Dwayne McDuffie’s stint on Justice League of America (vol 2) began with the villains in charge. It was Lex Luthor, the Joker, Cheetah, and dozens of other villains who kidnapped members of the league and they would have been successful in destroying their long-time foes – were it not for Superman and Black Lightning. But with the following issues, the villains did not simply return to being on the back-foot. The Sanctuary storyline – penned by Alan Burnett, another Justice League Unlimited writer alongside McDuffie – features the villains as the hounded and the hunted. They are on the escape not from the heroes, but from a far worse fate…
Justice League of America (vol 2) 17-21 was published from March to July 2008. Written by Dwayne McDuffie and Alan Burnett, with art by Ed Benes, Jonboy Meyers, Sandra Hope, Mariah Benes, Ed Benes, and Serge LaPointe, these issues were compiled in the Justice League of America: Sanctuary hardcover.
Sanctuary --- Written by Alan Burnett with art by Ed Benes, Sandra Hope, and Mariah Benes
Like The Injustice League Unlimited story, Sanctuary is another tale where the villains dominate the pages of the tale’s three issues – Justice League of America (vol 2) 17-19. But this time, the villains are in a state of fear. Justice League of America (vol 2) 17 begins with Black Lightning defeating a group of supervillains who wish to escape the country at the airport. Very subtly, Dwayne McDuffie placed a hint in the back-up story Soup Kitchen in the previous issue – Mr Twister mentioned that villains were going missing, but Red Arrow didn’t seem to catch onto it. Red Arrow returns to Mr Twister’s apartment only to find it wrecked and the former foe missing. But in the shadows predictably lurks a Dark Knight, who has caught onto the vanishing of the villains. Thanks to McDuffie in the previous issue, and Burnett thus far, a suspenseful mystery is created, but thankfully it doesn’t go on for too long. It’s revealed – perhaps predictably after her appearance in the previous story – that Amanda Waller is behind it. She – thanks to her Suicide Squad – has been collecting supervillains after gathering a large number of them during The Injustice League Unlimited and is sending them to a prison planet distant in space. Of course, the Justice League aren’t happy with this and there are big questions about the treatment of the villains there. As plots go, it’s a good concept that sides the heroes with the villains. When – at the end of the first part – the classic JLA villain, the Key, comes to the Hall of Justice with several other criminals simply to surrender themselves to their usual enemies rather than Amanda Waller, it’s a strong moment that teases a glimpse of fear from the villains which is rarely shown.
In Justice League of America (vol 2) 18, the villains are locked away in the JLA’s satellite. But compared to the previous issue, this one is nearly-totally uneventful. As did McDuffie, Burnett leans heavily towards Gardner Fox-style plotting with the pacing of a modern dark age comic. In the first half the heroes are lagging behind, while the Suicide Squad – led by the Bronze Tiger – attempts to capture the Key and his allies. When you realise in this issue’s latter pages that the Sanctuary story is nearing its conclusion, you quickly notice how it feels like it hasn’t yet begun. Even with its great premise, many details are not elaborated on and there is a void of much drama or suspense after Amanda Waller arrives. Although the villain of the piece, she is untouchable by law since the US government have approved her plan to send the criminals to the depths of space. But when the Dark Knight learns of the prison planet’s location, once again the reader’s imagination may run wild of what may or may not come to fruition – can Sanctuary’s finale live up to the promise undelivered thus far?
Due to a lack of back-ups as in the first two parts (which I’ll come to soon), Justice League of America (vol 2) 19 pulls a blinder by revealing to us without much drama or note that Martian Manhunter has gone to this prison planet as a scout, but the heroes have lost signal with him. Perhaps a few pages with everyone’s favourite shapeshifter would have been in order, not just because we would have seen a deadly glimpse of this dastardly dimension full of evils, but for the sake of character development. Excluding the back-ups, there has been little time thus far in the title for any kind of character evolution, and this would have been welcome. I suppose Burnett attempts this with Red Arrow and the mother of his daughter Cheshire, herself a supervillain. But this comes across as forced and pointless in the context of this story, except for one fantastic moment. When the heroes arrive on the prison planet, they discover that it isn’t much of a prison. It’s simply the wild where the villains must fend for themselves! But where are all the villains? It’s surprisingly empty, but what I really do like is how the visiting heroes are haunted by illusions. Cheshire is one of them. Another is the Joker, whose haunting deep laughter echoes throughout the world to the disturbance of Batman. These moments of psychological horror are powerful as the heroes are toyed with like pieces on a chess board. And they’re made even more memorable by the revelation of the villain behind it all – Kanjar Ro! The return of this odd, but classic JLA villain, is a true surprise. But sadly, his reveal is just as brief as his overall appearance in the issue. Kanjar Ro’s plan was to enslave the supervillains sent to the prison, but he reveals that they were transported elsewhere. He knows little of this, and that’s where his purpose in the story ends. The heroes escape and defeat him with ease, too much of it arguably. And just as abruptly, the story comes to an end. Where are the villains? We don’t know, nor is there any great hint. I find this conclusion a great disappointment. Burnett started with such a strong idea, and there was much potential for great titanic battles (with the JLA fighting possibly both the Suicide Squad, and other rogue villains on the planet), but unfortunately it ended as such an unsatisfactory nonentity. Tragically, I doubt that this is the fault of either McDuffie or Burnett. These villains were kidnapped not for any future Justice League story, but for Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis, a gigantic crossover with DC’s Multiverse.
