Now I wanted to post this part on Wednesday but other things had come up. On Wednesday I had to go to Ludwigsburg but the woman from the unemployment office gave me bad directions so I spent over one hour and a half walking through Ludwigsburg having no idea where I had to go. In the end I must have walked three or four hours nonstop when I finally came home. So the next day I spent almost entirely in bed.
Additionally I had to burn a lot of my pictures for the blog and CGS mp3s and whatnots on CDs because my harddrive was becoming to convoluted. I found a site with lots of celebrities wallpapers that are safe to post because the pics belong to the public domain so prepare for more hot chick pimpin on this blog in the next months. But now I have 4,89 GB free space and the computer is superdefragmented. So here´s my little add on to this BEST LEAGUE EVER theme. If this was DAVE´S LONGBOX I would just call it BEST LEAGUE EVER WEEK but Dave posts more often than me - so the idea of a theme week does not make much sense for me.
The story I want to write about is PAIN OF THE GODS by Chuck Austen and Ron Garney.
Now Chuck Austen has gotten a lot of flack for his issues on Uncanny X - Men and most of it deservingly. I have read some issues in the german translation and they made me shout out : What the f&(§§$ ? Those were some horrible issues. And although I really loved Ron Garney´s work on Captain America he´s not on the same level in this six issues.
When I read in PREVIEWS that JLA 100 would be the last issue of Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke I thought about kicking the title from my pull list. There were two reasons I kept it on my pull list :
1. since it was announced that after Chuck Austen´s story Kurt Busiek would take over the title for a story that had the Crime Syndicate guest - starring and would pick up the events of AVENGERS / JLA.
2. the premise of the story sounded interesting and I do like Ron Garney´s art.
And I´m glad that I gave the book another chance because PAIN OF THE GODS is one of my favorite stories.
When Grant Morrison restarted the Justice League as the JLA his general approach was to put the seven big guns on the team and build them up as some kind of gods. The league was played like the greek pantheon and the heroes were picked to represent the different deities. In the course of the series the heroes of the Justice League became this big übergods who were almost unbeatable - especially Batman.
Now every writer has his own approach to the league and I really loved Grant Morrison´s run but what suffered a little was the fact that even if the heroes have superpowers to match the gods they ARE human on some level. And that is what PAIN OF THE GODS was all about.
Chuck Austen picked five of the league big guns : Superman, Flash, Green Lantern ( John Stewart ), Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman and he showed them on one of their worst days. The kind of day that´s not showed very often in superhero comics when the hero fails and often gives up his whole career because it´s more than he can bear.
He didn´t include Batman because to tell the truth Batman only has bad days. He goes through days that would break other heroes and just carries on. So for him it would be just business as usual.
So the story has like the single issues in which every hero has to face his personal crisis but you also have a subplot going through all the issue that starts in the Superman issues.
What I liked especially about the story is that it not only presents the heroes crisis´but also how they try to work through it. And that in turn shows you why superheroes band together in teams. Because there are some things that you can only talk about with another cape. Somebody once wrote that the only reason that heroes band together in teams is so they can tell themselves that the people are laughing about the other costumed guy. Whoever wrote this story should pick up PAIN OF THE GODS to get a clue.
In every gathering of people certain cliques begin to build. The cool people gang up, the rich people start their own thing and the freaks get left out. That´s how it is in school, it´s this way in any company you will be in and it´s also like this in a superhero team like the league.
Chuck Austen shows this really clever when the heroes have to deal with their worst day by who they seek to get some counsel. Especially the Wonder Woman issue. I guess there are only a few people on the team who know what´s it like to be in her position but since Jonn Jonnz is a little distant and analytical the only " human " person on the team she can really talk to is Superman - as strange as this sound.
Like I said I really like this story but it seems I´m the only person in Germany who does. Every other comic reader I talked to thinks this is one of the worst JLA stories ever. And I think this is in part because you can never trust readers or more to the point comic buyers and what they say they want in stories. It´s one of the lessons POWER FREAKS taught me that while readers MAY be bitching and moaning that they are fed up with the usual superhero comics with costumes that are totally out of date and they want comics that are made for the next millenium.....
