Well, after Tower of Babel, the question you really have to ask is what next? As I stated in my last review, Tower of Babel is one of the most important JLA stories (also one of the most important Batman stories too) and its impact on the JLA can still be felt to this day. For the rest of the run, Waid explores the relationship between the JLA members and the second story of this part of his run (JLA 50-54) presents something very different to us. What if each of the others split into two, with one being the hero and the other being the civilian identity. It is certainly an interesting idea and while I don’t want to spoil too much of the story just yet, I will say that Waid reinforces the idea that the JLA’s biggest enemy is itself, its members and themselves. But before that, we have to go through a three-part story about fairy tales which will seemingly change nothing. Or does it?
JLA 47-54 was published from November 2000 to July 2001. All stories were written by Mark Waid with art mainly by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, but others include: J.H. Williams III, Mick Gray, Javier Saltares, Chris Ivy, Phil Jimenez, Ty Templeton, Doug Mahnke, Mark Pajarillo, Kevin Nowlan, Drew Geraci, Walden Wong, Mike S. Miller
and Armando Durruthy. I have read these stories in the JLA Volume Five trade paperback.
Into the Woods/Truth is Stranger/Unhappily Ever After --- Written by Mark Waid with art by Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, J.H. Williams III, Mick Gray, Javier Saltares and Chris Ivy
I don’t know exactly why, but fairy tales have never been a favourite of mine. I think that is primarily down to the cliches that are usually found in them, but most writers would tell you that fairy tales have influenced loads of stories over years and for comics, this is one of them. What if fairy tales met the Justice League? Well, I suppose you’d get something like this and to me, something I wouldn’t be hugely engaged in. In the real world, a sorceress named the Queen of Fables appears when a mother reads the Book of Fables to her young child, wanting to have her revenge on a certain woman, that being Snow White, who trapped her inside the book and reversed all of her evil acts. However, that power has now been unleashed into the real world. The Queen of Fables then notices Wonder Woman on the TV, believing her to be who she is looking for. To attract the attention of the heroes, the Queen of Fables unleashes her magic in New York. But the JLA are still fighting amongst themselves over the decision to kick out Batman and the trust in the team has eroded completely. When they arrive in New York, they find the city on fire, giant ice titans destroying buildings and Superman flying through the air after being punched. Another average day for the league. Meanwhile, Plastic Man can’t stop ranting about Batman, believing his opinions to be of use when he is certainly the most useless member of the whole team. Again, another average day for the league. But, as he and Martian Manhunter prepare to join the league, Batman watches them, holding the Book of Fables. And you thought that Batman would be gone forever? No, DC can’t afford that. Anyway, the Queen of Fables finds the JLA, confusing them by calling them all “Knights” of Wonder Woman. The Queen of Fables then unleashes another attack on the league, this time trapping and kidnapping Wonder Woman while letting her minions take care of the rest. But, with Wonder Woman gone, the Queen of Fables vanishes yet again, with the heroes finding themselves in a forest and Green Lantern telling the others the story of Snow White. Although Superman makes contact with Wonder Woman, the team’s warning to her about not eating any apples becomes pointless as she cuts herself on a thorny tree branch. Then, when Green Lantern and the Flash find Wonder Woman, they realise that they are too late as she is asleep, trapped forever in a glass coffin. Whatever you think of the story, you can’t deny that Waid writes some great cliff-hangers. But, for the first part, the story is pretty good. I may not be a great fan of the fairy-tale aspect, but it feels like a classic JLA adventure. It doesn’t become too complex or boring. I’m about to eat my words, aren’t I? Well, as the city becomes engulfed in grass and trees, Green Lantern and the Flash think about how to wake up Wonder Woman, before Aquaman comes along and wakes her up by kissing her as it requires a handsome prince. This works, completely reversing the excellent cliff-hanger in just a few pages. Meanwhile, Plastic Man and Martian Manhunter are fighting the Queen of Fables’s minions, but they are saved when