#jla critical

[wanderingmind867]

I do think the Justice League loses their sense of humanity after J'onn J'onzz and Snapper Carr are written out of the JLA comics. Not to sound like Green Arrow when he's being preachy, but the Justice League Watchtower is creepy. Sure, I liked it when I saw it on TV as a kid. But now I legitimately think the Hannah-Barbera Superfriends show had it more put together, with their Hall of Justice. The Avengers have it more put together, with Avengers Mansion in NYC. The Watchtower is creepy.

And let me explain why. In essence: it's because they're floating above us. Usually, being above someone makes it look like you're condescending to them. And it reads that way to me too. The JLA sits up in their floating tower, doing god knows what, and we're supposed to just sit there and accept that!? No! Get out of space, come back to earth, and learn to work with the people you're protecting! I think the JLA was better with Snapper Carr and J'onn J'onzz, because that era had them using a hidden mountain hideout in the US. And sure, it was hidden. But it was still on earth! They were still closer to real people!

Honestly though, I think the Justice League can only be as good as The Avengers if they accept the public attention. The Superfriends did it right. The JLA should just use the Hall of Justice. It's like the watchtower, but it's on the ground. It's better. Less condescending and creepy.

[ravenpureforever]

On one hand, Young Justice is kind of neglected by the actual superheroes that should be looking out for them in a lot of crucial ways and very much failed by the adults around them

But on the other hand Red Tornado straight up hosts a parent-teacher conference where their respective legal guardians all show up, barring Batman who’s in traffic so Nightwing fills in instead because Robin’s dad does not know he’s a vigilante which is objectively hilarious

[isa-mierel]

Can I trust some acotar fans to help me?

Please fellow acotar fans, I need help, and yall love to fight, so here you go

(I know about the tags, I just need to reach as many people as possible)

[televisionlassie]

I actually can’t handle Batman Stans like “Batman slams” no he doesn’t. I’m genuinely tweaking over this send help

[batfsm]

Nope, nope, NOPE!

Bruce is just as strong if not stronger. Bruce has lived with his trauma and keeps going evn longer than Barbara.

Not to mention she is a creep. She literally had cameras throughout Dick's apartment, is put with his little brothers, which if we say her and Bruce is a big no, so is this, gets fucking jealous of Dick having a life outside of her but when he gets jealous of her 'friends' he's told off? She also should be getting in trouble for some of the things she does/did as Oracle that Batman gets in trouble for but she seems to not be. (I think I saw he gets told off for going into personal files and information but she isn't. I can't remember where.)

Yeah, no. Screenrant, you are so far up Babs ass it isn't funny. This is fucking stupid.

That Babs is able to use the ring without issue is actually a huge detail, especially in comparison to Batman. When Batman once tried to use a Green Lantern ring, he was unable to do so. Hal Jordan explained to him that, in order to use the ring, one must also embrace their trauma: "You can't forget it, but you can [...] live with it." But Batman is not ready to just "live" with his trauma and rejects the use of the ring. Barbara, on the other hand, experienced an extremely traumatic event when she was shot through the spine by the Joker. But here she is able to use a Green Lantern ring without any issue — for multiple years

So because Bruce can't get over it but Barbara can, she gets a ring? What about Dick? He's been through a lot and does he get one? Does anyone else get one?

What the fuck? This is how she got her mobility back? For real?

Babs is fully capable of accepting her trauma and learning to live with it. This isn't particularly surprising, considering her role as the hero Oracle: someone who helps and saves people on a level Babs never could as Batgirl. Batman's trauma is what turned him into a hero, but it's also what's been preventing him from living his life as he truly should. But Batgirl uses her trauma to become a better hero — in one case, even as a Green Lantern — which shows that Barbara Gordon might just be a stronger hero than Batman.

Jesus Christ, they really hate Bruce don't they?

Bruce is literally using his trauma to change the fucking world but no, he can't get over it so he's not strong enough.

Christ above did DC forget that Bruce becomes Batman and stays Batman so other children doesn't have to go through what he did? That just because he can't 'live' with his trauma doesn't mean he isn't strong. He's one of the strongest heroes BECAUSE he keeps going. BECAUSE HE FUCKING CARES!

Christ, I love Babs but this hero worship of her by DC is making me want to throw up.

[queenretcon]

Interesting to me that most of the criticism I’ve seen of welcome to smallville is also criticism you can make of JLI that largely isn’t made because people put it on a pedestal and don’t actually engage with it

[artbyblastweave]

I've been reading through some of your old asks since I remembered you were where I heard about Worm, and recently you wrote about how "deconstructions" of the superhero genre are often uniformed and lazy pastiche from people who seem to have not bothered engaging seriously with the source material. (There's a great quote from Ursula Le Guin about writers and critics all too often disregarding genre fiction, hence why the literati alll thought Harry Potter was original back in the day)

But you made the point that big two comics have been dealing with most of the plot holes in the genre for decades, and cited a few specific examples. I'm by no means a new comer to comics but I've largely stayed away from big two, and so I'm wondering, if you are so inclined, if you could share what you consider "required reading" to help me get started?

It seems like a fascinating thing to read about, and I love tracing genre histories.

Yesterday I finally finished a long long rec-list for @worlds-smallest-creature, which was a mix of foundational texts and stuff I personally thought was neat. I'm going to pare down and amend the list to ten comics that are particularly useful for getting a feel of the Big-Two space; comics that, if you read them, will instantly make significant portions of the references and in-jokes much more legible. Note that this does not universally map to high quality, ( though it does for most of them) just utility for understanding the genre and the space as it stands:

Watchmen: By Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The big deconstructionist comic, most directly in conversation with the two-and-a-half generations of superheroes that had been published when it first came out in 1985. This is the comic all other superhero deconstructions have been chasing and it's tonally informed basically everything that's come after.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Frank Miller and Klaus Janson. The other big deconstructionist superhero comic of the 1980s. While nothing in it is actually canon, it hugely (and arguably negatively) informed the writing of Batman as a dark-gritty-anti-hero and gave rise to the endemic "Batman vs Superman in a fight to the finish" thing; like Watchmen, it's also a rumination on what went unsaid politically in the Silver Age of Comics. Huge amounts of the Batman Mythos are either repudiating this or parroting this, for better or for worse.

Marvels: Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's gorgeously painted retelling of the first 30 years of the history of the Marvel Universe from the perspective of a photojournalist, from the first appearance of superheroes in the 30s to roughly the start of the Bronze Age. In addition to being a comic about the existential horror of being a normal person living in a world with Big Two superhero dynamics, it's also an excellent primer of the major players and plot beats from the front half of Marvel's publication history.

JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek and George Perez: One of the last intercontinuity crossovers published by Marvel and DC before they started circling the wagons on their respective IP. A major thrust of the piece is the two teams reacting with horror to the business-as-usual of their counterparts universe, in a way that's meant to highlight the historical differences in writing trends between the two; it also contains basically Every Single Superhero Who'd Ever Been Published Up Until 2004, making it a pretty useful who's-who birdspotting guide of both settings.