......at the end of the day they prefer their Batman, Spider - Man or Hulk instead of taking a chance on some new book. And while the german readers are always on some rant that they want heroes that are more human, stories that show the human side of the heroes and they want something that is NOT your typical superhero story.....
....well, it seems that they prefer that stuff in Vertigo titles or at least on books like the Authority. Apparently it´s not accectable on the JLA. Because while they complain that the stories are just big superhero versus villain slugfests ( which they aren´t ) they don´t want it any other way. Because it hurts when they have to think. And they suddenly realize that they really hate the stuff they always demand to appear more literate and educated. They suddenly realize that the big slobberknocker punchfest is all they really want and the other stuff just is boring to them.
Okay, maybe I´m totally wrong about the german comic readers ( if I am please drop me a line ) but from the reviews I read in spanish comic magazines like DOLMEN or on the web I know that the story was recieved totally different and much more favorable by the spanish comic readers. Maybe it has something to do with the way of thinking but it seems there are some things that I have in common with the readers in Spain. Could be a cultural thing.
Now if you want to read a really good JLA story with art by Ron Garney that really delivers give PAIN OF THE GODS a chance. It´s been collected in a trade ( like that´s a big surprise ) and a comic book well worth your money. Who knows you may even get to like it and consider it the BEST LEAGUE EVER.
Last time I posted a jazz clip but today I just couldn´t remember the artist´s name I had in mind so I here are some clips from one of my favorite albums of all times : has beem by William Shatner. Now I may have mentioned it on this blog before and you may have thought : What the %&$?§§$ has SUBZERO been smoking ? Shatner ? Can he even sing ?
So if you don´t believe me that this album has the best music I ever heard here is the proof. Enjoy.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
What ? You thought we were already finished ? No, my fellow comic afficionado we´re just about to come to the best part.
Joe Kelly´s run on JUSTICE LEAGUE was met with mixed feelings from the fans. Some didn´t care very much for it - others ( like me ) really embraced it. So DC decided to put rotating art teams on the title ( the first one was Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Jerry Ordway ) while Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke did their own JLA thing in a seperat miniseries. After the storyarc THE TENTH CIRCLE which in turn lead into Byrne´s new DOOM PATROL series Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke did JLA issue 100 which led into the new JLE miniseries.
Mmmmh. I start to see a pattern.
The story in JLA 100 picked up the events that started in Action Comics 775 with the story WHAT´S SO FUNNY ABOUT TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY ? To today´s comicreading audience that is hooked on antiheroes like the Punisher and Wolverine and who´s heroes are serial killers and gangster rappers the whole ideology of characters like Superman seem quaint and too out of touch with reality. This also gave birth to comic series like STORMWATCH and later AUTHORITY by Warren Ellis and Brian Hitch that featured a new breed of heroes. The heroes in these pages took a more proactive role and were not too squeamish about getting their hands dirty - sometimes being more brutal and bloodthirsty than the villains they fought against. The only difference between the heroes and the villains seemed to be that the heroes were fighting towards a positive goal.
So in Action Comics 775 Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke introduced THE ELITE a super hero team much in the vein of AUTHORITY that didn´t much care for collateral damage and went toe to toe with Superman. It´s one of the best Superman stories of all time and it illustrates brilliantly why Superman is still important in our times.
JLA issue 100 introduced the reader to the second incarnation of THE ELITE after the original team had disbanded. The leader of the first team Manchester Black ( who was clearly influenced by Jenny Sparks from the Authority ) was your typical pessimist who could not believe in someone like Superman. And that´s something I have also encountered in a lot of comic readers I´ve met. It seems that in today´s " dog eat dog " world you must have a hidden agenda for everything. Everyone has become so selfish and egoistical that every selfless action becomes immediately suspicious. Doing something just because it´s the right thing to do - well, it seems that some people just can´t wrap their head around that.
Which brings us to Manchester Black who just couldn´t believe that Superman was the hero he seemed. He tried to break him and when he failed and found out that Superman was the real deal he took his own life instead of dealing with it.
