It’s Reigning Supermen & The Nine Classified Lives Of JSA’s Wildcat
FanBoyWonder is still catching up following our return from the Big Easy but luckily it was a small week for comics thanks to our friends from Brainstorm Comics.
We don’t need an engraved invitation—here are our picks for the last week of February.
Justice Society of America #13
The Upshot From DC Comics: "Thy Kingdom Come" continues! The Justice Society has been tracking the "Heartbreak Slayer" — a mysterious serial killer targeting super-villains — for months. Now, as new members are welcomed into the fold and the Society expands, the JSA will come face-to-face with an evil that threatens the future they stand for.
We really shouldn’t have liked this issue. Why? The story by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross has been moving at a downright glacial pace. Yet it was an uber cool issue that we keep reading over and over again.
Why? Superman and Superman. Two Supermen baby!
The meeting of Kingdom Come Superman and “our” Superman was something we’ve been longing for since we first heard about this story arc. This meeting of the Men of Steel takes us back to the days FanBoyWonder’s youth way back during the pre-CRISIS when the “Modern” Earth-1 Superman would engage in the rare team-up with the Golden Age, Earth-2 Superman.
Here we see KC Superman seeking out his “New Earth” counterpart to ask him about the villain known as Gog who attacked Young Superman about a year ago and to see if Gog is any relation to Magog from KCS’ Earth.
Actually we don’t care why but the treat for us—now as then—is to see our Superman who is the top dog hero of the DC Universe subtly but quite really subordinated by this older version of himself.
Better is to watch Young Superman’s reaction as KC Superman tells of his failure in the nuclear holocaust of Kansas and the loss of his wife, his Lois at the hands of the Joker. Seeing KC Superman’s reaction to seeing Lois alive and well, someone not his late wife but very much like his wife was heartbreaking—and this all took place in just couple panels.
Johns gets the characterization of the two Superman dead on perfect. Each exhibits subtle wariness and respect to one another.
We thoughtfully enjoyed seeing the two Supermen sitting atop the Daily Planet globe as they talked but better yet we FINALLY has some action as the Last Sons of Krypton took on the Greek God Hercules to while he rampaged through Gotham.
Back in the day, the Earth-2 Superman would have nobly fought but not quite been powerful enough to meet the threat leaving it to the Earth-1 Superman to come to his rescue.
Here we see Young Superman get flipped like a cheese omelet by the demi-god while KC Superman proves to be the immoveable object and makes short work of Herc the jerk.
The art by Fernando Pasarin was quite up to the task of filling in for the regular art team of Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose. In fact we don’t think they could have done better as Pasarin quite ably portrayed visually the two Superman as different individuals who are 30 years apart in age, not just carbon copies with a touch of gray and an different S-shield.
Yeah, we know the Reign of the Supermen was a gimmick but we don’t care. It worked.
JSA Classified # 35
The Upshot From DC Comics: "Forward Through the Past," Part 1 of 3. Wildcat returns to his old Gotham stomping grounds to investigate strange happenings in a gym he once owned. But after so many years relying on the JSA, can he rediscover the solo street fighter within? And how long can he prowl the streets of Gotham without attracting the attention of other Gotham heroes?
Regular FanBoyWonder readers know of our often stated list of gripes with JSA Classified.
Here we have yet another Wildcat story—a 3 part arc—following a two part arc eight issues ago while the very next story arc in the pipeline is—you guessed it Wildcat.
We wouldn’t mind if these weren’t throw away stories that did little to advance the character’s development.
Yet credit where credit is due as B. Clay Moore’s story isn’t bad and to our mind he gets Ted Grant’s scrappy tough guy attitude down cold.
We would rather see Classified as the book that fills in some of the blanks that an overloaded main JSA book and an overwhelmed JSA writer Geoff Johns can’t or doesn’t have time to tell.
Example: Let’s see how the hinted at story of how Wildcat picked a fight with a magician, giving him the gift of nine lives and ageless immortality of a sort. Better yet, let’s see the secret origin of Wildcat Jr., the recently revealed long-lost love child of Ted Grant.
Recently the Occasional Superheroine http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com
suggested in her blog that Fabian Nicieza should be tapped as the new writer of the Justice Society of America.
We don’t think that Geoff Johns is ready to be benched but the truth is he is overstretched and some of his best JSA work has come when working with a writing partner.
Our suggestion is to appoint Nicieza as co-plotter of JSA and head writer of JSA Classified so Classified and the main JSA book can work hand in glove to tell quality stories of the Justice Society twice a month.
