As I’m sure you’re aware, before Mark Waid began his stint on JLA with his famous Tower of Babel story, it wasn’t his first ever JLA story. Far from it. In fact, his first JLA work (at least to my knowledge) was one or two Justice League Quarterlies during the early 1990s. But, more relevantly, he wrote several two-parters and some one-offs during Grant Morrison’s run on the JLA title. At a glance, these stories would appear to be simple two-parters with limited effects on the title and the league. But the opposite is really the truth. Without a doubt, JLA 33 is one of the most important issues of Mark Waid’s run. Although not part of his core run, it sets up the scene with the other JLA members not trusting Batman, while also featuring the re-appearance of the White Martians. JLA 55-58 features them once again, but Waid has clearly been planning for their return. As this is the last ongoing story of Waid’s run, the fact that he has been planning this and the Batman arch for so long makes me believe that the Mark Waid run isn’t just JLA 43-58 and 60, but all of his previous JLA work. It is integral to understanding his run when he becomes the main writer of the series.
JLA 55-58 and 60 was published from August 2001 to January 2002 (excluding December). All stories were written by Mark Waid with art usually by Bryan Hitch,
Mike S. Miller and Paul Neary. I have read these stories in the JLA Volume Five trade paperback. Also, I’ve missed out issue 59 for two reasons. Firstly, its not by Waid. Secondly, it ties into the Joker’s Last Laugh crossover, something I’m not really aware about yet. Its not a bad one-off, but its not relevant to Waid’s run.
Terror Incognita --- Written by Mark Waid with art by Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, Mike S. Miller and Dave Meikis
At first glance, you would groan in boredom when you find out that this four-parter came directly after a long five-parter featuring talking boxes and an overly complex plot. Is this going to be more of the same? Well, fortunately no. It does help that the White Martians are actually good villains, as opposed to those ID boxes. Anyway, while working on a case as John Jones, Martian Manhunter hallucinates Mars, in which he meets his family once again. But Martian Manhunter quickly realises that it is an illusion, before he is attacked and captured by White Martians. Meanwhile in Metropolis, Lois Lane rips open Clark Kent’s shirt, revealing to every employee in the Daily Planet building that Clark is Superman. At the same time, Batman saves a woman who speaks to the dead from falling to her death, with Nightwing cutting Batman’s rope for no reason. What’s the relation between all of these events? We’ll see, or not, depending on what mood Waid is in and whether he wants to explain the story or not. All while this is going on, the rest of the league are taking care of a famine crisis in Russia, before suddenly, a nuclear power station explodes, leaving Green Lantern to protect as many people as possible with his ring. As everybody is confused about what is going and why they are doing things that they shouldn’t (like Lois and Nightwing), the survivors of the nuclear blast mob the JLA for salvation while in Arizona, the White Martians torture Martian Manhunter to give them the secrets of the JLA so they can be destroyed. Once again, this is evidence of Waid setting up this story long before it even begun. I mentioned earlier that JLA 33 was important as it works almost as a prelude to this story. But also, in Tower of Babel, Martian Manhunter mentions that he once had contingency plans if the JLA ever turned evil. Waid didn’t write this line for no reason and this story explains that. You really do realise how important Tower of Babel is when you read the rest of Waid’s run. The second part starts with Superman investigating a forest fire in Oregon, which suddenly extinguished itself due to molecule manipulation in the air. Meanwhile, the JLA are still being attacked by an angry mob and as Wonder Woman interrogates one of them with her lasso, she realises that they speak Martian. As Batman prepares to search for Martian Manhunter in Arizona, he takes Brainwave’s neural amplifier with him as a precaution, Brainwave being an old JLA foe. Meanwhile, Superman enlists the help of Firestorm to transmute the converted particles, while Batman finds Martian Manhunter in an office which the White Martians are using as a slaughterhouse due to the civilians they have stolen in the past few days, neatly explaining the ending to JLA 54. The White Martians are feeding on their victim’s brains, making them more powerful. Nice idea. More chilling than a load of talking cubes. However, Batman is detected by the White Martians and attacked, but Martian Manhunter intervenes and despite saving Batman (who teleports away), he remains in the custody of the White Martians. With their location (continued)
