The Wedding of Ray Palmer and Jean Loring (JLA #157)

[tcampbell1000]

By request! 11 and 1/3 pages of 34, including one double-paged spread, plus a "scorecard" included in the original comic to make sense of the penultimate image.

The issue begins with the love goddess Mauri, AKA The Siren, at home, before jumping over to the Palmer-Loring couple.





...Wow.

Moving on.





The Siren starts working the classic mind-control Ponzi scheme: take over superheroes' minds, use those superheroes to take over more superheroes, repeat until unopposed. Most of the resulting "action" is more boring than you could possibly imagine, but there is one moment of unintentional comedy involving Aquaman, and one amazing sequence that demonstrates which of the Dibnys is more of a natural fighter.







"I'LL TEAR YOU APART!" Kinda surprised Superman didn't snap out of it then and there, because we all know how into spunkiness he is, and that's a level of grit that would impress Lois Lane herself.





Wait, Vixen? I thought she wasn't even created until 1984!

As you might guess, this confrontation does not go well for the Siren, who ends up shut up with her fellow gods at the bottom of the ocean, never to be mentioned again, not even in WHO'S WHO. Much as I can take or leave the action, there's a nice, not-bad bit of theming here: the hardworking, patient, sometimes painfully unsure love of marriage versus the toxic "love" of crude gods.

But hey, we've still got Ray and Jean in crisis and only a few pages to deliver on the cover's promise of a wedding. However will we do that? Well, like this:






Nobody really likes a long ceremony, am I right?

Comments

[super_fly]

Why is Superman running with everyone else?
His smashing through the wall pose is super awkward.
Ralph Dibny: Way off from the rest of the team for some reason but still really wanted to be in the group shot.