JLA 122 spoilers, i guess...

[FiniteMan!]

I don't see a review thread here for this. I apologize if there is already one and I missed it.

W: Bob Harras
P: Dan Derenich
I: Dan Green

The Key is overwhelmed by the thoughts of others. He has found a way to overcome his telepahic migraine---by killing batches of people. So he kills a small group and writes graphetti in blood to lure in the JLA. The current not JLA show up. Then Supergirl shows up. A bunch of OMACs get activated and attack supergirl and half of the not JLA. The Key is fascinated by OMACs. Red Tornado shows up and the other half of the not JLA joins the fight against the OMACs. The Key (incognito) makes contact with Dawn. Dawn gets knocked out. The key spirits her away. The OMACs are defeated. Flash gets sicker as the issue passes and goes home. Donna Troy shows up at the end and announces "Dead's not what it used to be."

I haven't felt much love for the Harris run on JLA, and I think this will probably be the last book I buy of it. I think the idea is to constantly cycle heroes in and out so you won't really know who will be the new JLA (They even have Hal Jordon on the cover, but not in the book.) and I don't have a problem with the constant trading out of characters, but more I am just not buying any of the actual story. Telepathy and magic are just not interchangeable.

Story: D
Art: B- (The artist is a little too in love with head shots and isn't a good storyteller, but the inking and coloring are very solid.)
Overall: D (I am dropping it.)

[Clem]

I know we just had an entire arc showing the disbanding of the League, but since when were most of those guys even the League anymore? Hal's membership probably got revoked ten times over after his little stint as a universe shaping tyrant, since when did he ever get a say in things?

Did anyone even consult the other members? I know the core trinity of Bats, Supes and Wonder Woman got kinda distracted with in fighting and immature b*tchy arguments (ala You set loose an army of robots on us! Yeh well you tried to kill me! Yeh well she kills people now! In my defense he was controlling Superman into killing me! Who said i was being controlled...What! It seemed like a funny joke at the time til she went and killed a guy) but did anyone consult the other members like maybe Plastic Man or one of the Lanterns? I bet those poor schlubs are still turning up for meetings...

Martian Manhunter sits at the the main computer, looking through replacements. Elsewhere the room is completely dark.

Plastic Man
Uhhh.... Jonn....Were still here ya know...turning of the lights on us is a little insensitive dontcha think?

Jonn
Who was that?

Plastic Man
Great now he doesnt even hear me, i must have ceased to exist due to some company spanning crossover....meh...what do i care, he's about to get bludgeoned to death and exploded by some evil Super clone, i say good ridance.....serves him right for ignoring me....

[6pack2go]

Harsh man!

I am actually diggin' this story and IMO this was the best issue since the Sacrifice story ended. The league is in chaos and semi-disbanded... so it makes perfect sense to bring in all these minor league players. If you're that desperate for the holy trinity of Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman then check out JLA: Classified... the Ellis arc is currently very good.

I'm also interested in the Manitou Dawn character and the Key's plot to "silence" the world seems genuinely creepy. Honestly, I don't know what you're expecting...

Story: B
Art: B

Nice enough job and I won't be dropping this book anytime soon.

... but the guy with the Plastic Man comments is right on (and funny about it). I'm sure most authors would just like to pretend he doesn't exist; he's a goofy character that belongs more in a 70s cartoon than the JLA. Hopefully he'll show up in IC to get whacked and JLA writers won't have this "black sheep" to keep dealing with (or not) in the future.

[Doc Holiday]

I like this arc. And I liked this issue. Honestly, I am so bored of seeing the "disintegration" of the JLA, because it seems so contrived and implausible. Frankly, I really am happy not to see yet another issue of the Big Three rehearsing the same old same old. I really like seeing the JLA made up of these other characters, who in mu opinion are as much members as those who walked away. (Although I never much liked Red Tornado as a character.)

I think the writing by Harras has been as good as anything that preseded it recently; I found the character bits interesting; Aquaman was shown as a strong leader;; GA turned on by Supergirl. . .even the OMACS were used to further the plot more than they usually are.

I think this is a better run of JLA than I've been seeing in a while, and I look forward to seeing what other characters make appearances.

[Doc Holiday]

I like this arc. And I liked this issue. Honestly, I am so bored of seeing the "disintegration" of the JLA, because it seems so contrived and implausible. Frankly, I really am happy not to see yet another issue of the Big Three rehearsing the same old same old. I really like seeing the JLA made up of these other characters, who in mu opinion are as much members as those who walked away. (Although I never much liked Red Tornado as a character.)

I think the writing by Harras has been as good as anything that preseded it recently; I found the character bits interesting; Aquaman was shown as a strong leader;; GA turned on by Supergirl. . .even the OMACS were used to further the plot more than they usually are.

