On A-List team books

I’m a big fan of team books. I really like the aspect of having an ensemble cast of characters coming together to fight for the good cause. If done well, you can have a group of heroes that normally wouldn’t shine on their own (ever wonder why Rogue and Gambit series keep getting cancelled?) become a big thing as a group.

Of course, the more popular thing to do is to take your already established characters and shoehorn them together. That’s cool – people love seeing their favorite heroes working together. But if you throw too many in, you run into a problem of telling consistent stories without having to stretch the limits of your threat. There’s only so much that can challenge a group made up of several near-invulnerable heroes, after all.

In the Justice League, you have the big three – Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – two Green Lanterns and the Flash. Never mind the rest of the team (Black Canary, Black Lightning, Vixen, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl and Red Tornado) – with just those six characters, you have the entire power core of the DC heroes. Who is going to stop them?

Once this realization came to me, I quit complaining about the constant villain team-ups. What else can you do against them?

Avengers has had this problem several times. The original line-up featured three of Marvel’s biggest solo stars (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor) and added Captain America three issues later. Once the series got going, however, the three originals were gone – replaced by side-characters Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. From this point on, Avengers dug its own character niche in the Marvel Universe – certain characters were Avengers – and that was that.

JSA is like that now. JLA seems to be on the fence about it. On the one hand, the book heavily pushes the more unknown characters: Black Canary is the leader, Black Lightning has a substantial role, Vixen has a long-running subplot, Hawkgirl and Red Arrow are bumping uglies. On the other, the book still seems to long for the Grant Morrison days of jam all big characters into the book. Morrison made it work, though, and soon added lesser names like Plastic Man and Steel. JLA has seen two big villain team-ups thus far.

Perhaps it’s because I fondly remember a League featuring two major characters – Batman and Martian Manhunter – and a load of second-stringers and nobodies. Even when the book was changed from comedy back to action by Dan Jurgens just before Doomsday, the League was made up of the same cast of lower talents. Over those 70+ issues, though, certain characters became core Leaguers – even if the DCU proper didn’t think too highly of them. I think that’s what the League could use now. Dip into the vast pool of DC heroes (if any survive the usual Crisis cullings) and get yourself a base of heroes that can come in and out of the scene. Rotate your leader and have them put out a call, with who knows showing up. I would like to see something like that, with the lesser heroes actually having a challenge, rather than seeing what’s going on now.

JSA: Indestructable (7)

It’s not often you see a standalone story nowadays, especially in a team book featuring about a dozen different characters. This, actually, is kind of an epilogue to the first storyline that saw the JSA take on the Fourth Reich in an effort to preserve the family lines of patriotic-themed heroes. During that story, the family of the original General Steel were massacred in one of the most disturbing scenes in a non-independent title (remember the meeting of Michone and the Governor in Walking Dead?). In the back stories, Dr. Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific commented on the effects that Reichsmark regurgitating on the face of Nate Heywood, grandson of General Steel, regrowing his missing leg and changing him into a metallic-skinned being lacking the sense of touch.

This storyline should have been the follow-up to the first storyline, but unfortunately the title was tied up for two issues while the team was running around in the Lightning Saga. So here, we get back on track and find that Nate does indeed become the hero shown on the cover of issue 1 decked out in a variation of General Steel’s costume. But, of course, since Nate’s not in the military, Power Girl changes the name to ‘Citizen Steel’ and we have a new hero.

Nate is a very tragic character. His family murdered before his eyes, his constant pain from a football injury replaced by the numbness of his metallic skin, he’s definitely not the ray of sunshine that can be found with Cyclone or Stargirl. Also, he’s the team’s reluctant hero that would rather sit at home and do nothing than go out and fight crime. The only reason he got into the fray this issue is because it had to do with the Nazis that attacked his family. And, of course, when Nazis are involved, who doesn’t want to go in and beat the crap out of them? Don’t deny it.

The only problem here is that the JSA already has a tragic character in the form of Damage. Damage is a former reluctant hero who finally got into the act just in time for his face to be hideously scarred, forcing him to wear a mask. I suppose that a roster as big as the JSA’s has room for the two of them, and maybe the two will work well of each other, but it doesn’t seem to be the case at this point. If Geoff Johns leaves this title, I don’t see Citizen Steel getting much more time in the spotlight.

There’s also an afterthought to the Lightning Saga here as Superman visits the still-insane Starman in the mental hospital to ask about the Legion, but this seems to be just an opportunity to get Starman to say funny things. If there’s a point to this, it needs to be made because the incoherent rambling is getting old.

JLA, JSA: The Lightning Saga (8-10, 5-6)

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Justice Society of America: The Next Age (1-4)

I’ve been slacking off on the Wrecks lately, so I’m going to try to play catch up. Flipping through the backlog for a starting point, we have one of the newer titles to my list, JSA.

Welcome to the first storyline of the new Justice Society of America! Infinite Crisis took out the old title, and One Year Later brings us a new day for the JSA! Why, you ask? Well, I can’t really figure it out. This, like JLA, didn’t really need a relaunch…the storyline very easily could have started in the old book…but who cares? New issue number one! Let’s jump right in!

The immediate problem that this “new title” has is that it’s a whole lot like the old title. The team is made up of a lot of the previous one (Green Lantern, Flash, Wildcat, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Stargirl, Hourman, Liberty Belle, Sandman, Mr. Terrific, Power Girl – not to mention Jakeem Thunder being on the cover of issue one), with a few new faces (a new Wildcat, Obsidian, Damage, Cyclone, Starman) added in for a new bit of flavor. This becomes a bit of an issue when, after four issues, this team of sixteen members is together and ready to go. Some characters, like Cyclone, the new Wildcat, and Starman, get some characterization, readers are expected to be familiar with all of the others. It begs the question of why starting over with a new number one?

The story itself sets the pace of the JSA – or resets the pace. Unlike the JLA, which is the heavy hitters coming together to save the day, the JSA is a legacy team. All of the members are in some way connected to other members of the team, past and present. Damage is the son of the original Atom. Sandman was the sidekick of the original. Stargirl is the stepdaughter of STRIPESY, former sidekick to the Star Spangled Kid. That’s nothing new for the JSA. It’s brought into focus when Vanadal Savage unleashes a plan to wipe out the entire bloodline of American icon heroes. It’s hinted that a new Commander Steel will shortly turn up, which along with the new Wildcat, is what we get out of the story.

It’s a good story, but just not a good opening story. The JSA is not heavily featured in 52, and more of an introduction for new readers might have been advisable. With this title going straight into a JLA crossover, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting much more for the next couple months. It’s good for those familiar with the JSA, but not very friendly to everyone else.