Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Justice League

I dropped this title awhile ago and flip through every once in awhile in the store, but for some reason it never seems like anything really big enough is happening to justify the attention of "the most powerful heroes on the planet." The stories seem to downplay how powerful they each are for the most part because it seems the writers can't think of anything big enough where they can all be as good as they're supposed to be.

Have people not been enjoying this run? I thought it was one of DC's better sellers.

I just got through the "double-sized" issue #25. What's up with that lame ending? -And Kendra has a daughter? Where have I been?

#25-- I thought Red Tornado and Kathy Sutton were already married?

Kind of underwhelming that the character that seemed to be at the heart of most plots since this series began is taking a leave of absence. I think writers tend to not know what to do with him, so I'm not really surprised. At least there won't be anymore body drama for awhile.

I quite liked Anansi and his god of tales persona. You can't really consider him/it a 'villain', though, can you?

Anansi's M.O. does kind of lend itself to the oft-used 'pretend' scenarios that the hero or heroine has to think-fight their way out of-- though the spider-god's 'editing' was unique and made the reading worthwhile.

I liked the inclusion of Animal Man, and the harkening back to his Vertigo series (but won't those vicious Vertigo editors now try to whisk Buddy back to their clutches? I give you Black Orchid and Fury as examples A and B).

I like these series but it seems quite divorced from events throughout the DCU currently. A condition which can be positive or negative.

This sort of ended abruptly, didn't it? I found the rewritten JLA counterparts pretty interesting, though I would've liked to know more about characters other than Batman. I mean, how many versions of Batty have we seen over the years? It would've been nice to read about this world's Ocean Master or Hawk-- maybe not Brown Bomber. Brown Bomber? Seriously? A bald, fat white guy who says the words 'black power' and turns into a muscular black man? With super-afro manifesting ability? Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Vixen's power's back to normal (thank goodness!)... Anansi proves to be yet another DC character putting heroes through stuff in order to 'make them better'. Fitting for a trickster god, I guess. I do appreciate that Anansi exits as a 'gray' being... he might reappear to aid or battle at any time. If only DC's Ares, Hades, etc. were written with the same mythical scope...

I like Benes art-- I know many don't.

I echo your sentiments ML. I love Benes's art. Most of the alternate versions of the JLA members were intriguing, but you're right. Brown Bomber. Whose idea of a joke was that? The Korean Green Lantern waving his ring on a stick seemed useless. Why the stick? It seemed cumbersome and impractical for battle. Knock the stick out of his hand and he's out.

The ending where everybody gets quickly zapped home seemed anticlimactic. I would have rather liked to have seen Vixen save her teammates in a more dramatic way to establish her power status among the big guns. I thought she was going to shoot the totem, thinking she was going to have to sacrifice the source of her power only to realize that that was the true test; what was she willing to do to prove her worth and in the end, the reward would be that she would discover she no longer needed the totem, that the animal powers are a part of her, and has always been.

I like your ending scenario for Vixen, Owl Lad. That would've put more of a puncuation mark on the story's finale.

I read somewhere, after posting my little write-up, that Black Bomber was an early version of Black Lightning that DC was going to publish. It was offered or assigned to Tony Isabella, who reworked the concept into Black Lightning (that may be leaving a lot out). There was no mention whether the earlier BB was a fat white guy who said 'black power', etc.

But the name Black Bomber has evidently been around, so Brown Bomber is a nod to that, I guess.

Kind of interesting, I thought.

People don't like Benes' art? I think he kicks ass.

I just read JLoA 28-29.

28:

My new favorite character is the chick in the Shadow Cabinet who pulls chairs and tanks out of her purse. I now want to buy back-issues of Shadow Cabinet to read her adventures. She kicks freakin' ass.

29:

Eh. FACES of FILLER is more like it. Skip this, if you want. It reveals nothing other than to let us know the Shadow Thief now has a mancrush on Starbreaker, which I'm sure will be revealed as the story really starts next issue.

i wish i had a purse like that! kinda like shaman of alpha flight. i skipped issue 29.

Lash, count me in as one that doesn't like Benes' art on JLA. I've liked it elsewhere, but he has fallen into the 'crosshatching' trap. His art could be clean a vibrant, but it seems like everyone has to have those damned crosshatches, or odd lines on their vaces and bodies.

Man, where's Mike DeCarlo when you need him.

I hate to say it, but the biggest art disappointment to me in the last few years has been a victim of the same thing...our own beloved Iron Mike. I fell in love with his art on Legion, but somewhere along the way, and i first noticed it on Longbow Hunters...he went to the lines. His stuff is freakin' great without it.

I'm also a big fan of Benes art. Very clean lines, reminiscent of Mike Turner, Jim Lee, Karl Kesel and John Byrne.

