Justice League Dark
Jan. 25th, 2012 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinSpeaking as someone who likes shaggy dog stories, the first story arc in Justice League Dark feels like a really bad example of one. Five issues during which the world is being torn apart by the unhinged magic of a host-less Enchantress ends when someone gives her back her host.
During those five issues, Madame Xanadu sort of vaguely pulls at the strings of fate to "assemble" (somewhat) a group of heroes who either try to keep the Enchantress's former host body safe from her or confront the Enchantress, but mostly just sort of have hilarious misunderstandings with each other. And in the end John Constantine goes, "This great big magical spirit is going to tear the world apart if it doesn't have its favorite host... guys, how does this even count as a problem?" and does what you might expect John Constantine to do under the circumstances.
(Hint: If Alexander of Macedonia had been John Constantine, he would have put a demon in the knot, and then let it cut itself on the vertebrae of his six closest friends in the process of horribly killing them. Yes, this is the same Constantine that somebody turned into a movie about Keanu Reeves trying to get into heaven or some shit.)
And it can't be called a resolution because the canon main DC universe just spent the entire span of the story dying and/or killing each other horribly in ways that used to happen in the "world going to hell" pages of The Sandman and basically nothing's ever going to be said or done about that outside the pages of this book and so it doesn't feel like the stakes were real and the story closes with the sense that Xanadu is really not the least bit bovvered to see June and the Enchantress back together in one piece, which is weird because she's the one who separated them and semi-assembled a semi-team to "deal with" the problem in some unspecified fashion and never once indicated that giving the Enchantress-entity what she wanted would be a viable solution.
I feel like this series has been a terrible exercise in taking a by-the-numbers plan that might have filled two or three issues and stretching it out for half a year. That plan is:
1. Establish that the Regular Justice League sucks at magic.
2. Present a world-shaking threat that evokes the sorts of "world gone wrong" horror the early DC/Vertigo books were so good at.
3. Ragtag team of misfits and antiheroes pulled together by et cetera.
4. Shockingly "dark" solution to problem to show that no holds are barred and this Ain't Your Daddy's Justice League and blah de blah blah blah blah.
5. No matter what happens, reconstitute The Enchantress because we've already decided to use her for this book.
Nothing in there needs five issues to pull off, or benefits from being expanded to five issues. They didn't even need this much space to introduce the character because teaching us who the characters are has clearly not been a priority.
Again, maybe I'm encumbered by my lack of deep familiarity with The Enchantress character, but in issue one her two halves were a terrified woman who the world itself seemed to be hunting and an emaciated crone thing that was ripping the world in half and trying to kill Superman with a swarm of teeth. When the two are united, the resulting figure seems... okay. I mean, I know her history has some of the keeping power in balance and teetering on the edge of control aspect to it, but how is that worse than power out of balance and spiraling wildly out of control?
The initial arc of Swamp Thing shows its central character actively resisting a return to a similar dual life in the demimonde of magical superheroes while the powers that once used him as a pawn try to get him back, and it's pretty much inevitable that it's going to happen because the name of the book is Swamp Thing and not Dr. Alec Holland, Regular Science-Guy, but there's a story going on that isn't just this foregone conclusion. Holland isn't a hapless victim or passenger, he's going on his own journey and trying to do things his own way. June just sort of cringed and wailed. A lot. For five issues. And then she was The Enchantress.
And again, she seems just fine as The Enchantress. Her life was a waking nightmare that was destroying the world, and now she's a slightly confused magical superhero, which just leaves me wondering why they weren't reunited in issue one. Or why they were separated in the first place without a clear plan for containing or destroying the magical entity that's capable of destroying the world and rather unfocused without a host.
I mean, John Constantine has a solution for getting rid of possessing entities forever. It involves power magical bonds, powerful regular bonds, and your least favorite friend. That was one of the first arcs in his solo book. If they wanted to "go to the dark place" that's the sort of thing they should have done rather than the equivalent of "Okay, Billy, you're Captain Marvel again, so the power of SHAZAM! isn't ricocheting around killing people anymore. Try not to go crazy with power!"
