Most words taken from a copy of Previews. Tracings from various comics, mostly Secret Wars. Other graphic elements, don't ask. Don't try the addresses, that was ages ago.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Friday Night Fight Dada
Maybe I like Flex Mentallo's polyverse so much because it reminds me of a mini-comic I once made called Dada #4. This series was a cut-and-paste exquisite corpse experiment in which random images and words "became" a story by the will of the reader alone. In issue 4, I tried to create a superhero crossover event, and managed, in my opinion, to recreate the feeling a non-comics-reader would have looking at those things even for the comics reader. A lot of Flex Mentallo reads just like it, so I'm gonna go ahead and say that Morrison was going for the same effect as a comment on today's comics. It's all one big black and white fight, so I dedicate it to Bahlactus. All Hail the World Devourer. (Click images to make readable... at your own peril.)
Most words taken from a copy of Previews. Tracings from various comics, mostly Secret Wars. Other graphic elements, don't ask. Don't try the addresses, that was ages ago.
Most words taken from a copy of Previews. Tracings from various comics, mostly Secret Wars. Other graphic elements, don't ask. Don't try the addresses, that was ages ago.
The Polyverse?
FLEX MENTALLO #1-4, DC Comics/Vertigo, June to September 1996
Flex Mentallo, Man of Muscle Mystery, first appeared in the pages of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol as a superhero whose origin was the same as the one that "Made a Man out of Mac" from the back of all those comics.
Yeah, this one. So if Flex isn't out in trade paperback form yet, you can probably blame the Charles Atlas estate (that, and the words "the Charles Atlas had body homoerotic wish-fulfillment" in issue 2). Born from such a staple of comics, Flex Mentallo's own series became a postmodern meditation on the genre. Ergo, those excellent parody covers by Frank Quitely, all approved by the World Body-Building Association.
So while Flex is helping the police deal with Faculty X, who have been leaving a trail of harmless cartoon bombs and stuff you could get from comic book ads like x-ray specs and decoder rings, artist Wally Sage is rummaging through the comics he used to draw as a kid. And wouldn't you know it, they prefigure/are the Flex Mentallo story.
Back in Doom Patrol, we learned that Flex was brought to life right off the page by Wally to help him, though he later died in Flex's arms. But is Wally still alive? In a postmodern spin, I'm writing this part of the review WHILE READING, and when I got to this part, and the following page...
...my own cat, my own BLACK CAT, did exactly this. (I'm gonna go feed him now, then read the whole mini-series, then come back, ok?) Well, that was certainly creepy (though since the scene occurs at my house 3-6 times a day, I shouldn't be that surprised).
But aside from my own delusions, Morrison piles on the realities as thickly as he can. Is the story a hallucination by an ODing rock star (or did he take placebos)? Or is that rock star an identity forced on Flex by the weird element, UV Mentallium? Is he home or in an alley? Is it a cancer victim's fevered dream? The Hoaxer's greatest hoax? Is the apocalypse really come, or is it a metaphor for one character's death. Is it another Crisis that has pushed aside all the heroes, or just the way superheroes tend to leave us when we enter adulthood and our moms throw them away? Or is the truth simply that this is just a comic, and anything can happen? Or that we make comics to remind us of the truth? (I'm barely scratching the surface here, by the way.) Morrison isn't too nice to himself when discussing the topic: "Now the superheroes are as fucked-up as the fuckin rejects who write about them and draw them and read about them. All the heroes are in therapy and there's no one left to care about us." (Put a checkmark next to that therapy story, it'll turn up in his Zatanna comic.)
This is all pretty bad news to us comic book geeks. Flex himself speaks for a generation when he notes, as a previously fictional character: "Too bad my friends are all just characters in a kid's homemade comic book." Yeah, I know how you feel. Wally later says: "Who needs girls when you have comics?" While I've never been that far gone, it does raise a number of issues about fantasy vs. reality. Can women compete against superbabes? Flex's journey through a superhero orgy would only really arouse Jason Lee in Mall Rats:
Have you ever seen a three-foot-wide nipple? It ain't pretty. Don't get me started on the downstairs.
