New Justice League of America members announced!

[icon_uk]

Comics Alliance has revealed four new members for the JLA, courtesy of Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis...

And they include a couple of old favourites....




We have Ray Terrill aka The Ray, who will be the post Multivresity version gay version, who will be the lead in the upcoming Freedom Fighters cartoon series on CW Seed.



Mari McCabe, the Vixen, needs little introduction, and again, has a cartoon spin off on CW Seed.



Tha Atom, and the Ryan Choi version. Let me say that again THE RYAN CHOI ATOM!!



And in the "reformed villain" slot we have the character most likely in need of a new codename; Killer Frost!



Atom and Frost are both sort of linked to CW series too, though the Atom in Legends of Tomorrow is Ray Palmer, and Killer Frost was the evil Earth-2 metahuman version of Caitlin Snow on The Flash.

Comments

[mrstatham]

The push they're giving Killer Frost really confuses me; she seems to be a rogue consistently popping up in different media - quite prominently in JLU compared to other rogues, being playable in Injustice, and so on. I'm not complaining, because she is an interesting character, but I'm surprised by the choice, is all.

[cricharddavies]

They're trying to steal some fans from Frozen, that's all.

[dcbanacek]

They should let it go.

[freezer]

Killer Frost would be the version of Elsa Disney eventually turned away and slammed the door from..

[long_silence]

I can understand the choice here since this book is apparently spinning off from the Justice League/Suicide Squad crossover and Killer Frost is apparently a major player in that storyline.

I'm more confused about Killer Frost's inclusion in DC Superhero Girls. I mean at least go with Ice.

[lucean]

Wait, reading the article, am I understanding correctly that they haven't announced yet if the big hitters are going to be on the JLA team?

[byc]

Oh yay, ANOTHER JLA line-up...

Killer Frost is an odd choice, but I do think going with a B villain to uplift is a good idea. Seems like a Flash Rogue would be better and more interesting. Like Mirror Master. Or a Batman villain trying to reform under Batman's supervision like Scarecrow?

[mrstatham]

We had Captain Cold already. And there's a handful of Batman rogues who'd be suitable, but.. Most of them aren't superpowered, which makes them kind-of unsuitable for the JLA; Clayface'd work, maybe Poison Ivy, or perhaps Mr Freeze, but.. Yeah.

[jetpack_monkey]

Yeah, the other three are great, sure, but RYAN MOTHEREFFING CHOI is back as the Atom! It's a party in my brain right now!

[shadowpsykie]

I hope this means the possibility for Kaitlin to get powered (lord knows flash needs more kick ass ladies)

[ruhig_knight]

With all the CW synergy I hope Cisco gets another chance to be on this team when the JLA book appears properly come February. Still, this does look very interesting ntm "About time!" for some of these TV popular characters to get their spotlight in comic form as well. And the weird Convergence mini aside, DC still needs to continue making it up to Ryan Choi.

[captainbellman]

I really hope there's no Harambe references.

[long_silence]

I really love Vixen's hair on that cover.

It's a really interesting line up so far, I wouldn't mind if they added some other CW series characters too like Supergirl, J'onn or Vibe.

[doctor_spanky]

Were there really good Ryan Choi Atom stories I missed? He's very popular, but it seems like he's mostly famous for being offed by editors / writers so quickly.

[zapbiffpow]

Huh, holy shit...this, apparently.

Although I do dig the glasses on the new Atom suit (I imagine that visor's reflective, unless Ryan's doing an no-secret-identity thing here).

[q99]

Most buzz on the Gail run of Ryan that I hear is rather positive

[jetpack_monkey]

Gail Simone's All-New Atom series was amazing. Highly recommended.

[stubbleupdate]

He went on a date with Giganta. She had a big space tumour on her back that made her eat people.

[wizardru]

I guess that depends on what you read. I think his initial run, from John Byrne to Gail Simone, was a great run full of fun and craziness. Then Rick Remender took over and SHIT ALL OVER IT.

I literally have a sticky note in my All-new Atom collection that says "STOP READING NOW" at the last Simone issue. Whether by editorial fiat or just plan bad choices, Remender totally undercut the previous run entirely, basically reversing several plot points of the previous run (like taking Ryan Choi from someone that Ray Palmer had been mentoring into Ryan just having been duped by Chronos). I don't know if it's a pattern with Remender, but similar to his Cap run, he had characters age, become bitter and superserious and then die in an alternate dimension. I'm not sure if it was last ditch attempt to save a failing book or if it was an attempt to take it in a new direction or just a way to get Ray Palmer back as the 'real' Atom, but they book ended up getting cancelled and Ryan Choi left on the back burner (while being great in Batman:BatB) until he was killed ignominously to make Ray Palmer feel bad in Cry For Justice.

[zapbiffpow]

Nice, Vixen! I dig that design - simple and contemporary but evocative of some tribal-style aesthetic, like MCU!Black Panther's costume. I think.

[bj_l]

Was there anything to stop the earlier version of The Ray being identified as gay? I've only read his Young Justice appearances and outside of him flirting to win votes for team leader, I don't remember anything being stated about an interest in anyone (mostly because that wasn't the point, and he was only there for a few issues, but still.)

[icon_uk]

Probably not, heck if Iceman can be retroactively outed (albeit in an unfortunate and clumsy way) then the Ray notionally can too, I think a girlfriend was mentioned somewhere along the way, but not in a big way.

[bruinsfan]

I only ever saw him in team books, so if there was in-depth exploration of his personal life in his own book I'm none the wiser. But mentions of an off-camera girlfriend aren't that big a stumbling block to a character coming out.

[obsidianwolf]

He had a girlfriend in his solo series but given his upbringing was very isolated and kept out of direct light until he was eighteen. It would be very easy to say he was just doing what he thought he should since most of the media he'd have been exposed to was heterosexual in nature.

ETA: Of course given this is two reboots later none of his past really still applies at all.

[michaelsaint]

WOW. All the CW synergy is killing me. I can give this book a chance but I am not sure how it will play out...

[silverhammerman]

I'm excited for this version of the Ray, but a little disappointed that this seems to be the final nail in the coffin of the New 52 Koren American version.

[obsidianwolf]

I know what you mean, that mini series may have had its cringeworthy moments (when he decided to impersonate a different ethniticity to impress his girlfriend's parents for example.) but it was nice to see a male hero with the whole their powers don't allow them to wear clothes problem to get around.