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Posted by Don MacPherson on September 12th, 2007
Justice League Wedding Special #1
“Unlimited, Chapter 1: Injustice League”
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Pencils: Mike McKone
Inks: Andy Lanning
Colors: Pete Pantazis
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover artist: Ed Benes
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99 US/$4.75 CAN
There were elements from Brad Meltzer’s run on Justice League of America that I enjoyed, but there were problems as well. That didn’t stop the title from selling like gangbusters, but all the same, I anticipated Dwayne (Fantastic Four) McDuffie’s arrival as the new Justice League writer. This special is essentially his first issue of the regular series, as he launched his first story arc here. McDuffie has impressed as of late with his work on FF and Beyond, as well as his contributions to the delightfully entertaining Justice League Unlimited cartoon, so it seemed that his tenure with the comic-book adventures of the League would be just as strong. That, unfortunately, does not prove to be the case. There’s potential here in the old-fashioned approach to super-hero storytelling, but the script is inaccessible and points out several times that it really doesn’t make sense in the broader context of DC continuity. But the most frustrating thing about this “wedding special” is that it really has little to do with a wedding and doesn’t seem all that special.
As members of the super-hero community gather for the bachelor and bachelorette parties for Green Arrow and Black Canary, super-villains have gathered under the leadership of Lex Luthor, the Joker and the Cheetah. They’ve formed a new Injustice League Unlimited. Luthor promises a much more effective organization than the Society ever was, and the first step in the corrupt group’s plans for world domination is to eradicate the Justice League. They set a trap for their heroic counterparts by attacking an up-and-coming young super-hero: Firestorm.
I’ve been a fan of Mike McKone’s work for some time. His sleek, crisp style manages to capture the majesty of the super-hero while bringing a level of detail to bear that adds a small measure of credibility to the incredible circumstances. His take on the three main villains is sharp, especially when it comes to the Joker. The scenes featuring the heroes aren’t as visually striking, though. I was left with the impression that Andy Lanning’s inks aren’t the best fit for McKone’s style. The penciller’s unique style is occasionally overwhelmed by the inks, lost a bit in a few scenes. It’s not that either artist is doing a poor job; I just wonder if it’s not the best possible pairing of styles. The colors are also unfortunately dark for the hero-focused scenes, which is odd, given the lighter tone of the party sequences. Some computer-coloring effects, designed to convey teleportation or other manifestations of energy, interfere with the line art rather than add to it.
The cover is perplexing. Benes’s participation sends the wrong message. He’s left the book; it’s a shame McKone wasn’t allowed to make it his own with a contribution of cover art as well. The cover image left me scratching my head. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to see here. Is Superman popping out of a cake at Canary’s bachelorette party? That’s the only explanation I can come up with, but if that’s the case, no such scene appears in this comic, nor does that spirit really emerge in the script. [Addendum: I've been informed (see the first comment below) Benes is still associated with the JLA series.]
I’ll say one thing for this comic book: it made me appreciate last week’s Black Canary Wedding Planner one-shot a lot more. I had expected we’d see a focus on the schmaltzy, grounded and chaotic moments that make up a wedding, mixed with some super-hero fun. Instead, the plot barely touches upon Green Arrow and Canary’s upcoming nuptials. What little we do get is a reference to Batman paying for the strippers for the bachelor party. I guess DC has given up any hope of drawing younger readers to this comic. I realize McDuffie is going for a couple of laughs with that scene, but it seems unnecessary and gratuitous, not to mention out of place, given the old-school tone of the plot and action. The disjointed preparation sequences in the Wedding Planner seem a lot more fun in comparison. I was thoroughly disappointed that this comic didn’t live up to its title. A wedding story would have been fun, and DC has been building it up for ages. I suppose the fun I’m looking for might lie in next week’s Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special, but the title here really calls for the inclusion of more matrimonial nonsense than is provided. I’m at a loss as to why this wasn’t Justice League of America #13 rather than the JL Wedding Special.
It was a treat to see the new Firestorm given a second life here, but McDuffie fails to inform uninitiated readers about who he is, what he can do and why he talks to an immaterial girlfriend. Firestorm’s role here is pivotal, but those scenes are quite inaccessible for new readers.