I'm looking through this stuff, and there's all-too-often more ideas crammed in a single panel than many series ever come up with in a year! I wish I was kidding, but Morrison throws away tons of ideas I would love to see as entire stories. Look at this throwaway sequence of Flex's memories:
Origami, the Folding Man? The Lucky Number Gang? The Power of Beyond let loose from the Baffling Box? And don't get me started on the school for sidekicks, the guy who got divine powers by solving a magic crossword puzzle, the matchbox burial of diminutive heroes, or Walter-Ego who once made himself see in the dark by convincing himself that in darkness, people cast bright shadows of light. The superhero universe Flex may or may not live in is a Vertigoed Silver Age I could read about every day.
In the end, the fate of the polyverse hinges on reaching the Place Where Ideas Come From and knowing the truth. Are we in a comic, or aren't we? And to people who say the Silver Age wasn't realistic, I would agree, but Morrison gives the best one-line explanation of his Silver Revival in issue 4: "Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism." As usual, brilliant.
Flex Mentallo, Man of Muscle Mystery, first appeared in the pages of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol as a superhero whose origin was the same as the one that "Made a Man out of Mac" from the back of all those comics.
Yeah, this one. So if Flex isn't out in trade paperback form yet, you can probably blame the Charles Atlas estate (that, and the words "the Charles Atlas had body homoerotic wish-fulfillment" in issue 2). Born from such a staple of comics, Flex Mentallo's own series became a postmodern meditation on the genre. Ergo, those excellent parody covers by Frank Quitely, all approved by the World Body-Building Association.So while Flex is helping the police deal with Faculty X, who have been leaving a trail of harmless cartoon bombs and stuff you could get from comic book ads like x-ray specs and decoder rings, artist Wally Sage is rummaging through the comics he used to draw as a kid. And wouldn't you know it, they prefigure/are the Flex Mentallo story.
Back in Doom Patrol, we learned that Flex was brought to life right off the page by Wally to help him, though he later died in Flex's arms. But is Wally still alive? In a postmodern spin, I'm writing this part of the review WHILE READING, and when I got to this part, and the following page...
...my own cat, my own BLACK CAT, did exactly this. (I'm gonna go feed him now, then read the whole mini-series, then come back, ok?) Well, that was certainly creepy (though since the scene occurs at my house 3-6 times a day, I shouldn't be that surprised).But aside from my own delusions, Morrison piles on the realities as thickly as he can. Is the story a hallucination by an ODing rock star (or did he take placebos)? Or is that rock star an identity forced on Flex by the weird element, UV Mentallium? Is he home or in an alley? Is it a cancer victim's fevered dream? The Hoaxer's greatest hoax? Is the apocalypse really come, or is it a metaphor for one character's death. Is it another Crisis that has pushed aside all the heroes, or just the way superheroes tend to leave us when we enter adulthood and our moms throw them away? Or is the truth simply that this is just a comic, and anything can happen? Or that we make comics to remind us of the truth? (I'm barely scratching the surface here, by the way.) Morrison isn't too nice to himself when discussing the topic: "Now the superheroes are as fucked-up as the fuckin rejects who write about them and draw them and read about them. All the heroes are in therapy and there's no one left to care about us." (Put a checkmark next to that therapy story, it'll turn up in his Zatanna comic.)
This is all pretty bad news to us comic book geeks. Flex himself speaks for a generation when he notes, as a previously fictional character: "Too bad my friends are all just characters in a kid's homemade comic book." Yeah, I know how you feel. Wally later says: "Who needs girls when you have comics?" While I've never been that far gone, it does raise a number of issues about fantasy vs. reality. Can women compete against superbabes? Flex's journey through a superhero orgy would only really arouse Jason Lee in Mall Rats:
Have you ever seen a three-foot-wide nipple? It ain't pretty. Don't get me started on the downstairs.I'm looking through this stuff, and there's all-too-often more ideas crammed in a single panel than many series ever come up with in a year! I wish I was kidding, but Morrison throws away tons of ideas I would love to see as entire stories. Look at this throwaway sequence of Flex's memories:
Origami, the Folding Man? The Lucky Number Gang? The Power of Beyond let loose from the Baffling Box? And don't get me started on the school for sidekicks, the guy who got divine powers by solving a magic crossword puzzle, the matchbox burial of diminutive heroes, or Walter-Ego who once made himself see in the dark by convincing himself that in darkness, people cast bright shadows of light. The superhero universe Flex may or may not live in is a Vertigoed Silver Age I could read about every day.In the end, the fate of the polyverse hinges on reaching the Place Where Ideas Come From and knowing the truth. Are we in a comic, or aren't we? And to people who say the Silver Age wasn't realistic, I would agree, but Morrison gives the best one-line explanation of his Silver Revival in issue 4: "Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism." As usual, brilliant.
