Justice League - Cry For Justice #3 (of 7)Written By James "More Pain than an Aspirin Can Cure" Robinson
Art By Mauro Cascioli
After issue 2, I was worried. What if Robinson managed to turn the miniseries around? My bitching about the earlier issues would look pretty silly. But Robinson must have understood my concerns, and so decided to take the sucking up a notch, to levels not seen since the heady days of Extreme Justice.
There are basically four big problems in this specific title and the miniseries at a whole that are crippling it:
1 The whole genesis of Green Lantern's dissatisfaction with the normal operations of the Justice League makes no sense. Okay, it's supposed to be because the League was unable to stop the deaths of Batman and the Martian Manhunter, but that still seems like a slight reason. Even if you are feeling gracious to concede the conceit of death being real in comic books, and even if you're willing to extend to characters like Green Arrow and Green Lantern who have both died and come back to life, and even if you are willing to believe that the death of Batman was so traumatic (more so than the deaths of Superman and Wonder Woman) that it leads to a fundamental revision of how one sees the world, does that really lead to Super-heroes torturing villains for information? (And, by the way, Prometheus himself points out how stupid the idea of comic book death is, in this very comic...awesome.)
2. And the torture itself seems like a very, very bad misstep. First of all, if you want to have heroes torturing villains, that's fine in general, but having marquee DC heroes? That's a hell of way to get kids to read comics. But even if you think this morally dubious act is okay in terms of the story, what about the characters doing it. Green Lantern is supposed to be, essentially, a super-cop, leaving all of the other baggage of his character behind, is it really a good a idea to have the character most like a super-police officer torturing people in his custody? Oh, and then there's Green Arrow, who is supposed to the mouthy liberal of the team. He doesn't seem to have much of a problem with what's happening. But the worst part is the Atom using his power's to stomp on a guy's brain. You know, like how his ex-wife killed someone, an event that so traumatized him he ran away from the universe. But hey, I guess he got over, and is now able to say things in response to torture like, "The pain we feel can't be fixed with an aspirin." Which leads us to:
3. Holy fuck, what the hell happened to James Robinson's ability to write dialogue? Robinson's always had a bit of a reputation for overwriting, but this miniseries seems like almost a parody of his earlier works. It feels like every single thing a character says is stilted and not something someone would say at any time under any circumstance. Fuck, the diaogue is so oddly constructed I feel like I should be checking the meter to see if it's iambic pentameter.
4. And here's the thing that no one's talking about, because the first three problems are so acute. Ultimately, it's just not a very good comic. The first three issues have boiled down to a bunch of superheroes getting attacked and slowly, slowly, slowly coming together in order to take down Prometheus, who has a long-term plan to...do something. He apparently likes to monologue only about the steps leading up to his masterstroke, making him a most unusual villain. (And to make Prometheus a threatening villain again, Robinson retcons all of his defeats away except for his first two.)
So, it's bad, but it's bad in an entertaining way, and that has to count for something.
Invincible Iron Man #17Written By Matt Fraction
Art By Salvador Larocca
So, Tony Stark, super-genius, has secret information in his head that must never fall into the wrong hands. His solution? Lobotimize himself! Which kind of seems like a plan that couldn't possibly go right, but hell, I suppose having a increasingly stupid Iron Man is actually a relatively fresh take on the character, so it deserves to be applauded for that.
Actually, I kind of liked this issue, although it feels like Dark Reign has gone on forever, and since it's an obviously unsustainable premise, I'd like to see some movement towards resolving it.
Supergirl Annual #1Written By Sterling Gates
Art By Fernando Dagnino
Supergirl has basically always sucked as a character. I know, you know it, the whole world knows it. More to the point, the only run in the history of Supergirl that anyone has ever thought better than barely competent was Peter David's run, which has been retconned out of continuity anyway. But hell, DC's been making a big deal of turning Supergirl into a core Super-book, so I guess I have to take this issue seriously.
Too bad it's not very good.
The first story is about Supergirl and her continuing struggles with Kryptonians in Metropolis. It feels like this story has already been done, and it just goes to show that John Byrne had a point in not wanting thousands of Kryptonians running around. It doesn't really go anywhere interesting, other than it sends Kara into some sort of emotional depression, which I believe is the 126th such occurence in the 40 or so issues in this volume of Supergirl.
The second story sucks even harder. Remember Superwoman, that mildly interesting villain that fought Supergirl a few issues ago before dying? Yeah, well, she's back, and we get to hear her life story. Apparently Lucy Lane has always been in the shadow of her sister Lois...and that's about it.
Don't waste your money.
Mini-reviews: For when sustained thought is too dear!
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2: How long does this comic run before the continuity becomes so snarled so as to negate the rationale behind this comic, keeping in mind a female clone of Peter Parker has already been introduced?
Cable #18: This is actually quite a bit better than I'd thought it would be.
Batman #690: I think that, ultimately, the most persuasive argument against reality television is the rise of Judd Winick.
