If you read all of the Grant Morrison issues in the JLA main run, those who are new to comics may think that they have finished it all. However, it will come to no fan’s surprise that JLA: World War Three wasn’t really the end. By this, I don’t mean that Morrison continued his JLA work in the main title, but he did though one-offs and issues of other JLA related titles. Just to clear up, this isn’t a new thing. Other comics, particularly from the late 1980s to now, have also had spin offs and specials which relate to the main title. For example, the John Constantine: Hellblazer title featured specials like the Horrorist two-part series and the Heartland special throughout both Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis’s run on the title. The same applies to James Robinson’s Starman, which ran for an initial eighty issues, but featured an additional issue 81 years after as part of the massive Blackest Night universe changing event along with other specials like the Starman 80 Page Giant and The Mist Special issue. The JLA title was no exception as in 2005 (four years after Morrison had finished his time on the JLA title), JLA Classified was launched as a spin off title that featured the league members by different writers and artists for each storyline. The first of those storylines was the “Ultramarine Corps” story, which featured the return of Morrison writing for the league. While this will be one of the focuses of this review, there is more. In fact, during Morrison’s run on JLA in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he wrote two special issues, which were JLA/ WildC.A.T. s and JLA: Earth 2. These two stories and the three part JLA Classified are the only three other JLA stories which Morrison wrote that isn’t featured as part of the run (with the exception of One Million and the JLA 1000000 issue) and while I didn’t like the areas where the main run went, mainly from the middle to the end, will these three stories be anything like or as good as New World Order (JLA 1-4) or any of the other stories before Rock of Ages (with the exception of the two part Neron story, which sucked)?
For this review, I will be reviewing the following stories:
Crime Machine --- JLA/WildC.A.T. s
JLA: Earth 2 --- JLA: Earth 2
Island of the Mighty/Master of Light/Seconds to Go – JLA Classified 1-3
JLA/WildC.A.T. s and JLA: Earth 2 were published on September 1997 and January 2000 respectively while JLA Classified 1-3 was published from January to March in 2003. I have read JLA/WildC.A.T.s and JLA Classified 1-3 in the JLA: Ultramarine Corps
trade paperback (JLA/WildC.A.T.s can also be read in the JLA: Volume 2 collection) and I have read JLA: Earth 2 in the original prestige format comic.
THE PLOTS AND MY THOUGHTS
Crime Machine – Written by Grant Morrison with art by Val Semeiks, Kevin Conrad and Ray Kryssing
THE PLOT
Somewhere in the countryside some time in the past, Wally West is running around as Kid Flash, minding his own business when out of nowhere, he is tripped up by Epoch, the Lord of Time (who first appeared in Justice League of America (vol 1) 10 in 1962). Just as the evil villain is about to kill him, a red flash blurs past Kid Flash, which he mistakes for his mentor, Barry Allen (The Flash). However, he is surprised to see his older self being the one who saved him, who is now the Flash and he has arrived with the JLA. The team begin to battle Epoch but being the “Lord of Time” which he is known as, he uses his suit to travel in time, away from the JLA, who swiftly follow him using his time travel device known as the Chrono-Cube. Therefore, the JLA follow the time travelling foe throughout numerous times such from the Pre-historic times to the Second World War. After some time, the team are pushed back, centuries away from Epoch and all the members try to use their willpower to jump start the cube again. But this results in them being sent into another universe specifically the Wildstorm Universe, where another team of heroes known as the WildC.A.T. s are fighting a group of villains known as the Seven Deadly Sins. The WildC.A.T. s team consists of numerous members, such as Grifter, Majestic, Maul, Void and Zealot, who are all very curious and negative towards the presence of the JLA, who they distrust as they don’t know them. After the fight between the Wildstorm villains comes to an end, both teams speak to each other. For example, Superman asks the heroes if they have heard of his home planet, Krypton, but to none of the reader’s surprise, the WildC.A.T. s have never ever heard of the planet. After this denial of sorts, a random fight breaks out between the heroes with Batman getting verbal and attacking Grifter. Then, after so many pages of pointless fighting, a huge explosion occurs, which puts both the JLA and WildC.A.T. s on alert. The explosion was caused by the remaining members of the Seven Deadly Sins, those being Gluttony, Greed and Wrath and during the duel, both teams decide to come to an agreement. This was because one of the members of the WildC.A.T. s team, Void, senses and discovers that Epoch (yeah, remember him?) was responsible for the time rift which caused the JLA to end up in the Wildstorm Universe. After going into some sort of void space with Green Lantern, they find out that both the universes’ respective timelines diverged and caused the two to collide. After coming back from the void space to the DC Universe, the heroes had been away five days (obviously a shorter time for them) and during that time, Epoch has become a living computer from the future which has been causing disaster around the planet. As the WildC.A.T.s can now also travel to the DC Universe through the void space, the two teams go together and break into the main citadel for Epoch’s computer that he has merged with the villain, who is shocked to see the WildC.A.T.s running to attack him. While this is going on, the JLA use the Chrono-Cube from earlier, which overloads the Epoch computer brain and sends it back in time, centuries ago. Due to the overloading of the computer, it explodes, killing him. After this, the JLA say their farewells to the WildC.A.T. s, who go back to their own universe through the void space.
