Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Justice League of America #10


   This was a series I expected to love - and this Bryan Hitch written and drawn version of the Justice League of America certainly started out strong - but it sputtered, fell way behind schedule and, with this issue, finally limps across the finish line.
 
   How late is it? It's been almost 17 months since the first issue appeared, and more than three months since the last one. (Not to mention the fill-in, cover-the-missed-deadline issue.)

   As a result, it's hard to remember the story points. As best as I can manage, the Kryptonian god Rao came to Earth promising to cure all ills - and he delivered, healing the sick, ending poverty and hunger, and so on.

   Of course, there's a secret agenda at work, and it soon became apparent that he was threatening all life on Earth.

   There were side stories, with the League split up and tackling different problems - and somehow Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) winds up on ancient Krypton, where he meets a younger Rao - and the entire planet is transported to our modern-day galaxy, where an army of 250,000 super-powered warriors threaten to destroy the Earth. Oh, and modern day Rao still plans his own brand of destruction.

   And on and on. The art in this final issue is by Tom Derrick, Daniel Henriquez and Scott Hanna, all doing a creditable imitation of Hitch's unique, larger-than-life style.

   With Hitch writing the new (regular) Justice League comic, this series was wrapped up with Tony Bedard providing the script - and it's a creditable job.

   But the series just became too big and too convoluted to end well - so we can be happy that we finally did get an ending. Thanks for that, DC.

   And I still think this was a great concept - a series using the top DC stars, placed outside of regular continuity (so no pesky problems with losing a star to some overarching story), written and drawn by one of the industry's top creators.

   It should have worked! But meeting those deadlines and keeping the story focused are vital parts of the equation.

   Maybe next time!

Grade: B-

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