Comments

1. ckl says:

   October 28, 2010 at 12:02 pm

   I was going to write a review for this book, but I think you said it all. I really don’t think we needed another origin story for Ice (the third by my reckoning?). 

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2. pyynk says:

   October 31, 2010 at 2:54 pm

   Pretty much covers me as well. 

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3. ctrosejr says:

   December 8, 2010 at 10:15 am

   Wow.  Couldn’t disagree more.  

   I thought the issue had good storytelling.  The issue made me care about Ice.  I thought the flashbacks were effective.  It’s all good in my book.

   On the plus side for you, Max is/was behind all of it.  It’s clear from the issue that he was manipulating her and her memories.  Because of that, it’s not clear how much is real and how much is make-believe from Max.  Therefore, it would seem you got what you wanted.  You can choose to ignore the bits you don’t like.

   And, if you’ll indulge me, I have to say that it was never clear in those old JLI issues if Max was a villain or a good guy.  It was always left vague enough that you could read it either way.  With the benefit of hindsight, I think it’s pretty clear that Max was never a straight-shooter.  He was always manipulating someone.  I don’t think Didio “made” him into a bad guy by edict.  It was always there, waiting for someone to pickup and run with.

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4. sakuuya says:

   December 18, 2010 at 12:17 am

   Actually, there’s an issue of JLI where Max is unconscious in the hospital and, after (to paraphrase the issue) scanning his heart and looking into his mind, J’onn gives him a JLI signal device. So either Max was able to protect his thoughts from a powerful telepath while unconscious (and keep in mind that he’s never had any anti-psychic ability, nor can he use his powers while unconscious), or DiDio pulled Max-as-a-villain out of his ass. Max was always a little shady, sure, but JLI made it clear that he was ultimately a good guy. And to me, at least, shady-but-ultimately-good is a more interesting characterization than Pure Evil.

   Assuming Ice’s new backstory is supposed to be legit (I’m not as confident as you are that Max is behind it, since, as someone else pointed out to me, we haven’t seen her family since reality got punched), it doesn’t make her more interesting. I like having the occasional superhero who’s just a genuinely nice person with no tragedy in his/her past and, relatedly, shoehorning tragedy into someone’s past is a lazy way to build character. Plus, in this case, it just seems like an excuse to give her a power boost, since Ice was already acting OOC before she “remembered.”

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