Like all good things which last for decades, the Justice League has needed many breaks and relaunches in order to reinvigorate and refresh itself. The original Justice League of America run (vol 1) lasted for more than a quarter of a century before DC decided to usher in a new era with many changes. That led directly – through the miniseries Legends – to Justice League International. Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis starting in 1987, this era disposed of the usual famous members of the team and replaced them with small-time lovable characters like Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and many more. This period focused more on humour, character, and relationships. It certainly had its dark moments and times of drama, but overall it was a playful run that contrasted with the mainstream team of the sixties, seventies, and early-eighties, and the inadequacy of the Detroit heroes in the mid-eighties. While Giffen and DeMatteis would leave in 1992, the Justice League International era would continue until 1996 when it ran out of steam (the sales weren’t what they used to be!) DC decided to was time to return to basics. Readers had enjoyed nearly a decade of laughs with minor characters, but it was time for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman to return. While it would be Grant Morrison who takes the helm of the new JLA title, to bridge the gap between the old and the new is a miniseries often overlooked and frankly forgotten…
Justice League: A Midsummer’s Nightmare 1-3 was published in 1996 from September – one month after Justice League America 113 concluded the JLI era – to November – two months before Grant Morrison’s JLA launched. It was written by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Waid, with art by Jeff Johnson, Darick Robertson, John Holdredge, and Anibal Rodriguez. I’ve read this miniseries in the JLA: A Midsummer’s Nightmare deluxe hardcover.
While A Midsummer’s Nightmare does technically begin the JLA run which Grant Morrison launched at the start of 1997, there is little mention ever again of this story. It serves mainly to bridge a gap and to explain how the new Justice League – as seen in Morrison’s New World Order storyline (from JLA 1-4) – originates. Even later, when Mark Waid enjoys a short but memorable run on the title, A Midsummer’s Nightmare is forgotten in the mists of time. Does it deserve to be? If you’ve read the deluxe edition, you may have been tempted to read the blurb just to learn a little about the story. I didn’t do that, and I think I enjoyed the tale more. Without knowing what’s coming, the shock, surprise, and complete mystery of Nicieza and Waid’s story makes this miniseries all the more readable.
All great stories have to start with a hook, something to attract the reader from page one. With A Midsummer’s Nightmare, there is no epic villain to show right away or even an event to set the stage. The flawless hook is shown in the main characters. On one seemingly normal day in the DC Universe, failing comic book artist Kyle Rayner is pencilling away, attempting to keep to deadline. He leaves his flat and lives his mundane life while, all around him, members of the public are flying into space enjoying their superpowers. Kyle Rayner is not one of these – nor are the other members of the Justice League. And that’s how Nicieza and Waid introduce this story with perfection. That shock is even better if you don’t know about it, and throughout the first issue, there is little mention of any familiar superheroes. For all intents and purposes, we’re shown a world where the seven members of the JLA don’t exist, and the heroes themselves are living ordinary and dull lives. Kyle Rayner is no Green Lantern as discussed, while Clark Kent simply only reports on civilians gaining superpowers. Bruce Wayne is a businessman whose parents are still alive, while Wally West only dreams of the super speedster we usually expect him to be. Diana Prince is a teacher at an all-girls school, Arthur Curry isn’t a king of the seven seas, but a businessman. And saving the best for last, Martian Manhunter is living a dream life with his family on Mars. All the main characters are haunted by memories of their heroic alter-egos, and some still even have their powers buried deep under their new humanity. Nicieza and Waid spend the first issue setting the scene, but the main two characters to re-enter reality are Superman and Batman. As a reporter, Clark Kent witnesses first-hand as civilian superheroes fight one-another in the streets. These new superpowered civilians – who exist just for this story – aren’t given too much focus but a few stick out because they act as subsidiary villains for the miniseries. They come back later, but there isn’t really much to say about them. But upon witnessing them, Clark Kent remembers the world he once lived in and it all comes flooding back. As Superman, he heads to Wayne Manor. Bruce Wayne is already confused by the return of his parents, but it’s Superman’s arrival that reawakens the bat from within. With the World’s Finest duo back together again, it’s their job to reunite the original Justice League to restore the world to what it was before. The first issue sets the stage excellently. With each issue nearly forty pages long, Nicieza and Waid have plenty of time to let characters breathe and all their worlds feel believable, complex, and entirely human. It’s clear that the drama comes not from the great villain the team will have to fight in the third issue, but the emotional sacrifice required in the second part to untangle the heroes from their attractive but false new lives. That will be especially difficult for one character…