Astro City by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross: An anthology series set in a constructed pastiche Big-Two universe, following the lives of dozens to hundreds of characters as they make their way in the titular Astro City, the longstanding superhero capital of the world. Because the setting contains direct pastiches (and therefore commentary) on basically every significant Hero and general archetype who shows up in both Marvel and DC, and because every one-or-two issue vignette is usually in direct conversation with a specific trope or standing question raised by those characters and those settings, blowing through as much Astro City as you can will allow you to infer huge chunks of the decades-long history that it was written in conversation with- the type of characters who were published in each decade, the type of adventures they were going on in the 60s vs the 30s vs the 90s, and so on.

(Is this three things in a row by Kurt Busiek, you ask? Yes, because he's basically the on-call "thoughtfully root around in the guts of the architecture of Big Two Superhero Comics" guy.)

JLA (1997) By Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. This one was an ongoing, and it presents an interesting balancing act between being, essentially, a platonic example of the thing- no aggressive deconstruction, just a through and through superhero comic that balances accessibility to new readers, high-quality, high concept stories, deliberately enmeshing itself in remixed high-context deep-cuts from the silver-age, and having all sorts of odd little inscrutable asides that are the result of weird decisions being made in other books. Superman's blue and has lightning powers, roll with it. There's an Angel From The Actual Bible hanging around because they couldn't get the rights to Hawkman, roll with it. This thing is essentially training wheels for the reality that almost any big-two ongoing worth reading for any reason is doomed to be jerked around and informed by the larger editorial context at the time, which you might only know bits and pieces of going in; a sufficiently gripping comic will reel you in regardless.

Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and a whole bunch of artists. Claremont's run from the 70s to the 90s was a development site of a huge number of enduring cape tropes- in particular a lot of the ones related to superpowered factionalism, dialing in on relatively specific and well-defined powersets applied to problems in a puzzle-logic kind of way, shoring up the "Mutant Metaphor" as a parallel to civil rights movements, and a lot of stuff related to bad futures and time travel. By virtue of the amount of time he spent in creative control of the book it coheres better than the average big two thing (though that's not necessarily the same thing as it being universally good.) To this day the genre is plastered in the thumbprints of Days of Future Past and The Dark Phoenix Saga, so those will both be useful context.

Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. A reboot and retelling of Spider-Man for a 21st century audience, which was so meteorically successful that the Ultimate Universe- a condensed, lean, and heavily politically barbed reboot of all of Marvel's major properties- was spun off from it. On top of being a very good comic, Bendis's background in crime fiction writing, decompressed style and ear for naturalistic dialogue became something of a house style at Marvel for a while and heavily influenced the space generally; the DNA of this one can be found all over the place. This remains probably the best self-contained Spider-Man run ever produced.

The Authority By Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. The premiere cool new superteam of the late 90s/early oughts; paradoxical revolutionary authoritarians willing to lay waste with abandon to all the evils of the world that normally go untouched or get off with a slap on the wrist. This book was extremely stylistically important in its embrace of a cinematic 'widescreen" pacing intended to make the comic feel like a breakneck blockbuster movie, and significant chunks of what was to come over the next decade ate its lunch stylistically. This team evolved out of Stormwatch, a Jim-lee 90s-antihero outing that Ellis took over with issue 37, hollowed out and wore like a skinsuit in order to write the same kind of genre commentary spec-fic story he liked to. Ellis's work on that run is useful context for The Authority, and a pretty good read, but not strictly necessary.

The Ultimates V1 and V2 By Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Millar was the guy who took over The Authority from Ellis after issue 12, and The Ultimates- the version of the Avengers created for the above-mentioned Ultimate Universe- was his attempt to create a superhero team with essentially the reverse characterization from The Authority. Where The Authority were quasi-left-anarchist mavericks willing to coup the president if that's where their fight against evil took them, The Ultimates were characterized as a gaggle of incompetent, jingoistic stooges who solved only slightly more problems than they personally created, backed Bush to the hilt with the illegal invasion of Iraq, and represented a massive escalation in an international superhuman arms race that was implied to be on course to end the world. Because of the book's massively uncharitable characterization of literally every member of the Avengers lineup with the exception of Thor, and because of Millar's deep-seated edgelord sensibilities, this book is regarded poorly by many. (I like it as satire.) However, it (and the rest of Ultimate Marvel) represent the single biggest aesthetic influence on basically every Superhero film of the 2000s onward and the MCU in particular- despite arguably being an aggressive attack on the enterprise the MCU would become.

I'll round the list out with Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos. This was Bendis's other keys-to-the-kingdom-granting outing at Marvel. A noire piece following Jessica "Jewel" Jones, a retired superheroine-turned-PI, as she roots around in the dirty laundry at the outer edge of the superhero community; similar to Astro City in how it uses "edge-case questions" about how superhero settings would work as the launchpad for sad (and frequently anticlimactic) little excursions about the Human Condition. The DNA of this one is also floating around in the space.

Happy Reading!

[eiralunaire]

Damian, after returning from a solo mission to Titan Tower, learns that his partner Reader was sent on a mission to Spain without informing him.

Damian Wayne returned to Titan Tower after a solitary mission, his mind occupied with the reports he had to deliver and the strategies he was already planning for future operations. Although he had managed to eliminate those responsible for a trafficking ring in Gotham, he felt that something was not right. There had been a bad feeling in the air since he left the city.

As he landed on the roof of Titan Tower, the engines of the customized jet shut down with a high-pitched whistle. The sound of the night was dense, an uncomfortable silence. As soon as he got off the jet, Damian activated the communicator he wore on his wrist, looking for information from his team and, above all, from Reader. Normally, she was the one who made sure to greet him as soon as he arrived, sometimes with a smile or some witty quip, but on this occasion there was no sign of her.

The lights of the tower shone through the large windows that surrounded the main room. There was no sign of the other Titans. Everything was quiet. Too quiet.

As he entered, he was greeted by the Tower’s AI.

“Welcome, Damian Wayne,” he said in his usual monotone.

Damian moved with purposeful steps, his eyes searching the monitors for any hint of activity. He began typing, looking for recent mission and assignment reports. One of the files on the screen caught his attention: **Reader – International Mission – Spain**.

His jaw tightened as he saw the location. **Spain. Why didn’t he know about this?** He typed faster, accessing the mission details.

**Subject: Support in covert operations**

**Location: Barcelona, ​​Spain**

**Operation in progress: Investigation and neutralization of developing metahuman threat.**

The feeling in his stomach intensified. Damian frowned as he read more details. The team had been sent without his knowledge, and it bothered him deeply. He always made sure Reader was safe. Her going on an international mission while he wasn't present wasn't something he liked, nor would he allow if he'd known about it.

He activated the Titans' communicator, looking to contact whoever was available, but there was no immediate response. Finally, a familiar voice appeared.

"Damian, is everything okay?" It was Nightwing, who seemed to be in the middle of another mission.

"Why was Reader sent to Spain?" Damian asked, his tone direct and cutting.

"I figured... you already heard." Nightwing paused, perhaps considering how to approach the situation. "It was a last-minute decision. The team in Europe needed urgent support and she volunteered. You know she's one of the best at covert operations."

"That's no excuse for not informing me," Damian snapped, his patience already at its limit. "I should have known."

Nightwing sighed on the other end of the line.

“I understand your frustration, but you were on a critical mission and a quick response was needed. There was no time to discuss it with you.”

Damian clenched his fists. He couldn’t help but feel like information had been deliberately withheld from him. Reader was skilled, he knew that better than anyone, but that didn’t lessen his concern for her. The idea that she was on the other side of the ocean, facing who knows what kind of threat, unsettled him more than he was willing to admit.