Here´s a link to a more indepth look at JLA 100. Warning : it has some spoilers about Action Comics 775 and the events between Superman and Manchester Black !
The second incarnation of THE ELITE was lead by Vera Black, Manchester Black´s sister, and the members in JLA 100 were remaining original Elite member Coldcast and the original Menagerie´s sister. The premise of the new team was to build a secret undercover team of the JLA that took on the menaces and disasters were the JLA could not interfere because of political implications. Kind of a JLA black ops.
Of course the JLA was parted about this idea but some members of the league joined the JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE. Flash pulled double duty on both teams, Manitou Raven ( who had become one of my favorite league members ) and his wife Dawn, Major Disaster, Batgirl as the master assassin Kasumi and Green Arrow joined.
Another link, this time to a review of Justice League Elite 1 with only a few minor spoilers
The underlying motto of the book was like Nietzsche put it : If you look into the abyss the abyss is also looking into you. Like Marvel´s THUNDERBOLTS the book posed the question if it´s possible to wade through the filth of humanity without getting tainted. Can you really go undercover as thieves, killers and terrorists without getting your hands dirty ? How far can you go without going too far ?
Whenever you tell yourself to do whatever it takes to acomplish something - are you really prepared to cross certain lines ?
There is one brilliant episode in STAR TREK : DEEP SPACE 9 where Captain Sisko decides to use Garrak´s expertise as a former spy to get certain informations. And when he sets out to do it he makes it clear that he knows he will have to do some things he will not be comfortable with. He will have to cross some lines and he will have to do some awful things. But he tells himself it´s all for the greater good and that the ends justify the means. As always it turns out very differently than he expected and in the end he realizes that the spy game is far more ruthless and brutal than he ever could have imagined.
I know I´m beginning to sound more and more like the cliche - master but it´s true - the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The whole idea of the Justice League Elite doesn´t sit too well with the regular league. Superman still doesn´t trust the sister of Manchester Black, Batman puts Batgirl on the team undercover and even Green Arrow seems to be on the team for one thing only - to watch when they all fail miserably. But the $hit really hits the fan when their first mission goes terribly wrong. Tempers fly and every member is suddenly under suspicion. Joe Kelly masterfully ramps up the tension throwing this murder mystery on top of the problems of clashing egos and having to keep their covers intact. It gets increasingly harder to operate in enemies territory.
By the way, if you are going to read the story in the single issues be sure to read the SECRET FILES issue after issue 3 because it spoilers what goes wrong on their first mission.
One of the characters who really becomes a sympathetic character is John Booker a.k.a. Major Disaster which for me is a huge accomplishment of Mr. Kelly. I´ve never been a comic book reader who cared much for this whole " villain working on the side of the angels " idea that really has infested comic books. To me guys like Venom, Deadpool or Gambit are the bad guys. I know in their own books they are the heroes and they may see themselves as such but to really atone for your sins it takes alittle more than a halfassed " I´m sorry. I won´t do it again. " And there are some sins that can never be undone.
The only villain who turned into a good guy who was halfway believable ( halfway ! ) was Sandman. And even that was retconned. Anyway, maybe that gives you an idea how unusual it is for me to accept Major Disaster as a good guy. Props to Mr. Kelly.
Now the problem the heroes have to face is that on top of everything else an old aquaintance comes around again.
In comics people die. It has happened in the past and it will happen in the future. But in comics dead does sometimes not mean dead. They come back ( some more often than others ) get revived or just cloned. So this cover is not really a spoiler. You will have to read the issues to find out what it really means.....he, he, he.
Is it a dream ? A hoax ? An imaginary tale ? I´m not telling.
Looking at this brilliant cover I just realized that I haven´t said anything about Dough Mahnke´s art so far. It´s hard to believe that I´m a comic reader who goes for the art first and cares about the story seond. And the art in this series is really something else. It shows that Mr. Kelly managed to include all the things Dough Mahnke draws so exceptionally : aliens, monsters, freaky disgusting bug - things, Manitou Raven and his crazy magic things.....and so on and so on.