Star Trek 546: The Killing Game, Part I
546. The Killing Game, Part IFORMULA: Patterns of Force + Our Man Bashir + One Little Ship
WHY WE LIKE IT: Hirogen. Tuvok shooting the hell out of Nazis.
WHY WE DON'T: Watch how far you push suspension of disbelief, guys. Shrinkage.
REVIEW: The holodeck is used intriguingly in this episode that begins in medias res almost 20 days after a Hirogen hijacking. Their leader's visionary plan to bring together his people by simulating the Hunt is being tested in Voyager's holodecks, which have sprawled into the corridors thanks to Harry's efforts. Karr isn't really a sympathetic as such, but he's interesting. He questions ANY race's claim to superiority, which is off-model for Hirogen. I can't say the same for his men who are your basic space thugs. And because you need so many Hirogen, they've started to shrink appreciably to more human sizes. Probably why they work better as lone wolves.
Anyway, their plan, if you choose to believe it, involves brainwashing Voyager's crew into thinking they are characters that fit any given simulation. We get a hint of a Klingon scenario, but the body of the story uses a Nazis vs. the French Resistance plot on the eve of D-Day. Well realized (though apparently full of anachronisms and uniform mistakes), but there's always a danger when the characters aren't allowed to be themselves. Thankfully, this is mitigated by elements of their true personalities coming out. And with the relationships somehow kept intact (Seven as the insubordinate brat, Tuvok as the logical friend, Neelix as the provider, etc.), it feels more like an Elseworld than anything.
The latter is one of the episode's many conceits, along with Karr's ease with alien cultures (you might be able to read about WWII, but also know enough to kiss a woman's hand?), and that a holographic explosion could actually blow a whole through four decks. Four decks? That's how tall a holodeck is?!? It's that kind of "wouldn't it be cool?" scripting that gets Voyager into trouble.
But the story is fun enough. Harry and the Doctor do very well as their own little resistance cell aboard the real Voyager, and it's fun to see Seven "Quantum Leap" into occupied France in the middle of a song. The cliffhanger hints at a holographic "war across time" which could also be great fun. We'll see.
LESSON: Actors bring something of themselves into every role.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: Plot holes abound, but the ideas are fun enough to gloss over them, as both the Hirogen and holodecks are used in an unusual way.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
What We've Lost, Can It Be Regained?
So is Earth-2 back? 52 says yes. What does Final Crisis say?
ALL-STAR SQUADRON #20, DC Comics, April 1983
Before the Crisis killed it off, Earth-2 had a couple comics of its own. I didn't read Infinity Inc., but All-Star Squadron, taking place right in the Golden Age, was another matter entirely. The Squadron was Golden Age expert Roy Thomas' made-up team created by FDR during war time that de facto included every American superhero. There was a core team, of course, and the Justice Society were often used, but the conceit basically gave Thomas the chance to use his encyclopedic knowledge of the era to squeeze in any number of obscure characters and references.
ASS #20, in which "Green Lantern wins the war - but at what price?", is a randomly-picked issue that shows off the series quite well. It's got the usual classic art by Jerry Ordway, and the usual verbose Thomas dialogue to cover up large chunks of it (verbose as in one flashback has the villain talk to himself for 5 pages). But me? I so love the Golden Age that I can't help but like it, old-fashioned though it is. Case in point: The letters page often had historical notes on the issue at hand, and this one is no different. Here we learn that 1942's All-Star Comics shows the JSA turning the tide of the war in the Pacific, clearly subverting what we know now as history. Obviously, this story can't have happened! So Roy Thomas' solution is to have it happen in an elaborate illusion created by the villainous telepath, Brain Wave.
In ASS #19 (I won't stop calling it that, no use sending emails), the JSA were all "killed" inside the illusion, so their lives are hanging by a thread. The core members of the Squadron show up, get sucked into the illusion too and get brought down like chumps as well.
Poor Liberty Belle, shot in the back by the Japs! (Heck, even Robotman bites it.) So who's left to save their bacon before their tenuous grasp on life fails? That question gives Roy Thomas ample justification to spend 4 pages showing us what reserve Justice Society members were doing in their own series at the time (that month in 1942)! Well, since you're not likely to read these stories without splurging on some pricy Archive Editions, it at least gives Ordway a chance to illustrate parts of these stories, which to be frank, often had amateurish art.
