JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #22
Review by: Tork
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Price: 2.99
This review contains spoilers, click here to read
I should start my review by saying I dropped JLA in the midst of Joe Kelly's arc (back when the book was still "JLA") and only picked it back up a couple issues back. Thus, I've missed a lot of stuff I clearly should have known coming into this issue. I enjoyed the Flash issue. I really enjoyed the last with Libra and the Human Flame. With this issue, I was spent a good deal of my time either scratching my head or thinking "I'm supposed to care here, aren't I?" and not really getting involved.
The issue starts as Red Tornado is conversing with his girl, Kathy Sutton (thank you Wikipedia) about his oncoming new body and we get Tornado moping about how he never dies when he's destroyed. Frankly, I was destroyed eight times and couldn't be killed, I'd find that fantastic, but Tornado has that thing he inherited from Data and the Vision where he has to bemoan due to his lack of "true humanity" that comes with this immortality. To be honest. I've seen it enough times in sci-fi and comics where it's become a tad stale and McDuffie doesn't seem to bring in anything fresh or interesting to the equation. On top of that, I've found angst to be the overplayed emotion in comics. There's other emotions in the human consciousness than angst, comic creating community, please use them. Of course, this might also be colored by the fact that Tornado seemingly spied on Roy and Kendra getting it on. I know it was so he could make his point about feeling detached, but still... ewwwww...
Speaking of those two, we have another subplot of Roy and Kendra being crabby at each other and a very awkward sequence between Roy, Hal Jordan, and Superman about the ups and downs of love. I'm not sure if the awkwardness was intentional or not, but it made the scene kind of funny and weird. I mean, Superman is giving a grown man with a daughter the "tell her how you really feel" schtick... that's just funny is what it is.
We also have another thread I appear to have been not completely clear on: Vixen has been stealing powers from her teammates. I thought she was copying powers; no, she's STEALING them. Well, that just changes my whole perspective on the girl, doesn't it? That's f--ked up. So, Vixen finally decides to confess and Dinah throws her out of the team immediately. I guess I'm supposed to care, but I really don't. If anything, I went "Oh good, they're thinning the ranks finally!" Seriously, I was staring at that table scene and just being dismayed at how many frickin' members there are and that wasn't even the whole team. Let the JSA be the giant team of past, present, and future: let the JLA be the Big Seven of the DCU.
And for our finale, we find out that Amzao's been inside Tornado's old body and downloads himself into Tornado's new shell. I'd hazard a guess to say this is the big threat for the next few issues, to which I feel "eh." I kind of find Amazo to be kind of a bland threat on his own. He's an android with the powers of the JLA. The problem is that the JLA also have the powers of the JLA AND have the strength of numbers Amazo doesn't. As such, the 'shock" of the return of Amazo is kind of lost on me.
I've also decided I don't like Ed Benes' art. I understand why he's popular, but I don't like the art the man churns. Benes started his career at Wildstorm where he was something of a Jim Lee clone. Ten years later, not much has changed beyond Benes' faces are somewhat rounder which kind of irks me. I felt like I was reading an old school Image book of the 90's. One place where it was really apparent was the big shot of Vixen during her talk with Bronze Tiger. Her chest is... big. Big big. Jenna Jameson big. That's distracting. Another moment was the Roy/Clark/Hal scene where I came to realize Benes just drew the same guy in three styles of different hair and costumes which felt a little annoying. In fact, all through it, I felt I was looking at a Wildcats book from the 90's. It's sure polished and pretty but it lacks the kind of dynamic set-up and freshness I feel I get from guys like Van Scriver or Cassaday.
I guess I'm saying, after two pretty stand-alone issues, I was kind of disappointed by this issue. I believe, however, most of that was over the fact that I haven't been reading the book. As such, this feels like being thrown into part three of an existing storyline. I'm sure if I was reading this earlier, I'd be more emotionally invested. Likewise, I don't feel that I can be TOO harsh on Benes' art given it's mostly personal taste on my part. Still, I did feel this was a stumble from the last couple issues. I hope the next part piques my interest a little more.
The issue starts as Red Tornado is conversing with his girl, Kathy Sutton (thank you Wikipedia) about his oncoming new body and we get Tornado moping about how he never dies when he's destroyed. Frankly, I was destroyed eight times and couldn't be killed, I'd find that fantastic, but Tornado has that thing he inherited from Data and the Vision where he has to bemoan due to his lack of "true humanity" that comes with this immortality. To be honest. I've seen it enough times in sci-fi and comics where it's become a tad stale and McDuffie doesn't seem to bring in anything fresh or interesting to the equation. On top of that, I've found angst to be the overplayed emotion in comics. There's other emotions in the human consciousness than angst, comic creating community, please use them. Of course, this might also be colored by the fact that Tornado seemingly spied on Roy and Kendra getting it on. I know it was so he could make his point about feeling detached, but still... ewwwww...
Speaking of those two, we have another subplot of Roy and Kendra being crabby at each other and a very awkward sequence between Roy, Hal Jordan, and Superman about the ups and downs of love. I'm not sure if the awkwardness was intentional or not, but it made the scene kind of funny and weird. I mean, Superman is giving a grown man with a daughter the "tell her how you really feel" schtick... that's just funny is what it is.