Wonder Woman and the others arrive. Suddenly, Batman arrives with the Book of Fables. This scene works very effectively, particularly after the events of Tower of Babel. Batman tells the JLA that they need him and as Aquaman rages at him, Batman opens the book, and the heroes are sucked into it. This is possibly the best scene of the story, but what follows it is one of the most boring. The heroes arrive in a fairy tale world, where Wonder Woman is treated like a princess and the others as her knights. There, one of the villagers tells a story about how the Queen of Fables attacked and committed terrible crimes due to her jealousy of Snow White, who then used her power to change herself and the Queen of Fables into fictional character. However, inside the book, the Queen of Fables’s power grew as she used legends to summon creatures to work for her so that when she is free, she can enact her revenge. This does raise the question about how that mother at the start got the book, especially since something like that you’d imagine would be well-protected to ensure that the Queen of Fables never leaves it. Regardless, the Queen of Fables grew angry that Wonder Woman, who she sees as Snow White, is in love with Steve Trevor. That’s a rough summary of what happened as honestly, Waid complicates the story with this whole segment. He could have made it much simpler, but by displaying a long timeline about the Queen of Fables and Snow White, the link to Wonder Woman becomes very vague and ultimately, you think that this story could have been much simpler and more enjoyable because of that. Besides, while this is going on, the Queen of Fables attacks Paradise Island and pretty much murders everybody there. When the heroes leave the Book of Fables and arrive back in reality, they are instantly attacked by the Queen of Fables’s minions once again. It’s a shame that the story falls apart with the second part, particularly as the first part was hitting some of the right notes. But, seemingly like always, Waid over-complicates the story and the price of that is that the story ends up becoming boring. Waid begins the third and final part by using a tactic he used in Tower of Babel, with that being the use of regular people to depict how the events of the story are affecting them. I do like this inclusion as it makes the regular people in the world feel more three-dimensional, as most other writers would ignore how the invasion of the Earth would affect the life of an everyday person. The JLA arrive back on Earth to chaos and as they fight the Queen of Fables’s minions, Martian Manhunter senses their villain approaching as they have the Book of Fables, picked up when arrived back due the absence of Batman. Then, Wonder Woman plans that as the Queen of Fables is a being of fiction and her power is fantasy, her magic lasso can display the hard truth of reality and defeat the sorceress. But then, Wonder Woman finds that the Queen of Fables has constructed a castle for her using Wonder Woman’s Wonderdome (no, I don’t know what that is, and I don’t really care). Regardless, the heroes attack, but the Queen of Fables’s strange fictional creatures attack, with many knowing the weaknesses of the heroes as they present Superman with magic and fire for Martian Manhunter. However, the heroes manage to fight back and cause a distraction, allowing Wonder Woman to use her lasso and make the Queen of Fables realise that she isn’t real. With that, the city returns to normal and as the she is no longer in her fairy tale dream, the Queen of Fables ages and vanishes. With that, the heroes manage to entrap the Queen of Fables, with the Flash explaining that they needed to trap her inside a book in which she can’t use any imagination to power her return. The book they chose was the 2001 US Tax Code Manual. A nice touch by Waid there. But the heroes then begin to argue once again about Batman and his involvement, leaving Superman angry about what has happened to the league. At the beginning of the post, I questioned rhetorically whether this story had any importance or not. The answer though is yes, as it further highlights how broken the team is and the complete lack of trust between the members is destroying the team. Apart from that, as a three-parter that has really been acknowledged since to my knowledge, its about average. It has a good start, and the Queen of Fables is at first a compelling villain, but the whole fairy tale aspect becomes very tiresome and ultimately, it makes story so complex for its own good that you simply become bored with it. It certainly has some great moments, but not one of the best JLA stories ever by any means.