MY THOUGHTS
Just for the record, if it wasn’t apparent enough, I have no idea who the WildC.A.T. s is. I do understand that they were made in 1992, which was the year that Marvel and DC were no longer the only two companies that people bought comics from as Image was formed that year and Todd McFarlane begun his own comic, Spawn. I also know that it was created by Jim Lee, who wrote and drew it and out of all of them, the one I know the most about is Grifter, which is mainly due to his appearance in Flashpoint, written by Geoff Johns with art by Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope. But in terms of this story, the plot is pretty basic, and it is an almost formulaic tale of how stories featuring two universes with two teams tend to go. For example, looking at the old Justice League of America tales from the early 1960s to the mid-1980s were the JLA teamed up with the JSA, most of those stories feature crossing over into different worlds and feature villains from both worlds. Therefore, it is clear that Morrison loved those early stories and he was trying to emulate that same feeling here. I guess the same can be applied to the Epoch villain, who seemingly went back in time to kill Kid Flash before he became the Flash (it’s a bit vague). He is also an old JLA foe and I think that Morrison wanted to use him and revamp him in ways like he did with The Key (JLA 8-9). Therefore, I do like the world travelling idea, not because of how it used in this specific story, but because of the formula it made, which although it is very basic, it really does work well. But that isn’t what can be said for the rest of this mess…
I hate the WildC.A.T.s. I do not know who they are, and I haven’t read any of their comics, but this special didn’t even encourage me to check them out more. Not only does Morrison write the characters in a completely unlikable way, but they just come across as annoying and their apocalyptic world of the future is far from original. I think I am being too harsh on Morrison for this one, purely for the fact that he didn’t create these characters and quite frankly, I don’t know why he wrote this or why he was chosen. Realistically, you would have thought that DC would have hired Jim Lee himself to write this, considering that he created this mess. And yes, while I tend to like Lee’s artwork from the mid 2000’s to now, before that he looks to over the top, but at least he could draw averagely. Reading this however, it is clear that writing isn’t what he is known for and honestly, the characters and the villains especially come across as totally unoriginal and so two-dimensional that it makes Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern character look like a work of genius. The same applies to the fight scenes which occur in this issue, which go on for way too long and it really just drags the plot along and is nothing more than filler. I know this is because the artists at the time like Lee, Mc Farlane and Liefeld just loved doing fights and really didn’t care about telling the story as much (that has since changed in Lee’s art thankfully). Right, now I’m going to stop picking holes in Jim Lee’s early career and most new artists in the late 1990s and go back to Morrison. I get that he loves using old characters that are lost in the depths of time (that’s partly why I love his run-on Animal Man), but why the hell did he pick Epoch?! At least in Animal Man the characters that were chosen either had charm or were done well, but in this case, he comes across as dull and his time travelling gimmick or whatever is played way over the top in this. I get that he time travels. I don’t need to see him doing it in about twenty panels ranging over about five pages. Also, the giant computer idea is stupid and the ending where he is dead and screaming is so unclear in terms of storytelling and not to mention the art in that section, which looks like a total train wreck. I don’t care about the voids space b*llsh*t and how easily people can just travel between them and time difference between the two worlds. The whole thing stinks of a cheap buck and promotion of WildC.A.T.s and apart from a few retro references and inputs, Morrison clearly didn’t put much effort into this story, similarly to how I would imagine Jim Lee effortlessly created these characters which tend to be forgotten, with the exception of Grifter, who I only found to like a bit more during Flashpoint, which had nothing to do with Jim Lee anyway.