We also have another thread I appear to have been not completely clear on: Vixen has been stealing powers from her teammates. I thought she was copying powers; no, she's STEALING them. Well, that just changes my whole perspective on the girl, doesn't it? That's f--ked up. So, Vixen finally decides to confess and Dinah throws her out of the team immediately. I guess I'm supposed to care, but I really don't. If anything, I went "Oh good, they're thinning the ranks finally!" Seriously, I was staring at that table scene and just being dismayed at how many frickin' members there are and that wasn't even the whole team. Let the JSA be the giant team of past, present, and future: let the JLA be the Big Seven of the DCU.
And for our finale, we find out that Amzao's been inside Tornado's old body and downloads himself into Tornado's new shell. I'd hazard a guess to say this is the big threat for the next few issues, to which I feel "eh." I kind of find Amazo to be kind of a bland threat on his own. He's an android with the powers of the JLA. The problem is that the JLA also have the powers of the JLA AND have the strength of numbers Amazo doesn't. As such, the 'shock" of the return of Amazo is kind of lost on me.
I've also decided I don't like Ed Benes' art. I understand why he's popular, but I don't like the art the man churns. Benes started his career at Wildstorm where he was something of a Jim Lee clone. Ten years later, not much has changed beyond Benes' faces are somewhat rounder which kind of irks me. I felt like I was reading an old school Image book of the 90's. One place where it was really apparent was the big shot of Vixen during her talk with Bronze Tiger. Her chest is... big. Big big. Jenna Jameson big. That's distracting. Another moment was the Roy/Clark/Hal scene where I came to realize Benes just drew the same guy in three styles of different hair and costumes which felt a little annoying. In fact, all through it, I felt I was looking at a Wildcats book from the 90's. It's sure polished and pretty but it lacks the kind of dynamic set-up and freshness I feel I get from guys like Van Scriver or Cassaday.
I guess I'm saying, after two pretty stand-alone issues, I was kind of disappointed by this issue. I believe, however, most of that was over the fact that I haven't been reading the book. As such, this feels like being thrown into part three of an existing storyline. I'm sure if I was reading this earlier, I'd be more emotionally invested. Likewise, I don't feel that I can be TOO harsh on Benes' art given it's mostly personal taste on my part. Still, I did feel this was a stumble from the last couple issues. I hope the next part piques my interest a little more.
Story: 3 - Good
Art: 3 - Good
Art: 3 - Good
i agree with you on the art thing, it does feel like a step backwards from where it should be. The whole concept of the book seems to have been mismanaged. It feels as if the book was built out of love for what came before and wanting to play in a sandbox that you saw the big kids playing in when you where too young, as opposed to trying to build a team that works and is good for story. Waid’s JLA:year one, Morrisons JLA both had this, a team which was together because they knew the characters and they made the stories work. This one it feels like characters are there because the author loved them as a child and wanted a chance to write a JLA book with them in it. Not that there is anything wrong with that, if you can make it good… saddly this book has fallen short and while i don’t think it will be remembered like JLdetroit, i don’t think it will be well remembered.
I didn’t think about Roy’s age & being a dad when Superman was giving him the whole "tell her how you feel" talk, but you’re right — to talk like that to a grown man with a kid is pretty funny, lol. Maybe Roy was thinking "This dude is such a big shot he doesn’t even know I’m not a side-kick anymore? I even have a kid! And pubes!" Or … maybe not.
I like Ed Benes’ art & am thinking it didn’t look so good this issue because of the inker (I could be wrong) but I will admit he does draw people that look like action figures sometimes.
There is one thing you said in your review that I agree with 107% —
"Let the JSA be the giant team of past, present, and future: let the JLA be the Big Seven of the DCU."
Amen to that.
I didn’t think about Roy’s age & being a dad when Superman was giving him the whole "tell her how you feel" talk, but you’re right — to talk like that to a grown man with a kid is pretty funny, lol. Maybe Roy was thinking "This dude is such a big shot he doesn’t even know I’m not a side-kick anymore? I even have a kid! And pubes!" Or … maybe not.
I like Ed Benes’ art & am thinking it didn’t look so good this issue because of the inker (I could be wrong) but I will admit he does draw people that look like action figures sometimes.
There is one thing you said in your review that I agree with 107% —
"Let the JSA be the giant team of past, present, and future: let the JLA be the Big Seven of the DCU."
Amen to that.
I too am not a fan of Benes’ art, but I actually really enjoyed this issue. I didn’t find Superman and Hal’s conversation with Roy all that weird–there are plenty of people I know with children that still don’t know anything about relationships. I thought it made every more realistic and I always enjoy moments where characters seem more human than empty shells that just fight bad guys.
Nice review, as always.
Great review, I’ve been a vocal detractor of this title but I did enjoy this issue. I think Benes’ has a great style but his people kind of look alike to me, same body type and hair between the sexes kind of thing. Dr. Niles Caulder is just as diesel as Batman for example.