This is the first of Waid’s run in which Bryan Hitch takes up the pencilling duties, with Paul Neary behind the inks. Compared to Howard Porter, Hitch’s art is amazing. People actually look like people. Heroes don’t have muscles that are out of proportion (continued)
and especially with Neary, the visual appearance of the book is once again something I can link with the JLA. That being said, Hitch’s work on the second and third parts is very limited, with J.H. Williams III, Mick Gray, Javier Saltares and Chris Ivy doing bits and pieces. Their art isn’t that impressive. I’ve been aware of Williams III’s art for some time, but I have no idea about Saltares and Ivy. But Hitch’s art is the real highlight, especially after the best part of forty issues of Howard Porter’s terrible art. Its just a shame that Hitch doesn’t stick around for much longer.
Story: 5.5/10
Art: 8/10
Dream Team/Man and Superman/Element of Surprise/It Takes A Thief/United We Fall --- Written by Mark Waid with art by Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, Phil Jimenez, Ty Templeton, Doug Mahnke, Mark Pajarillo, Kevin Nowlan, Drew Geraci, Walden Wong, Mike S. Miller and Armando Durruthy
Ignoring Tower of Babel (which you have to be insane to do), this five-parter is the main story of Mark Waid’s JLA run. That isn’t only because it’s the longest story, but because it pushes the JLA members to their very limits. The first part is the fiftieth issue of the JLA title and due to that, it is double length. It starts with Superman meeting with Batman, discussing how what he has done could result in the collapse of the JLA. But Superman tells Batman that the only person who could save it is him. For most of the story, the JLA are simply fighting Doctor Destiny in a flashback, who is causing strange events to occur worldwide. This really takes a backseat for the first part and I’m really happy about that, as the real drama of the story is between Batman and Superman. Batman is, not exactly annoyed, but holding it against Superman for him being the one who decided to vote with the others in kicking him out, despite Superman giving Batman some kryptonite years ago. To me, this is a bit of a hole in Tower of Babel and I mentioned it in the review. Surely Superman would understand Batman’s plans as Superman is aware of his own power and how dangerous it could be if used for evil. Anyway, I don’t want to go into it too deeply, but the relevance of the Doctor Destiny fight is to show that trust is still constantly eroding in the league. There is a great moment where Martian Manhunter seemingly scans Wonder Woman’s mind to discover her plan about how-to take-out Doctor Destiny and she senses it. In the end, the heroes stop Doctor Destiny by allowing Martian Manhunter to enter their heads and put them to sleep, allowing them to find the real Doctor Destiny and take him out. Back in the present, Superman rages at Batman for keeping secrets from the league, before Batman calmly presents him with Clark Kent’s glasses, showing how hypocritical both Superman and the rest of the league are for having civilian identities. This is undeniably a great moment in the story which sums up Batman’s character. He calmly defeats Superman’s argument, while Superman is the one who is being aggressive and enraged. Anyway, Batman and Superman agree that they have to give the league back their trust. Not long afterwards in the Batcave, the JLA members (barring Superman and Batman) are met with Bruce Wayne, who admits that he is Batman. Clark Kent then appears, admitting that he is Superman. The other heroes then reveal their civilian identities, with the exception of Wonder Woman and Aquaman (which makes sense as they don’t really have or need one). But, as Aquaman welcomes Batman back into the JLA, the Batmobile arrives and out of it
steps Batman, confused. This is what really begins the main story here and this has to be one of the best JLA cliff-hangers ever, possibly one of the best in comic’s history. Waid is excellent at luring us into a false sense of security and just when we think that everything has been resolved, you get this remarkable splash page ending which is genuinely shocking. Just as a heads up, this is definitely the best part of the story over with as it unfortunately goes downhill from here. Suddenly, at the very start of the second part, Batman isn’t the only one whose alter ego has appeared physically. Once again excluding Wonder Woman and Aquaman, all the heroes have been split into two, one being the hero and the other being the civilian identity. This is certainly an interesting idea and one that reminds me of something that Gardner Fox would have written in the 1960s, but as always, Waid massively overcomplicates the story, as I’ll explain in a bit. Batman begins to wonder who behind what is really is going on as he confronts Bruce Wayne, who is certain that he imprisoned the Riddler behind bars, but Batman proves that the Riddler