The Eye was large enough to qualify as a city, so Jack Hawksmoor made contact with its avatar, an irate Daemonite. "--You humans stole me-- bound me. And made me into a slave!" J'Onn J'Onzz maintained a mental rapport, and painfully acknowledged of the artificial intelligence consciousness, "He has woken it! Its psychic presence-- it is enormous!" It had been switched off since Stormwatch "stole" the station, and would "joyfully die" in service to the "holy cause" of killing these jerks. The Engineer somehow powered-up Jack's synapses, making his consciousness strong enough to rival the Daemonite's. Instead of a brawl, Jack convinced the intelligence to "repurpose the millions of tiny forcefields that keep the station running" to "haul it back together." As a reward, the Daemonite would not be shut down again, and would have opportunities to aid its people. "Worthless unbeliever. I shall be your "city"-- but remember, you are parasites to me."
J'Onn J'Onzz did not know how to contact the redubbed "Shadow Lords" with Adam One gone. "I presume the Projectionist would have been told, being our new leader. She might know now. Which is worrying. But it is the way things have been done for centuries." J'Onzz was stressed over his inability to decipher what the horn was, and the betrayal of Tanner. "I considered him a friend. This is what he used to kill us. The Projectionist, whom he took to hide himself and limit us-- I was starting to enjoy her company a great deal. She is a warrior. If she can, she will contact us." J'Onzz noted Apollo, "said I was 'with the Justice League'-- a shorthand for 'public hero' that many humans use. But I have never actually attempted to join them. Because then I would have to keep secrets from them-- because the part of my life in Stormwatch means I would have to betray them!"
The U.S. military locked into the space sector where the Eye had appeared, intent on attacking it and taking its Hyperspace technology should the opportunity present itself again.
Meanwhile, Harry Tanner held a sword to the Projectionist's throat, ordering her to cover their tracks from Stormwatch. Accessing media from another world through this realm's amplification of her powers, she noted that the team would be busy saving the universe from an upcoming threat...
"The Dark Side: Finale" was by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda. Talk about ending with a whimper. It was also something how all the forward momentum of an already limp plot petered out halfway through the issue, so that readers were treated to whole pages of random army guys at computers talking over coffee. It's such a treat to see Jack Hawksmoor look at grid coordinates for another full page. Yeah, you super heroes sit at that conference table like you really mean it.
New 52's Day
- The Huntress #5 (April, 2012) @ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman
- Aquaman #6 (April, 2012) @ Justice League Detroit
10 comments:
I normally like Paul Cornell's writing but this book just didn't seem like a good fit for him. Issue 7 was much better.
"[Apollo] said I was 'with the Justice League'-- a shorthand for 'public hero' that many humans use. But I have never actually attempted to join them."
DCnÜ eats pÜ.
Yeah, this blew. And not in the good way.
I began reading the first issues of Stormwatch with hope, and by the end of issue 6, I felt that I had hoped for a steak and got a so-so hamburger. The art was less than ideal, characterization were more hints about characters I already knew something about, and action was more important than the story or dialog. (The "God, you're hot" line made me chuckle. I thought that Cornell could have handled the Apollo-Midnigher relationship better, but the dialog sounded like soap opera fare and the stalking thing was creepy.)
As for the DCnÜ and J'Onn's place in it, I can understand that the editorial team made certain decisions. However, it may take a LOT out of the Martian Manhunter canon. While I respect that this version of J'Onn is honorable enough not to join a Justice League which he could not give his full commitment to, I miss a lot of the old stories. (Did J'Onn ever die? If he was not a member of the Justice League, why would he go on an undercover mission at the behest of Batman -- and not tell Stormwatch where he was going. For that matter, why didn't any of the Justice League in the previous continuity bother to look for a respected member?) My hope is that J'Onn in his role as a "public hero" is someone known to and respected by other big name heroes such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. They may wonder why the Martian Manhunter never sought to join the Justice League, but hopefully they respect him as someone who is as much of a hero as any of them. J'Onn and the other members of Stormwatch deserve better than what I read during Cornell's run. (Can we please improve some of the costumes. I keep getting this horrifying vision of someone accidentally falling onto the Midnighter's spikes.)
I did like issue six much better. My hope is that Milligan will give more justice to the characters of Stormwatch than Paul Cornell did. Seldom did I begin reading a run of comics with such hope and to end in trying to find the good in each issue.
Wow Will, everyone took their shots, but you went the extra mile in thoroughly summing up our collective disappointment. Still, as much as Stormwatch failed to live up to our hopes, I'd still take in in a heartbeat over the idiotic new Justice League. If that's what the JLA is going to be, thanks so much for showing J'Onn the door.
aota, I'm looking forward to getting my copy of #7!
J'onn wouldn't fit in to the new Justice League because he can't be boiled down to something simple like "So, What can you do?" or "HA! (I just stabbed you in the eye)" on a splash page.
Speaking of boiling J'Onn down, April Fool's Day is coming...
From what I read of the Justice League, i was not very impressed. Why do I think that Stormwatch actually took more steps in our first introduction to them to protect innocent lives (J'Onn helping to clear out a threatened area by using his telepathy) than the Justice League did with a city being attacked by parademons. As a Silver Age Robin might say, Holy collateral damage, Batman!
J'Onn has been compared in the past to an amalgamation of Batman and Superman by no less than the Dark Knight himself. I think that if J'Onn had happened on the scene of the first new adventures of the Justice League, he would have called whatever version of Stormwatch existed at the time -- and reminded them to act more responsibly. (Is it me, or did the first few issues of Justice League seem to be fodder for the "heroes are dangerous" campaign that a Lex Luthor would play up?)I did not read the entire run, but I thought that the characters came off as arrogant, argumentative and not terribly bright. (Would it really take so long for them to decide to work together? Please, have the writers of the Justice League forgotten to give these characters the sense of a bunch of grade school kids?)
I've read Justice League the way I've watched Comic Book Men-- brief and incomplete samples based on what I can stomach in a single sitting. Geoff Johns is very much like Denny O'Neil in that suddenly the team members are handed broad, arbitrary, and grating personalities, which is why O'Neil isn't well remembered/regarded for his work on the group.
The thing about the DCnU is that they're chasing after a transitory audience. The Authority was a hot book for a year or two, but the audience was following the transgressions of Warren Ellis and Mark Millar, not the characters. For a company that has survived largely on tradition and character loyalty, what happens when you rip Wonder Woman continuity to shreds and Azzarello leaves that book? The thinking behind the New 52 is so tired, pseudo-hip and mean spirited, it just comes across as the last desperate strip mining of the comic book industry before outside media cannibalizes it completely. At this point, they have a better handle on the properties, anyway.
Getting back to my early hopes for Stormwatch and expanding upon them, wouldn't a continuance of the paradigm shift for that team be awesome? Instead of the liberal fascism of the Authority against right wing corruption, how about a non-partisan peacekeeping force who go out of their way to safeguard all life? Instead of snark about their being the professionals and the super-heroes being amateurs, actually demonstrate that Stormwatch is the team with forethought and skills to benefit humanity against the violent mavericks like the self-styled Justice League? That would be very interesting...
Frank, throw in Icon or another conservative hero as a counterweight to J'Onn, and it sounds like a plan.
I am not sure what will happen to the comic book industry in the long run, but I would like to see stories about characters that make me care what happens next. Having someone in a blue suit with a red letter S acting like Super-Schmuck does not help. (Although a mohel with Kryptonite blades and no anesthesia might be appropriate from what I have seen so far.)
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