The Mount - JLA: Act of God, Part Three & The Problems With Birds Of Prey

Last month, I said that I'd finish talking about JLA: Act of God, the third and final part of which had yet to be released as of deadline time for Fanzing Numero Zero. Ironically enough, it came out on the same day that Fanzing Zero did.

With that explanation out of the way, I will be brief. The series showed promise at points, but except for a few scenes, the series was not really remarkable in most respects. And fairly horrible in others.

When last we left our scene, The Atom had just been killed after he lost control of his super powers and wound up expanding too quickly in between the atoms of a table. This loss of power was due to the result of Palmer's genes being tampered with by geneticists in the employ of Lex Luthor.

We cut to the apartment of Ted Kord, Mike Carter and Rex Mason (the former Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Metamorpho). They are quickly captured by Joker, Captain Cold and a host of other tech-powered baddies. Turns out ol' Boosty, in an effort to get back in the spotlight like Guy Gardner (who is now the best selling author of a book about his life's story) "came out" about his superheroism and sent his address and name out trying to find an agent.

Cut to the Batcave where the former Supergirl, Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter have adopted new identities with new gimmicks, now calling themselves Justice, Red Devil, The Hand and The Green Man. Under Batman's leadership, the new team begins investigating the genetics lab that was asking for metahuman volunteers. Linda's former police connections allow her to get into the lab and find a message The Atom scrawled out in the doll house he lived in while in the lab. This leads the Phoenix Group to start investigating Luthor, and with a little help from Oracle, discover that Luthor is working to corner the market on superpowers. By coming up with a metagene blueprint, hiring all the tech-powered villians and by mass producing the most powerful superhero technology (stolen from the labs of Steel, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle…) This makes up the main thrust of the rest of the plot, with the four new heroes working to take on Luthor, an army of supervillains, while Batman and other non-powered heroes watch from afar.

Had the book merely stuck with this plot, it would have been okay. Not good, but okay. But like in previous chapters, it is bad characterization in the subplots that sinks the book.

You may remember complaints I made last month regarding Superman's giving up on life in this story being far too out of character. Well, it gets even worse in this chapter, as Superman turns to the bottle and becomes a homeless bum. He later turns his life around after being helped by a priest in a shelter, eventually going to live in the wilderness for a while and then returning to work at the Daily Planet.

Diana, the former Wonder Woman, get the worst treatment of all this time around. Previously, we saw a woman who was as strong spiritually and emotionally as she was physically collapse into despair and then materialism. As this chapter opens, just before Diana and Clark break up, we see that Diana has apparently converted to Christianity and is now spending most of her time moaning to the heavens as to why her powers have left her.

There's another big question here that is totally ignored: what happened to all the gods of the Greek Pantheon? Did they die along with all the magic that apparently disappeared? And what about the magic heroes? We get a throw away reference to the magicians of the DCU being powerless too, but we never see any of them.

And there is no explanation given as to why Diana didn't just go back to the Island of the Amazons. Presumably the island is no longer magically hidden, but I doubt all the amazons would go into Man's World and assimilate themselves. I think the amazons could still defend themselves pretty well from any men who tried to take over the island.

The simple answer is that all these issues are being ignored so that we can focus on the idea that this is an act of God. Not Gods. And while it isn't too far fetched to think that someone as spiritual as Diana wouldn't seek comfort from whatever venue possible, no reference is made as to how Diana converted other than some throwaway line about being abandoned by Hera.

The worst is yet to come though. Near the end of the book, we see that Diana is contemplating suicide. She has pills strewn in front of her and holds a broken shard of glass to her wrist, before praying one last time… just before Clark shows up to ask her to be with him again. The Green Lantern subplot ends with a little bit less melodrama, in the same way that Rudy ends with less melodrama than Fatal Attraction.

We find that Kyle has been dumped by Jade and has now given up on getting the ring to work. No, we still never get any reason for why Kyle's tech-based ring isn't working. We do however get to see Kyle working out in several scenes that just beg to have "Eye of the Tiger" blaring in the background. Kyle eventually hears about Sonar committing another robbery in New York, and leaves his apartment to confront him.

Quick point here. It's kind of hard to tell based on how the story jumps around, but if we go in order, Kyle apparently spends several months working out with a punching bag in his apartment. Considering how obsessed he is with Sonar and how there is no Jade around to take care of the rent anymore, why hasn't he been kicked out on the street by now? Radu being unusually generous with the back rent? Or does Kyle have an NEA grant in this Elseworlds that is covering all his expenses?

I will say this. Kyle's fight with Sonar IS pretty damn good, if only because we get to see Kyle use the smarts and imagination he shows with the ring without it, using a fire extinguisher to short out Sonar's body circuitry. Of course Kyle wins the battle, but he ultimately loses the war; killing himself to stop Sonar. He, Steel and Atom are honored with statues, commemorating them as the three who never forgot what it was to be heroes.

