NYCC '08 Action Figure Preview Part 5: Justice League Unlimited from Mattel

Mattel's Justice League Unlimited display at New York Comic Con was most impressive: a big, multi-level glass case filled to the gills with the little figures. I have no idea when they (or if they) are going to release this multitude, but it basically encompasses the great majority of DC's characters:

Justice League Unlimited Orion, Fire, and others

Is this Batman Justice League Unlimited figure
a reference to the upcoming Brave and the Bold series?

Justice League Unlimited classic Vigilante

Justice League Unlimited bad guys, including Lex Luthor and the Red Hood

Justice League Unlimited Star Sapphire (thanks!), Brainiac, and more

Justice League Unlimited Caption Atom,
John Stewart Green Lantern, Supergirl, more

Justice League Unlimited Stars, Bizarro, New Gods, more

Monday Morning Flashback

Look, I'm not going to run up-and-down screaming "sexism" or "J'Accuse!" or anything like that.

But it's funny. C'mon.

You have all these JLA'ers in bondage and the focus is on the Canary/WW/Vixen spread-eagle trifecta.

To be fair, an artist many times is given the script -- sans significant "camera angles" -- and is told, simply, "draw something cool."

And so they do.

That said, it is writer Dwayne McDuffie himself -- who I always believe is aware of these cringe-worthy bits of comicbookdom and refers to/apologizes for them in his books, who has the last word:


It's ok, Dwayne, we know it wasn't your idea; you just got the art and had to start scripting it.

JLA Movie Casting Rumors

Yes, I realize this starting to sound like one of those Wizard Magazine articles where they do their "dream cast" for the "Watchmen" movie and cast Zooey Deschanel as Silk Spectre.

Via the IESB via CBR, the rumors are:

Tom Welling = Superman (I like Tom better than Brandon Routh, sue me)
Ryan Reynolds = Flash
and...

as

JLA: Now With 30% Less Cleavage

The cover to JLA #11, via Newsarama.

I know with McDuffie coming on board this issue is somewhat of a lame duck, but I'm buying it because I'm a Gene Ha fan.

The First Comic Book I've Ever Read...

I was just surfing the internet and came across this.

And, well, I did read a few oversized Batman/Superman "Treasury Editions" before this, but this is the first book off the stands. Does anybody render a group shot quite like Perez?

As I'm now also a tarot card reader, the ish probably influenced me in more ways than one...

Doing It Right: Dwayne McDuffie New Writer of JLA

Maybe McDuffie's name initially might not carry the same "marquee" value as Brad Meltzer, but with a proven track record both in comic books and the "Justice League Unlimited" animated series, the book finally has somebody that can make it truly great again.

It's about the long term shepherding of a title, not the short-term gimmicks -- building a fan-base, not slash-and-burn guerrilla marketing tactics.

And team titles like "JLA" & "X-Men" benefit most from this approach.

Can They Just Make "Justice" The Official JLA Book?

I mean, I was sitting here thinking about it...

I tried to give the current "JLA" a chance, but I really can't get into it. I don't know if it's because of the crossover with 2,000 characters in it, or the covers, or just that I don't feel any sort of emotional response to these stories.

This isn't a bash because of "Identity Crisis." I bought four damn issues of "JLA" in a row. I just don't get it. It's to the point that I couldn't read the latest issue of Justice Society either because I hated that crossover story so much.

Wasn't there a line in one of the current "JLA" books that was like "It's time for us to be HEROES again" -- maybe JLA, or maybe one of those Crisis/52 things.

At any rate --

You can't systematically undermine the heroism of your superhero team and then have them turn around and "decide" that they are going to be heroes again.

No, how it really works is as follows:

Iron Man stops being a hero. He acts like a dick and pisses a lot of people off.

Then the Hulk beats him unconscious. Then maybe Thor knocks out all his teeth.

After sitting in a wheelchair for a while, completely brought low and humiliated, Tony Stark begins, like Paris Hilton, to see God.

Now he decides: "It's time to be a hero again."

*That* I can believe.

As for "Justice" being the official "JLA" book, why the hell not? It's full of that patented Alex Ross "awe of superheroes" goodness, and, in the end, that has really been the selling point of DC's characters.

DC superheroes trade off of the "awe" factor -- their stock-in-trade, what they do best, is being icons of Heroism.

DC superheroes trying to be "bad" and "edgy" and all that is the equivalent of an adolescent Natalie Portman dancing around to Madonna songs in her underwear in "The Professional." It looks as awkward as hell.

Batdickery - UPDATED

of course, leave it to Batman to be the dick and forget that Black Canary is the new team leader...

From Justice League #8

UPDATE: apparently what I at first glance considered a golden comedy moment in the latest episode of Justice League was merely a "beat" leading to another scene. Holy Freudian slip, Batman!

What I THOUGHT the panel read was,My bad.