I think this is a better run of JLA than I've been seeing in a while, and I look forward to seeing which other characters make appearances.

[FiniteMan!]

Originally posted by Doc Holiday
I like this arc. And I liked this issue. Honestly, I am so bored of seeing the "disintegration" of the JLA, because it seems so contrived and implausible. Frankly, I really am happy not to see yet another issue of the Big Three rehearsing the same old same old. I really like seeing the JLA made up of these other characters, who in mu opinion are as much members as those who walked away. (Although I never much liked Red Tornado as a character.)

I am responding to this not to challenge your view but to only clarify my own. I think we both see the current state of the JLA title in a similar way although maybe not this particular issue itself.

I do agree that the membership had gotten stale. I actually do like many of the characters who have been kicking around the last few issues, I just haven't seen enough attention paid to each character's quirks to make me bite on the book. Has Aquaman done anything that Oracle couldn't have done? He is a king with a great deal of magnetism. Where is that? Has John Stewart filled a role in the comic that any Green Lantern, Jade, ect. couldn't have filled? He is the former head of the Darkstars. The Black Canary speech about Dawn filling the token magic slot in the JLA---that's how I feel about most of these guys. Right now GA is a very two dimensional seedy old man who wants to get into every girl's pants. BC is his foil and the others are just dressing.

I kept hoping that I would see hints that each of these old JLA characters be alternately wanting to rebuild the JLA as they see fit, but also thinking that they don't have a right to impose their views on the league (well maybe not Aquaman, lol!). That would interest me. All of the stuff that would actually interest me is apparently taking scene off panel in this book.

Originally posted by Doc Holiday
I think the writing by Harras has been as good as anything that preseded it recently; I found the character bits interesting; Aquaman was shown as a strong leader; GA turned on by Supergirl. . .even the OMACS were used to further the plot more than they usually are.

I think this is a better run of JLA than I've been seeing in a while, and I look forward to seeing what other characters make appearances.

I enjoyed the previous story arc quite a bit, but i will concede not much else that has happened on this title over the past 3 years is signifigantly better than this arc. That doesn't make this arc great or even good though when you compare it against the other books competing for readers' dollars, though. Really, right now the main pull this arc has is that it will set the new JLA roster (presumeably). When that is the case, the arc is always a little disappointing.

Concerning the OMACs, I was not impressed with their use in this comic, but I really haven't been in any of their appearances outside of the Batman takedown and Dimitri's death. Brother I is supposed to be the ultimate spy satellite. It would seem like he should be pretty aware of where all of these heroes were located/ time to arrive. The idea that the SUPRISE arrival of more heroes would suddenly cause BI to give it up doesn't really sit well with me. In addition, I don't understand why Brother I would attack the group with Supergirl and Green Lantern in it, instead of the other group. It would seem to make more sense to pick off the small time heroes and then wait for moments when each big time hero is alone and ambush them at that point. Or to take a single OMAC and run interference with the heavy hitters while you are snuffing the little guys. Now if you want to say that Max Lord programmed BI to run the OMACs in a traditional Max Lord (=stupid) way, OK, but that hasn't been established yet.

OMACs have gotten annoying to me. They are just DC ninjas.

[Doc Holiday]

Thanks for your further thoughts, FiniteMan. They are well-thought and well-written. Personally, I am simply enjoying seeing the JLA with some of its other members called into action. That said, I think Red Tornado is a poor character both visually and conceptually. Also, I think you are right about John Stewart. Frankly, I have never seen him well-characterised. I honestly have no sense of this character. I really hate to say it, but it seems he was created simply to be an African American Green Lantern, and no one bothered to really figure out his personality--other than "dignified." (By the way, I really like Jade.)

The OMACS are incredibly boring. At least in this issue there was a relationship between the villain and the random OMAC that made a bit of a difference.

So yes, we probably do have more in common than not. I uess I find the changing line-up refreshing and kind of fun.

[FiniteMan!]

Originally posted by Doc Holiday
Thanks for your further thoughts, FiniteMan. They are well-thought and well-written. Personally, I am simply enjoying seeing the JLA with some of its other members called into action. That said, I think Red Tornado is a poor character both visually and conceptually. Also, I think you are right about John Stewart. Frankly, I have never seen him well-characterised. I honestly have no sense of this character. I really hate to say it, but it seems he was created simply to be an African American Green Lantern, and no one bothered to really figure out his personality--other than "dignified." (By the way, I really like Jade.)...... I guess I find the changing line-up refreshing and kind of fun.

Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy your reviews as well.

