Justice Society of America #47 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim (writer), Scott Kolins (artist), Mike Ativeh (colorist)

The Story: Green Lantern in space!  Dr. Fate wrestles for Lightning’s soul!  Mr. Terrific experiences Flowers for Algernon firsthand!

The Review: When DC announced that it’d be holding the price line at $2.99 at the cost of cutting some pages from its titles, there was certainly a mix of emotions.  The jubilance over the savings was marred by the concern that each issue would have less substance to be engaging.  So far, most titles have taken the impact pretty easily, some even improving from the compression.  Others, however, have suffered from being forced to squeeze their stories into the more limited space.

Among the suffering seems to be Marc Guggenheim’s Justice Society of America.  This issue sees the team split up across literally cosmic distances, each with their own particular conflict to handle.  On the one hand, this sets things up so there’s no short supply of storylines filling up the pages.  On the other hand, with less page-time devoted to each, you’re left unsatisfied by all of them.  There’s just a strong sense that crucial parts of each plotline have been sacrificed at some point to fit them all in.

So instead of showing what’s going on, Guggenheim has to tell it to you instead.  Take Dr. Fate and Lightning in the spirit realm.  You don’t get to see how they get there; Jay Garrick catches Dr. Midnight up to speed and then Fate himself gives a thoroughly unsatisfying explanation of his work (“I took a few shortcuts, acted on instinct mostly.  I sort of…pushed things along…”).  And once all that talk is done, you get cut away to the next storyline, leaving you to wonder what the point of it all is.

Then you have Mr. Terrific’s supposedly degrading intelligence.  Instead of seeing symptoms of his dire situation, you get treated to two solid pages of Dr. Chaos’ obnoxious, know-it-all gloating.  Without actually seeing real signs of Mr. Terrific losing his smarts, the emotional impact of it is lost, making you feel as if he’s in no real danger.  But the worst handling has to be Alan Scott’s sudden jump into space.  Not only does it come out of nowhere, but it gets exactly one page to vaguely hint at the reason why it happens (the Starheart is in trouble—or something).

Justice Society of America #34 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Travis Moore (penciller), Dan Green (inker), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)

The Story: Merciless, Part One of Two: Dr. Fate’s body is possessed in the temporary HQ of the JSA (the old cave HQ of the JLA). The JSA are getting settled. Mr. Terrific is recuperating from his injuries and tinkers with Mr. America’s whip. The Flash and Green Lantern struggle over what to do with Kid Karneval, their prisoner after he penetrated the JSA and stabbed Mr. Terrific.

What’s Good: The art and the plotting were fun. Moore draws some very expressive faces which gives Willingham a lot more tools in his toolbox to tell the story. Dr. Midnight’s sympathetic expression on page 3 says more than the dialogue, as do the different expressions on Kent’s face as he’s possessed. And, check out the expressions in the conversation the possessed Fate has with Wildcat and Mr. America. My favorite art moment, though, is probably when Mr. America is testing out the whip that Mr. Terrific has improved for him.

Willingham made some funny scenes in this book that I enjoyed. And he had me going on the possession story. I was getting myself worked into a tizzy about this story idea and near the end, I was thinking didn’t we just do this!? Right when I thought of how stupid it was to repeat a plot we’d just had this very team go through, Willingham twisted the idea and had upset my expectations. I love it when a writer outsmarts me! I also loved who the villain turned out to be. I take it as a good sign that Willingham pulled out one of DC’s heaviest hitters for the first adventure of the new team.

Justice Society Of America #32 – Review

by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham (writers), Jesus Merino (art), Allen Passalaqua (color), Rachel Gluckstern (assistant editor), Mike Carlin (editor)

The Story: The Bad Seed, Part 4: Power Girl, the Flash and Mr. America struggle to find out who killed Mr. Terrific. In the meantime, Dr. Midnight discovers that the Green Lantern has been using his ring to keep Mr. Terrific’s body in stasis, so that he is preserved in the condition of only moments after death. This is because Dr. Fate is going to see if magic can do what medicine could not. And then the villains close in…

What’s Good: Merino does some great work in this issue, from the beads of sweat on Green Lantern, to the multiple images of the Flash, to the Flash’s wrinkly face, and the pleading expression on the suspected murderer. The action sequences are dynamic and clear, and the emotions are clearly running high, even without the dialogue.

Sturges and Willingham continue their massive (I counted 34 heroes and villains in this issue, although 1 is dead, 2 are probationary recruits, and 3 of them are dogs) mystery saga. There’s only one issue left in the Bad Seed arc, so they are pulling the plot threads tighter. By the end of this book, the tension is wound incredibly tight. By next issue, this arc has to tell us who hired the 15 villains, why they didn’t want Star Girl harmed, who really killed Mr. Terrific, whether Mr. Terrific actually qualifies for a death certificate, and what happens to fracture the team in two. That’s a whole lot of story to be sitting on the edge of your seat for.

What’s Not So Good: Bits of dialogue sounded a bit off to me. The villains especially have some lines that could have been improved or dispensed with. Some of the JSA’s arguing seems to be serving the story more than the characters who are speaking, and King Chimera’s bit of upper class diction, while giving him a new sound in the beginning, is in danger of making him a caricature. But, this dialogue complaint is a small mark against an otherwise solid book.

Conclusion: Sturges, Willingham and Merino have me on the edge of my seat, and I can’t wait for the answers to all the questions they’ve put on the table.

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault