Justice League: Generation Lost #1 (Early July, 2010)
"Gone But Not Forgotten"
Story/Script - Judd Winick
Story/Breakdowns - Keith Giffen
Pencils - Aaron Lopresti
Inks - Matt Ryan
Colors - Hi-Fi
Letters - Sal Cipriano
Assistant Editor - Rex Ogle
Editor - Michael Siglain
Cover Price: $2.99
Today we're going to take a look at one of my first (perhaps the very first) DC Comics I picked up after an extended bout of unemployment.
My first visits back to the comic shop were pretty strange. I could look at the wall and see dozens of titles that I had decent-sized runs of... it was kind of overwhelming to decide what to get. I mean, I was out of work for about a year... and boy howdy, what a year it was.
Comics had always been a thing I found comfort in... and when I needed them the most... well, I could no longer afford them. Upon return I weighed all of my options... and decided I would just stick to my "can't quit" books... which means, Marvel (and more specifically, the X-Men books). I was 30 at the time, and figured it might behoove me to limit my comics purchases... and simplify my comics-caring. I came in as a Marvel guy... so those'll be the books I stick with.
It wasn't until I came across a thread on one of the comics "news" sites where disappointed Marvel fans began counting the actual pages of story we were getting for our inflated $3.99+. Now, I'm not a guy who counts pages... way I look at it, if I'm enjoying a story enough, that's all that ought to matter. As I looked through this thread, however... it became more and more clear that the "repudiable" comics news site was in Marvel's pocket. Fans were being flat-out mocked by Marvel "pros" and editors in the thread... and any posts with salient points were... deleted (or edited to mess with the context)!
I decided these weren't the folks I wanted to support... and so, looked across the street to DC Comics... where I saw a much, I dunno, friendlier bunch of folks. There was less cynicism toward the product... and more importantly, less vitriol toward the readership (that would come the following year... but that's a discussion for another time). I felt better about myself supporting a company that didn't appear to hate it's fans... or feel the need to strawman them to justify their shadier business practices.
And so, when I decided to shift back over to DC... I needed a good "jumping on point" to get my footing. I'd long been a fan of the Justice League International... and figured this series here would be as good a place as any to hop back in...
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We open a day and a half in the past... the believed/once dead Maxwell Lord is approached by a pair of police officers. They yell at him to stop... but he has a different idea. We get brought up to speed quite nicely here with intermittent panels showing scenes of Max's past... assembling the League, killing Ted Kord, taking over The OMAC Project, and ultimately... getting some chiropractic assistance from Wonder Woman. He uses his mind-control powers to force the officers to blow each other's brains out... and wipes away the resulting trickle of blood under his nose. A little exposition for folks unfamiliar with this era... we know Wonder Woman killed Max in the lead-up to Infinite Crisis... he would "rise!" during Blackest Night, and be one of the handful of characters to remain alive going into Brightest Day... and that's where we are.
We shift ahead several hours to the Hall of Justice where Superman has the floor. He is informing the media (and superhero community) about the apparent return of Maxwell Lord. Now, why all the hoopla? Glad you asked, when Max took control of The OMAC Project, he also found himself with full access of the Bat-Computer... which means he knows, ya know... pretty much everything... about everything.
We jump to the present, where Booster Gold is embroiled in battle with some armored mercenaries outside the former JLI Moscow embassy. He is shocked to learn that Power Girl had let those baddies escape and recapture them later to avoid a firefight in the city. Booster expresses a bit of justifiable frustration... he's been sent all over the world on assignments that don't appear to be very Max Lord-centric. It's almost as though he's being kept busy so he doesn't screw things up too much.
We shift to Ice's cruddy little apartment, and she's watching the news of Max's return while huddled against the wall. She unleashes a blast of... er, ice to destroy the television set. Her outburst is interrupted by a knocking at the door. It's a man with a laptop... and, I'm guessing this is supposed to be Fire on the screen, but it's not totally clear here. She finds herself dragged back into superheroics. Gotta say, some great work on her face/body language here!
We shift ahead a bit to a mission in the desert featuring Captain Atom, Fire, and Ice! They are flanked by several military vehicles as they track a signal which may (or may not) be Max Lord.
