So DC has this big reboot thing going on, and apparently it’s a good time to hop on board. I’ve been a recovering DC Comics fangirl for a while now, and only dipping my toe back into the water through graphic novels. But the iPad has got me a tiny bit excited about comics again, and the relaunch includes day and date digital releases, so I decided to pick out the titles that most interested me (let’s face it, mostly the ones with women on the cover wearing all their clothes) and review a huge bunch of #1 issues, whittling them away in the hopes of finding some regular comics to read and (hope hope hope) enjoy.

Despite being a woman, and a feminist. Yeah, I’m a bit trepidatious too.

Justice League #1
Written by: Geoff Johns
Penciled by: Jim Lee

I wasn’t going to buy this comic. It certainly wasn’t in my top 10 of ‘comics of interest’ in the DC Reboot, for several reasons:

1) I generally hate and resent any ‘big guns’ version of the Justice League apart from the original, thanks largely to Grant bloody Morrison’s revamp of the comic in 1997 which destroyed the last vestiges of my love for the franchise by getting rid of all my favouite beloved beta-hero characters,

2) ‘Big guns’ generally means ‘all the big name male heroes, and Wonder Woman cos you can only have one girl, hitting stuff’. I like most of the individual ‘big guns’ classic Justice League characters individually (if written well, obviously), but the fastest way to make them uninteresting to me is to smack them all together in the same comic. To me, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern (Hal) etc. work best as mentor figures rather than teammates, because the plots just turn into enormous slugfests and writers struggle to create threats or storyline that honestly couldn’t just be handled by Superman OR Batman OR Green Lantern, etc.

3) Also I think it hurts a group book when almost every single character has their own comic title (or several) because it means little in the way of character development or personalised story is going to happen in the group title. Plus it means insane over-wrought multi title arc stories, which never show off characters or books to best effect.

4) I also, frankly, hate all modern reboots of the Justice League origin story of the post-Crisis era, because all the history and baggage of a group is what makes it interesting to me, and I resent very much the constant youthening of Wonder Woman (let’s face it, she doesn’t have to physically age, so why not let her keep her BRAINS), who for at least a decade was replaced in the origin story by Black Canary (because you gotta have a girl, but only one), and so on. If you’re gonna completely reboot the damn title, then do something different with it, not a watered down version of what they did back in the 1960′s. The original origin story is retro cool, in a ‘how the gang came together’ kind of way, and all others have provided diminishing returns.

5) There was no Starro the Conqueror on the cover, so what is the POINT OF YOU, JLA #1???

6) to my shock and delight, they are actually doing a second Justice League title which appears (I hope, I hope) to have many of my old favourite characters, some humour, and basically allowing the beta superheroes to screw up in new and interesting ways. This is my Justice League. So the Big Guns can go stand in the corner with the popular crowd.

7) where is my Martian Manhunter? Oh, another comic. Bah.

Ahem, yeah, I wasn’t going to bother with JLA #1, but then the first day of September rolled around and it was the ONLY DC Reboot comic released that day. What a cheap trick. Then I heard on Nerdzilla about how it was the top selling comic of the year even though it hadn’t been released yet, and I figured it would be an easy way to get the hang of how this whole hard-soft-weird reboot is coming together, so I thought I’d give it a go.

[spoilers]

I didn’t like it.

For a start we only get four characters from the total line up, and only three of them talk to each other. Mostly this is Batman and Green Lantern measuring each other’s pectorals and finding them wanting. This has to be the most irritating version of Hal Jordan I have ever read (though to be fair I haven’t seen the film so don’t know if Ryan Reynolds gives him a run for his money), and the least attractive version of Batman I’ve ever seen (and quite frankly if Batman isn’t hot then JLA what is the point of you?). There’s hitting things and banter, and by the way no women at all, even the one that’s on the cover. We get a hint as to Cyborg/Vic Stone’s backstory, which is of interest to me because he’s the only character who I don’t associate with the Justice League history, but I read a lot of Teen Titans back in the day.

And really, when I look back on the issue, I’m pretty sure the plot (to be continuuuuued) is that Superman doesn’t wear red undies over his blue tights any more. Argue with me if you can!

So no, not a success, and now I think I have to read another bloody issue to see if Wonder Woman gets to turn up in the next one. Or maybe I’ll just check out what Nerdzilla & Panel2Panel have to say about JLA in future and devote my attention to the comics I actually think I will like.

Tansy’s shopping list for this week was:
Batgirl #1
Action Comics #1
Detective Comics #1
Justice League International #1
Hawk and Dove #1 (Dawn is back! woot! I have a soft spot for Hawk & Dove when one of them is a girl)
Stormwatch #1 (this is for you, Paul Cornell)

and a bunch of back issues of Tiny Titans for 99 cents each!

The DC Reboot comics released this week that I didn’t pick up were:

Swamp Thing #1 (no appeal)
Green Arrow #1 (no beard, Oliver Queen, what is the point of you??)
Batwing #1 (kind of intrigued by Batman of Africa concept but how can it possibly be done well?)
Animal Man #1 (I recall much dread and sadness from what little I read in 90′s plus the cover is hideous)
Men of War #1 (so not for me)
OMAC #1 (don’t even know what this is)
Static Shock #1 (hmm actually I think I did mean to check this one out but I have already blown my budget. Maybe next week)

So stay tuned, more (probably shorter… heh, maybe) DC Reboot reviews to come!

Tags: batman, comics, dc reboot, green lantern, justice league, reading, superman, women in comics, wonder woman