“Do you know what the current situation is?” he asked, his fingers moving quickly over the keyboards, tracking down any updates on the mission.

“The latest report indicates that they’re close to neutralizing the threat, but they’ve had complications. Some of the local forces weren’t prepared to deal with a metahuman of that magnitude.”

“How many are with her?” Damian insisted, trying to remain calm.

“The European team is supporting her, as well as some JLA agents.” Reader is leading the operation in the field, but communications have been intermittent due to the technological interference the target has been causing.

Damian cursed under his breath. He couldn’t stand the thought of being so far away and not being able to make sure everything was under control. **Reader is capable. Reader is strong.** But that didn’t mitigate the fear.

“I’m going to Spain,” he said, determined.

“Damian, listen…” Nightwing tried to intervene. “If you go now, you could put the mission at risk. Trust that she knows what she’s doing.”

“I’m not asking for your approval,” he replied coldly. “Just informing you.”

He ended the communication before Nightwing could respond. He was upset, but more than that, he was uneasy. He and Reader didn’t just share a personal relationship; there was a deeper connection between them, something he couldn’t ignore. He wouldn’t leave her alone in hostile territory, not while he had the means to reach her.

Quickly, he headed to the Tower's hangar. His jet was already ready for another mission, so he wasted no time getting on. Although he knew it could take a few hours to get there, he wouldn't let that time lapse weaken him. He felt responsible for her safety, and it wasn't just because of his role as a leader. Reader had accomplished what few people in his life could: break the barriers he had erected since he was a child.

As the jet took off, Damian connected to the international communication channels, trying to get any signal from Spain. However, as Nightwing had mentioned, the interference made it impossible. There was nothing but silence.

Damian's thoughts flew back to the first time he met her, how, from the beginning, something about her had attracted him. Her intelligence, her ability to stand firm in any situation, her constant willingness to help others. She was a person who knew how to handle herself in risky situations, and she often faced them without hesitation. And yet, something about this mission made him uneasy.

Time seemed to drag as he crossed the Atlantic. The constant roar of the jet's engines was the only sound that accompanied him. Damian checked and re-checked every detail of the mission he had been able to obtain. Barcelona was a complicated city for this type of operation. Its dense infrastructure and narrow streets could become a dangerous battlefield, especially if they were dealing with an unpredictable metahuman.

Finally, the jet began to descend on the outskirts of the city. Night was falling over Barcelona, ​​the city lights flickering in the distance like a million little fires. Damian adjusted his equipment, preparing for landing. Time was of the essence. He had no further details of the mission, but he didn't need them. His only priority was to find Reader and make sure he was safe.

As soon as he set foot on the ground, he activated the tracker he had installed on his equipment before leaving. It was a discreet device used by the Titans to keep track of each other during missions. However, when he tried to locate Reader, the device showed nothing.

**Interference. Damn.**

Damian moved nimbly through the streets, staying in the shadows as he went. He used his contacts in the city to obtain more information. According to local reports, the riots had reached a fever pitch in the Raval neighborhood. A confrontation between a covert operations group and a being with metahuman abilities had caused chaos.

With that information in mind, he quickly headed towards the location. The streets were empty, the lights flickered, and the air was charged with a strange electricity. Damian felt that every second was vital. Finally, he reached the cordoned off area. From a tall building, he observed what was happening next.

The confrontation was taking place right in one of the main squares. In the distance, he could make out the operational team fighting to keep at bay a metahuman who seemed to control electrical energy on a large scale. Lightning crackled everywhere, lighting up the night with blue flashes.

And there, in the middle of the chaos, was Reader.

She moved with the grace of someone who had trained hard for this kind of situation. Her focus was absolute, but Damian could see the exhaustion on her face. She was using her skills, but the enemy was formidable, more so than anyone had anticipated.

Without wasting any time, Damian leapt onto the battlefield. Within seconds, he was already at Reader’s side, blocking one of the attacks headed her way.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, surprised but relieved to see him.

“I wasn’t going to leave you alone in this,” he replied, his eyes fixed on the enemy as he prepared his next move. “We’re going to finish this together.”

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

I'm back after being away for a week, ah. now I need ideas to make more scenarios.

[autisticrosewilson]

Yes!! This exactly!

There is no misunderstanding at the core of Jason and Bruce's conflict. Sure, their inability to communicate and various complexes play a part, but that's not the main issue.

Jason was murdered, and the man who killed him is still filling graves. Jason was a sidekick, murdered in the suit by one of his villains, and not only was there another Robin when he came back - a second Robin had already died.

There are maybe nuances here, but there is no misunderstanding. Jason was very clear, that Batman doesn't work because big criminals no longer fear him. That just handing them over to a justice system GLOBALLY AND UNDENIABLY KNOWN AS CORRUPT AND OPPRESSIVE isn't fucking effective. How could Jason trust Bruce to avenge Gotham if he wouldn't even avenge his son? This is the core conflict.

No amount of clarification or talking it out or truth serum or whatever would fix that. Bruce wanted to kill the Joker? Too bad, doesn't change that he's still alive. Dick did kill the Joker? And then he felt guilty for it, and Bruce brought the monster back. Joker has diplomatic immunity! You guys are already illegal vigilantes and Batman is the head of the fucking justice league - widely known as Earth's main protectors - you have actual gods on speed dial, Bruce's fuckin ex father in law/mentor almost certainly has assassins staged in every government position on earth, and it's hardly the first time someone thought Batman was killing people, so actually that's such a laughable excuse Jason deserves to strangle Bruce to death for even thinking of it.

I liked Juni Ba's writing of Jason until Damian showed up,and it's not even that I don't like their dynamic, it's only when they started talking about Bruce that they lost me.

In the simplest possible terms, Jason can't go back to the bats because he kills. He is going to keep killing because he doesn't believe in Bruce's methods. To stop killing is him prioritizing his family over his desire to help people. If you write a version of Jason where he doesn't believe that what he's doing is necessary and justified, you are writing him out of character. You have changed the main point of his character and fundamentally misunderstood the conflict to begin with.

"He lectured me for a few hours" He beat Jason until he was unconscious while Jason wasn't even fighting back Without even checking for Penguins pulse and then told him that sometimes Jason needs the sense knocked into him.

Do you see why that doesn't fucking work now? Do you see why the "Bruce still loves Jason, he can go home any time!" Falls apart? I don't doubt that in his own way, Bruce does love Jason. At least, a version of him. Sometimes love isn't enough, because no matter how much Bruce loves Jason he'll never prioritize him over his code, so it ceases to matter.

[brucewaynehater101]

Tim who had the watchtower/super hero substitute treehouse built so Batman can have relatively healthy socialization also eggs on the baking rivalry that develops between Alfred and Ma Kent as part of his multi step plan to direct Batman towards developing a wider social circle than Superman who, again, Tim does not fully approve of as a good influence on Batman. He appreciates that Batman shouldn't kill and that Superman helped that much but otherwise is unimpressed with the kryptonian. Basically the only things Superman could do to make it up to Tim would be first, sincerely apologizing to Kon accompanied by actively being better and second lobotomizing the Joker. Unfortunately Superman has yet to realize he needs to make up anything to Tim. Thus Ma Kent will continue to receive cook books and high end baking supplies from anonymous sources as well as strategic praise and comparisons to Alfred's baking from various heroes and Alfred will receive similar praise and criticism and Bruce and Clark will both receive uncomfortable questions from both sides about which pie or cake or cookie he liked better.

Tim having monthly tea parties with Queen Hippolyta in a neutral location to talk about how Diana is doing, again as part of the plan for Bruce to have good social influences in his life. Cassie helped him arrange it. Queen Hippolyta mothers Tim a bit because she's experiencing a little empty nest syndrome and while Tim is a boy, he's very polite and didn't invade her home and brings treats he either bought or made himself (he's not dragging Hippolyta into the baking beef). Tim reacts better to this than he would if someone attempted to act fatherly to him as she does so in small doses and in a manner that is slightly softer than Janet and is thus nostalgic.

Tim will find the parental figures in the JLA's lives and he will make connections. He is trying very hard not to be Bruce's entire (functioning) support system.

Ma Kent and Alfred should have a very fierce rivalry over food. The competition should be intense, yet they still care about one another. They'll switch in seconds from casually chatting about their sons and gardening to very pointed insults about the other's cooking.

Tim dragging Bruce's friends' parents into that man's support circle is hilarious and amazing. He will ensure that Batman will be up against crowds of friends and their parents the next time he decides to go on another crime-fighting bender.

Also, it could be healthy overall for in-the-know parents of heroes to have their own support group. They can get advice and comfort from others. Yes, some of the parents aren't exactly "civilians," but the group is geared towards parents of first generation "heroes," (though other generations of parents of heroes are welcome as well). There are a lot of nuances, laws, and issues pertaining to being a public hero.

Tim should have beef with Superman. Let that teen continually give the man glares of disappointment and disproval at the hero's back (which Clark feels but can't pinpoint the origin), and then his face smooths back to neutral whenever the man looks at him. Tim is a professional, after all. I think Jason and Tim could bond over this when they start getting along.

[isfjmel-phleg]

(Young Justice 1998 #41)

Two of Secret's friends (she's more focused on one in particular, who had once made her a promise never to leave her, but still. two of them) have recently left the team, and she's not handling it well. She refuses to leave headquarters in case they decide to come back. And while her response is extreme and irrational, her fears are very real and understandable. She's been alone for so long. Her own brother murdered her and is the reason she's trapped in this mist form. She made a huge leap of faith deciding to trust the three boys who were sent to contain her, they became her friends, and now most of them have walked out of her life.

And Kon's not wrong, and he means well, but he's failing to understand where she's coming from. But if he could, he'd probably see a lot of himself in what she's feeling. He too was in a position where he didn't have the option to change--he couldn't age past sixteen, and as much as he tried to play this off as an advantage (as he does during the campout in Young Justice 1998 #7 when Secret tries to bond with him over their common struggles), it bothered him. A lot. He was having nightmares about things like his friends growing up and joining the JLA and leaving him behind. Very much like what Secret is dealing with--the dread of losing your support system because they've moved on without you, outgrown you, found something better, don't need you anymore.

(Superboy 1994 #42)

Greta and Kon in many ways are two different flavors of the same thing. There's a lot they could be able to relate to in each other, but they repeatedly fail to because his ego and her harshly critical side tend to clash. So it piles on to all the other failures to connect that make it easier for Secret to go wrong.

But they could have understood each other. They could have had a real conversation about it. I'd like to think they get the chance to after she is restored to life and needs to rebuild those relationships.

[wanderingmind867]

I do think the Justice League loses their sense of humanity after J'onn J'onzz and Snapper Carr are written out of the JLA comics. Not to sound like Green Arrow when he's being preachy, but the Justice League Watchtower is creepy. Sure, I liked it when I saw it on TV as a kid. But now I legitimately think the Hannah-Barbera Superfriends show had it more put together, with their Hall of Justice. The Avengers have it more put together, with Avengers Mansion in NYC. The Watchtower is creepy.

And let me explain why. In essence: it's because they're floating above us. Usually, being above someone makes it look like you're condescending to them. And it reads that way to me too. The JLA sits up in their floating tower, doing god knows what, and we're supposed to just sit there and accept that!? No! Get out of space, come back to earth, and learn to work with the people you're protecting! I think the JLA was better with Snapper Carr and J'onn J'onzz, because that era had them using a hidden mountain hideout in the US. And sure, it was hidden. But it was still on earth! They were still closer to real people!

Honestly though, I think the Justice League can only be as good as The Avengers if they accept the public attention. The Superfriends did it right. The JLA should just use the Hall of Justice. It's like the watchtower, but it's on the ground. It's better. Less condescending and creepy.

[shoot-i-messed-up]

pspsps..... you should say your clarkollie thoughts....... im lady mcbething u...... prettee pls :3

TY FOR ASKING <33 but it’s honestly just my various thoughts on Clark showing up in Green Arrow (2001), most of which I’ve already said before I think

Because iirc Clark was the last person who saw Ollie, and Clark could’ve technically saved Ollie at the price of Ollie losing his arm and not being able to shoot anymore, so Oliver died

So even after Ollie reunites w the rest of the JL, Clark and Ollie have a special scene where Ollie’s like “we both need this” and they’re just like gimlet eyed looking at each other, and I feel like it’s SO easy to envision a fic where it leads in with that line and then they fuck nasty about it (metaphorically) (but also maybe literally)

When I was talking to my friend about clarkollie and how insane that line sounded, she was like… so they literally just care about each other as people. And I couldn’t even defend them, hence my reblog of that post

I did look at the clarkollie tag and saw, to my complete surprise, that there’s actually hundreds of clarkollie fics??? Like 3 or 4 times the amount that superlantern has??? Until I realized oh. That’s bc of Smallville. If u take out smallville, Clarkollie only has like 3 fics iirc

(I’m talking abt comics clarkollie, in case that wasn’t apparent before lmao)

I think Clarkollie is interesting because, like, usually when Clark goes around with a powerless fellow superhero, it’s going to be Bruce/Batman (who always gets gassed up by comics or shows as being so smart that he’s equal to Clark) or even Steel AKA John Henry Irons (whose Iron Man ahh suit basically means he does have superpowers in practice)

But Superman going around with Green Arrow? I think there’s room for thinking about that power dynamic that could cause friction in their already kinda tenuous relationship. I swear somewhere in a comic, Superman says a line about how he and Ollie never got along (that I then stole for my fic Embarcation), and it’s pretty clear from Green Arrow (2001) that Ollie thinks of Superman as being adjacent to The Man he’s always trying to stick it to. There’s also that panel from like the 80’s or smth iirc (I am probs not) where Ollie is like “sometimes I wonder if the rest of the JLA are just humoring me and giving me easy missions because I’m literally just a guy with a bow,” and Superman is so…the opposite of that. Idk. Food for thought.

