A Year In The JSA: 2008 (issues 7-12)
Aug. 11th, 2024 03:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyHaving finished with the massive crossover of The Lightning Saga, it's time for... another massive crossover, with Kingdom Come. The fact that it's with 1-2 characters from that story, and it's one of the most iconic stories the DC has, does make it a bit more tolerable. But here's where Johns really starts to get jiggy with the new kids.
There's Nate Haywood, soon to be Citizen Steel, who is one of those tragic "I'm a superhero because I can't lead a normal life" types. And, for good measure, he's one of the few survivors of the Nazi massacre from the first arc. Uhhh... do I want to know how he pees or poops while totally encased in metal?
(On the bright side, he's about to get into an online controversy over how big his dick is, so...)
There's Superman from Earth... Kingdom Come happened, or I guess a slight variant...
There's also Starman, who is basically a low-key version of Deadpool. I can't speak to his characterization in LSH, but it seems a bit irresponsible to have a guy whose relationship to reality is cordial at best on the team. Especially since it seems like he could be cured if he just went back to the 30th century, but the JSA ain't really encouraging him to do that or get better in any way... I don't know, I think sensitive portrayals of mental illness went out the window after DC decided they kept wanting to use 90% of Batman's rogues and, hell, I think it's pretty dumb that Jessica Cruz gets to be a Green Lantern because she's as brave as war hero John Stewart for leaving her house when she's so so scared... but this kinda strikes me as a weird, "what are we trying to do here, Geoff Johns?"
There's a new Judomaster in town. I appreciate that as silly and one-dimensional as the Nazis were in the first arc, there's a whole group of blazingly insensitive Japanese stereotypes too. Now Johns just has to have an evil gang of Italian stereotypes show up. "Ho ho! I make-a da pizza! I kill-a da hostage if you don't-a pay the money! Mamma mia!"
Judomaster herself can't speak English, and for some reason super-genius Mr. Terrific can't just task a T-ball to follow her around and translate for her, since she's decided to join/been adopted like a stray cat. Effectively, she's a hot Asian chick who does kung-fu and is mute--sorta like Cassandra Cain minus the depth and nuanced exploration of her disability.
I'm pretty sure The Boys was already mocking this character type with The Female, so I don't know what Johns was thinking here. Especially since he could've just had Cass join the team... she could've used the exposure and, y'know, the non-evilness.
I'm gonna stop, because this could be a rant, but WHY WOULD YOU BENCH A POPULAR CHARACTER JUST TO CREATE A NEW CHARACTER THAT'S ESSENTIALLY A SHITTY VERSION OF THE CHARACTER THAT FANS ARE BEGGING no, no, not gonna rant. Let's move on, let's move on.
There's the new Amazing Man... should I be asking why DCU America can't rebuild New Orleans as fast as they did Metropolis or Gotham after the rampage of the week, or asking why DCU America isn't declaring New Orleans a No Man's Land like they did Gotham?... anyway, I'm sure this was well-intentioned enough, if maybe a bit derivative of some of the characters Christopher Priest added to Captain America... it just seems a little... Geoff Johns, you already have twenty characters or so to write, I'm not sure you need to speak directly to the black experience when there are already a couple characters on the team who are just black and it's not a big deal. Was anyone asking for Geoff Johns' idea of a character who is really, really black and a role model and has something to say about how black people should act in America?
Case in point, here's Super Sonic, I MEAN Lightning, another legacy character of Black Lightning.
Then there's Lance... I think that's his superhero name... and I think you can see my point when I say it's odd to do a big push for diversity, then say the handsome white guy is the most important legacy character.
Also, the US military having hundreds of metahumans in the ranks seems like an odd plot point to gloss over. It makes sense, yeah, but when government superheroes show up in the DCU... like the Ultramarines back in Morrison's JLA... it tends to a big deal and presented at least somewhat cynically, so for Johns to present it as fait accompli seems like a failure of imagination to me.
And both Lance and Amazing Man strike me more as checking boxes... "we should try to do a Civil Rights Movement superhero? What about a superhero who Supports The Troops?"... than organically fitting into the universe.
Lastly, there's the New New Mr. America, and this one seems like he's going to stick around.
I don't know, guys, I think this wants to be like something between the Gay Olivia Wilde And A Bunch Of Other People arc on House and a series like Avengers Academy or Young X-Men, but throwing in every rookie superhero Johns can think of and every JSA mainstay he doesn't want to ditch... and maybe this was supposed to be buttressed by having a second title like JSA Classified going at the same time... it just seems like Johns took it on himself to invent a bunch of cannon fodder for the next big DC event (and the one after that and the one after that).
There's Nate Haywood, soon to be Citizen Steel, who is one of those tragic "I'm a superhero because I can't lead a normal life" types. And, for good measure, he's one of the few survivors of the Nazi massacre from the first arc. Uhhh... do I want to know how he pees or poops while totally encased in metal?
(On the bright side, he's about to get into an online controversy over how big his dick is, so...)
There's Superman from Earth... Kingdom Come happened, or I guess a slight variant...
There's also Starman, who is basically a low-key version of Deadpool. I can't speak to his characterization in LSH, but it seems a bit irresponsible to have a guy whose relationship to reality is cordial at best on the team. Especially since it seems like he could be cured if he just went back to the 30th century, but the JSA ain't really encouraging him to do that or get better in any way... I don't know, I think sensitive portrayals of mental illness went out the window after DC decided they kept wanting to use 90% of Batman's rogues and, hell, I think it's pretty dumb that Jessica Cruz gets to be a Green Lantern because she's as brave as war hero John Stewart for leaving her house when she's so so scared... but this kinda strikes me as a weird, "what are we trying to do here, Geoff Johns?"
There's a new Judomaster in town. I appreciate that as silly and one-dimensional as the Nazis were in the first arc, there's a whole group of blazingly insensitive Japanese stereotypes too. Now Johns just has to have an evil gang of Italian stereotypes show up. "Ho ho! I make-a da pizza! I kill-a da hostage if you don't-a pay the money! Mamma mia!"
Judomaster herself can't speak English, and for some reason super-genius Mr. Terrific can't just task a T-ball to follow her around and translate for her, since she's decided to join/been adopted like a stray cat. Effectively, she's a hot Asian chick who does kung-fu and is mute--sorta like Cassandra Cain minus the depth and nuanced exploration of her disability.
I'm pretty sure The Boys was already mocking this character type with The Female, so I don't know what Johns was thinking here. Especially since he could've just had Cass join the team... she could've used the exposure and, y'know, the non-evilness.
I'm gonna stop, because this could be a rant, but WHY WOULD YOU BENCH A POPULAR CHARACTER JUST TO CREATE A NEW CHARACTER THAT'S ESSENTIALLY A SHITTY VERSION OF THE CHARACTER THAT FANS ARE BEGGING no, no, not gonna rant. Let's move on, let's move on.
There's the new Amazing Man... should I be asking why DCU America can't rebuild New Orleans as fast as they did Metropolis or Gotham after the rampage of the week, or asking why DCU America isn't declaring New Orleans a No Man's Land like they did Gotham?... anyway, I'm sure this was well-intentioned enough, if maybe a bit derivative of some of the characters Christopher Priest added to Captain America... it just seems a little... Geoff Johns, you already have twenty characters or so to write, I'm not sure you need to speak directly to the black experience when there are already a couple characters on the team who are just black and it's not a big deal. Was anyone asking for Geoff Johns' idea of a character who is really, really black and a role model and has something to say about how black people should act in America?
Case in point, here's Super Sonic, I MEAN Lightning, another legacy character of Black Lightning.
Then there's Lance... I think that's his superhero name... and I think you can see my point when I say it's odd to do a big push for diversity, then say the handsome white guy is the most important legacy character.
Also, the US military having hundreds of metahumans in the ranks seems like an odd plot point to gloss over. It makes sense, yeah, but when government superheroes show up in the DCU... like the Ultramarines back in Morrison's JLA... it tends to a big deal and presented at least somewhat cynically, so for Johns to present it as fait accompli seems like a failure of imagination to me.
And both Lance and Amazing Man strike me more as checking boxes... "we should try to do a Civil Rights Movement superhero? What about a superhero who Supports The Troops?"... than organically fitting into the universe.
Lastly, there's the New New Mr. America, and this one seems like he's going to stick around.
I don't know, guys, I think this wants to be like something between the Gay Olivia Wilde And A Bunch Of Other People arc on House and a series like Avengers Academy or Young X-Men, but throwing in every rookie superhero Johns can think of and every JSA mainstay he doesn't want to ditch... and maybe this was supposed to be buttressed by having a second title like JSA Classified going at the same time... it just seems like Johns took it on himself to invent a bunch of cannon fodder for the next big DC event (and the one after that and the one after that).