found, the White Martian leader says that the time to attack is now as they prepare to take out the leaguers. Out of all the villains in Waid’s run, the White Martians are the ones I find the most terrifying and threatening. That isn’t just because the competition isn’t exactly great, but because of their brutality and their lack of remorse. The White Martians are undoubtedly Martian Manhunter’s biggest enemies and having them return as a villain in this story just raises the stakes and makes for a more traditional JLA story. Anyway, we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. With part three, the White Martians have basically altered the molecules in oxygen to prevent fires from starting, but at the same time, it is draining the planet of its life. It also doesn’t help that the JLA get thrashed by the White Martians, who trick the likes of Plastic Man by all pretending to be Green Lantern. Meanwhile, Martian Manhunter manages to trick his captors by becoming an illusion and escaping. As the White Martians continue to summon more of their army to take on the JLA, the heroes escape to the Fortress of Solitude where Krypto helps in taking out some of the White Martians. Although the JLA use all the weapons in the Fortress to fight against the White Martians, they fail as they are captured and thrown into the Phantom Zone. Martian Manhunter smiles and says “perfect”, ending the third part well as the Martians have seemingly taken full control over Earth. With all the heroes on Earth defeated, the JLA remains trapped in the Phantom Zone. But Martian Manhunter smiles, telling his allies that this is the only place where telepaths can’t hear their thoughts or plans. As Martian Manhunter comes up with a plan, the JLA attempt to deter him in the case that he will die. But Martian Manhunter ignores them. Somehow, the league escape from the Phantom Zone in a way that isn’t exactly clear. They then attract the White Martians to the JLA Watchtower and to the Moon, while carefully dragging the Moon into the Earth’s atmosphere, which should destroy both the Earth and the Moon, but thanks to some magic users, that doesn’t happen. Anyway, due to the shift, and the heat caused from entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the Moon’s surface catches fire, torturing both Martian Manhunter and the White Martians. But Martian Manhunter makes the White Martians admit that they have been defeated and when they do, he traps them in the Phantom Zone. With Martian Manhunter seemingly about to die due to the fire, he is recused as the JLA teleport him back to the Watchtower and send the Moon back to its right location. Although critically injured, Martian Manhunter is just about alive and as he recovers, Batman demands an apology from him, telling him that his biggest mistake was thinking that he was alone and that as he is a JLA member, he is never alone. A good speech, but it would have been better if it was said by another member like Superman. Batman shouldn’t really be making soft speeches like that, not because I want him to be tough, dark and mysterious, but because there is a huge amount of irony in the speech due to what he did in Tower of Babel. Regardless, this story mends the wounds caused by that story at the start of the run and although the wound will never close, Waid finishes off his run with the JLA back together. Overall, this is possibly one of the best stories of Waid’s run. It may not be as dramatic or shocking as Tower of Babel, but it features some great villains and an interesting plot. There are some aspects where I think Waid has over-done some parts with his over-complicated style of writing, but overall, it is great and so much better than the ID mess.
