Newsarama posted a little article about the new Justice League title by James Robinson that was announced over the weekend at Wizard World: Los Angeles. It appears that we are getting a more aggressive strike force styled version of the JLA. Robinson’s philosophy is that since the word “justice” is in the JLA’s name that they should be in the business of bringing criminals to justice rather than sitting around and being attacked or stopping a crime in progress.
Evidently, a character gets killed during Final Crisis and Hal Jordan is pissed off and wants the JLA to go exact some justice against the murdering villain. The JLA wants to take a more cautious route and that causes a schism. So, this all leads Hal Jordan to team up with his old compatriot Green Arrow and they go on to form their version of the Justice League.
Robinson revealed that the roster will include Hal Jordan, Green Arrow, Ray Palmer, Supergirl, Batwoman, Freddy Freeman and Mikaal Tomas and Congorilla. Yeah, that’s right. Congorilla.
At first blush, my reaction to this roster is something like this: Oh my god! Ray Palmer doesn’t die!! Praise the comic book gods! And on top of him not dying, he gets a spot on the roster of a version of the JLA. Yes! Hal Jordan, Ollie Queen and Ray Palmer all on the roster of a JLA team is exactly what I like to see. No more cheap knock-offs or lame imitations. Give me the real goods, mamacita!
I am a big fan of Hal, Ollie and Ray so it really doesn’t matter who else is on this team. And that is a good thing considering this team gets saddled with the two albatrosses known as Supergirl and Batwoman. Not even the addition of these two uninteresting derivative characters can dampen my enthusiasm.
I like the addition of Freddy Freeman. I have always liked Freddy’s character and I’m glad to see him getting a shot to be on a high profile super team in the DCU. I have no opinion at all about Mikaal Tomas. I know nothing about his character.
That leaves Congorilla. I’m not too sure how I feel about this roster move by Robinson. It certainly is a bold and unexpected move. I’ll just have to trust Robinson that he knows what he is doing and can make me interested in Congorilla’s character.
Aside from the fact that Hal, Ollie and Ray are on this team, the biggest reason that I’m willing to give this title a try is that James Robinson is the writer. I am a big fan of Robinson and I definitely respect his writing abilities. Robinson is a talented writer who should be able to bring this title some depth and complexity to the story as well as intriguing and nuanced characters that are usually lacking on strike force styled titles like X-Force, Batman and the Outsiders, etc.
Another positive about this new Justice League title is that it appears that DC is going to place this title up their along with Justice League of America and Justice Society of America as the holy trinity of team titles in the DCU. I’m glad that DC won’t be treating Justice League as a cheap knock-off of the Justice League of America or as some junior title.
Of course, I do have some concerns about this title. I am not positive that Justice League is going to be able to rise above being viewed as the inferior team to the Justice League of America. And I am worried that this title might fall into the same category as Batman and the Outsiders as a strike force team that lacks the necessary substance and textured stories needed to makes it a truly satisfying read. Also, the proactive aspect of the team seems to be a bit played out as of late and is rarely properly executed.
I’m also concerned about the roster of this team. This is a bit of a grab bag feel to this roster and I have to wonder if any real chemistry will be able to be generated between the various characters. And there are several characters on this roster that I view as nothing more than pure dead weight.
At any rate, I’ll certainly give Robinson’s Justice League a try and hope that he is able to create a quality title worthy of a spot on The Revolution’s permanent pull list.
6 thoughts on “Justice League”
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Robinson’s Starman remains one of the greatest comics of all time, and his 6 issue Batman OYL arc was terrific. I’m totally on board for this.
Mikaal Tomas is a cool character! He’s from Talok IV (or V) so somehow in sync with Shadow Lass (issue 50 of Robinson’s Starman was a time travel issue with the LSH and worth reading as was the rest of that space travel storyline).
I wonder how Green Arrow and Canary on separate (even ideologically opposed, as the interview hints) teams will work, since they’re married (and she’s the leader of the JLA).
Regarding the premise, the idea of a “proactive” hero team is one that sounds good, but in practice writers have a really hard time differentiating them from more conventional setups. I don’t particularly mind, though; Robinson’s a great writer with a track record for characterization, and if he can deliver an enjoyable, compelling team book, I don’t particularly care if it’s not that different from JLA or JSA.
Mikall was the Starman from the 1970s and was an important character in Robinson’s Starman series. He was not my favorite character but he was well written by Robinson. I can’t wait for this to come out myself. We just got a new comic book shop here in our small town on the Oregon Coast and this may be my first issue on the pull list!
Batwoman? Groan.
Mikaal Tomas was an alien Starman from the 70’s. He was in the supporting cast of Robinson’s Starman.
Truth be told, I would have felt better if Robinson would have just taken over the main title and had the the team deal with change instead of a second league book. Oh well, the way JLA is going I might jump ship. I have faith in James Robinson more at the moment.