#2- Dueling Countdowns
#2 Civil War Crossover- Civil War: Frontline #6
In this issue, Ben Urich confronts Iron Man about hiring villains to do his dirty work, and gets everything but a verbal confirmation that it’s true. I don’t actually remember that aspect of the Urich/Green Goblin interaction from a couple of issues ago, but after the ending of Civil War #4 it certainly makes sense. I’m actually surprised in retrospect that Green Goblin wasn’t part of Iron Man’s Krazee-Eyez Killas. Meanwhile, in the Negative Zone, Speedball and the other detainees are being held under worse conditions than the people at Abu Ghraib. Every single person he meets keeps telling Speedball to abandon what he believes in and admit he’s responsible for killing everyone in Stamford, because taking a stand isn’t worth going to prison. Good thing She-Hulk wasn’t around to help Rosa Parks or Gandhi. Oh, then Speedball gets shot by Jack Ruby. The Sleeper Agent storyline has me most intrigued, because I have no idea where they’re going with it. Along with this story, which is only running as the third feature in Frontline, Namor showed up in Wolverine (which I don’t read) and is on the cover of Civil War #6. I’m curious as to what part Atlantis is playing (or will play) in Civil War, if it doesn’t just turn out to be something unrelated that’s going on at the same time. The last four pages of Frontline, as always, is the “poem from an actual war with scenes from that war juxtaposed with scenes from Civil War that are sort of similar” section. As always, it sucked. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems a little inappropriate to compare actual horrible aspects of war to fictional aspects of a war between superheroes in a comic book mega-crossover. Of course, even if you ignore the poem part, Frontline is still 28 pages without ads for $2.99. It’s hard to find a better bargain than that.
#2 Disappointing Book- Justice League of America #2
Three issues into Brad Meltzer’s run on JLA and we don’t even have a team yet. Actually, we all know who’s on the team (just look at the cover), but Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman still haven’t figured it out. The only action this issue comes from Vixen and two DC jobber villains. When are we going to see the big three, or even Green Lantern, Red Arrow or Black Canary bust some heads? Meltzer’s writing seemed sloppy at times (I don’t buy that mentioning “Ted” when discussing Booster was a tribute to the deceased Blue Beetle and not just a mistake). Ed Benes’ art possibly more so. I’m all for keeping the actual villain in shadow to build suspense, but you have to draw him in a shadow, not just black him out in a brightly lit room (unless that’s a power of his, I guess). And why did Red Tornado have a costume lying around his girlfriend’s apartment? Just in case he returned from the dead in a human body and needed to fight crime before he could go see a tailor? Shouldn’t he need a mask now? Or is he just going to paint his face red every time he goes out (like it looks like he did this issue)? So far the new JLA has been quite disappointing, from the story to the team roster. Especially the roster.
I thought JLA was pretty solid, though yeah, a little more needed to happen by this issue. You’d think by #3 at least we’re going to HAVE to see something.
After Identity Crisis, I’m willing to give Meltzer the benefit of the doubt.
Same here. No way I’m going to drop the series, but this all felt like maybe it should have been part of a giant-sized #1 or something, because I could easily see how someone without Meltzer faith could get bored with this. There is a lot of JLA history that I’m unfamiliar with, and these first three issues seem packed with that.
Too much history or esoteric nods can be off-putting to an under-informed reader. Geoff Johns has a way of making historical references work effortlessly. Brad Meltzer handles them differently, in a way that makes me want to know more about what he’s referring to, but he’s really close to that line where it feels like I’m almost unwelcome due to my ignorance.
I even loved Identity Crisis, and I’m a bit turned off by JLA. I don’t plan to drop it, I’ll at least give it until #6. It’s strange that the exact same kind of drawn out 12-part arc is happening in Uncanny X-Men and I’m loving it.
You have to at least be looking forward to the huge-ass tornado fight coming up next issue.
Oh, and I don’t really have any problem with the roster. It’ll be nice to get some good exposure for some of the minor folks. It just sucks that they’re treating the roster announcement like a surprise, when it’s already been revealed.