Great Pages: JLA #7

JLA #7 (1997)

From JLA #7 (1997)

Continuity can be a bear.

When Grant Morrison took over as the writer of the Justice League in JLA, he wanted to use the biggest names in the DC roster. He wanted the League to be a modern pantheon. But then, a fundamental change happened. Over in the pages of Superman’s solo books, the Man of Steel was getting a power shift. Instead of the familiar red, blue, and gold suit, he was now sporting a blue and white containment suit. Gone were his vision powers, most of his speed, and his invulnerable skin. Now he had weird electric powers that readers didn’t fully understand. Under an editorial mandate to make his Superman fit in with the Superman in the other books, Morrison rose to the challenge.

During an adventure in which the moon was being pushed towards the Earth, Superman took it upon himself to keep the two cosmic masses apart. Aware that electricity and magnetism are related, Superman hooked himself up to machinery that allowed him to created magnetic poles on the moon. The moon’s charge was the opposite of the Earth’s, meaning that they naturally repelled each other. Superman had once again saved the world.

Morrison, alongside penciller Howard Porter, created a page that used Superman’s new powers in an inspired way. They didn’t miss a step when continuity was forced upon them. They managed to prove that Superman will always be Superman, no matter how he looks.


Comments

  1. This is a fantastic moment and easily one of my favorites during Morrison’s run. If I’m not mistaken the same issue has my favorite JLA/Superman moment ever, where Superman wrestles Asmodel.
    “YIELD”
    “NEVER”
    Still gives me goosebumps.

  2. I like the way that this page represents supes(or even science) directly negating the will of god, if you chose to read into it that way.

  3. That Morrison JLA run just goes to show what a great writer can do.
    Electric Superman, Hook Hand Aquaman, Kyle Rainer GL…none of it mattered. He still wrote my favorite Justice League run ever.

    • Not to mention Wonder Woman becomes Hippolyta in the middle of the run without explanation. Morrison doesn’t miss a beat.

  4. To this day I still have no idea what was going on with the ‘Blue and Red’ Superman. One day that should be a DC Histories article by you, Jeff.

  5. Am I the only one who liked Electric Superman and wish there was tpb of that run? Btw ES was the one who got me back into comics but I didn’t notice the change until the later part, a few issues before Superman Forever.

  6. wait, did you say he changed the charge so the moon had the opposite charge as the earth? supes may have known about the relation between electricity and magnatism, but he apparently did not know that opposite charges actually attract each other. thanks for killing us all superman.