Justice Society of America 80-Page Giants by Jesus Merino, Jesse Delperdang, Freddie Williams II, Scott Hampton, Victor Ibàñez, et al.

Alongside Justice Society of America vol. 3, DC published three "80-Page Giants," collections of seven ten-page stories (the other ten pages are ads). I have a lot of time for the 80-page giant format (see entry #11 in this series below, for example); usually these kind of collections will have a couple stories by big name writers and artist to anchor them, and then work by newer writers and artists to develop talent. I think the format works particularly well here, as a companion to an ongoing series, as it lets the creators spotlight characters from the main series in different situations, with a variety of voices and styles.

The first has a framing narrative, set between Jerry Ordway's and Bill Willingham's runs on the parent title. In the frame, the JSA brownstone becomes subject to dream logic, as characters move through time and appear and disappear at random. I kind of suspect this was picked to smooth over discontinuities between stories, but I didn't care because I thought it worked really well. It has a good dreamlike feeling to it, as characters disappear between page transitions and the logic is a bit hard to follow but also not totally random.

from Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant #1
(script by Zander Cannon, art by Scott Hampton)

Not all of the stories are great, of course, but I found enough to be worth reading. I liked "Heart of Steel" (Felicia D. Henderson, Renato Guedes, and José Wilson Magalhaes), which gives some much-needed pathos to Citizen Steel, "Mother's Little Secret" (Jerry Ordway), which explores the history of the new Wildcat, and "Spin Cycle" (Jen Van Meter, Jesus Merino, and Jesse Delperdang), which is a cute meeting between Cyclone and Power Girl while doing laundry. Particularly nightmarish is "Damage" (Zander Cannon and Scott Hampton), a bizarre story about Doctor Mid-Nite surgically removing people from Damage's insides, which I can't imagine working in any other format; good use of the frame, and a great collision of writing and art.

The other two collections have no frame; they're just collections of seven stories apiece. Typically, a few stories take place at the "now" of when the issue was released, and then a few must take place earlier on in the run of Justice Society vol. 3 based on what characters are present. These I liked for their spotlights on characters who may have been present in the main title, but were often unfocused on as it jerked from big event to big event. For example, one of my complaints about the parent title would be how Obsidian was either demoted to a disembodied presence or turned into an egg or going nuts again, so I appreciated "...the Not-So-Secret Origin of Obsidian!" (Marc Andreyko, Mike Norton, and Bill Sienkiewicz), which gave some unity to his disparate appearances and connected to what was being done with the character in Manhunter at the same time.

Liberty Belle/Jesse Quick quickly established herself as a favorite in Justice Society vol. 3 even though I felt like she didn't actually get much to do, so I enjoyed "Unstoppable" (Robert T. Jeschonek and Victor Ibàñez) where she takes on abusers, and "Guiding the Gifted" (Drew Ford, Andy Smith, and Keith Champagne), where she protects a kid with new powers. They both had a good domestic focus, but also a clear indication of how she doesn't take any crap. (Should I expand this ever-lengthening project to track down her appearances in Titans?) And again, there was a good Citizen Steel story in "The Tin Man" (Matthew Cody and Tim Seeley), where he falls in love with a patient he can never touch. I never really liked Steel much in the main series, so I was grateful for the positive focus these issues gave him.

from Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant 2011 #1
(script by Adam Beechen, art by Howard Chaykin)

I also appreciated this series following up on dropped plot points from the main one; for example, during James Robinson's run, Green Lantern became the guardian of a magic city on the moon, but Marc Guggenheim did little with this; here, we get "City of Light & Magic" (Matt Kindt and Victor Ibàñez), which actually looks into this. There's also one historical story, "Duty, Honor, Country" (Adam Beechen and Howard Chaykin), which is told from the perspective of the guy designated to serve papers to the Justice Society for their congressional hearing back in the 1950s. A neat angle on a story the comics have revisited a lot.

Overall, I was often disappointed with how Justice Society vol. 3 was jerked from big event to big event, eschewing the character focus that makes team books so appealing to me. These three anthologies did a lot to rectify that, and I was glad I incorporated them into my reading experience. Alas, the stories are not collected so far as I know, and the issues are not available on DC Universe Infinite, so if you want to follow my lead, you'll need to track them down on the secondary market.

Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant (Jan. 2010), Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant 2010 (Dec. 2010), and Justice Society of American 80-Page Giant 2011 (Aug. 2011) were each originally published in one issue. The stories were written by James Robinson, Felicia D. Henderson, Kevin Grevioux, Jerry Ordway, Jen Van Meter, Zander Cannon, Lilah Sturges, Marc Andreyko, Robert T. Jeschonek, Justin Peniston, Christina Weir & Nunzio DeFilippis, Jason Starr, Freddie Williams II, Brandon Jerwa, Steve Niles, B. Clay Moore, Matt Kindt, Matthew Cody, Drew Ford, Ivan Brandon, and Adam Beechen. They were pencilled by Neil Edwards, Renato Guedes, Roberto Castro, Jerry Ordway, Jesus Merino, Scott Hampton, Freddie Williams II, Mike Norton, Victor Ibàñez, Tonci Zonjic, Jesse Delperdang, Leandro Fernandez, Mateus Santolouco, Josh Adams, Tim Seeley, Andy Smith, Nic Klein, and Howard Chaykin, and they were inked by Wayne Faucher, José Wilson Magalhaes, John Floyd, Jerry Ordway, Jesse Delperdang, Scott Hampton, Freddie Williams II, Bill Sienkiewicz, Victor Ibàñez, Tonci Zonjic, Jesus Merino, Leandro Fernandez, Mateus Santolouco, Bob McLeod, Tim Seeley, Keith Champagne, Nic Klein, and Howard Chaykin. Colors were provided by Mike Thomas, David Curiel, Allan Passalaqua, Danny Vozzo, the Hories, Zac Atkinson, Tonci Zonjic, Alex Bleyaert, Chris Beckett, Mateus Santolouco, Thomas Chu, Nic Klein, and Jesus Aburtov, and letters by Rob Leigh, John J. Hill, and Swands. The stories were edited by Chris Conroy, Rachel Gluckstern, Mike Carlin, and Joey Cavalieri.

This post is forty-fifth in an ever-expanding series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment is a supplement covering a reading order for Justice Society of America volume 3. Previous installments are listed below:

JSA, Book Two by Geoff Johns, David Goyer, Stephen Sadowski, Michael Bair, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, et al.

JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two

Collection published: 2018
Contents published: 1999-2003
Read: June 2022

Writers: Geoff Johns, David Goyer

Artists: Stephen Sadowski, Michael Bair, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, Phil Winslade, Mike Perkins, Steve Yeowell, Keith Champagne, Buzz, Rags Morales, Dave Meikis, Paul Neary, Rob Leigh, Javier Saltares, Ray Kryssing, Andrew Pepoy
Colorists: John Kalisz, Tom McCraw

Letterers: Ken Lopez, Pat Prentice, Kurt Hathaway

This volume of JSA by Geoff Johns (where every story is co-written by David Goyer, but I guess he doesn't rate) collects two story arcs from the main JSA comic and also the graphic novel JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice and then some other stuff. What I am realizing is that I don't really care for Johns's approach to this book. First we have the seemingly obligatory storyline about a new Injustice Society, which like a lot of Geoff Johns stuff, is full of seemingly gratuitous violence in order to prove the situation is serious: he invents a whole Chicago superteam just to torture and brutally murder them, there's an evil Flash who runs through kids so fast they explode. It's just like... it's juvenile, and I don't read superhero comics to read about kids being murdered. I found it very hard to care.

The second big storyline is about a trip to Thanagar to resurrect Hawkman. I did really like Hawkworld, but Johns ignores any of its interesting complexities in favor of a melodramatic sub-Darkseid villain and a subplot about how a teenage girl just needs to give in and be romanced by an eighty-year-old man for the good of the universe.