We rejoin Booster Gold at Rip Hunter's time lab. He is staring at recent photos of the returned Max Lord in various locations all across the globe. He is still annoyed that he's being left out of the "real" search... which prompts Skeets to posit that the League might be keeping Booster away for his own good. Perhaps fearing that he's a bit too close to the situation... and, ya know... he's got a point. Booster ain't hearin' none of that... and continues thinking aloud. He cites Max's own arrogance and suggests he would return to the JLI New York Embassy to "hide in plain sight".
Back in the desert, the trio is led to a cave by their radar tracking hoo-doo. Captain Atom enters in hopes of procuring Max Lord... but it's a no-go. Instead of finding his former boss... he finds a bomb! It explodes, but Atom is able to absorb most of the blast... he launches into the atmosphere to release it a safe distance from Earth.
Back with Booster... he's arrived at the JLI-NY Embassy, where he finds himself bombarded by electromagnetic pulses, which cancel out the powers of his suit. Before panic can set in... he's bashed over the back of the head with a rebar with a chunk of cement on the end. Looks like Booster finally found Max!
Now this next scene is... really good. Max continues to beat the hell out of Booster with the rebar... all the while lamenting the fact that he had no choice but to kill Blue Beetle. He says the act haunts him... refers to Booster as his friend... who he misses. It's pretty powerful stuff. He thinks back to his death at the hands of Wonder Woman... and suggests that if he was brought back, it must be for good reason... and he's convinced himself that his purpose is to "save the damn world".
He leaves Booster in a puddle of blood... and, as you might imagine, it looks quite dire. Michael manages to retrieve a communicator and send out an S.O.S. to Skeets. I remember reading this the first time and thinking that Max had just killed Booster... it seemed like when it came to Bwah-ha-ha Leaguers, all bets were off!
Booster wakes up some time later, and is surrounded by his former teammates, Fire, Ice, and Captain Atom. They are shocked to see the amount of blood loss... ant Atom searches the body for where he was hit. Booster is able to mutter that the pool of blood he is laying in... isn't his own!
And so, we shift to Maxwell Lord. He is stood before a tub of ice water and has blood being pumped into his veins by a machine. He's about to push the limits of his mind-control power... and knows that what he's planning he's gonna lose a lot of blood! He screams, blood goes everywhere, and he falls into the ice-filled tub. A wave sweeps over the entire planet... and we see that it's even affected the big guns of the DC Universe.
Captain Atom leaves Booster to follow the trail of blood... to the blood-and-ice-filled tank in the next room. Max is already long gone... and the blood is already congealing. Superman arrives in response to the JLI signal Booster had sent, and asks what's up. The gang tells him about the manhunt for Max Lord, to which he replies: "Who's Max Lord?" Uh-oh.
We wrap up with a shot of Max enjoying a drink and a smoke atop the roof of a castle. Looks like business is about to pick up!
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This is all it took to draw me back into DC Comics in a big way. I really enjoyed this, then and now.
Such an interesting concept for a story... I mean, Max Lord has the power to control minds, so why not attempt to control every single mind on the planet? What's more... if you have the potential to touch every mind on Earth (and beyond?) why make the people forget you, instead of I dunno, worship you? Well, that might get in the way of whatever it is Max has planned.
Let's stick with Max for a bit. His return to the living has affected him... as it would anybody. He feels that he was brought back for a specific purpose... a righteous one, at that! That scene between he and Booster was just crazy... Max telling him that he misses him was pretty powerful. He does a callback to walking Booster into the League, which is interesting, because even back then he was trying to pull a fast one, setting up the Royal Flush Gang to attack so Booster could save the day.
Use of the old International Leaguers is pretty perfect for a story like this. I mean, folks never really seemed to trust them completely, or hold them in as high a regard as the "magnificent seven". Even the other superheroes kinda raise their noses at them. We see that here with Booster's busy work, so he doesn't get in the way. We can look at that as the other protecting Booster who may be too close to the situation... but there'll always be that bit of doubt.
Being the only folks who can remember Max Lord opens up so many possibilities... and also facilitates them looking a bit loony. They're going to have to walk a fine line to not lose all credibility with the public and the superhero community... and it's going to be a lot of fun.
