Action Comics #844 (December, 2006)
"Last Son, Part One"
Writers - Geoff Johns & Richard Donner
Artist - Adam Kubert
Colorist - Dave Stewart
Letterer - Rob Leigh
Associate Editor - Nachie Castro
Editor - Matt Idelson
Cover Price: $2.99
Being as though I'm a bit Justice Leagued out... I figured that today would be the day that I'd finally get back to that "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story from Action Comics. That second long-box full of Action finally surfaced at the new place, so I figured, what the heck?
Then, as I'm flipping through... I came across this issue. It's been a long time since I read this... and I remember it kinda polarizing the audience, so let's give it a revisit and see what all the hub-bub was about!
As for Justice League, the movie's been out less than 24-hours... and already my social media feed is full of screenshots of its "Rotten Tomatoes" page. Can we just go back to talking comics? Please?
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We open with Superman activating a crystally computer simulation at the Fortress of Solitude. It would appear that he's here to chat up ol' Mr. Oz. It's been awhile... as following Infinite Crisis, he spent a year living like a regular ol' Earthling. Jor-El cautions him that while he might look like a human... he ain't one.
We shift over to The Daily Planet Building in Metropolis, where Perry White is reaming out poor Jimmy Olsen for his shoddy camerawork. In his latest attempt to capture some Super-snaps, all he caught was a red and blue blur. He's also the cover-boy for rival Daily Star, who caught a crystal-clear picture of Superman saving a falling Jimmy Olsen... whoops. Perry orders him to fetch a cup of coffee, then turns his attention to Clark Kent.
Here's where it gets weird. Perry starts lambasting Clark... for being, I dunno, a dork? This doesn't quite read right... and I really don't like it. He suggests Clark mentor Jimmy because "for some Godforsaken reason" Jimmy looks up to him. Really? Okay. Anyhoo, Clark is distracted by an incoming Korean steamed bun... and runs of to check it out.
Superman rushes onto the scene, and catches the crispy craft... and halts it before it can do too much damage.
Then he takes a good look at it and realizes there's a... passenger on board?!
We shift ahead to the Department of Metahuman Affairs, where Superman is introduced to ol' crumb-bum Sarge Steel. They're going to run some tests on the lad and see if they can't deduce his planet of origin. Their chat is interrupted by the boy... hoisting an entertainment center over his head, then speaking in... Kryptonese?!
Superman pulls the boy aside, and the two have a chat. Thankfully this time DC included subtitles for the Kryptonese. It's sometimes fun when they don't... but I really don't wanna have to jump between the internet and a comic to get a complete conversation... which doesn't really amount to much anyway. That night, the Docs get a swab from the boys cheek... and prepare to test its reaction to Kryptonite. Superman is a bit suspicious, but doesn't really raise a fuss. He promises the boy that he'll be back before he wakes up the next morning.
Superman picks up some Chinese take-out on his way home... and shares the news of his day with Lois. She's already hard at work writing her article on the boy in the Korean steamed bun. Superman tips her off that he might be Kryptonian in origin... and so, she changes her headline.
The next morning, Superman heads off to visit the boy... only to find that the entire Department bugged out overnight! Turns out, Sarge Steel and the gang relocated to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and they're attempting to wrap their heads around their strange new visitor. Based on the trajectory of the steamed bun, it should've smashed right through the Moon... soooo... how did it get to Earth? One researcher suggests Hyperspace... and we all breathe a sigh of relief he didn't say Hypertime.
Suddenly... a visitor! An angry Superman bursts through the doors, and beelines toward Sarge. Steel reveals that the boy is indeed Kryptonian... and claims that he was told Superman was involved in the decision to relocate to D.C.
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor reads the newspaper.
We wrap up with the transport convoy relocating the Kryptonian boy being attacked... and the boy himself being abducted.
By... Superman?! But... why would he need charges?
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Post-Infinite Crisis Superman is so weird. You (or at least, I) get the impression that there's a whole lot of hesitation and reluctance to "commit to the bit". Is this the post-Crisis guy? Is this Christopher Reeve? Who knows?
Let's get my main (and only, really) complaint. Perry White is... a complete jerk. He seems completely detached from his staff... which, doesn't really work for me. I'm used to Perry being Clark's "Metropolis dad"... not this incredulous condescending blowhard. Questioning why Jimmy would look up to Clark? Questioning why Lois would marry him? What the hell am I reading?
Okay... with that out of the way, I really dug the rest!
The idea that "yet another Kryptonian" arrives on Earth... well, that's nothing new. We've all joked before that it seems like at the end of the day Jor-El and Lara were the only casualties. Well... guess we can't even make that joke anymore, can we?