If you know what I thought about the art (let alone story) for the One Million miniseries, then that opinion remains the same here. This is because Val Semeiks (text continues after image)
drew this story and while he now has two different inks as opposed to just the one, it still looks better than Howard Porter, but as I said in my One Million review (read it here), it still sucks. The texturing of everything looks of the top and messy and the faces that are drawn look completely fake and the muscle structure is as if a bomb as hit it. I guess it tells the story in some regard, but I would like it to look nice at least. So yeah, just like the story, it stinks.
Story: 2/10
Art: 3.5/10
JLA: Earth 2 – Written by Grant Morrison with art by Frank Quitely
THE PLOT
On an alternate antimatter Earth, Alexander Luthor has escaped the custody of an evil group known as the Crime Syndicate of Amerika, which features Ultraman, Owlman and Superwoman as the main leaders. Ultraman knows that Luthor used the
technology from his fortress to travel to the regular Earth, which Luthor has used and landed in America of the normal Earth. He came to the regular world to look for superheroes to help him with his request, in which he ends up meeting the JLA, who were currently at the time saving a crashing aeroplane full of people that had their hearts on the right hand side of their bodies and that the flight company doesn’t exist in the regular world, which surprises Wonder Woman and the rest of the JLA. However, all of the passengers on the plane were killed because of the barrier they crossed to get from the antimatter world (where the Crime Syndicate come from) to the regular world. After this, the JLA visit Lex Luthor, thinking that he is one from their own world, but after some time, Superman and the JLA believe that this Luthor is from the other world. He tells the league that he came to this Earth in order to find help to fight the Crime Syndicate, who are the reverse of the JLA as they are superpowered and evil, who at that time are throwing down fake bank notes to the people for their earth to destroy the economy again and to kill any people who rebel against them. Back on our Earth, now on the watchtower, Luthor is still begging for the JLA to go to his Earth to stop the villains, but because the league is divided, they decide to vote on it. Overall, most of the league decide to go, apart from Batman and Aquaman because they say their own world has enough troubles as it is. But, after some convincing, Batman goes with the JLA and Aquaman and Martian Manhunter stay behind. The JLA then go into Luthor’s shuttle which transports them to the other Earth, which has a number of differences from the regular world. For example, not only are the members of the Crime Syndicate opposite to the league (with Ultraman being like Superman, Owlman being like Batman, Superwoman being like Wonder Woman and so on…), but now Commissioner Gordon was never part of the police and he is now in charge of the mob. This also means that the Commissioner is Thomas Wayne, whose wife (Martha) and son (Bruce) were killed and Owlman (Thomas Jr) blames his father for it. After a number of meetings with characters and people that are different in this antimatter universe, the JLA manage to trap the Crime Syndicate members in a prison of sorts on the moon which Green Lantern secures by using his ring to create two giant hands which have a tight grip on the moon. But this includes every member apart from Superwoman, who is really the Lois Lane of the antimatter world and she flies to Ultraman’s hideout after hearing about the whole team being trapped. However, when she gets there, she is greeted by the JLA and that world’s Lex Luthor. Wonder Woman then knocks her out and throws her in with the rest of the Crime Syndicate on the moon. Therefore, the people of the antimatter world are now free, and they can thank the JLA for that, who begin to reconstruct Amerika while learning how scared and frightened the people of the Earth were from the JLA’s evil counterparts. But, Owlman responds to the team’s imprisonment by using the technology that Luthor used to get to the regular world, which transports them to that world. Because of that, both teams go around both the planets, with the JLA trying to fix the mess that the Crime Syndicate caused and alternatively, the Crime Syndicate going around and undoing all the good that the JLA have done. On the regular world, the villains face against Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, who both stayed behind when the JLA went to the antimatter world. Also, on our earth, Owlman discovers the graves of Thomas and Martha Wayne, which makes him believe that everything he was trying to accomplish has failed. In the end, both teams realise that their intentions and plans cannot be carried out. For instance, on our earth, the people have loads of heroes and all the people believe in them, which makes it impossible for the Crime Syndicate to rule the planet and on the other hand, the JLA cannot save the antimatter world because all of the people are too stuck into their ways of being the slaves of the Crime Syndicate. But then, out of nowhere, Brainiac of the antimatter (who was a sort of salve to the Crime Syndicate) tries to stop Lex Luthor and the JLA by absorbing them into his mainframe of information. Just as he is nearly done with his anti-information uploading, Ultraman arrives and destroys Brainiac with his intense heat vision. After that, both teams go home to their respective Earths and while the world of the Crime Syndicate is still in their control, thanks to the efforts of the JLA and Lex Luthor, heroic groups are formed to resist the villainous evil-doers, showing that the JLA’s efforts were not pointless.
