THE LITTLE MOMENTS - Morrison's JLA - part 6

This is my final post of images showcasing the "little moments" in Grant Morrison's second JLA collection - American Dreams - that really elevated the stories found within and have made me excited to read subsequent trades. These last two images deal with the primary theme of Grant Morrison's JLA - the need for heroes to be heroes.

The first is actually more concerned with the art than Morrison's story (though that is cool, too). Superman is in the dream-state the Key placed he and his fellow League members, and is living in an hallucination where Krypton did not explode and he actually becomes that sector's Green Lantern. Just look at the way Oscar Jimenez drew Superman. You can see the sympathy and compassion in his face for the dying Tomar-Re. It is his heart, and his desire to help all people, that makes Superman who he is. And Jimenez captures that beautifully in this single image.



And finally - this image captures what Morrison was trying to say in JLA, and specifically what he wanted to convey in the final two-part story that comprises issues 8 and 9 of his run. Connor Hawke, the new Green Arrow who took over for his deceased father, Ollie Queen, is the lone hero who is awake when the Key puts his plan into action, as he was to be inducted into the League as a new member.

While battling the Key and his robotic minions, Connor has his arrows destroyed and found it necessary to utilize his father's trick arrows, which were housed in the trophy room of the Watchtower. He doesn't know how to use the trick arrows and we read, in voice-over, how helpless he feels. Without superpowers like the other League members, and lacking traditional arrows, Connor Hawke sees no way he can take out the Key. But, in this page, he makes a choice to be the hero he claims to be, and he does what heroes do - perseveres against ridiculous odds in order to stop evil from claiming its victory. It's a great moment and captures perfectly Morrison's objective in his run on JLA.



-chris

THE LITTLE MOMENTS - Morrison's JLA - part 5

These two images are examples I cited in my pieces about this collection, and are examples of the intelligence Grant Morrison adds to his comic writing. Both of these instances are scenarios in which the heroes have to think their ways out of the predicaments in which they have found themselves.

First - the mother#$&*ing Superman, creating a giant magnet on the moon that is polarized opposite to the magnetic field of the Earth, in order to repel the two astral bodies and save his adopted planet. It's brilliant.



Second - my favorite hero, the Flash, using his knowledge of his speed powers to extricate himself from the transporter, where he was imprisoned at the outset of this two-issue story. It may be comic book physics, but I appreciate heroes that can think rather than those only able to beat villains into submissions. It's far more satisfying.



-chris

THE LITTLE MOMENTS - Morrison's JLA - part 4

The first image today is one that made me smile, but was also a moment that allowed Morrison to explain away the "monologuing" of his main villain for these two issues - the Key. The Key had boosted his intellect in order to take over the world, and he states:

"... make a note of an interesting side effect of my expanding consciousness. I can't stop talking to myself ..."

Funny, simple, and yet, a brilliant in-story explanation for why these villains, some of them, might do all this talking to themselves.



The second image showcases Morrison's penchant for grand and crazy ideas that he will include in a story for only a panel or a page and then leave them to move on with the narrative. Most writers would conceive a six-part epic with undead Nazis, Buddhist swastikas, and maggots that eat necrotic tissue. But Morrison is content to share these tidbits and move on. This adds to the density of his storytelling and leaves one's mind racing with the possibilities long after finishing the book.



-chris

THE LITTLE MOMENTS - Morrison's JLA - part 3

I am a huge Flash fan. Ever since I saw him racing across my television screen as part of the Super Friend, Barry Allen - and then Wally West - has been my guy. So when I read a story in which he is written well and his heroic nature is accentuated, it hits me deep in my gut.

The two pages I'm highlighting today did just that. As the League battles IF, a flying car comes hurtling toward J'onn J'onnz, the Martian Manhunter. Fire is the Manhunter's major achilles heel and can kill J'onn. But Flash, seeing the car, races into action and saves J'onn as only he can do - catching all the various pieces and putting the car back together so that Superman can carry it off.

Beautiful stuff, and don't forget to look at how Flash's dialogue blurs together, forming a single word from a lengthy sentence. Just brilliant.







-chris

THE LITTLE MOMENTS - Morrison's JLA - part 2

Here are two more images from the JLA: American Dreams collection by Grant Morrison, et al. These moments highlight, even more than the first of yesterday's images, Morrison's ability to infuse his comics with humor.

The first image is a classic Flash scenario - though the details aren't as classic as one might expect. We have two images that are basically the same (Superman doesn't even get a chance to take a step) but in the moments between the seconds, Wally West does some rearranging of the trophies in the League's trophy room of their Watchtower headquarters. And check out the remark from Superman: deadpan, sarcastic, and yet, full of affection - pitch perfect and wryly funny.



And this second image hearkens back to the JLI, for me, as Martian Manhunter (whose schtick under Giffen, DeMatteis, et al. was always to be yearning for Oreos) tells Wonder Woman that her perfect grammar must have stunned the angel behind her, which she just landed on with a hard Amazonian kick. Again, the humor isn't over the top, it isn't calculated, it's just sly, understated, and terribly funny.



-chris

THE LITTLE MOMENTS - Morrison's JLA - part 1

I have finally gotten around to reading Grant Morrison's much-lauded JLA run, and though the first collection left me disappointed, the second one - American Dreams - was absolutely fantastic. Morrison provided interesting villains, great action, high drama, and everything required in a superhero comic, and that was great.

But Morrison also provided something more, which - for me, a comic reader for almost thirty years - is important. He offered us, the audience, those "little moments" that elevates a comic (or story) from being just good to being great. In this second collection, there are a lot of really great little moments, and over the course of the next six days, I will be highlighting some of those.

The first two moments are ones that showcase Grant Morrison's ability to laugh at superheroes, while also accentuating that which makes them heroes. And both of the images I am sharing today involve the original superhero - Superman.

First, we have a moment I commented upon in one of the pieces I wrote about this collection. It opens the book and is the part where Superman is standing above Metamorpho's grave discussing with the minister why so few came for this funeral when so many came to his own (when he died at the hands of Doomsday). it's a touching moment, but also a humorous one, and it's a moment that made me realize I was going to enjoy "American Dreams."



The second image is of Superman coming to the Martian Manhunter's aid. It's a scene we have all read many times over before, but the way Morrison set it up and the simple, quiet dialogue just nails this moment. Morrison conveyed true emotion in this scene, and I really appreciated that.



-chris