JLA#99: don't bother

[kingandy]

Bah. Just read the last installment of this "Tenth Circle" travesty, and it really is an apallingly transparent launching vehicle for the Doom Patrol. The story ends, and then we follow the DP for two more pages, with no purpose other than to set up a cliffhanger to lead into DP#1. (Which in itself may be ill-concieved. I can see that they're looking to draw readership over from the JLA, but really, how many non-JLA readers are they going to alienate by beginning the new series on a cliffhanger?) I was right, it looks like the Doom Patrol have co-opted Faith - upon emerging from the room marked "Current Writer Not Interested" with Manitou Raven, she elected to go with them to train the new recruits in their abilities. It's sort of nice, as it means she'll at least be written by somebody who's actually interested in developing her rather than saddled with her by the previous creative team, but it made little sense for the DP (rushing off to see the cliffhanger) to tell her to wait in the copter with the other rookies. She's military trained, and above that she's Justice League. Maybe they wanted her to protect the noobs. Oh well.

In fact, throughout, dialogue was again shaky and incomplete and (as near as I can tell) several people exposited things they had no way of knowing. One black guy said "Homes", which I'm pretty sure is poorly-researched street-slang. In Priest books it was always "Holmes", referencing Sherlock, rather than homeboy or whatever. One of them's obviously wrong, and until I see evidence otherwise I'm going to side with the brother (Priest).

Next issue - the big #100 - sees Mahnke and Nguyen return for a special landmark milestone celebratory issue ... in order to launch their own spin-off title, Justice League Elite. Bah. Am becoming extremely jaded with comics industry. If Claremont and Byrne return after #100, I will most certainly cancel my subscription. That'll leave me with Teen Titans, JSA and the Legion. Oh, and Green Lantern ... though, you know, with Kyle on the way out I'm not so sure about that any more.

I think I need more Peter David in my life. Oh look! It's a New Frontier novel, courtesy batelf. Off to read. Laters.

Comments

It's okay to look back. Just don't stare.

[kingandy]

I really do wish them the bestest of luck with that. They gave it a go back in the 90's, with Justice League Task Force, Extreme Justice and Justice Leage Europe/International, but had to pull everything back in the mid ... early ... um ... it was not so long after Underworld Unleashed, which would place it at around ... maybe 98/99? 2000? Anyway. It was mostly due to poor sales, though ironically I think the orbital titles - certainly Task Force, for which sales were fine, according to writer Christopher Priest - were doing better than the core JLA title. Which is a shame, it was a nicely written run by Gerard Jones which shaped a lot of my opinions regarding putting people in boxes and also gave me one of my favourite quotes (see subject).

Although I suppose scoring the spinoff contest depends on whether you count the characters who already had their own titles (Superman, Batman etc) as "JLA Corona" ... they're certainly not spinoffs, like Gambit or Wolverine, but are clearly related.

I just hope they're none of them written by Chris Claremont.