“Team History”, the first proper arc of James Robinson and Mark Bagley’s Justice League, draws to a close with JLA #43. Green Arrow’s actions from Justice League: Cry For Justice were revealed in JLA: Rise and Fall Special, but how will the Justice League react and will Green Arrow even survive his encounter with the dark New Gods on the JLA Watchtower. A full 5-page preview can be found at DC’s Source.
It’s seems that the year has barely started – March already?? – and DC is already releasing their preview solicitations for June. The biggest JLA news is the start of a 5-part JLA/JSA crossover which appears to feature on complications with the Starheart – the mystical force that power’s Alan Scott’s unique mystical Green Lantern. We see Jesse Quick on the cover of JLA #46 in the version of her father’s costume she adopted in Flash: Rebirth and used in the James Robinson penned Blackest Night: JSA.
Justice League: Generation Lost #3-4
Written by Keith Giffen and Judd Winick • Issue #3 art by Fernando Dangino • Issue #4 art by Aarom Lopresti • Covers by Tony Harris & J.D. Mettler • 1:25 variant covers by Kevin Maguire
DC’s biweekly Justice League event continues here! The heroes of the once-great Justice League International – Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire and Ice – have reteamed in order to stop a threat to all mankind. But will the heroes of the DCU take this group of misfits seriously? And what happens when Blue Beetle – a new hero with an old legacy – joins the team? And whose side is he really on? Be here to find out!
Issue #3 on sale JUNE 9 • Issue #4 on sale JUNE 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Justice League of America #46
Written by James Robinson; Art by Mark Bagley and Rob Hunter; cover by Mark Bagley and Jesus Merino
“Brightest Day” continues with the start of an all-new, 5-part JLA/JSA crossover! The return of one hero heralds the release of the powerful Starheart that empowers Green Lantern Alan Scott. Now this chaotic force is unleashed on Earth, causing magic to go wild – and new metahumans to emerge! It’s more than one super-team can handle, but can even the combined efforts of the Justice League and the Justice Society contain the light and dark power wielded by one of their own? Witness the transformation of the moon and a journey into the Shadow Lands that will corrupt a hero!
Continued in next month’s JSA #41, this epic event features a 5-part connected cover spotlighting both teams in glorious action illustrated by Mark Bagley with inks by Jesus Merino!
On sale JUNE 30 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US
As well as the developing Brightest Day storylines June also sees the release of a brand new Green Arrow series. I wouldn’t normally mention it in these postings of JLA blurbs, but the cover by Cry For Justice’s Mauro Cascioli is absolutely beautiful:
Can you believe that this amazing double-page spread by Mike Mayhew of Green Arrow addressing a crowd of heroes wasn’t used for Justice League: The Rise and Fall Special #1! I particularly like how he renders Gongorilla as a real gorilla and not just a furry-human. You can see the full thing on Mike Mayhew’s Comic Art Fans page along with several other pages and that great splash of Batman swooping on Razer.
Seeing the phrase “Star Wars Burlesque” in your twitter stream is a fairly good sign that the 2010 comics convention circuit has begun in style. The biggest news out of Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con has so far been that Detective Comics has won a GLAAD award for Rucka and Williams’ Batwoman feature and that Boom! have launched a Darkwing Duck comic book (“Let’s get Dangerous!).
Comics Alliance and Pop Culture Zoo have notes on the DC Nation Panel where the opening questioner (Pop Culture Zoo: “a distraught fan”) challenged the DC panel (include James Robinson) over the dead (“fridging”) of Lian Harper in Cry For Justice.
From Comics Alliance:
James Robinson: “That decision [was] a controversial and one that I know has been greeted with some displeasure by some people… I’m sorry if it upset people. In all honesty, they wanted to kill Speedy too, and I said no, so give me some credit for that.”
Ian Sattler: “I’m happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion.”
I wish I was surprised that DC had wanted to kill Speedy off. People aren’t upset because the story had “weight and emotion.” They’re upset because the story was badly told!
Pop Culture Zoo also noted a comment made later in the panel:
The next big reveal was from Robinson, who said he will be revisiting Opal City with a new Shade series down the road. Asked about an appearance from Jack Knight, he gave no answer. Staying with Robinson, he emphasized that while readers may be upset with Green Arrow’s current direction, the outcome will make everyone happy in the end. Star City will be one of the greatest cities in the DCU.
