DC Comics has rebooted its line of superhero comics, beginning with its flagship title, Justice League. Written by Geoff Johns with pencils by Jim Lee, Justice League is supposed to be an entry point for readers unfamiliar with the DC Universe. That’s the theory. But DC Comics are not exactly known for being “new reader friendly.” And Geoff Johns is an acquired taste (one acquires that taste by reading superhero comics, and only superhero comics, for 40 years straight).
As a courtesy to newcomers, I offer this annotated guide to Justice League #1.
Cover
While the line-up of the Justice League has changed many times over the decades, the iconic team has always included DC’s most revered characters plus Aquaman. Starting at the top left and working clockwise, there’s Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, Batman, and the Flash. Batman is arguably the most famous, but Superman has a TV show (Smallville) and a movie in the works, Green Lantern recently appeared in a movie that most of you didn’t bother to see, Cyborg guest-starred in about two episodes of Smallville, and Wonder Woman almost had her own TV series.
Casual fans might notice that the costumes look a bit different from their classic appearances. Superman no longer wears underwear outside of his pants. Most of the men appear to be wearing armor instead of spandex. And Wonder Woman now has a choker, presumably because her bare neck was drawing attention away from her cleavage.
Page 2-3
This is a great example of Jim Lee’s artwork. It’s full of dynamic motion, though I’m not sure what that motion is. Is Batman using his cape as a makeshift parachute? Or is he running away on his knuckles? I say the latter, because Batman is just that damn tough.
Batman is pursuing an alien monster while being pursued by the cops, and just when the alien seems to gain the upper hand, Batman is rescued by — Green Lantern.
Page 8
As DC Comics helpfully reminds us, superheroes are modern myths overflowing with allegorical subtext. As this scene makes clear, Green Lantern is not just a guy with a flashlight in his chest. He’s also a metaphor for light, because lanterns provide light. And Batman is a metaphor for darkness, because bats like the dark. So they represent light and dark, the two sides of heroism (and humanity!). Green Lantern hits things in the light and Batman hits things in the dark. Green Lantern is like Zeus and Batman is like Hades. On second thought, Superman is Zeus and Green Lantern is Helios (Aquaman is Poseidon, that’s clearly a given). Or maybe Green Lantern is Jesus if Jesus were a space cop. And that would make Batman … um, let’s say Dark Jesus. The point is these characters are MODERN MYTHS.
Anyway, Batman and Green Lantern pursue the alien into the sewers, where Lantern gives Batman some grief about not having superpowers.
Page 14
Batman more or less punks Green Lantern and takes his magic ring. Given that Green Lantern has the power to do anything or create anything he wants, some readers may wonder how the unpowered Batman humiliates him so easily. Two reasons: first, Green Lantern is an idiot. Second, while Batman may not have super-strength or magic, he has the greatest superpower of all, one that allows him to win any fight: popularity.
Page 15
The alien screams “For Darkseid!” and blows itself up. Darkseid was, as every comic nerd knows, the main villain of the “Fourth World” saga, a collection of stories created by legendary comic artist Jack Kirby. Long story short, DC Comics kicked Kirby to the curb and mismanaged his creations for several decades. Darkseid’s last appearance before the reboot was in a recent story called Final Crisis. In the climactic battle, Batman shot Darkseid with a cosmic bullet and then Superman killed him with the power of song (the exact song was not specified, but it was probably soft adult contemporary). The scene was a dramatic celebration of creativity. Too bad actual creative people like Kirby don’t get as much love.
Page 21
This is the introduction of Victor Stone, the teenager who will eventually become Cyborg. He’s half man, half machine, and all black. That last feature is useful for marketing purposes because the Justice League isn’t known for its diversity.
And interacting with minorities would be a good thing for Batman and Green Lantern, as they have a tendency to engage in racial profiling. They decide that Superman, being an alien, must somehow be involved with the alien monster, so they fly to Metropolis to interrogate him. And Superman, rational adult that he is, punches out Green Lantern and then challenges Batman.
Page 24
Next issue: Superman vs. Batman! Who will win? Superman has super-strength, super-speed, flight, invulnerability, freeze breath, and heat vision. That may sound impressive, but Batman is really, really popular.
Thanks for reading this so I don’t have to. It looks horrible beyond endurance.
Is Batman really popular with readers? Or is it just that all the writers want to be Frank Miller?
Well I’m sure there’s plenty of Miller worship in the halls of DC.
I haven’t been tracking the numbers recently, but Batman must still be a draw (by the standards of superhero comics) given the impressive number of titles that he and his spinoffs support. And that’s not even counting the team-ups and guest appearances.
Miller had Robin kicking GL’s ass in All-Star B&R.
Cyborg is Mecha-Eros.
I guess they decided that their wretched aesthetic didn’t need a reboot. That art is a MESS.
Why do so many superhero colorists insist on making every surface and material look like one of those cheap light prisms they show you in grade school?
Noah: My understanding is that “Batman” is the metric by which Diamond measures the sales of all other mainstream periodical comics, and has been for years, due to the consistent nature of its high sales.
A few annotations to the annotations:
(1) Cyborg, I believe, is a regular character on the Cartoon Network’s popular “Teen Titans” cartoon, which would make him very recognizable to younger, potentially new readers that DC is hoping to snag with this relaunch. I don’t think he has the cultural cachet of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, or Aquaman (all of whom are household names, though Aquaman mostly as a joke) but he’s probably up there for the middle school crowd.
