JLA: Heaven's Ladder

[lordultimus]

Comments

[mazway_75]

Like the bit left off these scans of Superman and Atom talking about the former's death.

Atom: "What'd you see, clouds, angels?"
Superman: "What makes you think I saw Heaven?"
Atom: "Because if you can't get in there, the rest of us have no chance."

[crinos]

Another good one where Plas is talking about how he was raised Catholic and how there's only one God and Heaven, and when one of the others call him out he's like "Wasn't there a literal angel on this team once?" and the other one is like "Yeah, and he taught us to respect other people's beliefs."

Also, urge to Huey Lewis intensifies.

[mazway_75]

Plus, some of the other planets they visit and their views of Heaven and such. Like a gambling one where it's all about the odds. Plus, an Adam Strange cameo where "to the long fertile Raan, Heaven is the cry of a newborn child."

Man, this is some beautiful artwork by Hitch, shame they couldn't fit in his stunning spread of Earth being "stolen" by a ship the size of a galaxy.

[crinos]

I also love the entire concept of this story. A bunch of God like aliens are going extinct so they steal a bunch of worlds from across the multiverse to build themselves a heaven by studying the lesser races concept of an after life and then build a literal stairway to it.

That's the kind of weird high concept stuff the Morrison era JLA was famous for (Even though this was written by Mark Waid).

[mazway_75]

Left off is Plastic Man's great reaction. "I knew it! I knew hanging around with you people was going to give me an aneurysm sooner or later? Build Heaven?!"

[q99]

-That's the kind of weird high concept stuff the Morrison era JLA was famous for (Even though this was written by Mark Waid). -

I feel like the Morrison, Waid, and Kelly runs all hung together in feeling epic-scale and similar in theme. For a good stretch there the writers followed off of Morrison's lead.

[jlbarnett]

comics writers are willing to use other gods, willing to mention the contradiction, willing to have characters representing Christianity mention, but they never try anything to explain it

How about "The command yo have no other gods simply means that you can't worship other gods. Diana, for example, as a worshiper of the Greek Pantheon may pray to any of them, Christians only pray to God for everything"

[laughing_tree]

Waid's still a decent writer but his current stuff doesn't do if for me like his older stuff (like this story). I sometimes wonder if it's me that's changed or him.

I usually think it's the former because, if I approach it objectively, his writing is still *very* similar to how it's always been, right down to the nuts and bolts level. But this is one of those stories that make me think it might be the former, after all.

[q99]

I had this and thought it was fairly good, but it was *so big* it just didn't fit on my shelves so I eventually delivered it to a used book store.

[thatnickguy]

If it helps, they re-collected it a few years back in the JLA softcover editions that collect the full run of that title, right up to Infinity Crisis.

Heaven's Ladder is in Volume 5. Though I'm honestly not sure if the books are still in print.

[q99]

Good to know if I ever feel the need for it :)

[bradygirl_12]

Heh, Plas as the fat lady singing. :)

This is a really refreshing story. The threat is major and has some dark elements to it, but it's generally upbeat and the JLA works together instead of sniping and backstabbing each other. I guess I'm spoiled because I grew up reading a cooperative JLA and not the dysfunctional one we often get from modern writers.