He even throws in the JSA but strangely Power Girl does not get much screen time.
I mean what´s the point ? The whole reason for guest starring the JSA is to have lots of gratious, sizzling shots of Power Girl in poses with hidden sexual meanings.
Or maybe that´s just me.
Okay, maybe I´m the only one who thinks they kind of dropped the ball on this one. Although I liked Power Girl´s commentary to Coldcast : " Come on. Stare at them. Makes it even more fun when I pound you. " She knows they´re watching. Heh.
Again the mission goes from bad to worse when they tackle the JSA but if that was not enough an extraterrestial gang has plans that could undo all of reality nad such things like Booker getting more and more out of control with his drinking seem like minor problems. The pressure on the team members keeps up building with the identity of the traitor on the team still unknown.
It doesn´t help much that Manitou Raven ( or is it Raven Manitou ? That has a better ring for me. Damn, I always forget ) finds out that his wife Dawn has been playing hide the tomahawk with Green Arrow. It´s just so typical of Ollie to wind up in bed with one of his married ( !!! ) team mates. Maybe she was lonely and yes her husband was much more interested in his magics but obviously Oliver just makes the same mistake over and over again.
It is understandable because Dawn is absolutely hot but you just don´t want to find yourself at the wrong end of one of Raven Manitou´s magical Superman - cutting axe - thingies.
Ooops. Too late.
Inukchuck.
And that´s how Green Arrow died a second time.
Only kidding.
What I really like about the series is that Joe Kelly is not afraid to bring the characters to the breaking point. Too often writers have a good build up and present their readers with a good dilemma only to cop out in the end and come up with a deux et machina solution in the end or hitting the reset button. In the end the hero has an easy way out and you end up frustrated and angry. In this series the heroes have to confront themselves to find out what they´re made of.
Because sometimes it has to get really bad and ugly before people realize which path they have taken. Sometimes people have to come to a point where they either triumph or break.
Okay, I´m going to wrap this up now. I don´t want to spoiler more than I have already spoilered for that just follow this link to a review of issue 12 with a nice overview about what has happened before
And if you still are not convinced that this is the BEST JLA EVER I can´t help you. For me this is the pinnacle, the holy grail Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke have been working to in their JLA stories. Characters that were introduced in the pages of JLA play an important role in this mini series that takes an interesting look at heroes per se and the Justice League especially.
The question if the ends really justify the means is one that should come up more often in comic books.
Being one of the fans who always liked the underdogs teams more I really enjoyed this crooked version of the JLA.
I just like the heroes who have the deck stacked against them, the ones without the " popular " superpowers, without the government funding and without the shining headquarters with the helipad. Yes, I read the JLA and the Avengers but I also enjoy the Defenders, the Secret Six or the Great Lake Avengers.
The only problem is that most writers are afraid to let the so - called " losers " win. Yup, it seems that the possibility to be a hero even if you are NOT goodlooking and NOT popular and NOT in the incrowd and NOT hip and all that shit is just to dangerous to ponder. No, the message that comic writers normally put into their books is that there are two kind of people. There are the cool people and they get all the fame and glory and white picket fences and their trophy wifes and their happy end. And there are the losers and no matter what they do or how hard they try they always stay losers. Even when they save the world and slay the dragon they are put into their place by the rest of the world.
That was one of the main reasons why I was so pi$$ed off at Dan Slott´s GREAT LAKE AVENGERS mini series besides the constant reader ( and comic creator ) bashing by Monkey Joe. Because although the team managed to save the whole universe they stayed losers. Not only losers in the eyes of the rest of the hero community which is totally understandable. They saved the universe and the others heroes just don´t know. So to them they are the same losers. No, what really got on my nerves is that they still saw themselves as losers.
And that´s something that toppled MY suspension of disbelief. When we started with POWER FREAKS everybody told us it was impossible. And that was even before everybody knew that it was a two - man show. Everybody told us it was impossible, everybody told us it hasn´t been done before and it couldn´t be done. We had to overcome a dozen of problems, fight against impossible odds and suffer numerous setbacks. It was like we were fighting the gods themselves who had sworn to crush us. We went to the limit of our possibilities - physically and mentally. And then we went beyond.
