{"id":9306,"date":"2006-07-29T13:36:54","date_gmt":"2006-07-29T20:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06-heroes-for-laughs-and-more.html"},"modified":"2006-07-29T13:36:54","modified_gmt":"2006-07-29T20:36:54","slug":"bt06_heroes_for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_heroes_for.html","title":{"rendered":"BT06 – Heroes for Laughs (and More)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?]<\/b> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n



\n  <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Formerly Known as the Justice League<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (DC) [3\/5\/2\/3<\/b>] (collects #1-6)
\nw. Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis; a. Kevin Maguire<\/em>  <\/p>\n

In 2004, DC tried to capture fire again, bringing this creative team, who had reinvented the Justice League in the early 90s as heroic but humorous types, to bring back some of the figures of that era — Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Fire, etc> — as “down on their luck” heroes trying to make a come-back. <\/p>\n

It was … a mixed success.  Sales were okay.  I picked up a copy, and promptly hated it. <\/p>\n

The 90s effort had been fresh.  But I’d come to care about these characters in subsequent years.  Playing them for yocks seemed — disrespectful.  You can take a light, even humorous approach, without making the individuals concerned buffoons.  Indeed, back in that 90s incarnation of the JL, that was the case.  Maxwell Lord was funny and pompous — but he turned out to also be heroic, in his own way, and a tragic figure. <\/p>\n

(The irony of the fate of several of the characters in this book — Beetle, Lord, Sue Dibney — is in itself almost too much to bear consideration.) <\/p>\n

I actually ended up picking up some of the later issues in this abortive series, and changed my mind enough to come back and here and buy this one.  And, to be sure, after you get beyond some of the more annoying repartee, you find both wit and heroism — and, heck, seeing Mary Marvel and Captain Atom stomping the stuffing out of each other in Roulette’s arena is plenty exciting. And Maguire’s art (inked by Joe Rubinstein) is worth the price of admission almost regardless. <\/p>\n



\n  <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Publisher) [4\/5\/4\/4<\/b>]
\n
\nw. Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis; a. Kevin Maguire<\/em> <\/p>\n

This follows up the previous tales, and includes the return (of course) of Guy Gardner, a visit to an alternate “evil” universe, and a journey to Hell (maybe) that half laughs, half tragedy.  Really.  I mean, snuffly-nosed-after-reading-it tragedy.  It’s this mix that made this series, again, worth the read (along with the Maguire\/Rubinstein art). <\/p>\n

Again, again, here we are, mere months before the whole Identity Crisis \/ Infinite Crisis thang — and, there they are, in the last panel, Blue Beetle and Maxwell Lord, laughing together over a joke.  I don’t have the irk over how the DCU has changed, but, damn, that’s a glaring dissonance right there. <\/p>\n



\n  <\/p>\n

(listening to: Gold, Murray & the BBC Natl Orch of Wales, “Closing Theme (The Christmas Invasion)” from <\/i>Doctor Who)<\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Fried, Gerald, “Amok Time: Vulcan” from <\/i>Star Trek Orig TV Sdtrk – II) <\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Simon & Garfunkel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain” from <\/i>Wednesday Morning, 3 AM)<\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Riepl, Kevin, “City Zone 12” from <\/i>City of Villains)<\/small> <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?]   Formerly Known as the Justice League (DC) [3\/5\/2\/3] (collects #1-6) w….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogathon","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9271,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/30\/bt06_sunday_mor.html","url_meta":{"origin":9306,"position":0},"title":"BT06 – Sunday Morning Comics (Ha!)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Jul-06 4:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"Slogging along.\u00a0 So tired.\u00a0 Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] Hellblazer #222 (Vertigo) [2\/3\/2\/3] (w. Denise Mina; Leonardo Manco)...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9314,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_multiple_e.html","url_meta":{"origin":9306,"position":1},"title":"BT06 – Multiple Earths, Multiple Reviews","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 9:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Crisis on Multiple Earths:\u00a0Volume 3 (DC) [2\/2\/3\/1] (collects JLA #91-92, 100-102, 107-108,...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9311,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_tpb_review.html","url_meta":{"origin":9306,"position":2},"title":"BT06 – TPB Reviews of Dark and Violent Tales","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Global Frequency: Detonation Radio (DC\/Wildstorm) [4\/3\/4\/4] (collects #7-12) w. Warren Ellis; a....","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_fantasy_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":9306,"position":3},"title":"BT06 – Fantasy and Science","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Stardust (Vertigo) [5\/5\/5\/5] w. Neil Gaiman; a. Charles Vess Strictly speaking, this...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9304,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_vengeance.html","url_meta":{"origin":9306,"position":4},"title":"BT06 – Vengeance, Justice, and Teen Ennui","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 2:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 JSA: Black Vengeance (Vol. 10) (DC) [4\/4\/2\/2] (collects #66-75) w. Geoff Johns;...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9283,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_two_more_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":9306,"position":5},"title":"BT06 – Two More Reviews","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the saddle again! Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] Supreme Power: High Command (Vol. 3) (Marvel MAX)...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}