In that sense, Sanctuary is simply a tie-in, and a fairly inadequate one. It doesn’t help that Burnett writes a simple story too basically. It feels too predictable and standard, not just in terms of plotting but the dialogue too. This is a problem that the previous storyline had, but this one seems to suffer greatly from it. Overall, despite a good concept, its lack of imagination, failure to live up to potential, and depressingly disappointing conclusion means that Sanctuary is no classic.
As the regular artist on the title, Ed Benes does a decent job of adding some action and drama into a story which is surprisingly short of much of it after the first issue. The panels and pages look visually impressive, even if that usual over-muscular look can grow tiresome quite quickly. Sandra Hope and Mariah Benes provide inks which smooth out the artwork, but little impression or dynamism is really added. More than anything, Ed Benes’s style is beginning to grow a tad stale and predictable, even if his dramatic style is very welcome on this occasion.
Meanwhile, Back in The Kitchen --- Written by Dwayne McDuffie, with art by Jonboy Meyers and Serge LaPointe
Dwayne McDuffie’s Soup Kitchen was a terrific one-off which explored a forgotten character, and with two more back-ups in the following issues, there was more opportunity for character exploration and development. The final pages of Justice League of America (vol 2) 17 focus on Vixen as she comes to terms with the loss of her animal-absorbing powers. She experiments with Red Arrow and Green Lantern, discovering that not only can she harness the former’s great marksmanship skills, but she can do the same for the green guardian’s power ring. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for Vixen, and her close partnership with Red Arrow, alongside her frosty and distant relationship with Hal Jordan, is written brilliantly and deeply effectively here by McDuffie.
I’ve never heard of Jonboy Meyers, but as pencillers go, he’s not one of the classics. Think of his art as a slightly cleaner version of Scott McDaniels’s pencils – the proportions are all wrong and the finishes are too spiky. But overall, those textures – while displeasing – are not obsessively noticeable and therefore the art comes across simply as about average.
Meanwhile, Back at Owl Creek Bridge --- Written by Dwayne McDuffie, with art by Jonboy Meyers and Serge LaPointe
The back-up in Justice League of America (vol 2) 18 shines the spotlight brightly on Red Tornado. His journey has been somewhat paused since Brad Meltzer’s fantastic The Tornado’s Path (Justice League of America (vol 2) 1-6), but with his dismantling during The Injustice League Unlimited, Batman placed his consciousness inside a computer. Here, the Dark Knight employs the aid of Doctors Niles Caulder, John Henry Irons, and Will Magnus, along with (somewhat oddly) the magical Zatanna to help transport Red Tornado into a new body. While the nods and references to characters from past titles is welcome, the emotional power of the story's hero is huge and the scenes with Red Tornado speaking to his wife and daughter about wanting to live normal lives again is deeply touching. It makes me yearn for a return to Red Tornado’s storyline.
Meyers is less offensive here in his jagged lines, and with the exception of a few panels, it’s just about passable here.
