Retro Review

One of the parodies in the 6th issue of Marvel’s old parody comic What the..?! had Marvel’s mute Man-Thang face DC’s eloquent Swamp Thang, who gets burned up in the confrontation because “whatever knows over-writing burns at the touch of the Man-Thang”. Part of the joke of the piece was that DC characters stand around talking over problems, whereas Marvel characters get on with the fighting that the readers want to see, or, interpreting it another way, that DC Comics were more cerebral, whereas Marvel comics focused on action. I couldn’t help but be reminded of that parody when reading today’s comic for the Random Review, 1986’s Justice League of America #257. Wordy and weird, it stars three of the Justice League’s least action-oriented characters, and not a punch is thrown in the whole issue.

Reading this issue in isolation, it is more than a little confusing, and despite captions and thought bubbles recapping the previous issues, I doubt a new reader would be able to follow the story. This is the final part of a story involving a man called Adam attacking Zatanna in an attempt to become a god. The action in this issue takes place within one room, partly in the real world and partly in Adam’s mind. Zatanna, the team’s magician, the Martian Manhunter, the team’s telepath and leader, and Gypsy, an illusionist, are trying to stop Adam, in his empowered but insane state, from warping and destroying space and time. Imagination goes wild inside his mind, and reality distorts wildly outside, and it looks like all is lost.

The characterization of the three heroes is spot on: Zatanna keeps her own counsel, and for all her power, is very human in her reactions; Gypsy is out of her depth, by turns scared and petulant; and the Martian Manhunter is a stern, demanding leader, and a concerned friend. The ideas in the story are great too: J.M. DeMatteis delivers a cerebral plot about fate and faith, with some thought-provoking moments, as always.

However, the overall effect falls far short of its potential, let down by a repetitive script that never builds up a sense of danger or drama, and by artwork that is competent, but does not convey the distorted insanity that the script calls for. At this stage in his career, Luke McDonnell was perfectly capable of delivering a regular super-hero story, but this foray into magic and imagination needed the likes of Gene Colan, Barry Windsor-Smith or P. Craig Russell, but DC were hardly going to pull in a big-name artist on a title just 5 issues away from cancellation - this was the unpopular “Justice League Detroit” era of the book, after all.
On top of the art problems, the issue’s potentially most emotional moment is only given two rushed and flat panels that make the character involved seem heartless. Page 21 is an interesting summary to the story from a few characters’ points of view, and if more time had been given to this rather than to characters repeating themselves earlier on, the issue might have been stronger.

A point of interest to fans of Identity Crisis, DC’s controversial 2004 limited series, is that in this issue, Zatanna manipulates someone’s memory quite casually. It’s for a good cause, of course, but re-reading the issue, I couldn’t help thinking of the storm of comments that would surround the later portrayal of such tampering, particularly because there, on the very next page, are Ralph and Sue Dibny, who would not fare well in the post-millennium DC Universe.

Justice League of America volume 1 #257, from DC Comics. B for plot, B for script, and C for art, for a B- overall, or a C if you’re What the..?!’s Man-Thang.

And here’s that What The..?! cover, just for completism!

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