I adore Kevin Maguire! He does the best Martian Manhunter eyes, and this convention job is polished enough to serve in a "Faces of the DC Universe" cover sequel. Well, if J'Onn didn't look so dang haughty-- or is it pouty? I can't quite decide, but there's no chach collar, so I'll let it slide...
The frown is definitely a hold out from JLI... too many times yelling at Blue & Gold.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, this totally works in story, say, just having read "Cry For Justice" and looking at GL & GA. Not so much judging as being sad at how far they've fallen (been miswritten.)
I love Maguire.
ReplyDeleteI was 4th on his commission list at a con a couple of years ago and he only finished 3. I was really bummed.
Boy, he looks awfully smug about something. I wonder what? Maybe it finally dawned on him how superior Martians are to us lowly humans and he's rockin' some new-found arrogance.
ReplyDeleteM.C., I'm confident J'Onn is sensitive to dead daughters, as well.
ReplyDeleteAnj, that's gotta hurt. I picked up a Maguire Manhunter sketch on eBay a decade back I ought to post. Well, hopefully it's a Maguire. It looks the part.
Definitely scolding Blue & Gold. But it's only a pose. He has to play the stern father-figure, but he's really struggling to hold down a big BWA-HA-HA belly-laugh.
ReplyDelete@Frank: Good call! I was thinking more along the lines of the issue two sexism scandal and the getting pwnd by Prometheus. Sure, J'onn didn't fare well in his first encounter, but on the other hand, those death traps had some verisimiltude, some of them merely a good poker face, where as in Cry for Justice he was just given way to may deus (dei?) ex machina.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that may get me to read that series at some far distant date is the Atom. It sounded like a monthly dose of belly sick.
ReplyDeleteOh man... I'm not nearly as familiar with Ray as you are, but Atom doesn't come out well if you take "Cry for Justice" at face value. Torture, especially with the trumped up nature of this... like, I never read extreme Justice, but I understand that it was Capt. Atom taking it to rogue states and ignoring "stupid chiefs" like a good eighties action hero. Cry for Justice didn't really sell the "proactive superheroics," it just ended up being a crappy Bush era analogue.........GAH!
ReplyDeleteTom, I like your interpretation of Maguire's sketch. That seems about right!
ReplyDeleteAnj, that really sucks about not getting the Maguire sketch. :(
The Ray Palmer in Cry for Justice doesn't act at all like Ray Palmer. I bought the first issue because of the Atom and gave up on it immediately. I know some people think it's "so bad it's good" but I can't feel that way about something I'm paying money for. (The only thing that could change my mind is if the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 suddenly materialized in front of me and read it along with me...then maybe it would be worth it.)