There’s also the fact that Ollie is infamously leftist, and while I do think Superman has to be leftist because of…everything about him (I can’t remember exactly, but I believe his very first adventure was him breaking into a senator’s house to tell him a person on death row was innocent or something along those lines), I think in modern times, he’s been written to be more constrained in his political actions in his superhero persona due to being a symbol. I could easily imagine Ollie criticizing Clark for not doing more activism, for not using his symbol for more. Like instead of in Hard Traveling Heroes where Ollie teaches Hal to be less ignorant (a horrible oversimplification but bear with me), Ollie could help Clark find a stronger balance between being a symbol and using that symbol for good? (Although I think “help” would be a strong word there)

Also, In Green Arrow 2001 Dinah tells a woman that “the good [men] do the dishes” iirc, a pointed statement against Oliver. It reminds me of that tweet that criticizes “leftist” men who leave their household chores/management to their gfs/wives, much like their conservative counterparts. I think this is an interesting contrast to depictions of married!Clark where he’s a loyal and dutiful husband to Lois.

In conclusion: Idk!!! Could be interesting!! I would find clarkollie more interesting as friends than lovers, but I’m using the ship name just because it’s easier to talk about that dynamic that way.

[fredricwertham]

The fight in N52 Nightwing 30 is pretty much ground 0 for cynical interpretations of Dick’s relationship with Bruce and it wouldn’t have gone over nearly as poorly as it did if happened in the preboot era. In preboot, Bruce & Dick were equals. This was established through Dick’s time as Batman during prodigal, which ends with him chastising Bruce for his emotional immaturity [picture of Bruce’s face superimposed over the Robin costume in the good soldier memorial], and re-established during Reborn, which ends with them cohabiting the cowl [picture of a Bruce & Dick standing next to each other in the same costume]. Everything that takes place between Dick & Bruce after Dick was reclaimed by Bat editorial takes place in the context of an egalitarian relationship in spite of the fact that Bruce had previously played a parent, mentor, whateveryouwanttocallit role in his life. This is true no matter how bad it gets between them. Dick had also established strong relationships with other characters in and outside of Gotham, including ones who matter outside of his solo title, meaning that Bruce wasn’t his only option. It was his choice to stick with him.

However, the underpinning rationality of N52 Gotham is that editorial wanted to put Bruce back in the role of undisputed patriarch/sole protagonist of Bat-stories. Technically, this is a trend that started during War Games (the first big Bat event after DiDio took over, and which removes both Dick and Babs from their leadership positions among the group) but was disrupted by Bruce’s death & Dick’s subsequent stint as Batman.

In any case, N52 stripped Dick of his post-crisis accomplishments in order to reinstate the Bronze Age status quo. He’s younger, we never see him achieve much of anything concrete, and most importantly he doesn’t have any of the social connections that defined his predecessor. The only person N52 Dick was close enough with to be shown mourning his death on the page is Alfred. And there is just… an enormous difference between that fight scene taking place between Batman and an almost-but-never-quite 30 year old who’s lead his own team (critically, the NTT Titans were a deliberate counterpoint to the Justice League as opposed to a JLA Jr.) and is more respected (or at least better liked) than Bruce by many of their peers, and the same scene taking place between Batman and a socially isolated 20-ish who’s only recently moved away from home, hasn’t done much of anything with his life, and seems to have trouble forming close relationships.

And then there’s this tertiary aspect where the audience can’t pretend it’s taking place in the same continuity as preboot (although King et al. reference and rely heavily upon preboot events throughout Grayson) because the whole plot depends on the people not being able to connect Dick to Bruce’s, whereas preboot trained its audience to understand that knowing Nightwing’s (or DickRobin’s) secret identity was as good as knowing that Batman was Bruce Wayne. Eg. in the first Batman/Deathstroke crossover, the comic establishes that Slade and Wintergreen are on friendly terms with Dick in order to explain why they know Bruce is Batman.

[frankendykes-monster]

This isn't necessarily a criticism of the story itself but more an acknowledgement of its limitations; reading JLA/Avengers makes you acutely aware of the fact that The Avengers have historically never been the epicenter of Marvel comics in the same that the Justice League has for DC. There's many reasons for this but from the start, Fantastic Four was the beginning of the "Marvel Universe" proper, and The Avengers debuted alongside X-Men, so there was competition for top spot and they didn't win out until the mid-2000's. For JLA/Avengers specifically, what this means is you get a comic where Superman and Batman have major roles, but on the other side of things, Spider-Man and The Hulk are functionally cameos and about as important as, say, uhhhh, let me look at the cover for #3 and pick out a Marvel character no one cares about. Uhhhhh, not The Whizzer that's skewing a little too low. Uhhhh Firestar? Hellcat? Sure.

[popculturebuffet]

Supermay! What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way? (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy kryptonains and welcome back to supermay, a month long tribute to all things man of steel. This week is a two parter as we look at one of the best superman comics of all time, one of the best one shot issues of all time and one of the best deconstructions of "Why don't heroes do whatever they want and kill whoever they want" of all time. I'm not softballing it: this issue is fantastic. We'll also be looking at it's adaptation later this week, the DTV film Superman Vs the Elite.

For now though we're focusing on the original story. What's So Funny... was originally published in 2001 in Action Comics 775, written by Joe Kelly and drawn by Doug Mankhe and Lee Bermejo.

For those not familiar with him Kelly is a comics legend, having helped define deadpool with his first solo book and coming back to the character quite a bit without the dimnishing returns creators sometimes have. He also founded animation studio Man of Action and is one of the co-creators of both Ben 10 and Generator Rex.

Kelly wrote superman for a 5 year run, a nice stretch all things considered and one I wish, like most of 90's and 2000's superman would get recollected. Or at the very least hopefully is on dc universe infinite. It's not AS good as having collections out there, but it's something. But if his stories are anywhere near this good, i'd love to see more of them.

Kelly wrote What's So Funny as a direct response to another book DC was publishing at the time: The Authority. The Authority were created by emotinally abusive grooming coersive dickhead Warren Ellis and entirely good dude Bryan Hitch. I bring up the latter because Hitch seems genuinely kind and deserves his flowers... and the former because it shouldn't be forgotten. Ellis hasn't genuinely atoned, deserved to loose everything he did, and while his talent shouldn't be forgotten, it's only because his talent is WHY he was able to do this. If we suddenly go "Oh he always sucked", it undercuts HOW he was able to do this. Most people he abused were fans of his and it's worth remembering he was talented.. and must ALWAYS be remembered what he choose to use said talent to do to people. I won't go into details as to avoid triggering those of you who have been simiarly abused, but if your curious go to somanyofus.com. What testimonals I have read are heartbreaking.

As for the Authority itself, it was a followup to Ellis' run on storm watch, a book created by Jim Lee about a UN Sanctioned super team that Ellis helped transform, adding in some new creations of his own to revitalize the team. The book was a critical hit and loved at the offices of Wildstorm, the company that published stormwatch and would soon be bought by DC. The problem was it wasn't selling, and Ellis, both feeling bad they were keeping the book around just because of him and wanting to take things up a notch, reconfigured the team into the authority.

The Authority was a massively powerful team, assembled to face massive threats like an army of supermen dispatched by a mad dictator, a colonliast alien-italian empire that wanted to take earth, and God itself who turned out to be an elder god wanting to restore earth to factory settings. Hitch's art made things feel BIG and cinematic, his specality, and helped show just how big comics could be alongside other works before it (JLA) and after it (New X-Men).

The team had swagger, cool powers.. and most important to this story.. no problem with killing. The team carved their way through armies of enemies, killing whoever they had to and in the first two arcs comitted mass murder: Midnighter, the team's batman and biggest asshole, drove their ship through a country just to get at the first arc's big bad, while the Doctor, their magic man and only able to get away with the name because Doctor Who hadn't been revivied just yet, killed all of alternate italy to destroy an alien empire. These steps weren't taken lightly and were only taken because otherwise more death would follow, but it was clear the team weren't meant to be good guys: simply the only ones who COULD do the job.

