Being a serious list of twenty things that bother me a little/worry me a lot about this book.
1. The opening scene, in which Hal Jordan just out-of-the-blue announces his intentions to go form a new Justice League. It conflicts with the scene where Ollie and Hal starting planning an idea for revamping the Justice League in Final Crisis: Requiem AND the scene where Dinah confronts both Ollie and Hal on their plans to form a new Justice League in Dwayne McDuffie's JLA.
2. For that matter, the fact that Dwayne McDuffie's JLA was depth-charged for nearly two years, due the build-up for this mini-series.
3. Hal calling Superman Kal instead of Clark. I don't see modern Hal as being that formal and I don't see modern Superman going by his Kryptonian name among his team-mates.
4. Hal addressing his complaints about the team to Clark and Diana... even though Dinah was still the JLA chair at the point this story took place. Way to marginalize the Pretty Bird, Hal!
5. Ollie talking like Austin Powers; "No, baby. I'm with you. You and me. Old times. New times. All the times."
6. How the above dialogue also inspires thoughts of bad fan-fiction that gives new meaning to the "Hard-Traveling Heroes" moniker.
7. What's Supergirl doing in the background here? She's not a JLA member.
8. The whole thing with Ray Palmer raping a sinus cavity. Just makes me feel icky.
9. Someone as smart as Ray going after an Omega-Level threat like Prometheus - alone. Okay, I wouldn't bet on someone as arrogant as Prometheus having an anti-Atom plan... but then again, this guy is the evil Batman, so he might. Either way, take some back-up.
10. Opal City has all night funeral homes?
11. The first character we actually see dead "on-camera" in this book and it's a Black man. *sighs* James, you're usually so good about dodging these cliches.
12. Mikhal Tomas blows up a random car while screaming about how he wants justice. What about the justice for the guy whose car you just trashed? Jerk!
13. The fact that Congo Bill's call to action here is awfully close to Catman's call to action in Villains United.
14. The fact that Freedom Beast, who has a connection to The Red as well as enhanced speed, strength and stamina, couldn't take on a few poachers without getting fatally shot.
15. Two human characters have died in this book so far... and they're both Black.
16. Also, the (hopefully) unintentional connotations inherent in the fact that all the deaths in the book thus far involve African men and gorillas.
17. And that the savior of the gorillas is a White Man in the body of a blond-haired gorilla.
18. The fact that we're already 1/6th of the way through this mini-series and we haven't introduced a goodly portion of the team members to the audience, much less introduced them to each other and formed the team proper.
19. None of the female team members got introduced in this first issue. Seems a bit unbalanced.
20. I'm actually disappointed in a James Robinson book.
I've been seeing the opening pages attached to some of my other DC titles recently, and I'm glad I went with my gut and avoided it. It just seems like unneeded mucking about.
ReplyDeleteAnd Dinah gets ignored again. That's almost as bad as GA/BC #21 where she moaned about being so bad with technology. Oh, Dinah, you blonde! ::eyeroll::
Point of clarity; the idea of Dinah being a bit of a techophobe has been around for a while and has been played with by Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone.
ReplyDeleteHowever, neither of them worded it so poorly as the GA/BC guy. They made it clear that Dinah isn't comfortable with computers without making it sound "Math is tough! Let's bake cookies for the boys!" :P
But yeah... you'd think as long as this has been in the works, they'd have made sure that what Morrison and McDuffie wrote had SOME relation to the first few pages of what Robinson had written...
7a. Neither is Ollie, IIRC?
ReplyDelete21. If the previews are right; Dinah's in her Mum's costume for some reason?
I'm pretty deep into the DCU from childhood forward, and even I had trouble picking up on some of the points from the book. I had to go look up who the guy in the coffin was.
ReplyDeleteEverything about why Ollie went off with Hal at the end seemed really wrong to me. Comparing it to the trip across America was completely spurious as the two journeys have NOTHING in common aside from who is doing the travelling. Really, you could drop Bwanna Beast and Plastic Man in a big green bubble and have the same dialogue and it would make about as much sense.
Ugh ... and then the material put at the end of the book by Robinson was completely pretentious. You don't start a series that you want to be impactful by saying "Oh I want this to have an impact." Ugh.
I really wanted to see this book work. I wanted to see Hal and Ollie out there kicking ass and have it mean something. But right now, I think I'm out.
Ugh ...
Right on both counts.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think twice about those points. In Ollie's case, I didn't think about it since he is in the JLA Reserves but Kara never was. In Dinah's case... well, they keep depicting her in the classic comic on the cover of her own book... or with an unzipped top....
I'm pretty deep into the DCU from childhood forward, and even I had trouble picking up on some of the points from the book. I had to go look up who the guy in the coffin was.
ReplyDeleteI didn't. But then again, Starman is my favorite series of all time.
Everything about why Ollie went off with Hal at the end seemed really wrong to me. Comparing it to the trip across America was completely spurious as the two journeys have NOTHING in common aside from who is doing the travelling.
Well, finding America is about as nebulous as finding Justice, so they have THAT in common.
Really, you could drop Bwanna Beast and Plastic Man in a big green bubble and have the same dialogue and it would make about as much sense.
...
I would so totally read that book!
Ugh ... and then the material put at the end of the book by Robinson was completely pretentious. You don't start a series that you want to be impactful by saying "Oh I want this to have an impact." Ugh.
Well, EVERY writer wants their work to have an impact, so I didn't think that was as pretentious as it was uninsightful.
