Impolite Society

Justice Society of America #39

In this time-travel mini-epic, the Nazis of the Fourth Reich were a lot better organized than I would’ve expected — they’re able to trick the Green Lantern Corps and a whole bunch of Earth’s outer-space allies into attacking, just so they can hit them with the power-removing Darkness Engine. That left the rest of the planet unable to stop the Nazis from taking over, and now, after a few decades of living under Nazi rule, the imprisoned and depowered superheroes are finally going to strike back. Most of ’em get slaughtered — nearly all of their missions are suicide missions designed to keep some of the Nazi war machines occupied until someone can make it into the tower where the Darkness Engine is located. Does that mean they can travel back in time and prevent this? Not a chance.

Verdict: Thumbs up. While I do think this storyarc has gone on too long, I’m fairly happy with how this chapter of the story goes down. Yes, it’s completely hopeless and tons of superheroes buy the farm, but that’s also to be expected in this kind of time travel story — by the time the final chapter arrives, the big red Reset button will be pressed, and everything will be right as rain.

JSA All-Stars #7

Here’s a thoroughly odd issue. Thanks to the wonders of overlapping comic book storylines, the last few issues of this comic featured Damage, a character who was killed months ago during “Blackest Night.” Though I suspected he’d be one of the people resurrected, he stayed dead, so this issue is Damage’s long-delayed funeral issue. Most of it is told from Judomaster‘s point-of-view, which I’m happy with, ’cause it’s way, way past time she had some kind of spotlight other than “that martial arts (but not judo) girl who used to be able to speak English but can’t anymore.” After Damage’s death, she learned that Sand had foreseen his death and warned him about it, but he chose to go out and fight the Black Lantern zombies anyway. Before he died, he left a video message for her, but it just upsets her even more, and she goes out to kill the assassin who murdered her father years ago. However, King Chimera shows her the rest of the message that she missed, and after delivering Damage’s eulogy, she does a few unusual good deeds he wanted to do in life.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This was a bit hokey in places, but it had some genuine emotion, good action, and a better eulogy than I was expecting. And Judomaster is a much more bearable character, now that she’s not the dead-silent ninja stereotype anymore.

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June 4, 2010 · Filed under Justice Society of America

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