JLA #3

[history79]

"What I’m determined to do, no matter how long I stay on JLA, is to always create new villains. If I do the next Darkseid story, the next Weapons Master or Starro the Conqueror then firstly, you’ve seen it all before you know immediately who the villain is. I want to surprise you; I want to use antagonists that aren’t automatically a villain, and hopefully make you question everybody’s motivations, fears and concerns. At least with a new villain, you don’t know quite what to expect the first time around. That’s not to say familiar faces aren’t popping up, but in terms of the main antagonists, it’s all new territory.

There was a time all this stuff, comics, heroes, villains and so on was new to each of us. Every issue was a surprise. I’m not in the nostalgia business; I don’t want to repeat the stories I read as a kid, but I do want us all to feel like we felt when we first read this stuff. The excitement of the unexpected!"

- Bryan Hitch

Comments

[jmacq1]

Seems like a retread of the Hyperclan.

[sagrada]

That's exactly what I was thinking. This guy could not be more like Protex if he consciously, openly compared himself to that golden Mars-bro.

[q99]

Unless, for a twist, these ones *weren't* secret villains.


I dislike the "anyone who tries to do more than the main characters is inherently bad," that this type of story ends up portraying.

[starwolf_oakley]

There was something like that in the "Kyle Rayner as Ion" story, wasn't there?

[q99]

Yes, that's why he stepped down and gave the power to the battery to re-form the corps, under the idea that catching people when they fall is good, but doing things for them is bad. A scene to drive the point home showed him about to rescue someone from a fire, and then he paused, and a fireman did it instead.

On the flipside, *none* of his intervention backfired, and I believe there's still an alien planet's world war that was stopped due to him. He helped John Stewart walk again, and returned Jade's innate powers to her (she had been using a ring at the time but preferred the internalized ones).

The implication was that they/he was afraid of overreaching, but really, the effects of what he did was pretty positive in, like, every case,


And at least he didn't throw it away for nothing! He traded massive personal power for the return of the Corps, which is not the worse trade... though Ion honestly may have been more effectively in the long run, there's an argument for one super awesome hero vs 3,600 more normal ones.

[silverzeo]

I just had a thought about that. You know how they make the superheros today darker and "serious" backstories... what IF they actually get upstaged by a character who is on the up and up, without a tragic backstory... and it's played legit? Not as him being a naive idiot. Not being a 2 faced scum-bagged. But have a general nice guy actually getting the spotlight more than the dark emo who didn't care if her was in the spotlight? Though then again, after seeing the first web episode of Vixen, I trully want a Superhero show/story that DOESN'T have the hero be motivated by pain or a dead love one, but actually doing good with their abilities/powers for being good...

[q99]

Yes, yes, and yes.

I mean, it's very hard to sell, "new person does better" is one of those things that makes readers, myself included, but new heroes not motivated by tragedy who are legit there to help, up and up, yadda yadda? More of those please!

Come to think of it, Ms. Marvel is rather lacking in tragic backstory, isn't she?


Hm, manga wise, there's a few good hero manga. One Punch Man, has a salary man, after being fired, decided to embrace his childhood dream of becoming a hero. He doesn't get a ton of positive media attention, and status-obsessed heroes give him trouble, but he's a really good person in it to help people, and just as a hobby.

My Hero Academia has a kid motivated by... idolizing a big hero, and for a long time thinking he couldn't be one himself (most people in their world have an innate power, sometimes major other times minor- he was born with none), then being told he can be.

[sagrada]

They just did it with that blonde Superman guy, Ulysses, who I had to go looking for about ten minutes to remember who he was and what his deal was.

I can understand recycling plotlines every couple years or so, but this is just ridiculous. Not least because making Rao a Physical God person is way less interesting than all the ways ordinary religion influences thought and culture. What if a cult of people devoted to Rao started up in Metropolis, thinking it'd be a nice thing to do for the friendly alien dude, and the basic philosophy of Krypton started to be reborn on Earth. What would it be like for humans to try and emulate an alien way of belief? Is that kind of thing maybe necessary for a peaceful and just World of Tomorrow?

Anything but more what if someone with lots of powers was evil plotlines. I mean, come on.

[q99]

"what if someone with lots of powers was evil *and* expressed it by doing too much good?", no less!

