JLA #4

[history79]

8 pages of 24

Comments

[captainbellman]

Didn't something exactly like this already happen this year in Superman's own book? Complete with white-haired kryptonian saviour?

[sagrada]

Blond-haired, yes. Ulysses-bro was basically like this, but dimensional paradise instead of mind control and a super-man rather than a super-alien. I just don't get it at all how they're like "we have to redo everything!" but now they just keep doing this plot, like why not more social issues or w/e.

[reveen]

God bless Rao? What you mean, like, god bless god?

[freezer]

So, the White Martians Saga redux?

[doodleboy]

The doctor seems cool.

[espanolbot]

Wait, hate to be pedantic but how could Superman have believed in Rao since the beginning if he was raised on Earth? Logically he'd share the Kents' religion, if they had one, and would presumably convert to the Kryptonian religion later when he found out about it...

...Which raises some odd questions, as the lack of other believers in Rao would surely render the worship of said deity purely an academic practice as there's no one around to instruct Clark in HOW said worship could be done.

[icon_uk]

Yup, Superman being a Rao-ist makes no sense at all. (and one reason Byrne altered Superman's default explative from "Great Rao!" to "Great Scott" was that Clark Kent invoking Kryptonian deities when he'd been raised human was a no-no)

[icon_uk]

A lot of simiarlities to, amongst others, the Priors of Origin in Stargate SG-1

[thosefew]

I want to see Rao fight Gog.

[thezmage]

Well, you see, the term "believed in" can have several meanings. "Believed in" as in worshipped is different from "believing in" as in having a conviction that he is telling the truth, or able to do a specific thing, both of which seem more likely in this context.

"The beginning" is even more context-dependent. It could mean the beginning of the universe, the beginning of their association, or the beginning of this incident.

Frankly, in context, that sentence most likely means that Superman believed Rao was honest and beneficial from the moment he showed up, not that Superman worshipped him from the day he was born.

[sagrada]

Tonight only, the battle of the century! The guy named after an ancient sun god who is basically Ra you fool nobody versus the guy named after...an extremely vague concept from the Book of Revelations! Does either have anything to do with their namesakes?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[q99]

Human behavior is not hardwired into our DNA! Or at least, not in a way that'd be affected by altering it short-term- DNA grows the brain, the brain structure is where behavior comes in, and until the brain changes the DNA changes won't do jack.


Also, this is *way* too obvious.

[q99]

The White Martians were a bit more overtly harsh, killing criminals and such.

This is more Gog-redux. Or Ulysses redux.


Ok, "someone powerful coming claiming to be a hero but really doing a very suspicious takeover," has been done a lot.

[q99]

Yea, it could be 'Superman always had the markers, thus when Rao showed up he immediately was into that.'

[dr_archeville]

So the foreign protein markers/genetic tinkering that the Raoists put into folks is what makes them believers.

And Superman has those in him, too, which is why he fell for Rao so quickly. Implying Rao had done this to Krypton some time ago. How long ago? Around the time Kal-El was conceived? Generations before that? Hundreds of generations before that?

And how on Earth did Victor's dad realize those protein markers aren't indigenous/natural to Krytptonians? To do that they'd need some pre-Rao'd Kryptonians to compare Superman's blood to.

And will Luthor or some other villain make the claim that Superman's presence on Earth is what lead to Rao's plan succeeding, because those genetic "hooks" were present in Superman, so he must have infected the world with them in preparation for Rao's coming, and spark a new wave of anti-alien fearmongering?

[laughing_tree]

I'd say "Great Rao" makes perfect sense in the context of someone purposely wanting to connect with their heritage because they realize it'll otherwise go extinct. It's like those Native American groups whose ancestral language died out long ago but are now purposely trying to revive it. It's the sort of thing Superman would want to do, I think.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Is it me, or does it seem kind of weird to have Batman asking what everything means?

I mean, I kinda like it... thinking on it, I think it harks back to the animated series in some ways, where Batman was good and knowledgeable, but not virtually all-knowing and damn near perfect.

Which is what I think it feels like Batman has sort of become in the comics. I mean, I know we talk about how OP he is here and all, but this feels like it dials it back to something I liked before, and I like it here.

[captainbellman]

The World's Greatest Detective.

[silverzeo]

Wasn't he that cop guy from the Bottle City of (Not) Kandor? The one where a woman switch places with Superman, and yadda-yadda stuff happen until he rediscovered himself and somehow a crazy Superman-esque cop villain showed up and began to lead an army of radical white-douches who lived off grid or something?

Presus was his name, right?

[crinos]

Okay, how many times has this happened?

Some god like alien or aliens or whoever comes down and begins solving world problems, everyone is happy, and then it turns out the alien god is a massive shitlord and is up to some dirty deeds.

You think people would learn to be less trusting of these jackasses after a while.

[chalicother]

I feel that works here still though. Being a great detective is not equal to being a great doctor, engineer, or anything else. He know's how to find the answers, but not what they mean.

[icon_uk]

If he was a fervent Rao-ist then I'd say fair enough, but he never seemed to be, he used the words without meaning beyond a mild expletive ,or if they did have meaning he never showed it, which would seem a bit hypocritical.

[icon_uk]

Might there be a way of "spotting the joins" in the new DNA, so some things are clearly recent add-ons?

[laughing_tree]

Any more hypocritical than an atheist saying "oh my god" or "Christ" as exclamations? Plus, Rao was the name of their sun too, wasn't it, so it has a meaning beyond the religious one.

[sagrada]

You'd think they'd learn a little wariness, but then Superman appears and suddenly the exception is the new normal. Happens with above-average golf scores, happens with alien super-saviours.

[junipepper]

I always thought that was a deliberate act by Superman -- presenting a different persona than Clark Kent. But that it was also meaningful to him in its own way. Kal-El is who he would have been if things had been different.

Adopted children very often seek out connections to their birth heritage.

[junipepper]

Comic book science. :-)

[junipepper]

Or it has a completely different structure.

[glprime]

Right, but classic Bats studied with many great teachers, including attending various elite undergraduate and graduate courses. Since the Golden Age he's basically been an expert level scientist, engineer etc. They wanted to make him a crazy Master-of-all-trades since he didn't have superpowers. Pulp tradition.

God bless Another God?

[7dialsmystery]

I suppose you can't expect much logic from someone who's been brainwashed by an alien missionary.

Supes came to earth pre-programmed with a lot of stuff.

[7dialsmystery]

Maybe some of the pre-programming includes religion too.

[espanolbot]

Right, it'd be like if Worf cursed by invoking Klingon gods as a kid despite being raised by human adopted parents in Minsk. Sure, he could be invoking his people's culture, but since (like Clark) he approached his culture from the outside, as it were, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[beeyo]

Batman is looking rather Christian Bale-ish in the these pages. I wonder if that's intentional?

I remember one of issue of Grayson, one of the annuals or fill-in issues, where most of the men in the comic looked like one of the actors that played Batman. Bruce looked like Keaton, Midnighter looked like Bale and...that's all I remember, now. Though I believe there was a Kilmer in there somewhere.

[bruinsfan]

Also on the last two seasons of Stargate: SG-1 with the Ori. I assume Hitch was a big fan.

[bruinsfan]

It could be like the Jasmine arc of Angel Season 4, where people immediately recognized and bowed down to Jasmine on sight.

[q99]

Right, that's my thought.

[jlroberson]

Hitch's style seems kind of smoothed-out and standardized now, like Alex Ross got. Nothing really jumps out at me.