Dusk Before the Dawn

SF Signal asked me to review Kevin J. Anderson’s forthcoming novel Enemies & Allies, The Dark Night meets the Man of Steel. My son Josh and I have been into Justice League and the rest of the DC and Marvel universes since he was born. So we turned this into a “joint dialog review”, with only a few age jokes and jabs (but no throwing of food).

You can see the review on the SF Signal Web Site.

I always thought that the Justice League would clobber the Avengers in a cross-comic book brawl. But that is most certainly not the case when it comes to movies. In the last few years the Marvel Universe is just decimating DC. And the trend appears to be more in Marvel’s side of the ledger in the future.

Part of the reason is franchises / sequels. Where DC has Batman and Superman (which should be more than enough to take down anyone), Marvel has three Spidermans, two Fantastic Fours, three X-Men, three Blades and the beginnings of the Iron Man franchise. The three Spiderman movies are in the top 15 grossing movies of all time, seriously weighting the dollar battle towards Marvel.

Out of the top 150 (or so) movies of all time, DC has 5, Marvel has 8; DC’s gross take was about $1 Billion, Marvel’s was $2Billion (the Spiderman franchise thus far is $1Billion, X-Men $600 million).

Upcoming Justice League and Avengers movies will pit the franchises head-to-head. But with more Spiderman, Iron Man and an upcoming Thor movie facing off against more Superman and a possible Wonder Woman, it looks like Marvel will continue to take it to the bank.

List of highest grossing and recent/upcoming after the break. (more…)

My son and I watched the animated movie Superman Doomsday online through NetFlix. The technology worked great and the movie (an animated PG-13 superhero flick?) was well done; wish it would have been longer than it’s 77 minutes, but it still tells the complete tale, based mostly around the comic book story line of The Death of Superman / World Without a Superman and Return of Superman. The stories were also novelized in Roger Stern’s excellent The Death and Life of Superman.

And a cameo by Kevin Smith. In an animated movie. Cracking wise.

(more…)

Wonder Woman front and center

These were originally published as JLA #61 - #65.

Wonder Woman is usually an ensemble character at best in the JLA series. But, in this first storyline written after Mark Waid’s steady hand (written by Joe Kelly), Diana, Princess of the Amazons, takes center stage. A child is kidnapped in a strange land, and Diana, always seeking the truth, comes to a paradox, where there are multiple truths, and her precious Lasso of Truth, the Sacred Rope of Hestia, is “torn asunder” by Diana pursuit of her only belief of what is right. And it breaks the very foundations of truth for the rest of the world and humanity. Wonder Woman must go on a quest to rebuild it, as the other members of the JLA battle events brought down by the distruction of quantum mechanical laws (yes, you read correctly. pg76 Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, explained by the Atom in a JLA graphic novel!).

An excellent story, as Wonder Woman discovers that there can be many truths, showing the frailties and strengths of one of the core members of the league.

Fav panels: pg 102, Wonder Woman with her lasso (of course), and the opposing page of Batman on top of Plastic Man making like a gargoyle.

The White Martians rise again!

These were originally published as JLA #55 - #60.

The White Martians, J’onn the Martian Manhunters ‘evil counterparts’ if you will, were first defeated in JLA: New World Order. The White Martians lay a trip for J’onn, thinking that taking him out first is the key to defeating the JLA. The shape shifting Martians were ‘wished’ out of their hypnotic state inadvertently by J’onn while battling ID (United We Stand).

The White Martians should be a great foe for the JLA. But their defeat, while clever (think oxygen and fires, no spoiler here) is somewhat contrived and convenient.

This issue also contains Bipolar Disorder (JLA vs. Polaris infected with a Joker toxin) and a JLA Christmas tale that is better left unread.

Fav panels: page 50, Superman with the White Martians behind him masquerading as the rest of the JLA; page 85, Superman, WonderWoman and GL pulling the moon closer to the Earth.

Great split personality story, so-so fairy tale story

These were originally published as JLA #47-#54.

These stories happen right after “Tower of Babel”, where Batman gets voted out of the JLA. The remaining JLAers are still dealing with that, when the Queen of Fables is freed from a book and attacks with all manner of fairy tales. With the exception of the very interesting twist of an Aquaman / WonderWoman relationship which continues in this story (see panel 32), and the appearance of Batman and his supposed betrayal of the team, I found this story tedious compared to the others.

The JLAers then start to become divided, with the three that sided with Batman facing off with the three that sided against. Here the story gets going, with the six of them going after Dr. Destiny, who is changing reality, while Superman confronts Batman. Dr. Destiny is seemingly defeated at the same time that Superman and Batman agree there will be no secrets. They call the six other JLAers to Batman’s cave, reveal their secret identities, join Batman back to the team….and then meet their alter-egos suited up. Their split-personalities have truly been split!

The ensuing story, with the civilian identities of the JLAers trying to resume normal lives, the superhereo identities of the JLAers battling “fulfillment of wishes” problems full time, with WonderWoman and Aquaman in the middle (they have no secret identities), is one of the best in the series. Both sides, with some exceptions, realize they can’t live without their alter-egos, and that the creature “If” has been fulfilling wishes, including theirs to be separated.