In the end we won. We did what everyone knew was impossible and we did it on time. We imposed our will on the gods. And that is something you never forget. Because that changes you. From that moment on you know just what you can accomplish and you will never believe another person again that something is impossible just because they say it is.
So imagine how you would change - not only in how you see the world but also yourself - if you had really saved the whole freaking universe. I know if I was Mr. Immortal the next time Captain America told me to stay out of a fight I would go : " Yeah, right. A big help you and your team of super hero wannabes were the last time the universe was in trouble. Like I´m going to just sit here and watch you fail. "
Okay, maybe I wouldn´t say it to his face. Maybe I would just mumble it. But I definetly would say it to Iron Man. And tell him where to put his Initiative.
Sorry for my little rant but that kind of thing just gets on my nerves.
Todays clip is a bit of jazz to relax a little after my rant. If you like it check out the RedJazz link that NOW leads to a webpage with links to other pages like the Jazz Video Podcast.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
Today I want to write about the comics I did reread : TRIAL BY FIRE by Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke. For me the secondbest story of the whole run.
What makes this arc so special for me is that it spotlights one of the most overlooked characters of the Justice League : the Martian Manhunter. Since he has been a member in almost every incarnation of the league he often is taken for granted. And because he´s such a peaceful character people forget what he really is capable of. Most of the time he gets a bad rap and is dismissed as a second - rate Superman knock - off. What most people forget is that Jonn Jonnz is on the same level as Superman.....plus he can become intangible and walk through walls. And he can become invisible. And he is a mindreader and telepath. And he is a shape - changer. No, he´s not really on the same level as Superman.....he´s more like four levels above him.
One of the reasons why the Martian Manhunter is so seldom used is that his one weakness seems stupid to a lot of writers : fire. It seems ridiculous that an alien on Jonn´s power level can be put out of comission by something as simple as a match. What Joe Kelly manages in this story is to come up with a reason why martians are vulnerable to fire that makes total sense. When you read it you go : Of course, NOW it all makes sense. You even wonder why nobody else thought about it before. And that is pure genius. Coming up with answers for questions you didn´t know you had.
Earlier I wrote that people forget what Jonn is really capable of. And that´s one of the things I really enjoyed about TRIAL BY FIRE : watching the Martian Manhunter tearing up the Justice League without breaking so much of a sweat. He´s always one step ahead of them. Guess that´s what happens when you go up against a mindreader, like when Jonn ties up Wonder Woman with her own lasso. That´s just wrong on sooo many levels but a part of me can´t help and remember all those old bondage covers of Wonder Woman. Maybe I have a nasty streak but that story had soooo many FUCK YEAH ! - moments.....
One of which involves John Stewart. Now after the events of AGE OF BRONZE Kyle takes some time off and John Stewart is his replacement. And let me tell you as much as Kyle is incompetent John is experienced. Besides Hal Jordan he is probable the most seasoned lantern on earth. So when he comes back to whip the floor with Jonn and saves the entire league you just want to jump up and down.
Another FUCK YEAH ! - moment involves Plasticman. Besides Frank Miller in his masterpiece THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN Joe Kelly seems to be one of the few writers who realized the potential of Plasticman. He ( like Jonn ) can be one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe. Most of the time he is just used as comic relief but used right ha can become total unstoppable. So the story has a lot to do with the potential of league characters.
Like in AGE OF BRONZE Dough Mahnke really shines in this one. No one draws powerful alien monsters like Dough and his rendition of Jonn as the " burning martian " is freaky as $hit. You surely wouldn´t want to run into him in a dark alley. He looks totally evil and menacing.
And the battle with Plasticman - just two shapechangers totally out of control - that´s totally awesome. You haven´t seen nothing like it in a comic book.
But the most awesome aspect of the art is that you would never guess that the book was coming out twice a month during TRIAL BY FIRE. And not only doesn´t Dough Mahnke miss a beat he even pulls it up one notch. Now that´s craftmanship !
