Category: Random Retrospective

Random Retrospective #31 – Justice League Task Force #34

JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE was a spin-off from JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA when the latter title was riding high in terms of popularity and sales. Got something good? Milk the hell out of it seems to be the way companies work, so alongside the original title, we also had this one and JUSTICE LEAGUE EXTREME. TASK FORCE originally started out as something of an anthology title with different writers and artists doing three or four issue adventures with the hook being that the membership of the team would be fluid and chosen by the United Nations (who were running the team) for the task at hand. After a year or so of that take, things shifted and it became a book led by Martian Manhunter who was training some rookie heroes, among them Gypsy from JL Detroit.

By the time we find the team here, lost in Skataris and trying to find their way home, we’re almost at the end of the run and things are looking to get wrapped up. Needless to say, there’s the obligatory disagreement with the locals.

The team’s ship is blown up, partly caused by the Ray and Triumph fooling around, but Gypsy was still on board. Thankfully she was able to get out in time and school both Ray and Triumph in why they should have warned her about the impending explosion.

The rest of the issue is them trying to find some way home out of Skataris while explaining to the now friendly locals how they arrived in Skataris in the first place, before the inevitable guest appearance by

Because he’s everywhere in Skataris.

I know Priest (the writer on this run) has been lauded for his work on more recent titles but here he seems a bit bored and doing things by the numbers; his apathy toward the series seems to come through, at least to me, and it was a relief once the thing came to an end.

Random Retrospective #30 – All Star Western #7

Like it or not, the New 52 rebooted all DC titles back in 2011, bringing to a premature end plenty of storylines and series that had life left in them. As annoying as that was, it did also allow for a bunch of new titles to launch, things that either hadn’t been done before or, like ALL STAR WESTERN hadn’t been around for some time. Under the guiding hands of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, this series showed the latest exploits of Jonah Hex, taking him out of the badlands of the Wild West and moving him over to the Gotham City of the late 1880s. There he gets involved in stopping a child slavery ring before this issue sees him and his erstwhile partner, Dr Amadeus Arkham, head to New Orleans to track down the man behind it.

There he meets up with Nighthawk and Cinnamon who recruit him to help take down a band of anarchists who are recklessly endangering children and civilians as they attempt to overthrow the city’s leaders. Hardly surprising, Hex takes some convincing.

With information from Nighthawk and Cinnamon, Hex infiltrates a fight club while the other two head out to hunt for the anarchists, giving an opportunity for a knowing nod to the reader:

Hex ends up taking part in the arena fight, knocking out his massive opponent quickly and easily before being challenged by the deceptive ZC Branke whom he’s already seen fight and defeat an even larger opponent than the one he’s just handled:

Having been a fan of Palmiotti and Gray’s writing on other series, I was glad I took a punt on this one when it was launched as part of the New 52 as it was consistently entertaining. Sadly the artist Moritat (whose work I first encountered on this title) didn’t hang around for the whole of the run.

Random Retrospective #29 – JLA #2

Credit where it’s due, Grant Morrison’s revamp of the Justice League brand was a mighty breath of fresh air. The titles had been flagging for some time, JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA chief among them, where the stories had been tired and lacklustre for a year or two. Once that title was put to bed, there was a brief hiatus before the Mark Waid penned JUSTICE LEAGUE: A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE miniseries while Grant Morrison got their ducks in a row to relaunch the title with the “big 7” heroes as simply JLA.

And what a relaunch. I’ve said in the past I have some troubles with Morrison’s writing – they tend to be big on ideas but the execution tends to drift as the stories go along – but this first four issue storyline worked a treat. White Martians invade the Earth appearing as superheroes and using mind control to convinced everyone they’re here to help, with only the nascent JLA to resist them. It’s a classic story of the League splitting into smaller teams to fight the bad guys, something that Martian Manhunter acknowledges.

There’s a nice subtle shift of command there – Green Lantern asks Batman what’s next and he defers to Martian Manhunter.

Re-reading this for the first time in years, I was surprised at just how much of a dick Aquaman is at this point. This was the 90’s, though, and he was going through that harpoon for a hand, grim and gritty phase which, thankfully, Wonder Woman was having no part of.

The JLA get their collective behinds kicked, though, with the Hyperclan taking most of them out relatively easily, including even Superman:

This is issue #2, remember, so the JLA has to fall so that they can rise up in the next couple of issues.

JLA was a damn fine series and most of Morrison’s work still stands the test of time; I don’t know if it was the editors keeping them in check, but I remember each of the story arcs working nicely in tight, contained stories. And they were damn good stories, too – the JLA banded together to defeat the problems that no other group of heroes could, justifying their existence and showing why they were the best.

Random Retrospective #28 – Animosity #22

I may be wrong, but I think ANIMOSITY was the longest running ongoing series that Aftershock put out, certainly in the first few years of the company getting up and running. I took a punt on it as I really Marguerite Bennett’s writing and it was a bet that paid off as the series was never anything other than well put together. From memory, I think there were a few times it went on hiatus for a couple of months, and the ending of the series – just a few issues on from this one – really screamed for a continuation but, as far as I know, nothing ever came of that.

Here, Jesse and Sandor have taken some form of snake venom in order to have a revelation – they’re on a trip guided by a bunch of religious snakes who think the Wake (the event that allowed creatures to develop the ability to talk and reason) was down to magic. Trouble is, they’re having a hard time coming out of it, and the venom may be killing them, but at least the snakes are willing to help.

They manage to get them both back and Jesse tells the snakes that, as far as she knows, there was no magic behind it. When they get a quiet moment, she and Sandor discuss what she did see.

It’s a sentiment I agree with – this is everything we’ve got, so best to take care of it now. If I could grab the last few pages I would, but that feels like cheating. It’s a wonderfully written (and illustrated) coda to that final thought posted above and is full of hope and optimism and is worth reading.

If you didn’t read ANIMOSITY, I would still thoroughly recommend it.