JOY TO THE SUPERHERO WORLD--Part 1

[alschroeder3]

I'm pausing my look at Supergirl's Rogues' Gallery, because the next phase would be the Peter David phase, and we're supposed to leave that alone, and the only other major new Supergirl villain after THAT was the Superwoman who was Lucy Lane.

But I thought I'd look, in keeping with the season, what brings joy to certain superheroes.

And because this sequence brought a smile to my face,despite myself.

Two and a quarter pages out of JLA #84, by Kelly, Mahnke, and Nguyen, October 2003.

Something--odd...is happening to Earth's criminal population.

Later, the JLA talked about how at Blackgate Prison, every inmate rated an "Ongoing Threat" was found in the common room, watching television...Sesame Street. Whe the program ended, they began bawling. Then...

Sometimes you have to wonder about the heroes we pick...

A telepath was behind the change. A quite powerful one.

More to come! And feel free to add your own examples.

Comments

[q99]

I do really like the Joe Kelly JLA era. I feel it gets overlooked next to the Morrison and Waid runs, but it was some good stuff.

And the art certainly doesn't hurt!

[philippos42]

Oh, yeah. It had some interesting ideas, and Joe Kelly did a pretty good job with a large cast.

[lucean]

I don't know, I think Kelly is usually grouped together with Morrison and Waid, and deservedly so. I felt it was the last of the really big themed runs for the JLA. Busiek's run was cut-off after the storyline and after that the book became very editorially mandated and really weird in its mundanity.

And the art is awesome.

[q99]

Still, I see people mention "the Morrison and Waid," runs or just that era in general, but rarely bring up Kelly specifically like the other two, and I just wanna single him out and mention I liked his stuff *better* than the Waid run. It had it's misses, but I loved the new team lineup, and the JL Elite spinoff, and Obsidian Age was great, and Trial by Fire worked better for me than Tower of Babel....

Liked Busiek's story too which fit in well with that era, and yea, past that, it went incredibly mundane which was so weird after three great long runs of world-shaking heroics and old52 hyping up the OYL league.

[crinos]

You know, I think if anyone has earned the right to feel some Schadenfreude, its Batman.

[glprime]

Against the big gun supervillains? Yes. Against the countless street thugs he's seriously injured and and maimed over the years in his self-elected position as Gotham's only justified vigilante? No.

(I love Batman, my favorite superhero, but you look at his setup too closely and it really starts to unravel)

[crinos]

Well, it looks like he's smiling at the suffering of the Joker and the Arkham villains. Arkham being like the Olympics of evil sickos.

So yeah.

[alicemacher]

I find it hilarious that Batman expresses even joy in a repressed, tense way. Look at that posture, that barely-there smile.

[icon_uk]

"Just because I can FEEL it, doesn't mean I'm going to DISPLAY it!"

[cricharddavies]

I'm pretty sure he's smiling a lot bigger in the panel where we see the doctor reacting to his smile. The later one is remembered joy, not experienced joy.

[starwolf_oakley]

Wasn't at least part of the reason Barman was smiling is he knew J'Onn was behind it?

Although I hope it didn't mean he was smiling because: "I was right to bring Plastic Man on the team in case J'Onn ever went rogue. Who's the mistrusting paranoid nutcase now?"

[md84]

It's weird that Batman has a rep for being paranoid. Not that he isn't, but most of the time when people find out about his "crazy" preparations it's because they proved necessary to save the day. Though tbf, the storylines emphasizing this the most were the ones in which his countermeasures backfired.

[starwolf_oakley]

To me, the "mistrusting paranoid nutcase" only came out in "Tower of Babel" and "The OMAC Project" in the lead-up to INFINITE CRISIS.

"War Games" was the "Matches Malone takes over the organized crime in Gotham City" plan which seems more "worst case scenario" than "I mistrust the Justice League and everyone in it because I'm Batman."

[alschroeder3]

I don't think even Bats knew this early in the story that J'Onn was behind it. Of course, given how much Batman perceives when no one else does, I can't rule it out...

[dc2houseofmystery]

Trial By Fire is my all-time favourite JLA story arc. Amazing.