This changed with the following run, and I read both Ellis' run and the first two arcs of it's followup for proper context. I ddin't necessarily half to and Brotoman didn't ask and was honestly shocked I put in this much extra effort... but I realized if your going to disect a work calling out the other work, you need to have a fresh understanding of what it's fighting against.

So Ellis' run was followed up by comics legend Mark Millar. Millar seems to be a nice guy nowadays, fun to be around, lvoes the buisness, keeps going simply because he can and with one of the largest creator owned rosters of characters around.

In the 2000's though and for most of his career.. Millar was the king of the edgelords. he was the threw it on the ground guy as an actual tangible person. Millar's idea of adult storytelling was some genuine political comentary idaes.. mixed with a lot of sex and violence for the sake of sex and violence, using senstive topics like sexual assault simply to seem "edgy". So naturally the Authority went from "assholes to a point but with limits" to every last one of them saying edgelord shit, mowing down everyone in their path and LOVING it, and fucking everyone they could because Mark Millar likes ot scream

In your ear while doing nothing to prove he's not a 13 year old boy in a grown up's body. And please note I would gladly review Millar's shit as much as it frustrates me, but will never cover anything by Ellis as long as he lives, as I do not want to give that fucker any more attention than I have to, despite my reactoin to reading the first arc of the authority under him being a resounding

To give you an idea of what I had to put up with dialouge wise, here's a samping from the first four issues of Millar's run.

There's more and the bad guys are even worse, but i'd rather not throw that in here on the grounds that I LIKE you guys and I don't want to throw unecessary edgelord bollocks in here that might trigger some of you who've geninely gone through things Millar brings up just to seem more "adult".

So that's where the authority were at, and it's impressive that things escalated so much in four issues less than a YEAR before What's So Funny was published> It's why I read what I did: It's what would've been out there and while Ellis' run had likely bothered kelly, given how the Elitie are depicted and how their leader acts, it's clear a LOT of it came from Millar's work. I mean you have to be a specail brand of douchebag to get a response to your characters being the worst less than a YEAR in.

The bigger reason for this response was how fans reacted: Fans.. LOVED the authority and as tends to happen when you get a shiny new "edgy" team, some asked: "Why doe we need those other guys? If we have heroes willing to kill, topple governments and swagger all the while, why do we need some guy in tights telling us not to?" Superman was seen by some as outdated and as a result was the target of one of the oldest arguments in all of comics: should superheroes keep doing what they do, or should they take the world and force it to be better or else? It's an argument that NEVER seems to go away.

Proving this, DC had just done a story like this 5 years ago with Kingdom Come, which explored both heroes who are worse than the villians and what happens when the heroes take over. And before THAT marvel did Squadron Supreme in 1985, showing what would genuinely happen if a justice league equilvent took over the world. It'll always be a questoin to be had because readers will cycle out and the next batch will ask the same questions. So join me as we look at the answers, see WHY Superman needs to stand against this and why his methods, despite being questioned every couple of years, stand the test of time and the test of someone who had a dream he didn't like.

We open with Superman flying to Libya as superman flies to stop a superterror attack.. in this case a giant gorilla wielding a giant gun and I will pay adam wingard 5 dollary doos if the next Godzilla X Kong Film involves Kong pistol wipping a giant monster with a shot gun. Just saying.

At any rate clark arrives.. to find something truly horrific.

I give artist Doug Manhke a LOT of credit... despite having only a spread to work with he shows just how horrific this is.. and that's WITHOUT giving anything away about who did it. All we know is suddenly a group with a lot of power saved the day.. but also dropped a giant monster corpse on a city, left said city in ruins, and massacred what was , in all likelyhood an animal who had no say in being made into a giant cybernetic monstrosity. I mean this IS the dc universe with an entire ape city. I could buy Grodd or someone like him growing giant and giving themselves some cable armor to go do some murders, it just comes off more like someone super sized an ape afte rloading it up with hardware and relseaed it on a city and instead of rocgnizing the beast was simply a wild animal, those responsible brutalyl murdered it.

We soon find out who as Clark hears back from the rest of the Daily Planet crew as competing paper the Star, based on the paper Clark worked at in the earlier stories and that grant morrison would bring back for their action comics run, published a gushing story about the four monsters responsible: The Elitie, a super powerful superteam whose leader, Manchester Black even gave a statement "Trust me the old ways are dead in a year you'll love me for this".. then he cut the general he gave the statment too's legs off. It's a great intro: without meeting the guy we instantly know the deep level of prick we're dealing with, and how he'll do a casual violence simply becaues he wants to. Two thousand soldiers died in this attack along with the actual target. Also Jimmy gives a VERY poorly aged joke about watning to shoot the staff of the daily star, which is in character but still feels entirley messed up especially since Columbine had happened at this point. Jesus Jim.

As for who wrote this puff piece that would be Jack Ryder.

For those not familiar with him, Jack Ryder is a "Journalist" and I say so in the loosest terms as in most apperances he's just trying to get attention, being eerly similar to the wave of reactionary assholes we'd see in that decade. He's also the superhero the creeper, a split personality of his who wears a giant boa, cackles and is both awesome and criminally underused by dc. Seriously why they don't use this guy more I don't know. Jack gets more apperances and they can find another strawman or make one.

At any rate Jack's not here to be creepy but to praise terroists while his other self facepalms on the inside. He and clark have debate that is less than civil... and it's telling that clark , who does try to be calma nd kind even when he's pissed off, is absolutely FURIOUS at jack propping these assholes up

Now what I really like about this scene is Jack is an asshole. He make sa mocking joke before maknig an actual pointa nd dowplays all the innocent people who died. And the ape. Seriously someone feel bad an ape died. Why is it just me.

But he raises one valid point while talking directly out of his ass: "And three months later it would happen all over again"> Jack is wrong about..e verything else. Entirely. Seriously creeper needs to get a body seperator machine asap.. but he's right this shit is cyclical and people want a fix. Even 23 years later.. the world still feels broken. Kelly doesn't like the authority.. but he gets WHY people like them: Their a power fantasy, a group of people killing all the big bad dictators, putting corrupt presidents in check and trying to fix a broken world. Their methods are horrible.. but in a time that' scomplciated, unfair and frightening.. it's so easy to cling to someone who seemingly has the answers. It's why so many people flock to the right: turning to hate is sometimes the easiest solution.

We get a brief interlude with president luthor where we find out just HOW powerful these guys are. one of them, coldcast blinked and it shorted out satilites. As Amanda waller put it superman would need a jetpack and a space shuttle to even come close to their power

Naturally Lex's position.. is to let it lie. He plans to turn them into cat food, his exact words, if they so much as touch the US.. but for now their fighting other metas for respect.. and given their clearly gunning for superman and badly outclass him.. well Luthor can't resisit seeing how it plays out, letting the leitie have their fun for now.. and seeing if he can get a dead superman out of the deal. He dosen't say that directly.. but he's sure as hell thinking it as hard as he can.

