A Year In The JSA: 2009 (issues 23-28)
Aug. 14th, 2024 08:21 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_dailyGeoff Johns' final story arc involves Black Adam (but of course), then there's something of a fill-in arc by Jerry Ordway. The Black Adam stuff... eh, it's fine. It's following up on 52, and of course one of the problems with 52 is that if you're just going a read-through of, say, Renee Montoya, then it's a bit of a time-sink to have her involved in a 52 issue anthology sorta series. Adam's also been in Countdown, Final Crisis, multiple minis... at this point, I have to ask, is he really that popular or was DC just trying again and again to have symmetry with the Rock movie that was in development hell forever?
Okay, point is (thanks Wikipedia), Adam has loved and lost and is desperate to resurrect Isis. He's also killed millions of people at this point, which makes the odd kid gloves treatment he receives for having a code of honor or whatevs seem ridiculous. Yeah, Captain Nazi is a prick and all, but even he hasn't killed a percentage point of the global population.
Anyway, Adam is dealt with and the status quo of the Rock of Eternity changes yet again. Then Ordway's story, which is about a Japanese supervillain who wants to get revenge on the JSA for the bombing of Hiroshima, complete with g-g-g-g-ghosts! Yeah. It all feels a bit overwritten and wordy, clunky in a way that, say, I don't recall Ordway's work on Shazam being. Like the editors didn't bother too much getting it up to snuff because it was a nostalgia play. I don't know, it didn't work for me, it didn't not work for me, it was kinda just there.
Lastly, here's Johns' final issue, which eschews any superhero plotting to just be about the Society celebrating Courtney's birthday.
Twee as it is, I like, I feel this sort of character interaction and found familyness has been missing in all the sturm und drung of epic after epic after epic. Yeah, yeah, the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe changed and all, but what did it matter to people? Who was it happening to and why should we care about them? It really feels like, over thirty issues, Johns only told two or three complete stories, with dozens of largely new characters sorta gracelessly bobbing in and out of the narrative. Like this was more a Kingdom Come story and a Legion of Superheroes story than a JSA story.
But that's all done now and it's time for Bill Willingham to take the wheel.
Joy.
Okay, point is (thanks Wikipedia), Adam has loved and lost and is desperate to resurrect Isis. He's also killed millions of people at this point, which makes the odd kid gloves treatment he receives for having a code of honor or whatevs seem ridiculous. Yeah, Captain Nazi is a prick and all, but even he hasn't killed a percentage point of the global population.
Anyway, Adam is dealt with and the status quo of the Rock of Eternity changes yet again. Then Ordway's story, which is about a Japanese supervillain who wants to get revenge on the JSA for the bombing of Hiroshima, complete with g-g-g-g-ghosts! Yeah. It all feels a bit overwritten and wordy, clunky in a way that, say, I don't recall Ordway's work on Shazam being. Like the editors didn't bother too much getting it up to snuff because it was a nostalgia play. I don't know, it didn't work for me, it didn't not work for me, it was kinda just there.
Lastly, here's Johns' final issue, which eschews any superhero plotting to just be about the Society celebrating Courtney's birthday.
Twee as it is, I like, I feel this sort of character interaction and found familyness has been missing in all the sturm und drung of epic after epic after epic. Yeah, yeah, the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe changed and all, but what did it matter to people? Who was it happening to and why should we care about them? It really feels like, over thirty issues, Johns only told two or three complete stories, with dozens of largely new characters sorta gracelessly bobbing in and out of the narrative. Like this was more a Kingdom Come story and a Legion of Superheroes story than a JSA story.
But that's all done now and it's time for Bill Willingham to take the wheel.
Joy.
