An Unceremonious Finish

    Well, the story of the merging of the DC and Milestone Universes is  over, and it’s fairly obvious that Dwayne McDuffie pooped out in the end.  At the end of this arc that has seen the Justice League of America reduced to almost nothingness, it’s an all-out-brawl between its remnants, plus Paladin, Hardware, and Icon, versus Starbreaker and Shadow Thief.  Starbreaker reveals that the Sun Eater form is simply his species larval state, and he gets bigger and redder.  Lots of fighting, blah blah blah.  Ultimately, Dr. Light and Green Lantern (John Stewart) utilize the new tech in Light’s suit to siphon off most of the energy that Starbreaker has stored.  Paladin then shoots Starbreaker in the head, ending him as a threat, at least for the time being.  Zatanna heals Dharma, and later on Dharma acts as a plot dump for Icon and Superman, explaining how Final Crisis forced him push the two universes together.  The three of them then agree to keep things as they are and to keep Dharma safe in order to make sure that the two universes don’t split.

     So, a ridiculous fight, followed by Dharma explaining everything in one go as a plot dump.  Yup, not the best ending.  Not very much of McDuffie’s trademark dialogue either.  All in all, a pretty sad ending to what was originally a very good arc.  By the end, McDuffie was barely even working with any of his own Milestone characters.  Hardware was really the only one who got any real screen time.  I’m not sure if this is a result of his own exhaustion, or anger towards DC for firing him.  Either way, it’s too bad, especially considering that his run is now over.  Now, we get some funky three-parter by Len Wein before James Robinson and Mark Bagley start up as the new creative team.  Oh, and by the way, we get a few gorgeous pages by Eddy Barrows before being suddenly taken into mediocre work by Ardian Syaf, who makes everything look really stale.  It’s quite sad that this is the ending to this run.  McDuffie only got a short period of time to do what he actually wanted with the title, and now he’s gone.  And there isn’t even really a team yet.  By the way, whatever happened to Black Canary?  Didn’t she say that the team was disbanded?  So many problems.  Let’s hope Robinson can mop up this sad mess of a Justice League.

Plot: 5.5      Art: 6.2      Dialogue: 6.0      Overall: 5.8

A Night on the Town

     At long last, the greatly-reviled Sean McKeever has left Teen Titans.  Now, Bryan Q. Miller is handling a three-issue arc before the new full-time writer, Felicia D. Henderson, takes over.  This arc seems to be mostly about endearing the new team to the readers, since Deathtrap didn’t exactly do that.  Everyone on the team, plus Traci 13, Blue Beetle’s girlfriend, decides to head over to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco to have some fun.  Everyone except the eternally moping Wonder Girl, who heads over to Alcatraz to deal with some prisoners.  There, Shimmer breaks her brother, Mammoth out of prison, leading to a massive jailbreak.  And Wonder Girl is the only superhero there to deal with it.  The rest of the Teen Titans enjoy themselves, and Aquagirl and Traci have some icy dealings with each other.  Then, Blue Beetle sees what’s going on at Alcatraz on an electronic billboard.  Then, the new Fearsome Five’s (we’ve only met three of them: Shimmer, Mammoth, Jinx) esteemed employer is revealed: Marvin and Wendy’s father, the Calculator.  In the new Ravager backup, Ravager sees Wonder Girl as a part of an adrenaline-induced hallucination.  She arrives at some weird place up north, presumably in Canada or Alaska, beats up some locals, and passes out, covered in blood.

     This is a start.  It’s not exactly a brilliant change, but it’s a start.  Besides, Miller will only be here for two more issues.  He gets the characters all a bit better, though I still don’t feel like I hear their voices coming through their dialogue.  Then again, it takes really good writers to do that.  I like seeing everyone have fun, though, since during McKeever’s run, they had anything but that.  I am curious as to why Robin would have a Hummer lying around Titans Tower, but that could just be the environmentalist in me.  My main complaint is that people have beaten the whole Wonder Girl identity issues topic to death.  Every single person who gets to write even a tiny bit about the Teen Titans deals with it.  Geoff Johns, Sean McKeever, and now Bryan Q. Miller.  It’s kind of annoying.  In fact, it’s the main reason why I don’t like her as a character.  They write her as this loser who’s too dependent on other people when that’s not at all what I saw in her characterization during One Year Later.  But maybe that’s just me.  Joe Bennett is a superb artist for this series, and I’m glad that there’s actually a real successor for Eddy Barrows on this series.  As for the backup, Sean McKeever continues to perform a character assassination on Ravager.  Hooked on adrenaline?  Oh brother.  And as if anyone would buy that cliffhanger.  Ravager isn’t going to die in the first installment of her backup feature.  And Yildiray Cinar’s art is as generically boring as it was last time.  I can’t wait for Felicia D. Henderson to take over, but at least now McKeever isn’t destroying all things Teen Titans-related.  Just my favorite character from the team.

Plot: 6.9      Art: 8.8      Dialogue: 6.5      Overall: 6.9