JLA #101

[punkmonkey]

Title: “The Pain of the Gods: Man of Steel”
Publisher: DC Comics -- $2.25 / 22 pgs.
Writer: Chuck Austen
Artist: Ron Garney
Colorist: David Baron
Cover Artist: Garney

Grade: D

Oh boy. I had high hopes for this series of darker stand-alone examinations of the individual defeats suffered by the core members of the JLA, mostly due to the announcement of Ron Garney as artist. I figured even if Austen performs as dismally as he often does, at least I’ll get some terrific art by one of my favorite pencillers in the biz. Alas, Garney seems to have been as uninspired by the script as I was -- or perhaps Austen was not giving him enough to work with. The issue breezes by pretty quickly, full of large panels and a brief, too-simple plot full of ridiculous holes. Also hampering Garney’s work is the fact that he is inking his own pencils here, and he seems to have given them quite a rush job, causing me to wish he had left the inks to someone else. Still, sloppy inking over Garney’s pencils is vastly preferable to half the junk out there.

As for the story -- a new hero is introduced specifically to die and cause Superman oodles of guilt over the fact that he “perhaps” didn’t make the right decisions to save this brave man’s life. Well, guess what, Superman? You were completely at fault, and I wouldn’t hesitate to rub your nose in the fact that you messed up big time. Oh, silly me ... it’s Austen who has messed up big time (Superman can’t help who writes him)! Superman arrives on the scene of a building fire and wanders inside to rescue survivors. He sees this generic new hero trying to support some flammable debris and save several civilians and firemen, but Superman takes his sweet time getting them to safety as the debris explodes, killing the new hero. Why don’t you explain to this guy’s widow why you didn’t just use your super-breath to freeze the entire building and blow the fire out, Superman? Such selective neglect of the full range of Superman’s powers simply for the sake of saddling Superman with heavy doses of guilt is sloppy storytelling. We’ve seen Supes put out fires with far more ease than this in the past. Typical for Austen, perhaps. Let’s hope he’s a bit more clever with future installments of this storyline. If I see Flash being not quite fast enough to save a kitty from being run over by a truck or Wonder Woman accidentally choking someone with her lasso, I’ll just scream.

[IvCNuB4]

I understand your frustration but they needed to use a "disposable" hero for the whole point of this arc, which is to put each JLAer in a moment of self-doubt and regret. And in Superman's defense the newbie did keep telling him he was okay.. and invulnerable !

I suspect these individual stories all will tie together in a larger scope later on.

[TheScantronman]

I don't read JLA, but that will soon change when Busiek takes over.

[snah]

Man am I glad I bailed on this title.

The Claremont / Byrne arc was a bit of a disappointment, and swininging into yet another Austen "masterpiece" would have depressed the hell outta me.

[dand66]

Once again I find myself in the minority regarding Chuck Austen, in that I enjoyed something he wrote. I enjoyed seeing Superman in the very human position of having made a mistake. He accepted this new hero at face value, assuming that because he said he was up to the job, he really was. But as they both tragically discovered, he wasn't. Superman was then confronted with classic survivor's guilt, and had to deal with it.

This was a VERY human portrayal of Superman, showing the sorrow and anger that anyone would feel under the circumstances. While the issue was a bit of a quick read, I think it also very effectively conveyed the story that Austen was trying to tell. If the rest of this arc is as good as this issue (and as good as Action Comics has been since Austen took over that title), it will go a long way to make up for the disappointment of the Claremont-Byrne arc, and rekindle my enthusiasm for what should be DC's premier team book.

[aceatkins]

I'd give it a C. Here's why:

-I literally--literally--read this book in under three minutes. For this I pay nearly $3?

-During his rescue, I kept thinking, "Y'know, Superman is taking this all very nonchalantly." He even asks the firemen if he can land a hand. A building is on FIRE! Hello!

-I have no problem with introducing a new hero to kill him off. It's been done before, I understand the point. But that we never even got this goof's name labelled him from panel one as Captain Cannon Fodder, and he actually comes off as a selfish butthead (I have some sort of powers, so I want to join the Justice League despite my wife and kids). Was it Supes' fault that he died? Eh, no. Yes, he could have been quicker--much quicker. But the guy was all "Look at me, I can be Superman!" He didn't even know his own limits. He was an idiot, he put himself in danger's way showboating.

