Although the DC One Million event covers pretty much every dark corner of the DC Universe, despite what you think of it, the story was very important on the JLA title because it introduced and hinted numerous different things that Morrison would pick up throughout the rest of the run. One of these things is the appearance of General Wade Eiling, who briefly appeared in the One Million storyline, along with his mysterious team known as the Ultramarine Corps. These characters are a main part of the three-part story featured in JLA issues 24 through to 26. Additionally, to this storyline, Morrison pens a story that harkens back to the old days of the league, with a four-part story in which the JLA and the JSA team up in order to fight a menace of sorts. However, does the “Crisis Times Five” story compare with great team up classics such as Crisis on Earth-One/Crisis on Earth Two (Justice League of America 21/22) or Star Light, Star Bright – Death Star I See Tonight/Where Death Fears to Tread (Justice League of America 73/74)? Unlikely in the minds of some, but lets’ take a look.
For this review, I will be reviewing the first half of stories from the JLA: Justice for All storyline which are:
Executive Action/Scorched Earth/Our Army at War – JLA 24-26
The Bigger They Come… – JLA 27
Crisis Times Five Part One to Four – JLA 28-31
Although the storyline and trade paperback have two extra issues added after the Crisis Times Five story, which are JLA 32 and 33, I will be reviewing them in part two of the storyline review, which will feature those issues along with issues 34 and 35. As those two latter issues are featured in the JLA: World War Three book, this makes it easier for me to review the WW3 storyline because I will only be focusing on the six part story and the issues before that will slot in with the latter Justice for All issues. Sounds confusing, but it will make sense when the future JLA posts are published.
Finally, I have read this storyline in the JLA Volume 3 trade paperback edition and the
issues of 24-31 were published between December 1998 to July 1999.
THE PLOTS AND MY THOUGHTS
Executive Action/Scorched Earth/Our Army at War – Written by Grant Morrison with art by Howard Porter, John Dell, Mark Pajarillo and Walden Wong
THE PLOT
The mysterious character known as Warmaker One is sent underwater in order to destroy a submarine which contains something that Warmaker One has been sent to collect. He destroys the underwater vessel and the target is discovered to be old time Justice League villain Shaggy Man. Meanwhile, the league is almost instantly informed about the attack. One of those informed is Superman, who is working as Clark Kent doing his daily job. His attention is driven to a press conference by Lois Lane and they see General Wade Eiling introduce his newly organised team, known as the Ultramarine Corps as his response to the JLA. He introduces members Warmaker One, 4-D, Flow and Pulse 8, who all bear supernatural type powers. Meanwhile, Aquaman and Green Lantern search for where Shaggy Man was stolen, but they are unsuccessful. Superman and some other JLA members visit the President of the USA, who tells them that the Ultramarine Corps are the future because of other areas of the world are beginning to create new heroes through technology. At the same time, New Gods members of the league, with the help of some other characters from the New Gods discover that a new evil presence is soon coming to Earth, known as Mageddon (more on it in JLA: World War Three). When Big Barda and Orion return to the league, they are informed of a large invasion of Earth beginning. They go to the point of transmission, but it turns out that it was a trap formed by the Ultramarine Corps and they charge to attack the JLA.
The JLA and Ultramarine Corps engage in battle. They are reckless and have no concern for the civilians around them, making the Flash go about saving the people around the area of the huge battle. Aquaman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Zauriel, Green Lantern and the Flash (those of the JLA that are actually fighting the Ultramarine Crops) realise that the Corps are too strong for them and they are surprised that the US army are those who created the Ultramarine Corps, thinking that the army are the ones after the JLA. Meanwhile, the other members, Batman, Huntress and Plastic Man break into Area 52 (pretty much like Area 51) and Batman finds General Eiling and has discovered that he has committed suicide by shooting himself. Back to the fight, Superman realises that the Corps members are all dying, and he found this out by scanning their molecular structure. After Batman and his gang discover the body of the dead General, they are shocked to find that the General has transported his brain to the altered body of Shaggy Man.
