Reviewer: William Cooling
Story title: The Tenth Circle Pt. 1 ~ Suffer the Little Children
Plot by: John Byrne
Written by: Chris Claremont
Pencilled by: John Byrne
Inked by: Jerry Ordway
Coloured by: David Baron
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Mike Carlin
Publisher: DC Comics
Few comic book partnerships are more revered and influential than the pairing of Chris Claremont and John Byrne as forged with their legendary run on the X-Men. What’s perhaps been obscured is the fact that actually this was but a really, really brief chapter in either’s career with Byrne being only one of many artists on Claremont’s lengthy and rewarding stint on X-Men whilst Byrne has as writer/artist gone had memorable runs on the Fantastic Four, Superman and his own Next Men. Despite (or maybe because of) these heights both have entered into a rut with much of their recent work dismissed as out of date and nostalgic. Still both enter 2004 with new flagship series beckoning alongside hopes of a return to form. Before these are launched however they’ve agreed to partake in a reunion dance with Mike Marts buggins’ turn JLA being the venue. Which is less face it the major selling point of this issue, to see if these two can recapture the magic of their X-Men run. Of course the problem is that if this issue is a dance then Byrne is firmly in the lead as opposed to the freer and more equal partners they were 20odd years ago. You see this story was never intended to be a reunion between the dynamic duo instead it was to be Byrne’s JLA story (because EVERYONE has a good JLA story in them) yet when he told Marts that he hadn’t time to do dialogue Marts cleverly arranged for Claremont to be brought in. Whether this is good or bad news for Byrne is questionable, as the association with the stiffest writer in dialogue not working in porn may once again confirm him as yesterday’s man.
Still it would be fair to say that this story deserves it with it centring of a group of vampires abducting children across America; something that eventually comes to the attention of the JLA with Batman, Flash and Superman all investigating. In addition, we see reserve member Manitou Raven being attacked by a group of bats at the opening of the issue. This is comics done the old-school way although its none the worse for that with Byrne very ably developing the conspiracy as we go around America with Gotham, Metropolis and Keystone City all being touched. He is also very effective at utilizing all the members of the JLA with the skills of lesser members like Captain Atom being giving due prominence in some effective sequences. Even better he reduces Batman to his proper role of being a siren call, not someone who can magically solve everything a la Morrison. This mixture of traditionalism and effectiveness is also present in his art, which has lush if heavily retro look. His linework is sold with excellent anatomy although his faces are sometimes too simple to effectively convey characterisation. He does the leaguers well with some good Neal Adam esque work on Batman, a Golden Age Diana (perm and all) while his Superman hasn’t changed much over the years. Indeed there’s the problem as his simple, solid storytelling style has simply been surpassed in recent years with the likes of Miller, Lee and Hitch all bringing a new and different aesthetic to American superhero comics. Compared to them Byrne’s work while nice (its essentially a superior Drew Johnson) lacks the oomph and style that is needed to stand out in today’s market place.
However, the faint whiff of anachronism that surrounds Byrne’s plotting and art is nothing compared to Claremont’s words, which reeks of it. There’s always been a certain idiotic preposterousness to his words that in his heyday had a certain charm. Here however his thesaurus cribbed dialogue is often embarrassing with a stiffness and uniformity that is at times quite horrifying. The language is often hackneyed with expressions like “hands off the merchandise†actually being used in an unironic manner while rarely does a glimpse of characterisation shine through. To be fair Claremont delivers what his more devoted fans will want to read, it’s just that it used with characters that he is unfamiliar with and who are less human than the X-Men it jars. Still it only drags the story to the realms of retro-nostalgia as opposed to unreadable rubbish.
And that really is the sum of this issue. Its nothing brilliant and the two of them do not recapture the brilliance of their run on X-Men; which isn’t surprising given the method of the partnership, their respective recent forms and the fact that the JLA and X-Men are two extremely different superhero teams. However, it is an effective read with Byrne deliver an effective plot and nice art while Claremont does his usual thing on the words that once you remember its actually 1980 isn’t too bad. This does what anyone sane would have expected it to; nothing more, nothing less.