McDuffie taps into the fun of the JLU cartoon on which he worked by amassing a team of villains to square off against the heroes. It’s hardly a new concept, but it’s still a fun one. There’s just one problem: with this book firmly set in current DC continuity, he’s faced with the problem that DC villains were teamed together in the Society all too recently. In fact, the script refers to it repeatedly, with characters insisting it will be different this time. But it’s not. The fact that other characters keep pointing that out as well doesn’t help. McDuffie tries to overcome that challenge by acknowledging it in the story itself, but the effort falls short. Instead, he just keeps reminding the reader of the redundancy. 4/10
September 12th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Wow, did we differ on this book. I found it to be a great setup for McDuffie’s Justice League title, and I enjoyed the Batman/Roy Harper (can’t remember if he’s called Arsenal, Red Arrow, etc.) interaction, including the stripper gags. Really, how many kids are going to pick up something called a wedding special?
I’ll grant you that this should have just been JLA #13, but that’s a failure of packaging rather than a failure of storytelling on the parts of the creators. Same with the cover, although it’s worth noting that Ed Benes has not (sadly) left the book in favor of Mike McKone. McKone did the art on the Wedding Special, Benes is still the regular artist on McDuffie’s JLA run. Which makes the cover merely a bad piece of art (I believe you’ve sussed out what’s meant to be happening, though), but not necessarily a perplexing decision from editorial.
I had *no* idea that was Firestorm’s girlfriend until she identified herself as such, nor have I read any of the Firestorm’s series since a couple of One Year Later issues, but I didn’t find it inaccessible. I think McDuffie provided the amount of information needed for the reader to get what they needed out of the scene and the use of the character. He’s a rookie character with potentially big power, he’s in over his head, he’s taking a beating. Throw in Batman’s throwaway line later about “He’s learning” and you can see that he’s a novice who has earned Batman’s respect, which also tells you a fair amount about the character.
But we’re probably just coming from different places in terms of what we wanted out of the whole JLA/Green Arrow & Black Canary wedding. I found the Wedding Planner pretty weak, and don’t really have that much interest in the wedding or the rumored bait and switch high profile death that might be coming instead.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I think you just have a soft spot for McDuffie, Randy, since you communicated with him so much during our Psycomic days in 1999-2000.
Granted, we have different takes on the quality of the special, but what do you think of McDuffie’s efforts to address the redundancy of the new Injustice League in the wake of the Society’s recent prominence in DC continuity?
September 13th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Oh, I have a soft spot for McDuffie, but it’s got nothing to do with having worked with him at Psycomic. It has to do with him being one of the best writers in the business.
Honestly, the whole Society/Injustice League redundancy doesn’t bug me that much. I didn’t think it was executed particularly well (save Simone’s counter-culture to the Society, the Secret Six) and so I have no problem with McDuffie (via Lex) basically saying “Yeah, it didn’t work last time. We’re going to try it again, and be smarter about it this time.”
September 13th, 2007 at 8:07 am
[...] [Review] Don MacPherson on Dwayne McDuffie, Mike McKone and Andy Lanning’s Justice League Wedding Special #1. [...]
September 13th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I must say that i liked the script a lot (and also Mckone’s art)…but I haven’t ever read a Firestorm comic, and specially his powers weren’t the ones i was expecting,so yeah, that bit was a little inaccessible.
September 13th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Don, you’re bummed out that the focus wasn’t on the actual wedding? Jeez, rent a chick-flick and curl up in your tube socks with some ice cream if you want that type of story.
(just kidding, a wedding story could kind of be funny. Imagine Batman and Superman fighting over the garter…actually I changed my mind again)
I’ll take notice if there is a honeymoon issue (drums, please.)
September 13th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I actually liked it, but I found the title to be misleading. If it was titled “Origin of the Injustice League” and happened to have a few pages related to the wedding, it would’ve made more sense.
As a Firestorm reader, I didn’t notice any problems, but in hindsight they could’ve been clearer about his powers. I did like McDuffie’s ‘no-prize’ moment with the comment about “The professor says you shouldn’t go intangible.” In McDuffie’s Firestorm issues, he used intangibility despite Moore having established it was unstable (or something to that effect).