Nice to hear that the Shade is coming back and that there are plans for Star City. However, I think the issue of Harper’s death and the current direction of Green Arrow is going to be an issue that runs for most of the convention season.
I will admit that I was less that complementary about some aspects of Cry For Justice (see my review of the final issue for an example), but the series really seems to have grabbed people’s attention. No matter what people think about the quality of the series, they all seem to agree that the denouement had a certain emotional satisfaction to it. It was a big shock ending to a big storyline. The repercussions of that ending are only now being played out. It all begins with a month-long four-part crossover/banner that runs across this JLA: Rise and Fall Special, the launch of the “The Fall of Green Arrow” and “The Rise of Arsenal” storylines and then the next full issue of JLA.
The issue opens with a recap of the events of Cry For Justice as told from the point-of-view of Green Arrow’(Oliver Queen, see the preview pages from the Source above). Ollie is focused on the hunt for one of Prometheus’s foot soldiers – a villain called the Electrocuitoneer – the one who actually placed the device the almost destroyed Star City. He intends to deal with the Electrocuitoneer in the same manner as he dealt with Prometheus, but he tries his best to hide that from Black Canary. In Central City, the Flash (Wally West) and Batman (Dick Grayson) round up the Razer, another of Prometheus’s foot soldiers, and compare their own fortunes to Roy Harper’s disability.
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and the other Flash (Barry Allen) contact the Shade to see if he knows anything more about Prometheus’s whereabouts. The Shade willingly leads them to Prometheus’ Crooked House where they discover Prometheus’s body with a green arrow stuck in it. Meanwhile Green Arrow and Black Canary have cornered the Electrocutioneer, but Canary is horrified when she has to stop Arrow murdering him. Everything comes out as Hal and Barry arrive to confront Ollie with Prometheus’s body. Green Arrow isn’t the least bit remorseful about killing Prometheus and he uses Prometheus’s Cosmic Key to teleport away before they can imprison him.
Green Arrow started out as little more than a clone of Batman (Arrowcave, Arrowcar, etc), but he has been reinvented twice. His fans tend to prefer one or other of the those two reinventions. The first 1970s reinvention came to a head in Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams “Hard-Travelling Heroes” story-arc in Green Lantern/Green Arrow. This is the Ollie with a social voice and a quasi-liberal attitude. The second reinvention was in the late-1980s by Mike Grell who turned Ollie into a Seattle based night-time hunter. He has killed in both incarnations, but it was an exceptional event in the first and more of a natural consequence of the second. The current Green Arrow revival started with Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow series which firmly embraced the full range of the characters history.
I’ve quite liked J.T. Krul’s writing on The Titans when he was dealing with run-up to and spin-off from Cry For Justice. This issue carries the Harper/Prometheus story forward from there and continues this trend of swinging Ollie back towards the Mike Grell Seattle hunter days. The Green Arrow: Year One series by Andy Diggle and Jock had been the most recognisable landmark in this progression, but its now been superseded by Cry For Justice. We’ll probably end up with a new solo Green Arrow title at the end of all this, but there is quite a way before the character is ready for that.
Krul does a good job trying to reconcile the various facets of Arrow’s personality. Without a focus or when left alone he’s a fairly liberal, if grouchy, superhero who collects the normal paraphernalia of the business without much regard as to why he wants or needs it (sidekick, secret identity, extended team, etc). However, give him a cause, a crusade, and the blinkers go on. He hunkers down, even his philosophy seems to harden, and becomes a nearly feral stalker. What does seems strange for me is how distant Green Arrow and Black Canary have become. It’s almost as if its been forgotten (by them more than anybody else) that they’re now meant to be a husband and wife and not just another crime fighting duo. I guess Canary fell in love with the superhero Arrow and not the stalker.
