Justice League America #69 (December 1992)
Justice League America #69 (December 1992)
Doomsday beats the CRAP out of the Justice League of America, with one hand tied behind his back.
Listen, when I say someone got the crap beaten out of them in this blog, I usually mean "they got slapped around once or twice and went to sleep". That's not the case here. This whole issue is brutal. Last week in Man of Steel #18, we saw a big punch-monster emerge from the ground and start causing random destruction. The JLA is sent out to stop it and they initially figure it's gonna be an easy gig (they did, after all, just defeat a 100,000 year old being who traffics in solar systems), but then the monster steps on Guy Gardner's head…
Punches Bloodwynd through an oil tank…
Smashes Blue Beetle's face against various surfaces…
And… you get the idea. So, where's Superman during all of this? Turns out he's busy doing something more important: appearing in Cat Grant's TV show, where a bunch of teenagers are asking him questions like"Do superheroes get together and party?" and "How high does Fire score on the babe-o-meter?" (Reminder: it is 1992. It is extremely 1992.) At one point, a girl asks Superman if he's afraid of anything, and he admits fearing death:
Huh, what a weird moment. Wonder if that will become relevant later on.
Anyway, the show is interrupted when news gets out that some freak is mopping the floor with the whole Justice League, so Superman flies off to help. He arrives just in time to catch Booster Gold, who'd been punched into the stratosphere or thereabouts by the monster. That's when Booster, always the most brand-aware of superheroes, christens this creature as…
TROUBLEDUDE. Wait, no. DOOMSDAY.
Plotline-Watch:
Doomsday clothes level: still pretty decent. He'd be allowed into a 7-11.
I like how the Leaguers are cracking jokes as they fly toward Doomsday, as if this was a regular "the JLA figths a monster" story, but then there's a sudden shift in tone as shit starts getting real. That's a pretty clever way to establish the stakes, and it kinda makes me feel like this League’s entire existence was always a way to provide cannon fodder for this storyline.
Who The Heck Is Bloodwyn-Watch: As seen above, after nine months of speculation, Blue Beetle had finally discovered Bloodwynd's identity and was about to tell us about it when Doomsday interrupted him with his fists. It would take six more months for Beetle to finish his sentence. The only clue we get from this issue is that being near the oil tank's explosion somehow made Bloodwynd change form, as if he had a weakness to fire or someth– OK, screw it, he's Martian Manhunter.
This issue features the historic debut of Mitch! Who's Mitch? As of now: a little turd. Don Sparrow says: "Though his hair is miscolored, the boy whispering an outburst in his classroom is the first appearance of a character of some future importance, both in the Doomsday storyline and beyond."
Way more from Don (including all-new art?!) after the jump:
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We start one of the very best issues of this era of JLA with sort of an odd cover. The action is quietly floating on a backgroundless red, and is actually a little further ahead in the story than this issue gets–note that both of Doomsday’s arms are now free, which doesn’t happen for another week.
Inside the issue, we’re thrown right in the middle of a full-scale disaster, which really quickens the reader’s pulse, and lets us know this is a big deal.
On page 4, the issue’s format takes hold–Superman’s interview with Cat Grant in wide panels on the top of each page, and then the other members of the JLA battling Doomsday below in the larger portion of the page. That first image on page 4, of Superman opening the curtains is just awesome–as much as I like a cool action, or stoic pose, I love seeing Superman in more mundane, real-life moments; sitting comfortably and self-assuredly in a chair, wearing that suit. [Max: Does the panel look slightly Byrne-ish to you too?]
As Superman’s interview progresses, we get still more carnage from Doomsday’s rampage as he kills a deer–a subtle sign of his growing destructiveness, as last issue, he killed only a bird (why are these animals so willing to get close to this monster?). These scenes with animals are really hard to take, but are effective at showing just how cruel Doomsday is–there is nothing redeeming about him, as he harms completely innocent creatures. [Max: This storyline has been criticized for being nothing but violence, but I like that it gave the artists so much space to stretch their narrative muscles in sequences like this one.]
The panel of the tree trunk shattering Blue Beetle’s frog-ship has a real sense of motion and explosiveness, and the chaotic panels that follow are also well done–I like the detail on page 8 of Ice’s tank top flying up, as I’ve sometimes wondered if her costume was all one piece, or layered, because I am a weirdo.
The violence of this issue is thankfully out of character for this book, which again lets us know that something is definitely different about Doomsday–I wouldn’t want to read a comic that was so brutally violent on a regular basis. Virtually every attack he makes would be lethal, if not for the powers of the JLA. The swiftness comes across well in the series of panels where Doomsday pummels Guy Gardner–so much so he can’t even think words, let alone speak them.