I think most characters (except Damage, lol!) have a heartbeat that a good writer can find. I think maybe because I have that view, I am not as down on the Red Tornado as you are. I think he is interesting because on a surface level his teammates see him as a machine trying to be human, but maybe internally he sees himself as something quite different. I think he has interesting elements for a team book and frankly has been out of sight/out of mind long enough to be fresh again.

John Stewart really seperates the good writers from the average ones, IMO. Some writers just freeze up with the assignment of writing a black or minority character and you get vanilla guy. He was originally created (IMO) to be a token black 100% good guy, a vanilla with little depth. Starlin took him and twisted him a little making him overconfident in the power of his ring and that allowed 1/5 of the universe to be destroyed. 1/5th of the Universe! That would give any hero some depth. He has had his lover killed. He has been the leader of an intergalactic peacekeeping organization which I think is now totally destroyed (could be wrong, but I don't think so). And now he is a guy standing around with a ring. Giving people rides.

I like Jade a lot too. :)

[aceatkins]

The idea behind this arc is sound--the Big 3 dissolve the JLA for, I would argue, some pretty salient reasons, but the world does need a League. I just think the execution has been lackluster. The first two installments were fine, I guess, if there was a little too much speechifying. But this one seemed almost completely pointless. As far as I can discern the issue exists 1) to bring Supergirl into the League, which is pointless since we knew she (and Red Tornado, also returning this issue) get drafted by Donna next issue and 2) Have an OMAC appearance. I cannot express how tired I'm becoming of these goddamn OMACs popping up all over the DCU. I think their design is terrible and pretty much every encounter ends the same. Specifically: Innocent bystander transforms into OMAC, attacks hero; hero struggles for a few pages as OMAC adapts to his/her attacks; something "miraculous" happens and OMAC reverts to confused human form. Seriously, off the top of my head I can think of this exact plot happening in Robin, Aquaman and, I'm willing to bet, several other books. GET ON WITH IT, or give me a new iteration on the OMAC encounter, please.

The other element is the continuing exporation of The Key's new telepathic abilities. We're on issue 3 and he hasn't engaged the heroes directly once. Basically he's wandered around like a crazy man, stalking and killing regular people, and muttering to his robot. This is compelling? The Key was awesome in his last appearance in this book (issues 6-7) and I always hoped he would return. But not in so dull a fashion.

Regarding the characters selected for this ad hoc League, I'm totally down with them. I just think that, with the exception of Canary, they're not being served that well. I've wanted Dinah to be back on the team for years now, and I actually really like the "maternal" role Harras has given her here (that line about Dawn and how the League does a terrible job checking in on how its members are doing was was well put and well reasoned). I'm kind of ambivalent re: Ollie because I think he's become a caricature again--the womanizing ultra-liberal who basically spends his time hitting on women or screaming at anyone who dares disagree with him. Snore. Jon Stewart has been totally flavorless here and, in truth, most of JLA tenure (how long has he been on this team? Since after Obsidian Age? And has he had a single arc?). And I'm wholly unsure how the Aquaman here relates to the Aquaman in his own title, because he's shown zero desire there to return to the hero-team fold; indeed, he has not one but TWO cities on his hands right now. Manitou Dawn is a character I could take or leave. And what's up with Wally's health issues? Has this been shown anywhere else?

Overall I'd give the arc a B/B-, but this issue gets a C/C-. There's no urgency here at all. I will say this: Tom Derenick should take over the new Supergirl book, because he draws her about 1 million times better than Ian Churchill (at least she doesn't look malnourished). And Harras apparently isn't terribly famliar with Kara, because I actually found her tolerable here, while in every other appearance I've wanted to slap her across the smart, sullen mouth.

[JamesJesse]

I'm with you on the OMAC thing.

They have been overexposed lately and each battle has ended up the exact same way!!! I am guessing this is to emphasize that they appeared out of nowhere all over the DCU but it has been dragging on too long...

Now, the only thing of interest to me in this issue was Wally West getting sick and Green Arrow saying "He looks just like Barry before he..."

Before he what GA? Um, GA didn't have any encounters with Barry Allen prior to Barry's death. As in ZILCH. He never even saw Barry. The last time he saw Flash was when they were deciding to vote him out of the league after killing Reverse Flash. (Ah, the JLA and their voting...) the next time he could have seen Barry was at his funeral.

Wally West, before COIE had a disease that prevented him from using his super speed. He got his powers from an eletrified chemical bath (like Barry) as a kid but as he got older and his body chemistry changed during adolescence, his system began to reject it. It was killing him each time he sped up and hence he was forced to retire as Kid Flash. With Barry missing however, he was forced to help out in Crisis (issues 9 to 12) The blast he got hit with from the Anti Monitor in issue 12 had the disease go into remission...

