The Justice League Book I Want To Read
Over and over again, I keep trying to read Justice League / JLA / Justice Whatever-They’re-Calling-It-This Year, and over and over, the book fails to keep my interest. I think that the repeated nature of my attempt to buy into the book speak to a certain desire to read Justice League stories, so I’m going to throw out the idea that I’m just not into the characters. No, I think the problem is strictly in the execution. Here’s what I want out of a Justice League book. If DC could consistently deliver this, I would buy every freaking issue.
- Emphasize the relationships between League members. You know what Claremont’s X-Men or Wolfman’s Teen Titans did really well? Exactly what this bullet point is about. I could read a comic that had zero punches thrown, zero bad guys apprehended, and zero big villain reveals as long as the team dynamic is being explored. I want to see team members with crushes on each other. I want to see tension between Batman and everyone else. I want to see Superman struggling to live up to his reptuation with newer members. I want to see Flash trying to balance the League, his solo career, and his family. Basically, give me a shoujo Justice League, dammit.
- Take some time building up plots. Yes, I understand that Justice League Unlimited was ridiculously successful. Comics, however, are not television. You don’t have to be done in one issue, six issues, or even twelve issues. Leave dangling plot threads — preferably plot threads that deal with the main characters’ lives.
- Admit that the Trinity will always and forever be in charge…and then move on. Black Canary is an interesting character, but she’s not the person in charge of the League. The whole bit where Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman were secretly running things behind the scenes was one of the creepiest things that Meltzer introduced. Make it those three officially in charge as co-chairs of the League or something. Once you’ve done that, then you can stop trying to explain why they’re not in charge and get back to telling good stories.
- Stop trying to team up the villains. It never really works. The tropes of the genre make it really hard for us to believe an evil team-up. Evil characters in superhero comics tend to be megalomaniacs. The Injustice Society bits stretch our suspension of disbelief just a little bit too much. Just make a single villain really, really scary, please.
- Don’t worry about the larger DC continuity. Seriously. I don’t want to figure out why Superman is suddenly blue and crackling with electricity. I don’t want to know why Batman can’t make it to this adventure. I’m a big fan of continuity in most cases, but this title just begs to be quasi-standalone.
If DC could deliver this consistently on a monthly basis, I would gladly pack four bucks an issue. Seriously.
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