So what´s the final verdict ? This is definitely a contender for the title of BEST LEAGUE EVER. Top notch writing, top notch art, top notch use of character, lots of FUCK YEAH ! - moments.......what more can you get from a Justice League story ? Only surpassed in sheer brilliance by AGE OF BRONZE this trade should be in every league fans comic collection. It´s a book well worth your money. Like all Justice League storyarcs of the new series it´s available in trade so you have no excuse.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
So last night I caught a nasty fit of diarrhoe and spent most of the night on the crapper instead of watching MERLIN 2 ( which was a total waste fo time now that I have finally seen it ) rereading old comics.
Now some people may find it degrading but in my humble opinion the toilet is the ideal place to read comics. No distractions, better light and you lock the door until you´re done.
And it helps to distract from the pain that hits your bowels like a hungry wolf.
So I decided to pick up a few old JLA comics to pass the long hours. Which in this case meant digging up my issues of TRIAL BY FIRE one of the best storylines of the Dough Mahnke / Joe Kelly run.
Because some comics are just too good to only read one time. I would have read the two trades of OBSIDIAN AGE but I have just read this two trades too often in the last years. Aside from JLA / JSA : VIRTUE AND VICE by David Goyer, Geoff Johns and Carlos Pacheco
which I could read everyday I have read THE OBSIDIAN AGE at least two dozen times.
That´s just one of my favorite JLA stories ever. And I didn´t even want to keep on reading JLA when the previous run ended.
I had started reading JLA with issue 4 because I had read such raving reviews about the new series on the internet. Always one to come late to the party ( where comics are concerned ) I had to get the first three issues in german and than followed the series in the original. But after the run by Brian Hitch ( that had too many fill - in artists for my taste ) I thought : this was it.
What greatness can there come after artwork as fine as Brian Hitch´s pencils ? Don´t get me wrong I was a huge fan of Dough Mahnke after his MAJOR BUMMER series ( a book that was cancelled before it´s time ) but I didn´t think this new league could deliver anything to surpass what has come before. I was looking for titles that I could take from my pull list because money was tight as always.
Big mistake.
From time to time I skipped over the issues of the JLA in the comicshop but I was not very inclined to pick up the title again. Until OBSIDIAN AGE. I saw the first trade of the storyline in my emergency comic store and I instantly was mesmerized. Now this was a league that rocked !
From what I later learned there were some JLA fans that didn´t care for the JLA stories of Joe Kelly but I love them. It was like a big blockbuster movie with no holds barreled. Like in the old days when Stan Lee was writing comics they didn´t try to save everything for later issues they just packed everything into one story. The best story of the run.
Obsidian age is like a rollercoaster ride but without the possibilities of accidents ( one of the reasons I stay away from them ) and if it´s possible for a comic to give you a shot of adrennalin right into your brain - this is definetly the one.
The whole scope of the story is just breathtaking. Since I hadn´t read all of OUR WORLDS AT WAR I didn´t know that Aquaman had disappeared. But with the search for Arthur begins an adventure for the league like no other. Not only does the JLA travel hundreds of years into the past to encounter an older version of themselves they also die - which had a lot of readers pi$$ed.
Because not everyone likes so many science fiction stuff in league stories. I know, it sounds crazy that there are people who don´t want science fiction stuff in a superhero team with at least two aliens that have their secret headquarter on the moon. But I like this stuff. I just eat it up. And that´s why the story worked for me so well.
The league travels back in time. Then they die. And then they come back and kick the bad guys asses. This is even better than one of those " alternate reality where everyone dies " stories. It´s not an imaginary story, it´s not an elseworld - this happens IN continuity. The whole league buys the farm - this is the big one.
And besides the big moments there also were the small character moments. Joe Kelly is such a good writer that I felt sympathetic for Kyle Rayner. Kyle Rayner - the worst lantern ever. And not only does Kelly give him the centerstage he also brings me to like him. Now that´s good writing. Good use of the members of the league. Flash is always fastthinking and rash, Bats is gruffy and Wonder Woman is just wonderful. In fact one of the aspects I liked about Joe Kelly´s league was the romance between Diana and Bruce. I know a lot of readers thought that Diana and Clark were the ideal couple but the way they are written in current continuity I have a bigger chance of getting lucky with Janet Jackson than those two hitching up.