[sagrada]

It is bizarre how one of the central attitudes of superhero fiction( a (ugh) genre characterized by superhuman-competence and superhuman-power) is "don't rock the boat". Unless you're one of the designated Boat-Rockers, in which case you're basically a charming, fleeting diversion from the inexorable status quo.

[q99]

Yea. And it shouldn't be, nothing really requires it, especially if one stays modest in the changes and doesn't throw in, "I'm a supergenius/superfast so I cured cancer and solved poverty!".

[sagrada]

For serious. If Rao was, say, dedicating their time to the poverty-stricken Appalachians and helping make the place more economically viable, such as by bringing mineral deposits closer to the surface, or something a little more focused and concrete than going from New York Crime to African Poverty/Famine and Solving Political Corruption, it'd work way better.

[q99]

With Africa, even, *pick a country*. Better yet, pick a city. Pick a way of helping less generic than 'feed and give medicine.'

[beyondthefringe]

The problem with addressing issues in storylines like this, is that they reinforce the natural impotence of our regular cast of characters, and things always have to return to the status quo in order to avoid changing the world too much. Unless you're doing an alternate universe like Squadron Supreme where you can actually allow for long-term change.

Honestly, the "topple corrupt African governments" and the "cure hunger and disease in Africa" tropes are lazy and ineffective because A) we'll never see what actually happens, and B) it won't be allowed to stand for longer than the course of the story. Especially when it's done by an alien god presenting as a white guy.

[icon_uk]

Agreed, this is a little "White Man's Burden" for my tastes, especially things like famine being gone and corruption being excised.

[sagrada]

Yeah, like...how are these things being prevented? How is all this supposed to WORK? Is Rao Just vaporizing the hungry and criminal and replacing them with simulacrums of the people he wants them to be?

[lordultimus]

Looks like mind control to me.

[jlbarnett]

no doubt.

How about just doing a villain/forced peace maker that instead of mind control prevents violence with some sort of magic that cause any harm you try tp inflict on someone come back to you. Litterally, you shoot someone the hole and the bullet ends up in you

[sagrada]

They did that on Red Dwarf, and it was hilarious. People should totally use that concept more though, I agree. The idea of karma and good/bad deeds having consequences is already well-established in superhero comics, somebody who can literally do karma's job in the physical world, and instanteneously, is golden. And keeping it to just physical violence is great, too.

[zapbiffpow]

Yeah, that 'repeat offender' guy on Page 1 has that glazed-eye dialogue about him. Reminds me a lot of the Indigo Tribe.

[q99]

One of the big problems is it's so all-or-nothing. Like, they act like they're curing hunger and disease in *a continent*, succeed, then when they leave, it all goes away.

Why can't we have, like, someone wanting to do real change, helps make infrastructure in a city or two, and then have it stay around?

[jlbarnett]

Bryan, Bryan, Bryan-

We know who the JLA is. Most of us, between the various media, have read the Gog storyline or seen Jasmine on Angel or seen a million variations on this idea.

[captainbellman]

That logo looks like something off an energy drink or a pair of trainers.

[aperturedreams]

Alright everybody, those corrupt governments are toppled in a day. Nothing's corrupt there anymore, it's all fixed. Certainly no power vacuum resulting in even greater violence and oppression. Nope.

[beyondthefringe]

Peace, love, happiness, everyone loves everyone else...

Rao as in Krypton Roa?

[7dialsmystery]

Roa aka The Jerk Who Thought It Would Be Cool To Blow Up Krypton Because It Would Be Super Cool To Have One Last Living Kryptonian Mourning His Homeworld's Loss? That Rao?

[q99]

I *do* very much approve of having new villains rather than the same ones over and over.

Uh huh

[night4345]

Totally not evil. Nope. Noooooppeeeee.

[wizardru]

Africa has...54 recognized countries. It took me less than 5 seconds to google that. Seriously, is it that hard to pick a country. I mean, Africa has major cities...and I'm not just talking South Africa. Many of these countries have cities that are indistinguishable from any major city in the Americas, Europe or Asia.

Here's Nairobi, for example:

Here's Ghana:

Here's Burkina Faso:


You get the idea. Just because a lot of people in the US assume that Africa hasn't moved on from the colonial period doesn't mean that it hasn't. I get that most of our media attention to the continent has been about failed governments and humanitarian crises, but we need to move past that.

[lyricalswagger]

Yeah, I hate it when all comic book depictions of Africa look like that old Heroes Against Hunger special. There's a huge continent there with a great amount of diversity!