The art here is really nice. Lopresti has a very clean style and is able to convey so much emotion through faces. Just look at that Ice scene, that's almost Kevin Maguire level of facial contortion. Excellent stuff. My sole complaint art wise has got to be... the cover. To my mind, it's not terribly pretty. Fire and Booster look pretty twisted and evil. Everyone else looks cool, but those two really make me wince.
Overall, this is certainly an issue (and series) I'd recommend checking out. I think enough time has passed since the ending kinda got nyoinked away from us so they could usher in The New-52! that one could read this again and not be too annoyed (okay, I might be projecting). This issue/series is available digitally, and has been collected in a series of hardcovers... and those come without an awkwardly placed toothpaste ad (see below) slipping and sliding as you read the book! Worth checking out!
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(Not the) Letters Page:
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Interesting Awkward and Annoyingly-Placed Ads:
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Flash #203 (February, 1971)
"The Flash's Wife is a Two-Timer!"
Story - Robert Kanigher
Penciller - Irv Novick
Inker - Murphy Anderson
Cover Price: $0.15
There are a handful of covers I'd love to have blown up to hang on my wall... this is most definitely one of those covers! It's somehow wacky and comicbooky while still being somewhat haunting.
In my research I discovered that a lotta folks thought that civilian walking behind the Flash was Stan Lee or Gray Morrow. Turns out it was just some random dude who they threw a beard on. The truth is always less fun, ain't it?
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We open aboard the Justice League Satellite where a lonely Flash arrives a bit early for his shift on monitor duty. His wife is away on assignment... and he's also just learned something about her that has left him a bit shaken. He meets an... oddly passive-aggressive Superman. I mean, really passive-aggressive... he's all like "I'm a lonely alien... but what would you know about that?" Yeesh. This starts Flash's walk... er, run... down memory lane. He shares the story of Iris West's secret origin...
Ya see, a few days ago Barry returned home to find a note from his wife... one which revealed that she was being drawn 1,000 years into the future! So, a quick ride on the Cosmic Treadmill (which looks so weird in Barry's house), and he arrives in the year 2970! It's a strange desert landscape and the Sun glows red. He appears below a river... in a tube!
Now if you've ever traveled through time, you know what kinda thirst ya work up. And so, Flash heads up to the tube-river and bores a hole to get himself a drink. Little does he know that stealing water is a capital offense in 2970... and he is chased off by some futurecops.
He is able to evade capture by vibrating through a nearby mountain... and winds up standing before a strange "self contained city"... it's really quite the thing! Super interesting to see. As he approaches the city he spies some gigantic mutant vegetation... like giant tomatoes and stuff.
Inside the town, he accidentally bumps into a citizen who bumps into another citizen who had just procured his family's daily allowance of water. Before a fight can break out, a siren begins to sound... and all of the folks start heading for shelter. Coming down a nearby staircase... is Iris!
She tells Barry to beat it... he doesn't belong here. Flash doesn't quite understand... and she doesn't really need much arm twisting to spill the beans. She claims that while cleaning out her father's basement she came across a locket with the name "Iris Russell" engraved on it.
She picks it up... and it begins speaking to her! It tells the story of the Secret Origin of Iris Wes-- Russell! Ya see, Iris was born on the doomed planet Krypto-- oh, wait... that's the wrong one... but as we're about to learn, it's not too far off. Here goes: In the future, the Earth has split into two factions... Earth-West (no relation) and Earth-East. The two sides were in conflict, and when West got word that East was preparing to drop the nukes, the Russell family decided to send their only daughter Iris BACK TO THE PAST. She appears on the backyard patio of the West family in the weeks following Mrs. West's miscarriage. They decide to raise the child as their own.
As the story winds down, Iris is met by her father Ira who confirms it all as true. We get a little bit of the "How could you have kept this from me?" spoo from Iris, but really now... you'd imagine that'd be a tough subject to broach. After a chat everything is hunky-dory, and Iris even wears the locket! While fixing dinner for her husband... she begins to feel a vibrational pull... to the future! This is when she writes the note. She signs it "H", which I don't quite understand.
Before we know it, Iris arrives in the year 2970... and wouldn'tcha know it, no sooner does she appear than her birth parents just happen to stroll past! Talk about convenience...
