World Famous Comics: Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga
Justice League of America Vol. 2: The Lightning Saga
By: Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 224 Publication Date: February 13, 2008 Release Date: February 13, 2008
Product Description: Number-one bestselling novelist Brad Meltzer joins forces with top comics writer Geoff Johns for this incredible graphic novel bringing together the DC Universes top super-teams! Two of DCs biggest super-teamsthe Justice League of America, featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more, and the Justice Society of America, including Hawkman, Wildcat and othersjoin forces in this stunning hardcover volume! The JLA has discovered that several members of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 31st century are in the present. With the help of the JSA, Superman and his team must track down all seven Legionnaires to discover why these heroes of the future have traveled back in time!
Really great and "FULLSOME" book I'll make this brief. I really enjoyed this book - based on comments on here, the book well surpassed my expectations. After reading Identity Crisis I was instantly a big Brad Meltzer fan, and this was more good works with a blend of very funny moments with very deep overall writing. The first component of "The Lightning Saga" (hereafter "TLS") was basically a "training" story. After all of the fascinating-but-yet-emotionally-tiring seriousness of DC over the past half-decade this was a nice moment of traditional (JLA & JSA just "hanging out" together) relaxing enjoyment of the two "super teams" and their go-betweens.
The main component of TLS fits in and explains more about Starman & Karate Kid with regards to Final Crisis (Countdown) and the JSA run. I have honestly never read a story about the Legion - they seemed more like cheesy kids to my assumptive perspective. But the main component story arc was: a mystery; an ultimate team-up of the newer JLA & JSA with the blends of older heroes & also the "legacies"; and a resurrection.
The third component was a more seemingly-random story that I wasn't sure why it was included, but was impressed with the deep simplicity of the writing (two heroes caught in a life-threatening situation and trying to find their courage).
The final component is a very nice retrospective on the history of the JLA sort of in a memory scattershot of poignant moments. The single page with Batman and Wonder Woman lamenting the death of Superman from that epic 90's story still evoked a surprising amount of emotion.
I felt that this was an awesome book for the amount of content and WELL WORTH the money. Brad Meltzer has a great writing style & really seems to capture the heart and soul of particularly the JLA. Overall I am truly thrilled about the DCU right now - they have utterly AMAZING writers doing very deep and well-written stuff. As for this particular book, I strongly recommend it - it will entertain you for the two hours or so it takes to read it, and at the VERY LEAST you will not feel like you "wasted your money". I am very happy I purchased it.
Buy one issues, save the collection I really try to enjoy Brad's work as a comic writer. For one, I really liked Identy Crisis and the implications it brought. Its not that "The Lightning Saga" is bad, its just that it could be done in fewer pages, with fewer characters. Johns segments are way better but really don't save the book in my view.
Now, if you flip to Red Arrow's and Vixen's underground tale, well, what a treat. Will Eisner would be proud of the way diagrams, borders and even the margins of this comic are used for storytelling purposes.
Sound & Fury For all the hard work that Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns, and half a dozen pencillers and inkers have put into the title story of this collection, "The Lightning Saga" reads like an evening of Dungeons & Dragons enacted by characters who think they're in a Jacobean revenge tragedy. The reader is urged repeatedly to consider the pain of betrayal as one explanation for the characters' actions, yet by the end there doesn't seem to be anyone responsible for having done the alleged betraying. This is a story without a villain, despite walk-on roles for four of DC's bad guys; what we're left with, not to give too much away, is a story about a handful of 31st century heroes who've been sent back in time on a rather goofy suicide mission. Conveniently amnesiac on arrival, they succeed mostly in making nuisances of themselves.
If "The Lightning Saga" is all sound and fury, things improve drastically in the standalone story, "Walls." Red Arrow and Vixen, both seriously injured, have to rescue themselves from a collapsing building. The panels, on pitch black pages, get narrower and more claustrophobically oppressive as the heroes find themselves running out of time, space, oxygen, and hope. It's a virtuoso piece of visual storytelling by Meltzer and artist Gene Ha, easily the one must-read story in this collection.
The last two stories are more typical of Meltzer's comics writing in that they're both elegant fantasias on decades of Justice League history. "Monitor Duty" views the League as an extended family, a collection of soul mates, confidants, lovers, near-siblings, quasi-in laws, and real and virtual sons and daughters; it's all about the prickly love that makes a family a family. "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow," drawn by 23 artists, is a behind-the-scenes look at the friendship of DC's Holy Trinity: Superman, Batman, and Woman Wonder. Drawing on a dizzying archive of old comics and recent graphic novels, we watch the bond between these three extraordinary, difficult individuals fraying over the years towards a (possible) future in which they'll barely be on speaking terms; for now, they're the indivisible core of the Justice League, friends whose philosophical differences are implicit in their efforts to see the League in the context of a bigger picture. What's that old saw about good intentions?
Nothing Happens The reboot of the JLA starting off with Meltzer's run and into McDuffies has just been dry.
The growth of the Red Tornado was cool for the first few issues, but it hasn't gone anywhere and it has flip-flopped so many times in 25 issues that I am just confused and don't care anymore.
Everything was right going in... Batman, Superman, and Wonderwoman on the same page - check. Promoting fan favorites - Check. Bringing in some under-rated characters - check. Cultural diversity - check.
The elements in the story were all there, the fault was in the execution.
The Best of the New Justice League Series After the slow "Tornado's Path" storyline, Meltzer steps it up here with the fast-paced "Lightning Saga." The majority of the best scenes occur in Geoff Johns's "Justice Society" segments, collected here in order (although no mention is made of the Justice Society on the front cover). This is one of the better JLA stories in years.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
