Mr. Terrific vs. The Shark?

Not happy with Checkmate #20.

After a lot of action and intrigue in this arc and a lot of intellegence in the writing, we get a crap ending. It rushes to a conclusion that makes little sense.

Mr. Terrific and the Good Guys can either resign from Checkmate or potentially be fired by the UN for apparent impropriatey. They risk the firing.

After a PAINFUL scene where Terrific et al explain how frickin' smart they are and that they had a plan all along, they give Waller an ultimatium.

Amanda Waller, now revealed to be a meta with nano tech related to Chemo(!?!?), has a choice of resigning and having one of the President's major initiatives (Salvation Run) made public in 24 hours
OR
potentially risk being fired by the UN and having Salvation Run go public now.

If she goes with choice #2, there's every chance that she may not be fired and that Mr. Terrific and his crew will be.... leaving Waller virtually in control of Checkmate. And enough authority and fire power to have Terrific and the others killed before they can tell anyone anything.

She takes the less attractive choice to buy the President 24 hours.

The telling of this was just incredibly awkward and poses the question:

Have Mr. Terrific and Checkmate jumped the shark?

Certainly Mr. T is close after his run in JSA Classified.

Captain Desmo

Pretty non-existant connection to the JSA in today's post but I couldn't let this pass by without comment.

Captain Desmo was a strip that started in either Adv #26 or #32 (I found conflicting references) and finished in More Fun #72. It was also in Flash Comics and who knows where else.

Written (?) and drawn by Ed Winiarski (signed "Win"), I wasn't able to find out anything about the man himself other than other strips he did and his Wikipedia entry which largely talks only of his career. But do these four panels from Adventure Comics #32 give some insight into how his mind works? Would he have been a precursor to Hunter S. Thompson or the Village People? Does anybody know anything about Winiarski? Is he still alive?

And notice that Gabby the Sidekick has the nerve to ask that question while bathing in a bowler hat. In that fourth panel, it looks like he's dropped the towel.

Of course, back in 1938, this was all innocent and no one thought twice about subtext. We're totally reading stuff into these panels.

Aren't we?

The Good News

If you don’t know who Jerry Bails was, don’t tell anyone. Go to his Wikipedia page and then pretend you knew all along.

A little over seven years ago, Bails was briefly a member of the Silver Age Golden Age mailing list. Compare what he’s saying here about the then-recent JSA #10 with the now-recent Justice Society #10. I think he’d like the later. I know I do.

For purposes of clarity, I should point out that other people were part of the same thread. I’ve only reprinted Bails’ comments and mine. Everybody else can go get their own blog, damn-it! :) I’ve also snipped out bits that aren’t about the JSA.

(In a message dated 4/4/00, Dr. Bails wrote:)

Stories, such as the most recent JSA story in which the whole point revolves around the bad guys going after the hero and wrecking havoc in the process have been done to death. It's just an excuse for letting the artist draw fight scenes. If the JSA can't find something useful for so many heroes to do besides attracting villains who want to destroy them, I think I'll join the anti-ultra-human brigade and help run the JSA out of town. There are so many stories to be told and we keep getting the same Lee-Kirby bashes of 40 years ago. It's time to try telling new stories.

They wanted to play up Wildcat. So, what is he doing? Taking a bath. He could be out trying to accomplishing something with youngsters to honor his fallen buddies. American youth today are flabby and couch potatos unless they are out training for the Olympics or pro sports. The story could've revolved around the need for a more balanced program of studies and exercise, where kids could see by example that endurance and intellect pay off, but that they have to invest in them. A nonviolent resolution to a conflict would have be most apropos to today's world. Yet, what do we get, more justification for the hero to resort to violence because the bad guys are totally without redeeming values. Boy, is that a dumb value system to foster through role models, even for adults.

Did I manage to stir the waters?

Bestest,

Jerry

- - - - -

(In a message dated 4/4/00 I wrote:)

Part of what it needs is a much greater sense of team-identity. Right now, it's a group of individuals who happen to have the same names as previous members of the team. Pretty flimsy.

They don't even operate as a team. So far the strategies have been "Hey, let's all gang up on the sole bad guy and let him kick our a**es."

Among the things I'd like to see is a larger long term goal for the team. One of the sub-themes of the original JSA was they were actively *part* of society at large and not above it.

They did alot of charity work raising money & food for the war effort, orphans, etc. Not to mention involving themselves in the personal struggles of everyday people (there's a Hawkman bit where he gets involved in a father-son dispute where the two run competing newspapers -- it's a good example of what I mean).

Then there's the Junior JSA. Aside from suggesting reader involvement ("Hey, you can be a member just like these kids."), it also emphasized that the JSA knew they were role models and conscientiously lived upto that responsibility.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I love the JSA and while I think the new series has a few sparks, it's not setting fires.

- edward
--------------------

I think we are on the same wavelength. The JSA needs to be unique and going back to its roots would be an excellent way to do it.


Bestest,

Jerry

The Bad News

With issues 9 and 10, Geoff Johns has hit the pinnacle of his Justice Society run. It’s all downhill from here.

Oh, sure.... the goodness may run for a few more issues.

Now that Johns has crystalized what the JSA are all about and how to write them, the succeeding issues may even be “pretty damn good”.

But they will never be THIS GOOD again.

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this.

Countdown to Mystery #2

What's interesting about the new Dr. Fate series is trying to figure out what Gerber is doing.

Gerber, when he's on his game (which is pretty much all the time), writes out of the box character studies as much of his oeuvre will attest. And he's on his game here.

The first issue suffered from set-up. This issue is where things happen. Dr. Kent V. Nelson, a man who has sunk as far as a man can in society, starts to crawl back up. And it's not an easy climb. It's humiliating and requires more will power than he had when the first issue started (our intro to Kent is him drunk and being paid to be beaten up for an internet video. But when the video is done, he never gets paid. Just tossed in a dumpster).

While there's lots of "hero action", it's a retelling in a broad sense of the original Dr. Fate's first adventure.

And one of the things that bothered me when the series was first announced was that the main character would have the same name as the original. It seemed odd at the time.

But reading this issue, I'm wondering if Gerber is doing something similar to what he did with Omega The Unknown back in the seventies. i.e., the character study is the series. The super hero stuff is just the reality of publishing.

Don't get me wrong. The hero stuff will be cool -- Gerber is one of comics' masters, like a Rembrandt. But it's sleight-of-hand. Watch the characters to see the real trick.

The back-up story of Eclipso I have mixed feelings about.

They're retconning Eclipso from an equal and sort-of-friend of Darkseid to a lackey of his. So far, the new Eclipso does nothing for me. Maybe it's because I'm not 12 and as impressed by half-naked women.

The Spectre (more JSA) is here as well and so far is a bit neutral re: do I care.

The real star of this series is Plastic Man.

Tired and disillusioned, he returns to a life of crime. The seriousness of the crimes build over the course of the issue. The cliffhanger is him robbing a bank with sawed-off shot guns.

I've no idea where his story is going but you *know* I'm buying next issue to find out.