The Elitie aren't resting on their laurels either, releasing a manefsto that amounts to "do bad shit and we'll fucking kill you". Superman talks this over with Steel.. but it's clear their getting to clark.. and the one thing he says makes it clear why "Do you think the world's moved on?". IT's a powerful statment: Clark himself is wondering if this is what people WANT now, if he's outmoded and if he' sreally making a diffrence.

He dosen't have time to answer as a crisis in Tokyo happens .. and Clark gets to be front and center to meet the Elite this time. Sadly.. Clark can't do anything. His body start's slowing down and we later find out it was coldcast of the elite, having done so to stop an army of geneticly engeneered samurai from massacring toykyo... so the elite massacre them instead. And after a good 15 or so pages of setup.. we finally get a look at the future.

They clockwise from the center; Manchester Black, the groups leader and mouthpiece and powerful Telekenetic, Coldcast, electric man whose deisgn was really not thorught through whatsoever and looks racist as hell, Menagre, a woman combind witha colony of deady creature and the hate, a japanese man merged with a demon that give hims a bunch of magical powers

What's intresting is rather than go 1:1, the elite compress the members of the auhority down from seven people to four so before we move on here's who they represent on the Authority

Manchester Black: Manchester is a combination of the authorities leaders: Founder Jenny Sparks and her successor Jonathan Hawksmore. Sparks is the spirit of the 20th century, had no real fliter and was never all tha tpolite, while Hawksmor was modified by aliens to become one with cities, able to travel between them effortlessly, and was also a jackass in a leather jacket who was dismissive to everyone> both gave grandose speeches and had no respect for anyone else who wasn't on their team. His powers are all him, likely because the electric poewrs were already livewires thing (and thus ported over to another member) and jack's powers were creatively specitic and somethign that might not work on superman, able to have cities eath people alive.. and given Superman's a good dude they likely woudln't.

Coldcast: Electric dynamo. Again that design what the fuck .Seems to be a combo of Jack and Jenny power wise, able to manipuate the ground in addition to electricity... I say seems as I had to look pu their power sets as the story isn't very speciic about them and Manchesters is only known to me because being a telepath and telekenetic are key to later stories starring the guy.

Menagere: Seems to be a comination of the team's two other female members; the Engineeer, a scientest with nanites in her blood that can shape into anything and swift, a woman who can grow claws and has wings, simply combingin the living hive nature of the engineer and making it more biological like swift.

The Hat: The only one that's honestly.. pretty much the same person from the authority just with a diffrent name. The Hat is based on the doctor, an ex drug addict and voice of the earth itself, latest in a long line of doctors who can do whatever he feels like really. That's not hyperbole: the doctor can bend reality and the rest of the authority all had weaknesses: Swift is fast but not super strong, the Engineer can only make things up to the the point her body has enough blood to still function, Hawksmoor's powers only work in a city, Apollo has to have a solar charge built up, something their dimension traveling spaceship dosen't provide, etc. The Doctor's only issue is if someone can cut him off and when that was done in Millar's first arc it still made no sense. It's also why I gather while the rest of the authority keeps coming back now their a full part of the dc universe, Jenny, who was dead, is even getting a mini series in august, the Doctor is just too powerful to bring back without finding some new check and ballance for him that isn't just "he's an ex addict", as we're more senstive to addiction these days, as we should be.

There's two notable omissions: Apollo and Midnighter. Apollo and Midnighter are the book's breakout stars by a wide margin, having been the first to be succesfully integrated into the dcu and being fan faviorites from the word go. The two are stand in's for superman and batman, but still distinct enough to work: Both are a bit darker given their background being raised by manipulative bastard among all manipulative bastards Henrey Bendix and both have unique power diffrences that set them apart: Apollo , as established, charges up his powers with the sun and what he can do is dependant on how much charge he has... but to compesnate for having a bigger reliance on the sun, he can shoot energy and thus wipe out an entire crowd of enemies with one shot and keep going. Midnighter meanwhile has a combat computer in his brain, is a few steps ahead like batman and has regenerating nanite blood, being essentially what happens if batman and wolverine became the same person.. again, and had less restraint.

The two are also married. Yeah, in the 90's, edgelord as they could be... we had two openly queer characters. Not only that the rest of the team accepted them: they'd crack jokes about the two's relationship, but no one genuinely cared the two were gay and given this was the late 90's, that's a HUGE statement. And i'll give credit where it's due: I may not like MIllar's run and only read what I absolutely had to... but he DID end said run with the two getting married and thankfully even with ellis being the worst. if your curious about the two I highly recommend Steve Orlando's run on Midnighter and it's followup Apollo and Midnighter, integrating the two into the dc universe.

So why would they leave out the two biggest characters on the roster? Simple.. their based on Superman and Batman. Having a golden god around kinda undermines the Elite's whole "Take a seat grandpa the new kids are here", gimmick, and if you throw in a batman type guy... it begs the question why Clark dosen't bring in Batman. And while pitting the elitie versus the justice league WOULD'VE been intresting, it wasn't something they had time for: Kelly wasn't writing JLA yet, and while having them appear in superman's book isn't out of bounds.. they had one issue. And my guess is they were squeezing said issue in before they had to start the build up to the big "Our Worlds at War" crossover that year, which started in august. The fact this story happened before that with Kelly presumibly already having stories planned, in less than a year, is a miracle in itself, so I get Kelly didn't really have time to loop in the rest of everyone and thus he trimmed the authority down to four elities for time's sake

And even with a small group... none of them are really fleshed out here aside from Manchester. I had to look up their powers because they got filled in in later stories. Here their just vauge and powerful. It's one of the stories few weakpoints: the rest of the elitie are just jackasses on a power high and that's all their personality is. It dosen't hurt the story a lot as that's all the story really needs and Manchester Black is such an engaging and despicable shithead that you only really need the one ring master for this circus, but it is something I look forward to in the movie, which has the time to flesh this out Kelly simply didn't have here.

Like I said though.. Black is engagin. He's thorughly vile here... but in a way where you get WHY people are trusting this asshole: he gives cleverly worded speeches, takes out bigger bad guys, and generally has a swagger to him. He still has the charm that Sparks and Hawksmoor genuinely had.. but he also has the asshole turned up a notch, again whY I feel that this story is a response to millar: Jenny and Jack were dicks under Ellis.. but Millar just has this very specific brand of dickishness in his characters , especially his mouth pieces, that Kelly captures REALLY well with Manchester. He's a swaggering asshole who answers to no one else and would stop a man from saving lives simply to try and prove he's outdated.

He also gives supes a tour: like the authority, the elite have a ship that's sentient. Unlike the Authority's ship, which is at best a lost child the team basically adopts when they realize it's alive and spend time gently coaxing when they need it to leave earth orbit and face it's abandonment issues, Bunny, the Elitie's hq.. is enslaved by them. They found out it was sapient, found out she didn't like what they were doing.. and cut out her heart to make her more compliant.

Superman understandably isn't here for a tour, he's here to stop them.

Manchester isn't wrong: some villians don't play fair, the world itself dosen't, and so he raises the question of "why shoudlnt' we". The brilliant thing is while he has a point that the world is in rough shape... it's HOW he phrases it that points out the flaws in his philosphy: "Any normal person could do this if they had the chance".. but SHOULD they. Is it really okay to be a bad person simply because your going after worse people? And superman's answer is a very clear "No". More on that as we go but for now Superman gets sent to a superman themed car dealership for his trouble.

