Justice League: Cry for Justice #4

I am really starting to loathe Cry for Justice.  Before issue #4, I merely dismissed it as a mediocre attempt to prove that DC Comics was REALLY KEWL because they have people dying and heroes acting like a-holes.  However, it got worse.  Spoilers behind the cut.



One of the biggest pet peeves I have in comics is killing off obscure heroes or villains for the purpose of shock value.  Why?  Well, a lot of my favorite characters are B- and C-Listers.  Also, what's the point of killing off an obscure character without bothering explaining who they are?  None of the readers will care . . . with the exception of the fans of the character, who will get angry and post about it on their blogs.

For no apparent reason, it seems that Penny Dreadful and Arak are working for the big baddy of the series.   Who are those two?  Well, unless you're a fan of Infinity, Inc., you probably don't have a freaking clue.  Penny Dreadful and Arak were two members of Helix, a group of "villains" who had been experimented on while still in their mothers' wombs.  This results in them developing powers, and most of them being completely unable to pass as normal.  (Mr. Bones had invisible skin and organs, making him look like a walking skeleton.  Kreecher looked like a anthropomorphic dog.  Etc.)

The thing was, Helix were not villains.  They did do some bad things (kidnaping Fury, causing lots of property damage and stealing a car), but for the most part, they were like teenagers would be if you gave them powers: reckless and irresponsible.  They just wanted to have fun, and their idea of fun involved mayhem and super-powered antics.  They had never interacted with society before, but they'd watched plenty of TV and based their view of reality around it.

However, their strongest characteristic was their deep bond with each other.  None of them were blood-related, but they'd grown up together, and they put their bizarre little family first.  Mr. Bones was actually kicked out of Helix by Penny Dreadful, and they were a couple.  Why?  Because Bones was willing to use lethal force against Helix when they were under mind control and prepared to commit murder.  Because to her, nothing justified that kind of action against family.

And in Cry for Justice #4, she attacks Arak for getting ready to blab about their employer.  This is so out of character that I am convinced that Robinson had never heard of her until he stumbled across her in a Who's Who while looking for people to kill to amp up the "drama" of this series.

Sort of like Freedom Beast was killed off for artificial drama.  I don't even like Freedom Beast, and it still ticks me off that Robinson killed him off like that.  Now Penny Dreadful's been added to the list of the dead, and it looks like the list will only get longer.

I'm starting to think that Robinson is setting aside his talent in favor of cheap ploys like shock deaths.  It's a shame, because Robinson can be an amazing writer.  Just look at his run on Starman.

Heaven help us now that he's writing Justice League.  If he writes it like he writes Cry for Justice, expect a lot of angsting, out of character behavior, heroes acting like a-holes and shock deaths of characters who we never get properly introduced to.