The General begins his fight with Batman and Huntress, explaining that he needed the body of Shaggy Man in order to become immortal because Shaggy Man was created as an entity that could regenerate after pain and is pretty much invulnerable to most damage. Meanwhile, the army and Ultramarine Corps search the area for the hiding JLA members and Superman comes out, offering to speak. The army fire their guns at him with (obviously) no effect. Superman then explains to Warmaker One that General Eiling had a brain tumour, which he believes caused the General’s attack on the league. While at first, the Ultramarine Corps don’t believe it, Warmaker One contacts his boss, asking about the truth. However, he cannot answer because at this point, he is still fighting Batman, who manages to hypnotise the General (which is
possible due to the weak body of the Shaggy Man which the General is using) until the league and corps arrive to finish off the General. Together, they come up with the solution of luring the General into a teleport device, which transports him to an outer space asteroid belt, trapping him there forever. Afterwards, the corps members form the International Ultramarine Corps and dedicate themselves to global peace keeping. Finally, Superman tells Wonder Woman and Aquaman that Martian Manhunter has decided to take a leave of absence and his replacement is… Hourman, from the One Million event. As a final note, a kid named J.J accidentally summons Yz, Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt, hinting this will become a much bigger part of the plot later (Crisis Times Five)
MY THOUGHTS
This is the type of JLA Morrison story that I think works well and it manages to have a number of different twists and surprises in store. To begin with, the General character is fairly strong and his motives for the story make sense for the most time. While to some readers, having the Shaggy Man in it as quite a core part of the story may seem silly, to me it makes sense and it is good to see that the stranger creatures like Shaggy Man are still being used years after their debut. The Ultramarine Corps’ ending feels suitable for these characters because they had been lied to by the General for his own needs and it is clear that they will return some time in the future (JLA Classified 1-3). Although I think this story has a number of problems (which I’ll get onto in a minute), the one thing that is keeping me from giving this three part story a lower score is the fact this storyline reminds me of a traditional type comic book story that would have been around in the silver and bronze ages. The villain feels traditional and it does give the impression of an old JLA story, particularly in the fight between the league and corps, which are similar to the old fights with teams such as Earth Three’s Crime Syndicate. Also, the ending with leaving the General in outer space feels like something that would happen in older comics because back then, the villain always tended to get quite an exaggerated punishment for their crimes. Also worth mentioning, the parts with the New Gods works well because it hints at the main villain who will feature in the finale, World War Three and although I may not like Mageddon and the ideas behind it, I think this serves as a nice way to tease for future stories.
The main thing that really bothers me about this story is the Ultramarine Corps themselves and the US army being in it. To start with the corps, why is Warmaker One is the only character of them to actually really speak and have some degree of character. The others just stand about and because of that, you don’t get an information on what their personalities are like. The other problem I mentioned is the US Army, who are sent to kill the JLA with the Ultramarine Corps. The problem with this is that they are going off an attack ordered by the General, who is just one man. The President doesn’t seem to have any trouble with the league and naturally, he would be the one who is consulted on whether an attack should be taken. You must remember that the JLA have saved the world countless times and a random order to kill them when they haven’t done anything would make people question the decision and ultimately cancel the attack. Also, at the very beginning, Warmaker One destroys a submarine which has Shaggy Man inside of this, which results in an alarm going to the JLA. This implies that the good guys were the ones who caught the hairy villain and when Warmaker One destroys the submarine, the league and the government would know that it was the corps because the submarine probably belongs to the government (why would the JLA needed an un-maned submarine) which means that the General’s plan would have been stopped a long time before he transferred himself into Shaggy Man’s story. The government intervention makes sense as a factor for the story, but it just adds a truck load of problems. While this next problem doesn’t really relate to the main plot of the story, it does change the JLA overall. Why the hell is Hourman allowed into the league centuries before he is meant to join and why the sudden leave of Martian Manhunter for no reason? The android caused so much crap to the JLA in One Million and now they are letting him join the league? Give me a f**king break.
While most faithful readers to the blog may know my opinion on the Howard Porter and John Dell art combo, my opinion of how dated and horrid their art looks remain, but for the third part of this story, Mark Pajarillo and Walden Wong do the art and while I think it looks quite messy with some strange choices of shadow in some places, the page layouts are more of how comics should and not this unrealistic drama that Porter attempts to perform. Not great, but certainly not the worst.
Story: 7/10
Art: 4.5/10
The Bigger They Come… – Written by Mark Millar with art by Mark Pajarillo, Walden Wong and Mario Alquiza
THE PLOT
Green Lantern and the Flash visit old Justice League member, the Atom about re-joining the JLA, but he refuses. He remembers the old days when he was part of the league, but he tells the two heroes that if he is needed for anything, he is always around for them. Around the same time, Huntress discovers something that she thinks the league should know about. Wonder Woman and Steel arrive to find that she has discovered an Amazo android, which is set to activate in an hour with all of the powers of the current line up of the JLA. Steel then attempts to deactivate the android as Wonder Woman tells Huntress that military personnel should be stationed all around the area. Across the world, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne and J’onn J’onzz (disguised as a Japanese woman) meet together, but their meeting is delayed because they are all told to meet with the rest of the league in order to help with the Amazo android crisis. Suddenly, the android activates and already begins its battle against the JLA. The extended sector of the JLA are summoned to fight the Amazo android, but because he absorbs their powers, he manages to defeat most of the league, apart from Superman, who shouts out that he is officially disbanding the whole league. This makes the android completely shut down. After the fight, Superman then instantly recreates the JLA and he and Batman give the offer to join the league to the Atom again and he accepts.