If anything this issue created more questions that it answered. Green Arrow has no guilt over Prometheus’ murder – and on this I’m with Barry, it was murder. He’s made the full switch into stalker mode and that means this arc can only get darker. Just a very minor point, and it may be nothing, but Prometheus’ Cosmic Key is a soul stealer. It’s meant to kill any user other than Prometheus. Logical deduction would be that if Green Arrow is using it then he must be Prometheus, just as Prometheus was disguised as Freddy Freeman during most of Cry For Justice. The detail about the missing Helmet, and we must remember the equally missing Ira Quimby, also hints at more story to come.
The art in this issue isn’t as jarring as it was in the final few issues of Cry, but I still wish that DC would use a single art team on a single book. Most of the time it isn’t so bad, the oddest part if the way the decor of Prometheus’ house changes between the first and later part of the book. I’m also not sure I like the first section so much, but I love the full page splash of Batman K.O.ing Razer. I thought this was going to happen, but the differences between Barry and Wally’s costumes just haven’t sunk in for me yet. I keep seeing Barry and think he’s Wally.
While I generally liked this portrayal of Green Arrow I was more than a little bit more perplexed by the Shade’s antics. He helped Green Arrow kill Prometheus and then helped Green Lantern discover the body. He’s either just being deliberately causing trouble or he’s got his own agenda going on here. He’s one of the those characters that can easily sound odd, or slightly wrong, when not written by their definitive writer. Krul does an okay job, but the “you mortals” line sounded a bit stiff.
I think the biggest success of Justice League: Rise and Fall Special is that it has made me, as a reader, reconnect with Green Arrow. By getting to hear his internal monologue again, more of his reasoning, it instantly added a depth that had been missing in Cry For Justice.
Oh dear. That wasn’t very pretty now was it.
Spoilers a plenty. You have been warned!!!
DC Comics have released a 5-page preview of this week’s JLA issue. Most of the new group is together, but everybody is still getting use to being in the new Justice League.What is Green Arrow up to with the Shade? That can’t end well.
DC’s square thumbnails are something of a pet hate for Rich Johnston (I can’t say I entirely disagree with him). He’s illustrated a better way of displaying these previews by putting together his own version of the JLA #42 preview using the Issuu image displayer.
(I’ll post the review for JLA #41 once I’ve finished these Graduates mini-profiles — just Cyborg to go).
Amid the fuss over the return of Justice League International there were announcements yesterday about the Rise and Fall event that spins out of Cry For Justice. We’d see some of the variant covers from March’s four linked books, but DC’s Source has now put out the full linked scene from artist Mike Mayhew.
Wordballoon’s John Siuntres talks to JT Krul, the Rise and Fall writer, is a 90 minute podcast. Krul describes how he got into comics and about working with his old-friend Geoff Johns on the Blackest Night: Titans mini-series. He also comments on how the drama of BN allows the writer to push character development forward. He talks extensively about the Rise and All event.
Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers has interviewed Green Arrow writer J.T. Krul about his upcoming Rise/Fall storyline, the one that spins our of Cry For Justice and Justice League. He comments upon his collaboration with James Robinson and the changes that Roy Harper and Oliver Queen will be facing.
Nrama: How does Roy differ from Green Arrow? Will those differences play a role in the story you’re telling?
Krul: I’ve touched on this a bit already, but in terms for the Rise of Arsenal and the Fall of Green Arrow, it really is about how they react and respond to the events in Cry for Justice. And absolutely, you’re going to see how those differences cause friction between the two.
[...]
James [Robinson] is up north now, but we’ve still been able to talk a lot about what’s going on with Green Arrow and the rest of the JLA. I was even lucky enough to attend a DC summit to discuss all the plans being put into motion for our books. It was a tremendous opportunity and a great way for the stories to get even better by allowing us time to come together.
[...]
Nrama: How big of a role will other JLA characters play? Can you share any of the specific characters who will be an important to the story?
Krul: Early on, the JLA will play an important role in both stories, and those closest to Ollie and Roy will have big moments throughout the story. For Ollie that means his best friend – Hal Jordan. And for Roy, that means his old friend Dick Grayson, another former sidekick who is adjusting to a new role – Batman.
Mike Mayhew, the artist on March’s Justice League: The Rise and Fall Special #1, has posted a fantastic Green Arrow sketch to Deviant Art. He describes it as “Warming up for my Justice League: Rise & Fall gig.” Also go see the coloured version, but I think I prefer the pure pencils.
