Justice League #21 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Gary Frank (art), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: It turns out lightning can strike the same place seven times.

The Review: Pre-relaunch, there’s no doubt that the Marvel family had gotten outdated, which explains the desperate attempts at the time to jazz them up, whether by giving them long hair or putting them through an “evil” phase.  Now, it’s true that their pure-hearted and naïve outlook on the world seemed like a silly anachronism in the modern world.  At the same time, turning them morose and angsty made them lose the endearing quality which was the basis of their appeal.

So if DC wanted to bring back the Marvels for a new generation of readers, a more nuanced revision of the characters was required.  Practically no one could have accomplished this with as much guarantee of success as Johns, who as a writer brings such balance of old-school and contemporary himself.  In the last year of “Shazam!” back-ups, he strove constantly to bring back the charm of the franchise, but updated so it’s not just an exercise in nostalgia.

Action Comics #900 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Lex Luthor is about to bring fun, love, and joy to all the people of the universe—the crazy part is I am being totally serious right now.

The Review: Say what you like about Superman: he can be overly naïve, overbearingly preachy, arguably antiquated, and a hopeless optimist.  But any character who can support a title through 900 issues is doing something right.  This unassailable milestone is evidence that Superman remains a deeply embedded icon in our culture.  To be rid of him, our society would have to drastically change—and not necessarily for the better, as this issue demonstrates.

Paul Cornell wisely downplays the Big Blue’s return to his original title to finish off his epic Lex Luthor storyline in grand fashion.  In attempting to break down Superman by forcing him to experience the depths of human emotion, Lex reveals his own under-appreciation for humanity.

Superman already knows more about being human than most of us ever will, while Lex’s quest for his own divinization constantly sets him apart from his fellow man.  He squanders his chance to bless the universe with true, eternal bliss and gain ultimate power by his need to irrevocably prove himself superior to Clark Kent, best man of Smallville, of all people.

The grandeur of this plot gets blemished by the constant distractions from the Reign of Doomsday storyline, which seems obviously forced on Cornell.  He tries to accommodate it as best he can by using it as Lex’s “bait” to get Superman to come to him, but even so it comes off a clumsy, ill-conceived, far more superficial plotline (a grim portent of the material we’ll be getting in upcoming issues) in comparison to Superman confronting a godlike Luthor in space.