A Year In The JSA: 2007 (issues 1-4)
Aug. 10th, 2024 02:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
knight_moves posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyA reboot of the team post-Infinite Crisis, Justice Society of America has Geoff Johns still on as writer, but a new line-up after One Year Later. The first story arc left me a little cold. It's mostly a jumping-on point kinda storyline, getting the band back together and introducing the new kids that we'll be following on this incarnation of the team. The actual plot is... there are Nazis and they're killing people and the superheroes have to stop them. It's kinda thin. Might just be me, but when the villain with the most characterization is Captain Nazi and that's just because he's shown up in other comics that give him character development... Otherwise, they're just here to back Vandal Savage's play and commit awful atrocities against women and children, which of course they greatly enjoy because they're such bad people.
It makes for a bit of a tonal clash when you're introducing a bunch of fun new characters who are 'joining the family.'
Maxine Hunkel is probably the biggest new addition, as she's become enough of a mainstay to show up in the Black Adam movie--where, weirdly, she's the stoic, hypercompetent one and Atom Smasher, of all people, is the motormouthed rookie. But let's not get into movie adaptations or we'll be here all day.
Maxine is the archetypal 'superhero fan who gets to become a superhero' character, which by now is so commonplace that there are multiple characters like that in the MCU, and that's all we'll say about that (Iron Man Jr.) The big twist is that she chiefly fangirls Stargirl, who is a contemporary of hers (but she's been published longer, so she's much more established). Thus, they're more friends than mentor and student, as with most legacy characters.
On the other side of the spectrum, grumpy ol' Wildcat finds that he has a son from a one-night-stand who is able to go full furry, but is rather cynical about having a legacy and becoming a superhero. Since the furryness is usually reserved for hot chicks, it's a little novel to have a guy do it.
Anyway, that's about it. Vandal Savage is evil, he's trying to take out the JSA because they're good, the Nazis are helping him because they're evil. Hopefully, now that the table setting is out of the way, Johns can lay out something more substantial--because now it's off to JLA for an immediate crossover!
It makes for a bit of a tonal clash when you're introducing a bunch of fun new characters who are 'joining the family.'
Maxine Hunkel is probably the biggest new addition, as she's become enough of a mainstay to show up in the Black Adam movie--where, weirdly, she's the stoic, hypercompetent one and Atom Smasher, of all people, is the motormouthed rookie. But let's not get into movie adaptations or we'll be here all day.
Maxine is the archetypal 'superhero fan who gets to become a superhero' character, which by now is so commonplace that there are multiple characters like that in the MCU, and that's all we'll say about that (
On the other side of the spectrum, grumpy ol' Wildcat finds that he has a son from a one-night-stand who is able to go full furry, but is rather cynical about having a legacy and becoming a superhero. Since the furryness is usually reserved for hot chicks, it's a little novel to have a guy do it.
Anyway, that's about it. Vandal Savage is evil, he's trying to take out the JSA because they're good, the Nazis are helping him because they're evil. Hopefully, now that the table setting is out of the way, Johns can lay out something more substantial--because now it's off to JLA for an immediate crossover!