Superman´s so strung up on Lois that he even spent thousand years with Wonder Woman in another dimension without knowing if they would ever return....and he still didn´t try to score.
But for me the breakthrough character of the story was Manitou Raven. I never watched SUPERFRIENDS so I have no idea who Apache Chief is and whether he was cool or not. Nevertheless I instantly hearted Manitou Raven. Maybe I have just a thing for halfnaked shamans covered with runes and wielding big bone - looking clubs.
Another highlight for me was the second league with Nightwing as the leader. And Green Arrow who of course brought some comic relief. No matter if he was complaining about Nightwing doing " the voice " or trying to hit on Faith and Hawkgirl ( on the same time ) and failing miserably. Which had something to do with the fact that the girls were more interested in Jason Blood´s " magic stick " than in Ollie´s " arrowhead ".
But the story is not the only thing that´s just mindblowing in this book. Dough Mahnke really flexes his art muscles in this one. Not only does he draw the best monsters and aliens hands down - you can really see how much fun he had drawing the book on every page. There is another artist on the book which for me is a minor fault of the book. One thing that trades have over the " floppies ", the single issues is that it´s not as aggrievating when there are more than one artist on a story.
If I had been reading the story as it came out in the single issues I would have been bitching about the guest artist. No really. I know myself and that is always one of my main problems. I´m probable spoiled by comics in the 80s when you had a guest artist every 25 issues or so. But it just takes me out of the story when I turn the page and the art just changes.
The clever thing DC did in this story is that the guest artist does the issues with the new league in our time while Dough Mahnke does the regular league in the past. This way it doesn´t feel like a guest artist and more like a storytelling device to differentiate the two leagues.
Speaking about two leagues : the " obsidian " league just looks awesome. The woman is even more butch than Wonder Woman and you just have to like big white guys with giant fists. One of the members was the league´s antagonist from the storyline GOLDEN PERFECT just before OBSIDIAN AGE which I read later on. So I can´t say how it feels to see this guy in an earlier incarnation. Which is not that big a deal. Because it´s more about big brawls, moves and countermoves, and a whole lot of justice leaguers. It kind of reminded me of the KORVAC SAGA when the Avengers had like two dozen members.
One of the things I really like about the Justice League is that members are always joining and leaving. The roster is in constant movement and you can have Firestorm, Zatanna or Hawkgirl coming or going as need be. Just like in real life.
I just whish that DC had published the story in one trade instead of two. I know that the comic companies are afraid to cross the magic 20 bucks line. And I can understand that as I am also one who thinks twice abut it if I have to spend more than 20 bucks on one comic. I just whisehed I had the whole story in one volume. Maybe DC will do a definite collection somewhere down the road.
Wow, I just realized how much I have written and I haven´t written much about TRIAL BY FIRE which is the story I did read. I just get carried away sometimes but I think that´s the charm of my blog. You never know where these posts will end and neither do I. For today it´s time to wrap this up now since I don´t want these posts to become too long ( I know, too late for that ) and also because I don´t know what else I could say about THE OBSIDIAN AGE. I don´t want to spoil too much of the story for those who have not read it.
I just want to add if you have not read it and you like big superhero epics and blockbuster movies.....if you were like me not apalled at STAR TRECK : NEMESIS but rather enlightened at this new approach to the old franchise.....you should definitely check out htis two collections. In my opinion those two are well worth your money having nice extras like the design sketches of Dough Mahnke for the obsidian league in the first one and an afterword in the second one by Joe Kelly giving the reader some insight to the writing process - and explaining how it all came from his fascination with the Superfriends and Apache Chief.
Isn´t it crazy how one cartoon show that is considered cheesy by today´s tv audience was the inspiration for such fantastic stories like THE OBSIDIAN AGE and JUSTICE by Alex Ross ? Maybe there´s more to this series than I thought.
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