Frustrations Boil Over: Justice League of America #7

The following is my review of Justice League of America #7, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

In every great mystery, there are a certain number of dead ends and red herrings. Like trying to navigate Lower Manhattan blindfolded, the heroes will inevitably butt heads with people who stumble into the crossfire and the villain will grow bolder and probably get a few laughs out of it along the way. Add escalating tensions between two superhero teams to the mix and the final product is akin to Sherlock Holmes meets Wrestlemania. That is the backdrop for DC’s Trinity War and in Justice League of America #7, those tensions become more volatile than the Hulk in a traffic jam.

The first few issues of the Trinity War crossover focused having the Justice League, the Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark converge in a central conflict. Now that conflict is moving in many different directions, so much so that keeping up requires a certain level of multi-tasking. That may be well-suited for typical sales representative at Goldman Sachs, but for a comicbook. Pandora, the one who first set things into motion by confronting Superman with her evil box, has not gone to the opposite end of the spectrum and sought out Lex Luthor for his help. It shows that she’s growing increasingly desperate or has a very flawed definition of insanity.

Pandora’s role is somewhat secondary in this issue because both the Justice League and the JLA are focused on uncovering the truth about Dr. Light’s death. Unlike the unfettered brawl that defined Avengers vs. X-men, both teams managed to contain themselves long enough to agree that there are other forces at work behind this conflict. The very first issue of Trinity War revealed this and now each team is seeking answers from a different source. And both sources end up being a dead end or a red herring. At one point, both leagues seem to be getting frustrated and ongoing mistrust between both teams isn’t helping. At times it feels like Harry Potter trying to work with Lord Voldermort.

One source involves certain members of each league tracking down Dr. Light’s dead soul with the mystical resources provided by Justice League Dark. Yet even though Dr. Light probably was in the best possible position to know the truth, he told them nothing. And they only found this out after spending nearly two pages trying to enter the house in the first place. It was supposed to be comical, but came off as a bit of a waste that didn’t add much to the narrative. And maybe that was the point. It showed that the sinister forces they’re up against is smart enough to make them waste time.

Another group of leaguers follow another lead with Dr. Psycho and while this ends up being a red herring, it’s not a dead end and it actually does provide something more to the story. It also provides some brief but intense action that nicely conveys the desperation and frustration the three Justice Leagues are feeling at this point. The artwork nicely details the corruption Superman is still struggling with as a result of his encounter with Pandora. It also nicely describes Martian Manhunter not holding back when probing Dr. Psycho’s mind. He’s able to surmise that Dr. Psycho was in Kahndaq when the Justice League and JLA clashed. However, he was not the one controlling Superman. And for the first time, the Secret Society is mentioned, finally putting a name on the sinister force that has been tormenting the leagues.

This alone is an important clue to the mystery, but it quickly gets lost by another revelation that seems ill-timed yet not out of place. It has been hinted at before that the JLA has had a spy keeping tabs on the Justice League. Well that spy finally comes clean, also revealing these covert activities were why the JLA knew that the Justice League was in Kahndaq in the first place. It fills in one significant blank, but it has no emotional weight. Some of her teammates are dismayed, but nobody seems all that upset about it. There’s no angry outburst or anything. It lacks the emotional weight that was so apparent in the first few issues when everyone was concerned about Superman. Without that emotional weight, the mystery loses suspense. It’s like Bruce Willis stopping for fast food in the middle of a Die Hard movie.

While this revelation didn’t carry much weight, the momentum of the story remains intact. The Secret Society has been revealed and another group of leaguers has caught up with Pandora. They manage to catch up with her just before she can give Lex Luthor her box. But in the process, Wonder Woman takes it and now she endures the same corruptive force that Superman experienced earlier. In a ways, this reflects the frustrations of the three leagues boiling over. Wonder Woman already knows what the box is capable of because she saw what it did to Superman. But since the Secret Society has been several steps ahead of them and they keep hitting dead ends, they have no choice but to confront the most immediate threat. And in doing so the DC universe now has two of its most powerful figures, Superman and Wonder Woman, corrupted by a force they don’t understand.