Her parents take her to a tower where they tell her the story of their own survival. They reveal that Earth-West is kept under constant surveillance from Earth-East. They are often raided for slave labor and other unpleasantness. We get a pretty grim view of the future here. Suddenly a Spy Satellite flies by with a message... it would seem that Sirik, Supreme Leader of Earth-East has decided to take a wife... and wouldn'tcha know it, he's picked Iris Russell-West-Allen! Iris, good daughter that she is agrees if it saves Earth-West from another nuclear situation.
Back in the present... future-present... present in the future, but after the future flashback we just read... er... back at the point in the future where the Flash has found Iris (there we go!) Barry says he'll take care of ol' Sirik. It just so happens that Sirik is arriving right at this moment! Barry challenges Sirik to a fight to the death for the hand of Iris... and Sirik, sporting dude that he is, is hip to the idea.
The battle begins with... Flash running away! Sirik sends his men to give chase, and they follow him to... a playground? Like, seriously... a playground. He trounces the grunts with relative ease... and by the grace of a swing set.
Barry confronts Sirik, who has situated himself behind a "trick wall". Ya see, it's like a ballistic two-way mirror... he can fire through it, but it shields him from attacks. I guess it's a good thing he wound up on the right side of it!
What Sirik wasn't counting on was Barry's ability to vibrate through walls... which, ya know... he does! Sirik gets his butt kicked pretty soundly. The baddie then reveals that for every half-hour he doesn't return to Earth-East... missiles will be fired at Earth-West. Convenient, that.
And so, in the matter of two panels, Barry vibrates the onslaught of missiles into exploding prematurely in the sky... and the destroys the missile sites in Earth-East. Wow. In a third panel, he solves world peace.
The story wraps up with Barry and Iris returning to the present... well, the present insofar as it's still 1970 and part of the story Flash is sharing with Superman. They return just a split-second after Barry had leapt to the future. We close with Barry ending his tale... and Superman kinda being a jerk about it. Playing "can you top this", like "Well, at least you have Iris... I'm all alone." Gotta wonder what crawled up his butt today.
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What a weird issue!
In being a post-Crisis, and thereby post-Barry DC fan... I never had all that much in the way of context for Iris being a future-child. When I read through the tail end of this volume... ya know, the Cary Bates Trial of the Flash stuff, Iris was dead... having been killed by Reverse Flash, but then she was back in the future... and she and Flash retire there after Flash #350... just in time for his ultimate moment of profundity during Crisis. I guess I never thought all that hard about it... and just accepted that Iris was somehow connected to the future. That's kinda the way being a comics fan was back in the day... or at least the way I was.
Little did I know that the idea of Iris being out-of-time was introduced some 15 years earlier! Let's chat that up a bit. I kinda joked about it during the synopsis, but it's kinda striking how similar her origin is to Superman's. Sent to safety in the face of destruction by parents... arriving before a childless couple, who raises the baby as their own. It might have been funny to pop back to Flash and Superman's chat at that point to see his reaction.
Speaking of Superman... wow, he was in rare form here wasn't he? I mean, he appears in all of two panels, and is insufferable in both! I never considered him to be a sad sack... but here we are. He's like that guy you know that you can't confide in, because instead of listening to your plight, they just try to top it! You get a lot of "You think that's bad...?" replies... and you just wanna walk away.
While I enjoyed this story, I gotta say... it was awfully convenient. It might sound hypocritical to raise that observation in light of my disdain for today's "for the trade" decompressed storytelling, but everything just fell into place perfectly here. Flash immediately found Iris in the future... Iris immediately found her birth parents in the future... Sirik immediately arrives to accept Flash's challenge... and Flash immediately disarms the entire Eastern half of the globe. Not that I'd want this expanded into a six-issue arc, but maybe give it a few more pages. Then again, I'm not sure if they realized the kind of ramifications this story would have... perhaps they assumed it would just be swept under the rug, and never referenced again. I'm guessing there were folks who wish it were!
The art here was really nice. I think I might be a bit gun shy on pre-Crisis Flash books because I don't dig Carmine Infantino's later style all that much... but that's like a decade after this. Either way, I was pleased to see this was a Novick book. Also, I mentioned it above but... dang, what a wild cover! Love it!
Overall, this might be an issue worth tracking down. It adds a whole lot to Flash lore, and is an all-around fun read. Unfortunately the SHOWCASE Presents line petered out before this issue could be reprinted... though, for your convenience it is available digitally.
