Disney on Ice: JLA #57, JLE #33 (JLI 87)
Apr. 25th, 2026 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcampbell1000 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyJLA Giffen-DeMatteis-Wozniak, JLE Giffen-Jones-Robertson. Warning for just SO MUCH NYC-based destruction. If you thought JLI #11 had a little imagery that hit different after 9/11, you hadn't seen anything yet.
Inspector Camus comes to the Justice League’s old embassy to find Michael Morice cleaning up. Morice may have been fired some time before the UN shut down the whole Justice League operation, but this was his embassy before that, and he won’t leave it in a state of bloody disorder! Shaking his head, Camus uses the monitor room to contact the League, but the League is in wild party mode in celebration of Max's return. So that’s about as productive as discussing anal-retentive tendencies with Morice.
#57:
The whole conversation goes like that. After Beetle hangs up, Morice has some harsh words, to which Camus replies, “Do you have anything constructive to offer?”
The cave-based League continues its celebration: even the Injustice Leaguers are welcome for the role they played in watching over Max's recovery.
Camus and Morice party longer and harder than they expected. Their next stop is the New York embassy…
I don't know how we shifted over from "Max keeps his mind-influencing powers a secret even from most Justice Leaguers" to "Max is so open about his powers that even the freakin' BEEFEATER knows about them," but we'll just have to take it as read that someone put out a press release sometime, maybe right after his hospitalization when public sympathy for him was at its peak.
Just as Camus finds the info he needs, the embassy implodes, a magenta meteorite landing in the middle of the debris. The mighty Beefeater’s power staff proves ineffective against this invader.
In his way, Camus has the perfect Justice League Giffen arc, and the perfect arc for his absurdist philosopher namesake. He started out with contempt for absurdity, he was forced to work closer and closer to absurdity…
And finally…he becomes absurd himself.
What is heroism, if not absurd action in the face of unacceptable alternatives?
Somewhat improbably, Camus and Morice will survive this encounter, but they leave our retrospective here. Camus would not appear at all after the Giffen League’s departure. Morice would show up in a few unexpected places...and meet his fate, decades later, in Fire and Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3.
Despero starts climbing a building and screaming into the horizon, holding New York hostage unless the League comes and fights him. It has to be said: he seems to have lost a lot of depth after his devolution and re-evolution. His messaging is consistent…he’s still “hate itself.” But the elaborate voice-overs he used to make his hatred seem like a considered, valid philosophy? Those are fragmented when they appear at all. Honestly, I think J.M. DeMatteis had run out of things to have him say.
On the island of Kooeykooeykooey, Mitch Wacky is working on restoring the Extremists. He has no choice. The islanders have him under guard, but they’re not the main problem.
#33:
This is only the first wave: J’Onn has a plan to release another weapon against Despero. But the “weapon” in question soon gets out of control.
Seriously, what did they expect? I know everybody wants to blame the klutzy ol’ Major who can never win for losing, but J’ONN, nobody misled YOU about the precision of his abilities! HE’S MAJOR DISASTER, NOT PRIVATE INTERRUPTION!
Behold the early Nineties, when it was possible to level multiple New York skyscrapers as goofball slapstick comedy. But at least the subways were rerouted! That probably means everyone who normally is in the city is fine, right? (DESTROY! by Scott McCloud, below:)
Right? Right.
At this point, the repo man shows up.
Dreamslayer-as-Max puts his foot on Mitch’s temple, and…it doesn’t seem like Max Lord’s full weight would be enough to do this, but from the SCRRRUNCH sound effect and blood spatter, I think we can assume he’s crushing Mitch’s head. The reactivated Lord Havok, now reprogrammed, displays no loyalty to Mitch or dismay at his demise.
RIP Mitch Wacky. Congrats on being an end-of-story twist in “The Extremist Vector” and spearheading a whole 72-page adventure in Justice League Quarterly. Seriously, that’s more than some characters get.
But you could’ve stood to broaden your emotional range beyond “sad your whole planet died” and “REALLY sad your whole planet died.” Even when you arrived, the Silver Sorceress already had that emotional territory locked down. Look at J’Onn: his planet died too, but there’s a character who knows how to vary his mood.
While the JLI is scrambling to deal with Despero, the Sorceress senses her true enemy has returned.
Lord WON'T help you, Silver! That's kind of the problem!
Monday: You know the old saying about history repeating itself, first as tragedy, then as farce? Well, the JLI repeats its defeat of Despero in a farcical way, but that leaves it overdue for some tragedy…
Inspector Camus comes to the Justice League’s old embassy to find Michael Morice cleaning up. Morice may have been fired some time before the UN shut down the whole Justice League operation, but this was his embassy before that, and he won’t leave it in a state of bloody disorder! Shaking his head, Camus uses the monitor room to contact the League, but the League is in wild party mode in celebration of Max's return. So that’s about as productive as discussing anal-retentive tendencies with Morice.
