NEW TO ME: JSA volume 2 – Darkness Falls

Thanks to Comic Geek Speak, I’ve heard a number of glowing things about this run of comics – begun by James Robinson & David Goyer and continued by Goyer & Geoff Johns – through their series of “Footnotes” spotlights on the initial twelve issues of the run (discussions of issues 1 -11 are currently available at their site, with the twelfth issue’s discussion yet to be recorded). So, seeking out something new – for me – in the world of superheroes, I chose to start reading, and writing about, this series and Grant Morrison’s JLA.

JSA: Darkness Falls is the second collection of the acclaimed relaunch of the Justice Society from 2000, and I have to applaud DC comics for offering ten issues of the comic, in this trade collection, for only $19.95 (and if it has gone up since it was initially published, I apologize). But I have to say, the stories inside left me wanting for something more.

The biggest problem I have with this series is that I don’t care about these characters. Having not read Infinity Inc. or Young All-Stars back in theday, or the Justice Society even further back, my knowledge of them is meager, to say the least. And the writers give me little within these first fifteen issues to grasp onto and make me care. There’s a lot of exposition, and I learn a bit about these characters and am told a number of times how dire a situation may be, but I never feel it, with the exception of one, single moment:

The JSA have captured Kobra, who opened that particular story arc by destroying a passenger jet upon which Atom-Smasher’s mother was journeying. Atom-Smasher, aka Al Rothstein, who has been trying to deal with his mother’s death, grows to a size he’s never achieved before (pushing his psyche and his physical body to limits his friends know to be dangerous) and is ready to crush Kobra in his hand. Jack Knight (Starman) flies up and tells Al to stop. But he doesn’t want to listen; he’s apoplectic with rage and heartache. And Jack tells him, “I know it’s not fair, Al. You’ve dedicated your life to saving people. I know. My brother was killed by the Mist’s son, Kyle. And then I … I killed him. In battle … it was … there’s not one day that goes by that I don’t wish my brother was here with me, Al. That I was there to save him. But you know what? There’s also not one day that goes by that I don’t think about Kyle. You don’t want that, Al. You don’t want your mother’s memory tainted like that.”

It really is a beautiful little moment, but one that is ruined by the overt melodrama seen when Atom-Smasher returns to normal size damning Kobra as he sheds tears for his dead mother. (I don’t’ know if it’s the art or the writing that ruins the moment here, but it goes from subtle to “hammering over the head” very quickly).

The stories also suffer from some horrible one-liners:

• Dr. Mid-Nite: “Nice wing chun, Canary.” Black Canary: “Flattery will get you everywhere, Doc.”
• Mr. Terrific: “Extant didn’t create this world with sugar, spice, and everything nice.”
  
• Atom-Smasher: “All right, guys. For once, leave the flying to me.”

Dialogue like this included in such “end of the world” situations as the writers throw at us, the audience, make this feel like a schizophrenic series – does it want to be a comedy or does it want to be high drama? It’s frustrating and I would cringe every time I came to one of those “quips.”

And, with the final chapter, the writers make a poor storytelling choice by opening that chapter with the Star-Spangled Kid writing about the outcome of their battle with Extant in her diary. Her description tries to accentuate the dire position she and the other heroes were in, but by having it told from the perspective of someone who survived the ordeal, it bleeds all the tension from it that the creators have built up over the course of the previous issues.

There are, ultimately, some interesting panel layouts when we see the heroes battling Extant, and the climax provides an intriguing moral decision – utilizing the Worlogog’s time-bending properties to switch Kobra for Al’s mother as the plane from the opening chapter crashes – on the part of Atom-Smasher that could very well provide fascinating stories down the line (a moral choice that is made more profound and powerful if one is familiar with Geoff Johns’s personal tragedy). But, overall, I found the stories to be rather dull.

The art, again, is serviceable but Stephen Sadowski’s pencils lack the dynamism that could, in my eyes, elevate these stories. Buzz coming in to do a couple of fill-in issues is very much appreciated (this was my introduction to Buzz, a favorite of CGS). His beautifully feathered linework and facility with anatomy really shine in his two issues. And I greatly appreciate his ability to convey a realistic martial arts battle (see above). That was just fantastic stuff.

But that saving grace couldn’t save the entire book for me. I think, for now, I’ll leave the JSA and move to other stuff I haven’t read. Maybe I’ll return another time, but for now, I’m going to introduce myself to the world of Mark Millar, at least mainstream Mark Millar, and see if I can stomach his writing.

Stay tuned.

chris

NEW TO ME: JSA volume 1

Now that I’ve been at the UMaine library for half a year, I am finally availing myself of their services – specifically, utilizing the interlibrary loan functionality in order to get trade collections and graphic novels that I’ve not yet read but have wanted to for some time. The first book I received was volume 1 of Grant Morrison’s much-lauded JLA run. Two posts on that can be found here and here.

The other series I am checking out is the return of the JSA under the guiding hands of David S. Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins) & James Robinson (Starman), which would eventually lead into Geoff Johns’s run on this series from 1999.

I read the first volume – Justice Be Done, collecting issues 1 through 5, plus Secret Files #1 – and it was okay. At least it was better than the initial JLA volume from Morrison, Porter, and Dell.

The story worked well, though it did feel terribly padded. There seemed to be a lot of “talking heads” scenes that were meant to remind readers (or introduce them) to these characters – a mix of the classic JSA heroes such as Alan Scott (the original Green Lantern) and Jay Garrick (the original Flash) and new characters like Sand (once the ward of the golden age Sandman, Wesley Dodds) and Jack Knight, the new Starman from James Robinson’s well-received series of the same name. My thoughts on the first omnibus collection of this series are here.

The main thrust of this first story arc is the pending return of Dr. Fate, and the heroes’ need to find and protect the child who will house the reincarnation of Nabu (the spirit/entity that is Dr. Fate) before Mordru gets to him. For what it was, this was a fairly good story. It set up the new status quo well enough; it brought back a classic version of a classic hero (Dr. Fate), and it came to a climax with a bit of a twist – though a twist I saw coming as soon as Mordru got hold of Nabu’s vestments. But, maybe I’ve read too many superhero comics to be that surprised anymore.

The dialogue – which is something that grates on me in Robinson’s Starman series – was okay, but often fell into “exposition” mode far too much. Again, I get that they were introducing old and underused characters to a “new” audience. But for a writer of Robinson’s acclaim – I found it disappointing.

The art, mainly from penciler Steve Sadowski with inks by Michael Bair, was serviceable. It was, for the most part, solid superhero work with occasional stabs at innovation (a two-page spread with Black Canary comes to mind, but that was ruined by poorly placed word balloons). The storytelling was clear, the characters were recognizable, but it was all pretty “vanilla.” Which isn’t a bad thing – clear storytelling will win over muddled “experimentation” as much as not. But it made little impression on me.

Ultimately, the main thing I took away from this first collection of JSA was that I did not care about these characters. Even Jay Garrick and Alan Scott – characters with which I have a bit of history from my years reading comics – didn’t excite me. And I really wonder if it isn’t a result of James Robinson’s writing. Starman – though I found the initial chapters exciting – is a series I’m unsure I will continue reading past those first sixteen issues of Omnibus #1. The Golden Age did nothing for me. And this is serviceable, at best.

But I will be continuing with JSA because I have enjoyed most of what I’ve read from Geoff Johns, and his work begins in the next trade. I’m anxious to see what he does with the characters and to find out if it’s the characters or the creators that are leaving me cold.

-chris