As expected, Bryan Hitch’s art works remarkably well here. His storytelling continues to be on-point and Neary’s inks over his art still work incredibly effectively. Mike S. Miller’s parts may not be as visually appealing due to some of the strange expressions you’ll find on some of the character’s faces, but it is far from the worst art I’ve ever seen. It is above average and compared to Howard Porter’s work, it is a masterpiece. Still, I don’t know if Hitch was busy, too slow with his art or just not interested enough, but he only does the first part of this story, which is a huge shame as if he did more JLA work, he would have certainly become one of the greatest artists to work regularly on the title in the team’s sixty-year history. But, oh well.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 7/10
Merry Christmas, Justice League – Now Die! --- Written by Mark Waid with art by Cliff Rathburn and Paul Neary
Although its no longer Christmas, this issue never fails to be an entertaining and fun read. As I’m sure you are aware, I’ve never liked Plastic Man. I’ve always found him to be an irritant and a character that I don’t think should really be in the JLA. I would have much preferred Elongated Man or anybody else. But this is the only story in which I can really tolerate Plastic Man as I think he works really well here. On Christmas Eve, Plastic Man puts Woozy Winks’s energetic nephew to bed, but he believes that Santa Claus is dumb. Plastic Man sets out to change his mind, by telling him a story about how Santa joined the JLA. Once upon a time, the JLA agreed that Santa Claus should be inducted into the league, but then, a talking gingerbread man appeared and told the heroes that Santa Claus is a now a prisoner of Hell. He explains that days ago in the North Pole, Santa became depressed due to the lack of nice children and the huge increase in naughty children and due to the lack of demand, his elves quit their jobs. Santa discovered that Neron (created by Waid in Underworld Unleashed) had given gifts to children to hurt other people. When Santa found Neron and his workshop of evil elves, he was quickly captured. Alarmed, the JLA search for Neron and fight him. However, Neron turned the heroes into coal while Santa was trapped in an action figure box. But Santa managed to escape, and he defeats Neron by giving him a present full of socks and underwear. With Santa rescuing the JLA and turning them back to normal, he is inducted as a member. With his story over, Plastic Man is surprised to find Woozy’s nephew is still not a believer in Santa. Suddenly, Santa flies past the window in a jetpack, shocking Woozy’s nephew and Plastic Man, before using his heat vision to write “Merry Christmas” in the snow. As Martian (continued)
Manhunter takes his Santa disguise off and flies away, the real Santa stands by, disappointed with the heat vision façade. If it wasn’t obvious enough, this is an incredibly silly story and due to that and the darker stories of Waid’s run, this one is very effective. It reminds me of something you’d find in the Giffen/DeMatteis run as it is so silly, but it deserves to silly. Plastic Man works well here as a wacky narrator and the overall story is ridiculous, but because Waid’s run is full of darker and more serious stories, this one works well. It doesn’t necessarily add anything to the overall run, but it works as a nice ending to the run and makes me hate Plastic Man a tiny bit less.
Cartoony and overly exaggerated art has never been a favourite of mine, but in stories like these where the plot is silly, I can easily make an exception. I’m not really aware of Cliff Rathburn or his art, but it works well in a story like this, particularly with Neary present to ink it smoothly and in an embellishing way. I wouldn’t be too keen on the art in other or more serious circumstances, but for a story like this, I think its effective, particularly with Plastic Man who can pull of wacky facial expressions.
Story: 9/10
Art: 7.5/10
VERDICT
Overall, JLA: Terror Incognita is a return to the strong beginning of Waid’s short JLA run. The main four-parter is very good and features the strongest and best villains of the run while the story itself is far better than the ID five-parter before it. As a one-off, the Christmas issue featuring Plastic Man is very fun and after the whole run basically being dark and serious, it ends the run on a high note. The art is actually good overall despite a number of different artists. Its just a shame that Hitch only draws one of the five issues here and about half of Waid’s whole run, which is a great shame. But, overall, Waid’s run from the Tower of Babel to the Christmas issue is a good run. At its best, it can have fantastic stories which are incredibly memorable. But, at its worse, it can be dreadfully dull with its pseudo-science and there can be occasions when it becomes frustratingly boring. Its difficult to compare this short run to the lengthier one by Morrison before it. But I will say that at its best, Waid’s run is better, but at its worst, I would rather read a bad Morrison story.
Stories: 8.5/10
Art: 7/10
Next Week: Batgirl: Year One (Batgirl: Year One 1-9). Written by Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon with art by Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez. Expected by 28/02/2021.
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