I have issues
January 30th, 2009 by jasonComics read since last time:
JLA #55-69
Most of the comics I read come from the library, which really is an incredible resource for trades and even single issues. I champion the library whenever I get the chance, showing people proudly that the trade paperback I’m reading came from one. “Libraries carry comic books?” they say, incredulously. “Why, yes!” I reply, telling them that I usually have fifteen or twenty checked out at any given time. Sometimes, however, that comes back to bite me on the ass, like when I have to plow through three JLA trades in two nights because they’re coming due in the next couple of days, and I’m unable to renew them, because someone else has one of them on reserve. I grit my teeth, though, and look at the bright side: people are looking for comics at the library, and requesting them. So while I usually like to read several different series, usually from different companies, sometimes I get quite a long stretch of a single title all at once.
This run of JLA finished out Mark Waid’s time with the team, followed by an issues by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, and now I’m well into Joe Kelly’s run. Grant Morrison is definitely a tough act to follow. Waid is decent, following up on Batman’s betrayal, with a storyline developed from a single line of dialogue, with half the league split from their own alter egos, playing off of what seems to be a throwaway line of dialogue. And another line of dialogue in this storyline becomes the basis for the next one, the return of the white martians. Waid’s entire run is very tight, practically interwoven together. Dixon and Beatty’s issue is part of the Joker’s Last Laugh crossover. I picked up that trade recently from the library, expecting a standalone Joker story, not realizing that it crossed into practically every title in the DCU. Interestingly, the asterisks had been left in letting me know where I could find some of the other stories that crossed into Last Laugh. Something which the JLA trades, and indeed most comic trades don’t seem to do. I’ve always thought this a little weird, as it would be a great promotional tool to get people to buy other trades. Is it that they figure people will be frustrated at not having the referenced comics immediately at their disposal? These are comics! For years, the asterisk was the starting point of a treasure hunt which had us wading through longboxes at comic shops and conventions, and staring longingly at backissues protected by mylar pinned up on the shop walls. The lack of notes is particularly annoying during Kelly’s run, which ran during DC’s Our World at War crossover. Events are mentioned about Wonder Woman not being a princess any more, Aquaman vanishing, and for some reason, the artist draws Superman’s emblem as red on black, rather than red on yellow. But there are no notes telling you where you could read more about what happened. Again, I feel a little hypocritical complaining about this, especially when I have all of the internet at my disposal to do research, but would it hurt to have an asterisk or some sort of annotation going on? If you’ve never read it, the Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths is a joy. Such scholarship went into that, noting just about every character in every one of George Perez’s drawings. Kudos to that effort, as well as the online annotations for just about everything Grant Morrison has ever written.
All of that said, I’m mostly enjoying Kelly’s run. He brings up some interesting themes, such as Wonder Woman’s dependence on her lasso as a source of truth, and what happens when she vehemently disagrees with that truth. I’m in the middle of The Obsidian Age arc, featuring the Justice League of 3000 years ago. Here, he’s turning the moral table on the JLA, it appears, making them face what role they have in a completely foreign morality. It seems a lot like a prelude to Justice League Elite, which he wrote a few years later, again drawn by Doug Mahnke, the artist on these JLA issues. I wasn’t a big fan of Mahnke in JLE, and I’m still a little disturbed by his proportions and style here. He does a good job at making people look unhealthy, and he seems a little obsessed with bugs and veins. From the notes section of The Obsisdian Age, I discovered that Mahnke is from Minnesota. I wonder if I’ve seen him at any of the conventions around here.
Tags: Chuck Dixon, Doug Mahnke, grant morrison, JLA, Joe Kelly, Justice League, Mark Waid, Scott Beatty