The second issue begins and ends with the one hero who lost everything – both his world and his family. Martian Manhunter enjoys the Martian terrain with his family when, back on Earth, Superman and Batman plot to release the JLA heroes from their fantasy worlds. For some reason, Batman can only detect the five other original JLA members on the world, with other heroes like Supergirl and Nightwing missing entirely. The explanation for that lies behind the villain – Doctor Destiny! First appearing in Justice League of America (vol 1) 5 in 1961, Doctor Destiny is one of the league’s oldest foes, and he is the one who has put the heroes in this dream-like state. Why? That’s for us to find out. The second issue revolves around Superman and Batman as they help their old friends regain their memories. Undoubtedly, the best moment in the whole miniseries has to come from the three-page scene where Batman helps Arthur Curry remember his past. Failing to believe the Dark Knight’s words, Batman jumpstarts Arthur’s memory by plunging his head deep into a nearby fish tank. Within the shock and panic, Arthur’s aquatic breathing ability returns. It’s a moment which sums up Batman’s brutal but effective way of doing things.
However, Nicieza and Waid don’t just big up the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader for the whole story. When it comes to Green Lantern and the Flash, Wally West actually tracks down Kyle Rayner himself. In this universe, Kyle Rayner actually writes and draws the Green Lantern comic book, and Wally tracks him down because he has been dreaming up Kyle’s stories before they are published. This interesting, if slightly underdeveloped section of the story, lets the Flash and Green Lantern have their heroic moments too. As for Wonder Woman, it’s predictably Superman who unleashes her from her dull life. But for Martian Manhunter, the whole team unites. It turns out that Martian Manhunter isn’t actually on Mars, but at an Air Base in Roswell. Compared to the others, Martian Manhunter takes much more convincing, but his dream world comes crumbling down when some of those superpowered civilians from earlier attack using their new flaming powers. Martian Manhunter’s family die in the flames, and after unleashing his pure rage and taking back his heroic mantle, the JLA team up to take on these new supervillains. Before I go on and talk about just how brilliant Martian Manhunter is in this story, the writing does raise a question. Obviously, the worlds that the heroes lived in were false, but what about some of those characters within them? For instance, in Batman’s dream, his parents were still around. Did they just vanish when Bruce Wayne remembered he was Batman? The same goes for Martian Manhunter’s family or Kyle Rayner’s friends who only know him only as Kyle and not Green Lantern. Some characters like Alfred are stuck in this dream-world too, so surely that must mean too that other heroes may have escaped from this dream on their own? Also, Tim Drake is briefly seen and he has a few sentences of dialogue. In this situation, the JLA must need all the help they can get. Why not enlist Robin’s help too? The questions are endless when it comes to this kind of stuff.
The third issue opens with a fight. It’s very much an obligatory type of fight. The villains presented to us here – excluding Doctor Destiny and another villain later on – are frankly bland and forgettable. In a world where everyone but the JLA seemed to have superpowers, you’re bound to get some baddies. But these villains not only have no names, their designs are standard, their powers are usual, and their characters are pretty non-existent. The fight simply pauses the story, but fortunately the breaks ends when Martian Manhunter beats them into unconsciousness with telepathy. This is why Martian Manhunter shines in this story. Aside from the fact he can end pointless fights in a flash, his state of rage makes him formidable and – ironically – the most human hero of the team. Not only does he despise Doctor Destiny for the trap, but he isn’t too keen on the JLA for rescuing him from a world of bliss. It’s loss that acts as the basis for Martian Manhunter’s character, and its why he and Batman relate closely in this story as it’s the Dark Knight who helps him accept his past is behind him.