(2) It is not exactly specified but it is strongly suggested that the song which defeats Darkseid in Final Crisis is “Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”. (Trying to find a scan online of the panel where lyrics from the song appear, but can’t).
Michael A: digital coloring is exhibit A in the argument that computers don’t make everything better.
Jason: good point on Cyborg, he’s probably more recognizable at this point than any other black superhero at DC (John Stewart’s star is fading I think).
Re: Age of Aquarius … are you fucking kidding me? I’m probably alone in this but I’m not a fan of “Hair” or its songs. This is my own musical bias, but I feel that Darkseid can only be defeated by the power of metal.
I am morally certain that Donovan could defeat Darkseid. “Season of the Witch” has serious mojo.
And just to be absolutely clear, I am not kidding. Donovan is god.
I’d be okay with Donna Summer too.
That first Batman panel is so silly looking. Putting aside that he’s going to needlessly rip up his pretty cape doing that, he’s likely going to land flat on his face. The pose looks like he just dived into a swimming pool.
Richard: If memory serves, there is a panel of Superman’s acolytes screaming “Let the Sun Shine In!” at Darkseid shortly before the climactic singing.
Jason – I only skimmed Final Crisis, but that sounds vaguely familiar. I just don’t have any interest in re-reading it at this point.
Robert – the whole comic suffers from similar problems. I’m not part of the Jim Lee fandom, but I don’t remember him being this bad when he was doing All-Star Batman.
Richard Cook wrote: “… Superman killed him with the power of song (the exact song was not specified, but it was probably soft adult contemporary)”
Haha!
Are you sure it wasn’t techno-country?
Techno-country doesn’t exist. Alas.
The artwork is unfathomably ugly.
Thanks for this, Richard–some truly beautiful analysis. And, erm, some stunning art as well.
Noah, the destructive power of Donovan is well known in certain military circles. THe use of “Atlantis”, alas, is banned by certain international treaties, but word has it that US Secret OPS has ignored such strictures….
“Horrible beyond endurance” is right! Constipated, humorless, taking itself oh-so-seriously. The “heroes” looking like they’ve clenched every muscle in their body so hard that, as the saying goes, if they farted only dogs could hear it. Jim Lee’s renderings unfortunately perfectly up to the task, as usual…
As for techno-country, some quick n’ dirty Photoshopping: http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l542/Mike_59_Hunter/Assimilated.jpg
OMG! I forgot Atlantis! I loooooove that song.
Donovan’s children’s album also has an amazing song about peeing which is maybe the greatest song ever in explored space.
“Techno-country doesn’t exist. Alas.”
Maybe this’ll cheer you up.
The rapping kind of sucked, but otherwise that was in fact pretty cheering.
Noah wrote: “Techno-country doesn’t exist. Alas”
Oh, I don’t know — check out this version of “Cotton-Eyed Joe”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXJYM3jleB0
Yeah; poking around youtube it looks like there’s a fair number of country songs done as techno. I don’t think that really counts as a genre though; it’s not like there are artists who think of themselves as techno-country and make new techno-country music. Still, I bow before our heterogenous cultural landscape.
Yeah, there definitely seems to be something out there for everyone.
Dang! Now I can’t get “Cotton-eyed Joe” out of my head.
Damn it. I know this comic sucks and nobody in their right mind would want to talk about it, but this comment section is for Justice League #1, not techno-country!
Or if you must comment on techno-country, please relate it to the Justice League in some way.
Believe it or not, I have read “Justice League” #1 and actually have a copy sitting right next to me for (ahem) reference. The issue was given to me for free, which is fortunate, because whoever signed off on the $4.99 cover price point needs to go back and take Marketing 101.
To sum the new characters up, Green Lantern is kind of a dumb-ass egomaniac, Batman is a smart-ass egomaniac, and Superman is a cocksure egomaniac.
Every single super character — even the ones in the DC house ads — looks royally pissed off, and the world doesn’y trust any of them because, well, because such a story angle worked for the X-Men franchise.
I liked the art.
OK, now back to the odd music genres. Is the a vampire rap genre yet? How about zombie disco?
Just gritted my teeth and clicked on that Jim Lee drawing of Superman…
Uh, they’ve got a character who’s invulnerable “wearing armor instead of spandex”?
As for the conflict being set up there:
http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l542/Mike_59_Hunter/SupermanvsBatman.jpg
At least this sorry DC marketing mess has inspired one cartoonist: http://blog.cagle.com/2011/08/obama-dc-reboot/
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R. Maheras says:
…whoever signed off on the $4.99 cover price point needs to go back and take Marketing 101.
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$4.99?? Eeeesh…
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Every single super character — even the ones in the DC house ads — looks royally pissed off…
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They do, don’t they?
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OK, now back to the odd music genres. Is the a vampire rap genre yet?
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Pass out the stakes!
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How about zombie disco?
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Sounds great! But dang, reality’s already there:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/29/meet-the-new-disco-zombie-in-plants-vs-zombies/
http://www.horrorsociety.com/festivals/zombie-disco-2/
“Lucas Hunter & Nat Self are Zombie Disco Squad, the multi-talented production duo that are taking house music in a new direction…” http://www.zombiediscosquad.com/bio/
Donovan and Final Crisis, oh you guys Sunshine Superman. Come on, he’s even canon.
I wish that Richard would review a shitty superhero comic more often.
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