Justice League Detroit: The End I

[mrosa]

Professor Ivo, an old enemy of the Justice Leagues, seeks revenge for his disfigurement. Although that league no longer exists, he doesn't have a problem taking revenge on its current rooster.

After being defeated by Brimstone, a Darkseid creation, J'onn is suspending the League for a while. At this time it was composed of Elongated Man, Vixen, Gypsy, Steel and Vibe. This was during the awful Legends crossover, when President Reagan was ordering super-heroes to stop their activity.

The Justice League of America was reaching its end in order to allow Giffen and DeMatteis to reboot it with the new Justice League International, and since there was nothing to lose, DeMatteis finished the series with a violent and sombre storyline about disenchantment, madness and murder. The Detroit era doesn't have a good reputation but this storyline was quite good.

Probably one of its key moments was the death of superhero Vibe. After storming out a JLA meeting, Vibe meets one of Ivo's killer androids:









So creepy!

Comments

[crinos]

And this is why I was so disturbed by their choice of nemesis for Vibe in that DC Nation Short.

[crinos]

Also: Just read the comic, and the kid says he's going to tell the TV stations to make a cartoon about vibe.

I think the DC Nation short we saw was the cartoon that kid inspired. Down to using Ivo as the villain.

THAT JUST MAKES IT WORSE.

[cricharddavies]

"Hey jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better."

Does Vibe win in the cartoon?

[crinos]

Indeed he does. Actually in the cartoon Vibe is in a breakdancing contest competing against a robotic version of himself controlled by Ivo.

Its done in the style of a super cheesy 80's cartoon, and its awesome.

[icon_uk]

The death of Vibe made, alas, more of an impact on me than his life. The fact he dies, not in a grand heroic effort to save others, but because he is strangled to death in a slum, by someone targetting him specifically, adds a layer of... squalidness to it.

And then having a mask of someone else's face fused over onto his own is just... horrible, it's, and I know this sounds like small potatoes compared to murder, and it is, but it's... disrespectful.

[silverhammerman]

Gah, that is really creepy. But I really love how they look to be building to a sort of classic Spider-Man-style moment with the hero stepping up, only to wrench that away and go real dark real fast. What a signature too.
Interesting that even a series as maligned as JL Detroit is capable of some damn interesting stuff when they just go for broke. Really goes to show that Z-list characters who aren't beholden to a status quo can make for some great stories.

[halloweenjack]

I'd say that it has more to do with a quality writer than with the intrinsic value of the character, although it would have been interesting to see what a good artist with actual knowledge of and experience with the Hispanic community (say, Jaime Hernandez, although I really couldn't see him doing a regular gig with the Big Two) could have done with Vibe. (Then again, they may not have wanted to take on the character at all; George Perez hated Vibe, according to the Wikipedia entry.)

But, really, killing off a D-lister to prove that They Really Aren't Screwing Around Now was already a cliche; Scourge had already been introduced in Marvel, and DC itself had some prior art with deceased Legionnaires.

[silverhammerman]

Oh yeah, it's definitely all about the writing here. It's not just that Vibe is a D-lister and so they can kill him that makes it interesting, it's all about how it's played. Had the fight been shorter, or taken place off-panel, or written differently, it would have been boring and cliche. But the fact that it's just two dudes fighting on the street instead of some vast cosmic threat, as well as being written like it's going to be Vibe's big "hero up" moment only to wind up being a subversion is what makes it interesting and memorable to me.

[kenn_el]

I got a totally creepy vibe!

[sir_mikael]

Pun.... intended?

[sir_mikael]

Ok, that is great horrifying stuff. The last "oh god" and the face thing.... yikes.