That's a red-haired Golden Age Luthor kicking Superman's butt from Superman #17. We also catch up with Batman and Robin, the Flash, Spectre, and... Green Lantern! Now he's available, so he makes his way over, gets sucked into Brain Wave's Japan and as with the other heroes, is filled with blood lust. It got the other JSAers killed, but GL is just too powerful. He basically uses his ring to blow up a Japanese town, and ends the war like it will eventually end... Hiroshima style.
It's too much power for Brain Wave, whose glasses break explosively as a result! That's quite the psychic kick to the head! A pretty strong moment, all told, with the Green Lantern paraphrasing Oppenheimer: "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds..." Good stuff. Then, overwhelmed with guilt, he tries to commit suicide, but all his friends, having snapped out of it when he went atomic, break into his mind and convince him not to. He comes back from the brink, but he is a destroyed man:
Just goes to show that Wonder Woman's bosom is always a great place to recuperate, whether from physical or emotional wounds. Soooooo comforting... no matter what Earth you're on.
ALL-STAR SQUADRON #20, DC Comics, April 1983
Before the Crisis killed it off, Earth-2 had a couple comics of its own. I didn't read Infinity Inc., but All-Star Squadron, taking place right in the Golden Age, was another matter entirely. The Squadron was Golden Age expert Roy Thomas' made-up team created by FDR during war time that de facto included every American superhero. There was a core team, of course, and the Justice Society were often used, but the conceit basically gave Thomas the chance to use his encyclopedic knowledge of the era to squeeze in any number of obscure characters and references.ASS #20, in which "Green Lantern wins the war - but at what price?", is a randomly-picked issue that shows off the series quite well. It's got the usual classic art by Jerry Ordway, and the usual verbose Thomas dialogue to cover up large chunks of it (verbose as in one flashback has the villain talk to himself for 5 pages). But me? I so love the Golden Age that I can't help but like it, old-fashioned though it is. Case in point: The letters page often had historical notes on the issue at hand, and this one is no different. Here we learn that 1942's All-Star Comics shows the JSA turning the tide of the war in the Pacific, clearly subverting what we know now as history. Obviously, this story can't have happened! So Roy Thomas' solution is to have it happen in an elaborate illusion created by the villainous telepath, Brain Wave.
In ASS #19 (I won't stop calling it that, no use sending emails), the JSA were all "killed" inside the illusion, so their lives are hanging by a thread. The core members of the Squadron show up, get sucked into the illusion too and get brought down like chumps as well.
Poor Liberty Belle, shot in the back by the Japs! (Heck, even Robotman bites it.) So who's left to save their bacon before their tenuous grasp on life fails? That question gives Roy Thomas ample justification to spend 4 pages showing us what reserve Justice Society members were doing in their own series at the time (that month in 1942)! Well, since you're not likely to read these stories without splurging on some pricy Archive Editions, it at least gives Ordway a chance to illustrate parts of these stories, which to be frank, often had amateurish art.
That's a red-haired Golden Age Luthor kicking Superman's butt from Superman #17. We also catch up with Batman and Robin, the Flash, Spectre, and... Green Lantern! Now he's available, so he makes his way over, gets sucked into Brain Wave's Japan and as with the other heroes, is filled with blood lust. It got the other JSAers killed, but GL is just too powerful. He basically uses his ring to blow up a Japanese town, and ends the war like it will eventually end... Hiroshima style.It's too much power for Brain Wave, whose glasses break explosively as a result! That's quite the psychic kick to the head! A pretty strong moment, all told, with the Green Lantern paraphrasing Oppenheimer: "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds..." Good stuff. Then, overwhelmed with guilt, he tries to commit suicide, but all his friends, having snapped out of it when he went atomic, break into his mind and convince him not to. He comes back from the brink, but he is a destroyed man:
Just goes to show that Wonder Woman's bosom is always a great place to recuperate, whether from physical or emotional wounds. Soooooo comforting... no matter what Earth you're on.
Star Trek 545: Retrospect
545. RetrospectFORMULA: Schisms + Violations + The Raven
WHY WE LIKE IT: The crazy cannon in the opener.
WHY WE DON'T: So... they never finished installing that cannon?
