomsday. Why is Doomsday back? Yes, it’s another crossover! Oh boy! Doomsday ignores Dark Supergirl to attack Boodika, which we eventually learn is because the Cyborg Superman is hidden in her robotic parts. This might have been a more dramatic reveal were the Cyborg not featured on the COVER. Way to blow the surprise, folks. That story continues in the Superman/Batman title, so someone else can let me know how it turns out. Also on the cover is Congorilla, AKA Sir Not Appearing In This Film. He’s just there to fill up the body count of defeated Leaguers lying on the ground on the cover, another riff that’s getting REALLY old. Where is Congorilla in all this? No idea, he’s never mentioned.

Also for the Doomsday fight, a Blue Lantern called Saint Walker pops up. Blue Lanterns, I am told, can only tap into their powers in the presence of a Green Lantern, which seems silly. This time, however, he’s tapped into something or someone else, but isn’t sure what. He and Starman briefly clash with Doomsday, who takes off after the JLA teleporter finally takes Boodika, which it was told to do, Batman, which I can see as a rescue, and Supergirl..umm… just because?

Other seemingly random events include the JLA teleporter having issues transporting Bookida because of her “machine parts.” Yes, the teleporter that transports Cyborg and Red Tornado among many others is having issues with this. Maybe it’s because Cyborg Superman was hidden in her? If so, the JLA teleporter is apparently more sophisticated than the Guardian’s uber-tech, high grade special Alpha Lantern upgrades. I find that unlikely. Robinson has toned down Donna Troy’s new “I want to hit things” personality, maybe in response to long and loud fan complaints, but she still doesn’t seem her old caring self.

So, to sum up: Jesse is losing her powers for reasons unknown and doesn’t talk to husband about it; Jade gets captured by Eclipso and possessed (gee, Eclipso possessing heroes, haven’t seen that since…. the last big storyline involving Eclipso); and we have stories from JSA, Reign of Doomsday, and the war of the Technicolor Lanterns. Anyone know why there have supposedly been so many different colors of Lanterns all this time and we’ve never heard about it till now?

Here’s a thought: how about we do a story with consistent characterizations, not suddenly learning about deep seeded things that have been going on for a long time but we never knew, with an accurate cover in which the heroes actually win, don’t lose their powers or go off on soap opera like rants, and the story stays in the book you’re actually reading? Think we can do that? I don’t either, but it would be a nice change. Too many “events,” too many crossovers, too much “beat on the heroes”…. I’m getting tired of all this. Maybe that’s why I’m liking Green Hornet from Dynamite and even Darkwing Duck from Boom! There, the heroes manage to win most of the time, and you don’t have to read several other books to know what the heck’s going on. Oh well, I’m sure next issue Plaid Lantern will show up and save the day or something, in a story that crosses over with Teen Titans.

I suppose to some I sound like a cranky old man about to shout “Get off my lawn!” What I am is a fan of heroes. I get dramatic tension, I do, but the “tear them down to build them up” riff and the “everyone’s beaten down on the cover” riffs have gotten far over used, and the building them back up somehow never seems complete. Do the good guys still get to win sometimes?

What I liked and what I didn’t:

Dick, trying to help Supergirl at the beginning, doesn’t wholly trust her in this darker aspect, and brings along about every anti-Kryptonian weapon in Bruce’s armory. That’s good thinking, and shows an experienced planner. It doesn’t end up helping, but it was a nice thought. Donna, finally, doesn’t seem to be showing outright glee at the prospect of a fight.

What I didn’t goes on a while, and I touched on most of it above. The cover gives away a surprise from the issue, as well as showing characters who aren’t in the book and the team beaten on the ground. Doomsday and Eclipso are one trick ponies, back doing their same old thing for the most part. To really get what’s going on here, you need to have read JSA, Reign of Doomsday, and the various hues of Lanterns. Jesse’s sudden power loss and need to talk to someone without ever even thinking of her husband is just weird. I’m sorry, I know Robinson’s JLA is popular in some circles, and I thought it was getting better, but this one was just bad in my view.

A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATINGProsConsDick planning and Donna not drooling about fightingmulti-crossover, the cover Rating50% You might also like...

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By BlogsdnaTagged with: Batman Doomsday Eclipso James Robinson Justice League of AmericaLeave a ReplyClick here to cancel reply

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This post was added on 24 Mar 2011, 5:46 by Wayland who has contributed 270 posts to this blog.

InformationPosted in DC Comics, JLA ComicsThis post has no comments yet. Write your own comment.171 views on this postSubscription

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Monday, May 23, 2011

Justice League of America #57 Review

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Justice League of America #56 Reivew

Monday, April 4, 2011

Justice League of America #55 Review