The way this was done... while unspectacular, was decent enough to get us where we need to be. While Sarge Steel isn't among my favorites (to be fair, my Sarge experience is rather limited)... it was still neat to see him included here. It's always nice when D-Listers get a bit of a shine.
Not sure how I feel about Clark Kent-kidnapper. On one hand, I get it... and understand why he's feel protective for the boy. On the other... this makes him a fugitive, and I don't much dig that. Unless... of course, we're being set up. I'll admit it's been... yeesh, a decade since I read this... and I don't remember how the "mid-section" of this storyline plays out. To be completely honest, most of my memories of this story are centered around the 100 years it took to come out. There were some craaaaaaazy delays on this one... but, ten years later there's a beautiful trade paperback to check out.
Speaking of beautiful... this book looked amazing! From character designs to panel layout, this was a treat to peruse. It's crazy... even after all these years, it's still pretty jarring to see Adam Kubert drawing DC characters. I just immediately associate him with the X-Men comics of my youth... seeing him here just feels wrong, but damned if it isn't pretty! The Kuberts (sans Joe, duh), Mark Bagley, and John Romita Jr. are some of my Marvel comfort food... and it's so weird seeing them ply their trade in the DCU.
Overall... despite some post-Infinite Crisis wishy-washiness, this was a great first chapter. As mentioned, this has been collected... hell, it was even released (for whatever reason) as a Free Comic Book Day book (several years and reboots later). Unsurprisingly, this is also available digitally. Well worth a look!
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Willy Wonka "Bonus Book"!:
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Justice League 3000 #1 (February, 2014)
"Yesterday Lives!"
Plot - Keith Giffen
Dialogue - J.M. DeMatteis
Art - Howard Porter
Letterer - Sal Cipriano
Colorist - Hi-Fi
Editors - Kyle Andrukiewicz & Joey Cavalieri
Group Editor - Matt Idelson
Cover Price: $2.99
Already bracing myself for social media feeds full of "Best Movie Ever" and "Worst Movie Ever" missives. Seems when it comes to superhero movies, it's all about the extremes.
I just shake my head, and wish we were still that passionate about the comic books they were based on...
Anyhoo... if you're headed to the theater, I hope you enjoy what you see!
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It's the early 31st Century... and it's been ten years since a group of nogoodniks referred to as "The Five" arrived on the scene to cause all sorts of havoc. It's really quite the bad scene. Not everyone is willing to just sit back and deal with it though. It's here we meet a woman named Ariel Masters, and she's on the run... from Cadmus? She narrowly escapes capture, before we...
Switch scenes to Cadmus itself. Well, themselves... if we're talking about the (wonder) twins that are currently the focus of the place. Oh, and it's not just a lab in Metropolis anymore, a thousand years from now, Cadmus will be it's own planet! So, we've got that to look forward to.
The twins, Terry and Teri... are the worst. I feel like we're going for a Maxwell Lord vibe here, but unfortunately without any of the charm. We learn that Ariel Masters was once their friend and mentor. They bicker back and forth about the state of the universe... and how they might intervene, and perhaps even profit in saving it.
By using... the Justice League?!
We join the League as they do battle with a member of The Five known as The Convert. It has the ability to convert a whole bunch of people to fight for its cause. The Wonder Twins have its potential pegged at about 30-40 converts... but Batman's math is far different, he counts the converts in the hundreds!
By the way, this League is full of awful people. Batman seems to lack focus (except when it comes to competing with Superman), Superman is a conceited showboat jerk, Flash and Green Lantern are confused and noncommittal milquetoasts, and Wonder Woman... well, Wonder Woman is barbarically (is that a word?) insane.
The League eventually come out on top... and begin to interrogate the final of The Converts... converts. Right when it appears as though he's gonna squeal, Wonder Woman punches him into next week. By the time the fella comes to, The Convert will have long evacuated his body. This, of course, prompts another Justice League argument... which nearly ends in Superman punching Batman's head clean off his shoulders.
The Wonder Twins break things up, and order their team back to base. Terry and Teri have different views on how successful this battle was... but rather than argue til the cows come home (assuming there are still cows in the future), they decide to debrief the team... which provides further insight as to how terrible they all are.
The Wonder Twins then give us the quick and dirty on this League... looks like they're clones! It's always clones, isn't it? In an interesting wrinkle, it's made clear that the originals from a millennium prior were made up from more than just powers. I mean, we know all that... but it's still neat to see it mentioned.
We wrap up with the Twins discussing how much is riding on their plan... and also learn that Ariel wasn't chased out of Cadmus... she split town!
