Justice Society of America #38 Review (Spoilers)

There have been many good time travel and alternate universe stories written throughout the history of comics.  This is not one of them.

The setting is Earth after the entire world has been taken over by a Neo Nazi Fourth Reich. Of course, readers know that this is going to be reversed at the end of the storyline, so there’s no reason to care about the characters who die or get injured.  We all know the Magic Reset Button is going to be pushed sooner or later.

Not only that, but the logic for how everything went to hell is laughable, even by comic book standards. I was instantly reminded of JLA: Act of God. (Although that might have more to do with the fact that Linkara is reviewing it currently.)

Heroes losing their powers through the powers of inane plot device? Check. Both technology and magic being effected in the exact same way, regardless of what previous continuity says? Check.  Blue Devil somehow loses his powers, even though he is a demon because of a deal with the devil!  The fact that Willingham wrote 16 issues of Shadowpact gives him no excuse for this stupid plot element.

Not only that, but this is Justice Society of America, and yet we don't see a single member of the JSA until halfway through the book!  Of the characters who are starring in the book, only one (Mr. Terrific) is featured prominently, while any others that appear are just there as background props.

Oh, and the idea of the Fourth Reich operating concentration camps in present day? I don’t care what various stories about dystopian futures say. There is no way there are enough people on Earth supporting such a regime for it to work.  With no super powers for anyone, the Fourth Reich is vastly outnumbered and outgunned. There is no logical reason why people couldn’t have fought back and won against them. Easily.

I give this comic a 2/5, and only because the art's decent.  And it's still extremely generous.

Blackest Night: JSA #1-3 Thoughts

You know, I get the impression that James Robinson was phoning it in for these comics.  What tipped me off wasn't the deus ex machina ending.  Or the fact that characters - particularly the women - were acting like morons.

What tipped me off was the mention of "Jamal Thunder".  His name is Jakeem.  Robinson didn't even bother to get the character's names right.  Thirty seconds on Wikipedia would have been enough to prevent that error.  There is no excuse for that sort of mistake.

James Robinson just didn't care.

JSA on Smallville

I watched Smallville for the first time last night.  My dad told me that the JSA was scheduled to appear, so I decided to give the show a chance.  (The JSA is my favorite DC team, so I'd probably give any show a chance if they appeared.)  Of course, I didn't realize it was a 2-hour event, so I only saw the last half.  Here are my thoughts on it:


Who the heck is Chloe?  Seriously, I have never heard of this woman before.  I'm assuming she was created for the show, because I have no clue who she's supposed to be.

The costumes and special effects are pretty bad.  But they're so bad they're good.  I laughed when I saw Clark's eye beams.  It's like the older live action superhero shows or movies, where the effects are cheesy but the cheesiness is part of the charm.  It gives the show a nice "retro" feel.

I love that they got Daniel from Stargate as Hawkman, although I really wish they hadn't gone with such a scratchy voice.  He's a good actor, but the voice made it hard for me to take him seriously.  And it's strangely appropriate that they got him to do the part, considering that Hawkman's known for being reincarnated, and Daniel was best known for dying and coming back to life.

I like that they included Stargirl, but I spent the whole time bashing the portrayal.  For one thing, she's supposed to be 16, and if that actress was 16, I'm Queen of England.  At least she's skinny and short, so as long as you didn't look at her face, you could almost pretend she was 16.

I'm sad that Jay didn't appear, although I understand why he didn't.  Same reason Alan Scott didn't.  If they'd been involved, the threat would have been over before the first commercial break (second, if they'd been taking they're time).

The writers obviously know that the comic reading crowd is an important part of their audience, so they're kind enough to throw in lots of comics references.  Kudos for that.


Overall I enjoyed the episode, even if I did get lost at points.  I'm curious about the rest of the series, and I'm tempted to watch some more.  I'm just not sure if it's worth watching 8 seasons of what appears to be, at its heart, a soap opera starring superheroes.

Rethinking Justice Society

I haven't been particularly impressed by Justice Society since Geoff Johns left.  But the most recent issue has made me rethink it and the past few issues.  (Spoilers in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .)

I still think the little "filler story" between Johns and the current writer is fairly bad.  (Although I'm eternally grateful that it was used to show that, in spite of Grant Morrison's better efforts, Director Bones is still alive and awesome.)  The issues after it are flawed, but the story arc is progressing and becoming more interesting as it goes.  Mr. Terrific's "death" was lazy, but the fact that the culprit was a character who has been established as a creepy multiple-murderer makes it slightly less cheap.

The split of the team wasn't great, but that seems to be due to editorial mandate rather than the writing team's idea, so I'll let it slide.  What can I say?  I'm a JSA fan, so in my mind, two Justice Society books are (hopefully) better than one.

The story seemed to quit meandering in the past issue, and it's managed to peak my interest just when I was starting to think the story was going to go in circles.  Johnny Sorrow is an awesome villain that I'd like to see more of . . . but his sudden fixation on Stargirl is more than a little creepy.  Heck, he was already unbelievably freaking creepy when he was fixated on Sand.  And depending on your interpretation, he might have actually raped Sand when he was still a young sidekick.  This makes his focus on Stargirl wrong on so many levels.  (Wrong, but definitely compelling.)

But why Stargirl?  If I recall correctly, she didn't interact with Sorrow at all during the storylines he appeared in.  I'm hoping an answer to "why Stargirl" is on the horizon, because I'm getting a little tired of the question going unanswered.  Because I can't see a good answer to the question, and if it seems like the writers pulled it out from where the sun don't shine, I'm going to be majorly ticked.

Even though I've spent a good chunk of this post complaining, I'm still feeling more optimistic about the direction that Justice Society is going than I have in a while.

I'm also crossing my fingers about JSA: All Stars.  Some of my favorite C-Listers are in that book and I really want to love it.  But I couldn't really tell from the first issue if the series is going to be any good.  I'm not much for "grim and gritty" so I guess I'll just have to wait and see.