MY THOUGHTS
This is a tricky one. As this story is a prestige format comic being about triple the length of an ordinary twenty-five-page comic, Morrison fits in so many different aspects of the plot and numerous things which make the story jam packed with all sorts. I guess I should really start off by saying that I really like the original story which this is sort of based on, Crisis on Earth Three, which was originally published in Justice League of America (vol 1) 29-30, written by Gardner Fox with art by Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs. In that story, the JLA (from Earth 1) and the JSA (from Earth 2) discover another Earth, named Earth 3 which feature an evil version of the JLA, known as the Crime Syndicate of Amerika, consisting of Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring. These villains ended up becoming recurring villains for the JLA over many years, until Crisis on Infinite Earths, in which they were killed by the Ant-Monitor at the very start of issue one. Therefore, they all died and although they briefly appeared in Morrison’s Animal Man, he decided to bring them back in this special book. Because of that, I respect Morrison’s faithfulness to the original two-part story and in some cases, he goes further with how the two Earths are the opposite of each other in different aspects. For example, while I think the parts like the hearts being on the other side of the body is clever, I love it even more when learning about Commissioner Wayne and how Gordon is a villain. These changes are good because it shows the differences between the two Earths, making them different and in that respect, Morrison succeeded very well in that. Morrison also revamps the Crime Syndicate, making them more evil, which although I grant the fact that it makes them more villainous, it does cause some issues which I’ll get to in a bit. The ending is also quite clever and for once, I’m glad it isn’t exactly a completely happy ending as it would make the story a bit too simple and expected. It shows that like the JLA on the regular world, the Crime Syndicate are a huge part of the world and because of that, they will most likely stay there in history forever due to their presence and the implications they have on the lives on the people that live on the antimatter world. Again, it just makes the story feel different and it does feel like some real thought and effort was placed in it. The same applies to Lex Luthor, who although doesn’t really have much of a real character, it shows Morrison is continuing with the opposites between the two worlds. In fact, it gives reasoning for why the story happens, which is what I prefer to the other approach which might have been the JLA discovering the old world on a complete accident, which I would claim as a load of sh*t. I would have to say that some of the best scenes thought the story have to be when Batman engages in conversation with the Commissioner of Gotham from the antimatter world, who is his father, Thomas Wayne. Those scenes are great because it
adds more to how Batman’s mind really works and although he doesn’t show emotion in this forthcoming latter scene, the part where the Earth is liberated and he sees his father condoning the death penalty and execution for the law is great because it really highlights the differences between the two worlds. It conveys that Thomas Wayne isn’t as good a man as the one that died on the regular world and because of that, I thought it would have been nice to see Batman be a bit more surprised or emotional about it. None the less, it is still probably some of the best aspects of the entire story.
