RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2007-06-26 07:00 pm
ratcreature) wrote2007-06-26 07:00 pm
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DC: Justice maxiseries
Since finally #12 of the Justice maxiseries (written by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross, art by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite) has come out I got around to reading the series.
As usual I'm not that fond of Alex Ross' art here, because I think the painted realism is wooden and doesn't really bring dynamic and movement to the page in the way good lineart does, i.e. the art doesn't feel alive no matter how "life-like" it is painted. Still, there's a lot worse art in comics. And I actually like this style okay for backgrounds, panorama shots and even these "iconic" group picture poses, just not for moving people or people's emotions.
The highlight of the illustration for me was definitely the League's new armors to protect them from the mindcontrol robots we see in the double page spread in issue #9. I think it looks rather cool. Far more menacing than their regular outfits anyway. Though I'm not sure what it says about me that I like Batman to kind of look like Darth Vader in style.
Anyway, overall I liked the story, but the beginning better than the latter half. Also, I think I might have liked it better if I was more familiar with all the characters. For example I've never really read anything with Captain Marvel and wasn't really familiar with a number of characters, like that Red Tornado guy (robot?), but then again I feel like that a lot in JL comics, and at least it is outside the convoluted state of the current continuity which I am not keeping up with at the moment. Or maybe it's just set early in the timeline, I don't know.
Anyway, the hook with the apocalyptic dreams and the villains seemingly helping people really worked for me. And personally I think Luthor had a point in his speech, even if it later turned out he faked that sentiment of the poor and disenfranchised having inherent rights and that those should benefit from technological advancement and such too. I mean, all the cool technology and alien knowledge and superpowers should do more for people than help fight alien starfish and such. And okay, those particular nanobots that healed people turned out to double as evil mindcontrol things later on, but that still means that there is technology the heroes could use to help and heal as well, for example.
The kind of "moral" at the end that human misery and suffering somehow beneficial in the end or something, because the struggling helped humans to advance really, really rubbed me the wrong way, especially coming from billionaires and powerful aliens, who certainly wouldn't think twice to use the best tech to replace their hands or spinal cord if they found themselves without, either if that was possible with their means, rather than "struggling" with adversity.
Still I enjoyed discovering the layers of the plot, and the fights were cool, so I don't regret reading it (even at $3.50-3.99 the issue--seriously comic prices are insane).
As usual I'm not that fond of Alex Ross' art here, because I think the painted realism is wooden and doesn't really bring dynamic and movement to the page in the way good lineart does, i.e. the art doesn't feel alive no matter how "life-like" it is painted. Still, there's a lot worse art in comics. And I actually like this style okay for backgrounds, panorama shots and even these "iconic" group picture poses, just not for moving people or people's emotions.
The highlight of the illustration for me was definitely the League's new armors to protect them from the mindcontrol robots we see in the double page spread in issue #9. I think it looks rather cool. Far more menacing than their regular outfits anyway. Though I'm not sure what it says about me that I like Batman to kind of look like Darth Vader in style.
Anyway, overall I liked the story, but the beginning better than the latter half. Also, I think I might have liked it better if I was more familiar with all the characters. For example I've never really read anything with Captain Marvel and wasn't really familiar with a number of characters, like that Red Tornado guy (robot?), but then again I feel like that a lot in JL comics, and at least it is outside the convoluted state of the current continuity which I am not keeping up with at the moment. Or maybe it's just set early in the timeline, I don't know.
Anyway, the hook with the apocalyptic dreams and the villains seemingly helping people really worked for me. And personally I think Luthor had a point in his speech, even if it later turned out he faked that sentiment of the poor and disenfranchised having inherent rights and that those should benefit from technological advancement and such too. I mean, all the cool technology and alien knowledge and superpowers should do more for people than help fight alien starfish and such. And okay, those particular nanobots that healed people turned out to double as evil mindcontrol things later on, but that still means that there is technology the heroes could use to help and heal as well, for example.
The kind of "moral" at the end that human misery and suffering somehow beneficial in the end or something, because the struggling helped humans to advance really, really rubbed me the wrong way, especially coming from billionaires and powerful aliens, who certainly wouldn't think twice to use the best tech to replace their hands or spinal cord if they found themselves without, either if that was possible with their means, rather than "struggling" with adversity.
Still I enjoyed discovering the layers of the plot, and the fights were cool, so I don't regret reading it (even at $3.50-3.99 the issue--seriously comic prices are insane).
no subject
Luthor is best when he has a real and true point to make. I liked him as president, too--still ruthless, still LUTHOR, and absolutely more than capable of doing the job. Battlesuit Luthor is far less interesting to me.
no subject
WORD. That is very true. I mean, IMO we really don't need to go back to it. It already had its time, after all, and reminiscing is fine and even fun when done well, but resurrecting... well that never turns out well for the supervillains either. ;)
And yeah, considering Ross' style and compared to some of his other stuff, I liked the art to, it is just really not my thing.