#57:
The whole conversation goes like that. After Beetle hangs up, Morice has some harsh words, to which Camus replies, “Do you have anything constructive to offer?”
The cave-based League continues its celebration: even the Injustice Leaguers are welcome for the role they played in watching over Max's recovery.
Camus and Morice party longer and harder than they expected. Their next stop is the New York embassy…
I don't know how we shifted over from "Max keeps his mind-influencing powers a secret even from most Justice Leaguers" to "Max is so open about his powers that even the freakin' BEEFEATER knows about them," but we'll just have to take it as read that someone put out a press release sometime, maybe right after his hospitalization when public sympathy for him was at its peak.
Just as Camus finds the info he needs, the embassy implodes, a magenta meteorite landing in the middle of the debris. The mighty Beefeater’s power staff proves ineffective against this invader.
In his way, Camus has the perfect Justice League Giffen arc, and the perfect arc for his absurdist philosopher namesake. He started out with contempt for absurdity, he was forced to work closer and closer to absurdity…
And finally…he becomes absurd himself.
What is heroism, if not absurd action in the face of unacceptable alternatives?
Somewhat improbably, Camus and Morice will survive this encounter, but they leave our retrospective here. Camus would not appear at all after the Giffen League’s departure. Morice would show up in a few unexpected places...and meet his fate, decades later, in Fire and Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3.
Despero starts climbing a building and screaming into the horizon, holding New York hostage unless the League comes and fights him. It has to be said: he seems to have lost a lot of depth after his devolution and re-evolution. His messaging is consistent…he’s still “hate itself.” But the elaborate voice-overs he used to make his hatred seem like a considered, valid philosophy? Those are fragmented when they appear at all. Honestly, I think J.M. DeMatteis had run out of things to have him say.
On the island of Kooeykooeykooey, Mitch Wacky is working on restoring the Extremists. He has no choice. The islanders have him under guard, but they’re not the main problem.
#33:
This is only the first wave: J’Onn has a plan to release another weapon against Despero. But the “weapon” in question soon gets out of control.
Seriously, what did they expect? I know everybody wants to blame the klutzy ol’ Major who can never win for losing, but J’ONN, nobody misled YOU about the precision of his abilities! HE’S MAJOR DISASTER, NOT PRIVATE INTERRUPTION!
Behold the early Nineties, when it was possible to level multiple New York skyscrapers as goofball slapstick comedy. But at least the subways were rerouted! That probably means everyone who normally is in the city is fine, right? (DESTROY! by Scott McCloud, below:)
Right? Right.
At this point, the repo man shows up.
Dreamslayer-as-Max puts his foot on Mitch’s temple, and…it doesn’t seem like Max Lord’s full weight would be enough to do this, but from the SCRRRUNCH sound effect and blood spatter, I think we can assume he’s crushing Mitch’s head. The reactivated Lord Havok, now reprogrammed, displays no loyalty to Mitch or dismay at his demise.
RIP Mitch Wacky. Congrats on being an end-of-story twist in “The Extremist Vector” and spearheading a whole 72-page adventure in Justice League Quarterly. Seriously, that’s more than some characters get.
But you could’ve stood to broaden your emotional range beyond “sad your whole planet died” and “REALLY sad your whole planet died.” Even when you arrived, the Silver Sorceress already had that emotional territory locked down. Look at J’Onn: his planet died too, but there’s a character who knows how to vary his mood.
While the JLI is scrambling to deal with Despero, the Sorceress senses her true enemy has returned.
Lord WON'T help you, Silver! That's kind of the problem!
Monday: You know the old saying about history repeating itself, first as tragedy, then as farce? Well, the JLI repeats its defeat of Despero in a farcical way, but that leaves it overdue for some tragedy…
no subject
Date: 2026-04-26 12:01 pm (UTC)"Uh, yeah. Sure. That explains it."
Tryin' not to go on about it... I know the tendency to fall back on things like that in times of stress, celebration, or just boredom are all too real, but... the joke with Ted's worn out its welcome.
(... okay, Ted's whole arc might be hitting a little close to home.)
For a minute there thought it said Camus was the one who died in Fire & Ice.
But it was just Morice, instead.
Phew.
Scary couple of seconds there.
Surely it would've made more sense to have the Lord Havoc(?) bot step on Mitch's head, what with the metal boots and also to make sure it's working?
no subject
Date: 2026-04-26 12:44 pm (UTC)(Really would like to revisit that series after seeing them here, too.)