Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, and All Bow Before the One True Gog.
When they announced that Alex Ross was going to be helping out with JSA on a level that was more than just covers, I knew they were going to do something with Kingdom Come. When Kingdom Come Superman showed up, I knew that they were going to use and explain the horrible Gog that had been floating around for years. Yeah, a Kingdom Come tie-in, not the worst idea, but how do you execute something like that?
I figured the answer would be slowly with the excruciating pain of dental surgery without Novocain. I figured that we’d see the Super Friends fly in to save the day inside of four issues so that Alex Ross could jump for joy and yell about how Hal Jordan is the best character ever created. Hell, I figured he’d do it so that he could just paint the covers with his favorite characters from when he grew up. You know, like Alex Ross is one to do.
So I guess I’ll just say it now so that you won’t think I’m just taking stupid shots at him this entire column, which I will be.
Fuck Alex Ross.
When I was about thirteen years old, I went to a comic convention in downtown St. Louis, and he was the special guest signer. At thirteen, comics were just about the characters to me, and I didn’t have a clue who any of the creators were. I liked the X-Men, but I didn’t know who Fabian Niceza or Scott Lobdell were. I loved Superman but couldn’t tell you who Dan Jurgens was. And who was this Chuck Dixon guy? I was a kid, I didn’t know who the writers or artists were. I just liked their work.
So I went to this comic convention and here’s Alex Ross signing stuff. Kingdom Come had just been collected in trade, and the line was pretty long. Being a kid, and loving the idea of autographs (in fact, I have a Jim Lee story for a future column about why I’ll be a fan of his for the rest of my life), I got into the line. I stood there and waited, and waited, and waited. After about half an hour it was my turn to get my stuff signed, and I’d picked up a copy of the trade from the desk. I mentioned to him as I did so that I’d never heard of him or the book, but that I couldn’t wait to read it.
You know what he said to me?
“Then why don’t you get out of line and make way for one of my real fans.”
I was thirteen.
Fuck Alex Ross.
Now, back on topic, I’m usually a big fan of extended story telling. I like a story that’s designed to stretch out and last for longer than four or six issues, it’s a nice change of pace. This story, however, is the one that just won’t end. It started back in JSA #7, and it’s set to end in December in JSA #22. Sixteen issues right there in the regular series. Then you throw in the annual, and the one-shots coming in November, and you’re up to twenty. That should be like a wet dream, it’s a story that is long and expansive and gives all of the characters room to breathe and grow. Only it doesn’t, at least not as well as it could.
Johns is pretty good at pacing, and this isn’t so bad, but it is annoying that the story has stretched on this long and it still feels like it’s treading water. We’ve been treated to nice little character pieces, and enough focus spread out that no member of this giant cast of heroes feels like a stranger. Everyone is treated to personal moments to build up importance; no one feels much like a throw away. I like that, as most books can hardly seem to juggle a seven member cast and here JSA is having no problems with a cast of nearly twenty-five people.
In fact, the only person on the roster that hasn’t gotten any worthwhile development is Obsidian (to the point where I had to look up the team to see that he was even on it). In my free time, I’ve tried to write my own book, not anything I’ve published, but I had trouble balancing four characters. Johns handles almost twenty five. Think about that for a minute. Nearly twenty five and he’s managed to develop a personality for all of them, he’s worked each into the story in a way that no one is just there to be there….except Obsidian.
Thom Kallor. Let’s talk about the JSA’s resident Starman, the former Starboy of the Legion of Super Heroes. His very appearance in the book got people talking, after all, the current Legion at the time had a black Starboy, and here we are looking at the Thom from before Zero Hour. How the hell did that work? Wonderfully, and it managed to add to the Legion mythos as it built towards more in the JSA itself. A superhero from the future taking a place on the team that started it all, a very fitting little metaphor. His schizophrenia I know caused worry amongst some of the fanbase, and while I found him to be hilarious, I tended to agree. How can you write a character like him and not damage him to the point of impotence? Easy, you remind fans that he’s battling his condition in an attempt to still be the hero he knows that he is. He fights through his insanity and has proven to be one of the most intriguing characters in DC right now.
Citizen Steel had a great debut to the book, a man who lost his dreams when he lost his leg, who numbed himself with painkillers to the point where he couldn’t feel anything because he simply didn’t want to feel anything. Now, he’s a man made out of steel, with everything in the world to care about, and yet, he can’t feel a thing. He’s a character that quite literally is shining every time you see him, and watching how he yells up at Gog, practically begging to be the next person to receive a gift, you want him to be heard. You want him to be given this gift, and yet, deep down you know it just won’t happen.
Pretty damn good if you’re asking me.
Hourman and Liberty Belle, the resident love birds of the team. I can’t help but think that Rick rushed right in, again, as he is one to do, but that the development works for me. Their parents were heroes during the forties, Rick’s dad helped found the JSA. They’re living legacies, which is everything that the JSA is about. In fact, Jessie has recently come out and shown that she’s for once bearing the powers of both of her parents, truly living up to both at once.