And yeah, I would have been thrilled to see less of Batdude and more of Ocean Master, whom I've always had a strange fascination with. His relationship with Aquaman always felt like the Garth/Mekt relationship of the 20th century DCU.

Two things:

(1) Benes art is basically saving JLA for me. I just can't get into the writing for some reason. Love the line-up, love the art, hate the writing.

(2) I don't remember the Milestone characters being this cool. My father and I collected all of the Milestone titles in the 90's and I actually thought they were overall pretty weak. Especially Icon and Hardware, which were VERY weak. But here they actually seem to be pretty cool & interesting. That, I have to say, was well done.

And the chick who pulls chairs & tanks from her purse! Don't forget the chick who pulls chairs & tanks from her purse!

I feel what you mean, Cobie. My bf from years ago semi-got into the Milestone characters. I kind-of passed over them with an "eh" because this was when everything was BLOOD-blank or blank-FORCE and just hyper-overdone. I almost considered passing over the Milestone-related JLA issues.

I'm glad I didn't. I really liked those guys!

I actually waited forever to read the JLA issues because I was like "uh, here we go, crappy characters stuffed into JLA to make McDuffie feel good", and then I was surprisingly into it!

Chuck pulling chairs and tanks out of her force? One or two characters with names like Santa's 8 reindeer? What's better than that?

All they need now is a guy called Rudolph who shoots force-beams from his nostrils!

And of course Vixen is on the wrong team.

Don't forget the redcircle character Comet!

Oooooh, an all christmas superhero team...so far

Comet, Vixen, Donner, Blitzen..and they just created the villian Cupid over in GA.

Man, does #31 suffer from DC's jerking around of the Robinson-penned second JL title.

Did Hal announce his other team somewhere else? Did I miss an issue?

Black Canary's barely had the chance to be leader, and she's blaming herself for all the crap going down in the DCU?

Not the Dinah of the last couple of years.

An example of trying to make lemonade from a crate of unexpected lemons that didn't quite work for me.

After month after month of line-up changes in TEEN TITANS and OUTSIDERS, some of which involved current or former JLAers, I really don't want to read another extended recruitment storyline. Especially if it ends up with the same old suspects. But I think that's what we're in for.

Nope and nope. They still haven't made references to it anywhere else, they still haven't solicited it, and Robinson announced recently at a convention that it's been downsized to a limited series.

Yeah, I knew about the downsizing. So, JLA 31 was the first in-comic mention of Hal's team?

It sure *read* like it'd been a beat in a storyline somewhere or other.

It'd be worthwhile to reread this after whatever is referenced here actually sees publication. This has happened to Macduffie a couple of other times, hasn't it?

I think he's a fine writer, who keeps getting the rug pulled out from under him.

It probably was supposed to happen that way, but then DiDio changed his mind so many times that the editors couldn't keep track of whether or not to do it, and this is what we ended up with.

I suspect the artwork is what's keeping Robinson's Justice League off schedule. JLA #31 is a horroble tease - I've been chomping at the bit for this, though the downsizing has affected my enthusiasm. I can only hope Robsinson's already working on a second mini with a faster artist but I won't hold my breath. The fact that we already know it's a mini makes the formation of Hal's team seem almost doomed from the start.

I agree though with the assertion that this JLA hasn't really done anything. It's simply the nature of the beast, but Hal's line about the whole being lesser than sum of its parts was spot on and seems a criticism of the series itself.

The beginning was a bit confusing with Zatanna calling Wonder Woman "Dinah" but it seems like the artist accidentally drew WW there, when it was supposed to be Black Canary standing there. (and does anyone know what the opening sequence of the satellite burning up is referring to? is that happening now or something that happened a long time ago?)

Drake, I didn't catch the Dinah/WonderWoman blunder.

Isn't anyone else excited about Dr. Light's return? With her powers restored (I didn't know they were gone. Did I miss something?), and her costume slightly tweaked, doesn't everybody think she's due for a name change? As a woman, I'd think she'd want to make a clear delineation from the villain, especially given his horrific crime against Sue.

So, how about it? Anybody got a new name for our returning bright light?

I think she lost her powers briefly after the original Dr Light regained his memories and got went on a revenge trip against the Titans or something... I'm glad she's got them back as well. After her role in "Infinite Crisis" there's always seemed to be a lot of untapped potential with her. (despite the JLI tenure)

In terms of a new name, what about a new costume? Hers is still based on the image of the original's. I feel it almost always diminished a character to overhaul them so much, so despite the association, I think she should keep them. (although I don't remember the reason for the similarity in the first place- what was the deal with that again?)

Judd Winick writes Green Arrow

... although, reading the page on the thread linked above, maybe if she were to adopt a new name, "Starlight" might not be bad...