cry for justice

With a rebel yell...

1 Comment

Grumpy Old Fan

By the time this post goes live, you may be quite sick of hearing about Justice League: Cry For Justice #1. Back on Sunday, I said I didn't hate it; and I suspect mine was one of the more positive comments. Yes, the script has many questionable moments, including an apparent lack of irony where Hal Jordan and Ray Palmer are concerned. I complained more about the staging of the first scene, which I felt sacrificed common sense for capital-D Drama!. And yes, the idea behind this series was a bit tired fifteen years ago when it was called Extreme Justice.

And yet … it's movement, you know? It's light at the end of the tunnel -- the hope that almost three years into Justice League of America Volume 2, the book will at last gain its own direction and its own identity, free from crossover intrusions and editorial dictates….

… well, as free as any corporate superhero title could be; especially one designed specifically to use characters who already appear in other books. To me, writing Justice League is sort of like competing on "Iron Chef" -- you don't have total control over all the ingredients; and more likely than not you'll have to bring new life to old standbys like salmon or Hawkgirl. Accordingly, as Rich Johnston pointed out last week, this has produced a particular cycle of retooling and rebuilding, such that it takes just the right combination of characters and circumstances to keep the League stable.

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