Why does everyone assume she wants to be with him? (Also I spent some time wondering which Phantom Lady this was. The Action Comics Weekly one? But not so much time that I actually looked it up.)
from JSA: Our Worlds at War #1 (script by Geoff Johns, art by Javier Saltares & Ray Kryssing)

This book isn't totally unlikeable. In between those two storylines, there's a decent done-in-one that gives us some much-needed character focus, and actually the Our Worlds at War tie-in issue was pretty good too. And I also enjoyed the Secret Files & Origins issue that leads into Virtue and Vice, as well as the early parts of Virtue and Vice itself. When Johns (and Goyer) want to write these characters hanging out and talking about things, they do a decent job... but it seems they rarely do. If you compare this to the characterful and deft way that Len Strazewski wrote the last JSA ongoing, this just doesn't compare; I have very little sense of these people as, well, people. Like I said, Virtue and Vice starts good, but it soon becomes Yet Another Apocalyptic Battle with huge masses of people dying violently... which I am sure will promptly never be mentioned again. I also don't care much for stories where heroes are mind-controlled to be evil, especially if they promptly become stupid.

I have never cared for Johns's take on Power Girl.
from JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice (script by David S. Goyer & Geoff Johns, art by Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino)

Some other thoughts: I think Secret Files & Origins and Virtue and Vice are included out of sequence; suddenly Mr. Terrific is JSA chair, and Stargirl is living in Metropolis, and Captain Marvel is a member, and there's a new Hourman who I don't think is the new Hourman from the previous book. None of these things have happened in the actual JSA series yet. It amused me that suddenly Green Arrow is alive again, so he has to contend with the fact that Black Canary has moved on romantically since his death. Virtue and Vice had some good President Luthor stuff. The way the heroes swap places with the statues in the Rock of Eternity is pretty neat.

This post is thirty-second in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Golden Age Secret Files & Origins. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)
30. Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story (2000)
31. Two Thousand (2000)
    

Faster than a DC Bullet: Birds of Prey, Part XX: Team 7: Fight Fire with Fire

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2013 (contents: 2012-13)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2016

Team 7, Volume 1: Fight Fire with Fire

Writers: Justin Jordan, Tony Bedard

Artists: Jesús Merino, Julius Gopez, Pascal Alixe, Marlo Alquiza, Gui Balbi, Juan Castro, Ron Frenz, Drew Geraci, Scott Hanna, Rob Hunter, José Marzan Jr., Norm Rapmund, Cliff Richards, Jimbo Salgado
Colorists: Nathan Eyring, Nei Ruffino

Letterers: Carlos M. Mangual, Pat Brosseau, Taylor Esposito, Rob Leigh

I picked this up because it covers some of the backstory of the New 52 version of Black Canary, and was released alongside volumes 2 and 3 of the New 52 Birds of Prey. The first and only volume of Team 7 is set five years in the past relative to them, and chronicles Dinah Drake's membership on the U.S. government special ops team known as Team 7. If you're looking to pick up this volume for backstory on Dinah, what you get here is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I liked the glimpses we get of between Dinah and her boyfriend Kurt Lance, especially in the first couple issues, where they go on a few missions together. They have a fun, playful banter, and the convince as a pair who like to both work and play together. Unfortunately, as the team assembles, the focus goes off their relationship, to the extent that it is revealed in an offhand comment from a teammate that they got married between issues.

In fact, the banter between Kurt and Dinah is probably the only good banter Justin Jordan writes. The rest of the dialogue is so generic.
from Team 7 vol. 2 #0 (script by Justin Jordan, art by Jesús Merino with Norm Rapmund & Rob Hunter)

An ongoing thread of Birds of Prey has been that Dinah is wanted for the murder of Kurt, which happened three years prior. Here, he dies five years ago in the heat of battle, when the team pours all its energy into Dinah's canary cry, and Kurt is among those killed in the blast. I can see why she would feel guilty, but there's no logical way she could have ended up wanted for murder based on what happened here. Plus, from a storytelling perspective, the death of Kurt just doesn't have the weight it needs to be effective, their relationship being too underdeveloped and the moment itself being too tossed off.

Faster than a DC Bullet, Issue #12: Superman Batman: Absolute Power

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2005 (contents: 2005)
Borrowed from a friend
Read September 2009

Superman Batman: Absolute Power

Writer: Jeph Loeb

Penciller: Carlos Pacheco
Inker: Jesús Merino
Additional pencils: Ivan Reis
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Richard Starkings

DC Universe Timeline: Two Years Ago
Real World Timeline: 2004?