But, although this story has some great moments which really show how much of a great character writer that Grant Morrison is, I think the main problem with this story has to be the villains, the Crime Syndicate of Amerika. Not only are some of them underused like Power Ring and Johnny Quick, but all of them, including the main three have absolutely no character at all and they are all evil for the sake of it. Plainly put, this is the worst way to write a villain in my books and although there is some hint with Owlman as it is hinted it is something to do with his father, what are the other’s excuses? I know that the original Fox characters have no character either, but at least they had charm and they worked well in terms of the context of that original story. In Earth 2, they are just dull and have no goal or purpose apart from world domination, which might I add probably isn’t that much fun anyway. Comparing this to the Crime Syndicate we see in Geoff John’s Justice League run from the New 52, they are both very different. I mean, in that run, each villain is told their backstories and their reasons for being evil, which is how it really should be done. The other characters in the team are also each given moment so their characters can be expressed and shown more, making them more known to the readers. This includes Johnny Quick and Power Ring, who are not only done better in that run, but are done differently while remaining faithful to the original source material. What Morrison has done is taken these characters which worked (despite some lack of character) and completely taken away any charm and made them even less appealing by taking away what character traits they had. I also find that the reasoning for Martian Manhunter and Aquaman staying behind is stupid and although they are used later in the story, why couldn’t they have come to the antimatter world? I know the answer. It is because in the original Earth 3, there wasn’t an equivalent to Martian Manhunter and Aquaman and to Morrison, that is clearly a no-go area. I find this stupid and pretty lazy. In the Geoff Johns run, he actually created new characters to represent Aquaman and Cyborg (who is part of the JL at that time) and while I thought that Aquaman’s evil counterpart was killed too quickly in that run (at the end of Justice League (vol 2) 23, the ending of the Trinity War storyline), at least he bothered to create new characters that worked very well and they each served a purpose. I find these two aspects to be the more jarring and quite honestly, laziest bits of writing that I have ever seen from Morrison and to be honest, it really ruins what could have been a great story. It’s just that the villains are so dull and full of absolutely nothing and it brings up so many questions, like what are they doing this for and why are they like this? There are loads of other aspects which don’t add in this that just get forgotten about. Like the relationship between Owlman and Superwoman. You’d think that would lead into something that becomes quite a big part of the story, but no, it is in the story for no reason. Also, another big one is the prison that Green Lantern and the rest of the JLA trap the Crime Syndicate in. You would think the JLA would look into their enemies more, making themselves aware about their powers and what their knowledge is before trapping them. I mean, Owlman basically gets out easily and causes a load of problems for the JLA, who really should have also trapped them in a more secure and hidden location. I mean, when they are on the moon, it is just like they are all thrown in a room together, no chains or cells. This is just plain stupid for JLA. It makes them look like idiots. So yeah, while I like the idea of the story, it is executed badly in some areas and the characters of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika are so dull and boring that it makes the whole story fall short and as if the production of the villains was rushed and half-ar*ed.
In terms of the artwork, it is pencilled and inked by Frank Quitely, who is a friend of Morrison’s and although I do very much like his art he produced on Batman and Robin and All-Star Superman (both written by Grant Morrison), I think here he is very much in his early stages as the anatomy and lighting is very rough and no where near as clean as he gets later on in his career. That said, I do like the new designs for the
Crime Syndicate, but I think the anatomy is strange and incredibly Frank Miller in places, but not to a messy and crap degree. Overall, the art does look good in some places, but it isn’t as good as Quitely got on his other titles that he drew, like Batman and Robin and All-Star Superman.
Story: 5.5/10
Art: 6.5/10
Island of the Mighty/Master of Light/Seconds to Go – Written by Grant Morrison with art by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines
THE PLOT
A terrorist organisation is attacking a city in Africa! But, the JLA aren’t present to stop the villains and because of that, the newly formed International Ultramarine Corps decide to go and help the innocent people. New member Knight and his sidekick Squire, who monitors Knight during his fight (both of whom are part of the Club of Heroes, also known as the Batmen of All Nations) help the civilians while Warmaker One goes straight for the terrorists. When looking for more of the villains, another member of the Corps, Jack O’Lantern discovers that the leaders of the terrorists is none other than Gorilla Grodd. He tells the heroes that he ate all of the hostages and threatens to do the same to the International Ultramarine Corps. But Knight manages
to give an electrical shock to Grodd and saves Jack O’Lantern from the grasps of Grodd. But after escaping him, the members of the group discover a weird cube which the heroes link to the old Justice League of America villain, Nebula Man (first appeared in Justice League of America (vol 1) 100 by Len Wein, Dick Dillin and Joe Giella). The Master (another Corps member) and Warmaker One use their sensing powers on the cube and find out that it is sentient, but then, Master is absorbed into the cube, which takes him into an unknown realm. After a lot more fighting with Grodd and Warmaker One becoming critically damaged, Batman gets a call from Squire, who begs for his help with Grodd and the Nebula cube. He agrees and tells Squire that he will be coming to help her. Before leaving, he asks Alfred if his flying saucer has arrived, which pretty much implies that Batman can buy anything he wants, whether it is pointless or not doesn’t matter, clearly. Back to Africa, Grodd reveals to the world that he has mind controlled the International Ultramarine Corps to destroy the humans (to obviously make the world full of monkeys and gorillas). He is also aided by The Mater, who is know being controlled by Nebula Man. Then, Batman manages to save Squire and he takes her to Pluto in his flying saucer, where he reveals that he has a load of JLA robots as the real JLA have been trapped in the strange black cube. Therefore, he plans to send out the JLA androids to help the International Ultramarine Corps.
