2013 Book 6: Justice Society of America Vol 9: Monument Point
Book 06: Justice Society of America, Vol. 9: Monument Point by Marc Guggenheim, Jerry Ordway & others, isbn 9781401233686, softcover, 144 pages, DC Comics, $14.99
The Premise: (from the back cover): The JSA's new home isn't what it seems... As Jay Garrick steps into his role as the mayor of Monument Point, the JSA settle into their new home doing what they've always done: mentoring the next generation of heroes. But Monument Point is a city with dark secrets that the federal government doesn't want Garrick or the rest of the JSA to know. After receiving an ominous warning from the future, the team ventures beneath Monument Point's foundations, unleashing an ancient and dangerous foe. When confronted with a nigh-unstoppable force of their own making, can even the assembled forces of the JSA prevent it from tearing their world to shreds? Collecting issues #50-54.
My Rating: **
My Thoughts: Poor Marc Guggenheim. It's clear he had a much longer game-plan for his run on the monthly Justice Society of America title, and that those plans were scuttled by DC's decision to "restart" their entire universe with the Flashpoint event. I have to wonder when exactly in the planning/writing stages of Guggenheim's run he was informed the title would be ending with #54, and if earlier knowledge of that fact would have changed the amount of ground-laying he did in the previous storyline ("Supertown," reviewed here). This installment feels as rushed as the previous installment felt meandering: every major plot and subplot wrapped up, some with not very much logic (I suspect, for instance, Mister Terrific was meant to take a lot longer to regain his status as the third smartest man in the world). Only some of this can be laid at Guggenheim's feet given the editorial decisions made.
Where Guggenheim really gets it right is in the first chapter: recapping the JSA's history and influence. He's aided in this chapter by stellar art from George Perez and decent art by Freddie Williams II and Howard Chaykin (Chaykin, in particular, is capable of so much better). It's clear Guggenheim understands what most long-term fans of the JSA love about the team.
The dialogue in some sections is really crisp and snappy, especially between the JSA and Challengers of the Unknown. I actually would like to see what Guggenheim would have done with the classic Challengers after seeing how he wrote them in this installment. In other places, the dialogue suffers from having to cover in exposition what I assume the writer would have covered with action if he'd been given more issues to work with.
I'm of two minds about the revamp of Per Degaton. On the one hand, it's always nice to see a second-tier villain given a shot at becoming something more; on the other hand, I sort of have always loved Degaton as the loser of time-travel villains.
Overall, I liked this installment better than the previous.
The Premise: (from the back cover): The JSA's new home isn't what it seems... As Jay Garrick steps into his role as the mayor of Monument Point, the JSA settle into their new home doing what they've always done: mentoring the next generation of heroes. But Monument Point is a city with dark secrets that the federal government doesn't want Garrick or the rest of the JSA to know. After receiving an ominous warning from the future, the team ventures beneath Monument Point's foundations, unleashing an ancient and dangerous foe. When confronted with a nigh-unstoppable force of their own making, can even the assembled forces of the JSA prevent it from tearing their world to shreds? Collecting issues #50-54.
My Rating: **
My Thoughts: Poor Marc Guggenheim. It's clear he had a much longer game-plan for his run on the monthly Justice Society of America title, and that those plans were scuttled by DC's decision to "restart" their entire universe with the Flashpoint event. I have to wonder when exactly in the planning/writing stages of Guggenheim's run he was informed the title would be ending with #54, and if earlier knowledge of that fact would have changed the amount of ground-laying he did in the previous storyline ("Supertown," reviewed here). This installment feels as rushed as the previous installment felt meandering: every major plot and subplot wrapped up, some with not very much logic (I suspect, for instance, Mister Terrific was meant to take a lot longer to regain his status as the third smartest man in the world). Only some of this can be laid at Guggenheim's feet given the editorial decisions made.
Where Guggenheim really gets it right is in the first chapter: recapping the JSA's history and influence. He's aided in this chapter by stellar art from George Perez and decent art by Freddie Williams II and Howard Chaykin (Chaykin, in particular, is capable of so much better). It's clear Guggenheim understands what most long-term fans of the JSA love about the team.
The dialogue in some sections is really crisp and snappy, especially between the JSA and Challengers of the Unknown. I actually would like to see what Guggenheim would have done with the classic Challengers after seeing how he wrote them in this installment. In other places, the dialogue suffers from having to cover in exposition what I assume the writer would have covered with action if he'd been given more issues to work with.
I'm of two minds about the revamp of Per Degaton. On the one hand, it's always nice to see a second-tier villain given a shot at becoming something more; on the other hand, I sort of have always loved Degaton as the loser of time-travel villains.
Overall, I liked this installment better than the previous.