Well there you go DC Management. Run with it already.
We don’t need an engraved invitation—here are our picks for the last week of February.
Justice Society of America #13
The Upshot From DC Comics: "Thy Kingdom Come" continues! The Justice Society has been tracking the "Heartbreak Slayer" — a mysterious serial killer targeting super-villains — for months. Now, as new members are welcomed into the fold and the Society expands, the JSA will come face-to-face with an evil that threatens the future they stand for.
We really shouldn’t have liked this issue. Why? The story by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross has been moving at a downright glacial pace. Yet it was an uber cool issue that we keep reading over and over again.
Why? Superman and Superman. Two Supermen baby!
The meeting of Kingdom Come Superman and “our” Superman was something we’ve been longing for since we first heard about this story arc. This meeting of the Men of Steel takes us back to the days FanBoyWonder’s youth way back during the pre-CRISIS when the “Modern” Earth-1 Superman would engage in the rare team-up with the Golden Age, Earth-2 Superman.
Here we see KC Superman seeking out his “New Earth” counterpart to ask him about the villain known as Gog who attacked Young Superman about a year ago and to see if Gog is any relation to Magog from KCS’ Earth.
Actually we don’t care why but the treat for us—now as then—is to see our Superman who is the top dog hero of the DC Universe subtly but quite really subordinated by this older version of himself.
Better is to watch Young Superman’s reaction as KC Superman tells of his failure in the nuclear holocaust of Kansas and the loss of his wife, his Lois at the hands of the Joker. Seeing KC Superman’s reaction to seeing Lois alive and well, someone not his late wife but very much like his wife was heartbreaking—and this all took place in just couple panels.
Johns gets the characterization of the two Superman dead on perfect. Each exhibits subtle wariness and respect to one another.
We thoughtfully enjoyed seeing the two Supermen sitting atop the Daily Planet globe as they talked but better yet we FINALLY has some action as the Last Sons of Krypton took on the Greek God Hercules to while he rampaged through Gotham.
Back in the day, the Earth-2 Superman would have nobly fought but not quite been powerful enough to meet the threat leaving it to the Earth-1 Superman to come to his rescue.
Here we see Young Superman get flipped like a cheese omelet by the demi-god while KC Superman proves to be the immoveable object and makes short work of Herc the jerk.
The art by Fernando Pasarin was quite up to the task of filling in for the regular art team of Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose. In fact we don’t think they could have done better as Pasarin quite ably portrayed visually the two Superman as different individuals who are 30 years apart in age, not just carbon copies with a touch of gray and an different S-shield.
Yeah, we know the Reign of the Supermen was a gimmick but we don’t care. It worked.
JSA Classified # 35
The Upshot From DC Comics: "Forward Through the Past," Part 1 of 3. Wildcat returns to his old Gotham stomping grounds to investigate strange happenings in a gym he once owned. But after so many years relying on the JSA, can he rediscover the solo street fighter within? And how long can he prowl the streets of Gotham without attracting the attention of other Gotham heroes?
Regular FanBoyWonder readers know of our often stated list of gripes with JSA Classified.
Here we have yet another Wildcat story—a 3 part arc—following a two part arc eight issues ago while the very next story arc in the pipeline is—you guessed it Wildcat.
We wouldn’t mind if these weren’t throw away stories that did little to advance the character’s development.
Yet credit where credit is due as B. Clay Moore’s story isn’t bad and to our mind he gets Ted Grant’s scrappy tough guy attitude down cold.
We would rather see Classified as the book that fills in some of the blanks that an overloaded main JSA book and an overwhelmed JSA writer Geoff Johns can’t or doesn’t have time to tell.
Example: Let’s see how the hinted at story of how Wildcat picked a fight with a magician, giving him the gift of nine lives and ageless immortality of a sort. Better yet, let’s see the secret origin of Wildcat Jr., the recently revealed long-lost love child of Ted Grant.
Recently the Occasional Superheroine http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com
suggested in her blog that Fabian Nicieza should be tapped as the new writer of the Justice Society of America.
We don’t think that Geoff Johns is ready to be benched but the truth is he is overstretched and some of his best JSA work has come when working with a writing partner.
Our suggestion is to appoint Nicieza as co-plotter of JSA and head writer of JSA Classified so Classified and the main JSA book can work hand in glove to tell quality stories of the Justice Society twice a month.
Well there you go DC Management. Run with it already.
posted by FanBoyWonder at 6:34 PM
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