J.L. Ay Yi Yi

I just finished reading the complete series of DC Comics' latest attempt at a Justice League International comic.  And, by complete, I mean Justice League International #1-12 and Annual #1, because the series has been cancelled.  With good reason.  It sucked.  

Gone are the days of 1987's classic Justice League International series as written by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis, with art by Kevin Maguire.  The new JLI in DC's New 52 boasted Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Rocket Red, Guy Gardner, Vixen, August General in Iron, and Godiva.  It was a decent line-up and actually had a lot of countries/continents represented (USA, Brazil, Norway, Russia, Africa, China, and England).  Unfortunately, the stories were all too lame and didn't capture the spirit or comradery of the original series.  The new series failed to use this generous diverse group of characters properly.  There was no personalization, no character development, and no decent interaction between any of the teammates.

After OMAC's comic was canceled with issue #8, the pseudo-Hulk joined the team on their lame adventures and brought them down even further.  And did I mention Rocket Red is killed, while Fire, Ice, and Vixen are hospitalized, taking all of them out of commission for the remainder of the series? Way to win over the female fan base, DC.  Incapacitate all of the superheroines and bring in more males.


The best part of the whole series was at the very ending of Annual #1 when it was revealed (spoiler alert!) that Booster is too late to stop Superman and Wonder Woman from sharing a kiss, thereby affecting future events...

Now if only one single issue of this series could have been as intriguing and mysterious as this scene, they may have been able to survive cancellation.

Drawing the Line at $4.99

Brightest Day #24 (2011)

Yesterday, I stopped into my local comic book store and picked up the past two weeks' comics from my reserve bag.  Included in the stash were the last issue of Brightest Day, the last issue of Justice League: Generation Lost, Action Comics #900, and Avengers Academy Giant-Size #1.  The first two were $4.99 each, Action Comics $5.99, and Avengers Academy was $7.99!  Are you freakin' kidding me with all of these jacked-up prices?!  I bought the first three because they're part of the ongoing series that I've collected, but I couldn't justify spending $7.99 (really?) on the Avengers Academy book.  I can honestly say that I've never seen such an expensive "regular" comic book.  Even Annuals don't cost that much!  I hope whatever's in it isn't integral to the regular series' storyline, because if it is, I'll never know about it.  How many people does Marvel think will actually fork over $7.99 for a single comic book? 

Avengers Academy Giant-Size #1 (2011)

I read the Brightest Day and Justice League issues one evening.  While they were enjoyable, they certainly didn't provide more excitement than a $2.99 comic.  In fact, BD had several two-page spreads, so it wasn't even more story, just bigger pictures.  I felt a little violated.  

A few days later, I read Action Comics #900, hoping for some big revelation or big conclusion to the "Reign of Doomsday" storyline.  Nope.  It was just a mediocre segway story that was about the same length as a regular issue.  I can't even call it a "bridge" between two other issues because nothing much really happened.  If I hadn't read the story, I certainly wouldn't have been lost reading Superman or another Super-title.  The additional $3 I paid for this "100 page" issue were random Superman stories that weren't part of current continuity...and weren't very good themselves.  

DC may be "Drawing the Line at $2.99," but I'm drawing it at $4.99.  No $5.99 or $7.99 comics in my future (even $4.99 was severely pushing it!).  It's time for me to re-evaluate the comics I currently read and shave a few off the list accordingly.