Tpull's Weekly DC Comics Review – Part 2
Justice League: The Rise and Fall Special 1
by J.T. Krul, Diogenes Neves, Mike Mayhew, and Fabrizio Fiorentino
They try for some drama in the first couple pages with Green Arrow trying to kill the Electrocutioner, for the thug part he played in the destruction of Star City. But they immediately cut away to a flashback that shows the same type of thing, with G.A. threatening to shoot another person. This is already a trouble area, because Krul spends four entire pages doing a re-hash of a late comic that I just read, from Justice League: Cry for Justice #7, a book so silly they had to throw “Justice” in the title twice. The time they spend explaining the need for this special only serves to rehash their biggest mistake: the last mini-series.
In Cry For Justice, James Robinson spent the entire mini-series building up Prometheus, making him out to be someone who was fourteen steps ahead of every other superhuman on the planet. Even held captive, he still held all the cards. The final issue has the Shade helping Green Arrow get to Prometheus’ dimensional hide-out. Oh, we don’t find this out in this special or the last mini-series, but as an add-on over in the regular Justice League title, so lots of luck getting a whole story in any one place, folks. As if rampant lateness wasn’t bad enough, they had to put part of the story in another title! Back to the main point: Green Arrow calmly launches a simple arrow right through the guy’s helmet and kills him, in less than half a second. This is the guy that had the answer to everything, the guy who could not be defeated with that helmet on. Poof, gone. Lame.
After this flashback in this “special” reminds us of this, we see that there is already a disconnect. See, if you read Cry For Justice, the last thing we saw was Prometheus lying on the ground with an arrow sticking out of his eye. Visually in this special, they show Prometheus getting pinned to the wall by the arrow. It’s still in his head, but he’s not on the ground. He’s dripping blood all over the place. Okay, which was it? Because they’re already altering the crime scene on us, so to speak.
Short story, Krul has Green Arrow act like he doesn’t know Prometheus is dead, and all the heroes are wasting a lot of time that could be spent saving people’s lives… hunting down Prometheus. Given that the whole reason they let Prometheus go in Cry For Justice was to save lives, this makes Ollie’s move a double-bastard move. Krul has a scene with Grayson and Wally as Flash and Batman that sounds awkward, a little too forced, and out of place for the setting. It just doesn’t ring true for the characters, it’s slightly “off.”
Barry Allen and Hal Jordan find the Shade, who quickly takes them to the Ghost Zone, where they find a dead Prometheus, this time on the floor(!), with his helmet missing. The arrow is still stuck in the guy’s head, only somehow somebody managed to get the helmet off without disturbing the arrow, if that’s the same arrow. So right away, we know something is fishy, plus the insides of the hideout are completely different from the way we’ve seen it just in the beginning of the book. There is still a mark in the map on the wall dripping blood, so they can say that someone dragged down the body and removed the helmet later, but there’s no trail of blood over to where the body is lying. What I’m trying to say is that there should have been better coordination for the visual aspects of telling this story, and they have been a little sloppy.
G.L. and Flash find Ollie with Black Canary and confront him. They have conveniently brought the body of Prometheus along in a ring-conjured coffin, and Hal obligingly open sit for Ollie, ostensibly so Dinah can see the dead body. Here’s where everything goes screwy: the “key” that Prometheus uses to travel to his dimensional hideout is on a chain around his neck. Which is fine, except it WASN’T THERE WHEN OLLIE SHOT HIM!!!!
It also wasn’t shown there when Hal and Barry discovered the body, and it wasn’t shown right there when Ollie shot him in Cry For Justice #7. But FOR PLOT PURPOSES, the dimensional key is suddenly sitting right there in front of everyone, dangling on a chain, so Ollie can grab it and escape his teammates. The fastest man alive, who can grab you before you say two words, doesn’t get there fast enough, even though he’s less than ten feet away. Even though Hal said Ollie’s name in warning because he saw him pick up the key.
Sigh. It’s just a poor story. Poor art direction and sloppy attention to detail disrupts any internal consistency the story could have had, and takes what was good-looking art and what could have been a more interesting story, and pretty much made it look like a homework assignment a bored teenager turned in, someone who couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to any of the details.
Someone tell me if I’m being too picky.
