Thursday, May 20, 2010

Justice League: Generation Lost #1

Justice League: Generation Lost #1: Writers: Keith Giffen & Judd Winick. Pencils: Aaron Lopresti.

Review: With Maxwell Lord alive and on the loose again, Superman and the Justice League call a press conference to warn everybody in the world to be on the lookout for Max, telling the gaggle of reporters present that Max's capture would be their number one priority. While the JLA did have some leads on Max's whereabouts, they always seemed to be one step behind him. These near misses have begun to try Booster Gold's patience, as he, possibly more then anybody else, wanted to see Max brought to justice. As such, Booster began to disregard JLA orders and began to play the lone wolf in an attempt to locate and stop Max before he killed anybody else. The other members of Max's old JLI team(Fire, Ice and Captain Atom)decide to join forces in order to find Max, since they all felt that the time they spent with him could lead to some insight into where Max may have been hiding. The trio actually manage to uncover one of Max's old bases, but it is rigged with a massive bomb, and only Captain Atom's control over energy saves the trio from certain death. While that was going on, Booster figures out that since Max had always been insanely arrogant, he'd probably be hiding in plain sight, so Booster heads to the JLI embassy in NYC, and sure enough, he runs into Max, who was expecting Booster. Max shuts down Booster's force field(with one of Ted Kord's old weapons no less)and then proceeds to beat the hell out of Booster with a concrete covered pipe. Before Booster loses consciousness however, he manages to hit his JLI distress button, which brings Fire, Ice and Captain Atom to his side. The trio finds Booster lying in a pool of blood, but Booster tries to tell them that it wasn't his blood, it was Max's. Before the trio of heroes could figure out what Booster was trying to say, Max pushes his powers to their absolute limit, which causes him to lose a massive quantity of blood, while sending out a telepathic shockwave across the entire planet. The shockwave knocks out Booster and company, and when they awaken, they call for Superman so they could tell him what had happened. Supes arrives and Captain Atom tells Supes that Max had been there, which leads to Supes quizzically asking, “Who's Max Lord?”... This issue ends with the four former members of the JLI realizing that Max had wiped his existence from every living being on the planet and escaped off to parts unknown.

What I Thought: This was a VERY strong opening issue to this mini-series. The writers did a great job of setting the stage, putting all of the main players in position and giving Max a way to rebuild his powerbase away from the watchful eyes of every hero on the face of the Earth. It would have been nice if the Brightest Day mini-series was this coherent... I for one can't wait to see what Max decides to do now that he believes he is free to operate however he feels, as well as seeing what the former JLIers do to try to stop Max before he embarks on whatever his next evil act will be. A villain with all of Max's knowledge of Earth's super-heroes, free to do as he pleases could be a very scary thing!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.I always like a villain who is 100% convinced he's in the right and everybody else is in the wrong.

19 comments:

  1. Ahh finally!! You've reviewed one of few things I've been waiting for from you!!!

    I absolutely LOVED this issue. And I'm with you X, I cannot wait what the mad man Max is going to do next.

    Gives me chills knowing he's back and on the loose. Lol. And no one KNOWS who he is anymore?!!? Epic.

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  2. Agreed 100% dude, I can't wait to see what Max does, he's definitely my favorite of the returning people from Brightest Day. If I were him I'd go after Wonder Woman, kill her then go back to step one with the OMAC's and such. Man the concept of this comic is genius, I'm really looking forward to this and BoP #2

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  3. :| I KNOW you didn't just suggest he kill WW?! You've lost your mind, I'll be sure to fix it tomorrow. Can't believe you. Lol.

    You got something against WW?!

    :-P

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  4. So I see we're all in total agreement here. This issue did an awesome job of placing Max in a fantastic spot. I mean he can pretty much strike at whoever he wants, and practically nobody knows who he is!

    IDK JT, if I was Max, I think I'd stay far the hell away from WW! She'd be the LAST person I'd start up with!

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  5. Lol @ Falisha, You know what I meant :P

    I see what you mean X, but how easy would it be to Mind control Supes, have him go see Diana, lure her into a falso sense of security, walk up behind her and snap her neck. I mean, she stopped him the first time so with her out of the way...and Donna too just to be sure lol, he'd be unstoppable.

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  6. Lol. Even if Max did kill her, Hippolyta would only bring her back to life, again.

    Then we'd be RIGHT back where we are now. WW with a vendetta on Max. Lol.

