Overall: This comic is an epilogue issue for the just completed “The Dark Things” JSA/JLA x-over. I kind of wish that was all I had to say about this one, but no, I'll try to give some sort of review here. For the most part, Green Lantern(Alan Scott)is hanging out in the green city of magic the Starheart created up on the moon. Obsidian is also there, complaining about the fact that he can't be around his sister(the recently resurrected Jade)due to the fact that they'd wind up combining into an evil “hybrid male/female creature”(Alan's words, not mine!). Naturally Obsidian attacks Alan briefly, but Alan manages to reason with Obsidian, explaining to him all of the various bad things that would happen if Obsidian and Jade combined. Vampires would take over the world, Lex Luthor would accidentally destroy the Earth, the Earth would explode, etc. In other words, it wouldn't be good. Alan then gives his son a pep talk and this issue abruptly ends.
You know, there was a time when I'd easily point to James Robinson(who wrote this)and say, “You KNOW you'll be getting a quality read when you pick up a comic with his name on it.” Now? I don't think that holds up anymore. He's not near the writer he was during his amazing Starman run. First there's the despicable Cry for Justice mini-series which culminated with the death of little Lian Harper, then there was his lackluster JLA run, and just recently there was the wholly forgettable Dark Things x-over. I'll be honest, he's pretty much lost all of the good will he's built up with me from that Starman run. I kept hoping that his recent work was the aberration, and that the real James Robinson would emerge, but maybe Starman was the aberration and this IS the real James Robinson...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Hey look, Obsidian is acting crazy! Again...
Hey look, Obsidian is acting crazy! Again...
There's a reason I dropped JLA, it was horribly crappy, and they hyped this new team then like five people quit the team two months later which made NO damn sense to me, so I figured the JLA/JSA crossover would be pointless and looks like I may have been right. It sucks that Robinson has been so lame latelky because I remember you speaking so highly of him but after this and the horrible Cry for Justice it seems like he's lost his talent.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that upsets me most about Cry for Justice is, why take Roy's arm thus returning him to the addict and loser he is now, why kill Lian for no apparent reason, and why build up Donna Troy AND Prometheus as such amazing characters with so much potential and kill off Prometheus while meanwhile Donna slowly falls back into WW's shadow?
Can't disagree with you JT. I really don't know what happened to James. I was SO psyched when he was taking over the JLA series, but it has sure been a resounding failure so far...
ReplyDeleteDude, EXACTLY!!! I mean, I'm sure we've gone over this plenty of times before, but everything you said was so true! The deconstruction of Arsenal, the killing of Lian, the bizarre act of making Prometheus into a huge threat and then killing him with a simple arrow, Cry for Justice was def one of the worst mini-series I've read since... Secret Invasion I'd guess. Hey, let's rip on Cry for Justice tonight!!! :P
Haha, sounds good to me dude, we can DEFINITELY rip of Cry for Justice. I mean, I didn't even think about that, he kills him with a PLAIN ARROW. The most annoying park is it somehow goes through his HELMET. The same helmet that lets him match fighting styles with Batman and makes Force-fields and allows him to turn into Captain Marvel and fly somehow, yet it can be penetrated by an ARROW?!?!?!?! And then the only thing Ollie says is JUSTICE?! REALLY?!
ReplyDeleteWay back at the beginning of the year I did a KelloTube on Robinson's first issue of JLA. I knew then and there that his run would be a huge letdown. JT was right about all the characters joining and then quitting. What a disaster.
ReplyDeleteStarman was set far enough on the fringes of current continuity that Robinson had a lot of creative control, and I think this may be why it was so good. Also, the whole 80 issue storyline was planned from beginning to end in broad strokes.
I'm gonna go check that out Kello, just to see how much has changed since you posted that. Man... why would you hype a new team for three months then drop people two months after the team debuts?
ReplyDeleteI took down all my KelloTubes at the end of the summer, JT. I was getting a little sick of everything comics wise so I kind of "downsized" all my stuff online.
ReplyDeleteAh that sucks, I didn't even know. Did you at least save them on your computer or anything like that?
ReplyDeleteHuh, we totally forgot to rip Cry... Oh well, there's always next week...
ReplyDelete