R.E.B.E.L.S. 14
by Tony Bedard and Claude St. Aubin
The end is near! Adam Strange fires their special weapon right at Starro, but it doesn’t do the trick. It quickly turns into a free-for-all, with Starro getting the upper hand and throwing little starfishes on most of the heroes. St. Aubin does well to display the vast cast, and just when all seems lost, the Omega Men rush in with some fresh poison. In a scene devised to make us despair, the Omega Men turn out to be crummy shots, and their little darts actually miss most of the starfish in the room.
Dox makes up for it, having noticed there actually was an effect upon one of the starfish, and he jams a flèchette right into the big fish on Starro’s chest. The fish is poisoned and falls off, allowing Despero to take on Starro himself. Meanwhile, Smite was expecting to pick up the pieces and take charge, but the fish everywhere have fallen off, their connection instantaneously severed! Dox wastes no time in broadcasting the victory, making sure to let the universe know who has saved them, and that he’ll be in touch for payment. Such a gentleman.
Thus ends the first cosmic saga of this new title, with Vril Dox already calculating how to pick up the pieces and assume his rightful place as a powerful force in the cosmos. If he’s going to be in charge, though, can they still call themselves rebels? Good art, cohesive story, and consistent. Very well done.
Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton 1
by James Robinson, Sterling Gates, and Pete Woods
Brainiac is on the offensive, but not with his usual tactics of trying to kidnap an entire city. Zod has recovered and is in charge, launching a powerful weapon that does nothing other than kill some of his troops who were too close to Brainiac’s mothership. This finally ticks off Kal-el enough that he sheds his military uniform. Was he wearing his Superman uniform underneath the entire time? I wonder how rank he smells wearing all of that all the time…
Supergirl is in a little trouble, but the Legion of Super-Heroes arrives just in time to help out, then meet with General Zod to let him know that they need to defeat Brainiac without killing him. See, all of those other shrunken cities inside his ship? They will be used to colonize the galaxy, and end up being the civilizations that making up the United Planets in the Legion’s future! It’s a brilliant idea that helps to explain at long last, better than anything else could, how so many human-like species ended up spread out among the galaxy in the future.
Supergirl heads out with Mon-el to do some more fighting, but their super-hearing does not manage to hear Zod’s order to arrest every other Legionairre! Perhaps not truly evil, but Zod has his own agenda, and he doesn’t want anything to prevent his revenge against Brainiac. Meanwhile, Superman has gotten aboard the mothership, only to get ambushed by Brainiac’s ally, Lex Luthor.
It’s a good start to a new series, with lots of action and excitement, all drawn very credibly by Pete Woods, who has taken to doing a more solid style to his inks, making an improvement upon the last mini-series he did with these guys.
the Unwritten 11
by Mike Carey, Peter Gross and Jimmy Broxton
Tommy appears dead, and Goebbels wants out of this ghost-land. Lizzie gets the jump on him from behind and saves Savoy, but Tommy has disappeared! Turns out the bullets weren’t quite substantial enough to penetrate Tommy’s skin, who managed to get up and wander off, listening to voices.
The voices lead him to the original Jud Suss story, which has been horribly perverted from its true meaning by Goebbels. Lizzie is concerned for Tommy’s safety, but Tommy somehow manages to go into the grip of the story, listen to it… and fix it?!? It’s not all explained in a nice neat bow that can be wrapped up and presented to the reader, but neither is it a thick morass from Grant Morrison. You can get the gist of what happens here without receiving a massive amount of exposition to spell it out for you. Tommy was able to repair the damage that someone else had done to a story, treating it like a sick patient. Tommy was able to fix it. Does this have any effect upon the “real” world?
At any rate, Tommy sticks the magical doorknob into the map, and it finally gives them a way out. They drop into the real world, where three months have already passed, and a new Tommy Taylor book is about to come out. It feels like a fast-paced adventure. The art is fun, simplistic in places, sophisticated where it needs to be, and full of more variety than you get in most other comics. The revelations are cool, but just as interesting is the amount of intrigue they are managing to keep in the story, without it becoming aggravating.
Finally, they include some background info on the real story of Jud Suss, and how it came to be part of the comic. It’s very interesting, and I always appreciate a creative team that cares enough to throw in some real-world education on a subject besides just spinning a good yarn. Bonus points to Carey and Gross this month!
Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.
