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By Jason Bourgeois
I've written a lot of reviews and rants and raves, and usually my viewpoint has come down to this is a book people must read, or this is a book to avoid at all costs. This month it seemed like a good idea to look at something that's been a bit more middle of the road for most of its entire run; Justice League of America.
I think the JLA has always worked best when it can focus on the second stringers, or characters that don't always have their own titles. Or their own half dozen titles, for that matter. Same thing with the Avengers, actually. When the book is full of characters that have other books, and writers, and editors, then those books always take precedence over the team book. The team book is beholden to those other creators, and can never really do anything definitive with the big guns, or do much to change them. A recent example would be Batman. Warning, we're about to jump into big spoilers, so folks not up to date may want to turn away now.
Ok, ready? Recently, Batman died. He died in his own titles, and in Final Crisis, both written and driven by Grant Morrison. Justice League of America could never have gotten away with that storyline, since it really has no control over Batman. They couldn't kill him off in this day and age. Instead, he gets offed elsewhere, by his 'real' creators, and the status quo of books like Justice League get yanked around by editorial fiat. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. Other titles should be beholden to the status quo in a shared universe, but books like JLA tend to suffer, because the big guys are almost always safe, and everyone else is canon fodder for actual shake ups.
When your team books are mostly little guys, then it's possible for anything to happen. Also, no one reads JLA for Superman. Superman has a ton of books for people to read if they want to follow his adventures. Superman will draw the completists over, but his adventures there are largely unimportant to the overall mythos.
The latest volume has been plagued by problems, yet has been written by some very talented writers. I think the latest issue flagged up a number of those issues, which is funny because I think the newest issue, #31, is one of my favourite books of Dwayne McDuffie's run on the title.
In the world post Final Crisis, the Martian Manhunter is dead, Batman is dead (Sorta, but for all intents and purposes), members are leaving the team to deal with their own issues, including Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. The team is completely falling apart. This isn't helped when Green Lantern Hal Jordan decides to form his own Justice League team, and pulls away a member or two from the 'real' team when they're needed the most. Especially when he pulls away Green Arrow, the husband of current JLA chairperson, Black Canary.
They try to justify their actions to Canary by saying that the League has been all but ineffectual since reforming a few years ago. They've all done more good in their own titles, er own ways, than they have as a team. And you know what? Hal is absolutely correct. Hence the problem.
Since reforming, this version of the League has done little more than deal with their own crap. They saved Red Tornado from being used by villains. They helped the Legion of Super-Heroes. They helped protect the civil rights of supervillains, of all people, when the government was rounding them up and shipping them off to another planet as a prison. It took the entire League and a dozen c-listers to stop a loser like the Shadow Thief. This team is almost a joke, and not in a good way like the Justice League International days.
So the new issue ends with Black Canary disbanding the team. Frankly, I say good. All the big names are out of the picture, and they realise the book has been a bit lost lately, so let's shake things up in the wake of the big crossover, make a story out of it, and hopefully we can get a good team together.
I am all for rebuilding this team with new members that the writers can actually do things with, develop and make interesting McDuffie is a solid writer, let him pull together characters he can use and make his own, turn into his own League, instead of jerking the book around and holding his hands. If he's allowed to fly and do his own thing, Dwayne could do some crazy amazing good stuff. I really want to read that book, and saw hints of what the JLA could be with Dwayne, even with editorial interfering in this issue I know was going on.
Right now, I'm unable to recommend the book one way or the other, since it is in a major period of transition right now. It is certainly worth keeping an eye on though, and I have high hopes if McDuffie is allowed to do his own thing. If you want to read a very good version of a team absolutely falling apart, check out JLA #31 though.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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