Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Just Sayin'--JUSTICE LEAGUE #11

So, uhm, Geoff Johns is really over-obsessed with this notion that you need your families tragically massacred to be a good superhero, huh?

It's weird, because I read this, and I was re-reading X-Tinction Agenda and thinking of how Jim lee's stuff really supercharged a generation of fanboys twenty plus years ago, and I look at what they're doing now and how. . .dull . . .it is. Seriously: 11 issues in and its still age after page of everyone being assholes to each other and occasionally fighting each other (which means that they've fought Parademons and themselves. In one year's time.)

 Why, of all the things to let Jim Lee draw, do you let him draw this? If the point of the new-52 stuff was to bring in a new generation of comic fans and put your best foot forward (let's be charitable and say that was their intent) why is it this? Were the silent generations of comic fans after me crying out for a book full of ciphers who argue all the time and some dickhead wannabe supervillain who talks to his dead family and goes around killing supporting cast members because of reasons far too inscrutable to be explained because all Geoff Johns really cares about is wringing every drop of blood out of this whole "defining element of tragedy" folderol.

 I'm not going to say that X-Men or anything like that was high art or anything, but it actually gripped your shit and engaged you, even if it was only on the base "this is cool!" level. This was so bland I didn't even notice the flip-over to Geoff Johns Black Adam Fanfiction--er, the Shazam backup. It's all of the same unvarying mood, so there wasn't anything to separate it out. This comic is as blank as a fart.

4 comments:

C. Elam said...

Literally, my lights went out last night as I was trying to comment. Even God doesn't want to think about Geoff Johns comics anymore.

That said, it would be interesting to chart where exactly his work went So Very Wrong. I mean, I read quite a lot of it once upon a time, and while I didn't LOVE it, it wasn't that bad. I remembering being taken aback by a lot of stuff in 52, but was that where it started? Geoff's also the guy who wrote a DARK CAPTAIN CARROT STORY in a couple of Titans comics.

A lot of comic book writers hit a wall and are never the same afterward. He might be a super great guy, but I feel like Geoff Johns has not only hit that wall but destroyed it and dismembered two C-list characters in the process.

Kazekage said...

You can hardly blame Him, can you?

I. . .what? I would say a dark Captain carrot story misses the point on an absolutely galactic level, but I've read his dark Shazam stories, his dark JSA stories, and . . .yeah, missing the point is kinda what he does now. The problem is, he's in the position to shape everything to fit his vision, and there's nothing that makes superhero comics innately unbearable to me than homogenizing every comics so they all are essentially the same character speaking in the same voice.

C. Elam said...

From what I've seen, this Justice League comic is an affront to all that is Good and Holy, so no. I think the Almighty is onto something.

This is an easy one. Do you remember that April Fool's Day thing Wizard once did about Captain Carrot? The dark reboot thing? We all laughed at the time, but GEOFF JOHNS ACTUALLY WROTE A STORY BASED ON THIS JOKE. It hurts my brain to even think about it. The later mini spent some time hand-waving at least some of it out of existence.

Kazekage said...

I don't know that it qualifies as an affront to all that is good or anything like that, it's just. . .this mediocre distillation of everything that has killed my love for superhero comics, and reading it is a lot like how I feel when I've drunk something with high fructose corn syrup in it--bloated, tired, and inexplicably depressed.

That should have been the time that someone took Young Master Johns aside and said "You know, Geoff, maybe let's write something different, to show you still can." Instead, they cut him another cheque.