Back Up to Speed --- Written by Dwayne McDuffie, with art by Ethan Van Sciver
With Sanctuary out of the way, Justice League of America (vol 2) 20 provides an opportunity to take things a bit slower, allowing some time for reflection or for some of the rather-ignored characters of the title to come forward as the stars. Back Up to Speed does this, but rather at 1000 miles per hour than anything slower. The Flash – Wally West at this point – speeds around town saving citizens from all kinds of disasters such as fires. McDuffie writes the Flash superbly, and not just in terms of personality, but pacing. Word balloons and thoughts are shot out instantly at speed, often in short bursts to create the hero’s insanely fast metabolism and unstoppable energy. Reading these early pages, it does feel like the world is spinning nearly out of control. But this is only a part of the Flash’s world. Wonder Woman arrives on the scene and while there is a ‘Brave and the Bold’ style team-up towards the end to fight a medium-powered threat (Queen Bee), the story is ultimately about two characters. With a wife and kids, Wally West is stretched for time; Wonder Woman and the league feel that they can’t rely truly on his service. In the end, after defeating Queen Bee, Wally West agrees to spare some time for the league. It may be a predictable conclusion, but it’s good to see Dwayne McDuffie finally explore the characterisation of the league for a full issue. The balance between regular life and vigilantism was barely depicted in comics of the silver age, but it has been explored countless times in the modern age. Naturally, like most story devices and plots, it can be overdone, but since this is a one-off issue after six issues of rather standard storytelling, the glimpse into the personal issues of the Flash and how his team deeply miss him is a welcome plot. Those scenes of fighting are conveyed with such tensity and energy, while those moments of discussion with Wonder Woman are great opportunities to reflect slowly – you can almost feel the shift in tone in the story by whether or not Wally West is running or not.
Ethan Van Sciver is an artist of a more realist style compared to some. Think of his style as a mixture between Brian Bolland and Ed Benes, but probably closer to that latter in terms of muscularity and regular page layouts. It looks attractive, and the smooth inks are incredibly welcome, but I find it a tad flat on occasion. That said, it certainly stands tall above many other artists of the era – perhaps he would have been a good choice as the title’s regular penciller, but I feel that Benes adds that much-needed layer of mightiness which the Justice League – especially with the likes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman – deserves.
The Gathering Crisis --- Written by Dwayne McDuffie, with art by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino
Justice League of America (vol 2) 21 has many focuses, and sadly that is its problem. As a one-off, the story’s first signs would indicate that McDuffie has written another character piece. This time – in a secret realm only available to that awesome Trinity who lead the league – Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman speak privately away from their colleagues. This isn’t, perhaps surprising, because these three titans are plotting some contingency Tower of Babel-style plan. Instead, it’s mainly about workplace gossip, with the Dark Knight even cracking a few laughs and jokes at the expense of two near-immortal beings. Some puritans of comics may loathe to see such comedy among these heroes, but again it shows these characters as their emotional selves. Topics do range from the comedic to the serious, such as the disappearance of Ray Palmer (after the events of Identity Crisis, whereby his wife is revealed to be a murderer) and Vixen continuing to lose her powers. These scenes are great, but then the focus shifts to Red Arrow and Hawkgirl as they try to defeat the little-known supervillain known as the Human Flame from robbing a bank. Suddenly, the Human Flame is rescued by the mysterious villain known as Libra. It’s revealed that he is the one who diverted those transferred supervillains away from the prison planet during Sanctuary. He has, instead, collected all of these villains for some unknown purpose. All we do know is that Libra wants the Human Flame to join this rabble, and to do so he must take part in an initiation task. All the Human Flame wants is revenge on Martian Manhunter, the hero who defeated him all those years ago. With Martian Manhunter in Libra’s possession (explaining his loss during the Sanctuary storyline), he sends for the hero. And that is where The Gathering Crisis ends, and that is the perfect title for this tale. This is a prelude to Morrison’s Final Crisis, and for those who have read the first issue to that tale, you will know that the Human Flame seals Martian Manhunter’s fate. It’s a pretty good tie-in as a gap in the Final Crisis tale is filled, but since it only takes up half the issue, it feels underwhelming and a bit rushed. The first half with the iconic trio is great, but it feels like McDuffie didn’t know which part of the story should take centre stage. Perhaps this issue would have worked better as two, as with more pages, it’s possible that these two plots would have both left a much greater impact.
Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino provide some fairly standard art here. It does sometimes look a tad exaggerated and especially cartoony when it comes to people’s faces, but it’s not offensive or really ugly at all. Really, it leaves little lasting impression or memorability, not that that is universally a bad result.
VERDICT
Overall, this second selection of Dwayne McDuffie and Alan Burnett’s run on Justice League of America (vol 2) is, while mixed, not a bad read. Sanctuary has its faults in terms of pacing and plotting, but I am more offended more how standard and predictable it was. The back-ups were most welcome, while Back Up to Speed was a nice breather – perhaps an ironic verdict. The Gathering Crisis set up Grant Morrison’s monolithic imprint on the DC Multiverse well, but it’s inconsistent focusing didn’t help. Overall, the writing is solid, but the plotting is tame – it is time for more excitement and shocks!
Next Week: TBC
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