Posted by darren in Comics
As the Justice League remains helpless on Earth-Three the JSA begin to plot how they will repel the Crime Syndicate’s invasion of Earth-Two, when the Earth-Three villains transport into the JSA headquarters via the globe Doctor Fate used to view where the JLA are being held captive.
Remembering the JLA’s warning to the JSA that they should not let the Crime Synidcate touch them and say their magic word of “Volthoom!” the JSAers are forced to find ways to defeat the villains in unique ways.
Johnny Quick uses his speed on Hawkman to get the winged wonder to get back down to Earth. As Hawkman resists, he decides to instead fly full force and knock Johnny Quick out with a massive punch. Unable to say the word, Hawkman believes he has won this battle.
Doctor Fate defeats Power Ring with the animals of the zodiac while Dr. Mid-Nite uses his blackout bombs and a bit of brain power to finish his battle with Owlman.
Black Canary is able to use one of her “freeze pellets” in her cameo (yeah cuz its really got room for a whole bunch of crime fighting equipment up in there), and put that down Superwoman’s throat, causing her vocal cords to “freeze up” so Superwoman cannot say “Volthoom!” Black More >
Posted by darren in Comics
It is that time again when the Justice League of America title is home to another earth-shattering Crisis tale.
This time the tale introduces another Earth and another group of analogues to our mainstay characters.
Earth-One
Earth-Two
Earth-Three
Superman
Superman
Ultraman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Superwoman
Batman
Batman
Owlman
Flash
Flash
Johnny Quick
Green Lantern
Green Lantern
Power Ring
Before we get into the meet of the story, let us make sure we understand a few things.
Analogues are those characters that are duplicates of another character in another Earth or Dimension. They share enough traits that they may seem identical or similar to another character.
Superman of Earth-1 and Earth-2 are both depowered by Kryptonite while Ultraman of Earth-3 is powered up when he is exposed to Kryptonite.
Wonder Woman of Earth-1 and Earth-2 are both wielders of amazing amazonian strength, so is Superwoman, but her name has changed. In addition Superwoman carries a lasso with powers completely different than Wonder Woman’s.
Batman of Earth-1 and Earth-2 are both very similar, as is Owlman. The main difference is the symbol that each chose in order to don their costumed persona, instead of a bat flying through a window, it was an owl.
Flash of Earth-1 and Earth-2 have similar powers but dissimilar costumes. Johnny Quick of Earth-3 has a costume similar More >
Posted by darren in Comics
There is perhaps no word more evocative of the DC Universe experience than “Crisis”.
Crisis as defined by Dictionary.com is as follows
cri·sis
[krahy-sis] noun, plural -ses [-seez] adjective, noun
1. a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.
2. a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic,political, or
international affairs, leading to a decisive change.
3. a dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’slife.
4. Medicine/Medical .
a. the point in the course of a serious disease at which a decisive change occurs, leading either to recovery or todeath.
b. the change itself.
5.the point in a play or story at which hostile elements are most tensely opposed to each other.
In the DC Universe, the word Crisis is reserved for a specific type of story that is going to change the status quo. As with serialized fiction, like soap operas, literary series or movie franchises, it is sometimes rare that anything will happen of significance to the main characters. This is especially true of comic book characters. While actors on soap operas may leave and be replaced by another actor, or tv.movie franchises replacing their leads like with James Bond or Doctor Who, with comics the characters have a look and they never seem to change.
Sure for a lark, you may see a new costume on a character, or the character might move to a new city or a new focus for the series may occur, but these usually come and go with a change in writer, artist, or editor on the book in question.
The Crisis stories start off rather tame and then go off into more intense tales as they move forward.
The great majority of the Crisis stories comes from More >
Posted by darren in Comics
In the Detroit JLA, our new heroes are confronted with a villainous judge known as The Overmaster who gives assorted individuals super powers in order to see exactly how the native species will react. Needless to say Overmaster has frequently destroyed less than satisfactorily performing species.
Giving a chance to give the Detroit JLA to stretch its legs and really break from the previous pattern of Justice League of America stories in which the formula was rather simple.. follow it with me.
- Trouble occurs.
- A Justice Leaguer is a witness or is called in by the local authorities.
- The assessment of the threat is such that the JLA member realizes that he/she/they cannot possibly defeat the menace themselves.
- They reach for the JLA Signal Device.
- The gathered heroes assemble at the location of the incident or their headquarters for a briefing.
- The heroes either then in mass or in teams take on the investigation.
- The heroes are either altogether or individually defeated.
- A key piece of information is discovered and/or backup is called.
- The JLA goes and kicks some ass.
- End scene.
Simple right?
The problem with this plot structure is not only monotony, but it left very little room for characterization or the advancement of the heroes. The main stumbling block to this issue was the fact that life changing
More >
Posted by darren in Comics
From the cover you can tell things are ugly when heroes are battling a hero. The Martian Manhunter makes his first appearance since JLA #200 only to be able to barely warn the Justice League that the entire Martian fleet is coming to invade Earth in a territory grab set up by one of J’onn’s military bretheren.
The Justice League fights back, but again the big guns are missing. No one can contact Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, or Flash. The remaining Leaguers are horribly outmatched for an army of telepaths who have the same strength levels of Superman and Wonder Woman.