Why did it take us five issues to get to this point?
Ugh.
Folks, when I of all people start complaining that something was needlessly padded out, you know there's a problem.
During those five issues, Madame Xanadu sort of vaguely pulls at the strings of fate to "assemble" (somewhat) a group of heroes who either try to keep the Enchantress's former host body safe from her or confront the Enchantress, but mostly just sort of have hilarious misunderstandings with each other. And in the end John Constantine goes, "This great big magical spirit is going to tear the world apart if it doesn't have its favorite host... guys, how does this even count as a problem?" and does what you might expect John Constantine to do under the circumstances.
(Hint: If Alexander of Macedonia had been John Constantine, he would have put a demon in the knot, and then let it cut itself on the vertebrae of his six closest friends in the process of horribly killing them. Yes, this is the same Constantine that somebody turned into a movie about Keanu Reeves trying to get into heaven or some shit.)
And it can't be called a resolution because the canon main DC universe just spent the entire span of the story dying and/or killing each other horribly in ways that used to happen in the "world going to hell" pages of The Sandman and basically nothing's ever going to be said or done about that outside the pages of this book and so it doesn't feel like the stakes were real and the story closes with the sense that Xanadu is really not the least bit bovvered to see June and the Enchantress back together in one piece, which is weird because she's the one who separated them and semi-assembled a semi-team to "deal with" the problem in some unspecified fashion and never once indicated that giving the Enchantress-entity what she wanted would be a viable solution.
I feel like this series has been a terrible exercise in taking a by-the-numbers plan that might have filled two or three issues and stretching it out for half a year. That plan is:
1. Establish that the Regular Justice League sucks at magic.
2. Present a world-shaking threat that evokes the sorts of "world gone wrong" horror the early DC/Vertigo books were so good at.
3. Ragtag team of misfits and antiheroes pulled together by et cetera.
4. Shockingly "dark" solution to problem to show that no holds are barred and this Ain't Your Daddy's Justice League and blah de blah blah blah blah.
5. No matter what happens, reconstitute The Enchantress because we've already decided to use her for this book.
Nothing in there needs five issues to pull off, or benefits from being expanded to five issues. They didn't even need this much space to introduce the character because teaching us who the characters are has clearly not been a priority.
Again, maybe I'm encumbered by my lack of deep familiarity with The Enchantress character, but in issue one her two halves were a terrified woman who the world itself seemed to be hunting and an emaciated crone thing that was ripping the world in half and trying to kill Superman with a swarm of teeth. When the two are united, the resulting figure seems... okay. I mean, I know her history has some of the keeping power in balance and teetering on the edge of control aspect to it, but how is that worse than power out of balance and spiraling wildly out of control?
The initial arc of Swamp Thing shows its central character actively resisting a return to a similar dual life in the demimonde of magical superheroes while the powers that once used him as a pawn try to get him back, and it's pretty much inevitable that it's going to happen because the name of the book is Swamp Thing and not Dr. Alec Holland, Regular Science-Guy, but there's a story going on that isn't just this foregone conclusion. Holland isn't a hapless victim or passenger, he's going on his own journey and trying to do things his own way. June just sort of cringed and wailed. A lot. For five issues. And then she was The Enchantress.
And again, she seems just fine as The Enchantress. Her life was a waking nightmare that was destroying the world, and now she's a slightly confused magical superhero, which just leaves me wondering why they weren't reunited in issue one. Or why they were separated in the first place without a clear plan for containing or destroying the magical entity that's capable of destroying the world and rather unfocused without a host.
I mean, John Constantine has a solution for getting rid of possessing entities forever. It involves power magical bonds, powerful regular bonds, and your least favorite friend. That was one of the first arcs in his solo book. If they wanted to "go to the dark place" that's the sort of thing they should have done rather than the equivalent of "Okay, Billy, you're Captain Marvel again, so the power of SHAZAM! isn't ricocheting around killing people anymore. Try not to go crazy with power!"
Why did it take us five issues to get to this point?
Ugh.
Folks, when I of all people start complaining that something was needlessly padded out, you know there's a problem.