Jeph Loeb can write good comics, right? I know this. I've read Superman For All Seasons and The Long Halloween; he can do absolutely brilliant work. He can, and I know it. So what the hell happened here?

What happened here, as far as I can tell, is that Jeph Loeb ingested the entire DC Universe and then vomited all over some pages and called it a script.

Absolute Power opens with someone traveling back in time and altering the origins of Batman and Superman-- Bruce Wayne's parents' killer is gunned down, and the Kents are fried electrically, and both children are taken away to be raised as the new rulers of the Earth. Of course, you might object that there are a lot of other superheroes out there who would stop that, so our mysterious time travelers also go back in time and kill off Green Lantern, the Flash, and the rest of Earth's great heroes, plus Aquaman. Quite why someone would pick Batman to rule the Earth baffles me-- he has no powers, so they'd have to train him from scratch. What makes him different from anyone else in that case? Might as well pick the Blue Beetle or even Doiby Dickles.

The perpetrators of these time-travel shenanigans are three people called Lightning Lord, Cosmic King, and Saturn Queen. I think they have something to do with the Legion of Super-Heroes, but it's not like anyone ever explains what they're doing or where they came from or why they're taking over the Earth of the 21st century. Or perhaps most importantly, why they can't just take over the Earth themselves, instead of getting Batman and Superman to do it for them. Or why they creepily insist on being called Batman and Superman's parents, while the provide their "children" with hot babes for sexxxing.

Wonder Woman and Uncle Sam round up a group of should-be superheroes to take down the Axis of Evil. A storyline about the Earth's heroes striving to take down an evil Superman and Batman-- you might think that this is where things would start to get interesting. Well, you'd be wrong. This is where things start getting stupid. They assemble a team in about two pages, then there's lots of incoherent fighting, including some of that good-old Superman-on-Wonder-Woman violence Jeph Loeb needs to work into every issue. Then Batman dies. Then everyone travels through time! Why? WHO KNOWS.

This is where the Jeph Loeb Upchucked Continuity Tour really begins, as we randomly hop through the DC Universe, visiting Kamandi, some Wild West characters (in Gotham for some reason), and Apokolips. Also, the Kingdom Come Superman shows up. Again. Plus, the demon Etrigan. Oh, and Metron. Seriously, Loeb, is there anyone else's better idea you need to work into your story? Then Superman and Batman go back in time and stop the villains from changing history. Then Batman shoots his parents' killer before he shoots his parents. This disrupts history even further! OH NO! MORE RANDOM TIME TRAVEL.

Now they have to fight R'as al Ghul, who's apparently taken over the Earth and killed everyone ever with Batman gone. Also, World War II is still going on for some reason. Bruce Wayne learns to be Batman again in twelve minutes (apparently it's not that hard after all), the Justice League is brought back to life only to be killed minutes later, overly portentous narration bubbles mention "The Age of Heroes" a lot, Superman gets stabbed, and then everything's okay. Except-- can Superman ever live with the guilt of killing Wonder Woman in a world that never happened? And can Batman mention the life he should have had one more time? And will Steve ever recover from having to read a bunch of nonsense held together with no rhyme or reason?

WHAT THE HECK. It's like Jeph Loeb has ADD and no plotline interests him for more than five pages. I'm not sure what this was supposed to be about, why most of it happened, or why I should even bother to figure it out. These aren't Batman and Superman, they're two random people with the costumes. It's amazing, but Loeb seems to have created something with even less redeeming value than Supergirl. Thank God this is all James owns of the Superman Batman series, because I'd hate to see what comes next. Actually, it's probably just Batman and Superman making out while Wonder Woman gets beat on by sixteen hundred copies of Doctor Polaris and the Anti-Monitor.
I'm actually kind of disappointed with this review, as I don't think it adequately represents the sheer depth of loathing I have for this story, though the only way to do that might be to just say "please make it stop" a dozen times, and then I'd be too much like Tat Wood for comfort. But dang, this was awful. At least the artwork was pretty.

Note that this originally appeared on my old LiveJournal and included pictures back then. Sadly, the pictures are lost in the mists of the Internet.