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Letters Page (and Flash Facts!):
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Interesting Ads:
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1st Issue Special #7 (October, 1975)
"Menace of the Human Firefly!"
Writer - Michael Fleisher
Penciller - Steve Ditko
Inker - Mike Royer
Editor - Joe Orlando
Cover Price: $0.25
On this weeks Cosmic Treadmill, Reggie and I discuss Strange Tales #110 from Marvel Comics in 1963. In it, we met that Master of Black Magic... Dr. Stephen Strange, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
As you might imagine, by the time we were getting ready to wrap up we had discussed the creators so much that we'd almost forgot what book we'd even covered! If you're interested, you can check it out right here... and/or in the archives.
It left me in a Dikto-y mood, and I figured why not work some of that blog/podcast synergy (black) magic and cover a book with the man himself making the pictures happen? It's also an issue of 1st Issue Special... so, it's got that going for it too!
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We open with Gotham City newscaster, Jack Ryder (with cameraman in tow) being given a tour of Gotham Penitentiary. We can see familiar faces like the Scarecrow and Two-Face (who had been temporarily transferred from The Arkham Asylum) along with Garfield Lynns... the Firefly! Funny that they preface Arkham with "The"... but again, this is back in the time where the Arkham brand really wasn't a thing. Anyhoo, after Ryder and company are out of sight, Lynns turns to his lighting-effects genius to finagle a laso-lighter out of some lenses he'd snagged while helping out, get this... backstage during the annual prison play! Gotta wonder what kinda show they put on in the Gotham Pen... I hope it ain't Zorro.
So Lynn's cuts his way through the cell bars and goes about making an all-around nuisance of himself. The prison alarms begin to sound, and Jack pulls away from the Warden and his cameraman so that he might transform into... The Creeper!
With a cackle, the Creeper swoops into action... well, he would'a if not for the laso-light blast he takes to the chest! Well, that's embarrassing.
Even worse, the Warden and prison guards arrive and begin to swarm... assuming that the Creeper, who... ya know, doesn't really look like a hero, has aided in Lynns's's's escape! There's a brief skirmish, which ends with the Creeper escaping... those left behind can't help but wonder if he's Hero... or Menace! Well, not really... they all pretty much think he's a menace. Jack Ryder reappears and justifies his disappearance as wanting to catch the hot scoop.
We shift to a lighthouse where Lynns is in the process of adorning himself in one of the gaudier supervillain costumes I've ever seen. I'm almost certain I've seen this shot in Wizard Magazine as "Mort of the Month"... you might recall that the Wiz-folk were always keen on their low-hanging fruit. Anyhoo, what we need to know is that his belt o' many colors actually consists of light-weapons and illusion-granting lenses and stuff.
A short time passes, and we rejoin the Firefly as he enters a smoke-filled pool hall... in full geek attire. Ditko really does a great job showing how out of place a costumed fella would appear among civilians as Firefly looks pretty ridiculous. It's not about looks though, folks... at this juncture, it's about power and ingenuity. Firefly approaches a few patrons and introduces himself as a "Master Criminal". After they stop laughing, he (temporarily) belt-beams one out of existence! At this point, the remaining geeks agree to become his "assistants"... which is more formal a title than I would have figured.
We shift to the studios of WHAM-TV Gotham, where Jack Ryder is walking and talking with J. Jonah... er, I mean Mr. Marlies. Let's not get it twisted, dude looks nothing like Jonah... but the stuff that comes out of his mouth is very JJJ. He's convinced that the Creeper is not a hero... but a menace (okay, he doesn't say menace... spoilsports), and insists Ryder present him as such during the next broadcast... and company guy that he is, Jack obliges.
Following the broadcast, Jack is alerted to a raging inferno atop the Skytop Diamond Exchange. He hustles off to cover the hot scoop. After checking in with the firefighters and camera crew, he excuses himself to... er, interview passersby. Seems legit.
And so, Jack "Creeps up", then climbs up to the top of the building where he learns there's no fire at all... just an elaborate light show borne out of a lighting and special-fx genius's twisted mind.
The Creeper pounces! Or, uh... he would've if not for the electro-lighter blast he takes to the chest. By now he should know he's not all that great at this kind of frontal assault, right?
