“Heart”: JUSTICE LEAGUE QUARTERLY #5 (JLI 73)

[tcampbell1000]

As should be obvious, I love the JLI work of Keith Giffen and his scripting collaborators like J.M. DeMatteis, so I feel a little treasonous saying this about a story by neither Giffen nor DeMatteis. But I have to speak truth. The lead story here, by Mark Waid and Mike McKone, is my favorite JLI story. Full stop.





On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, in different parts of the world, three different superheroes collapse. Geo-Force, Valor, and Red Star were all just going about helping people, and then one of the men in black from the scene above appeared, and then the hero fell unconscious. (The men in black are no relation to Mr. Biggers. Or to the later movie franchise.)



Thursday, something even more remarkable is happening: an amicable evening between Guy Gardner and Blue Beetle.




Guy and Beetle get the unconscious Starman to the League infirmary, where J’Onn and L-Ron examine him. J’Onn recognizes the signs of a Professor Ivo attack and starts calling in JLE members to help. Then he heads upstairs.




Check out J’Onn adding a little art of his own to the base of Ice’s sculpture, a visual reinforcement of his argument that most creators wouldn’t think to make.

I also love the bitterness in Ice’s “How sweet.” J’Onn could point out that Ice’s victory over Starro seemed pretty damn decisive, since he was very much THERE for it.



In fact, her ice powers have enough raw potential that, decades later, The Human Target reimagined her as the most powerful JLI member.




But that just makes Ice's insecurity more real to me. Insecurity is sometimes impervious to evidence. Or at least resistant.

And to be fair, Ice’s showing against Despero was pathetic enough to justify her packing her bags afterward (Justice League America #39). He didn’t even notice her. The monster whose sole purpose in life was to torture and kill every single Justice Leaguer…didn’t…even…NOTICE her. All she did was get knocked out and make Fire and Guy lose their shit. It was like a fridging, except she didn’t actually die. What would you call that, a ”dunking”?



J’Onn summarizes Ivo’s deal for the sake of the newer members--and when it comes to Ivo, everyone except J’Onn counts as a “newer member.” Ivo builds robots, sometimes power-duplicating robots, sometimes power-stealing robots. He also made himself immortal, at the same time making himself a huge uggo (The Brave and the Bold v1 #30, Justice League of America v1 #218).



J’Onn does not mention that Ivo and his squad of robots killed off the previous version of the Justice League, which seems like a curious omission, but this will not be a story of revenge (Justice League of America v1 #261).



(He also doesn’t mention Beetle, Booster Gold, and Mister Miracle’s other encounter with Ivo-bots in Mister Miracle #8-9…



…and I won’t be mentioning any Ivo stories after this one that could spoil its impact. Enough already with the clip show, let’s get back to this story.)

The men in black show all the signs of being Ivo’s creations. There’s that little startup noise they make, but mostly it’s the power-stealing.



Notice that Ice has her hand up in the penultimate panel: she would also have preferred monitor duty. She is not in the headspace to fight someone in Valor’s or Geo-Force’s weight class--and, hey, most of us never get into that headspace, so: relatable. Power Girl and Guy Gardner both try to reassure her in their different ways. But you know what they say in superhero comics: conversation is just a prelude to the next fight scene.





I’m aware Guy really crosses a line with Ice just before he’s knocked out. What his unconscious mind does for her after that may redeem him somewhat: as I’ve said before, Guy willingly passing over his ring is not nothing. But Waid, following Giffen and DeMatteis’ lead, is not here to treat their relationship as a tidy one.

Ice follows the robot back to Ivo’s island, but once she touches down, things go sideways fast. Her wishes for fighting powers don’t have the same force as her first two, so the ring doesn't respond, and the men in black capture her easily. But as she hides her hands behind her back, she tries one last wish to keep the ring out of Ivo’s hands…



“WOW, I suck.”

Guy guides the JLI team to Ivo’s island, fretting about Ice in his usual way.



J’Onn looks past his own history with Ivo as they walk through Ivo Island. “Do you suppose Ivo is so desperate for the company of others that he built his own town? Could he be that lonely?”





I could only include so much action here, but you couldn’t have PAID me to skip that last page. The pacing, the concept, the cathartic KA-WHAM…it’s one of my favorite cape-book moments, period. J'Onn always has one more layer, doesn't he?