MY THOUGHTS
Clearly a fill in issue due to the absence of Morrison and this being a one-part story, but do not under estimate it for those reasons as this story is pretty good. This story works well on multiple levels. Firstly, I think that it is great to see the other heroes who aren’t part of the main section of the JLA, which are heroes like the Atom, Blue Beetle and the Creeper. It’s great because it shows that the league are more than just the main heroes as pretty much most other heroes are considered part of the extended JLA. Secondly, its good to see the urgency and consistency of the leaguers’ jobs because even when they are doing things in their civilian identities, they still can be asked for by other heroes, showing that being a hero takes up every one’s personal life in the DC Universe. Thirdly, it is always a plus to see old JLA villain’s such as Amazo because it shows how prominent they are and will be forever due to the fact that he is not only one of their oldest foes, but I think that he is good idea for a villain and it is always good to see him return. This story shows that the league is always taking on new heroes and that their job as heroes is constant, making it a great character study of the JLA as a whole.
However, it isn’t really explained why the Amazo android just suddenly activates before he is meant to and also, I must say that the resolution to the problem is just plain stupid. Superman saying “The JLA is officially disbanded!” isn’t a piece of technological programming, it is just words. Amazo can absorb the powers of any heroes that are around, not just of the JLA and Superman saying those words would mean absolutely nothing to the android because all of the heroes are still around. This problem really ruins the outcome of the story and turns the threat of Amazo as a dark and threatening android into something of a joke villain, which is not how he should be seen as.
The verdict on the art by Pajarillo, Wong and Alquiza is actually quite different to the previous story that they drew (JLA 26). Here, the art is mostly clear, if a bit dull in some background areas. But the people look visually pleasing, even if it looks completely over the top, an example of that being Superman after his fight with Amazo in which he looks completely battered. Not my vision of great comic art, but it tells the story well and manages to look interesting in most places.
Story: 8/10
Art: 6.5/10
Crisis Times Five Part One to Four – Written by Grant Morrison with art by Howard Porter and John Dell
THE PLOT
Like most Morrison stories, it begins half way through the story with a monster tornado destroying buildings, with Captain Marvel (Shazam) wondering what caused the disaster. Then we go to the start of the story with Superman warning the JLA (continues after image)
about a message from Hourman. He says that creatures from the fifth dimension (home of Mr Mxyzptlk and Bat Mite) will soon be invading and that the league needs to be ready. At the same time, the Wally West Flash meets with the Jay Garrick Flash as the elder of the two wants to meet the new member, Hourman, who took his name from the original JSA member known by the same name. However, they are all distracted by the pink lightning that is going around the world, which reminds Jay Garrick of Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt, named Yz and other JSA members plan to arrive to the JLA base such as Alan Scott (Sentinel) and Wildcat in order to aid in the forthcoming invasion. Meanwhile, J.J (character from the end of JLA 26) is found hiding in a bank vault in order to hide himself from Superman and from the discovery of Yz. Also, Zauriel then discovers that the Spectre has been trapped in a rock in order to stop his intervention in the invasion. Meanwhile in Chicago, Triumph (first appeared in Justice League America 91 (1994)) attempts to sell some items from the JLA trophy room to some people, but they try to kill him and steal the items. He protects himself by summoning a genie known as Lkz from a pen. The genie grants him three wishes and he use one of them to become Triumph again. His wish is granted and Lkz disappears. The JLA and remaining JSA members arrive in Central City to find the bank has grown arms and an angry face, signalling that the invasion has begun.