And that leaves us with one final question and my final complaint. What caused the Black Light event? Was it really an Act of God? Did Luthor do it? Was it a freak accident? What reason was there for this story?

The purpose of the loss is explained on the last page, as being a lesson to show that "while the power of heroes power may fade, it can never die."

Okay. So our basic lesson here is that heroes may wind up becoming complete losers, idiots and slackers… but they are still heroes deep down? In an X-Men book, maybe… but not Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. Sorry. That kind of philosophizing isn't going to cut any ice with me.

And worst of all… even worse than the bad characterization, loose plot ends and unexplored ideas is… the fact that Jack Knight is on the cover of this book, but he doesn't appear once in the story! (Okay… that may just be my personal beef…)

Is your bile raised yet, my children? Then continue on to…the new business.

Bird of Prey?: The Problems With BOP

And now, the new business.

First of all; if you are a die-hard fan of Chuck Dixon, Barabra Gordon or Nightwing, you would be well advised to sit down and take your heart medication before reading the rest of this issue.

All set? Okay. I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

Ready?

Here it goes…

Birds of Prey could be a lot better.

Okay, now before I get hate mail from half the regulars on the Dixonverse board and become tarred and feathered with the title "the Anti-Anti-Anti-Dixon", let me explain a few things.

First of all. I love Birds of Prey. It's one of my favorite books. I subscribe to it, and I genuinely believe that it is consistently one of the best books every month.

I come to praise Caesar, not to bury him.

So how can I call it lousy? Well, I have a few reasons…

1. Black Canary? Where?

Okay, this may come as a shock to a lot of you, but Black Canary isn't really a part of the book. Okay, she IS in most every issue, kicking butt and taking names… not necessarily in that order. But Dinah as a character is never really there. There's very little sign of the witty warm woman whom we saw in Grell's "Green Arrow" or even the old O'Neil and Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow. Dinah's basic purpose in every story is to act as the leg woman (no pun intended) for Barbara Gordon. The Archie Goodwin to Oracle's Nero Wolfe.

We never really get to see any sign of Dinah's life outside of working for Oracle. In fact, aside from a scene in BoP #15, we never really see Dinah at home relaxing. And even then, Dinah's relaxation is short-lived when she has to intervene to help a battered woman. The only other indication of a life outside her work takes place when Dinah is "on vacation".

To Dixon's credit, he did have fun with the idea of "danger on vacation" in BoP #25 when we get various splash pages of Dinah reacting to things "off-camera" and then pulling back to reveal that what seems like a reaction to danger is actually something harmless.

Regardless, we never get to see Dinah outside of her work. Which is really a shame because while Dixon is the acknowledged master of the action scene, he also has a gift for dialogue and relationships that is rarely seen. Sadly, most of that gift has been used on Barbara, to very good effect. Dixon built a relationship between Barbara and Ted Kord (yes, the Blue Beetle himself) that was a real joy to read.

2. The Amazing Oracle…

Most of the time, the stories in this book center in on Oracle. You won't hear me complaining about this. I'm the biggest Babs fan you'll find. But I'm also a Dinah fan, and sometimes Dinah does get the short end of the stick when it comes to story time.

Case in point: how many of the major story-lines in BoP did Babs have a direct personal tie too?

Give up? Nearly all of them. In the first storyline, Babs' old fiance, Jason Bard was in harm's way along with Canary. Issues 16 and 17 had Babs directly confronting the Joker for the first time since her crippling in "The Killing Joke". Issue 19 was centered totally on Babs' social life. The following Hunt for Oracle storyline was, again, centered on Babs with Dinah taking the sidekick role. And last month's 27 was totally focused on Babs' dealing with her father being shot, with not a Canary to be seen.

And then… there's the great, the classic, the now highly collectable BoP #8. A touching story about the love between Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. And I'm afraid, my dear Wingnuts, that this leads us to…

3. Birds of Prey: AKA The Adventures of Nightwing

At times, it seems like Birds of Prey is a second Nightwing title. Not that I would object to a second Nightwing title. In fact, get that petition to me and I'll sign twice! But I don't want a second Nightwing title at the expense of the ladies. For example, while BoP 8 was a brilliant story and should have gotten Chuck a ton of awards, it was also a Nightwing story and should have been in Dick's book.

