2013 Book 5: Justice Society of America: Supertown
Book 05: Justice Society of America, Vol. 8: Supertown by Marc Guggenheim, Scott Kolins & others, isbn 9781401232849, softcover, 144 pages, DC Comics, $14.99
The Premise: (from the back cover): Heroes don't quit. Just when Jay Garrick is considering retiring as The Flash, he is forced into his most heroic role yet. A meta-terrorist attack threatens downtown Monument Point, and the JSA responds in force. Six hours of fighting later, the city's core has been destroyed, the JSA's been beaten down ... and the Green Lantern's neck is broken. Even with the life of his best friend hanging by a thread in the hospital, the Flash realizes that his place is with the people of Monument Point, rebuilding and protecting the city. And right when everything seems to be getting back to normal: enter Dr. Chaos. He's got wicked plans ahead of him and a trail of dead behind him, and he's bringing the man that broke the Green Lantern with him. The citizens -- and the JSA -- have never needed the Flash more.
My Rating: **
My Thoughts: When I finally decided to go "cold turkey" on buying comics book almost two years ago, I was already over a year behind on reading the titles I'd been following faithfully for a long time which meant that I stopped reading JSA just before this storyline kicked off in the regular monthly issues. Two years later, I'm finally reading the story and I have to say, I'm largely disappointed in it.
Marc Guggenheim continues what I think became a defining feature (and bad storytelling habit, IMHO) of the JSA back during Geoff Johns' run on the book: every storyline needs to feature some JSAer being maimed or killed. It feels like the team can't be motivated to do anything at all unless one of their own has been killed or dismembered or paralyzed. That's not my JSA. These are heroes forged in the fires of World War Two. In pretty much every incarnation of the team ever, they have steadfastly been written as doing what was right and necessary regardless of the personal cost, until the past few years. Strong characterization can come out of any number of situations. It doesn't always have to be because someone close to a character has been hurt or killed. There were probably dozens of other logical ways to get Jay Garrick into the position of becoming the mayor of Monument Point (as we see on the first and last pages of the story) without the angst of Alan Scott's neck being broken as a motivating factor, or of Lightning being at death's door a few pages later thanks to Dr. Chaos.
I also felt like the story dragged on a little too long. Scythe was enough of a motivating villain on his own, and the addition of Dr. Chaos just seemed unnecessary. I understood the need to show that the mysterious Senator is trying to cover something up (something I assume the JSA will discover in the next book), but I felt that there were probably subtler ways to do that than bringing in another super-villain when we'd already seen how devastating Scythe could be on his own.
I do applaud Guggenheim's attempt to recognize and weave in some of the JSA's history by making the jerk-wad Senator the same man who chaired the Congressional committee that drove the JSA into early retirement in the 1950s. That was a nice touch. And in the opening pages, he does get the connection between Jay and Alan just right, reminding me of the way Len Straczewski wrote Wildcat and Atom's banter in the 1992-93 run of the book. But these small character moments aren't enough to balance out what I disliked about the story.
The Premise: (from the back cover): Heroes don't quit. Just when Jay Garrick is considering retiring as The Flash, he is forced into his most heroic role yet. A meta-terrorist attack threatens downtown Monument Point, and the JSA responds in force. Six hours of fighting later, the city's core has been destroyed, the JSA's been beaten down ... and the Green Lantern's neck is broken. Even with the life of his best friend hanging by a thread in the hospital, the Flash realizes that his place is with the people of Monument Point, rebuilding and protecting the city. And right when everything seems to be getting back to normal: enter Dr. Chaos. He's got wicked plans ahead of him and a trail of dead behind him, and he's bringing the man that broke the Green Lantern with him. The citizens -- and the JSA -- have never needed the Flash more.
My Rating: **
My Thoughts: When I finally decided to go "cold turkey" on buying comics book almost two years ago, I was already over a year behind on reading the titles I'd been following faithfully for a long time which meant that I stopped reading JSA just before this storyline kicked off in the regular monthly issues. Two years later, I'm finally reading the story and I have to say, I'm largely disappointed in it.
Marc Guggenheim continues what I think became a defining feature (and bad storytelling habit, IMHO) of the JSA back during Geoff Johns' run on the book: every storyline needs to feature some JSAer being maimed or killed. It feels like the team can't be motivated to do anything at all unless one of their own has been killed or dismembered or paralyzed. That's not my JSA. These are heroes forged in the fires of World War Two. In pretty much every incarnation of the team ever, they have steadfastly been written as doing what was right and necessary regardless of the personal cost, until the past few years. Strong characterization can come out of any number of situations. It doesn't always have to be because someone close to a character has been hurt or killed. There were probably dozens of other logical ways to get Jay Garrick into the position of becoming the mayor of Monument Point (as we see on the first and last pages of the story) without the angst of Alan Scott's neck being broken as a motivating factor, or of Lightning being at death's door a few pages later thanks to Dr. Chaos.
I also felt like the story dragged on a little too long. Scythe was enough of a motivating villain on his own, and the addition of Dr. Chaos just seemed unnecessary. I understood the need to show that the mysterious Senator is trying to cover something up (something I assume the JSA will discover in the next book), but I felt that there were probably subtler ways to do that than bringing in another super-villain when we'd already seen how devastating Scythe could be on his own.
I do applaud Guggenheim's attempt to recognize and weave in some of the JSA's history by making the jerk-wad Senator the same man who chaired the Congressional committee that drove the JSA into early retirement in the 1950s. That was a nice touch. And in the opening pages, he does get the connection between Jay and Alan just right, reminding me of the way Len Straczewski wrote Wildcat and Atom's banter in the 1992-93 run of the book. But these small character moments aren't enough to balance out what I disliked about the story.