has been free for some time. Batman then states that he is the one who revealed his real identity to his teammates. This is where I get a bit annoyed and my enthusiasm for the story plummets quicker than a stone in the sea. Nothing is clear and the sense of mystery is just gone. Who are the real JLA members? Are they all JLA members who has somehow been split? How do they sometimes appear to have the same memories but on other occasions don’t? The problem is that the story stops being compelling and as always when Waid overcomplicates a story, I quickly lose interest. As Wonder Woman discovers from her lasso that both sides are telling the truth, Martian Manhunter creates a mental link between the doppelgangers and the heroes, which doesn’t resolve anything as the heroes and the doppelgangers still think they are both real. Sigh. The heroes and the doppelgangers then decide to go home, which causes many problems as some heroes find their doppelgangers with their friends and family, leaving some of them lonely. Meanwhile around the world, weird stuff happens. That’s all I can say. A homeless man who wants to be noticed grows giant and gets energy-based powers, while giant statues of the man start to randomly appear. A big fight happens, and I don’t actually understand what the hell is going on and I’ve lost interest in the entire story just because it’s so pretentious and overcomplicated. John Jones, Martian Manhunter’s alter ego, then gets into a car crash and is seemingly blind, while Bruce Wayne ignores the bat-signal and Plastic Man seemingly wants to return to a life of crime. Christ, we’re not even halfway through the story already, I’m just not interested. Waid always seems to think that whatever he writes, however complex or scientific, everyone will just understand it. I can’t be the only one who is lost, right? The story lacks any form of clarity. It started so well at the very beginning, but now it has ultimately become the worst story of the run. Stories like this turn me off his Flash run, because it seems for every Tower of Babel, you get three of these stories in which captions are full of nonsense and the story is technobabble trash. The third part begins and as a little boy wants his father to come home, the JLA are less concerned about their doppelgangers as it has unified the JLA again. Great, we’re all back to together, but the world is going to hell. Anyway, I don’t really know where to begin. Kyle Rayner has gone insane from drawing too much and being stuck indoors, while Bruce Wayne beats the hell of out some criminals on a date. Meanwhile, the JLA save civilians in Los Angeles from a landslide that then became a tidal wave and then became a hurricane. Watching the events unfolding are the true villains, whose dialogue is told through annoying cube that is so disorientating the point where later in the story, I don’t really bother to read what they are saying. At the same time, Aquaman visits John Jones in hospital, finding that he broke down as a Martian due to the perceptions of humanity. Suddenly, the Flash arrives in a new costume, wanting to get out of Barry Allen’s shadow. As he leaves with Aquaman to attend a JLA meeting, John Jones warns him that the doppelgangers must be reunited with the heroes. Meanwhile, Martian Manhunter senses an elemental force, before Metamorpho awakens from his grave, now a twisted and evil looking mess. I didn’t even know he was dead, but okay. Metamorpho finds his child, the one who wished for his father to come home as he wished for it to happen. Suddenly, as the JLA arrive to fight Metamorpho, or what’s left of him before two lizard-like aliens arrive, speaking through the cubes as they are from the Sixth Dimension, known as ID. As ID send Metamorpho back to his grave and save his son, the JLA question why they have appeared. ID reveals that they were the ones who split the team. Also, the heroes have all got new costumes. Not sure why. But as (continued)
the third part ends, I’m still struggling to understand what is going on and it doesn’t look as if things are going to get any clearer. A week on from when the JLA found themselves literally split into two, the civilian identities are still depressed, weird stuff keeps happening and ID continue to grant wishes to those that command them. So, they appear to be good. That’s the oldest trick in the book. ID explain that they have twisted reality in order to… do something. It’s not really clear and I don’t really care anymore. Sorry. Perhaps if the story was written in English and I could understand the story and why the heroes have changed their costumes then perhaps I’d have more time for this story. I guess the change in costume is to signify that the likes of Superman have lost their more humane aspects, so he has simply become a superhero without any sense of emotion. That’s just a guess though. Here’s an aspect which I guess I don’t mind. Through this fourth part, we see how the lives of