September 13th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Cool to see a fourthrail.com reunion here in the comments. I miss that site.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Yeah Don, I gotta agree with the prevailing sentiments. I really enjoyed the issue–good script, great art (although I agree the villians were better rendered and more striking than the heroes). My only real complaint was that Batman couldn’t figure out Joker was the other person involved? I don’t buy that for a second. I realize this is a direct link to the JL cartoon days where Joker was included in Lex’s group because only he knew how Batman works, thereby negaitng BAtman’s advantage. I think this is a good point, but I still have a hard time believing Batman couldn’t figure out the Joker, especailly if he had access to Firestorms admittance records to the hospital.
Yes, I also agree it was a mis-titled special and probably didn’t need to be tied un with the wedding to sell, but again, I will put the blame on DC’s marketing department and not McDuffie and McKone.
Really looking forward to McDuffie’s run on JLA (but then again, I liked Metzler’s run too–not great, but enjoyable).
Keep up the good work, we may disagree, but I love your site.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Argo wrote:
Yes, I also agree it was a mis-titled special and probably didn’t need to be tied un with the wedding to sell, but again, I will put the blame on DC’s marketing department and not McDuffie and McKone.
I can’t help but wonder that had this been a regular issue of JLA and been more heavily promoted as the debut of a new Injustice League if it wouldn’t have sold better. There are bound to be some male readers put off by the “wedding” label, and c’mon, a cover with Luthor, the Joker and Cheetah with an exclamation blurb pushing the beginning of the Injustice League storyline would have been a winner, IMO.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Don, I was glad to see that someone else shared my reservations about this issue — my morning scan of the comics blogs was beginning to make me feel like I’d missed something. As I noted elsewhere, the “party” scenes seemed oddly stiff, flat, and joyless — perhaps the one stumble in McKone’s otherwise fine art. And the plot redundancies you identify make me wonder how distinctive McDuffie’s vision for this series really is.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Fury wrote:
Don, I was glad to see that someone else shared my reservations about this issue — my morning scan of the comics blogs was beginning to make me feel like I’d missed something.
Given McDuffie’s current popularity, I had a hunch my negative review wouldn’t reflect a majority opinion.
As I noted elsewhere, the “party” scenes seemed oddly stiff, flat, and joyless — perhaps the one stumble in McKone’s otherwise fine art.
It’s not just the art. Who goes to a bachelor party in their work clothes? These guys are supposed to be relaxing, having a good time. Instead, they’re ready for battle.
And the plot redundancies you identify make me wonder how distinctive McDuffie’s vision for this series really is.
To be fair to McDuffie, one of the reasons he landed this assignment, no doubt, is due to his involvement with the JLU cartoon. His vision for JLA reflects that. I’m guessing this is what DC wanted from him, so he delivered it. The fact that DC had already been down this road lately, in a manner, isn’t really the writer’s fault.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Count me as one of the guys who would not have picked this up…until hearing that McDuffie and McKone were in the mix. I was pleasantly surprised, for the most part. I’m still not sure who “Diana” Lance is though.
McKone is an incredibly skilled illustrator, but I think he sometimes has trouble connecting with the material on an emotional level. I hate scenes of heroes wearing their costumes when they aren’t on duty. Those have always bugged me. And Luthor looked stupid in that armor. I feel like he’s so vain that he would have a holographic projection of himself in a business suit even when armored up. Not to mention the fact that the proportions were way off on the armor. No human has arms or shoulders like that. Unless it’s one of those stupid armors where the real arms don’t fit into the mechanical arms, they just fit into the armored chest cavity. Somehow I doubt that. Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would be comfortable to just hang around the office in. Nitpicking, perhaps, but McKone is good enough to do better. And Cheetah’s costume was weird. Still though, pretty damn good issue.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
John wrote:
I’m still not sure who “Diana” Lance is though.
