Tag: Keith Giffen

DC Retroactive: Justice League America – The ’90s 1 (October 2011)

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Bringing Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire back for a “final” return to their Justice League works quite well. Even though DC’s historically challenged calling them an nineties team–weren’t they the quintessential eighties team?

The issue’s incredibly complex and layered–everyone gets a subplot, except Martian Manhunter, who just gets the unintentionally funny lines. Giffen and DeMatteis plot it like a sitcom episode. They have a couple running jokes; both work well. They’re even able to get all the foreshadowing the ominous future events to be amusing.

Maguire’s best work, besides being able to fit so many characters into panels, is his rendition of the drunken parademon whose presence kicks everything off. There’s just something stunning about a somewhat mystical character so realistically rendered.

All the dialogue is great, all the jokes connect. It’d be the best Retroactive title but its pedigree is too high to compare to the other ones.

CREDITS

Apokolips No!; writers, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis; artist, Kevin Maguire; colorist, Rosemary Cheetham; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editors, Chynna Clugston Flores and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #6

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Perez inking Ordway produces a good result and, even though Wein’s writing has weakened again, the issue is moderately successful. Wein’s basically recapping post-Crisis big events here—mostly Legends and the reforming of the Justice League. As far as a summary, it works pretty well—though I think they’re leaving out Millennium or whatever.

But the narrator again takes center and his story gets even lamer. First, his reformed crook brother-in-law is crippled, making the pair very annoying as they form this homoerotic codependency. Second, the timeline is all messed up again. The character looks like he’s in his mid-thirties, but if he was born in the 1920s… he should be in his sixties.

The backup, with Giffen and Milgrom on the art, is a Legion thing. The writing’s lame and Giffen draws teenage Superboy like he’s fifty. Maybe Giffen should be drawing the series protagonist.