When the subject of getting the Justice League members to work together against The Five is raised... we get those famous last words... "how bad can it get?"
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Well... there's a lot to like here, but also a lot that I didn't.
Let's get the bad out of the way... with some full disclosure. Back when this first came out, I actually considered dropping this book around issue six. That might not sound like a big deal, however, for a lunatic like me to get to the point of "dropping" a book... it's a bit bigger than that.
I am, like many (I assume/hope) comics enthusiasts of my vintage, a completist/completionist... however ya wanna put it. So, when I'm collecting, say... Justice League... I'm collecting everything in the "family". Same with X-Men, same with (God help me) the Avengers... you get the drill. I'm also pathetically loyal... and hopeful that "rough patches" in a comic will pass. This is why I have several YEARS worth of unread contemporary Marvel cluttering several longboxes. It's my inability to "let go" and my hope that things will return to (my perception of) greatness, that I hang on to books for so long. So... Yes, I'm part of the problem.
With Justice League 3000... all I needed was a handful of issues to realize it wasn't for me. These characters had no redeeming qualities... there was no "heart" to the humor... and the far-flung future left me feeling detached and uninvested in the stories. (Wanting to) drop this book was doubly bad, as... not only am I a Justice League completist... I'm also a sucker for Giffen and DeMatteis.
Ever since "discovering" their post-Crisis Justice League, I've tried to grab everything with their names on it. It feels like post-Flashpoint, however... their collaborative efforts are just missing something. I bought their entire run on Larfleeze... and didn't like it. Scooby Apocalypse... same deal. It feels like rather than writing about unpleasant people in pleasing and charming ways... they're just writing about unpleasant people. It's hard to point to exactly what "heart" is when it comes to story... or characterization, but it feels as though, post-Flashpoint... it's definitely missing from much of their work.
It's no different with Justice League 3000. The humor is mean and the characters have no redeeming qualities. I know... that's the whole point. That's fine... it's just not for me. The only reason I actually stuck with this book... and this is going to sound silly... was the rumor that this was actually occurring in the future of the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe. I recall Giffen saying in an interview that these stories might be taking place in a universe where Superman "wore his underwear on the outside"... and that's all it took for me to stick it out. Added to that... issues #9 and #10 shipped without The New-52! emblazoned on the cover. That sent my mind reeling! When it came back with #11, I was a bit annoyed.
Okay... the bad went on far longer than I thought... let's get into the good!
The book looks fantastic. Howard Porter turns in some characteristically wonderful work. Always love it when Hi-Fi colors his work too! They were definitely the bright spot of the aforementioned Scooby Apocalypse.
As for story... it's always neat to see that the heroes are made up of more than just their powers. The idea that a Superman raised without the love and homespun wisdom of the Kents could turn out to be a braggadocios jackass is quite interesting. Obvious... but interesting, and certainly worth exploring. A Batman who didn't have to deal with the loss of his parents is a similarly obvious... but interesting concept to delve into.
I didn't mention it during the synopsis, but there's a time where Batman refers to Superman as Clark... which kinda sets him off. Superman refers to "Clark Kent" as "a fiction"... which, isn't completely untrue... but kind of sobering to see coming out of the Man of Steel's mouth... and not something we'd ever imagine our Superman saying!
This raises the question... how reliable are historical records? The Wonder Twins were concerned that their Batman and Superman weren't getting along... because, the history books depict them as super-pals. Well... what if history isn't entirely true? Perhaps Superman was always a jerk... maybe Green Lantern was always a wishy-washy wimp... maybe the Justice League never got along! These are definitely interesting ideas to pursue... and even resonate a bit in real-world history. They say it's written by the victors... so, who can say what really happened millennia ago?
Overall... I'm on the fence. I'd say this book is a difficult read, but that it's still worth reading. In revisiting this opening chapter, I still can't commit to saying that I like it... but, I definitely didn't hate it. This is probably a big fat "your mileage may vary" kinda deal.
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Justice League of America #181 (August, 1980)
"The Stellar Crimes of the Star-Tsar!"
Writer - Gerry Conway
Penciller - Dick Dillin
Inker - Frank McLaughlin
Letterer - Ben Oda
Colorist - Gene D'Angelo
Editor - Len Wein
Cover Price: $0.40
Hey, I hear that there's a big movie (that I'm not going to see) coming out this weekend! I haven't been following any of the movie news... because I honestly have zero interest. It'd be just fine with me if both publishers quit the movie business...
