SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Monday, November 3rd, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Warning:
This is a new disclaimer I’m going to be including for the next two weeks during my Final Crisis reviews. Everything I know about the DC Universe I learned from watching Justice League Unlimited. I am most definitely a DC neophyte, and I’m sure that has tainted my perspective of this enormous DC crossover event. Namely, I found that I did not understand a lot of what was going on. I sort of have a feel for things now that I’ve read EVERY Final Crisis book. But in order to save you from having to do the same, I’m going to be including a bit more summary than usual - which some might claim teeters on the edge of spoilers. So if you already plan on reading EVERY Final Crisis title, I recommend you skip this blog for now. Otherwise, enjoy the next two weeks of CRISIS!

Today’s Issue:
Justice League of America #21, published by DC in May, 2008. Written by Dwayne McDuffie (Static Shock, Beyond!) with pencils by Carlos Pacheco (Fantastic Four, JLA/ JSA).

Premise:
We start out by seeing the three heavy hitters (Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman) in a secret meeting discussing some of the recent events that I assume took place in previous issues of JLA. Of course, none of that had anything to do with Final Crisis. The Final Crisis crossover starts in the middle of the issue when The Human Flame (a Martian Manhunter villain) gets stopped by Hawkgirl and Red Arrow. He then gets saved by Libra - a disciple of Darkseid. Libra is brining all of the villains together in preparation for the Final Crisis. At the end of JLA #21 he promises all of the villains their hearts’ desire. And The Human Flame’s desire is revenge against the Martian Manhunter.

Awesome Parts:
This book tells a coherent story! You wouldn’t think it would be so hard, would you? But after reading all of the other Final Crisis crossovers, apparently telling a coherent story is not as easy as it sounds. This book even made PERFECT sense to me, who had no previous knowledge of the DC Universe. It was well written. There was action and even a bit of suspense. Dwayne McDuffie even managed to make 9 pages of talking interesting. That’s writing talent!

Un-Awesome Parts:
I don’t like that none of the things the Trinity talked about have been relevant in Final Crisis. I imagine they have remained relevant in the pages of JLA, but I wish there had been larger implications. After all, Final Crisis is a Universe-spanning event - there’s no reason why it couldn’t have involved the characters being talked about in this issue. On the other hand, from a writing perspective, if you are going to spend 9 pages in exposition, shouldn’t you be talking about things that you know are going to be relevant soon? Finally, this issue - as good as it was - didn’t really tell a complete story with a beginning middle and end. In fact, the beginning had nothing to do with the middle, and there was no end.

My Recommendation:
I do in fact recommend JLA #21 to anyone who just wants to read a good superhero story. It makes sense all by itself. I also recommend picking up Final Crisis #1, where we see the end to this issue’s story. Even if you know nothing about the DC Universe, this issue should be clear and make sense to you (it did to me!) However, don’t get this issue if you’re looking for a story with Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman in it. Yes, they’re in it. Technically. But all they do is talk for 9 pages. They don’t really have anything to do with the actual STORY presented in JLA #21.

That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow for Final Crisis #1. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold