The Four Color Media Monitor

USA Today fawned over Geoff Johns' new volume of Justice League of America, and he says things like the following:

The group is rounded up by government agent — and Wonder Woman's ex — Steve Trevor, and its whole raison d'etre is revealed in the 32-page first issue: "why the team exists, who each one of these characters are, and enough mystery and intrigue and action to show our hand," Johns says.

"Why does the world need another Justice League team? The answer is in those pages pretty clearly." [...]

Led by Trevor, whom Johns describes as "the most relatable and intriguing character of the bunch," the JLA crew includes Green Arrow (whom TV fans will recognize from CW's Arrow), Manhunter, Hawkman, Japanese assassin Katana, the Muslim Green Lantern known as Simon Baz, the teenage Vibe, Batman femme fatale Catwoman, and Stargirl, a perky superheroine who is "a face to that team for the public eye."

Yeah, I guess he has made it clear why this team exists: so that he can feature an Islamist character whose religion is otherwise glossed over, and we're supposed to just accept him no matter what chilling aspects his belief system contains. This also may have something to do with the revived use of a series sporting the word "America" in the title, and one of the coverscans for the premiere issue shows Baz among several characters standing an American flag erect on a small mount. Is that supposed to be a subtle message that characters like Baz are the "real" Americans, no matter how weak their moral compass is?

The article also says:

Going edgy was fine with JLA artist David Finch, who prefers powerful folks on the angrier side.

"It's not Batman and Superman and the big, big characters," he says, "and we can do a lot of pretty crazy stuff with these guys. People are going to be pretty surprised. It gets a little bit more wild than what you'd see in Justice League proper."

I think that's a hint at the potentially violent direction this'll take, in a sensationalistic way, of course, as has been common in Johns' scripting for many years. Another reason why we needn't fall for this.

Finch teases that, in addition to the main cast, he'll be drawing major characters who are "like an evil version of themselves," along with the highly detailed castle of a reintroduced Secret Society of Supervillains in the first JLA arc. "I love the villains the most. This is so up my alley."

Any artist or writer who considers the villains greater than the heroes is not being very creative or loving of the genre, and if they're going to depict some of the heroes evilly, that's another reason for dismay, because they're invoking again the modern obsession with reversing good and bad roles into incomprehension.

As for SSoSV, that was a very obscure, forgettable series from the mid-70s and was so dull I have no idea why they think there's any inspiration in that.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful artists, dreadful writers, islam and jihad, Justice League of America, msm propaganda, violence