Yes, its a bad day for the JLA.
Martian Manhunter comes through in the end and the JLA defeat the menace, with Martian Manhunter exiled to Earth by his own people to keep the truce.
It is at the end of this story that the only active and present active member of the Justice League of America decides the JLA must change.
Aquaman announces this in the Justice League of America Annual #2
Citing the lack of strength of the current JLA, the League is disbanded and reformed immediately after by those heroes who can make a full time commitment to the Justice League.
Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, and More >
Posted by darren in Comics
That title looks pretty ominous doesn’t it? Well, it is.
The Justice League of America as a title had been struggling in sales, with other group books becoming more popular year after year like Marvel’s X-Men franchise and DC’s New Teen Titans and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The JLA formula had pretty much consisted of a formula where a bad thing would happen + one or more members would discover the problem independently + hero(es) realize they need help + call in the JLA + problem solved.
While this formula works for a 30 minute episode of Super Friends, as the comics audience matured, so did their need for more interaction in plots. However the writers of JLA have a unique problem, they cannot really do much to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc.., as those heroes are appearing in their own books where they have major changes originate.
This leaves the JLA writer able to change those characters not appearing regularly or the “B characters” Green Arrow, Black Canary, Atom, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, and Zatanna. (Firestorm was still appearing in his own title while he was in JLA).
DC saw what comics readers were attracted to, a group of characters that were more intensely intertwined More >
Posted by darren in Comics
The Justice League marches on from the shock of Black Canary’s new heritage and into a story that serves a few interesting purposes.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl, now Hawkwoman had been the stable married couple in the DCU prior to the Elongated Man and Sue Dibny on the scene, but a story in World’s Finest Comics which was an anthology at the time broke the couple up for a trial separation for a time with Hawkwoman leaving Earth and Hawkman staying behind.
While Hawkwoman was off taking some “me time”, Hawkman grew rather lonely and despondent. This JLA story reunites the two of them into the team again and resolves Hawkwoman’s feelings for Hawkman.
Firestorm also has a love subplot for he falls for one of the enemies who is a reluctant participant in the goings on, but mayhaps I am skipping ahead.
I’m sorry Reena, the role of Catwoman has already been taken in this Universe.
There is an arena where only the rich of the rich go for entertainment. Inside this arena, it smells heavy of animals and blood. Here men geared up like gladiators are forced to fight strange beasts. All under the guise of Rex Maximus.
Rex and his gang are the Animen. A group More >
Posted by darren in Comics
In the history of the Justice League of America, since issue #21, the JLA has teamed up with the JSA for a team-up which would usually involve a “Crisis” (there’s that word again) and that Crisis would frequently involve one world’s issues bleeding into another.
However, DC also has a practical problem, one that plagues them today as well. Characters from the Golden Age of Heroism are still wandering around in your 1984 comics as if they are still 40 years old. Even if the original Flash or Green Lantern was 18 when they started their careers as heroes earlier in 1941, that would mean that they were born in 1923. It is now 1984. These characters are now 61 years old and still are functioning as heroes, which is fine on Earth-Two.
They had another problem too, only Wonder Woman was a popular female character and due to story reasons she has exited the Justice League. The League had become a “boys only” club, and there were no good female candidates to take Wonder Woman’s place who did not already duplicate other characters like Supergirl or Batgirl.
There was this ONE character though from the 1940s, the Black Canary, a beautiful judo expert who might fit in More >
Posted by darren in Comics
With the waning of super-hero popularity in the 50s with the end of the war, western themed heroes had found their way into America’s hearts. Comics were then as they are now a reflection of the popular trends of the time
So, from left to right in this Justice League story is Bat Lash, Cinnamon, Jonah Hex, and Scalphunter facing our modern day gunslingers, Flash, Zatanna, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man.
Most of the Wild West characters have the same set of sensibilities. A matter-of-factness about them that modern sensibilities consider blunt or even rude. Most know how to use a gun, survive in the harsh climate of the West, ride horses, etc.
From there the skills get a little more diverse. Some are excellent trackers, while others are more educated and can do something we take for granted, read. Some are gamblers and others have had extremely hard lives and are not trusting of anyone near them making allies a very difficult prospect.
Bat Lash is a colorful character cut from the Mississippi riverboat card sharks. Always an eye for a profit or a pretty gal, Bat Lash is more a rogue than the typical white hats of the Wild West, but his heart is in More >
Posted by darren in Comics
Ahh, it’s good to be back home. I had a great time on vacation and now it’s time to dig into some plot points regarding our heroes in the Justice League of America.
When you regard continuity in a comic book universe, there are several ways to stage a story that does not fall chronologically into the greater continuity. The first is the “flashback” often referred to as the “untold” story or tale. Then there is the “What if?” genre, where you can tell stories about these characters, but that these particular stories are separate from the regular continuity of the characters…such as Clark Kent landing in Russia vs. the U.S.A., interesting concept, but it’s not the way the origin plays out for the “real” version of the character.
When juggling the myriad characters in a team book, it is important to keep in mind that your “A” tier characters are going to bring in the money, but really the main changes to those characters should take place in their own books and let those changes later be reflected in the team book. For the “B” characters, changes can occur in the team book as there is no regular place that they appear outside of a More >