Buildings and structures come to life through the powers of the fifth dimension and while the heroes attempt to stop the attack, they completely fail, and Green Lantern is transported into the fifth dimension. Then, Captain Marvel then arrives in order to help the league in their fight because he can use his magical powers against the invaders. Meanwhile, Triumph manages to mind control the Ray and Gypsy as he spends most of his time in the pub for some reason. The Spectre is still trapped in a big rock at this point, so Zauriel and Sentinel go into a magical plane in order to free him, but the process seems to be more complicated than it may have at first seemed like because if he is freed, large numbers of people who die as he is trapped in a micro world of sorts. Back to Superman, Captain Marvel says that he can access the fifth dimension using his powers, but Superman refuses. A fight begins with Captain Marvel as the winner of it. Hourman tells him that this was meant to happen but is surprised to find that he opens a door to find Triumph with Gypsy and the Ray because his vision was blinded of this event because in his previous story, Triumph seemingly died. He knocks down Hourman and as Steel comes into the main room, he is greeted by Triumph, who says that the JLA is now lead by him. Finally, as the fight between the league and the fifth dimension ensues, J.J releases Yz in order to fight Lkz.
Triumph fights Steel, but he knows that he will lose to Triumph, so he secretly escapes the suits and climbs through the air vents. While the fight between Yz and Lkz continues, Sentinel and Zauriel decide not to destroy the micro planet that is keeping the Spectre imprisoned, but Sentinel uses his powers to go into the far future of the micro world until the inhabitants of the world are all dead from extinction. Meanwhile in the fifth dimension, Captain Marvel and Green Lantern find Qwsp, the controller of the whole invasion and after a load of weird graphical affects on the two heroes, they are trapped in the fifth dimension as Qwsp travels to the normal world. He tells the league that in order to stop the devasting battle between Yz and Lkz, one of the heroes must sacrifice themselves. Finally, back to the Watchtower, Triumph leads the Ray and Gypsy out to save the world and take the glory. But, when they are leaving, the door they are running through have Batman and Aquaman hiding to the sides, ready to ambush the villains.
Sentinel and Zauriel manage to free the Spectre, but he is filled with rage, wanting revenge against the villain who imprisoned him. Back to the Watchtower, Batman and Aquaman ambush Triumph and his mind-controlled allies, but the heroes fail and they are defeated. But, bad news for Triumph, Superman arrives at the Watchtower and charges towards him. Back to the fifth dimension, Captain Marvel and Green Lantern try to negotiate with the “law” and “police” of the fifth dimension in order to get them free so they can stop Gwsp once and for all. Captain Marvel comes up with a plan of sorts that can combine Yz and Lkz together which will end the fight. Then, back to Earth, Qwsp gets tired of the heroes because they are taking too long to give an answer to the sacrifice, so he kills Wildcat. The JLA are in shock by the death of one of their teammate and J.J decides enough is enough and he manages to free Green Lantern and Captain Marvel from the fifth dimension. The “police” from the fifth dimension are summoned and they take Qwsp away, ending the war between Yz and Lkz. Finally, Superman fights Triumph after he had defeated Aquaman and Superman. However, the battle is interrupted by the Spectre, who freezes Triumph in ice, and he prepares to destroy him with a sledge hammer he conjures up, fulfilling his purpose of being an agent of vengeance. However, he is stopped by Zauriel. The Spectre leaves in anger at the intervention and the JLA agrees to keep the frozen Triumph in their trophy room. Just as all of the heroes are mourning the death of Wildcat, he suddenly comes back to life, claiming that he was given nine lives back in the 1940s. The story ends with a shot of Triumph frozen in ice in the JLA trophy room, to be kept there forever.