Of course, at present that would be a stupid financial decision... so I'm just gonna have to wait until the bubble bursts. I gotta give it to the DC movie people... from what little promotional bits that I've seen of Justice League, it actually looks like it'll be a team movie... and not "Batman with some other people", like I figured it would be!
Anyhoo... let's talk (real) League.
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We open with Ollie recounting recent events into a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He doesn't seem terribly interesting in spilling his guts to a machine, but his pretty bird asked him to. His story begins with he and Black Canary returning home to Star City from the Justice League Satellite... at which time, Ollie decides he needs a little bit of a break. He goes off on his normal-for-this-era "we're saving worlds... but what about the little guy?" rant, which Dinah really doesn't feel like hearing again... and frankly, neither do I.
He goes off for awhile, until noticing a burst of light in the distance. He fires a rocket arrow, and along with Dinah, heads off to check it out.
Meanwhile, the rest of the League are hanging out at the Satellite having a little coffee klatch. Subject of the evening appears to be "Boy, that Green Arrow sure is a pill"... a point that nobody can seem to argue. Ollie's never been the easiest to get along with, but of late he's been pretty unbearable.
The klatch is interrupted by Black Canary's emergency alarm. The League rushes over to their cute li'l switchboard thing and learns that Canary and Arrow both are in a bad way.
Back in Star City, Ollie's been taken out... and it's up to Black Canary. She performs some dazzling acrobatics, and sonic-hollars into the museum where the baddie is holed up. Our villain responds with one helluva star-blast, which downs her with ease. Looks like our threat is... Snapper Carr, the Star-Tsar?!
The League arrives just as the Tsar bugs out. They collect their fallen and deliver them to the nearby General Hospital. It looks like Dinah's taken the worst of it... and Ollie's irritably pacing. That is, until... Snapper Carr arrives?! Ollie lunges in his direction while the League attempts to hold him back. The archer doesn't have the whole story... their old mascot is innocent!
Ollie wants answers... and Snapper is more than happy to oblige. Turns out he's been working with S.T.A.R. Labs in Florida, and there he'd met an astronomer named Richard Rigel... and for whatever reason, decided to tell him all about the Star-Tsar. What could possibly go wrong?
While Arrow fumes, the Atom pops his tiny head in to announce that the Star-Tsar only swiped one thing from the Star City Museum... a jewel called "The Star of Delhi"... now that's all the League needs to establish an M.O.* (*Method of Operation (Modus Operandi) - Thanks, Len!). They decide that the Star-Tsar is going to be a cliche star-themed bad-guy... and split up to protect all manner of "star".
While the rest of the League heads off to protect jewelry stores and museum, "Man of the People" Ollie decides to check in on disco diva Donna Summer Winter at the Star City Stadium. She's a "star", right? Of course, Ollie's right... unfortunately for him though, the League arrives just in time to spoil his shot.
The Star-Tsar takes aim and starts blasting Justice Leaguers out of the sky. Ollie realizes that the baddie gets his power from the stars... and fighting in an open-air stadium sorta ups his odds. Luckily, he's got a trick up his quiver in the form of a... smog arrow. Ay yai yai.
The smog arrow depowers the foe, and Aquaman is able to take him out with a single kayo shot. The story ends with Ollie wrapping up his audio missive, and quitting the Justice League of America! That sound you just heard might've been a collective sigh of relief from his former teammates.
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Wow, Ollie's annoying! Rest of the League must be almost relieved to be out of the "Green Arrow business" for a little while. Imagine saving countless worlds while one of your team members complains about street-level troubles... while totally neglecting the fact that those very streets would've been atomized if not for the Justice League... ya know, saving the world. What a pain in the ass.
I might be projecting here, but it always seems to me that the writers kind of use Green Arrow to get their own personal kvetches into the book... and if that is the case (I'm very likely projecting), why do they always portray him as such a sanctimonious blowhard jackass? Eh, maybe it's just me... but all of these "socially relevant" Green Arrow plots come across more as lectures than actual stories. This isn't a mind-blowing or unique perspective I'm sure... but worth mentioning. It's odd he uses (or even has) a "smog arrow", but whattayagonnado?
The story here... well, it happened. Not much to talk about other than it facilitating Green Arrow's exit. During the caper his suspicions are confirmed... he just doesn't fit into the Justice League at the moment. Fair enough... and a decent enough story to get us from Point A to B.
Overall, it's Satellite era Justice League. Not a story likely to rock your socks, but enjoyable enough. If you're a fan of slump-shouldered Ollie lectures, you'll love this. If you always wanted to see a Justice League coffee klatch, likewise... you'll dig this. If, God help you, you're a Snapper Carr completist... you need this as well. Worth a flip through at the very least.
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