I wanted to get this done before Thanksgiving, and DC obliged by having only one new issue of their ALL IN initiative once again. I’m sticking with the “first issue” theme, so that’s the way it is!
Justice League Unlimited #1 by Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher. “Also featuring Batman: Hush 2 Prelude by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair,” oooooohhhhh!!!!!! $3.99, 22 pgs.
DC’s “Justice League For All” thing that they’re doing here confuses me, as I noted last week (well, ok, a few days ago) with The Question #1. Don’t these people have lives? Why would they live in a City in the Sky? There’s a lot of action in this book, and that’s cool, and Flash gives Air Wave (meaning, us) a tour of the Big-Ass Satellite, and I’m fine with the lab where the Atoms are trying to figure out what’s going on with the heroes’ powers, because that’s something that would be easily done on the JLB-AS. But a page earlier, we see … the gathering room? The cocktail party room? Various heroes (sans cocktails, needless to say) standing around looking like they’re at a high school dance and the teachers haven’t forced the boys to ask the girls for a spin yet. What the heck are they doing? Why aren’t they on Earth, patrolling their various cities? Or, you know, doing civilian things like having a job (presumably Gar Logan or – hey, is that fucking Ragman at the mixer? – aren’t independently wealthy like Bat-dude and need to, you know, pay rent occasionally) or playing a rousing game of tchoukball. The idea of a “Literally Every Hero Ever Justice League” is … ok, I guess, but it seems like it needs to be thought through a bit better. I just don’t buy that all these heroes would be just hanging out on the JLB-AS waiting for a crisis to occur that requires their specific skill set (“Oh, no, Rory Regan – all the ascots in Thailand have come to life and are threatening the tourists, get on it!!!!!”) instead of, you know, living their damned lives. But what do I know?
Waid knows how to write a comic book, though, so this is a pretty good one. Some arrogant, evil group is wreaking havoc in South Africa for a good reason (I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t), and Red Tornado – who’s in charge of the Hero Dispensary – sends a bunch of JLers to fix things, and they do. Waid does a nice job bringing Air Wave into the mix – he arrives on the Satellite as our POV character, gets a quick tour (so we can see what’s what), and then figures out how he can be of use to the good guys on the ground in Africa. The fact that Waid then drops a nice bombshell about him on the final page doesn’t change the fact that he’s used cleverly in this comic. Meanwhile, Batman and Blue Beetle (hey, I thought he was supposed to be helping Renee out with policing the Satellite????) head to Costa Rica, and they see something that might force Ridley Scott’s lawyers to get involved. It’s only 22 pages (I’m not counting the “Hush 2 Prelude”), but Waid knows how to cram a lot of action and intrigue into comics, so this zips along nicely. There are some small missteps – Black Lightning seems weirdly condescending to Star Sapphire, considering she’s been around longer than he has – but it’s not a big deal. This is just a solid superhero comic, which is not surprising, given that it’s Waid.
Mora also does his terrific work, so that’s nice. The action is well done, and while it’s a bit frenetic, it’s never unclear what’s going on, which is always a good thing. Mora is just a really good artist, and it’s nice that he’s doing such good high-profile work for DC. Bonvillain is the stealth hero of the art team, as I assume she’s responsible for quite a bit of the effects, from Flash’s zippiness to Firestorm’s Kirby-esque Krackle to the weirdness in the Costa Rican forest, and the book just pops nicely. Whenever I see Bonvillain’s name, I’m reminded that I first saw her work on a pretty keen Bigfoot comic, and she’s come a long way since then. The art on the book is very nice, and it helps the comic get off to a slam-bang start.
I was assuming that this would follow up with the Darkseid attack from the ALL IN Special, but I guess that’s on the back burner for now or is just going to be ignored until DC remembers it and says, “Oh, shit, that’s a thing.” But Waid is going a different way for now, with his new evil group – I don’t love evil groups that announce themselves to the world, as the evil group does in this book, especially when you’re doing it to Superman, but whatever – and we’ll see where it goes. This is a keen comic, and as long as Mora is drawing it, I’ll probably be ALL IN with Justice League Unlimited!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Once again, we’re one and done with DC this week. Will they pick things up just a bit in December? Only they know for sure!!!!!
I enjoyed JLU, and I’m sure it will be fun to read as a trade…but after 6 weeks, the only books I’ll be seeing through are Waid’s AC arc and Batman & Robin: Year One
I’m glad JLU turned out well since that was the All In book I was most interested in. Mora has been one of my favorite artists for awhile and I’m glad he’s keeps getting bigger and bigger stages to shine. He kind of reminds of John Byrne art wise in how he just gets super-hero art and how fast he is.
Any thoughts on the Hush 2 Electric Boogaloo back-up? I’m an unabashed Jim Lee fanboy so I’m very excited to see what Jim is going to do.
Haven’t read this but will probably get the trade. I’m cautiously optimistic. Waid getting to play with the full DC toybox should be a slam dunk. But that said, we’re, what, 4 or so trades into World’s Finest and it never quite clicked for me. But I like the idea of JLU focusing on some more obscure characters and (hopefully) shorter stories. And it should appeal to people who liked the cartoon but also folks who liked the original Gardner Fox stories.
I like Mora’s art a lot, and it feels as if the aesthetic of DC Comics now orbits around him.
“What the heck are they doing? Why aren’t they on Earth, patrolling their various cities? Or, you know, doing civilian things like having a job”
Don’t you remember Greg? Super heroes are forbidden from having secondary plots, supporting characters or character development. I mean, they can’t marry or anything because if they have to worry about a job they don’t have enough time to punch things. Superheroes are only good for punching stuff!
Nothing else, no job, no life, no worries, no thoughts. Only punching stuff!
I’m old enough to remember Wonder Woman working at a fast food joint. Good times!
While who knows in DC current continuity, Garfield originally had a sizable inheritance — I doubt his Guardian Galtry managed to rip all of it off. Or possibly adoptive father Mento gives him a fat allowance (again, no idea of current status on such things).
Ha! I knew that whoever I picked, they’d have some weird reason that they have all this money so they didn’t have to work. Apparently, the only bar to being a superhero is that you have enough money to be a superhero! 🙂