Justice League #7: Huh. OK, first things first: sacrilege as it is to say, I think I like Ha's art even better than Lee's. He adds a grittiness that I enjoy; I'd love to see him on one of the Bat-books. Moving onto the plot, this issue establishes the present-day League. Johns effectively uses Steve Trevor as the lens through which we see the Justice League, making him its government liaison. The adulation of the public (and the fear of Congress) seemed to be a little heavy-handed, to me, and I couldn't help but think of the "Squadron Supreme" mini-series during the talk of the Justice League taking over government services. Johns definitely seems to be setting up the League for failure, though it's unclear what form said failure will take because we don't really meet the enemy here. I mean, we have an immediate enemy for the issue, but it's not the larger enemy of this second arc, since we only see him or her writing in his or her journal about his or her diabolical (but undefined) plans. Speaking of the immediate enemy, it's probably the aspect of the issue that I enjoyed the least. I don't understand why the unknown intruder who broke into A.R.G.U.S. to steal the "Orb of Ra" wound up inadvertently exposing Dr. Street to the "spore" virus. Did he or she bump Street and accidentally cause the case to open? Johns doesn't really make it clear. I guess it doesn't matter much since I doubt we'll see him again. All in all, it's an OK issue. It didn't set my world on fire, but it didn't make me want to cancel it either.
Superboy #7: This issue is...odd. First, I'm not entirely clear on the state in which we leave Superboy. The Kryptonite ray-gun that Rose used on him disabled his power enough for her sword to slice up his organs, and it's unclear how that situation is going to resolve itself. He did die in the DCU, so it's not like he's totally invulnerable, and sliced organs seems like it would be, you know, a problem. Moreover, he mentions that his loss of tactile telekinesis has left him blind and paralyzed. I would've normally assumed he meant it because he was being restrained by those machines, but he refers to it in context of losing his way of engaging with the world around him. Is he saying that, without his tactile telekinesis, he would normally be blind and paralyzed? If so, it seems to me a pretty big departure from how his powers worked in the DCU. But, in addition to my questions about his powers, some of the sub-plots seemed totally random to me. Superboy met a cop in a library to whom he entrusts Fairchild? Wonder Girl infiltrates N.O.W.H.E.R.E. for a re-match? I feel like I missed an issue. For the second time in a row for a Lobdell title, I confusedly wound up going to check out older issues, and discovered that the cop development is as random as it feels. Superboy does spend a lot of time in the library in issue #4, but we don't see any mention of him meeting a cop. It seems totally weird to me that Lobdell just wants us to buy that Superboy made friends with a NYPD detective while he was hanging in the library and that they became such good friends that he called her to help him rescue Fairchild. I mean, what did he tell her? Um, hi, I'm a super-clone with no empathy, do you want to be my friend? Moreover, given that the Teen Titans are all about escaping N.O.W.H.E.R.E., it seems odd that Wonder Girl just randomly appears at its headquarters, particularly if her goal is to engage Superboy in battle and not free him. Cassie, in this world, is a reluctant superhero, so why would she bother, either way? Also, I have to say, I'm not really digging the art lately. Superboy looks like he's a super-powered twelve year old. As I said, it's an odd issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment