Justice League Elite vol 1, Joe Kelly

"They do the JLA's dirty work!

Conflicting goals causes a schism amognt the World's Greatest Super-Heroes. As a result several members of the JLA choose to do undercover work with Vera Black and her super-powered team, the Elite. Their first assignment: infiltrate a small brotherhood of assassins gathering to hit a major political target.

Heroes find themselves suddenly allied with deadly foes. Can this group function effectively enough to do their job? And if they can't, what will happen to the world?"







This one is a really weird book because it features a couple of really great comics (Action Comics 775, and JLA 100) and then a pretty boring main section of the book (the first four issues of the JL Elite run). Those first two comics are brilliant, and AC 775 is a modern classic, but JL Elite is a book that I own all of, and yet it's still a near total stinker, an attempt to create a more mature and realistic comic within the DC Universe that just falls apart due to the fact that none of the non-established characters are terribly interesting.

Taking it piecemeal, AC 775 is the excellent 'What's so funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way', the best set up of who Superman is and his ideals in modern comics. If you've just seen Man of Steel and want to know why it's problematic and doesn't hold true to the character of Superman, read this comic.

What's great about it is that it shows a Superman who is thoroughly interesting whilst still managing to be a paragon of virtue - for anyone who says that Superman is boring, this is a comic in which he collapses lungs by flying at five hundred miles a minute, and shuts down the bad guys psychic abilities by cauterizing the part of his brain that gives him superpowers using just his eyes. It's unexpectedly badass, and shows just how powerful a let loose Superman is, even in comparison to some of the most dangerous villians going.

It's also one of the most hopeful issues going, a theme which is carried over for JLA 100 which features every single nation on earth teaming up to fight a single super-team alongside the Justice League, all so that the personification of Earth won't destroy humanity.

But the actual JL Elite issues are so lacking in hope as to feel like a different writer altogether. Joe Kelly talks in the intro about wanting to create a team that straddled the line between being a force for good and doing bad. It's a big issue, but I'm not sure this is the format for doing it. Ironically it's the Dark Horse, Wildstorm, Image and Vertigo stables where these stories are being told better. It's books like The Authority and Planetary, the very books that Kelly was writing 'What's so funny ...' in response to that are telling these tales better and first.

It's hampered by a cast that's utterly, unrelentingly dull. The character who really stands out is Green Arrow, who spends most of his page time seducing the wife of Maintou Raven and quitting the team in disgust. So, not a huge win here.

Basically this all boils down to one thing; this isn't a good book, but it does feature two really great comics. You should definitely get those. Just ditch the rest of the book before you do.

Also Try:
Grant Morrison; JLA
Brian Michael Benis, Dark Avengers
Jeff Parker, Thunderbolts
Warren Ellis, The Authority

Superman The Black Ring vol 2, Paul Cornell

"When he briefly became an Orange Lantern in blackest night, Lex Luthor got a taste of true power. Now he'll do anything to get that power back. His quest for the Black Lantern energy takes him to Arkham Asylum for a close encounter with "The Joker", and then into direct conflict with Larfleeze, the ultra-greedy Orange Lantern."














This is a chunkier book than the first volume, featuring as it does the annual and secret six tie in that comeplete the story of Luthor and the black ring. By the time it's done it will get even more bonkers than it was before, with appearances from Ra's Al Ghul, Darkseid and the Joker, as well as Larfleeze and Superman himself, who finally puts in an appearance towards the end.

So the first volume had some strange ideas about what made an enjoyable read, and kind of lost me around the point where creating simulations of your enemies wife to sleep with became a thing. But in amongst that, was some good stuff, in particular a trot through some of the worst of the DC universe that wouldn't have been out of place in setting up a new Legion of Doom.

That continues here, as we get to see more of the most nefarious individuals in the DC universe, and as we venture out into space towards the end the villains become more and more outlandish, culminating in a fight with a Phantom Zone space God.

The problem isn't the side characters, it's the arc for Luthor. Having been set up as a resolutely awful person, there are two ways this could go. Either he fails, and we're pleased, and this is what will happen. Or he wins, and although he's the current protagonist everybody loses out. The questions isn't whether he will fail, but how.

Now usually here, in a book where Luthor is the bad guy you would expect Superman to appear and save the day, either through some feat of strength, or simply by virtue of a stronger moral compass. But this isn't a book where Superman wins, but one where Luthor loses, and that for me is a problem.

Cornell doesn't set up a more positive competing vision of who Superman is, or what he does and why that is better than Luthor's vision. Instead, Luthor loses control of his rage and pumps out all the power he had gained in a futile attempt to kill Superman, whilst acknowledging that in doing so he is passing over his chance to alter the world for the better.

That's very Lex Luthor, and this idea that it's his hubris, and more than just a lust for power but a lust for power over Superman in particular, that dooms him is neat. But it does somewhat ruin what can be an otherwise more nuanced character a little. Lex is the perfect foil for Superman in the same way as Magneto is for the X-Men; neither view themselves as the bad guy. Their cause is just, and is simply contrary to the wishes of the superhero team they compete against. Compared to the Joker (sample plan: poison the water supply) or Loki (evil is funny) Luthor is a picture of sanity. But the root of that has to be that he views Superman as an outsider who threatens humanity, not just his own place and position.

Lex Luthor, for me at least, only works as a true Xenophobe, who believes that Superman holds back human progress - essentially a DC Universe equivalent of the idea that charity to Africa stifles reform there. I love the idea that Luthor may be right; but he can't be that character if he actively throws away these motives on panel. Telling Superman he won't save Jonathan Kent from dying, or that he'd rather kill Superman than make Earth better now doesn't just undermine that part of his character, it destroys it entirely. That entire facet of Lex Luthor is now unworkable.

That's the problem with The Black Ring throughout - it attempts to be a picture of Lex Luthor, and show his side of the story, but it turns out he's just a one-dimensional dick.

Also Try:
Mark Millar; Superman: Red Son
Tom Taylor, Injustice: Gods Among Us
Scott Snyder, Superman Unchained

Superman The Black Ring vol 1, Paul Cornell

"When Lex Luthor finally regained control of LexCorp, he thought he had everything he wanted. But in BLACKEST NIGHT, he briefly became an Orange Lantern and got a taste of true power. Now he'll do anything - anything - to get that power back. Buckle in for a greatest hits tour of the DCU's most wanted as Lex Luthor begins an epic quest for power, all brought to you by new ongoing writer Paul Cornell (Dr. Who, Captain Britain and MI-13) and artist Pete Woods (WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON), with covers by David Finch (BRIGHTEST DAY, Ultimatum)!"










I am a big fan of Paul Cornell, and I had heard interesting things about The Black Ring, the ten issue Lex Luthor helming take over of Superman's 'Action Comics', and a Secret Six tie-in and annual. There's loads going on in here, and I am going to write it up as two volumes, because that's how I read it, although I got both at the same time and read them back to back.

First off, I'm sad to say that I didn't really enjoy the books at all. I found Lex hard to really enjoy. Maybe that's an issue with going in cold, and not knowing any of the current background, but this isn't a comic interested in setting up Lex Luthor as a concerned but misguided corporate titan who believes that Superman is all that stops the world being better.

This is just a straight up awful man. Within three pages he has someone killed, in front of their family, after Luthor has already had him fired for not agreeing to some evil science. This isn't subtle, and there's little done through the book to make you root for Luthor in any way. Every victory he achieves that would have you cheer on a 'hero' character, or even the hero of the tale, anti-hero or not, is actually just a kick in the teeth for the reader.

There's an active sense of wanting Luthor not just to fail, because that's the story that's being told anyway, that less than sub-textual desire for power may make sense in the context of a Luthor who was recently a literal avatar of greed in Blackest Night, but it gets a little over the top by the time he's built a robotic replica of Lois Lane to tell him how great he is, and is touring the world to absorb the embodiment of universal death. This is the plot within the first ten pages.

It all adds up to make a charcter who is utterly repugnant; a man who creates a lobotomised love doll version of his nemeses wife, who shows no concern or hesitation at killing civilians, and who is almost unreadably, insufferably obnoxious. Now, obviosuly, that may pay off in the second volume, but, spoiler alert, it doesn't.