Then again, Dick's adventures in his own book are so huge that it was inevitable that one book couldn't hold them all. This became evident in the Hunt for Oracle story, where the books crossed over for two months and a subplot for Nightwing (the hunt for a donor heart for Blockbuster) became the main plot for Birds of Prey for three months. This leads to my final complaint…

4. Too many dirtyword-ing crossovers!

It's been nearly a year now, since issue 18 and in all that time we have only had one issue of BoP that wasn't tied into some kind of a crossover. 19 was an intro into the events setting up the Hunt for Oracle (20-21). 22-24 were devoted to the search for a heart for Blockbuster in Gorilla City. 25, the one exception to the cross-over chain, was devoted to settling the matter of a romantic relationship between Babs and Ted. 26 was part of the GAWD awful "Batman Dies" series, where every single Bat-Book had to do some kind of story involving the Death of Batman. And as I said earlier, 27 was tied into the "Officer Down" storyline, and dealt entirely with Nightwing and Barbara with nary a Canary in sight.

Thankfully, as of next month… I can't complain about that last one anymore. We're finally back on independent storylines with Dinah going back in time to the days of the Vikings.

That said: I have an idea for a really great story. Let's get Dinah and Babs to meet, face to face and have a good long talk about their various scarrings. I mean, we wind up having a special issue every other month where Barbara has to deal with the stigma of being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Let's see Dinah talk about her life-affecting injury. I'm talking about her injuries from Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters that left her barren and without her Canary Cry. Think about what a great topic for a story that would be, all you writers out there!

And speaking of Green Arrow, meet me back here next time and I shall spin you a tale of the New Green Arrow book, which will hopefully be out sometime between when you read this and when I next sit down to write to you all.

Until then, happy trails.

The Mount - JLA: Act of God, Parts One And Two Review

This month… ("Month?", he thought as he typed the two words. "When was the last time we published this monthly?" "Oh, be quiet", said another voice. "We've already diverged from the story into some weird 'The writer talks to himself' mini-story and we're not even out of the first sentence yet." "Are you even sure you want to admit to having two voices playing in your head?" said a third voice before they were all silenced, and the writer started over.)

This time around your friendly neighborhood whine-and-moan man finds himself in a tight spot. One the one hand, I had planned to talk about a subject very near and dear to my heart: fans who criticize new directions and new characters before the changes take effect. On the other, I wanted to talk about two on-going stories (one of which that as of this writing has only had two of it's three parts released) and complain about it.

The possible hypocrisy of this was pointed out to me by David when I sent him the ideas, intending them to be separate columns. He suggested that it might however be possible to play off the irony of me spending half this space mocking fandom for what so many of us do… and then spend the other half indulging in it.

Well, I say to you what I said to him. What I do is a slightly lighter shade of your typical fan boy griping. I only complain about things that I have read and the stories I intended to talk about are ones that I have read. This is much different than, say complaining that the new Spectre book is going to suck because you don't like the idea of Hal Jordan as The Spectre. Or complaining that the upcoming plot where Superman finds out the truth about where he came from is stupid. And don't get me started on the endless discussion board arguments over Kevin Smith's qualifications to write Green Arrow, make movies, hold American citizenship, etc. None of these books have been released yet and we know nothing about what is going to take place in those books other than the occasional morsel leaked out through one of the many comics' news agencies.

Still, this did get me thinking… Is it wrong for me to critique a story before it is completed? Perhaps, but that is what a critic does. And it occurs to me, looking at my notes that I jotted down as I reread the books, that several times I note "Perhaps this will be explained in the final part". So it is not as if I am not letting you know that the story is as of yet unfinished. I feel like I've said it 37 times already.

Because I like to think of myself as fair and honest, I shall promise this now. The story in question is the three-part "JLA: Act of God". Only two parts have been released thus far. I shall discuss the third part in a later issue and will let you all know if it explains some of my concerns below.

The basic plot of "Act of God" is that some type of black light encircles the globe, temporarily shorting out all the electronics on the planet… and taking away the superpowers of every metahuman on the planet. Eventually, the electronics come back on line, but the superpowers don't… and the story covers what happens as a result…

*Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Hawkman and Steel are now the foremost heroes of this Brave New World.

*Captain Cold, Heatwave and all the other tech-based villains begin to make a killing…

*Lex Luthor, through a dummy company that promises to "restore" metahuman powers, starts trying to create a metagene blueprint so he can corner the market on designer superpowers, if and when he gets the blueprint.

*Everyone tries to move on as best they can.

*Some of the heroes begin to train with Batman and the other non-powered heroes, forming a new team unofficially called "The Phoenix Group"

What's not to like? Well, the concept is interesting… however, some of the characterization is deeply flawed… especially considering that some of the heroes involved have lost their powers for extended periods before…. here's a list of my major beefs.

1) Superman - He probably suffers the most of anyone in this story, both in loss and in characterization. More than likely, the more enterprising Superman fans out there can tell me exactly how many times he has lost his powers for an extended period or had to do without them. I alone can think of the end of "The Death of Superman" (when he faced Mongul and the Cyborg Superman while still weakened), The Final Night (lost powers as the sun went out) and the entire Blue Superman period where he lost all his powers when he was just Clark Kent.

