Colour me surprised
Oct. 5th, 2012 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tilly_stratfordI've been reading a lot of Justice League America (no "of") comics this week, trying to get through the grim and gritty part of the nineties in one big effort, but there's so much of it!
But at least I've been living under a rock all my life when it comes to major DC events, which means they always take me by surprise. Like when, oh I don't know, Superman dies.
And Beetle is mangled but nobody but me cares.
But of couse it's a CROSSOVER EVENT, and I've only got JLA comics - no Superman ones and certainly no Deadman ones, so I've had to piece it together via Boosterrific and Wikipedia.
There's this... unstoppable guy? And I'm still not sure where he came from? But JLA are the first to try to fight him, so I'm pathetically proud of this rag-tag group I love so much having some small part in such a major event. (Even though just about all my favourite members are gone by now. To be fair it's only Booster, Ted and Max that keeps me hanging on).
(The guy in the white spandex is BLOODRAYNE by the way. Huh, nineties.)
And the milestones continue: Ted is the first person to be severely defeated by this enemy -
(Always its Ted who's beaten and mangled. I guess it's because Ted is one of the few non-supers in JLA - he's just an acrobat - so he's the weakest but still I ALWAYS GET UPSET D:)
- and it's Booster who inadvertently gives it its name, "Doomsday":
(Again, I'm very proud. I know it was probably a completely random decision but aww look at Booster taking part in history!)
So yeah, then Superman dies as he defeats Doomsday. In an issue I haven't read. But it was obviously a big deal. Like I said, I've only got JLA comics to view this event through, but there are like three issues where everybody does nothing but mourn Superman - too bad the writing is so laughable. SO MUCH BADLY WRITTEN ANGST. I was already sick of it halfway through the first issue.
Actually it reminds about another DC "death" in the JLA (then, JLI) though: When Mister Miracle seemingly died. The way the story was written you knew very well he wasn't dead, but that story still TORE MY HEART OUT because the other characters' grief was so well-written. It made me mourn a character I knew was alive! That was EXCELLENT storytelling, but death of Superman just left me cold.
Furthermore I've never been much of a Superman fan, so I was way more invested in Ted being in a coma (ALWAYS a coma. He wouldn't be Ted without countless comas.)
But apart from the death and grittyness, there's an aspect of nineties' comics I had never thought about before: The influence of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics! Of course!
First directly: See, the JLA suddenly has to fight Doctor Destiny, and I think to myself "Oh boy, finally I can see where Gaiman got him from!"
But THEN Destiny mentions that he doesn't have his Materioptikon jewel because Morpheus stole it, and I finally realize this is post-Sandman (actually just post-first-story-arc of-Sandman, but you get the picture).
And THEN I notice some new elements appearing in Dan Jurgens' writing (and I've been reading Jurgens comics since the very first Booster Gold days): Some very obvious (but failed) attempts at imitating the scope and neutrality of the Sandman writing:
Thankfully that only lasts for a few issues, then we're back to the regular Jurgens writing, flawed as it may be. But at least its flawed in familiar ways.
Then it turns out Bloodrayne is actually Martian Manhunter in disguise, but then the real Bloodrayne (! There's a superhero who actually WANTS to be called Bloodrayne?) shows up and joins the League. Also, I haven't mentioned Maxima, have I? She's some sort of space warrior queen that came to earth because she wanted to mate with Superman, but then she joined the League instead.
I only like her because she's so tall.
ANYWAY! Ted wakes up from his coma, but suffers from a depression and coops himself up in his laboratory. Booster's there to support him (aww), but mostly just because he wants Ted to fix his suit (boo!) which was broken ripped to shreds in the fight with Doomsday.
(I keep trying to ignore Booster's mullet but boy is it hard.)
Oh yeah, Booster's suit is ruined (which explains the Conan-like pose on the first cover I posted). Seeing as that's where his powers come from (except his Flight Ring, but he keeps FORGETTING TO PUT IT ON! GAWD!) he's pretty useless in fights. There's some half-hearted "If I can't be a hero I don't know what to do with myself" angst to go with Ted's angst, but it's dropped after half a page so, uh.
But even worse than being without his high-tech future spandex suit is THE ARMOR. OH GOD THE ARMOR. See, Ted fixes him up with some things patterned on Red Rocket's armor. It's terrible.
Furthermore it keeps shortening out, making Booster even more useless in combat. So we get another one, which is even uglier:
Part of the ugliness comes from Jurgens (then writer and penciler) leaving the title and an assortment of different pencilers taking over. In my opinion Jurgens' art is far from perfect (legs in particular seems to stump him) but there's a clarity and charming cartoony-ness over it. I far prefer it to the replacements anyway, having to look at things like this:
Just look at Ted (in civilian clothes) flexing his ham-sized biceps while standing around. Look at Maxima (in purple) and her wasp-thin waist. LOOK AT OBERON (the short guy) WHO'S NOT EVEN A HERO BUT HAS SUDDENLY GAINED MORE MUSCLE THAN ALL OF THEM.
