JLA Year One is awesome

[Tony Starkz]

bought this a while ago and got around to reading the first 3 chapters

this is really good stuff so far,I love the focus on Aquaman,Flash,Green Lantern,Canary and Manhunter for a change

great interaction and action so far

[frankiedetroit]

bought this a while ago and got around to reading the first 3 chapters

this is really good stuff so far,I love the focus on Aquaman,Flash,Green Lantern,Canary and Manhunter for a change

great interaction and action so far

Ahh, JLA: Year One. This came out in '98 or so. I salivated waiting for each issue, and can remember pulling over to the side of the road reading one issue, I was that excited to read it. I thought it muddled down toward the end, but the first nine or so issues were something special. Now you're gonna make me re-read this series...

[Rylon]

If you want more after you're done reading it, Waid and Kitson (sp?) did a follow-up focusing on Barry and Hal called The Brave and the Bold. Awesome stuff.

Also, I suggest Showcase Presents: Justice League of America. JLA: Year One makes references to several of those early issues. Particularly the fights with Starro, the first team-up, and the guy from the year 10,000 AD.

[Buried Alien]

Great story, but now out of continuity because post-INFINITE CRISIS, the founding lineup of the JLA has been retconned back into something more akin to its original Silver Age configuration.

JLA YEAR ONE is a great story and it's kind of a shame to lose it from continuity, but it never really did make sense that the founding lineup of the JLA didn't include the Big Three.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Tony Starkz]

I really couldn't care less about stories being out of continuity.

[Lorendiac]

I really couldn't care less about stories being out of continuity.

I can't believe you actually said that. Why, that's . . . that's . . .

BLASPHEMY! :eek: :eek: :eek:

(Don't shock me that way, okay? I'm not as young as I used to be!)

[Tony Starkz]

So you're telling me just because editorial decides a story is no longer in continuity,it isn't worth getting or good?

You must be mistaken sir,JLA Y1 is one of the finest ensemble pieces I've read in a while.

[Lorendiac]

So you're telling me just because editorial decides a story is no longer in continuity,it isn't worth getting or good?

You must be mistaken sir,JLA Y1 is one of the finest ensemble pieces I've read in a while.

I think you're responding to my recent post in particular, although you don't say so. Assuming that you are, I'll answer in two sections.

Section 1. Come again? I never said a single word in this thread about "editorial" decisions, or about any story being "good" or "bad," whether it is currently in continuity or not! Nor did I say anything about JLA Year One in particular!

I only said that your very casual attitude toward continuity, not even caring about whether a particular story is in continuity or not, was "blasphemy!" (I cleverly avoided defining my reasons for saying that!)

Section 2. The second, and somewhat more serious part of my response.

I hope you actually realize that my use of the word "blasphemy," so over-the-top with that huge font size and those shocked little faces following it, was deliberately meant to be funny. The part after that, where I begged you to go easy on me because I'm not as young as I used to be, was meant to evoke an image of me clutching at my chest, almost having a heart attack after the shock of reading your post . . . while at the same time I hoped you would consciously realize that my heart was beating nice and steady all the time, and doesn't go into convulsions when I read certain opinions on a comic book forum! (If I were that hypersensitive, I'd have no business risking my life participating on these forums at all!)

I may have been too subtle for my own good, but that was the general effect I was aiming for! :)

[Bored at 3:00AM]

My view towards continuity is the DIY approach. Do it yourself. Find the stories you like and combine them into whatever history you like and ignore the ones you don't. Any contraditions can be explained away via any nonsensical plot device you wish--be that a Superboy Prime hissy fit, a Yellow Fear Monster, Scarlet Witch's Magic Hoo Hoo Dilly or, my personal favorite, Mr Mxyzptlk had 5th Dimensional Montazumma's Revenge and crapped out a bunch of crap stories.

For instance, my DCU history begins with the debut of Superman in 1938 and continues into James Robinson's Golden Age and then into Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier. It also convieniently skips over every crappy story, particularly those written in the mid-nineties.

If you really like JLA: Year One, it fits, just ignore the bits where is says Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman were never founders.

[Buried Alien]

So you're telling me just because editorial decides a story is no longer in continuity,it isn't worth getting or good?