-Ron Garney continues to confuse me. Sometimes his pencils are breathtaking--JLA Our Worlds at War and his run on the Hulk were fan-freaking-tastic. His Uncanny run and this are dull and/or sloppy. Too bad, was looking forward to it. (Still better than most other pencillers though.)

-Superman raging and destroying the JLA table. Um, no. I can see him freaking out, but destroying the meeting table? Melodrama much?

-It's taken me longer to write this review than it did to read it.

Boy has JLA fallen from grace. This is better than the past two arcs, but that's not saying much. Bring on Busiek fast as you can.

[carnage-dvs]

This one deserves a D. What the hell was up with Superman? He could have rescued all the people in there in seconds. Meh.

[Heffaloo]

I very purposely didn't buy this issue when I saw Austen's name on the cover. I have recenly been picking up older trades of JLA, trying to catch up with things since the relaunch, but I haven't been able to stand anything Austen writes that features characters someone else created. I'll start picking the issues up regularly again when Busiek comes aboard.

[jrp001]

I am not an Austen hater or liker...

but one thing caught me off guard...

ITS SUPERMAN, even when superman makes a mistake grand or small, stupid or retarded he doesn't fly up to the watch tower to smash some tables!

HES SUPERMAN, what makes him SUPER is his ability to see hundreds of tiny kittiens skinned and eaten alive byt lex luthor and still be able to not let it affect the way to teaches/relates to the world


maybe this is why people dont like austen...



btw: havent read teh JLA since oh iss #10, but thought I woudl pick it up @100 to read it and and ELITE

[drdash]

i think i'm in the minority here, but i love this issue. the art was phenomenal and asuten has a real grasp on kal-el. there's a reason why action comics is my favorite superman book right now. also, this story reminde of that jla one-shot from a few years ago, superpower. that was another cool story on this concept.

grade=A

ciao
drdash

[cncoyle]

Originally posted by jrp001
ITS SUPERMAN, even when superman makes a mistake grand or small, stupid or retarded he doesn't fly up to the watch tower to smash some tables!Superman's anger is one recurring element popping up in Austen's writing that I wish would stop. Superman might get frustrated, but he's not going to act like a pissed-off 15-year-old boy and break stuff. Remember the fill-in Austen did on a Superman title about a year or two ago? He had Superman do the same thing, this time throwing cars around.

Other than the anger issue, I thought this issue was okay. I know I may get some :eek:'s or :mad:'s for saying this, but I don't think it was any worse than the Claremont/Byrne issues.

[MrBlonde]

What I really dont like is that we are seeing an "action" artist drawing a non-action story...

Compared to OWaW, it had very dinamyc sequences, but here I'm getting Supes and Green lantern sitting-talking... I would not mind 'em if some action sequences would be thrown in there...

Alse we have the insightful, deep thinking Superman in his own title, so what makes DC think we need another title seeing the same?

[Supreme Convoy]

Originally posted by cncoyle
Superman's anger is one recurring element popping up in Austen's writing that I wish would stop. Superman might get frustrated, but he's not going to act like a pissed-off 15-year-old boy and break stuff. Remember the fill-in Austen did on a Superman title about a year or two ago? He had Superman do the same thing, this time throwing cars around.

Superman #188, I forgot about that issue! I actually like it. Heh, surprisingly I'm liking Austen Superman stuff.

[Amoebas]

Garney - While not the strongest effort he's done in a while, still he does a pretty good Superman. I would have liked to seen him draw a story here tho and not just a bunch of splash pages .

Austen - what can I say - this guy just continues to suck up everything he touches. As others have noticed, this issue is over in 3 minutes. Why should I even care about Superman's guilt when I never had time to experience it?

The Superman I know would spend the next week working 24/7 (nonstop) to help him ease his pain - not throw a temper tantrum against a defensless table. (Not to mention that Superman would have left this unknown/unnamed/untested superhero (who admitted thru his bravado that he was "straining", alone like he did, when he could have blown the fire out OR carried the tank to safety).

The pacing with all the splash pages is a waste of paper. I don't need three pages to know that an explosion has taken place. Heck, I'd rather have some words tell me "and then there was a big explosion" than this bunk.

Nice to see that the JLA leaves thier tower unmanned (no wonder it's always being breached). I'm surprised Auten doesn't have Superman move the mother and her orphaned kids to the tower.

Austen has expressed his complete disdain for Hank Pym and yet he wants me to feel for this ass of a husband/father who goes off to be superhero against his family's wishes?

Pain of the Gods? More like Pain of the Reader.

Busiek - Please save us!