Generic Story: JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #46-47 (JLI 64)

[tcampbell1000]

The feelings General Glory inspires in me are…mixed. I think he was useful as comic relief in the JLI’s last year-and-change, when the stories were otherwise leaning toward heaviness. I don’t miss him at all, but I think he’s fun in small doses.

A five-issue introductory arc is nobody’s idea of a small dose, and “Glory Bound” has some logical flaws on top of that. But Giffen and DeMatteis are interesting even when they go astray, Linda Medley knows her stuff, and the plot gets off to a promising start.

As we begin, the tranquility of a nursing home suffers a slight interruption…






DeMatteis loved his spunky old guys, and Joe shows hints of spunk when facing his would-be assassin. But he’s more beaten-down than punching up, mourning a past he can neither recapture nor escape. The melancholy lends a little depth to the goofy moments to follow.

I’m skipping most of a surprisingly horny scene with Max and J’Onn…no, slashfic writers, not like that. Boris Razumihin was let go after the Bluejay incident, and Max is off to meet the new, female Russian embassy head. J’Onn suspects Max’s interest is more libidinous than professional.

If it seems to you like we’re spending a lot of panel-time on Max’s sex life lately, you are not alone. We’ve now had Wanda Epstein, Claire Montgomery, Sylvia Duani, this Russian, plus Max’s reminisces of another fling as an undergrad:



Wanda will appear again, twice. You’d think Giffen and DeMatteis would be pushing that love interest here, instead of giving Max some side action that might qualify as workplace harassment. Let’s say he and Wanda are in the pre-commitment phase.

For all the questionable aspects of his relationships, at least this Max is a guy interested in making ordinary human connections, sexual and otherwise. That’s one reason why I have trouble accepting Post-Giffen Max as the same guy: he keeps telling everyone how much he treasures ordinary human life while living like a bitter mesmerist hermit.



But back to this issue, and SPEAKING of abrupt character shifts…Guy reveals a hobby no JLI story has even hinted at up to now:



Okay, sure. This feels like hearing the Fonz geek out about water skiing, but let’s see how Giffen, DeMatteis, and Medley make the case for Guy’s comics fandom.



Guy expedites the auction of the General Glory #1 comic book…



…but there’s one other bidder whom he can’t quite intimidate into silence.



The bidding war goes Guy’s way in the end, but it costs about $4990 more than he was hoping to pay. And Joe still doesn’t give up: he follows Guy home, and after Guy throws him out, he calls out from behind the door…







Over in Mister Miracle, Scott Free has been training his replacement as Mister Miracle, Shilo Norman. Shilo was a Jack Kirby creation from his later issues of the original Mister Miracle series (v1, #16)…




He rejoined Scott as a young adult, and Scott considered him a promising candidate to take over the Mister Miracle identity...just as Scott had once taken it from Thaddeus Brown. But he seemed still a little too green for superhero work.




In #47, Giffen and DeMatteis go to the trouble to introduce Shilo to Justice League audiences. When a new “Mister Miracle escape” goes awry, Beetle, Fire, and Ice act to rescue their old friend, unaware it’s not really Scott in there until it’s too late.



But the focus is still on General Glory and how he interacts with the team’s more intense members.




The General’s old enemy tries to launch a new superweapon but ends up setting his base ablaze: an allegedly abandoned building. The League comes in to help put out the fire. Though the General’s enemy is long gone, the fire department worries that some homeless people might be trapped on the upper floors.







Having once again dodged an obligation to use his mental powers as if he were a TV “psychic” who’d been faking them the whole time, J’Onn walks away. His mood lightens as he considers that General Glory is really no more implausible than any other member of the team, including “a green man from Mars.” So maybe they can have little a metahumor, as a treat. What’s the worst that could happen?

Thursday:



…If only, next issue box. If only.

Comments

[metadronos]

Though I can see how General Glory could get tiresome in large doses, anyone who gets Guy to be polite and deferential, and to apologize, is okay in my book.

[beyondthefringe]

Not a huge fan of Medley’s art. It just feels a little too cartoonish and messy compared to some of the other artists we’ve gotten on the series to date.

General Glory is… certainly something. With dozens, if not hundreds of Golden Age mystery men to choose from, we get a mashup of Captain Marvel and Captain America, with some prototype-Sentry/Triumph thrown in. Definitely an acquired taste.

And did we really need the origin story for Guy’s haircut?

[mazway_75]

A soft spot for this arc and I see Glory mocking the classic style of golden age storytelling ("How can he exposit so much while fighting guys?!" "Stop recapping things!") It's goofy but still like it a lot.