NEW TO ME: JLA American Dreams – part 2

The next two issues in the “American Dreams” trade paperback by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, John Dell, et al. comprise a quick story dealing with the fallen angel Zauriel – a member of Heaven’s angels who attune their frequencies accordingly, in order to exist on a given plane of existence – and his unwillingness to return to the fold.

Zauriel is surprised to find, once he regains consciousness, that he has become mortal – as, we discover later, he wished. J’onn J’onnz finds him in San Francisco Bay just before the first ranks of Asmodel’s army show up to try and take Zauriel back. Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) alerts Superman and Flash (Wally West), who are in the JLA watchtower on the moon, and Flash zips into the transporter for San Francisco. (At this point, the league members aren’t sure what the alert might be). But when Wally hops into the tube, he becomes stuck in time, unable to jump to Earth or retreat back into the watchtower.

Shortly thereafter – once the heroes (GL, Wonder Woman, J’onn, and Aquaman, along with the angel Zauriel) have dispatched the preliminary group of angels – the league finds out that, not only is Wally stuck in the transporter, but the moon is falling to Earth, which means Superman cannot come to their aid as Asmodel approaches.

We also learn that there is another entity, Neron, behind this entire catastrophe. And the first of these two issues ends with the arrival of Asmodel’s ship in the skies of San Francisco, an event of cataclysmic import.

In the concluding issue, the League members come together in order to take down Asmodel and his ranks. Flash calms down and thinks through his predicament, changing his rate of molecular motion to pull free of the wave of ambient matter utilized by the transporter to teleport members between Earth and the moon. In San Francisco, J’onn J’onnz faces off against Asmodel while Wonder Woman and the angel Zauriel attack the ship causing much of the destruction in the Bay Area. And Arthur Curry (Aquaman) stands ready to take over for J’onn if he should fall, while Green Lantern works to keep the other angels at bay with his ring.

And, on the moon, Superman takes enormous chains, wraps them around some smaller towers at their base, hooks them up to the gigantic power cords they have for the Watchtower, and utilizes his electrical powers (since he’s Superman blue, at this point) to channel the electricity into the chains, producing an enormous magnet. He creates magnetic poles on the moon that are charged oppositely to those of the Earth and, in turn, causes these two astral bodies to repel one another, averting the devastation that would have occurred had the moon fallen to Earth.

He is the mother$%#*ing Superman!

Having averted this catastrophe, Kal-El flies to Earth where his friends are turning the tide of battle, but are still not assured of winning. J’onn is tired, but still standing, when Superman arrives and tells his friend to take a breather. This was an incredibly touching moment for me. The dialogue by Morrison is spot on and really gets across the depth of feeling Superman has for the Martian Manhunter through a minimum of words. Just brilliantly handled.

Meanwhile, Flash and GL join forces to find a way of defeating the angels. Kyle creates a device that will translate Flash’s speed into sound waves, sound waves that will negate the supersonic frequencies of the angels and cancel them from our plane.

And all is right with the world again.

The epilogue has the members of the JLA teleporting to the watchtower – with Batman taking the place of J’onn so that the Martian Manhunter can recuperate from his battle – and before Batman can say anything, the six members find themselves unconscious on the floor, an old enemy standing over them.

With this second collection, I can see Morrison really coming into his own with the JLA. I love how he writes the characters, and the fact that he has them utilizing their brains (Superman creating the magnetic poles on the moon, GL and Flash conceiving of the sonic disruptor to defeat the angels) in order to defeat their enemies is a refreshing change from the boring battle scenes that pass for drama in modern comics. It shows a lot of thought and care, and it excites my brain – something that made me a science fiction fan long before I discovered comic books.

Morrison has some great little bits in these two issues as well, including Aquaman believing Zauriel (who, being an angel, has feathered wings) might be the return of his lost friend Katar Hol (Hawkman, whom, I believe, was dead at the time), and Flash re-arranging trophies in the watchtower in less time than it takes for Superman to take a step.

