Comic review - JLA: Earth 2

The second review I wrote for the aforementioned comic shop.

JLA: Earth 2
DC Comics
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

The Justice League responds to a routine distress call, but soon discovers that all passengers on board a crashing plane are dead of indeterminate cause, with their hearts on the right-hand side of their bodies and banknotes bearing the face of Benedict Arnold in their wallets. If that wasn't enough, the aeroplane tailfin bears the burning cross insignia of 'KKK Southern' airlines. "Anybody else hearing that little 'X-Files' whistle on this one?", as The Flash puts it.

Yes, it's a classic alternate Earth tale, not seen in official DC continuity since the seminal mid-'80s crossover [and company housekeeping] event Crisis On Infinite Earths. The theme of alternate universes has been consistent in Morrison's costumed superhero work since early in his career, notably in the 2000AD superhero series, Zenith, but his fascination with the cluttered pre-Crisis DC Universe is clearly demonstrated in the Doom Patrol spin-off mini-series Flex Mentallo, wherein superheroes escape a world-destroying catastrophe by becoming fictional comic characters in our - real - universe. The Crisis itself featured in the closing chapters of his 26-issue run on Animal Man, featuring cameo appearances from some of DC's more forgettable pre-Crisis characters, now languishing in a limbo world that exists outside official continuity, and an honourable mention ought also to go to Sunburst, a third-rate Crisis casualty that Morrison surreptitiously resurrected to appear briefly in Doom Patrol #26, being soundly thrashed by a typically wacky DP adversary.

The original Crime Syndicate first appeared in the pages of Justice League Of America in 1964, an evil mirror image of the League from the alternate Earth-3 [this is precisely why DC instigated the Crisis in the first place], who used their superpowers to commit crime rather than to prevent it. They intermittently returned to plague the League over the next two decades, until their abrupt collective demise in the first issue of Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Morrison's updated Crime Syndicate of Amerika - Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring - come from a parallel anti-matter universe, where the overriding morality tends towards evil, corruption is lauded and personal advancement is always obtained at the expense of others. This Syndicate is far more menacing than their somewhat goofy Silver Age forebears, its members apt to maim or kill without compunction. They drink, take drugs, argue, threaten each other and exploit their godlike powers for personal gain. The Latin motto inscribed on their meeting table, 'CUI BONO' - literally 'who profits' - is a phrase employed in criminal investigations to determine probable cause of a crime; the answer, of course, is that they invariably do. This alternate Earth's only good superbeing - and constant thorn in the Syndicate's side - is Alexander Luthor. While his pre-Crisis precursor sported a skintight gold bodysuit and pillar-box red curly mullet, Morrison does away with such dubious mid-'80s stylings and has a thankfully bald Luthor, replete with classic purple-and-green battle suit. In a neat twist on parallel Earth naming conventions, it's also worth noting that "Earth 2" is only ever referred to by the anti-matter Luthor, to describe the matter world of the Justice League.

The League itself is the seven-strong line-up of DC's heavyweights that Grant Morrison had previously worked on for the monthly JLA relaunch in the late 1990s - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman. By holding the core League members up against their polar opposites, he further elaborates on their powerful iconic appeal, as well as ensuring that they question their self-appointed roles as mankind's guardians within the framework of the story. Batman, in particular, voices doubts over the moral implications of interfering in the affairs of another world, but once he has embarked on his anti-matter sojourn, he invests himself more personally in the adventure than his teammates, and undergoes a significant cathartic experience as a result.

Frank Quitely provides his usual stratospheric standard of intricate linework, depicting a wealth of neo-Silver Age Morrisonian concepts - an army of Brainiac drones, the Crime Syndicate's suitably furnished trophy room and a giant Kryptonite ape, to name but a few - and this self-contained story benefits from the continuity of a single talented artist in the way that Morrison's patchy JLA run couldn't. Laura DePuy's vibrant digital colours perfectly complement Quitely's precise illustrations and make this an unbeatable package for fans of the costumed hero tale.

Comic review - We3

Bulking up the content of this blog a bit: here's an ages-old review of Morrison and Quitely's We3 that I wrote for a Brighton comic shop. It never made it online. Maybe I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm happy to labour under the possibly self-deluded misapprehension that they filed it and forgot about it.