ACCCKH.
So that's where I'm right now. The nineties keep wearing me down. God.
But at least I've been living under a rock all my life when it comes to major DC events, which means they always take me by surprise. Like when, oh I don't know, Superman dies.
And Beetle is mangled but nobody but me cares.
But of couse it's a CROSSOVER EVENT, and I've only got JLA comics - no Superman ones and certainly no Deadman ones, so I've had to piece it together via Boosterrific and Wikipedia.
There's this... unstoppable guy? And I'm still not sure where he came from? But JLA are the first to try to fight him, so I'm pathetically proud of this rag-tag group I love so much having some small part in such a major event. (Even though just about all my favourite members are gone by now. To be fair it's only Booster, Ted and Max that keeps me hanging on).
(The guy in the white spandex is BLOODRAYNE by the way. Huh, nineties.)
And the milestones continue: Ted is the first person to be severely defeated by this enemy -
(Always its Ted who's beaten and mangled. I guess it's because Ted is one of the few non-supers in JLA - he's just an acrobat - so he's the weakest but still I ALWAYS GET UPSET D:)
- and it's Booster who inadvertently gives it its name, "Doomsday":
(Again, I'm very proud. I know it was probably a completely random decision but aww look at Booster taking part in history!)
So yeah, then Superman dies as he defeats Doomsday. In an issue I haven't read. But it was obviously a big deal. Like I said, I've only got JLA comics to view this event through, but there are like three issues where everybody does nothing but mourn Superman - too bad the writing is so laughable. SO MUCH BADLY WRITTEN ANGST. I was already sick of it halfway through the first issue.
Actually it reminds about another DC "death" in the JLA (then, JLI) though: When Mister Miracle seemingly died. The way the story was written you knew very well he wasn't dead, but that story still TORE MY HEART OUT because the other characters' grief was so well-written. It made me mourn a character I knew was alive! That was EXCELLENT storytelling, but death of Superman just left me cold.
Furthermore I've never been much of a Superman fan, so I was way more invested in Ted being in a coma (ALWAYS a coma. He wouldn't be Ted without countless comas.)
But apart from the death and grittyness, there's an aspect of nineties' comics I had never thought about before: The influence of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics! Of course!
First directly: See, the JLA suddenly has to fight Doctor Destiny, and I think to myself "Oh boy, finally I can see where Gaiman got him from!"
But THEN Destiny mentions that he doesn't have his Materioptikon jewel because Morpheus stole it, and I finally realize this is post-Sandman (actually just post-first-story-arc of-Sandman, but you get the picture).
And THEN I notice some new elements appearing in Dan Jurgens' writing (and I've been reading Jurgens comics since the very first Booster Gold days): Some very obvious (but failed) attempts at imitating the scope and neutrality of the Sandman writing:
Thankfully that only lasts for a few issues, then we're back to the regular Jurgens writing, flawed as it may be. But at least its flawed in familiar ways.
Then it turns out Bloodrayne is actually Martian Manhunter in disguise, but then the real Bloodrayne (! There's a superhero who actually WANTS to be called Bloodrayne?) shows up and joins the League. Also, I haven't mentioned Maxima, have I? She's some sort of space warrior queen that came to earth because she wanted to mate with Superman, but then she joined the League instead.
I only like her because she's so tall.
ANYWAY! Ted wakes up from his coma, but suffers from a depression and coops himself up in his laboratory. Booster's there to support him (aww), but mostly just because he wants Ted to fix his suit (boo!) which was broken ripped to shreds in the fight with Doomsday.
(I keep trying to ignore Booster's mullet but boy is it hard.)
Oh yeah, Booster's suit is ruined (which explains the Conan-like pose on the first cover I posted). Seeing as that's where his powers come from (except his Flight Ring, but he keeps FORGETTING TO PUT IT ON! GAWD!) he's pretty useless in fights. There's some half-hearted "If I can't be a hero I don't know what to do with myself" angst to go with Ted's angst, but it's dropped after half a page so, uh.
But even worse than being without his high-tech future spandex suit is THE ARMOR. OH GOD THE ARMOR. See, Ted fixes him up with some things patterned on Red Rocket's armor. It's terrible.
Furthermore it keeps shortening out, making Booster even more useless in combat. So we get another one, which is even uglier:
Part of the ugliness comes from Jurgens (then writer and penciler) leaving the title and an assortment of different pencilers taking over. In my opinion Jurgens' art is far from perfect (legs in particular seems to stump him) but there's a clarity and charming cartoony-ness over it. I far prefer it to the replacements anyway, having to look at things like this:
Just look at Ted (in civilian clothes) flexing his ham-sized biceps while standing around. Look at Maxima (in purple) and her wasp-thin waist. LOOK AT OBERON (the short guy) WHO'S NOT EVEN A HERO BUT HAS SUDDENLY GAINED MORE MUSCLE THAN ALL OF THEM.
ACCCKH.
So that's where I'm right now. The nineties keep wearing me down. God.