Could the changes in the DCU have triggered a return of this disease?

Meanwhile, the JLA book really needs a big shot in the arm. Geoff Johns' run was great but other than that, the last time I was remotely interested in this series was back in Obsidian Age...

[6pack2go]

OK, throw my hat in with the "I'm tired of the OMAC attacks" story line. I get that it's an important facet of the whole IC, though it would sure be nice if a writer could use them in a more unique way (although, I do like how nicely they fit in as a "silence" for the key).

I'm not a long time reader of JLA (in fact, I just started back around 115) so perhaps the mechanics of this material is stale to some.

But, to me anyway, I'm liking the story.

I like the characters (although, their not exactly the big three), I like the build up going on with the Key, I like Dawn's backstory, I'm interested in what's going on with Flash's sickness and Martian Manhunter's scenario in the astral plane.

Between recent poor story lines in Superman, a whacked out Batman in All-Star (that can't even come out on time), Hal Jordans critically stale personality (and can't come out on time), or bi-monthlys like Justice where I have to remember what was going on each time, JLA is a solid tale that keeps my intrest and is dependable.

I understand the criticisms some here have with this arc, those things just aren't enough to impact my enjoyment.

[carl kolchak]

Meanwhile, the JLA book really needs a big shot in the arm. Geoff Johns' run was great but other than that, the last time I was remotely interested in this series was back in Obsidian Age...

To get totally cynical, "When have the JLA inspired anyone since Aquaman's 'death'". I agree that the lineup has potential and I liked the 1st issue of Harras' run, but this is obviously being stretched out until IC is over. The Supergirl plot is silly since we know in Superman that she's going out into space with Kara.

As for Ollie, he is becoming really obnoxious in this book. He used to be my favorite DC character but now he's a shrill dirty old man. I'm also confused by the Barry comment. Not only wasn't Ollie there, but (correct me if I'm wrong), but Ollie wasn't in the original Crisis in the 1st place (The Golden Age version died in Crisis). When was the last time Barry was in the Justice League? He wasn't in the much hated De Matteis run with J'onn, Arthur, Zatanna and a bunch of other guys. At least, Wally is taking some kind of part in this whole scheme.

I'm way off track here, but this is pretty padded out.

[trence5]

Is Captain Marvel still with them?

[invinciblefan]

Sorry if I missed it while skimming through, but it was interesting that Jonn warned Manitou Dawn that the one he warned her about earlier was nearby and then Supergirl showed up.

I know that he could be talking about the Key as well... but at the very least it was an interesting red herring.

[paulski]

Originally posted by aceatkins
Overall I'd give the arc a B/B-, but this issue gets a C/C-. There's no urgency here at all.

Agree, ace. It's a very 'by-the-numbers' storyline.There's no excitement, no drama (except for the terribly forced stuff), no feeling of danger... in fact, no reason to really like the writing at all. I've never been a fan of Harras as either writer or editor, so this dull as dishwater storyline doesn't surprise me in the least.

I will say this: Tom Derenick should take over the new Supergirl book, because he draws her about 1 million times better than Ian Churchill (at least she doesn't look malnourished).

Yeah, but he's not competing with much, is he? It's very mixed stuff. Some pages are quite nice, other look as rushed as hell and very sloppy. I think he probably needed a tighter inker on this storyline (not sure who got the job).

And Harras apparently isn't terribly famliar with Kara, because I actually found her tolerable here, while in every other appearance I've wanted to slap her across the smart, sullen mouth.

Which says more about Loeb's writing than Harras', I feel. :(

Writing: C-
Artwork: C+
Coloring: B

[gcoleman99]

Originally posted by JamesJesse
Now, the only thing of interest to me in this issue was Wally West getting sick and Green Arrow saying "He looks just like Barry before he..."

Before he what GA? Um, GA didn't have any encounters with Barry Allen prior to Barry's death. As in ZILCH. He never even saw Barry. The last time he saw Flash was when they were deciding to vote him out of the league after killing Reverse Flash. (Ah, the JLA and their voting...) the next time he could have seen Barry was at his funeral.

Wally West, before COIE had a disease that prevented him from using his super speed. He got his powers from an eletrified chemical bath (like Barry) as a kid but as he got older and his body chemistry changed during adolescence, his system began to reject it. It was killing him each time he sped up and hence he was forced to retire as Kid Flash. With Barry missing however, he was forced to help out in Crisis (issues 9 to 12) The blast he got hit with from the Anti Monitor in issue 12 had the disease go into remission...

Could the changes in the DCU have triggered a return of this disease? Wow. THAT is an interesting hypothesis!