We3
DC Comics
Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant

Three domestic pets, a dog, a cat and a rabbit, are abducted by a shadowy wing of the U.S. military and transformed into state-of-the-art cyborg assassins, complete with armoured robot suits and an extensive arsenal of devastating weaponry. Just prior to being "decommissioned", they seize their opportunity to escape and head for home, their erstwhile masters in close pursuit...

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's high-concept mini-series successfully manages to subvert the classic animal adventure story - the most obvious example being Disney's The Incredible Journey - with the speed lines, unique design and graphic ultraviolence of manga. While it's hardly unusual to see a story whose central characters are sentient animals, it is refreshing to see them tackled in a way that tries to avoid over-sentimental anthropomorphism. The story is undoubtedly moving, but Morrison elicits strong emotions from his readers without resorting to Disney's saccharine sentimentality, relying instead on the natural ingenuousness of the protagonists and the overwhelming, manufactured unfairness of their situation.

The canine leader of the group, Bandit [codenamed '1'], bears a tangible weight of responsibility for his comrades at the same time as seeking recognition and praise from the humans that they encounter along the way; the cat, Tinker ['2'], constantly threatens mutinous independence from the group and is untroubled by gratuitous killing; and Pirate ['3'], the rabbit, in keeping with his natural instincts, is the least antagonistic of the three and often attempts to placate his more bellicose team-mates when they clash. The weapons built into their cyborg suits are similarly tailored to each species' natural traits: the cat is equipped with razor-sharp, claw-like projectiles in her forepaws, while the rabbit ejects small round landmines from the rear end of his suit as he flees - much like droppings. The animals have been modified to such an extent that they can talk in a form of txt spk, employing simple phrases to communicate with humans and with each other.

The humans that they encounter are often shown only by their feet or legs, with their eyes rarely depicted inside the panel. This not only works on a literal level, in that an animal's perception is much closer to ground-level, but also represents the emotional detachment, and in some cases downright cruel treatment, with which many people treat animals. To further emphasise the gulf between species, the main human characters represent different attitudes that people have towards animals, from the hard-nosed army general who clearly delights in the grotesque transfigurations wrought by his bioweapons department, through to the kindly derelict who attempts to help them in their direst hour of need. The most constant human figure throughout the story is Dr. Roseanne Berry, a troubled figure seeking atonement for her morally suspect involvement in the We3 project. It is her need for redemption that first enables the creatures to escape their confinement, but her actions are also fundamental to their later development from dangerous tools of an uncaring government back to the harmless domestic pets they once were.

The sense of dynamic animation within Frank Quitely's still images comes not only from digital blurring effects and frozen action poses, but also from playing with accepted comic art conventions. The first of several double-page spreads is a breathtaking - and graphic - depiction of a man being cut vertically in half by chaingun fire, shown from within the hail of bullets. In another standout panel, Tinker engages a small group of infantrymen in hand-to-hand combat, fragments of which grisly assault are depicted in non-human time perception. These arresting images inject a new and distinctive style of storytelling into an otherwise fairly straightforward tale.

This book also marks the full transition of Frank Quitely's artwork into the digital arena; his detailed pencils were digitally inked and coloured by Jamie Grant, the co-owner and publisher of Glaswegian adult humour anthology Northern Lightz, in which some of Quitely's earliest published work also appeared. The effect is extremely polished, and could mark a change in Quitely's notoriously slow output when the same creators embark on their follow-up project for DC Comics, All-Star Superman. On the strength of the standards set by We3, that promises to be yet another outstanding project by a creative team who currently stand head and shoulders above most of their mainstream peers.

OK, so I seem to have got myself a blog

Now what do I do with it?

Right.

Well.

The aim of the exercise, in its essence, is to force me into the habit of writing, so let's start with that. I need to fire up and coordinate my ill-used and disparate faculties, enabling my lazy brain, eyes and fingers to work in hitherto unheard-of concert and assuring myself [and, possibly, others] that I can be relied upon to write words down about stuff, that, at any given point, I'll have the keenness of mind and dextrous command of the English language to seize on a topic, quickly formulate some sort of coherent opinion about the whole thing and neatly dissect it in a entertaining fashion.

Whether or not I manage to do that, either wholly, partially or entirely un- successfully, remains to be seen, but hey - it's a start. If nothing else, it's unarguably that.