James Robinson put words in Jesse Quick's mouth, and insulted Hourman
6 Comments Published by Avi Green on Tuesday, September 07, 2010 at 1:00 PM.
I think this is from JSA's Blackest Night tie-in (I found it via Tyler Quick Time), and [correction:] I think James Robinson wrote Jesse's narrative here. What kind of way is that to superficially describe her husband Rick Tyler, as though he were a real drug addict? That's not nice. It's another example of Geoff Johns' absurd self-referential tactics, here alluding to how the original Hourman, Rex Tyler, switched from Miraclo pills to ray-based effects, all because of that exaggerated concern in the 80s that any hero who took pills or drank chemicals would look like a junkie. But the current tactic they're using only makes it more embarrassing.This also signals that Robinson is losing his touch ever further as a writer, and becoming more like Geoff Johns in resorting to peculiar self-referential steps.
Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Justice Society of America, women of dc
It's that dire Golden Age GN. It had Hourman as a full on pill popping junkie. Naturally, in the context of a GN that aimed to make pretty much everyone as nasty as possible, it was this "grown up" ie skewed idea that took root at the decadent pot plant factory at DC.
"I think this is from" and "I assume Johns wrote"? If you're going to slam comics you haven't actually read, you might want to at least look up who wrote them--the information's all available on the internet.
Johns didn't write the JSA Blackest Night tie-in, and he wasn't writing either JSA title when Blackest Night was running.
Heaven knows, there's enough to critique Johns for without randomly attributing every panel you dislike to him...
Well you're right that if Johns didn't write the exact miniseries, I shouldn't blame him directly for it. But I do know that he has influenced some of DC's worst work of late, and JSA's Blackest Night connection was one of them.
I looked in the Grand Comics Database, and found that it was James Robinson who'd written the mini. I should've looked more carefully before, but now I've made some corrections.
"all because of that exaggerated concern in the 80s that any hero who took pills or drank chemicals would look like a junkie"
Heh. The worst was Mark Gruenwald's "Cap detox" storyline ("Streets of Poison" or something like that), in which they spent 6 issues building up the idea that the Super Soldier Serum was actually a drug. And after 6(?) issues, Cap had a complete blood transfusion that supposedly rid his body of the SSS.
They walked it back a mere 3 issues or so later in one panel which noted that it probably wasn't a drug if it was still in his bloodstream 50 years later. Sort of an "oops, my bad" from the writer that invalidated a 6 issue major change of direction. :)
Yep, it was Streets of Poison.
I've always wondered about the behind-the-scenes drama that must have led to the walk-back a handful of issues later...