I’ve been a fan of Rick since he popped up in JSA during the whole Humanite/Thunderbolt deal, I’ve enjoyed him in the main titles, I liked him in the JSA: All Stars issue, hell, I went back and read Hourman and liked him there too. I’m a Rick Tyler fan, I root for the man. Because of that I always hope to see him happy, just as much as I hope to actually get to SEE him. Jessie Quick has always been a different story, as the character had done little more than annoy me since her debut….this hasn’t totally changed, but I do like her with Rick. It’s a nice compliment and who knows, maybe the only reason she was so hard to like is that no one had really given her a chance. Johns had done a good job with her previously on Flash, so maybe….for Rick’s sake, right?
Has anybody not noticed the sheer amount of Kingdom Come people on the team though? We’ve got Starman in his KC gear, Cyclone with the KC background, Jakeem dressing like Thunder from KC, Wildcat with a KC background, Lightning making her DC debut, Sand is now the Sandman, Judomaster exists, shit, we’ve even got the literal Kingdom Come Superman! And that’s just the JSA! Did Ross demand this as part of the negotiation process that got him to not insist that the team become the Super Friends? He’s already managed to get Hal on the cover of an issue, and it must be killing him to know that he’s plotting a story that uses Alan Scott and Jay Garrick instead of Hal and Barry.
This is the JSA. Notice the lack of Super Friends. I like it.
Magog is in the current DC canon. Magog, the Man of Tomorrow, the one who killed the Joker to help begin Superman’s exile. The one who can be blamed for the entire way of life that existed in Kingdom Come.
And thanks to DC trying to create hype for their solicits, we’ve known his identity since two weeks before the reveal. I mean it, they released preview solicits that talked about Magog being David Reid, and JSA was two weeks away. So that was a wonderful touch, more so then having FDR’s great grand-son be the new found potential big bad. I dunno, I’d probably be more enthusiastic for this if this wasn’t “the closing chapter on Kingdom Come.” I’d be inspired to care more about the events since I’d know that the plot threads would continue to move forward.
Instead I’m predicting that KC Superman goes back where he came from, and Magog gets inserted into the history of KC to live out his purpose. I figure that the JSA will go to war with itself over how to handle Gog, and when the war ends they might have a few members leave, but the rest will keep going. Business as usual.
This just in. Superman fights older version of self. Winds up being part Dragon.
Earth 2 is more interesting of a story point, actually. Kara is sent “home” only to discover that Earth 2 still has its very own Power Girl….and it isn’t her. Now she’s gone after E2’s Michael Holt for help, and there’s promise of a JSA vs Infinity Unlimited battle….goodness. See, that I like, it’s a classic formula while it explores a new concept with old characters. It adds value to what’s come before while moving forward at the same time. I would expect lasting effects from it to play out over the title, while I see the KC tie-in only ending with the loss of two or three members that didn’t even join the team until the arc began.
Just because.
You know what I’m really looking forward to? With JSA #1 and Booster Gold #1 Johns introduced the “coming this year” images as a preview of what to expect.
JSA’s featured Black Adam and Isis.
Fuck Gog. Fuck Kingdom Come. Fuck Alex Ross.
GIVE ME THE BLACK MARVEL OR GIVE ME DEATH!
Seriously, Black Adam is one of the most intriguing characters in all of DC, thanks in no small part to the work of Geoff Johns and David Goyer during the first volume of JSA, and more recently due to the 52 writing team and the always amazing Peter Tomasi. He’s the best bad guy in DC, and half the time he isn’t even a true bad guy, he’s just an amazingly deep character that’s a constant victim of circumstance. Last we saw him he had his magic word back, but Felix Faust has tricked him and cost him his wife. Now we see that she’s due to return at his side and…I want to see him unleash hell on a world that fears his awesome power.
Think you can take him? He dares you.
Then we’ve got Al Rothstein. Atom Smasher. His rise and fall were chronicled in the last run of JSA as we watched him experience his greatest triumph as he was allowed to join the team he spent his entire life aching to be a part of. He made a choice early on during his tenure, choosing to kill the villain Extant in order to save the life of his mother, and then later he joined Black Adam and his new team to help liberate Khandaq. The guilt grew and grew, and he eventually rejoined the JSA in an attempt to save Khandaq from the Spectre, an act that had his heart squeezed to death by the vengeful hand of God. His brother in arms, Black Adam, used the wizards mighty lightning to bring him back from the dead. And since then? We saw him in 52 as part of the new Suicide Squad, we saw him fight during World War Three, and we saw that he was the one that helped Black Adam escape at the conclusion. But what about since then? We saw bits and pieces of him during Black Adam’s mini-series, but nothing since. Where’s Al? Who does he stand with?
If I’d been built up and forgotten as fast as him, I’d scream too.
Here’s hoping he stands alongside the Mighty Adam once the Kingdom fades away. Maybe doing so as a stance against the JSA, as they’ve replaced the godson of the original Atom with his actual son (Damage). Atom Smasher vs Damage. I want to see it.
I’ve been a JSA fan for the past six years, proudly and happily. As much love as I want to give to the JLA, they haven’t held a candle to the team that started it all. Sure, that’s mainly an issue with the writers, but it doesn’t change things. The Society has been on an upward swing for years, one that doesn’t seem to be coming to a halt anytime soon. I say good, and I sit by as a happy reader with the book on my pull list. Sure it’s bookmarked with an Alex Ross cover every issue, and I’m not exactly happy with that, but it’s a small price to pay for my favorite team in DC.
Especially when that team has Stargirl.
The Gold Standard.