But did losing his powers stop Superman from doing good deeds then? No! Even weakened, he still faced up to the Cyborg. He was still planning strategy during Final Night… he even volunteered to drive a rocket into the sun to save the Earth. In other words, Clark Kent is not the type of man who would stop helping people just because of a little thing like loosing superpowers, right?

Well, not in this story… the lost of his powers turns Superman into a depressed couch potato who can do nothing more than sit on the couch and watch the accomplishments of others. Eventually Lois dumps him because she is "in love with the man he was" (Translation: I'm sick of your whining). He moves in with Diana (so the two can "feel alone together"), but he remains a sad, unshaven lump on her couch, as Diana becomes the Wonder Woman of Wall Street….

2) Green Lantern - This is my major beef, me being a student of all things Green Lantern. Kyle goes full blown Howard Hughes when his ring stops working. He just locks himself in his apartment, checks the ring through a microscope (who knows what THAT will do)… and makes a small sculpture of Sonar, who soundly beat Kyle after he lost his powers in the middle of a fight, so that he can focus his anger and his mind on something when he tests the ring…

What's the problem? Well, this is totally against the grain of what Kyle is all about. Most would agree that Kyle, more than many other superheroes, has a greater sense of identity about who he is outside of the costume. In fact, I've heard many argue (not always complementary) that there is very little difference at all between Kyle hanging out with his friends and Kyle in costume. Heck, it took him forever to adjust to the idea of being a superhero in the first place…

So what happens? Kyle confines himself to his room and does nothing but study the ring and try to get it to work. He completely and totally ignores Jade (still his girlfriend in this story) as she tries to talk with him about the problem, get him out of the house… does everything to snap Kyle out of his funk short of showing up in the doorway wearing nothing but a suggestive smile and saying "How does this stir your imagination, sailor?"

We also never get to see Kyle acting in relation to the other characters in the story. It appears that Kyle spends an entire year thinking about nothing but becoming Green Lantern again…. though he still has the same level of five-o'clock shadow after "six months pass". Nowhere in that time do we see anyone else try to contact Kyle or get a hold of him. It could happen off camera, but it would be nice to see someone else (Guy Gardner or Alan Scott) come by to check on Kyle, if only to have him scream "Leave me alone…"

Ignoring character issues, there is one big whopping question that is ignored here. Kyle's powers come from a ring. A tool. A weapon. The Most Powerful Weapon In The Universe, we're told. So why is it the ring stopped working if all the heroes who get their powers from technology are still running strong? It's alien technology, but it is still technology. Unless something happens in the third act that explains what exactly caused the Black Light Event, like a complete disconnection from The Source… well, this just looks like sloppy research.

And on that note…

3) Hawkman - Not really a complaint, but just an odd note. This IS an Elseworlds so we can have a Hawkman. We don't, however, get told who he is. It can't be Katar, because racial powers were eliminated in the Black Light event as well as metagene powers. Superman loses all his powers, Aquaman can't breath water anymore and J'onn is stuck in his natural Martian state. Theoretically, a Thangarian's wings would fall off or be absorbed into their body. Of course it could be Carter Hall with his special mechanical wings…or a new Hawkman with those wings, but we never hear anything for certain.

4) Cyborg Superman- He's among the tech-based villains who start causing chaos when most of the heroes are forced into retirement. Thing is, I thought that his powers came from a metahuman ability to meld with technology….so he should have just fallen apart, right?

That's not to say I'm not enjoying the story. As I said, the premise is intriguing…and if nothing else this story is good for a few comedic moments, such as Plastic Man's reaction to the news that Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are now among the most powerful men on the planet. Or the moment where J'onn watches a televangelist preaching that the superheroes were "fallen angels or demons" and wondering out loud why it is that he cherishes about the "Earth Culture". (Of course J'onn is hardly unique. I wonder the same thing watching preachers - and Jerry Springer)

And speaking of things that make you wonder, the crisis continues on Catwoman. I read the most recent issue after months of boycotting the thing only to find that Catwoman has apparently become a second Harley Quinn monthly title. Quite a feat considering that her first monthly started only three months ago.

Seriously, the story of the new Catwoman issue involves Harley pitching an idea for a cartoon based on her, Catwoman, and Ivy to some Kids TV executives. Why? Who knows? The whole story is done purely for laughs. Granted, some of the story is funny… but why a Harley story like this is taking up space in Catwoman is beyond me…

Well, that's all for this mon… this time around. And just so you know… things are a-ok at the comics shop now. They got my subscription problems fixed… I'm a happy little geek again.

A special thanks to Will and Tim for answering some questions about the Cyborg.

Oh, and to all you critics out there? The Spectre #1 and the first issue of the Superman arc restoring the pre-Crisis Krypton came out the day I wrote this… and they were great!