REVIEW: Retrospect has the same basic set-up as Schisms (again - I guess it never hurts to suck up to the boss by paying homage to one of his episodes), with Seven growing progressively anxious until disturbing memories of medical violations are uncovered. This time, however, it's handled less tastefully, treated, basically, as a rape (and later, a childhood molestation). It's all fun and games when they amputate and reattach Riker's arm, but only violating a female character is somehow more exploitative.
Star Trek doesn't have a very good record when it comes to representing psychology, but here delving into repressed memory (and later false memory syndrome) is adequately, if gauchely, handled. At least the Doctor acknowledges that he didn't really know what he was doing when he basically "led the witness" under hypnosis. The accused, Kovin, really is a grade-A jerk, so either the story is blindingly obvious and he did it, or blindingly obvious and those are really distorted memories of her assimilation. Either way, the only real surprise is how badly Kovin overreacts.
It really feels like his extreme reaction and subsequent death are engineered to weigh as heavily as possible on Seven and the Doctor. A big lesson about remorse and all that. The Doctor asking to be rebooted is as extreme and suicidal and Kovin's actions, and a lot of this doesn't ring true. But I don't mean to say the episode isn't watchable. The investigation is well handled, with the dangers of having a preconceived idea on show. The Doctor and Seven are, as usual, quite good together.
Oh yes, and there's the matter of Seven having been punished for insubordination in the last episode. How's that going? Well, it's mentioned, but she's already pretty much off the hook, though technically on the road to earning Janeway's trust again. Hardly any difference with what we're used to, and it certainly doesn't prevent her from participating in the adventure this time.
LESSON: Sometimes a tubule is just a tubule.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: It's ok, but manipulative and ultimately unsatisfying.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Numbered Earths: An Ambush Bug Primer
Yeah, I know, Earths in Crisis Week really needs explanation for DC fans born and bred from the single post-Crisis universe, so here it is: Everything you need to know about the multiverse, in one handy, clickable-to-kinda-biggie-size, page.
Oh well, that's much clearer, thanks.
Ambush Bug will be on New Earth for realz in... 7 weeks!
Oh well, that's much clearer, thanks.Ambush Bug will be on New Earth for realz in... 7 weeks!
The Day the Multiverse Actually Came Back (Move Over, 52...)
So between Crisis on Infinite Earths and 52, there weren't any more "numbered Earths", right? Then what's this?
JLA: EARTH 2, DC Comics, 2000
JLA: Earth 2 is the Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely graphic novel about the anti-Justice League known as the Crime Syndicate. These aren't new creations: They were spawned in the Silver Age when there were many Earths always in Crisis. The Syndicate was from Earth-3, actually, where everything is the reverse of our own Earth. An American Columbus discovered Europe, good is evil, and so on.
So, you say, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, there wasn't an Earth-3, was there? To which I answer, that's not gonna stop Grant Morrison.
In the new scheme of things, the parallel dimension formerly known as Earth-3 is an anti-matter Earth where you don't want to be on the receiving end of a matter cannon, people's hearts are on the right side, and Gotham City is run by Boss Gordon. When the good Alexander Luthor escapes to our Earth (which he's dubbed Earth 2) to enlist the help of the JLA to fix his world, it's just a matter of time before the Crime Syndicate comes here. And everyone learns a good lesson about staying on your side of the fence!
The Crime Syndicate includes Ultraman (who must stay close to anti-kryptonite to stay powerful), Superwoman (who is actually Lois Lane), Owlman (what if Bruce Wayne blamed his father - now commissioner - for his mother's death?), Johnny Quick (who shoots up to get speedy) and Power Ring (not really opposite... just as much as twit as Green Lantern is).
I haven't always been a huge fan of Frank Quitely's superhero art - the characters tend to look chunky and all have the same square face, even Wonder Woman - but I love the detail he puts into his work. Check out Ultraman's fortress for some extra Mirror Universe jokes:
Doctor Noon... Dr. Mid-Nite? White Cat... Black Canary. Space Man...? Please tell me! I need to know. Love the Statue of Liberty with a bullet through its head too. Really not sure who's in the coffin... Where's an annotation website when I need one?