And although the art is still not anything approaching stellar, the inclusion of Ken Branch as inker for much of the second issue of this two-issue arc does improve the quality quite a bit. I apparently need to re-assess Porter’s artwork. It’s bad, but can be made worse by an inker who is, as John Dell appears to be, beholden to Rob Liefeld and the “Awesome Studios” style.

The bad taste of the first trade is long gone now, and I am anxious to read more. And, flipping ahead, the arrival of Oscar Jimenez for the next two issues will be very welcome indeed.

-chris

NEW TO ME: JLA American Dreams - part 1

JLA American Dreams - "Woman of Tomorrow"

By Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, John Dell, et al.

This second volume of Morrison’s JLA run, New World Order, starts out with far more promise than was left for me after finishing the first volume. It begins – after a quick introduction of the “Woman of Tomorrow” created by Professors Ivo and T.O. Morrow – at the funeral for Rex Mason, Metamorpho. I did feel a bit confused about this (did Metamorpho die in the first collection?) since I wasn’t sure when Rex died. But I went with it because the commentary between Superman (now Superman Blue):

“…it just seems a little sad. There were so many people at my funeral,”

and the minister:

“… normal people aren’t very interested in metahuman funerals anymore, Superman. Everyone knows you people come back all the time. Heaven knows how many times I’ve buried the Immortal Man! I’m sure Metamorpho won’t stay down for long …”

was so engaging. It’s only a quick scene, but Morrison gets to have fun at the expense of this superhero trope. And it whet my appetite for more.

In the next few pages, Morrison offers up some nice bits of characterization for the members of this incarnation of the Justice League. We have Batman putting Gotham first (“I promised the league I’d be prepared to function in an advisory capacity…”), which would not have come off as such a parody if Porter hadn’t chosen to give us the “gritted teeth” Batman saying this to Superman. It’s a simple freakin’ statement, Batman doesn’t need to look as if he’s constipated when he says it. But, being Batman, he is still able to take on another case to help the League:

Wonder Woman: I realize you have another case, but …

Batman: I’ll work on both.

We see Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) and Flash (Wally West), the youngest members of the league, playing a boxing game as created by Kyle’s ring, while Kyle makes an off-handed remark about preferring “him with the short hair.” We can assume he means Superman, who was in his mullet stage as Morrison began his run on JLA. And this is confirmed when Superman comes through the transporter and tells Kyle “So, you thought I needed a haircut, Kyle?” which is a brilliant reminder of Superman’s powers, in this case, his super hearing.

We then get to the reason the League has assembled in their watchtower atop the moon. They are having a recruitment drive. We get a nice scene of J’onn sitting patiently, listening to the likes of Damage and Hitman – his only response: “Next.”

Once they finish interviewing, the five members present – minus Batman and Aquaman – are discussing the candidates’ merits, when the ceiling explodes and falls in on them, only to be suspended in midair before any more damage can be done. The cause of this incident is Tomorrow Woman, the construct created by Ivo and Morrow, as seen on page 2 of this collection’s initial chapter (and this is only page 10).

From here, we watch as Tomorrow Woman integrates herself into the league, taking center stage in their pursuit of an entity known as “IF.” IF pops from one city to the next, leaving destruction in its wake and the Justice League as little more than a clean-up crew working to keep the carnage to a minimum as IF blinks out of existence again.

Meanwhile, Ivo and Morrow watch as their automaton gets closer to the League in preparation for her ultimate assignment – to destroy the League with an electromagnetic pulse weapon in her artificial heart that will trigger a telekinetic wave front, causing all electrical activity in the brains of the JLA to cease. And, as they watch on, these two evil scientists debate which of them is the genius- Professor Ivo claiming he is the more ingenious inventor since he created such a perfect simulation of a physical being with Tomorrow Woman, while T.O. Morrow claims it is he by dint of his creation of her artificial brain with all its false memories and dreams.