A lot of people have pointed out this gaffe, but is it really that big a transgression? We’re talking about similar names. So a little flub got through. I’m a proponent for strong editing, but it’s easy to see how this minor mistake could have slipped by people.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Don:
I’m not saying that it affected my enjoyment of the issue. This was an exceedingly minor detail, like the word balloon pointing towards Ollie when it was actually coming from Roy. That’s just little stuff. It’s kind of fun to pick on, but nothing more. Pretty much any criticism I have of the issue is over minor stuff. It was a little weird that they messed up Black Canary’s name though. It’s ostensibly an issue about her wedding, and the lady has been around for several decades. You don’t see anyone saying “Bryce Wayne” or “Chuck Kent.” And yes, I realize that it would be virtually impossible to screw up those names, considering how iconic they are. They were all I could come up with on short notice.
September 14th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
The other point that made this issue feel more like setup for JLA rather than setup for the wedding was the Hal & John switch.
I could see Hal bail on a JLA mission and leave John in his place, but not leave a party for one of his best friends, especially when he is in the wedding party!
September 15th, 2007 at 8:08 am
I thought the issue was a lot of fun. I had a bit of an “eek” moment at the stripper discussion, but I’m now so used to that moment that I move past it pretty quickly. Doctrine now is clearly that mainstream superhero comics are allowed to be as risque as prime time sitcoms.
The Injustice League/Gang/ SSOV/ Society is an old concept– on DC’s compressed timeline, some variant of it must pop up every year or two. The Society isn’t the only case of it. A new JLA has formed after a year without one; as far as I’m concerned that’s enough justification for the villains to try again. “We must hang together,” etc.
But this isn’t just the Society (indeed the Society still exists under the Calculator, as I recall). It’s got none of the same principals (different Luthor; Joker wasn’t there at all; Cheetah was a peon there; Deathstroke’s not a principal here; no Black Adam, Dr Psycho, Talia, Calculator here.) So it feels just right– recognition that this is a recurring idea without making it feel like a rerun.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Just for the record, It seems that McDuffie did not originally intend this to be a wedding special. From a Newsarama interview:
“DM: Eddie noticed that the story I pitched for the first two issues of my run dovetailed nicely with DC plans for the big wedding. With some very minor tweaking to match the continuity of the other wedding events, I moved my first two issues into the special and bumped my third issue up as my first. So we get to see the League interacting socially in the special (not to say there isn’t plenty of action, because that’s in there too), and for my first issue of the regular series, we come in swinging.”
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=118107
September 17th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Don, I think I am in the same boat as you on this issue.
It was just… weird.
While overall I enjoyed it because there were parts that were more enjoyable than the sum. The fight between Killer Frost and Firestorm was fun and inventive. A lot of the characterization in the book was enjoyable. Plus, I have been a McKone fan for a while. He whiffs on a few panels, but mostly he connects for my tastes.
All that being said I share many of the same problems with this issue. Why the first part of a major new storyline starts in an issue that will sell LESS than the series itself is mind-boggling. This means that a good part of the audience that picks up JLA #13 might not have read the first part of the story. Just dumb.
I also felt DC was pretty much accepting that kids would not be reading this issue. Odd again when you consider the guy they brought on is so heavily tied to the JLU TV show. Perhaps I am just getting old(er).
Finally, I have to wonder (and hope) if McDuffie has some trick up his sleeve with the Injustice League. This was the big story of the JLU show for the last season and considering the show was seen by more people than read the comic, a lot of readers like myself might be left with a feeling of been there, done that.
It also highlights the complete lack of impact the Secret Society of Super-Villains had on the DC Universe that DC editorial feels it can essentially be recreated so soon, with a new name.
I like McDuffie and I have faith that he has a curveball coming. I will probably pick up JLA again, after dropping it at teh beginning of the incredibly confusing JLA/JSA crossover.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Would this be a good “jump-in” issue or has there been to much going on that I would have to start with earlier ones?
September 17th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
An Expressionist wrote:
Would this be a good “jump-in” issue or has there been to much going on that I would have to start with earlier ones?
That would depend on one’s familiarity with the DC Universe.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Who goes to a bachelor party in their work clothes? These guys are supposed to be relaxing, having a good time. Instead, they’re ready for battle.
That’s how it is in post-Meltzer DC. They go to weddings and funerals and bachelor parties in costume. shurg