Ivo’s men in black suddenly retreat, but the heroes can’t pursue yet because the “townspeople” are mobbing Beetle and the ringless Guy. Ivo plans for the MIBs to kill him before the heroes arrive, after which Ice will be released and safe. Ice begs him to reconsider: “No one should have to die like this!”

“You know,” he says, “that’s what they told Mother.”

There is a terrific flash of light, a scream like the death of a soul, and then…





She’s not gonna rub this in Guy’s face because that’s not who she is, but his earlier dismissal makes this all the sweeter. She did something with the ring that he couldn’t do, would never have imagined doing. She will not forget that.

You know, I didn’t USED to get choked up so much at stories like this. But I admired the skill the first time I saw it. And I know why it gets me more now. Be kind to the kind ones. Sometimes they need it.

Kevin Dooley is the other JL editor turned writer in this volume; he and Waid will have more material in later installments.



However, Dooley’s Global Guardians stories in #5-8 are set after the start of “Breakdowns,” so to avoid spoilers, I’ll skip them for now and cover them as a group later. Fitting JLQ into the timeline’s going to get more challenging as we go, but we’ll do our best.

William Messner-Loebs and Jan Duursema’s “Light Housekeeping” is a ton of fun. It features a lot of the classic Fire-and-Ice dynamic and, if you can take it, a stalker storyline with a couple of surprising twists. I’m glad to see this vibe back in their recent appearances (albeit Ice is a little more worldly now than as seen here):



The story is the second story in the volume involving Ice struggling with self-respect issues, but that’s hardly Messner-Loebs OR Waid’s fault. Including this argument might feel like emotional whiplash after Waid's story put Ice in such a good place, but I like how it offers another, interesting take on why she is who she is:



“Jillion Dollar Legs,” by Joey Cavalieri and Ty Templeton, is a classic General Glory adventure. Templeton’s channeling a different style than he used for his JLI issues. The story as a whole gets a little fetishistic, as the title might imply, so let’s just run through the charming opener. Somewhere in Washington, D.C., in the early 1940s, Ernie whispers to General Glory that they’re being followed by…MORE men in black?





I’m not sure what’s funnier: Ernie’s “innocent” whistle or the fact that straitlaced ol’ General Glory knows Ernie well enough to tell him what he needs to be told without even turning around.

Thursday: Having written my favorite JLI story, Waid follows it up with my least favorite! Now that’s versatility!

Comments

[metadronos]

I like the unexpected payoff to Guy's seemingly dismissive crack "Only if I hit somebody over the head with it!"

Totally with you on the "choked up" bit with Ice not only curing Ivo but rendering him truly repentant and grateful -- a villain no longer. Although she, as a Nordic frost goddess, might take umbrage at the comparison, Tora is truly a Christ figure here.

(Please tell me this means those nauseatingly ugly "DESTROY THE JUSTICE LEAGUE" robot duplicates never return, ever. I see you couldn't resist including one more page of them, but I forgive you. What Would Ice Do, after all. 😇)

"Until it's over, America's fighting men will be slugging it out with those that would deny us our democracy!" A painful sentence to read in light of the Orange Abomination currently doing just that to his own country, while helping to fuck up the Middle East and the global economy too. General Glory, where are you when America, nay, the world needs you more than ever? ("I'm not real, metadronos. Also, watch your language young man!" -- Sorry, sir.)

[iamrman]

Did Guy steal Impulse's feet in that panel of the Man in Black going through the portal?

Also, that is one particularly gross-looking Ivo in those panels from Justice League of America #218.

[wizardru]

Really appreciate all these JLI articles, by the way. This is stellar work. I'd forgotten a lot of these.

Ty Templeton is a highly underrated artist, IMHO. His style, especially as seen in Stig's Inferno and the Batman: The Animated Series comic, has always been delightful to me.

It charms me that the Ice & Fire team has stuck as much as the Beetle and Booster pairing. I also really appreciate what Waid does here - it's easy now to see the craft at work - create an adventure where a character who thinks she doesn't have worth to the team shows that her value is much greater than she knows and that's it's her personality that wins the day, not force of arms or powers. But it's so well executed, it doesn't matter that you can see the setup, the pitch, the hit and the home run. It's just GOOD.