Inside the Nebula Box (or whatever it is called), the JLA are completely lost and confused. But, Batman and Squire attempt to contact the JLA using a phone box in the dark box universe, but no members of the league respond, making their attempt a failure. This is because the phone was answered by a villain known as the Black Death, who the JLA were chasing and was hired by Gorilla Grodd to trap the JLA. Batman leaves Squire on the space station to keep trying to contact the JLA while he leaves with the robot JLA squad. Back to Africa, Grodd still has the International Ultramarine Corps trapped with their commander, Warmaker One now being completely destroyed. But the heroes attempt to make a counterattack on Grodd, but they are obviously betrayed by The Master (who is controlled by Nebula Man) who makes the International Ultramarine Corps surrender back to Grodd. After Grodd keeps telling Knight that he has failed and that the civilians are all dead, Batman arrives from above with his robot JLA team, which makes Grodd think that the Black Death had failed in his plan. But, of course, it doesn’t take long for the villains to find out that they aren’t the real JLA as The Master works out that they aren’t human, but robots. Batman is then knocked out, which makes Gorilla Grodd triumphant and happy that nothing can seemingly stop him. Back to the Nebula box universe, the JLA manage to take the ringing phone away from the Black Death and Superman hears Squire on the other side, who tells them to home in on a signal, which results in the JL being boom tubed back into the real world. The JLA arrive back to the regular universe and they are ready to go off and beat Grodd’s a*se.
After being controlled by Gorilla Grodd, the International Ultramarine Corps go about the world, causing chaos. But they are stopped and fought by members of the JLA, who have returned from being in the Nebula cube world. While Green Lantern (John Stewart) and the Flash go off to defeat Goraiko, Wonder Woman flies off in her invisible plane with Aquaman to the main headquarters of the Corps, but she is greeted by Vixen and another forgotten hero from the 1980s known as Fleur, who are also both controlled by the enemies and they attack Wonder Woman. Back to Grodd, he has trapped Batman over a fire, planning to cook an eat him. He also tells Batman about his plan to create millions of clones of himself and just as he is about to eat Batman, he is freed by the remains of Warmaker One’s robotic body and he manages to knock out Gorilla Grodd and ties him up. But, just as he does so, the controlled Knight and Jack O’Lantern confront Batman, ordering him to release Grodd. Wonder Woman, who is in the headquarters of the Corps, continues her fights with the controlled heroes, which now also contains the Tasmanian Devil, who Wonder Woman manages to defeat along with the other controlled heroes. After the military begin their pursuit on the African city, Superman fights Nebula Man, but he disappears, leaving a warning for Superman about an oncoming danger. He also tells Superman that he was made evil due to the presence of the Black Death being inside the cube. Finally, once it is over, Grodd is punished by Superman as he plans to send him to imprisonment in the Phantom Zone. Also, due to their failure, Superman tells the International Ultramarine Corps to go into the Nebula universe to protect it from further evil. The story ends with the International Ultramarine Corps going into the unknown realm of the Nebula Man universe.
MY THOUGHTS
As this story almost featured as his return to writing JLA, there are a number of things in it which you can really tell Morrison wanted to put in. For instance, I really think that Morrison enjoyed writing the Ultramarine Corps from JLA 24-26 and because of that, he decided to add new members to the team like Knight and Squire, who are worth mentioning the most due to how important they would become to Morrison.