I really wanted to see this book work. I wanted to see Hal and Ollie out there kicking ass and have it mean something. But right now, I think I'm out.
I thought I was too. But in the wake of the revelation that Robinson is taking over JLA for reals... again... I dunno. If what I've heard is true, this book won't wind up having any effect on that... but I dunno if I wanna chance it.
I don't know a lot about JLA politics, so I'll go with that answer regarding Ollie - anyway, life membership is life membership, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe unzipped costume drives me mad in her book as well, but this time with the choker and the jacket, it was so obviously the wrong costume I was almost sure they'd mention or explain it.
Not as weird as the mask she wore to Big Barda's funeral, though.
I forgot about the mask. I'd say maybe it was a superhero funeral tradition, like the missing man formation... but we've seen too many hero funerals where Dinah wasn't wearing a mask.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was laundry day? :)
Or maybe Dinah occasionally does wear her mom's old costume when she's feeling sentimental or just feels like going with the classic? There's no law that says you have to wear the same uniform every day. And she seemed to switch between the full bodysuit and the Kevlar One-sie that showed off her legs pretty often in Dixon's Birds of Prey.
As for the rest...
JLA Membership isn't really lifetime membership... but I believe that unless you get kicked out, it's generally understood that you're welcome to use the Watchtower facilities or call a meeting if there's an emergency you think requires League intervention.
Of course, it COULD just be that Ollie was with Dinah when the call for a meeting went out and when he heard it was Hal calling it, he invited himself. I can totally see that happening.
How do people get to the Watchtower these days, anyway? Do they need to go through the front door, or are there teleporter spots around in various cities like there used to be? Or are the communicator devices also teleporter devices like - I can't think of a non-Harry Potter analogy - Portkeys?
ReplyDeleteIf the latter, maybe Ollie and Dinah were uh... out of costume when the call went out, and the teleporter's contact-based so not only did Ollie get pulled along, but they had to quickly find costumes, and Dinah hasn't changed the spare costume in the locker since the Silver Age.
You know, I'm not sure. Last I remember seeing anyone using a teleporter was in the Grant Morrison days when Connor had to hitch a ride at STAR Labs in Washington DC.
ReplyDeleteI know that had some type of teleporter tube set up at the Hall of Justice in Washington DC. I know that, at some point after that, they had personal teleportation capability which Booster Gold hijacked to power his delivery business.
I like your idea though - not only for the comedy potential but because that would also explain why Ollie is wearing the Robin Hood cap again instead of his costume with the hood.
About 12... I'm not sure, but I think that was his own car he blew up.
ReplyDeletenot even a tube. They got this thing called stepping slideways where if you walk through the right door suddenly you're on the satelite, then you're on the moon.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted to pick up this book because of the cast being used, but between the scene in the main book and the preview pages, I decided to skip it. Robinson's a good writer and all, but there are some characters he doesn't get. Or character interactions, I should say. The Superman/Hal convo back in Superman was pretty horrid.
ReplyDeleteOkay. Fine. No tubes. Same principle, really.
ReplyDeleteThat is possible.
ReplyDeleteHere's how sad this series is though; I'm more interested in the logistics of just how you go about getting a driver's license and a car loan in the DC Universe when you are the only survivor of a once-proud warrior race that is unknown on Earth, apart from you.
Mikhal doesn't have an SS. Or proof of birth or age. And unlike Jack, he isn't living fat off the Knight family patent fortune... as far as we know. And there's only so far you can go with "But I saved the city, once!"
I missed it. I haven't even looked at Robinson's Superman, having been scared off after glancing through the Krypto issue.
ReplyDeleteWas it Hal being ridiculously formal and Clark being all Silver-Age "I am Kal El of Krypton first?"
Maybe he got money after suing the circus people who kept him prisoner for years.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's possible, seeing as how the owner of the circus (Mr. Bliss) was a demon - presumably also without legal status - whom Mikhal and Jack blasted into nothingness.
ReplyDeleteEveryone else in the circus except Tor Johnson look-alike Crusher was just as much a prisoner/slave of Mr. Bliss as Mikhal was, so there was nothing to be gained from suing them. Even if you presume that said freaks weren't short of a shilling after deciding to form a shanty town outside of Opal called Freaktown.
And dammit - THAT would be an awesome series idea! As would a 'Peoples Court' style comic about legal disputes in the DC Universe.
DCU People's Court would be great if done Judge Judy style.
ReplyDeleteAnd this reminds me that DCU circuses are creepy and filled with crime. Look at the latest issue of Batman and Robin with the Circus of Strange guys killing cops. With so many crime circuses, demonic ringmasters, and murderous clowns somebody should do something. Even relatively normal circuses have tons of crime and murder happening in them. ust ask Nightwing.
This is why I fully support the Circus Registration Act. All circuses should be monitored, and if necessary, an anti-circus task force should be dispatched to capture them when they, inevitably, go evil.
Not to mention pre-Crisis, Jason Todd was a child of the circus.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, Boston Brand was killed as a result of circus crime.
And James Jesse? Ex Circus Star. Also, the Double Dare sisters.
I think you're on to something.
Worse. Superman was too casual, he spoke lightly of Jade's death and confused Hal for Kyle (he thought Hal was the one who dated her).
ReplyDeleteKnowing Hal, I wouldn't be shocked...
ReplyDeleteIn the name of all that is good and plenty, who is editing these books, nowadays?!