Wally West and others have changed, showing that their commitment to justice and fighting evil was all they really had. Meanwhile, Eel O’Brian attempts to get the help of John Jones to fight to reunite the doppelgangers with the heroes as he can’t go back to a life of crime. But he fails. He then tries again with Bruce Wayne, who is still a playboy but suffers from severe anger problems. He manages to unite all the doppelgangers together, while the Flash uses Wonder Woman’s lasso to attack ID, who then responds by exploding. With the heroes unconscious and ID victorious, the doppelgangers appear, ending the penultimate part of this nonsense. I must say that the cover to JLA 54 is especially weird. Although by Hitch and Neary, it features the JLA members joined at their necks, like some kind of awful David Cronenberg film. Anyway, with ID revealed to be a bunch lying sixth dimensional cads, the doppelgangers attempt to fight ID, but due to their lack of powers, they are completely useless. Good job guys. But, to defeat ID, Eel tells ID that he wishes that he and the doppelgangers were conjoint with their respective heroes. ID accepts and the heroes and doppelgangers are reunited like the cover to the issue. After a lot of struggling, fighting and annoying ID dialogue boxes, the heroes pull together and defeat ID, with the heroes reunited with their doppelgangers. To finish them off, Batman simply punches them into unconsciousness. Why can’t there be more this in the story? With ID defeated, the JLA are seemingly united once again and they all head home in their civilian identities to their loved ones, while a new evil stalks the streets in the form of the White Martians. Well, at least there is something to look forward to after this hellhole. It’s a shame that this story had such a promising start, as it is then quickly sucked into a void and the rest of the story just makes my head hurt. The problem with the story when it comes down to it is that there is far too much of Mark Waid trying to be clever just to show off. All I care about is a great story that has great villains and great characters. Some of that may be present here, but it is buried under a bedrock of pretentious nonsense that ultimately ruins the story and the effect that it could have had on the JLA. There are certainly some intriguing ideas here, particularly when it comes to the doppelgangers. But the villains totally sucked. For something so insane and weird, they felt like generic villains that lacked any real malicious goals. In the end, I still didn’t really understand their purpose in the story apart from the need of a villain. I seriously can’t be the only one who sits down and reads this thinking that this is one of the worst JLA stories I’ve ever read. It lacks the charm which the original Fox stories had, and I know that Waid is trying so hard here, possibly too hard, to recreate Fox’s creative use of science. But, with Fox, it was done with fun and it didn’t invade a whole ten pages of a story. Because of Waid’s overcomplicated approach, the story is very boring, which is a huge shame as it started out very bright.
Not even Hitch’s art could save this one. As before, his art is great, mainly due to the huge contrast between him and Howard Porter. Paul Neary is especially helpful as a highly talented inker in making Hitch’s art seem very dynamic and realistic. But the problem is that Hitch isn’t around enough. With the exception of a few, some of the other artists who draw bits and pieces here are just not very good and it completely ruins the flow of Hitch’s art. I know that it would be impossible for Hitch to draw an entire forty-page issue, but DC could have used an artist who had a similar style, as the flow is broken, and the style is changed so dramatically. But as I said, however good the art is, it could never have saved a story as bad as this.
Story: 2.5/10
Art: 6/10
VERDICT
Overall, JLA: Divided We Fall is incredibly mixed. The Queen of Fables three-parter does have some good moments, but I thought that the fairy tale elements (you know, the main focus of the story) were quite uninteresting and it ultimately made for an average story. The ID story started off with so much promise as issue 50 features one of the greatest cliff-hanger endings ever. However, it quickly falls apart from the start of the second issue and it gradually becomes a story that makes no sense and is full of technobabble and nonsense. Despite Hitch and Neary’s art, which is excellent for the most part, even they can’t save a travesty such as this. Well, at least I can tell you with some certainty that the next few stories of Waid’s run will be better. I promise.
Stories: 4.5/10
Art: 7/10
Next Week: JLA: Terror Incognita (JLA 55-58, 60). Written by Mark Waid with art by Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, Mike S. Miller, Dave Meikis and Cliff Rathburn. Expected by 21/02/2021.
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