The juxtaposition of words and images is also extremely effective in this issue, as the questions Superman addresses in his Q and A with the high school kids darkly mirror the action below, as the JLA tussle with Doomsday. When the mousey peacenik teen questions whether Superman could solve problems without violence, she uses the odd turn of phrase “caving in someone’s head.” while below, Blue Beetle Ted Kord seems to be undergoing just that treatment at the hand (singular!) of Doomsday.
That exchange also contained an interesting social commentary–Jurgens seems to say that while it’s all well and good to wear peace-sign earrings and cringe at physical violence, it’s that same physical violence that ensures safety and freedom. And as we see with the Superman-less members of the JLA, that safety is bought at a terrible price, none more so than poor Ted, whose fall after the vicious beating he’d suffered is genuinely frightening.
PANEL OF THE WEEK: As a special feature for these Doomsday issues, I’ve decided to recreate visually some of my favourite scenes or moments from some of this story. This issue contains our first such moment, which is the last page splash, where a frightened Booster inadvertently gives Doomsday his name. This scene, as well as some from upcoming issues, really impacted me, as Booster is so often a light-hearted character, so to see him frightened out of his characteristic glibness seems important. So that’s why I’ve re-interpreted this moment, losing the Superman from the frame and zooming in only on Booster in shock.
This scene also leads me to another one of my long tangential theories, so bear with me, wherein Booster the time traveler (again, inadvertently) fulfills history. My theory is this: since Booster is from the future, he has different references and slang than we do in 1993. So, similarly to how people in our time use phrases like bedlam, or quisling, understanding their meaning without necessarily fully knowing the historical significance, Booster uses the phrase ‘doomsday’ or 'doomsday machine’ not only to describe the end of the world, but perhaps, because of these very incidents, future generations like Booster’s define doomsday as a relentless, unstoppable killing machine, which also represents the threat of total extinction. Whaddya think? [Max: I buy it! Gimme ten!]
Next to the issue that follows this one, this is my favourite issue in the entire run of the Superman Era JLA. In a larger sense, these issues speak volumes about the JLA, and the DC Universe on the whole. For all my affection for the Bwah-ha-ha League, they’re simply not equipped for threats as deadly as Doomsday, nor is the Universe as a whole connected enough to really know what’s going on in each other’s cities. The next couple of years of DC Comics really make that clear, in interesting ways, as we see destruction, and injury on levels we hadn’t seen before.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
The shot of Booster backlit by flame is way cool, though it’s almost wrecked a bit by the page gutter in my copy.
I love the way 90s teenagers are depicted in these issues–endless Malcolm X hats, people calling each other “spud” (something I never did as a teenager in the 90s, btw).
This issue is dripping with dramatic irony and foreshadowing. One such example is when Blue Beetle’s ship is attacked on page 8, Guy Gardner mentions he’ll “find the guy who whacked us and sew his eyelids shut!” which is darkly amusing, given what happens to Guy’s vision in just an issue or two. [Max: What does the attack on Beetle's ship foresha– oh. Ohhhhh.]
I love that the Guy Gardner fan in the crowd also has a bowl-cut. [Max: Could it be the same kid from the Santy Claws issue? Are there somehow TWO Guy Gardner fans in Metropolis?!]
Ice is right about Superman. He certainly has class, considering Max and I can’t stop talking about what a babe Fire is, and Superman instinctively bats the question away.
Urrrkk. So utterly cruel of Jurgens to give Blue Beetle–and the audience–the satisfaction of glimpsing Bloodwynd’s true identity, only for him to be knocked into a months-long coma before he can get the words out. [Max: It was a pretty clever marketing move, though, since they probably knew this issue would end up in the "Death of Superman" collection, and therefore everyone who read that would be tempted to buy JLA to find out Bloodwynd's identity.]
GODWATCH: God mentions abound, especially as things start to go badly–Bloodwynd invokes his weird ghost plural gods on page 14, then, Booster invokes the almighty when seeing his best pal’s condition, and lastly, Ice encourages Booster to pray she’s wrong about Ted’s chances for recovery.
Slightly odd that Booster refers to Doomsday as “ugly” on page 20, when he’s wearing a blank mask.
Superman seems to debunk the flat Earth theory, as his telescopic vision can’t see past the curvature of the Earth on page 21.
Booster refers to Doomsday’s green coverings as “rubber” which is interesting. I had imagined them more canvas-like. This is what my life has become–speculating on the texture of suits worn by characters in comic books from decades ago. [Max: I pictured it as rubber all along. Take THAT.]
More speculation: Retcon alert! Knowing what we now know about the Green Lantern Corps’ colour spectrum, and Sinestro’s Qwardian ring–is the reason Guy’s ring is so ineffective against Doomsday because Guy is so afraid of Doomsday, and Doomsday is incapable of feeling fear–or any emotion–and so there is nothing to fuel Guy’s ring? [Max: Could be. Or maybe Guy is just terrible at his job.]