Monday, July 27, 2009

The Just-Us League

After nearly three years, DC rediscovered that The Justice League should be treated as a franchise book.

We all know about the fiasco that was the Meltzer/McDuffie/Didio League so, let's just move on...

What's about to happen is that the wheels are spinning again and The League looks as though it'll be taken seriously again. Or as seriously as a comic book superhero team can be taken.

Following a quick fill-in run by writer Len Wein, The League will be put into the hands of Superman writer James Robinson and penciller Mark Bagley.

Now, I'm happy that The League is getting the artistic stability it deserves but why am I not all that excited about it?

Well, for one, this team will have Donna Troy and Dick Grayson on it.

I love both characters but this is something we've all seen before when it was called Teen Titans and Titans, twice.

And yes, I get it that it's Dick Grayson in the Batman suit but it's still Donna Troy in the Donna Troy suit. If history's shown us anything, there will be scenes of her sitting/standing on an ocean cliff, wind flowing through her hair and speaking about everything she's lost.

If she learned guitar, she could actually do something with all of that whining.

And Robinson will get yet another chance to write Mon-El, this time with an S-shield.

Here's the problem:

I kinda stopped reading Superman sorta because Superman wasn't in it.

And then, there's Congorilla...

What I'm trying to say is that I wish writers would write more towards the needs of the story and less towards DC Comics officially sanctioned fan-fic.

I understand what it is for a writer to want to write a character because yes, if someone were crazy enough to give me The League, oh, please believe, Hawkman and yes, a Lady Cop who somehow came into possession of an Apokolitan Smite & Lessen six-shooter, would be front and center in my JLA line-up.

So, basically, one of two things could happen:

One: With the "true" Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman not on the team, we get an opportunity not unlike the one we had with the Giffen/DeMatteis League. We get a chance to explore new interpersonal dynamics such as a Vixen/Congorilla dynamic, ala Beetle and Booster, a Black and The Gold, if you will.

Or Green Lantern noticing just how much more awesome Dick has always been than Red Arrow, even more so now that he's Batman.

Two: The new line-up starts to make us realize just how awesome it would be to have Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman on The Justice League.

Any bets on which'll happen?

7 comments:

ChrisM said...

I was looking over the silhouettes to see if I could deign any of the future members.

Is that Starfire in the lower right hand corner with the big long hair coming off it??

If so..this may just make the "Titans" book redundant...

KENT! said...

ChrisM, it's probably Firestorm....

and why is it Bagley only ever seems capable of drawing people as teenagers?

And why is Robinson always so insistent in con panels that he can make lame duck characters cool... first Congorilla and now Donna Troy?

This one gets a big "no thanks".

BIG MIKE said...

You know what is both sad and hilarious? That DC has the template for what the Justice League should be... it's the JLU cartoon. The best line-up for the League is no line-up at all. Insane that no one has figured that out.

KENT! said...

Mike, you said it man... my hope was that's what DC was after when they hired McDuffie to come aboard. Alas...

ChrisM said...

I don't think that's Firestorm..the hair is too big and the hands are too small.

Robinson IS a talented writer. and he did take a lame duck character (Starman) and made him cool. I look forward to Congorilla!

Donna Troy, not so much...

Jon Hex said...

Mon-El "SuperYoungMan" suit looks horrible. And Wonder Woman has yet to give a reason for her disappearance, so I don't know why Donna's there. This is starting to feel like that other Earth in Countdown with the Titan League.

-ChrisM
Starman Jack Knight wasn't a lame duck character. Robinson created him.

Unknown said...

The Starman franchise was lame duck and Robinson changed that by creating Jack.

I hate Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman so I won't miss them (but I hate Donna more so this isn;t a great trade either)