Standing on its Own

     Since its relaunch a little over two years ago, Justice League of America has been plagued by constant editorial mandates and crossover storylines.  First, it was the Lightning Saga crossover with Justice Society.  Then, it was the Injustice League Unlimited arc leading up to Salvation Run.  Then it was the Salvation Run and Final Crisis tie-ins.  Then, with the subsequent arc, Dwayne McDuffie and Ed Benes were finally given the chance to write their own stories for the JLA.  The arc focused on Vixen and Red Tornado, bringing to a close their long-standing character arcs that began with the series.  McDuffie also tied together the origins of Vixen and Animal Man in an excellent way, creating a new character, Anansi, who acted almost as his own voice in the world of DC.

     Sure, no one would call McDuffie’s run on Justice League groundbreaking.  But, largely, due to his work on the spectacular Justice League Unlimited cartoon, he has a natural grasp for the characters of the team in a way that many writers today do not.  Another excellent continuing character arc is Black Canary’s conflicts with the Trinity, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  This conflict shows McDuffie’s understanding of the Trinity’s importance as well as allows for a natural evolution of Canary’s character.

     The current story arc involves the introduction of McDuffie’s own Milestone Comics characters into the DC Universe proper.  For some reason, the Shadow Cabinet is after Dr. Light (Kimiyo Hoshi, not the villain).  Immediately, the Justice League and the Shadow Cabinet are thrust into confrontation.  McDuffie is equally proficient with the Milestone characters, largely due to the fact that he created most of them.  As such, this is a very obvious choice for McDuffie to make.  It allows him to tell his own stories with his own characters and finally not have to write whatever he is told to write.

     Although there are many complaints about Ed Benes’ work on JLA, I actually share almost none of them.  Admittedly, a few less butt shots would be nice, but I find his art very crisp and polished.  There aren’t many people who consistently draw such dynamic poses and excellent group shots.  So I hope that he stays on the title for a good long time, so long as women get a bit better of treatment.  At any rate, this is a rising title that will finally be able to satisfy people craving for good JLA action for the first time since the cancellation of the last volume.

Plot: 8.8      Art: 9.0      Dialogue: 9.0      Overall: 9.0

Titanically Mediocre

     So, as my first DC review, I’m doing Teen Titans, the first DC comic I started reading.  The Teen Titans cartoon show was really interesting, so I thought I’d try out the comic.  I started reading right at the One Year Later arc, as Ravager and Kid Devil became major characters and the roster shifted dramatically.  Actually, the roster hasn’t been set ever since then.  It’s in constant flux, though the next arc promises to finally bring some stability.

     After Geoff Johns’ surprisingly lackluster showing in the Titans East arc, Sean McKeever took over with Eddy Barrows on pencils, starting off with a sequel to Titans Tomorrow and continuing with the Terror Titans arc.  And what have these arcs spawned?  More confusion.  Supergirl comes and leaves.  Ravager, the most awesome Titan in a long time, quits the team.  Miss Martian, a character I fell in love with despite initial apprehensions, leaves.  Blue Beetle joins.  Cyborg, Jericho, and Raven quit.  Bombshell betrays the team, dies, comes back to life, and rejoins.  It’s all very confusing.  Now, Static, Kid Eternity, and one other character are set to join.  And Robin seems mysteriously absent from the cover depicting the new team.

     Anyway, this last arc has been about Bombshell’s rejoining of the Teen Titans as well as fluctuations in Wonder Girl’s power.  The prologue to this arc was the story of Wonder Dog, who was actually the hellhound of Lycus, son of Ares and nephew to Wonder Girl.  Wonder Dog killed Marvin and mauled Wendy, leaving her in a coma in the hospital.  Too bad, since these characters were finally developing personalities in the Terror Titans arc.  Then, in the arc proper, Bombshell comes back to life and flees Project Atom, which seems to be after her life, while Wonder Girl feels the effects of Lycus’ attempt to weaken and replace her as Ares’ champion. 

     While the Wonder Girl redesign was welcome, this arc is just like all of Sean McKeever’s previous arcs.  All over the place without anything that really stands out.  Sure, stuff has been interesting.  But nothing was great.  And an unstable roster doesn’t really help.  The fact that it is taking a year and half for McKeever to set up his new team without any truly amazing things happening beforehand (Terror Titans was too much like Titans East) makes everything go way too slow.  So there is nothing terribly wrong with Teen Titans aside from that it should be much better.  It isn’t bad, but it isn’t good.  It’s just meh.  Same with the art.  Teen Titans just doesn’t have that same spark from the Marv Wolfman/George Pérez and Geoff Johns/Mike McKone eras that made it great.

Plot: 7.3     Art: 8.8      Dialogue: 7.5      Overall: 7.8

The Best Kind of Reunion

     So, everyone was excited when the award-winning team of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven came back together for the epic Old Man Logan arc in Wolverine.  And for good reason.  Civil War was a smash hit, and it was possibly the only major Marvel event in the last few years that wasn’t bad and/or boring.  The whole idea of an alternate universe Wolverine wasn’t exactly new, but Mark Millar wrote Enemy of the State, one of the best Wolverine story arcs ever.  And Steve McNiven…  well, he’s Steve McNiven.

     Despite all the amazing hype, Millar and McNiven managed to deliver, in one of those rare cases where things actually are as cool as they look.  Wolverine acting as a pacifist is something totally new, and it’s an amazing idea that I’m a bit surprised no one else has ever really tried before.  Plus, blind Hawkeye is really cool, and the whole road trip thing allows Millar to give us a truly great view of this world where almost all the heroes are dead and villains rule the world.  The Red Skull is the president, just to give a bit of persective.  The Red Skull.  Yeah, things are that messed up.

     Anyway, this arc is absolutely awesome.  Sure, there have been and likely will be delays.  But McNiven’s art is worth it.  Far from being more of his Civil War work, McNiven has altered his style to be a little more “dirty” in the best way possible to fit the mood of the arc.  It’s some of the best-looking comic book art today.  And Millar has an excellent grasp of the Marvel Universe as a whole, so that this world seems as well-developed as the normal Marvel timeline.  It’s good that another issue is coming out this week, because I think that people just can’t get enough of this stuff.  Really.

Plot: 9.4      Art: 9.6      Dialogue: 9.5      Overall: 9.5