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  7. Yeah, I see your point JT, but I just can't imagine that Max would want to piss off the woman who snapped his neck last time. I'd prob save her for last. I'd do little things first before going after the big shots like WW and Supes this time around.

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  8. I see your point, but what would you do if you were Maxwell Lord then X?

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  9. I'm not huge into the writers or characters of this series, but it has been getting such rave reviews that I may have to look into it.

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  10. I'd lay low JT. I'd slowly bide my time, try to rebuild the OMAC project like you said, and have them begin to slowly and quietly pick off the c-list heroes first. Remember, Max knows the secret ID's of dozens of heroes, so he could easily strike them from their homes, and maybe make it look like a random crime. I'd leave Supes, WW and Bats for the end, THEN maybe I'd possess WW and send her after the rest. But with Max and his HUGE ego, I bet he does like you say and go straight for the top though.

    I'd definitely give at least the first issue a shot Kello. It was pretty good, and Max is one of those villains who could wind up being HUGE if DC plays their cards right.

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  11. I'll probably get killed for saying this, but I don't think I've ever read anything with Maxwell Lord in it. I've wanted to read Giffen's JLI for quite a while though...would you recommend that as a good point of entry for the character?

    Also, X-Man is posting comments in the middle of the day? What is this madness??

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  12. Lol Marc beat me to it, hell I slept in, saw X had comments and thought all my clocks were wrong :P

    And that works X, he could easily pick off the lower level heroes, hell even make an army of them, ala The Hand, and send them after some of the bigger names.

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  13. Ha, I'm on vacation mi amigos! I still have a few things to take care of(moving and such), but with the spectre of school not hanging over my head for a few weeks, I can respond to things during the day(sometimes!).

    Hmm, I don't know if I'd recommend Giffen's JLI/JLA books to get a good feel for Max, because he was a WAY different character back then Marc. He was funny and likable, now he's angry and evil. It's funny, I read the "I can't Believe it's not the Justice League" trade after I'd read when Max killed Ted, and I was like, "Wow, is this really the same Maxwell Lord?!?" You might be better of reading the OMAC stuff and the WW comics where he meets his fate to get a better feel for the current evil Max.

    Check you out JT, making Hand references! I'll turn you into a Marvel Zombie yet! :P

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  14. Have ya decided on when the big move is yet X? And yeah thanks to you guys I'll be dropping HYDRA, SHIELD, The Hand and more references in no time :P

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  15. You're moving, X? I am moving as well...gotta be out of my apartment by the end of the month. I've lived here for two years, so I feel like I might kinda miss the place.

    Okay, so "good guy" Max is JLI, and the stuff you mentioned is "bad guy" Max. At what point does he shift from one direction to the other? I think that would be most interesting to see.

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  16. Yup, I am indeed moving. I'm planning on getting everything together by the end of this month as well Marc. The reason for the move? Saving money! But moving is one hell of a headache, isn't it Marc!

    I knew I'd turn you into a Marvel Zombie eventually JT... It was all a part of my master plan! BWA-HAHAHAHAH!!!

    As for the Maxwell Lord question Marc, he just suddenly seems to turn evil in that Countdown to Infinite Crisis comic(which is where Ted Kord meets his fate). He was fine prior to that, but that seems to be the tipping point. Then he's controlling the OMAC Project, which leads to his death at the hands of Wonder Woman.

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  17. Moving is indeed an incredible pain. The worst part is that my bed will not be coming with me, and that I'm going to have to go bed-shopping in the very near future. Grr...

    I've always remembered the cover to that Countdown to Infinite Crisis comic, even though I've never owned or read it. It's just such a damn memorable image...I'll have to try and take a look at what's behind that cover now that it has your seal of approval.

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  18. Ugh, so on top of the headache of moving, you've got to go shopping for a bed and make sure that it'll be at your new place on time... Luckily I'm just taking everything I own with me, so it's just a matter of packing it all up and shipping it all out. And then of course there's the fun of having to unpack everything... That's possibly the part I hate the most!

    It might be more worth it for you to see if you can snag the OMAC Project TPB Marc. That actually has the Countdown comic included, along with Max's OMAC mini, as well as the issue of WW where it all comes to a head. And since you DO have a trade review blog, that would work out perfectly! :-)

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  19. Indeed it would. I shall investigate this matter further after I've finished today's round of packing!

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