By: Bill Willingham (writer), Travis Moore (penciller), Dan Green (inker), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)
The Story: Merciless, Part One of Two: Dr. Fate’s body is possessed in the temporary HQ of the JSA (the old cave HQ of the JLA). The JSA are getting settled. Mr. Terrific is recuperating from his injuries and tinkers with Mr. America’s whip. The Flash and Green Lantern struggle over what to do with Kid Karneval, their prisoner after he penetrated the JSA and stabbed Mr. Terrific.
What’s Good: The art and the plotting were fun. Moore draws some very expressive faces which gives Willingham a lot more tools in his toolbox to tell the story. Dr. Midnight’s sympathetic expression on page 3 says more than the dialogue, as do the different expressions on Kent’s face as he’s possessed. And, check out the expressions in the conversation the possessed Fate has with Wildcat and Mr. America. My favorite art moment, though, is probably when Mr. America is testing out the whip that Mr. Terrific has improved for him.
Willingham made some funny scenes in this book that I enjoyed. And he had me going on the possession story. I was getting myself worked into a tizzy about this story idea and near the end, I was thinking didn’t we just do this!? Right when I thought of how stupid it was to repeat a plot we’d just had this very team go through, Willingham twisted the idea and had upset my expectations. I love it when a writer outsmarts me! I also loved who the villain turned out to be. I take it as a good sign that Willingham pulled out one of DC’s heaviest hitters for the first adventure of the new team.
What’s Not So Good: While I enjoyed Willingham’s macro work (plot, mood, misdirection), his micro work in this issue really had me frustrated. Firstly, I really have a low tolerance for dropping gratuitous exposition into dialogue. (Gratuitous exposition in dialogue is when a character says something to another character the writer needs the reader to know, but neither character has any reason to tell the other about it.) Right on page 2, Willingham put gratuitous exposition into the dialogue between Dr. Midnight and Liberty Belle with a line like: “with the destruction of the brownstone, we’re homeless, and the JLA were kind enough to let us stay here.” I know textboxes are out of style, but the fact is, they are the place for necessary exposition, so the dialogue doesn’t get clunky. This dialogue makes me feel that Liberty Belle must be a bit slow to need remedial explanations from her teammate. Willingham could have left this unsaid and had the reader piece it together, or even saved this exchange as the base for meaningful conflict later on.
Secondly, the voice of the villain, especially tone and diction, was all over the map. Most of the time, it was formal, old school villainy with phrases like “I am a lord of Chaos”, “ramparts”, “now filled nigh to bursting”, and “The full flush of my powers rises within me again.” Fine. Old school like Grand Moff Tarkin. But then, the villain’s monologue descends into old school Republican serial tone, like Ming the Merciless, with: “But wait! What’s this?”, “Ah, I begin to see. At long last, the ninth age of magic…” Later, we get a few Commander Data moments when the villain interacts with the JSA through Fate: “Sleep is a simple task. Why would you imply I could have made a mistake in the procedure?” You can see that it’s a bit clunky, but it’s still all the same level of formality (personality), until it drops in random spots, with informal tones like: “I need a hideout”, “while I catch up”, and “So what’s the story here?” I forget the technical term for sudden changes in tone, but it’s very distracting.
Conclusion: Some interesting story going on here, but the technical flaws break the suspension of disbelief.
Grade: C
-DS Arsenault
Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Allen Passalaqua, Bill Willingham, character voice, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, comic reviews, Dan Green, DC, DC Comics, Dr. Fate, Dr. Midnight, DS Arsenault, Green Lantern, JSA #34, JSA #34 review, Justice Society of America, Justice Society of America #34, Justice Society of America #34 review, Kid Karneval, Liberty Belle, Mr. America, Mr. Terrific, Reviews, The Flash, Travis Moore, Weekly Comic Book Review, weeklycomicbookreview.com, writing
Honestly, I felt this was BY FAR the best issue of JSA since Johns left. It’s not perfect, but it felt a lot less…stupid than the last arc and just felt like a lot more fun. It felt more fun than cheesecake.
It’s a totally different book under Willingham solo. It reads differently, it’s more enjoyable, and even the one-liners were more amusing than cringe-worthy.
The dialogue was no where near as horrid as it’s been.
Far better writing than the previous issues overall.