On the other hand, whilst Luthor is horrible to read, the cameo appearances are great. Anything that features Gorilla Grodd (mind controlling, human eating Gorilla ruler of remote African nation). Mister Mind (mind controlling alien slug) and the Sinister Six is alright by me, especially if it sets up a Bane versus Vandal Savage show-down.

The art is equally lovely, and Pete Woods does an excellent job at capturing a number of different locations and aesthetics well - his Grodd in particular is excellent, the expression on his face before he eats Luthor's head is excellent.

Also Try:
J.M. DeMatteis, Superman: President Lex
Grant Morrison, All Star Superman
Grant Morrison, JLA: Tower of Babel

Supreme Power; High Command, J Michael Straczynski

"In their first adventure as a team, Hyperion, Blur and Nighthawk--the newly formed Squadron--have a long-overdue showdown with the superpowered serial killer who's been terrorizing the nation! But will they live long enough to stop him? Plus: What does the most powerful being on the planet do when he finds out he's been manipulated, and that his whole life is practically a lie? how will Hyperiod react, and what does that mean for the rest of humanity--and the government that's organized these deceitful machinations?"











The Supreme Power books are another of those series that I remember being really excellent when I first read them years ago, and which on a second reading have got both better and slightly worse.

That's all down to the core concept. Reading Supreme Power for the first time, I didn't catch the fact that it's a pastiche of the Justice League, a concept that's so stunningly obvious that only the fact that I didn't read much in the way of DC when I first started reading comics and so didn't catch analogies to Green Lantern and Aquaman, who at that point were still obscure enough to not be a superhero I would recognise.

On reapproaching the series then there's al ot of extra depth in the story of Superman in the real world, a concept that's been done to death, but rarely so comprehensively or as well as it is here. The genius of Straczynski is in linking everything to Superman (Hyperion) arriving on earth - the emergence of a Godlike figure leads to the creation or revelation of others.

It's easy to draw parralels from this to the rise of cape comics in general, as Superman was one of the first comics to move away from the pulp action hero genre into full superheroics, and can be seen as the first great comic run, even if it wasn't the first superhero comic

Every other hero (and villain) stemming from the emergence of Hyperion is a nice way of representing this, and it adds an extra layer to a character who is at his best when inspiring others to greatness. It's further layered on by the fact that the majority of the action of humans in the comic are resolutely imperfect - they aren't inspired to do better, but to more horrendous actions.

It's a wonderful flip on the Superman mythos which usually just involves Superman 'turning' bad, either in reaction to tragedy - as in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, or Injustice: Gods Among Us - or simply being raised wrong - like in Red Son. The alternate version here is still a man with a strong moral compass, who still inspires, albeit one who is confused and lost, abandoned and persecuted by the Government that raised him. He is, in fact, a man who is raised without truth, or justice - the realpolitik American Way.

Anyway, this is a series that by this point is twelve issues in and has just had the first few team-ups between the Justice League analogues. It's a Superman book, in all but name, and anyone expecting much in the way of a team will be disappointed. Of the six superheroes shown only three ever interact at a time, and mainly for a few pages. In nearly every case they fight.

That's one of the issues - it's a team up book that doesn't contain much in the way of a team up. The second is that the last ten years have seen so many edgier, darker takes on the high-profile superteams of the Marvel and DC universe that it's hard to make an argument for this one more than any other. Millar's Ultimates, Ellis's The Authority and Planetary, even Garth Ennis on The Boys - all deconstructed the idea of superheroes and rewrote the rules of what superheroes could and couldn't do.

This is hardly pushing the envelope in terms of this; it's a realistic take on Superheroics, putting it into a context of what would happen rather than asking how far we can push these characters into darker pursuits.

Still, Supreme Power is well worth picking up if you like your comics grand in vision. It's a book that takes a while to take off, but when it does, it soars.

Also Try:
Mark Millar, The Ultimates
Grant Morrison, All Star Superman
Warren Ellis, The Authority