The mystery and the desperation of the three Justice Leagues were what made this issue compelling. The tension between each team is still there, but it wasn’t quite as volatile as it was at the beginning of the story. This issue did fill in a few blanks. It just didn’t do so in a way that felt coherent. It was like a dance routine where the song started skipping in the middle of the act. Never-the-less, Justice League of America #7 successfully maintains the momentum that Trinity War has established. The challenge is making sure it doesn’t lead to anymore dead ends.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

It Was All Building To This: Justice League #22

The following is my review of Justice League #22, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Colonel Hannibal Smith of the A-Team was right to love it when a plan came together. A well-orchestrated convergence of details and timing is a beautiful thing. Every great story demonstrates this to some degree. From Shakespeare to Michael Bay movies, the value and appeal of a story is predicated on its ability to bring multiple elements and plots together into a single, unified product.

However, there’s a trade-off for the kinds of plans that the A-Team are so good at crafting. There’s an exceedingly narrow window for convergence in a story. Move too fast and key details are lost, which is akin to Murdock crashing the helicopter. Move too slow and those details lose their meaning, which is akin to Mr. T taking a wrong turn during a car chase with mobsters. DC often sets itself apart from Marvel by saturating their stories with details. That’s what was presented with Flashpoint and that’s what has been promised with “Trinity War”. Justice League #22 marks the beginning of “Trinity War” and a convergence of numerous details that have been unfolding between the panels.

In this story, characters such as Shazam and Pandora, who have been background characters since the New 52 began, finally play an active role in a much larger story. Those who have been following Justice League finally get some payoff for the Shazam origin story that appended the end of every Justice League comic for the past year. In wake of Shazam’s defeat of Black Adam, he must make a fateful decision on what to do with the ashes of Black Adam. It is this decision that creates the circumstances that put the Justice League and the competing Justice League of America in the deserts of Khandaq. And it feels all the more fitting that this decision is rendered by a pre-pubescent boy whose understanding of global politics doesn’t extend beyond World of Warcraft.

But that isn’t the only plot that leads to the convergence of the Justice League and the JLA. Pandora, whose story has been unfolding in other books, also enters the picture when she approaches Superman about her mythical box. Having been a shadow in the New 52 since its inception, it’s refreshing, albeit overdue, to see her contribute to a major story. And it’s partially because of her actions that Superman ends up throwing the first punch in the “Trinity War”. In addition, visions with Madam Xanadu offer a telling insight into how badly this war ends. It doesn’t feel like a spoiler, but it does give the reader an idea of how badly this could go.

The clash between the two leagues and the subsequent impact on the reader can either be this issue’s greatest appeal or its greatest flaw. In the past, DC’s strongest events involved stories that casual readers could pick up and understand what was going on even if they hadn’t been following the issues leading up to it. This was part of what made Blackest Night so appealing to many readers and stories like Infinite Crisis fodder for angry readers on message boards. Justice League #22 is not quite on the same level as Blackest Night, but it is in the same zip code.

Readers who have been following Justice League and nothing else will feel rewarded for their dedication. Readers who have been following only Justice League of America will feel just as rewarded. But casual readers who haven’t been following either series closely will still get something out of this one issue. It doesn’t offer every detail about Pandora or Shazam or the Justice League’s recent activity in Khandaq, but it offers enough to make the story both coherent and epic. It’s basically a comic that fans of Avatar and Pulp Fiction could get behind.

That said, casual fans may still be at a disadvantage. Without knowing the details surrounding Shazam or the recent story about Superman and Wonder Woman’s activities in Khandaq, the impact of this story might be lost. Taken from the perspective of someone who is just curious about DC, who also happen to be the segment of the market that comic book publishers covet the most, this issue takes the form of just another superhero mash-up. And in a market where events like Marvel’s Civil War and Avengers vs. X-men are still fresh in peoples’ minds, this may be a major turnoff. Lately, it seems as though big events can only happen when heroes fight each other. It’s getting to the point where readers might suspect that the villains in comics are getting lazy.

But what keeps the first issue of “Trinity War” from echoing the same sentiment as Avengers vs. X-men is the ending. Even casual readers will feel the impact of the ending because it gives a clear and definitive message about the story. It’s not just about two teams of heroes fighting. Someone devious is pulling the strings and with DC’s upcoming villain month, it reassures readers that the villains in comics are not getting lazy. They’re just working smarter and not harder.

There are lots of appealing aspects about “Trinity War” and Justice League #22 demonstrates nearly all of them in a neatly contained package. The challenge now is to not overwhelm the readers with too many details and tie-ins, which DC has a nasty habit of doing. For now, at least, Trinity War is off to a promising start. Everything that has been unfolding in the DC universe is starting to come together and like the A-Team, there’s a lot to love about a plan that comes together.

Final Score: 9 out of 10