Justice League of America #29-- Discussion and Review Thread (spoilers)

[HaroldAllnut]

Wait, didn't 28 end with Hawkman popping out and being a big cliffhanger? WTH?

Yeah. Hawkman came to the JLA asking for help against Shadow Thief; in this issue, we learn who Shadow Thief is working for: Starbreaker. We also learn briefly how they came to know each other.

Starbreaker was and is set to be a big part of this new McDuffie arc. I guess DC just decided to use FACES OF EVIL to focus on reintroducing Starbreaker (an old JLA foe, and a rarely used one) for the upcoming arc.

And it fits the intent of FOE: it doesn't necessarily detract from the story (it's setting up the next one) and it's a full focus on a character who is/will be part of the book.

It's not the spirit of this issue that I am so bothered by; it's the letter. The execution of this book left a good deal wanting. Its heart was in the right place, but not much else was. Even Chriscross' pencils looked a little less than fresh, to me at least.

[Hawkman]

Starbreaker was and is set to be a big part of this new McDuffie arc. I guess DC just decided to use FACES OF EVIL to focus on reintroducing Starbreaker (an old JLA foe, and a rarely used one) for the upcoming arc.

And it fits the intent of FOE: it doesn't necessarily detract from the story (it's setting up the next one) and it's a full focus on a character who is/will be part of the book.

Which is why I think forcing this FOE thing on so many books for no apparent reason other than line-wide congruity is ridiculous. Starbreaker could have been reintroduced to a new audience in two pages worth of exposition, easily. Instead, FOE completely interrupted the flow of this arc by retelling a SA story in a bland, if not downright campy fashion. Perhaps I'd be a bit more forgiving if the issue was actually entertaining, but it wasn't, at least not to me.

[Suzanne]

I haven't read #29 yet, but why the hell would McDuffie's Milestone arc be interrupted like this?!? This is the kind of editorial weirdness that plagues this book. Let Dwayne do his thing for Chrissakes!

[dupersuper]

I haven't seen Starbreaker anywhere since his appearance in Jurgens League in '92 or so. I like a JL villain that blows up planets/stars/solar systems...seems worthy of the League.

[Zero Hunter]

This was just a horrible issue. Anything that has Superman towing the planet automatically falls into the to stupid to be belived catagory. And what the hell happened to Crisscross? My god his art was so bad here I didn't even realize it was him. Compare this stuff to his Captain Marvel run over at Marvel and it isn't even close. If this is his new style then someone needs to tell him that he needs to go bakc to his old style right away.

[HaroldAllnut]

I haven't read #29 yet, but why the hell would McDuffie's Milestone arc be interrupted like this?!? This is the kind of editorial weirdness that plagues this book. Let Dwayne do his thing for Chrissakes!

If you haven't guessed already, I'd like to dispense some advice: don't bother spending your money on this issue.

I haven't seen Starbreaker anywhere since his appearance in Jurgens League in '92 or so. I like a JL villain that blows up planets/stars/solar systems...seems worthy of the League.

He truly does seem like a really cool villain; I just think the problem with this issue was the fact that it was so poorly executed. We could've had another valuable piece of the story arc, with maybe three opening pages of exposition to explain the relationship between Starbreaker and Shadow Thief as well as Starbreaker's grudge against the JLA; instead, we are given a lengthy, painfully-overwrought flashback.

Faces of Evil isn't necessarily an entirely bad move, as it's been done well in the pages of Detective Comics #852. They could've done it well here, but they simply didn't.

I'd rather we skipped a month than get a poorly-done filler issue.

And what the hell happened to Crisscross? My god his art was so bad here I didn't even realize it was him. Compare this stuff to his Captain Marvel run over at Marvel and it isn't even close. If this is his new style then someone needs to tell him that he needs to go bakc to his old style right away.

Yeah. I really had no clue what happened to Chrisscross' style. It was utterly amazing in Captain Marvel. He had a definite style of his own, but this issue looked like an absurd hybrid of Mike McKone and Carlo Barbieri. I don't know what drove him to eschew his previous style, as it was so well-received and well-crafted.

Let's just say I'm eagerly awaiting issue 30, provided that McDuffie is returning to finish what looks to be an interesting arc.

[Leocomix]

I guess Wein didn't go well for Duffie's readers. For my part I gave up on Duffie a long time ago and I was interested to see Wein. He did the Final Crisis Secret Files story and that was good, I read his Superman Batman story and it's excellent (great Wrightson cover to boot). I'm curious about his JLA story which isn't as good as the other works above. Is this retold from the 1972 appearance or a new story?

[paulski]

For those guys that thought they did this issue solely for the Faces of Evil 'event', I just don't see why that would have been the case. Assuming that both McDuffie and Benes were still on schedule, they could have very easily just continued the current storyline and slapped Shadow Thief on the cover as the FoE baddie. The fact they didn't - and Wein had to step in as writer with a filler issue - shows that one or both of them are lagging behind a bit. At least that's my take on it.

I don't necessarily like it either that the story was interrupted, but it was a tolerable issue with reasonable artwork so I can live with it.

[ChrisCross]

Well, in my defense guys.....

I only had 17 days to get 22 pages of work done. That, and i had to ink pages also. They needed it done right away and i had to strip down my work by 2 thirds just to make deadline.

NOT something i want to do again.

Trust me. I and Sgt. Murtaugh agree that i'm too old for this... especially that kind of schedule.

But don't worry. I didn't lose anything.. .i'll be doing work in Gotham Gazette #1 and soon will be doing a mini with Joe Casey called Dance that will come out of the Final Crisis storylines.....

Hope that explains my apparent lack of depth in my art.

[ChrisCross]

and when you have a chance, you can check out my blog at http://chriscross-eternalkick.blogspot.com.

You can see what i'm up to and further future news there until i finally get my website up and running.

[escapegoat]

Well, in my defense guys.....

I only had 17 days to get 22 pages of work done. That, and i had to ink pages also. They needed it done right away and i had to strip down my work by 2 thirds just to make deadline.

NOT something i want to do again.

Trust me. I and Sgt. Murtaugh agree that i'm too old for this... especially that kind of schedule.

But don't worry. I didn't lose anything.. .i'll be doing work in Gotham Gazette #1 and soon will be doing a mini with Joe Casey called Dance that will come out of the Final Crisis storylines.....

Hope that explains my apparent lack of depth in my art.

Well, I didn't find your art to be bad at all in this issue. I noticed it looked a little different, but it held up good to me. I'm impressed you managed to turn out that many pages in that amount of time. Kudos to you!

Good to hear that you've got more work coming out soon.

[paulski]

Well, I didn't find your art to be bad at all in this issue. I noticed it looked a little different, but it held up good to me. I'm impressed you managed to turn out that many pages in that amount of time. Kudos to you!

I thought it was fine as well - it looked pretty strong right throughout the issue and I would never have guessed it was a rushjob. Well done.

[BWilly]

This issue was such obvious filler, definitely not worth the money I paid for it. Even the art was a disappointment, and I normally like Chris Cross.

[Raker616]

While the art wasn't spectacular I respect someone who's called upon to deliver a monthly book and actually does it, there are too many other artist who take too much time with their art and it's not really worth the wait.

[HaroldAllnut]

and when you have a chance, you can check out my blog at http://chriscross-eternalkick.blogspot.com.

You can see what i'm up to and further future news there until i finally get my website up and running.

Thanks for stopping by the boards, sir. We didn't mean to sound harsh-- only concerned.