Story: Mistaken Identity Crisis
Reviewer: Paul Sebert
Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Paul Pelletier
Inker: Rick Magyar
Colorist: Wil Quintana
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: The Company Formerly Known as Timely
Judging from the cover art, one would assume GLA: Misassembled is a parody of Identity Crisis and Avengers Disassembled. But that’s only half the truth. Perhaps this may be a lucky accident of timing, but GLA comes across as an angry screed against DC’s Countdown one-shot and subsequent OMAC Project mini-series.
Not to get off on a rant here, but one of the sad truths of DC’s recent years is that there just seems to be an active campaign against humor-based characters. Whimsical superheroes tend to be either homogenized (i.e. Impulse), turned into tragic figures (i.e. Elongated Man), or simply killed off (i.e. Blue Beetle.) Recent efforts at making the superhero genre more “real” have just wound up making the medium less fun.
Which brings us to Dan Slott’s darkly irreverent new GLA mini-series. Following the adventures bumbling group of Wisconsin superheroes from the John Byrne run of Avengers, this mini-series places them smack-dab in the middle of the newly post Disassembled world. In issue #1 after seeing a key opportunity to become the true heroes they’ve always dreamed of being, the team’s half-insane leader Mr. Immortal lead the group to New York where their first mission ended in tragedy. Reptilian superheroine Dinah Soar was promptly struck down by the hyperbolic megalomaniac Maelstrom, sending Mr. Immortal in a tailspin of depression. In issue #2 Flatman and Doorman lead a recruitment drive, with equally disastrous results. Everyone from Araña to Zabu turning down their offer of membership and only Steve Ditko’s greatest creation Squirrel Girl joined the team’s roster. Ok that’s not entirely true, rookie superhero Grasshopper briefly joined the team, only to die at the viscous hands of Batroc’s Brigade.
So now as issue #3 opens we take a look at the life of Big Bertha, the super heroine who has the ability to manipulate her own body mass; able to go from Ally McBeal to that lady from The Practice in a blink of an eye. Alas the logistics of her power aren’t particularly pretty. Making matters worse she’s forced to deal with the worst of both extremes of misogynistic behavior found outside of the Dave Sim fan club.
With Bertha having a crisis of conscience, Flatman, Doorman, and Squirrel Girl set out to investigate just what is the true reason behind the recent slate of technology thefts from the Roxxon corporation (America’s Third or Fourth Most Evil Energy Company.) Unfortunately they may be a step behind the forces of evil once again as Maelstrom has devised a diabolical scheme to destroy everything. Not just the city, not just the world, no even just the universe, EVERYTHING! Meanwhile lurking in the background, a figure from Squirrel Girl’s past has returned seeking revenge, revenge that may mean certain doom for a GLA member.
GLA: Misassembled is a darkly gleeful antidote to how certain writers have been handling humor characters as of late. Slott makes no attempt at side-stepping how the group’s been portrayed in the past and plays the slapstick cast for the loveable characters they are. Which for better or worse makes the tragic fate faced by some of them all the more poignant.
Which isn’t to say this comic is for everyone. The humor carries something of a much darker edge to it the recent “Formerly Known as the Justice League,” and reading over it one can almost sense an underlining anger to the book. Granted with what gets published these days, I can’t blame the writer for that.