The fact that “Eel” O’Brien, Plastic Man’s alter-ego who is a former criminal, somewhat reunites the team, is one of the best stories on him in the series.

Fav panel: pg 137, where Kyle Raynor obsessivly covers his walls with JLA cartoons.

Batman vs. the JLA

These were originally published as JLA #42-#46, JLA Secret Files #3 and JLA 80 page Giant #1.

Similar to how J’onn the Martian Manhunter kept files on all of the JLAers in the beginning, Batman has investigated each of them. But apparently Bats has gone further, developing methods to defeat each of the JLAers, ostensibly if someone or something takes over their minds or bodies.

One of Batman’s arch enemies, Ra’ al Ghul, uses his daughter to get into Bruce Wayne/Batman’s life, and steal these files, using them to defeat each one of the JLAers. And uses what he thinks is Batman’s own weakness (i.e., his parents) against him.

JLA wins again, as they always do, through teamwork. But they then kick Batman out of the JLA for his actions, as they can no longer feel they can trust him.

This is why the JLA is one of the best graphic series around. The interaction of the heroes, each with their own strengths and flaws, shines through. Batman has long stood on his own, aloof from the rest of the League, and now he is out…at least until the next story.

Fav panel: page 67, Superman and the Red Kyptonite. Now that’s gotta hurt.

5 stars: The best one yet!

These were originally published as JLA #34 - #41.

The World War III story is the best one of the JLA series so far. Not only does it bring together many of the previous stories, it also yet again brings forth the basic characters of several of the key JLAers.

This is the end of the world saga foretold in several earlier JLA issues. The Injustice League is back as well, recruiting previous nemesis Prometheis (although Batman, whom Prometheis handily whooped last time, has a few tricks in store for him). The injustice league also rescues General Eiling from an asteroid where he was marooned several issues ago. But the return of the Injustice League isn’t the main event; the end of the world as foretold by many (Meteron, Hourman, Zauriel to some extent) is coming, in the form of the aptly named Mageddon. This is the threat that Orion and Barda were sent to Earth to fight, although it seems even greater than their powers.

Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Plastic Man all get to show their character, flaws and all. Again, this is what makes JLA among the best graphic novels: the heroes have character flaws, even Superman, and the JLAers sometimes dig into each other.

The best bit is Batman, the king of despair, helping Superman, the eternal optimist, overcome mental anguish caused by Maggedon.

The worst part of the JLA is all of the changes that happen in the characters own comics. Diana is back as Wonder Woman, replacing her mother with no explanation. Other characters wander in and out (though there is some great interaction with Huntress, Superman and Batman).

Fav panel: pg 176: Zauriel, getting volunteers from the Pax Dei!

4 stars: One poor story at the beginning, then three excellent ones

These were originally published as JLA #24-33.

The first story arc (Executive Action, Scorched Earth and Our Army at War) has a pretty lame premise and a weak ending. The premise is that a General would override the President of the US and would authorize an action against the JLA because they were protecting the rest of the world (in addition to the USA). The Army Ultramarine Corps are X-men knock-offs. The villan is pretty interesting, but the way that get rid of him (no spoilers here) is lame.

The last three stories are quite good.

The Atom gets recruited back into the JLA and saves the day against Amazo…although the way they beat him is trite, it’s the only way they could given that Amazo absorbs all their powers.

The Crisis Time Five story arc is excellent, and brings back the JSA members to fight alongside the JLAers. Two 5th dimension beings, including original JSA/JLA founder Triumph’s (I missed the episode where he was the founder?) Thunderbolt, are fighting and destroying the Earth. Interesting new non-JLA characters in this story.

And in the last one, a nice “Gotham City is a disaster, Bruce Wayne is to blame story”.

Favorite panel: page 132, where Captain Marvel (guest star) KO’s Superman!

4 stars: Some great opponents, two many JLAers

These stories were originally published as JLA #16-#23.

The stories begin with Superman, Aquaman and Batman reforming the JLA that was disbanded in the last book. It is never made clear why the JLA was disbanded by the three, and, when it is put back together at the end of the first story in this issue, it is the same characters as before, plus Zauriel, Huntress, Steel and Plastic Man (with Oracle behind the scenes). Maybe they disbanded cause the old rules said they could only have seven? And, not that I’m arguing, but who put Superman, Batman and Aquaman in charge? I guess no Wonder Woman at the top because she died and her place was taken by her mother? Superman says the league is the world’s only hope, it may be that they needed to add more talents to defeat upcoming opponents.

The storylines with Prometheus and Julian September are excellent, the last two with Adam Strange and the Sandman less so. Prometheus makes his powers equal to all of the JLAers…but he forgets a couple of new members and interlopers. He escapes so expect to see him in later books. Julian September opens up the world to probabilities and events that are million to one shots begin happening regularly. Both of these are great challenges for the team.

Favorite panels: the pictures of the reformed JLA, pg 24, 52 and 90 are spectacular. And the panel on page 202 with J’onn looking down on the eastern Canada, Great Lakes, Greenland area with the monster in the water is great.