MY THOUGHTS
I always like to start with the positives before I enter the negatives, but this time the positives will be like the short burst of crack cocaine that makes the body feel invincible compared to the negatives, which will be the long and depressing aftermath of the same crack cocaine that is taken. In other words, the good things will be short. Firstly, the best thing about this four-part story is that everyone loves to see members of the JLA and JSA meet again, just like the old days of the Justice League. It really goes back to the idea of the old days of having the two teams fight with each other in order to destroy an evil menace. Secondly, the best character about this whole story is the Spectre, because he is exactly how I think he should be done, an agent of vengeance. He freezes Triumph and threatens to destroy him with a sledgehammer, ready to kill him. This references the Spectre of the old days, when he was written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by Jim Aparo in Adventure Comics. Because of this, he is great as he is very different from the other characters. Thirdly (and finally), the talk between Jay Garrick’s Flash and the new android Hourman is a nice touch, albeit short. Its good because the old Hourman was obviously part of the JSA and the old Flash would want to meet the successor to his old friend. It is a shame that Sentinel, Alan Scott (the first Green Lantern created) didn’t speak to Hourman because it would have added to the retro feel that the story was attempting to accomplish. But that isn’t my only problem with the story…
Remember how the characters from the fifth dimension were made to be silly? Characters like Bat Mite and Mr Mxyzptlk were silly creations that added joy into stories, making them feel bizarre while also being good stories. Well, in this mess, Morrison just sucked most of the fun out of the whole thing. How? Let me explain. While Yz the Thunderbolt has never been on the top of my list for favourite characters in the DC Universe due to his limited concept and potential, having three of them and two of those being the villains of the story just make the whole thing worse. For starters, what is the point of the fight between Yz and Lks? The moment they meet, they just break out into a fight which lasts about two issues long. J.J (the kid who got Yz from an item given to him from Jay Garrick in Mark Waid’s epic on The Flash) just sits about doing nothing until the end when he decides to intervene. He could have done that at any point of the story and there isn’t an explanation to why he didn’t. The overlord of the fifth dimension who ordered the invasion, Qwsp is
incredibly flat and while I find it humorous that Green Lantern and Captain Marvel have to talk to the weird police of the fifth dimension, it still doesn’t explain the fact that everyone from that dimension seemingly can do anything, so why the hell can’t they just erase the little sh*t out of existence. A similar thing goes for Triumph, who is pretty pointless in the whole grand scheme of things, His “character” screams dull and he just sits about being evil or drinking in some cases. I’m sorry, but the threats of this story are flat and just fall down instantly and because of that, the whole invasion idea is teased, and the outcome is sorely disappointing. To the other aspects, the Spectre is trapped in a micro planet. And Sentinel and Zauriel discover that “people” live on it and they just go forward in time to when they are all dead? While it begins as something that seems to be a real issue and a great problem, they just go in time to stop it. Why can’t Sentinel just do the same to Triumph and go back in time so he doesn’t have the JLA items for the trophy room, which pretty much causes the whole. This isn’t even a its so bad that it is good story, this is just plain awful. Again, similarly to One Million, doesn’t anyone realise that they can time travel at will. Reading these Morrison stories which feature time travel in ways like this (as oppose to Animal Man story, in which it is done incredibly well) really emphasise to me that the only reason he used it was because it was quick and it proves to be a lazy solution to something that could have had a much better solution. That’s main problems done, now, to talk about Wildcat… He dies in this story… No, he doesn’t! He has nine live now. Yay? While I did think it was good to have someone killed in this story, not just to put them out of their misery when they are in the story, but because it would actually make the villains of the story more of a threat. It worked when Qwsp killed him but at the end, he is really alive. Now, I don’t know if this concept was made in this story or in another, but the whole idea of it absolutely ruins Wildcat as a character. He is like Batman, a human being who must rely on his strength and mind. Giving him super powers completely ruins him and any of the ideals he ever stood for, such as the boxing club he has for youngsters to join. I know I have been stumbling like an idiot for this whole review of Crisis Times Five but I’m not kidding, this is Grant Morrison’s second worst story from him that I have ever read, the other obviously being DC One Million. Aspects of why the fifth dimension is great are still barely around (like the buildings that grow to life), Qswp and the others just ruin it all and there is too going on in the story, a trait of the Other Grant Morrison (click here to read my DC One Million review). I’m not going to explain the Other Grant Morrison in detail again but simply put, he is pretty much the opposite what I love Morrison for and he is taking the weird pseudo-science that writers like Gardner Fox and John Broome introduced into comics and (differently to them) taking it seriously, which is not the way I feel it should be done, particularly in a story like this. As a final note, was Hourman introduced just to tell the JLA about him knowing about the fifth-dimension invasion? If that’s the case, then his whole appearance in this story is entirely unessential as the JLA probably would have noticed a pink lightning blot flying around all over the place along with numerous buildings with arms and legs.
Do I even need to mention the art by Howard Porter and John Dell? No? Good.
Story – 2.5/10
Art – 3/10
VERDICT
Overall, the first half of JLA: Justice for All is pretty mixed. While I did mostly like the Mark Millar Amazo story and a good chunk of aspects from the three-part Ultramarine Corps story, the bad parts from that and pretty much nearly all of Crisis Times Five is particularly woeful. It is a shame as the JLA run began on such as high note with Morrison, but it slowly degraded down, making the stories less and less appealing along with vast numbers of plot holes. We can only hope that the second half of Justice for All (JLA 32-35) will be much better than this.
Stories - 6/10
Art – 4.5/10
Highlighted Character – The Spectre (Jim Corrigan)
Next Review – Superman: The Man of Steel By John Byrne (The Man of Steel (vol 1) 1-6). Written by John Byrne with art by John Byrne and Dick Giordano
Expected to be published on 21/04/2019
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