A second blast... and monologue which mentions "collecting light-duty" sends the Creeper off the side of the skyscraper... and he plummets to the ground below and hits with a gut-wrenching THUD. Somehow... he's still alive (and as we're about to find out no worse for wear). He wakes up in the Detention Ward of the General Hospital where he finds himself shackled to his bed.
When he's left alone he goes about freeing himself from the cuffs... and busting the bars off the window. He's got a pretty good idea where Firefly and his geeks are holed up.
Remember Firefly mentioned "light-duty" earlier? The Creeper does! It doesn't mean he's suffered an on-the-job injury and is stuck jockeying a desk... it's a reference to fees paid by ships to lighthouses... sooooo, stands to reason Firefly's shacked up at the lighthouse, don't it? The Creeper (uh-oh) leaps into battle... and for the first time this issue, is successful!
He busts up Firefly's nerdy belt... and the fight is taken outside. Firefly attempts one last blast... which Creeper reflects back at him with a shard of broken glass. This knocks Firefly off the lighthouse... sending him into the angry (and craggy) seas below... and, if I were a betting man... to his death. Thankfully I'm not a betting man, because I'm fairly certain this isn't the last we've seen of him. We close out with the Creeper celebrating his hard-fought victory by cackling in the moonlight.
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Now I ought to preface by saying I don't know a whole lot about the Creeper. I can't rightly say I've ever read a solo adventure of his before. I mean, I might have... but couldn't reference it off the top of my head. That said, I had a good time with this one. It did feel like a very quick read though.
It's so strange how Marvel-like this issue felt to me... and not just because of the Ditko art. The Creeper feels a lot like a Marvel character. There's the whole "hero or menace" vibe... he's not perfect... he didn't check for a body after Firefly fell... just a few things that don't scream "DC hero" to me.
Let's parse that a bit. Thinking the Creeper is a villain works better for me than folks in Marvel New York thinking Spider-Man is a villain. I mean, Spidey's costume... while it hides his face, isn't outright scary. Yeah, it's not like Captain America's or anything... but I'd imagine it's something folks would see as "cool" before "scary". The Creeper, on the other hand... looks like a creepy (pun!) goblin or something. The fact that he cackles all the time only adds to the, er... creepiness of it all. Plus, this is the DC Universe, and costumed folks who laugh and cackle sort of have a precedent. The evening news fomenting fear (or bewaring) of the Creeper is just the cherry on the sundae.
The Creeper makes mistakes... I mean, if he were a ball player, his batting average would be a 0.3 for this adventure. Two out of three times, he got his butt handed to him... and that's no indictment on how awesome Firefly is... it's simply the Creeper's own impetuosity. "Look Before you Leap!" needs to be stitched on a sampler at the Ryder home. I liked this though... it made it feel like the Creeper doesn't quite have the experience or finesse of some/most of the other DC heroes.
I thought it was interesting that Firefly was just allowed to fall to the "angry sea" below the lighthouse... and the Creeper's reaction was a "long, chill, mocking laugh" rather than a rescue attempt followed by turning over to the police. Hell, not even the narrative captions mention Firefly's fate... you'd usually expect a "the police scoured the seas for hours before finding a frantic Firefly" or something. But, nope... nada. Like I said above, I'd assume he was dead... if this wasn't a comic book.
The art here is from Ditko... and it's his haunting and sorta uncomfortable style that we all love. The characters aren't especially handsome, nor do I believe are meant to be. That was the thing with Ditko... take a look at old Amazing Spider-Man comics... Peter Parker wasn't a terribly good looking kid. That wouldn't come until John Romita arrived and gave Pete his "lunchbox look". It's weird, the Creeper is actually more visually appealing to me than Jack Ryder. Ryder looks kinda like Lupin III here, only with a narrower face.
Overall, had a lot of fun with this one. This has been collected in The Creeper by Steve Ditko collection released by DC in 2010... and, I believe was set to be in a SHOWCASE Presents volume... which either fell through, or was just a rumor. Can't find a whole lot of agreement online about that. There is an Amazon link to a(n unavailable) book bearing the name... and classic SHOWCASE Presents cover though. Either way, this issue shouldn't be terribly difficult to procure. I'd say it's well worth a read.
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(Not the) Letters Page:
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Interesting Ads:
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