As the League unlocks the secret to the creature IF – standing for Implicate Field, a weapon derived of 32^nd century advanced quantum technology confiscated by the U.S. military from the Lord of Time’s arsenal. They discover the only way to stop IF is to detonate an electromagnetic pulse.

We, the readers, can see the culmination of Ivo’s and Morrow’s plan driving toward us as Tomorrow Woman volunteers that she can create such an EMP. But, she also realizes what such an act would cause – the decimation of the Justice League, the heroes who took her in and gave her a purpose – and she tells them, “…but I can’t.”

Though an automaton, Tomorrow Woman has spontaneously generated a rudimentary ethical code. Tomorrow Woman overrides her programming, shuts down her telepathic broadcast facilities, and destroys IF without harming her new friends, the Justice League. And in the end, Morrow stands triumphant, because he created an artificial brain that was able to think for itself.

Seconds later, J’onn shows up to take these villains away.

This was a great story from Grant Morrison, and done all in one issue. I enjoyed the interaction of the members here, the recruitment drive and the understated humor of J’onn stoically asking for the “next” interviewee, and the twist ending with Ivo and Morrow, along with the little bits he included within the narrative. This single issue felt very condensed, with a lot going on in twenty-two pages, and it helped wipe away the disappointment of the first trade. Porter’s art is still subpar and keeps this issue from, overall, being great. But the story was so superior that I was able to overlook the artistic shortcomings and am looking forward to the next chapter of this collection.

-chris

NEW TO ME: JLA New World Order (part 2)

So, I finally made it through that initial trade of Grant Morrison's run on JLA, and I have to say - it was pretty damn forgettable. The only reason I know the heroes that came down to spur humanity to hate the JLA were SPOILERS martians, is because I read it on the back cover. Other than that, there was little to like here.

Morrison did some nice things - more compression than decompression, I appreciated that - but overall my expectations are way low for the next trade. I know this run is well-regarded, but was it due to the fact that Morrison was writing it or because the Big 7 were back together? I don't know. Porter's art kills it for me. I would much rather have had them just publish the scripts from Morrison and let me fill in the art.

Here's hoping the second volume offers more than this first.

-chris

NEW TO ME: Grant Morrison's JLA

I am a huge Grant Morrison fan. The Invisibles is one of the best things I've ever read. His work on All-Star Superman, New X-Men, Animal Man, and others have all been entertaining and thought-provoking. He's one of those writers whose work I will check out regardless of the subject or the character. He's that good.

But I haven't read everything, something I hope to rectify through the UMaine library, where I now work. To that end, I requested volume 1 of Morrison's well-regarded JLA run - New World Order.

With this book, I understand more clearly than with any other comic, the need for the story and the art to complement one another. Opening it up the other night, I only made it to page 4 before I dropped back on the pile and chose something else to read.

The art in this book is horrendous. What was DC thinking when they paired Morrison - one of the premiere writers of the medium - with Howard Porter? Hackneyed, cluttered, preposterous anatomy (reminiscent of the Liefeld clones), and a total lack of storytelling. It's dreck and it colors my feelings of the story, which feels pretty mundane and uninspired thus far.

I've only managed to get through the first two issues, and I don't know how much more I can take. I appreciate some of the things Morrison is trying to do in this story, but so far I'm not impressed. And it doesn't help that the surprise - that the villains, who are posing as superhero analogues of the JLA, are actually white martians - was included as part of the back cover copy. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? It's like the corporate idiots who included Gandalf in the trailer for The Two Towers. People who hadn't read The Lord of the Rings (95% of the movie-going audience, maybe??) thought he was dead. In the book, you're led to believe the wizard in white in Fangorn forest is Saruman. And when it's revealed to be Gandalf, that is one of the best reveals in literary history (in my opinion).

But I digress.

I'll finish this first book and try out the second. But if Morrison doesn't really elevate the writing and the ideas, I will probably bail, because the art is just that bad.

-chris