With that, we’re now on the home stretch. By using Martian Manhunter’s telepathy, they discover Doctor Destiny’s secret base. It turns out that Kyle Rayner knew the answer since he drew it in his comic (another great example of foreshadowing since it was shown in the first issue). When confronting Doctor Destiny, it’s revealed that he isn’t actually the real foe at all. That honour belongs to an ancient villain known as Know Man. By using Doctor Destiny’s powers, he decided to lock the JLA in their dreams and replace them with other heroes from across the world. The story behind this isn’t as malicious as you might think. It turns out that Know Man’s job is to ensure the survival of Earth and humanity. He senses a threat in the near-future, and he gave humanity super-powers to take on this threat. You won’t find this oncoming threat revealed in the pages of this miniseries, but it’s later revealed to be Mageddon, an Old God of the Fourth World who – to put it simply – likes destroying universes. Grant Morrison uses Mageddon as the main foe in his JLA run, culminating with the World War Three storyline which concludes his run. As for this story, it makes Know Man an interesting villain. His own powers may be vague, but his prophesying personality makes him memorable. But in the end, with his torturing of the JLA with false worlds and condemning the earth to destruction by giving most of humanity super powers, the JLA must defeat him. The final fight is something of a disappointment since nothing really happens and Know Man is forced only to retreat at the end. I guess it would be unlikely for the JLA to defeat an ancient titan, but in the end Know Man abandons humanity and tells the JLA that the oncoming threat is now their problem and they must deal with it alone. Of course, when Mageddon does attack Earth, the JLA help defeat the threat by giving humanity superpowers – I guess Grant Morrison must have helped plot this story at the very least. Regardless, that’s all for the future. In the present, the JLA decide its time for a new era to begin – at last the Justice League is back in full force. And once again, Martian Manhunter shines in the end because he is the one who rescues the JLA after Know Man traps them in another of Doctor Destiny’s traps. With such a prevalent role in the miniseries and a fantastic character, Martian Manhunter is the true star here. However, all seven heroes get a moment in the spotlight and it feels like everybody has a purpose. In short, the ending may feel a bit rushed, but it rounds off a good story nicely.
Perhaps one convincing reason why A Midsummer’s Nightmare is forgotten is down to the art. People cease to forget the highly storytelling-focused work of Mike Sekowsky, the stunning drama of George Perez, the simplistic yet attractive world of Kevin Maguire, or even the questionably greased and over-muscular visuals of Howard Porter, but the art here is just dull. The storytelling – while never terrible or totally boring – is lacking much imagination. While it might be a benefit that the artistic style is never woeful or ugly, it looks too standard to really register in my head. Jeff Johnson and Darick Robertson aren’t talentless by any means, nor are John Holdredge and Anibal Rodriguez – whose inking style is respectably smooth – but they fail to add anything of note. This miniseries was published in an era which heralded a new environment for comic book art. DC was plunged into third place in terms of sales, with Marvel and the art-centric Image Comics well ahead. It’s the dawn of a time when quality-control no longer meant much of anything. While the artists here aren’t visually offensive, the fact that their names mean very little to readers of today or even a few years after 1996 is a sign that storytelling was losing its priority when it came to the medium of comic books in the modern era.
VERDICT
In effect, A Midsummer’s Nightmare is a prelude to Grant Morrison’s JLA run. While it does set up the run nicely, it doesn’t deserve to be forgotten or overlooked. Although Mark Waid is always renowned for writing great scripts, props must go too to Fabian Nicieza. Together, they have written a story with great characters which hooks in readers from the first page. If that’s the case, then why is this miniseries forgotten. It’s hard to say, but while it’s correct to say that it does set up the JLA run of the late-1990s and early-2000s, it’s a story that’s worth re-reading from time to time…
Next Week: Green Arrow: The Archer’s Quest (Green Arrow (vol 3) 16-21. Written by Brad Meltzer with art by Phil Hester and Ande Parks.
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