Actually, you're saying it, but getting beyond that point that really isn't much of a point...

JLA YEAR ONE is a fine story on its own. Its continuity status doesn't really change that. What being part of continuity does for the story (and for the DCU in general) is to expand the story's significance beyond its own internal limits to have its effects reverberate into later eras of DC history, resulting in a richer overall universal tapestry that, in turn, enrichens the original source story. Taking the story out of continuity is not a fatal problem: the story's innate virtues preclude that from every happening. Nonetheless, there is something lost when a story is taken out of continuity because the greater consequence it could have had will be missing. Again, I emphasize, by no means a fatal problem...but still a regrettable one.

Take the analogy of eating a cheesecake. Cheesecake by itself is certainly good. At times, it might be all you want or need. Cheesecake as dessert after a terrific multi-course meal, however, is better in many situations. JLA YEAR ONE is like that cheesecake: tasty enough by itself, but probably even better with the rest of the meal.

Continuity is not automatically a good thing; it's not automatically a bad thing either. People shouldn't be too eager to dismiss the discussion of continuity in superhero comics. Continuity has encouraged and inhibited the writing of great stories in ths genre depending on its use. I, for one, have enjoyed stories more when rich histories are incorporated rather than ignored.


The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Buried Alien]

If you really like JLA: Year One, it fits, just ignore the bits where is says Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman were never founders.

Actually, and this is more a characterization issue than a continuity issue, JLA YEAR ONE (as it was told) can ONLY work if Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are *not* in the League. The Post-COIE (Pre-INFINITE CRISIS) founding JLA was quite powerful with J'Onn J'Onzz, Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, and Aquaman, but they did have limitations that they would not have had if Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had also been on the team. The particular situations faced by that Founding Five could only have played out as they did without the Big Three in the lineup (if only because the Big Three plus the Founding Five would have solved all those problems in half the time and twice as spectacularly). Of course, depending which way you go (Silver Age Seven or Founding Five), it will have different consequences for the later DCU that spins out of that (which is where the continuity issue comes in).




Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Actually, and this is more a characterization issue than a continuity issue, JLA YEAR ONE (as it was told) can ONLY work if Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are *not* in the League. The Post-COIE (Pre-INFINITE CRISIS) founding JLA was quite powerful with J'Onn J'Onzz, Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, and Aquaman, but they did have limitations that they would not have had if Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had also been on the team. The particular situations faced by that Founding Five could only have played out as they did without the Big Three in the lineup (if only because the Big Three plus the Founding Five would have solved all those problems in half the time and twice as spectacularly). Of course, depending which way you go (Silver Age Seven or Founding Five), it will have different consequences for the later DCU that spins out of that (which is where the continuity issue comes in).
Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Bah, I don't even need to spend that much time worrying about it. I'll just say Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman were off in space fighting the Devious Outside Underpants Man for a year and left behind three robots to take their place or something.

That, or Mr Mxyzptlk farted again.

[Buried Alien]

Bah, I don't even need to spend that much time worrying about it.

I don't "worry" about it either; I enjoy the multitude of different possiblities.

I've always seen continuity as a resource to be exploited, not a burden to be borne. It all depends on how it's used.


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Gozwald73]

My view towards continuity is the DIY approach. Do it yourself. Find the stories you like and combine them into whatever history you like and ignore the ones you don't. Any contraditions can be explained away via any nonsensical plot device you wish--be that a Superboy Prime hissy fit, a Yellow Fear Monster, Scarlet Witch's Magic Hoo Hoo Dilly or, my personal favorite, Mr Mxyzptlk had 5th Dimensional Montazumma's Revenge and crapped out a bunch of crap stories.

For instance, my DCU history begins with the debut of Superman in 1938 and continues into James Robinson's Golden Age and then into Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier. It also convieniently skips over every crappy story, particularly those written in the mid-nineties.

If you really like JLA: Year One, it fits, just ignore the bits where is says Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman were never founders.

Oh yeah - that's exactly what I do! In my little insane head there's a huge JLA cast. Black Canary will ALWAYS be a founding member. Whichever issue/incarnation of the League I happen to be reading at the moment just defines which roll call is "on duty" at the time :) (... and Aztek never died, he's just on a very long holiday, honing his skills or something ;) )