Anyway, the story is half "Mirror, Mirror" (evil opposites + you can't change a person's nature), half Crisis (planets colliding + Flash racing until his lungs burn), with just a soupçon of Vertigo-ish behavior (Jimmy Olsen with a choking fetish + drug-fueled powers + a classic Morrison urinal scene). It really works as a homage to all those stories. From Star Trek to Watchmen, what with all that superhero sex à la Nite Owl between Superwoman and Owlman (those scenes are a hoot!*)
And throughout, our heroes are POWERFUL. That's one of the thing I dig most about Morrison's JLA stuff: He doesn't cut corners. Green Lantern envelops the moon with giant hands, Flash becomes the world's greatest detective by thinking at 70,000 miles an hour, and the Martian Manhunter is friggin' unbeatable (so how can he be anything but fine in Final Crisis?). JLA: Earth 2 is worth it if only to see J'Onn talk some smack to Ultraman:
"This is not combat; you were already beaten the moment you chose to engage me." Yow! That's what I'M talking about!
In the end, the JLA can't win on the opposite Earth because good never triumphs there, just as evil never triumphs here, and only by doing the wrong thing can they hope to win. But don't worry, Morrison's on the side of hope... at least for Gotham City. Which actually IS opposite! (I think I'd pay to read Owlman's continuing adventures, by the way. Send a line to DC.)
*Only while rereading myself did I realize I deserve to die for that pun, intended or not.
JLA: EARTH 2, DC Comics, 2000
JLA: Earth 2 is the Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely graphic novel about the anti-Justice League known as the Crime Syndicate. These aren't new creations: They were spawned in the Silver Age when there were many Earths always in Crisis. The Syndicate was from Earth-3, actually, where everything is the reverse of our own Earth. An American Columbus discovered Europe, good is evil, and so on.So, you say, after Crisis on Infinite Earths, there wasn't an Earth-3, was there? To which I answer, that's not gonna stop Grant Morrison.
In the new scheme of things, the parallel dimension formerly known as Earth-3 is an anti-matter Earth where you don't want to be on the receiving end of a matter cannon, people's hearts are on the right side, and Gotham City is run by Boss Gordon. When the good Alexander Luthor escapes to our Earth (which he's dubbed Earth 2) to enlist the help of the JLA to fix his world, it's just a matter of time before the Crime Syndicate comes here. And everyone learns a good lesson about staying on your side of the fence!
The Crime Syndicate includes Ultraman (who must stay close to anti-kryptonite to stay powerful), Superwoman (who is actually Lois Lane), Owlman (what if Bruce Wayne blamed his father - now commissioner - for his mother's death?), Johnny Quick (who shoots up to get speedy) and Power Ring (not really opposite... just as much as twit as Green Lantern is).
I haven't always been a huge fan of Frank Quitely's superhero art - the characters tend to look chunky and all have the same square face, even Wonder Woman - but I love the detail he puts into his work. Check out Ultraman's fortress for some extra Mirror Universe jokes:
Doctor Noon... Dr. Mid-Nite? White Cat... Black Canary. Space Man...? Please tell me! I need to know. Love the Statue of Liberty with a bullet through its head too. Really not sure who's in the coffin... Where's an annotation website when I need one?Anyway, the story is half "Mirror, Mirror" (evil opposites + you can't change a person's nature), half Crisis (planets colliding + Flash racing until his lungs burn), with just a soupçon of Vertigo-ish behavior (Jimmy Olsen with a choking fetish + drug-fueled powers + a classic Morrison urinal scene). It really works as a homage to all those stories. From Star Trek to Watchmen, what with all that superhero sex à la Nite Owl between Superwoman and Owlman (those scenes are a hoot!*)
And throughout, our heroes are POWERFUL. That's one of the thing I dig most about Morrison's JLA stuff: He doesn't cut corners. Green Lantern envelops the moon with giant hands, Flash becomes the world's greatest detective by thinking at 70,000 miles an hour, and the Martian Manhunter is friggin' unbeatable (so how can he be anything but fine in Final Crisis?). JLA: Earth 2 is worth it if only to see J'Onn talk some smack to Ultraman:
"This is not combat; you were already beaten the moment you chose to engage me." Yow! That's what I'M talking about!In the end, the JLA can't win on the opposite Earth because good never triumphs there, just as evil never triumphs here, and only by doing the wrong thing can they hope to win. But don't worry, Morrison's on the side of hope... at least for Gotham City. Which actually IS opposite! (I think I'd pay to read Owlman's continuing adventures, by the way. Send a line to DC.)
*Only while rereading myself did I realize I deserve to die for that pun, intended or not.
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