We cut to the Kent Farm, where we get pa revealing he decked a guy insulting clark for the incident. I like that it dosen't shy away from the fact that no, Small Town America is not immune to this kind of thought, giving into hate because it seems like the easy solution. But once again Kelly, rather than be super condescinding, gets into why people might buy into what the elitie are selling: the world is a scary place, and it's easy to buy into someone offering a quick solution, a band aid to the world's problems. To become the evil to stop the evil.

This story, while deconstructing him slightly, does get ot hte heart of WHY Superman is needed, in his worlds and in ours: He's an inspiration. As Pa points out.. clark shows them theirs a better way. That we can be better. Clark himself madea speech like this in JLA a few years before this, a speech I feel gets to the heart of the character and superheroes in general

That's what a superhero is. not a babysitter in spandex, not the cure to a wounded world... simply someone there to help humanity at it's lowest, when it needs them.. and to inspire the average person to be better. To try and make a bette rowrld even if it seems impossible. And note this dosen't mean ignoring rough shit in the world, both Supermana nd Wonder Woman have gone into dictatorships and saved civliians. It's not letting that consume you. It's hard, so very hard, to not let the world swallow you up hole.. but fighting that every day is heroic. To simply be and to be good to others. It's what makes these guys heoric: they may stumble from time to time.. but they get back up, and do good despite the world shitting on them, or people like Black telling them "your irrelvant". You fight because it's the right thing to do, because it's what you can do to help the world.

Pa is also sure clark can just.. kick the elitie's asses if it goes south.. but Clark isn't. It's not helped by the tide turning against him: while several citizens do doubt the leitie... many support them. An easy fix to hard issues. But the most chilling.. is the children

That idea that being able to kill somehow makes you better.

Supes still tries to take the high road, stopping the men in black, who in the dc universe apparently traffic aliens. He stops the aliens witht hem with water. no loss of life, no muss no fuss. The Elitie have been watching, and Manchester is utterly bored with this lecture, not taking it seriously and calling supes an idiot when he plans to have the league and the DEO haul these guys in. Black lets supes know these are super black ops people and will just be given cushy job training other guys to do the same. And superman.. just says he'll keep putting them away till they get the point.

Yeah while i'm on clark's side, and do think the elitei's solution of just.. killing them solves nothing, after all if these guys can be replaced, how does killing a few to send a message do anything? They'll just find more guys willing to do it despite the risk. But at the same time... Superman is smarter than this. We'll see that shortly. He knows better than to just "lock them up again". He'd have Batman look into it, then use the league to make sure these guys got the justice they deserved. He has on his team a telepath with global connections, a recognized ambassador, a king and a billionare and that's just people on the team currently. He can make sure these guys ar eheld acoutnable and find out and bust up who they worked for. Just.. phrase it tha tway instead.

Black isn't impressed.. but his repsonse shows he's somehow worse at this than just "keep beating them and hopefully they'll stop which has worked never times but i'll do it anyway": Have the hat Kill them all.. and their families. Superman naturally punches the hat before he can do this.. and Black decides this is more than enough justifacation to formally go after superman.

Honestly the more I think about this scene, the more I see it as a ploy: Dont get me wrong, given his actions I do think Black would slaughter someone's family as a message... but he does so right after superman genuinely tried to show them a better way, making it clear he hates the lecture and ONLY listned to try and prove some kind of point. He KNEW these gyuys existed, they created menagre.. but didn't do anything about them or give Superman actual advice. He just wanted to strut in and then try and undo everything clark did, all the live she didn't take, just so he'd have the thinest justifcation to pick a fight with superman one on four. As for why not just do this from the outset that's simple: Manchester Black CLEARLY wannted the smug satisfaction of breaking superman, of getting him to see his way, wether it was by sitting out or by being humbled. He wanted this fight from the second he swaggered up, and simply dragged it out this long to humilate superman. He knows this isn't just a battle of two blokes punching each other, it's a battle for the world's soul, a battle of ideals: Black's "kill ema ll and let god sort it out" pessimist versus superman "We have to let them be better on thier own and they can be" optimist.

Lois.. is less pleased, mostly because she's sure her husband is going to die. And I like how the art convey's this too: Lois has more faith than clark in anybody but you can tell by her eyes she's worried about her husband picking a fight with a team on the league's level just to prove a point, to possibly die for it. It's chilling to see lois, of all people, scared. But clark has to go: even if he dies for this, it's, like I said, a battle of ideals. If he backs down more people like those kids find killing fun, the easy way the only way, and the world gets even worse. He has to show the world there's a better way.. because if he dosen't everything he's fought for, everything he stands for slowly slides away and more good people fight and die to preserve his ideals.

Clark confronts them. Naturally they choose metropolis for this final battle.. and naturally Clark says "hell no" to that as he isn't going to put innocents in danger. Black agrees, though he has their ship broadcast it worldwide: he wants the world to know this was a fair fight.

Our fighters head for the moon. Unsuprisingly Clark tries one last time to talk them down. I'd call this suicidal... but it's also Supes. He'll try talking, try reforming people if he can. And it'd be weird if he didn't. The Elitie take this as you'd expect.. Manchester tk's him then they take turns beating himn while he speechifies again.

Superman is seemingly curbstomped, with Coldcast delivering some electricity to his brain , seemingly blwoing superman up real good.. but as the Elitie brag... a voice is heard

We then get one of the most bonechilling scenes in comics.. as Superman finally decides to play by The elitie's rules..

In only two pages for us and two minutes for the elitie.. the team is down, semeingly dead. IT's a terrifying display of just what superman CAN do: take the air away, rip your powers away, or just hurl you into space. We've seen plenty of evil superman stand ins do things like this, the viltrumites from invincible are essentially one long look at that, but seeing CLARK do it.. is something else. Something far worse.

Superman finishes the fight by seemingly lobotmizing black, taking out the section of the brain that give shim his powers.. and as black cries and breaks down.. Superman.. lifts the curtain

It's a brilliant twist that also puts all the pieces in place: Clark went alone.. because he had to make it beliviable, and the others were always on standbye. He likely told Bruce and the others what he had planned simply because otherwise.. they would've come to stop him. It's what Clark would want if he really crossed that line.

He simply disabled their powers for now: he gave Chester a concussion: he'll get his powers back.. but will be under tons of psy dampeners befor ehe can.

I love this display: it both shows WHY superman could be dangerous.. and why he isn't. It's easy to be vengeful... it's harder to try and inspire people not to, to keep dreaming ot keep trying to be better. It' sthe hard road but the better one: sure he could kill or take over the world.. but humanity isn't his to take. It's his to help inspire, to make us better by showing what the best of us can do with the gifts they were born with. Chester, like any villian vows he'll be back this isn't over... and clark's response to being told he's dreaming?

A simple powerful closure: superman is living for some lofty ideals .. but their ones worth aspiring towards, to neve rstop fighting for.. ever.

What's So Funny is an excellent story. It suffers here and there from it's short run time, but still serves as an excellent response to critics of superman while not trying to be patronizing. The grungy art fits the tone of the story and the climax is a thing of beauty. check this one out if you can find it

Next Time: It's Superman Vs teh Elitie. Yes again. This time on the medium sized screen as Kelly expands his story into a full blown animated film.