This is because the original Knight and Squire were a part of the Batmen of All Nations team, which Morrison featured a lot in his Batman run and because of that, the Scottish Dynamic Duo work really well in this story as it makes readers curious about how they are and how important they will be in Morrison’s Batman stories. Also, I think that Morrison wanted to use both Gorilla Grodd and Nebula Man somewhere down the line in his run for the JLA. I mean, I think that Grodd comes across as goofier and funnier in this story rather than terrifying, which works in one regard in guess. With Nebula Man, Morrison probably very much liked Wein’s old JLA story and although he doesn’t really feature much in the story, it is nice to see him at least because he was a decent villain for league (as opposed to Epoch). The main plot itself is pretty simple and it doesn’t really take itself too seriously, which is definitely a plus. I mean, some of the funniest moments in the book have to be Gorilla Grodd cooking Batman over a fire on one of those turning sticks which you tended to see in Looney Tunes, which made me laugh a bit. Also, Batman’s random flying saucer that he has is pretty funny too, mainly because of how much unlike Batman that is to actually have. Other than that, the story is actually paced very well, making it so the storytelling is done well, and it isn’t just thrown in your face, which tends to be Morrison trait, particularly in One Million. Plus, it is also worth mentioning that the Green Lantern in this story is John Stewart, not Kyle Rayner. This is because this story was written and published several years after JLA: World War Three. But this is a good thing as to be honest, I found Kyle Rayner a completely dull character and John Stewart is miles better, hence why he is remembered more as Green Lantern than Kyle Rayner will ever be. Apart from that, I cannot think of anything else that is really good about this story because to be honest, quite simply put…
…it sucks. Right, the main plot of this is just boring as it is just your regular Gorilla Grodd story. He basically wants to use the International Ultramarine Corps to clone himself and make the whole world invested with gorillas… yeah… he wants that. Now not only is this the most regular plot for Grodd, but it tends to be the only plot that he has up his sleeves. Because of that, it is incredibly uninteresting, and I cannot take it seriously, not only because he is a giant gorilla that talks, but also because of the way he is portrayed throughout. I mean, Morrison writes him as a constantly hungry joke, and I can’t take the whole thing seriously because of that. In fact, one thing I don’t get is as he is talking giant strong gorilla, why does he need to have these terrorists with him, he can just take them apart himself or get some of his gorilla friends to help him. Also, I understand that he put the JLA in the Nebula universe thingy to get rid of them, but surely Grodd is aware that there are other heroes like the Teen Titans and Ultramarine Corps to stop him. I mean, for a gorilla that is meant to be very intelligent, that does come across as a bit stupid. Speaking of which, the whole Nebula thing just comes across as unclear and the Black Death character is just there and there really isn’t any conclusion to his part of the story. The same goes to Nebula Man himself, who gets thrown under the rug and just leaves, confusing not only Superman, but me as well. After looking into this, I found out that a lot of this actually ties into the Seven Soldiers of Victory series that Morrison wrote and it somehow links in. How? I don’t know, I haven’t read it and quite frankly, it looks like a mess and as most of the characters featured in his portrayal of the team aren’t actually a part of the original one, making it not really the Seven Soldiers. I could go on more about this, but that’s another topic for another day. Also, why did Superman tell the International Ultramarine Corps to go into the Nebula Man universe to protect it? Wouldn’t it have just been easier for the JLA to pick up the cubes and keep them safe? Leaving the Corps in that weird and stupid place just wastes more heroes. In that case also, how do Knight and Squire get out of the cube for Morrison’s run on Batman?! I think that I may be the only person that cares about that but still, it is something to consider. While I could go on more with the negatives, really, I can’t because I don’t remember some of it because of how dull the story actually is. If you want to read a good JLA Classified story, read the one that follows this, I Can’t Believe Its Not the Justice League (JLA Classified 4-9), by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis which is a funny and serious comic, reprising the great Justice League International period, which is a million times better than this will ever be.
McGuinness’s and Vines’s art in the story aren’t bad, in fact, there are areas which I would say it can look good. But, for of the time, faces can look strange and the muscles of the people can look out of whack, making the comic look very cartoony. But I’ll say one thing, they can certainly draw a good gorilla…
Story: 4/10
Art: 4.5/10
VERDICT
Overall, the stories which I like to call “The Morrison Oddities” range from above average to just plain sh*t in some instances. While JLA: Earth 2 is above average and does feature some excellent moments, it still falls short in a number of ways. The same applies to the JLA Classified 1-3 storyline, which may not have as many great moments that are of good quality, but it still comes across as dull and not very serious. And for JLA/WildC.A.T. s, that was simply a mess. To be honest, there are three things that these three stories have in common. Firstly, they all explore other realities and universes. Secondly, in each of the stories, there is a different team of characters, whether they are good, or evil doesn’t matter. Thirdly, all three of the stories lack character, which is what I most want from a story next to a decent plot. Without character, it will bore readers, just as JLA/WildC.A.T.s so did to me. So, to answer my question I asked earlier, are these stories as good as Morrison’s early JLA stories? I don’t think I need to answer the question…
Stories: 4.5/10
Art: 5.5/10
Highlighted Character: Batman (Bruce Wayne) (Mainly because of his flying saucer)
Next Review – Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters 1-3). Written by Mike Grell with art by Mike Grell and Lurene Haines. Expected to be published on 26/05/2019.
Comments